29 May 2013

No brainer

This is why we* do what we do, why we believe what we do is the way to go, why we trust, amongst others, the Key Competencies, Learning to Learn, Assessment for Learning,  to empower learners to think critically, to be curious and articulate, flexible and adaptable, to act independently and make their own free choices, in their context, in their culture.
Because we** don't want that. Anymore.

* You, me, and so many other teachers
 ** You, me, teachers, lecturers, employers, parents, friends...




26 May 2013

Favourite Google title


Google here Google there

My week appears to have been dominated by all things Google! Me and million others!
More this week than any other? I did receive lots of messages about googledoc use and discussed them at the NZALT meeting where I presented the NZQA info about online submissions for moderation.
And this level of "Google activity" got me thinking...
Every day several times a day I typically search, email, use calendars, create and share docs, presentations, forms, upload images, follow and participate in groups, watch Youtube clips, use Maps as GPS... I have used googlesites to document or communicate information. I embed elements from my Drive in other online spaces. My Android phone is surgically attached to my hand, the Android tablet is central to our living area.  I have even started to use Chrome and added a range of apps, including Lucidchart, Pocket. Still my default browser is Firefox, firmly, but who knows? I own a macbook air which has virtually no storage place as most of my stuff is cloud based, mostly in Drive and some in Dropbox.
And that is only my personal use..
http://mashable.com/2011/08/03/google-doodles/

The teaching and learning world is taken by storm by GoogleApps for Education: docs, control panel, apps... Excellent teachers are selected to attend the Google Academy, forward thinking and successful schools showcase how the Apps combined with Teacher Dashboard transform teaching and learning, amazing stories of implementation to develop a digital age approach to learning for all students are widely disseminated, whole countries like Malaysia not only adapt the cloud services but also the hardware, Chromebooks are featured prominently, GAFECommunity conferences worldwide are extremely well attended by innovative teachers looking to empower their students to own their learning. Resources to get started, presentations to implement, tips from any of these events are shared widely through social media.
And that is only what I am aware off...

I have actually not set out to learn about Google stuff, it just has grown as part of my daily routine,
it feels as whenever I need to do something there is a Google way, and that it makes my many aspects of my daily life easier:
- googledrive for all NZAFT business
- collaboration on documents with colleagues
- eportfolio publishing
- blog posts
- googledrive to share and organise shared documents
- hangout to allow for those online meetings and record them
- presentations with speakernotes shared
- everything viewable and editable at my fingertips anywhere anytime on phone

Google is omnipresent in my online activities. I can't quite trace back how this has come to be. It all started with a Gmail address and playing with the tabs in iGoogle I think.
What surprises me is that some people I work with can't access googledocs from their place of work: no need sharing a doc with them at their institution address, no need asking them to quickly join a hangout. Others are still under the impression that if you don't send a form or document on paper or attachment to an email, then it won't be replied to, that the link to the form or the doco won't be followed. That only if you have a google account you can fill in a form! And others can't quite get what it means that it is on the cloud.

I can't say I am a Google enthusiast any more than I am a car enthusiast:
- both equally take me from A to B when I need (although I admit that going from A to B with google is far less of a straight road, as often one thing leads to another! ;-))
- both I drive with caution but also with the comfort associated with familiarity and a good dose of safety ( I have googled my name on a range of browsers and devices and different locations and I am yet to see in the first 10 pages of the search any of the documents I have published to the web from Drive),
- both I enjoy the reliability of and the feeling of ownership derived from a certain element of mastery Oh that feeling of freedom when the tool does exactly what you want (eg: I don't think about "How" I drive to B) and that frees you to concentrate on the next step!
So I know what Google enables me to do. I know it now as it is born of need.  I know some know heaps more and use much more Google things and make it work for them and their institutions, schools etc. so I continue looking as something will resonate and it ll get used. (Like the DocStory builder!)

I felt I needed to look at some of these applications in a school context, with learning outcomes firmly in mind, with students experience at the heart, to see what they look like in a context where the freedom of use can be restricted due to the constraints (age limitations, digital competence, infrastructure, access, data ownership etc.) and to see what users make of them (like this or that!), where they can embed, how they can communicate with parents, communities... What makes GoogleApps different so that they seem to be so widely implemented (if not widely and judiciously used)? Is it because their use, contrarily to LMS for instance, revolves around a personal user ID, namely an email address and a user owned product such as a doc? Hum...

