Derek's Blog

Every so often I read a book that becomes a 'benchmark' for my thinking. One of these was in 1999 when I read Don Tapscott's "Growing Up Digital" - elements of which I've referred to frequently in the work I've done since then. No surprise then that Don's latest book, Wikinomics, has had a similar effect. Wikinomics has had phenomenal success at the bookstore, with reviews in every corner of cyberspace. It captures the essence of what it means, and will mean, to live in the so-called Web2.0 world, and provides a clear vision of the sorts of behaviours and thinking that will be required to succeed in this world - in business, in education.. in life.

It was with great interest then that I sat back this afternoon and viewed the clip I've embedded above - of Don Tapscott discussing his book, "Wikinomics," in conversation with Google CEO Eric Schmidt. It's a full 50 minutes long, but worth taking the time to view. In the clip Don traverses the key themes of his book, and also responds to questions from the audience, many of which mirror the sorts of things that most viewers might want to ask.

Here's a collection of some of my notes from the clip - key points and messages that I'm sure will become the focus of discussions in the future...

• reference made to the looming 'perfect storm' - a convergence of four forces:
  1. Technology
     
  2. Demographics
     
  3. Social
     
  4. Economic
• Web2.0 is at the centre of the Technology 'storm' - where the object of interest is changing; from the desktop to smart, communicating devices, from HTML to XML, and from consuming to participation.
  
• "Success in the old paradigm becomes intertia in the new one" - a great quote when considering why current leadership practices may not be preparing us for the future!
  
• "Vested interests fight against change" - quotes the example of the music industry facing the issue of music downloads through social networks. Tapscott challenges them to think of music as a service rather than a product.
  
• Quote from Peter Senge - The person at the top can't learn for the organisation anymore" - a characteristic of Wikinomics will be the "Learning Organsiation" proposed by Senge some years ago now
  
• "Leaders of old paradigms have great difficulty coping with the new" - noting that the old fashioned "iconic" models that typify the "broadcast" approach to leadership are being replaced by those who are truly networked and participatory.

There's also a really useful discussion at the end of the interview that focuses on education. The original question focused on universities, but Tapscott generalises to the whole education sector, saying "The model of pedagogy needs to change to address the needs of a generation who have grown up participating, not just being broadcast to". He refers to the issue of user-generated content, and a range of other ideas that are entirely consistent with what I have been working with in the work I do over the past few years.

While at first glance this book appears aimed at the business sector, the key messages and principles it explores make it a "must read" for anyone in the education sector who has the slightest interest in understanding the environment that our schools are now operating in - and perhaps to understand why for many of our young people they simply aren't working any more! If you can't get hold of the book, then this clip (above) is certainly a good starting point!

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

A collection of thoughts and notes from the final day of the ePortfolio conference in Wellington...

Evangeline Stefanakis

Evangeline gave the morning keynote(pictured above) titled Digital Portfolios as a Window into the Learner's Mind - using themes from her book of the same name. some key messages..

• we need to be thinking of a socio-cultural framework that moves awayh from the 'test' as the primary means of determining ability and achievement
  
• need to think of assessment (from French - asseyes-vous) as the act of 'sitting alongside' the learner
  
• purposes of assessment are to (a)improve student learning, and (b)improve teacher's teaching. Both require reflection
  
• need to understand just what intelligence is- and then seek to explore ways of how we can assess/evaluate/celebrate it. Reference here to Howard Gardner's definition of intelligence that involves three characteristics:
  1. the ability to solve problems
     
  2. the ability to find and create problems
     
  3. the ability to offer a product or service that is valued in at least one culture
• reference made to "Schools as Sorters" by Paul Chapman in which he reviews 100 years of testing using the Lewis Terman Intelligence testing model

A fascinating speaker - with a great deal of depth of understanding about the nature of learning, learners and the directions we need to be pursuing in terms of personalising learning.

