October 18th, 2007
Hi and Welcome!
To participate in the Personalising Learning discussion, please use the link in the top right corner.
The ICTPD conversation takes place below.
I am working on a project which involves researching and designing an ICT PD framework for my school. Thanks for all your input to date – there have been many valuable ideas expressed.
Please continue to think, and write about, about your experiences of ICTPD!
I am still keen to hear about:
- any experiences you have had with ICT PD – I will take the good and the bad!
- any research/readings you may have written/found out there in the big wide world about ICT PD
- any effective ICT PD frameworks you have worked with
- your ideas about ‘what makes a competent 21st C teacher.
Sarah
ICTPD, Personalising Learning | Comments (29)29 Responses to “”
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The best ICT PD I have had is from colleagues I trust who do the same job that I do, at exactly the time that I need to use the next idea. This happens best at my own desk, at my own computer, working to do something my neighbour has recently found successful. This works for me a lot better than PD in groups from professional trainers.
Other PD I have had this year stressed the need to look at “learning conversations” of teachers, with a view to how much of our evaluations are based on real student progress. I would like to have more of these learning conversations, but I need real data that is aggregated for my students, as a group, over time. The only data I know of that TCS currently collects (but does not share with teachers) is the marking rates of staff. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get5 aggregated data on the progress of our students (over time) and use this to inform our individual practice. I can see that I am going to have to manually collect this next year (full time students) in a mark book or excel spreadsheet, as no other means seem to be available. Or am I wrong? This is more complex when I consider that many full time students who start the year with me, may be moved to another teacher or diappear off the roll by the end of a year. This makes the data even harder to collect in a meaningful way.
My thinking comes from Judy Parr and Helen Timperley ” The challenges of collegial decision making” and Brian Annan and Mei Lai on “Teacher Talk to improve Learning Practices.”
Hi Sarah,
I would like to answer your questions, but need some time for that. By next Monday, you’ll have a post, so you’ll really have something to look forward to now
That’s an awful lot of questions you have there. I’ll start with the first one first, ok?
I have experiences with ICT PD in the role of a PD designer, but also in the role of a learner. Let’s begin with my role as learner.
Most of my own PD takes place through seminars and conferences actually. And most of the time the setup is really antique: listening to a speaker talking about a great ICT experience. But seminars are good to give you an overview of the current state of the art in a short period of time.
As a learner I’ve also been involved in a Learning Circle, a group of 4 colleagues plus myself, coaching each other in our professional practice. In this case not necessarily about ICT, but our professions as a whole and focused on cases that we brought in. Very useful.
Regularly browsing the internet: a very good source for keeping myself up to date was http://edusite.nl, a (Dutch) portal were all initiatives and projects on ICT in education were brought together. But unfortunately the site doesn’t exist anymore, I have to find myself a new portal and professional network…
And I have a membership on a ICT in education magazine. I can’t recall any formal technical training on specific tools, except for a self instruction tutorial on ‘how to type with 10 fingers’. I can’t remember how I’ve learned tools like Blackboard, Office programmes, and other software. Not through courses, more likely through trial and error, a manual and some explanations of colleagues.
I’ve once had an online learning experience in a distance learning course on ICT in education. Man, was that an awful lot of work! That really surprised me, even me who developed training courses with a large online component for others. And the isolation from others surprised me as well: you must be really motivated to complete a distance course. I actually quit… and that started to make me think about distance learning as well. All those e-discussions and collaborative learning activities were amazingly time-consuming.
Hi Pam and Evelijn!
Thanks for your responses!
The ‘just-in-time’ PD that you speak of Pam has been found to be a crucial part of an effective PD programme as it allows, as you say, peers to get instant feedback and help from those directly around them. As discussed by Evelijn, Learning Circles are another form of peer coaching / mentoring that play an important role in any PD programme. These meetings allow groups of staff to discuss and reflect on their practice on a regular basis.
You also bring up an interesting point when you say that this form of PD is more effective for you than one-off sessions from professional trainers. The research shows (I will add my findings to the blog shortly) that the traditional ‘training’ forms of PD rarely have a positive impact on the uptake of the skills by teachers. This is mainly due to the fact that the sessions rarely allow participants to actually practice the skills, rarely use the skills within the context of the teachers’ daily work and rarely provide teachers with the opportunity to discuss why they would choose to use these ICT tools and who with.
