tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52561998208807433412024-02-07T22:56:10.507-06:00EdTech - InsightsA collection of insights on how technology impacts and assists the learning processAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.comBlogger245125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-74160229228512624692017-05-03T04:27:00.000-06:002017-05-04T03:11:19.163-06:00Webo-plasmosis - can you smell the cat's urine?<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thank you <b>Michael Caulfield</b> for another <a href="http://tinyletter.com/michaelcaulfield/letters/traces-by-mike-caulfield-3-this-week-in-webo-plasmosis" target="_blank">post in the Traces series</a>. The idea that the way we manage our social-media life is pliable and actually mould-able by the medium itself is compelling. Using a cat toxoplasma example, he warns that, just like the mice from that example who no longer smell the cat's urine, increasingly we no longer worry about the way we share details of our lives. </span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">This is his list to check whether you have </span>Webo-Plasmosis<span style="font-weight: normal;">:</span></h3>
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<i>"The hard truth of this matter is that you may not know you are infected. The world, in fact, is filled with humans affected by the related disease toxoplasmosis who don't realize it, even as they take on their 19th cat in a house reeking of urine. It's the same with webo-plasmosis: a sign of being infected is ceasing to realize you have been affected. Here's a partial list of symptoms:</i></div>
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<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" value="1"><i>Do you retweet headlines you agree with to help Facebook build a profile of you, while not reading the articles?</i></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Do you take pictures of your food, helpfully labelling your dietary habits, consumption patterns, and common meal ingredients?</i></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Have you become an email hoarder, never bulk deleting old email on fear "you might need it someday", thereby preserving the vast library of documents Google needs to model your affinities, desires, and personal secrets?</i></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>When something happens to you of note, do you feel compelled to log it on the web?</i></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Do you join Facebook groups that best express who you are?</i></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Do you use Amazon Alexa's much touted "Shopping List" feature to build a list of things you intend to buy locally, so that Amazon now has a list of things you buy locally?</i></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Do you wince at the thought of taking old tweets offline, because of all the "old memories" stored in tweets you haven't looked at for five years?</i></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Do you authenticate into third-party services using Twitter, Facebook, and Google identity so that they can better track your online behavior?</i></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Do you never use aliases or pseudonyms online, and are you convinced that this "transparency" somehow makes you a "more honest person"?</i></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Do you find yourself posting lists of bands you've seen, or asking friends to share "one memory they have about you"?"</i></li>
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You are infected with the virus if you do two or more of the above. Worrying...</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-52623755152724876672014-06-13T15:01:00.001-06:002014-06-13T15:04:48.380-06:00A new teaser for Google ClassroomGoogle has released a new teaser for <b>Google Classroom</b>.<br />
They announce a September start-date on their <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.in/2014/05/previewing-new-classroom.html" target="_blank">blog </a>and perhaps even a trial:<br />
<i>"By September, Classroom will be available to any school using Google Apps for Education. Since we want to make sure Classroom plays well with others, if you’re a developer or partner, <a href="https://docs.google.com/a/google.com/forms/d/1lHsBHFWQVB_UPlDlzxo8NFbuqNlFWhHzGtxESv1Csm4/viewform">sign up</a> to learn more about integrating with Classroom."</i><br />
Look up Google Classroom <a href="http://www.google.com/edu/classroom/" target="_blank">here</a>.<i> </i><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/K26iyyQMp_g?rel=0" width="640"></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-36709776662665678902014-05-30T12:46:00.000-06:002014-05-30T12:46:38.971-06:00Breaking the mould? Learning Spaces for the Future.The logic is that if you want to do something different, you need to change everything. Classrooms have been learning spaces which have not really changed very much over time, over a long time. The traditional rows of tables (desks) with the teacher at the front facilitates traditional teaching approaches. Many classrooms nowadays, however, are set out as clusters of tables, u-shaped spaces, and many other arrangements which allow greater collaboration amongst students - but has anything changed? Could a complete redesign of learning spaces encourage learning and teaching in very different ways?<br />
The Brazilian <a href="http://colegiomaterdei.net/">Colégio Mater Dei</a> has been experimenting with space in an effort to achieve a greater use of technology in learning and teaching. The <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/a-new-learning-environment-at-mater-dei.html" target="_blank">Official Google Blog</a> states it as:<br />
<i>In 2013, Mater Dei deployed Google Apps for Education as part of a move
to incorporate technology into the academic environment. After they
started to see early results, they came to Google with a plan: create a
space on campus that’s designed from the ground up to be a
technology-powered learning center for K-12 students. Last week, that
idea became a reality when Mater Dei launched what we’re now calling the
Google Learning Space.</i><br />
The photos show bean bags, foam stools and cushions and, frankly, really awkwardly sitting or lying students.<br />
I admire freshly thought out approaches to opening up learning and teaching with technology and recognise that to do this you have to break the mould. But how would it work in practice? Is this a permanent classroom space for a group or class? Would the school have many of these spaces for students to congregate, cooperate and learn in?<br />
What if we were starting from scratch, with the technology of the moment, what learning space would we have? Would we even bother having schools?<br />
<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-9578357262448615462014-05-08T14:07:00.003-06:002014-05-08T14:07:37.082-06:00Chromebooks becoming a real optionIt seems that many schools are opting for Chromebooks.<br />
We have been looking at this aspect from both educational and financial viewpoints. The financial one seems obvious - Chromebooks are extremely good value for money, almost tablet costs for much better than notebook operation.<br />
The functionality of Chromebooks has been the question in terms of their use in education. Given that much of what we do educationally is browser based, the issue of a Chromebook being "just" a browser is not so important. But Chromebooks have a filing system and can work with downloaded documents - hence work off-line from Google Drive or from the file system. So what is the problem?<br />
<ul>
