Derek's Blog

Today I had the privilege of participating in the official launch of an exciting new company in New Zealand called NextSpace, founded as a partnership between Right Hemisphere and the NZ Ministry of Economic Development.. NextSpace is described as "a think tank, catalyst and mentoring organisation charged with facilitating the growth of 3D graphical communications technology software through education, demonstration and research."

The focus of the day was on the role that 3D graphics will have as a key content creation, communication and collaboration medium in the future. It was very exciting to see examples of 3D graphics technologies applied in a range of commercial contexts (not just for gaming!). Right Hemisphere presented work they are doing with Boeing, using 3D technologies to provide a complete set of manuals for those involved in the maintenance of the planes, while HIT Lab, another NZ company that has pioneered developments in this area, demonstrated some of their augmented reality products.

This is all ground-breaking stuff, and illustrated to me the challenge for schools and education in general that will come as a result of these developments. Much of what we heard from various speakers focused on key attributes of workers in these industries - not just those producing the 3D technologies, but those who are using the products as a part of their everyday work - like the Boeing maintenance engineers who no longer work from paper manuals. The importance of collaboration came through strongly from several speakers, as did the emerging role of mobile technologies. The conversations soon turned to 'how can we prepare our young people for a future where the use of 3D technologies such as this will form a major part of how they communicate ideas and collaborate with each other?'.

I had a speaking slot in the day to focus on this issue (my presentation is included at the end of this post). I started by focusing on the fact that our view of literacy must change - to incorporate these new ways of communicating and presenting ideas/content/information etc. I then focused on the role of schools, and in particular, the need for some serious support for the professional development of teachers in this area, before briefly referring to a collaboration between CORE Education, CWA-New Media and NextSpace that we are working on as a way of addressing this. A part of our plan is to put some of these powerful 3D modelling and construction tools in the hands of school students and let them explore, create and express themselves with them - and find out just how far these creative and uninhibited young people might be able to stretch things!

You can be sure we're going to see a lot more developing in this new dimension!

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There has been discussion for years about the fact that there's a lot more information on the Web than is accessed when we do a search using one of the common search engines such as Google. Experts consider that there may be up to 500 times the information available in the 'invisible web' than there is in the 'searchable web'.

One way of addressing this is to consider the federated search approach - the powerpoint above is my humble attempt to illustrate how this works from a couple of years ago.

Another way is to use specialised search engines that are designed to search the deep or invisible web - usually within a particular field or discipline. About a week ago I received a note from Amy Quinn from an oganisation called College Degree, alerting me to a wonderful list of 99 Resources to Research & Mine the Invisible Web. I've had a play with several of these now, and can imagine they'd be pretty useful in particular contexts. A number of them are examples of the repository-specific search engines that I refer to in my slide-show, while others are more subject specific and search multiple repositories.

In addition to the links to search engines, the list also contains examples of specific directories, catalogues and databases etc, and has a useful section on social media also. It's worth scrolling right to the bottom for some articles and guides about the 'deep' or 'invisible' web.

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I've just been reading the latest of the Knowledge Maps series from InfoDev, titled KnowledgeMaps: ICT in Education - the objective of the work being to create a "Knowledge Map" of what is known - and what isn't - about information and communication technology (ICT) use in education. The report makes for sobering reading - and should be of interest to anyone with a research interest in this area, for there are many pointers here to areas that would make for a worthwhile research focus.

The report provides a summary of "what is known" in ten topics that are then grouped into four themes. In the area relating to what is known about the impact of ICT in education the following summary is made:

• The impact of ICT use on learning outcomes is unclear, and open to much debate.
  
• There is an absence of widely accepted standard methodologies and indicators to assess impact of ICTs in education.
  
• There is a disconnect between the rationales most often put forward to advance the use of ICTs in education (to introduce new teaching and learning practices and to foster 21st century thinking and learning skills) and their actual implementation (predominantly for use in computer literacy and dissemination of learning materials).
  

The report writers go on to say that the review of the research on impacts of ICTs on student achievement yields few conclusive statements, pro or contra, about the use of ICTs in education. For every study that cites significant positive impact, another study finds little or no such positive impact. The writers also point out that many studies that find positive impacts of ICTs on student learning rely (to an often uncomfortable degree) on self-reporting (which may be open to a variety of positive biases).

