We (being a whole bunch of people in education) attended a conference last week which was lead not only by our informed peers and interstate and international experts, but also by some of our customers… the students we teach.

Being a conference about technology, I don’t really need to go through the events as you can check out the conference tweets by going to http://twitter.com and typing in #ltl2011 into the search box at the top of the page.

Just on twitter and the type of person I am – I love those “ten best…” or “20 jobs that won’t exist in 2020” lists. If I see that in a posting title I am a sucker and have to read it. You’ll see what I mean when you have a look at the tweets.

So, after being inspired by the conference, I turned to identify some project based learning IT skill requirements in an IT century upon the one student customer I have the biggest stake in – my son.

On the Saturday morning after the conference my son and I sat down and compiled a list of IT related skills we collectively thought he should have before he turns eleven… he is currently nine. By the time he turns eleven, I fully expect and hope that there are ten or twenty new things to add to this foundation list of skills that all students need along with their literacy, numeracy, social engagement, creativity, curiosity, health and physical activity competencies, expectations or outcomes.

It’s funny in a way that although I want my son (and by extension all students) to have the toolkit of skills that allows them to unleash multimedia creativity in whatever discipline they choose, I still have the need to create and present a structured list.

You’ll note in the list I have simply put things like “Using Facebook” and “Using Picasa”. These will need to be expanded to cover not just the how to place a photograph or comment on this service, but the what to put on the web.

The why in a social networking sense is tied to what. This is where the protective parent or teacher instinct kicks in. If we can’t easily undo a moment of posting silliness on a public site we might need to teach some ways to mitigate against the risk of a random post made when someone is 16 comes back to haunt them when they are trying to get a job and a Facebook check is part of the background check.

The only way an educationalist, be they classroom facing, leadership, administrative or a parent is going to be in a position to comment is to try blogging, facebooking, youtubing and tweeting and understand how to make things public and private on the web so that they can then advise on what might be good to make private or public.

There are a couple of things on the list that I can't do... so we will learn together. If the net result is a 10 year old jedi master creating documentaries about Darwin geography, history and culture to share with 10 year olds in Darwin and beyond - we will have all learnt and shared a little.

I have been a little prescriptive in defining the tools, these can be changed. Importantly it is the foundation multimedia skills achieved from using these products that is important.

To learn list

Task
Project/Work Examples
Completed
Copy files from camera
 
 
Using Picasa
 
 
Taking photographs
 
 
Editing photos using photoshop
 
 
Editing movies using premiere
 
 
Choosing music from sonicfire
 
 
Creating and recording your own music
 
 
Creating a webpage
 
 
Managing a blog
 
 
Using Facebook
 
 
Using twitter
 
 
Using twitter feeds for RSS
 
 
Creating an iphone app
 
 
How to use an ipad
 
 
How to use Skype
 
 
Using barcodes
 
 
Learn how to use Alice world or scratch
 
 
Make a documentary
 
 
Make a computer game.
 
 
Be able to create an ebook in the epub format with sounds and video
 
 
Connecting a wireless modem to your internet account and securing it
 
 
Use PowerPoint to create a presentation with an animation    
Use a 3D program to create an animation    

 

This entry was posted on April 11, 2011 at 1:23 AM and has received 642 views. There are currently 2 comments. Print this entry.