Derek's Blog

I'm visiting SK Seri Bayu School in the state of Perak in Malaysia today, talking about the exciting things we can do with blogs and podcasts with our students. The photo above shows me with Ruth, the school's ICT teacher, as she created her first blog. Her principal is looking on.

It's been a very interesting time so far, spending time with the principals and teachers in these Malaysian schools discussing the nature of the programmes we have operating in the schools in our respective countries. Many of the same issues keep on arising, including,

• ICT infrastructure and bandwidth issues
  
• availability of technical support - where from, quality issues, costs.
  
• provision of hardware for teachers and students - who pays, renewal cycles etc
  
• pedagogical issues - pressure of high stakes assessment driving classroom practice etc.
  
• shortage of skilled teachers in some subject areas

It was interesting to learn that in the State of Perak where we are currently there has been a programme running to supply teachers with laptops which comes with a programme of training in ICT literacy. The programme began five years ago with all of the year one teachers in the state, and this year will target all of the year five teachers. The competencies addressed in training programme (supported by a full set of CD-based training materials) covers everything from basic computer operation to office applications, web applications and some creativity tools etc.

It has been interesting sharing some examples of what teachers and students do in New Zealand schools - a striking contrast is the fact that most of these things are done on computers in classrooms as a part of the classroom programme. While the teachers at Seri Bayu were very interested in learning more about these activities and how they might do similar things with their students, the current situation where all computers in the school are in computer labs and students rostered in for one hour a week on a five week rotational programme means that access to computers for these more creative, group-based and integrated sorts of activities is limited.

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It's been a privilege to attend the Learning@School conference in Rotorua over the past three days, listening to challenging keynote speakers including Jennifer Corriero speaking about her involvement in TakingITglobal, David Warlick on addressing the needs of the digital generation and Russell Bishop on messages for mainstream educators.

Immediately after the conference I have had to travel to Malaysia to follow up on some work there, so no time to develop my reflections and thoughts on this amazing event - but here is a list of some of the things that impressed me..

• great venue and wonderful people of Rotorua
  
• exceptional list of workshops and presentations, of NZ teachers presenting to other NZ teachers
  
• the high level of energy among participants - and the sharing of experience among those who've been involved in the clusters for a while with those who are first timers
  
• a 'maturity' that is developing in our schools - moving from wanting to be excited about the new possibilities, to asking fundamental questions like "how do we know we're doing it right/well? etc
  
• a genuine interest in leadership and management of change among principals, facilitators and cluster leaders

I've posted the presentations I did to SlideShare:

• Ten Trends - spotlight presentation
  
• Managing my online life - breakout presentation

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We've added a new logo on the right hand side of the CORE website -titled CORE's Ten Trends for 2007

Clicking on this logo will take you to a list of ten trends that we've identified as being particularly important in 2007. The aim is to create some dialogue around some of the things that are happening in the NZ context regarding the use of ICT in education. The emphasis is on looking at the bigger picture, rather than the things absorb our time every day at the "coal face".

I will be using these ten trends as the focus of my Spotlight at the Learning@School conference this week, and would love to see plenty of contributions being made in the comments section at the end of each "Trend".

Each month or so the CORE staff are going to expand one of the themes with further links and references to prompt a deeper level of participation and discussion. We're sure to have missed some that people think are important, or included some that others think aren't - all of which should make the discussion fuller and richer!

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With the use of mobile phones, PDAs and other hand-held technologies becoming common place among our school-aged young people, it's not surprising to see schools and tertiary institutions thinking about how they may be incorporated effectively within formal learning contexts.

FutureLab have published this useful handbook on Handhelds, which contains recommendations for mobile learning approaches - including implementation ideas and case studies.

The recommendations are fairly predictable, but are usefully summarised in this handbook, and provide an excellent basis for staff discussion and planning for those considering using handhelds with students for the first time.

Some of the key recommendations that caught my eye include:

• Having an authentic purpose for use of the devices is central to the success of implementing handheld technologies to enhance teaching and learning

• Educators should be clear about the exact learning goals they are hoping to achieve when using handheld technologies

• Educators need to be aware that not all students will benefit from using handheld technologies at all times and some may prefer more conventional activities.

• Projects that have tested the use of handhelds to build links between home and school, and to increase family involvement have had most success where the level of home access to technology is low.

• A whole-school approach, with support provided both for the project itself and those implementing it, will contribute to handheld technologies being embedded in the curriculum

• Devices need to be robust and broken devices must be repaired or replaced quickly. Some spare devices will be needed to cover periods when a device is out of action.

• Good integration with existing technologies in the school, eg interactive whiteboards, data projectors, software and digital content, aids the smooth adoption of the devices into routine teaching and learning.

• To maximise the benefits of personal ownership, pedagogical approaches and teaching styles must accommodate a more autonomous learner role.