As the footnote to each paper warns, the Knowledge Maps are not meant to be an exhaustive catalog of every- thing that is known (or has been debated) about the use of ICTs in education in a particular topic; rather, taken together they are an attempt to summarize and give shape to a very large body of knowledge and to highlight certain issues in a format quickly accessible to busy policymakers. They are intended to serve as quick snapshots of what the research literature reveals in a number of key areas and are not meant to be an exhaustive catalog of everything that is known (or has been debated) about the use of ICTs in education in a particular topic.

Read with this in mind this compilation of papers will benefit anyone getting into the field of research about the use of ICTs in education, or anyone who is involved in the formulation of policy at a local or national level.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Thanks to Clarence Fisher's Twitter message, I've been introduced to Phun, a 2-D physics modelling application. Still in Beta form, this freely downloadable application has been created by Swedish computer science student Emil Ernerfeldt for his Master of Science Thesis.

Currently available for Windows and Linux (with a Mac version in development), Phun is intended to be a playground where people can be creative. It can also be used as an educational tool to learn about physics concepts such as restitution and friction.

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Still mesmerised by by my two new grandsons, and thinking more about their future, I've been interested to read the discussion stimulated by Will Richardson in his post, "What do we know about our kids future? Really?" He ponders his response to a question he was asked;

"Even though we can't be certain about what the future looks like in terms of preparing our kids for it, what, generally speaking, do we know? What general characteristics can we assume in terms of rethinking our curriculum and our practice?"

He begins a list of the sorts of things he thinks our kids' futures will require them to be. The list complements nicely the sorts of things I listed in my previous post, and points to a more holistic view of the competencies and capabilities that we envisage will be required, rather than narrow sets of skills or knowledge.

Will's post has prompted a number of responses, each adding more ideas to the list. included is a response from Mike Maloy that points to the 2020 vision of the Brighton Central School District in Rochester, New York which lists a number of interesting documents and video clips to illustrate what they see as important for our kids in the future.

As a result, Miguel Guhlin has started a wiki listing the skills students' futures require them to have that are emerging from these discussions, and Rodd Lucier has started a wiki of 21st Century Skills for Educators and another for students in his Let's Ban Chalk series which list particular skills he sees emerging from these discussions.

It's great to see these discussions going on, and more particularly, to note the common ideas and directions that are emerging - about learning to learn, culturally aware, a focus on inter and intra personal skills, and the need for a broad spectrum of literacies. This is particularly encouraging as it parallels the nearly two and a half years of a 'co-constructivist' approach to developing the current curriculum that has recently been launched here in New Zealand.

My hope is that now we can find ways, at a systemic level, of turning this talk and visioning into action! In addition to these lists what we now need is an exchange of ideas that will allow these ideas to be put into practice, taking into account a system that still has a strangle-hold on things like assessment practices, timetables, compulsory attendance, classes defined by age and room size etc etc. Unless we challenge (and change) these characteristics of the system itself we have little hope of fully realising the competencies that are emerging in these lists and discussions because the system itself is not designed to accommodate them.

Just to add another perspective, Bill Farren, a technology integration facilitator in the Dominican Republic, has created a response to Karl Fisch's Did you know? slides that I included in my last post. Farren explores the future of the current paradigm of competition, productivity and economic growth, and asks, should people support the economy, or should the economy support people? Definitely worth a look:

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Welcome to the world Ari and Flyn, twins born on Saturday 16 February at Wellington Public Hospital. These are my first grandchildren, and I was privileged to be able to be present within an hour of the birth to share in the delight of these two young lives as they adjusted to life outside the womb. My wife and three of our other children were also there - together with our daughter and her husband, the proud parents. It was one of those moments packed with emotions of all kinds, from the sheer exhaustion of the labour to the wonderings about what the world will be like for these two boys.

I did my own reflecting on the Monday following when I presented a keynote to the Western Bays cluster in Auckland. The topic was "Visioning The Future of Schooling", and as I prepared for it i couldn't help but think of the future time-line for Ari and Flynn:

2008 - born
2013 - start primary school
2021 - start secondary school
2023 - first year NCEA
2026 - leave school... further study?? employment??

It's sobering to realise that the future isn't that far away when you think of it like that. I remember at the turn of this century reading reports surmising the future in 2020, and what we need to be thinking of and doing in our schools to prepare students for that future - it all seemed such a long way ahead then!

Well, this is the very future Ari and Flynn will be walking into when they hit our secondary schools - so what progress are we making in achieving these goals?

