Houston Blog
My blog from Houston, Texas. Updated most weeks, usually on Sundays.
On Thursday morning this week, I sent a message to every parent, teacher, student, alumnus, member of staff and board member at Awty, inviting them to participate in a significant questionnaire which marks the first phase of developing our new Strategic Plan. The text of my message was as follows:
Dear Members of the Awty Community,
Our current Strategic Plan was designed in 2006 to guide our development through the period 2007 to 2012. As 2012 dawns, therefore, it is now time to begin the process of developing our next Strategic Plan, which will cover the period 2013 to 2018.
This is without doubt the most significant opportunity anyone will have for the next half-decade to influence Awty's future direction. For that reason, I would really appreciate input from as many students, parents, alumni, teachers and staff members as possible in this process.
As a first step towards developing our new Strategic Plan, a broad online questionnaire has been uploaded to our website in both English and French. It lists a vast range of factors that influence the educational experience of our students, and you are asked simply to click those points which (a) you see as special strengths of Awty, (b) you think should be improved or expanded, and (c) you feel should be cut back or de-emphasized. There are also several open-ended questions which you are free to answer as well if you wish.
I invite you to complete this questionnaire at https://www.awty.org/cf_forms/view.cfm?formID=141 by the end of this month (Tuesday, January 31) so that we can start identifying the issues of greatest significance for our next Strategic Plan.
Thank you in anticipation of your help with this important project.
Some of the parent representatives on the board were especially excited by the part of my presentation that focussed on technology, and they invited me to share my thoughts in this area with a wider audience at a meeting of the APPA (our parents’ group) on Tuesday morning this morning. I was thrilled to be given this opportunity, and even more delighted by the large size of the audience that came to hear my thoughts. Even though the invitation had only been sent to parents the morning before the meeting, almost 70 parents attended the presentation, after which I had several very useful follow-up conversations and many requests for copies of the presentation.
I have uploaded the presentation for online viewing, and it can be seen by clicking the screen image above, or by going directly to http://public.iwork.com/document/?d=Future_Technology_at_Awty.key&a=p97543451. Like the Strategic Plan presentation that I uploaded last December, you should note that playing the presentation is optimized for the Safari browser (on a Windows PC, Mac or iPad); viewing might work in other browsers but it is highly recommended that the Safari browser is used to avoid losing animations and some of the details.
The wise use of technology to enhance learning in the classroom is a subject that has fascinated me for quite some time. As you might expect, I have been doing quite a bit of reading on the subject recently (recently being defined as “since about 1982”). Among the most interesting articles I have read this week, I would recommend the following two articles to you if you are interested in reading a little more on this subject:
A university lecturer’s perspective on the positives and negatives of using iPads in class:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/what-ive-learned-from-teaching-with-ipads/37877
A research-based analysis of the things that online students apparently want:
http://gettingsmart.com/blog/2012/01/what-online-students-want/
It is important to remember that technology in the classroom is a rapidly developing field (as my presentation tried to show), and significant changes can happen very quickly. For example, we know that Apple is going to make a major announcement relating to education in New York this Thursday (see http://gigaom.com/apple/apple-education-event-on-calendar-for-jan-19/). Speculation is rife about this announcement (see HERE and HERE), as Apple’s public announcements often herald game-changing shifts in technology.
As quickly as next week we may find ourselves engaging in quite a different - and even more exciting - discussion about the potential benefits of future technology in the classroom!
Considering the future of technology in our school
Sunday, 15 January 2012
Improving technology for our students at Awty is something that I hope will be a key feature of our new Strategic Plan as we work together to make our great school even better.