Derek's Blog

I've just been doing a little research around the extent of use of some social software applications, and came across a recent Hitwise competitive intelligence study, in which it is reported that MySpace.com has passed Yahoo! Mail to become the number one ranked website in the U.S. based on market share of visits. And, among Social Networking sites in June 2006, MySpace accounted for 79.9 percent of the total market share of visits.

Bill Tancer, general manager of Global Research at Hitwise, is reported as saying "The fact that MySpace was virtually unknown by the mainstream Internet users two years ago and now claims the top position, demonstrates how hyper-competitive the Internet really is."

What's really interesting is just how far ahead MySpace is! The following table shows the growth in market share of visits according to the Hitwise research:

What I'd be really interested to know is how this list of Web 2.0 applications was chosen - and why, for instance, isn't YouTube or del.icio.us on the list? Did these rank lower than the ones shown here - surely not?

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The news item that greeted me on the radio this morning dealt with Otago University's latest National Education Monitoring Project reported to reveal a marked decline in pupils' knowledge of basic number facts and their ability to correctly answer simple maths problems, particularly at Year 4 (eight and nine-year-olds).

The same report contained encouraging statistics, with improvements showing for pupils in more complex maths tasks such as algebra, logic and statistics, and both Year 4 and Year 8 pupils rated mathematics as one of their three favourite subject. Despite this, it is interesting to note how the negative aspect of the item grabbed the headlines! Frankly - when I think of my own kids who are are still at school I'd be delighted to know that (a) they were enjoying maths and (b) they were showing improvement in the more complex areas.

Seems we're not alone in this alarmist response to reports on mathematics teaching and learning. Just yesterday I read a fascinating item from eSchool News on How schools are using software to add to students' understanding of mathematics. It is a special feature, written in response to the release last December of the 2003 PISA results. These revealed that U.S. students performed lower on average than their counterparts in the participating countries in both math literacy and problem solving.

The eSchool News report begins with:

Despite the disappointing results on a national scale, there are many schools where students are learning math in the context of real-world situations and succeeding. And technology is playing a role in this success in a number of locations.

Interestingly, all of these examples focus on the more complex areas of maths teaching and learning. Only one of the brand-new programs they describe focuses specifically on helping struggling students develop fluency in basic math facts such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division (basic facts).

It's an encouraging read - particularly as ICT in Maths has for so long been associated with the "drill and kill" sorts of software that focuses solely on basic facts and repetitive practice etc - perhaps it would be useful to compile a list of NZ-basd examples?

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Just back from Samoa where I've had an extremely useful time interacting with people from all over the Pacific at the PacINET conference in Apia.

Yesterday afternoon, before I left, I had the opportunity to travel by boat to the small island of Manono which lies between the main islands of Upolo and Savai'i. A small group of conference delegates made the trip to participate in the initial setting up and trialling of a receiver on the island to bring internet connectivity to a small school there. The photo above shows me adjusting the receivers - these are made in New Zealand by Waikato University.

The 2020/Trust from New Zealand is the group that has initiated this project, in conjunction with a local computer services company in Samoa.

The photograph below shows me with the receiver, and in the distance is the volcanic peak at the Western end of Upolo where the signal is being received from.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm currently sitting in the opening sessions of the PICISOC PacINET conference in Samoa. I've been asked to present a session on blogging, in particular, how it serves as an avenue for freedom of speech.

I feel quite privileged to sit among such an august group of people from all over the Pacific - hearing of some really interested initiatives to provide access to ICT and the internet across such vast distances and where the issues faced make our problems in NZ pale into insignificance.

It's worth a look at the conference schedule and if you're keen, you can join a conference broadcast for any part of the conference you want to.

Unfortunately I will be leaving here on Tuesday afternoon, so won't get to hear Dr. Vinton G. Cerf, Internet Pioneer and Founding President of ISOC who is speaking on Wednesday morning - perhaps it will have to be the broadcast for me!

