Grad Dip Blog 2011

[lucymvaughan-blog]

[lucymvaughan-blog]

Education Foundations Comment #2 Topic #2 (Elle's Blog)

I also chose the Jane scenario and taking part in the group activity within our Education Foundations tute we analysed the scenario, the group looked at Jane’s background. The scenario highlights her privileged upbringing and education, considering this in regards to Jane’s teaching approach may be what is dampening her ability to engage her students. Jane may be approaching her classes and students from the wrong perspective, she may be relating the work to her own interests and not taking the time to engage the students in what they are interested in, ‘It is important to bear in mind that motivation is intimately linked with individual and/or situational interest within learning, curricula and family contexts (McInerney & Van Etten 2001). Building relationships with students through communication will allow them to engage and become dedicated individuals if you show an interest in them.

Jane is in her first year out of University and as Elle mentions Jane’s lack of teaching experience is probably a significant factor in why she is struggling to engage and control her students. Findings through my ELPC research on rural schools in Australia highlights the fact that remote communities find it hard to retain staff and in general most of the teachers within these schools are new graduates who are either out of their first or second year of university. Not having experienced staff is an obstruction for the students who are continuously experimented on to see what works and what doesn’t. This to me is significant in relation to why the parents are openly hostile towards the school, Elle mentions ‘poor family environment, lack of family education’ , along with this and in relation to town and community history, frustration from this continuous turnover of staff and the divide between town and farming kids may be another factor. The welfare of the community and cultural differences is a possible factor in this divide.

Looking at the behaviourist views of motivation and working with the rewards and/or punishment approach could be an approach Jane can incorporate within her classes. ‘Motivation plays a significant role in student interest and enjoyment, is subject to influence from peers, teachers, parents, subjects and schools, and is informed by ethnic and cultural backgrounds’ (MacCallum 2001; Martin 2007, 2008). Motivation is therefore influenced through personal, social, emotional, cultural and environmental factors, Jane needs to consider the environment she is teaching in and creating a foundation with the community and her students. 

[lucymvaughan-blog]

Education Foundations Comment #1 Topic #2 (Alyssa's blog)

  I think Alyssa makes some interesting points about nutrition and the issues surrounding human development. I know from my own school years I did not eat breakfast ever as far as I can remember. The research shows that a lack of nutrition can dampen a student’s ability to concentrate process information and evidently learn. ‘Children who are undernourished have poorer cognitive functioning when they miss breakfast’, (Food and Research Action Centre, 2010: 5). The implementation of a breakfast program for the various children that make up the school is a step in the right direction in giving students a foundation to begin the learning process. I had friends during my school years that would travel up to two hours on a bus to and from school. Having breakfast at 6am and arriving at school at 8am, there is a considerable amount of time between eating and also the fact that students are awake at this hour and may be tired can also impact on their ability to engage and learn.

Although nutrition is important in the children’s ability to attain information and learn I believe through theorist Vygotsky that cognitive development is a second step to nutrition that is important for Jane to put in place within her school, thus creating an enriching and physical development for students. Particularly in the scenario you have to consider the students that make up her class are from various backgrounds such as town kids and farming kids. The lack of communication between the two individual groups is possibly where Jane needs to focus her attention. Her limited understanding she may have for the history and development of her town, school and students may be dampening her capacity to engage them. Vygotsky’s ‘zone of proximal development’, is an important aspect along with the nutrition of the children and the lack of social interaction amongst her different students is a challenge Jane is facing. ‘Zone of proximal development’, ‘a level of development attained when children engage in social behaviour’ Vygotsky explains this in detail when defining social interaction and the role that plays when it comes to cognitive development. "Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals." (Vygotsky (1978, p. 57).

From this Jane may need to implement different pedagogical approaches within her classroom. Peer to peer learning and creating relationships amongst all backgrounds and students in the classroom may break down the divide between town kids and farming kids. Creating different relationships amongst the students and that of the teacher will help create a nourishing environment where the kids will be engaged, ‘People are motivated to meet needs associated with safety, love and belonging’ (Maslow 1999). 