<li>There is a legacy problem from equipment that works on Windows machines, including some laboratory and simulation software, video/audio editing programmes and the like. </li>
<li>Heavy spreadsheet work still seems to work better on Excel and despite the improvements, PowerPoint materials always have to be carefully reviewed when uploaded to Google Presentations. </li>
<li>We still have Windows 7 desktops as the drivers for digital projectors in classrooms and need to shift mentally and practically to Google Cast or other devices.</li>
<li>Our broadband connection - we are topping our dedicated 30 Megabits almost all of the time; how would we fare with the requirement to connect to the cloud? </li>
</ul>
However, we are reviewing the Chromebooks option very seriously at the moment. <br />
The latest announcements from Google about tracking Chromebooks in case they are stolen seems to tie up that advantage that i-Pads had. Here is a video describing the Guardian system:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/czdGDNFScvk?rel=0" width="640"></iframe><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-73436929119032916902014-05-06T17:54:00.001-06:002014-05-06T17:54:25.155-06:00Google Classroom coming to Google Apps for EducationGoogle announced today their new integration called Google Classroom.<br />
Those of us who struggled through own methods as well as third party ones to tie in the classroom experience will welcome this.<br />
Here is their explanation:<br />
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<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/JUiLc0If0CI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-61589113126358202532014-03-20T10:58:00.002-06:002014-03-20T10:58:12.209-06:00Puentedura's SAMR as a Framework towards Education 3.0Thank you <a href="https://twitter.com/jackiegerstein" target="_blank">Jackie Gerstein</a> for the idea of linking <a href="http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/" target="_blank">Puentedura</a>'s SAMR approach (implementing technology in teaching) to explaining the move towards Education 3.0.<br />
She produced <a href="http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/samr-as-a-framework-for-moving-towards-education-3-0/" target="_blank">an excellent infographic which nicely uses the Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition parts SAMR</a>.<br />
She links Substitution and Augmentation to Education 1.0, Modification to Education 2.0 and Redefinition to Education 3.0.<br />
This approach is a further attempt to explain the move beyond Education 2.0 and it is a very helpful approach that can be used in discussions. <br />
To enable this and doing a bit of re-purposing I have put her infographic into pages on a slideshow for those who prefer it this way.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="356" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/32544232" style="border-width: 1px 1px 0; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="427"> </iframe> <br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 5px;">
<b> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/GeorgeH/samr-as-a-framework-for-education-30" target="_blank" title="SAMR as a framework for Education 3.0">SAMR as a framework for Education 3.0</a> </b> from <b><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/GeorgeH" target="_blank">George Hobson</a></b> </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-26174353562162555032014-01-25T06:13:00.001-06:002014-01-25T06:17:54.778-06:00Rhizomes vs the establishment - #rhizo14Posted this originally on the Rhizomatic Learning Google+ community but wanted to keep <a href="https://twitter.com/bonstewart" target="_blank">Bonnie Stewart</a>'s <a href="http://theory.cribchronicles.com/2011/11/09/the-rhizomatic-learning-lens-what-rhizomes-are-good-for/" target="_blank">post here too</a>, so I can refer to it.<br />
She posted this two years ago during the #change11 MOOC and I wondered what has changed since then - the idea of independent, open, self directed learning in schools seems to be much more viable today than it did then. What has changed?<br />
Others are also tackling this issue, be it from the technology side (allowing students to bring in mobiles to school) say, or opening up education from the pedagogy side as in this <a href="http://youtu.be/k0fgtvbMT7k" target="_blank">TED talk from Jerry Michalski on "What if we trusted you?"</a> (Scarcity, abundance, trust - a little political but with some sound points).<br />
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So, what has changed?</div>
<div class="tG QF">
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<div class="tG QF">
The Rhizomatic Learning Google+ Community Post: </div>
<div class="Ct">
Thanks to Steve Wheeler (<a class="ot-anchor aaTEdf" href="https://twitter.com/timbuckteeth" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/timbuckteeth</a>) for reminding me of Bonnie's <a class="ot-hashtag aaTEdf" href="https://plus.google.com/s/%23change11" rel="nofollow">#change11</a> post on rhizomatic learning.<br />
This connected with me since the elements of our schools environment clash with the broader INDEPENDENT learning concepts.<br />
In her words:<br />
"We
conflate learning and schooling. We are subjects of the idea of
education as a system, an institution, and so we rely on and replicate
this idea in our conceptions of learning: we assume factors like goals
and grading and – increasingly – market viability as real parts of what
learning involves. They can be, of course. But they do not need to be
unless that learning is taking place within the contingencies of
mass-delivery and crowd control and normativizing of classed behaviours
and literacies that we absorbed with our school milk programs. These
practical components of systemic schooling processes are the base map or
lens on learning which we, culturally, have inherited."</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-2620721082111620852014-01-24T11:51:00.000-06:002014-01-24T15:01:31.979-06:00Enforcing independence at a country level - #rhizo14Have just heard <a href="https://twitter.com/mbrechner/" target="_blank">Miguel Brechner</a> talk on Uruguay's <a href="http://www.ceibal.edu.uy/" target="_blank">Ceibal </a>project, at one of the Leadership seminars at the <a href="http://www.bettshow.com/" target="_blank">BETT (technology) show in London</a>.<br />
Uruguay introduced the one laptop per child project for a specific purpose - <b>equity</b>. They saw the huge gap in access to technology between the wealthy and the rest, and decided that every school child should have a laptop. How they introduced it, the distribution problems, the costs, their perceived benefits, etc, are very interesting topics, but I want to concentrate on the unintended leap forward that occurred. <br />
In one sweep they provided all students with the power to access their own learning. They didn't quite <i>force</i> or <i>enforce</i> independence, but, Miguel judges that around 80% of students use the laptop directly for learning, often learning independently. Despite the best efforts of training teachers in the laptop and the apps involved (including teaching English using tutors in the Philippines and many other countries), most students got to be much more knowledgeable and skilled than the teachers.<br />
There is a huge lag in pedagogy, and this is admitted. But a country has put the possibility of learning in <i>all</i> their children's hands. Uruguay has around 3 million inhabitants, but it has managed to provide this throughout the state school system, often to small schools in rural areas. Think of the connectivity problems that they had to solve.<br />
