Holistic and Integral Education

21st C Literacies: Same only Different?

2008-12-31T07:28:00.012+11:00

I've been reading about the use of the term "21st century literacies" - is the term meaningful, accurate, useful... ? This is an important conversation - perhaps more for the process and educational journey than for a definitive outcome.

But for the most part the dialogue appears to focus on 'new media literacies' and the changing (21st century?) contexts of information/communication.

What I would like to see in this dialogue is a discussion of some other literacies - social and emotional literacy, environmental literacy, spiritual literacy... Literacies that are also essential to function, participate fully and be healthy and successful in the 21st century.

Are these literacies? That depends on how one defines a literacy. If a literacy is defined as the ability to

READ - access and interpret a 'language'
MAKE MEANING - critically reflect on the value and meaning of the information communicated
WRITE - successfully and meaningfully communicate or take action

in order to function effectively, participate fully and prosper in the world then I think we can - and should - talk about more than the basic '3R' literacies of reading, writing and arithmetic.

Social and emotional literacy? Communicating about relationships and feelings - the so-called '4th R' - relationships. The ability to access and interpret social and emotional language - eg body language, personal feelings - perhaps the primary language of intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence.

Environmental Literacy? The ability to access and read the natural world - an essential indigenous literacy and - in the light of current global challenges involving natural systems - an essential 21st century literacy. Is this the primary language of naturalistic intelligence - leading at higher levels to the ability to commune with nature?

Spiritual Literacy? The ability to access and read the deep and sacred in everyday life - an essential literacy for finding deeper place and purpose in the universe. Is this the primary language for a spiritual or existential intelligence - and an important aspect of what it means to be a healthy whole human being?

Some argue that these literacies are not new - we could just as easily label them 2oth century literacies. And this may be more accurate given that we could also argue that fundamental educational change has largely skipped the 20th century :-)

Are there new 21st century literacies? Or are we talking about the same literacies in a different 21st century context? These are worthwhile conversations but we should also include the possibility of more than just 'multimedia' or 'new media' literacies.

What other symbols/meanings/languages do we need to be able to read and understand and communicate in the 21st century?
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Declaration of Educational Goals: ICTs

2008-09-20T08:04:00.000+10:00

MCEETYA are seeking input on the new National Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians for the next decade. See previous post.

The "rapid and continuing advances in ICTs" that are "changing the way we share, use, develop and process information" and the "massive shift in power" to learners features in the draft preamble of the new declaration. But it also calls for a "quantum leap" in our knowledge of effective ways of embedding ICTs in learning in schools.

One goal refers to learners who are "creative and productive users of technologies, particularly ICTs" and the preamble identifies the need for "digital media skills" and to be "highly literate in ICT".

Some are disappointed however that the 'commitment to action' section only mentions

maximising the use of the latest technologies in teacher professional learning (d)
integrating key multidisciplinary perspectives into the curriculum which includes ICT (e)
using new technology to minimize red tape and make information easily accessible to the public (g)

To some this appears odd given the focus in the preamble, the current Digital Education Revolution national agenda and the level of detail in the DER strategic planning documents.

Perhaps the draft declaration needs to include something about using ICTs to achieve each goal - and some/many of the 'commitment to actions' - or is that assumed? Can we assume anything if we are talking about the need for "quantum leaps" in effectiveness?

Should the document include something about using ICTs to

enable personalised learning?
create safe and developmentally appropriate spaces for blended learning, communities of inquiry and digital folios?
facilitate assessment of, for and as learning?
bridge formal and informal learning - including computer game and special interest 'affinity spaces'?

Or perhaps given the ongoing rapid rate of change in ICTs to 2020 we need to rethink our approach in this area?

How can we be ready for powerful mobile computing, complex virtual worlds, sophisticated games AI, highly interactive media, ubiquitous geo-tagging, and many more ... as they deliver new affordances in education? Particularly when they are likely to be delivered directly to most (but not all) learners? And particularly when learners won't necessarily 'see' either the new ICT or the new affordances?

How can curriculum, learning, teaching and assessment be much more responsive to this rapid change? How can we keep the focus on learning, teaching and assessment without being distracted by shiny gadgets with short lives? How can we reduce the professional learning burden on teachers?

What other questions should we be asking and which assumptions should we be questioning?

Perhaps this is where we need a 'commitment to action'.

Declaration of Educational Goals: Metaphors

2008-09-19T07:44:00.005+10:00

MCEETYA are seeking input on the new National Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians for the next decade. See previous post.

The draft document calls for the development in Australia of "world-class curriculum and assessment". Although I understand the intent I question the metaphor and therefore the possible underlying assumptions.

While previous declarations have been about 'schooling' the current document moves to 'education'. This is a welcome and significant shift away from 19th century metaphors and thinking that were designed to support industrialisation.

But which school of thought does 'world-class' sit in? We need to be careful that 19th century metaphors are not being simply re-badged leaving unquestioned assumptions to drive thinking.

For example, when the document refers to the need for "quality teachers" it also talks about developing the right people to be effective instructors to deliver the best possible instruction! Aren't we committed to personalised learning for all young Australians?

The document says teachers should have "targeted professional development... to enhance teaching and learning." Shouldn't they be engaged with "personalised professional learning... to enhance learning, teaching and assessment" ?

Laying solid foundations is another metaphor that needs questioning... The notion of providing foundations for later learning appears frequently in the document. Combined with the need for essential literacy and numeracy (also frequently cited) and the need to meet national standards this has the potential to alienate many of the learners we are attempting to engage.

Some learners spend years - even decades - in dark educational foundations...

We understand the brain/mind and learning a little better now. Laying foundations, building learning structures, sequential processes and other 19th C metaphors are not always the most appropriate...

We also need to question our curriculum metaphors. The document talks about a "comprehensive curriculum that details the knowledge, skills and values to be achieved." Is this 'curriculum as content' where "specified work needs to be covered" ? Or are we talking about more dynamic curriculum frameworks that remains current in times of rapid change?

While the document has much to offer it still appears to be caught between the 19th and 21st centuries - neither in one nor the other...

But then so are we :-)

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Declaration of Educational Goals: Play

2008-09-17T07:20:00.002+10:00

MCEETYA are seeking input on the new National Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians for the next decade. See previous post.

The draft document emphasizes the importance in times of rapid change and with current global challenges of having creative and curious learners who can think in new ways, embrace opportunity and innovate.

One powerful way to promote creativity and innovation is to create educational environments that allow learners the mental, emotional and physical space to safely play, explore possibilities and take risks - and not just for very young learners.

Play for learning does much to maintain engagement, promote well-being and create opportunities for transformation in understanding. Play can also bridge formal and informal learning and break down barriers to learning. The serious games initiative for example is one way education can use online games to enhance learning.

The importance of play for learning is a little hard to find in the current draft that validly highlights the need for skilling in essential literacy and numeracy, building foundational knowledge and skills in all learning areas, and achieving excellence.

As well as talking about how we as a community can achieve these educational goals "with support and hard work - from children and young people and their parents..." perhaps we also need to say something about playfulness, imagination and celebration.

All work and no play makes for a dull declaration of educational goals :-)

There may be other things we can do to promote creativity, imagination and innovation. Ken Robinson asked if schools kill creativity at TED two years ago and his message has been reverberating around the globe ever since.

Should there also be something in the declaration about students following their passion and developing personal interests and talents?

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Declaration of Educational Goals: Foresight

2008-09-16T07:05:00.008+10:00

MCEETYA are seeking input on the new National Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians for the next decade. See previous post.

The draft is scattered with skills and dispositions (beyond fundamental literacy and numeracy) that are needed to be successful as individuals and a nation in the current decades of ongoing "major changes" (previous post).

critical and cross-disciplinary thinking
values of resilience and ingenuity
thinking flexibly and creatively
innovation and problem solving
multi-disciplinary capabilities
engaging with new subject disciplines

However this does not highlight enough the need for futures thinking, skills and tools. It is not enough to be able to cope with change and solve problems - although these are very necessary skills.

We need young Australians who can create their preferred futures, who have skills in problem prevention and social foresight, and who have the optimism for the future that comes with the empowerment these capabilities bring.

We need to be able to predict the consequences of our personal and collective actions rather than react to global challenges decades after they were caused - particularly with some of far-reaching applications of today's new bio/nano/gene technologies. We need young Australians who question underpinning assumptions and worldviews before they engage in a search for solutions.

Futures studies or social foresight has appeared regularly over the last few decades in educational discourse but is often overwhelmed by more immediate concerns and priorities. We need to think more creatively about how we can include the skills and tools of social foresight in education. Our successful future depends on it - locally and globally.

As far as the draft document goes perhaps an immediate improvement would be to include problem prevention with problem solving, foresight with resilience, and questioning assumptions and worldviews with critical thinking.

We certainly need "successful learners" who "have the capacity to make sense of their world and think about how things became the way they are" but perhaps we also need to add "and can create preferred futures".

Educational Goals for Young Australians

2008-09-15T15:17:00.009+10:00

Education Ministers (MCEETYA) are seeking input on the new National Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians for the next ten years. The new Declaration will follow the 1999 Adelaide Declaration and the 20 year old 1989 Hobart Declaration

of "agreed goals for schooling in the twenty-first century."

So how do we see education now and what might be the goals that take us forward to around 2020? In this period of rapid change what do we even know about the world in 2020? And what will students need to prepare them for the workplaces and communities of 2030?

The draft Declaration lists some of the "major changes" since the Hobart declaration.

global integration and interdependence
shifts in geopolitical power
technological change
complex environmental pressures
rapid change in the way we use ICTs

For individuals and the nation to succeed in this new century the draft declaration proposes three educational goals founded on the principles of equity and excellence.

Successful learners...
Confident individuals...
Active and informed citizens...

A 7 point "Commitment to Action" shows how Australians might take "collective responsibility for personalised learning" that gives every young Australian the support they require to achieve high-quality educational outcomes.

Opportunity for feedback on the draft closes 3rd October 2008.

So, what feedback might we give from an 'holistic and integral education' perspective?

There is a great deal to be positive about...

The draft highlights the importance of every individual's "intellectual, physical, social, moral, spiritual and aesthetic development and well-being" which is also foundational for holistic and integral education.

The language has changed from 'schooling' in previous declarations to a focus on 'education' with 'personalised learning' which is also a key element of holistic and integral education which recognises and values each unique individual.

The draft places "young Australians at the centre" and recognises the "central role of teachers" and the "collective responsibility" of the whole community. It has a "strong focus on literacy and numeracy" and "developing an understanding of history and culture and the key principles of science; knowledge of spiritual, moral and aesthetic dimensions of life; and competence in ... the creative arts."

In short it uses a more complex 'both/and' language rather than simplistic 'either/or' thinking that has been characteristic of some educational documents in the past...

Next post - How might the draft be improved? Any ideas?

Transformative Journeys

2008-05-09T17:04:00.012+10:00

Oxygen and Hydrogen combining to form water was the metaphor chosen by Minister for Education, David Bartlett MP to convey the transformative aspects of the government's new agenda for post-compulsory education in Tasmania.
He was referring to the integration of year 11/12 colleges and TAFE to form the Tasmanian Polytechnic which will open its doors to students from January 2009.

Transformation of learning and training to provide holistic education for all students was a frequently repeated theme in the 2 day conference the Minister was opening. The conference was skillfully organised to canvas the educational imperatives, to point to some new possibilities and to reflect the nature of the transformational journey required.

Presenters including Caldwell and Sidoti gave the consistent message that today's educational institutions will only fall further behind if they attempt to meet 21st Century needs within even the best 20th century learning institutions. What is required is educational transformation not just reform. They called for

new educational thinking and curriculum
new educational structures
new educational cultures

Now this might sound like a difficult task for a state system - and an impossible one by January 2009 but we are not starting from scratch... nor are we asked to complete the transformation by that time...

We already know how the transformed system should begin. We have known many of the educational imperatives and some aspects of the solution for at least a decade. In fact some conference delegates had flash-backs to 2004 and even 2000 when much of the same data and educational directions were made clear at presentations opening the Tasmanian State of Learning and Learning Together reform agendas.

But we are not going round in circles... Our current level on the educational change spiral is about systemic structural change. Previous spirals have been about curriculum (eg PY10, ELs, Training Reform Agenda), community (eg partnerships), authentic learning (eg applied, enterprise and project-based)... We are now more informed, more experienced, and perhaps more adventurous... when it comes to educational change.

The current spiral is about personalised learning (student at the center, pathways).

To achieve this goal Caldwell believes we need to align our intellectual, social, financial and spiritual capital.

Can we integrate our current expertise in engaging pedagogy, meaningful curriculum and working partnerships in the post-compulsory sector to create new possibilities with new cultures?

When hydrogen and oxygen combine in a test tube you can hear a loud 'pop'... Plenty of pops were also heard in chat sessions held following the presentations!

But there were also the first tentative signs of water - new possibilities - new structures, new curriculum, new partnerships, new educational cultures...

Water image: CC Solkoll and ocean.flynn
Capital image: Adapted from an image by Caldwell

Virtual Classroom Challenge

2008-04-19T20:42:00.002+10:00

Today I joined the April Festival on Jokaydia to listen to Leigh Blackall describe his Virtual Classroom Project. He was challenged by Konrad Glogowski and Jokaydia owner Jo Kay to build an "ideal learning environment" in just one month in Second Life.

That's me above - with Puff my purple dragon on my shoulder.

Leigh described how he used permaculture principles to create a more "holistic" learning environment with "efficient use of space and resources; space design that is conducive to inquiry learning and skills training; and with every single aspect serving some form of opportunity for learning." (Leigh's Blog)

Leigh used (virtual copies) of recycled shipping containers to create a fascinating design that did indeed provide a wide range of learning opportunities. See his second post and project wiki for many more details.

Leigh's presentation really made me think about what we might build on the parcel of land Hobart College has rented in Jokaydia. Access problems to Second Life from within the college IT network have delayed our building over the last few weeks but perhaps that is not all bad... time for a rethink...

Doing IT Differently - IT begins...

2008-02-24T10:24:00.004+11:00

We are one week into the academic year now and much has happened... This PowerPoint explains the purpose and thinking behind the Student-Directed Inquiry course - the new TQA syllabus designed to stimulate learning skills and ways of thinking for work, study and life in the 21st century. (PowerPoint with notes - click/hover top left corner icon on each page - for those with access to our Moodle.)

Students have signed up for some of the online services that we will use to help us keep the learning personalised and flexible... Twitter, Google Reader and 43Things.

For those who would like to read a blow-by-blow description I've started a new journal HC Interactive Media.

While I've used these tools and processes with classes in the past this is the first time that it's all been coherently integrated... It's early days yet but things are looking very promising.

Exciting stuff!

Doing IT Differently - H: What's Missing?

2008-01-10T07:21:00.000+11:00

What will be different at HC in 2008?

H: What's Missing?

In this series I've focused on changes in the Computing learning area. Of course there are also new initiatives in other learning areas and I hope to write about some of those over the next few weeks.

In the last post of this series I'd like to touch on a couple of things I think are still missing if we are to engage all learners in education that leads to purposeful futures.

The first is Social Foresight or Futures Studies. We need to empower students with the knowledge and tools to be able to predict likely futures and create preferred futures - both personal and societal. However we have done little in this area and it has not been a priority in current course development work. This must change.

In the Computing area there are several avenues for exploring possible and preferred futures:

Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Technological solutions for current local and global challenges

The emerging field of Integral Futures might provide a way for students to use 4 Quadrant Integral Theory as a framework (see F: Conceptual Frameworks) to map possibilities.

The second is Spirituality. Spirituality is recognised in state and national educational policy but progress in this area has been slow until recently. We need to look for opportunities to address:

students' sense of deeper meaning, connectedness, purpose and place
spiritual literacy and spiritual expression
inspiration and wisdom
mindfulness and stillness

Above Maslow's need for self-actualization is the need for self-transcendence - a need to be of service to humanity and the planet. Today's global challenges provide many opportunities for expression at this level.