Mason Durie, one of the Secondary Futures Guardians comments:

"We seldom have the opportunity to think long term about the future, because we are all locked into the urgency of the day. For many of us, the most we can think about is tomorrow... If you look far enough into the future, it's possible that you might be able to anticipate the change and make the shift in direction before it is forced upon you."

The NZ Secondary Futures project began in 2002 as "a broad-ranging discussion with New Zealanders about how secondary schooling can make more students more successful 20 years from now" - by my estimation that'll be around the time Ari and Flynn are settling in to sit their first NCEA assessments. Somehow the future doesn't seem so far off! So what should I expect for them? I'd be pretty pleased if they demonstrated the following:

• Abounding in intellectual curiosity
  
• Confidently using ICT to access and provide information and to communicate with others
  
• Knowing when to lead, when to follow, and when and how to act independently.
  
• Able to listen actively, recognise different points of view, negotiate, and share ideas.
  
• Contributing appropriately as a group member, to make connections with others, and to create opportunities for others in the group.

(You may recognise these from the NZ Curriculum) All of this in a world characterised by change and uncertainty. One thing is certain - these boys are a part of the generation who will live their lives in the sort of world alluded to in the video below - our challenge as educators is, "what are we doing to prepare them for it?"

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

I've just been taking a look at PowerUp, a free, 3D virtual world launched a few days ago by IBM. The game is aimed at educating teenagers about alternative energy sources and environmental conservation. It's really quite engaging, and makes great use of a 3D games environment that merges the appeal of fantasy virtual worlds with the educational goal of building wind and watermills to save the world. Playing the game, students work together in teams to investigate the rich, 3D game environment and learn about the environmental disasters that threaten the game world and its inhabitants.

Players meet Expert Engineer characters and experience the great diversity of the field. Conversations with these experts and engaging interactive activities allow players to explore ways engineers design and build systems to harness renewable energy sources as alternatives to burning fossil fuels. Players take on the role of Engineers, working together designing and building energy solutions to save the world.

Despite the strong use of the gaming environment, Powerup has definitely been created with an educational intent - it comes with notes for parents and teachers, including a list of lesson plans, and also has a strong emphasis on internet safety. There is no requirement for users to input personal details that may let them be identified. In addition, PowerUp players use a phrase-based chat system to communicate with each other. There is no blank field into which another player can type a message and send it to the user, rather, throughout the game players can choose from a contextualized list of messages to send to other players. The list has been created by the game designers and includes only phrases that are necessary for cooperation and positive reinforcement between players.

Unfortunately for me it's only available for PC - no Mac version available (yet?). Take a look at the intro video below for more...

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Some of my work recently has been with groups of teachers and principals thinking about how they may plan for and design schools that prepare students for the future, so it was with interest that I read this publication titled Learning Technologies and Schools of the Future (pdf) published by the British Council for School Environments. The introduction sets the scene for considering the role of ICT as a part of the changing school environment:

ICT is increasingly described as the fifth utility, the point being that we pretty much cannot live, work or learn efficiently or comfortably without an ICT infrastructure. National expectations of the social role of schools are also changing; hot-housed in climate of concern about youth disaffection and family breakdown.

The publication provides a succinct and useful overview of the characteristics of the Net Gen (or GenY) and the social context for change that is impacting on education, before exploring what this all means for schools:

Discussions on the digital divide tend to be concerned with (home) access to broadband connectivity. However, if scientists are right and cognitive processes are influenced by regular creative engagement in the online environment, our schools need to address the quality of online provision they make. An aspect of tackling the digital divide will be to ensure that all young people gain access to and guidance on the use of more sophisticated tools.

and quotes the BECTA target for 2008 for all learners to have access to a
personalised online learning space with the potential to support e-portfolios.

The document addresses a range of ways in which schools might address these ICT issues, and canvases the role and use of VLEs, PLEs and Web2.0 technologies - as well as the impact of mobile technologies and changes in the very nature of the learning process itself (for which it provides a useful table that contrasts 20th Century Pedagogy with what it calls 21st Century ICT-enhanced pedagogy.)

For those familiar with what has been developing in this space over the past few years there's nothing particularly new in the document, but it does provide an excellent and very accessible "Big Picture" view of the issue that could usefully inform many school charters and curriculum plans.