Mark Nichols

Mark also spoke ion the morning providing an excellent backgrounder to the development of Mahara, the NZ developed open source ePortfolio tool. This sparked a lot of discussion throughout the day as delegates debated the usefulness or otherwise of such a tool, and how this might best be integrated into the 'learning landscape' of the future.

Donald Clark

Donald is CEO of REANNZ, the organisation responsible for the operation of the KAREN network, and his talk, entitled ePortfolios enabled by KAREN.

Donald referred to the visit to New Zealand in 2003 by Rita Caldwell, the then head of the National Science Foundation in the US. She challenged the NZ government at that time by pointing out that all the countries that NZ works with have an advanced network, and how do we (NZ) expect to work with them in the future without one? According to Donald, this was the catalyst for government action that has led to the establishment (nearly four years later!) of KAREN.

Donald did a pretty good job of explaining why it is that we need to focus on issues of connectivity and interoperability when thinking about individual's use of the web, suggesting that a federated view of access to existing tools may be a better option than putting our efforts into a single portfolio application.

All in all a very thought provoking conference of a 'boutique' size. Great to see a good number of delegates from the school sector there, along with the usual suspects from the academic halls of the universities.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 6:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I attended a meeting in Wellington yesterday morning with members of the various councils around the region who are looking at combining efforts to get a fibre network throughout the greater Wellington area. One of the members had just returned from the Netherlands where an official there had told him "when we talk of broadband now we're thinking of 100Mbs as the minimum" (thinks me who struggles to get over 1.5Mbs on a good night on my Telecom 'all you can eat' plan!)

All this enthusing about broadband and how it might benefit NZ needs careful planning and thinking about, however. The majority of people I speak with about this at the potential user end of things (teachers, principals etc) still see an advanced network as being simply faster internet - and a greater cost. At the political level too there is angst about how much investment will be required to sustain an advanced network in NZ.

So this morning I was interested to receive a note about the release of a New Cyberinfrastructure Vision Document from the National Science Foundation (NSF). It's a fairly lengthy read (1.8Mb PDF download), but a quick skim through this morning revealed some helpful insights as to why an advanced network is potentially so important for the science community. This from one section; "

Data, Data Analysis, and Visualization are vital for progress in the increasingly data-intensive realm of science and engineering research and education. Any cogent plan addressing cyberinfra-structure must address the phenomenal growth of data in all its various dimensions. Scientists and engineers are producing, accessing, analyzing, integrating, storing and retrieving massive amounts of data daily. Further, this is a trend that is expected to see significant growth in the very near future as advances in sensors and sensor networks, high-throughput technologies and instrumentation, automated data acquisition, computational modeling and simulation, and other methods and technologies materialize. The anticipated growth in both the production and repurposing of digital data raises complex issues not only of scale and heterogeneity, but also of stewardship, curation and long-term access. "

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm sitting listening to Helen Barrett give the keynote presentation at the ePortfolio Conference in Wellington. An excellent overview of ePortfolios, what they are (or might be), where they are and where we might be headed with them.

Helen began her talk with reference to a picture created by Alan Devine based on the poem about the blind men who described an elephant - with each "seeing" quite a different picture depending on what part of the elephant they were in contact with. Helen's point is that people see portfolios from their own point of reference, for instance, a medical school may use portfolios to support a high stakes assessment approach, while a primary school may focus on using portfolios to demonstrate growth over time.

The part of Helen's talk that I've found particularly interesting is her linking of eportfolio concepts and the use of social networking software (Web2.0), leading to her idea of an ePortfolio "Mash-up" - loose pieces loosely joined, and her diagram (below) to describe this:

I've pondered this idea ever since Helen posted it on her blog site, and find myself increasingly drawn to it. Helen argues that the Web2.0 provides an architecture of interaction, in turn allowing for a pedagogy of interaction (ePortfolio2.0). I'm sure there's a lot further thinking that will go into this concept - but when I consider how I see so many of these web2.0 tools being used I can see exactly what Helen is talking about. In my own experience, I use a range of web2.0 tools - Flickr for photos, GoogleDocs for documents, my blog for collections of ideas etc - all of which contain the artefacts of my personal and professional life and thinking. As Helen points out - I already have my portfolio - consisting of lots of pieces, loosely joined, each residing in its own system, and not all combined within a single system.