[lucymvaughan-blog]

Education Foundations Blog #2 Module D, Teaching all Learners

Education Foundations

Module D, Teaching all Learners

Teaching all learners, how does motivation and engagement work within the classroom? Motivation comes from the internal, the psychological aspect of an individual. Engagement is the energy that connects and is shown through participation within the classroom. This can be through class group work or simply engagement with the subject, practically and theoretically. The teacher’s role within the classroom is to engage students with all aspects of the subject. To whom am I accountable, is a provocation a teacher needs to be wary of and consider in having a motivated classroom.

Getting to know your students on a personal level is a way of understanding students and their ‘lifeworlds’, this focus allows the teacher to understand their students, this is an important aspect of learning and teaching. In relation to the Jane scenario, she has found it difficult to engage her class and heard some critical information from parents, ‘she just doesn’t give them any work that’s interesting for them’. There seems to be mounting evidence that students of the twenty-first century learn different to those of the past, such as their parents. Students seem to have a different relationship to information and learning compared with previous generations. In this instance Jane has to really try and understand her students from cultural differences, backgrounds, engaging with the general community and understand its history, and recognize the different expectation parents have for their children. Knowing the children is an important and powerful tool to create motivation within the classroom. ‘There is considerable evidence in the research literature of the association between engagement and positive academic outcomes’ (Fredericks et al., 2003, p. 23). Once the teacher has a foundation to build upon motivation and engagement will evidently follow.

Jane has to look at the circumstances around her, she is dealing with town children and those from farming properties, the ‘disadvantaged’ community has a long history and it is important to understand it. Jane may even need to look at her teaching style, is all her late night organisation really shaped and adapted for the type of students within her classroom? Jane seems to have a lot of content based work rather than a pedagogical approach to her classroom. A personal account a family member of mine has come across during her teaching practice is working at a disadvantaged school with a large population of juvenile justice kids and many of whom are Aboriginal. The Visual Arts teacher within this school hasn’t changed the curriculum for over twenty years and has the attitude of, why change it now. The students within the school loath attending the class and generally Visual Arts is a popular subject, but kids of this nature are not interesting in writing essays on 14thCentury art. ‘Many students students stop the practice of learning because they feel learning is no longer relevant in their lives...They have learned ... that book learning offered... has no relevance in the world outside...’ (hooks, 2003 p .42). The class work has not been adapted to cater to the student’s needs, backgrounds and interests. ‘It is important to bear in mind that motivation is intimately linked with individual and/or situational interest within learning, curricula and family contexts (McInerney & Van Etten 2001). Jane may need to consider readjusting some of the content she has put in place for her students and shape the work more to their interests and needs. 

Should we teach students or subjects? This is another factor in the scenario of Jane, some key aspects that may be contributing to foster motivation within her classroom. Is Jane teaching the subject or the students? I t would seem that she has more of a focus on content, this teaching job is her first and the community she teaches in is a disadvantaged one. In general rural communities have a high turnover and most of the teachers within these schools are new graduates who are either out of their first or second year of university. Not having experienced staff is an obstruction for the students who are continuously experimented on to see what works and what doesn’t.

The key to motivation is good pedagogy and curriculum, the teacher/student relationship, the sense of belonging and importance within the classroom. Having a positive classroom environment allows students to have a purpose and motivation. ‘People are motivated to meet needs associated with safety, love and belonging’ (Maslow 1999). 

Resources 

M. Davis, International Schools Journal Vol XXIX No. 2 April 2010, Personality and its effect on relationships and teaching and learning styles

D. Zyngier, Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice Vol. 13, No. 4, August 2007, pp.327 - 347. Listening to techers-listening to students: substantive conversations about resistance, empowerment and engagement.

Churchill et. al, Teaching: Making a Difference, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd: Milton QLD, 2011

[lucymvaughan-blog]

[lucymvaughan-blog]

This video basically speaks for itself; I found a few comments from a survey the Kids Helpline conducted about Cyber bullying. These anonymous comments give us feedback and a look through the eyes of the kids and their responses to Cyber Bullying.

