*** ICT U Can!

Constraints Create Creativity

2013-02-15T18:01:00.002+13:00

Aza Raskin was named the 2011 Master of Design and one of the top 40 influential designers by Fast Company. Aza is the founder and CEO of Massive Health, and was until recently Creative Lead for Firefox and a founding member of Mozilla Labs.

In his talk at Webstock Aza stated

“it’s not about thinking outside the box. It’s about finding the right box to think inside.”

Much of what he discussed can be directly mapped into our thinking for education.

How do we ask the right question? The way to solve a problem is to know how to ask the right question, turn a difficult question into an easier question by changing the way you ask it. Most of the time we are trying to solve the wrong problem because we don’t understand what the problem is.

Aza challenges us to ‘fail forward’. He says it is going to happen so we should plan for it.

The main idea here is that Constraints Create Creativity. So how do obstacles change perceptual and conceptual scopes? Take a look at this example:

Turning an unused crack between two houses into a home
World’s narrowest house video

Constraints force us to think differently. A research report apparently found that if you encounter a detour on your way home you are more likely to eat something different for dinner. Constraints change habits.

It is via the constraint that we can overcome the mundanity and banality, it forces us to break our habits. Focused obstacles and questions are just constraints.

So … what questions lead to a good question?

The ones that preclude reliable, already recognized answers
That promote novel ones
That help you fail forward

How fabulous to have the mindset that revels in constraints, and embraces challenges that change habits. This would be a great way to approach our schools and our classrooms.

This brings to mind the story of three teachers who embraced their constraints and created a new way to teach their students.

Collaborative teaching in a traditional environment from EDtalks.

Industrialised ignorance

2013-02-15T08:31:00.000+13:00

I am at the Webstock conference in Wellington.

This conference covers everything from empathy in design to HTML5 and CSS, to the future of education, and how tech makes us human.

The first speaker of the day was Clay Johnson (@cjoh) who is best known as the co-founder of Blue State Digital, the firm that built and managed Barak Obama's online campaign for presidency in 2008.

Clay talked to us about industrialised ingnorance. He began the session with an activity that really brought home just how much the media around us can drown out what is important.

Please stand if you know the name of one Kardashian …

Please stand if you know the child poverty rate in NZ …

Imagine which of these statements most people stood up for.

How are we supposed to cause an impact in this world, in our lives, if we are not fully informed of what the actual issues are? How can we cause an impact if we don’t know that we can?

So how did this come about, how do we know the name of a Kardashian and not the extent of issues such as child poverty? Clay demonstrated how the popular media aims to affirm people rather than to inform them. People are looking for evidence that they are right in their beliefs rather than being challenged and informed of the facts to be able to make informed opinions. For example look at different newspapers and their left and right leanings. A lot of people choose the news they consume because it reflects their ideology. Clay stated that confirmation bias is the new H1N1 virus

We need to manage our information intake like we manage our food intake.

More and more we are aware of what is healthy for our bodies, how we should eat. We manage that carefully and know when we are having too much sugar or fat. Can we do the same thing with our information intake? Can we distinguish the sugar and fat? Treat your life like time is important. Schedule social media time rather than losing time to it.

How do you spend your time online? Rescue time https://www.rescuetime.com/ is an app that can help you check out your digital life.

One suggestion was to stop using your iphone as an alarm clock. What is the first thing you do after you stop the alarm? You check your email. You become a consumer. Take the challenge to begin your day as a producer - sit down and write, think, plan - before you become a consumer.

So Clay’s four points were:
1. consciously consume
2. subtract junk
3. be a producer
4. enable a ‘whole’ news movement

The whole news movement is a push to be able to consider all angles of a story, to find out the facts. Journalists should link to sources so that we can validate their statements. Data enables us to create a less biased media. (No one questions whether the weather man is biased).

Clay finished with this quote:

It circulates intelligence of a commercial, political, intellectual, and private nature, with incredible speed and regularity. It thus administers, in a very high degree, to the comfort, the interests, and the necessities of persons, in every rank and station of life. It brings the most distant places and persons, as it were, in contact with each other; and thus softens the anxieties, increases the enjoyments, and cheers the solitude of millions of hearts.

Joseph Story - talking about the post office

http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_7s7.html

This is still true today.

