eLearning For Teachers: Di Goodman (Epoff)

Last week I attended the UNSW Winter Partnership “Technology Based Teaching and Learning Conference” at Kensington. The School of Education presented two days of workshops and lectures covering ICT pedagogies and current research related to eLearning in our schools.The conference was valuable for me in terms of my role as Director of eLearning as well as a classroom teacher.

Dr Matthew Clarke’s Plenary address explored the idea of technology as a ‘fix’ for education and questioned its potential as a tool to change the world. He proposed that the rise of educational technology is increasingly ‘commercialising’ education and warned that it must be perceived as nothing more than a tool. Its relevance should be determined by asking: Does it add pedagogical depth? Clarke cited a 2007 research project that surmised the slowness of teachers to take up ICT as the result of their need to reflect on the pedagogical efficiacy and potential prior to adopting, rather than technophobia. He maintains that the way forward with technology in our classrooms should proceed via evolution as opposed to revolution.

One of the most enlightening points of his presentation for me, provided a light-bulb moment when he explained that children see technological devices as cultural forms whereas we see them as technology! This perception is crucial to understanding the huge divide between the perceptions of students and their teachers. Schools need to adopt technology, not for the sake of having whizz bang devices and hardware, but for its potential as a cultural form that allows teachers to create learning environments and experiences that match the needs and ‘intelligences’ of their students.

Day 2 of the TIGS Moodle for Teachers PD workshop - 12th August 2009

This morning began with a roll up of enthusiastic teachers chatting about the things we had discovered about Moodle yesterday, and the many possibilities for setting up our own class pages.

Formal discussion expanded some issues that arose from the SWOT session at the close of Day 1. Several teachers expressed concern that multiple teachers would be sharing the one subject (course) page and how the contents and activities might be supervised or controlled by Head teachers and Co-ordinators. It was mostly acknowledged that 21st century learning for both students and their teachers is collaborative and that the term SHARING underpins the pedagogy. The strengths of sharing and collaboratively developing a dynamic learning environment were documented in the Day 1 evaluation session and these far outweigh the weaknesses of the transparent ‘open’ page format of Narradan/Moodle. This concern however, was recorded as a threat to other structures within the school, in particular the PYP program. It was noted however, that Edumate itself, is not setup to recognise the different dynamics of the PYP program, consequently work needs to be undetaken to resolve these issues for the Junior school.

Today we learnt about and used the collaborative tools available in Narradan (our Moodle site): chat rooms, assignment, forums, quizzes, wikis etc. Many of these are fantastic and have tremendous potential for develping rich tasks and interesting ICT activities for students

However, the most challenging feature is Quizzes or tests. These require considerable effort to set up, although all questions are filed in a question bank and can be reused in other tests. This is the most clumsy feature of Moodle and does not seem the best way to create tests.

Julian told us how to create a test in Hot Potatoes - available in the Start > All Programs folder we all have on our school intranet and save it, then use the Moodle Quizzes Import tab to import as a Moodle Quiz. I think I prefer the sound of this method!

Another shortcut:  I went online and googled ‘moodle quiz questions’ and found many sites with preset question and answer formats that I imported into Moodle. I was then able to edit the key words and save!  I think I saved at least 2 hours in the process!

We quickly ran out of time today - so much to cover and by the end of the day we were quite numb with information! All teachers attending were positive about the training and left with valuable info and ideas to get started on their own class pages. Julian Ridden was a great presenter and trainer who pushed us through an enormous amount of content with good humour and an engaging presentation format.

Watch my next posts where I’ll publish some formal evaluation feedback.

Closing the Gap

In his article,
“Closing the Gap Between Education and Technology”, Chris Riedel refers to Mark Benno’s (Apple guru) claim that our students think in entirely new ways about technology and this is reflected in how they creatively use everyday technology.

Riedel urges teachers to see the value and learning potential of technologies that students use all of the time, and refers to a situation Benno encountered recently involving the use of an MP3 player:

“MP3 players, for example, do not mean by default that the student is listening to music. Recounting a recent experience in an airport, Benno reminisced about asking a college student sporting an iPod and a set of white earphones, “what are you listening to?”

Her reply: “Which ear?”

The young woman he was referring to had two MP3 players and was listening to a chemistry lecture in one ear and music in the other. “It helps me get in the zone,” she told Benno, who shared his amazement at the revelation. Kids use technology in ways many of us would never think of, he said.”