‘I was paranoid that people read what they were saying about me and that people judged me because of it’

‘I still feel scared and like I can't trust people like they’re going to turn on me... it is very hard for me to make friends even to this day even though it was over five years ago.’

  The survey asked kids ‘what advice would you give a friend who is being cyber bullied?’ These are the following responses:

‘Don't be afraid of telling, it is the best thing you can do!’

‘Don't try and get even’

‘Blocking is your best friend!’

‘Don't take what they say to heart... there will always be people that love and care for you and they are the ones who really matter.’

Through these blogs I’ve realised that we as teachers need to be aware and lookout for cyber bullying, to inform our students about bullying and technology also to have a good relationship with the students. Using some of these preventative measures might make a difference to students to lives.

References

Kids Helpline

1. Campbell, Marilyn A. (2007) Cyber bullying and young people: Treatment principles not simplistic advice. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/

2. Kids Helpline. (2009). Cyberbullying: Experiences, impacts and interventions as described by Australian young people. Unpublished research report. Brisbane, Queensland: Megan Price.

 Available from

http://www.kidshelp.com.au/teens/get-info/hot-topics/cyber-bullying.php

Video Available from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdQBurXQOeQ

[lucymvaughan-blog]

ELPC Blog #4 Cyber Bullying

Cyber Bullying, what measures Schools put in place

Schools recognise they have a duty of care when it comes to students accessing the internet. This is where site blocking has occurred with web 2.0 sites. Schools and authorities have three steps to ensure internet safety and to protect students from illegal or inappropriate websites. This involves managing the following:

-          Internet filtering

-          Internet access terms and conditions for students

-          Monitoring and supervising student online activities

The ways in which these function is through the following operations:

-          Port filtering, this includes firewall control, File sharing, online chat, web discussions, and virtual worlds are controlled through this

-          Site (URL) filtering, selected internet sites are controlled through a list system, white lists are allowed and black lists not allowed

-          Content filtering, the blocking of pop up ads, videos, images and audio content

  Although site blocking is put in place to protect students it can repress them having access to quality content, therefore dampening their learning. I’ve seen this first hand at my current school placement, students just have to keep going through different site options until they find content that is not blocked.

References

  Hendrick. G, Web 2.0 site blocking in schools, strategic ICT advisory service (2009)

Available from

education.au 

[lucymvaughan-blog]

ELPC Blog #3 Cyber Bullying

Cyber Bullying why it occurs and how to prevent it

Much like traditional bullying it can be hard to determine why a child cyber bullies, sometimes it can span from hate, cyber bullying can be a response to offline bullying and also can occur due to a break-up, end of friendship, jealously, it can be about popularity, or to intimidate another person.

We have looked at the ramifications of Cyber Bullying and how a child is affected, so how do we prevent Cyber Bullying when it is so hard to detect in the first place?

As educators we have a duty of care and responsibility to ensure the safety for our students. Some preventative measures us as teachers and what parents can implement.

-          Site Blocking, provides protection from illegal and inappropriate internet sites and content

-           Teach digital literacy, talk to kids about technology, although they are knowledgeable with technology they may not know everything

-           Talk to students about how to deal with each other, talking to your students about how to deal with each other when something goes wrong or getting mad at each other, providing an open relationship and conversation with the kids

-          Get kids to report, connecting with your students emotionally and letting them know you care about them and their welfare

-          Reinforce patient, kind and friendly behaviour, talk to the kids and encourage good behaviour

-          Establish Clear rules, having clear rules on bullying and harassment and making students aware of these rules. This is for both school teachers and parents to implement

-          Provide Professional development, this is for teachers and staff, implementing workshops to provide recognition of bullying and how to respond

-          Establish consequences for bullying, for parents mainly to reinforce consequences for their child who is bullying, take away computer privileges, mobile phones etc

  References

 Englander . E and Schank. K(2010). Reducing Bullying and Cyber bullying, Available from

eSchoolNews.com: http://www.eschoolnews.com

 Kids Helpline

1. Campbell, Marilyn A. (2007) Cyber bullying and young people: Treatment principles not simplistic advice. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/

2. Kids Helpline. (2009). Cyberbullying: Experiences, impacts and interventions as described by Australian young people. Unpublished research report. Brisbane, Queensland: Megan Price.

