Educating the Dragon » jukes

Natural Learning – What Schools Don’t Do by Steve Wycoff

Dragon09 — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:02:17 +0000

Just listening to Steven, through Wes Fryer.

I have to begin by saying that listening to Roger Schank inspired me too, I even posted about it at the time. It was one of the first podcasts of Wesley’s I heard and he really challenged my thinking, in fact I wonder if I can track back to hearing that podcast and that being the catalyst for the challenges I have faced in the last 18 months as I began to push back?

School improvement, are we really doing what our society requires?

Our schools are so NOT “fine they need tweaking”, there needs to be a fundamental shift in what the curriculum is addressing and what schools are supporting. We in New Zealand are quite blessed with the new curriculum, it is very new and shiny and very 21^st Century perspective, however I wonder how these are being implemented in schools. It makes me wonder what the key pressures are on schools that truly define how the curriculum looks, it is not simply the National Curriculum.

Steven Wyckoff spends quite a bit of time talking about the analogue of learning to drive and someone made the comment that while you’re growing up you spend a long time watching people drive. I heard it said once that while you are learning to drive, driving instructors spend quite a while telling people where they need to look. “Focus on what is immediately in front, look out around parked cars”, etc. People’s closest sensory experience to driving? It’s sitting in the passenger seat. So a new driver has unlearn the passive ‘watching’, for example looking at someone walking over a footbridge for the whole time it takes for the car to pass under it. Drivers then need to learn to be active observers of the environment around them. There are so many things that students are learning that are wasting time… We DO need to spend more time on learning the skills that they are going to need in life.

So what DOES a curriculum look like?

What are the other pressures and issues we need address in school?

What are the school teacher:student ratio look like in New Zealand. Are there the same issues as in Kansas where the system needs to be adjusted to lower the ratio or is there a genuine issue around ratios?

“In order to do what?” Brings the curriculum into sharp focus. Steven links the need to focus education on ‘economic productivity’ for the future. But I want to consider, is there any value in learning for learnings- sake? Does it not do something for the brain development, regardless of purpose?

My next question: Are there quality apprenticeships or study-to-work programmes available in New Zealand that realistically address the issue applying students for the workforce?

As I was listening I was thinking this idea about applied learning and the links made to Ted McCain and the discussion/ presentations made by Ian Jukes in Napier last year.

I was discussing with a high-school principal the other day around the issues of NCEA level1 not meeting the expectations required for courses in NCEA level 2, let alone NCEA level1 OR 2 meeting expectations for the workforce.

So how are we going to measure success for the 21^st Century, what are the skills required and EQUALLY, what is the core knowledge required for the future?

Educating thinkers and learners for the 21st century

Dragon09 — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 03:24:12 +0000

Karen Boyes

21^st Century Learners

We so often expect for ‘me to win someone has to loose’ For so long Karen argues that has been the case in Education. Its about time we took a serious look at that. With the new possiblities through the new curriculum in New Zealand we have a opportunity to address this imbalance and make education a ‘win-win’ situation.

Technology is changing, REALLY fast now. Karen challenges us and asks: Are we keeping up? Are you? Am I?

Interactive Whiteboard are good and a step in the right direction but the kids very quickly ask, ‘yep…now what?” “What’s next?”

So what skills are they going to need for the 21^st century? We need to turn them into thinkers and Learners for the 21^st century.

Think of it: Wikipedia is the first port of call for information, youtube, iTunes two billion tunes available off the web. Gone are the days of “ooooo, I just bought my first stereo,/walkman.”

, access to the world…. TradeMe is fast becoming the first not the last port of call for purchases.

Everything is happening too fast.

There are six pionts that Ted McCain points to, to help us in developing the 21^st century citizen:

Resist the temptation to tell

Kids are different to in our day.. Opening the door through education is no longer required because now they have access. We need to teach them to inter-relate and use the information effectively. Why are we labelling kids so early when the brain matures at such a vastly different time from student to student. Educational milestones; reading this well aged 6,7,8 NUMP level 3,4,5 by such and such. They should be a guide and we rather than saying “They are not developing” we should rather scaffold their learning with the view to them ‘maturing’ in their learnnig later. (Karen said that bit better than I typed it but I hope you get the idea)

Back on track….. With Apollo 11 being only 3% ‘on target’ for its mission to the moon so our kids need to be, we as teacher spending 97% of our time on ‘course correction’.

Let them experience life and learning they have to do it for themselves; how does a child learn about ‘hot’ you can tell them off all you like be until they touch hot they won’t full understand the concept- My boy was like this, at 18 months he touched the bulb of the beside light when it had been on a couple of minutes, Now when I say ‘That’ll be hot’ he understands more fully- there is pain and discomfort involoved that he does not want to experience again.

Stop teaching decontextualised information

We need to give them a real world context. Dr David Sousa states that we needs to learning to:

1 make sense

2 have meaning

How do we get them to buy into learning?