Riedel’s article is well worth a read as it highlights the growing rift between the way teachers currently teach students and the way students teach and learn themselves outside of school.

Traditionally, schools have held a privileged position as the prime point of access for education - places where students go to learn what they need to know to get ahead in the world. Riedel’s article makes me question how long this will remain the case. Benno claims that students don’t ask questions about how to use technology but ask which technologies they might access to solve problems.

They seem to learn the ‘how’ as they solve the problem - they are multi-tasking technological wizards.

Gen Y and the new Gen Zers are much more focused on what they can DO with information and HOW they can do it NOW, than ever before. And they wish to share this process, preferably with their peers.

Problem-based learning opportunities. Collaborative teamwork. Proactive learning. Communal interaction. Process-focused solutions. Visual, social, interactive technology. These point to new literacies, where focus is on what students can DO with information rather than the content itself.

There is a huge cultural shift happening and if we aren’t mindful and proactive, schools will lose their relevance in the very near future.

Profound cultural change implies pedagogical change: a fundamental shift from traditional teaching and learning roles, a re-evaluation of what a 21st century ‘classroom’ encompasses or even looks like and a restructuring of teacher-learner relationships.

Crossing Borders

In attempting to walk-the-talk, I have collaboratively set up an experimental Web 2.0 ‘ning’ social network for TIGS Photography students with a colleague, Kerry Short, from Wanganui Park Secondary College in Victoria - a school chosen for its similar background - a strong community of students who are passionate about photography.

Blended Learning

We have created this network to complement what we both do in the classroom: which is largely develop student-centred programs where students take the initiative in working through a quite rigorous program of scaffolded projects, largely undertaken at their own pace.

Our education.ning site.com site is called ‘Crossing Borders’ and it purposefully challenges stereotypical ideas about teaching and learning. Crossing Borders has multiple functions that contribute to strong educational outcomes and pedagogies: it includes a communal photographic gallery; home pages for students, classes and groups; teacher blogs; community events; information sites for students to access class information at home; tutorial videos made and posted by teachers; and the ability for all members to comment and talk to each other in a safe, transparent and managed learning environment. One of our initiatives is to invite a number of ex-students from both schools (who are now practicing as professional photographers in Australia and overseas). Several are already maintaining a presence on the site and have assumed the role of mentors for our students. This has generated lots of interest from our community of students in a short space of time.

How is it going after four weeks? Currently students are on the site in the evenings and weekends, they have posted photos, talked a bit about themselves, formed new friends, shared comments about each other’s works, posted discussion boards, participated in a community ‘event’, talked to students and teachers from the sister school, shared thoughts with mentors and have grasped the opportunity to interact and share their work and ideas faster than we ever imagined! Students are working well beyond the classroom walls, have accessed tutorials and sites that we posted but not covered in class yet!

Its an exciting project and I’ll keep you posted on its progress.<b></b>

Di Goodman (Epoff)

Learning Technologies 2008 Conference
Friday 7th November

Nancy White:

Full Circle Associates: Stewarding Technology for Communities

This workshop was delivered via videoconference.

Nancy White started Full Circle to provide assistance to business through internet technologies. Her research and specialization focuses on how technology creates learning in communities.

Stewarding technologies for communities is all about learning together. During her research technologies have changed rapidly and she realizes the need to focus on pedagogies – the way people learn with technology, rather than the technology itself.

She outlines different ways of perceiving communities:
•    Learning communities
•    Knowledge Networks
•    Communities of Practice
•    Online Communities

Communities involve me, we and many:

Me: the individual (personal identity, interest trajectory
We: communities (bounded membership group identity shared interest
Many: networks (boundaryless, fuzzy, intersecting interests

These ideas have opened up new areas of understanding in relation to technologies:

Technologies enable people to:
•    Discover and appropriate
•    Build communities
•    Create identities

Key roles in forming communities:
•    Community leaders
•    Technology stewards: people with enough experience working with communities and enough knowledge of technology to support the community in using the technology. Selecting and configuring technology as well as supporting its use in the community. This role is about guiding learning, noticing things and making them happen now for individuals.

•    Network weavers
Read her great book “ Digital Habitat: Stewarding Technology for Communities”: an ecological view of technology in communities

Important polarities of communities:
Togetherness – Separateness: shifting engagement from the group to the individual
Interacting – Publishing: conversing, experimenting, practicing, learning, planning and the tools and processes used to publish
Individual – Group: designed for groups, experienced as individuals. Does not imply homogeneity: need for customization when individual outcomes are required. Multimembership requires attention to both.

