Comments on: Gazump http://human.edublogs.org/2008/12/15/gazump/ For fellow teachers... Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:34:17 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: Helen M http://human.edublogs.org/2008/12/15/gazump/comment-page-1/#comment-163 Helen M Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:14:08 +0000 http://human.edublogs.org/?p=40#comment-163 Oh Tomaz! I've only just read your post. What a bunch of *&^%$ idiots! What a loss. Words fail me. You are such an inspiration to us all. Can I do anything? Lobby anybody? Take care, Helene Oh Tomaz!

I’ve only just read your post. What a bunch of *&^%$ idiots! What a loss. Words fail me.

You are such an inspiration to us all. Can I do anything? Lobby anybody?

Take care,

Helene

]]> By: Point of Departure: Food for Thought 1.1 (W to S) « Clyde Street http://human.edublogs.org/2008/12/15/gazump/comment-page-1/#comment-161 Point of Departure: Food for Thought 1.1 (W to S) « Clyde Street Mon, 19 Jan 2009 01:33:49 +0000 http://human.edublogs.org/?p=40#comment-161 [...] missed Tomaz Lasic’s Gazump post in December, having written about George Oates I should have been more alert about employment [...] [...] missed Tomaz Lasic’s Gazump post in December, having written about George Oates I should have been more alert about employment [...]

]]> By: Keith Lyons http://human.edublogs.org/2008/12/15/gazump/comment-page-1/#comment-160 Keith Lyons Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:26:23 +0000 http://human.edublogs.org/?p=40#comment-160 Tomaz I am sorry I missed this post. I have been off-line for most of the last month. I hope you find some new visionary employers soon. If they are visionary they will find you! best wishes Keith Tomaz

I am sorry I missed this post. I have been off-line for most of the last month.

I hope you find some new visionary employers soon. If they are visionary they will find you!

best wishes

Keith

]]> By: Tomaz Lasic on losing his ICT position « Patrick Malley http://human.edublogs.org/2008/12/15/gazump/comment-page-1/#comment-152 Tomaz Lasic on losing his ICT position « Patrick Malley Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:51:02 +0000 http://human.edublogs.org/?p=40#comment-152 [...] Tomaz Lasic on losing his ICT position [...] [...] Tomaz Lasic on losing his ICT position [...]

]]> By: Marie http://human.edublogs.org/2008/12/15/gazump/comment-page-1/#comment-144 Marie Mon, 22 Dec 2008 07:20:30 +0000 http://human.edublogs.org/?p=40#comment-144 A sorry situation. How are teachers going to make changes without support. In NSW next year, high schools students are going to be gettting laptops (year 9 upwards I think). Haven't seen anything about teachers receiving support about changing their way of teahcing as a result of this initiative. Seems to be bottom of the list! A sorry situation. How are teachers going to make changes without support. In NSW next year, high schools students are going to be gettting laptops (year 9 upwards I think). Haven’t seen anything about teachers receiving support about changing their way of teahcing as a result of this initiative. Seems to be bottom of the list!

]]> By: Kathryn Greenhill http://human.edublogs.org/2008/12/15/gazump/comment-page-1/#comment-138 Kathryn Greenhill Sat, 20 Dec 2008 23:32:28 +0000 http://human.edublogs.org/?p=40#comment-138 Not much I can say, except I'm so sorry and p*ssed off to hear this. It happens so often - and I think part of the problem is that it gives people who are only vaguely interested change a chance to say "oh, well, we *tried* that in school XYZ, but that didn't work" .. not mentioning that they only supported it for a year and then didn't continue it. Aaargh!. Not much I can say, except I’m so sorry and p*ssed off to hear this. It happens so often – and I think part of the problem is that it gives people who are only vaguely interested change a chance to say “oh, well, we *tried* that in school XYZ, but that didn’t work” .. not mentioning that they only supported it for a year and then didn’t continue it. Aaargh!.