The PDF version of the document can be downloaded here.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I subscribe to a couple of feeds that send me news of free software for my Mac - and every now and again I find one that is really useful. DoIt is one of those - a small, inconspicuous application to manage categorized to do lists. It really has a minimal, self updating, unobtrusive interface to minimize interference with your work and save screen real estate.

With so many tasks and projects on the go at one time, often with separate files stored in different folders on my hard drive, I've often found just keeping track of things a problem. Like many, I keep a list of these things in my diary which helps - but the beauty of DoIt is that each to do item can be linked with a file on my computer, a URL, such as the address of a website, or a contact from my address book. The linked item can be opened directly from the Do It window.

The other thing I like about it is that ToDo items can also include notes, priorities and deadlines, which can be set as reminders in iCal. Do It can import iCal to do lists, and export lists from to do to import into iCal. You can set your to do deadlines as events in iCal with a single click. You can sync your Do It lists on multiple computers using .Mac

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I had the great privilege today to attend a seminar at HIT Lab NZ titled "Next Generation Collaboration over Advanced Networks". Speakers included Prof. Tom Furness, the International Director of HIT Lab based in the University of Washington in Seattle, and Don Clark, CEO of REANNZ.

It was a fascinating day, looking specifically at what the future holds in terms of next generation collaboration tools that will eventually find their way into our every day experience. The photo at the top shows me participating in a grid video conferencing session, where each of the participants shows up as a separate window on the wall we were watching.

The photo below shows me trialling a recent development called a "portable grid VC station", allowing an individual to participate fully in a grid VC session using three flat panel LCD monitors as shown. The total cost of this installation is at this stage $20,000 - which may be more than many schools can currently afford, but is exactly the same amount that many schools in NZ paid for the initial video conferencing kit to participate in the KAWM network just 6-7 years ago!

Besides the grid video conferencing experiences, we were introduced to a variety of 3D immersive environments and forms of augmented reality, enabling us to participate in collaborative events which brought other participants into our midst virtually. The photo below shows Nathan Gardiner of HIT Lab NZ demonstrating the Access Grid and a range of applications that have been developed for use on the advanced network.

One thing is for sure - the future is not what it used to be! These technologies, while still in their infancy, will certainly have a significant impact on how we conceive of and shape our learning environments over the next decade.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thanks to Allanah who pointed me to the above clip from Ewen McIntosh's blog. It's quite clever really, and illustrates well the ways in which Web2.0 enables us to do things that we've never been able to do before!.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 12:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

"The core problem is that our education and training systems were built for another era. We can get where we must go only by changing the system itself."

Drawing from a worldwide programme of research and analysis over two years (that included New Zealand), and funders including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation, this report focuses on the need for change in our education system in order to meet the challenges of participating in a global knowledge economy. The emphasis in the report is predictably on issues relating to the preparation of school leavers for jobs in a worldwide market for high-value-added products and services, concluding the need to adopt internationally benchmarked standards for educating students and workers.

The report is certainly challenging, and will no doubt have its critics, but the challenges it puts forward deserve a response. Take for instance the 10 "acts we should face" when considering what the education system of the future might be like:

1. a disproportionate number of (US) teachers are drawn form the less able of the high school students who go to college.

2. we tolerate an enormous amount of waste the system - failing students early on when the cost of doing the job right would be relatively low, and trying to remediate later on when the cost is high.

3. our inherently inefficient system has gotten progressively inefficient over time.

4. the growing inequality in family incomes is contributing heavily to the growing disparities in student achievement (specific to the US where local schools are funded largely from local property tax)

5. we have failed to motivate our students to take tough courses and work hard

6. our teacher compensation system is designed to reward time in service rather than attract the best and brightest school leavers and reward the best of our teachers

7. too often our testing system rewards those who will be good at routine work rather than providing opportunities for students to display creative and innovative thinking and analysis

8. we've built a bureaucracy where the people with the responsibility don't have the power (and vice versa)

9. most of the people who will be in our workforce are already in it!

10. funding mechanisms created for supporting students through college and university are not appropriate for those who have full-time jobs or family responsibilities who want to get continuing education and training.

That said, however, there's a lot here that we could be taking notice of here in NZ - most of the challenges in the list above could be applied here to some extent for instance.

Two things that kept re-surfacing in the report for me were:

• focus on creativity and innovation - this comes through as one of the critical elements of the future education process, and to be achieved will require considerable change to our recruitment of teachers, engagement of students, and assessment processes. The report refers to the need for leadership that... "depends on a deep vein of creativity that is constantly renewing itself."

• the importance of work-place training - constant reference is made to the fact that most of our workforce, including teachers, who will be there over the next 10 years are already there - so attention to what happens at the school level is only part of the story. There needs to be a greater emphasis on the provision of continuing education for those already in the workplace, and the funding and support models to underpin this.