Upon receiving info about the GoogleTools for Learning course coming up,  I suggested to the NZAFT exec ATeam that we went on a learning outing together: I have been doing "the Google evangelist" with the team for over a year now, but I'm limited by my own experience. And I am ready to listen to expert advice in the education field. Our team has steadily grown their use and started to see some massive changes in the way we work and relate to others for planning and communication purposes. This is timely for all of us, and the opportunity to work together to share experience and freshly acquired knowledge to our community of practice at the upcoming Fransème is too good to miss!

So I am going back on my word: I am going to a "how to" workshop! LOL!  I' ll soon write what I got out of it!

18 May 2013

Ta Da !!


Educamp Dunners


Here we are on a moist Saturday evening in Dunners, reflecting on my first experience of an Educamp. It was, as I expected, a complete contrast to the traditional 'expert', 'key-note' sort of affair where one tends to drift off even if the wisdom being imparted is relatively interesting.

What did I take away from it? Well, for the first time in my life I made notes in a word doc instead of in a notebook. That's quite a shift for an old paper addict. But as I type much faster than I can write it makes good sense and I'm not sure why it's taken me so long. I'm likely to do much more with my electronic notes as I know where they're stored, for a start, and can copy and paste sections of them as required. I can also upload them onto MyPortfolio in some form as part of my record of professional learning (no doubt ticking some RTC box or other, but that's the least of my reasons for doing so!!) Leaving a timely trail of reflection as one goes (while the trail is still warm) is eminently sensible (as we're doing now), compared to doing massive, window-dressed, probably fictitious, template-filling reports for purposes of compliance, which no-one, least of all the author, will ever read.

So what did we do?
Several campers shared interesting stuff during the Smackdown. Here are some of the things that I'm likely to revisit some time, or which I found particularly interesting:

  •  'The 100 Days Project' seen at TedX Auckland, which consists of signing up to do and share one thing for 100 days (share some magic). The example used was of someone undertaking to paint 100 canvasses. I wonder what I'd choose to do?
  •  Breaking the classroom bubble - power of the # was preaching to the converted about the power of connectivity for taking learning and sharing beyond the classroom.
  • App crayons (not available in NZ but under $20 US for a box of 6, for writing on ipads
  • 10 ways  to use a cellphone in class - kids taking snaps instead of notes, screenshotting everything to save time and effort and to make it instantly available for sharing.
  • I liked the Gliff to attach an iphone to a tripod. $30US
  • bluetooth mouse and keyboard 90% of functionality of interactive whiteboard
     bluetooth headphones / not tethered to your laptop

    (and now for some reason the bullet points are having a spazz as I try to cut and paste and edit and they won't go back to the right place despite repeated efforts so I'll put that one in the not-important-enough-to-waste-time-on box)

    •  http://www.sparkol.com/home.php
      (used for RSA animates) $6 on ipad
      a bit fiddly on the ipad but much cheaper than for laptop)

      SESSIONS - SOMETHING YOU CAN SHARE AND SOMETHING YOU'D LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT
      As we put up post-its of the above it reminded me very much of the Réseaux d'Echange Réciproque des Savoirs which some of my French PLN are exponents of and which dates from the early 70s. You may remember I took part virtually in a RERS conference in Paris from the comfort of my own office in 2009 (I think it was).

      I was eager to crack the nitty-gritty of creating Google Docs and that was the largest session. It consisted mainly of two people showing how they used Google Docs to enhance their students' learning. I found it mildly frustrating as I already knew how I wanted to use them but lacked the practical expertise. Fortunately as a follow-on from this session we had another chance to choose what to do next and I opted for an impromptu how-to-do-it session with David Fitzgerald from Cromwell. I like the way the sessions grow organically from the needs identified on the day rather than being set in concrete in advance by the boffins. It is, as you say, teachers being responsible for their own professional development and going and getting it rather than going along expecting things to be handed to them already packaged. It's a mirror image of what I've encountered with some of my students. They take a while to get used to being the drivers of their own learning.  So (revenons à nos moutons) we had a chance to negotiate our way around the Google Drive page and collaborate on a document. It was just what I was looking for, so that was an added bonus to an already satisfying day. I've come away with something concrete that I'd already identified the need for, so it was TIMELY. I was able to reciprocate on a very small scale by showing David how I used MyPortfolio. I was all set to come home and try a Google Doc between my two laptops using different addresses but I've ascertained that my school address isn't recognised by Google so either we rectify that school-wide or I get my students to create a gmail account for collaborative work.

