Update of FarNet for Term 3

I haven't been very good at keeping up with my blog, but while I was in Christchurch for the ULearn08 Conference in the second week of the school holidays, I got an opportunity during a meeting of the 12 ePrincipals to reflect on some of the things that have been happening in the FarNet Cluster and to reflect on our three goals.

The 3 goals of our FarNet Cluster are:
GOAL ONE: Create a sustainable collaborative elearning environment for FarNet schools around the Virtual Learning Network
GOAL ONE: Create an sustainable online teaching and learning portal through Schoolzone’s MyClasses, MyDesktop, Mymail and MyPortfolio for all nine schools
GOAL ONE: Develop a sustainable group of trained -eteachers within FarNet

BACKGROUND TO FARNET:

Most of the 9 schools are low decile with high % of Maori students with a mixture of area schools. Developing relationships is very very important to me, hence Russell Bishops’s research on his Te Kotahitanga Project in terms of engagement of Maori students is always high in my pedagogical thinking and working with people.

Students: Some things around the students
In looking at ways of sustaining an online learning environment I am introducing a Tech Angel Leadership Programme – Year 8/9 (area schools) – who will be trained in using VC and the preferred LMS – MySuite and Myclasses and Web 2.0 tools. They will be the support for teachers and students at the 9 schools. This is being targeted as a GATE programme.

Two students attended a residential workshop for Level 3 PE with Lynda Pascoe-Walsh who teaches Level 3 PE online from Roxburgh Area School (OtagoNet) at Wanaka as part of their Level 3 PE course. They skied for 4 days, then spent 4 days working through the Gateway Programme on Mt Hutt Ski Field.

11 students from 2 FarNet schools (Kaitaia College and Northland College) attended a residential course at Telford in the first week of the holidays. This is a great experience for them. Six students have applied for a full-time placement in 2009 at Telford.

Sustaining the capacity of eteachers:
I have been speaking with Principals about targeting a teacher from a specialist area which have small numbers and creating a blended learning with strong emphasis of pedagogy in online learning. Eg Level 3 English – 5 in F2F class, 4 hours per week, 2 hrs F2F with those students working independently for 2 hours, teacher delivering the same course online to the cluster on VLN. This is a proposed model to address the need for each school to provide an eteacher.

Training for 2009 – current eteachers will be encouraged to work on their online environment for 2009 and Eddie is coming up to provide them with a set of web 2.0 tools and lots of the software that the ministry has available for us. Important thing is documenting not only what we are doing now, where we are going but our journey up until now. (whakapapa) So one of the tools we will be insisting our teachers to use is to keep a blog on their work, for self-reflection – and providing an opportunity for fellow colleagues to be able to hold up that non-judgemental mirror up through posting comments.

Research keeps telling us that we are “powering down” our students when they come into our schools, so we will be challenging our eteachers to use online resources like audacity and utube, wikis, ipods for podcasting, cellphones for communication and more student centred learning in their classes.

Where have I been:
Sydney – attended "Leading a Digital School" - August - 3 ePrincipals attended the 4 day conference. It was a valuable opportunity to reflect on what we are achieving in New Zealand. I think we are well ahead of most of the Australian schools.

Tony Bates – Lecturer from the University of British Columbia – Canada - delivered a symposium in Wellington which was organised by the Wellington Loop schools. He spoke about the blended learning – 35,000 students in BC doing at least one of their subjects online in schools. Tony spoke about this blend and it was inspiring to hear that their research clearly shows: Results were much the same; Retention on courses much the same; Satisfaction of courses from teacher, student and community was hugely increased.

So this has given me more information to now take back to the Principals and to support my proposal.

Both conferences were very thought provoking and we waved our VLN and elearning flag at both of those conferences.

What have I been working on:
Using my VC unit at home to avoid travelling. My record so far is 6 VCs in one day – as opposed to being able to visit only one school in a day. Something Conor (ePrincipal of Volcanics) shared in one of our Principal Mentor leadership meetings was that it was important that I became the face of FarNet. One of my goals has been to spend more time to become that face of FarNet by making more F2F visits in my schools and using the VC for follow up.

eMentor - Sue Winter

I feel well supported by Sue as our Principal Mentor with our regular meetings which always have a focus on our leadership and we have been able to share lots of our experiences. Sue has also visited me in my cluster and shadowed me for a couple of days. The feedback was excellent.

