Watery inspiration

Welcome home à ma co-bloggeuse!
I'ts been a bit quiet on the BTTDB front as, in St George mode, I try to fend off a variety of fire-breathing dragons. Survival first......
Still, my daily wallow in the bath gave rise this week to a bit of inspiration. We had been discussing in a Year 10 class how we might best make a joint presentation, à la Powerpoint.

There was talk of adding a slide and airdropping the presentation to the next student, which seemed a long and drawn out solution.

We first decided to gather/create the info and images on individual word docs which would be sent to me to compile into a powerpoint. Not a brilliant solution as I end up doing too much of the work and management of documentation.

So after a couple of classic BTTDB 'false' starts (I prefer to see them as an essential part of the learning process, and far from a waste of time) I suddenly thought of Google docs and the 'presentation' function which seemed to be a slightly simplified clone of Powerpoint.

The task was to make a slide illustrating your favourite animal and why you liked it. The task required the students to incorporate direct object pronouns (Je les aime parce que.......) and allowed for differentiation as there was a minimum requirement but those that chose to could add as much as they liked.


I started a 'presentation' Google doc and shared it with all the students. They very quickly got onto it and began working on their slide. It was interesting to observe the motivating factor of being able to see what everyone else was doing. Of course this quickly led to the realisation that they could not only 'chat' while they were doing it but also edit each other's slides. This gave rise to some sabotage initially before the novelty wore off. Some students realised that if they made their slide from a screen shot they'd made from Powerpoint, then the content couldn't be edited by others. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage as the language can't be added to or modified once we go through the slides together to look at them critically.

The only drawback to using this Google 'presentation' doc is that, unlike Powerpoint, there doesn't seem to be a voice recording function. I would like everyone to have included a soundfile of themself reading their text aloud. That would've been fun and made it an even better task. I guess they can record themselves in some other way and insert the sound file but it's much easier if it's a one-click operation.

Here's the link to the presentation. Hope it works. It's a work in progress as we haven't reviewed it yet and some students are yet to finish.

Now for a weekend of culture. There's so much happening here with films (Film Fest) and concerts that I'll have a hard time deciding what to go to.........
Vivement ta visite!!

One very useful model...

Aaron Nolan, NZALT Auckland Regional Officer, has asked me if I would give a presentation about useful tools for the Language Classroom at the upcoming Auckland LANGSEM (August 24th, UoA, Epsom Campus).
While I would have favored to facilitate a tool "smackdown" à la Educamp, this does not fit well in the standard Conference schedule (I won't give up mentioning it again and again though!)
So what can I do in 30 minutes, which is the time I have available? I can forget hands on, but having said that, connected participants can always have a quick look at the tools if I share the links at the outset. I think it will be pretty fast paced too, so I will pre warn people and stress they can re visit the information at anytime.

Tools for learning or learning supported by tools? 

http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/

I will divide the 30 min into two distinct parts:
a-  tools for the students to learn, create and share
b-  tools for the teachers to connect, curate and share ( and post the link here when done!)
Well... This opportunity opens two doors:
- to stress the need and use for an eportfolio to aggregate creations, to share them with an audience, to receive feedback and to reflect on the learning.
 - to refer participants to one very useful model to help teachers integrate Education technology: the SAMR model.
Here is a very useful short video to explain it:

The SAMR model is useful in many ways:

- it raises awareness of how we use tools in the classroom,
- it indicates that there is progression, until it is seamlessly integrated and ubiquitous
- students direct their learning more effectively as tasks are redesigned and modification takes place
- it also expands the world of the teacher and students beyond the classrom
- above all it reminds us why we use tools in the classroom: for the learning to take place!

It is good to continue to investigate ever changing tools but it is important to keep focus on what learning needs to be achieved.

