Ideas for ICT at YCIS

By John Hennessey 1. Bring the ICT program more in line with the schools vision for ICT by enabling students to complete assignments anytime anywhere, as stated or implied in the following items in the ICT vision statement: a. Create a flexible learning environment so that digital resources can be accessed whenever and wherever they are needed, including from home. b. Make greater use of communications and collaboration technology. c. Learning is personalized offering anywhere anytime access. [I mentioned during my presentation at a staff meeting following the Learning 2.012 conference that I planned to begin utilizing Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides in my lessons. You (Wayne) were in attendance and mentioned to me later that Google Drive wasnt reliable enough in China to use, so I abandoned my plans. However, Google Drive has been quite stable, certainly stable enough to begin utilizing it next year across the primary school (or at least in upper primary). This will bring us more in line with the ICT vision and enable students to continue to work on some projects at home for homework, both alone and in collaboration with other students. The school should also consider purchasing a school license for VoiceThread (for use by Y1-6 students for collaboration on projects and peer assessment, even from home).] 2. The school website has an inaccurate (and unrealistic) statement about the use of gadgets during ICT lessonswe will never be able to employ in our lessons every gadget a student might use. Consider changing this statement, since it appears insincere, in my opinion. 3. Report cards: Consider changing each year-level report so it has an ICT & Library section (Eunice could add ticks related to research and I could add the others) or remove the ICT section altogether (mention of ICT could be made in the Topic/Science/Maths sections, as it is currently is, since ICT is integrated). ISB is an example of a school without a report for ICT. 4. ICT lessons could be changed to become additional Topic lessons. The ICT teacher could take the lesson; homeroom teacher attendance could be made optional (though it would be best if they could be required to attend). With this there would be no ICT section on the report cards. [I mentioned this to Robyn and John M during one of my appraisal follow-up meetings. It was not received well.] 5. Have at least one of the homeroom/class teachers help in each ICT lesson, if we continue to have ICT lessons. This would totally transform the ICT lessons. Currently, I see the students only once every 2 weeks, which causes projects to often require several weeks to complete. Having the homeroom teachers in the ICT lessons would facilitate requiring students to continue projects as homework (this is currently not practical when I wouldnt see them again for two weeks). This would also make it easier to flip the classroom (for sharing vocabulary with EAL students, and screen recordings or other tutorials on how to complete an activity), since the homeroom teachers could make this part of the students homework the nights before their ICT lessons (they could tell the students to go to the ICT website to see the homework assignment,

which could be requiring them to watch the tutorial on the website and/or look up vocabulary words in their dictionaries/translators). Having the homeroom teachers in the lessons would also greatly facilitate the integration of ICT into their other lessons. The teachers would see my demonstrations on how to complete an activity, so they would be better prepared (and thus have the confidence) to have the students continue to work on the projects at other times, outside of the ICT lessons. I had hoped teachers would collaborate with me to develop projects that would be treated as summative-assessment projects by which students could demonstrate their learning at the end of units (the teachers would grade the students on their content, while I would grade them on their use of ICT). However, this never materialized due largely to the homeroom teachers not requiring students to continue my projects outside of my ICT lessons and the ICT timetable being such that such cooperation was difficult, if not impossiblemore about that below). In HK, the Y1-6 teachers are required to be in the ICT lessons, while in Shanghai the Y1-4 teachers must attend the ICT lessons. I am hoping our school follows suit. Alternatively, a Chinese ICT co-teacher could be hired (but this wouldnt provide many of the benefits as having the homeroom teachers in the ICT lessons)WAB ICT teachers each have Chinese assistants. 6. Ensure the ICT timetable is optimized to facilitate coordination between ICT, library and Topic/Maths lessons by ensuring that the classes at the same year level have ICT during the same week. [This was not the case prior to the beginning of February. The ICT timetable had one class from each of the year levels in one week and the other two classes at the same year level in the following week. This made it virtually impossible for me to coordinate my lessons with Eunice and the homeroom teachers (so they could have students continue working on a project they began during my lessons). At the beginning of February, Kate, the Y4 team leader, wrote the following to me and Eunice in an email, which summed up the situation quite well: 4A are currently out of sequence with 4B and 4C, which I know has caused problems particularly with ICT as the topic integration can be difficult when we are at different points in our topic when an ICT lesson occurs. The same issue has occurred with library. To solve this problem, the 2C teachers have kindly agreed to swap weeks for library and ICT, if this is agreeable with you both. I spoke to Robyn about Kates email, and she agreed to the change. I then spoke to the Y5 and Y6 teachers, and to Robyn, about changing their ICT times as well. (I did not consider this earlier because Robyn told me in an email, when she sent me my ICT timetable, that my timetable could not be changed.) After the change to the timetable was made I was able to work with Eunice to have her continue some ICT projects/activities during her Library lessons. Ensuring that the ICT timetable is optimized in this way from the beginning of the year will greatly support collaboration on ICT projects between the teachers.] 7. At the very least, have me attend the year-level leaders meetings. I asked Robyn more than once if I could attend the meetings, but she didnt allow me to. I was looking to be recognized by the teachers as a leader in the implementation of ICT across the primary school. I felt as merely an ICT teacher, who was viewed by the other teachers as merely being responsible for