Previous: G: Blended Learning

Doing IT Differently - G: Blended Learning

2008-01-09T08:10:00.000+11:00

What will be different at HC in 2008?

G: Blended Learning

Blended Learning involves the use of multiple learning environments - usually some combination of physical/face-to-face and online/virtual approaches.

Over the last few years we have gradually expanded our use of online/virtual technologies for learning, teaching and assessment - both in the range of technologies and the number of students involved (see below).

Our range of physical/face-to-face approaches has also expanded over the same period to include team teaching, coaching/mentoring, workplaces, simulated work environments, open/flexible learning, regional annexes and others.

HC students and teachers in the virtual world Skoolaborate - 2007

In 2008 we will attempt to provide more seamless physical/online blended learning environments for all computing students (and several other courses) 24/7 whether they are on campus, at home or even in some workplaces. These environments will involve the following:

A formal online environment where the class can store and share documents, discuss topics, pose questions and collaborate. We will use Moodle and ELGG services hosted off-campus and MS SharePoint Portal hosted on-campus.
Presence and communication where students and teachers can be seen to be online and exchange information and files 24/7 as required. MS Office Communicator will be mandatory for all computing students. Other systems commonly used by students are Live Messenger, Google Talk, Facebook/Myspace, SMS... (Email is infrequently used for communication by the majority of students.)
Virtual worlds where students and teachers can meet, complete tasks and create through personalised avatars in persistent online environments. We will expand our use of Skoolaborate and we also want to rent some education space for teachers to meet interested parents.
Game worlds where students can roleplay, complete tasks and create new environments. We will expand our use of Neverwinter Nights begun in 2007 - and also our use of serious games such as PeaceMaker also trialled in 2007..
Mobile Learning where students use mobile phones, game consoles, MP3 players and laptops to engage with course materials on and off campus.
Mobile Desktop and RSS where students can integrate their online identities and interactions - educational and social - in a one-stop-shop. We will promote Google Desktop and Facebook although students may choose another service.
Networked Learning where students connect - and hopefully engage - with professional communities of practise in their learning area. We will promote the Bloglines and Google Reader aggregation services although students can also bring RSS feeds back to Moodle, ELGG or even Facebook.

Previous - F: Conceptual Frameworks Next - G: What's Missing?

Doing IT Differently - F: Conceptual Frameworks

2008-01-08T07:16:00.000+11:00

What will be different at HC in 2008?

F: Conceptual Frameworks

The shift in focus from information to knowledge and understanding - and even wisdom - has emphasised the need to highlight concepts, conceptual lenses and conceptual frameworks in curriculum design - as well as learning and teaching. (eg see Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction by Erickson)

However, although conceptual frameworks are used by educators in research and curriculum design they are not as often given to students to help them make their own connections.

Over the last few years a number of colleagues have supplemented their teaching of the usual topic or subject based concepts (eg 'values', 'texture', 'evolution' or 'sustainability') with more integrative frameworks such as Senge's 'systems framework', Gardner's 'multiple intelligences framework' and Wilber's 'four-quadrant framework'. The response from students has been very positive.

In 2008 we plan to introduce integrative frameworks to computing students - particularly those doing interactive media involving Student Directed Inquiry (see previous post). We will continue to use integrative conceptual frameworks with students in English, Media and our academic achievement program.

Integrative conceptual frameworks help students to:

move their thinking to the metacognitive level - thinking about thinking

make sense of transdisciplinary inquiry - required in the Student Directed Inquiry course

make connections to their existing knowledge and understanding

know what they don't know - and know where to find out

transfer learning to new situations - and cope with rapid change

understand the importance of worldviews - and the need for collaborative inquiry

Exactly how we will use integrative conceptual concepts with computing students still needs to be worked out...

Previous - E: Assessment of, for and as Learning Next - F: Blended Learning

Doing IT DIfferently - E: Assessment of, for and as Learning

2008-01-06T07:36:00.000+11:00

What will be different at HC in 2008?

E: Assessment of, for and as Learning

Over the last three years we have had a close look at our assessment practices clarifying the pros and cons of formative and summative assessment - assessment OF learning, assessment FOR learning and assessment AS learning. (See also Assessment is for Learning - Scotland)

Key Assessment Principles have now been integrated into the K-10 Tasmanian Curriculum and the Post Year 10 Curriculum Framework - as well as into the learning, teaching and assessment practices of many teachers. Note that Tasmania uses criterion-based assessment with competency-based assessment for vocational courses.

In 2008 we will more formally implement, for a larger number of students, a range of assessment practices that we have successfully trialled over the last few years

self and peer assessment - students will be supported to use a number of self assessment tools designed to facilitate assessment AS learning. A key part of this process will be reflective online journals (blogs and microblogs) - reading, writing and commenting.

formal assessment - existing courses have been redeveloped and new courses written to incorporate a broader range of formal assessment processes: folios, logs, presentations... while the traditional end-of-course written exams have been shortened or even eliminated in some cases.

course assessment options - with a focus on personalised student learning comes the need for greater flexibility in assessment options. Computing students will be able to negotiate to be assessed against the most appropriate course well into the teaching year. For some this might mean assessment in national vocational modules as well as a TCE course for the same class.

Previous - D: New Curriculum Next - F: Conceptual Frameworks

Doing IT Differently - D: New Curriculum

2008-01-03T09:36:00.000+11:00

What will be different at HC in 2008?

D: New Curriculum

During 2004/5 a new Curriculum Framework was developed for years 11/12 and in 2006/7 courses were written and new initiatives were trialled based on this Framework. Parallel with this process Post Year 10 education is being restructured with an integration of Senior Secondary Colleges and TAFE to give a multi-campus Polytechnic, a multi-campus Academy and a Training Enterprise as part of the Tasmania Tomorrow strategy by 2009.

In 2008 we will implement Computing courses re-developed based on the new Framework as well as the new course Student Directed Inquiry. In our case Student Directed Inquiry (SDI) will be offered in the broad area of Interactive Media and will allow students to conduct transdisciplinary inquiry in areas of personal interest. The aim of the SDI course is to "promote learning skills and ways of thinking essential for the development of self-directed, self-managing, lifelong learners in the 21st century."

Teachers and students will work closely with a programmer with extensive experience in the games industry who visited the college during 2007. Although this course does not begin until February 2008 six students have already formed a production team and have had long planning meetings!

A key feature of our curriculum implementation in 2008 will be that learning will be personalised and will not be rigidly bound by syllabuses, timetables, assessment or classrooms. These structures will be interpreted as frameworks only - students and teachers will be able to determine the exact nature of their own learning, teaching and assessment.

The focus will be on student learning that creates:

Insightful learners who can access, apply, transfer and create knowledge;
Individuals who are self-directed and ethical;
Citizens who are engaged, active and responsible in their community; and
Forward thinkers who can apply their skills and understanding to successfully participate in work, society and future learning.

Previous - C: Social Learning Next - E: Assessment of, for and as Learning

Doing IT Differently - C: Social Learning

2008-01-02T08:32:00.000+11:00

What will be different at HC in 2008?

C: Social Learning

A number of colleagues have already started using Web 2.0 tools with their students or other educators. A couple of classes were even assessed on their social bookmarking and MySpace pages. A few English students created MySpace pages for fictional characters they were studying and MySpace layout and content was assessed in some Media subjects. The majority of students on campus had MySpace pages.

In 2008 selected social learning (web 2.0) tools will be integrated into learning, teaching and assessment for a large group of students.

Social Bookmarking - students will be encouraged to keep and share bookmarks online using del.icio.us. The college has already established a number of accounts for some learning areas eg journalism, game design, learning2learn, multimedia
Research - Google Notebook will be used for making, collating and sharing notes while researching online.
Journals (Blogs) - students will post to online journals - tagged according to topic and/or assessment criteria - and students will read and comment on other student journals or international blogs. A number of customised services will be provided including Moodle and ELGG - or students can use another service and provide an RSS feed for class aggregation.
Microblogging - particularly recommended for students engaged in student directed inquiry projects - using Twitter or Jaiku.
Social Networking - students will be encouraged to establish a digital identity and presence that will get them "hired not fired". Facebook will be the preferred site for linking students on campus and for specialist groups established for some classes. 43 Things may be used by some students to set learning and life goals.

A number of services will be used to aggregate various feeds for students and teachers including Google Reader, Bloglines and ELGG. At this stage there is no extensive use planned for wikis in 2008.

Previous - B: Personalised Learning Next - D: New Curriculum

Doing IT Differently - B: Personalised Learning

2008-01-01T08:22:00.000+11:00

What will be different at HC in 2008?

B: Personalised Learning

2008 will be the first year that Tasmanian students beginning year 11 will have a well developed and formally submitted Personal Pathway Plan indicating their educational and vocational intentions. Pathway progress will be reviewed and plans adapted if necessary before the end of 2009/10 as part of the qualification process for the new Tasmanian Certificate of Education.

In 2008 all students who are doing a Computing subject at HC will develop a Personal Learning Plan where they will map out the learning, teaching and assessment they require for their chosen pathway. Within their timetabled computing course time students will be able to navigate through a number of learning options such as:

teacher directed tasks
student directed tasks
teacher and student presentations
online tutorials, presentations, expertise
small group and one-to-one tutorials
social learning options - see later post
assessment options - see later post

Student attendance will be recorded from both attendance and participation - face-to-face and online. Students will be required to show evidence of a minimum participation of 5 hrs per week. This can be done in a number of ways:

formal attendance at sessions - recorded ftf and online
weekly online journal (blog with desired privacy settings) - RSS feed to teacher
Microblogging using Twitter - RSS feed to teacher
Social learning activities - RSS feed(s) to teacher
Learning folio - tagged documents with RSS activity feed to teacher
weekly email

Students and teachers will manage learning, teaching and assessment through the college Portal, college Moodle, college ELGG, RSS aggregators and/or other negotiated ICT tools and services (eg IM, Google Apps).

Previous - A: Team Teaching Next - C: Social Learning

Doing IT Differently - A: Team Teaching

2007-12-31T15:41:00.000+11:00

What will be different in 2008 at Hobart College?

A - Team Teaching

Over the last couple of years a few colleagues have been doing some team teaching. This has involved teaming classes that are timetabled at the same time. In some cases classes were combined for tasks or presentations and at other times teachers have swapped to bring specialist knowledge or processes to a class. We have learned a little about what to do - and when...

In 2008 all Computing students will experience team teaching. We have deliberately 'lined' classes for more efficient pairing and we will use some 'off-line' time to enable even larger groups to meet occasionally from across the 'lines'. (We have a 5 'line' timetable with some 'off-line' times where no formal classes are lined.)

Some team teaching in Computing has become a necessity in recent years because no individual teacher can expect keep up with all aspects of many courses. We will now formalise and extend our team teaching.

Each computing teacher will be able to:

meet a single class as usual in the classroom
meet a combined class in a lecture theatre or a new 'double-classroom' - with both teachers present or just one thus freeing up the other teacher
offer short 15 min presentations (teacher or student) which are recorded and made available via web or mp3/4 player - giving students the choice to attend in person
meet students online - synchronously or asynchronously - giving the option of reducing face-to-face 'contact time' for the whole class
offer tutorials or workshops to small numbers of students when required

In addition, some selected English classes will also be involved in team teaching - as they have in the recent past - but this time these classes will be located near the computing classes and Computing and English teachers will team teach across subject areas. eg Computing teachers will meet with English students to look at some online tools and English teachers will meet with computing students to look at digital story telling...

As part of the team teaching process we intend to advertise teacher expertise online so that advanced students requiring specialist assistance can contact the relevant teacher directly - either online or face-to-face. We hope to also include some student experts in this service - see Social Learning.

Team teaching arrangements will not affect other classes operating across the campus that are using the timetable as 'normal'.

Previous - Introduction Next - B: Personalised Learning

Doing IT Differently...

2007-12-30T10:48:00.000+11:00

THE TIME HAS COME... to KNOW a new education system... to DO new things in education... to BE different in education...

Heard it all before? Well yes... these things were said in 1998 with the 21st century looming... and the recognition that education needed to change.

After a decade of talking and projects and reforms - and learning - it now might be time for actual transformation to occur... or at least the next stage of our (my) transformation where we (I) actually KNOW how we (I) want ACT and BE in education.

How different? My sense of difference comes as I reflect on my personal and systemic journey of the last decade - and in particular the last 2 years - and then attempt to project myself into 2008/9.

Over the next few posts I intend to reflect on the key initiatives and understandings of the last two years that I think will shape my - and my students' and colleagues - experience of education in 2008 and beyond in our State system.

Gee - did I just write that - this should be interesting... :-)

Next - A: Team Teaching

I Couldn't Resist...

2007-10-25T22:58:00.000+11:00

After my last post on ARGs I could not resist the hype of CSI:NY going into Second Life yesterday. I put on my Hobart College T-shirt and followed Detective Mac Taylor into New York and a "compelling transmedia experience" as Henry Jenkins calls it. I certainly had fun... and I didn't even get to the serious part...

While on the CSI virtual set I spoke with others using the new voice chat - it was very clear - as were the US accents - and it added an odd kind of authenticity to the whole experience.

Viewers of this end-of-series episode of CSI:NY now have a few months to enter virtual Ney York and investigate the crime scene to solve the murders - before the series resumes next year. I saw many people earnestly following the murder trail while I was in-world. Could this be homework?

What are the possibilities for ARGs in education?

Ewan McIntosh has a good post with more links.

ARG TINAG - on a Quest

2007-10-07T18:22:00.000+11:00

Arg Tinag was born in 1333AD. It's now 1352 and he is visiting Hobart College fresh from training at a prestigious Academy...

ARG and TINAG are also acronyms for Alternate Reality Game and This Is Not A Game...

To construct this game I've created machinima in Neverwinter Nights to tell Arg's story - and leave clues for others to follow in his footsteps. The clues are distributed across machinima, a web site, Arg's MySpace (he has a 'portal' to 2007) and our physical campus.

Episode 1 (above) introduces players to Arg's Quest. In Episode 2 Arg gets vital information from Joe - our real-life security guard - and some penguins (which are a bit of a MySpace meme with our students this year). To progress in the game students have to talk to Joe and decipher a clue given by the penguins which leads them to Arg's MySpace portal. Only players who make friends with Arg get to see further clues.

Episode 3 brings the promise of gold - virtual and real - if players can solve the clues which involves them in finding the campus dog Louis - in real life...

What's next? I've no idea - the story now has a life of its own... :-)

Only a few students have discovered Arg Tinag to date... so I'll now sit back and see who else wants to play... A bit of an experiment in viral marketing as well... :-)

I've found this to be a fascinating mix of the virtual and real - and quite new for some students who had to be convinced that part of the quest involved them leaving their computers...

Engaging Second Lives

2007-07-09T17:22:00.000+10:00

Many - but not all - of my students are living part of their lives in or through digital environments - engaging and often exciting digital environments! Most do not see it that way however - but then I would probably not say that I live in or through print media. It's just everyday living - integrated living perhaps...

I'm continuing my exploration of the educational potential of online immersive worlds - summarised in the above presentation which perhaps simplistically refers to how some people have changed the way they engage with the internet from the information Web 1.0 to the participatory Web 2.0 to the immersive Web 3.0 (or Web 3.D).

This year I've noticed more students plunging into virtual worlds at every opportunity. Many of these worlds are now available through internet browsers. Angela Thomas from the University of Sydney has a brilliant presentation (with audio) on the role of play in immersive worlds and talks about their transformative potential on students and pedagogy. Well worth a look.

I've allowed students to play in these worlds in my multimedia class. Partly to see why they are so engaged, partly to see if I can compete with tasks I set, partly to see if I can use these worlds as a learning environment...