Inquiry learning: from knowledge to understanding

2012-02-24T22:53:00.001+13:00

This video is from NZC Online

How do you use inquiry learning to move from knowledge to understanding? Vic Hygate, from Windsor School in Christchurch, explains how she carefully focuses her planning, then uses events and provocative statements to make inquiry relevant and fully engage her students.

The case study: Storytelling in the industrial age and beyond

2011-12-02T09:47:00.001+13:00

Benjamin, B. (2006). The case study: Storytelling in the industrial age and beyond. On the Horizon, 14(4), 159-164.

In this article Benjamin looks at the history of storytelling through to present times. She follows the history of the word ‘story’ and draws the conclusion that storytelling is a way to transfer knowledge from one person to another and a way to keep that knowledge alive. In the words of Wittgenstein (1933) ‘The limits of my language are the limits of my world’. With the advent of the Internet and digital storytelling, those limits are now boundless.

In the history of storytelling, stories were the way that tribes passed down important knowledge to ensure survival. “Their purpose is to ensure that, generation after generation, everyone has access to the wisdom of the past as they live in the present and move towards the future” (Benjamin, 2006, p. 161). Stories take many forms in the present day; for example the digital stories on NZC Online could be thought of as case studies. Harvard Business School’s first Dean, Edwin F. Gay, identified the value of discussing authentic business problems as a method of instruction and used the first case study in 1908 (Benjamin, 2006). Digital stories for education serve as an authentic example of what practice looks like in classrooms, and promote discussions about the practices that were built upon and what the implications are for future practice. As different educators examine the story and think about how that practice might look in their context the wisdom of the past is used to move towards the future.

Wittgenstein, L. (1933). Tractatus logico-philosophicus. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Multimedia cases

2011-12-01T11:52:00.001+13:00

Halverson, R., Linnekin, B., Gomez, L. M., & Spillane, J. P. (2004). Multimedia cases of practice: On-line learning opportunities for school leaders. Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, 7(1), 30-35.

As I read around the use of digital stories for professional development, I came across the term 'multimedia cases'. This seemed like a fitting term for the stories that we produce for NZC Online. They are multimedia cases of actual events in schools and classrooms.

Halverson et al. conducted research around the use of multimedia cases to support the professional development of principals.

They assert that leaders often find it difficult to know where to start when leading change. Good leaders have what the authors term 'professional practical wisdom' which means they reflect on experience to apply solutions to varying problems over time. Professional practical wisdom also involves the ability to transfer ideas into your own particular context. Leithwood and Steinbach (1989) suggest that expert leaders rely on collaboration and information gathering to support their problem solving. This is where NZC digital stories come in.

Leaders need to access rich representations of practice in context. Video makes these rich examples more accessible. Cases can engage readers to relate the situation to their own experience and can act as a catalyst for discussion and reflection on practice. Cases can also be used to produce as well as represent knowledge.

The authors reference Banks (1994) as being skeptical about the benefits of multimedia cases, and counter with Barron Goldman 1994 and Lampert and Ball 1998 as proponents of cases being positive for stimulating reflection on practice.

References:

Banks, M. (1994). “Interactive multimedia and anthropology - a sceptical view.” Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, 1-7.
Barron, L. & Goldman, E. (1994). "Integrating technology with teacher preparation," in B. Means ed., Technology and Education Reform: The Reality Behind the Promise. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 67-89.
Lampert, M. & Ball, D.L. (1998). Mathematics, teaching, and multimedia: Investigations of real practice. New York: Teachers College Press.
Leithwood, K. & Steinbach, M. (1989). “Expertise in principals’ problem solving.” Educational Administration Quarterly, 25(2), 126-61.

Relationships of knowledge and Practice: Teacher learning in communities

2011-11-26T20:29:00.001+13:00

Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (1999). Relationships of Knowledge and Practice: Teacher Learning in Communities. Review of Research in Education, 24, 249-305.

In this article Cochran-Smith and Lytle examine the assumption that often guides teacher learning, 'teachers who know more teach better'. But what exactly does knowing more mean? What is teaching better? What do policies that tout this assumption actually mean? The paper breaks down this assumption into three conceptions for teacher learning:

Knowledge for practice
Knowledge in practice
Knowledge of practice

Knowledge for practice is theoretical knowledge is that already known by someone else outside of the classroom. This theory is what is important for teachers to know and teachers are expected to learn this knowledge and apply it. Teachers are receivers of knowledge.

Knowledge in practice is that knowledge held by expert teachers in their everyday practice. Teachers can learn from these experts and adapt their practices. In this conception the teachers are generators of knowledge and receivers of knowledge.

