ICON Staff meeting St. Michael’s Where are we at and where do we need to go!

Refresher: what is ICON? What do you know about ICON, go to website: 2 minutes to answer, followed by a short discussion. I won’t have all the answers but I’ll try my best to respond to your questions!

What is ICON? The Integrated Catholic Online Network (ICON) project is a collaborative project between Victorian Catholic schools and the four Victorian Catholic Education Offices in the Archdiocese of Melbourne and the Dioceses of Ballarat, Sale and Sandhurst. ICON provides core technologies for Victorian Catholic education. The Ultranet is a learning management tool to foster rich and deep student learning powered by Catholic educators collaborating, pooling learning resources and optimising student learning outcomes over time. ICON also provides system-wide technology to optimise school administration. ICON will build on the Catholic tradition of working together to improve all schools by facilitating collaboration and pooling of resources and strategies to improve student learning across Victorian Catholic education to capitalise on and enhance the collective wisdom of Catholic educators and administrators. (from CEVN)

ICON update 1.Admin package: - The eSystems project is tracking close to schedule. The Request for Quote (RFQ) phase will begin at the end ofthe month. - This is a vital part of the succes of ICON 2. Ultranet: - It works! 3. ICON will be introduced in alignment with the principles of subsidiarity: ICON requirements have been formed with schools to support local decision making, and protect the privacy and ability of schools to self-manage.

ICON is here! Projects already here: 1.LNSLN Principal Danny Ryan from St Margaret Mary’s School in Brunswick North about the roll out of LNSLN: ‘I think another positive move was rolling the initiative out one step at a time, starting with LNSLN, and not across the board all at once. With teachers, it takes the fear out of it (the process).’ 2. E-potential 3. Z-scaler Projects coming shortly: 1.Change2 2.Video – conferencing

What does ICON mean for me? True collaboration: why start fresh every year? Opportunities Having a go! Exciting new opportunities of learning with Web 2.0 tools: like Blogging, Skype, Nings, Tweets, Searching, Linking, Google, global audiences, etc, etc. Continues Professional Learning It’s scary. My initial thought: Is it about ‘them’ looking over our shoulder?

What are we doing at St. Michaels to get ready for ICON? Professional Learning New Server Upgrade our wireless Starting to blog Skype Use of the whiteboards Tools like camera’s and flip-cams Continuously finding funds to invest in I.T. infrastructure

Where do we need to go from here? From a child: I need helpI need help Will Richardson (Will Richardson, parent, educator, speaker, author, 10-year blogger at Weblogg-ed and now here. He’s trying to answer the question "What happens to schools and classrooms and learning in a 2.0 world?" from willrichardson.com) Will Richardson

Do you feel like this? Remember: We are all in this together!We are all in this together! Take one or two of the 15 points and think about what you could do to embrace this change! (no sharing necessary, but invited)

St. Michael’s Staff Blog The big question!!!!! Why a staff blog?

My opinion: WHY SHOULD WE BLOG? How many people really share their best Practise? Why not? Professional inquiry. Getting an Online presence. We need to create our own professional learning community in order to be comfortably teaching this. P.L. hours Post a professional article To help children learn in their world.

Teachers as Learners The School Individual The World Our Children Professional Learning Network Personal Learning Network Community of Practice Our Blog Your P.D.

My experience: Where do I come from – where am I now – where do I want to go? Yes, it does take some time to set – up. Understanding the needs. Having a focus for the blog. Connection with students. Having a go. Getting excited. Having a well established blog where students can write / comment / post their work, thoughts and questions. Creating a staff environment where colleagues have the opportunity to write, publish, post, question, discuss, reflect, express, etc. their thoughts about best practise.

Benefits for you! Gathering evidence for your ARM (e-potential journal, entries on blog) P.L. hours Support from all of us Create a forum / page / group to share your learning Opportunities to learn from each other! Remember: IT’S OK TO MAKE MISTAKES AND ASK FOR HELP.

A blog…..? What do I put on? Ways to add to the blog: -Post an article… -Ask a question… -Leave a comment… -Share your best practise… -ETC.

DIP YOUR TOE IN! Introduction of a Staff Blog Opportunity to read /visit / post etc. 20 minutes

Where to from here? Follow up session 30 minutes on August 20 th I will give all of you admin rights so you can post. Check back regularly LET ME KNOW HOW YOU GO!

Excellent example Blogs teacher-blogshttp:// 20-teacher-blogs /02/professional-learning-teams.htmlhttp://teachingchallenges.blogspot.com.au/2009 /02/professional-learning-teams.html - learning/ learning/ - -