Haven't blogged for a while, however have recently been on the steering committee that is implementing affordable devices for students in the Horowhenua region. This is based on the Maniakalani trust, the students will pay in the region of $4 per week for three years to have a learning device to use at school. Currently we are at the stage where Boards of Trustees are looking at the Memorandum of Understanding that they will have to sign if they want to be a part of the scheme. Next week we meet with Boards and Principals from all the schools to explain what we expect to happen next. It's unlikely that the trust will be able to finance enough devices for every student that requires one in the first roll out, so some decisions will have to be made by the trust about who will have access first. I've surveyed our staff, who seem to have a slight preference for Year 10's to be our first students to go fully digital, so that next year in Year 11 they will have the devices to use for internal assessments at NCEA level 1. My initial thinking around this is that it is a good idea, given that nearly all internal assessments are being completed on Google Docs.
In other developments since last year we now have a trial digital class at Year 9- not sure how much work is being done digitally, and I'm also concerned that the pedagogy isn't changing yet- sure we might be getting better engagement in lessons, but unless there's a greater shift in how we teach will this improve academic achievement. More on this later!
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