Derek’s Blog

I’ve just been playing with the latest version of the HTC Android phone and thinking about how devices like this, (incl. the iPhone and iPad etc) are changing our ideas of how we might interface with such devices. The age of touch typing is certainly coming to an end it would seem – especially when I view the video above which provides an introduction to “Swype“, an application which, when installed, provides a radically different approach to text input on screen! Instead of having to touch each key in turn, Swype allows you to simply trace your finger across the keys.  A key advantage to Swype is that there is no need to be very accurate, enabling very rapid text entry.

In the illustration above, the word “quick” was generated from tracing the path shown above in a fraction of a second, by roughly aiming to pass through the letters of the word.

I’ll certainly be interested to see how accurately this works when the product is actually launched – and I’ll be interested to see how it is used by school-aged youngsters. Could this actually change the way we write?

I had the privilege of being invited to share some ideas on how ICTs can be used to support public speaking to a gathering of members of the local branch of the National Speakers Association of NZ this evening. It was a pretty daunting task, presenting to a group of people, many of whom make their living from speaking, and all of whom are committed to improving how they speak professionally.

After sharing some thoughts I have about how to use slideshow tools such as powerpoint, keynote and impress to best effect, I used a LiveBinders ‘binder’ to introduce a range of online tools that can be used to support effective presentations, and to help share those presentations with others after you’ve spoken. It was the first time I’ve used LiveBinders in a public speaking situation, and I was very impressed! The binder I used is embedded in this post – and from my presentations tab on this blog. Or you can link to it directly here.

Bill Gates has made the news with another of his predictions – that the idea of young adults having to go to universities in order to get an education is going to go away relatively soon, according to an address he gave recently at the Techonomy conference in Lake Tahoe. Gates claims that “Five years from now on the web for free you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world.”

He’s not the first to say this, of course. I can recall the Australian academic Dale Spender was making similar predictions (although with a longer time-frame at that stage). Back in 1997, a year after she’d published her book “Nattering on the Net“, she visited Christchurch and spoke to the staff and management at the University of Canterbury, exhorting them to consider investing in online learning instead of the major building programme they had planned. But her advice was ignored, and a year later the construction crews were busy with slabs of concrete and glass, and, like most other tertiary institutions in NZ, the university is still ‘tinkering’ with online learning on the periphery of their ‘real business’.

At the heart of what Gates, Spender and others are saying are some key drivers that simply aren’t going away:

• the cost of attending a place-based institution is rising and becoming prohibitive for many
• the advantage of learning ‘on-the-job’ is increasingly attractive – both in terms of providing an income while studying, and in terms of the direct application (and creation) of knowledge in an authentic context
• the resources associated with learning are increasingly available from anywhere, at any time and on any device – location is less important – but good teachers who can provide instructional coherence are!
• specialist knowledge and the community of learners with a common interest in specialised areas of study can now be connected virtually – they are less likely to be located in one specific place.

This is not to say that physical places of study will disappear altogether necessarily (although some will) – but we need to be thinking about the activity of those institutions as being less place-based, and more virtual. We must seriously consider the notion of the edgeless university – both in practice and in policy.

Which brings me to my key thought – why is it that so many of our institutions in NZ are finding it difficult to move into the era of virtual learning? Obvious things come to mind, including;

• a fundamental lack of belief and vision
• academic latency
• institutional tradition and pride
• etc.

None of these are show stoppers, and are all within the locus of control of the institution – and can therefore be changed if there is the will. But when I speak to many academic staff and institutional leaders, I find a bigger issue, something outside of the direct control of the institution – POLICY.

In 2002 I led a research project involving four tertiary institutions working in an online world to explore how improvements could be made to the quality of teaching in these institutions. Despite the very best efforts of those involved, and some excellent insights, the impetus of the study was continually subverted by the pressures of staff performance on the PBRF – in other words, national policy (and thus funding) prioritised research endeavour over teaching.

I spoke recently to the council member of a university who is personally very committed to the potential of online learning and the sort of future that Gates and others are promoting. He was concerned that while his university are considering increased investment in online learning, the policy drivers at a national level favour investment in buildings and facilities.

My point – it’s all very well talking about these exciting futures and visions of what our education organisations may become – but unless our national policies support such endeavour we’re committed to more of the same. Meanwhile our NZ tertiary institutions will continue to lose NZ students to overseas universities that have already entered this new world of virtual and online learning, and have developed programmes with the flexibility, support and structures that appeal to 21st Century learners.

I liked this diagram so much I thought I’d re-post it. Would make a useful classroom or staff PD resource to stimulate discussion about the internet and its role in society.
(the original can be found here.

Via: Medical Coding Certification

In my recent discussions around CORE’s ten trends in schools a common issue that is raised is how the ways we interface with computers is changing, and the implications of this for the ways we think about computer use in classrooms. The assumption that ‘touch typing‘ is a core skill to be learned for the computer age is fast being challenged as we see the developments in a variety of interface technologies, not least, the interaction through touch  that we’re seeing in devices such as the Android phones, iPhone and iPad, and through gesture with devices such as the Wii or Xbox360.