These two conceptions support the assumption of teachers knowing more by being receivers of knowledge from theorists or expert practitioners. The third conception turns things around by positioning teachers as creators of knowledge and architects of transformative change.

Knowledge of practice stands outside the dichotomy of knowledge as theory or knowledge as practice. In this conception "Teachers learn when they generate local knowledge of practice by working within the contexts of inquiry communities to theorize and construct their work and to connect it to larger, cultural, and political issues" (p250). Knowledge of practice is a life long learning pursuit and is conducted by teachers working together across the span of novice and expert, and working alongside students, teachers and community. This knowledge is transformative and provides more than findings, it provides change.

You can see these three conceptions reflected in different policies for teacher education, both past and present. Knowledge of Practice for me stands out as being really closely related to the NZ Curriculum Teaching as Inquiry process.

My purpose for reading this paper was to see where I thought the digital stories on NZC Online were situated. I can see that these stories fit really nicely within the knowledge of practice conception. The stories themselves allow teachers to share what they are doing in their classrooms. These stories are not expert teachers presenting theoretical concepts, they are real people doing real things and discussing the challenges and successes they face. When speaking to the teachers who make these stories, they explained to me how the process was like an inquiry cycle for them. The actual process allowed them to look at where they had been, where they were now, and where to next. And they carried out this reflective cycle as a whole school listening to each other's accounts of the same experience. They also explained that as a result of undertaking the inquiry cycle they had made plans for further changes.

By providing their stories for others to interact with these schools and teachers are "playing a critical role in generating knowledge of practice by making their classrooms and schools sites for inquiry, connecting their work in schools to larger issues, and taking a critical perspective on the theory and research of others' (p273).

From my inquiries with educators who use these stories, many use them to stimulate discussions amongst their staff and learning networks and debate how the ideas in the stories would translate to their particular contexts. "Teacher networks, inquiry communities, and other school-based collectives in which teachers and others conjoin their efforts to construct knowledge are the major contexts for teacher learning in this conception" (273).

Here is the latest story from NZC Online:

Teachers are important

2011-08-06T12:56:00.002+12:00

I haven't been here for a while. I have taken some time to stop and think about what I believe in my work life. What is important.

There is one thing I hear a lot as I work with educators and professional development providers across New Zealand. And it has started to really get on my goat, so here comes a rant.

Teachers are important. They are worth the time it takes to help them be the best they can be. Whether this means bringing them up to speed or helping them race off into the distance. The underpinning of my post is that I have heard quite a few PD providers discuss the fact that it is important for our students to have access to quality ICT experiences. Exactly, I agree. But then I hear the statement that maybe we should bypass the teachers and go straight to the students. If we capture them and give them the opportunities then they will bring the teachers along. Um, ah, no, sorry I don't really agree with that. It is a deficit way of thinking. We are all partners in learning: students, parents, teachers. We work together, leaving any one out of the equation is not a thing I would like to think about. Teachers are important. Teachers make a difference, and building them up to be the best they can be is the best way to support our learners.

Professional knowledge landscapes

2011-03-18T21:28:00.002+13:00

Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (1998). Stories to live by: Narrative understandings of school reform. Curriculum Inquiry, 28(2), 149-194.

There was a notion in this paper that captured my interest. Clandinin and Connelly talk about professional knowledge landscapes, and state these landscapes are narratively constructed. This fits with my idea that knowledge is socially constructed.

“To enter a professional knowledge landscape is to enter a place of story” (p151).

The authors state that this landscape is made up of two 'places'. The first place is an out-of-classroom place which is filled with things that are imposed on teachers such as policies and plans. They call the stories that are created in this place 'sacred'.

The second place is an in-classroom place. This is the safe place of secret stories where teachers are 'free to live stories of practice' (p151).

“When teachers move out of their classrooms onto the out-of-classroom place on the landscape, they often live and tell cover stories, stories in which they portray themselves as expert, certain characters whose teacher stories fit within the acceptable range of the story of school being lived in the school. Cover stories enable teachers whose teacher stories are marginalized by whatever the current story of school is to continue to practice and to sustain their teacher stories. (Clandinin and Connelly 1996, p. 25)”

I wonder if the stories we tell when we visit schools to make digital stories cross the boundaries of these two places? We definitely fit in the out-of-classroom place as we represent government policy - The New Zealand Curriculum. However, rather than coming with a sacred story about curriculum we are asking the schools to tell us their stories. This moves the ownership of the story.