 Available from

http://www.kidshelp.com.au/teens/get-info/hot-topics/cyber-bullying.php

Livingstone. S and L. Haddon (2008 – 2009). Department of Media and Communications, the London School of Economics and Political Science - Risks and safety on the internet, the perspective of European children. Available from

www.eukidsonline.net

[lucymvaughan-blog]

ELPC Blog #2 Cyber Bullying

Who Cyber Bullies?

Both girls and boys take part in Cyber Bullying, girls are more prone to engage through cyberspace as boys tend to physically bully rather than verbally. Violence levels tend to rise from the ages of 9 years to 17 years. Teens engage in bullying, primarily between 14 – 17 years, and when it comes to the perpetrator and the victim they are generally of the same age. Race is another factor in who Cyber Bullies, but in comparison to overall bullying there is no found evidence that individuals of a particular race are more or less bullied.

 A survey was taken from children in Europe, who have been bullied and have bullied others. The results bring to question do those who have been bullied, react and bully themselves?

  Those who have not bullied:

-          just 4% have been bullied online

Those who have bullied offline:

-          10% themselves have been bullied online

 Those who have bullied online:

-           41% have themselves been bullied online

(www.eukidsonline.et)

 These results show that bullying may be a two way occurrence, those who have been bullied are bullying others.

 How does bullying affect the individual?

 Bullying can lead to feelings of powerlessness, fear and isolation, depression, difficulty sleeping, working or concentrating, difficulty relating to friends or family, feelings of confusion or stress, students not wishing to attend school and also exclusion from social groups. Bullying can have long term damage to an individual, cyber bullying in particular is more dangerous than traditional bullying. Cyber bullying promotes a more covert and psychological attack on victims, it is easy to start, hard to stop and can be invisible to parents, guardians and teachers.

 Resources

 Livingstone. S and L. Haddon (2008 – 2009). Department of Media and Communications, the London School of Economics and Political Science - Risks and safety on the internet, the perspective of European children. Available from

www.eukidsonline.net

[lucymvaughan-blog]

ELPC Blog #1 Topic #2 Cyber Bullying

My second topic that I am going to explore is in relation to Cyber Bullying and the posts will show my own learning through reading articles. My main focus through these posts is to develop an understanding and critically analyse research findings on what Cyber Bullying is, who Cyber Bullies & the effects on the perpetrator and victim, why it occurs, how to prevent it, measures schools take to stop Cyber Bullying and personal accounts of Cyber Bullying.

What is cyber bullying? Cyber bullying is a type of bullying that occurs through internet services, such as email, chat rooms, and social networks, for example Facebook and MSN MySpace. Bullying can also take place through mobile phones with sms. The following research shows that 29% of 10 – 17 year olds have been cyber bullied and a further 52% know someone who has been cyber bullied (McAfee/Harris Interactive survey). These percentages are an enlightening look at how many kids are affected by cyber bullying.

What defines cyber bullying? It is the transmission of threatening messages, these messages can contain jokes of a sexual nature, the posting of photographs on the internet without permission, and it can be spreading rumours, teasing an individual, nasty comments and defamation. Leading researchers have describes cyber bullying as ‘overt intentional act of aggression towards another person online’, (common sense media). The following statistics from America show the percentage of these transmitted messages with 26% been harassed through their phone, with both sms and voice messages. While 15% of teens have had private material forwarded without permission through Instant Messaging, sms and email, (Pew Internet & American Life Project).

Is cyber bullying like traditional bullying? It is but with slight differentiations, the use of these technologies allows anonymity, making it easier for kids to bully and subsequently get away with it. The constant and ongoing availability to these technologies allows the bullying to stretch beyond the school gates and enter the child’s home. With bullying occurring through these technologies it has become apparent it is hard for adults, parent, guardian, and teachers to detect.  

