Visitors and Residents

I've always had some issues with the idea of Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants proposed by Marc Prensky. Although it seemed a very neat way to describe users in the 21st Century, I never felt it was as clear cut as many who jumped to use his description.
My love of exploring ICT came from my Mum - not a Digital Native by any stretch of the imagination! As a teacher in a Special School, she used to bring home her new Apple in its carry bag and simply play with it to find out how she might use it with her pupils.

 That enquiry led, learner focused approach has benefited me enormously, and I would also not describe myself as a Digital Native in Prensky's terms. Bennett, et al., 2008, proposed 'It may be that there is as much variation within the digital native generation as between the generations.'


So, it was with great interest that I read 'Visitors and Residents: A New Typology for Online Engagement' by David S. White and Alison Le Cornu 
This concept sits much more comfortably with my own experiences and those that I have seen within the many schools I have now worked in. Have a read and see what you think? I'm going to mull it over a bit more myself as I only came across the article yesterday, but it seemed like a great article to share.

Sue Bennett, Karl Maton and Lisa Kervin, 2008. “The ‘digital natives’ debate: A critical review of the evidence,” British Journal of Educational Technology, volume 39, number 5, pp. 775–786.

Cloud Educator Accounts

Well, it took me slightly longer than I thought, but I have finally given out 32 Cloud Educator Google Apps Accounts to my Expert group yesterday. I thought it would be a fairly straight forward exercise until I really thought it through.
To enable all my Expert teachers to be able to take the Google Qualified Individual Tests they really need access to an Administrators account. The idea of having 32 Administrators in one domain is a bit daunting to say the least. I spent quite a lot of time trying think of guidelines for the group. I ended up with about five pointers and a general rule - if in doubt, ask!
Most of the group have already been into their accounts. The first group meet on Thursday 15th and the second on Monday 19th. I'm really looking forward to getting this all up and running.
I'm hoping to use some kind of video conferencing on a regular basis to keep in contact with everyone. But more about that in a later post I think!

Babies to get their own tablet computers

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/babies-to-get-their-own-tablet-computer/
What do you think?
Personally, I think that it is an interesting idea as my daughter (aged 4) quite often tells my that my iPad belongs to her and that she sometimes lets me use it.
On the other hand she uses it for maybe five minutes a day, along side lots of other play.
Balance, I think, is the key!

From Pencil Pads to iPads - The Evolution of Classroom Technology

Courtesy of: OnlineSchools.com

Some Summer Thinking

It would be great to think that the Norfolk Cloud Educator Programme could look a bit deeper at how technology can support and enhance learning.
Kathy Schrock produced this lovely diagram showing how Google Tools can support Bloom's Revised Taxonomy.

The diagram on her web page links to the various tools but goes no further.
An interesting task to set ourselves would be to provide concrete examples for each one over the coming year, making sure that teachers are clear about the pedagogy underlying the uses of Google Apps.

Huge interest in the Cloud Educator Programme

I have been completely overwhelmed by the interest in the Cloud Educator Programme. I was looking for 25 teachers, and from evidence from previous years, I wasn't very confident about being able to fill all the places.
On Friday evening I had received 49 applications!
Having tried out lots of different options, I've been able to fund an additional 7 places, taking us up to 32 Cloud Educators. This means that I will be running two groups rather than one, so I will need to confirm additional dates to all those selected.
It would be interesting to hear thoughts on why this has generated so much interest. I believe it is a whole range of reasons including huge interest in Google, money being offered to support at a time when there is not a lot around, schools realising the potential of working in the 'cloud' and being able to offer something that seems to have come at the right time!
I'd be really interested to hear anybody else's thoughts.

P.S. Another lesson learned - when I initially sent out the first couple of messages about the Programme on Twitter, I never thought to put Norfolk, UK. As a result, I've had to send an interesting reply to the lovely teacher who applied from Norfolk, Virginia, USA!!

So what happens on the Internet in 1 Minute

Thanks to @ZoeRoss19 for tweeting this link http://goo.gl/AW3sn
I'm not quite sure just how accurate this information is, but it makes for some very interesting reading.