Also the story is told by many voices. We hear the 'current story of the school' as explained by leadership, however we also hear the in-classroom stories as we capture teacher practice on film. We also capture student voice and the students reveal those secret classroom stories.

I see this as the value of digital stories for sharing practice across schools. The story is no longer the 'sacred' story imposed on schools. It is a dynamic, living, changing story as lived by teachers and leaders. And in the process of telling and sharing the story the doors of classrooms are opened, the voices of teachers, students, and leaders are heard, and they hear each other. This process adds another plot line, or scene to the story.

Focusing stories

2011-03-08T09:03:00.004+13:00

One of my favourite parts of my job is to visit schools around New Zealand and help them tell their curriculum story through video.

I have been interested in the process that schools go through when they let us into their place to help them tell their curriculum story. I find the whole process of 'storying' intriguing. By sitting down and taking the time to explore their own school story individually, and then telling the story to each other as they tell it to us, you can see new possibilities opening up.

Principals have told me that after we leave they can see even more possibilities for change and growth in their schools. It is as if our visit is a step in the process of curriculum change.

People construct identities through their talk in interaction with others

I read Narrative inquiry and school leadership identities (2009) by Greer Cavallaro Johnson and it raised a few ideas for me. She mentions that 'people construct identities through their talk in interaction with others' (p270). This is evident when you place a video camera in front of someone. They are not only telling you the story of their curriculum change but also their place within that change. It is interesting to see them explore this narrative through a different lens. They have been active in the process, but the process of storying allows them to see what their place was in that process and to reflect on the experience.

Telling stories is an interactional process

Greer also discussed the 'interactional process of how people tell and respond to stories' (p275) which got me thinking about the part that we actually play in the storying process. By inviting the school to tell their curriculum story we are providing a lens through which to look at what is happening in the school. We have a specific focus - that of curriculum development. We then funnel what we see and what people tell us through this lens to see in detail the parts that make up the change and the perceived outcomes. Prior to this the school may not have taken the time to see how all the parts of the change process connect together. There are always many different initiatives occurring in schools and sometimes those within the school do not see the interconnections between the initiatives and how they influence each other.

Story tellers are in charge of how they want to be heard

The last point I picked up from this paper was that 'storytellers are in charge of how they want to be heard' (p281). I think a lot of the time, in the process of telling us their stories, teachers and leaders see how they want things to be rather than how they might currently be. And this is the story they tell. It is a 'looking forward' story. And hopefully with telling us their story, reflecting on where they have been and where they are heading, schools find the process of telling their story an actual step in the process of making their story a reality.

Here is the latest curriculum story from NZC Online

Is Facebook evil?

2010-11-21T13:52:00.004+13:00

I have been a bit busy lately and finding it hard to keep on top of reading. I have set myself a goal to read and reflect on one academic paper a day to get back into the swing of things.

I started off today by reading the 2010 Horizon report. This report highlights trends that are ‘identified as key drivers of technology adoptions for the period 2010 through 2015’ as well as other issues and challenges. As I cast my mind over the issues arising in this report around innovative use of technologies for teaching and learning I found intersections with my thinking about the use of Facebook (FB) in education. My thoughts are predicated on the fact FB is for 13 year olds and up.

The Horizon Report stated that ‘The abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as educators in sense-making, coaching, and credentialing.’ Also that ‘People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want to.’ These two statements fit with the notion of using a platform such as FB for educational purposes.

I have been thinking about FB and how it has become a word synonymous with fear and ridicule in some circles. FB is that place where people are posting drunken, embarrassing photos of themselves and sinking their careers. Teachers are losing their jobs, politicians are revealing their misdeeds and even the wife of the MI6 has exposed the holiday location of a man supposedly at the top level of security and secrecy. Students are making themselves unemployable because what they put on line in FB will haunt them in years to come. This social software platform is truly a thing to be feared.

Or is it?

What makes FB any different from blogging, or any other online experience? FB has just received all the negative press. In my opinion, as educators, this is a perfect opportunity to put some things into play.

It is our role to help students learn how to stay safe in this new environment

Students, and many adults too, are navigating a new ‘world’ with new ways of interacting with each other and the environment. A new set of rules is needed and a new etiquette learnt. Rather than throwing up our hands and leaving FB to the kids to navigate without support, there is a great opportunity here for teachers to explore how this social software platform can be used for educational purposes. And at the same time help the students to understand how to exist in the environment safely and with respect for themselves and others.