I am unsure of the availability of student aggregated data, but agree that this data would be invaluable in informing staff of students who may benefit from the variety of ICT tools that are available for us to use. It is just another part of developing the context!
More later – and keep the ideas coming!
Sarah
Hi Sarah!
Great to see you have started a blog. My PD with computers is a bit different than most principally because of the stage I’m at in the evolutionary tree.
But perhaps the most useful advice I’ve ever been given is that wahatever skill/knowledge you have first learnt on the computer it must be practiced soon as – the same day is best. This means that any training that is given should take into account the opportunity that the participant has to return to their desk the same day and try out their newly acquired skill. This means of course that the application also has to be available to the learner out of the training environment.
As a past computer trainer I always reminded participant learners to get back to their workplace and try out what they’d learnt soon as – mini projects that they could take away and use always helped with this.
As well, Fridays are no-nos for training simply because of this whole principle of learn and practice soon as. What you learn on a Friday you can say ta-ta to by the time Monday arrives – you rarely consolidate what you’ve learnt over the weekend! (I recall not many years ago getting computer training at TCS on the last days of the year! Forget it! You may’s well have!
Further to this, learning to write little reminders when one first is shown something THEN to practice it immediately afterwards is paramount to putting what one learns into use and maintaining it.
The mantra is learn and practice soon as.
That’s my tuppence worth Sarah. Yes, I know, tuppence is worth less than 5 cents. But I did mention my dinosaurial background
As an ICT Support Person with TCS for the last 14 years I would like to make a few points about ICT PD. Over the years I have received formal training from TCS in such things as: The Performance management System: Civil Defence Emergency preparedness: A few Team Building Psychological sessions: Various Te Reo Maori Courses: I have been told I am soon to receive formal training in: Presentation Skills: Time Management: However, everything I know about actual ICT Technology has been “picked up as I went along” in an ad hoc manner. While this method of PD may suit Teaching Staff whose main function is not ICT, I am not at all sure that it is optimal for ICT Support people. Any ICT PD Project must include recognition that ICT Support Staff require in depth Technical Training if they are to support Teaching Staff to the level expected.
I agree that hands-on PD is an excellent way to go.
Like Pam, I like learning from teaching colleagues, not just from high flyers that have the big picture and the big ideas but don’t face the implementation problems that we on the “ground floor” face sometimes.
• I quite like the online conferences K12, U-Learn, No-time-4-conference (all on Internet this year) as you can look at things in your own time(disadvantage, you don’t get an official time allowance for it). You can also pick what suits you best and then try it out while you are sitting at your computer.
• I especially like to see concrete examples of learning material built with ICT tools. Then you can go to the Blogs of the creators and often find an explanation on how they created it all (and if it isn’t there, you can email them). Quickest of course would be to have that creator sitting next to you, saves you time surfing, but guess that’s not always sustainable (unless we start cloning people…).
• At the TUANZ conference 2006 I really enjoyed the presentation of Australian teacher Adrian Bruce. See: http://www.adrianbruce.com/
He uses simple freeware from the net to create podcasts etc. with his students. This year I have been his student without him even knowing it…
• Another very good PD was the German Intensive course for German teachers this year organised by the Goethe Institut. A lecturer from Otago university showed us how she has used Blogs and Wikis for teaching German, eg. shared script writing and posting self-made films online.
At that PD we also had time to create our own little PPTs, incl. audio.
• Like Evelyn, I have also been an online learner. I was enrolled in an online course on teaching writing in a foreign language. It was a closed community and what I liked about the setup was that everything was in one place and you did not have to jump from one place to another like in BB (eg. Course docs, then leave comment in discussion board, then go back Course docs). It was all in one place, very linear.
• I remember how I learnt BB. When I came to TCS a few years ago, I started snooping and found the ICT online PD page with little modules, so just did them. Very easy to follow with screenshots etc.
• I also really enjoyed the e-section, a whole week for learning new stuff with other learners and experts sitting close by you.
Mental note for you Sarah: Never invite a language teacher to leave messages for you. They can’t shut up!
