WOW – ten days later from returning and that is still all that I can come up with to sum up my experience! It truly was an amazing thing to be a part of – and really made me aware of the global awareness of education today. I must say that the highlight for me was in being selected as ‘NZ’s most innovative teacher’ which means further experience at the International conference in Brazil later in the year! This is truly an unbelieveable accolade and one that I feel honoured to have – the NZ contingent were an amazing bunch of educators whose innovations were vast and varied. Anyone of us could be heading off to Brazil to represent NZ. The conference brought home to me, how like minded Kiwi teachers are in regards to purposeful use of ICTs in order to improve learning. Many of the other countries had the ICT to the fore – almost without a context. Contextual learning – supported by ICTs engages kids – there is nothing more simple than that!

One ‘aside’ highlight that I also must share is the Police escort we had to dinner on the Friday night – to the Gala dinner! Microsoft pulled out all stops to employ the KL police to literally bring the central city to a stop in rush hour – in order to get 4 bus loads of teachers to dinner on time! It was impressive!

I will get some photos up soon too!

I have made it to the market!! Haven’t bought a lot but it was nice to be out and about (even if it was 1am NZtime!!!).

The Opening Ceremony yesterday afternoon was quite an inspiring collection of speakers – Head of Microsoft Malaysia, the Malaysian director of Education and this young guy (26) who created his first online company at 12 and sold it at 16 (for $1 Million US!!!). He now has ‘Taking IT Global’ where he creates online communities of students who share ideas and work for the greater good of the communities that they are working in. There is also a student forum here – where 15 students are working collaboratively to create projects that they will share with us in the afternoon. We have a NZ representative – Marcus Gold who is from Te Awamutu. What an amazing young guy (17) he is. He was put up on the stage in front of about 150 people this afternoon and answered a whole lot of questions from the floor about what education means to him, what he expects from teachers and how we can be more effective in our roles. All answers were off the top of his head and he was more articulate than many teachers (dare I say it!). He is really doing NZ proud.

The people here are just amazing – all the others who are presenting are all such lovely people – friendly, collaborative and exciting people to be around. Our NZ group are great! For a group of people who are literally strangers there is such a great feel – no one thinking that they are better than anyone else and all very supportive of what each other are all doing.

Yet again we have worked all day – from 8am until 5.30, although I must say the food is amazing – at breakfast you can have anything from Malay to Chinese, Thai etc, or even bread and butter pudding!! My favourite is the wee guy who makes you an omelette – it is just like choosing a subway sandwich!!

Tonight we were taken to an exclusive resort for dinner – Tamarind Springs. An absolutely incredible place in quite a serene and tranquil setting. The roads in KL are crazy – everything seems to go around in circles. Tonight it took us about 30 minutes to get there in buses and then we got back in 10!!!

Today is going to be another long and busy day. The collaborative projects that we did yesterday were handed in digitally to the judges yesterday afternoon – who then select the best 6-8 (out of 20) that are to be presented. We then sit around and listen to these, and then have the students present in the afternoon to us. It is funny – but in most of our groups, the NZ people have been the ones chosen to talk to the presentations should their groups be chosen.

The ‘Gala Ball’ and Closing Ceremony is also this evening.

Well our judging is complete! It has been a really interesting process to be involved in. Our selection to here involved presenting in the same way in Chch last year. In that way we seem to have quite an advantage. Many of the other participants have only submitted on line to qualify for here and are going into a bit more of the unknown than we were. It was interesting though, as our Kiwi posters were just that – a 2D presentation – some had gone as far as to have items draped all around, and multimedia too. In seeing all of these things coming out this morning it was a bit daunting – however I am sure that the impact of our message and our innovations is more effective, because of the stronger focus and lack of distractions.

It is really interesting looking around the posters – WHAT IS INNOVATION????? Is innovation demographic? For us as Kiwis it is really clear that our innovation isn’t in the tools or the ‘flash’ things (although we do love Michael’s flashing electronic circuit!) but it is in the pedagogy- the way our students direct their learning, the way we are flexible with our ‘teachable’ moments, the way in which we follow the direction that arises rather than keeping students on ‘our way of thinking’. Yes – the ICT allows that all to happen – but I believe that it is managed rather than taught. Who are we as teachers to tell students what technologies at a certain time, when they know there is a better way of doing something from their own experience?

This has been a real eye opener for me. As english speakers we have had a huge advantage in being able to clearly share our ‘point of difference’. It is quite humbling watching someone for who English is a real struggle, reading from a sheet of paper and struggling with this. Have they been able to share their point of difference or are they being sold short? For me it really shows how ICT is a catalyst for change regardless of where you are or what language you speak.

Another message that has come through clearly for me is that while we are continuing to talk about being ‘connected’ across the world through ICTs in using the likes of Web 2.0 tools – the face to face opportunities are also being established ans heightened. I believe that the ability to use web 2.0 tools to connect people is just the beginning – what they do once they connect continuously or in Face to Face is even more powerful!

Yesterday was a WOW – What a day! Our whirlwind tour of aspects of the city has been hugely eye opening!! It has also been incredibly hot and humid (so much so that even the Malaysians are complaining about the it – 38 degrees today!)!! We spent the morning touring with our groups where mine visited an Anglican Church, Mosque, Hindu and Buddhist temples. I feel quite cleansed!! The cultural diversity in this city is dominant and it was interesting to look at how these religions are similar in some ways and so different in others! The challenge of working with non-english speakers has been an interesting exercise. While our ability to communicate has been restrictive, I think it has also been interesting to see how all of our knowledge of ICTs in classrooms is diverse too! We had one person in our group who seems to have all of the latest, flash equipment, however as yet we haven’t seen him use any of it!
Photos from our ‘Field Trip’
BubbleShare: Share photos – Play some Online Games.