This may not sound like enforcing independence when viewed from the perspective of the developed world, where most (all?) children have access to this type of connectivity. But in a country where this was not happening, an unintended HUGE leap forward in independence has occurred.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-64827462483980331032014-01-21T07:30:00.000-06:002014-01-21T07:30:42.730-06:00Forcing and enforcing independence - #rhizo14Sounds oxymoronic but it isn't. Forcing independence is what parents do when they get a child to dress themselves. It would be quicker to do it for them, but the patience pays off later.<br />
Dave Cormier's <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/882/content/1797/" target="_blank">week 2 topic for #rhizo14</a> is an important one for those who teach (okay, cause learning to occur). How do we marry the institution's need for direction and measures of success with those of achieving rhizomatism (sorry if this word does not exist)?<br />
In the "open" approaches that we have taken in my school (6th to 8th grade) we had a storyline provide the context and wanted individual and small group independence in how it was tackled. This was not easy to generate. Students are strongly institutionalised and want to know what they are learning and how it will be tested. <br />
However, with very much younger children who have not been institutionalised in this way it has not been difficult. The structured play approach, using also <a href="http://teachplaybasedlearning.com/8.html" target="_blank">Reggio Emilia ideas</a>, in the Early Years (age 3 to 5), has been extraordinarily successful. It has been the parents that we have had to work with and convince. Here there is real learning taking place, under the control of the learner with the teacher looking for opportunities to enrich this.<br />
What about teachers? Reading <a href="http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/4425" target="_blank">George Couros'</a> article about professional development (PD) - thanks Jennifer for sharing - brought it home to me. Surely, real Life Long Learners (LLL) work rhizomatically?<br />
Shouldn't they? Isn't there a difference between Life Long Pupils (receive only) and LLLs who are in charge of what they want to do, are independent?<br />
How ready are our teachers to really take on this responsibility?<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/LBSXzFdvWmA" target="_blank">Dave Cormier spoke about his 40 year olds</a> doing his course. How do they react to the forced independence? Would really like to know.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-6799801267900435022013-12-10T13:05:00.003-06:002013-12-10T13:05:54.663-06:00La gestión de la reputación - en lugar de "marca"<br />
El lenguaje de los mercados a veces no cuadra tan bien con los que estamos involucrados en la educación.<br />
En primer lugar, ¿por qué hacerlo?: ninguna organización puede tener éxito sin una estrategia de comunicación clara. Y asegurarse de que se lleve a cabo.<br />
Esto no es sólo acerca de la venta o comercialización, se trata de contar su historia - porque si no lo hace, otros lo harán.<br />
La realidad de cada persona es en realidad un conglomerado de pedazos de muchas historias, muchas veces oído y pasado a la memoria sin ningún mecanismo de comprobación de errores. Con los medios de comunicación social (si no sólo e-mail), las historias pueden tener una vida propia y se convierten en la realidad para muchos. La historia inexacta y distorsionada será entonces la realidad para el miembro de su cliente / padres / comunidad.<br />
Es necesario escuchar también. No sólo porque puede que tenga que tomar medidas para garantizar la versión correcta se comunica, pero también se puede aprender y luego ser capaz de mejorar lo que haces.<br />
Segundo punto - sobre el concepto de "marca".<br />
Esto no cuadra con muchos educadores. Nos resistimos a la idea de que las escuelas son una marca como si estuviéramos vendiendo una mercancía.<br />
Así que sólo hemos utilizado otros términos tales como "reputación". Ahora, esto es importante y vale la pena conservar. También nuestro posicionamiento, nuestros atributos especiales, nuestra identidad y nuestra imagen.<br />
Esta es una presentación en que se acumula estos puntos de partida de la filosofía y los objetivos de la escuela, cómo esto es percibido por nuestros grupos de interés, y cómo los cuatro factores de reputación, posicionamiento, identidad e imagen son considerados. Por último, no se trata sólo de una estrategia de comunicación buena, pero un proceso de garantía de la buena calidad - más allá de "spin" a la sustancia real.<br />
<iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/29081542" width="427" height="356" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" style="border:1px solid #CCC;border-width:1px 1px 0;margin-bottom:5px" allowfullscreen> </iframe> <div style="margin-bottom:5px"><strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/GeorgeH/abc-reputation-may-2011-spanish" title="Reputación - mejor que "brand" " target="_blank">Reputación - mejor que "brand" </a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/GeorgeH" target="_blank">George Hobson</a></strong> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-25403362552053542732013-12-03T07:55:00.001-06:002013-12-03T07:55:12.546-06:00Readings - future curriculaThere is much discussion about how the curriculum should be changed to prepare learners for a future that we can hardly describe. I have been concentrating on the Equinox Summit findings (yet to be finally published but I am working my way through their <a href="http://edtech-insights.blogspot.com/2013/10/what-will-schools-be-like-for-children.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">communique</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23.3906px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;">).</span> </span></span>Thank you to <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/111761502204717582167/posts?partnerid=gplp0" target="_blank">John Mikton</a> and the <a href="http://ecisitcommittee.edublogs.org/2013/12/03/winter-season/" target="_blank">ECIS ICT Committee eNews</a> for a reading list regarding the curriculum for the future:<br />
<br />
The Future of Curriculum<br />
<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/future-curriculum">https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/future-curriculum</a><br />
<br />
Curricula Designed to Meet 21st-Century Expectations<br />
<a href="http://www.educause.edu/research-and-publications/books/educating-net-generation/curricula-designed-meet-21st-century-expectations">http://www.educause.edu/research-and-publications/books/educating-net-generation/curricula-designed-meet-21st-century-expectations</a><br />
<br />
Mapping the 21 Century Classroom Curriculum of the Future<br />
<a href="http://curriculum21.ning.com/">http://curriculum21.ning.com/</a><br />
<br />
NCTE Framework for 21st Century Curriculum and Assessment<br />
<a href="http://www.ncte.org/governance/21stcenturyframework">http://www.ncte.org/governance/21stcenturyframework</a><br />
<br />
The new basics: changing curriculum for 21st century skills<br />
<a href="http://www2.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications-reports-articles/vision-magazine/VISION-Article254">http://www2.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications-reports-articles/vision-magazine/VISION-Article254</a><br />
<br />
21st Century Curriculum and Instruction<br />
<a href="http://route21.p21.org/?option=com_content&view=article&id=140:21st-century-c&i&catid=13:curriculum-and-instruction&Itemid=228">http://route21.p21.org/?option=com_content&view=article&id=140:21st-century-c&i&catid=13:curriculum-and-instruction&Itemid=228</a><br />