In light of this thinking, it will be interesting to see how the release of Mahara, the NZ-developed, open source ePortfolio tool, will be received later in this conference.

Heaps more to report on what Helen is sharing with us - but for more you can find Helen's presentationonline here as a 336Kb PDF download.

Helen's blog: http://www.electronicportfolios.com/blog/index.html

Helen's website: http://www.electronicportfolios.com/

Helen and Evangeline Stefanakis will be in Christchurch on Tuesday 20 March at CORE to present a breakfast session from 7.45am and Evangeline will be running a workshop at CORE from 9.15 to midday, and another workship at the University of Canterbury in the afternoon. There are still spaces in these sessions if you're interested in participating - simply phone the CORE office - 03 3796627

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Recently I've been reading what others are contributing to the general discussion on the idea of School2.0, and thought it might be worth noting here - as much to provide a reference point for my own purposes really.

Last year I blogged about the release of a project titled "School2.0" which I've referred back to on several occasions when engaged in thinking about the future of schooling etc. It's a brainstorming tool designed to help schools, districts and communities develop a common education vision for the future and to explore how that vision can be supported by technology.

There's also the School2.0 wiki which is an attempt to galvanise some thinking on the topic, and includes a School2.0 manifesto.

David Warlick focuses on the technology drivers for School2.0, and asks - is Web2.0 going to lead to School 2.0? and contributes a couple of useful diagrams that illustrate the difference between School1.0 and School2.0

Christopher Sessums has written a lengthy post in which he questions the use of the word 'school' as part of the reformist agenda at all, arguing that schools are associated with control and indoctrination as opposed to freedom and self-discovery.. Sessums states...

Schools, whether we like them or not, are deeply rooted in our cultures. School is a place where children go to acquire rational knowledge that allows them to function within society. They are places where individual identities are shaped; places where collective consciousness becomes assimilated.

The relationship between schools and society is also a focus of a post by Wesley Fryer who comments on a podcast interview Steve Hargadon had with John Seely Brown , noting Brown's statement that, "the social basis of learning is not understood at all by traditional educational structures." I liked the reference in this post about a "return to tinkering" as being important in our concept of School2.0!

Jeff Utecht maintains that it is pedagogy, not technology, that defines School2.0. His view is supported by Chris Lehman who argues that It's really not about the computers - it is the tradition of Dewey, born out of the idea that active, engaged, constructivist learning will lead to active, engaged students and people.

So -plenty to think about here, and no doubt others will be contributing to the debates and thinking as time goes on!

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Amid the enthusiastic talking up of Web2.0 (which I confess I've contributed to from time to time) I'm aware that we're very much in the formative stage of Web2.0 development, and that much of what we're told is based on personal anecdote or inferences based on the large numbers of people using these sites and applications.

It was of interest then that I came across a survey of Web 2.0 use by 1369 students, academics and others from this JISC funded SPIRE project.

The survey was carried out in October and November last year, and published just a few days ago. It's a veritable smorgasbord of graphs and diagrams that illustrate just how these tools and applications are being used. Among the findings that I found interesting were:

• The dominance of Wikipedia across all forms of Web2.0 applications, way ahead of MySpace, YouTube etc. This illustrates for me how Wikipedia is now regarded the world???s most important source of knowledge - in the online environment at least.
  
• Blogs also feature large - their use is analysed in a little more detail, with the results indicating that they really must be taken seriously in terms of how they are used to share knowledge.
  
• Surprising to me was the way in which calendaring came out as a key technology. Several calendaring applications were surveyed, and the use of each was very high, suggesting to me that, like my calendar, a lot of activity hangs off what is scheduled here. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised really.
  