I find that the time allocated to PD is a key factor. It needs to allow time to personalise new learning and to talk about how it might relate to my teaching. Then I need time to reflect and experiment. This is rarely allowed for in PD time. The opportunity to feedback/discuss learning and thinking from PD and conference is often limited – Gagne would say that one of the steps for consolidating learning is to teach/talk to others.
Best ICT PD has been where we were given a chance to be interactive and influence the direction of the discussion. The efest workshop where we experienced blogging on paper (including a visit from a masked, nasty virus who spammed us) and talked in groups. Reflection on our practice was an integral part of the workshop. It was probably better to leave the technology out of the equation as we were not distracted by it and focused on the pedagogy.
Thoughts about ICT PD:
A few years ago teachers had a chance to experience the big OE – “operation E-learning” – dedicated release time and away from your desk to learn, explore, design, develop and use new e-technologies. This was valuable and enabled time out to focus and use ICT technologies with input from tech support staff and likeminded teachers who have used these technologies.
It had a focused approach – with an outcome in mind – ie: development of an RLO or online project to facilitate learning. Cover was provided for the teachers as they took part in these sessions. It takes time and teachers need dedicated release time to spend learning and implementing new technologies – a chance to see the possibilities.
Hi Sarah, here is my response. Like Pam i need to be able to apply what i have just leant in ICT pretty quickly before it loses its relevance. I find working in the Connect team that one person will pick up something from somewhere and before long we all know it because it is shared and explained in day to day work. We pick up good practices from students too. That constant communication is important because it is two- way. I really think putting more people in teams and asking them to work online is the way to go. The stronger inevitably support the weaker even if they are just showing off!! The most dispiriting times for me are when I go to PD and do not have the opportunity to use what I have learnt. If one is caught up in the present booklet system (which i hope has nearly had its day) this frustration is inevitable.
The best PD I recall was a day arranged by Wellington Regional Association of Teachers of English, 12 October 1986. We hired the computer suite at Mana College and led by Karen Sheppard, HoD English, Viard College and Andy ??, HoD Parkway College we tried out various programs over the course of a day.
Why was it successful? Because everyone who came chose to come. There was no compulsion. Each participant followed an individual programme of learning which they again chose. They also worked at their own pace and decided when they had learnt enough.
Bad professional development is the sausage machine method which involves coercion, limited or no choice, goals defined by someone else. I thought the sessions on personalised learning were some of the worst because they were the opposite of what they were promoting and it was a fine sunny day.
If your focus is ICT PD then sessions when the software or hardware break down are the worst.
I don’t know any research but I think reading about Malcolm Knowles’ principles of andragogy can be illuminating.
I’ve also been impressed by John Hellner of Waikato University and his idea of a “professional portfolio” which goes a long way to showing how personalised learning could be applied to teachers’ own PD.
Hi from Gilbert, Copyright Adviser at TCS.
Sarah, is this you? “When I was working as a school Principal and consultant in the UK…” It would be better if signed or sourced (and used by permission).
Transformational were two professional development programmes I’ve experienced.
a) When PCs were new there was as special place where we learnt individually how to start up and operate one. Self-paced was great. And school approval for those who wanted to upskill.
b) ERIC, Early Reader Inservice Course, had a real buzz to it. There was a group feeling about learning from the latest research led by Marie Clay, NZCER, the skills of teaching children to read. Multiple media were used as an integrated package.
Both of these were structured courses devised by experts and delivered over several weeks. We were not left to discover principles ourselves, but did have creativity in how to apply proven principles. Expertise is valuable.
In contrast I’ve been to numerous courses – now forgotten. The school hires outsiders to do a oncer. This ignores the fact that changed behaviour takes weeks to develop and is best with support from other learners.
As well as drawing on experts, let’s also deliberately share best practice with each other, not only in each group but also across the school.
Go 4 it for CorreKids! – Gilbert
Great to see all the comments and all the different directions you have all taken to get you where you are with on-line learning.
The best PD for me was when I became a distance learner…learning about distance learning. Applying what I was learning at the same time as I was engaging with fellow students as well as coping with things like confidence and presence on line gave me a lot of empathy for my classes.
I am deliberately breaking my posting up on the off chance you like it. One discussion forum we had only allowed us about 20 or so lines. That way when we had heaps to say we either dealt with one concept at a time…or thought very carefully about what we said…could be useful
…not that you all don’t have well thought out postings it just meant we made sure we squeezed the most into our alloted space.