<br />
What are other "must reads" about this topic? Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-57196842334089800152013-12-02T11:19:00.000-06:002013-12-02T11:19:51.745-06:00Managing reputation - rather than "brand"The language of markets sometimes does not go down so well in education. I read <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/109961706222244667151" target="_blank">Karl Rivers</a>' article on <a href="http://www.classthink.com/2013/11/28/managing-schools-online-brand/" target="_blank">Managing Your School's Online Brand</a> with interest and he asked how schools manage this. I replied on the <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/113018638134660266670" target="_blank">Ed Tech Google+ Community</a> and thought it worth repeating here.<br />
<br />
Firstly, <b>why do it</b>: No organisation can succeed without a clear communications strategy. And ensuring that it is carried out.<br />
This is not just about selling or marketing, it is about telling your story - because if you do not, others will.<br />
Each person's reality is in fact a conglomeration of bits of many stories, often heard and passed into memory without any error checking mechanism. With social media (if not just e-mail), stories can take a life of their own and become the reality for many. The inaccurate and distorted story will then be the reality for your client/parent/community member.<br />
It is necessary to listen too. Not just because you might have to act to ensure the correct version is communicated, but you can also learn and then be able to improve what you do.<br />
<br />
<div class="Aq DK Bt UR"><div class="Ct">Second point - <b>about the concept of "brand"</b>.<br />
This grates with many educators. We resist the idea that schools are a brand as if we were peddling a commodity.<br />
So we have just used other terms such as "<b>reputation</b>". Now, this matters and it is worth conserving. Also our <b>positioning</b>, our <b>special attributes</b>, our <b>identity </b>and our <b>image</b>.<br />
This is a Google presentation which builds up these points starting from the school's philosophy and objectives, how this is perceived by our stakeholders, and how the four factors of Reputation, Positioning, Identity and Image are considered. Finally, it is not just about a good communications strategy but a good quality assurance process - beyond the age of spin to actual substance.</div><div class="Ct"><br />
</div><iframe src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17DpOyCFqRIvg4w-Jj2RGAZuyNaFtHHa21XbIpyXar6I/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=5000" frameborder="0" width="480" height="389" allowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true"></iframe></div><br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-82494372444743440052013-11-27T12:15:00.001-06:002013-11-27T12:15:42.218-06:00What a difference a year makes - smartphones and tablets come of age.In August 2012 I wrote a post entitled "<a href="http://edtech-insights.blogspot.com/2012/08/computers-for-serious-work-tablets-and.html" target="_blank">Computers for serious work - tablets and smartphones just don't cut the mustard</a>". Does this still stand?<br />
No. I find myself producing more and more on my tablet and doing SOME work on my smartphone. What has changed?<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Input</b>: the input options, going beyond the tiny keyboard on the screen, have made it possible to note-take and post. <a href="http://www.swiftkey.net/en/" target="_blank">SwiftKey</a> has been the key for me to really get going with this. My Samsung tablet now can take in text at a surprisingly fast rate AND, for the most part, accurately. And as in all good software, it is learning and improving its performance. Also, voice input (dictation?) is now much more accurate.</li>
<li><b>Multi-tasks</b>: I can move from one app to another for information or copy-paste. This enables a composite note or post to be made - it is still slightly iffy but seems to work for many apps, particularly in the Google suite.</li>
<li><b>Google Keep</b>: as a note taking software, from which you will do something else later, is ideal (produce a document, make a presentation, etc). Simple, quick and effective, with no frills, words ready to be thought about, rephrased, improved upon. And it works without a connection, waiting for one to synchronise later.</li>
</ul>
Observing students in class, however, I can see that the advantages of good typing skills are evident. Students can look up, pay attention to speakers, videos, presentations, yet keep note-taking without glancing at the keyboard. I am not at the "touch-typing" (touch-swiping?) with SwiftKey yet so still prefer the keyboard for extended work.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-56271025896453189312013-10-31T15:16:00.001-06:002013-10-31T15:16:36.306-06:00Making sense of self - 1st point of the Equinox List<div class="Aq DK Bt UR">
<div class="tG QF">
</div>
<div class="Ct">
<span>Continuing from the previous post: <a href="http://edtech-insights.blogspot.com/2013/10/what-will-schools-be-like-for-children.html" target="_blank">What will schools be like for children born in 2013? </a></span></div>
<div class="Ct">
<span> </span></div>
<div class="Ct">
<span>The <a href="http://www.wgsi.org/sites/wgsi-live.pi.local/files/WGSILearning2030Communique_0.pdf" target="_blank">Equinox list</a> is a good start point for discussing how schools should change.</span> <span><br /></span> <span> </span></div>
<div class="Ct">
<span>Here is their first point:</span> <span><br /></span> <b><i><span>1. Learning focuses on the development of lifelong learning practices and a sense of self, rather than facts and figures.</span> </i></b><span><br /></span> <span>I
would not dispute the first - developing lifelong learning practices
seems a worthy goal. But the sense of self? Rather than facts and
figures?</span> <span><br /></span> <span>This seems to be conflated from many phrases, a typical focus group problem when trying to reduce a list from many to few.</span> <span><br /></span> <span>But what does a sense of self mean? Is that the priority? Or should it be a sense of how the self fits in to the community?</span> <span><br /></span> <span>Sense of self rather than "facts and figures"?</span> <span><br /></span> <span>Can anyone help to make this clearer?</span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-14122126954014315572013-10-30T15:00:00.001-06:002013-10-31T13:44:32.534-06:00What will schools be like for children born in 2013?<br />
The question of <b>'what will a school "fit for the future" look like'</b> has preoccupied educators for many years. Despite grand ideas little has changed in schools; likewise, the expectations of what schools should do have remained the same.<br />
I have reported on various ideas and sources, such as from the <a href="http://edtech-insights.blogspot.com/2013/10/ib-heads-world-conference-buenos-aires.html" target="_blank">International Baccalaureate Heads Conference in Buenos Aires</a>, our own work on <a href="http://edtech-insights.blogspot.com/2013/05/preparing-learners-for-21st-century.html" target="_blank">Preparing Learners for the 21st Century</a>, from <a href="http://edtech-insights.blogspot.com/2013/05/ken-robinsons-how-to-escape-educations.html" target="_blank">Ken Robinson</a>, and our own list of 2st Century Skills in "<a href="http://edtech-insights.blogspot.com/2013/05/if-you-are-not-learning-about-how-to.html" target="_blank">If you are not learning how to solve problems...</a>".<br />
There is a feeling that the time is right (or ripe) for change.<br />
<br />