Stop giving the final product of our thinking.

- Enpower them to do it.

Why are they still dependant at Y13?

75% of tasks we do in the classroom kids should be doing. Sure we need to scaffold you can’t just expect them to that on Monday morning– Who decides what is important to learn in your classroom? You, the government or the kids! Who should decide?

Problems first teaching second-

Getting the children empowered through ‘role play’ Please see Edcast one or my example of Ian Jukes’ talk

Progressively withdraw from helping.

ICT stands for the progression towards independence : Independent , Collaborative, Teacher. Progress through the year. They become dependent and less reliant on teacher input

Re-evaluate evaluation.

Have we missed something. Is the written test enough??

Looking below the surface- what is it we are about- what is the best for their futures?

Teacher make every other profession possible- 21^st Century.

Ian Jukes “We are doing a great job in educating our kids for the 1970’s”

If not us, me, then who?

Dragon09 — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 03:39:22 +0000

I may have quit my course but my brain is still working overtime. Over the next weeks you may have to read through my ramblings about the things I have learnt.

I want to talk about Explorers, I feel we are all explorers in new ICTs. We’re the ones experimenting in the classroom. The edublogosphere is filled with cases of people explaining and reflecting on their ever changing practises with ICT in their classrooms. We’re dealing with real experiences, real students, real observations. But what makes our observations valid? Are we engaging in critical thinking and and reflecting in the right way? Jane Nicholl’s work on Oral Language and podcasting is perhaps a good example. Many of Vicki Davies reflections are critical in nature. But much of our, mine most of all, observations and reflections are low level and classed by academia as ‘anecdotal’. My concern lies in the fact that we are all at the cutting edge, where today’s technologies meet today’s students. But the quality of our reflections, perhaps, needs to go up a notch as Falloon comments “ there has been little conclusive empirical research to prove” (Falloon, 2003, p. 23) that ICT enhances outcomes for students. If academia is dismissing our contribution as ‘anecdotal’ then that filters through to policy makers and curriculum designers. We have an opportunity to drag the educational perspective out of the industrial age and into the 21^st century, as noted by David Warlick , and others.

So do we need to be thinking about our practise in terms of Jonassen’s Mindtools, or Atkin’s papers? How relevant are these theoretical perspectives? Do we need to consider such things to draw our experiences out of the micro level and up to a macro level? Is that our job or is someone else going to pull all this anecdotal material together for us to present the 21^st century classroom perspective?

If not us, me, then who?

Falloon, G. (1999). Developing exemplary practice: Why are some teachers better at IT than others? Computers in New Zealand Schools, 15 (1), 19-23.

Digital Natives? Digital Immigrants?

Dragon09 — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 23:44:16 +0000

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky has to be one of the most commented on concepts in recent times. I have a few issues I wish to rise regarding this piece of writing, particularly in light of how it is being used throughout the world today.

Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.

Marc begins with this statement, but is it true? Have our students really changed that significantly? What is Marc basing that statement on, there is no reference to research carried out or other reading he has gleaned that piece of information from.

Today’s students – K through college – represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age.

What a sweeping generalisation, who are they, and by ‘they’ is it really all of them, most of them, those that ‘matter’, who matters anyway, how do you measure that? So many questions.

Today’s average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV).

Where have these figure come from? Is a simple question of multiplying up from hours in the day, who is this based on?

Says Dr. Bruce D. Berry of

Baylor
College of Medicine.

Who is Doctor Bruce? What is he a doctor of? What research is he basing his statement on? I quick Google search for the man in question simply refers to Marc’s other work. It was written six years ago, I guess we’ve all moved on since then.

On page 2 of Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Marc talks about digital language and how us ‘immigrants’ have to learn ‘digital’ like a second language…. And a language learned later in life, scientists tell us, goes into a different part of the brain. Does it? What scientists? Is learning to work an ipod really the same as learning a second language? Perhaps Marc is taking his analogue a little too far?

Digital Immigrants don’t believe their students can learn successfully while watching TV or listening to music, because they (the Immigrants) can’t.

Is this statement really true? I know the second part is (for me anyway) but that doesn’t mean the first part is. Where’s the study to back up this claim?

My own preference for teaching Digital Natives is to invent computer games to do the job, even for the most serious content.

It is good to here Marc talk about his own preferences and what an innovative way of going about teaching. Good on you Marc, My issue, rather is the way his statement has been taken by companies, educators and motivational speakers to turn the realm of education into one big game.

Does this mean that we can ignore Marc’s work? That is simply an interesting picture and can be dismissed out of hand? I would suggest the answer is still NO.

Firstly, if you sat there nodding while you read thinking, either “yep, that’s my son/ daughter” or “those are my clueless teachers he’s talking about.” then that has some merit, and it gains more weight if lots of folks around the globe are nodding away with you and me.