A few weeks ago I purchased several copies of Neverwinter Nights - it has a Toolset for game design - and students have really enjoyed it. After a short time playing it they moved on to designing their own landscapes dotted with characters and buildings and portals... They are now constructing stories with conversations to engage the player.

Neverwinter is not an online persistent virtual world like World of Warcraft or Second Life and that has some advantages for the classroom - although it is not without technical difficulties to get it to work in a school environment.

I'm still thinking about using Teen Second Life but there are security and safety issues to address - worth the challenge I think.

Integrating Science and Soul in Education

2007-06-13T23:12:00.000+10:00

Sue has just completed a great presentation on Science and Soul for the upcoming CONASTA ICASE conference in Perth. It's in two parts and is 25 mins long. Great visuals!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Best Practice in SL Education 07

2007-05-27T11:15:00.000+10:00

I've just attended my first conference in SecondLife - the International SecondLife Best Practices in Education 07

Here is a short clip that shows what it was like to attend one session... Apparently there were over 900 attendees with many venues - and overflow venues - full.

Presentations were simulcast by the SL Cable Network to screens in the overflow venues in SL and on the web.

I managed to get to 5 sessions - all very good.

Cynthia Calongne (Lyr Lobo-SL) Colorado Technical University in Second Life: The Amusement and the Maze Game Class Projects
John Jamison (Virtual Bacon-SL) Two Years of Introducing Educators to Second Life in 60 Minutes, or:Tips for Dinosaur Wrangling
Peggy Sheehy (Maggie Marat-SL), Catherine Parsons (Victoria Gloucster-SL), Kevin Jarrett (KJ Hax-SL) K-12 Panel: "To Affinity and Beyond: Fostering meaningful and productive relationships in a virtual reality environment"
Peggy Sheehy (Maggie Marat-SL) Ramapo Islands: A New Dimension in Learning
Lindy McKeown (Decka Mah-SL) Action Learning in Second Life

CLIP: SL Best Practices in Education - Click for some snapshots

See also other participant's pics on Flickr.

I made a number of very useful contacts between sessions - some I hope to work with as I pursue the technical, educational and policy challenges of getting access to SecondLife in my school...

The educational benefits to students were made very clear by the above presenters - and the oft repeated advice in many sessions was to get educators and technicians and policy makers in there to see and experience an immersive world for themselves.

A Folio of eFolios

2007-04-12T18:13:00.000+10:00

We are using a number of digital folio technologies this year - and we may continue using most of them. Each seems to suit a different student and teacher needs...

MS SharePoint (2003)

We host and administer SharePoint on campus. Every student can create a personal space with:

room to upload and share documents and digital media
message space
tasks list - with task management functionality
links and other modules such as discussion forums and surveys
access control - students can set who has what level of access
presencing - the system indicates who is currently online - integrates with MS Office

It's also possible for users to add modules that display del.icio.us tags and flickr feeds from mobile phone uploads:

Moodle

We use an off-campus service with web administration. Several teachers are using Moodle for their classes with

space to upload documents and digital media
forums and blogs - with tagging
news, calendar, messages
student management and statistics

Teachers find that Moodle provides a more controlled on-line learning environment that is particularly suited to Open Learning classes - although a few other classes also use it.

ELGG - Social Networking

This is the first time we have tried a social networking learning environment. We are using a hosted Elgg service while we evaluate it. We are currently using it:

for some classes and special interest groups (SIGs)
to host learning journals
as a digital folio for tagged multimedia
to aggregate RSS feeds
to connect students with similar interests and learning goals

Although we only have 80 users on this system at the moment the tags are beginning to build and link people and resources:

Some of our current questions are:

How can year 12 students take their digital folios with them as they move on to work and further education?
Should we attempt to provide one solution that attempts to fit all needs or should we offer several tools for students and teachers to choose from?
How can students manage digital folios for assessment and potential employers and themselves?
What is the relationship between our 'official' digital folios and other online spaces that students use to upload multimedia such as DeviantArt or YouTube or MySpace?

Making Worldviews Explicit

2007-04-11T18:38:00.000+10:00

I've tweaked my worldview presentations to English classes this year... partly to fit in with this year's texts and themes - and partly to say a little more about postmodernism and relativism.

The year 11/12 classes appeared to have stronger relativistic assumptions this year with many believing that we can do little more in dialogue than agree to express our own views and hear and respect the views of others.

The possibility of complimentary, inclusive or integral worldviews were very new concepts for most of the students. I spent a little more time this year introducing traditionalism, modernism, postmodernism and integralism.

Our discussion around "What is Love?" covered all four integral quadrants:

As did group discussion on "The Meaning of Life."

I was then able to generalise the 'integral mapping' of any issue like this:

Both the students and their teachers have used this generalised integral map in subsequent classes. I'll do some further evaluation later on in their courses...

Mobile Learning Fun

2007-03-17T20:41:00.000+11:00

A few weeks ago I bought my first mobile phone - yeah I know... not many other people can believe it either - and me an IT Manager :-) Anyway I've been learning just what a (Motorola Maxx V6) mobile can do in the classroom - and I'm really enjoying it.

I recently polled 200 of our students (out of 900) and found that mobile phone ownership is very high - and 91% of student mobiles have a camera and 75% can record video. 70% of students spend up to $30 per month on their mobiles... 20% spend $50 or more.

Not only are students carrying mobiles but more are bringing laptops and gaming devices such as PS2s and DS Lites on campus. After Easter many of these devices will be able to connect to our new campus-wide wireless network.

I wanted to explore the educational potential of mobile phones for several reasons:

they enable multimedia capture of student learning - pictures, video and audio
they enable direct SMS communication with students - less than 20% of students are using our official email service (it used to be 70% 3 years ago)

they have potential use for delivery of mobile learning

every teacher now has a wireless laptop greatly improving networked access in the classroom.

After learning how to use my phone - which was no easy task since manuals are written for people who already know how to use a mobile phone (yes I read manuals) - I launched into the mobile worlds of moblogging, bluetooth, java applications and 2D barcodes. My main guide was Leonard Low's Mobile Learning Blog.

I learned how to send pictues to my Flickr account which I linked directly to my Journalism class MS SharePoint portal. This proved to be very useful because I could immediately share pictures with my students.

I use this in all my classes taking opportunistic photo's whenever I want to capture individual or group experience or evidence.

I then discoverered bluetooth! I bought a $30 USB Bluetooth adaptor, plug it into any computer and send and receive files to and from mobiles and laptops in the classroom - for free!

And as a bonus I now know something that many students do not - their mobiles have bluetooth. After telling them how to turn it on my PC monitor began to pick up their devices - we had a personal area network - PAN.

My next adventure was in running java applications. I downloaded Remote Control and was able to start applications on my laptop from my mobile. I used it to start PowerPoint, browse for the presentation I wanted and then move fowards and backwards through the slides.

Even better my mobile showed me what the next slide was while giving me the notes for the current slide - brilliant! (You can see the bluetooth adapter plugged into the side of my laptop.)

My plan is to put bluetooth adapters into every computer lab so that students can transfer pictures, video and audio to computers for free.

I also played with 2D barcodes - fascinating - although I can't think of how I might use it at the moment...

In a related project we have signed up to an online SMS service so that teachers can send and receive text messages on their computers - using a normal keyboard. Early trials were very positive and now ten teachers have joined the project. Some teachers have free SMS available on their mobile plans and will use that to message students about their attendance or courses.

As you can see I'm enjoying my new mobile - and I'm also engaging my students :-)

Integrating Science and Soul in Education

2007-01-29T09:08:00.000+11:00

My wife has just put her recently completed thesis online!

To quote from her abstract:

"This is an auto-ethnographic study into the lived experience of a science teacher as she attempts to transform her science teaching practice and the practice of other science teachers over a period of 15 years. In exploring what it means to be a holistic educator she is faced with disorienting dilemmas which cause her to question underpinning assumptions, values and curriculum frameworks which inform traditional science teaching practice and culture. In trying to reconcile science and soul in the pedagogical space of a physics classroom her journey requires a deep investigation of self in various cultures – science culture, educational culture, modernist and postmodernist cultures."

Check out the contents... check out the cartoons and art work... listen to her introduction...

Phenomenal work!

Teaching for Engaged Learning

2007-01-10T08:36:00.000+11:00

I'm still mulling over what "engaged learning" might mean - this time from a teacher (or teachers - no single teacher can do all this!) point of view. There are a number of ways of mapping this and the following may not be the best - it tends to imply some isolation of concepts that are very much connected and interdependant.... but too many lines begins to look very messy - which it is!

I might just let this sit a while... it needs work... and i'm not sure how useful it is - except to show how messy learning and teaching really are... :-)

Engaging Learners - What's Different?

2007-01-03T16:44:00.000+11:00

What's new about engaging learners? Following the thread of the last post I've attempted to map out some of the factors I believe have changed the way we might need to engage learners.

I've shown four areas (pink) that have changed significantly over the last few decades - some incrementally such as educational research informing learning, teaching and assessment practices - and some transformationally such as new worldviews or transdisciplinary inquiry.

Briefly with a couple of examples:

Engaging with ALL Students: Today we recognise that all human beings are natural learners and that learning should be meaningful and joyful for everyone. For educational institutions this means providing engaging learning environments and experiences for a wide diversity of learners. For teachers it means catering for individual learner differences.

Educational Research: Most of what we know about how the brain learns has only been discovered in the last decade or so. Today we have a much better understanding of assessment - of, for and as learning. Our knowledge of the advantages and limitations of different curriculum structures has improved.

Knowledge and Disciplines: Today we have immediate access to a rapidly increasing knowledge base. Over the last few decades multi-disciplinary, inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary inquiry have become increasingly important. New worldviews have transformed many disciplines - eg deep ecology, quantum physics, transpersonal psychology...

Social, Cultural and Planetary Change: Today's learners are living with, and being affected by, social, cultural and planetary change. Some of this change is incremental - faster, bigger, better... but more of the same - albeit at fast rate of change. Other change is transformational involving new ways of thinking, doing and being.

Values and Worldviews - There is an increasing recognition of the need to balance reductionistic, positivistic and materialistic thinking with systems, ecological, quantum, and network approaches. Organisations are increasingly considering 2nd (people), 3rd(planetary) and 4th (spirituality) bottom lines.
Globalisation - Through agreements in global trade, technology, economics and politics the world has become more closely connected and interdependent.
Technology - Advances in biotechnology, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence... are beginning to transform society. Information and communication technologies have already transformed many aspects of society and culture. A significant proportion of youth think and behave differently because of these technologies.
Sustainability - There are several challenges facing the planet that require us to adopt different ways of thinking and being.
Social Justice - Issues of equity and social justice requiring systemic approaches have become more prominent.
Workplace - Employees now require so-called "21st Century" skills such as information literacy, problem solving, metacognition, collaboration... for the workplace.
Authority - Church and Nation, family and career do not provide the same sense of authority and purpose for many people - particularly youth. On the other hand there is a rise in fundamentalism.

What have I missed?

It needs a list of references... (although you can see many in the list of books on the side of this blog - not to mention the delicious tags...)

Anyway... in summary...

The conversation about engaging learners is different today because:

We are talking about engaging all learners.
We know more about how to engage learners.
We need to engage learners in 21st century knowledge, skills and understanding
Many learners are enculturated differently through new and different technology, commercial values, worldviews... Traditional sources of meaning are not as relevant for many young people.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly we recognise that this issue is complex and requires systems thinking. We also know that there is no ONE solution. One size does not fit all.

Engaged Learners

2006-12-31T09:50:00.000+11:00

Many new curriculum talk about "engaging learners". For example, our new state curriculum framework for years 11/12 is about "enaging with all students in the learning that will empower them to create and realise purposeful futures."

I've been reading some blog posts questioning what it means to be an 'engaged learner', what's new about 'engaging learners' and how you might assess 'engagement'. Some good provocative questions - and they got me thinking...

While I can point out engaged learners in most classes at my school it is clear that not every student is engaged - some are disenaged and some (many?) are passive learners. But before jumping too quickly into how I 'know' this I thought I should start to map what makes an engaged learner. Then perhaps I can talk about whether it can be measured...

From my own experience and reading things like this and this I've mapped out the following (still needs work):

The blue boxes represent engaged learning processes while the green boxes show some common curriculum goals/intended outcomes. (If you use CMaps and want to edit it you can find it in Public spaces (2) --> Curriculum 2006 (userid:hent password:blog)

No wonder enagement is hard to pin down - let alone assess. On the other hand most teachers can tell when a student is really engaged in their learning... mostly through observation and conversation - you can often see it in their body language and hear it in their voice.

I think I'll let this sit a while before thinking about if and/or how one might measure the degree of enagement...

Assessing in VET - Freedom, Structure and Personalisation

2006-12-28T19:01:00.000+11:00

One of the classes I teach is a year 11/12 vocational education class in Information Technology - a combined Certificate 2/3 class. The course is actually a double class of 9hrs per week and is assessed against both the AQF VET Certificate competencies and the TQA Vocational Learning criteria. I recently gave a presentation showing how this course is structured and assessed.

The slides are linked below but they need some explanation... (names and faces have been blurred for privacy)

vet_assessment

The course has been designed to meet a number of needs:

the wide diversity of student IT knowledge/skills/understanding
the lack of some specific IT knowledge/skills by the teacher(s)
the requirement for students to experience a real IT workplace
the efficient management of assessment as learning, for learning and of learning

The wide range of student expertise provides both challenges and opportunities. Each student needs a personalised learning program based on what they already know and what they need to know. Each student knows something the others do not and can therefore help to teach. The course is highly structured to provide individual student freedom across multiple learning opportunities/environments. (See slides above for more detail.)

	The course has nine learning environments.
From vet_assessment

Students progress at their own pace through a list of class tasks; they form expert groups to research and present information; they work in a Helpdesk Office servicing 1100 students and staff; they maintain one of the ten campus computer labs (lab watch); they may opt to work in an outside business/industry; they maintain hardware in the Helpdesk Workshop; they complete online courses; they attend and run formal Helpdesk meetings; they work on projects on site, in the workplace or at home.

Some online courses are mandated and others are chosen by students. We use online courses provided by SkillSoft (purchased), Microsoft Training (free) and other internet sites.

This year I was involved in team-teaching the course with Jon - in previous years I have taught the double-class myself. How do I manage and assess all of this? Over the last few years I have evolved the following management and assessment strategies.

	Evidence of student competency is collected by the students and collated using a number of ICT tools.
From vet_assessment

Each student collects evidence of their learning in a digital (MySite) or paper-based folio (most did both). This includes certificates from online courses, photo's from the workplace, project report forms, client evaluation sheets, class tasks... Students either write a blog or write in their paper-based folio (most chose a blog) about new technology (they subscribe to RSS feeds) and reflection on their learning. Each week every student replies to an email detailing participation across the nine learning environments.

I sit down with each student as and when required and sign off specific VET IT competencies in their formal Record Book and validate their self assessment against the Vocational Learning criteria. It all works quite well :-)

PS I'm playing with google - personalisation, widgets, picasa... and upgrading my blog - that's why you may have got the whole blog as a 'new post' in your RSS feed...

Knowledge and Slowness in Learning

2006-10-22T07:45:00.000+11:00

Knowledge workers need to know how to use tools and frameworks to do their jobs according to Charles Jennings, Global Head of Learning at Reuters UK. Jennings painted a clear picture of the way workplaces have changed over the last 20 years on day 2 of the Global Summit 2006 in Sydney:

70% of jobs created in the USA since 1998 have been for "knowledge workers"
"knowledge worker"jobs now make up 41% of all jobs in the USA (2005)
only 20-30% of workplace performance is knowledge/skills related (2005)
people learn 80% of what they need to know informally on-the-job

He cited Kelley's longitudinal study showing how the amount of knowledge that we need to know in our own minds to do our jobs has changed: 1986 - 75% ... 1997 - 15-20% ... 2006 - 8-10%

Jennings spoke of the need to shift from training to learning; of the need to know less and learn more; of the need for workers to have tools and frameworks to locate and process what they need to know when they need to know it.