It makes sense to use a platform where the students already carry out most of their online activities

Students use FB for more than just connecting with their friends. A lot of personal learning occurs within FB. It may not be the academic learning that we would hope for, however students are forming groups around interests such as music and hobbies and taking part in collaborative discussions and resource sharing activities. FB has so many built in features that would make it ideal for a class to work collaboratively. Using a group, students can ‘join’ and therefore have all the information pulled from that group onto their walls. This could be used to make sure they receive the latest important information, sharing of resources and links that can help them with their studies, or engaging them in discussion around various topics.

But what about the distinction between private and public life?

Many teachers are hesitant to use FB with their classes because they see it as their private space where they interact with family and friends. And that is a very valid point. However FB as a platform is much more than just that space. It is a community of spaces that can be kept separate. A group can be set up for a course or a class, which does not pull in any of the user's private information. The sole purpose of the group is to interact in that one space. The people who join do not get access to your private FB profile.

I think the point I am trying to make, is not that we should all rush out and use FB, but that we should take a step back and see that it is just another social networking platform which is neither better or worse than others. I think that we should stop listening to those trying to scare us away from our responsibilities of helping students navigate the sometimes complex waters of online life. What issues such as the furor around FB offer us are a new way of looking at how people learn and live.

Just as the introduction of Wikipedia highlighted the increasing need for students to become sophisticated researchers to ensure the credibility of online information, Facebook is highlighting the need for students to understand how to present themselves, and behave in an online environment and to consider consequences of their actions.

That is what I have been thinking, anyway.

Kidz @ Conference

2010-11-05T18:35:00.003+13:00

I have spent the last two days at Kidz@Conference at the Dunedin College of Education. We have put this event on now for the last five years and it is always so exciting. The students come for two days of workshops using all different technologies with the idea that they can then help implement these back at school. Each school also sends a teacher along with their students so it is good PD for the teachers too. My job is to get all the students' work up onto the wiki before the end of the second day. On the wiki I have tried to include links to information about the software as well so there are examples of work and information for how to get started in your classroom.

Graeme Aitkin - Teaching what matters and selecting content and pedagogy

2010-09-30T12:55:00.003+13:00

Today I am lucky enough to be presenting at and attending the First Time Principals' Conference in Auckland. The final keynote speaker is Graeme Aitken, the Dean of Education from the University of Auckland, these are my notes from his session.

The title of Graeme's talk is - Teaching what matters and selecting content and pedagogy.

For me the session was full of provocative questions and I'll leave them with you in the hope that you find them provocative also.

He asks us 'How do you decide what to teach? and How do you decide how to teach that content?' We need to do more things that matter and do them well.

Teaching itself is not simple.

The role of school leaders in teaching:

Modeling effective teaching
Creating the conditions for effectiveness
Providing feedback about effective teaching to others - not just as part of the appraisal process but it is part of the ongoing process of being in and out of classrooms
Helping to identify and resolve teaching problems
Recognising effectiveness in selection - thinking about the criteria you use in selecting new teachers to determine effectiveness.

There is no one right way to be effective.

What are teachers obligated to be?
efficient, organised, in control, warm, enthusiastic, empathetic, interesting, humorous ...

What are teachers obligated to do?
overviews at the start, group work, cooperative learning, open ended questions, inquiry learning, use visuals, storytelling, whole class instruction ... This list is long and disputed when you look at what research states teachers are obligated to do.

But

What are teachers obligated to cause?
Successful learning, greater interest, greater confidence ...

To what extent are you 'causing' what is valued in teaching? It is effective to focus on what you need to cause, and how what you should be or do influences that.

There is a critical interaction between 'be' 'do' and 'cause'

Being ineffective is where students experience misalignment, lack of engagement and lack of success. This includes duplication, confusion, busy work, waiting. Graham Nuthall found in his research that a significant number of intermediate students already knew the content the teacher was presenting.

Being effective means giving students more time to be engaged and learning about things that matter.

We should be proud of the effort that teachers are putting in to engage and help students learn. Effective teaching is the effort that goes in to create learning environments and learning students. Teaching as inquiry in the NZC is a model that supports effective teaching. This model asks you to consider what is important and therefore worth spending time on given where your students are at before engaging in teaching and learning activities.

So what does Graeme consider are teachers' obligations?

Focus on outcomes that matter - desired results.
Cause students to appreciate the value of the desired results

We need 'student sensitive' learning, but maybe not 'student centred' learning. We don't always have to start with something that students are interested in. They don't know what they don't know. It is up to us to spark the imaginations of students.

Wiggans and McTigue (Understanding by design) discuss the twin sins of design - Coverage focused teaching and Activity focused teaching.

Important questions to ask are ...

Why does this learning matter for these students at this time?

and

What is the best way of teaching this?

In choosing content that matters there has to be some sense of standard against which you are measuring.

Then there is the tough task of appreciation - how can I help students appreciate the value of this learning?

How will we know when we have caused engagement and success?

If what you are doing is not working ... Then try something else!

What are some of the things we can look at to look for engagement and success beyond the obvious standardised tests?

For example:

observe the responses of the students over a period of time in a systematic way to ascertain engagement?
Ask students to rate activities - challenge, skill, importance, interest, success, relax, self-esteem. Choose one or two of these elements and genuinely ask students their opinions, not necessarily a tick box activity.
Ask students to report or explain what they are doing, why they are doing it, how it will help them, how it fits with previous learning and how will they know when they have learned?
At the end of a lesson - the one minute response to what is the most important thing you have learned - where did you get the most lost or confused today.

Be prepared to make changes when you identify what is not working, and what is working well. You cannot be effective unless you are curious enough to embark on finding out what works. Be open minded to new possibilities and understanding student experiences, observe your own practice and suspend judgment. Have the wisdom to be conscious of your own ignorance and have a sense of OPTIMISM.

Graeme's last statement :

Wise use of time, wise action, wise use of evidence leads to a profession of wise people.

Why go to Ulearn?

2010-06-23T18:17:00.000+12:00

LiveBinders

2010-06-22T08:02:00.002+12:00

I've just come across LiveBinders which I thought would be of great use in the classroom. Often you have lots of things for your students to view online and on your computer but you don't want them to get lost in the world of clicking. With LiveBinder you can put all your word documents, videos, and web sites on one page with a series of tabs across the top. All the information you have collected for that lesson or unit is available from one url.

I'm going to explore using it for workshops. Will make things a lot easier than jumping from one application, or one website to another.

CORE Education Foundation awards

2010-06-01T10:37:00.001+12:00

Awards Poster

IF you are interested in applying for one of the CORE Foundation Awards, visit http://www.core-ed.org/foundation

Students and privacy online

2010-05-27T07:45:00.001+12:00

I thought this video about keeping yourself safe online, for 11 to 16 year olds, was very well done. It has the right tone to make kids think without being too over the top scary. I will definitely be showing this to my teenagers.

Thanks Andrew

Developing whānau priorities

2010-05-23T09:17:00.003+12:00

I was privileged to visit Te Kura o Hiruharama up near Ruatoria a couple of weeks back and I was struck by a comment made by a parent.

"It's about everyone having an input on a whole, it's not the teachers are there and the whānau are there, we are one unit working together hopefully."

It made me think about the old adage 'It takes a village to raise a child'. Sometimes there can seem to be a big distance between school and home, sometimes, we even speak different languages in our different villages. This school has spent a lot of time talking with whānau and gathering in results of surveys to develop a set of three priorities that the school and home can work on together (sometimes these surveys result in developing something that the school can work on, on behalf of the parents, rather than in partnership with).

These priorities are evident in the school mission statement, in the school vision, and are evident in the planning of inquiry units. The concept of split screen thinking is evident here, as the priorities are skillfully and thoughtfully woven throughout elements at the school.

This led me to reflect on my own experiences in teaching:
Were the parents' priorities evident in my school vision / mission statement / lessons?
Was developing the school vision considered when planning units of work?

(image: I think this is Mt Hikurangi, at least it is a photo I took of a huge Mt on the way out to the school :) )

Beware when you blog

2010-05-22T09:46:00.006+12:00

Before I start my rant - let me state I subscribe and enjoy a good deal of talented teachers' blogs and learn a lot from them. Let the rant begin ...

I saw a blog post yesterday which made me quite worried and provoked me to write this post. I'm hoping that the post in question will be taken down soon and so I won't link to it.

I once heard someone say that technology is an amplifier. It can amplify good practice and it can amplify bad practice. I have two cautions I want to put forward:

Principals - subscribe to all the blogs being written in your school. You are the leader and need to know what is being put out for the world to see. Also you can then support, nurture, and encourage as well as moderate. This is not micro managing, this is being involved.
Teachers - think! What is the purpose of your blog? Who is your audience? What is the hidden message coming through?

The post in question that has provoked this rant is a typical post where a teacher has described an activity the class has undertaken. It sounded like a great activity. The class had read about 50,000 people protesting against mining in national parks. They discussed the use of signs in the protest. Discussed the language (I hope) and made their own signs. This would be a really powerful lesson - however, this is where the amplifier came in. The teacher in question seemed to missed out the powerful bits and then amplified this to the world through the blog.

The post displayed the signs made by the children including these statements (and there were more!):

"John Key the donkey"
"Don't mine NZ, that's what Australia's for"

Now in my mind the powerful parts of this lesson could be to talk about separating political attacks from personal ones. I doubt it would be acceptable to teach children to call anyone names, let alone the leader of their country. Who, even if you disagree with his politics, deserves some respect.

Another powerful part of this lesson could be to talk about what made mining acceptable or not. Is it okay to mine in one place not another, in one country over another?

I thought this was a timely reminder that you really need to have a good pedagogical framework before you start blogging.

In one sentence "Why do you blog?"

Telling a story with photography

2010-04-29T20:29:00.003+12:00

A while ago I wrote a teaching sequence for English online called Telling a story with photography

I have always loved using photography with my class to bring out a whole new side to story telling and creativity. I have just watched a video on Teachers TV that I thought was great for people wanting something simple to get them started with the idea in the classroom.

Boost your teaching - tips for better digital photography.

There wasn't an embed code, so head on over to have a look.

Final cut express 4.0.1 update

2010-04-16T14:56:00.003+12:00

I'm writing this post because I have spent a frustrating week trying to find out how to get my final cut express to install the update. I tried the software update many times but it didn't find anything. So after intensive Googling I resorted to ringing the lovely people at apple support and it turns out ...

the Final cut express application must be in the applications folder not in a subfolder !!

Duh! I had tidied up my applications and put all the final cut express stuff into a folder. So the answer was to pull the app outside the folder into the applications folder, run software update and viola! There was the update ready to install.

I hope this post saves you the time and frustration I've just been through.

Teachers TV

2010-03-25T08:27:00.002+13:00

Teachers TV is an online site that provides education video resources, lesson plans, inspiration and ideas to use in the classroom. However, it is more than that, Teachers TV also broadcasts on the television in the UK which means that they produce a large volume of high quality content to support teachers in their everyday jobs of teaching and learning. This site is worth a visit. From my point of view they have cutting edge ideas for the display of digital media and discussed the fact that digital media should not replace text but provide teachers with things that are not possible in just text.

We were fortunate today to meet with John Richmond, the international development executive of Teachers TV, to discuss how Teachers TV works. This is part of our PD to develop our skills in digital media for CORE Education. John took us out to Brook Lapping which is an internationally acclaimed independent documentary production company who make many of the films for Teachers TV. We came away with a wealth of ideas of where to next for our processes and procedures for digital media in our projects at CORE.

Leigh Academy - Dartford Kent

2010-03-24T10:21:00.003+13:00

We visited an innovative secondary school today. Leigh Academy is a new school that was purpose built. Frank Green, the CEO of Leigh Academy explained that the school was designed as a result of being required to find new ways to raise educational standards.

There are some interesting things happening in this college. Firstly they employ vertical integration where students from 11 year olds through to 18 year olds are integrated into the same classes. This is based on research stating that students learn best when they can learn from, and teach, each other.

Another innovation is around class sizes, operating classes of 50 to 60 students with three teachers, in large open spaces. This is a technology rich school and as we walked around we saw students working in all different types of groupings and purposes. We saw a large space with a lot of students and three teachers walking around, and we saw smaller spaces with students working one on one or in small groups.

And one more innovation is around school sizes. Based on research it was found that the optimal size of a school was no more than 500 students. Above this and there is less achievement and more chance of behavioural problems and so on. This was a hard issue to overcome in a very large secondary school and their answer is, I think, genius. The secondary school of over 1200 students was separated into four different colleges. These colleges are all housed in the same building as their own blocks. Each college has the exact same layout and their own speciality. DaVinci college specialises in (you guessed it) the arts, Chaucer - humanities, Darwin - the sciences, and Brunel - technology. Each college has its own principal to run the school and staff, this ensures that every child is known well as an individual by the head teacher and staff. Frank's role is as the CEO over the entire academy. Students belong to one college, however move between colleges for the specialities.

It was quite a treat to visit this school and see how new answers can be found to old problems. We recorded interviews with Frank Green and these will be available on EdTalks shortly.

Training day with Urban Fox

2010-03-23T09:23:00.002+13:00

Today I was fortunate enough to spend the day in one-on-one training with Christina Fox of Urban Fox. Christina has an extensive career as a camera woman for the BBC, working on projects as diverse as the news and playschool and so many other genres in between.

It was a treat to have her all to myself for the day. Christina had viewed some of my work before I arrived for training and had devised a programme to move me on. It was amazing. I didn't know how little I knew until I worked with her. I had been doing an okay job as a self taught videographer, but I now needed to step up to the next level.

Firstly we started with the bare bones essentials - the techie bits. We explored my camera and I am now confident to shoot video with the camera fully in manual mode. This answered a lot of my questions about how to get the image crisper, clearer and with the right tones and colours. I apologise to those I have shot who have turned out an orangy colour because I didn't know how to set the white balance!!

Once the techie bits were mastered Christina offered me some suggestions on what she considered as my next steps in editing based on the work I had previously shot. We talked about the effective way to shoot interviews and some of the techniques for shooting sequences to cover editing points. The video above is just a quick exercise at using different shots to portray the same story - master shot, over the shoulder, close up, and face shots. To get these shots the actor (in this case Christina) has to act out the scene four times over. This gives you four different angles to use to make the sequence more interesting.

I'm a little annoyed that I didn't do this training before I shot the video at Sawyers Hall as I can see so many places to use my new knowledge, but luckily, tomorrow I am shooting video at Leigh Academy, so I can try out my new skills then.

Triumph over adversity - Sawyers Hall College

2010-03-23T08:22:00.005+13:00

My colleague, Christina, and I were fortunate enough to win a professional development scholarship from CORE Education which has enabled us to travel to London for professional learning. Our plans while here are to shoot a digital story at Sawyers Hall College, attend a day's training with Urban Fox, visit Leigh Academy to shoot an EdTalk, and visit Teachers TV. Our aim is to build on our skills in digital story telling.

We visited Sawyers Hall College in Brentwood. They are using CORE's EPS web based self review tool and our task was to shoot a case study of videos with management, teachers and students about their experience with the tool.

The story that made me sit up and think though, is based in student voice.

Sawyers Hall was a school that was going downhill fast and facing closure due to bad performance. Stephen Capper was appointed as the head teacher (principal) and slowly started to turn things around. He told us this story, which is the philosophy of the school:

A wise old man was sitting at the beach watching a young boy. There had been a storm and hundreds of starfish had washed up on the shore and were slowly dying. The young boy was walking along throwing the starfish back into the ocean one by one. The old man walked up to the boy and asked him why he was wasting his time, he couldn't possibly make a difference with so many starfish washed up on the shore. The boy looked at the old man, then picked up one starfish and threw it back into the sea, "made a difference to that one," he replied.

Because of the care of the staff and the philosophy of the school to put students at the heart, the school has slowly turned around and is making progress now in leaps and bounds. They are truly making a difference. This difference was not because of measurement, but because of seeing each child as an individual.

Technological nomads

2010-03-01T14:17:00.003+13:00

I have been reflecting on my time as a facilitator and have noticed that you have to have a certain temperament to be good at this job. I think I have finally developed this temperament now. It has a lot to do with patience and caring.

When you work with people (teachers) there are often a lot of things that come into play. A lot of teachers are frightened and threatened by being faced with something they are unfamiliar with. In the past teachers have always been the holder of all knowledge, the supreme authority, the buck stops there ! With our wonderful new curriculum we are encouraged to be learners, to admit we don't know and then embark on finding out with enthusiasm.

There is one type of teacher that I work with a lot and it makes me wonder about how far we have come down the track of letting go of authority and embracing learning. I have called these teachers the technological nomads.

They kNOw nothing and they get MAD at you :)

I'm okay at working with these teachers now as I can smile and lead them gently until they understand and feel familiar and less threatened. But I wonder what would we do as teachers if our students did the same thing? Is that student who is struggling with reading coming to mind now? Those struggling students who play up all the time and display aggression?

Anyway, just my thoughts... How do you cope with the technological nomad?