]]> By: Sarah Hackett http://human.edublogs.org/2008/12/15/gazump/comment-page-1/#comment-135 Sarah Hackett Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:27:27 +0000 http://human.edublogs.org/?p=40#comment-135 The trouble is that passion and the extra time spent on goodwill activities undertaken by a teacher who is in creative flow are not items that can be cost counted by the bean pushers. Plus at each stage of the process we come into contact with people in charge who have no idea what real online education is about. They know they have to have it in place by a certain Government guideline date and are feeling their way blindly tapping the air towards their own target. Wouldn't it be awful if we have to wait years and years until the people who have done online education at University get into a sufficient amount of decider jobs in order that a difference can be made? As our paying clients, and by that I mean the pupil's parents, are often none the wiser there is not nearly enough weight coming from that direction. My own feedback from double teaching pupils that I see in school directly into their homes is that we are nowhere near as far on as I was expecting. Very slow download speeds and I am repeatedly having to teach about downloading QuickTime, Adobe, what is a forum etc., and this just in order to teach fiddle online. Last term I even came up against a refusal to touch QuickTime in case their computer crashed! Way to go on putting paid to a teacher's innovation in an instant! My current hurdle is that some school filtering systems are not word specific and refuse to allow Forums. As Moodle's News Forum feature is what I use to discuss work and point pupils towards other things they can absorb during the process (e.g. Toyota robotics) this means at this stage of ICT development I might just as well have a webpage and sell videos from there to the general public and not bother about working in those schools. A school with this kind of filter can see my front page and nothing else. I haven't given up on it by any means but if anyone has encountered the same I would love to have their hot tips. I can recommend an excellent school filtering system if anyone is stuck with a hopeless filter!!!!!!!!!!! In the meantime, totally gutting as this one size fits all situation must be feeling for you, I recommend a course of action that I undertake on a regular basis 'Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again'. You will gradually begin to take heart with renewed enthusiasm. May I wish you a Happy Christmas, (and this is me speaking as somebody who absolutely used to loath ICT with a vengeance, cry, swear, bawl, wail... with no access to it at work I saw no relevance for it at all in my working life as a peripatetic music teacher - until the encouragement of Andy Roberts introduced me to making an online Christmas card in JellyOS and a creativity bell went ting). Didn't stop me swearing etc., though but helped enormously. The following card was created for my pupils at the end of a folk fiddle project. Just to allay cmatheson's worries that I might be having a greater effect on things than he is, according to my Moodle logs only one pupil has accessed it and they have not commented! The rest are outside accesses - that's when knowing a symphony orchestra comes in handy for boosting your viewing figures! I thought if my pupils can see me having fun with ICT........ So here it is..... http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/index.php?id=5077 Regards Sarah The trouble is that passion and the extra time spent on goodwill activities undertaken by a teacher who is in creative flow are not items that can be cost counted by the bean pushers.

Plus at each stage of the process we come into contact with people in charge who have no idea what real online education is about. They know they have to have it in place by a certain Government guideline date and are feeling their way blindly tapping the air towards their own target. Wouldn’t it be awful if we have to wait years and years until the people who have done online education at University get into a sufficient amount of decider jobs in order that a difference can be made?

As our paying clients, and by that I mean the pupil’s parents, are often none the wiser there is not nearly enough weight coming from that direction.
My own feedback from double teaching pupils that I see in school directly into their homes is that we are nowhere near as far on as I was expecting. Very slow download speeds and I am repeatedly having to teach about downloading QuickTime, Adobe, what is a forum etc., and this just in order to teach fiddle online. Last term I even came up against a refusal to touch QuickTime in case their computer crashed! Way to go on putting paid to a teacher’s innovation in an instant!

My current hurdle is that some school filtering systems are not word specific and refuse to allow Forums. As Moodle’s News Forum feature is what I use to discuss work and point pupils towards other things they can absorb during the process (e.g. Toyota robotics) this means at this stage of ICT development I might just as well have a webpage and sell videos from there to the general public and not bother about working in those schools. A school with this kind of filter can see my front page and nothing else. I haven’t given up on it by any means but if anyone has encountered the same I would love to have their hot tips.

I can recommend an excellent school filtering system if anyone is stuck with a hopeless filter!!!!!!!!!!!

In the meantime, totally gutting as this one size fits all situation must be feeling for you, I recommend a course of action that I undertake on a regular basis ‘Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again’. You will gradually begin to take heart with renewed enthusiasm.

May I wish you a Happy Christmas, (and this is me speaking as somebody who absolutely used to loath ICT with a vengeance, cry, swear, bawl, wail… with no access to it at work I saw no relevance for it at all in my working life as a peripatetic music teacher – until the encouragement of Andy Roberts introduced me to making an online Christmas card in JellyOS and a creativity bell went ting). Didn’t stop me swearing etc., though but helped enormously. The following card was created for my pupils at the end of a folk fiddle project. Just to allay cmatheson’s worries that I might be having a greater effect on things than he is, according to my Moodle logs only one pupil has accessed it and they have not commented! The rest are outside accesses – that’s when knowing a symphony orchestra comes in handy for boosting your viewing figures!

