My Digital Classroom

Over the holidays, our school installed the updated version of the animation program, Kahootz. We had a great time using the program last year as part of our study of film as text. The students had to create a deleted scene from the film using Kahootz, taking into consideration things like camera angles and shot sizes. The characters had to look and act like their film counterparts, and at the end they had to present their scene to the class and explain why they used certain camera angles & shot sizes, and how the scene fits in to the film. The students had a great time and they were able to demonstrate their understanding of the film in a visual format.

The version we used last year (Kahootz 2) had its limitations in that there were limited settings, characters and sounds. However, this was also a good thing, as it forced the students to problem solve and work together to find solutions. This is what I’m a little worried about with the new version of Kahootz. I don’t know if we are going to see the same level of problem solving that occurred with last year’s students. Students will no longer have to try to alter the shape and colour of the one fish available in order for it to look like a clown fish or angel fish. In the new version, there are four or five different fish to choose from.

In Kahootz 3, there is a wider range of settings and objects/characters, and the students are able to record their own voices and lay down soundtracks. The program is a lot more powerful and easy to use, which will also reduce some of the frustrations felt by some of the students last year who hadn’t used the program before. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what they create this year. I’m sure I’ll be amazed again.

I am sick of the funding arrangements for schools in Australia. The Federal funding of schools should be on a needs basis. Whether they are a Government, Catholic or Independent school, money should be given to where it is needed most. Whilst the Government has a responsibility to provide every citizen with an education, they should not be subsidising the most affluent schools in Australia.

I recently caught part of the ABC’s Q&A program on 12th June. I could not believe it when I heard Joel Fitzgibbon, in response to a viewer question say “But surely you’d agree there’s no harm in the Government investing the equivalent of what they don’t spend sending a kid to a public school on a private school…” Actually Joel, I do think that there is harm in doing this! You end up with a system where your capacity to pay determines your standard of education. Parents don’t send their kids to a private school because they want to save the taxpayers money, they do it because they believe that their child will get a better education. It’s not as though the parents are receiving this money to offset the cost of fees to these schools. The money is going (in a lot of cases) to build new facilities, yet the fees still increase.

To a certain degree, I understand why the Government agreed to continue the current schools funding arrangement until it expires in a couple of years- it gives schools certainty about their funding and enables planning to take place. What it has done, however, is increase the divide between public and private schools and solidify the drift away from public schools. Unfortunately, when the time comes to negotiate the next round of funding, I believe that the Government, to a large extent, will continue funding schools that don’t need it.