And now for something completely different...

Geetha Narayanan from the School of Art Design and Technology, India presented two concepts. The first was the importance of digital story telling - showing how young disadvantaged people can be empowered to use cameras and recorders to tell their own powerful stories. And to tell them so well that they win international competitions.

The second was the notion of "slow schools". Narayanan spoke of the importance of health and well-being among today's technology rich, fast-paced and consumer oriented middle-class learners. The slow school idea was spawned by the slow food campaign which began as a protest against fast-food outlets but is rapidly becoming a global movement and has recently been popularised by TV chef Jamie Oliver as slow food moves into schools and begins to transform education...

Slow schools look for opportunities to slow the pace of thinking and move to being in the moment. Narayanan gave examples of moving students from thinking about the sun to embodying and being the sun as they sit in circles with feet touching, or slowly draw 10 suns rather than one, or as they dance watching sunrise...

Slow schools allow time for discussion and reflection - and focus on how students form concepts and make meaning.

Co-incidentally my blog reading recently introduced me to "slow design" and "slow cities" - the latter is already a network of 100 towns in 10 countries embodying the 'slow' metaphor.

Perhaps this brings new meaning to the concept of the slow learner :-)

Can Schools Save the Planet?

2006-10-19T07:52:00.000+11:00

If politicians are talking about global warming it must be VERY serious according to Robert Cailliau, a co-inventor of the world-wide-web, who spoke at the Global Summit 2006 yesterday.
Cailliau suggests that educators need to consider the role of education in addressing some of the most challenging issues that face the planet today. But how? What knowledge, skills, understanding, apptitudes... will help learners to help the planet?

Einstein reminded us that you can't solve problems with the same kind of thinking that created them. What kind of thinking do we need in educational institutions and how will it be different?

We can talk about engaging and empowering students to be active learners and global citizens in a technology connected world but what about different ways of thinking?

Is it about looking at principles of sustainability and social justice such as those expressed in The Earth Charter ?

Is it about the knowledge and skills and understanding of futures thinking and social foresight?

Is it about challenging our assumptions and worldviews and using more holistic or integral ways knowing and being?

If we don't "think differently" how as James Boscoe asked delegated do we know we won't be sitting at conferences in 20 years time asking ourselves the same questions? Or perhaps we won't have the luxury of being able to sit in conference buildings... at least where they are built now anyway...

Designing Courses: Learning Areas and Capabilities

2006-10-15T12:58:00.000+11:00

I've been playing with models that might clarify the process of designing courses in order to provide for all students under the new Post Year 10 Curriculum Framework for Tasmania. I've also been reading about the current call for a "back to basics" national curriculum and in particular thinking about Alan Reid's proposal's in Rethinking National Curriculum Collaboration - but within a State rather than national context. (School education is the constitutional responsibility of the States in Australia.)

Before the current PY10 Curriculum Framework was developed the structure of the curriculum was hard to conceptualise. In the late 80s and early 90s traditional subjects were loosely grouped into 'learning areas'; new programs to support literacy, numeracy and ICT literacy were developed; new courses emerged and some stayed; student support, health and well-being and career/pathway options evolved; key competencies/capabilities were identified...

However much of this sat outside traditional subjects/leaning areas - conceptually and often in implementation as well - or sometimes uneasily within syllabuses and timetables as attempts were made to "embed them".

Syllabus development most often occurred within subject/learning areas and tended to reinforce existing knowledge structures, ways of learning, teaching and assessment. New courses often failed to gain a foothold if they did not fall neatly into traditional ways of organising knowledge.

The new PY10 Curriculum Framework is based on agreed values and purposes arrived at during a long period of co-construction. We are currently looking at the structures and processes that might inform the provision of courses within the Framework. What range of courses will be available to choose from?

While we now have a State Curriculum Framework individual year 11/12 schools will be responsible for implementation to meet student needs in local contexts. Which courses will schools choose to offer their students? And how will individual classroom teachers interpret these courses?

(NB In this graphic the number of learning areas is arbitrary.)

A key question at the moment is what sits between the values and purposes and the capabilities/literacies? What are the contexts for learning? Can we move away from learning areas? Should we move away from learning areas? Following Reid's suggestion (in the above paper) can we develop courses where students learn for the capabilities through the learning areas - leaving the details of what learning to schools, teachers and students?

Or will existing ways organising knowledge/skills and their associated communities of practice work against providing opportunities to develop all the capabilities required for the 21st century? Will anything really change if traditional learning areas still dominate structures and processes for course/syllabus development.

And where do transdisciplinary approaches fit? How do we move beyond disciplines to engage in the kind of rigorous thinking that is needed to meet today's societal and planetary challenges? Can we construct valued learning experiences/courses that exist in the space between the disciplines and their well developed resources/support structures/dialogues?

Perhaps we need to use other lenses/conceptual frameworks to help us create courses/learning experiences that help students to make meaningful connections beyond subject borders and to "know what they don’t know". Can we generate meaningful content/contexts by asking the big questions? Is an 'integral' lens useful as a conceptual framework?

Perhaps course developers and classroom teachers (hopefully the same people) need to draw on a course development toolbox containing a variety of conceptual lenses... A learning ecology/connectivism framework such as the following by George Siemens that looks at "know where" as well as "know-how" and "know-what" might be one tool.

And how can we establish course developement models/principles that ensure the ongoing currency of courses in today's rapidly changing world?

Not enough time for...

2006-09-23T22:42:00.000+10:00

Not enough time for teaching... to cover the syllabus/curriculum...
Not enough time to pick up new skills... to try new things...
Not enough time to reach each student... to personalise learning...
Not enough time to have professional conversations... to co-construct...

How can we use time differently?

I've been thinking about how my own use of time has changed over the last few years - both in and out of class...

In class I now...

offer online learning and printed resources instead of writing notes on a board
use student self/peer assessment to complement my assessment
spend less time assessing and when I do it's usually sitting down in conversation with each student
spend more time listening to student presentations
spend more time online - viewing student work, commenting on blogs and in other student spaces, setting new tasks, researching links for just-in-time teaching...
expect students to ask more questions rather than just provide "answers" to my questions
spend more time showing a few students something and then asking them to show others
expect students to ask each other (or seek online help) before asking me
learn something new from students instead of always teaching/facilitating

Out of class I now...

dictate text rather than using a keyboard (and more recently produce podcasts, screencasts, videocasts rather than written documents for class or other teachers)
use electronic calendars with meeting functionality
use IM instead of email to make casual contact with students and colleagues
walk into other classes and chat with teachers/students
do much less preparation for class and much less assessment

At home I now...

read work emails in morning before going to work - (take time off in lieu when appropriate)
read blogs instead of morning newspaper - (a much more uplifting experience)
participate in online events - conferences, seminars, courses, meetings, blogging - (take time off in lieu when appropriate)
work from home with high speed internet access to school resources - (take time off in lieu when appropriate)

So the way I use time has changed... even more than I'd realised...

Was it easy to change? No! There was a transition period where I was trying to do what I had always done while trying new things - spending too many hours at work and home - not healthy :-)

But I soon discovered that students

do just as well if I don't assess everything
learn just as much if I don't write everything on the board
take more responsibility for their own learning if I don't always provide the "answer"
learn just as much from each other as me
can still cover the course if they take time to research and present to the class themselves

Plus I have found that I can do some work tasks much more efficiently from home.

Many of my colleagues however still spend a great deal of their time preparing and assessing work while trying to read emails and adapt to new curriculum. For many Wednesday feels like Friday. It's not sustainable.

For these teachers self/peer assessment is not believed to be realistic. Taking time to do anything other than "cover the curriculum" is believed to be time-wasting. Learning new skills in IT is seen to be impossible given the lack of time...

Graphic from MS Clipart: Non-commercial use

Special Interest Groups

2006-09-23T09:40:00.000+10:00

Next year we are planning to offer students the option of joining Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that are tied to our normal mentor/counselling groups.

In the past all students were timetabled to attend a mentor/counselling group for 30 mins once a week with a teacher. This year one of these groups was set up around a student area of interest so that rather than students having a common teacher or subject they have a common interest. It has worked very well with much better attendance and enthusiastic participation.

Several groups of teachers have now decided to offer a range of such Special Interest Groups for 2007. The idea is that two or more teachers will combine their mentor/counselling groups to form a larger group that is facilitiated by a team of teachers. Students are curently nominating a SIG on their 2007 enrolment forms.

Student interest has been very high. The details have yet to be worked out but in essence the groups will have one timetabled meeting each week with other activities organised by teachers, students or memebers of the wider community.

Students will be offered coffee and raison toast (a big hit with this year's group) and special events in and out of school.

We still have many details to work out but the notion of a group of heterogeneous students meeting and chatting about an area they are passionate about has a lot of appeal...

Today I read about the Virtual Learning Commons at the University of Manitoba via George Sieman's blog. This is a great idea and I'm wondering if we can extend the special interest concept to self-organising student groups as well - even if they are just virtual.

Should we get our students to use 43 Things and add a tag for our school so that students can find each other or should we (could we) do something like the U of M?

Transformational Leadership Frameworks

2006-09-17T18:35:00.000+10:00

Five Conceptual Frameworks for transformational leadership focussing on "generating the breakthrough insights needed to generate new commitments, behaviour, and results for individuals, institutions and societies."

I've just read Monica Sharma's article in the latest issue (No.12) of shift from IONS. She describes an integrated "transformative leadership" methodology she helped develop for the United Nations Development Program in 2001. Her Transformative Leadership Development Program (2005) has now reached 4.5 million people across 40 countries with a particular focus on creating leadership capacity to help countries respond to HIV/AIDS.

According to a report on the UNDP European website the Five Conceptual Frameworks provide easily transferrable tools for transformation that have been effective at all levels of society and across diverse cultures.

What would happen if we used these tools for educational change? And also for empowering students as we promote global citizenship?

Sharma's five frameworks for transformative leadership (Annexes 3) are:

Leadership Competencies and Distinctions
Emotional Intelligence Framework - based on the work of Daniel Goleman
Four-Quadrant Framework - based on the work of Ken Wilber
Levels of Organisational Development - based on the work of Rensis Likert
Dynamic Strategic Planning Processes - based on appreciative inquiry

These frameworks are used within a systems thinking approach based on the work of Peter Senge.

According to Sharma the frameworks provide conceptual maps that "suggest ways of perceiving, understanding, and interpreting the world that may be different from our usual conditioning."

She says the Transformative Leadership Development Program (TLDP)

"emphasizes that the level of learning necessary to develop transformational leaders goes beyond sharing theories, learning new techniques, or gathering information. It is a process that actually works at a level deep enough to discover and shift who people are being, not what they know; it is for individuals who are ready and willing to be learners and to engage in a process of profound personal growth."

Sounds like something we need in our education systems... :-)

I like the way the TLDP not only uses coherent conceptual frameworks as a kind of holistic lens that highlights multiple aspects of an issue, but also the way several frameworks are integrated to provide a multidimensional picture of a system... hopefully giving a better chance for sustainable systemic change.

Which frameworks/tools would best facilitate educational transformation? Would the same set also be appropriate for students involved in leadership?

Perhaps Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Framework could be added to Goleman's Emotional Intelligence Framework? Perhaps Grave's Spiral Dynamics could be added to Likert's framework? Perhaps Senge's U-Process could be added to the strategic planning processes?

There is certainly no shortage of tools! Do we know how to use them? Can we afford not to use them?

Sources:

Sharma, M (2006) Conscious Leadership at the Crossroads of Change in shift (No.12): IONS

UNDP Report Annexes 3 - Accessed from UNDP European website on 17th Sept. 2006

Learning from Gaming

2006-08-01T07:43:00.000+10:00

As educators we would like to try to engage teenagers in learning. Video game developers have to engage teenagers in learning - or they are out of work! I've just read James Gee's Why Video Games are Good for Your Soul and have much to reflect on...

Gee believes that good video games give people control, agency and meaning while promoting deep learning that closely aligns with the learning that has often been identified as necessary for the 21st century - creative problem solving, metacognition, systems thinking, transformative learning...

Gee believes that video game developers do this by:

giving people well designed visual and embodied experiences
helping people to use these experiences to think imaginatively about future actions
letting people safely experience the consequences of their actions

He believes that game developers use the latest research from neuroscience and are guided by many "learning principles" such as:

learning is experiential
learning should encourage risk taking
learning is an extended engagement of self
learning can be customised to suit learning styles
problem solving leads to generalisations that assist in solving more complex problems
learning is "just in time" or "on demand"
learning is interactive
there are many ways to solve a problem
there are intrinsic rewards keyed to the learner's level of expertise

Gee points out that in spite of their success at engaging learners few video game publishers associate their products with 'learning' - too much negative baggage associated with that word :-)

I am not a video game player... the last games I played were mostly in the late 80s... minesweeper was about as far as I got... but I now think that there might be much to gain by looking at the ways in which good video games engage teenagers - partly because most of our teenagers are so-called "digital-natives" - and partly because I know that the majority of our students play video games - particularly males - and to very high levels.

How is it that strategy games like Rise of Nations can build player skills and knowledge to the point where they are thinking and operating across space and time in many complex relationships to create a well integrated and sustainable civilization - all for FUN?

As Gee says: "This is heady stuff indeed. This type of thinking is the very hallmark and foundation of the deepest and most complicated thinking in the sciences. Biologists, physicists, and social scientists must think in these sorts of ways in order to study the complex systems they are engaged with."

In the book Gee outlines the many ways in which different kinds of video games engage both individual and multiple players in virtual worlds from first-person to god-like perspectives... each type of game involving different player-game dynamics, skills, knowledge and development.

Another aspect that interests me at the moment is the way in which video games encourage players to move up levels gaining expertise and experience... Can we learn something here about good assessment practice?

The Lives We Lead...

2006-06-20T18:41:00.000+10:00

I had a great chat with Australian educator Jo Kay earlier today on the deck of one of her properties in Second Life. Jo is doing much to help network Australian educators interested in the application of Web 2.0 technologies to learning and teaching - she is about to launch activities through the Austlalian EdNA group eCommunicate 2.0

We touched on many topics of mutual interest in 'First Life'.... accessing Second Life behind ever present firewalls.... giving students control over their own learning resources and products.... use of portal technologies.... the pros and cons of hosting spaces for students in-house....

There is something very engaging about chatting with someone - even via text - when you can see them moving - albeit an avatar. This medium has enormous potential and I'm keen to get some colleagues involved...

I've spent the last week learning to build on a piece of land I've bought in SL. It's on an island in a region called Eldora - above the snowline. It cost me L$2,250 and I'm building a gallery to show off some of my wife's art work... I even managed to get a ball rotating :-)

To learn to build I had to do a course - which was a fascinating experience in itself.... The course in building using 'primitives' was laid out on several floors of a building called Ivory Tower Library. Each floor had several 'stations' set out with sample models, instructions and a place to try it out for yourself... You can do the course in any order, take as long as you like, repeat steps as often as you like... and chat to others doing the course with you...

Lots of foundational mathematics and physics is involved in all of this - something many students might be interested in learning in this way... It's amazing what you can make with some basic shapes and a little maths and physics :-)

Jo has linked me in with an educational community on Second Life so I'm looking forward to some interesting conversations and experiences...

Curriculum as Connectivism

2006-06-13T09:41:00.000+10:00

I've been reading with interest George Siemen's blog and wiki on 'connectivism' talking about learning as network creation and how we might provide 'learning ecologies' to meet the needs of students. I'm finding these concepts very useful as we look at planning the implementation of the new Curriculum Framework. But before I launch into that I've been trying to place connectivism as a curriculum metaphor within an Integral AQAL Framework... particularly after reading his last post revisiting a discussion on subjectivity and objectivity.

