Brisbane

We work best and learn best when it matters to us. Not all kids know what matters to them yet so we can't just give them tools - we need to help them understand or ind what matters to them.

What is School 2.0?

caring institutions - we teach kids first and our subject second
student centred - not about us (teachers)
inquiry driven - the questions we can ask as a community - together (where we don't know what is going what will happen)
passionate - has to matter
metacognitive - we need to think about thinking (reflection is the most important part of learning)
technology infused - ubiquitous, necessary and invisible
Understanding driven and project-based - to demonstrate understanding and serve a larger purpose

What's the road map?

Pedagogy matters a lot - it's everything!

We now have the tools to fulfill Dewey's vision of education.

There are so many tools that we become overlaoded by how many and having to learn them all.

What's good is a better question than what's new?

The best collaborative technology tool is the one that we all agree to use together

Technology enables us to:

- research
- collaborate
- create
- network
- present

a "convenient and reasonably false taxonomy" of tools using these ways of using technology - available in presentation.

Tools don't teach but they can change the way that we teach. Tools can be the tail that waves the pedagogical dog.

What are your goals and what tool are there to get you there?

eg. blogging - having the tools is easy but having something to say is hard

Understanding by design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe guides the learning at SLA.

They have 5 catergies that go across all learning in the school - inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation, reflection. The same inputs and outputs, frameworks for learning with an open planning/learning understanding between teachers and students.

Processes of UBD (understanding by design)

Step one : Desired results

goals (standards, frameworks),
understandings (big ideas - why are we teaching this?),
essential questions (what do we keep coming back to?),
skills and content (stuff needed to get to the big ideas and meet the goals)

Step two : how do we assess

(a test as the only/main assessment doesn't fit with project based learning)

Authentic Assessmne isn't an end game - it's constant, ongoing and can outlast the unit.

Step three: Learning Plan

How are we going to get/help this happen?

Example learning plans from SLA - These are very profound examples of learning plans where the focus in on pedagogy and understanding. The students developed deep understanding and became experts in vairous fields but more importantly in learning - and in terms of technology they just use what they need. Many projects are ongoing beyond the timeframe of the unit.

Chris led a through the creation of a learning plan together with the audience. It will be included on the wiki for the presentation. http://ubd21c.wikispaces.com/

This was an interesting process... he valued all of the contributions from the auidence and it was fascinating to observe (and particpate) as the proeject got deeper and deeper and more connected to real life. This is a testimate to the planning process that the skills and content etc - the day to day specifics come at the end of the process after the big ideas and allowing for response and felxibility for the students.

And it's always good to hear my favourite word so many times (pedagogy that is).

Other resources

Reinventing Project Based Learning -- Jane Krauss and Suzie Boss
Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom - Will Richardson
Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century -- David Warlick
Understanding by Design -- Wiggins and McTigue

Brisbane

Understanding Digital Learners

RablinAmanda — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:30:50 -0600

Understanding Digital Learners: Learning in the New Digital Landscapes

by Ian Jukes ianjukes.com

session handout

Other handouts from this presenter are available at:

http://web.mac.com/iajukes/thecommittedsardine/Handouts.html

Kids today are experiencing a world today that is completely different from the world that we grew up in - and the gap is getting bigger.

7 Major changes that education must make to match students and their digital learning styles and for participating in 21 Century digital culture.

1. Time for education to catch up

Still important to keep traditional learning and assessment but traditional literacy is no longer enough.
Kids now are neurologacally different. It's hard to abandon our old practices. Recommeded starting a digital diet - where we try something new each week to immerse yourself in a part of digital nature online culture (like reading online commics, playing video games, exploring online worlds, read and respond to a blog, use skype, join a social network, buy something on ebay etc). The list of new technologies goes on forever.

2. Teach to the whole mind

Not just focusing on "no child left untested' or delivery of content. Need to focus on deeper opportunities for student learning for all learners. The primary information sources for education are still text books and worksheets and technologies that are student's personal tools are often banned in schools. Traditional learning is "so boring" for digital learners. The 'flat world' places more value on creativity, higher order thinking and problem solving - these are needed by a greater percentage of citizens (learners) than ever before. What world are we preparing students for? - their future or our past?
"A whole new mind: Moving from the information age to the conceptual age" - book by Daniel Pink
Prosumers - Producers and comsumers of knowledge.
Fluency - unconcious skills, literacy - concious/explicit skills.
Technological fluency - transparent use of digital tools to perform a task - doesn't matter what the tool is, it's what you do with it.
Media fluency -being able to look critically at the content of media and understand how that medium is being used to shape our thinking. Not passive viewing or consuming - it's about creating and publishing original products. Students need to be able to communicate fluently in all media just in the same way that we learnt to communicate in text.
Information Fluency - the ability to unconcisous and intuitively interpret information in all forms to understand what they need to. About asking good questions, accessing and aquiring, analyse and authenticate, apply (through contribution too), assess the process as well as the product.
These fluencies are not the domain of specific subject but across all learning.

3. Shifting the instructional Approach

Don't give the students the answers or exactly where they have to go - if you tell the whole story students won't be motivated to find and learn. There is a time to tell the story but we can't do it all the time. Shift from a traditional approach to 'teaching lazy' - empowering students to become independent thinkers not just regurgitating what has come in the past and what we have told them. Teachers need to have a progressive withdrawl from students lives. Our job as educators is to make sure that our students don't need us by the time that they leave school. If students fail we should encourage them to try again. Students shouldn't be dependant on their teachers. In an age of infowhelm it's not possible for teachers to be an expert in everything.

Dale's Learning Cone / Learning Pyramid or Triangle

If we want understanding, fluency and profficiency we can't just lecture our students (direct instruction). We need students that can do more than just 'doing school' by giving problems first and teaching second.

