ICT Enhanced Learning and Teaching

Great resource: The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators

2012-01-27T14:24:00.000+13:00

The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators has a plethora of tips and ideas for teachers in primary, intermediate, and secondary schools, with focus on topic areas such as ESL/EFL. Tools have been selected and described for their suitability for students at different stages, and there are suggestions for how you and your learners might create the most effective learning opportunities with them. Well worth a look.
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2012 Predictions – Technology Will Shape Who We Are

2012-01-26T13:40:00.000+13:00

John Owen shared the following blog post by Brian Hopkins, 2012 Predictions – Technology Will Shape Who We Are As People And Businesse with the comment "this might be interesting". Brian refers to the notion that we are now using technology ubiquitously and this is shaping how and who we are (this is discussed further in this post: More or less human? We are all cyborgs now). It was also interesting to note Brian's prediction that the push toward cloud computing as the panacea to many IT problems will reduce...and his reasons why. Mobile, he feels, will continue to help enhance customisation of learning experiences, contextualisation, and social collaboration. Well worth having read (thanks, John).

The blog post appears as follows: In the first phase of the information age, technology helped us achieve new levels of productivity. In the next phase, technology will shape who we are. Why? Because technology is everywhere – and savvy businesses are paying attention. I did a check on a recent trip and noticed that, on average, 80% of the people around me were nose down in their technology. That’s amazing if you stop and think about it….(pause for thinking)…When you spend that much time using something, it ceases to be a helper and starts to shape who you are.

I think 2012 will be a watershed year for the global business environment as technology moves from being “out there” to “part of us.” In 2020, we will look back on 2012 not as the year the world ended but as the year it changed for good. Check out the TED video We Are All Cyborgs Now. Here are four predictions about business in 2012 that all start with the fusion of business and technology and the impact that it will have on shaping business. I hope will add some new thought food to your mental garden:

“Big IT” continues its vanishing act. In 2010, we wrote about the crumbling of IT in our report “BT 2020: IT's Future In The Empowered Era,” and I drew some sharp criticism earlier in the 2011 when I blogged “What Happens When Central 'IT' No Longer Exists?” It would be interesting to see if anybody has changed their mind over the year. With so many choices for acquiring technology, this vanishing act should come as no surprise. Consider: Many SMBs I talk to are adopting a cloud-first policy and eschewing investment in big enterprise systems, while larger enterprises look around them and scratch their heads trying to figure out how they can do the same. I predicted in “The Top 10 Technology Trends EA Should Watch: 2012 To 2014” that leading IT shops will become service brokers, and 2012 will see that become reality.
Data hype turns to focus. More than half of the trends in “The Top 10 Business Technology Trends EA Should Watch: 2012 To 2014” were directly or indirectly about data. Why? We all know it is “exploding.” What’s new is that we can finally do something about it. Our answer through 2010 was to deal with the data explosion by “managing it better.” Big data, massive parallel processing, advanced analytics, eventually consistent NoSQL databases, etc. are arriving that recognize that the chaos will never be managed. Leading firms in 2012 will let go and learn to live in the chaos, focusing on what they can control. The data hype will continue, but enterprise deployments of big data systems will lead to focused results for the front-runners.
Social and mobile converge on local. SoLoMo is a new, catchy buzzword that I’ve been tweeting about lately, and it has been blogged about on both NY Times and Forbes. The term indicates that the future of mobile computing is to connect users socially in a local context – that is, without needing to go through some big social software in a data center somewhere. I read about a great example just yesterday in which a college professor designed an iPad app that let his students collaborate visually on his lecture notes there in the classroom. The applications of this concept outside the classroom are limitless. We call this the App Internet (see our founder’s August 2010 blog post). In 2012, leading companies will really figure out how to exploit this to: 1) disrupt how products and services are sold, and 2) empower their workforce to meet consumers where they are.
Cloud migration begins in earnest. Last, I had to say something about the cloud, because it was THE HOT TOPIC of our July emerging technology tweet Jam. I think cloud hype reached a crescendo in 2011 and will significantly subside in 2012 as reality sets in and enterprises get down to the hard work of making it real. I say this because in the many reports, blogs, articles, and tweets I’ve read, a few themes stick – it’s not always cheaper, you have to know when it’s appropriate, and your environment must be ready for it (that’s a really squishy way of saying application architectures must be elastic, security issues must be resolved, policies must be in place, skills must be present, etc.). My prediction for 2012 is that we will see far less media hype about cloud as some real solutions hit the market and clients get their cloud plans off the ground. What does this have to do with my theme? Cloud is a platform that further's the proliferation of technology into business and our lives.

Images
Cloud Computing Web Application Deployment by louisvolant
Descending clouds by Gary Hayes

Inspiration, skills, and feedback via video: Introducing Russell Stannard

2012-01-19T12:23:00.000+13:00

Have you come across Russell Stannard? He has been doing some really interesting things around recording video feedback for students, as well as creating (free) videos for teacher professional development. It is well worth checking him out, especially if you teach English as an Additional Language or have a similar language support role.

Below is an extract from the monthly newsletter that you can subscribe to if you want to stay up to date with the work Russell is doing.

"Welcome to the January 2012 TeacherTrainingVideos.com newsletter. Happy new year to you. I didn't send out a newsletter in December so you will get 2 this month and each one will have new content. I have quite a few new videos set up to share.
This month there are new videos on how to use Smartboard software. So if you use a Smartboard IWB then these videos will really help you. There are also new videos on the fabulous Audioboo podcasting tool. If you want to create podcasts or get your students to create them, then you will find these really useful. There is also a set of videos on a fabulous video mail tool, which is great for getting your students to do speaking activities. There is also my latest audioboo, an recent article of mine in the Guardian and lots more: http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/iwb2/index.html

Audioboo-Great Podcasting Tool
Audioboo is a great tool for podcasting and it is free. It can also work with smart phones, so great for doing podcasts on the run. The videos take you through everything and even show you how to connect your audioboos so that they can be found on iTunes! Great tool and easy to use.
http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/audioboo/index.html

Jing
If you want to learn to use JING, the fabulous tool I use for creating the feedback videos, then here is the link.
http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/Jing/index.html".

Wikipedia blacked out to protest

2012-01-19T11:19:00.000+13:00

Michael Winter shared the announcement that Wikipedia has been "blacked out for 24 hours to protest against proposed legislation that threatens freedom of expression on the Internet.To find out more try accessing Wikipedia as normal or go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more". Michael also indicated that he thinks it "seems like a good way to get support for a worthwhile protest".

Nick Ford added the comment "For me a locked down/user pays manifestation of the Internet rather than the Internet the world is currently blessed with is something to be vigilant against. For more information visit Stanford Centre for Internet and Society (CiS) and read 'STOP SOPA'. Lawrence Lessig is the founder of CiS and Creative Commons".

Image via CrunchBase

I wholeheartedly agree that the Internet needs to remain as open and accessible, and that the whole notion of copyright is an outmoded, artificial construct that has been placed on creativity and innovation by folk who see a direct cause and effect between the creation of something, and making a buck. The reason I feel it's artificial is that invention and art (to name but two) have always been a constant collaborative effort, where one thing builds on another - often extending it. The lightbulb could not, for example, have been invented if a whole heap of work had not been done around electricity, resistance, and the materials required to make the physical object. How can you copyright / patent that?

Image by Octavio Rojas via Flickr

The whole notion also raises interesting wider questions around what we believe to be freedom of expression, and where, if anywhere, the line has to be drawn. There is some content that pretty much unanimously human being are likely to agree has no place in society in general, and on the Internet in particular, and some forms of predatory behaviour that are also not acceptable. However, where subjects of morality, bias, and belief are

expressed, what do we feel is 'acceptable' and why? When I find something objectionable should that mean it is removed? If the Internet is there for anyone to share their own world view, what if it seen as inciting violence by some, but as a way of promoting peace by another? And who makes the final decision? Would be great to hear what you think

We need to be able to fail!! Start making better mistakes

2012-01-17T10:12:00.000+13:00

This is a gripping video that, although it doesn't refer directly to education has huge implications with the way in which we think about and measure the effectiveness of what we and our learners do. If you are someone who uses and works with statistics and 'empirical evidence' this video is a must see.

The blurb from the site reads: "Economics writer Tim Harford studies complex systems -- and finds a surprising link among the successful ones: they were built through trial and error. In this sparkling talk from TEDGlobal 2011, he asks us to embrace our randomness and start making better mistakes."

New Zealand's proposed Network for Learning

2012-01-12T23:56:00.000+13:00

At the end of 2011 Rachel Roberts reported on an important meeting that she attended in connection with the New Zealand Network for Learning initiative, which will "progressively from 2013, ...provide schools with affordable, safe, ultra-fast internet access as well as a range of online content and centrally-procured services".

The VLN Community met with Marg McLeod, Acting Group Manager, Curriculum Teaching and Learning, and Eddie Reisch from the MOE. The image below illustrates some of the fundamental underpinnings of the Network that Marg indicated will include changing patterns of educational provision and more informed parents, communities, and then general public. The Network will be the channel for education content and service delivery and this will have major implications for the way the Ministry and other agencies deliver content and services to schools.

Some of the expected benefits are:

more equitable access to online learning opportunities
more effective sharing of resources and knowledge
reduced ICT complexity and cost
increased operational efficiencies
improved connection and collaboration between learners, teachers, school leaders and school communities.
opportunity to move to more modern learning environments that support 21st Century education delivery
lift in student achievement through greater engagement driven by innovative approaches to teaching and learning

Study Offers Institutions Guidance for Continued Growth of Online Learning

2012-01-12T22:44:00.001+13:00

Image by London College of Fashion short courses via FlickrEven though the report is from 2009, and focuses on tertiary learning and teaching in the States, it is well worth a read no matter as many of the findings still hold true. Highlights from the two-volume report, Online Learning as a Strategic Asset (links to download below), which contains the results of 231 interviews conducted with administrators, faculty, and students at 45 public institutions across the US, include the following:

“Faculty from across the university [Brandies University] are participating, many feel the quality is as good as or better than face-to-face instruction, and an overwhelming majority have recommended online courses to students (Bruce R. Magid, source).

"While faculty engagement in online learning is solid, faculty expressed dissatisfaction with the support services provided and the incentives offered by public universities. Faculty ranked seven of eight support dimensions as “below average,” including support for online course development, course delivery, and students; policies on intellectual property; recognition in tenure and promotion; and incentives for developing and delivering online courses. Only technology infrastructure was rated average. Faculty gave the lowest ranking to their institution’s incentives for developing and for delivering online courses" (source).

"The faculty survey data indicate growing acceptance of online learning among faculty but highlight a number challenges, including campus support services and faculty incentives" (source).

APLU_online_strategic_asset_vol1-1.pdf

APLU_online_strategic_asset_vol2-1.pdf

Want some guidance around writing learning outcomes? Try the learning outcomes authoring tool

2012-01-12T22:05:00.001+13:00

Many thanks to Conor Bolton who recently shared these online learning outcome authoring tools. The first is the ‘Co-generative Toolkit’ - CegentT the development of which was funded by JISC. The tool has four main parts - the vocabulary, outcome, task and design builders (read more about them here). I found the tool, even though it has a focus on the UK qualification system, really easy to use. It has enough depth to be a real help in the development of learning outcomes, especially if you are involved in the tertiary or VET sector.

For more or a school-relevant tool, Conor also linked to the Learning Outcomes Authoring Tool. It has a very simple interface. You start by expanding the 'Setting the stage' and/or 'Learning skills taxonomies' headings. You are then provided with example stems that help kick start the learning outcome writing process. Each of the items has a handy explanation pop up that you can access by clicking the magnifying glass icon.

An example of one such explanation and set of guidelines about learning outcomes in general is: "What do you want your students to learn as a result of the lesson? Follow the three-step process below for creating learning objectives. 1. Create a stem 2. After you create the stem, (first, Select a Taxonomy, second, a Learning Domain, third, a Skill) and then a verb to add 3. One you have a stem and a verb, determine the actual product, process, or outcome Identify behaviors, conditions, and criteria needed for performing and assessing to write expected outcomes and performance objectives".

Really worth taking a look if you are involved in any form of teaching ... or learning - can be a real eye opener! :-)

Image source: Styleful by photosteve101

Bringing Maslow screaming into the 2012s: Maslow's Model Rewired for Social Media

2011-12-20T18:57:00.000+13:00

Peter Allen (The Learning Wave) shared this great article, prefaced by the comment "Came across this interesting article ... brings Maslow screaming into the 2012's.... ".

To give you a taster of the article here is a couple of paragraphs and the 'rewired diagram' (from Social Networks: What Maslow Misses by Pamela Rutledge :

"Needs are not hierarchical. Life is messier than that. Needs are, like most other things in nature, an interactive, dynamic system, but they are anchored in our ability to make social connections."

Maslow's Model Rewired for Social Media

"None of Maslow’s needs can be met without social connection....Maslow's model needs rewiring so it matches our brains. Belongingness is the driving force of human behavior, not a third tier activity. The system of human needs from bottom to top, shelter, safety,sex, leadership, community, competence and trust, are dependent on our ability to connect with others. Belonging to a community provides the sense of security and agency that makes our brains happy and helps keep us safe".

What is being said here closely aligns with findings from a research study that is being conducted alongside the Virtual Professional Learning and Development programme (VPLD - you can find out more here if you are interested). If you have a look at this diagram (link here), you'll see that, except for the food, shelter, and sex part of the 'rewired model' all of these aspects are present - even if they are referred to with different terminology. What was also evident was that people entered the cycle (green boxes on the inside of the diagram), and all developed at different speeds. Wonder what the implications are for programmes of learning, and their design, facilitation and evaluation in the future?

Thanks for the thought provoking article, Peter.

The CAT amongst the pigeons: A reflective framework approach to personalised PD in open, flexible and networked learning

2011-12-06T17:06:00.001+13:00

Image via Wikipedia
This is an initiative designed by John Clayton and Richard Elliott (Emerging Technologies Centre). Richard Elliott started the session by asking the question "is there a difference between education and training?". He then used the scenario - "if you had a daughter would you prefer she was having sex education or sex training?". The Competency Assessment Tool is embedded in a reflective framework.

The CAT consists of 5 modules, and has been used with people in a range of countries. The tool has been designed to enable people to assess their current competency in a range of defined activities. The response is designed around 'traffic lights', and at the end you have a pictorial carpet. There are then 3 steps that take the individual through the entire process. An ePortfolio is required as evidence of competent practice.

The tool is adaptable and can be used by pretty much any institution. (http://etc.elearning.ac.nz). Richard demonstrated the tool live, and explained that the tool has been trialled such that the language is not ambiguous, for example.