• Communication tools also came out as high use across all age groups - the dominant player in this group being MSN Messenger - some way ahead of Skype and Google Talk. Interestingly, the Web2.0 technology that I've come to rely on - RSS - came out very low.
  
• In the institutional data category, institutional email, and institutional VLEs emerged as the dominant technologies (along with Wikipedia) Of interest to me was another favourite of mine, Flickr, which scored very low!

Well done David White and his team on the SPIRE project. These sorts of insights provide a very useful stake in the ground against which we can measure the sorts of tales that we hear from the enthusiasts and spin doctors. Of course, another survey in six months may tell a totally different story in the world of Web2.0!

A PDF version of the 10 page report summary can be downloaded here

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 8:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Amid all the discussion recently about the issues for schools of students using many of the Web2.0 tools available to them it was refreshing this morning to find this resource (courtesy of Bill St Arnaud) from UNESCO titled "Ethical Implications of Emerging Technologies" - A Survey.

It addresses the ethical implications of such things as identity management, web services, grids, semantic web, RFID and other emerging ICT technologies. One of the major underpinnings of these new technologies is the need for identity management systems. As this report points out there are some very significant and troubling ethical issues with respect to identity management systems in terms of privacy, security and access to public information.

It's a useful read for anyone interested in this issue - and even if you're not, it provides a really good introduction to what many of these technologies are, how they are used and what the implications might be on how we live and work in the future. It includes a summary and explanation of 27 "infoethics goals for neutral technologies" and a series of case studies that illustrate and explain many of these issues more clearly.

An excellent background document that should be of interest to everyone who has a stake in ensuring that the online environment is a 'safe' place for our students to participate in.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 9:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've finally decided to begin my own community in Ning, and have chosen the theme of Virtual Schooling which is an area that I've had a particular interest in since the early 1990s when I worked alongside the CANTAtech cluster. I'm impressed so far with Ning's features and usability - I've easily been able to include the RSS feed from Michael Barbour's Virtual High School Meanderings for instance.

Anyone with an interest in this area is welcome to share their thoughts and experiences! Please pass it on to others who may be interested.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've just listened to an interesting programme on Radio New Zealand's "Insight" programme titled "Business and Broadband". I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in the current situation regarding New Zealand's broadband connectivity.

Compared with other countries in the world, New Zealand is definitely behind the eight-ball in terms of the bandwidth available to us. This is exacerbated in rural areas where weather conditions, electric fences and simple geography make the issue of connectivity even more of a problem. As a result, the ability of New Zealand businesses to participate in what Thomas Friedman calls the 'flat world' is becoming increasingly limited.

There are some developments that provide a sense of light at the end of the tunnel, in particular, the development of urban fibre networks in several major centres supported by funding from the Broadband Challenge, and the development of the KAREN network, providing a !0Gb high speed backbone across the whole if New Zealand.

These and other issues and ideas are canvassed in the documentary which is available to download as a podcast from Radio New Zealand's website at http://www.radionz.co.nz/podcasts/insight.rss

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Just as one becomes familiar with blogs, wikis and podcasts, seems there's an emerging generation of Web2.0 applications appearing online, known as persistent presence tools. Examples of these are Twitter and Jaiku

To some extent these remind me of the message lines that you can customise on Skype or iChat - I use mine to acknowledge where I am at any particular time, knowing that the people who have me on their 'buddy list'

With these new programs you have the opportunity to maintain a constant flow of information about what you are doing that can be published to your 'buddies' on the web via a web browser or their mobile device. Like any new technology, there's a great deal of debate about the usefulness of these tools - are they just a gimmick or something that could genuinely contribute to our 'social presence' in the virtual world?

Kathy Sierra has written a lengthy blog entry titled "Is Twitter Too Good?", in which she compares these tools with the addictiveness of slot machines, and says

"Twitter is yet another--potentially more dramatic--contribution to the problems of always-on multi-tasking... you can't be Twittering (or emailing or chatting, of course) and simultaneously be in deep thought and/or a flow state."

