2A4 - Activity 11: Creating A Personal Learning Network

As educators, it is absolutely necessary for continuous dialoguing, networking and sharing to take place as a means of keeping abreast of the dynamic nature of education globally. Creating personal networks which provide access to colleagues all around the world via the link of the various social media are effective, efficient and pertinent ways in accomplishing this. This provides opportunities for finding persons of similar interests where sharing of expertise and building a wealth of of content in specific areas thus creating a vibrant community of practice.

2A4 - Activity 10: Smart Workers

The term "social media" refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. This in turn allows for the creation and exchange of user-generated content. If a smart worker relies on a trusted network of friends and colleagues, learns continuously with social media and shares what he/she learns, then I am totally convinced that we can and should be smart workers as educators. This will enable us to keep abreast with the dynamics in the field of education. Social media/networking is definitely an effective medium to allow us to share ideas and play a useful part in training, without having to be separated from family, friends and the work place. It is totally essential for us to collaborate in a learning community for our own professional development as we seek to mold the minds of our most important asset - the young people who are entrusted in our care. I encourage all of us to continue to strive to be smart workers. 

1B3 - Activity 9: School Readiness

The Star Chart Framework provides a Four-Tiered level approach (Early Tech, Developing Tech, Advanced Tech and Target Tech) to assessing school readiness with several indicators spanning over five categories; Educational Benefits, Hardware and Connectivity, Professional Development, Digital Content and Students Achievement and Assessment. In my opinion this framework can be utilized as a guide to measure ICT school readiness. However, in using this framework to assess my schools' readiness, it was observed that several of the indicators spanned across the varying levels of development which made it extremely difficult to determine with conclusiveness, the level of development my schools have accomplished. This I believe can be attributed to the framework's rigidity. In our context, this framework needs to be redesigned to enable some measure of flexibility with the aim of making the assessment more conclusive  to its users.

On the other hand, the Mankato Scale Assessment Rubrics seems relevant to our context in assessing our staff levels of ICT skills in my opinion. The categories used coupled with the statements for the levels of each, will provide a definitive wealth of information that will be beneficial to the planning of training sessions for staff development. Some minor tweaking may be done to suit one's specific situation.

In summary, it is necessary to assess the state of ones school's conditions to get a true picture of the facilities, resources and stages of staff development available so as to inform the way forward with ICT integration as a school's overall strategy. This can be achieved by selecting and using a tool that is most relevant and appropriate to the school's culture.

Module 1B-3 Activities 8a and 8b, Teaching Spaces and Curriculum Delivery

The impact of ICT,s on teaching spaces and curriculum delivery is very significant and should attract the attention of all stakeholders in their quest for the whole integration process. The Churchill Report clearly highlights the effects of technology on our present classroom spaces which were originally designed for the traditional delivery of set curricula that are essentially teacher-centred. So to achieve a student-centred environment where  the focus is on learner-directed learning strategies would require the necessary renovations or rebuilding to accommodate the emerging new learning technologies and ofcourse funding is paramount in this regard. Information and communication technologies have been and will continue to have an impact on curriculum and classroom redesign as we forge the way forward in this new technological age.

1B3 - Activity 7: Models of Technology Adoption

Teachers are agents of change and implementing change in education must include changing teachers' practices and beliefs. The inclusion of technology in education will definitely impact the mode of delivery and receipt of the entire teaching and learning process. Classrooms today are constantly being outfitted with a wide range of technological tools and equipment which require the relevant skills to  be adopted in making the learners' experiences more meaningful and relevant to real world situations. Hence, staff development has to be of major importance to accomplish the effective use of these new technologies. Each educational institution must find a way to get teachers to buy in and change the traditional way of imparting knowledge by providing appropriate professional development strategies as a means of developing capabilities in making effective and meaningful contributions. It must be recognized that change will not happen overnight but consistent planning and persistence will result in this being realized overtime.