I thought if my pupils can see me having fun with ICT……..

So here it is…..

http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/index.php?id=5077

Regards

Sarah

]]> By: Jenny Luca http://human.edublogs.org/2008/12/15/gazump/comment-page-1/#comment-134 Jenny Luca Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:33:18 +0000 http://human.edublogs.org/?p=40#comment-134 Hi Tomaz, I'm so sorry to hear this. I'm new to what you have to offer but I can see you have helped so many with your blog and obviously you did make an impact in your school. It's hard to come back from a blow, but you have such a solid core here you will find that opportunities will present themself for you to run with them. I'm sure of it. Hi Tomaz,
I’m so sorry to hear this. I’m new to what you have to offer but I can see you have helped so many with your blog and obviously you did make an impact in your school. It’s hard to come back from a blow, but you have such a solid core here you will find that opportunities will present themself for you to run with them. I’m sure of it.

]]> By: Mark http://human.edublogs.org/2008/12/15/gazump/comment-page-1/#comment-133 Mark Tue, 16 Dec 2008 06:57:38 +0000 http://human.edublogs.org/?p=40#comment-133 Hey Tomaz, Sounds typical of the people either not involved in teaching or been out of it too long making the decisions. Unfortunately the hawkers of these products know who to target and have a convincing sounding sales pitch. So many institutions in NZ are moving to Moodle - the last one being Canterbury University. Until teachers start having a voice in school wide ICT decisions this situation will continue. I am fortunate (but wary) to be in the opposite situation as you - playback 1 year ago. Our Senior Management have decided to drop me from 5 to 3 classes to help grow ICT projects in the school. We are one of the only schools in the country that I know of to have appointed an eLearning Director. Our current LMS which is really a CMS is a bit of a flop so I have been given the freedom to promote and run Moodle alongside it. We are also going to adopt Google Apps Education, Mahara and a lot of other exciting products. As for your situation it is really sad that your experience and vision is being cut off at the knees at such a critical time. I have learnt a lot from your site and videos and wish to express my appreciation for it. I hope your blog continues with its truly inspirational message. All the best, Mark Hey Tomaz,

Sounds typical of the people either not involved in teaching or been out of it too long making the decisions. Unfortunately the hawkers of these products know who to target and have a convincing sounding sales pitch. So many institutions in NZ are moving to Moodle – the last one being Canterbury University. Until teachers start having a voice in school wide ICT decisions this situation will continue.

I am fortunate (but wary) to be in the opposite situation as you – playback 1 year ago. Our Senior Management have decided to drop me from 5 to 3 classes to help grow ICT projects in the school. We are one of the only schools in the country that I know of to have appointed an eLearning Director. Our current LMS which is really a CMS is a bit of a flop so I have been given the freedom to promote and run Moodle alongside it. We are also going to adopt Google Apps Education, Mahara and a lot of other exciting products.

As for your situation it is really sad that your experience and vision is being cut off at the knees at such a critical time. I have learnt a lot from your site and videos and wish to express my appreciation for it. I hope your blog continues with its truly inspirational message.

All the best,
Mark

]]> By: cmatheson http://human.edublogs.org/2008/12/15/gazump/comment-page-1/#comment-132 cmatheson Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:17:54 +0000 http://human.edublogs.org/?p=40#comment-132 Sad to hear. Your vids on how Moodle changed a school are so inspiring I wonder how anyone could make a decision to move away from supporting grassroots professional growth. I just got my job as a tech trainer, I wonder how long it will last... And the need for ongoing training is HUGE. I gave an 1.5 hour intro to Moodle to 40 teachers as part of a district PD day. Of the 30 who had never seen Moodle before, only 7 have touched it again a month later! Obviously concept change conversations need to take place at so many schools. Admin/government/industry needs to fund the people to have those conversations or else school will be a technological black hole! Keep fighting the good fight. Sad to hear. Your vids on how Moodle changed a school are so inspiring I wonder how anyone could make a decision to move away from supporting grassroots professional growth.

I just got my job as a tech trainer, I wonder how long it will last…

And the need for ongoing training is HUGE. I gave an 1.5 hour intro to Moodle to 40 teachers as part of a district PD day. Of the 30 who had never seen Moodle before, only 7 have touched it again a month later! Obviously concept change conversations need to take place at so many schools. Admin/government/industry needs to fund the people to have those conversations or else school will be a technological black hole!

Keep fighting the good fight.

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