I'm sure readers of this blog will form their own conclusions over the next few months - in the meantime, I've signed up and have my own profile with Twitter to see just how many of Suarez's ten points might apply to my work situation!

Update - my colleague Greg Carroll just alerted me to Wendy Boswell's post on LifeHacker which has suggestions and links to ideas of how Twitter might be used in a work context - and a comment suggesting its use in school for passing notes around class!

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Yesterday was World Math day, and to celebrate, students from more than 94 countries around the world participated in a massive online event aimed at setting a record of record of 10 million questions correctly answered! That record was set in just 17 hours!. My son sat at his computer to join the fun with just three and a half hours to go, and the total just passed the 35 million mark as he participated in his first challenge!

At some times in the challenge there have been over 10,000 students online competing at the same time! The Hall of Fame is a miscellany of countries from Portugal to Cyprus, Kazakhstan to Bermuda, the Mariana Islands to New Zealand! One young New Zealander (from Newlands Intermediate) was in 4th place when we looked.

While I wouldn't normally find this sort of "drill and practice" activity something to get too excited about, it was interesting to watch the reaction of my nine year old and his six year old sister as they participated in each challenge, where the challenge involved both speed and accuracy. My son, who has had a Mathletics account for just a couple of weeks, was really engaged at a number of levels;

• trying to better his previous effort,
  
• maintaining his accuracy score,
  
• competing against others in terms of accuracy and speed in each challenge,
  
• knowing he was contributing to the overall total of correct answers, and
  
• noting the countries that each of his challengers came from in each challenge

This may not have been the epitome of constructivist or inquiry-based learning, but it did reinforce for me that we ought not dismiss too quickly the motivation that comes for some students through some carefully constructed competition!

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's something that might be of interest to the teachers and principals who've been attending the TUANZ workshops, and who may be grappling with the sorts of issues raised in a couple of my recent posts....

Following in the vein of the work of Don Tapscott and, more recently, PEW Internet, comes this report from DEMOS titled "Their Space: Education for a digital generation." The report draws on qualitative research with children and polling of parents to counter the myths obscuring the true value of digital media.

Approaching technology from the perspective of children, it tells positive stories about how they use online space to build relationships and create original content. It argues that the skills children are developing through these activities, such as creativity, communication and collaboration, are those that will enable them to succeed in a globally networked, knowledge-driven economy.

Full report available as 304Kb pdf download.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 9:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The final session at the TUANZ event in CHCH yesterday was a panel discussion in which thoughts and points of view were shared about the challenges we face around the use of social networking software in schools. The general concensus was that "the party has started", and that we (as educators) need to decide whether we're going to join or not - not whether we can stop this happening.

This isn't as easy as it sounds, however, and discussion at the conference addressed a range of issues that arise, including cyber-bullying and cyber-ethics (including online plagurism, online cheating etc), with the view being that we must find a way of engaging with the students in our classes in ways that model and teach them how to use these technologies responsibly.

My friend Douglas Harre, who was on the panel, sent me a link to a post titled Under 18 Blogs, Wikis & Social Networks which provides some interesting insights along these lines. It reports on a panel discussion held at the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, which started with the challenge: "Young People Online are ... a constant mortal danger or fulfilling their inner potential?"

The panel focused on three questions:

1. What are young people getting out of their online lives?
   
2. What is reality when it comes to dangers for young people online?
   
3. What kinds of social, technological/design solutions are there once we identify experiences we want to facilitate and/or prevent?

The following extract for the report is something that I think is worth further discussion and pondering on. It comes from the introduction to the panel discussion by Danah Boyd who provided the context for the rest of the discussion...

