Archive

KidsCongress™, the digital creativity conference for and by kids returns to Christchurch on May 19 – 20 with Aranui Primary School as the host school. The educational event brings pupils and teachers together to solve a range of theme-based ‘problems’ using digital technologies and multimedia.

o meet the growth in demand, CORE Education’s First Films is offering two film-making courses to the budding young film directors of Christchurch at Ferrymead Heritage Park this January. There will be one course for 12 – 15 year olds and one for 9 – 12 year olds.

• 17 – 20th January 12 – 15 year olds
• 24 – 27th January 9 – 12 year olds

CORE Education, the educational research and development organisation, based in Christchurch supports and promotes the effective use of new technologies in education. The First Films workshop gives young people a chance to learn through and with film production technology.

Ten teachers from around the country have begun their year-long e-learning fellowship programme at the CORE Education office sponsored by the Ministry of Education.

The programme gives the selected teachers one year away from their usual teaching responsibilities to complete a research project aimed at increasing the effective use of digital technologies in education.

The CORE Education research team manages the project, providing support and mentoring for the fellows. This also includes two weeks of professional learning workshops each term.

Research topics from this year’s intake include:

For its second year in Auckland, KidsCongress, the digital creativity conference for and by kids heads to the underwater and Antarctic wonderland of Kelly Tarlton’s.

Workshops on offer at KidsCongress include:

On the 18th and 19th of may an exciting technology conference for 9 – 12 year old kids, KidsCongress is taking place at the Wigram Airforce Museum in Christchurch.

KidsCongress is organised by the educational research and development organisation, CORE Education and the KidsCongress Committee – senior students from North Loburn and Aranui Primary Schools.

CORE Education Ltd. and the Ministry of Education have taken the initiative to provide a special professional development opportunity for New Zealand teachers. ULearn05 is a 3-day conference inspiring teachers to utilise digital technologies effectively in the classroom and succeed in meeting the needs of the 21st Century learner. Up to 700 delegates from all over New Zealand will attend the event at the Sky City Convention Centre in Auckland on the 11th – 13th of July.

600 primary and secondary school teachers from around New Zealand will take part in The Ministry of Education’s Learning@School, its annual information and communication technologies conference at the Convention Centre in Rotorua from 16th to 18th February 2005.

Learning@School is a staff meeting for facilitators and other key teaching staff who will be implementing the Ministry’s Information, Communication & Technology Professional Development Project (ICTPD) for each of the 80 school clusters that are taking part.

CORE Education, the educational research and development facility based in Christchurch has been successfully managing the ICTPD project since its inception in 1999.

The Information and Communication Technology Professional Development (ICT PD) Clusters project was one of the initiatives identified in the New Zealand Ministry of Education's ICT Strategy released in October, 1998 and it is fully funded by the Ministry. Clusters of schools across New Zealand receive professional development in the use of ICT to support teaching and learning.

There are currently 860 schools and at least 8000 teachers across the country involved in the ICTPD project and it is one of the most ambitious educational initiatives ever carried out in New Zealand. The Learning@Schools conference aims to establish the parameters of the ICTPD project for delegates, provide networking opportunities as well as professional development input from a range of leading thinkers in the education field.

Teachers involved in the project have had the opportunity to use digital technology and multimedia in a variety of innovative ways to enhance their teaching. A teacher in the Tawa School Cluster used a digital video camera to film new entrant students acting out a familiar story, “Fantail, Fantail” by Margaret Mahy. The teacher learnt to use iMovie software to edit the movie.

In another instance, a teacher from the Glen Eden Intermediate Cluster used a PowerPoint slideshow to create a visual record of a science experiment. The teacher used a digital camera to photograph students exploring the evaporation rate of puddles. The pictures were placed in a slideshow to facilitate further discussion and inquiry.

Research conducted by Dr Vince Ham, CORE Education Director of Research concluded that the project was highly effective in terms of increasing and broadening the use of various ICT’s by teachers in classrooms. The research also shows that the major factors in generating these increases are; effective leadership from the project facilitators and managers, the numbers of teachers involved in each cluster, and most importantly, the ongoing, long-term nature of the project.

The following key players in the Learning@School conference and the ICTPD Project are available for interviews: