It’s all a matter of perception: Good coming out of adversity

On the CoolCatteacher blog there is a post called good grief. It was timely due to a tragic incident involving a student in our school last week. Her post was very eloquent about how personal grief can be used to build something important.

It is also timely when discussing changes, both planned and unplanned. The idea that, when things don’t go exactly as planned, you can learn more or other things from the experience. I have found that, when something hasn’t worked with technology in my classes, as long as I know what skill I want the kids to learn it is not a big deal or the end of the world. In fact I have had some great lessons when I have involved the students in finding a solution to our problem. The take on somer ownership of the lesson and there is a whole feeling that we are all in this together and we can solve it together.

Over the years I guess I’ve learn’t that the lesson is not about my ego but more a pertnership between the students and myself. This doesn’t mean we don’t have to “get through the boring bits”, although I try to make it interesting. It also doesn’t mean they are all angels, and I don’t ever have to raise my voice. It doesn’t mean that everything is always wonderful but, most of the time, I find I actually like most of the students, their questions and their comments keep me going and can make me smile.

Change in schools: how are we approaching it?

I went home last night after the extremely interesting and energising day and I thought about change. We were talking about changing the culture within our schools. Why is it so difficult? Why is change so threatening to some? Why would you not want to grow professionally, increase your knowledge, improve on something? I wondered why, on the whole, the idea of change doesn’t seem to have the affect on me?
Change has always occurred, look back at history and the changes and developments that we applaud and celebrate. Look at the medical breakthroughs, no-one would would want to go back to a turn-of-the-century dentist and technology has been a huge catalyst in many of these changes.

A study of language shows that it is also constantly changing. Without people realising it, they to accept much of the change however often, when it is brought to their attention, they feel a little uncomfortable.  As a matter of interest the Macquarie Dictionary has a word of the year and in 2007 it was the following: 

pod slurping
noun the downloading of large quantities of data to an MP3 player or memory stick from a computer.

In this increasingly tech-savvy world we live in, it seems pod slurping really is the new memory bank for us busy bees. Why carry around vast reams of documents, or CDs or anything for that matter, when you can download absolutely everything!

Pod slurping has an inventive and sensuous appeal. The committee felt that the most important criterion for word of the year should be linguistic creativity and evocativeness, rather than simple worthiness or usefulness. Pod slurping also dips its lid to pod, a potent little word of our times.

Again many of the changes related to new words that related to technology. Another (the People’s Choice Award) for word of the year was:

password fatigue
noun a level of frustration reached by having too many different passwords to remember, resulting in an inability to remember even those most commonly used.

Password fatigue was the most popular word in the online voting, clearly registering a widespread dilemma of the online world.

I can certainly attest to conversations with colleagues about the sheer number of passwords they are required to remember. The way they deal with the problem has changed as their on-line presence has increased.

Getting back to being an agent for change within a school, there are a number of variables that must be checked if there is to be a change in the attitudes toward, and use of, technology. If technologies are going to be accepted the following must be looked at:

• Teacher training. Being a notebook (laptop) school, we have a lot of teacher training and development available to our staff, both within our school and externally, and have done for a long time.
• The bandwidth (Infrastructure). This is good, especially as teachers book classes to use the internet (max 15 class at any one time) Within the school things work well although you can always use more. Wireless also can be an issue at times.
• Software. We have a great variety available, some commercial, some freeware or shareware.
• Leadership. The principal and and other designated leaders in the school must be actively support any program if it is to succeed. They also need to help overcome hurdles and put pressure on staff when necessary.

We have been given an opportunity in the PLP to have the training and development. We have the infrastructure and the software available for us to be part of the program and to contribute. I have experienced a few glitches with Elluminate and will have to work on it but, apart from that, there are no hurdles that I can foresee that can’t be overcome (of course I could be wrong!) We also have a vast number of people in our community, who proved yesterday, that they are ready to help when we need it. The PLP cohort, with its reach far beyond Australian shores, is already supporting us. Thank you Web2.0!

I guess I am a “glass half full person” and am confident enough to think that (eventually) I will succeed at things. Maybe my librarianship training has helped because the sharing and communal approach to information (and sharing and building it) is second nature. I also have always enjoyed working through and having a go at things. I certainly don’t have to be perfect or an expert the first time I use some technology or even when in class, which is just as well! I am happy to use student knowledge when it comes to technology, after all it is only the tool I want to be used in learning about the skills I am teaching. Some of my best classes have been about me learning as much as my students. Roll on 21st century teaching and learning.

Uploaded to Flickr 6th Dec 2007 by Wonderlane http://flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/2090966628/

21st century learning – a presentation

We heard Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach speak to teachers at a forum yesterday. Her presentation to the teaching staff at the school was about 21st century learning. To get everyone focussed she used the following video, “The Cisco anthem” but a powerful snapshot of what is happening around, and in, the world today. 

Sheryl illustrated how far we have come, and how quickly, in the world of technology, discussing terms Web1.0, Web2.0 (the ReadWrite web) and Web3.0 (immersive worlds (eg.SecondLife), artificial intelligences, etc.) I researched SecondLife, as part of the Web program I took part in, and I thought, that at present, there seems to be many barriers to schools effectively making use of virtual worlds for education, but there are future possibilities. As with many such options, as more people take part in, and improve on, them, this situation will most likely change.  

If schools are to part of preparing students for life in the 21st century, then there needs to be a change in the general approach to learning and teaching. Sheryl questioned the relevance of education today. What is being taught and what is being learnt? The following video has become quite famous, as it portrays what 200 students at Kansas University think.

Sheryl then began talking about students having network literacy, to equip them for a world beyond the industrial age. There have been some who claim that, in 2020, information will double every 72 hours. How will people cope with this? The expansion of the “knowledge world” will mean that education won’t be able to remain linear and information may become obsolete much more quickly. In this world education cannot be about content or memorization of facts alone. Sheryl went on to talk about students having innovative/adaptive expertise, about students who will be self-motivatating, self-educating, self-directed and effective communicators. We were then shown tne video that Darren Draper created and Have you been paying attention?

Have those in education been watching their students communicate with each other? Have they seen how they have been using the technologies in their lives and have they used this knowledge to engage students in their learning? From the experiences related by students in the video “a vision of students today“, probably not a lot of attention has been given to how students live in today’s world.

Students teaching

I have been working with some boys on book trailers. Our Year 7 students this year have all learnt about using Audacity, Photo story and Video Studio. As yet there seems to have been limited use made of their skills as a whole. I am really interested in looking how best to use the student skills in a variety of subject areas. Pondering this, I was later looking at Sheryl Nussbaum Beach’s blog, 21st century learning, and reading her entry about students becoming teachers.

She begins by mentioning the product Screenflow (a webcasting and screencasting tool). She then researches it further and she found the following video.

How good is it to see a student answering a question someone had put up about how to do something within the program? This young boy is teaching it as well as I could.

Sheryl poses the following: Why do we need to understand the shift in education? And answers: Because they can learn and teach themselves anything they want to know without leaving home. When you move from a classroom structure to a community structure – the students become teachers AND learners and so do we. 21st Century teaching and learning is about shifting classrooms to learning ecologies.

I have often heard teachers talk about what they have taught rather than about what the students have learnt. Yes, the technology is only a tool but it allows students to teach and when they have to teach something , as part of the package, they will learn. One of the best things is that today you can teach, or help someone else to learn, from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world.