Now That's what I'm talking about

I have recently linked to "Langwitches - The Magic of Learning Through Technology". Great site. The most recent post It's about reflecting and analysing our teaching practice, really hits the nail on the head when it comes to integrating ICT into our teaching practice. The fact that we use technology is not the issue. The fact that we are able to create engaging and rich learning opportunities which lead to meaningful learning using technology is the issue. Regardless of the tool, or the method, without reflection and analysis of our practice we may as well be using sticks and stones as teaching tools as opposed to ICT. A very clear idea of the learning outcomes is so important as this will impact on unit/lesson construction. The post shows the use of technology in 3 different ways but one way is clearly more engaging, personal and rich compared to the other two. The (now) old phrase "poor teaching + technology = expensive poor teaching" will always hold true. The New Zealand curriculum includes teaching as inquiry as a key component of effective pedagogy. It also includes eLearning as a key component of effective pedagogy. Teaching as inquiry is independent of the tool, while eLearning without reflective practice is a dead duck.

The Volcanics Community, as an eLearning community, I think, is only just realising this fact. It therefore begs the question why we should not just call ourselves a Learning Community, as teaching is not about technology, but about teaching and Learning.

A Learning Theory for 21st Century Students

The latest Innovate magazine has an article on a learning theory for the 21st century. Interesting reading and very relevant to my own journey of wanting to know what will work in an online environment to ensure quality teaching and learning happens. The difficult part is bridging the gap between theory and practice (praxis), and this is what I, and a group of colleagues, are wanting to do. Hopefully the outcome will be a set of guidelines which teachers can use to help them provide quality on-line learning experiences for their students.

ePedagogy or simply a 21st century pedagogy

Well, haven't blogged for ages, but things have been so hectic - no excuse I suppose.
ePedagogy or simply 21st century pedagogy. Well it's a no brainer as far as I am concerned - it's 21st century pedagogy, because it's not about the technology, it's about learning. We coined the idea of an "e" in front of anything to do with computing and learning, as if it was something separate to "normal" learning. For us digital immigrants, I suppose it was, but for digital natives, using technology to learn is normal. Not using technology, or using technology in a way that is "so yesterday", is what students see as not normal. Don't get me wrong, students do not expect to have technology as part of every learning experience, but they do expect it to form part of how they go about learning. My question is how do teachers use technology to construct learning experiences that are engaging, challenging, collaborative, flexible and anytime, anywhere? How do teachers link formal and informal learning experiences to provide truly context driven learning? How do we connect with and co-construct our learning while at the same time meeting the rigours of national assessment? How do we educate our parents that learning is not about getting credits, but that getting credits is a result of learning?

So many questions.

So now what do we Do

Just read the most recent blog post by David Warlick regarding the use of web2.0 tools and other emerging learning tools, all of which are technology based. He talks about a "significant knowing-doing gap", i.e. the gap between knowing about the tool, and actually using it in education. His post goes on to list the main contributors to this "knowing-doing gap". These include time, money, age of hardware, ignorance of technology, etc. The same old same old. This of course made me think about the challenges we face here in "God's Own". The reality is, these are issues for education institutions all over the world, not just NZ. The challenge is, if NZ schools want to be a leading light in education, world wide, then we seriously need to consider what we are doing about these challenges. Too many teachers are using the excuses I read in David's blog. How many of these are valid, and how many are just a cop out. What are we doing to address and remove the barriers for teachers and what are we doing to address the issue of teachers who refuse to change, and use ignorance as an excuse. Name another profession where ignorance is an excuse?

Finding the solutions will not be easy, but the reality is, WE HAVE TO FIND A SOLUTION, for the sake of our children and education in New Zealand.

Web 2.0 is everywhere

I know up to now I have been pretty quiet on web 2.0. This is not because I did not think it was worth commenting on, but because I am actually still trying to get my head around it. It is vast, it is changing and it is out there - in more ways than one.

Check out this slide on web 2.0, and tell me what you think.

