Over the last few weeks things have been fairly hectic for me and from a blogging point of view i have lost track of time and postings. I am not sure that I seriously qualify as a blogger at the moment due to a lack of posts - not to worry things will improve.
One of the many activities I have been involved in over the last few weeks was an ICT Olympics Camp for students held in Alice Springs. The aim of the camp was to bring students together in a live in environment to explore experiences and ideas that they would generally not have had before in the classroom. The following was the official propaganda to parents:
The ICT Olympics camp brings together Information Communication Technology (ICT) skills and physical activity. Students from three schools, Ross Park, Braitling and School of the Air will join together in a camp unlike any they have experienced before.
So the camp had students working in four groups of mixed ages and abilities and from a range of schools - some traditional primary (elementary) and some from distance education (school of the air). Students were involved in a range of activities from cycling at the velodrome to exploring learning objects to blogging and building in scratch to sports coaching excellence. Students and teachers worked together from 8:00am in the mornings till 10pm at night and to the credit of the students they remained on task almost 98% of the time.
From my perspective it was interesting to watch the different students gel together in their groups and try to complete the activities. The sessions were generally not like a classroom and were a little more free flowing, I was able to observe students do some great stuff in scratch, goanimate, linerider and a range of other online tools. I was also impressed by the sharing and support each student gave each other with the challenges that were put in front of them.
It was a great activity to be involved in and one that will hopefully be repeated in the very near future. for me the next activity is my involvement in the eTrain event at Collingwood Children's Farm later this month. This is another great activity along slightly different lines, for me working directly with children again is a great experience to be involved.
