Tuesday, April 8, 2008
What is Halindatech ?
HALINDATECH blog is a site that records our journey along the technological superhighway. We are participating in an action research project that will better delineate the uses and the technicalities of Interactive Technology in our educational setting.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
2008 A big year for Tech - Teaching and Learning
Learning and Teaching are changing.
The world that students with special needs live in is changing.
How do kids learn to deal with that changing world?
Have you ever been frustrated with a computer, phone service, ATM, mp3 player or website ?
Have you ever been frustrated with the pace of change ?
How do students with special needs fit into this world ?
How do carers make choices for their charges as they cope with this world?
These are questions that teachers in SSPs have to deal with increasingly. Teachers who forget this are possibly open to claims that they are asleep at the wheel, but possibly they have been left behind by thinly spread resources. There are many demands on all teachers in contemporary classrooms and to this is now added the pace of technological change. Peripherals, software, updates, databases, reporting, hardware problems, hardware costs, hardware repairs, time-share tech tools, networking, online resources, retraining and program familiarisation all need consideration within school even before a teacher sits down and begins to write a sequence of deliverable lessons.
These needs are compounded by the need to adapt curriculum content and physical access to technology to make it work.
In a connected world, disconnection and failure to change are accentuated.
Special need schools have to avoid being sleepy wards of yesteryear or cultural backwaters in order to do the best by the kids.
School staff do this job against this changing background whilst maintaining the basic skills and competancies that our kids need to get on in the world after school.
The world that students with special needs live in is changing.
How do kids learn to deal with that changing world?
Have you ever been frustrated with a computer, phone service, ATM, mp3 player or website ?
Have you ever been frustrated with the pace of change ?
How do students with special needs fit into this world ?
How do carers make choices for their charges as they cope with this world?
These are questions that teachers in SSPs have to deal with increasingly. Teachers who forget this are possibly open to claims that they are asleep at the wheel, but possibly they have been left behind by thinly spread resources. There are many demands on all teachers in contemporary classrooms and to this is now added the pace of technological change. Peripherals, software, updates, databases, reporting, hardware problems, hardware costs, hardware repairs, time-share tech tools, networking, online resources, retraining and program familiarisation all need consideration within school even before a teacher sits down and begins to write a sequence of deliverable lessons.
These needs are compounded by the need to adapt curriculum content and physical access to technology to make it work.
In a connected world, disconnection and failure to change are accentuated.
Special need schools have to avoid being sleepy wards of yesteryear or cultural backwaters in order to do the best by the kids.
School staff do this job against this changing background whilst maintaining the basic skills and competancies that our kids need to get on in the world after school.
Monday, November 26, 2007
D 8/9 is online
D 8/9 has been making pages on the web. As a group the class works out what they want to say and publishes their class pages and student pages from the classroom. Students can go home and look at what they have done from the comfort of their own home.
They are a special education class on the world wide web!
Halinda D 8/9
They are a special education class on the world wide web!
Halinda D 8/9
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Opting for a Special School environment
In this interview an SSP student talks about his schooling history and what makes the difference in the Special School environment.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Halinda SSP as a Learning Community
Halinda School for Special Purposes aims to be a learning community.
Halinda SSP teachers recently attended the 2007 PSP SSP Conference held at the Rydges Rosehill NSW. Based on what we learnt we came up with this little podcast at our workgroup.
Monday, October 22, 2007
More Thanks
More thanks to Ken O'Brien whom has been an exemplary Technical Advisor for the school over the last few months and who came out to configure our wireless data system and set up an Apple lab for us on Wednesday.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Two Boards per Grade by the End of the Year !
Halinda is one of the best equipped SSPs in the Western Sydney Region. It has been a long technological journey from the old school site to the new school venue.
The process of funding, ordering and commissioning new technologies such as the interactive whiteboards has been in planning since before we arrived at our new site. We now have three fixed boards in use and two mobile boards in use in the school.
Plans are underway to order a third mobile board. This will make 2 per grade by the end of the year. A great boon to the technological literacy of the student population.
The process of funding, ordering and commissioning new technologies such as the interactive whiteboards has been in planning since before we arrived at our new site. We now have three fixed boards in use and two mobile boards in use in the school.
Plans are underway to order a third mobile board. This will make 2 per grade by the end of the year. A great boon to the technological literacy of the student population.
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