The fifth and final visitor led presentation came from Cathie Howe (https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathiehowe) who spoke to us about her work as Professional Learning and Leadership Coordinator, NSW DEC, & Manager Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre http://www.macict.edu.au/ .
As we have come to expect from a Colloquium, we learned of another example of knowledge networking and digital innovation which is impacting on the skills of teachers throughout New South Wales. Cathie’s work is centred on meeting the needs of C21t learners by improving teaching and learning in the connected age. She shared this image to summarise this philosophy:
As with all of the colloquiums we have experienced, this presentation also revisited concepts from the first subject in our course (INF 530) such as future work skills which is the motivation behind MacICT.
(Institute for the Future, 2011)
Cathie’s presentation was delivered with enthusiasm and she was happy to digress in order to answer our questions. The fact that the colloquium continued beyond the allocated time slot was testimony that she had engaged our class with her material.
Despite Internet connectivity issues making themselves known in every session in a range of ways which were annoying rather than terminal, these sessions were a demonstration of the potential for anywhere, anytime learning which was different to the methodology of a flipped classroom or Khan Academy. The latter examples are more akin to sage on the stage teaching while our colloquiums have seen one or more presenters engage with people in real-time and through oral and text connectivity.
Plenty of food for thought in terms of applications to “classroom” teaching where the room has no walls!
Thanks are due to all the presenters for the semester. Thanks too to Julie for finding such a range of fascinating presenters to further our educational program.
References
Howe, C. [Host] (2015, September 24). Colloquium 5.
Institute for the Future. (2011). Future Work Skills 2020. Retrieved October 4, 2015, from Institute for the Future: http://www.iftf.org/futureworkskills/
Macquarie University; Department of Education, New South Wales. (n.d.). MacICT. Retrieved October 4, 2015, from MacICT Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre: http://www.macict.edu.au/
Flat connected learning incorporates aspects of Collaboration, Project based learning, Blended learning, Flipped learning, and Inquiry-based learning established within a framework based on a combination of Web 2.0, leadership, pedagogy and learning design (Lindsay, n.d.). In many ways, this sums up the reality of teaching and learning in an era of rapid technological development and pedagogical change.
It also encapsulates the five stage taxonomy of online, global learning:
Online interactions
Real encounters
Online learning
Community of practice
Learning collaboratives (Lindsay J., 2015)
According to Julie the norms of global collaboration begin with being prepared; depend on having a purpose; require the ability to paraphrase, perceive, and participate; entail a positive mindset and productive nature; and are based on the ability to detect the potential in situations (Lindsay J. , 2015).
Pedagogical change evolves from being able to approach learning design with a flexible attitude, engaging with professional learning in a progressive manner, and adopting the essential elements of conceptual change (Lindsay J., 2015).
In this scenario the teacher is viewed as an activator and the student as an active participant in the process, while the school provides the conduit, and the community is seen as a partner in learning (Lindsay J., 2015).
Once the technological requirements are in place, and teachers have knowledge of new ways of meaningful engagement through TPACK and SAMR, and the belief that such pedagogy is important, flat connections and global learning become realistic options for developing knowledge and wisdom (Lindsay J., 2015). Such an approach leads to cosmogogy: the study of learning through connection to the world through the digital technologies available today. In such a scenario the context lies in learning with, not about, and geo-location is irrelevant (Lindsay J., 2015).
This presentation was a great introduction to the peer presentations relating to selected chapters of Wang’s extensive tome (Wang, 2014). These expositions demonstrated a potential for school adaptation where senior secondary students could lighten the load for each other in collaboratively summarising text. It certainly was of benefit to our cohort in this subject.
Three colloquiums, three very different ways of doing business – and all of them useful and thought provoking.
References
Lindsay, J. [. (2015, August 6). Colloquium 3: Flat Classrooms.
Personal development of instructional design for my students:
As our students are equipped with devices whole new ways of learning open up to us. Over the last few years I have exposed my students to PLN construction through offering lunchtime introductions to Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as using these tools, Facebook, and access to learning materials in online spaces.
In our region Internet provision is patchy and until recently I have used this as an excuse not to develop too much online material. Aaron Sams in:
Bergman, J. & Sams, A (2012) Flipped learning founders set the record straight in T.H.E. Journal. from: http://thejournal.com/articles/2012/06/20/flipped-learning-founders-q-and-a.aspx , offers a range of easy to provide solutions to the issue of Internet access: provide the content on a flash drive, CD or DVD for example.