The <b><a href="http://wgsi.org/equinox-summit/equinox-summit-learning-2030" target="_blank">Equinox Summit - Learning 2030</a></b> took place under the<b> Waterloo Global Science Initiative</b> from the 29th of September to the 3rd of October, 2013, in Ontario, Canada. The goal of this summit was to identify the "beacons of change, assemble them into a coherent vision of learning, and map out a way to make this vision not just an occasional reality but the norm". Their <span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.wgsi.org/sites/wgsi-live.pi.local/files/WGSILearning2030Communique_0.pdf" target="_blank">communiqu<span style="color: purple;"><span style="display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23.3906px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">é</span></span></a></span> (pdf) takes as the starting point that a child born today will graduate from high school in a world very different from today's - in a world where facts will have "little value" and education should equip learners to:<br />
<ul>
<li>think creatively, independently, rigorously, and collaboratively</li>
</ul>
in full awareness of themselves and their social context.<br />
<br />
This summit, hosting "current leaders in education, teaching professionals, researchers, and policymakers", represented six continents and with a "truly global and inter-generational perspective". Their findings will be presented in a road map for how to achieve this in early 2014 (The Equinox Blueprint).<br />
<br />
The communiqu<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23.3906px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">é listed the attributes that high school graduates will need to have by 2030:</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">lifelong learners who can identify and synthesize the right knowledge to address a wide range of challenges in a complex, uncertain world</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">literate, numerate, and articulate</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">creative, critical thinkers</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">able to collaborate effectively with others, especially those of different abilities and backgrounds</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">open to failure as an essential part of progress</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">adaptable and resilient in the face of adversity</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">aware of the society they live in and able to understand the different perspectives of others</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">self-aware and cognizant of their own strengths and limitations</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">entrepreneurial, self-motivated, and eager to tackle the challenges and opportunities of their world</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: small;">There are no surprises here. I think that we would all agree with this list - perhaps I would have emphasised the issue of international mindedness more since I believe that working with and understanding other cultures (not just backgrounds) will be crucial in the coming years.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">So, what is proposed? Replacing traditional concepts of classes, courses, timetables, and grades by more flexible, creative and student-directed forms of learning. They state that this would <i>develop deep conceptual understanding, which can be applied in other contexts.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">I am not sure that this necessarily follows. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">The paper ends by listing seven aspects of the new system - and I list the main headings here:</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Learning focuses on the development of lifelong learning practices and a sense of self, rather than facts and figures. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Students learn through cross-disciplinary and often collaborative projects. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Students connect with each other in fluid groupings that are dictated by their needs at any given moment. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Teachers and other learning professionals serve as guides or curators of learning</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Learning progress is measured through qualitative assessment of a student's skills and competencies that document the learner’s entire experience, rather than measuring a discrete outcome. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Decisions that affect the learning environment are made by stakeholder groups comprised of learners, teachers, governments, and parents, with learners and teachers playing a central role in decision-making. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Schools empower both students and teachers, encouraging them to experiment with new ideas and fail safely, so that they develop the confidence to take risks. </span></li>
</ol>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The full <a href="http://wgsi.org/blueprint-communiqu%C3%A9-resources" target="_blank">Blueprint</a> should be available in early 2014 - and I wait for it with great interest.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(I was disappointed in the Times Educational Supplement's article on the summit - what did they pick up on? Just point 5, with the heading "Scrap exams to create schools of the future".</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Come on, TES, keep to your motto of <i>Think*Educate*Share</i> and drop the sensationalism. You are writing for professional educators...)</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i> </i> </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-23188079691828492602013-10-17T14:09:00.001-06:002013-10-17T14:09:44.643-06:00From the horse's mouth: "Multiple Intelligences" are NOT "Learning Styles<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/16/howard-gardner-multiple-intelligences-are-not-learning-styles/" target="_blank">Valarie Strauss' article in the Washington Post</a> has Howard Gardner write emphatically that his theory of Multiple Intelligences (linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, interpersonal and intrapersonal - with later addition of naturalist), is NOT synonymous with the concept of Learning Styles.<br />
It is clear that Gardner has suffered over this ("it's high time to relieve my pain and set the record straight").<br />
He describes Multiple Intelligence (MI) Theory as being the result of research that led him to conclude "that each of us has a number of relatively independent mental faculties" (our MIs), rather like having "relatively autonomous computers" handling different information sets.<br />
Gardner criticises the notion of Learning Styles as not being coherent and that there is no persuasive evidence that the learning style produces more effective outcomes.<br />
He ends by drawing three primary lessons for educators:<br />
<ol>
<li><i><b>Individualise your teaching as much as possible.</b></i></li>
<li><i><b>Pluralize your teaching</b> <b> </b></i>(teach in several ways - through stories, works of art, diagrams, role play).</li>
<li><i><b>Drop the term "styles".</b></i></li>
</ol>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-55832203284534459152013-10-16T16:00:00.001-06:002013-10-16T16:00:42.037-06:00Information - knowledge - understanding; from constructing to controlling learningWhat is the relationship between Information and Knowledge? Between Knowledge and Understanding?<br />
And what is "Information"?<br />