teaching ICT lessons, I could not make any suggestions or demands on the teachers that would require any more of their time (such as requiring them to use blogs with their students). My plan to collaborate with the homeroom teachers to create unit-ending projects in which the students could demonstrate their learning in the unit never materialized (due at least in part to the ICT timetable, as mentioned above). Instead, I felt the best I could do, under the circumstances, was to support the teachers by creating ICT lessons that were linked to what they were teaching in their lessonsactivities or projects that were not worked on outside of ICT lessons or graded by the homeroom teachers. I also wanted to better ensure the classroom websites were of high quality; however, I felt it would be meddling for me to ask the teachers for their website passwords so I could make suggestions for improvement. I did see a couple of their websites before passwords were added to them, and I felt they would not give a good impression to the parents. To be able to really exercise any authority, the ICT teacher should be given the status (or title) of a true coordinator, on par with the PA or PE coordinators. This is necessary for proposing and implementing changes that would affect the teachers workload. When I was the yearbook coordinator I felt I could make demands on the teachers and check the quality of their work, and they understood I was responsible for doing so. The situation has not been the same in my current role. [I agree with the schools move to make the new position. It follows the trend in ICT education, and is a role I plan to pursue in the future once I am certified and have finished my degree.] 8. Work closely with the teacher-librarian (however, she only has 30 minutes for teaching, the rest is for free reading and checking out or returning books, which makes it difficult (but not impossible) for her to contribute meaningfully to ICT projects, although she did contribute some on a couple occasions). 9. Consider involving ICT specialist teachers more in the decision-making process regarding ICT, including having the ICT teachers in the various Yew Chung schools in China attend the annual ICT meeting/retreat of the school principals. The ICT teachers and the principals could meet at the same hotel with some of their meetings being separate, and others combined. This would greatly facilitate communication (I was surprised twice with the implementation of Macs in my lessonsonce when I returned from the summer holiday to find I would be teaching students on the new iMacs in Lab H, instead of on Windows-based PCs as in previous years, and once when I returned and found I would be teaching students, even the Y1 students, on Macbooks without mice). Allowing the ICT teachers to attend the ICT meeting/retreat would also facilitate the creation of a personal learning network among the ICT teachers, making it much easier for us to share ideas. I met the ICT teachers from YCIS HK and Shanghai at the Learning 2.012 conference. This led to being able to work with the ICT teacher in Shanghai to conduct a Skype exchange between their primary classes and ours, and to set up email buddies between her Y4 students and mine, but that was the extent of it, although we are open to doing more next year. Bringing the ICT teachers together once a year would facilitate further collaboration and sharing between the schools. This would also be more practical than our classes joining projects like the Flat Classroom, since all of our schools in China are in the same time zone (making exchanges like Skyping more feasible).