It is an approach that empowers learners to assess their own competencies and progress. The tool can be used in the appraisal process for staff as well. At the moment it is in Beta form, and the next step is to put a database behind it. At the moment you have to print out the results afterwards.

The blending of blended learning: An experiential approach to academic staff development

2011-12-06T16:48:00.000+13:00

Image by David T Jones via Flickr
Debra Bath and John Bourke spoke about the results of work they have been doing around a blended learning course at Griffith University. The University focus from 2008 onwards has been on blended learning, and to "...systematically embed BL approaches in the teaching and learning activities of all progams". A course was set up around blended learning to support staff, and four people were appointed.

In the first year there were about 38 enrolments. The course had to embody blended learning, and allowing the students to walk that walk with the facilitators. How can yo utalk and teach about blneded learning unless you give people an opportunity to do it? Two frameworks underpinned the BL course, including TPCK. The TPCK model goes beyond content, pedagogy and technology, but rather is a blending of all three components. The Community of Inquiry model was used to complement the course "avoids the tyranny of adopting clever techniques" (Garrison & Vaughan, 2007, p. 13). The social, cognitive (creating challenge, and searching for / integrating new ideas) and teaching presence were encapsulated in the design of the course.

There were 4 key learning objectives ranging from awareness of philosophies and upskilling in practical skills. The course was structured around 3 f-2-f sessions in non-teaching weeks, 4 x learning modules. and 3 x virtual turorial sessions (Wimba). The small group wiki was used for participants to develop a resource that then became a good tip user guide.

The course was evaluated in a range of ways, including via survey to evaluate the impact of the corse (http://communitiesofinquiry.com).

Using insider research to study teacher engagement with video conferencing in first year classes

2011-12-06T16:29:00.000+13:00

Image by mikecogh via Flickr
Nicola Westbury opened with an overview of the background to the study, and highlighted some issues such as the danger of disconnestion in large classes (Nicol, 2010) and how educators respond to technology education. The researchers used insider research "an individual who posseses intimate knowledge of the community and its members" (Labaree, 2002, p. 100). While aspects identified in this definition offers some great benefits, there are also ethical considerations.

There were 4 large (800 to 1000 students in first year classes, 17 lecturers and 6 key informating, and the initiative was rolled out in 2011 semester one. The use of video conferencing was trialled to simultaneously connect four lecture venues in Auckland. There were quite a few issues, and the initiative has only run in semester 1.

Data was collected via a range of means including group interviews and videoing of the sessions. One of the thing that came out is that teachers are now expected to take on roles as technicians - often involving the carrying around the hardware. Uncertainty was a problem, and technical issues were a constant bugbear - sometimes the technology worked beautifully and other times it didn't. Emerging themes include changes as teacher, and identity.

Image via Wikipedia

Insider research has been powerful and has allowed access to backstage areas of teaching. The repeated contact to collagues has been very positive. The use of implicit knowledge and credibility has grown and there has been a growth in credibility. There are, however, power relationships within the workplace. The data has not been used in an evaluative way, and this means making decisions around, for example, using the data outside the scope of the research study. Limitations also include being too embedded.

Teacher engagement in a Web 2.0 world: Developing your online teaching and learning Community of Practice

2011-12-06T16:09:00.000+13:00

Image by D'Arcy Norman via Flickr
Ed Flagg and Diana Ayling spoke about the background beind the setting up a community of practice with practitioners at Unitec in NZ. As Ed said - it was 3 years work in 10 minutes. The Community was established online in Ning, based in part on the ICTELT model.

The Community in 2012 is vibrant and lively with over 13,000 views for the year. What Ed and Diana didn't bank on was having members from around the world, rather than only the Unitec practitioners. It is now the largest online CoP in education in NZ. 31% are female, and 34% are teachers. Only 57% of participants are confident in publishing their ideas online. Only 27% of people have uploaded a profile photo. There are 14 groups within the overall CoP. There have been 254 blog posts, with 88% posted by Ed and Diana. However, the presenters are observing that the modelling of posting and commenting helps increase confidence and model practice...which is gradually rippling through the rest of the community.

We sometimes overestimate our ability to participate. Only a small percentage of the community are creators of the community artefacts.. There has to be trust for an online CoP to work.

Findings to date:

Interaction on the site is slow but growing
There is a risk in duplication with other sites vs an opportunity to be linked to other sites
there is a need to balance the internal demands of staff and needs to share and communicate with the benefirts of interaction in a global learning and teaching world.

Some of the comments to date via a research project are: "This community seems to me to be q1uite includisve in its approach, but 2withoug pressure to either contribute or remain connected", "Fun trying to keep up though - not a negartive experiences at all...occasionally frustrating".

The presenters stressed that there is huge potential going forward and threw down the challenge to ASCILITE to facilitate to keep up a global CoP of learning and teaching.

Distributed leadership for integration of information and communication technology

2011-12-06T15:01:00.000+13:00

Image via Wikipedia
Seng-Chee Tan first discussed the growing interest in technology leadership as an important factor of the effective integration of technology into education. The theoretical underpinnings include a more realistic vision of mult-level leadership in schools, so distributed leaders can be regarded as "a social distribution where the leadership funcion is strenched over the work of a number of individuals" (Spillane, Halverson, & diamon, 2001, p. 20). Luhmann's systems theory includes 3 proposals of segmentation (small identical units), stratification (hierarchies), and functional units (sub-unites that are interdependent). Luhman suggests that change is a result of the interaction of all three aspects proposed.

The research questions were around the way distributred leadership was used in 3 schools. It was a case study, and was part of a nationwide 5-year longitudinal study involving an annual survey of 110 schools and tracking the development of 12 schools. A survey was administered to 7,390 students in 2010. Seven items wre about the use of ICT for self-directed learning, and 7 around the use of ICT for collaborative learning. There were also interviews conducted with Principals and Heads of Department.

Image via Wikipedia

In School A the Hod of ICT was the key driver to communicate ICT goals and initiatves to the teaching staff. she mde decisions around prioritisation as well. She made decisions around training for here teachers, thereby following the 'heroic' model of leadership - 1 central figure driving the whole change). School B had department-based ICT initiatives (maths using tablets, and the science department using reflection boards). In School B there was a segmentation distribution of leadership (separate units, not really talking with each other). In School C the principal and vice-principals examined the key MoE initiatve or dieraction and they did an envisioning exercist. The IT department has 4 directors. Other suject heads of department provided individual department plans. The teachers had the autonomy to design and implement their own ICT pedagogical practices. This was a bottom up form of leadership - functional differntiation form of leadership where almost everyone is involved.

Findings: School A was least successful in ICT integration, and School B there was some degree of experimentation, and school C had school-wide integration and was most successful. In the future there is a plan to explore why and how a distributed leadership is more effective in ICT integration.

Scholarship, leadership and technology: A case study of embedding evidence-based practice

2011-12-06T15:00:00.000+13:00

Image via Wikipedia
Linda Creanor opended by highlighting some of the issues that they are facing in Scotland. They have been inspired by examples from around the world and taken them back to their own context where they have been adapted. Linda is based at the Glasgow Caledonian University which is a post-92 institution, with 17,000 students, and 3 academic schools. There is a stong emphaisi on learning.
Some of the challenged include:

Maintaining staff engagement in the innovative learning and teaching
Career progression seems to focus on research rather than expertise in learning and teaching
The changing nature of learning and teaching due to technology advances is not always underpinned by pedagogy
There are pockets of excellence but making sure that they are mainstreamed is a challenge
Need to link various aspects of CPD, scholarship and technology together,and all with increasingly limited resources

Leadership is key in transformational change alongside change agent roles (Chapman, 2002). They came across the distributive leadership model (Lefoe, 2010) "a dsitribution of power withing the sociiocultural context of universities and a sharing of knowledge, of practice and reflection through collegiality" (lefoe, 2007, p. 5). These ideas were then used to develop GCU's CPD framework for learning and teaching, and this was launched in 2008.

The Caledonia Scholarships and Associates model is competitive, peer reviewed, and supported by senior management. There is status attached to the roles and the criteria were linked to promotion. The projects are expected to be action research, evidence-based, and to embrace learning technology. This were influenced by scholarship (Boyer, 1990). There is minimal resourcing (2,000 UK pounds per scholar). The money the scholar gets could be used for conference attendence, or for data processing, for example.

Wanted to try to engage people in innovation, and provide opportuntiies for new and experienced staff to maintqain continuing engement with scholarly approaches to learning and teaching throughout their careers. Although they started with individuals, there are now small groups working together on projects.

Facilitation is through f-2-f meetings, an online community in BB, a blog, shared resources, methodologies and experiences.

Image via Wikipedia

The findings indicate that the status and the role are as important as the project. Impacts include (over 48 associates over 3 years) 36 projects undertaken, minimal resourcing of a very effective initiative (including awards, promotion, and development of valuable research findings). "The Scholars and Associates Program has proved to be beneficial to participants in a variety of ways in the intiial phase" (external evaluator). There is continuing support, and growing evidence of scholarly activity. It appears to be a sustainable, cost-effecitve model. In the future they are moving toward strategic focussed - such as a new role of Caledonian Fellow has been approved by Senate and is under development.

Leveraging technology for engaging learning design

2011-12-06T14:36:00.000+13:00

Image via Wikipedia
Ashwini Datt and Trudi Aspden presented on leveraging technology for engaging learning design. They first looked at some strategies to encourage students to complete homework. The presenters identified some assumptions around digital literacy and technical skills, and then identified 4 elements for the learning design - authenticity, motivation, scaffolding and skills development (the main focus). Equity was a really important factor too.

The presenters unpacked a diagram that looked at the underpinning aspects of the design, and then gave the context. The course is a First year pharmacy course (p101), and they have about 100 students per year. There is a group assignment that rund through the mid-semester break with 4-5 students randomly allocated per group. A specific example of a student who had to travel to Auckland to complete the group assignment. Trudi had been to a workshop on Wikis, and Trudi had an ah ha moment where she felt that if they put everything online then the students would be able to complete the course requirements online.

Image via Wikipedia

The final design of the assignments include an ePoster, and orapresentation of the poster, a sritten summary of the work, and provide 3 references with justification.All of these were completed online. The presenters wanted to provide flexible access to the resources and tools, to be able to mointor student collaborations in groups tasks and manage assessment of the assignment better, and they were also keen for students to develop some skills that they could use later on. Information and structure was provided through the course website, and scaffolded inquiry was developed through the format of a webquest. Collaborative learning was conducted via a wiki (Wikispaces), and social bookmarking was encouraged. Exemplars were provided to help scaffold students.

The webquest was designed around a scenario which also aimed to have a social impact aspect rather than purely focussing on the various concerns around a specific disease. The process was outlined as a list of things students needed to do to complete a specific task, along with access to the rubrics that would be used to assess their assignments. Fifteen percent of the P101 course marks are allocated to this assignment. How To guides were provided around using some of the technologies, as well as guidelines for collaboration, confidence and familiarity with working with other people online.

Results: A pre and post assignment survey (54 out of 99 completed the assignment).77.8% agreed that the webquest added value, 51.9% agreed that the webquest contrained enough informaiton, 68.5% would be confident to use them in future assignments, 51.9% agreed that the assignment tasks helped them develop transferable skills, and 75% thought that the assignment developed their ability to work in a team.

Findings: Prividing the tools does not guarantee student engagement; and targeted strategies for fostering group work are needed beyond the provision of collaborative tools.

A really clear presentation that showed lecturers responding to student needs in creative ways...that ended up getting really good results :-) Will be interesting to see where they go next.

Learner generated content as a pedagogical change agent

2011-12-06T14:34:00.000+13:00

Image via Wikipedia
Vickel Narayan started by exploring the notion of learner generated content and showed the extract of a video that showed how hip hop can be used to engage studnents. Vickel also showed some images which illustrated the use of mobile devices in this process, as learning can happen anywhere.

Vickel indicated that he does not believe in the Digital natives term, but has found the learners he has been engaging with are quick to learn.

The mobile projects Vickel has been involved in are very much driven by an ethos of pedagogy, participation and process. The skills being learned can then be applied outside of the classroom and in future jobs.

Vickel introduced the Electronics coourse where they used You tube, Google Docs, Buzz and blogger to enable students to develop their own content and to move away from a traditional paradigm where the lecturer is the sage on the stage. One of the things that was noticed was how quickly the students took over the learning space. As soon as students were encouraged to take ownership of the face-to-face space they completed changed the lay out of the desks and chairs.

Another project discussed was Boat Building. What they did was encourage students to blog and reflect on their experiences...especially mistakes. The lecturer in turn was able to step in and help where he could see where students were struggling. The students created a large repository of videos.

Marine technology was the next project. Vickel mentioned a specific student from Brazil "I've started the 2011 semester...we were tired of listerdning to our tutor talking for two hours every day" and the shift in focus made a large impact on this student who commented positively on the shift in practice.

The smart shed design

The CAME project was mentioned as a shift in the teaching and learning paradign, and the final project was social learning technologies. Staff actually experienced Web 2.0 on this programme, and then explored the tools in their own context (see here for more detail).

Benchmark yourself: Self reflecting about online teaching

2011-12-05T17:56:00.000+13:00

Image by London College of Fashion short courses via Flickr
Maria Northcote kicked off by introducing the moobric (http://moobric.net) which has been developed to help people reflect about online teaching. She asked the audience what is 'good online teaching' and then showed the words that came up when she asked her own staff with including authentic, engagement, empowerment etc.

At Avondale College of Higher Education the staff are not that familiar with online environemtns and they often aske 'what is a good online teacher?' and that was one of the motivations to developing the moobric. The Moobric is underpinned by thinking by Oliver, Herrington, Kerns, Salmon etc. The function is to scaffold the identification of knowledge and skills in online teaching and online course design.

The audience was invited to take the moobric and adapt it to their own environment. Maria then showed us the Moobric site and interface, and an example of what it looks like. The Moobric is structured around 3 levels of skills (Muddler, Meddler, and the Mighty Moodler). The rubric is relatively interactive and you can go through and hide the descriptors that do not apply to you giving you a visual representation of where you are 'at' as far as skills are concerned. Very much a self-check tool, and it is the activities that happen before and after that would make it a self reflection tool, and as such it is not a stand alone tool.

It could be something that could be used as is, or modified for other environments. At the moment there are about 35 people in the faculty where Maria works, and they are planning to use the Moobric next year.

Well worth having a look at and could definitely provide a springboard to planning and identifying areas to work on.

An integrated faculty model for engaging staff with online and blended learning

2011-12-05T17:16:00.001+13:00

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A quick context overview was given of the project and the reasons why they model was developed. The presenters are working at a small multidisplinery institution. They decided to go with a holistic model with four key facets: 1) Inform; 2) Engage; 3) Implement: Collaborative development of online units; 4) Support: community of practice for ongoing engagement.