While these interfaces rely on  movement, another theme that comes up often is the use of voice – both as a means of controlling the technology, and as something that the technology itself can process, as in the case of translation from one language to another. The video above illustrates this to good effect, showing the use of smart phones as translation devices being used by soldiers in Afghanistan. It’s part of a trial of  three different systems for in-the-field spoken language translation for English speakers that may not know the common language of a country they visit being carried out by DARPA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Now, imagine the application of this technology in language learning situations – what might this mean for the future of language learning – or simply for the ways we might accommodate speakers of languages other than English in our (NZ) classrooms? Consider also the implications for our curriculum and the ways we might be preparing students for a future-focussed world in a global economy,  affecting travel, trade etc.?

This morning I attended the Ministry of Education’s Learning Without Limits seminar in Christchurch. Around 100 principals, teachers, BOT members and other interested parties came to hear Douglas Harre and Marg McLeod from the Ministry of Education share an update on the progress being made towards the government’s plan for ultra-fast broadband in schools. The basis of the vision is:

• 97% NZ schools (99.7% of students) will have access to UFB (100megabits/second) by 2016
• 3% remote schools will have access to fast broadband (10Mbps) by other means eg.satellite or point-to-point wireless
• Crown Fibre Holdings (CFH) and Local Fibre Companies (LFCs) are connecting urban schools, MED and rural broadband providers are connecting rural schools.
• $150 million investment signalled to prepare schools for the rollout
• $1.5 billion investment overall

A key part of what the Ministry of Education is doing is through the Schools Network Upgrade Project (SNUP) which aims to make schools fibre ready over six years. Key points about the SNUP programme are:

• Provides subsidised upgrades to internal data and electrical cabling infrastructure
• 473 schools have been upgraded since 2006 ($18m)
• 100 more schools underway ($22m)
• 80 % costs for state /68% for state integrated funded by MoE
• Further 239 announced by Minister to start in Sept/Oct ($48m)
• By end of 2011 approx 1/3 of schools will have been upgraded

The presentation also canvased activity in the area of laptops for teachers, capability building and resource provision before providing an update on the development of the proposal for a National Education Network (NEN) across the country. Not a lot of detail on this as it seems that there’s still a lot to sort out – but the NEN trial is currently going ahead with an extended trial of up to 200 schools until June 2011.

All in all a useful meeting – the first of a series that will be held throughout New Zealand. I’m a fan of open information sharing, and the more we can have of this sort of thing the better – providing an opportunity for people hear details directly from those working in the area, and also to have the opportunity to ask questions and seek clarifications in an open forum.

I was invited to present some ideas to the Education Policy Forum in Christchurch yesterday – hosted by the National Party, and attended by Education Minister, Anne Tolley and several members of the government’s education select committee – along with a range of people from across the education spectrum. It was an interesting day, with a focus in the morning on teacher education, and in the afternoon on the use of ICT in education. (My presentation on this is included above.)

Both sessions consisted of presentations made by invited guests, with discussion following among the wider audience. As anticipated, the issues resulted in lots of vigorous discussion and debate – from which it is hoped the members of the select committee will be able to distill some thoughts to inform the policy process.

I found the discussion on teacher education really interesting. With a background as a teacher educator, I have an understanding of most of  the issues – but found the lack of agreement on what the issues are, and the debate around some of the fundamental understandings of what teacher education is or should be confirming that not a lot has changed in the years I was involved.

Four points of view emerged – Kevin Knight, director at the NZ Graduate School of Education, began things with a well researched and coherent view of the history of approaches to teacher education, putting the case for the particular approach embraced by his organisation, a competency-based approach that focuses on training teachers to enter the classroom fully equipped to manage their class from day one on the job. This approach was reinforced by Ashley Bras, a year two teacher from Burnside High School who was trained through that process. In response senior staff from the University of Canterbury’s teacher education area argued for the importance of research, and the preparation of teachers as researchers and reflective practitioners. Tony Gilliland, a secondary principal from Hokitika offered a third perspective, arguing from his position as the principal of a rural secondary school, where access to professional support for young teachers is more difficult, for more funding and support for schools internally to do this task – both for pre-service teachers in training, and for young teachers in their first and second years of teaching. Tony’s view is that teachers are born, not made, and that the biggest issue is at the time of appointment in being able to recruit and select high quality candidates for positions.

Not a lot was resolved on the day (and not intended to be either I imagine), however, it was easy to see that this topic is one that desperately needs a lot more debate and discussion within this area – something that I’m sure will continue to happen through the consultation process on the Ministry of Education’s discussion document created after receiving an independent report on how to attract, train and retain high quality teachers.

I attended the CORE Breakfast in Christchurch yesterday morning, and thoroughly enjoyed the presentation by Helen Cooper from the Ministry of Education and Simon Evans of CORE about two exciting sites.

