The BeLT team met on Friday after school to discuss 'Where to now'. The feedback from the staff from the teacher only day was really positive and most of the staff want to learn more about how to use IT in the classroom and for their own professional learning.
The BeLT team discussed the idea of perhaps running a digital class next year with a Year 9 class. We thought that this could be something that parents and their student decide to be a part of, that way, it is still a choice and not a compulsory part of Waiopehu. We have teachers on board who are more than keen and capable of running a digital class (where the majority of the learning will happen on a device). The device of choice may be a Chromebook, but as yet, no major decisions have been made.
I am wondering if there are any parents out there who are reading this, who might have children joining Waiopehu next year, the BeLT team would love to hear your thoughts and opinions around doing this with a Year 9 class. These are all just thoughts for now and nothing is set in concrete. Please comment below so we can hear what you think.
There are potentially a number of options for gaining the use of a device, the first being that the parents buy them and own them out right, with the option to pay it off on a weekly payment scheme. The other option is that the school buys them, but then they belong to the school, not the student and the student would be unable to take them home at night and in the weekends.
The BeLT team also expressed a need to be upskilled on the use of Google Sites, something that we want to use for next year in our classes, regardless of being a digital class or not. We are on the hunt for an expert who may be able to help us with this.
Sarah and Katie are heading to ULearn14 in Rotorua in the holidays, which is a conference based around learning with IT. We should have some great learnings to share with you after that.
Until then, please share your thoughts with us regarding the digital class.
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