In 2010 the Dean and Deputy Dean undertook a study tour of the UK & Western Europe. This led to a spark for development. One of the first things that happended was an upgrade in the LMS (summer 2010-11), and then two workshops were developed. Learning design teams were then formed to develop / redevelop online units based on Gilly Salmon Carpe Diem model. Teams can comprise discipline groups, learning designer, suject librarian, technology expert and others as required. The fourth phase involved plans to facilitate formation of CoPs around specific topics. Examples might include teaching large online cohorts, online assessment, and improving student engagement. As yet phase 4 has not been implemented.

Results so far: staff participation at scholars' sessions has been very high - 62% for Gilly Salmon, anmd 60% for David Nicol. In staget 2 the workshop programme 68% attended with a high uptake by sessional staff. Stage 3 (collaborative design was well recieved by participating stqaff, who enjoyed brainstoring their ideas, mapping out their unit, revising objectives, assessment etc. It is yest to be seen how much of the design is ultimately implemented. There are also quesitons around how success is going to be determing (ie one new activity?), or a fully implemented new design?

They have found that the sessions are really intensive and people are totally exhausted (but happy) by the end of the day. Factors for success was seen because it includes:

Faculty-wide model; and
Has high level support from faculty management

Equipping lecturers for the iRevolution: iPads in action

2011-12-05T14:23:00.000+13:00

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James Oldfield presented on a project that both he and Thom Cochrane have been working on at Unitec. James started with a bit of an overview of the background to the project, especially around the question "what is the iRevolution". Thom and James started with a pilot using the iPads with James's students, and learned a lot which they have fed-frward to the subsequent projects.

The projects were underpinned by the affordances of mobile learning, as well as social constructivism and communities of practice. Previously students have struggled with the small screen size with mobile devices (Sharples, Taylor, & Vavoula, 2007), but with the iPad this wasn't an issue. It was important that the staff as well as the students were using the iPads. Like minded peers with a common interest were encouraged to work together (Wenger, 2005), and James took on the role of the Technology Steward (Wenger, 2005).

The Community of Practice (21 staff from two business departments - approximately 50% of the staff overall) were equipped with iPads, and the initial trial was followed by the permanent allocation of the devices for staff. This was an optional project and yet there was still a good turn out to initial sessions during the holiday periods. James developed a Moodle course to assist staff to work with the iPads. The Moodle course offered a place for community, access to a glossary of apps, as well as a one stop shop for trouble shooting. The results was the gradual development of capability, which could be seen by, for example, staff posting to the glossary of apps.

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The overall results illustrated that the staff involved, even though they had started from a relatively uninformed position in relation to familiarity to the technology, they had definitely increased capability. Feedback indicated that the iPad is useful for many tasks, and now prefer to use their iPad to their laptop, which remains in their office.One area was highlighted by the following comment "Infrastructure is the problem. The other thing is the cost side, and you compare with the sort of student5s we have in terms of affordability. Or is ti freely available?". This has yet to be fully addressed at the institution.

The affordances of the device really appealed, and for most the iPad acted as an encouragement to look and consider a range of possible pedagogical changes. The duration of the initiative has also proven important.

The level of engagement has been high, and it is interesting that in this project the team has started with the tool rather than overtly with a focus on the design of the programme of learning, and integration with the alternative approaches into the curricula.

Wins and hurdles - the ups and downs of providing professional development in eLearning

2011-12-05T13:51:00.000+13:00

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Jacqui Kelly, Judy Schrape, & Kuki Singh highlighted a few of the most effective things that they do as part of PD at Curtin. The main PD is around a weekly programme over 8 weeks, and on top of this there is a module on eLearning, which are further complemented by a range of online resources. Regular eNewsletters are sent once a month to advertise the PD and what it offers.

The PD covers How to use the various tools. The satisfaction rates are quite high. The workshop feedback included comments around "What did you like best about our PD?" Jacqui showed a couple of videos where staff talked about the sessions. The first one was around having a nice safe closed space to experiment, and the second was that she liked the hands on aspect of the sessions where you work through a handout, and the two trainers in the room meant you could get help at any time. Also the follow up was important and knowing who to contact.

Attendance rates have been quite high over the last 3 years. The interesting thing is that more and more professional and development staff have been attending the training rather than only academics. Quite a few staff come to more than one session.

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Hurdles: key thing they need to work out is how to contact more staff - emails often end up under 'delete'. The mixed groups have their own challenges, and staff are no remunderated for attending the eLearning training. A lot of staff book on to sessions, but only about 3/4 of staff who sign up actually attend. There was also a fear of using the technology, and this can create ongoing issues espscially if the technology then doesn't work, or what seemed simple in the workshop appears difficult afterwards. Time again was a big issue.

The workshops were activity driven, consistend, appropriately scheduled, and reflected the teaching styles of the various facilitators. Feedback has been pretty positive, and also included some helpful suggestions for improvement" "Perhaps you could do a needs assessment of participants before we get there to pitch it at the right level".

Elluminate is used for staff who are not based on the main campus, and they have found that participating in webinar sessions in this way gives them a lot of ideas around how to use the environment with students.

The conclusion is that the programme has been successful because it is constantly adapting.

The interesting thing here is the focus on the practical skills - I wonder how the skills were then interconnected with pedagogically sound design. Liked the notion of the immersion envrionment in the Elluminate experience.

Understanding the reasons academics use - and don't use - endorsed learning technologies

2011-12-05T13:30:00.000+13:00

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Gregory Kennedy, Deb Jones, Dianne Chambers, and Jon Peacock started their presentation with a wee cartoon that pictured a person in front of a computer that read "either there is an error, or you are too dumb to use this computer". This introduced the research project that the team has undertaken around the question "What are the drivers of technonolgy use in teaching and learning at the University of Melbourne?". Shannon and Doube (2003, 2004) identified a list of barriers impacting the uptake of technology, and this has been extended by Birch and Burnett (2009) - reasons are categorised as institutional, individual, and pedagogical.

Gregory introduced some of the internal University tools available (Blackboard, Moodle, Turnitin, Echo etc), but these enterprise systems were then being extended by 'unsanctioned' technologies freely available on the Web. The team undertook a survey with staff, and the quantitative data was reported on. The survey was completed by 268 faculty members, and the demographics were unsurpising. Some of the trends in what they found included a high percentage of faculty used the institution LMS tools, followed by about 50% plus using things such as Turnitin, and then 60% and up of staff who have never used the institution tools...some of which they didn't actually know about. The non-University-based technologies included onlined video (48.4% using them). Interesting that one of the areas where they could make the comparison was the blog and wiki tools. In an area where people are not using many of the more advanced social media tools, there is a rough equivalence between institutional and non-institutional tools.

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There are a number of reasons for people using technology, especially value for students. Using a factor analysis the data was analysed and the reasons for using the technology are innovation and learning, and the sencond factor was the convenience. For not using, the reasons included support and skills, and relevance and value where there were concers about how relevant it would be for both staff and students. The four scales were put through a cluster analysis which pulled together all areas that were 'alike'. There were four clear set of staff that emerged - Regular citizens (n=41)not strong dirvers for technology); Convenience driven (n=37) most value in the ability of technology to make things more convenient; Perfect citizens (n=72) not that driven by lack of relevance, motiavated to use technology based on value, relevance etc; Dedicated warriors (n=95) similar to perfect citizens are in it for the right reasons but still have another of concerns; Disgruntled pragmatists 9n=17) dominated by the reasons not to use technology.

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"Although technology is now commun place in most higher education institutions - most institutions have invested in a...VLE and employ staff dedicated to support eLearning - there is little evidence of significant impact on teaching practice" (Blin & Munrol, 2008).

Time is a huge issues for staff. Strategies need to be developed to encourage more faculty to invest time and effort, and one of the key factors identified are professional development.

Some interesting findings - it would be interesting to hear how the findings from the data have been used. At the moment they have been sent through to the academic board at the University, and this will then go foward into practical strategies to tailor PD programmes in response to that.

Building a scaffold for future learning: Whilst the demands increase and the directions change

2011-12-05T12:11:00.000+13:00

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Gilly Salmon was the first keynote of ASCILITE 2011, and her presentation was accompanied by a visual representation of the presentation as it was underway. She started by talking about her professional 'journey' around the topic of forge (to form or make through concentrated effort...). Gilly used to work for the Open University in the UK and even though the OU was ostensibly 'distance learning' there was quite a few face-to-face tutorials. This became a problem once they opened up programmes in Europe where students were geographically disparate and there was no way that they could drive into, say, Paris on a weekly basis for tutorials. This sparked some creative thinking around hwo to connect and communicate (prior to, for example, graphic user interfaces).

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Some of the things that Gilly learned on the way 1) if you want the future of learning to work you have to design it; 2) the actual role of facilitation is different to the design process; 3) if you want to know if it's working - ask your students!!

Between 1992 and 1995 Gilly developed a five stage model for productive learning forms around 1) access and motivation, 2 culture building, 3 co-operation, 4 collaboration, 5) development. Once students have forged relationships they are more likely to help each other, and there needs to be motivation to come back again and again...this in particular is to see of there is a message in response to something they have posted. This means someone needs to have posted a response, and the facilitator will need to build this culture. Little easy things should build toward a final larger task. The steps break into roles welcome, host, lead, facilitate and guide. The welcome should be around welcoming a person, and congratulated for coming back, leading is showing how being part of the environment and contributing to it will be of value to them.

Image by vickel_n via Flickr

Gilly broke down the eModerating roles as follows. She advised that you need to recruit people who are more comfortable as guides on the side, and who do not see elearning as a substitute for something better. She emphasised that it is important to train everyone beforehand before letting them loose in the online environment. It's also good if they have had experience of being an eLearning, and who have a 'reflective edge'. The training aspect needs to have aspects of 'weaving and summarising', as well as diversity - although this tends to come with experience rather than being something that you can train people to 'do'.

The five stage model becams a catalyst for many people who started using it to design learning experiences for students. This in turn impacted Gilly who herself started to design programmes in quite a different way.

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You can't design programmes on your own any more. This is something that Gilly has called Designing together: Carpe Diem which is a model for learing design that uses the five stage model as a foundation, and has since been developed further. The idea was that the session was run over a day, but it actually needs a couple of days. The first day focuses on the design, and the second on the build. Story boarding is a fundamental aspect of the process.

Gilly concluded that your own 'forge' needs to be grounded and practical, driven by needs and a purpose, addresses prior design and deliverly, and is adaptable and flexible.

While there was nothing new in the presentation, it was a superb overview of the development of eLearning and associated design and facilitation considerations...and the importance aspects of how to make 'virtual' learning effective.

Harnessing the Smartphone Revolution

2011-12-01T14:11:00.000+13:00

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Braden Turner (the innovations manager at Vodafone NZ) was a keynote speaker at the ICELF conference, and he spoke about smart devices, and harnessing the 'revolution'. He fronted up by saying that he is not an mLearning expert, and he will be speaking about network capability, and how this will impact education in NZ.

Smartphones have changed significantly in the past couple of years, and Braden reinforced this point by showing a short video. Much of the video focussed on the technology making decisions for you to "make life easier". It felt as though Braden was searching for links between his corporate presenation and how it may relate to education. Wonder if a little more homework might have helped :-) One suggested example was a student reading a text on their smart device, hopping into their car to get to lectures, and the device automatically switching to an MP3 to continue working with the text.

Apparently 33% of people would rather lose their wallet than their phone - you can always borrow cash, but you can't borrow someone else's phone for the day. Ninety one percent of phone owners will keep their phone within 5 meters of themselves 24/7.

Augmented reality is the concept of using your camera on your mobile device to interface with realtiy. For example, you might be reading a text about welding, and the phone will bring up a video about how to weld, and therefore enhancing the learning experience. Hmmm - someone just tweeted about "where is the human in all of this?" - tend to agree.

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We were treated to an overview of the future of the Vodafone network (Long Term Evolution)...while it is interesting to be reassured that, in theory, the network will cope with heaps of students using their smartphone and from any location (e.g. rural locations)....hmmm - a Tui advert in the making ;-)

eLearning and teacher education: Crossing digital divides

2011-12-01T13:27:00.001+13:00

Image by Wayan Vota via Noeline Wright started the presentation with a reference to Prensky's notion of Digital natives and the fact that it was always supposed to be a metaphor, and has since be used in ways that he never initially meant. The notions of digital natives do not replace. for example intuition, good judgement, problem solving, and ability to discern patterns. Also, "in and unimaginable complex future, the digitally unenhanced person, however wise, will not be able to access the tools of wisdom that will be available to even the least wise digitally enhanced human" (Prensky). It suggests that delayed use of these types of tools will be impoverished use. Media should not be regarded merely as teaching aids or tools for learning. Education about the media should be seen seen an indispensable pre-requisite for education with or though media (Buckingham and Burn, 2007).

Critical thinking and metacognitive skills need to be present alongside engagement, intention, deliberation, self-monitoring, and self-regulation (MacDonald et al, 2011). The ability to engage often comes after the means to engage have happened. Engagement does not happen before the ability that they can work on the learning...that it is accessible. while we build self-esteem in students, and that sense of belonging, rather than working with the texts, it will only ever be social. The learners also need to have the confidence to have different points of view, to be able to agree and disagree with each other. "Extended cognition is a core cognitive process, not an add-on extra [because] the brain develops in a way that complements the external structures in ways that people who have not experience these types of interactions would be unable to do. There is a strong link between high achievement and metacognition, which "highlights the importance of learning the self-monitoring and self-regulating behaviours that will ensure task-specific meaning-making" (MacDonald et al, 2011).

The teacher, therefore, guides students through an analysis of the text type, working out what is conveyed, what can be deduced about the writer and/or the origin of the text, how the student located and collected information, and what produce they would create from it.

"Multimodal texts are fast becoming the dominant mode of communication...stdent need to be a discerning user of them" (MacDonald et al, 2011). If the key focus of education is to reduce the distance between a learner and a text, and for the learner to then make that their own - then the role of the teacher is to facilitate the process, and explicit teaching around critical thinking and inference.

Noeline gave some illustrations from initial teacher education, and when she shows them a Web page around a 'Guinea worm' there is often no curiosity or motivation to find out more...do they even exist? What are they? Why might they need to be eradicated? In other words there is little motivation to investigate what the text is.
Noelene closed by saying that what she believes is that there needs to be deliberate acts to teach metacognition, and critical thinking about all types of texts.

