Monday, August 24, 2009

Sir Ken Robinson Interview on TED

Sir Ken Robinson has become a bit of a folk hero in educational circles over recent years. His inspirational TED talk from 2006 on schools "killing creativity" is as close to I guess an education video will get to going "viral" - if you haven't seen it before - here it is - take 20 minutes to watch it - you won't be disappointed.


But what I found today was that Sir Ken, again via the TED website, has answered a number of questions about his talk and these questions and his answers are posted on the TED site here.

You will find some good questions and some very detailed answers, including his advice for what teachers can do to make a difference. Perhaps this is best summed up by a question that ends with "
"So what three things should I do in September to foster creativity? I'm talking about definite, in-the-one-hour-lesson things I can do to my classes to change their experience." and the first part of the reply ... "To me, the heart and soul of education is pedagogy. There are three components to education, as I was saying earlier. There is curriculum: what students are supposed to be learning. There is pedagogy: the actual teaching. And assessment: the process by which we form judgments about how well they're done, where we make comments about student's progress. But the heart of it is pedagogy." He goes on to give some practical solutions - which is great. But bringing the focus down to the individual teacher is important - plenty of research points to the importance of what the teacher does and the rapport with students.

So, if you are not a Ken Robinson fan, or have never heard of him, and you are a teacher - then after watching his talk and reading the interview, I would be surprised if you weren't motivated to change. And soon!


Thursday, August 20, 2009

So, what is fundamental?

I'm at the stage of trying to reinvent our strategic and tactical planning at school - we need to move forward from where we are and have been for the last couple of years. While sorting out my research I found an article I wrote a couple of years ago and thought I'd share it here...(I wrote this before Seymour Papert has that terrible accident in Vietnam)

People laughed at Seymour Papert in the sixties when he talked about children using computers as instruments for learning and for enhancing creativity. The idea of an inexpensive personal computer was then science fiction. But Papert was conducting serious research in his capacity as a professor at MIT. This research led to many firsts. It was in his laboratory that children first had the chance to use the computer to write and to make graphics. Today Papert is considered the world's foremost expert on how technology can provide new ways to learn. He has carried out educational projects on every continent, some of them in remote villages in developing countries. He is a participant in developing the most influential cutting-edge opportunities for children to participate in the digital world.

In 2004, Papert addressed a conference in Sydney where he made the observation that too little time was spent in schools discussing “what constitutes fundamental?” By this he meant what is important to include in the learning opportunities that students are exposed to. He made reference to a key point – most of what is included in current curricula is the result of what can be written down in books. How relevant is this as we move at exponential pace into a world where writing on paper is not the main means of communication? Blogs, wikis, podcasts, email, social networking websites, instant messenger are all new modes of communication that no one had heard of a few years ago, let alone used. Today, sites like MySpace claim to be signing up 250,000 new users every day, and have over 200 million registered users. In addition to this, they claim that the average time spent by a user once logged in is around two hours.

A leading group of computer research scientists met in Washington, USA, in October 2006, to share their views on where they saw developments in technology moving over the coming years. In a summary of their meeting published in the New York Times and titled “Computing 2016: What Won’t be Possible”, the scientists shared their common view that the changes to science, the economy and to society that have occurred over recent years are minor compared to what will happen in the ten years ahead. Developments will impact on all areas in a far wider and deeper way than they have, and there will be significant social policy that needs to be addressed as a result of this.

This month (November), 250 delegates from 48 countries met at a conference held at Philadelphia's School of the Future, where all students have laptops, there are few books or pens, and teaching is done in multidisciplinary projects in which academic skills develop through work on real-world problems. "Education for most people doesn't promote creativity," said Sir Ken Robinson, a British educational consultant. "It actually stifles it." He cited research showing that 98% of children as young as 3 – 5 years showed divergent thinking, and that this dropped to only 10% of 15 year olds and 2% of 25 year olds.

There is a constant theme in each of these stories. Technology, in particular the personal computer, has brought unprecedented power to the user. Information is no longer the domain of books. The power of the press is no longer with the press. For the first time in history the access to information, and the ability to create and publish information, is with the individual.

We are at one of those points in history where fundamental change is taking place. Not just incremental change, but fundamental change.

Research from the USA (PEW Internet Group, 2005) is starting to show the preference for 8 – 18 year olds to get the information they want from an online source rather than in the traditional classroom or from their parents. They get information in a manner and a time frame that suits them. One reason for this is that irrespective of whether the learning style is visual, auditory or kinaesthetic, the individual can find something on the web to suit them. Technology is unique in this way – targeted carefully, it can reach any learner.

The implications and challenges to education are vast. None more so than at the “high stakes” testing we still engage in at the senior end of the school. We continue to assess knowledge in an unnatural time frame using anachronistic tools. The International Baccalaureate (IB) is currently trialing electronic assessment, and this is at least a step in the right direction. Internal (moderated) assessment is another step in the right direction, and both NCEA and IB have significant components of this. [ASIDE: it is not uncommon to hear questions regarding the use of technology in learning when assessment of learning is still carried out with pen and paper. There is no research that supports the premise that student achievement is diminished as the result of significant use of technology in the learning process. There is a growing body of research that supports the use of technology as an element in the improvement of student achievement in standardised testing. The UK is well ahead of New Zealand in the deployment of technology in state schools, and over recent years they have experienced significant increases in student achievement in all subject areas at GCSE and A level, despite their examination processes being even more formal than NZ.]

