Kia Ora

I trust you enjoyed the long weekend.

This past week I was in Melbourne attending the Future Schools Conference with Muireann. This was a large conference with many streams to it.  Among the many interesting speakers there were two highlights. The first was a presentation from an extraordinary young man, Dr Jordan Nguyen. He spoke about how the intersection of technology has the power to improve human life. This may not sound like a radical idea. Through his effort and that of his team he has designed a car that a young lad who only has control over his eyes can drive, using his eyes. Perhaps the most compelling part of Dr Jordan’s presentation was how he concluded, a recitation of this poem.

The other highlight was getting a clearer sense from a range of speakers of the knowledge we have about the brain and knowing this, how it impacts on learning. What is remarkable is most of what we have learnt has only occurred since the advent of the fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) which in the context of our whole scientific knowledge is very young. In terms of what happens in the formal education system, we as a profession are still growing our understanding of this neuro knowledge and what it means for how we design learning experiences for children. Here’s one concrete finding from the research to date, children aged 5 - 7 years have a number of milestones in terms of their brain and learning. The most important one is that they develop a hardwired understanding that they can learn. Getting this right will lead to an increased chance of learning success as the child gets older.

I was really impressed, pleased and proud of Shotover staff who gave up much of their weekend a couple of weeks ago to participate in the Relay for Life. It was awesome to support this very important cause.

Kia kite

Ben