Dialogic inquiry online

2011-12-01T13:09:00.000+13:00

Image by Candace Nast via FlickrIt was really interesting that Jennie Swann started by indicating the synergies and overlaps between the previous 2 sessions and hers, although she is developing communities of inquiry rather than a CoP as CoPs take time to develop, and the course she works on is only 12 weeks in duration.

Jennie started with a 'conceptual artefact' "students never claimed to be digital natives and we spould stop beating them up for not being epxert online learners. Teach them" @easgill. This was the top tweet from the first day at the conference, and Jennie totally agreed with the thrust of the tweet, and used it as a segue into discussing experiences in MOOCs, in particularly the age of participants. The ones who participated effectively were the ones who have the skills. So there is a gap between Prensky's original assertion that the digital native's students' thinking patterns have changed, and the need to work with things that are familiar.

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Learners in tertiary, also, are diverse. Research shows that students are skilled at using LMSs, Google, Wikipedia, emails, and mobile phones. Thye have littel familiarity with collaborative knowledge creation tools, virtual worlds, personal web publishing, and other emergent socail technologies. The students do not appear to have radically differnnt patterns of knowledge creation and sharing (Margaryan, Littlejohn, and Voijt).

It has been asserted that learners can, through social software can easily connetct and share with each other leading to conversations. But what do these conversations look like? And what do you do if they don't? Also, (and oft quited reason for not encoouraging coversations)how does the content get coverered?

Ways of knowing underping forms of intellectual and ethcial development in the college environment. Students often, for example, believe that knowledge is certain and it is the role of the teacher to cram this knowledge into our heads and we'll regurgitate this in our exams. Lecturers often feel the same - and the focus is on lower order thinkoing skills....Jennie wondered if that was because there is no compulsory teacher training in tertiary. Once knowledge is not seen as certain, then people can have different points of view on things...it's OK to disagree and discuss.

Contextual knowledge judged on the basis of evidence in context which promostes the applicaiton of knowledge in context and promotes ecaluative discussion of perspectice. In this discourse, teachers and students often critique each other.Lecturers can also use a range of open questions to help initiate discussions. The Web site (Networked Dialogue) is openly available.

Jennie showed a site that scaffolds students through the process and structure of conversations - it takes them step-by-step., as well as indicating possible issues that might be faced.

Teaching as inquiry...continuing to learn

2011-11-23T16:45:00.001+13:00

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Christina Ward facilitated a webinar today - 23rd November (access recording here), which explored the topic of teaching as inquiry. A record number of people registered for the session, and even before the session got underway there was some good discussion in the text chat box. Christina, since 2004, has been linked up with the curriculum development team within the Ministry of Education (MoE), and since then she has been working on the NZ curriculum online.

The session started with Christina sharing a quotation by Stoll, Fink & Earl (2003): "Teachers are at the heart of school improvement, and with all the change in the world and new understandings about learning it is essential that they too keep learning". Christina stressed that it is important to have teachers at the heart - and thinking about learning. During the session Christina planned to give a quick look at teaching as inquiry and its place in the NZC, as well as characteristics of schools and classrooms where teaching as inquiry is evident along with some examples.

Christina started with a short survey that asked participants to rate their experience about teaching as inquiry. The results were really interesting with 20% of participants just beginning to learn about teaching as inquiry, 40% who have made a start and are noticing shifts, 30% who are confidently using teaching as inquiry, and 1-% who have a deep understanding and notice significant shifts in student achievement and teaching practice.

The teaching as inquiry cycle was then discussed, along with a clarification that inquiry learning and teaching as inquiry are different things. The teaching as inquiry approach has been developed to encourage teachers to inquire into their own teaching methods, assess its effectiveness, and learn or alter practices where necessary. Christina provided a really useful link to the Instep site that provides some great ideas of different ways that inquiry can happen, and it also explains some of the key terminology.

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Participants were asked to watch this video where Helen Timperley, Professor of Education at The University of Auckland talks about ways teachers can gain knowledge through cycles of inquiry into their practice. There was also a link to a report written by Helen Timperley that covers the subject of PD in depth and what is proving effective.

The characteristics of schools who are showing that they have a pretty strong handle on teaching as inquiry include support for teachers with:

systems and processes for introducing teaching as inquiry
promote a culture of trust and open mindedness
allow for fallibility
encourage persistence
meeting in groups to understand processes and put them into practice
investigate data

Image by Mamboman1 via FlickrIn schools where inquiry teaching is encouraged the dialogues around teaching and learning have been seen to have changed, and this has proven healthy in whole schools shifts. A couple of participants mentioned aspects of teaching as inquiry in their institutions including: "We had teaching as inquiry projects as part of our appraisal process", although others mentioned "Some teachers use avoidance tactics such as this is an add on rather then it is something that we do every day in our teaching ", and "Often senior managers see it as an add on and a tick box exercise to keep ERO happy".

On the example front, Christina shared some awesome resources including the following videos:

Developing school-wide inquiry (Newmarket Primary School)
Accelerating Māori and Pasifika students (Newmarket Primary School)
Effective pedagogy at Ilam School
Deprivatising practice: In this story Gary Punler describes how teaching practice in his school is no longer personal and private to the teacher concerned.

Image by gorbould via Flickr

And an article in .pdf format entitled Teaching as Inquiry: One School's Approach. Participants were able to pick and choose a resource that was relevant to them, go away to access / watch it, and then return to the Webinar...with comments. Some of the comments included:

"I love the idea of ‘de-privatizing’ learning. The importance of collaborative discussion of one anothers practice- It requires a very positive, encouraging environment for teachers to share so openly."
"Carol jarrett's comment about reframing the learngin conversation between teachers to look at problems of practice in a positive way so they can feel safe to try new things very very important"
"principals/leaders to model the inquiry is indeed powerful"
"Good to see the work being done in pastoral component with secondary school. It would be interesting to see the research"
"As DP I'm inquiring into eportfolios"
"Carol Jarrett's video says interesting things about taking those risks"

These comments blossomed into a really lively chat session, with lots of ideas and sharing of practices. It is well worth visiting the recording of the session to review what Christina covers, and also to have a good look at some of the conversation.

Image by m-c via Flickr

Standardised testing: What's the point?

2011-11-22T15:41:00.000+13:00

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I would argue that "Assessment practice is at its most rich when assessment events are relevant, authentic and timely. Relevant assessment is that which is inextricably linked to learning outcomes designed to meet an agreed graduate profile (Biggs, 1999). Authentic assessment requires students to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential skills and knowledge. Timely assessment provides students with the opportunity to apply skills and knowledge gained as they learn. Teaching and learning in a blended format enables relevant, authentic and timely assessment that is greatly facilitated by the use of online tools, including self-grading, simulation and problem-based approaches, activities that require reflection and peer-review and the electronic delivery of assessment tasks." (source)

So - I was aghast when I read Florence Lyon's post today. What are the solutions? Are there any? Where next?:

A few days ago Year 11 sat the French NCEA which is the end of year exam here in New Zealand. As you might be aware the exam was of a poor quality. Some questions were of a level 3 instead of level 1. French teachers have complained and you can listen to a podcast of teachers expressing their feelings.

Of course like all the other teachers I am shocked and disappointed that my students were assessed to a higher level than they are expected to work at. But I am more asking myself about the idea of exams itself.

I actually do not know why students have to sit an exam at the end of the year. What is the point ?

So you work all year around, you learn everyday more French and at the end of the year you sit an exam and then what ?? 2 possibilities here : first you carry on with French or it was your last test ever in French. Either way you haven’t learnt anything at all from this exam.

In 2011, we have seen in NZ students using more and more ePortfolios in order to not only gather evidences but also to reflect on their own progress. To me, it seems it is pointless then to ask our students to sit an exam at the end of the year. I think it would be a much better idea to ask our pupils to sit an exam during the year, give them a feedback and ask them to sit the same exam (or another one of same difficulty) and see what the progress have been.

It is common practice in other subjects to pre-test student and then retest them later on using the same test (when the learning has taken place). By doing so students can see their progress and are given the opportunity to actually reflect on their learning.

What do the students do with their NCEA results ??

Yes I am outraged that the exam was of a very poor quality, full of errors and of a higher level, but for me the biggest complain is that there is no point at all to assess the students the way it is done now.

(this is a cross post from http://florencelyons.blogspot.com/ )

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Why does Sara feel sick every Monday morning? Coping with dyslexia.

2011-11-11T20:03:00.000+13:00

Do you know anyone who fits the following profile (taken from Danella Smallridge's Wiki)

Sara has undiagnosed dyslexia.
She is good at maths and art.
She constantly struggles with reading and spelling.
She had reading recovery at 6 years old and made some progress.
Every year since then, her literacy achievement has been slipping.
Her teacher thinks she is lazy and needs to “try harder.”
Last year her teacher thought she was just naughty.
Sara thinks she is dumb.
Her biggest disability is her low self-esteem.
She tries to hide her difficulties from her friends.
She would rather people thought she was lazy or naughty– rather than dumb. (Source)

Danella goes on to say "The really complicated thing about dyslexia is - no two students will have exactly the same symptoms. Each dyslexic student will have their own unique blend of difficulties" (Source).

If you feel any of your students, friends or family might be dyslexic you are likely to find some useful information and sources of support in the resources Danella has compiled. On her Wiki she has advice around diagnosis, as well as classroom tips. For a way more extensive review of dyslexia and the way schools can meet the needs of dyslexic learners you can access a study that Danella researched and wrote up: Delving into Dyslexia (.pdf). An extract from the executive summary is quoted below:

"The current cognitive and motor study conducted in conjunction with the Action, Brain & Cognition lab at Otago University, has found a consistent and significant difference in reactions times for dyslexic learners on a simple visual-motor response task. This adds weight to the New Zealand Ministry Literature Review on Dyslexia (2007) which states that dyslexia is more complex than merely a simple phonological deficit. Based on my learning from current research and the study of specialist interventions, help for dyslexic students must consider: early diagnosis and intervention; general classroom accommodations; specialist 1:1 teaching in literacy & underlying cognitive weaknesses; developing self-esteem through strengths; fine tuning classroom literacy teaching; using multiple memory hooks; addressing any sensory and motor difficulties; teaching social skills; and enhancing metacognition. Davis Dyslexia and SPELD NZ are both recognized providers of specialist teaching interventions for dyslexic learners. This study examines each in detail, and comments on observed strengths and weaknesses." (Smallridge, 2008, p.1)

2011-11-10T11:06:00.000+13:00

Derek Wenmoth shared the following online safety, interactive game, writing:

It's a cyber-safety resource developed by an Australian company that I linked with in Tasmania earlier this year. They have produced a number of interactive resources like this, many focusing on cyber safety and cyber citizenship. Last year the Australian government paid for one of their products to be made available free to all schools

So I went and had a play. I was hooked, and really enjoyed the environment, the game aspect (you get points and bonus points), the opportunity to learn from errors (you get more chances with similar scenarios), and it was also a great way to check my own knowledge about staying safe online. You could use the game in a collaborative environment, and add a competitive edge by asking users to share (and get better) scores. It was suggested that the game would be suitable for children from about year 4 to 5 upwards, and I would add, for adults too!

A couple of slightly irritating features for me were sometimes the task was a bit unclear (but could just be me!) - and this meant that you would get an incomplete response and be given another opportunity to respond - not so helpful if you're not sure exactly what is required. In this case the tool stopped testing what the player new about staying safe in the online environment, and started to test familiarity with interactive task interfaces. It was also pointed out by Anne Sturgess in the discussion that followed Derek's initial sharing that "I didn't notice whether or not there was an opportunity for players to find out what they could do to ensure they made the correct choice in a real situation (e.g. checking security on an online shopping site)" On the whole though - a big thumbs up.

Derek would be keen to receive any feedback you may have about your experiences with the Grapple challenge, so if you post comments below, I'll be sure to pass them on :-)

Belonging, becoming and being: First-year apprentices' experiences in the workplace

2011-11-08T16:18:00.000+13:00

If you have not heard of Selena Chan and the work she is doing in the Vocational Education and Training sector - especially around the use of mobile learning - then this report is a must: Belonging, becoming and being: First-year apprentices' experiences in the workplace (downloads as a .pdf).

The description from the Ako site reads: "In this report, the perspectives of first-year apprentices (both continuing and discontinued) and pre-trade student are studied to explain the factors influencing young peoples’ decision to commence and continue with apprenticeship.
Apprentices and pre-trade students from 7 industry training organisations (ITOs) encompassing the primary, infrastructure, manufacturing and service sectors participated in this project. Data collected from focus group and individual interviews were analysed using case study methods to derive findings based on first-year apprentices’ experiences.
The study’s findings include:

the need to help individuals match their ‘vocational imagination’ with the workplace realities;
that support is required to help novices establish a sense of belonging to a workplace; and
assistance is required to maintain engagement and momentum for apprentices’ eventual completion of apprenticeship and qualifications".

(Source)

Global audiences & 'over the back fence' peer mentoring

2011-11-08T16:10:00.000+13:00

Image by sridgway via Flickr
Geoff Wood, who is working in the Health and Life Skills Department at Rosmini College in Takapuna (Auckland) opened by introducing some background around the InterPacific symposium and forum. It started in 2006 with a 2 hour video conference between students at Washington State University and Rosmini College in Takapuna. The students share their research projects (7 mins) and engage in discussion on current topics related to exercise, wellness and sport. In 2011 the Symposium programme has been extended to allow group presentations on a selected topic. The topic for this year is obesity and physical inactivity. The students are hooked up via VC, at a location that is integrated with KAREN.

Image by USM MS photos via FlickrThe project is cross age, and ranges from 8 years old upwards. The diversity in the audience was obvious, from primary upwards. One of the positive effects is seeing many different examples of presentations.

It was great to see some video footage of a couple of the students presenting, with the audience in the US projected up on the screen. The audience can see both the slides and the student talking, as well as hear the audio. Some of the student feedback included assisting with upskilling in tertiary skills.

The assignment for this year included a review of 3 research reports, synthesise and post on a forum for feedback. One example that Geoff showed was a student (Year 13) who wasn't a confident writer, who wrote up and posted his abstract in the community, and received some great comments, suggestions and questions. He refined his abstract, and has since created a poster which he has presented at a conference. As a result, the confidence in his own writing has improved, as have many of his key competencies.

Image by Christopher S. Penn via Flickr

A complementary aspect is the 'meet the experts' initiative that came about as assistance for students seeking the most up-to-date thinking on a topic being examined. Using Skype or VC the students connect with an expert in the field for a maximum of 10 minutes. Five minutes is for the expert to outline the issue and solution, and 5 minutes for questions and answers. Students have connected to experts in NZ, USA, and Switzerland on topics such as diabetes, the physical activity environment, and nutrition programmes.