4. Access information natively

Ian provided an fascinating mix of quotes about the threats that technologies like slates, pencils, store bought ink, ballpoint pens, computers and more recent online technologies - the pattern of fear repeats itself.

Creating and Connecting Study - these devices are an important part of students lives.

5. Let students collaborate
21C collaboration goes WAY beyond students working in traditional groups. We live in a network age that has fundamentaly changed the way that we do business - collaboration rather than competition... This is the way that kids collaborate online (in digital mobs) yet the norm at school is to build competition and only participate on a local not a global level.

6. Let students creat products that reflect content and process
Learning is not just about the product or the tool - its about the process involved in created that product with the tool. The tool is not used because it is 'cool' but because they the most powerful tool to match the need or solve the problem. Students will use technologies in completely different ways from what we expect them to do. Teachers are there to help students do what they do BETTER.

7. Re-evaluate assessment and evaluation

Still a place for traditional assessment but we need to balance this with ongoing assessments and evaluation that are tools for changing student learning. Students need authentic autdiences, opportunites to make mistakes, timely and meaningful feedback and guidance. Our task as educators is not just to do a better jor at teaching 19 and 20 C content but to prepare and engage students in work and life in the 21C.

Other resources

21st Century Fluency Skills: Attributes of Digital Learners

21st Century Fluency Audit Tool

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky

The
Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and
Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30)
by Mark Bauerlein

Teaching for Tomorrow by Ted McCain (order from Corwin Press)

Teaching the digital generation: no more cookie cutter high schools - book by Ian Jukes and another author

Brisbane

UNESCO's ICT Competency Framework for Teachers

RablinAmanda — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:17:53 -0600

Presentation at NECC on UNESCO's ICT Competency Framework.

Tarek Shawki from Cairo was going to present but he was unable to ge to San Antonio, so the CEO of ISTE is presenting on his behalf.

There are 3 documents available in Phase 1 in the project :

Created with assistance of cisco, intel, Microsoft, ISTE and others. The document has reviewed by 40 thought leaders around the world as well before publication. It was difficult to ger global consensus about eh specifics of the framework.

Knowledge has a central role in the development of many areas - economic growth, social development, cultural enrichment. UNESCO have a diagram showing the Pillars of Knowledges societies

There has been an explosion of technologies at the turn of the century (into 21 C) so many more technologies. There are ways of reaching others and building human captial that have not been available to us before - we can do more than ever. Education is an enabling factor on so many levels for a 'global community'.

This has had a major impact on Education. Students have acces to an increased number of knowledge sources (including people - and the interactions that they have with each other).

UNESCO ties the ecomonic devlopement with education

New pedagogical paradigm -

constructive process
more than aquiring skills
non-formal and non-linear
new and flexible learning environments

based on new literacies of technology and information literacy with a shift from teacher in control to being more student centered and self-directed

There are serious constraints to this within developing countries. Professional Training and Support for teachers will help overcome some of the challenges.

Defines skill sets for teachers to have in order to be effective. The diagram below outlines the areas and the phases of teacher competency.

Teacher as model learning is a really interesting way to describe the higher level of Professional Development - not being an expert but being a learner :)

There was a debate in the session about the first level being labeled as "intergrate technology" because it could be described as using more of a broadcast/dissemination of knowledge approach - and integration is perhaps something that underpins the whole concept.

There are strong links between these ideas and things that are happening in Australia - such as the ICT Pedagogical Licence by Education Queensland and the ePotential Continuum from Victorian Educaiton Department as well.

There are strategic partnerships with companies to support the project including the areas of training, knowledge reposititories, content management systems and more...

There was a question if there are assessment available for teachers.

There was discussion about Governments, providers and other creators submiting frameworks and standards to UNESCO (with review by ISTE) to endorse initiatives that align to the UNESCO framework - this would also build the interational network of participants in this project.

Brisbane

21C Leadership session

RablinAmanda — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:01:42 -0600

The Missing Link in 21st Century Classroom: 21st Century Leadership
by Christopher Moersch EdD

Chris is part of the LoTI initiative which stands for Levels of Teaching Innovation – An overview of the presentation and a PDF of the handout is available on web @ loticonnection.com
This presentation would be useful with principal groups and other leaders/administrators in schools.

21 Century Learning
21C Skills - http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/

What is 21C leadership like?
LoTi levels http://loticonnection.com/21stcenturyframework.html
Most teachers surveyed are at LoTi level 2 – reinforcing technical uses to reinforce skill development and low order thinking where students use without much guidance from teacher
Unclear admin expectations and high stakes testing are influential factors in teachers not using ICT meaningfully with students.

5C’s for instructional leadership
http://loticonnection.com/5C.html

1. Cultivating - a culture of high expectations, high expectations – we watched a financial literacy example at Ariel Community College and did a HEAT analysis

2. Courage – trusting your believes even when others find them odd
10 point courage survey; LoTi Implementation survey (assess, plan, implement, sustain)
Survey free for US schools (but not for Australians) Systems thinking lotilounge.com

3. Creativity – Creating solutions to potential barriers
www.270towin.com - US electoral stats by state? We were encouraged to come up with high HEAT culminating tasks using this website
There are windows of opportunities for 21C learning that we can look for within the current structures

4. Commitment – to research best practices
“the difference between ‘ involvement’ and ‘commitment’ is like an eggs-and-ham breakfast the egg was involved but the pig was committed".
Important to encourage risk taking

5. Communication – with all key stakeholders
Floresville ISD – TAKS Results
Research – How can the implementation of 21C skills enhance learning?
Test scores do go up when you use technology within 21C learning and have leadership that supports this.

Brisbane