Janine’s blog

Dr Jeremy Roschelle provided summary reflections of the Curriculum Corporation 2006 conference. He identified two main themes from the keynote speakers and group discussions:

1. The challenges of the Knowledge Economy
2. ICT in schools – not just about doing things better, but also doing better things 

He also challenged whether Australia becoming less critical, suggesting that what is needed is critical inquiry into the relationships among learning, school and the future economy. He suggested two key readings that are pertinent to this - The Education Gospel and The Power of Productivity. As Bill Gates has said:

We tend to overestimate what will happen in the next two years and underestimate what will happen in the next 10 years. [the earliest reference I could find to this quote was December 1996 http://www.samachar.com/tech/archives/techtalk65.html]

Learning for the Knowledge Society

• James Gee – games as a resource for important learning
• Jillian Dellit – access to infinite possibilities and school is important

Doing better things in schools

• Jeremy Roschelle - diffusing the vision of the early adopters to the pragmatic and conservative masses. Simple tools Build teacher networks that sustain, plan for growth in innovation and efficiency, provide compelling research evidence
• Peter Freebody - Learning objects are working: students are engaged AND learning is happening…..particularly with complex concepts….but note how slow schools are to change

Conclusions - let’s note that:

• Our historical moment is challenging and full of infinite possibilities
• Learning is going to be central to future society success
• Technology is important to learning – make changes, help us communicate
• Schools will change, technology will be important but school is a very complex institution and diffusion of innovation into schools will require much more than building IT