Alan November has it that the ubiquity and availability of information causes us to reframe the way we teach and learn. No longer is it necessary for the teacher to be the the sole provider of information, often from their long and extensive academic preparation. Indeed, it is not only unnecessary, but in fact counterproductive for the teacher to be the sole provider of this information.<br />
I have put together this presentation of points with which I have tried to construct my own understanding of learning and teaching. Is it sufficient? No, a narrative would have told the story in the form of information. Try to get the meaning, the message, behind each slide and construct your own understanding of it. And then you will be controlling your own learning...<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="299" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ybYue0vDe_yu4fc5ORQBiW5gB7k8cQ_KZj75B8CdWLI/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="480"></iframe><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-73014577623284664382013-10-09T15:44:00.001-06:002013-10-09T15:44:19.714-06:00IB Heads World Conference - Buenos Aires 2013<br />
The <a href="http://headsconference2013.com/" target="_blank">International Baccalaureate (IB) Heads World Conference</a> was held in Buenos Aires this last weekend. With the title <b>IB in a Virtual World </b>and with well known keynote speakers it promised a lot.<br />
And it delivered. Perhaps not in the way I thought it would do but certainly as an opportunity to understand the topic of technology in education in a deeper way. The main take away point is that it is not about the technology, stupid.<br />
I shall report on the messages from three keynote speakers and what I understood of them.<br />
<br />
The conference opened with <a href="http://curriculumredesign.org/about/team/" target="_blank">Charles Fadel</a> - author and founder of the <a href="http://curriculumredesign.org/" target="_blank">Center for Curriculum Redesign</a>. His M.O. seemed to be to want to shock the heads with what was just around the corner in terms of technology, and I think that he did that to many. Using examples such as high speed manipulation by robots to bring home the point about the future of manufacturing and other repetitive process, the way digital technologies can be almost approaching on the creative (examples from art and music) and the increase in computing power to match first a human brain and then, very shortly, ALL human brains, Fadel prepared us for his talk the following day. This was regarding the work of the <b>Center for Curriculum Redesign [CCR] </b>(and reported in his co-authored book: <a href="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470475382,descCd-buy.html" target="_blank">21st Century Skills, Learning for Life in our Times</a>) which came up with a four dimensional model of the knowledge and other aspects of learning which are needed. The process of working out what is needed in the future is an exciting one, and one which we have <a href="http://edtech-insights.blogspot.com/2013/05/preparing-learners-for-21st-century.html" target="_blank">done in our school</a>. The CCR model maintains <b>Traditional Knowledge</b> (but what should we exclude?), adds <b>Modern Knowledge</b> (but what should we include?) and adds <b>Metacognition, Character and Skills</b>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnlD5_OqCe1XlF2UaJjdT4LEoQeIc6GyA1kyEGB2ivoNZX3r3ToD3FwINBu7gCvVLObKqULq2zpbwlpFJos0PFkXQFykXx268Jf4sB0z8dGJ8MpLCJNbh7iYQk-ZuDkEV2We_ASJj9Cm53/s1600/CCR+Charles+Fadel+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnlD5_OqCe1XlF2UaJjdT4LEoQeIc6GyA1kyEGB2ivoNZX3r3ToD3FwINBu7gCvVLObKqULq2zpbwlpFJos0PFkXQFykXx268Jf4sB0z8dGJ8MpLCJNbh7iYQk-ZuDkEV2We_ASJj9Cm53/s320/CCR+Charles+Fadel+2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
(From Charles Fadel - PPP)<br />
For the breakout sessions we were sent to discuss what we should include and what we should exclude. This proved to be a very difficult thing to do - not because there were not those willing to explore this, but the discussion seemed to go off in different directions. Perhaps the way we were doing it was at fault. When we did this exercise at school (with the SMT and separately with the Board), we broke off into smaller groups to do this, presenting our results on poster paper after 30 minutes. That is much more productive because this level of discussion can only be achieved by working in pairs or groups of three. Shame.<br />
<br />
The keynote speaker for the Friday morning was <b>Aleph Molinari</b> who was the founder of the <a href="http://proacceso.org.mx/eng/" target="_blank">Fundación Proacceso</a>, "a nonprofit organization that uses the educational benefits of technology to drive the social and economic development of people living in marginalized communities" (from the excellent<a href="http://ibheadsworldconference2013.sched.org/" target="_blank"> IB Heads Conference App</a> - great to see paperless programming).<br />
Relating his information to Mexico, Molinari spoke of the digital divide and the low numbers of students who finish school, all with low technical knowledge. His foundation provides sustainably built meeting areas with computers, teaching English and other subjects, in a well defined programme, following each student with a digital card allowing excellent measurement of success and completion. He advocates a top-down implementation process, from legislation down.<br />
This was a very interesting process since I think it is easily transferable and copyable to other Latin American countries. In a way it by-passes all the problems of state schooling in these countries and engages the interest of children (and adults) in learning. Excellent.<br />
<br />
I expected good things from <a href="http://novemberlearning.com/" target="_blank"><b>Alan November</b></a> - and I was not disappointed. In his usual style "this is only my opinion" way, he left nuggets to think about. And it is not about the technology. His was the Saturday keynote.<br />
He re-framed the problem. "<b>The real issue is not training teachers to use it (technology) - the most difficult thing is shifting the control to the student, for learning</b>".<br />
This is the fundamental November point, and not grasped by all. He put the task of leaders as being to <b>recalibrate the control of the organisation to manage learning for the students, and for students to increasingly take control and design for managing their own learning</b>.<br />
So, not a technology problem, a control problem.<br />
And I get it. His example of the preparation of a powerpoint presentation by the teacher for the forthcoming lesson: that act of forming, aligning, and presenting her knowledge is what the STUDENT should be doing, NOT the teacher. We are depriving the students of constructing their own knowledge.<br />
So, November re-frames the situation into three parts:<br />
<ol>
<li>Control shift needed.</li>
<li>Information is ubiquitous - teachers should not be the sole providers of this and information is so available that it enables questions (assignments?) to be written to raise the levels of response to much richer learning and expressive levels.</li>
<li>Global relationships/communications - broaden the audience for student work to the world and have learning relationships with the world. First hand.</li>
</ol>
So, November would say that the real work is redesigning assignments to be<br />
<ul>
<li>more creative</li>
<li>more demanding</li>
<li>more rigorous</li>
<li>and thus, even more motivating.</li>
</ul>
As usual, he left the nuggets for us to follow up, so here is a topic list:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/" target="_blank">WolframAlpha</a> - investigate this as a superb instrument to free us from the drudgery to examine the real concepts, not the mechanics.</li>