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I appreciated a comment by TIm Price-Walker to my recent post about Alice, an interactive, 3D games programming application. Tim pointed me to
MissionMaker, developed out of a partnership between Immersive Education and the University of London (Knowledgelab) 'MissionMaker' is a prototype exploring how student game making can create learning opportunities. Currently 45 BETA trial sites are using Missionmaker in the UK and providing feedback - a release date is forecast for 2007.

I've had a brief look at this project and it looks really interesting - I'll be keen to follow its progress. The MissonMaker Blog looks like a great place to follow the progress that is being made among the 45 schools involved.

I was also interested to note that Immersive Education are also the company behind Kar2ouche, a product that I've seen used in a number of NZ schools, and was the focus of a trial in 10 NZ schools during 2005.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Sitting at the airport clearing emails - having just flown back from Malaysia and now waiting for a plane to Samoa where I'm going to be presenting a session on blogging to a UNESCO seminar.

This, however, from eSchool News - a story about how Microsoft Corp. plans to offer a consumer version of its professional software for creating video games that run on its popular Xbox 360 console.

I'm sure there'll be all sorts of cynicism expressed about the motivation behind this release etc etc - but from my perspective this is exactly the sort of thing that we need to be looking for - enabling our students to become creators, not just consumers, and so tap into some of the rich potential that lies within them in terms of creativity, flexible thinking and innovation.

Introducing game development into our school curriculum mightn't be such a bad idea either - the skills and abilities that are developed can be applied in fields much wider than simply creating X-Box games. Just this week in Malaysia I was speaking with a business organisation that is about to undertake a significant project developing a training programme for the agriculture sector. Within this they are wanting to develop 3D simulations and role-playing applications - guess who the'll need to build them?

The Microsoft product is called XNA and In their news release about the product, Microsoft says that by joining a ???creators club??? for an annual subscription fee of $99 (U.S.), users will be able to build, test and share their games on Xbox 360?? and access a wealth of materials to help speed the game development progress. This represents the first significant opportunity for novice developers to make a console game without a significant investment in resources.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm currently working in Malaysia, having some interesting discussions concerning eLearning and the use of ICT in education. Reflecting on some of these discussions, particularly those where emphasis is placed on content and content delivery, I was interested to read an article today from Tech Learning titled Wild About Wikis - (a) because it provides a pretty useful overview of wikis and how they might be used in education, and (b) there's a useful link at the bottom that takes you to an extremely useful article titled Wiki Pedagogy

The navigation index on the right links to a number of pages on topics ranging from definitions to templates and tools etc. The page that particularly drew my attention is the one titled Pedagogical Potential

The author identifies a list of specific pedagogical potentials of wikis, empahsising things such as participation, contribution, shared authoring, collaborative editing etc - as well as the way in which they promote a democratic view of knowledge sharing and knowledge creation. It's a great list, and, even if you may disagree with or question (or even add to) what is presented here, it provides an excellent starting point for anyone wanting to locate the

These pedagogical principles provide quite a contrast to the view of learning that occurs as a result of delivering carefully designed content to students who then 'consume' it, usually in isolation. Now I'm not suggesting that we don't need content as a part of our eLearning process, only that it shouldn't be the only part of any eLearning enterprise.

As the author states....
Wiki pedagogy is literally ??? and figuratively ??? ???in-the-making???.
It's encouraging to see this analysis providing an argument for the use of wikis to support approaches to learning where the learner is an active participant in the learning process, learning by doing, and learning through collaboration with others - and where content is developed as a consequence of this activity.

The author refers to this as the pedagogy of communal constructivism, described as... "where students and teachers are not simply engaged in developing their own information but actively involved in creating knowledge that will benefit other students. In this model students will not simply pass through a course like water through a sieve but instead leave their own imprint in the development of the course, their school or university, and ideally the discipline."