References

Common Sense Media, (July 2010). Cyber bullying – Damage in a Digital Age. Available from www.commonsense.org

Reach out.com, Australia, Available from

http://au.reachout.com/find/articles/cyberbullying

Inspire, Inspiring young people, Available from

http://www.inspire.org.au/

[lucymvaughan-blog]

STS 1 Module F, Blog #3 - Teaching Standards & Assessment

 The focus areas and standards are important points of information, STS is helping us to plans, asses and understand what learning looks like in the classroom. I really enjoyed our last lecturer with the experienced teachers and hearing about their lives and experiences within in the classroom and schools. It is important to know students and how they learn. When it comes to behaviour management it is important to remember that it's not about you, but about the kid. In a few of my observation days I've been taken aback at some of the remarks and attitudes the students have thrown out at the teacher. I guess we just have to be prepared to deal with any situation and act accordingly. Our STS tutor for Visual Arts spent a lot of time just spitting out information at us, the do's and don’ts. I think it's these tutes and particularly the professional placements where we are really seeing STS being put in to place. The teaching standards are evident of how to run a productive class and have a healthy relationship with your students and highlights the teacher I want to be, points like giving students feedback with class work and assessment, creating and maintaining a supportive and safe learning environment and for teachers to engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the wider school community.

[lucymvaughan-blog]

STS Module C, D Pedagogy & Curriculum Blog #2

Pedagogy and how will I know what approach to take when it comes to having my own classes?

Looking at pedagogy and the many theorists such as Emilia, Ciari, Dewey, and Simon made me think about what my own pedagogical approach would be within the classroom. The Constructivism philosophy of looking back at our own experiences which therefore creates our own take and understanding of the world around us, I found this to be quite interesting. Even young teenage students within our classrooms, have history and life experiences, information than spanning back and relating allows for learning to happen, it makes complete sense to me. 

When it comes to my own pedagogical approach and philosophy of teaching there are four main points I answered:

- Why do you teach?

I always wanted to teach to give students a better education in the Visual Arts field, this in comparison to the education I received. My cousin who works in a NSW Rural Public School highlighted to me a situation she observes in her school of a long established Art teacher who is too stubborn to change the curriculum for the kids. The teacher believes why change it; it’s been the same for 20 years. The school includes a large population of Aboriginal students and Juvenile Justice Kids, who frankly don't really care about 14th Century art. Inevitably none of the students like Visual Arts and dread attending the class, which is the opposite of how students normally feel about the subject. This example highlights why I want to teach especially in rural and disadvantaged areas of NSW, I want students to truly appreciate Visual Arts and for me as the teacher to provide opportunities to learn and take interest, catering to the students needs and interests. 

- How do student’s best learn?

I feel students best learn in an engaging environment, with positive and interactive learning.

- What are your goals for your students? How will you know when you and they have succeeded?

To meet the requirements of the curriculum, the school, the parents, the students own expectations and the expectations of myself. They should be engaged and enjoy the classes and subject. I want an interactive class, learning from each other. I want the students to feel comfortable in approaching me as a teacher and raising any issues with me if they face problems with the class work. I guess knowing I've succeeded in this is when the students are engaged, complete the work, meet the curriculum requirements and enjoy Visual Arts. 

- What qualities are important for a teacher?

The qualities important to me is to be an approachable teacher, to have patience and a genuine interest in the students and their work, to be an engaging teacher, to shape the work for the students and their needs, to be interactive within the classroom and with the students and make the classroom and Visual Arts experience to be a memorable and generally loved subject. 