Classroom 2.0 Update 2apr08

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: web2.0 learning2.0)

An eLearning vision

This is my attempt at linking pedagogy and ICT in an endeavour to provide an eLearning Vision for the Volcanics cluster.

eLearning Vision for the Volcanics Cluster

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: ict elearning)

What became clear to me as I put this powerpoint together was the non-sequential nature of learning, and the non-sequential nature of ICT integration and development. I have asked the question whether the ICT comes first, or the PD comes first. Michael Fullan suggests that they need to happen together, which makes sense - learning by doing. However this does not follow the business model of getting bang for buck or a return on ICT investment, where we first analyse the need, then purchase the asset based on the benefits (returns) of purchase. This begs the question - "How do we measure the return on investment in education, and therefore how do we measure the return on our investment in ICT?". The whole reason for the powerpoint is my perceived need for a cohesive approach to ICT integration across the cluster. Imagine my shock and horror, when I opened a random file on my computer this morning to find the Goals set for the old VolcanicsNet in March 2005. There are a huge number of similarities between what I am advocating now, and what was put forward in 2005. So my question is WHAT THE HELL HAVE WE BEEN DOING FOR THE LAST 3 YEARS?

Collaboratively create a unit of work using Wikis

During this term, I have been working with Tony Jones, the head of Science at Tokoroa High School, at creating a wiki so that him and the science teachers in his department can co-create a unit of work. Neither Tony nor his colleagues had worked with wikis previously. They had flirted with using a Learning Management System, and Tony has created a whole L2 physics course using eXe, but they have found using a wiki the easiest way to put something on line and actually do it together. You can have a look at their work by going to http://nature-of-science.wikispaces.com/.

Designing Learning Spaces

One of the things that I am trying to do with the schools that I work with is to include the use of ICT for learning as part of the schools overall learning vision with the idea that it is the learning needs of our students and the teaching needs of our teachers that drives the purchase and implementation of hardware and software. This then leads to focussed PD based on need, which in turn leads to the old idea of reflective teaching where the teacher assesses the impact of their teaching and teaching approach on their students' learning. This is included in the NZC under "Teaching as Inquiry".

While I have advocated this approach, I have paid little attention to the design of learning spaces. Instead, I have continued to follow the old model of computer labs and computers in the back of classrooms. Derek Wenmoth's recent blog post "Designing Learning Spaces", has just turned my world on its head, because it means more change and more learning. It also means that I need to make sure that I am up to speed with all the recent developments around technology, LMS/SMS integration, pedagogy and now property management so that I can provide the best advice to the schools and staff I work with. My list of books and articles to read grows on a daily basis.

Social Networking - Is it that bad???

This is something I recently found on Chris Dawson's blog regarding social networking. I think he's spot on regarding education, and it shows where business is headed in the near future. The future is definitely coming very fast. I recently read that Japan is working on building a "space elevator", which they hope to have up and running by 2018. This is something from a science fiction novel, which we now have the technology to build; anyhow, back to education. The challenge is how do we get our students to use their social networking for the purposes of learning. How do we know that our students have something they want to learn about? What about students who don't know what they don't know, and come from backgrounds that do not value learning? It really is a paradigm shift from the way we view teaching and learning now, to what teaching and learning could look like in the future.

.... Read the blog post below, and see what you think!!!!

Chris Dawson -

Go ahead…Hang out on

MySpace. Wait, what?

The MacArthur Foundation just released a study suggesting that, not surprisingly, given the integration of social media into business and modern culture, the time kids spend with so-called new media, is generally neither wasted nor particularly harmful. In fact, as one of the lead researchers points out in the New York Times,

“It may look as though kids are wasting a lot of time hanging out with new media, whether it’s on MySpace or sending instant messages,” said Mizuko Ito, lead researcher on the study, “Living and Learning With New Media.” “But their participation is giving them the technological skills and literacy they need to succeed in the contemporary world. They’re learning how to get along with others, how to manage a public identity, how to create a home page.”

During a chat with a student she commented that often young people don’t respond to emails anymore; send them a message through Facebook and they respond immediately. What does this mean for business? It means that Intel is on the right track with its business-oriented social media development efforts.

In terms of the study, the Times again pointed out an important piece of the research that is worth the attention of classroom teachers:

“New media allow for a degree of freedom and autonomy for youth that is less apparent in a classroom setting,” the study said. “Youth respect one another’s authority online, and they are often more motivated to learn from peers than from adults.”

The executive summary of the Foundation’s whitepaper sums up the perspective nicely:

Social network sites, online games, video-sharing sites, and gadgets such as iPods and mobile phones are now fixtures of youth culture. They have so permeated young lives that it is hard to believe that less than a decade ago these technologies barely existed. Today’s youth may be coming of age and struggling for autonomy and identity as did their predecessors, but they are doing so amid new worlds for communication, friendship, play, and self-expression.