<li>Google search - get to grips with the 16 operators so that you can find the genuine articles and enrich the questions that you ask your students; do not give assignments like those you gave in the world of paper, enrich the possibilities of deeper thought and synthesis.</li>
<li>Teachers need to give more structure, guidance and capacity to our students for research, using </li>
<ul>
<li>Knowledge Engines such as WolframAlpha</li>
<li>Search Engines such as Google search</li>
<li>Social Media Engines such as Twitter.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Eric Mazur and clickers (and Facebook!) - just researched this and found <a href="http://app.gosoapbox.com/event/793936932/" target="_blank">GoSoapBox</a> - excellent tool for feedback in class, or before the next lesson after homework. Click on the link and use the access code to answer the question "who does most of the work in your lessons?". Access code: 793-936-932</li>
<li>And finally, the <a href="http://hbr.org/2006/12/the-curse-of-knowledge/ar/1" target="_blank">Curse of Knowledge</a>. How many times have we seen this in action. "The more we know about a subject, the less prepared we are to understand a learner's misconceptions, confusion and questions". But it is exactly that which makes us teachers, and not just spouters of our knowledge. Let us provide avenues, technological or otherwise, to get this feedback. </li>
</ul>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-486680050430247152013-10-09T07:41:00.000-06:002013-10-09T07:41:04.382-06:00Minecraft (Digital Lego) comes of ageFascination. Obsession. Compulsion. Infatuation. Enthusiasm. Passion.<br />
These are some of the words used to describe children's attitude to playing <a href="https://minecraft.net/" target="_blank">Minecraft</a>. Observing children immersed and creating their virtual labyrinth you can see it is all embracing. Having them explain to you what they are doing involves a mind-blowing and eye-popping few minutes as they flick/scroll/dash through their creation of rooms, passages, castles, food, storage, doorways and traps. It is, undoubtedly, Digital Lego. Indeed, its blocky nature lends itself to this thought, and actual, physical Lego is available on the Minecraft website so that the virtual game becomes a real 3D one.<br />
It is often difficult to describe such games as educational, but they are. Our Learning Resources Coordinator (and much more) <a href="http://www.globaleducationconference.com/profile/JenniferGarcia" target="_blank">Jennifer G.</a> has been the champion for this type of learning at our school - with students participating in workshops and webinars explaining what they are doing and what they are learning. Slowly, there is a recognition of the creativity, resourcefulness and effort that goes into creating such virtual worlds. And the learning that takes place.<br />
Minecraft announced that they have 33 million users (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23572742" target="_blank">BBC article on this is worth readin</a>g). Without doubt Minecraft has come of age, with an acceptation that it has great educational benefit.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-54359130024102910362013-10-03T07:57:00.001-06:002013-10-03T07:57:07.544-06:00MOOCs going mainstreamThe dust is settling on the MOOC debate. Is it here to stay? Is it just the latest flash-in-the-pan which will disappear once they hype has died down?<br />
<a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/10/economist-explains?fsrc=scn/gp/wl/bl/ee/MOOCsuniversity" target="_blank">The Economist's</a> writer thinks that on-line courses - including the latest incarnation of these, the MOOCs - won't kill mainstream degrees but that <i>"MOOCs presage a period of great change in higher education".</i><br />
Quoting from the first edition of <a href="http://www.liebertpub.com/overview/moocs-forum/619/" target="_blank">MOOC Forum</a>, the article makes clear that MOOCs have pervaded university level education: <i> "An editorial explains that there are over 500 MOOCs being offered by
more than 100 well known, and accredited, university brands"</i>.<br />
The issue of completion of a MOOC has been a criticism. The writer "E.L." makes a good case for this being immaterial in a rapidly changing world where the needs of the learner are so varied and not necessarily tied to paper qualifications.<br />
The MOOC term, albeit hijacked from a much more grass roots approach (and more appealing - let us have more #change11 MOOCs!), seems to have been a catalyst for giving a tweak to distance learning in two dimensions - the number enrolled and the open access of it. These aspects allow the provider to monetize in a different way, usually by having those that want credit for the course pay for this.<br />
MOOCs are here to stay - until a better term comes along. <br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-77230603326995240292013-09-24T07:14:00.001-06:002013-09-24T07:14:14.258-06:00What devices are being used at school?Interesting statistics on the 928 unique devices tracked on our Secondary School wireless network:<br />
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Android Phones:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>3</b></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Android Tablets:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>76</b></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
BlackBerry Phones:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>40</b></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
BlackBerry PlayBooks:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>1</b></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
iPads:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>79</b></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
iPhones:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>248</b></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Linux PCs:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>5</b></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Macs:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>171</b></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Windows PCs:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>276</b></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Windows Phones:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>8</b></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Others:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>6</b></div>
<br />
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />
iPhones have eclipsed BlackBerry, the previous phone of choice (BB Messenger being the reason why), and Mac representing a fair proportion of student laptops in use. Android tablets are certainly increasing rapidly although I am surprised at the small number of Android phones tracked.<br />
<br />
(Thank you Fernando, our Sysman for the data) <br />
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-91338766505255131602013-09-06T09:18:00.002-06:002013-09-06T09:18:50.020-06:00IT resources and bandwidth experiment - is it enough?Our students are doing a unit involving much internet use (around 80 students in IB Theory of Knowledge course). <br />
How did the IT resources and the school's bandwidth measure up?<br />
Some information - the unit is on a Google Site with links to some video resources (Screencast-o-matic and YouTube), to Google Groups discussion forums and to Google Docs used as a collaborative space. Four classrooms being used, each with its own Fortinet access point, about 20 students per class, with a 600C Fortinet firewall allowing 16Gbps Firewall throughput, up to 3,000,000 concurrent sessions and up to 70,000 new sessions per second. We have a 30 Megabit/second internet connection with 1 to 3 compression which was upgraded to this two years ago - <a href="http://edtech-insights.blogspot.com/2011/05/upgrading-to-30-megabitssecond-what.html" target="_blank">this is a description of it</a>.<br />