I've looked at this before with some simplistic (perhaps too simplistic) mappings of other curriculum metaphors onto Ken Wilber's subjective/objective/individual/collective quadrants (270Kb). The different colours refer to waves from Spiral Dynamics... Blue as rule-self, orange as achiever-self, green as sensitive-self, yellow as integral-self... but I'm mostly interested in which quadrants these metaphors map into... at least in the way they have usually been implemented.

Curriculum as Content or Subjects: This metaphor portrays a traditional image of curriculum that stretches back to Pythagoras and Plato. This curriculum is one which receives contents from traditional academic disciplines and transmits them to the learner.
Intent: Curriculum development centres largely on subjects, contents, timetables and booklists. Needs may be defined in terms of preparation for university, commerce or general study.
Criticism: Does not account for cognitive development, creative expression, and personal growth. Nor for planned and un-planned activities that are a major part of students’ experiences at school.

Curriculum as Discrete Tasks and Concepts: The curriculum is seen as a set of tasks to be mastered and is derived from training programs in business, industry and the military.
Intent: ‘Apprenticeship’ with an adult to gain certain knowledge and skills.
Criticism: Does not prepare the learner for a changing world. Suited to technical training rather than conceptual understanding.

Curriculum as Experience: This image of curriculum, following John Dewey, emphasizes experience rather than sets of activities. Learners select a learning experience according to its significance in their life.
Intent: With this notion of curriculum, the learners have a key role in curriculum process. Experiences are created as learners reflect on the learning process.
Criticism: Students’ involvement in planning and selecting the learning experiences is very idealistic - they may not be able to decide which is of significance and which is not. How do you implement this in a large school?

Curriculum as Cultural Reproduction: The curriculum metaphor is concerned with the notion of transmission of cultural knowledge and values from one generation to another.
Intent: To prepare the youth for the culture of a certain community, state and country.
Criticism: Helps maintain the status quo by transmitting middle class culture rather than that of the oppressed. Does not help develop critical thinking.

Curriculum as “Currere”: The curriculum is the interpretation of the learner’s lived experiences – the learner comes to understand their past, how it drives the present and how it directs the future of their personal and professional life. Individuals come to a greater understanding of themselves, others, and the world about them.
Intent: Freedom from unwarranted convention, ideology and labelling. To mutually fashion new directions for oneself, others and the world.
Criticism: Self-understanding is a parental responsibility. The search for self-knowledge requires professional therapists.

Curriculum as Intended Learning Outcomes: This image sees the curriculum as a process of goal setting and drawing a pathways to those goals. The outcomes are expressed in general terms like “understanding the value of…”. Today most curriculum frameworks have incorporated this image.
Intent: The curriculum is explicit and defensible. Teachers and students can determine their learning activities according to their needs and locale.
Criticism: Draws attention away from unintended outcomes relating to school culture and the hidden curriculum.

So... how does one map curriculum as connectivism? At the moment my reading places it mainly in the ITS quadrant - grounded in an objective systemic worldview but taking into account issues of social constructivism (WE quadrant) with a span across blue/orange/green and possibly into yellow memes. A much broader span than the other metaphors...

Curriculum as Connectivism: This curriculum metaphor is related to networks and network topology. It takes a systems view of learners and sees learning as network creation.
Intent: To provide a ‘learning ecology’ that the student connects with as and when appropriate.
Criticism: Favours self-directed learners.

This is potentially a richer way of seeing curriculum provision and I'm now interested to see how this metaphor might inform our discussion of how students choose their learning, what structures we might put in place to provide learning ecologies and how we can support students to make the necessary connections... more on this later.

Our leadership team have already found Sieman's Learning in Context powerpoint very useful (see also this pdf paper) and I'm hoping to see him in Sydney later this year...

The above curriculum metaphors (apart from the last one) are sourced from: Schubert, W. H. (1986). Curriculum: Perspective, Paradigm, and Possibility. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.

Holistic and Transformational Learning

2006-06-11T08:54:00.000+10:00

The new Tasmanian Post Year 10 Curriculum Framework has just been released on CD. According to the overview document the Framework

"reflects an ‘holistic’ view of learners and learning with the experience of learning needing to extend beyond the informational to the transformational."

Our school curriculum team is now 6 months into planning for implementation. I thought I'd see if some of the current projects do indeed reflect an 'holistic' view and extend to the 'transformational'.

Project 1: New ICT Tools

This project is introducing a number of social software and presentation tools to students and teachers including blogs, podcasting, personal learning environments and digital story telling.

Do these tools enable holistic approaches to learners and learning? I think they could do... at least in the sense of students being able to express themselves through different media and teachers being able to have a fuller more inclusive view of the whole student. Jack Miller defines holistic curriculum in terms of inclusiveness, connection and balance. Social software certainly provides connections from local to global levels and I think it can also give a better balance between Miller's tensions of individual/group, content/process and assessment/learning.

Do these tools enable transformation? Some describe these tools as "disruptive technologies" - I prefer the term 'transformational technologies' but I strongly agree. I think these tools can transform the relationship between learner and teacher, can transform how students access and undertake their own learning, and can transform a student's understanding of their place in the world.

Is it working? Still too early to tell... about 15% of teachers are now using at least one tool in their classes and feedback has been very positive but we have a long way to go. 10 copies of Will Richardson's book (pictured) have been placed across the campus for teachers.

Project 2: Academic Achievement and Personal Enrichment

This project is providing support to a group of 60 students who are on traditional highly academic pathways. It aims to provide a learning space where students can learn together while at the same time challenging their assumptions and extending their involvement in 'non-academic' activities.

Holistic approach? Yes - this is an explicitly stated aim - to get these students to experience and express a more holistic sense of self including the physical, mental, social and spiritual.

Transformational? One part of the project that is well attended are sessions looking at enigma and anomalies (such as the evidence for advanced pre-historical civilizations) which attempts to question fundamental assumptions and worldviews based on transformative learning theory.

Is it working? Early feedback from students would indicate that it is achieving these intended outcomes. One student wrote

"The Tuesday afternoons sessions have helped me to learn a lot about myself and others. I love learning about how people think, interact and learn. Knowing these things has changed the way I perceive myself, my education and others. I always leave the sessions deep in thought with the inspiration for further investigation."

Project 3: Lo-Tech Metal Fabrication

This project is providing safe and easy access to metal work equipment for students across the college. The aim is to enable visual and performing arts students to integrate metal work into their projects without the need for training in welding and drilling.

Holistic approach? Not really... this is more about integrating skills from different subject areas.

Transformational? One aim is to encourage more females to consider metal work so in this sense there may be an element of transformation of the perception of metal as a male only domain.

Is it working? This project is still being set up with the equipment that has just been purchased.

Project 4: Human Powered Vehicle

This project aims to design, build and race a three wheeled human-powered vehicle. Students from Material, Design and Technology will work with students from Physical Education to measure the vehicles performance and race it in local and inter-state competitions.

Holistic approach? Yes in the sense that students will consider all aspects of this project and it will involve their physical, mental, emotional and social skills.

Transformational? This project aims to transform student attitudes to learning, empowerment and collaborative designing, making and appraising.

Is it working? Too early to tell - just in design stage...

Project 5: Integral Worldviews

This project introduces students to aspects of Integral Theory in an attempt to help them develop coherent conceptual frameworks that help them understand how values, assumptions and worldviews colour our perceptions.

Holistic Approach? Integral Theory by its very nature takes an holistic approach to human nature and knowledge.

Transformational? Students have reported that an integral approach does help them see things in new ways. Two students reported

"Openly challenged my way of thinking and what I personally believed in and accepted. Over-all very interesting and informative."

"Really insightful. Made me think life was more interesting… more to it."

Is it working? This project has been running for over a year and student feedback has been very positive.

Games and Gaming in Education

2006-06-10T10:26:00.000+10:00

I've been having fun :-) A few teachers have been thinking about tapping into student interest in playing, socialising in, and designing online games. We have now committed to offering a game design course at Hobart College in 2007.

The reason I've been having fun is that I've put together my emerging understanding of concept mapping, blogs, wikis and a recently discovered audio blogging tool to see if we can collaboratively plan the new course with current and prospective students.

I've set up the above components on my college blog and await the start of next term with anticipation... students are on vacation at the moment... I'm quite excited to see if I can get some real participation... I'm also hoping to use IM to add another dimension to any collaboration between schools.

In the meantime I thought I'd blog about it here to reach existing expertise and wisdom... :-)

For background reading and ideas to extend this project beyond just designing games I've ordered Don't Bother Me Mom--I'm Learning! by Marc Prensky, Why Video Games are Good for Your Soul by James Paul Gee and 3D Game-Based Filmmaking: The Art of Machinima by Paul Marino. The latter was inspired by reading about machinima on Bud Hunt's Bud the Teacher blog.

Let the games begin...

Stories Teachers Tell One Another

2006-05-21T17:58:00.000+10:00

"There's nothing new" and "Stop using jargon" are two messages I get from some teachers. They are two of the many commonly used catch cries that make up the old story of educational change. These are the stories told by experienced teachers about the nature of educational change - or at least the kind of change that they have repeatedly experienced in their careers... and now the only kind of change that some of them can see...

Other teachers however are beginning to tell a new story. A story of "working together" and "doing things differently." While all teachers have been participating in the same educational change processes over the last two years the stories being told are not the same.

While the majority of teachers are beginning to use phrases from the new story I still hear some of the old story... It takes time to let go of the past... a process described in Senge's U-Process as 'letting go'.

One interesting aspect of this transformation from a past to a future view is that those teachers with the most clearly articulated stories of the process are those who have not let go of the past. They tell the old story with clarity and certainty while those learning the new story are exploratory and tentative. The result is that outside listeners can get the erroneous impression that the majority of teachers are disempowered and against change.

This then has a detrimental feedback effect on those who are starting to embrace the new story... causing them to second guess their emerging understanding and empowerment. That's one of the reasons I have found Senge's U-Process model so useful - it helps us understand the nature of the transformation process - and to see where we all are on the curve...

Of course out of this comes the opportunity to discuss, clarify and reafirm the new story. And hopefully the opportunity to move on with confidence into an emerging future.

The New Story

2006-04-22T11:35:00.000+10:00

David Warlick has posted on the Types of New Stories we need to be telling as we implement 21st century curriculum. He has set up a wiki and invited educators to begin "hacking" some new stories.

I've already taken the liberty of hacking David's graphic to include 'shared vision' - a suggestion from a comment on his post - as well as changing 'reform stories' to 'curriculum stories' because I think we are involved in more than re-forming curriculum - there is a necessary degree of trans-formation going on as we move beyond traditional structures and processes. I've also tweeked some of the words to suit a local audience.

Perhaps a more extreme version of telling a new story is 'branding'. I've been trawling so-called "21 st century educational institutions" on the web to find some examples. I've mashed a few to get the following brands, slogans or banners:

Bringing knowledge to life
Learning for life
Community of inquiry
The world has changed. So have we.
School X: A learning community
School X: Wired for learning (perhaps that should be "Wireless for learning" :-)
School X: Your gateway to the world
School X: Where learning comes to life
School X: Building your confidence
Follow your interests… Discover your dreams…
Connecting learners with opportunities
Your learning – Our future
Got plans? We’ll show you how!

Any other ideas?

I also found a couple of interesting blogs on the subject - lots of $$$ and pitfalls here!
Marketing to College Students
Inside Higher Ed - Gaglines - with a link to a database with 150 taglines
Whisper

Literacy of Cooperation

2006-04-19T08:32:00.000+10:00

Just came across a great poster 'Technologies of Cooperation Map' outlining (defining?) Web 2.0 (without mentioning the word) on the Literacy of Cooperation resources page. Certainly gives a big picture!

Also some interesting videos and links on 'cooperative technologies', 'emergent democracy' and 'collective intelligence' including presentations looking at the creation of civic spaces and motivators for cooperation such as saving the world and love...

Link via Alex Steffan at WorldChanging

Knowledge Metaphors

2006-04-17T08:24:00.000+10:00

How we see 'education', 'schooling', 'learning', 'teaching' and 'assessment' has much to do with how we see knowledge. Here is a page that my wife Sue put together that nicely illustrates some different ways of seeing knowledge...

Knowledge gained from different disciplines is quite separate and can’t be easily integrated.

You can build knowledge from different disciplines, but some disciplines are more foundational than others. To what extent is knowledge restricted by its foundations?

Knowledge from different disciplines fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Integrating knowledge from different disciplines creates emergent understandings, new perceptions and new questions. Do our questions create the universe to be discovered?

Knowledge in one area is a reflection of the whole. Can you know the whole through complete knowledge of the part?

Knowledge is like a tree… mathematics explains physics explains chemistry explains biology explains love. Is there knowledge to be found outside the branches of the tree?

Knowledge is nested: Knowledge at each level includes and transcends earlier levels.

Each discipline illuminates a facet of the 'truth'. We need to bring in all perspectives to see the whole. What perspectives might be missing?

Knowledge is like a river… it moves and changes. If you dip your toe into the river tomorrow, you will experience a different river from today. There is no truth which stands still to be found.

No dout there are many other metaphors...

4 Quadrant Integral Theory might suggest all the above have some validity... eg knowledge gained from methods of inquiry in one quadrant should be applied very cautiously to other quadrants (buliding blocks) and knowledge that omits any quadrant gives only a partial view of 'reality' (elephant) and each quadrant contains parts which are wholes - holons (nested) and each quadrant is evolving with no end in sight (river)...

Graphics: MS Clipart Online

Flat Classrooms

2006-04-13T07:50:00.000+10:00

I've been following David Warlick's exploration of the concept of Flat Classrooms.

Yesterday's post responded to a comment by David Davies that asked.. "to what extent do you think students in the not-so-flat classroom are not curious, not self-directed, uncommunicative, etc?" David responded by saying that "there is nothing new here, that you haven't already heard..." but I'm not so sure...

I agree that there may be nothing new in the sense that we have talked about these issues before and that students have always been learners. BUT I don't think we have talked much about systemic solutions that address some of these issues by looking at our underlying values and assumptions. Educational provision has rarely been built on conversations between "student and teacher, learner and curriculum, classroom and the world" that David is asking for in the flat classroom.

And I don't think we are seeing much of the kind of curiosity, self-direction and communication that we as a nation (Australia) now require of students - particularly among the more traditionally "academically educated" students. Government, business, community and higher education - who are looking at the economic and social realities of living and woking in today's globalised technology rich world - are telling us that students:

are good at following "recipes learned at school" that provide solutions to closed problems,
are curious to learn more within known boundaries and
can communicate what they know.

BUT

they are not good at open-ended problems
they ask few questions
they don't know what they don't know - and are over confident about what they think they do know
they don't collaborate very well
they are not innovative - particularly outside disciplinary boundaries

I also think there is much more to explore using this "flatness" metaphor... We need to question how much students need to climb disciplinary ladders of knowledge and skills based on assumptions about developmental stages and academic hierarchies.

Students are often told that they have to "master the basics" before doing more interesting and contemporary things within a discipline and across disciplines. Unfortunately that process often takes 12 or more years and many (most?) don't stay in education long enough to be inspired by the genuine communities of practice/inquiry that dealing with today's knowledge and issues at the leading edge. We need some "flatness" here as well.

Of course some students can see this for themselves. They are some of the really self-directed learners who learn beyond the classroom walls. Here is how one science student described his learning to me:

"As far as my reading goes it's generally the Internet or magazines (national geographic and new scientist) or books like brief history of time and universe in a nutshell (illustrated edition - much easier to read than the original) I have NEVER had a good science teacher but that probably has more to do with me than them!