Still on the topic of the Future of Schooling - I was also reading the question Elliot Maisie posted on his blog regarding the classroom of the future, in which he invited readers to describe what will the classroom of the future look like in 2008? The lengthy list of responses makes for some interesting reading. There's a worrying emphasis on describing the addition of a whole heap of technologies, with fewer descriptions of changes to pedagogical practice. Perhaps it's the sort of response the question invited, but it does concern me in many forums I've participated in that as soon as we begin asking about what the classroom of the future might be like we focus on the technologies that may be introduced, as if somehow these on their own are going to transform what happens. Reminds me of the introduction of video conferencing technologies into a number of NZ classrooms over recent years - in a number of contexts I've observed all that occurred was that the style and nature of teaching that was occuring in the face-to-face classrooms got transferred to the video conference environment. Further, video conferencing was regarded as the primary medium of instruction, rather than one of a mix of technologies that can be selected from to suit the pedagogical intent.

In his reply, Gregg Festa, Founding Director of the ADP Center for Teacher Preparation & Learning Technologies at Montclair State University, points to an article describing the development and use of some innovative learning spaces in his school district, and also points to a YouTube video that takes you for a tour through these spaces. While the classroom you are taken on a tour through is essentially another (rather barren) oblong box, in the commentary at least it reflects an attempt to address the diversity of teaching and learning activities that may occur within it, and the variety of technologies that may be selected from to enable that to occur.

Somehow I still think we need more fundamental discussions on the nature and purpose of schooling, its role in a 21st Century society and the needs of 21st Century learners before we get too heavily involved in imagining what the classroom of the future might look like. Perhaps the sorts of reflections and discussion that Sheryl has on her 21st Century Collaborative blog might be more useful in this regard?

In the meantime, the Learning Technologies and Schools of the Future publication will be useful in the hands of the many principals, BOTs and senior staff in schools who are wrestling with creating policies and curriculum statements that reflect the increasing use of ICTs in their school.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 8:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Seems that the whole idea of user-generated content is maturing both in terms of the quality of the content itself and the professional communities that are committing to developing and sharing it. Here's a good example from the scientific research community, called Scivee.

Scivee is an online science community where scientists can make their research known to their fellow peers as well as the general public. Scientists can create "pubcasts" which are online presentations that allow a scientist to combine their publication with media such as video, audio, images, and text to allow visitors to quickly grasp the key concepts of their publications, as well as an increased chance for citation. Scientists can also form communities around their research/projects/interests and can start discussions or plan events with their group.

This is more that simply a YouTube for science - the topics covered are serious indeed, and there's a wealth of extras available for each video or pubcast - including copies of tables/figures/diagrams referred to, supplementary materials and comprehensive reference lists. In addition, there are a number of communities emerging around the various specialist scientific fields of interest that you can join and search.

Thanks to Jane for this tip

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As if there aren't enough of these around already - but it's always fascinating to see where the new developments are. Lymabean has not yet been released, but you can watch an overview video of what appears to be a very pretty Flash-based interface.

The site has most of the features found on social networks today - profiles, friends, photos, videos, etc. and instant messaging is also built in and integrated with most of the features (drag and drop a photo into IM, for example). It's interesting to see the differences in usability with a Flash interface - although it's going to be a hard road for any new entrant of challenge the dominance of Facebook or Bebo and others that are already dominant in the market. Techcrunch observes that previous attempts to introduce a Flash based environment have not been successful.

Whether it does take off or not, the video clip is a great way of sharing understanding about what these social networking sites are all about and how they might be used - especially for anyone who doesn't already have an account :-)

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've just arrived home from a couple of days in Albany on the North Shore. Today I presented a keynote to the 120 teachers who were gathered at the North Shore Stadium for a two day conference to share their achievements in their journey as an ICT cluster over the past two years. My topic was ICT and the future of education, in which I endeavoured to provoke some thinking about education in the future, and education for the future, with an emphasis on how ICT might shape and enable what we do in each scenario. My slideshow is available below.

Something that impressed me at the conference was the level of participation on the part of the teachers present. During the two days there were a number of workshops run by teachers for teachers, covering a range of topics from podcasting to robotics. The teachers taking these workshops were sharing from the perspective of what they themselves had learned over the past two years. Their workshops were well prepared, engaging and very participatory. It demonstrated to me yet again the very positive impact of these ICT clusters on the development of professional learning communities among these groups of schools, growing within a climate of 'high trust' and with permission to 'make mistakes'.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)