ICT in Education Conference: Equipped to be unsettled
1. CC BY-NC 2.0 Koffiemetkoek ICT in Education Conference Storytelling in Education #ictedu Tipperary Institute 14th May 2011
2. Equipped to be unsettled Catherine Cronin @catherinecronin catherine.cronin@nuigalway.ie http://catherinecronin.wordpress.com
3. “Education should critically ensure children, young people and adults are equipped to be unsettled, to be confronted by difference, to be changed, and to effect change.” Josie Fraser @purposeducation #purposed #500words http://fraser.typepad.com/socialtech/2011/03/purposed.html
26. Thank you! CC BY_NC 2.0 youngdoo www.slideshare.com/cicronin @catherinecronin @parents_gortcs
Editor's Notes
Good afternoon! I am so happy to be here – my 1st visit to the ICT in Education Conference, though I became aware of it 1 year ago from the activity on Twitter.
The title of my session is Equipped to be Unsettled – I’ll explain the provenance of that title in a moment.My name is Catherine CroninI am originally from NYC (Bronx), my background is engineering (Mech Eng & Sys Eng),and after working in industry, several posts in HE & community – in USA, Scotland & Ire, I now happily live & work in Galway.Lecturer & facilitator in IT at NUIG, also Academic Coordinator of online MSc SED (NUIG & Regis, Denver)Parent of two children in secondary school (eldest doing LC)My work involves e-learning, collaboration, crossing boundaries.Today’s event interests me because I welcome the opportunity to meet with educators from all sectors,and I’m particularly intrigued by the idea of STORYTELLING. V. powerful medium for understanding the world.I’ll explain my title & then ask you a few questions!
My title based on Josie Fraser’s quote... Anyone aware of the PURPOSE/D debate?Doug Belshaw & Andy Steward began a debate @purposedRead quote...Now, more than ever!Problems & Challenges = CHANGE, economy, environment, technological change, uncertain future
CHANGE = unsettling!...can cause: discouragement, fear, negativity, anger, pessimism, retreat, statis, depressionAs educators... we must prepare our children for this reality.We must equip ourselves for this reality... our children are watching us.may see this in some of your colleagues, your students
Story of @Parents_GortCS... Educator on Twitter = @catherinecronin (since July 2009)Parent on Twitter = @Parents_GortCS (since September 2010)Through my experiences, I’d like to share what I have learned, and hopefully discuss & learn from you.GOAL: Authentic learning experiencesFOSTERING: openness to change, resilience, empowerment
What I have learned through social networking as educator & a parent:Connect (across boundaries!)Do something... anything! Just try it.Share with othersThat’s it!We always DO things... but it is worth consciously thinking about how deliberate social connections before & after can significantly amplify the learning – for ourselves & our students/our children
In life, we do this naturally... in my own life, my closest friends and my sister are: poet & children’s writer Special Needs Assistant (sec. school) teacher in the prison service horticulturalist CEO Fortune 500 company secretary in a small businessWe all have this diversity – it makes our lives richer! But what about in our work?
Where is your PLN? i.e. who do you rely on for support, feedback, ideas?One way to do this is using 2 axes: Geography & Education sector
Social networking/Twitter has expanded & enriched my PLN: much greater reach into secondary (@TheFrogBlog, @sccenglish) & primary (@simonmlewis, @mjbell) much great reach into adult/community (@shellterrell) more geographical spread – USA, Canada, South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Africa
A little spark of an idea, in isolation (or worse, in a negative environment), may die.That spark can grow into a flame with encouragement & new ideas!KEY IDEA => KEY LEARNING from experience with TwitterI am a far better educator since I began networking in this way.
For example... November Learning project (Alan November) – primary students using Wikipedia for local history Lyn Hilt reflected on Authentic Learning in her blog – read this when designing assessments
Connect through my connections, I came across ideas & inspirationDo which encouraged me to take risks, do something innovative/differentShare important to share with others (Twitter, blog, etc.)
Connect – DO – Share is important to teach our students as well...Students & ourselves learning together – don’t have to be perfect!Be authentic & take risks, learn together.
After tweeting individually for over a year, I realised that many links would be useful to share with parents.@Parents_GortCS was set up in September 2010.Most parents access via school web page.
Hugely powerful tool for educators, students, yes... but also for parents, and for parent-teacher interaction.I think this is only in its early days. Many schools on Facebook, fewer on Twitter. We need to share what works, learn together.
Q: Where are you now?Q: What could you do, to take things further? Could you connect with someone new, or connect with someone in a deeper way? Could you do something... new, different, risky? Could you share some of your work? Write a blog post, start a new blog, start a new Twitter account? Could you share some of your ideas? ... on Twitter, on your blog, with your friends, other parents, parents association?I’d like to ask you to think of one thing you could do...If you want to tweet your response... use #Iwill
Q: Where are you now?Q: What could you do, to take things further? Could you connect with someone new, or connect with someone in a deeper way? Could you do something... new, different, risky? Could you share some of your work? Write a blog post, start a new blog, start a new Twitter account? Could you share some of your ideas? ... on Twitter, on your blog, with your friends, other parents, parents association?I’d like to ask you to think of one thing you could do...If you want to tweet your response... use #Iwill