Category: Virtualisation, cloud computing

Assessment & Evaluation, Cloud computing, Education Futures, eLearning, Mobile Technologies, pedagogy, Personalisation, Reforming schooling, Virtualisation, cloud computing8 Comments

Pedagogically driven…?

wenmothd

Over the past few  years I’ve frequently heard the comments; “It’s not about the technology, it’s about the pedagogy”, or in relation to the advent of ultrafast broadband; “we’ve got to drive it from the teaching and learning.” These are well intended sentiments, but why is it that the technology still dominates much of the discussion, and so often becomes the starting point by default? And just what do we mean by letting the teaching and learning lead? How would you explain that to someone outside of education – or, for that matter, someone inside? I’ve been thinking about this … Continue reading Pedagogically driven…?

Advanced Networks, Cloud computing, knowledge management, Virtualisation, cloud computing7 Comments

When disaster strikes

wenmothd

A number of years ago I had the misfortune to be caught in a heavy rain shower on my way to work. Not only did the water penetrate the raincoat I was wearing, leaving me totally saturated, but it also ‘drowned’ my laptop, leading to problems occurring when I tried to start it up, resulting in the hard drive being completely unusable and nothing able to be retrieved from it. Fortunately I worked in an organisation that allowed me to send daily backups of my laptop across the network to be stored on the server. Within a few hours I … Continue reading When disaster strikes

Advanced Networks, Education Futures, emerging technologies, Mobile Technologies, Open Source - Open Content, professional development, Virtualisation, cloud computing2 Comments

Challenges, changes and trends 2011

wenmothd

Challenges, change and trends 2011http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=challengeschangeandtrends2011-110130123921-phpapp02&stripped_title=challenges-change-and-trends-2011&userName=dwenmoth View more presentations from Derek Wenmoth. I spent the weekend preparing a presentation that I’ll be using with some of the clusters I speak with at the beginning of the year – titled “Challenges, change and trends in 2011”. It is framed around four key questions: Who are our learners? What are we preparing them for? How are we preparing them for this? What are the implications of connectivity for learning and schooling? I’ve drawn on the Horizon Report 2010 (NZ-Aus edition) and provided links to illustrations of each of the trends. I’ve also created … Continue reading Challenges, changes and trends 2011

Advanced Networks, eLearning, networks and learning, Virtualisation, cloud computing1 Comment

Learning without limits

wenmothd

This morning I attended the Ministry of Education’s Learning Without Limits seminar in Christchurch. Around 100 principals, teachers, BOT members and other interested parties came to hear Douglas Harre and Marg McLeod from the Ministry of Education share an update on the progress being made towards the government’s plan for ultra-fast broadband in schools. The basis of the vision is: 97% NZ schools (99.7% of students) will have access to UFB (100megabits/second) by 2016 3% remote schools will have access to fast broadband (10Mbps) by other means eg.satellite or point-to-point wireless Crown Fibre Holdings (CFH) and Local Fibre Companies (LFCs) … Continue reading Learning without limits

Advanced Networks, Cloud computing, News & current events, Virtualisation, cloud computingLeave a comment

A “G-Cloud” for England?

wenmothd

News just out here in the UK is of plans to develop project to build a shared cloud infrastructure for all government departments – announced yesterday at the Future of the Data Centre conference happening over here at the moment. According to the release the UK government’s Cabinet Office plans to create a so-called ‘skunk works’ team to develop better ways to manage IT projects.The proposal was revealed in a strategy document published this week, entitled the ‘Structural Reform Plan’’, which proposes a number of IT-related reforms. This will be an interesting development to watch – thanks Malcolm for the … Continue reading A “G-Cloud” for England?

conference entry, emerging technologies, networks and learning, virtual learning, Virtualisation, cloud computingLeave a comment

Forecast for Education

wenmothd

I had the privilege of attending the TUANZ Telecommunications day event in Wellington yesterday, along with around 250 people from a broad range of telecommunications leaders from both the industry and public service sectors. It was a great opportunity to see and hear about what is happening at a national and international level in terms of the development of IT solutions, in particular, the roll-out of ultra-fast broadband (UFB), and how this is providing benefits to the sector groups involved and creating opportunities at both a local and national level. While the event wasn’t targeted at educators, education certainly was … Continue reading Forecast for Education

Advanced Networks, Cloud computing, emerging technologies, Virtualisation, cloud computing1 Comment

Creating a regional school’s network

wenmothd

I had the opportunity today to visit the Warwickshire Education Services in Warwick, and their ICT Development Services team who provide a “one-stop-shop” for  ICT services for schools in the Warwickshire Local Authority. The authority provides services to 249 schools (36 Secondary and 213 primary, nursery and specialist schools) – a total of around 80,000 learners and 15,500 teaching and support staff. I was generously hosted by Chris Page who has worked as Technical Development Manager there for more than 15 years, during which time the authority has seen a lot of development in terms of the ICT systems and … Continue reading Creating a regional school’s network

Advanced Networks, Assessment & Evaluation, Cloud computing, conference entry, Curriculum, Diary entry, Education Futures, eLearning, emerging technologies, Multi literacies, networks and learning, Open Source - Open Content, pedagogy, Reforming schooling, Virtualisation, cloud computingLeave a comment

CORE’s ten trends for 2010

wenmothd

Today I presented CORE’s ten trends for 2010 to an audience of around 400 delegates at the Learning@School conference in Rotorua. The ten trends are a collection of themes and issues that have been identified by CORE staff as trends in education that we imagine will impact on the work of teachers and leaders in early childhood centres, schools, and tertiary institutions in NZ in the coming year. While our focus is on the bigger picture of education, there is a focus on trends associated with the use of ICTs in education, reflecting the fact that we are living in … Continue reading CORE’s ten trends for 2010

Cloud computing, conference entry, emerging technologies, Virtualisation, cloud computing1 Comment

UK Update #3

wenmothd

I had the privilege today of attending day one of the 6th annual JISC CETIS conference “A Brave New World?” , held at the The Lakeside, Conference Aston, Birmingham. The conference is billed as an opportunity reflect on the successes and challenges of the previous year, to look into the future, to speculate, and to consider the interventions needed to realise the information systems for teaching and learning into the future. For me it was an opportunity to link again with several people I’ve come to know over the years through my work in the area of ICT in education, standards, … Continue reading UK Update #3

Cloud computing, emerging technologies, Virtualisation, cloud computingLeave a comment

Software as a Service – e-Book

wenmothd

With all the talk about the ‘cloud’ and opportunities it creates for schools to re-think their ICT infrastructure, one of the terms that is also appearing in people’s vocabulary is Software as a Service (SaaS). SaaS refers to computer applications that are delivered over the web as a service rather than being physically installed on school servers or individual desktops. This morning I downloaded a free e-book from Tech&Learning titled “A guide to software as a service in education” which provides a very readable summary and introduction to what this is all about. While written for the US context, there’s … Continue reading Software as a Service – e-Book