Orientations - selecting appropriate tools to support a community:
Develop community activities oriented to:
•    Meetings
•    Open-ended conversations
•    Projects
•    Access to expertise
•    Relationships
•    Context
•    Community cultivation
•    Individual participation
•    Content publication
Steward the activities to nurture the community so that the technology becomes less of a focus and the community becomes the point of practice. Consider carefully the point of the exercise: what is it the community needs to learn, practice, collaborate on?

The technology should become invisible. Building communities is what its all about!

Learning Technologies 2008 Conference

Thursday 6th November

Using social networking tools to connect with clients

Simon Brown’s Case Study

Simon showed us how he teaches and uses video streaming technology when demonstrating techniques and skills with his stone-masonry students at TAFE .

He also uses VeMentoring to expose students to professional industry experts.

Simon builds strong networks through his teaching. His teaching is student-centred and focuses on creating interactivity between students and himself, and employers in the workplace.

He has used ning.com to develop an interactive learning community for his students and has posted photos of the class members on the front page. Each member has their own page. Students have varying degrees of input into the site. The blog post keeps them informed about their work and things like how one of the students who now lives in England is going.

He embeds videos from YouTube about stone masons into the site, and from one of these, he has established a great professional contact for the class.

the tomas ning site

Simon regularly checks out who visits the site through Google Analytics

This provides him with some interesting feedback.

This workshop showed us a real application of how social networking can engage students in the learning process. Simon’s class were a challenging bunch - they werent interested in writing and reading, but preferred ‘doing’. Once they began participating and contributing to the ning class site, their focus changed and most of them eagerly contributed to the class online community in very meaningful ways.

Thursday 6th November

Keynote Speaker: George Siemens, eLearnspace

Analyzing the obvious: technological and social connections

George’s workshop has prompted me to ask the question: What is the purpose of our teaching, or, why do we teach?

If our primary motivation is to prepare young people for the world they will encounter when they leave school, then we need to be thinking now about our current effectiveness. What do students need to survive in the 21st century?  How can we help them learn the things they need to know with technology that is available, affordable and accessible.

On the other hand, if our motivation is to instill a lifelong love of learning in young minds, then we perhaps need to look at how we deliver learning content and how we provide learning opportunities to engage students and allow them to immerse themselves in their own learning processes.

George’s presentation points us in the right direction to think of ways to achieve both of these things: to prepare and future-proof our students, and to empower them to steer their own learning experiences.

He claims that deep knowledge and effective learning occurs when students are connected through networks.

If we understand how and why connections form we should be able to understand how to shape better ways of educating students. If we focus on networks we can create a streamlined process of learning from design to delivery of content. Knowledge is what we seek to teach. Knowledge resides in how we connect things together. Knowledge is a pattern of connectivity – a  way of engaging with and navigating networks. Knowledge is a way of engaging with the network connections.

Learning is networking, putting together the patterns of knowledge.

Three levels of connection are needed for learning to occur:
1.    Neural: how our brains form thinking is through neurons firing to make a pattern of connectivity. Its not the image of the person that forms the memory, but the patterns in which the neurons fire.
2.    Conceptual: how we define the subject matter to form a conceptual map. An expert’s understanding leads to contextual understanding that a novice cant.
3.    Social/external: Technology has amplified the significance of social networking in forming connections needed for learning to take place.

Understanding is dependent upon the breadth of our knowledge: how and what/who we connect to deepen our understanding.
“Connections are to learning as atoms are to the physical world” (Siemens)

The more connections, the deeper the understanding.

There are many technological tools that are now available to make connections for our students: this is exciting. Education is an exciting crossroad.

To understand connections and the patterns they form leads us to understand how people learn, acquire and acccumulate knowledge.

George claims that if we can monitor someone’s thought patterns, the process of forming connections and the patterns they make through this process, then we can enhance learning for them.

“Learning opportunities are determined by how we interact with knowledge and others” (Siemens)

Siemens challenges educators to ask:
“What happens when the tools of control shift from educator to learner?”

The content and the tools of technological learning put the control in the hands of the learner: eg in his lecture some people are blogging (me included), googling, twittering, emailing, typing etc whereas traditionally, learners are held captive by the teacher/lecturer.

Technology can free the learner, empower them and allow them to make choices.

