Jonesieblog

As many of you may already know, I was successful last week in my application to become the next Principal Teacher of Mathematics at North Berwick High School.  I am absolutely delighted, and can’t wait to get started.

The vacancy arose as a result of the approaching retirement of my current PT, Simon Smith.  It has been a great privilege to work under Simon’s leadership, and he has provided me with a wonderful working environment over the last 9 years.  I will be very proud of myself if I manage to offer the same levels of trust and support to my team over the coming years.

I have lots of plans, but I think I should share them with the department before I post them here.  Suffice it to say that some involve social web tools some do not

I must say a huge thank you to all the people who offered me advice, encouragement and support over the last few months.  I could not have done it without you all.

Stumble it!

All Webs are not equal.  My Web is very different from the Internet of the majority of teachers (yours probably is too).

My Web delivers pretty much all the new stuff from all the sites that interest me to a single page set up to make it very easy for me to see at a glance what is new. I have complete control over what appears on this page and can add new sources with a couple of clicks of my mouse.

My Web connects me to a huge network of educators from whom I learn lots, with whom I discuss important stuff as well as silly stuff, and to whom I pass on cool new stuff I have picked up.

My Web provides me with free office tools that I can access on any connected device, as well as a calendar that I share with my family – my Web is the place where I store most of my documents and photos.

My Web lets me create my own rich web applications and host them free online for me and other people to use.

My Web is pretty awesome! Personalised, customisable, flexible and very comfortable to be in.

If I had to describe the Web of a large number of my colleagues I guess it would go something like this:

“There’s a button on the bottom of the screen that you click and it brings up the Internet [starting at either the school homepage or the Web site of their ISP if they are at home].  You click on a link [or a bookmark maybe] to go to your email.  You can search for Web sites by going to Google [bookmark or type 'Google' in the URL bar].  You get to a Web site you know by typing its name into Google.”

Nothing more.  For them the Web is place of endless information , but limited, specific functionality.  For you and me the Web is a place of endless functionality waiting to be discovered or invented.  If I want to do something online, it is my expectation that I’ll be able to find a site that offers that functionality.

My Web is better!  I wonder how long it will be before enough people realise this in education, and we begin to teach teachers how to construct their own effective Webs.  Such a program is as vital today as the NOF ICT training was 5-6 years ago.

Stumble it!