Jamie McKenzie Workshop

Attended the Jamie McKenzie Workshop today 15th Sept at the CEO Lidcombe office. It was attended by over 70 primary and secondary teachers. It was a workshop on "Managing the Laptop Classroom for Results". He is an interesting speaker that often contradicts the educational authorities on what should be happening in our schools. Although he is an american educational consultant he is well versed in both our current political situation as well as the social context in which we are teaching. He has all of his workshop material on his website

http://www.fno.org

His primary concern is really better teaching. He discusses the trends that continue to cycle through education but wants the participants of his workshops to understand that the laptops are not the answer by themselves. He believes that we need to teach our students to think, to question and to create answers rather than find them on the net. He sees the laptops to be effective tools for teachers who have received the appropriate training.

http://www.questioning.org

He is a convincing speaker with many valid and arresting points to make about our own expectation of teaching and of our students. He believes that many schools are still in the process of producing citizens for the old world when really we should be making critical thinkers that are both verbally and visually savvy in this media saturated world.