Many of these technologies that are “fixtures of youth culture” are permeating business as well. Been on Twitter lately? Sure, there’s plenty of garbage, but there are also important communities sharing ideas, business contacts, and developing their own brands (of course, there’s another one of those new media buzz words, but it certainly fits). How about that election we just had? Barack Obama has almost 135,000 followers on Twitter.

Again, a message from the study to administrators and teachers looking to integrate technology into the classroom:

In the process, young people acquire various forms of technical and media literacy by exploring new interests, tinkering, and “messing around” with new forms of media. They may start with a Google search or “lurk” in chat rooms
to learn more about their burgeoning interest. Through trial and error, youth add new media skills to their repertoire, such as how to create a video or customize games or their MySpace page. Teens then share their creations and receive feedback from others online. By its immediacy and breadth of information, the digital world lowers barriers to self-directed learning.

Exemplary Online Educators: Creating a Community of Inquiry

This is an article which was published in the Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE. While it was published in 2005, I think it still has relevance for today. This article was found by going to a link provided by a fellow eTeacher, Lynda Walsh-Pascoe.

In the introduction it says;

Within most disciplines there are those who are recognized as being exceptionally competent practitioners. These people are sometimes called exceptional or exemplary. In the educational realm, students remember these individuals as the teachers who most positively influenced their learning. The commonality of these exemplary practitioners is that they do their work in a remarkable way and their teaching strategies and interpersonal interactions are regarded by their students as highly successful.

It is easy for online educators to just transfer huge amounts of text, or files, online and call it online learning. This article highlights the importance of good practitioners who know how to inspire and lead through online learning. Click on the post heading, which links to the article

Enough Already with Luddite Schools

Hey, call me a poacher, but I have recently read two good blog postings. This one is by Christopher Dawson, see previous posts. His post lays out the vision we should have for our students regarding their adoption of technology for learning. It also therefore poses a challenge for our teachers to enable this sort of adoption to occur - not an easy task, which will take some time, but we have to start somewhere.

go to http://education.zdnet.com/?p=1931&tag=nl.e623 or click the title of this post to be linked to the words of Chris Dawson.

classroom 2.0

I subscribe to the ZDNET education updates which is a blog maintained by a fellow educator (in the US) called Christopher Dawson. His most recent post was regarding social networking and other web 2.0 tools (go to http://education.zdnet.com/?p=1928&tag=nl.e623 or click on the title to view Chris' post). The tool he was referring to was Ning, but this was NOT what got my attention. What did get my attention was the example he gave of schools using web 2.0 tools. He was blogging about how a group (cluster) of state schools in New York city are using social networking sites and cell phones to support their students' learning. His post has an excert from that article but you can go to this link, Village Voice to view the complete article. What was interesting about the article was how the schools were collecting data on how the use of the technology was improving outcomes for their students. The US may be transfixed with testing and collecting data on student performance, while we in NZ believe that education is so much more than that just test scores. However, in this case it is showing us teachers in NZ that technology can make a difference, and that the difference (value added) can be measured. The article also makes reference to a website called classroom 2.0. This is a space dedicated to those interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative or transformative technologies. Isn't this what we are about in our eLearning clusters, whether they are ICT PD, EHSAS or simply VC.

Our NZ curriculum provides us with the opportunity to transform education in New Zealand. We have the technology, we have the tools, we now need to transform.

Nga Kiwai Kete - The eLearning Toolbox

Mau tena kiwai o te kete,
maku tenei

You at that handle and I
at this handle of the basket

The website "Nga Kiwai Kete" is an eLearning website set up specifically for Maori and Pasifika students and teachers, but has resources which will benefit us all. It is a great website, with links to Introducing eLearning, planning eLearning, designing eLearning and teaching and supporting eLearning.

The website can be accessed by clicking on the title to this post, or by copying and pasting this url address: http://www.nkk.org.nz/home.php.

From Learning Management Systems (LMS) to Managed Learning Environments (MLE)

I thought I would share some of the correspondence that has been flying around regarding LMS's and interoperability. The fact is that, the solution is much bigger than just interoperability. Paul Seiler at the MoE is working on the LMS/SMS interoperability issue, but also on what such a beast would look like if it was able to talk to all systems, and whether a national or regional solution is possible. Here are some comments from a few of my colleagues as we begin to realise the scale of the task and what it means.

Phil Buchanan comments: "I really think that the big picture, a complete MLE single sign-on portal - much bigger than 'which LMS' or 'hosting solution' (or even SMS-LMS interop) should we use - is crucial for NZ education. Note Paul's message/advertisement in the next Gazette"

The interop and parental portal, which he has fostered, is a really strategic direction - to foster inclusion of the community in schools (delivered to their home) and also learning conversations at home - and the next step that he will fund/facilitate is very important for us all to understand.