I would be one of those @#$#@ students - like in grade seven we had to name one of the 'three' states of matter and she mistakenly picked me and when I said plasma she rolled her eyes and sighed.

That's how I feel every time I'm forced to learn something wrong, even in year 11 & 12 (last year) they teach us the 'model atom' and you just think “wrong” - friction “wrong” - and do stuff with your friends [till it comes to exam time]. The best advice I got was play dumb – don’t give the right answer - give the answer according to what you've been 'taught'.

That's why I could not teach physics because I'd want to explain the quantum flux to the kindergarten kids. Instead I'm [leaving the state] so I can get into the cutting edge stuff…"

Blogs Away...

2006-04-10T17:57:00.000+10:00

I received Will Richardson's Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts... 2 days ago and found it to be such an informative and easy read that I'm ordering a few more to spread around campus.

In the meantime I've prepared an introduction for teachers - here are the slides (the narrated version is too big to link) showing how these Web 2.0 apps relate to our new curriculum. We have a whole staff session on these after Easter...

I've linked each of the tools to our new Values, Purposes and curriculum organisers. Since the curriculum was designed to meet the needs of 21st century learners it's not surprising that many of the tools they are using easily link to the new curriculum.

On my school blog I've been experimenting with different kinds of posts modelling some things for students at the same time. This is the first year I have pushed blogs strongly with my classes - they can opt out but most are posting. For some, posting has come easily while others have moved tentatively from one word "Hi" to a sentence and more recently to paragraphs.

Some highlights have been students receiving international comment 5 mins after posting and one girl who danced excitedly around the room doing high-fives after she had 30 people read a poem she had posted. Evidence of higher order thinking and reflection in their blogs is still sparse but I'm optomistic I'll see more after the Easter break.

Something that has worked well has been an online (campus-only) publication 'jescador' where my journalism class used our portal (MS Sharepoint) to glue together headers from stories posted in their blogs. In this way the publication went out as a whole while preserving the ability for readers to comment on individual stories and for the authors to keep a tally on the number of views for each story. Pretty neat.

Gone Slightly Mad?

2006-03-16T15:00:00.000+11:00

From the expressions on their faces - they didn't say much so that's all I had to go on - my presentation left some students thinking that either I was slightly mad, mildly gullible or needed to go on extended holiday... Most however were in very deep thought... not quite sure what to make of it all... or me. And that's exactly what I intended.

I did a 15 min presentation of an enigma - although not everyone thought it was an enigma... but then that was partly my point :-)

The presentation is part of a series planned for 50 students who have opted for some extension work to help them with their academic program and today centred on the Great Pyramid at Giza.

Why the Great Pyramid? Most believed that we have a good understanding of Egyptian History - and we do. BUT there are some things that don't fit the generally accepted view - and one of them is the Great Pyramid at Giza.

What's interesting is to see how different people react to this contradictory evidence. Some get quite emotional and become defensive or aggressively offensive. Others rationalise the whole thing away saying that it "doesn't really matter" or "who knows" or "you're probably wrong"... Others have a blind faith in the authority of recognised science, textbooks or experts. One student said: "If there was really a problem we would know about it."

Behind all of this is Transformational Learning Theory and the idea that you can expand a person's worldview or perspective through the use of enigma or paradox. This is what I tried to do in this short presentation. There was no time for a rigorous look at the evidence just a peek through a small window into an alternate worldview.

A smaller group attended a follow-up lunch-time session and while the majority appear to look at the world through the eyes of scientific empirical rationalism it was very clear that some had very different worldviews...

Students have the opportunity to continue the Great Pyramid discussion in an online forum. In a couple of weeks I intend to present some coherent theoretical frameworks based on 4 Quadrant Integral Theory to help students make sense of how worldviews (lower left quadrant) might affect inquiry in the remaining three.

But perhaps before I do that there is time to stir the pot and stretch my credibility a little more with some further enigma and paradox... :-)

Photo sourced from Flickr - Creative Commons License

'Socially Permissive' Students

2006-03-10T17:38:00.000+11:00

Largely conservative in economics and progressive in social policies - this is the political landscape of the 2006 Journalism class.

These results come from a fairly simplistic on-line Politics Test - but as the web site says you do get "nifty graphs and charts"!

Nearly half the class sit in the lower right quadrant - they would be Democrat voters in the USA (where the test is based) . I've re-labelled them as 'Labor' voters in the Australian context but I probably can't do that... I also replaced US Republicans with the label 'Liberal' and that doesn't quite fit the Australian scene either... but hey the graphics are pretty :-)

Check out the web site to see the faces of some prominant political figures mapped - someone needs to do the same for some Australian politicians...

There are no extremists in the journalism class - in fact the test results of many came with the label 'Centrist'.

I wonder which parties they would vote for if they were voting in this month's Tassie election... actually 3 students will be voting...

An Integral Part of Learning?

2006-02-15T06:06:00.000+11:00

More than 60% of year 11/12 teachers would consider using Integral Theory with their classes!

Yesterday Sue (my wife) and I had the privilege of presenting aspects of Integral Theory to 50+ year 11/12 teachers in a non-government school. In spite of being a warm late afternoon and the fact that we covered 8 concepts and associated 'jargon' in 2 hours we received very enthusiastic responses.

I was surprised to discover quite a few teachers had already read some of Ken Wilber's work and a couple had already used aspects of Integral Theory with their classes.

This was the first time we've presented Integral Theory to a larger group of teachers - I presented the same concepts to several classes (yr 11/12) last year. From the mixed teacher feedback for some sections the balance of breadth to depth needs some adjustment - although I still think that a reasonable breadth is necessary to appreciate the coherence of the integral framework. There was less time for teacher discussion than with students who had a 3hr session.

More than half of those present said that they thought the concepts would be useful/very useful in their teaching. Many requested follow-up discussion so that they can develop the ideas for their classes. Some of this will be done through on-line presentations and forums over the next few weeks (although I've discovered the forum link has broken over the summer holidays).

In the last 10 minutes we touched briefly on 'stages of development' and 'information/transformation'. In retrospect this may have been a mistake in such a short time - although one teacher indicated that this was the most important part of the presentation for them.

Next week I'll begin working with some of the classes of teachers in government yr 11/12 colleges that were involved in last year's trials. We are going to introduce students to Integral Theory from the start of the year (classes start tomorrow in Tasmania) and develop the concepts as they progress through their courses.

Things are looking up...

2006-02-12T08:10:00.000+11:00

It's official - we've turned Senge's corner! I've just returned from the first State PY10 Curriculum Implementation meeting for 2006. The review process has moved into a new phase with new structures and processes to facilitate the emergence (letting come) of learning, teaching and assessment practices to meet the needs of today's year 11/12 students.

Key changes from the 2004/5 structure include new Regional Learning Teams supported by Regional Project Officers that sit between school/college curriculum teams and the Statewide Curriculum Coordinators Team. There is a new Principal's Reference Group representing both government and non-government schools/colleges with formalised links to their respective Principal bodies, the new Tasmanian Qualifications Authority and the State OPCET Steering Committe.

Much of the meeting was used to look at possible support and coordination processes at classroom, school/college, Regional and State levels for the many project ideas that have been put forward by teachers, and curriculum teams over the last year.

Some of the many ideas from teachers of one college incuded:

Global Learning and Leadership - International Student Program; Studies of Society and Environment teachers
Human Powered Vehicle - Materials Design and Technology; Sport and Recreation teachers
Science for the 21st Century - Science teachers
Personal and Social Learning Environments - cross-college
Integral Conceptual Frameworks - English teachers across 3 colleges
Jumpstart to Visual Literacy - Visual Arts teachers

All projects address the Values, Purposes and Outcomes of the new year 11/12 Curriculum Framework and will be supported by resources allocated at school/college and State levels.

And that's just one school. With so much happening I suggested that we might use blogging and aggregators to help communication across the State and across government and non-goverment sectors. I received quite a few looks ranging from the enthusiastic to the mostly quizzical or incredulous. Blogs are not really a teacher thing - YET :-)

You never know who's listening... and learning...

2006-02-09T07:34:00.000+11:00

A few days ago I 'virtually' attended a local meeting for technology educators called MEGA at the Friday Institute in North Carolina, USA. Physically I was in Tasmania, Australia. One aspect of today's so-called "flat world".

David Warlick, a member of the group, was blogging the meeting live with ongoing comments and pictures and I was commenting on his blog as he did so. He later wrote about this exchange in another blog.

"Matt's presentation was followed by a fun session with Len Annetta, and his efforts to help teachers become video game developers. During the meeting, I was moblogging (mobile blogging), writing for about ten minutes in 2¢ Worth and then submitting, thanks to the facility's ubiquitous wireless access. About halfway into Len's presentation, I noticed that I had two comments on my blog. I pulled them up to discover an educator who had caught my ongoing commentary of the presentations in his aggregator. He was Googling some of the terms that I mentioned and included some of his insights about the term, stealth learning. As this exchange continued, he offering his AIM screen name so that we could strike up a chat during the presentation. I clicked the man's name to pull up his blog, holistic and integral education, and discovered that he was in Tasmania."

I found the experience fascinating - I actually felt I was there... whispering to someone in the back row. Many of my students would have loved to have been there to hear the speakers... As David says:

"I only just realized how much this exchange underscored the importance of the first presentation -- how important it is that we engage our students not only with highly interactive software, but engage them with the world that they are learning about, make them a part of the global conversation. The world is incredibly connected today, and we are still figuring out what that means. We're fairly sure, though, that in order to succeed and prosper, you are going to have to be part of that global conversation"

I left before the session finished - via a back door so I didn't disturb anyone - and re-emerged on the other side of our flatter world :-)

The Best of Times - The Worst of Times?

2006-01-31T09:02:00.000+11:00

(This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.)

This great Flash mockumentary by journalists Sloan and Thompson (thanks for the links Pete) explores the possible death of print media (NY Times) in a media 'history' from the birth of the WWW in 1989, through the births of Amazon(94), Google(98) and Blogger(99), the pivotal 'Web2.0' [my term] year of 2004 and into 2015 when the NY Times is "just a newsletter for oldies"...

According to columnist John Leo:

"Rupert Murdoch, speaking at the recent convention of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, advised the group to encourage their readers to use the Internet more as a supplement to print coverage He warned that newspapers risked being "relegated to the status of also-rans" if they don't make use of the Internet. Columnist Rick Brookhiser had a blunt comment in the New York Observer: Murdoch was just being polite--what he meant is that newspapers are dead."

I recently discovered from Tim Lauer's blog that the NY Times is now podcasting. :-)

(There is an earlier version called EPIC 2014 which has some interesting differences...)

I wonder what an 'history' of education from 1989 to 2015 would look like? Educational possibilities for around 2015 is something a number of edu-blogs have been exploring over the last couple of months... eg 2Cents Worth

How much leadership and wisdom will educators (and students) inject into the educational version of 'EPIC'? (Will there even be an distinct education version?) Will it all 'just happen' without direction from educators? Will it be superficial or deep?

The time to co-create preferred educational futures is certainly NOW if we want to move into the best of educational times... Fortunately we are onto it :-)

Integral Futures

2006-01-30T14:37:00.000+11:00

All education is futures education according to Australian futurist Richard Slaughter. He says most schools are about preparing students for active citizenship in the future. And "young people do not need to be persuaded to consider the future. They already have powerful interests in the self-constitution of their own lives."

However he also says:

"The challenge is to re-invent schools on a new philosophical and operational basis, not see them over-whelmed by economic rationalism, still less by the over-hyped 'communications revolution'. "

I'm reading Futures Beyond Dystopia: Creating Social Foresight by Slaughter and think it has much to inform current curriculum initiatives - particularly now in Tasmania with Personal Futures and World Futures 'essential learnings' for K-10 and Futures a key purpose in the new Post-Year 10 Framework.

To avoid shallow and often overly Westernised and empirical futures perspectives Slaughter calls for an integral approach to futures at all levels of education including students, teachers, curriculum leaders and administrators. "The need is for a broader and deeper view of futures enquiry."

'Integral futures' is about including subjective inner realities along with objective outer realities - something often called for by holistic educators. Slaughter shows how Wilber's 4 Quadrant AQAL Integral Model provides a powerful conceptual framework that gives breadth, depth and balance to futures literacy, futures methodologies and futures tools.

In this way the critical importance of looking at cultural values, assumptions and worldviews (lower left quadrant) and the inner world of individual identity, meaning and purpose (upper left quadrant) as key aspects of any transformational process is not forgotten.

Slaughter maps pop futurism, problem-oriented futures work, critical futures studies, epistemological futures, and environmental scanning across Wilber's quadrants showing the strengths and gaps in each approach over the last century.

Of course with all this talk of futures we need to remind ourselves that futures education is about empowering students in the present - or better still perhaps in the 'NOW' which includes and expanded sense of past-present-future.

I recently saw this Alan Watts Flash presentation on an Integral Education Forum which graphically shows the dangers of always looking to (waiting for) the 'future'... well worth a look if you haven't seen it.

With the current global focus on transforming learning and teaching an 'integral futures' perspective seems timely as we look at possible, probable and preferred educational futures - lest we forget the critical place of both individual and collective inner realities... for both students and teachers.

Elements of a New System

2006-01-12T08:48:00.000+11:00

Still trying to get my head around the ways in which ICT might support students, teachers and administrators as we begin to implement the new State Curriculum Framework for years 11/12...

The timing is 'interesting' because at my school (Hobart College) are currently rebuilding our network (15 servers, 400+ PCs, 1200 users) so I'm thinking from the ground up... mind you it all has to be in place within a month!

The new curriculum is about "engaging with all students in the learning that will empower them to create and realise purposeful futures." I have been looking at some docs (PowerPoint and a Table) from last year outlining the Learning Elements that make up part of the Framework. Note that these 'elements' are not implemented in isolation. The Framework emphasises an "holistic view of learners and learning."

Anyway... so far I have developed some maps trying to clarify some of the relationships between ICT and the new curriculum from different perspectives... Personal and Learning Spaces (basic and expanded) looking at the relationships between our existing portal infrastructure, student personal spaces on the internet, and www services; and Access and Publishing (basic and expanded) looking at how students (and teachers) access ICT and some of the information flows.

I have also started to list applications that might have a higher profile within the new curriculum such as:

MS Photo Story, MS Producer, MS Movie Maker - for storying, student voice and presentations
Windows Media Encoder - for podcasting, help files
CMAP - for concept/mind mapping
Skype - for national/global communication/collaboration
Vensim - for modelling systems, simulations, futures

We are currently installing MS Live Communications Server to gain more communication/collaboration functionality out of MS Office and MS SharePoint.

Lots to think about... and we still have the other 100+ apps to deploy... fortunately we have a skilled and efficient Computer Services team! Thanks guys :-)

Weaving Webs

2006-01-03T22:35:00.000+11:00

I’ve been playing with Web 2.0 - discovering what I already knew (without using the buzz-word) and exploring new possibilities for learning and teaching…

Where Web ‘generation 1.0’ could be said to be about accessing information and services from the internet Web 2.0 is more about personal presence, contributing, connecting and sharing on the internet. For example rather than ‘google’ for a piece of information I might ask a trusted ‘friend’ through their blog, portal, shared bookmark, messenger service… Rather than seek an expert opinion I might share my dilemma within a ‘community of practice’.

So, while playing with so-called Web 2.0 ‘social software’ such as blogging, podcasting, social bookmarking, blogrolls and feeds I’ve also been reading and talking about about learning ecologies, personalised learning and 21st century curriculum within educational communities.

I have pursued recommended reading such as Personalisation and Digital Technologies , the Social Networks Report , browsed sites such as Electronic Portfolios , and looked at implementations such as my-iPlan and eLGG .