Mixing with experts and practioners is also helpful if not inspirational. For example at a recent conference I had a conversation with a designer and he described a new way (to me) of engaging students online.
Some people are now allowing un-enrolled students access to their on-line courses. If they want to get the credits they have to sign up (and pay up).
BUT meantime they tend to be very interested and really bring the engagement of enrolled students up as they are so interested in taking part …they have enrolled voluntarily so they have nothing to lose. The concept reminds me a bit of Mirandas comment.
Gary; Its good to hear from the IT staff. The same conference I refered to in an earlier posting deliberately had IT and Teaching staff not only at the same conference but listening to the same material. Being a ‘bear of small brain.’ I got to a point where the IT material went right over my head. But I did pick up some new understanding and can now say I do have an idea of what SCORM means and why its needed.
Inka I too get a lot out of taking part in on-line learning communities (learningtimes.org is my favorite). I can not only take both synchronous and asynchronous part but get sound PD in on-line learning too. I do tend to spend more time on it in the holidays because of time constraints.
Hello, and thanks again for your input!
There seems to be a general theme coming through in your comments which is the importance of being able to practice newly developed skills straight away. This in turn, relates to other comments about the need for managerial support and resourcing in the form of time. It is well recognized that PD in any area takes time – and a lot of it! This time is necessary not only when learning the new skills and the reasons why we need to learn them, but also in the continuing of the learning through experimentation, use and reflection of the use of the new skills.
It is very interesting that a number of people have referred to the availability of on-line ICTPD in the form of conferences. These seem to be popular choices as they offer a more personalised approach to an individual’s ICTPD needs through both synchronous and asynchronous methods. Individualisation of ICTPD is a very important theme that is also coming through in your comments.
The scope of my research to date has found that in order to be successful, an ICTPD programme needs to have the elements discussed by Bradshaw (2002) within her fourth category of PD. That is, it is individualized and will involve a combination of theory, demonstration, practice and follow up where teachers are given the opportunity to develop their own knowledge about how and why to use a particular ICT tool. The ideas you have shared so far about ICTPD seem to follow this theory. Let me know what you think!
Sarah
Hi Gary!
Thanks for your feedback. I agree totally with your comment that ICT Support Staff ICTPD needs are very different to those of teachers. This is an idea that will need to be recognised in the programme development.
Sarah
Here’s what I think Sarah:
I agree with the points you make in your “thanks for your input” to do with the usefulness of conferences for staff development that is relevant to the implementation of ICT strategies in teaching and learning. The link between staff development and the immediate application of this is not necessarily consequential.
Bradshaw (you mentioned) says “workshops and conferences, by themselves, do little to ensure that technology will be used in schools and classrooms in ways that improve student learning”. The idea is to somehow initiate a clear pathway to apply the material delivered in PD programs to what is practiced in the teaching/learning situation. It is embraced in the so-called cognitive apprentice theory (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_apprenticeship) that masters of a skill often do not consider hidden processes involved in carrying out complex skills when they are teaching novices (as opposed to pupils). A situated professional development program for teachers has already been put forward by Brown, Collins, & Duguid (1989) as a solution to make this happen, instead of defining a prescription for particular technology competencies that a teacher must have and be able to use.
Putnam & Borko (2000) advocate situated learning experiences that ground teachers’ learning experiences in their own practice. A situated professional development technology program serves the needs of teachers’ specific technology within their own teaching/learning environment.
That’s another 5 cents worth from me
Hi Ken,
Thanks for your links! I’ve just had a look at some very interestings writings by Collins, Duguid, and Brown (1989) who say that cognitive apprenticeships are less effective when skills and concepts are taught independent of their real-world context and situation. I think that this statement should become an important factor in any ICTPD programme.
The need for a combination of pedagogy, demonstration, practice, reflection, support and follow up also fits well into ‘cognitive apprentices’ where the activity being taught is modeled in real-world situations, and in the ’situated learning experiences’ discussed by Putnam and Borko.
Great!
Sarah
Yes Sarah. Here’s another nickel’s worth.
In the days when the dinosaurs roamed the world we spoke of education on the one hand and training on the other. These were different ideas then, though their distinction appears to have become muddied with the passage of time.
