Keynote - Roy Lundin Memorial Address - Dr Michael Hough AM

Dr Hough is Professorial Fellow at the University of Wollongong.
A snapshot of Michael's presentation in note form. He certainly gave lots to think about! My favourite quote in regard to changes in education and ICTs "If you're thinking well ... I'm retiring in a couple of years then perhaps you could bring retirement forward."

• We need to think of ourselves as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) in our schools.
• There is far too much information out there for students to cope with. We need to teach them which bits to take notice of. They are not as good as they think they are! They are confident but careless users of ICT. Our young people need our assistance in using ICT.
  
• The Library could be the iCentre (although we may need to check with Apple as to whether they have a copyright on use of the i prefix) for ICT support and advice and the driver of ICT learning.
  
• We live in a Transparent Democracy. My School website is an example of this and we need to counsel our executives in regard to this. His feeling is that information on My School could be used by lawyers to sue in regard to students and learning opportunity in the future. Schools are not the only ones to feel the affects of greater scrutiny.
• We can't work harder - Australians are already working the longest hours in the Western world - but we need to work smarter.
• We have to work around the "Ideas Assassins" within our workplaces who generalize from a single case example - "We tried that at Oobergaldie School and it didn't work then so it won't work now!"
• We need to prepare students for the world they are learning in not the one that we did our learning in.
• Generally speaking in student's homes there is a trust of technology and a big take up whereas at school there is mistrust and a feeling of a need for control.
• Our students will be job makers rather than job takers - 3 passports to jobs Academic, Vocational (job experience e.g. Macdonalds) and Enterprise (e.g. Duke of Ed. Scouts etc.)
• We need to speak to our argument in regard to our role and needs for ICT with data.

Some recommended reading/viewing

• Martin Seligman - positive psychology expert
  
• Hugh Mackay - new book to be released in October 2010 -What makes us tick? The Ten desires that drive us
  
• Peter Senge - writer/businesss learning theorist
• Marc Prensky, 2001 Digital natives, digital immigrants
  
• Shift happens (Youtube)
• Visions of the Future - recently on ABC TV