Study with Canterbury University

I have enrolled in two online courses with Canterbury University, which has challenged my thinking on pedagogy in elearning. Both these two lecturers, Derek Wenmoth and Nicki Dabner through their courses are exceptionally good examples of elearning courses. As part of this study, I have been facilitating the learning between two schools from opposite ends of the country, one decile 4 – 100% European students and one decile 1 – 100% Maori. 30 students – VC supports the learning, but the learning is collaborative and scaffolding on each other’s learning. I really see my role as facilitator of this class and not the teacher.
We had a powhiri online, and it was a little difficult to work out who was the manuhiri (visitors) and who was the turangawaewae (home group), so we had a short mihi delivered from Northland College.

My online class

I teach a Level 1/2 accounting class. I have had students from Invercargill, Dunedin, Stratford and Northland College. My teaching role has changed from an instructional teaching role to more of a tutorial role in Term 3 and I have placed more emphasis on the online learning environment and textbooks and workbooks they have.

My Principals:
I have been trying to meet with each Principal during Term 3 to discuss their schoolwide goals and how I can assist them through support of FarNet, rather than adding another task for them. The results from an online survey has given us some good baseline data to work from.

Other:
I have been working with 2 new VC capable schools – one kura and one Christian school. It was great to be able to call on the expertise of Anton Coltham (ePrincipal of Welcom) to speak with one of the schools who were talking about developing moodle.

Enterprise Northland and E4E

I have been working with Dave Templetom from Enterprise Northland on developing an online course for YES in 2009 as a trial – with Rachel Roberts (ePrincipal of Tarnet) and working with Enterprise Northland in the use of VC for PD and meetings. Dave has a VC set in their Whangarei offices. Meeting last week of term had 15 F2F and 20 remotely.

Have been trying to attend the future choices/option evenings and facilitating online interviews between eteachers/estudents and their parents.

Ka Hikitia Strategy

In terms of the Ka Hikitia Strategy, I am still refining the proposal to present to the Ministry and I have been working with Eddie about the enrolment forms on the VLN for 2009 to reflect things like student ethnicity so we can gather data around student ethnicity. We are looking at how the VLN could have more of a presence of demonstrating the success of our Maori students studying through the VLN – like photos or case studies.

TERM 3 - WEEK 3

4th August - VC with Film Commission - Because I was at Northland College, catching up with some science students, I stayed to attend this digiconversation organised by Rachel Roberts (Taranet) with the NZ Film Commission. Other people there was Deb, the Media Studies adviser based in Auckland. Unfortunately this time is when NC staff have their full staff meeting, but I was able to grab the Faculty Leader English and Media Studies teacher part way through. They were unsure of using the equipment, but I gave them some guidance and then left them to finish the VC off. I had arranged for the adviser to stay online after the meeting to speak with them about moderation and film studies accreditation.

5th August - Tutorial Class for Accounting - Kirsty and Alice attended. Cameron didn't know about it and Marlene is Level 1 mainly. She is going to attend from now on though.

5th August - This was the first VC meeting I had attended all term which I didn't have to dial in through the audio bridge. Was great to be able to see my fellow ecolleagues. I was looking forward to this meeting for a range of reasons, but most of all because I knew that Jan Collier (Coronet) was going to be chairing it and that Sue Winters (Principal Mentor) was going to shadow her.

Reflection: I thought that Jan looked confident and fully in charge and I really like the way she ran the meeting in terms of ensuring that everyone had an opportunity to make one comment on each item and that the person presenting the item was able to wrap up at the end. There was still room for hilarity, as shown by Eddie in his dress ups and time at the end of the meeting for those interested to discuss the Start of the Year Modules. This went on for a further hour.

6th August - Faciliated a VC meeting between Dave Templeton, E4E Coordinator, Maryanne (Core Education) and the enterprise teacher, Clinton (Kaitaia College). Dave had wanted some PD in the use of VC as he wants to deliver Enterprise Studies and YES PD for staff via VC, so he came to my home office and used my equipment. Dave is really interested in either getting a set installed at their Enterprise Northland office in Whangarei or to use the VC at Te Puni Kokiri office in Whangarei.