The series of recommendations made in the report are both imaginative and potentially disruptive. It will be interesting to see how they are responded to int he US - meantime, I believe we could well do with some critique of them in the NZ context as we face the prospect of moving forward with the development of a new curriculum, assessment regime, secondary futures project etc.

A 1.9mb PDF version of the executive summary of the report can be downloaded here or the complete report in book form from Amazon.com.

(thanks to my good friend Mark Treadwell for drawing this to my attention - I'm sure he and I will enjoy some lengthy skype sessions over this!)

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The latest edition of 'innovate' has just been released, and this edition focuses on online assessment and effective course design, the value of e-portfolios as dynamic records of academic and professional development, and the creative use of synchronous communication tools for online tutorials.

This issue is very timely, with the upcoming EiFEL e-portfolio conference happening in Wellington at the end of March where we'll get an update on Mahara, an open source e-portfolio product that has been developed here in NZ with money from the eLearning Collaborative Development Fund (eCDF). (See details in a previous entry)

I enjoyed the article by Cara Lane titled The Power of "E": Using e-Portfolios to Build Online Presentation Skills. Cara uses research from the University of Wisconsin on how students approach e-portfolios to illustrate how students understand e-portfolios in relation to social Web spaces, how e-portfolios allow students to increase their understanding of Web conventions, and how e-portfolios serve as a means of fostering multimedia literacy. The student-centred approach highlights different issues than those commonly discussed in the academic literature; instead of discussing reflection or standards for example, students emphasize design and audience.

I also liked Judith Boettcher's article titled Ten Core Principles for Designing Effective Learning Environments: Insights from Brain Research and Pedagogical Theory in which she summarizes ten principles based on recent research integrated with traditional principles of pedagogy and instructional design. It's always useful to read someone's attempt to 'organise' the thinking that is emerging from a number of perspectives. For me this article provides a useful framework to inform some of the discussion around 'formal' vs. 'informal' learning, as what Judith is focusing on here relates to what she calls "structured learning experiences".

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Who'd have thought that an idea with its origins in a self-help group formed many years ago by a number of small farmers in Uruguay could have anything to do with the development of a Community of Practice for people wanting to share experiences of e-Learning and learn from one another!

The CAMEL project stands for Collaborative Approaches to the Management of E-Learning, a project funded by the HEFCE Leadership, Governance and Management programme in the UK. It set out to explore how institutions who were making good use of e-learning and who were collaborating in regional lifelong learning partnerships might be able to learn from each other in a Community of Practice based around study visits to each of the partners' institutions.

What caught my eye is a "Do-It-Yourself guide" to setting up a Community of Practice using the CAMEL model that they've published. Originally available on CD ROM, HEFCE have now made it available to view online, or you can download a ZIP file and view it on your computer which is what I did. The guide contains some really useful information, and includes a series of short video clips. I was also intrigued to see an old favourite of mine - the Johari window -used in their section on "Ground rules and trust" in the guide.

There was a lot in this guide that reinforces the findings of the online PD community we calledT4T4T that we ran in NZ a couple of years ago, although the CAMEL approach is more structured and provides some really useful resources to help individuals and institutions plan their participation in the CoP.

For a perspective on how to develop a community of practice aimed at finding out more about e-learning through the sharing of ideas and experiences I'd recommend this resource.

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We had a visit today at CORE from Jason Young from Sydney who has been holidaying in NZ over the past few weeks. Jason works with the Head Office for Catholic education in Sydney as a Schools??? Consultant (primary and secondary) in the area of Information, Communication and Learning Technologies (ICLT).

While he was with us, Jason met three of the CORE directors (pictured above) and also had the opportunity to meet with the 2007 e-fellows who have been working with CORE staff over the past week. Together we dreamed dreams of some sort of trans-Tasman exchange of e-Fellows, contemplating on the value this might bring to each of our countries through the exchange of ideas and experiences... who knows???

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 3:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Is John Key's appearance on YouTube somebodies not so bright one off idea, or is it a signal that they want to play in the ecology of the web?

This is the question asked by Paul Reynolds today on his blog where he muses far more eloquently that I can on the actions of hte national Party and it's leader, John Keys, to post a series of short diary entries on YouTube.

Paul's blog entry complements the interview he did on National Radio where he was asked whether he thought this was a good idea.

Paul's response is well worth a read, for two reasons:

1. he raises the question about whether the act of posting items on YouTube is seen simply as another channel for "getting their message out there", or whether the politicians involved are consciously preparing themselves to become participants in the "ecology of Web2.0", which may involve their material being taken and used in a variety of other forms and contexts for example.

2. Paul goes on to challenge the politicians with a range of questions at the policy and strategic level, imploring them to reveal their position on a whole range of issues such as life-long learning, digital content, and broadband access - all of which require support from the highest level if we are to succeed in offering world class digital learning pathways and opportunities for all of our citizens.

Thanks Paul for your provocative entry - let's hope we see some response!

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