And now I am thinking about the impact of all this on the implementation starting in 2006 of our new State Curriculum Framework for years 11/12. I have begun to map my thinking to show how the new Framework might be supported by our current ICT infrastructure (MS SharePoint Portal) and Web 2.0 principles and practice. There is still much to include such as teachers and teaching, assessment, professional learning... not to mention the management and facilitation of the implementation itself. But it's a start... and it looks pretty :-)

Forums for Transformation - Who Killed Benny?

2005-12-14T18:07:00.000+11:00

“Benny was a woolly mammoth who was found frozen solid in Siberia. Benny died thousands of years ago in July. This year Benny appeared in the movie 'The Day After Tomorrow' - although his acting was a little stiff. Benny had a smashed hip, a broken leg and still had buttercups and flowering beans in his mouth that he was dining on for lunch when he was killed. Thousands of mammoths and other animals died with Benny. Who or what killed Benny and his friends? ”

This year saw record participation in our school’s online ‘Mystery Forums’ designed to promote transformative learning experiences for adolescents.

Why transformative learning? Until recently transformative learning has been the province of adult learning theory but there are several reasons to consider its inclusion for senior-secondary students transitioning into early adulthood.

Firstly, the transition to adult life often involves personal transformation as students move from a safe school environment to take on complex work, study and social responsibilities. Transformative learning equips students with the concepts and understanding necessary to make a success of this transition.

Secondly, when students are led to a deeper understanding of concepts and issues their fundamental beliefs and assumptions may be challenged leading to a transformation of perspective or worldview. Students who understand the nature of transformative learning may be better prepared for this process.

Thirdly, as we ask students to develop critical and reflective thinking skills and encourage them to care about the world around them they may decide that some degree of personal or social transformation is required. Students will need the tools of transformative learning in order to be effective change agents. Otherwise students may feel disempowered, become pessimistic about the future, fear change, or develop a degree of cynicism towards those who promote change.

Finally, we are living through a period of transformational change in society and culture. Students will be better able to deal with such change in their lives if they understand the nature of transformational change and the impact it has on individuals, groups, organizations and nations.

One of the many triggers for transformative learning experiences is a disorientating dilemma – a paradox, enigma or anomaly.

The popular ‘mystery forums’ allowed students to playfully question assumptions and worldviews through 10 dilemmas in an online forum. For example “Who Killed Benny?” is about the demise of mammoths in Siberia, Alaska and S. America thousands of years ago.

Students spent several weeks considering a wide range of possible scenarios from over-hunting to snap freezing to tsunamis to climate change to pole-shifts to disease and more… During that time they realised that there were many unquestioned assumptions and unchallenged worldviews underpinning the science and critical inquiry surrounding this issue.

Other dilemmas included:

“Where’s My Mummy” – a look at the Great Pyramid
“Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s …? – a look at myths of flight through pre-history.
“Ancient Maps of the World?” – a look at the Piri Re'is and other maps.

In a chapter titled Learning to Think Like an Adult in Learning as Transformation Mezirow claims that transformative learning leads to greater competence in:

mindful learning
autonomous learning
self-directed learning
critical
reflection
self-knowledge
reflective discourse
dealing with change, transformation and uncertainty
dealing with "meaning perspectives" and worldviews
social responsibility
decision-making and problem solving
Most, if not all, of these are highly valued in emerging “21st century” curriculum for adolescent learners. I believe that online "mystery forums" can provide a useful, playful and safe learning environment for some aspects of transformative learning for adolescents.

U Turning a System

2005-12-10T08:03:00.000+11:00

This week sees the end of the second year of our curriculum review process and there is a definite buzz in many yr 11/12 campuses around the State as future possibilities begin to emerge. Our consultative review process appears to be following the 'U Process' described in Presence by Senge et al.

Sensing – knowing the whole system as it is
Letting go - of historical processes and perspectives
Presencing - taking time to reflect
Letting come - allowing new processes to become realised

We have spent a year (2004) sensing as we looked at best practice and issues of concern - all the time trying to let go of our preconceived assumptions about the form that the educational provision for year 11/12 students should take. Instead we concentrated on establishing a set of shared values and purposes among all teachers, students, parents and the community.

This year we took time to reflect on the learning, assessment and teaching principles based on our shared values and purposes.

In 2006 we move to allow new forms and processes of educational practice to emerge through trialling project ideas that have recently begun to surface from teachers. At this stage most campuses don't plan to implement any significant changes until 2007.

It hasn't been easy to follow the U Process. In the beginning many people had definite ideas about the "causes of problems" while others knew how to "fix the system", and still others argued that nothing need to change.

Now two years down the track most teachers and administrators are reasonably comfortable to move toward the realization of all our new curriculum values, purposes and principles without any clear view of what it will look like...

I think the challenge for 2006 as we move up the 'U' will be to let the system (which is all of us) transform as new forms and processes emerge. The danger is that we might latch on to a "successful" trial project as "the solution" before other unexpected and more interesting possibilities emerge.

We certainly "live in interesting times"... :-)

Problem Solving

2005-11-29T06:49:00.000+11:00

In a series of fascinating blog posts Dave Pollard has clarified for me ‘problem solving’ in ways that are informed by systems thinking, complexity science... and more holistic or integral approaches.

While many curriculum and syllabus documents nominate ‘problem solving’ as an important skill for students very few appear to describe this beyond simple problem-answer processes. Some have begun to refer to ‘problem posing’, ‘problem prevention’ and ‘problem solving’ - and the importance of using ‘systems thinking’ and ‘higher order thinking’ - but Pollard now makes me think we could be much more explicit about some of these processes…

I think many students and teachers will find his approach very useful.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Dave Snowden describes four categories (ontologies) of systems each requiring different methods and tools for effective intervention. Using references from Pollard and Snowden:

Simple systems can be ‘known’. Within known limits we can predict the behaviour of the system and there is one clear ‘best practice’ for solving problems or making corrections. Effective methodologies: Sense, categorise and respond. These systems can be easily modeled are most suited to automation.

Complicated systems have many inter-relationships but they can be discovered. Methodologies can be developed following sufficient analysis to intervene in the system to achieve desired changes or corrections. Senge's 'systems thinking' and ‘system dynamics software’ are useful tools for dealing with complicated systems, where cause and effect is not obvious or simple, but is knowable. Effective methodologies: Sense, analyse and respond.

Complex systems have no knowable cause and effect relationships – there are just too many. Instead we need to focus on the management of patterns and the unpredictable emergence of new properties. Pollard calls these ‘wicked problems’. When analysis and subsequent solutions fail to solve a problem, or predict behaviour, it's often because approaches meant for complicated systems have been used to address complex ones. Effective methodologies: Probe, sense and respond.

A different approach is required. One that uses discovery (probing) rather than analysis, with an acknowledgment that not all can be known. Open Space Technology is one method that considers possibilities and options. It’s about knowledge-sharing and ideation of conversations rather than simply implementing an action plan. It’s about powerful learning, collaboration, and doing. Pollard also calls this ‘appreciative inquiry’.

Chaotic systems are turbulent with disrupted relationships. They require crisis management. However they can also be very useful and even necessary to move from one undesirable complex system to another more desirable one. Effective methodologies: Act, sense and respond.

If we are empowering students to be active participants as local and global citizens then they will surely need an understanding of the difference between simple, complicated, complex and chaotic systems. If we as educators are attempting to change educational systems we will need the same understanding.

A more human looking robotic future/present

2005-11-05T10:10:00.000+11:00

After posting the robot links last month someone sent me this one.

"Japanese scientists have unveiled the most human-looking robot yet - a "female" android named Repliee Q1Expo. She has flexible silicone for skin rather than hard plastic, and a number of sensors and motors to allow her to turn and react in a human-like manner.
She can flutter her eyelids and move her hands like a human.

She even appears to breathe."

I wonder how much a 'Roger Relief Teacher' version will cost? And will anyone notice if it goes to class or staff meetings instead of me? :-)

Student Feedback on Integral Theory

2005-10-16T17:11:00.000+11:00

Student response to Integral Theory over the last few months has been very enthusiastic. Although you can't read the left hand column in the linked doc you can see from the feedback summary that I touched on many concepts over 2.5 hrs. Some a little too briefly perhaps but I think it is important for students to get a clear sense of the coherency of the overall framework.

So far I have only introduced it to Level 5 English classes but I know of teachers internationally who have received very positive feedback from grade 9 and 10 students... so I'm keen to try it with other classes next year.

I'm about to run similar sessions for teachers so it will be interesting to compare feedback... For teachers I am hoping Integral Theory will provide a coherent conceptual framework that helps to make sense of some fundamental concepts underpinning the ELs and PY10 Frameworks such as: * Worldviews * Value systems * Systems Thinking * Disciplines * Transdisciplinary * Transformation *

Educating for a future that is already here

2005-10-13T09:43:00.000+11:00

QRIO Robot

I've been looking at Sony's latest robot - QRIO. Susan Greenfield showed a video of a group of school girls having a very human-like conversation with QRIO at the July Thinking Conference.

The Sony web site has lots of info. These animations are pretty good - in Flash - see the second and fourth.

At this site there are more vids - one of QRIO throwing a ball ... and one with a group of QRIOs dancing ...

QRIO is a Science Ambassador for UNESCO and is touring the world.

Pity he is not yet for sale...

World's First Bionic Man

In May 2001, working as a high-power lineman 54 year old Jesse Sullivan was electrocuted so severely that both of his arms needed to be amputated.

Jesse now has bionic arms. See story and video clip.

Doctors took nerves that used to go to the arm and moved those nerves onto chest muscles. The nerves grew into the chest muscles, so when Jesse thinks “close hand,” a portion of his chest muscle contracts and electrodes that detect this muscle activity tell the computerized arm when to close the hand. So when he thinks “close hand” and his artificial hand closes.

Billion Dollar Industry Within 5 Years

enon, a service robot, comes in Citrus Yellow, Lily White and Lavender Blue for just $72,000.

10 of the robots have already been ordered by shops to provide guidance, escort guests, transport objects, and do security patrols. We could have one on campus: “You are late for class. Please move on before I SMS your teacher, the security guard, your parents...“ :-)

The price is expected to more than halve within a year and robot production is predicted to be a 1.2 billion dollar industry within 5 years.

Robot Car Wins $2 Million

Last week the robot car Stanley won $2,000,000 for crossing the finish line first in a US desert. It is not remote controlled - a computer does the driving.

Stanley was built using a diesal powered Volkswagon Touareq R5.

See a video-clip of Stanley on the downloads page at http://www.grandchallenge.org/

There was even a driverless motorcycle - Ghost Rider Robot - http://www.ghostriderrobot.com/

2005 is certainly THE year for robotics! What does this mean for students and the curriculum?

One way to engage students is through Robocup Junior where the challenge is to build robots that can dance to music, rescue someone in distress or kick a soccer goal. Robocup junior is inspired by Robocup International where the challenge is to "develop a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can win against the human world soccer champion team" by 2050.

Thinking, Learning and Futures

2005-07-15T07:10:00.000+10:00

Here are some of the key ideas I got from the presenters at this conference.

Thinking is about learning. Piaget said “Intelligence is knowing what to do when you don't know what to do.” (Claxton)

We now have fourth-generation theories on thinking/learning. Learning dispositions are transferable from one context to another and are transdisciplinary (Claxton).

We need to educate for the unknown by providing powerful conceptual systems, global perspectives and coherent big picture stories (Perkins, Eckersley, Olson, Slaughter).

‘Knowledge’ is problematic because it is increasing rapidly, is context fixated and for most people it is full of misconceptions (Perkins, Senge, Slaughter). Knowledge is a social phenomenon (Senge).

Local and global challenges are pressing and we require empowered positive thinkers capable of cross disciplinary synthesis, systems thinking, collaboration and shared intelligence (Eckersley, Moran, Ritchhard, Olson, Slaughter). We are beyond simplistic solutions (Moran, Senge, Eckersley).

Psychological and social well-being (mental, emotional, spiritual) are important for deep thinking and learning (Wood, Eckersley, Senge, Slaughter).

Spirituality (not religion) is a key emerging transformation of the late 20th/early 21st centuries (Senge, Eckersley, Olson).

Personal and social foresight requires a level of futures literacy as well as futures tools, methodologies and strategies (Slaughter).

Changes in Australian values, assumptions and access to ICT are leading to 'citizen centered' democracy where a market and economic forces are no longer the primary drivers in government and the public service bureaucracy. We need multidisciplinary risk-taking thinkers (Moran).

We need to be explicit about our assumptions and world views because they underpin our thinking and colour our perceptions (Senge, Olson, Slaughter, Varey). Memes and value systems are crucial factors in thinking, learning and the envisioning of desired personal and world futures (Barber, Perkins, Slaughter, Varey, Janson).

The world is not in crisis - our worldviews are (Varey). Our languages (eg mother tongue, bilingual, mathematical...) also filter our experiences, influence our comprehension and affect our sense of morality and hope (Gupta).

Thinking, learning and inquiry are important both within disciplines (ways of knowing and inquiry) and across disciplines (Perkins). What we teach is just as important as how we teach (Perkins).

We need to teach problem-prevention as much as problem-solving (Wood, Perkins). We need both individual and collective thinking - multiple intelligences and shared intelligence (Ritchhard, Wood, Moran). And collective creativity and inspiration (Mol).

With the advent of new 21st-century technologies individuals have access to knowledge and resources that can have an enormous detrimental impact on local and global communities. We need ethical understanding and spiritual perspectives (Olson, Slaughter).

Presenters
Marcus Barber - Swinburne
Guy Claxton – Bristol University, UK
Art Costa – California State University, Habits of Mind, USA
Richard Eckersley – National Centre for Epidemiology & Population, ANU, Australia
Sunetra Gupta – Mathematician, epidemiologist and author, Oxford University, UK
Jan Jansen - Sweden
Terry Moran - Secretary, Victoria Department of Premier and Cabinet, Australia
Jan Mol - Ad!dict Creative Lab - Brussels
Molly Olson - Eco Futures Australia, US Gov Advisor on Sustainability
David Perkins – Harvard, USA
Ron Ritchhard – Harvard, USA
Peter Senge – Society for Organisational Learning, USA
Richard Slaughter - Foresight International, Swinburne, Australia
Fiona Wood – McComb Foundation and Australian of the Year
Will Varey - Integral theorist, Australia

Values and Memes

2005-05-13T06:46:00.001+10:00

I have been thinking about Values and PY10 and the observation from some teachers that there might be a dominance of "middle-class values" of those consulted during the review and our subsequent documentation and thinking.

Some have asked interesting questions about recognising the the values of the full range of our students (eg generational poverty) and the complex relationship between student, teacher and community values - particularly in the context of globalisation and our location in the Asia-Pacific.

I have written something introductory about values, memes and Integral Theory in order to promote some discussion among those interested in this area...

Gates Crashing the Curriculum Party?

2005-05-10T07:25:00.000+10:00

America's high schools are obsolete according to Bill Gates.

“By obsolete, I don’t just mean that our high schools are broken, flawed, and under-funded...
By obsolete, I mean that our high schools – even when they’re working exactly as designed – cannot teach our kids what they need to know today.”

- Bill Gates at the US National Educational Summit on High Schools

Through the Gates philanthropic foundation he has spent nearly one billion dollars helping to rebuild or redesign 1500 US high schools. He doesn't claim to be an education expert but says that as head of a corporation and a foundation what he sees “leaves him appalled”.

He talks about how high schools fail to prepare most students for work, tertiary education and citizenship - because they were designed that way! He believes that in the past governments only required a small percentage of students to qualify for tertiary entrance but that today all students should do so. And he says that research has proved that all students can do so.

In his address to the recent US National Education Summit on High Schools he said that there are two arguments for better high schools:

the economic argument - in today's global economy it hurts us if all students are not being educated
the moral argument - we need to do something because it's hurting the students

He pointed out that as far back as 2001 India had almost a million more university graduates than the US - and that China now has twice as many graduates as the US. This puts the US behind in the international supply of knowledge workers - workers that are now only a mouse-click away.