For a number of years, I have experimented in a somewhat ad hoc manner with flipping my classroom using a class wiki and exporting lessons from my interactive whiteboard software and adding links to other materials. In the last two years, as senior students in my History Revolutions class have had access to devices I have given them blogging as a means of accessing and reflecting on material.
In the last 12 months, in addition to student technology, there have been a number of improvements to Microsoft Office products that have sped up the process of adoption. The most impact has been achieved with the collaborative OneNote app, which, as a Microsoft school, allows me to seamlessly add my students to a class notebook. In image 1 below you can see the different sections, and part of the name of my first student, with the rest of the class along the top in alphabetical order. The notebook offers me a space to create their “textbook” type materials, (teacher notebook) and each one of them gets their own “exercise book” for working in (you can see Harry’s tab), and we all get access to a collaborative space where I can set up work for them to do together.
In the collaborative space you can see who has added or altered which contribution by the colour-coding, and the student’s initials which automatically appear.
The options within a collaborative OneNote notebook
Collaborative space
Sharepoint home page for History Revolutions
Using Sharepoint I have been able to set up a Mosaic Live Tiles page (which still requires work) that is like a website but is only accessible within the school. This gives me the option of collecting any video clips I make and add to YouTube; any photographs that I have taken, and podcasts I create. This is a space that I am still conquering but which will allow seamless collection of data for student access.
Office Mix, an add-on for PowerPoint, which I investigated as an option for my artefact: http://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/msimkin/2015/04/28/artefact-design/, will be very useful for converting my interactive whiteboard flip-chart exports from previous years into film to support students through the subject timeline.
The learning from INF532 has pushed me to develop a greater range of supporting materials to assist my students to master their material. Referring to the table below I can now see a holistic and valid reason for using as many combinations of the different types of learning models in order to assist all learners and learning styles.
As with all learning, the critical process is the designing the materials which will support students to develop their understanding. http://www.instructionaldesign.org/ is a very useful resource which collates all the theories, concepts and learning domains into a series of hyperlinked definitions and gives a ready reference to understanding the processes involved. http://www.slideshare.net/MikeKunkle/basic-instructional-design-principles-a-primer Adds some simple summaries which are of use as a quick reference.
Another easy to apply process is the ADDIE model (ADDIE Model, n.d.)
Instructional design supports the processes promoted to us at our school, such as Grift and Major’s Teachers as the Architects of Learning (Grift & Major, 2013).
The critical issue now is having the time to complete resource creation – a common complaint of teachers everywhere.
Grift, G., & Major, C. (2013). Teachers As Architects Of Learning: Twelve Considerations For Constructing A Successful Learning Experience. Moorabbin: Hawker Brownlow Education.
Module 6: Curriculum and learning design in a connected world.
The title for this post comes from Julie Lindsay’s blog and her follow up comments in another post. It was, therefore, imperative to find out what fishbowl technique actually is, and whether the concept might be useful for C21st educators to apply to their real or virtual learning experience design.
There is definitely a place for such a tactic in student-focused classrooms and also for adult participation in professional learning experiences. Designers of meaningful lessons based on Mystery Skype or Skype and author use a similar technique – allocating roles to participants to enable the process to unfold smoothly for the connected groups, and sharing the workload in a collaborative fashion. Fishbowl structure presents domination of any one individual during a debate or discussion.
The spelling in the title of this post is based on a pun of Julie’s during the development of her post when she believed that Karl Fisch was the creator of the technique. Knowledge networking resulted from this mistaken belief, with Karl participating in the online debate about the technique – and other connected learning experiences.
Theory and practice of connectivism in flat, global classrooms, are clearly dealt with real-world examples of different types of activities referenced. At about the 7-minute mark, Julie uses a new word: GLOCALISATION to sum up the type of knowledge networking involved. Cultural sensitivities must be considered when engaging with classes overseas.
At about the 10-minute mark, Julie comments that going global is a mindset, not a plane ticket.
Google I/O 2013 – Building an Online Education Platform using Google Technologies:
This video shows the range of considerations and developments Google has been working on to enable blended or flipped classrooms. The basis for driving this agenda come from the belief that the art of lecture is lost – we now have the ability to go back; lots of things about a book are better than a lecture; video production for supporting learning allow the luxury of rewinding and replaying until the process demonstrated or information presented is fully understood.
Jen Jonson explains what makes learning blended:
These terms are considered further in my next post.
Margaret Simkin 