[lucymvaughan-blog]

[lucymvaughan-blog]

ELPC Blog #5 Professional Development of Teachers in Rural and Remote Victoria

This blog is coming back to professional development of the teachers and how that is distributed and dealt with when it comes to rural and remote communities, this article in particular focusing on schools and teachers within Victoria. Again this data was conducted through a series of interviews from a collection of seven schools in Victoria. The findings were generally positive, professional learning teams have been set up so teachers across subjects were able to come together and collaborate in order to work off each other’s strengths and weaknesses.  Another concern was that the focus of professional development has moved away from the teachers subject area and has moved on to methodology based, student management strategies etc. Moving on to technology and support one teacher in particular highlights her concerns, ‘I think with technology and learning, there’s a lot more emphasis on acquiring gadgets’,’you’ve got $100,000; you don’t spend say, $30,000 of it for PD, because for $30,000 you can buy another twenty computers. So you buy the computers. But you still don’t train anyone how to use them...’ (L/E). These schools were considered to take responsibility for their own professional development. The difficulty faced by these teachers in finding resources to continue to develop their own skills. I guess funding is a significant issue when it comes to addressing these issues in rural and remote schools. Having the funds to be able to supply the resources for these teachers will benefit their own professional development and further more the development for the children to be able to participate and survive in the wider world.

References

Assuming responsibility: Teachers taking charge of their professional development, By Russell Tytler, David Symington, Cliff Malcolm, and Valda Kirkwood, June 2009.

[lucymvaughan-blog]

ELPC Blog #4 Issues in Teaching, rural, regional and remote Western Australia.

This next blog focuses on a number of rural and remote schools in Western Australia. The information gathered was received through individual interviews with teachers and principals. The article focuses on what attracts teachers to their particular area, their retention in the school, working and living within the community and key issues of why teachers leave these rural and remote communities. These aspects concerning staff at the time are the following, living environment, professional environment, nature of community relationships, student transience, teacher attraction and teacher retention, distance and isolation, curriculum leadership, teacher content and knowledge, school created curricula, integration of ICT, allocation of resources and teacher professionalism. The main focus is the ICT and the findings were both positive and negative, teachers and parents had different views and opinions on the availability and positive effect of ICT. One parents comment highlighted this gap between parent and teacher knowledge, ‘The kids are happy. Plus they’ve got the up-to-date technology. Everything’s there. State of the art. A smartboard’ (Sharon, parent at Seaview). Although a negative effect of how the ICT resources are distributed is explained by a teacher at the same school and his concerns, ‘I think we have something like three or four calculators between 40 kids, so the resourcing is one of the big hurdles as far as science and maths goes’ (Mark, teacher at Seaview).  Another finding through the article was the fact that theses remote communities find it hard to retain staff and in general most of the teachers within these schools are new graduates who are either out of their first or second year of university. Not having experienced staff is an obstruction for the students who are continuously experimented on to see what works and what doesn’t.  In all the need for a ‘National rural strategy’ needs to be implemented and addressed for the teachers, parents and students in these communities.

References

Issues in Teaching and Learning Science, ICT and Mathematics in Rural, Regional and Remote Western Australia, Sue Trinidad, Sandra Field, Len Sparrow, and David Treagust, Curtin University of Technology (SiMERR WA). 

[lucymvaughan-blog]

ELPC Blog #3 ICT in Rural and Remote Australia/Professional Development

Following on from my previous blog, I’ve found a research article that focuses on the digital revolution and professional development. Much of the research was done from mid 2000 up until 2009, so the findings are recent and taking place today. The implementation of ICT in schools and the digital revolution in general is definitely underway. With the 2007 election of a new government the Australia Labor Party brought in an initiative for education revolution, ‘every secondary school in Australia into a digital school within four years’ (ALP, 2007). As part of this promise laptops would be provided for every child, including the networking connection and online teaching materials relevant to the curriculum within each state. This promise so to speak has been put into practice, in 2008 across Australia 896 schools received 116, 820 computers and in 2009, 1394 schools received 141,319 computers. Today two of these measures have been executed and lagging behind is the teaching materials. Professional development is constructed of three key concepts health and safety, leadership and management, and information and technology. During 2007 a discussion paper talked about the teacher’s professional development with ICT and how together with universities and the state government they will be given access to training in order to use the technology.“Through this strategy, the Australia Government will commit $40 million over the next two years for the professional development (PD) of teachers and school leaders in the use of ICT” (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2010a). Although this caused problems for the more remote schools, particularly in the case of a Western Australian school, permanent staff found it hard to find relief teachers to take over their classes while they were accessing professional learning opportunities. In all the research and questionnaires show that using technology to access professional development was satisfactory, face to face learning and online professional development proved to be more successful than trying to use the technology in remoteness. Although the government has indicated the moves to provide for this issue of professional development, will it really make a difference to teachers and schools in rural and remote communities? Will the gap ever be closed?

