Global Education, Canterbury

Walking around the wall of Canterbury we came across a Global Education Centre at the back of a car park and were welcomed in. The tiny room was piled high with books, videos, kits etc looking other than the size like most Global Education centres I have known. It was great to exchange ideas and information with the co-ordinator, and there were many similarities with the situation in Australia although they receive no government funding. She had a lovely set of 5 large cloth dolls which were the result of a funding submission and were used in classroom work on cultural diversity.
They work more with the Religious Education curriculum than we seem to in Australia, and in Canterbury there is a connection with the Cathedral’s education centre
http://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/schools.html
(itself staffed by 2 fulltime teachers + administrator).

Connectivity UK

We found the Notting Hill / Bayswater area of London full of hotels (some of them reasonably priced) and full of young tourists. As well as the availability of the usual wireless hot spots in Starbucks, Macdonalds etc there was a Notting Hill Gate broadband wireless network which meant it was possible to sit outside and watch the world go by while online.

La Salle College, Hong Kong

As an ex-La Sallian teacher it was interesting to visit La Salle College Kowloon on the final afternoon of the conference. The De La Salle brothers had been active in other areas of Hong Kong previously, but this school was established in Kowloon in 1979. It caters for 1800 secondary boys with a primary school only slightly smaller across the road. It is a selective school but funded by the government and very competitive to get in to. The day we visited was the day enrolment offers had to be accepted and there were many parents, grandparents and boys there petitioning the Headmaster for one of the very limited places. Built around a large central garden with swimming pool, huge soccer field, and gym, its sporting facilities were very impressive, due partly to a very active and influential past students association. A data projector ceiling mounted in every classroom seemed accepted practice but other than that classrooms had 40 desks and chairs in rows and no desktop technologies. The library technology was similar to many Australian school libraries, and they used Alice for Windows as the automation system, but expressed a desire to move to a total self-service card-based system for physical access to the library as well as circulation.

The School Librarian who hosted us had been at the school for 25 years and managed an incredible load of English teaching, library classes and cataloguing, plus overseeing a team of 150 student librarians. Working in the library is an extracurricular activity on a par with music or a sport team and all students must be involved in a number of activities each week. This group is responsible for all the non-professional work of the school library on a roster system, and while we were there 10 boys were in during their holidays undertaking the stocktake. The incoming Chair of the Library Board who showed us around spoke of this role with the pride of an incoming school captain.

How many schools have an entry in wikipedia?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Salle_College

Student learning in the information landscape (NZ)

A session in a computer lab means I can blog this in real time! Hopefully it will read OK and not as poorly organised as my notebook usually is after a session.

How well are schools supporting student learning in the information landscape?

A really useful alert from Cilla Corlett of the Education Review Office of New Zealand about their evaluation undertaken in NZ schools in three areas:
* information literacy
* developing lifelong readers
* the school library
The findings and report will not be available until Sep/Oct 2005.

To Do:
Keep an eye out on the What's New page of ERO to pick up this report and other very useful evaluations
Email: cilla.corlettatero.govt.nz

The NZ 3 C's:
1. connection
2. content
3. capability and confidence

The School Library Guidelines (National Library of NZ, 2002) were used in conjunction with ERO indicators for schools and e-learning evaluation, 2003/2004 to develop indicators for the evaluation. 13% of primary schools and 8% of secondary schools evaluated and involved interviews with school leaders, teacher librarians, and students plus observations and reference to documentation by Review Officers. Examples of effective and less effective practice were aggregated nationally, and ERO intends to publish good practice examples and initiatives when report is released.

To Do:
Check NZ government for updated ICT policy documents.
Obtain NZ school library guidelines.

IASL 2005 Conference in Hong Kong

I plan to use the experience of blogging a conference as part of my report for SLASA regarding the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) conference in Hong Kong. I hope to record thoughts, new learning and ideas for future conferences or professional development activities.

Opening Ceremony
The Opening Ceremony for the 34th IASL Annual Conference was at 6.30pm on Friday, July 8 at the University of Hong Kong.
The presence and comments of Mrs. Fanny Law, Permanent Secretary for Education and Manpower for Hong Kong SAR presented a picture of a government very committed to information literacy and school librarianship: "Since 2001 all schools in Hong Kong have a school librarian". The large number of local delegates funded to attend the conference by Education and Manpower was further evidence of this support. Moral education was listed as one of the 4 priorities for HK education.

** To Do
Check out details of the Hong Kong schools bibliographic database used to enable resource sharing between schools.

Other speakers included: Prof, Mark Bray, Dean, Faculty of Education HKU speaking about the university, its international focus and decision to teach in English language, and Luk Hok Hei Livesey, Hong Kong Teacher Librarian Association. Local awards were presented to 100 educators, individuals, and schools including awards for school library volunteers, student librarians and supporters of school libraries, in addition to teacher librarians.

** To Do
Check out details of the award criteria and process, and consider recognition of volunteers and student library monitors at state level.

The IASL flag ceremony represented the 31 countries attending the conference, and entertainment included the Lion Dance performed by the Kowloon Technical School Chinese Boxing Club, and 'It's a Small World' in 3 languages by violinists and choristers from the Tsing Yi Trade Association Primary School. Plenty of Australians (80 delegates) to catch up with at the reception although only Pat Pledger, Pauline Crawford and Cathy Riedel (Concordia College) from South Australia located so far.