Alongside these two initiatives is "Over the Back Fence", which is built on a strengthening relationship with the primary school next door to Rosmini. Year 12 students provide a planned weekly physical education experience for 8 classes (year 3-6) - emphasising physical fitness and movement/sport skill development. In small groups the Year 12 students develop health and wellness messages which are taken into the classrooms. Each message is 5 minutes in length and sequential, Monday to Friday. At least one message must be Skyped, and others use blogs, online questionnaires, movies and PowerPoints.

Driving teacher change through brokering in an online community ecosystem

2011-10-20T17:40:00.000+13:00

Image by D'Arcy Norman via Flickr
Online or virtual communities of practice were a theme that appeared in many of the presentations in the Research stream of ULearn in 2011 (and you can acces the papers from the research stream by clicking here).

One such presentation was given by Jocelyn Cranefield. Jocelyn started by giving a bit of context around the research she is doing. She started by looking at the importance of knowledge as a driver of educational change. The research context was the NZ School sector in 2006 and emphasised the importance of embedding the knowledge of "what works". What Jocelyn is looking at is teaching communities and the transfer of professional knowledge (knowledge that you need for your profession and you use it to do what you do. Such knowledge is likely to be very personal to you, and tied up with your beliefs).

One of the issues of the nature of knowledge when it comes to PD, is that it can get quite entangled. The intertertwined structure gains stetegy and rigidity over time. The research question was "How do online communities of practice facilitate the transfer and embedding of professional knowledge?". In traditional Communities of Practice (CoPs), knowledge is transferred via situated learning, but there is little understanding of how online envrironments support knowledge transfer.

Image via Wikipedia

Jocelyn conducted an interpretative study using qualitative data, which included purposive selection plus emergence, 45 interviews (including teachers, lead teachers, and principals), as well as forums, blogs, and IM that gave snapshots across time. She wanted to find out what happened offline as well as online, the relationship between the spaces, and how knowledge crosses over.

There was a great analogy in the presentation where researching interventions can be a little bit like putting an egg into a cake and then trying to work out what the effect of adding the egg has had. So, Jocelyn looked at both a top down view, as well as a bottom up view and then looked for emerging themes.

Some of the findings include: it came across very strongly that normative persuasive forces were at work. There was also a combination of focusing, pesuading, aligning, adapting, and owning. There were, for example, in the different spaces, different cultures of practice. The connector-leaders used a range of brokering practices including filtering and focussing, reinforcing and contextualising and helping others. There was also a combination of different mechanisms, roles and technologies promoted in this process.

The knowledge embedding cycle includes six stages of organisational change with specific activities and issues at each stage - and the online CoPs played a different role at each stage.The six stages Jocelyn identified are:

Coming on board
Setting out
Staying on course
Anchoring
Settling
Plotting the course

It is well-worth reading more about Jocelyn's research in the conference proceedings, in particular because she oftens some useful terminology for describing some of the new roles and interactions emerging from virtual communities of practice.

For more information you can download the conference proceedings from ULearn 2011 by downloading this .pdf file.

Apple tools Smacdown - some inspiring ideas?

2011-10-20T14:28:00.002+13:00

Image via Wikipedia
The session started in a lively fashion, and the folk facilitating were certainly enthusiastic. To get a good idea of the smacdown you can visit the site here. Overall, the idea is that each the audience get the chance to share "the interesting, cool, funky and fun things we can do using Apple products". Each presenter has exactly 2 minutes to demonstrate the function or neat idea.

The site itself has an archive of suggestions from 2010 (for example this one from Fiona Grant), as well as ones from this year. The presenters from this year have all the hyperlinks as well as a brief description of each of the ideas and tools that were shared on the site (for example Marcus Norrish). It's well worth having a browse through as often they offer extensions to ideas, along with how students reacted and/or how they have made a difference to how people work.

I really enjoyed the participative aspect of the session, as well as the really practical applications and experiences...and a format that could easily be adapted into other learning situations! ;-). One of the things I guess was a bit of a niggle was that the focus was very much on the tools...but that could in part be the format of the session. Still - it is well worth having a look through to see if anything catches your imagination...or maybe point your students in the direction of this site, and see how they develop some of the ideas!!!

Implementing models of blended learning: Examples from the Southern Central Divide schools

2011-10-20T12:31:00.000+13:00

Image by crdotx via FlickrNiki Savis and Darren Sudlow started by introducing the regional eLearning clusters in NZ. Initially, Trevor Storr and Darren looked at the notion of blended learning, which they felt opened up opportunities for students to learn; underpinning this was a focus on personalised learning. Darren pointed out that personalised learning is an interesting term that has been inerpreted in many different ways.

The model was developed with 4 days intensive face-to-face at the beginning to develop relationships, and then became more online. The participants worked together online. One point made by Niki and Darrne was that there was a large range of different contexts and they found that they had to move out of their 'home' environment, and out into the spaces that the participants were using. They found that there was an early dip where Niki and Darren wondered if the participants would get there, but in about June of the first year, the momentum started to build.
Image by HIKKERS via Flickr
The Star Trek syndrome was a term coined by one of the participants...to boldly go where no-one had been before. Originally it had been envisaged that there would be a discipline, and secondary focus, but in the end the facilitators had to adapt as there were quite a few primary participants....and this has been fantastic. The first year was tough going, though, in the terms of buidling up the teachers' capacity. There were many achievements!

Participants indicated that time was a key issue, and it was difficult to make time for the engagement in the dicussions and online spaces. There was also a confidence gap. In the pilot there were some 'stars', and a general move away from presenting in an academic style toward presenting to the community.

By the end of it the teachers had achieved quite a bit, and had really built a sense of community. The working community of practice has been a key part of the success. Confidence has grown, and some of the project leaders have taken over some of the key aspects of the community.

Several super examples of succes were shown, and some key points pulled out such as weaving in with school policy, working with the Board of Governors, and going beyond the classroom and into the networked community.

Promoting school collaboration through eLearning

2011-10-20T11:42:00.000+13:00

Image by sridgway via Flickr
The Virtual Learning Network (VLN) brings the learning to the students, and opens up choice and opportunities to study a curriculum that suits the student, rather than being limited by a school's curriculum. Rick Whalley introducted teh VLN primary initiatve and indicated that tehre is the potential to provide "a;; of our students in the Promary Secor with learning opportuntiies". The initiatve is unperpinned by the Ps that are identified in the LOC handbook, and is also based on the notion of reciprocity. So, in order to access learning opportunties schools also need to contribute to or support learning opportunities (for example, if a school can't offer a course, they can contribute to paying a teacher from another school who is offering a course).

Image via Wikipedia

Most of the courses that are offered at the moment are focussed on languages, but are opening up to include, for example, astronomy. the online classes only last for half and hour, and the maximum number of students is 12 per session. Adobe Connect and the audio conferencing in part dicatate the number of students in a class. The reason that the phone lines are used is that many schools do not have the bandwidth for audio. The asynchronous aspect of the course are hosted in Moodle (http://primary.vln.school.nz), where, for example, the PowerPoint from a session is uploaded, along with audio files and other resources. Other tools that are used are Skype, video conferencing, and Web 2.0 tools.

Image via Wikipedia
The VLN primary is part of wider educational communities such as VLNC, ESOL, Virtual Professional Learning and Development, ICT PD and so on. One of the aims is to grow a Community of Practice of talented eTeachers in the primary sector. The PD for teachers is also offered online. One of the future visions of the initiative is brokering collaborations between NZ schools.

Opportuntiies are available for all NZ primary schools, and Rick (principal@matapu.schoolzone.net.nz) was asking for people to contact him if they have any questions, or would like to join up for 2012.

First steps: The experiences of an academic team journeying into blended learning

2011-10-20T10:29:00.000+13:00

Image by Melody Campbell via FlickrPhilippa Buckley and Fiona Gilmore presented today on a study of teacher educations as they develop a web based teaching approach. There was emphasis on working with students in an online environment. One of the key points is that they were very aware of what they wanted the students to get out of the course by the end. They were used to workign with a distance mode, but not within a technical framework.

They have been working on a number of smaller courses, and then weave them together in a way that was meaningful. The process involved course restructuring, as well as situating the study. The courses were 15 credit. Mass lectures were introduced, along with dula delivery cohorts, and teacm teaching. Courses were put on Moodle - which was quite challenging. Philippa and Fiona didn't have the technical skills to start with, and were working within a tight timeframe.

Because it was participatory research, ethical issues had to be considered in depth. There needed to be transparency around the results and what was being said in the research study write-ups. Two questions shaped the study: "How did a group of teacher educators develop and effective blended teaching course? How did the process challenge conceptions and existing teaching practices?"

Image via WikipediaThe development team followed a model where the academic staff member with the overview, worked alongside a technical advisor. The team of academics "knew what they wanted to do but did not have a clue how to do it!" This meant they took a very long time to get established...in a time poor environment. The initial steps forward were small, and were based around a culture of making concrete decisions and thereby keeping things moving forward. The communication style of the team was very open and direct. The technical support person was key, and differentiated the way that she worked with people. The access and transparency of Moodle was a bit of a surprise, and led to a culture shift.

They set out to developp and create a professional community that had a strong collaborative focus "It was a huge team on one site, And you know what they say about too many cooks. But you managed not to burn anything". Around the innovative pressures, one participant said "I just feel that my technical abilities are not matched and I see that it consumed so much of my time and that the workload doesn't reflect that, I just don't see how I can sustain that. And I found that really frustrating to the point I was in tears." And this was a factor that lurked behind them.

The results so far include the recognition that the professional conversations were essential and were focussed on the pedagogy, where they started to think about their online teaching in a very different way. Much of the shifting in practice has since been transferred to the face-to-face students. The conversations have been very rich, and have really enhanced the practitioners involved in the programme.

Innovate to survive: being prepared to teach in times of crisis

2011-10-20T10:18:00.000+13:00

Image by Andrew Kelsall, Graphic Designer via FlickrI felt this was a a presentation from the heart, with some superb practical suggestions! The experience, and the whole 'learning journey' of the teaching team was extremely powerful. In the presentation, Julie Mackey, Philippa Buckley, Des Breeze, Nikki Dabner, and Fiona Gilmore spoke about teaching in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes. "your well-founded plans for blended e-learning are shaken, stirred and re-blended before you have had a change teach your first lesson!" Julie was 10 minutes away from her first session in the computer lab when the first earthquake happened, so they didn't have the intial set up time.

There are contrasting definitions and applications of blended learing, included that all learning is blended in some way. Blended learning has a 'transformative' potential in a crisis situation, and included some learning within a professional community. The presenters advised that they were encouraged to be innovative, as access to physical resources were limited. Luckily, the server rooms were still operational (they are not completely based in the cloud yet). The only resources available were those that were already online, and each other.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The context was such that many people were living in pretty dire conditions. "You know you are from Christchurch when you live in one suburb, shower in another, get water from yet another, and yet you still greet people with a smile as if they were long lost friends". All this was going on while they were still thinking about how to engage with students who were not particularly well-prepared to participate in a blended course.

Image via Wikipedia

There were no buildings to meet in, but the team began to feel confident that they could facilitate the course with "a bit of style" in spite of the crisis situation. The whole way of working had changed. It was necessary to clear an emotional space before sitting together in the house that was still standing and had electricity, and the talk began and escalated. Someone (diffident) had the idea of having a book club...so they did. What happened next was really special - the students flooded back in the other direaction. The conversations grew, and the students continued writing about texts and asking about books. There was some significant pedagogical growth that occured within that moment in time.

Some key questions to think about: whether you and your education institution are ready include:

How well prepared is your institution to function electrocially with off-site back-up, cloud computing etc?
How would you contact and communitcate with students if your campus was closed suddenly?
How would you collaborate with colleagues to plan and teach from geographically separate loactions (for example using LMS, remote IT access, cloude computing)?
How well do you and your colleagues understand the capabilities of your LMS and the potential use of other digital technologies including social meida to enhance and support learners and their learning?
How open and well-prepared are you and your colleagues to use blended or online learning pedagogies?

Authentically mobile: Designing learning on the move

2011-10-20T09:57:00.001+13:00

Image by carnero.cc via Flickr
Dr Jan Herrington was a key note at ULearn and started with a good humoured reference to the recent Australian loss in the Rugby World Cup :-) She then moved on to showing a photograph of her father's classroom and what can be deduced from the picture. You could see the teacher standing at the back and all the students were sitting at the desks looking forward. The technology included a newspaper, an inkwell, and a big cupboard full of resources such as maps. She then brought up a picture of a more modern classroom...and there were more similarities than differences. The main difference was what was in the student's pocket - ie a mobile phone. However, Jan also pointed out that many schools have a non-mobile policy and use words such as not permitted, disruption...and that was just for the teachers.

At the moment there is little use of mobile devices in schools. Jan showed an image of a progressive school ('Funky School') in New South Wales with students working in different spaces and in different ways. She moved on to talk about how getting students to design solutions and resources is a much more powerful way of learning, than reading about it, or answeing questions.
Image by kcolwell via Flickr
Jan spoke about innovative pedagogies that used a couple of mobile devices in 2006/7, and looked at the potential of these devices. The particular focus was using technology in early childhood education. The unit typically was about technologies, or using them, rather than looking at the learning that could be enhanced by access to a number of devices ... they were teaching "'hammer' rather than capentary". As part of a rethink they got the students to create a genuine product that they would share with others, and in the process were modelling an approach to learning. The main focus was creating digital stories on the iPod with a very definite authentic focus. The students found the task pretty challenging, but, at the end fed back that they had gained in confidence and were really pleased that they had been involved in completing it.

It was great that Jan then gave some guidelines for designing authentic tasks, and then went through some concrete examples, and how they related to, for example, epert performance. This means access to the way an expert would thinkg and act as well as access to learners in various levels of expertise and sharing of narratives / stories.

What do men and women earn once they have doctoral degrees, and do they stay in NZ?

2011-10-18T21:43:00.000+13:00

Many thanks to Eddie Reisch who shared the following reports and findings. Makes for good reading, whether you are based in NZ or not.

The Ministry of Education has released reports on 2010 enrolments, what men and women earn after their tertiary education and whether people with doctoral degrees get jobs in New Zealand.

2010 tertiary education enrolments

This report provides a summary of information on students enrolled in tertiary education in 2010. In 2010, there were 466,000 students enrolled in formal tertiary study with tertiary education providers. From 2009 to 2010:

The total number of students (including international students) decreased by 0.5 per cent, and the number of domestic students decreased by 1.1 per cent.
However, when measured as equivalent full-time students, total study increased by 1.8 per cent and study by domestic students increased by 1.6 per cent.
The shift from the lowest level qualifications (certificates 1 to 3) to higher-level qualifications (levels 4 to 10) continued. There were 13,300 fewer domestic students enrolled in level 1 to 3 certificates and 6,070 more students enrolled in higher-level qualifications.
The number of domestic students aged 18 to 24 years increased in by 3.9 per cent. The participation rate for 18 to 19 year-olds in tertiary education increased by 0.8 percentage points to 48.4 per cent, and for 20 to 24 year-olds by 0.4 percentage points to 34.4 per cent.