As students increase the number of connections through technology provided by institutions, they assume increased control of the learning process. It seems to me that if that is so, then outside of school, students have almost total control of how they learn, yet as they ‘power down’ when they walk through the school gate, they reluctantly have to relinquish this control, let go of the learning process. This highlights a key deficiency of educational institutions today.

Did you know that the extra 40 plus million voters in the 2008 US election were largely encouraged to vote via interactive connections, online?

Technology amplifies the ability to connect with other people in learning communities.

“Our views of knowledge and learning dictate the shape of our institutions” (Siemens)

George urges educators and institutions to view students as clients and themselves as providers.

If you are in business, when a client’s needs shift, you must shift with them or your business collapses. It makes sense that if our field is about providing and delivering learning and knowledge to students, then as the requirements of these students shift, our delivery methodology (pegagogy) must shift to accommodate their new needs.

Learning networks cater for 21st century learning needs.

A learning network is a group of people and data sources somehow linked. The connection provides an opportunity to learn with someone else (Eg a library, forum, blog). You don’t have to be a contributor, but can participate by the nature of the link or connectivity.

George describes the chief characteristics of networks:
- They vary.
- A social network is a type of learning network but the tasks are not explicit.
- A learning network is task-focused and specific, intentional.

Sustained participation occurs in varying contexts (Klein: Sources of Power) and determines the value of connections and networks.

Sensemakers are people who shape our views of the world: newspaper editors etc. Institutions have traditionally performed as sensemakers.

Today we have to make our own way through complex fields of understanding. We need to become our own sensemakers to negotiate new knowledge, situations and contexts. This is critical for our students.

“Our institutions are about being sensemakers for our students, not making sensemakers of our students”.

George’s message makes me understand that this needs to change.

Our students need to be able to ‘make sense’ of their world. This is how we can best prepare them for their future. Enabling them to take control of the learning process and to participate and engage with technology in relevant ways will encourage a lifelong love of learning that extends well beyond the classroom walls.

I cant help but ask: isnt that what we seek to teach?

Learning Technologies 2008 Conference

Wednesday 5th November

Kerry Russo and Mark Walshe’s workshop

No wonder all previous attendees I have spoken to at the 2008 conference rave about previous conferences. The quality of presentations so far is fantastic. Mind you, this is my second workshop!

Kerry’s presentation resonates with me and encourages me to reflect upon the things I see as important in my role as Director of eLearning.

She asks:

“In our rush to adopt new learning technologies have we become too focused on HOW to use the technology instead of WHY?”

Kerry explains that if we are to use technology wisely, and to the benefit of our students, we should “enhance (our classroom) delivery, globalise (our) classroom, create meaningful learning activities and equalise learning opportunities”

This might sound theoretical. However, I am inspired to unpack these points, and propose that, whilst they describe what we should DO to effectively embed ICT into the curriculum, they also underpin 21st century learning outcomes: enhance learning, globalise learning, create meaningful learning, equalise learning.

Kerry has developed a system for Blended Distributed Delivery: a method of embedding technology in programs built around students’ needs, rather than desires of teachers to use or ‘play’ with technology. This is a very useful starting point for educators: a real model to build enriching ICT-centred programs that meet the needs of students through curriculum development.

She describes two key choices that teachers can make to blend technologies for the best possible outcomes for their students:

1. Synchronistic (same-time interactions such as face to face lessons,tutorials, online conferencing, workshops etc) modes of delivery,

and

2. Asynchronistic (flexible-time interactions such as video streams, podcasts, blogs, wikis, email, phone, toolboxes etc) modes of delivery.

The key to all this is that blended learning environments cater for the needs of our students and will increasingly do so!

“Students should not have to power down to come to class”

Young learners want to be engaged with new technologies: it is how they learn best. They need a range of technologies at their fingertips. It is our role as educators, to cater for these needs through our design and delivery of the programs we teach.

Kerry also discusses the benefit of project-based learning tasks - another of my passions. These tasks provide students with the “opportunity to do, rather than just hear about the subject of study. That is the key to active learning strategies”

So much research now confirms how 21st century learners need to learn in ways that traditional classrooms and programs cant match. I think its time we understand that our role is to provide them with the best possible, the most relevant means of learning available.

Kerry gives us a useful strategy to commence this process - an excellent scaffolded model of how to build a blended distributed delivery program.

Mark provided us with a valuable resource list of great websites.