Reflective Writing

One of the early outcomes that I am seeing from our e-Learning cluster is the wonderful reflective writing coming from the teachers
Kimberley has a Year 3/4 class and her reflective blog is called e-Learning 2011

Here are some of her thoughts so far with her e-Learning Classroom

The idea behind this blog is for my journey to be charted along the way as a means of documenting what takes place in my own learning.  

how do we, as educators, ensure that there is a balance in learning in our classrooms as we integrate e-Learning skills and the new (although now, much older) National Curriculum?

So we have to wonder, is it about the devices and the apps, is it about the web and the phones, is it about bluetooth or blu-ray...or is it about teaching the students how to think, question, work with others, be independent, be curious, challenge ideas, process the literal or lateral?

Children in Kimberley's class...They will site their goals. They will reel off a string of ideas around their next learning steps. They will explain to you how and why they make the choices that they do around their own learning based on what they find tricky. They possess an acute awareness about their personal goals and will not hesitate to take you on their learning journey, but do take care to strap in as they are usually on a wonderful ride!

In that short space of an afternoon, we planted the seeds of our class unity, our collaboration, our ability to problem-solve together, take turns, support one another and enjoy living things...all in the garden outside our room. I think we will be growing together this year for sure! 

And then we have Dave who has a Year 7 class, his reflective blog is called Digitools for Schools

The teacher now has no desk in the classroom environment. This is quite revolutionary for me, I don't know how I'll cope, or where I'll put those coffee cups and packets of panadol !

My main focus this year is to move in the direction of establishing an authentic elearning classroom. Whether I "arrive" at the end of the year or not remains to be seen, but I see it as an ongoing journey that probably has no "final" destination ... which is I think is good thing - keeps teaching / learning fresh and relevant.

First, the notion that classrooms in the 21st century should be "open walled" enabling learning to occur wherever and whenever. I've renamed our class wiki to help promote this idea in the minds of my students.

...thinking about the big ideas that underpin e-learning pedagogy, I've decided to create multiple online environments to document students learning journeys. 

Sharon has started making reflective comments on her Wiki classroom page

I am a 2nd year beginner teacher who has been given a degree of freedom to explore.

My e-learning journey has been great. In the UK I taught IT skills on a weekly basis throughout the school, in a computer suite. I always asked, "How is this integrating IT into the classroom?" So I had been searching for answers and getting frustrated with budget restraints etc. At U-Learn last year Jo Fothergill introduced me to the idea of "Inspired Classrooms".  

I am looking forward to following the journey these teachers are on, and the insights they have that will help others in their own change of teaching practice.