The New Zealand Digital Strategy states that “New Zealand will be a world leader in using information and technology to realise its economic, social, environmental and cultural goals, to the benefit of all its people.” (Ministry of Economic Development, 2005)

If we are to deliver on this objective at a macro (or micro) level, we have no choice but to deploy tools that will enable the student to successfully participate.

Creativity is a highly valued characteristic that employers seek in future employees according to a 2003 Victoria University study. Searches of the research literature into the use of technology in education frequently highlight creativity, problem solving and collaboration as key outcomes from successful use.

If Sir Ken Robinson is correct, if Seymour Papert is correct, and if the collective intellect of the top IT research scientists is correct then we have a duty to be pushing the boundaries of the “education system”.

We are at a place in time where change is occurring in an exponential manner. Change, by its very nature, threatens the status quo.

We must continue to ask ourselves “just what does constitute fundamental?”

It is a question that we will ask a lot more over the coming years. We are at the most exciting time in history.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

A weekend away with 12 year olds - a learning experience

Number 1 son turned 12 yesterday. Now, in itself that's not a major for the planet - but for his mum and dad, well for us - pretty special. We ended up taking him and his 8 year old brother, plus two of his cousins, away for 24 hours in our motor home to Waingaro Springs where they have a pretty good water slide and where, in the middle of winter, not many people go. Great!

Josh had taken his Playstation along so that they had "something to do at night". I took along my iPod Touch to provide the music. The boys are usually not allowed to use my iPod, but being a birthday, well, I let them. What transpired was interesting. You see, I had downloaded a couple of free games and thought they'd be spending their time playing Star Wars Force Unleashed, or StuntCar or Waterslide etc etc. But what did they play?

Lemonade Tycoon - the iPod's version of Lemonade Stand. And did they play it for long? Well for two complete battery cycles! They loved it, were totally engaged. I asked Jord, our 8 year old, why he seemed to like it. "You need to use your mind" he replied. "But don't you need to use your mind on those other games too?" I replied. "No" was the response, "they're just games. In Lemonade Tycoon you need to make all sorts of decisions ..." he went on to tell me what he'd found out about how the game worked. His brother was just the same. "Well, you are in control of what happens" he said.

So, rather than play a pile of graphically awesome fantasy games, Lemonade Tycoon was their choice because they felt they were in control of what was happening.
So the lesson for me is quite clear - the choice of activity does not need to be the flashest looking - but it does need to give a sense of being involved - "to use your mind" as Jord said.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Great Resources for Educators II


Continuing to highlight useful stuff where I find it ... this month 2 sites from NZ that are worth viewing no matter where you are in the world. Derek Wenmoth and Andrew Churches are educators who share good stories and ideas.

Derek Wenmoth's blog is a resource that will get you thinking about what you do and why you do it in your classrooms and schools. Derek is the Director of e-Learning for CORE Education in NZ. He's been a teacher and principal so knows the hard stuff. His interest and ability in questioning practice for the 21st Century is what brings me to his blog regularly. Here's an example of what you'll find with Derek - this is a reflection on a day spent with a group of teachers from a few schools sharing their learning - a great example of the power of web 2.0 stuff for sharing ideas. Having just read Scott McLeod's latest on why we still don't get it right with PD (amongst others), this entry is a little refreshing providing concrete examples of what does seem to work for staff PD.

Just where Andrew gets all his time to both write his blog entries and update his Edorigami wiki site is a mystery. Andrew Churches is just prolific. He talks from the heart in a lot of his blog stuff, but also deals with the practical side of using ICT in class. I've recommended to plenty of people that they read Andrew's stuff - he makes a real positive difference to what we do in this ICT and use in class.

In particular, on Andrew's wiki you'll find a host of resources for integrating ICT in all areas of the curriculum, but Andrew has a passion for connecting higher order thinking to his work, so if you are a Bloom's person, you'll find some great stuff here.

So, thanks Derek and Andrew. Keep up the great work.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

DimDim for Videoconferencing



Have been on the lookout for a desktop videoconferencing tool to use for groups of 10 - 15 teachers scattered around the country. I have known of DimDim for a few months now, and though I have recommended that some of my students check out it's feature set as part of their project on emerging technologies, to be honest I hadn't taken the time to check it out myself. Until last night, that is.

At first glance, DimDim looks just what I am looking for. It's free for up to 20 users, and has plenty of low cost alternatives if you need to go further than that. It is entirely web-based, so no downloads and the like. Last night I shared a 12 page PDF file with my test buddy, and even without using a headset and microphone, communication was OK - though I'll use them next time.

DimDim looks to have all of the usual features (whiteboard, chat, desktop, web and slide options), so at this stage I'm reasonably impressed. We'll give it another once over from school next week, but at this stage it looks like it could be a goer for our application. If you are on the lookout for a videoconferencing tool, check it out.