Helen Prescott  gave an effective 3 min presentation in the Primary context at TeachMeet#2  full of practical examples and links to the Key Competencies

The wheel below combines Blooms with SAMR and a wide range of Apps (while these are apps for Ipad, many are also available via the browser or on Android).
The "graduates attributes and capabilities" (my point of focus at the moment, at the heart of my eportfolio "dada") at center of wheel are closely reminiscent of the Key Competencies.

http://www.edudemic.com/2013/05/new-padagogy-wheel-helps-you-integrate-technology-using-samr-model/

The action verbs and activities are also present in NCEA Languages Assessment standards, from which are derived a lot of the languages programmes in our NZ schools.
There certainly won't be anytime to generate any conversation during this presentation at the Langsem: shame. It would be a chance to start a conversation around how to assess and provide feedback on creations which are not merely text based or just spoken. I'll think of another media, wonder if the good old NZAFT listserve will be receptive this time?
Anyhow I hope that I can direct participants to this post and that it plants a seed for them to grow, as well as allow them to make connections with what is happening in their school and the world of education technology at large.

PS: Blogger's interface, like any other google tool, defaults to French as my IP is in France at the moment. Midly enerving but also rather irritating to have this mish mash of languages on the screen!

ePortfolio blah blah

It appears we have had very different weeks and not only weatherwise... This is what I have been up to. Hesitations, blanks and repetitions included, but a podcast no longer (?!) than 10 minutes. Lucky you! Put the SoundCloud app on your phone or your browser and give it a go, suggest to your students to create an account, start recording anywhere anytime and share wherever (including MyPortfolio!) It even works for words list :-). Could be useful for revision prior to mock exams!

Enjoy your long week end and keep warm and happy!

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.

Ça alors!

Coucou Ruth!
I was just tiki touring procrastinating and I clicked on our blog's stats and look what I saw!

According to this we have "audience" in Germany, and Russia! And do you use Internet Explorer? Surely not. #aregooglestatsreliable I wonder!

Bon dimanche!

 

Which way back to the Drawing Board? - Part 1

Before I can move forward I need to take a good look where I have come from and establish where I am now. Yes that is about my journey with MyPortfolio so far. And it is about my lack of visibility into the future. Something tells me MyPortfolio is here to stay on the NZ Education landscape but as I write someone is still to decide for its funding post December 2013. I usually tend to take things one day at a time, as the journey I am about to retrace indicates. But with what I know now, it just doesn't cut it. I know I need to go back to the drawing board but don't quite know the way.

Where have I been?
- 2009 - New Languages NCEA Internal Standards, aligned to the NZC, require a "portfolio of evidence" "gathered over time" "selected through a student/teacher negocation process"
Immediate thought arising: how to manage this practically? (At this stage I am not thinking too much in terms of pedagogy and NZC!)
- Hear of Mahara an eportfolio software, developed from the needs of a consortium of NZ Universities to provide their students with an eportfolio space. Tiki tour at a local college that has an install. The word eportfolio enters my vocabulary. 
- Feb. 2010 - Attend Learning at School, discover amongst a plethora of tools that "support teaching and learning" (yep I do love the tools still) my first intros to  "Why"  using an eportfolio.
- Keep my ears to the ground in terms of ePortfolio with further investigations to deepen my understanding  The phrases learning journey and lifelong learning become familiar. It also becomes clearer to me that technology pointers are only going to help a little, that what we are looking at is to change the way we have been assessing and to give the students the responsibility to own his/her learning. Which prompts me to download again the NZC and to this time properly read it. Page 36 in particular retains my attention:
 

