May 6, 2009
Celebrating Education Week
Springvale Dandenong Leader - Monday May 4th
May 17th – May 23rd celebrates Education week, and in my local paper of the Leader May 4th was some great articles titled ‘Future in their Hand’ by Kristin Owen.
The article discusses about today’s tech savvy students that are podcasting radio shows and ‘electronically mapping their minds’.
It also discusses a global movement in education towards the one to one ratio of wireless computers, and research stating that children are more engaged when they have their own computer.
this article is great in that it discusses the positives of using technology within the classroom, i.e. better organisational skills, improved literacy and numeracy, better collaboration and analytical thinking.
The article then explains the Netbook Project, which in Victoria last term more than 536,000 government-school students began a three year trial of one-to-one ratio computers. the state governents pays $312 per computer and families pay $1 a week to lease a mini laptop complete with 28 software programs. This trial research within just 6 weeks, found improvements in students knowledge of their times tables and maths, organisational skills and thinking skills.
I have attached the article, sadly i was not able to find a electronic version but i have scanned it for those that were interested in the article.
The article concludes with the Education Department looking into the introduction of the ‘ultranet’ which has been described as ‘a student centred electronic learnign environment that supports quality learning and teaching, connects students, teachers and parents and enables efficient knowledge transfer’.
Have you heard much about this Ultranet? if so? what are your views?
Future in their hands - Kristin Owen
