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toc //This is the wiki of the Mackenzie/Rural Connections group of the Blended Learning Project and has been designed to showcase the results of their review of Networked Schooling. The group comprises Lisa and Maryann of Mackenzie College, Jackie of Waitaki Girls' High School, Denise and Jim from Twizel Area School and Jane from Geraldine High School.//

//The project was begun at a three day workshop in February 2012, and has continued through video-conferencing, forum, skype and email, as well as face-to-face meeting where possible.It is an example of blended and collaborative learning at its best!//

//The overall purpose of this review is to add to our knowledge about how we can best continue to develop blended learning in our schools. We chose to focus on investigating what networks are currently in place in our schools - particularly for teachers - since this has major implications not only for how// //effective,// //sustainable// //blended learning can develop, but also for teaching and learning as a whole.// = = = Some background about e-networking = In 1995 the Ministry of Education commissioned a report from the New Zealand Council for Educational Research to evaluate the effectiveness of its pilot project ‘schools’ network’. Beginning with six schools in Christchurch, but expanded by 1995 to 300 schools across the main cities, the purpose of the project was to “develop and promote services and resources which make it attractive for schools to use electronic networking for curriculum and administration purposes” (Atmore, iii). The report found that the concept of electronic networking was ‘universally applauded’ with benefits ranging from accessing Internet resources, using email and moderated noticeboards, and electronic communication with the Ministry. Significantly, however, there was a clear view that the network was a valuable educational resource that should continue to be managed ‘by educators, for educators’ and that there was a danger in ‘’letting kids loose’ on the network.

So how much has changed between 1995 and 2012? //The network//, as it was referred to, was actually a very forward-thinking project at a time when the ‘World Wide Web’ was still in its infancy as far as the average person was concerned. But have teacher attitudes expanded as much as the web has, or are we still caught up in the ‘closed, autonomous learning environment of a traditional school’ that //TAS// describes?

= Purpose of this review =

As teachers from five schools involved in the Blended Learning Project – Geraldine High School, Mackenzie College, Twizel Area School and Waitaki Girls’ High School - we have chosen to examine the current status of e-networking in our respective schools, with a view to using the results to inform future development of blended learning in these communities. Our primary focus will be to survey teachers in these schools to establish what e-networks are currently in place and being used by teachers, and to analyse the extent to which these are successful. We also want to determine from the survey what teachers perceive //as ..////why successful? /way forward? In some of the schools students were also survey or interviewed.////

The rationale for this emphasis on teacher e-networks is as follows:


 * The transformation of education from a teacher- led transmission of knowledge to a true learner-centred environment, where teachers are part of the learning community, is a huge shift and immensely challenging.
 * There is no doubt that almost every teacher in a New Zealand school can spout the jargon – ‘a learner-centred environment’; ‘personalised learning’; ‘collaborative construction of knowledge’. But are we currently simply using technology to make incremental changes to our education system rather than transforming it? Is our use of technology little more than a glamorous ‘add-on’ to supporting traditional styles of teaching (interactive whiteboards, digital resources, online learning games)?

The way ahead involves a far more fundamental and challenging step than this, but until teachers have experienced being part of a learning community, it will be difficult for them to take this leap.