Coding Workshops with Prowise

Our recent ConnectMe offered teachers the opportunity to participate in workshops via video conference and learn how to use CodeWise to teach their students from Early Years to Primary how to code.

ConnectMe was distributed in the second week of term and many schools immediately responded and registered for the sessions. This demonstrates the interest teachers have in learning about coding and how to teach it.

The latest trends in the Horizon K-12 report http://go.nmc.org/projects

sees the “rise of coding as a literacy “ as a Short Term Trend and as part of their definition of an “accelerating technology to be adopted in K-12 education for the next two years”. The instant response from teachers to this PD offering is indicative of their accelerating interest. The report identifies other key trends:

 

1. Key Trends Accelerating K-12 Educational Technology Adoption

Long-Term Trends: Accelerating technology adoption in K-12 Education for five or more years • Redesigning Learning Spaces • Rethinking How Schools Work

Mid-Term Trends: Accelerating technology adoption in K-12 Education for the next three to five years • Increasing Use of Collaborative Learning Approaches • Shift to Deeper Learning Approaches

Short-Term Trends: Accelerating technology adoption in K-12 Education for the next one to two years • Rise of Coding as a Literacy • Shift from Students as Consumers to Creators

1. Significant Challenges Impeding K-12 Educational Technology Adoption

Solvable Challenges: Those which we both understand and know how to solve • Creating Authentic Learning Opportunities • Personalizing Learning

Difficult Challenges: Those we understand but for which solutions are elusive • Rethinking the Roles of Teachers • Scaling Teaching Innovations

Wicked Challenges: Those that are complex to even define, much less address • The Achievement Gap • The Digital Divide

III. Important Developments in Technology for K-12 Education

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less • Makerspaces • Online Learning

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years • Robotics • Virtual Reality

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years • Artificial Intelligence • Wearable Technology

At ELB Education we have also seen increasing interest in the way teachers are “designing their learning spaces” for their students. The Prowise 65 inch panel with the lift system is very popular. This interactive flat panel is mobile in the classroom and can be raised, lowered or tilted to become a table or a chart table. These different configurations make it possible for teachers to use the interactive flat panel in whatever pedagogical mode they wish transforming different parts of their learning spaces for different activities.

Using ProConnect which is part of the Prowise Presenter software they are  able to “Increase their Use of Collaborative Learning Approaches”. ProConnect enables teachers to share their content on the interactive flat panel with their students BYOD devices for greater collaboration and sharing. The software also includes tools for mindmapping and brainstorming as well as games for mathematics. These tools are easy to use but provide teachers with simple and effective was to increase collaboration in the classroom.

Join our video workshops and you can learn more.

 

 

Prowise Netherlands visits Australia!

Erik Neeskens (Co-Founder/ Sales Director), Michael Ahrens (Co-Founder/ Technology Director) and Martin de Fockert (International Channel Manager) recently made a trip down under to work with ELB and understand more about the Australian educational context and how to meet the needs of Australian educators.

During their time in Australia the team visited an early child hood centre,  high school and university to better understand these sectors and how  Prowise products and services can be enhanced for Australian education.

The team accompanied by the ELB Education group  visited the GoodStart Early Learning Centre, the first of one hundred centres nationally to have Prowise interactive flat panels installed. Part of their concept is for ELB to provide accredited training across all their sites for  Early Years educators who can participate in content creation workshops and develop  digital resources using Prowise Presenter for early childhood learners.

ELB Education has already developed some content for this age group aligned to the Australian Early Learning Framework. The resources based on the concrete materials which are  part of the play-based curriculum essential for early years  are freely available on our website or through the Prowise Presenter community. https://www.education.electroboard.com.au/resources

The Prowise  Netherlands team also visited Cammeragal High school, one of the first schools in Australia to install Prowise interactive flat panels. The team discussed the interactive flat panel’s effectiveness with the staff and students at the high school. Students were very positive about the interactive flat panels, particularly “the clarity of the image and the sound quality”.

Together with members of the staff, ELB Training Manager, Lindsey Davies, discussed the tools that Prowise Presenter provides for STEAM education. The school plans for the staff to undertake further training in the use of Prowise Presenter and ProConnect which will enable teachers to engage with their students’ BYOD technology by sharing their screens for assessment and collaboration activities.

The Netherlands team also visited Macquarie University, Faculty of Human Sciences – Teacher Training Facility. Lecturers and IT leaders here are looking to upgrade their technology to ensure that it reflects “what is happening in schools and to keep pace with the rapid changes in technology”.

Prowise has a program for providing free access to  Presenter software for Pre-service teachers. This is a great bonus for new educators who can develop digital units of work and use them throughout their course and importantly in whatever school context they are assigned for their practicum. Prowise Presenter is cloud-based software and can be used with any platform ensuring that the effort teachers put into their learning design can be utilised in any web enabled education context .

Pre-service teachers can also contribute to the community of content designed for the Australian Curriculum or the Global community where more than 1 million resources have been saved.

The team from the Netherlands was very impressed with the quality of the training resources and learning content developed by ELB Education Australia. The professional development eBook and learning resources developed by the Training Manager and team displayed a high level of quality and pedagogical skill. To learn more about these resources,  the  ELB Academy and our accredited courses go here: https://www.education.electroboard.com.au/training

 

Measuring Innovation in Education

This latest report from the OECD confirms what we have seen in schools that there is a “ fair level of innovation in the education sector, both relative to other sectors of society and in absolute terms, 70% of graduates employed in the education sector consider their establishments as highly innovative on par with the economy average of 69%”.
The report also importantly found that “there have been large increases in innovative pedagogic practice across all countries covered in areas such as relating lessons to real life, higher order skills, data and text interpretation and personalisation of teaching.”
Teachers in Australian schools who have adopted pedagogical practices articulated in the Productive Pedagogies or the NSW Quality Teaching Framework would be familiar with these concepts. Our Training Academy has focussed on Quality Teaching and how to use technology to enhance ‘higher order thinking skills“ and to solve to ”real life” problems. https://www.seeshareshape.com.au/shape/TrainingAcademy/default.aspx
Our video conferencing events have also modelled innovative practices, bringing “real world” experts to classrooms to engage in the creation of content and new knowledge. https://www.seeshareshape.com.au/share/VC/SpecialEvents.aspx
In terms of teachers’ practice the report indicated that teachers have” innovated in their use of assessments and in the accessibility and use of support resources”. The creation of digital content to support learning has also been a key focus of our education consultants. Creating interactive learning objects or highly engaging, iTunesU courses or ebooks has now become part of many teachers lesson preparation. Our website provides access to models of this content: https://www.seeshareshape.com.au/share/story.aspx?sc=0&id=23821&ch=3
“Education organisations have innovated in the area of special education, creation of professional learning communities for teachers, evaluation and analytics and relationship building with external stakeholders such as parents.
Overall innovation has been higher with regards to classroom practices than school practices between 2000 and 2011”.
It has long been understood that within schools the quality of teachers can be quite different. Improving practice between classrooms can be challenging. IRIS Connect is a professional development system for schools to use to assist the transfer of innovation and best practice within the school context and to create professional learning communities. https://www.seeshareshape.com.au/see/iris.aspx
For support in using technology for innovation contact your ELECTROBOARD Education Consultant.

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