Concepts imparted to novices tend to fall into the category of education. These can be picked up at conferences (such as Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development) though how to apply them may be obscure to some.
However, the application of a concept in a teaching/learning situation (such as application of Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development) is best tackled by training and this is best done on the job, thereby providing the clear pathway to application of material that may have been delivered in PD programs at a conference.
To tease out what PD content can be delivered in a conference environment and what is best acquired in a “hands-on” situation requires a taxonomy of some description. A pithy summary for this is “for this type of PD use this type of delivery”.
A workable taxonomy of this sort would then throw light on the shadier areas of PD, making it easier to decide what’s best delivered in a conference situation and what’s best offered in a teaching/learning environment.
I’ve had a varied experiences in ICTPD and would say the worst was trying to learn how to use a computer! That was until I had time to sit down at the computer and found out by doing! Some years back, we had training in group sessions with several follow ups on a one to one basis. For me this was the best way to learn as we were hands on and could discuss ways to improve and what to try next. This to me is so important and something we don’t do well in this orgnisation ie: review our training or learning, by asking the questions “What have I learned?”, “What went well and what would I do better next time?” and “What do I need to do now?”
Reflecting is what we teach our learners, so we should be doing more of this ourselves. Thanks for the opportunity, Sarah
I have learnt a lot about computers and ICT since joining TCS about 5 years ago. Mostly self taught or someone showing me. The small amount of ICT training provided in the time I have been here has not been all that useful. Tend to forget it soon after unless you are using those skills on a regular basis. So to sum up maybe training has to be on a need to know basis. Perhaps little instructional videos you can view when you need help. For example I learnt (what my dad should have taught me) “how to tie a windsor knot” by viewing the video on the web. I think I have got the hang of it now and Dad would be proud although a little puzzled why I bother.
What makes a competent 21st Century teacher?
This has to be a hard one. I notice that there aren’t many comments posted here on this topic.
Let’s assume that ‘competent’ pertains to ICT rather than subject-knowledge and how well a teacher understands that.
There are necessary ICT manual skills, and there are computer/digital skills and knowledge. Acquiring manual skills tends to be a matter of training and practice (t & p) – like the use of keyboard, mouse, digital devices etc – and there is a range of other computer/digital skills that can be dealt with through t & p.
For instance, knowing where to find the ‘attach and email’ function in Word 2007 is one. This comes with a bit of t & p (by whatever means) and the end result is swifter and less cumbersome than other methods. But the ‘concept’ that a newly created Word document can be attached immediately to an email, and that the email application is invoked automatically while this process is being brought into effect is more than mere t & p. The teacher who has never met this idea is very unlikely to think of looking for the function on any new version of a computer application in order to use it. Thankfully in most instances the concept comes with t & p but not always.
Elementary though they may be, the same applies to knowing the so-called quick-keys for cut, copy and paste, and understanding how these work. But the concept of the clip-board and its part in all of this belongs to a separate tier in the competency set.
Likewise, consideration of the significance of file-size when selecting images or other files for email attachment, or posting on a blog on the Net. This is a concept, rather than a skill of knowing how to. Being able to find the size of an image file is another part (t & p) of the same competency set, as is knowing how to find the dimensions of the image when it’s displayed on the screen (also t & p).
So it’s not all just learning how to. My feeling is that there are at least 4 tiers of competency in a set of related skills:
1 concept – such as Send to Mail Recipient as
Attachment (just get your head round the idea)
2 knowledge that a function exists on the
application/program used (t & p),
3 knowing how to use it on a specific
application/program (t & p),
4 selecting technology/teaching method that best suits
the student – in other words, being able to decide
when and how to use it appropriately (P L).
So what does this all mean for the 21st C teacher? Probably one of the most significant steps is knowing that all of the above skills and those like them are really competencies required by a 20th Century teacher. The 21st C teacher needs to be skilful in many areas like those mentioned here but also has to keep abreast of new technological developments and their progressions with time.
For instance, mobile phones can send emails or send files as email attachments. If teachers are required to use that technology for these purposes (either transmitting or receiving) then they must just find out how to. More importantly, however, they must consider the ‘end-user’, namely the student. In this regard a teacher competency tends to be a bit of a double whammy. The teacher not only has to have the competency and be able to assist students with the same, but they must also be perceptive in selecting the technology and corresponding teaching method that best suit the student. (Isn’t this what Personalising Learning is all about? Shhh!)