Image by FUMCPC via Flickr

The full report is available on the Education Counts website, along with updated enrolment statistical tables.

What do men and women earn after their tertiary education?

This paper looks at the relationship between young peoples’ tertiary education qualifications and their employment and earnings once they finish their tertiary study. It has a particular focus on differences in the post-study earnings between males and females, using the Employment Outcomes of Tertiary Education dataset. Some key findings include:

Earnings generally increase with the level of study and there is a premium for completing qualifications for both males and females.
When controlling for participation in the labour market, males earn more than women after their tertiary education.
These differences persist over the course of employment, but females’ earnings increase less than males’ over the four years post-study so that females earn less than males at all levels after four years.
Females have a better return to tertiary education than males when measured by earnings premium over the national median earnings by gender but this may be in part due to the low overall baseline wages of females compared to males.
There is evidence to suggest the better returns for women entering the workforce from study are due to gaining greater access to work.
It is likely that labour market influences that have not been quantified in this study, such as industry and occupation worked in, also influence earnings differences between men and women after study. Future studies will make adjustments for these.

Image by ralph and jenny via Flickr

The full report is available on the Education Counts website.

Do people with doctoral degrees get jobs in New Zealand post study?

This study also used the Employment Outcome of Tertiary Education dataset to analyse what percentage of a cohort of recent domestic doctoral graduates was employed in New Zealand and their industry destination up to four years post study. The results show that:

around 65 per cent were employed in New Zealand four years after they last studied. This was a lower rate of employment in New Zealand than domestic bachelors and masters graduates from the same leaving year.
younger graduates, Asians, and graduates in ‘Natural and physical sciences’ were less likely to be employed in New Zealand four years after they last studied
the domestic employment rate of the New Zealand doctoral cohort was lower than in similar leaving cohorts in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Image by Rennett Stowe via Flickr

The full report is available on the Education Counts website.

Quick Response (QR) Codes: Examples of use in education

2011-10-11T11:12:00.000+13:00

You may, or may not have used or heard of Quick Response (QR) codes...however, some educators and trainers are exploring how and why they may be useful. For a quick explanation of what they are please watch this video.

So, some examples of how QR codes are being used in education.

Trades training - Kevin Hall and Mike Crosson are based at Wintec and have been piloting QR codes and video clips in trades training - partly to encourage students to do some revision. They create a resource in Moodle and an associated URLand trial it in advance to make sure that it is mobile compatible. The benefit for students is that they don't have to mess around trying to get a URL ' perfect', and it makes it really easy to grab a link from (with) a mobile phone. (source)
Tertiary - Kamuka Pati at Unitec is trialling the use of an iPod and QR) Codes with his construction students. Every group of students is issued with a touch iPod before a class begins. Kamuka has prepared a set of QR codes for his class and each topic (see this video for a demonstration of a QR code being used on site). These QR codes are pinned on the board in the construction zone and this provides students contextualised on-demand information (such as access to 3D models, videos and pictures) that helps the student gain a better understanding of the ‘what and how’ just when it is needed. (Please click here for a more in-depth description, and feedback from the students).
K12 - Vicki Davis, is using QR codes in many ways with her students. She explains: "There are so many great things, but to me, using these in museums and in the "real world" can create some deep learning experiences -- see, now these QR codes are just attached to text, but what happens when they have video, audio, and more attached to them. Your child who is fascinated by the caveman exhibiltion at the Smithsonian will scan the QR code and have delivered to his cell phone video, audio, perhaps even books (in a Kindle like way) relating to his topic"(source).
Primary -Michael Fawcett describes his experience (and gives and example): "I took QR code ideas back to class. I've played with them before, but last week i had a real use for them. We have clearfile portfolios for students to share their learning with parents. Jason wanted to share a blog post that was and audio recording and we couldn't figure out how to do it. Enter Kaywa QR code generator. I asked jason if anyone has an iPhone or iPod Touch in his family. Big thumbs up from Jason. I grabbed the screen with his post on (and comments) using Aviary's Chrome extension; generated a code and combined them into an image. I added the url of the post too just in case. We tried it out on my Android phone and... voila - "Jason Says" loud and clear - http://glenviewgo.com/2011/03/25/jason-says/. ) (source).

Convinced yet? If you are and would like to know more, this video gives a really clear overview of what QR codes are, how to create and read them, and gives some examples of them in use in education.

Image source - QR Code Cupcakes by clevercupcakes

Is it working? CAN we move from ‘I think we know’ in education?

2011-10-07T14:41:00.001+13:00

Image via WikipediaConor Bolton recently posted to another community of which I am a member, where he was reflecting on what he has been trialling with his students this year, and what he has observed to date. He concludes "In spite of the challenges, I think my practice is becoming more evidence based; it is based upon sound theory and research and while the implementation has a way to go and the evidence is shaky the process is starting and the teaching as inquiry cycle is becoming more evident (I hope)". Conor also refers to Greg Whitby's post: "From I Think to We Know".

It really started me mulling over the implications of research-informed educational practice, as well as the 'benchmark' approach requirement of many Ministries of Education to 'prove' that national initiatives have been positively effective and have increased student achievement of learning outcomes. I also tend to agree with Darcy Moore who replied to Greg Whitby's post - I believe there is no way of categorically illustrating a direct cause and effect correlation whereby a specific intervention has a positive or negative effect on learning.

I am now going to scab something from the oracle, Wikipedia ;-) around Design-based research theory:
"Methodologically, the Learning Sciences is distinguished from other fields that study learning in humans in its methodological treatment of the subjects of its study, learners, their localities, and their communities. The Design-Based Research methodology is often employed by Learning Scientists in their inquiries because this methodological framework considers the subject of study to be a complex system involving emergent properties that arise from the interaction of more variables than are initially known to researchers, including variables stemming from the researchers themselves (Brown, 1992). As such rather than attempting to isolate all the various factors that impact learning as in traditional research, the learning sciences employ design based research methodologies which appeal to an approach to the study of learning – in particular human learning both inside and outside of school – that embraces the complex system nature of learning systems. Learning Scientists often look at the interactions amongst variables as key components to study yet, acknowledge that within learning environments the interactions are often too complex to study all or completely understand. This stance has been validated by the findings of Cronbach and Snow (1977) which suggest that Aptitude-Treatment Interactions, where variables are isolated in effort to determine what factors “most” influence learning, will not be informative but rather inaccurate and potentially misleading if used as a ground for educational decisions or educational research of complex learning situations such as those characteristic of human beings in their lived experiences." (emphasis mine).

(For more 'academic' resources than Wikipedia about Design-based research, this bibliography is useful, and if you have a preference for videos, here are some interviews with folk who use and have developed the theory and model further).

Design-based theory offers a way of acknowledging the unavoidable 'biases' of the person designing the data collection tools and collecting the data - the very fact that decisions have to be made around the what, where, when and how of data collection, and the influence that, for example, even an impartial observer can have on the dynamics of a group. The theory encourages the reflection on these design decisions as well as acknowledging that findings gathered along the way are likely to influence further design decisions as well as what is happening in the learning situation.

Image by Lidor via Flickr

I also feel it is worth reflecting on Whitby's assertion: "Doctors can make assumptions about a patient’s health but unless the assumptions are tested, you cannot diagnose and treat. It’s the same rigour that must be applied to the practice of teaching. The relational aspect of teaching will not be subverted by the use of data but enhanced by it". The analogy isn't comparing eggs with eggs - while a doctor assumes you may have anaemia because you are pale, tired and dizzy, and can prove this through a blood test - what is to say that it is not a symptom of a way bigger cause. Also, as design-based research theory suggests - there is no equivalent of a 'blood test' in education.

Anyhow (climbs off soap box) - I guess the thing to bear in mind is Whitby's reply to Moore: "it becomes the conclusion rather than the beginning of insightful and reflective discussions. What is critical is not the data per se but the quality of questions that arise from examining the data and feedback without prejudice or judgement."
Image via Wikipedia

I would add, though, that any thinking about how shifts in teaching practice effect students' learning experiences would be positive if it is influenced by 1) What the teacher is aiming to do and what the students are also aiming to do, and 2) reflection on data collected in several different ways - surveys, emails, elicited / not elicited, LMS usage data, and community feedback for example. And in this way, the picture is likely to be much richer and informative - although it must always be the case that an educator looks at themself as the collector / interpretor of that data and ask on how they are being influenced by their own assumptions as an educator, as well as a social human being with a history, a number of communities, interests, relationships and so on.

Is the future of learning virtual?

2011-09-23T12:28:00.001+12:00

Image via WikipediaRecently, Linda Ojala, posted a thought-proving reflection entitled Connecting Face To Face with Families. One of the key points she made was "There is such value in getting together as a group and working face to face....You can post videos and articles...but having these real experiences with the students and families is by far so much more beneficial".

This started me wondering - Is it a human requirement to be in each other's physical presence to learn? Is it bout trust? Relationship building? Or is it, like other of our behaviours something that may shift and change as we and technology move into the future? Could, for instance, participating in a virtual world become akin to the face-to-face experience?

Image by Richard.Fisher via Flickr

I was listening to a podcast a couple of days back where a computer was designed to 'read' the brain activity of a macaque monkey while she moved her arm. Over time, the computer 'learned' how the monkey achieved the movements, and a group of scientists developed an artificial arm that was also attached to the same computer. This arm was put into a room that the monkey could see through a window, and she quickly worked out that when she moved her arm the one through the window did exactly the same. Again, over time, she made the leap to not moving her own arm but using her brain to only move the arm in the other room as if it were a third limb that was an integral part of her anatomy! (You can read a more-detailed article from the New Scientist here: Monkey's brain signals control third arm).

This being the case, I wonder if humans will move toward the stage where they don't need to be in the same room, but could experience learning in as rich and immediate way, while also being at a distance? :-)

Inquiry Learning: getting kids out of the box (Jill Hammonds)

2011-09-21T17:19:00.000+12:00

Image by istlibrary via FlickrIf you are interested in inquiry learning, and finding out strategies for trying the approach with students...or maybe you are already using inquiry learning but would like to find out more - then this session by Jill Hammonds would be a useful starting point.

Jill Hammonds facilitated a Webinar session this afternoon (21st Sept 2011) entitled "Inquiry Learning: getting kids out of the box" (recording can be accessed here, and you can download the PowerPoint from the session here). Jill started by opening with a view of how schools sometimes implement inquiry learning, which is about discovering and understanding. So who drives? The student or the teacher, or is it a partnership? It is worth thinking of it as a continuum where, when students first start out with enquiry it is the teacher that does most of the driving. As students develop their inquiry skills, the learning becomes much more student directed.

Jill talked compared teaching to lighting a fire - if you build a pile of sticks and chuck a match on, nothing much is likely to happen other than the match dies. Inquiry, Jill asserts is a disposition, and teachers need to adjust their teaching to enable inquiry to happen.

Participants were invited to advise what they felt inquiry to be, and some of the suggestions included:

'allowing opportunities to discover, collaborate, bounce off others, apply the new learning.."
"Student directed interest"
"a process of trial and reflection"
"questioning and thinking and reflecting on information to be sure it answers the questions"

Jill also showed a Wordle where the key words that popped out were: students, hypotheses, investigate and learning. The importance of being a life-long learner is critical in this day and age, and Jill stressed that this is a reason that might shape the focus on inquiry and how it is implemented in schools.

Image via WikipediaThe picture of a tap with a droplet with the world in it was used as a catalyst for conversation, as well as to demonstrate how to encourage people to think and work out what is happening based on prior knowledge. The next image was of several taps, along with questions of how they function, and illustrates how to put new challenges in front of learners. The scenario was expanded out to include wells, then oil wells, and finally notions of electricity and power.

Image via WikipediaJill mentioned about her own experience of learning a language which was mainly rote, and missed the main purpose of language which was to communicate. Inquiry is providing opportunities for students to communicate with each other and to develop meaningful conversations - within language learning, but also in other disciplines. Inquiry in mathematics for example, might be based on a wide question "Suppose you want to climb on the roof of your treehouse...." and using a number of strategies such as Pythagoras's theorem to work out a solution to a 'real life', accessible problem that means experimenting with things, refining approaches, and working out a workable solution.

Literacy is not just about reading and writing and we have a lot more to think about today, and all of these aspects are opportunities for using ... and presenting inquiry. It's finding out about how things work, and how they work and link together.

Image via WikipediaIf we don't have a model, how can we structure the learning in our class? It is about the way we plan, but how much planning can, or should, we do? Jill presented a sample, and also has an inquiry template to help scaffold the planning process, which is available for anyone to download and use. One of the participants asked if the plan is co-constructed with students - a good question...and maybe, again, it depends on how familiar with inquiry learning the students are.

Image via WikipediaA key point Jill made was that the best questions often happen at the end of the enquiry process, and she mentioned thinking tools in general, and De Bono's thinking hats specifically. The thinking tools can be one way of helping students to work though and develop questions - to challenge themselves to take things further and to move away from narrow statements, and to come to a wide variety of understandings. Margaret McPherson also suggested the parallel curriculum (Carol Ann Tomlinson), which. The core strand is where the main focus of teaching is, and then the other strands are more flexible and student shaped and directed. It is about co-construction and enabling differentiation.

Jill emphasised that the deliberate acts of teaching were essential to scaffold the inquiry process, and students could not be dropped into an inquiry approach and expected to work with it meaningfully. Likewise, the inquiry has to stretch the students, so that it actually develops the ability to think things through. Jill also cautioned against over-structuring the inquiry process, or following a model rigidly because learning is messy, and it is important to remain agile and responsive. A participant also pointed out that "inquiry needs to be inclusive throughout all curriculum and linking the learning makes it more meaningful - not just at TOPIC time!"

The Learning Powered School

2011-09-13T17:51:00.000+12:00

Image by wlibrary via FlickrGuy Claxton today facilitated a webinar entitled The Learning Powered School. One of the first things he started by asking was why is it that the 19th century approach to learning and teaching is so 'sticky'. He suggested that few people disagreed that education in some way needs to change, and proposed a vision that suggested 21st century education needs to help you people to learn to be open-minded and inquisitive, while also discovering their passions. They should also be encouraged to make and repair friendships, enjoy seeing different sides of a subject, and be unafraid of uncertainty. So, as far as the latter point is concerned this would involve the design of a curriculum that offers, regularly, experiences that are increasingly uncertain.