- I dwelve some more as I am now aware of MyPortfolio a hosted instance of Mahara made available to NZ schools, funded by the MoE.  It is not until Ulearn10 that I find out more information and meet users. The practical in me sees a solution for students and teachers for the internal assessments. I have not got enough hindsight at that stage to gage the transformative "power" of this technology on teaching and learning.
- Feb. 2011 - First real intro to MyPortfolio at Kristina's workshop. I am sold! I also meet Ronja a Language teacher who shares my enthusiasm. She does have classes and students to try it with! (I am no longer teaching). I make my first pages, to discover the functions. The Learning Languages Group is created, I join the MyPortfolio Discussions Group. I effectively take my first steps in the MyPortfolio community. Till then my immediate community has been the French teachers of NZ, being an NZAFT exec  which reinforced the bond created by redeveloping and maintaining french.ac.nz and managing its Listserve.
- Paul (then in MoE team that has started MyPortfolio) was keen to see the MyPortfolio word spread and potential users found. Free 90min taster sessions were already made available on request to all primary and secondary schools in NZ. There were two trainers and the rapid growth of early enthusiasts contributed a contingent of local trainers. The idea is to grow interest and develop use from within the community of users. Thus a need for a critical mass of users for this to grow organically! 
- Paul asked me "how can I help you?"? 2011 was a NZALT Langsems year. Language teachers meet in the regions. I suggested I could hold MyPortfolio introductions and workshops at each of these Langsems, and that I could contact the then Regional Language Advisers and offer a day's training at Cluster levels. I surveyed Language teachers. I got on the road.  I kept my journal. I learned by doing.
- Jan. 2012 - There is still plenty of demands on the MyPortfolio taster session calendar, and with one trainer left I am offered the opportunity to take his place until the contract runs out end June 2012. 
- New format (90 min taster session is not a half day workshop that I have ran so far), new people (from 48 different schools many primary, a few big secondary, across Learning areas, people I don't know!), new surroundings (visiting schools not conference rooms!) new focus (in 90 min, the standard taster focus on the Reflection, whereas the focus had been on managing assessement and feedback with Language teachers), new geographical horizons (up and down the South Island, and some part of the lower North Island), new way of doing things (making contact at potential user's request, explaining who I was, reminding them of their interest,  connecting them regionally as a small group, facilitating the "finding time and place" that suits all! sending reminders, located the schools geographically, this is NZ after all!, writing invoices, keeping tab of expenses... ) new outlook on what the NZ education landscape looks like on the ground, across sectors, new awareness (no such thing as "one fits all model" rather "one fits one"), new reality (good infrastructure access innovation exist in pockets and are unevenly distributed). One very lasting picture is built from the numerous interactions: MyPortfolio is a shared online space which functionalities definitely "open up new and different ways of learning" (NZC p.36) and supports fully the Vision of the NZC for "young people who will be confident connected actively involved life long learners". These were a short . These six months went so fast.
- March 2012 - New opportunities arise. I am invited to work with GCSN schools as a consultant. That adds another layer to my understanding of the diversity and the complexity of the issues at play when introducing something new. More than ever it is the "Why" that must lead this. I see school grounds really affected by the earthquake   , whole neighborhoods deserted with houses destroyed and boarding up and places and other schools and neighborhoods which appear to look as they ever looked. What I quickly gather though is that everyone, teacher and student, that I spend time with has been affected deeply by the catastrophe. What I am amazed with is the demand for something new, at the interest generated by eportfolio and myportfolio, at the warmth of the welcome, at the openness of mind. I end up going back to work in Christchurch GCSN schools in November 2012 and again in March 2013. 
- Working with the Christchurch schools lead to work with schools from the Wellington Loop and with a cluster of teachers located in the Nelson region. I meet again teachers I have met before in other myportfolio workshops. Learning happens when it is revisited often, in different contexts, over a period of time.
- I enjoy contributing to the online MyPortfolio group forums where I can, I learn from the questions and I continue to develop my understanding of online communities and how they "work", how its contributors seem to move quite fast and focus on the future.
- I accompany the work of three language teachers in three different secondary schools and of  their students using myPortfolio remotely, we meet regularly online, take stock and map next steps.
- March 2013 - The MoE continues to support hosting and development of MyPortfolio till at least Dec 2013. Some schools continue to want to know more about MyPortfolio and get in direct contact with me. ePortfolio is now almost a household name now for many in New Zealand schools, it appears often in online conversations and generates conversations around the pedagogy which leads to its use, the reasons why, the type of tools to build one etc. It may have entered the vocabulary but not so widely the practice yet. All good things take time. Hence my multiple interrogations! (To be continued)

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Et si elles faisaient ça en français qu' est ce qu' elles apprendraient qui n est pas possible d' apprendre avec un papier et un crayon?