While these sites have been around for a little while now, this was my first real tour of each of them, and I was impressed with how far they have come – and what the vision is for their future development! I was particularly impressed with the ‘learning journey’ feature of the Digitstore site, providing teachers with the ability to develop collections of resources that can then be made available to students.

Digistore is a repository for digital content that enables teachers to better select digital content to support their students. Resources are available from early childhood level through to senior secondary school level and include a vast range of digital resources including film clips, audio clips and documents. The site also features learning objectives, which are interactive items based around a learning skill or concept, covering a range of subjects, including Maths, Science and Languages.

Software for Learning is a catalogue of software, which informs and encourages teachers to use the software in the classroom. Each software features information about how to use the product in the classroom, as well as galleries, tutorials, and snapshots of how teachers are currently using it in New Zealand.

Simon and Helen used Livebinders for their presentation that can be found here.

Over the past week or so I’ve had the privilege of participating in a number of cluster meetings around the country – always so energizing to be among groups of teachers gathered to share their ideas, experiences and classroom successes!

For my part I’ve been sharing thoughts relating to possible futures we face, referencing the findings of the Horizon Report and CORE’s ten trends. Top of the list in these and other trends findings at the moment is the impact of mobile technologies on classroom teaching and learning.

Confirming the accuracy of these predictions, I keep coming across examples of where mobiles are already impacting on practice in the classroom. Just a few days after Apple released it’s iPad in NZ I was at the EastNet cluster where I met cluster coordinator, Belinda Johnston (pictured) who was recently returned from participating in the Apple Bus tour through schools in California. In her presentation to the group, Belinda explained how she’d embarked on the trip with the intention of focusing on the use of laptops in a 1-1 setting in classrooms. As a result of the tour, however, she has returned convinced about the future of mobile technologies! Belinda shared some compelling stories and illustrations from her trip to California to support her reasons for this change in direction, and is now the proud owner of an iPad, and is preparing the case for a suite of iPods in her school.

A couple of days later, just after I presented the ten trends at the Hamilton CORE breakfast,  I was in Te Aroha, visiting Stuart Armisted (pictured right) at Stanley Ave School. As a part of an extensive programme of school review and development at the school, Stuart and his staff have been exploring the potential uses of mobile phones – thanks to some generous support from Vodafone who have supplied a set of HTC Magic mobile phones running the Android operating system. Stuart is exploring the use of a range of Android Apps on the phones, and is also working closely with the developers of the school LMS, Ultranet, to enable teachers and students to interact directly via the mobile devices in the classroom.

We live in exciting times – and it’s very pleasing to see such examples of the adoption and use of new technologies that are based on sound pedagogical principals and the support of school curriculum – not simply as a result of “techno-lust”

I’ve been reading a report out from The Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership at Walden University titled Educators, Technology and 21st Century Skills: Dispelling Five Myths which was released by  during the International Society for Technology in Education annual conference and exposition (formerly known as NECC) in Denver.

The study involved a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. K–12 teachers, principals and assistant principals, and addresses five myths about technology use in education—particularly by teachers—and educators’ perceptions about the effects of technology use on student learning, behaviors and skills.

The key message of the survey findings is that teachers’ technology habits make a difference in their perceptions of student outcomes – reinforcing a strongly held belief of mine that teacher modelling is essential in terms of developing effective practices with ICT in education. We can’t simply introduce technologies and hope that the students will make good use of it, nor can we expect that programmes based on old transmissive pedagogies are sufficient, where teachers take the role of expert who imparts knowledge and instructs. Teacher use of the technology must be explicitly modelled – it must be a part of their everyday practice and discourse. Teachers have a vital role to play at the intersection of technology and 21st century expertise—modeling their confidence with technology, guiding young minds toward constructive educational purposes, and teaching students the tried and new skills for college and career readiness in a competitive world.

The five ‘myths’ that are explored in the report are:

• Myth 1 – Teachers who are newer to the profession and teachers who have greater access to technology are more likely to use technology frequently for instruction than other teachers.
• Myth 2 – Only high-achieving students benefit from using technology.
• Myth 3 – Given that students today are comfortable with technology, teachers’ use of technology is less important to student learning.
• Myth 4 - Teachers and administrators have shared understandings about classroom technology use and 21st Century skills.
• Myth 5 – Teachers feel well prepared by their initial teacher preparation programs to effectively incorporate technology into classroom instruction and to foster 21st century skills

Key findings of the report include:

• Teachers who use technology frequently report greater benefits to student learning, engagement and skills from technology than teachers who spend less time using technology to support learning.
• Teachers who completed their initial certification or licensure since 2000 do not believe their pre-service programs taught them how to teach 21st century skills or how to effectively incorporate technology into instruction.
• There is little association between a teacher’s years of experience and the frequency of technology use in the classroom.

PDF version of the report can be downloaded here.