But if there is a 5th tier to the skill set of ICT competencies it would be considering the present day culture(s) of our students.
ENTER The 21st Century Teacher.
For many teachers, and especially those at TCS, the age gap between student and teacher has the potential to present obstacles (I know – it smacks of digital-native/digital-immigrant, only I don’t agree with the fundamental axioms in that philosophy). Nevertheless, it is extremely head-in-the-sand-ish not to consider the teenage culture(s) that exists today – perhaps quite different from the ones many teachers at TCS are more familiar with. And though many of our students may not be experts in the use of technologies at their disposal, and they’re probably using devices with capabilities well beyond how they are being used, the fact is there is a culture gap.
My gut feeling on this is that teachers should do as our elearning experts (such as Ewan McIntosh) advise, and acquire some hands on experience in using what the kids are using and doing it the way they do. This means messing about with things like I-pods, practising uploading and downloading files using such devices, creating a personal Bebo or Facebook or Flickr account, getting into kids’ networks and blogging.
Go for it!
Ken Allan
What makes a competent 21st Century learner?
Is competence any different in the 21st Century than it was when the most important skill was to be able to hunt?
Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus in their 1986 book Mind over machine, suggest that competence is the gradual acquistion of practical knowledge through experience and copying what others are doing. We do not become competent simply by learning how to operate a particular computer programme. They suggest there are five stages in becoming competent: novice, advanced learner, competency, proficiency and expertise. The expert does not need the rule book any more.
Psychologists use a term “ballistic reaction” which characterises (for example) the behaviour of expert drivers who instinctively react to a new situation without having to think about it and this is what I think characterises any competent person, teacher or otherwise.
The other writer who I feel has shed light on this issue is Donald Schon in his 1983 book, The reflective practitioner. He suggests it is not just gaining experience that characterises a competent person but also the conscious action of reflecting on our day to day experiences.
That leads me to organisational learning but that is outside the range of this question.
Thanks Malcolm.
You have gone down quite a different pathway here, but nevertheless a very interesting one. You have come as near to discussing metagognition as you could without using the term. “Knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do” is the favourite line used by many to describe much of what you’ve broached. Without running into a soliloquy that would be way off Sarah’s brief, might I suggest that you may like to read some of Ben Williamson’s article – it puts a few things, relevant to what you are saying, into perspective:
http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications_reports_articles/web_articles/Web_Article520
Also, in Robert L Spenser’s book ‘The Craft Of The Warrior’ there is a chapter, ‘Hunting Power’ where the author explains blow by blow and in context the circumstance of the hunter you raised in your comment.
http://books.google.com/books?id=qowCWd7ktnoC&pg=PA127&lpg=PA127&dq=who+said+%22knowing+what+to+do+when+you+don+t+know+what+to+do%22&source=web&ots=8LHNmeBk8O&sig=SoVmNsxJ5gFtQRK5caVnyW8tMh8#PPA130,M1
Distance Learning Courses Uk…
Thanks for creating this blog. I thought it was a very interesting read. It is so interesting reading other peoples personal take on a subject….
Some Web 2.0 thoughts from Charlene Croft
It’s been some months now since anyone lurched from lurking on this blog (but I don’t feel so guilty about lurking ever since I found that Etienne Wenger called it “legitimate peripheral participation”). A propo my comments on “What makes a 21st century teacher?”, I recently came across Charlene Croft’s blog from a pointer in Stephen Downes’ blog 17 April 2008. She has just shut down another blog. Check out her reasons – they make good reading:
http://charlenecroft.wordpress.com/2008/04/17/getting-off-the-sauce%e2%80%a6/
Hi Sarah!
Further to my comments on teachers “creating a personal Bebo or Facebook or Flickr account, getting into kids’ networks and blogging”, I cite this recent report by the Washington Post. It would appear that teachers in the main need to think deeply about their role in society.
There has been a rash of cases where teachers have been cautioned or even dismissed from their posts as a result of what they are exhibiting on their own web sites (blogs).
This may also be an appropriate place to mention that posting comments on an Edublog site, such as this one, has a world-wide audience. Etiquette is of the essence, as has been recently highlighted by Darren Draper in his post on Edublogger Etiquette.
Ka kite