References

Digital revolution or digital divide: will rural teachers get a piece of the professional development pie? Tania Broadley, Curtin Universtiy. 

[lucymvaughan-blog]

ELPC Blog #2 ICT in Rural and Regional Australia

The paper I read was an investigation in to rural and remote schools around Australia in every state and territory, focusing on ICT within these schools and how they are affected. Key points that arose were the state of ICT in the schools, the difference between school ICT experiences and the students home, pedagogical approaches teachers face, the teachers leadership of ICT, the professional development of these teachers, and availability of skilled ICT teachers.

I guess we have to be wary when researching and blogging about these subjects as the research and National Survey were taken in 2005. We are now 2011 and six years on and dramatic changes have occurred over the years and these considerations need to come in to account when looking at this research. These blogs are focused on Australia and specifically two states, New South Wales and Western Australia, these I found had interesting feedback from the schools.

The main priority for the Government at the time was to ensure teachers have access to professional development, training, support resources and technical support. This support was focused more intensely on rural and regional teachers who were generally more isolated. The Australian ICT taskforce developed nationwide priorities to develop pedagogies that allow ICT to be integrated in to the curriculum.

The use of technology in schools is to support families, schools and communities and bring those together in a relationship to decrease the seclusion many feel. Technology and ICT in schools has been the driving force in the adaption of pedagogy.

During 2005 a National Survey was taken, originally established by the University of New England. The main goal of the survey was to indentify the issues effecting student outcomes, mainly in ICT and Mathematics subject areas. The data was taken from a variety of sectors including government, independent, catholic and types such as primary, secondary and combined. The survey was taken by asking students, parents and teachers a series of questions; there were common themes in response.

Western Australia:

     1.  Using ICT to motivate their indigenous students to come to school and be involved in the school community.

     2.   Very few indigenous students have access to computers at home.

       3. The way the curriculum is framed does not provide for indigenous students

     4.  The exposure to ICT in schools is important for dealing with the wider world when they leave the community.

    5.   Connection problems within the communities.

    6.   Remoteness causes problems when it comes to technicians travelling out to schools, long waits etc.

 New South Wales:

 1.       Standard of computer facilities.

2.       Need for technical support for staff within the schools.

3.       Number of computers available for classes.

4.       50% of students at the time did not have exposure to a computer at home.

5.       Limited support from district offices for the schools.

6.       The need to provide technicians for the schools.

 Overall improvements to policies and initiatives need to happen to improve these issues that were brought up in this blog. Taking in to account the 6 years since this report was taken, I still believe there is a slow progression to deal with these issues in rural and remote Australia, and the following update on the National Broadband Network in 2010 shows the progression.

The Labor Government brought in a National Broadband Network, the progress update from 2010 outlines the goals of NBN.

1.       ‘transform service delivery in key areas such as health, education and energy’

2.       ‘connect our big cities, regional centres and rural communities’

 References

 http://www.alp.org.au/agenda/nbn/nbn-progress-update/

 ‘Focusing on ICT in rural and regional education in Australia’

Ainley, J. & Dearle, D. (2005)

Commonwealth of Australia (2000)

Lyons, T. (Ed.) (2006)

Lyons, T. Cooksey, R, Panizzon, D, Parnell, A & Pegg, J. (2006a)

Lyons, T. Cooksey, R, Panizzon, D, Parnell, A & Pegg, J. (2006b)

Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (2003)

Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (2004)