Guy cautioned against using the academic jargon often used in the writing of vision statements, which are as a result impenetrable and inaccessible to a large proportion of, for instance, government ministers. Values, he also feels should be relevant to life in general, not just for a test. Fancy language gets in the way of being taken seriously!

One of the key points Guy discussed was what does it take to so a 21st century education properly? He advised that eight core principles have been distilled from research:

Broadening the core aims of education
A vision that offers success for all
A strong rationale
Precise and accessible language
Progressive change to school culture
Focusing on teachers and teaching
Honest self-appraisal
Committed leadership

Leadership he advises will really make or break shifts in practice, along with clear, visible endorsement by leaders that reinforces objectives. The traditional education agenda, he argues, will not be changed without strong leadership.

Having an 'and' mentality is essential. People who are looking at assessment scores can also be looking at key competencies, but it is reliant on having a complementary set of ways of tracking the key competencies. The government is not stopping us changing by the focus on assessment.

The way in which education needs to change is on a whole lot of different levels. Where the issues are now are in helping and supporting, primarily teachers, but also students, teachers, and members of the wider community how change is going to happen and what it will look like. Where the world is now is moving from "vision to precision", and it requires clarity around, for instance, the role of parents in their child's learning experience. Clarity will help address misunderstandings and 'fogginess'.

Twitter unpacked: Some resources to help you get started

2011-09-13T09:56:00.000+12:00

Image via WikipediaOne or two days ago I received a couple of questions from a friend, Yvonne Hynson, about Twitter: "Can you point me to somewhere to learn all about these hashtags and how to tweet @ without getting all tangled up! Please... I am really enjoying Twitter and finding it much more useful than Facebook for finding out ESOL stuff. Just don't understand all the other stuff next to the tweet!" So, I decided to collect together a couple of resources around Twitter, and some of the basics around using it.

In a nutshell, the # symbol is called a 'hash tag', and it indicates a key topic that you might want to find out about, and you'll also be able to find the trending topics on the right hand side of your Twitter page. I've included a video below where facebookmari explains it way better!! The @ symbol is used with a Twitter user's username e.g. mine would be @howen. It indicates a reply, mention, and / or a re-tweet, and is a form of providing links in a conversation, as well as being a type of attribution if you are sharing a resource or comment. It means that other people can also join the conversation, especially if you use a combination of @ and a hash tag. For example, I might see a great resource from @playnice about #elearning - the two symbols mean that I can re-tweet her link and other folk know that playnice found and shared the resource, and that the topic is eLearning.

Image source

Clear as mud? Never fear - the following resources should shed more light on the basics of using Twitter.

This resource, The Twitter Hash Tag: What Is It and How Do You Use It?, provides a pretty clear overview of hashtags - what they are, and where they come from.
Wondering what 'follow' means on Twitter? This resource clearly explains it.
If you would like a wider overview of further features of Twitter and how to use it Brent Ozar (@BrentO) has written, and made available for free download The Simple Twitter Book

No bells or interruptions to learning times....

2011-09-12T15:15:00.001+12:00

Image by hazelowendmc via FlickrLinda Ojala posted a comment on a blog post where she gives an overview of an observation at a Montessori school she had done. She describes some of what she saw as follows: "The students are creating their own 'learning pathways' - this centred around interests and strengths. There are no bells or interruptions to their learning times. The teacher sets up the environment, offers support but the students are encouraged to be in charge of their own learning (very strong managing self). Reflection, knowledge of the students and assessment guides the teachers in terms of which students they need to engage with and when".

The whole notion of the tyranny of the timetable and how it can stifle learning is quite a popular one - see for example Enslaved by timetable tyranny. There are many ideas discussed in the article, a couple of which included:

Image via Wikipedia

A primary head said to me recently: "Wouldn't it be marvellous if we could do the daily literacy and numeracy hours Monday to Thursday, and then have Fridays free for more flexible approaches?" One of the best literacy activities I do involves children acting as radio journalists and compiling a radio news bulletin. It needs a whole day, however, if a visit to the local radio station is to be included.

A newly-appointed geography teacher in a very academic grammar once persuaded his head to suspend the timetable for two days so the whole school could do Project Africa. It was a knockout, and he went on to be one of the best heads of his generation.

There is also the negative effects that timetables can have on the teachers. For example, in this paper Living by the clock: the tyranny of the secondary school timetable, Kathy Brady quotes:

Bells ring to signal the passing of classes, each of which will spend some parcel of time with the teacher in his or her classroom. Though students may move throughout the building, high school teachers often never leave their rooms in the course of a day. For every ‘period’ or ‘hour’, there is a routine: taking attendance, continuing from yesterday, introducing today’s material, winding down. Repeated five times a day. (Johnson, 1990, p.6)

I wonder if some of the notions about organisation and standardised assessment tend to go hand-in-hand with timetables. I know, from a personal point of view, when I am learning something it can take ages to get my head down and 'into it', and sometimes it's really frustrating to have the flow broken. And when you get back, sometimes those good ideas will have dissipated...along with some of the motivation to continue.

Image by hazelowendmc via Flickr

I would say, though, that in my experiences with working with students, there needs to be quite a lot of support and guidance up front...and skills to be taken on board such as time-management, digital literacy, research skills, self-reflection etc. A continuum where you move from a relatively teacher-led approach at the beginning of a year, to a student-led/directed one by the end of the year seems to be fairly effective, and helps ensure that differentiation can be built into a programme...especially if a blended approach is used. (This is a paper - Meeting diverse learner needs through blended learning - about one of the programmes I developed - it's tertiary but it describes the general approach. We did have an extremely supportive department management though, who were really happy to have a way more flexible view of what comprised the what, why, when and how of learning).

Using the curricula from other countries for inspiration for online teaching

2011-09-07T14:29:00.000+12:00

Image source

Today I received a query about whether it is possible to "get access to another country's curriculum, in this case Germany". The person posting the question is looking at some possible models to teach online. So, I set about doing a wee bit of online sleuthing.

The International review of curriculum and assessment frameworks (Sharon O'Donnell, June 2001)has a good overview of many countries' curricula including New Zealand, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, France, Japan, Hungary etc. For Germany, it is indicated that "There are over 3,400 individual subject curricula in Germany" (p. 12) and :

"There is no national curriculum in Germany. The Ministries of Education of the individual regional authorities (Länder) develop their own region-wide curricula, with which schools must comply" (p. 12)

Image source

So - no central area to access curricula for Germany. INCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency) do provide and overview of curricula and curriculum development in Germany, as well as information about many other countries. (And good old Wikipedia has a general description of education in Germany if you were keen just to know more from a general point of view!).

The National Report on Curriculum Innovation in Germany covers all sectors, and has a specific focus on language and language teaching. Also, the Appendix on Page 50 has some interesting links and information, and the document also has a really useful reference list with hyperlinks to further resources (pages 51 to 54).

Image source

However, the following do have access to their curricula online:

Australia (site also has some useful links to general sites that focus on curricula)
New Zealand
UK
US
Saskatchewan
British Colombia

Interested in ePortfolios? The International Journal of ePortfolio

2011-09-06T14:13:00.002+12:00

The International Journal of ePortfolio (IJeP) is described as "a double-blind, peer-reviewed, open access journal freely available online". Subscriptions and fees are not required to access this journal; however, readers desiring hardcopies of issues can order them online.

The mission stated on the site of the International Journal of ePortfolio (IJeP) is "to encourage the study of practices and pedagogies associated with ePortfolio in educational settings. The journal’s focus includes the explanation, interpretation, application, and dissemination of researchers’, practitioners’, and developers’ experiences relevant to ePortfolio. It also serves to provide a multi-faceted, single source of information for those engaging in projects and practices associated with ePortfolio."

"A refereed (blind) peer-reviewed journal, IJeP embraces inquiry into ePortfolio in educational settings holistically; therefore, manuscripts considering the following areas of investigation are welcomed:

instruction and principles of learning that utilize and inform practical, effective ePortfolio methodologies;
evaluation and assessment methodologies and practices supported by ePortfolio;
case studies and best practices regarding applications of ePortfolio for learning, assessment, and professional development supported by scholarship of teaching and learning practices and research methodologies;
theoretically rich accounts of the principles grounding ePortfolio work and its relationship to larger social and cultural phenomena; and
innovative development and applications of technologies that enable new ePortfolio practices."

"IJeP employs a rolling submission process; however, those wishing to be considered for the next issue of IJeP should plan to submit their manuscript by December 1, 2011. Those submitting manuscripts to IJeP can expect the review process to take approximately 90 days."

Image by paperbackwriter via Flickr

How do I measure the effects of shifts in my professional practice?

2011-09-01T19:03:00.001+12:00

This presentation looks at how self-reflections is positioned in relation to evaluation, feedback, assessment and research (and also looks at possible definitions and purposes). Links to a video and a Prezi around reflective practice as a personal and school-wide activity are included - which are complemented by a concrete example provided by the principal of Matapu school, Rick Whalley.

How do I measure the effects of shifts in my professional practice?

Fostering an online professional community: What can you do?

2011-08-31T12:49:00.000+12:00

This is a presentation that provides some suggestions around things that you can do to help foster an online community of practice.
Fostering an online professional community: What can you do?

Webquests and ePortfolios - both free :-)

2011-08-23T11:31:00.002+12:00

The following resources were recommended by a member of an online community, John Oliver.

This Webquest site looks great. There are Webquests created and shared by educators from around the world, and covering a heap of different disciplines (geography, economics, history, culture, drama to name but a few). Each of the Webquests states the key focus and grade level, and everything is tagged for easy location of resources. You can also contribute your own.

The second resource is a free ePortfolio service - Foliji- which describes itself as "the easiest way to build your own folios (portfolio, website, webpage) and it provides both the structure and a template for you. It is a web-based software for creating folios in a short time without writing any HTML codes." There is also a handy, step-by-step "how to" video that shows you how to set up your own ePortfolio.

Relationships, literacy and team spirit: Janey Nolan talks about her work with Te Kura (guest blogger August 2011)

2011-08-22T17:43:00.001+12:00

August's guest blogger, Janey Nolan, has crafted a wonderfully engaging read that looks into the importance of building relationships, how animals can help build trust, literacy, and the essential ingredient - team spirit. Please leave Janey questions and comments below :-)

Hi to everyone on this freezing week in August with snow everywhere – even a flurry in Auckland! Thank you Hazel, for inviting me to blog.

I am currently working at Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu – The Correspondence School as the Te Ara Hou Team Leader for the Northern Region for years 7 to 10.

Janey and her brother Andy riding to school 1967

Janey on her first pony, Sugar with friends

My background is that of a farm girl. I rode my pony to Papanui Junction Primary School (40km out of Taihape) then at twelve attending boarding school for five years at Nga Tawa in Marton. My horse was allowed at the school as Nga Tawa is in the country having stables and paddocks attached.

After leaving school I completed my B. Ed. at Massey University managing to complete a paper in equestrienne and a special paper in “teaching disabled children to ride” before travelling overseas. My passion has always been sport, teaching and building relationships with both people and animals.

After being married and having three children I taught in Feilding, Taupo and various schools in the Waikato plus 18 years at Hamilton Girls’ High school while gaining my MSocSci and later a Diploma in School Principalship at the University of Waikato. As part of the senior management team I became very interested in online learning and teaching. I worked with Dr Paul Keown and Professor Lex Chalmers setting up on line communities especially for rural teachers in country schools.

In 2010 I was fortunate to be awarded a Mathematics, Science and Technology Fellowship with the Royal Society at the University of Waikato where I investigated the effectiveness of a blended Community of Practice for teachers of Geography in isolated schools. The key to this community was relationship building. There are presently 102 teachers on this Isolated to Connected Community of Practice site. The September blogger, Dr Paul Keown will talk about this site next month on this superb site of Hazel’s.

Hazel Owen and Eddie Reisch were extremely helpful to me in 2010 with helping me with links to other online communities. Hazel in particular was always there to help me with “Ning” related problems.

In 2011 I took on a new challenge as I hoped to be able to help rural and isolated children. I am thoroughly enjoying my new position at Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu – The Correspondence School as a Team leader for the Northern region. I am part of the He Kakano programme where my first goal is to encourage my team to build strong relationships especially with our Maori students and whanau. My second goal is to enable our students and their whanau to become more literate. Recently I spoke at the Literacy Aotearoa Conference with Robert Blucher (Northern regional manager) where we managed to gain much interest from Literacy Aotearoa which we are finding really exciting.

Background about Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu:

What astounded me when I first started at Te Kura was the fact that the school was so large with approximately 25,000 students making it the largest in New Zealand in addition those geographically isolated make up a rather a small percentage of the roll. It is interesting to note that most students are enrolled due to exclusion, expulsion, alienation, psychological and psycho-social reasons (58%). All types of isolation including geographic isolation make up only 13% of our roll (see Table 2). I was surprised that dual students comprise 43% of the roll and adults make up 31% (see Table 3).

Table 1 below showing enrolment for Te Kura increasing 2007 to 2010 as well as photographs of our students at various Northland locations

Cumulative enrolments	2007	2008	2009	2010
Total	22,923	22,802	24,503	26,135
Equivalent full-time students	7,138	7,845	7,845	8,167

Table 3

Goal one: Relationships

Max and his mother have given me permission to tell our story about “Relationships”.
I was speaking to Max’s Mum and I said, “Can I please speak to Max?”
“No, I’m afraid he won’t speak to you or meet with you as he doesn’t trust or like teachers”
After some time I got quite angry – so much for being crazy about building relationships I thought to myself. Think being calm, don’t get irate were my thoughts.
Eventually I said, “Well would he like to meet my dog instead of me then?”
“Yes”, Mum said.

The following weekend Lucy our dog and I met Max at the dog park. We taught him how to lead her and Max fed her 'schmackos' for treats when she came to him. Max didn’t say much except for asking when he could meet Lucy next. As the weeks progressed Max wrote about Lucy, asked about her and did lots of work for me and Lucy. Max was trying very hard but his writing was very poor.

As the weeks progressed our outings with Lucy increased and his writing improved immensely. On the first weekend of last holidays I met Max and his Mum and I said they would be thrilled with Max’s report as every teacher has given him an excellent report with grades of excellence in all his subjects. Mum burst into tears and hugged Max and said, “This will be the first good report he has had. Even when he was five he had a bad report”.

Last time Lucy and I met Max he had a brand new puppy of his own, a smile as wide as can be and the confidence of a successful person.