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 2:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I???ve just spent the day in a workshop hosted by the PPTA called the Distance Learning Collaborative Video Clusters Meeting. It was attended by an eclectic group of some of NZ most experienced distance educators from the secondary school sector, mostly from schools involved in clusters using video conferencing as a means of extending the range of educational opportunities for learners.

This was a very significant meeting, and I applaud the PPTA for arranging it. After a decade of innovation in the use of telecommunications technologies (first audio-graphics, then video conferencing) in some of our smaller secondary schools we are at a point where we must move from a ???cottage industry??? approach to something that is more systemic.

The recent support for the Virtual Learning Network (VLN) in the recent budget announcement, and the reference to this in the MoE???s recent eLearning Action Plan for schools is an encouraging sign that this is being taken seriously now at a government level, and that there is support being put in place ??? but for real progress to be made a much broader, ???bigger picture??? view of what the opportunities are needs to be developed.

In the presentation I made to the group I referred to the OECD six scenarios, and the work I've been doing around a school OLE in an effort to extend some of the thinking in the group. Some of the key challenges and thoughts from the presentation I made to the group follow??

The virtual learning network provides a powerful solution to many of the challenges and concerns facing secondary schools today?? BUT, some of the questions below still linger??

• Is what we are doing truly learner-centric?
  
• Are we simply replicating the practices of the f2f classroom?
  
• How can we get policy change to provide the flexibility we require?
  
• Is our view of the technology future-proofed?
  
• Where is the evidence that what we are doing is supporting the claims we are making?

Issues to be addressed before the use of distance/eLearning methodologies can become truly systemic in NZ include:

Policy issues

• How can student funding be shared between schools?
  
• How can staffing, including management units, be shared among schools
  
• What evidence needs to be gathered to demonstrate the worth of this?

• Connectivity and interoperability ??? who sets the standards?
  
• Networks ??? VPNs or MUSH etc
  
• Bridging ??? what is required? What technologies must be supported?
  
• Scheduling ??? enable direct access and school level control?

• assessment ??? developing consistency in approach
  
• reporting ??? enabling a unified student report from several ???schools??? etc
  
• modularisation ??? a different view of ???course???
  
• RPL ??? includes recognising the value of informal learning

• Creating more flexibility in recognising teacher roles: e-teachers, m-teachers, c-teachers,
  
• How to involve those with real subject expertise as mentors, hotseats etc

• ???personalisation??? ??? what does it mean? How do we make it happen?
  
• staff training ??? how to train a large group of the teaching force in these new approaches?

• where does the leadership come from?
  
• What form should leadership take?
  
• What coordination is required nationally, locally etc?

• How best to provide resources for learning to support teachers in this environment
  
• learning objects, repositories, search tools ??? who provides them, who manages them etc?
  
• how to cater for user-generated resources?
  
• Copyright and IP issues ??? how are these to be managed?

• What is best practice?
  
• What are quality indicators?

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 9:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Really useful article just sent through to me by Michaela from the National Library titled Can Wikipedia conquer expertise? published in The New Yorker .

The article is rather long, but provides an excellent history of the development of Wikipedia, the phenomenally successful online encyclopedia where the number of visitors has been doubling every four months and the site receives as many as fourteen thousand hits per second. The article includes an historical overview of encylopedias in general, before focusing on Wikipedia and how it works etc.

This is one of those articles that is worth squirreling away for future reference.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

A late night IM chat with my friend Paul Rodley led me to explore the emerging world of Activist Games. Paul is currently exploring the use of these within the teaching programme in his school - and I can see why.

Activist Games is an emerging genre of computer gaming that borrows from role-playing, strategy, and other popular genres to engage players - the difference being that, instead of focusing on providing the levels of excitement experienced in the likes of ???Madden NFL 2006,??? ???Pokemon Emerald??? and ???Gran Turismo 4,\ these games aim to educate and mobilize players around a cause such as protecting the environment, fighting genocide and tackling poverty.