Trevor Storr Comments: "I think the real challenge is not getting the technology to work, but is enabling leaders, schools and teachers to embrace collaboration. In a world context, NZ is tiny - some small cities have a larger population than the whole of NZ and operate one MLE for the whole city. Our challenge is to ensure that NZ schools benefit from the economies of scale that a large MLE can bring while still acknowledging the local flavours and foibles that 'Tomorrows Schools' encourages. An example of why this is important can be seen in the context of content authoring for an MLE using eg eXe. Do we expect all teachers to become experts in content authoring so that resources and classes can be put online, or do we think that a better solution is to enable national collaboration in content authoring so that the 'teacher experts' can share their wisdom and skill with others to reuse and refactor?"

The debate needs input from senior leaders at schools because this technology will influence the future learning environment for our students.

The Next big thing on the Net

If you are a teacher, you need to read this NZ Herald article regarding the internet, and where the next big development will be happening.

Go to this link

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10537986&ref=rss

ULearn Presentation

While I did not make it to ULearn, my fellow ePrincipals still did the presentation on the VLN, which was the one I was able to Skype into. Rachel kindly updated and added to the original powerpoint, which you can view below.

The Virtual Learning Network in New Zealand

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: elearning ict)

Fame at Last

Unfortunately I was unable to attend ULearn due to a back injury (slipped disk), but I did manage to make it into one of the presentations using Skype, and also got interviewed using Skype by the young students running various things over the ULearn conference. You can see the interview at
http://blip.tv/play/AdKLPQA

Sustainability of eLearning clusters

On Friday, Jan Collier (CoroNet), Janet Ackhurst (Baylink), Carolyn Bennett (FarNet) and Sue Winters (eP Mentor) met to discuss our presentation on sustainability of eLearning clusters, and what factors were critical in ensuring clusters survived beyond projects and project funding.

These were a few of the things we came up with:

• Context - where has the cluster come from. (Whakapapa of the cluster)
  
• Relationships - between principals at the various schools. Need to see the cluster as being beneficial for their school. The Cluster has value for each school. Principals Collaborate and co-operate.
• Relationships - between ePrincipal and Principals; between ePrincipal and staff at each school.
• Collaboration and co-operation between staff across the cluster
• Cluster vision - lead by the principals. This gives the cluster status within each school.
• Commitment by each school to the cluster vision.
  
• Someone to drive the cluster and the cluster vision - ePrincipal/cluster leader.
• Cluster leader seen as an extension of each schools SMT.
• Funding - from MoE and from each school. Need to have a sustainable funding model. This has ramifications for the size of clusters. Optimal size seen as 10 to 12 schools in a cluster.
• Leadership - the cluster needs strong leadership from principals - principals take ownership of the cluster and what happens in it.

I will be adding to this as I refer to my notes for the day.

Myclasses

Based on some of the work that the other ePrincipals have been doing with LMS's and looking at work done by Mount Albert Grammer with the Myclasses LMS, I think I can see the potential this tool has for teaching, but I believe that certain conditions need to be met:

1. Teachers need computers in their classrooms to allow for spontaneous and easy access to the technology.
2. There needs to be school wide commitment to the establishment of effective pedagogy surrounding the use of LMS's and associated technologies.
   
3. Students need to be shown how to work with the LMS, and the expectations surrounding its use.
4. The LMS should not be used simply as a document repositry. It should be seen as a point of contact and collaboration and not simply a point of content. The use of complementary software such as hot potatoes, wikis, google docs, etc should form part of the strategy when working with, and developing lessons on an LMS.
   
5. Teachers need to be clear about how the technology compliments and supports their practice.
   
6. Teachers need to realise that making greater use of an LMS gives away control, but provides the opportunity to work alongside students instead of in front of them.
   
7. We must accept that the way we work with students in this environment will change the way we teach. We also need to coach our students to be able to work within this environment, not necessarily the technical aspects, but the learning aspects.

Does the fact that this technology gives rise to any time, any where learning mean that it also gives rise to any time, any where teaching? How does this impact on how schools operate?

My f*#!%ing goosebump story

I have just received an email from a colleague of mine, Darren Sudlow, regarding a blog entry by Tomas Lasic, a teacher in a tough Australian school. This really outlines what education is all about, and the role ICT can play in education, no matter what the circumstances. Check out his blog here.