So, how did it go?<br />
This is the system resources report on how our Fortigate unit (our firewall) was doing during the heavy load period. Fernando, our Sysman (who provided all this information - thanks!), describes this process as a traffic manager, and you can see it doing really well. Conclusion - enough capacity here.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ3OrVmOK5_yMEjCyhoh2-rBGcpE-MlXLSRIKh_LVfbM-VSr_iFexB73_t__fOjRleVxbDH9Awre7TXisZO0RjJF2W6Ce2deXxksjf9oU3fP4oQeE81qNguaaUZCndfrWB6_XBLBuO8tHy/s1600/System+resources.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ3OrVmOK5_yMEjCyhoh2-rBGcpE-MlXLSRIKh_LVfbM-VSr_iFexB73_t__fOjRleVxbDH9Awre7TXisZO0RjJF2W6Ce2deXxksjf9oU3fP4oQeE81qNguaaUZCndfrWB6_XBLBuO8tHy/s320/System+resources.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
The following traffic history is from our Fortigate - internally monitoring our bandwidth in a 30 minute interval:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZryQvHqivFJbvhNVH-GnL_eAvVJlZ3oeIZ6-lVz5JFpjJ0qXS9h0IIfRCVB0mDqgEvUfL4_eUYk7eRM4UeLa8JKORTJWGr1mTNZlt_3F1B5pmzQjzlAwVAP_tBklrUwo8T2hk8YDtFqjP/s1600/Interface+History.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="116" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZryQvHqivFJbvhNVH-GnL_eAvVJlZ3oeIZ6-lVz5JFpjJ0qXS9h0IIfRCVB0mDqgEvUfL4_eUYk7eRM4UeLa8JKORTJWGr1mTNZlt_3F1B5pmzQjzlAwVAP_tBklrUwo8T2hk8YDtFqjP/s400/Interface+History.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
Fernando did a sweep of the classrooms and found some disgruntled students trying to access a Screencast-o-matic video - they had internet bandwidth problems (nb: not wireless access point problems) as well as Java problems (Chrome on Apple, Chromebooks, etc).<br />
However, I noted in following the activity from viewing the collaborative Google Docs that were being produced, that this aspect worked well. <br />
What did it look like from our ISP? Here is the report from the same time:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPm2E-Uwt-LeamwzTYVkRFtv7Yuk6cCTlAxB0Lg-HWKAyF4IT0VfvSSsyZss5mtHwuSrCCWgL7N8-P9UXyw4vRV25Qer_lJY2RfPDcH9OogWFtjZScXYFkfSBQfkyqzM5G0JqFeD4YhZgh/s1600/Percentage+utilization.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPm2E-Uwt-LeamwzTYVkRFtv7Yuk6cCTlAxB0Lg-HWKAyF4IT0VfvSSsyZss5mtHwuSrCCWgL7N8-P9UXyw4vRV25Qer_lJY2RfPDcH9OogWFtjZScXYFkfSBQfkyqzM5G0JqFeD4YhZgh/s400/Percentage+utilization.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
And here is the problem, our 30 Mbps topping out during this classtime.<br />
So, all the work to upgrade our internal systems has worked, but we need much more bandwidth to cope with our use. Anybody suggest how much?<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-87181109597294071472013-09-05T11:32:00.000-06:002013-09-05T11:32:17.931-06:00Panic over - lesson learned from a Google SpreadsheetLet me set the scene - questionnaire out to all staff on which committees they want to serve on, received on a Google Form, then editing the Google Spreadsheet formed by the answers (including the datestamp information).<br />
It needs a little tidy-up, of course, let's get rid of the datestamp and responder information that was automatically gathered by the form, then share it to all staff....<br />
Spreadsheet disappears and this message appears, for all who access it:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTrLa5qA7ufIzAZsjgQ-sngtuva3vC9IWgKKwqXzxA7b9Y5j0Ux5jYr3IRdSrCtYUqcXiGTNkp5nUmyxIxc3HuC_0EC0y-PBl4lcC3-iLGSju3tTdJNbooSbAS5F26RvuV3DeYpxMMa4M5/s1600/Google+too+many+requests+to+us+recently.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="85" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTrLa5qA7ufIzAZsjgQ-sngtuva3vC9IWgKKwqXzxA7b9Y5j0Ux5jYr3IRdSrCtYUqcXiGTNkp5nUmyxIxc3HuC_0EC0y-PBl4lcC3-iLGSju3tTdJNbooSbAS5F26RvuV3DeYpxMMa4M5/s400/Google+too+many+requests+to+us+recently.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
Now, we really needed this information but it was gone!<br />
We had many e-mails back from staff saying that they could not access the spreadsheet, not from home nor from school. Panic!<br />
We contacted Google Enterprise Support the next day and had an instant reply from Eibhin Martin. At least we felt supported.<br />
There were questions to answer and we shared Eibhin into the spreadsheet.<br />
Later, quite by chance, JS found that she had the document open in one of her hundred tabs or so which are habitually open on her computer, and we were able to see a version of the committee lists - phew!<br />
Eibhin got back to us - not a good idea to edit spreadsheets formed from forms - corruption of either or both can be the result.<br />
Lesson learned. We shall make a copy in future before messing with it...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-90181674665011994762013-09-03T09:18:00.003-06:002013-09-03T09:18:59.388-06:00Changes to the CIS Accreditation IndicatorsThe Council of International Schools (CIS) has recently announced changes to the indicators for two of the accreditation standards in Edition 8.<br />
Sharing here a presentation which I found useful to use to explain what these changes are - feel free to use.<br />
There is such a cross-over between the "Access to Teaching and Learning" and "School Culture and Partnerships for Learning" sections in the new edition that it is difficult to separate them, and I think will create some concept problems in using the new protocols. Let's see.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="389" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17u_Om_OWWUjsyykl9SMqSeJ8LdfndzXbqxUCPOVmwi0/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=60000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="480"></iframe><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256199820880743341.post-36599177195539210902013-06-18T17:50:00.000-06:002013-06-18T17:50:15.776-06:00Communication - telling the story (and listening to the reply)No organisation can succeed without a clear communications strategy. And ensuring that it is carried out.<br />
This is not just about selling or marketing, it is about telling your story - because if you do not, others will.<br />
Each person's reality is in fact a conglomeration of bits of many stories, often heard and passed into memory without any error checking mechanism. With social media (if not just e-mail), stories can take a life of their own and become the reality for many. The inaccurate and distorted story will then be the reality for your client/parent/community member.<br />
It is necessary to listen too. Not just because you might have to act to ensure the correct version is communicated, but you can also learn and then be able to improve what you do.<br />
This particularly applies to schools, but it also applies to large international organisations too. I am pleased that the International Baccalaureate is improving their communications and congratulate Drew Deutsch, Director for IB Americas, <a href="http://vimeo.com/67824735" target="_blank">for producing a personal message on Vimeo</a>.This is more like it IBO!<br />
I have been in the audience for many an excellent presentation from IB personnel - but have had to be there in person. Could we hope for other video presentations about the IB programme changes, for example? This is an excellent medium for getting the IB story out to those who implement the programme.<br />
And using blogs, video and social media are great opportunities to listen, too.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359067225586846713noreply@blogger.com0