8th August - Eddie dialled in today via VC to speak with me about a pilot project that the Correspondence School were interested in offering to schools in the FarNet cluster. He had Inka Helwig and Kerry Whelan from TCS with him and they discussed their proposal. They are looking at support alternative education units with their teaching and learning programmes through video conferencing. I also asked them about another need I see in our community and that is with our students who have recently left school, and may have missed out on a few credits required to attend university or just to upskill. They don't want to return to school full-time and do not meet the requirements of being an adult student at a school. These students often work in part-time employment, or often don't want to leave their home town straight away, so they are still keen to be engaged in some form of formal learning. I suggested that the local runanga in their area might be interested in supporting these students by providing them with a place to study at and the correspondence school said they were looking at providing computers for those types of students to work on if they were enrolled with TCS. TCS have dropped the $80 fee per paper for enrolment for students between 16 and 19.

I have sent out invitations to the providers of alternative education in the Far North, including those schools not involved in FarNet. There will be a meeting between those stakeholders, the Runanga o Ngapuhi and TCS next Thursday via VC at 3.00pm.

I am really hoping that this will eventuate into a viable project.

8th August - VC meeting with Gary Walsh, Principal of Roxburgh Area School. I am going to be working with his class as part of my study with Canterbury. We discussed my proposal which I had sent through to him and he is happy about the future learning experiences we are all going to have. The class will start on 25th August, after we get back from the DEANZ Conference.

TERM 3 - WEEK TWO

28th July - VC meeting with physics students from NC - they seem happy and feel supported. They have got used to just dialling into me at my home office now.

The storm we experienced last weekend has started to hit again, and is predicted to worsen during the week. The F2F meeting of the FarNet Principals was organised to be held at Northland College on Wednesday, 30th July, but we have decided it would be irresponsible to suggest them to travel through the storm so it will now be via VC.

29th July - After a few technical glitches, I have finally officially enrolled with Canterbury University. I am really looking forward to the semester, especially with working with Derek Wenmoth and Nicki Dabner. I am considering using my accounting class as the class, although I have some reservations, because of the size of it. I am sure I can find an ecolleague who wouldn't mind loaning me a great bunch of students.
The two papers I have enrolled in are:
EDIC 706 - The Global Classroom - The focus is to use a range of asynchronous and synchronous tools to deliver an online unit.
EDIC 716 - An Online Project - The focus is to set up an online class and teach a cohort of students for an eight-week period on a unit. I am thinking of doing the Treaty of Waitangi and incorporating a Maori focus and applying some of the focuses from the Ka Hikitia Strategy.

I am going to have to do something about this computer I am using though, it is becoming more frustrating by the day.

30th July -What a good decision about changing the meeting to a VC one. Out of the 9 Principals, 8 attended via VC and 7 out of the 9 schools were closed because of the weather. Was a great two hour meeting. Eddie and Grey Tuck (ex Principal of Kuruanui and Principal Mentor) spoke to the Principals about the future of the VLN. Reflection: This meeting really demonstrated the benefits of having VC in our schools. It was also an opportunity to help model good practice for running an online meeting. William Tailby (Principal of Kaitaia) chaired the meeting with Pateriki Toia (Principal of Taipa AS) opening and closing with a lovely karakia. We had a set agenda (which had been agreed upon at the Executive Management meeting the previous week) and I had sent out a powerpoint to the Principals prior to the meeting that helped the meeting flow well. It also provides them with something they can speak with their SLT about to inform them.

I always find it difficult to minute a meeting that I am either chairing or participating in, so I asked one of the Principal's PA to minute it. This was a great opportunity for her to get a clear understanding of FarNet, as she is responsible for the financial accounting for the fundholder school. Beryl commented later on how informative the meeting was and how great the technology was. She said she started typing, then had to turn to shorthand. She sent me the minutes to check as she wasn't familiar with some of the terms referred to, and I have shown her how to post the minutes up on the FarNet site on the VLN.

1st August - Had a full class, apart from my young man from Invercargill. He started mid way through term 2 and I don't think he has been able to catch up. Must speak with Kymm (ePrincipal of SILC). I have got the document camera working and it is a good tool to use. We are now working on level 2 standards, as the majority of the class are Year 12 students. They have a good understanding about the fundamentals of accounting at level 1, so this was the plan. They are happy about this. We are going to have an extra class, more of a tutorial on a Tuesday from now on, and they will be expected to attend at least one of the classes a week.

