Sunday, February 13, 2011

Upcoming trip to New Zealand

My daughter and I are going to Auckland, with a side trip to Fiji on our way home over her Spring Break (it's a good way to use all of the air miles I earned last year!). We will actually be gone two weeks, but with travel time and the last four days in Fiji, we will only be in Auckland for nine days. We will be spending a week in the Pt. England School, to see how this primary school is integrating Google Apps, Blogger, ePortfolios and Teacher Dashboard into their program. We are going to guide some students and teachers through the digital storytelling process. I am finishing up my book, and need to spend more time in direct observation of a primary school. According to their technology director:
We are an Apple school with iMovie happening all over the place.  And are rolling out our very first 1:1 on Linux  Netbooks this week.  The idea being that they use their Netbooks for all their Google apps work and jump on the iMacs to create their movies, music etc.  Unfortunately our cohort do not have access to iAnything in their homes - welcome to NZs poorest community :) Highly creative though....
I hope to make a short visit to BBI to see how they are doing as well. I spent more than a week in that school last March. This year, they are integrating iPads into their intermediate school.

2 comments:

Paul Seiler said...

Helen, I am pleased you are able to make it back to NZ and hope to meet you again. Let me know if you can make it to Wellington or if we can meet up in Auckland. Maybe I could even organise some sort of school event, if you like? I am sure others would like to hear from you.

Paul.

eportfolios said...

Not sure we will make it past Auckland. Will be there over weekend of March 26-27 with no plans...yet. Might be good time to discuss portfolios & reflection with teachers. There is a real need for help with understanding how to support goal-setting, reflection and feedback, especially K-6. Would be willing to facilitate a group brainstorming session. This would be a tool-neutral discussion. Just finished a keynote speech in Calgary, and this was one question raised. Send me direct email.