Max and Lucy

Another student would not meet me however after some time she agreed that I could meet her at her house at 6pm on a Friday, not the 5pm Monday as I had suggested. Once I arrived at her house with homemade chocolate chippies she invited me in and offered a cup of tea. The following week she text me and said she would meet me at the library on a Monday at 5pm. Her sister who is eighteen came along as well. She asked if she could join Te Kura as an adult student and is now enrolled. The exciting part is Aunty who is their caregiver has agreed to be part of the pilot with Literacy Aotearoa. Aunty will have a tutor to help her teach Joanna and then Literacy Aotearoa will help Aunty to become more literate and numerate. It is such a fabulous idea as this is a win - win situation where everyone is gaining greater literacy skills.

Goal Two: To encourage students and their whanau to improve their literacy skills.

Presently my Northland team is involved with a joint venture with Literacy Aoteroa where Literacy Aotearoa Tutors will be working with or students’ supervisors to help with literacy and numeracy skills. The supervisors will first be able to help teach their students with for example, division skills. As time goes by and supervisors grow in confidence it is hoped that the supervisors may also become involved with not only helping their own students but furthering their own literacy and or numeracy skills. It could be that supervisors then enroll in further education and if this happens students will have valuable role models.

The trial is with 30 to 40 supervisors in the Northern region of New Zealand with Te Ara Hou teachers of years 7 to 9 taking part in this pilot.
Why do we need this pilot?

If supervisors cannot understand the instructions in the booklets they cannot provide the key support our students need to succeed.
When neither supervisor nor student can properly understand the tasks it can lead to frustration, a sense of failure and disengagement.
If supervisors are given support to increase their level of literacy by Te Kura and Literacy Aotearoa, our students will be able to progress further.

The Potential Benefits:

Literacy Aotearoa gain adult students
Literacy levels of adults improve
Student engagement and achievement improves
Supervisors may become adult students of Te Kura
Project throughout NZ by 2012

I think the composition of Maori in the different regions where this pilot will be conducted is noteworthy. In the Whangarei North rohe we have 49% Maori, in Auckland North we have 25% and Auckland South 28%. A key objective for this project is to show the connection between adult literacy and numeracy learning and children’s literacy and numeracy learning by “mapping out” the changes in the learning experiences of all children (although we are particularly interested in the Maori children) as a result of their parents’ participation in an adult literacy and numeracy programme. We want to look really closely at what students say and feel about their parents being part of their learning with tutors. We are interested in the relationships that occur by having a tutor as part of their learning. Of course the students will still have the same support from their learning advisors and learning teachers at Te Kura so this is additional contact.

There is a considerable body of research that shows the relationship between parental education and qualification levels and the educational achievement of their children, and that low literacy is frequently intergenerational because parents and whanau with low literacy are less confident and able to support their tamariki. Supporting parental literacy and numeracy for example, the “whanau-school partnerships” that are part of the Ministry of Education’s Ka Hikitia education strategy and which aim to improve the engagement and achievement of Maori students as they transition from primary into secondary school is working well with students of a similar age as those we are conducting our pilot research (Years7 to 10).

A pilot will take place in the Northern region in terms 3 and 4 (with mainly parents of TAH students). Literacy Aotearoa has secured funding for ACE Innovation Pool to fund the pilot and it is hoped this approach will become nationwide in 2012.

The project will be launched by Mike Hollings and Bronwyn Yates, who is Tumuaki of Literacy Aotearoa 19th August.

We have spent time talking with Peter, Bronwyn and Brenda at Literacy Aotearoa Auckland about what supervisors gaining confidence may look like? How can we measure this?
It will be interesting to report back to you with the results of our pilot scheme which begins on August 22nd 2011. The first evaluations will be conducted at the beginning of December this year.

Summary

Relationships have been strengthened this year by conducting many more face to face meetings, event days in places such as Kaikohe, Whangarei, Albany, and Mangere (see Kaikohe Event day photograph below) and the enormously good spirit of the team I work with. It is a real please to work alongside teachers who visit their students in hospital, who visit students in gang houses who make birthday cakes and cards for their students, collect books for their students from closing down sales as well as stay up all night baking to take an impressive morning tea for whanau who have come a long way to event days.

Listening and Respecting: A Culturally Responsive Pedagogy of Relations

2011-08-19T14:00:00.000+12:00

I have just been participating in a thought provoking webinar entitled Te Kotahitanga PD including Culturally Responsive Pedagogy of Relations, and facilitated by Mere Berryman. It was Mere's first time facilitating in a Webinar environment, and she faced all the technical hiccups with aplomb...and gave the participants a lot to think about.

Culturally responsive pedagogy was identified by Glyn (1985) where he identified four specific types of responsive pedagogical strategies, including:

Providing interesting materials that promote engagement by the learner
Delaying and reducing direct teacher instructions and direction so as to allow opportunities for learners to initiate
Maximising opportunities for shares activities between less-skilled and more-skilled learners so there can be reciprocal learning

Mere described the Te Kotahitanga Effective teaching profile where teachers are culturally appropriate and responsive, and possess a number of understandings, especially the rejection of deficit theorising, where the focus is rather on what learners can do. Teachers demonstrate these understandings in a variety of ways including caring for students and respecting their culture, and having high expectations for the performance of these students. In addition, teachers create a secure, well-managed learning environment, engage in effective teaching interactions, use strategies to promote change, and use evidence from student outcomes to inform their own and students' critical reflection and next learning steps (in a formative way).

The next points to be mentioned were around culturally pedagogy of relations including:

Interaction that emerge from relationships (Sidorkin, 2002), in particular those of trust and respect
Culture counts (Bishop & Glynn, 1999)
Power is shared between self-determining individuals within non dominating relations of interdependence (Iris Marion Young, 2004) to help develop more independent skills. The notion of interdependence is much more important in Maori view of the world.
Pedagogy is responsive and interactive
Learners / teachers are connected through a common purpose / vision and reciprocal responsibility

A diagram (see above) was used to illustrate a model of Te Kotahitanga, and Mere spoke about an intensive process and how it informs professional development, which comprises a cycle of in-class observations, feedback, co-construction meetings and shadow coaching. The professional development occurs over a 3 day period initially, and asks the question: What is happening and what can I do about it? The PD is dynamic and multi-dimensional, and facilitators work from a model whereby the expertise within a school is identified, acknowledged and built upon. The PD support has another cycle within in it. The first thing that happens is the modelling what is desired at the 3 day hui, and then stand alongside in a shadow coach role to support the teachers. Next steps include review and development, practice as usual (e- community support, 0800 helpline, leadership hui, conference every 2 years, and opportunities for critical reflection.

The most important things for designing programmes to help Maori - the programme would have aspects of all of these factors. One of the key words is enjoying - it's about identity, Te Reo, culture, ako and productive partnerships. It is not just about educational success. So, what are the indicators of success in these areas?

Some of the indicators are, feeling confident to identify as Maori, are attending school more often / regularly, are staying at school longer and engaging with learning. Others are that they are achieving at higher levels across a range of achievement data, and leaving with qualifications and career pathways. There is also a strong focus on Maori focussing on school activities., and there is more whanau involvement in the school, as well as more self-determined and less directed by the school. I tentatively ask...the involvement of whanau in the school, and in an active role, not a token role of sports and fêtes - is this something that all schools should be aiming for across all parents / whanau? Is there a received notion by many of the communities that the school is the 'expert'? How can this be re-balanced? So the relationship becomes more of a partnership where everyone's experience and expertise is celebrated and meaningful - although Mere cautioned that Maori experience of partnerships is that they tended to uneven. One of the participants suggested this resource - the Te Kauhua materials: http://tetereauraki.tki.org.nz/Te-Kauhua.

Mere recommended some resources for supporting schools to help inclusion, including some books. She also talked about the power of Communities of Practice and Wenger's notion of brokerage whereby CoPs become "important paces of negotiation, learning, meaning and identity "( Wenger, 1998, p, 133) . Over time, Mere asserted, communities develop a unique perspective on their topic as well as a body of common knowledge, practices, and approaches...They may even develop a common sense of identity.

Intervening with leadership in school systems and structures to help consideration of the relationship between what teachers are doing and what school leadership is doing - and what the interface looks like. The goal is focusing on improving target students' participation and achievement. Leadership in these interventions needs to be responsive and proactive rather than reactive.

Mere closed with the idea that effective leadership engages with influencing change then sustaining and managing reform that supports the shared vision...until it is "business as usual".

Do you need a social media detox?

2011-08-15T11:42:00.001+12:00

A humorous overview of social media from Column Five Media (@columnfive).

Click HERE to access the full size article.

Know where you are going? eLearning roadmap

2011-08-15T11:37:00.000+12:00

There are a number of eLearning frameworks and roadmaps gaining in use and popularity. This one from The National Centre for Technology in Education (@ncteireland) offers a good example, although it is contextualised to the UK.

What does culturally responsive facilitation look like? A reflection

2011-08-09T16:17:00.001+12:00

I have been delaying writing up this reflection for a long time...more than a couple of months in fact - the notes I took during the session have sat in draft format and I have 'mulled' over what happened and why.

Part of the reason, I guess is that it is connected to those gnarly subjects 'cultural appropriacy and responsiveness', which can lead to some strong, occasionally critical, reactions. The elephant in the room is often the feeling of not knowing how to react appropriately, and a fear that the people with whom you are interacting would not be sympathetic to your not knowing.

What happened?

The session I was participating in was a professional development session about facilitation. We discussed the idea that facilitation can take many forms, and whether it is 'good' or not is in part dependent on context and interpretation - and all of these are factors are likely to change over time as beliefs around learning and teaching shift.

All great so far...then my brain went into overdrive - for me, given the points above some of the interesting conundrums included:

If a person does not share your values around how facilitation is conducted, what are the implications around that?
Can a person elect to not engage with the way a learning experience is set up? What is the result of this?
Can you go in with humility if you have a set of values up front - should they be negotiated as part of the process?
Can we assume that every school, institution, iwi or whanau accepts that the values you go in with are the most valuable ones for them?
What do we have to learn about the people that we are going to be working with?
A suggestion was that it is necessary to bring something to a session that is 'part' of the people - analogies, images, ways of talking about things. But, how do you do that in a diverse community. What if the analogies are meaningless to some of the people in the room? Do you focus on the majority? Do you try to cover most of the cultural groups? Do you cover all of them? How? Or, is the main focus the people in the room with the most influence? People who are from that part of the world?

Image by Lazar_Shlevich

And finally, the 'pear-shaped' moment...I started to have a visceral reaction to being advised that I would need to share a specific set of values, and it felt as if there was little or no room for discussion around what was included and how it was interpreted. Furthermore, with my rapidly increasing sense of distress, there appeared to be one main culture that was being put-forward...and much of the language being used to describe some of the values was totally foreign to me - literally. I hadn't a clue what was going on half the time. During the session I typed "I am being made to feel like an outsider...somehow lacking in cultural knowledge and awareness. And maybe that is an uncomfortable truth. It is an area that I am unfamiliar with. Is it because my own beliefs are being challenged? I find the language being used as exclusive / excluding of me and my culture".

Image by hazelowendmc

So what?

I think of myself as a person who has travelled a reasonable amount through Europe, South East Asia, and Australasia, and I have spent several years in the Middle East. It came as quite a shock, therefore, when I realised that I was having an emotional reaction around cultural responsiveness in this session - something I had experienced before, but never so strongly. It was always something that I read about in articles and research papers, and saw as an integral aspect of learning design.

Another thing I noticed, though, is as soon as I started feeling uncomfortable - I stopped really listening and engaging with the other people in the session. The only reason I remember anything except the emotional response was that I could access the notes I took at the outset of the session.

I have since spoken to other people who have experienced similar reactions...but interestingly people would have a "wow, I'm so pleased you mentioned that. No-one has before and I just thought I was being precious" type reaction. Often the reaction is dismissed as an over-reaction.

Bigger question for me, therefore, is how many times have I made students and colleagues feel similarly uncomfortable? Only one time has a student spoken about this to me (and after the sense of mortification on my part dissipated a little, I was able to consult with another student to help me work out what I had done to offend, how to address that situation, and how to make sure I didn't do it again...phew!).

What next?

There are several things I need to do and think about including:

grasp every opportunity to learn about other cultures in a meaningful (rather than token) sense;
work with individuals who I know I can ask dumb, and perhaps what turn out to be insensitive, questions - where that they will understand I am learning...and making mistakes;
find the courage to speak to people in a non-confrontational way when they make me feel culturally 'other'...but to go with suggestions around how this might be addressed so as to not leave them feeling high and dry; and
work on, read about, and research how to design culturally responsive and appropriate online spaces and experiences - such that they are neither 'sterile', nor inclusive of only one or a few cultures. Rather I would like to design great spaces to learn and communicate for as many cultures as possible.

There are several more things I will add as I continue to reflect, but that will continue for many years I suspect! A couple of really positive things to have come out of this. There's nothing quite like experiencing something to start to understand it, and...well, I didn't even really consciously acknowledge I had a culture up until that point. As an immigrant to New Zealand I have been so busy trying to integrate and feel accepted that I guess I had stopped thinking of myself as having cultural roots, and that they may be important to me.

"Culturally Responsive" (education420.wordpress.com)

Images

Zeenah – Learning in a social world: A social learning scenario

2011-08-04T09:53:00.001+12:00

A couple of months ago I shared a scenario of a tertiary learner and how they may use Web 2.0 and social learning as a student. This month, I would like to share the scenario of Zeenah.

This is a hypothetical scenario of a student's learning journey and it demonstrates: 1) how a learner might be inducted into a blended learning programme; 2) how she would progress through the programme; 3) the scaffolding and developmental nature built into the design of the programme; and 4) how she would interact with peers and teachers, virtually and face-to-face. This scenario is designed to be read in conjunction with a complementary mindmap.

Zeenah – Learning in a social world: A Web 2.0 scenario

The conversation prism: Visual way of representing the networking realm

2011-08-02T13:02:00.001+12:00

Sometimes, once you have worked through your design stages (and this could be for a whole programme or for an activity), you may then be left wondering what tool would be suit your needs, given the approaches and interactions you have planned for. You might, for example, have decided that you are going to use a problem-based focus and one of the things you would like your learners to do is access experts from all around the world. To do this you might encourage your students to access niche networks.

However - how do you work out the connections, and find out what is available? Bring on the following two diagrams: Pedagogical underpinnings to ICTELT design and The Conversation Prism. The first looks at some possible pedagogical approaches, and ties them with activities. The second outlines broad communications and interactions, and then suggests a few of the tools that could be accessed and used by your students. I've found it really useful...and it would be good to know if you have any examples or suggestions how you have used these tools :-)

To access this image full size please click HERE (by hazelowendmc)

To access this image full size please click HERE (by b_d_solis)

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