One of the games Paul is currently using with his students is Darfar is Dying, which recently won an MTV award. Darfur is Dying is an online video game that puts you in the shoes of one of the 2.5 million refugees who are fighting for survival every day in Darfur. Players learn more about the challenges these refugees face and to how to take action to help stop the crisis.

Other games in this genre include

• Four Years in Haiti is about poverty-stricken children in the Caribbean country and their struggles to find the resources to go to school.
  
• "A Force More Powerful" is an ambitious $3 million game for resistance groups that want to role-play scenarios of citywide and even countrywide nonviolent demonstrations, walking through each step from marching to holding a fundraising party. (not available as an online game)
  
• "Pax Warrior" is a Canadian project that lets users try to prevent the 1990s genocide in Rwanda. Its developers say it already has 250,000 users.
  
• "Peacemaker," a strategy game that tasks players with settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by steering the leadership of either side.
  
• "Earthquake in Zipland," a cartoonish game that stars a moose trying to assemble a giant zipper to merge the separate islands upon which his parents are drifting apart, an extended metaphor about divorce.
  
• Food Force A downloadable game based on the scenario of a major crisis in the Indian Ocean, on the island of Sheylan. Players become members of a new team to step up the World Food Programme???s presence there and help feed millions of hungry people.
  
• "The Organizing Game," (still in prototype) which is designed to introduce concepts around social activism, prompt discussion, and allow residents to practice skills in a safe, non-threatening environment.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

An interesting release from Microsoft is this free "HR tool" - designed to assist school administrators fill staff positions. Microsoft says that the Education Competency Wheel will help in the process of identifying candidates for school leadership roles, selecting principals, or hiring new teachers to staff open classrooms.

Six core "success factors," make up the wheel's hub. These are:

Individual Excellence. Ability to achieve results by working effectively with others in various circumstances.
Organizational Skills. Ability to communicate by various means within different organizational settings.
Courage. Ability to speak directly, honestly, and with respect in difficult situations.
Results. An emphasis on goal-oriented action.
Strategic Skills. An array of skills used to accomplish focused, longer-term goals.
Operating Skills. An array of skills used for daily management of tasks and relationships.

Just yesterday I was having a conversation with two senior staff from a local secondary school about how to assess professional competence, and the range of tools, measures and processes that are available.

I'll be interested to explore this one further to see how applicable it is to the NZ context -particularly in light of the recent release of the revised NZ Curriculum (draft for consultation) with its emphasis on competencies as measures of success for learning.

An interesting first impression is that among the full list of 37 competencies there is no mention of curriculum or subject knowledge.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Funny how some things simply pass you by - I was introduced to Alice earlier this week after attending a PTA meeting at the Christchurch South Learning Centre where they use it with groups of students to introduce them to programming 3D graphics.

Alice is a 3D Authoring system, from the Stage3 Research Group at Carnegie Mellon University. It has been completely rewritten from scratch over the past few years - resulting in the most recent release of Alice 2.0

I downloaded the programme (available for Mac, PC or Linux users) last night when I got home from work. You need to allow a bit of time for the download as the file is around 1.4Mb (on my Mac version anyway).

I spent about 15 mins showing my 9 year old son some of the basics - then left him to it while I took part in an audio conference. 90 mins later I returned to find that he'd created a full animation, comprising of some seven individual characters or objects, each of which performed an animation according to the sequence he'd programmed in using the very intuitive programming instructions using a drag and drop menu.

Here's a simple screen shot of the programme showing the various components.

The list of programming instructions at the lower left of the screen can be dragged to the panel at the lower right, and the parameters set for the desired animation in the panel in the top centre - all using simple English and drop down menus.

I've only been playing with this for a day or so - but already the possibilies are exciting me. There's a great page of links to movie clips of animations in the Building Virtual Worlds area of the Alice Website that allow you to see just what can be achieved with this program.

Just a caution - once installed, the program takes a bit of time to load, so don't be impatient to start creating!

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)