Ewan McIntosh's Posts - Classroom 2.02024-03-28T10:50:03ZEwan McIntoshhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/ewanmcintoshhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1949881613?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://www.classroom20.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=ewanmcintosh&xn_auth=noOn teaching without electricity: Use stumbling blocks as stepping stones (Moliehi Sekese, Lesotho)tag:www.classroom20.com,2010-11-03:649749:BlogPost:5253242010-11-03T17:30:00.000ZEwan McIntoshhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/ewanmcintosh
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<p><strong>Moliehi Sekese wakes up in the morning, packs up her laptop, fully charged, and heads of to teach her students at Mamoeketsi Government Primary School, <a class="zem_slink" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-29.4666666667,27.9333333333&spn=10.0,10.0&q=-29.4666666667,27.9333333333%20%28Lesotho%29&t=h" rel="geolocation" title="Lesotho">Lesotho</a>. From the minute class begins that morning, students crowd around her PC, exploring maths, science…</strong></p>
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<p><strong>Moliehi Sekese wakes up in the morning, packs up her laptop, fully charged, and heads of to teach her students at Mamoeketsi Government Primary School, <a class="zem_slink" title="Lesotho" rel="geolocation" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-29.4666666667,27.9333333333&spn=10.0,10.0&q=-29.4666666667,27.9333333333%20%28Lesotho%29&t=h">Lesotho</a>. From the minute class begins that morning, students crowd around her PC, exploring maths, science and other concepts through the glowing rectangle for as long as the charge lasts and then, when it's done, it's done.</strong><br/><br/>Battery life is a perennial laptops-in-schools issue - give the students enough power to get through the day because charging up is so problematic. Cables everywhere, children having to work at the edges of the classroom where the sockets are… Megan's post here the other day on a "<a href="http://www.classroom20.com/profiles/blogs/lack-of-resources">lack of resources</a>" to get 40 students using technology seems almost banal these days, <br/><br/>But until last month, Moliehi's battery life issue was critical - she had no electricity at her school at all. Battery life isn't, for her, a mere inconvenience. It is the difference between further entrenching "the way it's always been done" and engaging children in the skills and global view that they can aspire to, given the tools to discover it.<br/><br/><strong>Students have taken their parents' mobile phones to track their research into endangered plant life in their community, sending their teacher reports and updates up to midnight. They have sold sweets and oranges to raise money. What for? A school trip to the internet cafe 15 miles away. They used Moliehe's laptop - fully charged - and a borrowed scanner to grab jpgs of the hand drawn illustrations of the plants they were studying, making campaign flyers in <a class="zem_slink" title="Microsoft Publisher" rel="homepage" href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/">Microsoft Publisher</a>. The locals paid attention, where they hadn't before. Why? They had never seen flyers with ink so bright.</strong></p>
<p>Moliehe is passionate about learning, and technology has engaged her students and the rest of the community in the projects students have undertaken. But it's her attitude to what she and her students <em>don't</em> have that presents a lesson many Western educators, complaining about technology provision or technology policy being a barrier to getting things done:</p>
<blockquote><p><em>"It was a joyful experience to experience the unexpected. When the mind is prepared, the moment we are given the opportunity to integrate technology into the classroom. It's not about having 100 computers in the class. We have limited resources and we can do a lot.</em><br/><br/><em>"It's all about passion, love of what we are doing and also, we need to share whatever we have.</em><br/><br/><strong><em>"Stop blaming the challenges. Use a stumbling block as a stepping stone to success."</em></strong></p>
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<p>See part of my interview with Moliehe in the video, above, or <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRLRodmkZbI" target="_self">on YouTube</a>.</p>
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<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" style="border: medium none; float: right;" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=9e177200-43e4-4ea2-93f0-e72a5ee5dc38" alt=""/></div>Student voice: do we *really* care about student voice? Live Webchat todaytag:www.classroom20.com,2010-08-31:649749:BlogPost:5032002010-08-31T13:50:11.000ZEwan McIntoshhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/ewanmcintosh
<span style="font-weight: bold;">In a few hours I'll be facilitating a live web chat on an area that, after three weeks seeing some fascinating practice in New Zealand and Australia, is closer to my heart than ever. I've written</span> <a href="http://www.getideas.org/getinsight-blog/learner-voice" style="font-weight: bold;">a longer blog post</a> <span style="font-weight: bold;">on how I think we could</span> <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">listen…</span>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">In a few hours I'll be facilitating a live web chat on an area that, after three weeks seeing some fascinating practice in New Zealand and Australia, is closer to my heart than ever. I've written</span> <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.getideas.org/getinsight-blog/learner-voice">a longer blog post</a> <span style="font-weight: bold;">on how I think we could</span> <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">listen</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">more to student voice rather than just</span> <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">hear</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">it, and in a few hours (8pm British Summer Time, noon Pacific Time) we have <a href="https://ciscosales.webex.com/cmp0306lb/webcomponents/widget/detect.do?siteurl=ciscosales&LID=1&RID=2&TID=4&rnd=6475652379&DT=60&DL=en-US&isDetected=true&backUrl=%2Fmw0306lb%2Fmywebex%2Fdefault.do%3Fnomenu%3Dtrue%26siteurl%3Dciscosales%26service%3D6%26main_url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fciscosales.webex.com%252Fec0605lb%252Feventcenter%252Fevent%252FeventAction.do%253FtheAction%253Ddetail%2526confViewID%253D706747015%2526siteurl%253Dciscosales%2526%2526%2526">a live web chat</a> to thrash out the loose ends in these arguments:</span><br/><br/><div style="margin-left: 40px; font-style: italic;">"Learner voice" is one of those phrases that at some point in time was a useful hook for those revolutionising how
students learn. Rather than seeing young people as cogs to be prepared<br />
for an industrial age future, learner voice focused school leaders and<br />
teachers on letting young people have a say in how their school was run<br />
and, much more importantly, what and how they learn.</div>
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However, it is quickly becoming edu-jargon, with its actual meaning for<br />
day-to-day learning becoming less clear to those teaching young people<br />
and, vitally, to young people themselves. Learner voice has all too<br />
often been reduced to making choices on what the lunch menu will be.<br/><br/>
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I've spent the last couple of weeks in New Zealand, seeing how the<br />
actions and approaches of individual teachers, head teachers, and, in<br />
some instances, the school structure itself are being adapted to<br />
facilitate deeper appreciation of what students want and what they are<br />
capable of. <span style="font-weight: bold;">What's clear is that where practice might be considered "the<br />
best," learner voice has not been reduced simply to asking students<br />
what they want at school ("What can we at the school cede to learners?")<br />
but has become the principal vehicle for teaching and learning ("What<br />
do you want to learn, how do you want to learn it, and what can we at<br />
the school do to help make it happen?").</span></p>
<br/>I hope you can join me and a few others to share your own experiences, challenges and ideas for increasing the student's voice in student-led learning.<br/>