TERM 3 - WEEK 1

21st July - F2F meeting with the Science students at NC to arrange correspondence and VC classes for the senior students. I had set up a support site for them on MyClasses, so I spent time with them to ensure they were familiar and feeling supported with their online learning.

When I realised that there were only two students at Level 2 and Level 3 doing chemistry and physics, I sent out a distress call to the eLearning Community and was inundated with support, so those students now have a VC teacher as well as being able to do their correspondence.

23rd July - F2F meeting with David Templeton regarding E4E on the VLN in 2009. I am considering teaching a YES class to FarNet schools, so we could have a company with directors based at different schools. Dave is keen to assist in a trial of such, and Rachel Roberts from Taranet is also keen to teach a YES class also. Putting feelers out to my ecolleagues, there is plenty of demand for students being involved. Reflection: I don't want to loose my accounting class though, I enjoy teaching accounting, so might have to consider teaching two classes. The YES should be more a role of facilitator anyway.

24th July - F2F meeting with FarNet Principal - Bruce Devine - Bay of Islands College - Bruce has been away on a sabbatical, so it was a general catch up.

25th July - A DAY I WILL REMEMBER!!! Finally Asnet and Telecom were able to bring their technical minds together and I finally got connectivity with my video conferencing equipment. I was able to teach my accounting class from home (no travelling .........). The first person I dialled was Eddie Reisch, and we talked for an hour and in the afternoon I catch up with Linda Pascoe-Walsh from Roxburgh. I had been feeling a little isolated up until then, but NO LONGER!

HOLIDAYS - WEEK ONE and WEEK TWO

I have decided that the school holidays is an ideal time to work with staff. I hadn't arranged too many PD sessions though, because I was still unsure about my father-in-law. There were two teachers at NC who wanted to work on developing a page on MyClasses and it was excellent working in groups of two, rather than a large group. It meant we could be more personalised with their pages.

I worked with Kelly Yakas who is the Project K or as known now as, STARS Project coordinator. The Year 9 staff Kelly works with at NC had indicated that they wanted to keep informed about the project and MyClasses seemed a great way to provide this information and allow the Peer Mentors to keep reflective journals.

I also worked with the librarian, Claire, who wanted to set up a site for students and staff to access up to date information about the library, what was happening, providing support for students. She has done a great job.

The second week I had an opportunity to catch up with Tiere, Principal of Opononi AS and I helped her with setting up and organising her folders and emails using MyMail.

Spent alot of time catching up on admin work and setting up the FarNet cluster site on the VLN.

TERM 2 - WEEK NINE - LAST WEEK OF TERM

All the following events had to be postponed due to my father-in-law being in hospital:
30th June - FarNet Principals Meeting @ 7.30am
1st July - F2F Meeting with FarNet Principal - David Bargh - Dargaville High School
1st July - VLN Monthly Meeting
2nd July - F2F Meeting with FarNet Principal - Pateriki Toia - Taipa Area School
2nd July - F2F Meeting with FarNet Principal - William Tailby - Kaitaia College
2nd July - F2F Following up meeting with staff at Kaitaia College on MyDesktop and MyClasses

4th July - Arrived at NC in time to teach my Accounting class. Unfortunately neither of the boys attended and Kirsty Davidson (Kavanagh College) had already put in her apologies. Alice and Marlene were at NC though.

TERM 2 - WEEK 8

23rd June - Faciliatated PD with full staff at NC on MyMail - Reflection: exhausting and too many to do this type of PD with. It doesn't allow for catering for those at different levels of computer literacy.

25th June - EPrincipal Leadership Meeting

26th June - F2F meeting with Principal Mentor - Sue Winters - went out for dinner at The Black Olive. Sue is here to 'shadow' me for two days.

27th June - F2F meeting with FarNet Principal - Tiere Maoate - Opononi AS - Reflection: Unfortunately Tiere couldn't join us for lunch at the Copthorne because of issues arising at school. Was a good opportunity for Sue and I to catch up and look at my goals set at the beginning of the term.

27th June - Taught my accounting class from Opononi AS and Sue was the observer. Reflection: The oral discussion we had later that evening in reflecting my practice she had observed in her role as Principal Mentor was very valuable. The weather was so bad that Sue's flight was cancelled and she had to stay overnight, so we had extra time to reflect on the previous two days.