The schools being funded by Gates are built on principles based around the “new three R’s“:

The first R is Rigor – making sure all students are given a challenging curriculum that prepares them for college or work;
The second R is Relevance – making sure kids have courses and projects that clearly relate to their lives and their goals;
The third R is Relationships – making sure kids have a number of adults who know them, look out for them, and push them to achieve.

How is Australia's secondary education system hurting?
What kind of education would business interests here promote if they began to put large sums of money into secondary education?

Framework Mapping

2005-05-08T07:43:00.000+10:00

I've been playing with mapping the new curriculum framework... :-)

In this first one I have used a nested (holarchic) rather than hierarchic representation. I think holarchies better represent the notion of expansion and inclusion we might be after.
If you can't see it properly hold your mouse over it until you see the '<- expand ->' icon.

In the second version I have shaded the right hand side boxes to represent the notion that ALL stages are inclusive of ALL the curriculum principles - values to learning elements.

In the third version I have shown how extra words might be added to give some sense of the emergent whole for each level (called a holon). I am not happy with the words I have chosen but you get the idea...

The fourth version gets a bit more radical. I have changed some of the names trying to embrace different metaphors. On this doc I have started to look at other ways of describing the Learning Elements (don't really like the word 'challenges'...) .

I have also included Professional learning because feedback was critical that teachers didn't seem to be represented. Others would say that the learning refers to boths students and teachers. Anyway... I just put it in to see what people thought.

Finally here is a version from John exploring the idea of turning the pancake diagram on its side...

What do you think? Useful? Clumsy?

Making Sense of Student Development

2005-04-12T06:51:00.000+10:00

I've sent out the next email installment on Integral Theory - this time looking at how various lines of development can be mapped across generic stages of growth. I'm not sure who will have time to read it given that reports are due this week!

PY10 leaders have begun to think about our college handbook for 2006. We need to look at our pre-requisites in terms of the ELs Standards and Progressions - this is no easy task because only a few of us have had time to look at them. Lots of work to be done here.

While on the subject of ELs I've been looking at the new Victorian ELs (VELs) to be implemented by all Victorian teachers in 2006! Also found links to the Northern Territory 'EsseNTials' and the South Australian ELs .

Quotes from the iNET Conference

2005-04-11T20:57:00.000+10:00

“In the not too distant future Beijing will become the new New York.”

Jason Yat-sen Li - General Manager Insurance Australia Group

“Students are not choosing DDD jobs - Difficult, Dangerous and Dirty Jobs.”

“50% of current year 7 students will end up in some form of self-employment.“

“The greatest rate of jobs growth in Australia is in the retail industry. But we are not just talking about checkouts - the retail industry has career paths! “

Mary Nicolson - Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry

“We need a unique national student ID to cope with the 80,000 students who move interstate per annum.”

Ken Smith - Queensland Director-General Education

“What if...? dare to make a difference.“

Derek Wise (UK) - Principal of Cramlington Community High School

“Our curriculum is driven by leading edge science and mathematics that will shape Australia's future in the next 25 years.“

"Mathematics is a textbook free zone.“

Jim Davies and Jayne Heath - Australian Science and Mathematics School

“ 'India' CD will be a required English text for the VCE in 2006.”

Kathe Kirby - Asia Education Foundation

“Literacy and numeracy standards have declined nationally. While educators are interested in other literacies these are the only ones for which we have hard data and can therefore draw reliable conclusions. While educators have argued that other aspects of student education have improved this cannot be demonstrated.

Therefore we will stick with what we know. Education standards are declining. There is a crisis in teacher quality.“

Andrew Leigh - Economist and researcher at ANU

“There are many generations of students and teachers:

Builders - born before 1948
Boomers - born before 1963
Generation X - born before 1980
Y Generation - born before 1995
Cyber Generation
How much do educators know about the 'cyber generation'? “

Thao Nguyen - final year at University of Sydney

- Australian Youth Representative to the UN General Assembly in New York (2004)

“The future of Australian curriculum is in Tasmania.“

“A key message I'll take back to the UK is what Queechy and other schools are doing in Tasmania.“

Professor David Hargreaves (UK)

Earth to Roger...

2005-04-07T08:15:00.000+10:00

Photonics, Biomimetics, Nanotechnology, Robotics, Cryptography... These are the leading edge areas of science and mathematics that years 10-12 students and teachers study at a senior secondary school in South Australia.

I have just returned from the International iNET Conference in Melbourne and my head is still somewhere on another planet! When I do come back to Earth I have decided that I need to go to the Australian Science & Mathematics School (ASMS) in Adelaide.

In this school the students and teachers learn together about leading edge science and mathematics that is going to transform all our lives over the next 20 years (according to an Australian Government Report). Just briefly some features of the school are:

Years 10-12 and teachers work together on interdisciplinary inquiry.
Compulsory 'Central Studies' include study Mathematics and Abstract Thinking, Sustainable Futures, Nanotechnology, The Earth and Cosmos and Biotechnology.
University modules to be studied include Robotics, ICT, Bioinformatics, The Politics of Energy and Electronics.
Students go home at noon on Tuesdays so teachers can participate in professional inquiry and research with Flinders University.
Year 12 students finish with Certificated Accreditation for University entrance.

According to ex-students now at university they are far better prepared for learning that students from other schools.

I wonder if all Tasmanian Colleges can teach science and mathematics in the same way? When I think back to my days at uni what I remember best is the work I did on leading edge science such as holograms - I still have the 3D holograms I made of chess pieces...

Making Waves

2005-03-24T11:21:00.000+11:00

Here are Andrew and I smiling like two Cheshire cats in my first PY10 interview using MyVoice and Producer. The PY10 team wanted to promote some of the great work teachers are doing and heard about Andrew's innovative use of some junk mail in his mathematics class.

The idea was that we email short (2-3min) interviews for people to view. Unfortunately my expertise as a sound recorder was sadly lacking (as was my interview technique) and the interview sounded as though we both had speech impediments. Sorry the file is too big to link to from here so you can't see it unless you come and visit.

Stefan came to the rescue and taught me all about de-essing using a graphics equalizer - thanks Stefan. I learnt how to load the wave file and cut down the high frequencies that were lisping our s's and t's - this was a big improvement although Andrew wasn't entirely convinced...

Anyway it seemed to come out OK because I had lots of very positive feedback from teachers. I think Andrew also enjoyed making some waves by being in a PY10 interview - something many of his colleagues would not have expected...

Thanks Andrew. Now for my next victim...

Heaps happening

2005-03-22T17:57:00.000+11:00

With 11 PY10 leaders and 120 teachers so much is going on that the PY10 Management Group is finding it hard to keep up with it all. PY10 Facilitators are going to start doing brief weekly email updates that I will summarise and send back to all Learning Groups so that we can share progress across the college.

Most Learning Areas have begun projects of some kind including preparing new units, inviting outside speakers and organising professional learning.

The Management Group is currently planning a half-day event for all the PY10 Learning Group Leaders in the week after Easter. This will be the first time we will all meet with time for some real dialogue.

On the 3rd April three of the PY10 Facilitators are going to a Transformative Learning Conference in Melbourne called 'The Tipping Point' sponsored by iNet.

Roger 007!

2005-03-21T11:17:00.000+11:00

OK I'm not really going to spy on anyone but the digital voice recorder that the college has just purchased is also available through websites that supply 'spy gear'! Dirk and I wanted to record sound easily and while mobile phones, iPods and PDAs can record sound they are not very good in what is called 'conference mode'. After much internet research Dirk found the MyVoice brand which is half the price of its competitors.

The device is about the size of a small pager so it's very unobtrusive and it's designed to pick up sound some distance away. Initial tests have proved that it does the job.

I'm now working on my first project - a PY10 interview with pictures that I will put together using MS Producer which is a free add-on for MS PowerPoint.

Psst... I also saw a camera inside a pen that you can buy :-)

Growth Coaching

2005-03-18T10:28:00.000+11:00

20 AST3s and PY10 leaders participated in a Growth Coaching session at college today.

GROWTH is an acronym for Goals - Reality - Options - Will - Tactics - Habits and I found it did provide a very useful structure and process to follow when assisting someone to clarify and move towards meeting their goals - particularly when they are also aware of the process.

As presenter John Campbell said "most of the process was 'common sense' but perhaps not 'common practice' ." I have been hearning a bit about Integral Coaching recently. This brings in the concepts of the 4 quadrants, streams of development and different types from Integral Theory. None of this was mentioned in John's presentation but I think it might be well worth following up.

I will probably use the GROWTH structure with my CA students - perhaps even teach them the process. Some have suggested using it for PY10 processes as we move through the year - a definite possibility I think. I wonder if we can incorporate elements of Integral Coaching as well?

To theorise or not to theorise...

2005-03-15T10:49:00.000+11:00

After spending the last few months learning and talking about Integral Theory I finally have got to the point where I have begun to write about it a little more deeply. But this is no easy task!

Ken Wilber, who has done much to develop Integral Theory has been called the 'Einstein of Psychology' because aspects of the theory are as radically new as Einstein's theories in science were nearly 100 years ago. However I'm hoping that applying what Wilber and others have come up with is a little more straight forward.

I'm keen to promote discussion of Integral Theory because reports from teachers who are using it to design curriculu and courses are very positive. Many have also used it in their classes and some have great responses from students who found it has some useful tools for research, problem-solving, interdisciplinary inquiry and understanding self and others.

The paper I am writing sketches out some of the areas of Integral Theory that I would like to discuss for our college curriculum - but that took up 20 pages! Not quite the short introduction I was planning.

I have sent what I have written to a number of people locally and internationally and initial responses have been very positive. However while most believe that the information is important (and some believe even critical) to understanding education for years 11 and 12, views vary widely on whether teachers will have the time or inclination to look at such a theoretical perspective of curriculum.

Some believe all college teachers should read the paper and that most would find it very useful both in thinking about curriculum and in their own teaching practice. Others believe only a few teachers would want to look at it.

Wilber's integral perspective maps human experience across 4 quadrants.

The 4-Quadrant Integral Model provides a comprehensive map of human experience and capacities which is being applied to many fields of human endeavour including global ecology, business and organizational practice, medicine and international politics. If we put this in the context of student learning we obtain an integral map that might represent different domains of a curriculum:

Integral approaches to curriculum could provide:

Frameworks for learning, research and problem solving processes

Lenses to ensure structures and processes are more balanced and inclusive

Tools for transformational change

A common language for transdisciplinary inquiry

So... where to from here? Perhaps there are several possibilities.

Some who have read the paper are already keen to form a group to discuss it in some depth.
The paper could be made available for anyone who wants to read it.
I have begun to break it down into small chunks - the first of which I have just sent as an email to all teachers at Hobart College and a few interested teachers in other colleges.
Offer small lunch-time forums after Easter - perhaps after the next chunk goes out in another email.

In the meantime I will work on a second draft based on all the feedback I have received so far - thanks to all those who have sent me comments.

Guaranteeing Futures

2005-03-09T18:33:00.000+11:00

Today the cross-college leaders/managers met to discuss how the college might deal with all the agenda and programs (shown appropriately blurred on the left) for colleges within OPCET.

We used Tom's "bubble protocol" (which worked very well) to begin a mapping process of how various issues such as the Completion Certificate, the raising of the leaving age, TQA certification... will impact on various cross-college roles.

Although some work was done last year it is very clear that we all need to work together to make any sense of what might be appropriate college responses. Our next step is to have Reg from the TQA come and talk with the group.

A dramatic restructure!

2005-02-28T09:07:00.000+11:00

We now have our new college management, leadership and PL structure for 2005 up and running. It's taken some time to clarify role descriptions for the new positions and these will continue to evolve.

The new structure is focussed on supporting teachers with classroom learning, teaching and assessment. Subject areas have been combined into Learning Area Groups (the green areas on the map) with the deliberate intention of placing different areas together - eg Mathematics and Visual Arts.

The number of people with PY10 responsibility and time release has increased from a leadership team of 3 in 2004 to:

PY10 Management - 2
PY10 Facilitators - 3
Py10 Learning Group Leaders - 6

This gives a total team of 11.

All cross-college roles (purple area on map) will have support in PL and implementation issues to do with the wider State of Learning Agenda - particularly Guarenteeing Futures.

GUTs and TOEs

2005-02-24T07:54:00.001+11:00

Over the last few months I have been involved with an international online group on Integral Theory. Integral Theory has developed significantly over the last 25yrs with many international groups searching for Grand Unifying Theories (GUTs) and Theories Of Everything (TOEs). We have been discussing Ken Wilber's 4 Quandrant model where all human experience is divided into inner and outer experience and individual and group experience giving 4 quadrants.

Anyway during one of our telephone conference calls we were challenged to come up with “integral biographies” of ourselves to share on an online forum as a way for others to get to know us better. I was quite pleased with my handiwork so I thought I'd share it. More on Integral Theory later...

First an integral pictorial bio without fussing about placement in quadrants...

And then mapped as a 4 quadrant integral bio...

An interesting exercise...

Joining the Independents and Privates

2005-02-12T07:40:00.000+11:00

Yesterday I got a picture (with gritted teeth?) of the new Hobart College PY10 Leadership Team (Hazel, Heather, Sheenagh, Tony) at ZEPs on the way to Newstead College.

The large meeting (60?) was the first between State colleges and private and independent schools who have recently joined the State Colleges' PY10 process. It went very well with many of the same issues being voiced about directions in education that were expressed by college teachers last year.

We all read and discussed a summary paper on last year's PY10 process and outcomes written by the State PY10 Management Team. There were many suggested changes to the paper and a new edited version will be sent to all colleges and schools by the end of next week.

A number of people from private and independent schools understandably found it a little overwhelming joining the PY10 process after one year. Some called for a glossary to help with terms - some of which have almost become second nature to college teachers over the last year - how quickly we change... Mind you even college teachers still find terms like 'transformational' or 'transdisciplinary' hard to grapple with. :-)

The next stage of the State process will be to write some issues papers beginning with the intended outcomes for 11/12 curriculum drafted last year and moving forward to possible curriculum frameworks that might enable these to be realised by year 11/12 students from 2008.

PY10 on holiday!

2005-02-02T07:27:00.000+11:00

Some time ago I discovered that you can rent holiday accommodation from LJHooker. Sue (my wife - lhs) and I got a 3 bedroom house for a week - here I am (rhs) roughing it with friends at Denison Beach just north of Bicheno:

I've done quite a bit of reading - some really interesting stuff on Integral Theory in physics and education. The physics integral theory was about Ervin Laszlo's Connectivity Hypothesis looking at the relationship between consciousness and the quantum foam. I like the idea that the quantum foam might be holding information about the entire universe in the form of a hologram - a record of everything that has ever happened in the universe... intriguing...

I've spent a lot of time in the garden - I even have cucumbers because our early warm spring give us such a long summer for Tassie. And I can now use the internet to make free international phone calls (using Skype) and have joined in several international 'concalls' on Integral Education - but more about that later...

Why am I Blogging?

2005-01-28T07:00:00.000+11:00

I've decided to keep a web log of my professional educational experiences this year. My thinking is that I (and hopefully others) will gain as I record and reflect on my activities and musings.

I've been learning about blogs through trial and error on a Hobart College blog (internal access only) and I have recently joined a blogging class on the net.

I'm going to cheat a little and repost some of my college blog entries into this blog - but back-date them for continuity. (This post was actually written on the 25th March.)

So to begin... what am I up to at the moment?

This year I'm continuing my role (50% of my time) as on of 20 Project Officers in the Post Year 10 (PY10) Curriculum Review so I guess we start where the PY10 Team left off from last year... some pretty graphics :-)

These represent our new agreed values, purposes and outcomes for year 11/12 education in Tasmania - and a mapping of what it means to be a learner in the 21st century.