      In addition to the above it was good to have a chance to meet Greg Carroll and see Anne Kennelly again. They carried us through the proceedings with flair and enthusiasm without in any way dominating them. It was all very horizontal. I look forward to further developments at Columba vis a vis the E-Learning Plan of Attack, or whatever its official title is. 
      We rounded off with a convivial lunch at No7, where we'd dined on Monday evening. It was packed to the rafters so it's just as well we had plenty to say to each other.


      Bonne nuit!!
      ^. .^
      =+=






17 May 2013

Compare and Contrast...

I put my hand up to "convene the French programme" at an upcoming regional Language teachers day conference. Here are a couple of reasons:
- to help out
- to keep in touch with the local Language teachers community
- to share experiences gleaned from a range of professional learning opportunities
- to further support my conviction that this model of Professional Learning has seen better days


This is comparing and contrasting the traditional Subject Association Conference day with the Unconference day, educamp style.
Both are intended to be "for teachers by teachers" (the only "both A&B" of the Venn Diagram)

I have attended a range of subject associations conferences in NZ and abroad, four educamp and one Ignition. I have previously been a convener helped organise Week End d Immersion the upcoming Fransème and put together FrenchCamp 


Convening for a day's conference involves:
- Attend committee meetings
- Go over what was has been done traditionally and that was deemed "to work"
- Follow it to the letter (including mail outs, venue booking, catering, establishing conference fees, finding sponsorship, finding/inviting a "flash" keynote speaker, collecting fees...)
- Convince teachers in your network to present "something spectacular" "their excellent practice" to fit in one of the "lines" of the programme,  ask them to take a day of school, plan relief,  ask SLT for relief ($300), pay for their conference fee (because there is not enough money to invite them),  travel to the venue, send a bio and a presentation outline by a certain deadline, convince them "it's good for their CV"
- Exchange countless emails with the committee, hope that there are enough registrations to break even, ensure that all is on time for the programme to be published
- Decide for others on a programme for the day, plan all its aspects
- Meet and greet the presenters on the day, intro them when they start, thank them when they are done, give them a bottle of wine and a handwritten card of thanks.
- Decide on how /when to give the Evaluation form that is so hard to ellicit from attendees at the end of the day.
- Use the few evaluation forms returned to continue to do mostly the same, as some "will always be moaners" and "it is hard to please everybody"
- Count on attendees to come and expect to be given "a presentation"
- Count on listening a lot
- Count on listening to "experts"
- Expect no media coverage
- Expect tech to be limited to dedicated workshops
- Expect limited access to resources, if shared online, to those who have paid their conference fees
- Timetable of sessions reinforce silos (I ll never know what the Japanese teacher or the Maori teacher have to say, I ll just run from one session to the next, just like at school from one lesson to another)
- Opportunities to network and exchange ideas beyond the programme or about the programme are limited to morning tea and lunchtime
- Go home tired after another day

Organising an unconference involves:
- Pick a date on a week end, the self directed learner knows when it is worth giving up a precious day off for quality professional learning
- Whip up a google form, send the link via a range of social media
- Share the list of attendees and watch it grow by word of mouth
- Tap shoulders or just wait till someone offers their school as a venue
- Check the numerous website offering tips on coordinating a flow of activities to make the day go smoothly, start a google doc and watch the contributions grow
- Just check there is wifi and heating is on
- Organise a bowl for koha and coffee
- Ask people to bring a plate or to walk to a nearby café
- Rightly assume that all come to share something and ask something, prepared to talk, present off the cuff, take hard questions
- Count on participants to come and give, and share experiences: the good, the bad and the ugly
- Count on exchanging, collaborating a lot and maybe even critic and argue!
- Count on co-constructing knowledge and understanding
- Expect extensive social media coverage
- Expect online resources shared and open to all
- Expect tech to be embedded to communicate beyond the event and to support learning
- No need for evaluation: if people stayed on and did not vote with their feet, consider all got something out of it
- Expect to read many reflections and blogposts on what has been learnt, shared and questioned by participants
- Go home enthused after another day

So if the question is "What's next for Learning Languages?" I would argue that those who have traditionally provided Professional Learning opportunities start thinking about Professional Learning in the context of both the NZC and of the current era.  Professional Learning is not something a teacher should be expecting to be organised for them and to receive passively by turning up but something that the teacher would go and get in their own terms, when they are ready, when they need it, that is accessible, in a range of authentic contexts, that they reflect on and share,  just like the learning of our students in the classroom.
To continue to ask a few to focus huge energy and effort on providing costly Conference days which value is determined in terms of attendance and on the spot evaluation is too big an ask when the alternatives abound. Subject Associations, hand over the learning to the individual teacher,  by empowering them to share their practice openly in an environment conducive to exchange and conversation. Create the right climate and accompany change.





