The second morning of ACEC began with the
keynote speaker Kathy Schrock, @kathyschrock .
Kathy’s keynote was about storytelling as part of learning. Story telling is
personal and showing up everywhere, it’s showing up in the business world
replacing bullet points and you could almost say it has become the ‘new black’.
The main advantage of storytelling is the part of the brain that it activates.
Lectures only use the portion of the brain that decodes words, so the full
potential of the information is not taken in; whereas storytelling activates
the brain as if you are actually experiencing the story, this is because the
audience searched for personal connections in a story. This results in more of
the information being taken in and the story making more of an impact. Kathy
went on to talk about the different ways story telling can be shared,
specifically using digital storytelling, she also spoke about visual literacy,
creative commons and prepping stories with story boards.
However, although Kathy’s presentation did
have some great information in it, I feel as though that information was lost
in the first few minutes in the presentation and the rest of the time was
filled up as advertisement for different apps. The majority of the presentation
was basically there’s this app, it costs this much, this is what you can do
with it; here’s a video of a product made with the app.
After the keynote it was time to sit down
with Kathy for the conversations with the keynote presenter. This didn’t
exactly make the best impression on me personally as I feel some of her answers
were quite ignorant almost. One specific question a student had that I, myself
agreed with very much was ‘If teachers are already so busy with marking and
such how will they feel about another time consuming task?’ Kathy’s response to
this was that you don’t talk to her about time, its passion. That may be fair
enough if she doesn’t care about the time aspect of these projects as she is so
passionate about these new medias, which you can clearly tell how passionate
she is, however this isn’t the way for everyone and the question was about
teachers who already have a lot of their personal time taken up with school
prep, these are people who do care about time consumption.
I may feel this way because I did really
enjoy Alec’s presentation the previous day and his general attitude to the
conversations that followed, so I may have had a higher expectation for
keynotes to follow, I’m not sure. All I can really say is I was expecting a lot
more and while there definitely were good aspects to the presentation they
seemed to lose out to the less impressive aspects. With that being said listening
to Kathy speaking you could tell how passionate she was about these new
technologies and mediums. From the way she lit up talking about it to the
passion in her voice there was no doubt how much she cared and loved what she
did.
Later in the day I had the pleasure of
listening to a grade 12 student from Urrbrae presenting on being principal for a day. Jeremy spoke about his experiences of
acting as his school principal for a day, an experience some can only dream of.
Principal for a day is
a hands on leadership experience which involves approximately 200 students
around the world, it gives students the chance to have their voice heard by
their principals and gives schools access to a structured leadership
development program. While also allowing students to learn and be empowered
with a passion to make an impact and inspire others.
Stepping into the shoes of the principal Jeremy
had the chance to show his true leadership skills by participating in meetings
and conversing with teachers. Getting to see the important role of a principal,
not only in the school but also in the wider community.
Jeremy showed two inspiring videos in his
presentation from Kid President , Pep Talk to Students and Teachers &
Surprise Party For A Retiring Teacher .
As well as sharing a quote from Nelson Mandella “It always seems impossible until it is
done.” There
inspiring videos and quote was to show that the impact we can make is
astronomical as well as that actions speak louder than words. Each one of us has
a part to play in this world and while we can’t do everything, we can do
something for someone!
At the end of Jeremy’s presentation there
were a few questions as just as his presentation was his answers were also
inspiring. His attitude was very positing and over all held himself very
highly. His overall summary for his experience was that is was truly amazing,
the best part was to see and talk to teachers outside of the classroom
environment. His advice to aspiring students was to break through walls, think
positively and go with your heart. I absolutely loved listening to Jeremy he
was very inspiring and was a strong public speaker, I look forward to hearing
about him going far in the future.
Later on I went to my last workshop of the
day which was about Project600: Inspire, Connect and Transform presented by Glen Watt, Glenn Finger, Vicky Smart and Fiona Banjer.
Project 600 is an online literacy and
numeracy initiative in Queensland. It focuses on boosting achievement using
online teachers. At the moment is varies from grades 4 to 9. Recruiting high
performing teachers and training them to create a team project, helping the
students with ongoing coaching using web conferencing. It lasts for 12 weeks
with one lesson a week.
On a study done with a control group of
normal students and a group of the project 600 students it was clear that
project 600 does in fact boost achievement. Students clearly enjoyed it saying
they found the activities fun and getting their brain working, majority of
schools find it worthwhile and parents mostly love it finding their children
more confident in their homework.
Project 600 also offers extension programs
for the students who excel in specific areas and have a wide range of different
topics.
When I asked if the project interferes with the
way teachers teach in the classroom are teaching the presenters answers were
that while it may disrupt the way the students or teacher thinks it doesn’t
really interfere. If anything it just
gives another view of the way to do things.
At the end of the day I got to sit down and
chat with Al Upton, @alupton and Amanda Rablin, @ackygirl. It was great just having a casual chat with them talking about everything from
fandoms to events like zombie walk and comic con. They’re two really awesome
people who I’m really glad I got to meet.
To read up on the Twitter feed or other blog
posts go to:
Student twitter: @ACECDLs
My other posts on the conference:
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