[Danah] talked about how a hundred years ago 14 - 17 year olds participated in society and were mentored by adults. Then during the great depression the government instituted a policy of forcing 14 - 17 year olds to attend high school. She talked about how this began a process of creating a dynamic she called 'Age Segregation'. The concept behind this segregation being that society creates separate activities for teenagers. This however didn't change the fact that 14 - 17 year olds still yearn to participate and express themselves to society at large. The difference is that in the last few years they have begun doing it online. She pointed out 4 things that make this unique:

1. Persistence - The fact that comments, posts, social network pages don't go away
   
2. Searchability - The fact that anyone can find information about others easily. She commented that her mother would have loved to be able to easily search about her interactions, but when she was growing up this wasn't possible.
   
3. Replicability - The fact that you can easily replicate a conversation (such as IM) in many other places (such as a MySpace Page)
   
4. Invisible Audiences - The fact that you don't know who you're talking to.

It's also got me thinking about the value there is in promoting more of these panel-led, open forums at conferences and seminars, where we get the opportunity explore beyond the keynote presentation, and to delve deeper into the issues and concerns that have been exposed and exist among us.

Mmmm - off for more pondering....

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I called in on the TUANZ Bus Tour one day conference while it was in Christchurch today, and caught up with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach who is the keynote speaker on this leg of the journey. Although I only caught the tail end of the final session, it ws evident to me that the 100 or so attendees had spent the day exploring the 'new world' of Web2.0 and social software - many for the first time. There was quite a positive atmosphere - with evidence of many moving into the phase of looking for purposeful ways to incorporate these tools into their teaching and learning programmes.

It was useful then, to discover in my RSS feed tonight, a post from George Seimens announcing to the world that he and his colleagues at the Learning Technologies Centre, at the University of Manitoba, have put together a wiki of New Technologies for Teaching and Learning. George says...

If you're interested in blogs, wikis, aggregators, audio, video, flickr, web conferencing, and social book marking, these wiki pages are a good starting point. They've been put together with the intent of providing a quick overview of the technology...and basic uses in teaching/training/learning environments.

The notes are originally from a series of workshops that were run by the LTC, and each page is laid out with an overview of the session 'objectives' and a list of the page content etc. It's a great idea to see the pages presented as a wiki, as I can imagine others adding all sorts of relevant information that will see these pages develop into a really comprehensive guide.

There are a number of teachers and ICT facilitators here in New Zealand who were at the Learning@School conference earlier this year, or at the TUANZ seminar today who I can imagine would find these notes of enormous value as they take the things they've learned about these new technologies back to their own schools and colleagues. Thanks George!

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

When I was teaching I found the use of simulation activities among the most effective ways of engaging students in their learning. In those days I relied on activities that involved lots of paper, and instructions in envelopes etc. Nowadays you can find some really great simulation activities online - such as the simulation games created by World Vision , and available free for teachers and students.

There are five excellent activities listed on the WV simulation games page - I've registered and had a dabble with Eliminate - Child labour (experiencing life as a social worker with the goal to eliminate child labour in a community) , and with Frontline (Set in a conflict zone, teams face decisions that save lives and assist those impacted by conflict.)

I'm really impressed with the quality of these activities - both in terms of the way the activities themselves are devised and structured, and in terms of the interface. There's quite a bit of reading involved - but hey, in a classroom group situation that becomes part of the activitiy, reading together to decode the instructions etc. Those looking for a Play Station or X-Box experience will be disappointed - but let them. These simulations are engaging in different ways. They're especially useful for developing critical thinking, and exploring ideas and concepts at a deeper level than a superficial read of a magazine or text book article - especially when engaged in as a part of a classroom group activity. Like all good simulations - they're intended to teach not through the imparting of lots of information, but through the understandings developed through the process of participation, problem solving and decision making.

Well done World Vision for making these available for use on our classrooms - from the comments boxes on the web page it would appear that there are many people making good use of them and finding value in using them.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 4:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A new portal providing access to open content announced yesterday:

A new online resource gives teachers and students free access to more than 8,000 digital learning materials. Educators and students can add tags, ratings, reviews, and comments to help others quickly find what they're looking for. The site's mission is to provide a single point of access through which educators, students, and all other types of learners can search for, browse, evaluate, and discuss these free learning materials.

I'm all for this approach to resource development and sharing - reminds me a lot of the 2Learn portal that was developed in Alberta, Canada about six years ago now, and which I frequently refer to as a good example of a 'teachers for teachers" educational resources portal.

Open Education Resources (OER) Commons website http://www.oercommons.org/

News item courtesy of e-SchoolNews, 9 March 2007

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm getting ready to leave Malaysia tomorrow, which means I'll be back in NZ in time for the start of the TUANZ bus tour for 2007 when it comes to Christchurch next Wednesday. Last year I had the privilege of travelling with the tour - this year it's the turn of two international speakers to share the circuit, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Miguel Guhlin, both from the USA.

I've had a bit of communication with Cheryl as she's prepared for this event - wanting to know more about the NZ education environment so that she can bring the right sort of message. I've just had a read of her blog, and noticed a recent entry titled Connections- Networking in New Zealand in which she describes a pre-conference chat that she had with some NZ educators using Elluminate to talk about ICT implementation in New Zealand schools - more of which is reported on the TUANZ conference blog.

All this is very exciting, and bodes well for a good series of meetings around the country. I couldn't help thinking of just how much progress we've made in NZ over the past 6-7 years. Back when the ICT strategy was first released we had no idea of what blogs, wikis, web-casts etc were - and here we are immersed in this sort of technology as a part of our everyday work with students - as well as for our own professional learning.

I note on Cheryl's blog that my friend Rachel Jeffares introduced her to the NZEdublogs Wiki that contains links to a range of blogs and wikis that have been set up and are being used by students in NZ schools. This morning I was in a school here in Ipoh, Malaysia, with my colleague from CORE, Jedd Bartlett, ( who happens to be the one who set up the NZEdublogs Wiki) where, among other things, we were introducing a group of teachers to the concept of blogs, wikis and podcasts for the very first time - and Jedd referenced this Wiki. Small world - but one that is rapidly becoming more connected as individuals discover the power and potential of these tools for sharing, expressing ideas, being creative and communicating generally.

The focus of our morning's session with the Malaysian teachers was collaboration, with a focus on how we have so much to learn from each-other when we collaborate in an online environment. Cheryl's blog entry illustrates this idea for me very well.

I wish you well Cheryl, as you tour our country with your thoughts and experiences from the US!

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 5:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Interesting article in the New Straits Times here in Malaysia over the weekend titled Taking Formal Education Beyond Exams. IT features and interview with Datuk Dr Adi Badiozaman Tuah, the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate director in which he outlines his views on the need to review the focus of assessment in Malaysian schools. In the interview he states

"Current practices see us focusing only on the mental capabilities and cognitive domain of our children. We want to go beyond the paper and pencil tests and look at other domains to show the individual's progress and development"The director wants to create a new assessment system that will shift the emphasis from public school examinations to more regular school-based evaluation of students.

Having spent time here on a few visits now working in local schools I can understand why this reform is being considered. There is a high emphasis here on achievement in tests and exams, which creates a focus on 'covering what is in the curriculum', which itself becomes extremely prescriptive. As a result, there is little leeway for the development of creativity, innovation, critical thinking etc. - or for pursuing topics/themes or ideas that may emerge in the course of the day's study and interactions.

From the perspective of attempting to integrate ICTs into teaching and learning, this limits the opportunity to exploit the creative, expressive and communications potential of the technology and sees it become more of an electronic text book and marking device.

Of course, this is not just a problem in Malaysia - it's a perennial problem for educators the world over - wherever there is an empahsis on high stakes testing. Thus I am encouraged to see the Minister here announcing plans for a reform at a national level. Also encouraging to see a newspaper devote so much space to such an article - the full interview took up a two-page spread in the March 4 edition.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)