CISAC

Here’s a great snapshot resource of local government areas.  It may be useful for any groups trying to plan for their community and wanting some basic demographic data.  Many thanks to the Twitter community  for passing this information on.

2006 Census Usual Resident Population Profile

The Community Snapshot provides you with an accessible socio-demographic snapshot of your community based on the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics Census data (2006).

This Community Snapshot includes all Australian Local Government Areas and is provided free of charge.

There are lots of interesting resources out there to support communities.

Have a look at the work of the Community Technology Centres, for example.  They are now calling for new memberships in 2009.

We are at a time where the possibilities for thinking differently about schools and schooling differently are enormous:

Here’s a short video from the UK

Find more videos like this on Hunter Central Coast web 2.0 in schools

There is also information available especially for parents at the Parent and Community Web site. Why not add a comment, or provide ideas about what would be good to see online.

It’s interesting to look at some ideas about what systems could look like if we had the opportunity to begin at the beginning: shifting from school planning to really ‘Planning schools’

Here are some links to various ways that the question of “What sort of schools and communities of schools will best meet the needs of the 21st century learner?” might be answered, or debate stimulated.

New Schools for New Orleans

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is undergoing one of the most compelling educational transformations in recent history. The lynchpin of this transformation will be the rigorous and selective creation of charter schools - schools that will be run by independent school leaders, driven by student achievement, and monitored by strict accountability measures. The post-Katrina world offers an unprecedented opportunity to transform public education in New Orleans and to create a new national model for reforming failed urban schools districts

Link here to the site

There’ll be more added, so check back often.

At the meeting of this reference group held at Adamstown on 6 June 2007, some great discussion was had about the types of indicators which will enable us to measure our outcome attainment.

It was good to meet many new people at the conference day today. A number of people asked about copies of the presentation. You can look for the link below to download a copy. If it assists you at all, that’s great. Please let me know how you get on.

Before you download the Powerpoint, why not have a look at some of the other posts on this site. There are links to a range of resources, websites and other information. For example: there’s a bonus freeby ‘how to’ for a tetrahedron building exercise from the Maitland day which was well evaluated. The site is updated from time to time with more information or links. Why not use the link on the page to Subscribe to be notified by email of site updates…and, feel free to post a comment on any post. - Just click the ‘Read Comments’ link below the post.
Now, here is the .ppt from today

Right Click here to download copy of presentation - Choose ‘Save target as’ (Mac - Option -Click)

Participants building tetrahedrons as a group activity on the day

Many thanks to all for their constructive input to the day held today at Maitland.  We look forward to getting the survey out to everybody and to helping your clusters continue to be a vehicle for even greater sharing of the combined ideas of people within our schools.

The powerpoint presentations from the day are available for download here.  If you use these, it would be great to get some brief feedback from you to know how the material is being used and how you have adapted to suit different needs.  It is hoped that they are useful to you.  For links to other resources from the UK in particular, look further down in this post and in an earlier post which you can see if you scroll even further down the page.

*  Building Tetrahedrons - Download here (ppt 4.5mb)

*  Presentation regarding context, overseas examples and evaluations - Download here (ppt 7.9mb)

While you’re here, though, why not subscribe your email address so that you receive an email whenever new information or resources is added to the blog

If you would like to start with some of the vast amount of material from the National College of School Leadership in Nottingham, then click here to visit the site. (I recommend the document Cracking the Concrete and the Learning networks: publications directory.  If you open these and read them onscreen, you can click the hyperlinks as you go and discover the vastness of the knowledge and ideas base around this area of work.)

For direct download of a document which looks specifically at evaluative data from the UK Networked Learning Communities, then click here to download

If you are interested in some more information about the PBL program, including a link to the US site, then you can read a short piece about it on a blog which is for anybody with an interest in leadership within public schools.  Feel free to pass these links on to people you believe may be interested.

Please use the opportunity to use the Comments link at the end of this post.  Any ideas and input you might have can only add to what we do.

If you have a group which would benefit from using a shared workspace as a means of being collaborative and interconnected, there’s a great secure online space available.

Have a look at the number of groups available on EdNA, in the School Education category alone. EdNA has certainly grown since the late nineties and the groups are making use of some great FREE Open Source software developed in Australia.  The software is Moodle, and is already used by a number of our schools.

You’ll see that the group sites offer a range of possibilities for groups to work online, share calendars, documents etc.  Communication can very easily be two way.  Have a look at some of the Public Groups.

Even if you don’t have time for that, have a quick look at the philosophy which sits behind Moodle, It’s a short piece which can be read in full here.  For an excerpt which is deceptive in its simplicity, have a look below:

Connected and Separate

This idea looks deeper into the motivations of individuals within a discussion. Separate behaviour is when someone tries to remain ‘objective’ and ‘factual’, and tends to defend their own ideas using logic to find holes in their opponent’s ideas. Connected behaviour is a more empathic approach that accepts subjectivity, trying to listen and ask questions in an effort to understand the other point of view. Constructed behaviour is when a person is sensitive to both of these approaches and is able to choose either of them as appropriate to the current situation.

In general, a healthy amount of connected behaviour within a learning community is a very powerful stimulant for learning, not only bringing people closer together but promoting deeper reflection and re-examination of their existing beliefs.

Conclusion

Once you are thinking about all these issues, it helps you to focus on the experiences that would be best for learning from the learner’s point of view, rather than just publishing and assessing the information you think they need to know. It can also help you realise how each participant in a course can be a teacher as well as a learner. Your job as a ‘teacher’ can change from being ‘the source of knowledge’ to being an influencer and role model of class culture, connecting with students in a personal way that addresses their own learning needs, and moderating discussions and activities in a way that collectively leads students towards the learning goals of the class.

Obviously Moodle doesn’t force this style of behaviour, but this is what it is best at supporting. In future, as the technical infrastructure of Moodle stabilises, further improvements in pedagogical support will be a major direction for Moodle development.

Click here to find out more about Moodle

Click here to see a sample of how it looks when first installed

     (If you’d like to log in, Username= lipsreader ; Password= lipsreader)

As well as developing interdependence and collaboration between schools, there is a clear case for developing the partnerships between schools and their communities; especially parents.  Major research has been conducted into this at a national level with a report being published in July 2006.  Have a look a the sections related to Findings and Best Practice.

Click here for a link to the full document

A really interesting paper about blogs and online communities can be seen at this link http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community/

Here’s an excerpt . . .

So, what do we mean by community?

In my home town of Seattle there is a neighborhood called Fremont. It has traditionally been the home of artists, liberal thinkers and a great deal of creativity. Close to the neighbourhood centre there was a desolate area underneath a major bridge that attracted nothing but problems. Instead of complaining about the limitations of this spot, the creative people in Fremont transformed it by making a giant cement Troll under the bridge.

It did not matter that this was not prime real estate. It was in the community, so they made the most of it. The Troll is for me a visible symbol of the heart, art and sensibility of the community. They took a bare patch of land and made it magical. That’s community. Online we also stake a patch of territory and make it ours. Regardless of what it looks like. So my caution to all of us is to never ever mistake the platform for the community. It is what people do with each other using the tools that matters.