9 May 2013

MoodleMahara Meet Up 2013

About a month ago, I received, via twitter,  a kind nudge by Allison Miller ( ePortfolio Australia) to invite me to present about ePortfolio in NZ schools at MoodleMahara MeetUp
So that happened yesterday, and I presented online, live, to a real audience of online people and people in a breakout room, for the first time.

The tool was Blackboard Collaborate, I chose to use flat slides, since transitions and pop ups don't import on BbC. I intended to show and tell some live myPortfolio pages from my browser, but the trial run I had with  Carole McCulloch (who was convening, managing and recording the webinars ) put me off it: navigation was too slow and the screen appeared really pixellated in the room.
It was a 20 min presentation.
I talked being a MyPortfolio trainer, delivering Taster Sessions, working with Language teachers and a range of secondary schools. I drew links to the NZC, and teaching and learning, and the people I have met, and hopefully the participants could get a picture of what had been activated to implement an eportfolio system on this scale!

Preparing for this made me realise a few things:
- the taster sessions were a jolly good idea! ( I knew but not how good!)
- that a follow up plan post taster sessions should have been drawn from the outset and not just rely on MyPortfolio users to just go ahead and do it (Prior to MyPortfolio, I dont think that there was another shared online space, I think the VLN started at about the same time, but that was a professional space, not one where students and teachers would be alongside. And creating/sharing online is so new for quite a few teachers still... )
- that my understanding of the NZC intent etc has deepened ten fold since engaging with MyPortfolio, my articulating of what Learning is about has sharpened greatly, my appreciation of the role of Thinking and Reflecting has blossomed equally. Where had I been all these years one might say? ;-)
- so if it has worked for me, surely it will work for all those who chose to look into it.
- and many are, I can see this every day through the shared pages.  This type of modelling is oh so potent, it would need to be highlighted a bit more prominently that is all!


And I need to add (edit 11/05): upon listening to Thornsten Gross presenting his students' use of Mahara in a German school I learnt from him that the Hessen state in Germany were looking at having a shared Mahara instance for their schools also. I am interested in following this development and learn more about it.

4 May 2013

Stages of Self Directed Learning

@zecool brought my attention to this blog post via Twitter:

Four Stages of Self Directed Learning (SSDL) published on http://www.educatorstechnology.com

The post refers to these slides by Barbara Stokes, who presents the Gerald Grow's SSDL Model.


Theories of Teaching and Learning: The Staged Self-Directed Learning Model, G.Grow. from Barbara Stokes

So what I am taking away from this reading and those slides?
- Self directed learning is not a new concept < is it revisited more readily since technology has brought about means to achieve personalisation and independence more readily? To be investigated...

- The potential for self direction can be enhanced and moving through the stages can be accelerated with the use of ICTs < this would need to be substantiated

- I respond well to theories which you can visualise in stages: it makes approaching it manageable and it offers a progression which can be investigated and documented.

-  Slide 14 : the learner goes through stages of self direction: opportunity for teacher to use a wide range of methods < how to move from teaching centric to learner centric?

- Slide 15 lists some limitations. In the context of the NZC, could it be envisaged that the use of a tool such as Teaching as Inquiry cycle support overcoming some of these limitations? (eg: inquire into where students are at prior to embarking on any teaching, determined by "How do I get the best out of all of my students?' leading question)

- The model in practice hinges on differentiation, individualisation.

- Both the learner and teacher could benefit from using an eportfolio to document the journey. For the student how they evolve from one stage to another, when they respond better, what teacher's style they need to progress, if they are self directed all the time even in front of new learning. For the teacher to investigate their teaching style and adapt it to the students in front of them through gathering evidence over time and reflecting on practice.

- Could the SSDL could be used as a big picture planning tool that would complement the Teaching as Inquiry targeted approach? The Model fits in with the Vision of the NZC