10. Have each student in Y4-6 begin writing to his or her own blog (introduce how in their ICT lessons, and have him or her continue to write to them for their Literacy assignments). As you may know, there is a lot of very positive research supporting the use of blogs with students to increase their engagement in writing. Students could still have Literacy notebooks; however, at least some writing would have to be done in their blogs. Students could give comments (2 stars and a wish) for each others writing. Teachers could moderate all comments, if they choose to. Weebly would work for this (student blogs are included in our Weebly school license); however, Edublogs has better tools for tracking users and their comments. 11. Consider issuing school email accounts for each student (at least in upper primary). WAB is an example of a school that has found them to be indispensible in facilitating communication with students. This year I used the free, teacher-monitored email ePals with the Y4 students (they did an email exchange with Y4 students in YCIS Shanghai this year). It works well; however, it has limitations, such as students cannot send email messages to, or receive email messages from, non-ePal accounts. They cannot, therefore, send messages to their parents or to their teachers school accounts. 12. Hold digital citizenship camps at the beginning of the academic. I could hold the camps in a series of assemblies for each year level. The ICT AUP could be handed out then. [I got this idea from one of the sessions I attended at Learning 2.012.] 13. Consider creating a simplified version of the ICT AUP for lower primary. The current one is especially irrelevant for Y1 studentsasking parents to discuss it with their Y1 child does not reflect well on us, in my opinion. 14. Consider using the IT Depts office for recordingthe room at the back of the ICT lab that currently houses the ITD could be turned into two recording booths or studios (the ITD would have to be moved out). I currently sometimes use the artist in residences room for recording, where it is a lot quieter than the computer lab. It would be better if we could divide the ITD office into two halves, each with its own door, and put large windows in the wall so I could supervise the students while they make their recordings. Each booth or studio could have a Macbook in it for recording audio and video. The wall behind the students chairs could have a curtain with a green screen behind it (students could pull the curtain aside when using the green screen). The rooms would have to have sufficient sound insulation, especially between the two rooms, and the right-hand room might need to have ventilation since it would not have a window to the outside. 15. Remove the locks on the Macbooks in the lab during the day (lock them only at night). Get carrying cases holding a few Macbooks each to transport them to the classrooms, or purchase carts with additional Macbooks for use in the classrooms (or get more iPads). Teachers/students could be taught to close covers/screens on the Macbooks before transporting them. However, the best would be to begin a 1:1 laptop program. This could be implemented one year level at a time, beginning with Y6 and going down (each year the school could buy new laptops for the Y6s and hand the old ones down to the Y5s; the Y5s would in turn hand theirs down to the Y4s, and so on). This is what WAB does. After a few years we would have a 1:1 program in each of the upper primary classes. This would further bring us in line with the ICT vision

of enabling students to access their resources and their work anytime anywhere. 16. Have the Y1 students use Lab H (it is closer plus has a Smart Board, instead of an Active Board, and no trackpads). They can learn to use the trackpads when in Y2there is generally a huge difference between Y1 and Y2 students. This is especially important if I am teaching 20+ Y1 students alone. The trackpads add another layer of complexity to an already unbearable situation (there should be two or three teachers in the Y1 ICT lessons, in my opinion). 17. Replace the lab computers mice with small mice (like those normally used with notebook computers). The current ones are too large for the younger students. 18. Consider not taking IIIP students out of ICT lessons (it sends the wrong message about the importance the school places upon ICT). It is frustrating as a teacher to see students regularly removed from my lessons (sometimes the same student is repeatedly removed from my lessons for IIIP). Similarly, dont take students away from ICT lessons for student council, such as for hosting outside visitors (as on 22 Apr 2013 when three 6C students missed their ICT lesson to accompany visitors to the secondary talent showthis was unnecessary, in my opinion, since at least one Y6 teacher also accompanied the group, and the Y6 students couldnt really be of much help to the visitors while they all sat quietly watching the performances). 19. Consider purchasing computer lab management software. This would greatly aid getting students attention when they are engaged at their computers (I could warn students that I will lock their screens in one minute, and then as the time approached countdown from ten before locking them). It appears that there is no good, free lab management software for Macs. 20. Use the Weebly ICT website for flipping the classroom (by uploading screen recordings on how to complete an activity or use a program, and by posting vocabulary lists for the EAL students). [I was planning to begin doing this next year, now that my Weebly website is up and running.] 21. Consider using the ISTE standards exclusively. The ICT teachers in HK & Shanghai told me that they use the Natl Curriculum so I based my lessons primarily on them as well; however, it is far inferior, in my opinion, to the ISTE standards. 22. Update student photos in the MIS system and print out class pages of photos for each class. The office could provide the pages for the specialist teachers, as well as the homeroom teachers, in the same way they provide the class lists. The office staff would have to first ensure new student photos are input into system (during the summer they could replace the old photos with the latest yearbook photos). Also, Admissions could take photos of students wearing our uniform when the students are first admitted to the schoolthey should not rely on photos given by the parents when the students first apply. Alternatively, the audio/video technician could take the photos and prepare the class pages during the first two weeks of school (if the MIS system is not used to generate the pages of photos). I did this for the specialist teachers this year. It took over two weeks to take the photos and lay them out in Pages. I do not want to do this again next year. If the audio/video technician does not have time to take individual photos of each child, he can take group photos of each class on the steps outside Blocks A or D, or in the auditorium.

23. Advertise the homeroom and specialist Weebly websites using the school newsletter and school website. Some non-ICT-specific suggestions: 1. Ensure teachers can give feedback anonymously (HR ensured teachers that their names would be kept confidential; however, HR themselves should not be able to know who makes comments, if teachers are to feel comfortable enough to make candid comments about the running of the school). 2. Review the appraisal process. It is very unpopular with at least some of the teachers.