Secondly, since its publication the title of the book has:

24,000 hits on Google 251 blog posts about “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” on Technoratithe most recent on my writing this being 13 hours ago. That is 6 years after its publication.

Finally, when read in the contexts of books such as Growing Up digital by Don Tapscott or The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman it is given some weight, reflected, as it were from these publications.

Is it a scholarly work? Probably not. Is it a well written opinion piece? Perhaps. Does it serve as a wake up call for academia and governments to take a serious look at education? Most definitely.

Edcast 2:Understanding Digital Kids Part 2

Dragon09 — Wed, 30 May 2007 04:45:48 +0000

Understanding Digital Kids Part 2

(if it will not play or plays double speed try right clicking and Save Target As- apologies for this a technical problem I can’t seem to fix at this time)

Recorded: on Thursday, 17 May at Napier War Memorial Conference Centre, New Zealand.

Bio:

Ian Jukes is the Director of the InfoSavvy Group, an international consulting group that provides leadership and program development in the areas of assessment and evaluation, strategic alignment, curriculum design and publication, professional development, planning, change management, hardware and software acquisition, information services, customized research, media services, and on-line training as well as conference keynotes and workshop presentations.

Think on these as you listen:

Describe a day in the life of a student when 21^st Century skills are real and rigorously in place for all students, what does learning look like and how is it different to how learning in a traditional classroom is today?

Describe how a teachers role would be different when 21^st Century skills are real and rigorously in place for all kids, what does teaching look like and how is it different to how to traditional teaching today?

Links:

Click handouts for this presentation

http://www.lecturemanagement.com/speakers/mccain_ted.htm
Funny photos

The Committed Sardine – http://www.ianjukes.com

Ian Jukes – Presentations – http://www.thecommittedsardine.net

www.pbs.org – inside the teenage brain

George Lucas Educational Foundation

Producers of Edcast:

Simon Evans -email

Louise von Randow

Fear

Dragon09 — Tue, 29 May 2007 00:55:10 +0000

The fear of what could go wrong can’t stop me from doing what’s right…
Chris Lehman’s interview with Steve Hargadon.

Having just read Durff’s blog about this subject i was compelled to share my trying something new each week.

When I listended to Ian Jukes last week he shared what Ted McCain was up to. Teaching through a project based curriculum. He wears different ‘Character’ hats to present challenges and projects to his class…. Well I thought I’d give it a go.

My class were due to start a house design and model project for technology so I entered with my hat with a “C” on it for the character and the name ‘Ted Hawkins’. Now Mr Hawkins is a developer who has bought two field on the outskirts of town and has divided it up into 20 sections for development. I divided the class into teams who are assigned to research, design and model their ‘Designer home’ for Ted to consider for his development. Now my kids are 7 and 8, they love Ted even if he is mean and project focused. I feel that even doing this for a just a week the children are beginning to apply themselves in an independent manner that surprised me for such a short period of time. Mr Evans the teacher is still around but he is only allowed to ask the teams questions and is not allowed to answer them because, as far as this project goes: “Mr Evans knows nothing and Mr Hawkins, well, he knows everything!”

My kids eagerly await the arrival of Mr Hawkins… they have lots of questions to ask him!

Edcast 1:Understanding Digital Kids Part1

Dragon09 — Wed, 23 May 2007 00:47:18 +0000

Understanding Digital Kids part 1

(if it will not play or plays double speed try right clicking and Save Target As- apologies for this a technical problem I can’t seem to fix at this time)

Recorded: on Thursday, 17 May at Napier War Memorial Conference Centre,
New Zealand.

Bio:Ian Jukes is the Director of the InfoSavvy Group, an international consulting group that provides leadership and program development in the areas of assessment and evaluation, strategic alignment, curriculum design and publication, professional development, planning, change management, hardware and software acquisition, information services, customized research, media services, and on-line training as well as conference keynotes and workshop presentations.

“they’re not thinking like we think they’re thinking”. Ian talks about the Brain project and how kids these days are REALLY not the same as we were. He talks about the fundamental shift that we have to make in the way we educate if we are motivate and inspire this generation to succeed.If after this presentation you feel moved to find out more simply email Ian and type the words “I need to be committed”. Please think about the following two questions. Feel free to leave a comment with your initial thoughts and ideas:·

Links: Spectrum Education Funny photosThe Committed Sardine – http://www.ianjukes.com Ian Jukes – Presentations – http://www.thecommittedsardine.net Click handouts for this presentation

www.pbs.org – inside the teenage brain

George Lucas Educational Foundation

Producers of Edcast:

Simon Evans -email

Louise von Randow

Growing up Digital- late?

Dragon09 — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 23:42:33 +0000

I finally finished it, Don Tapscott’s Growing up Digital book. It cost my $5 in library fines but I finished it.

I use the word finally not to say I battled through the book and it was awful, quite the opposite, it was amazing. I say finally because I’m such a slow reader anyway and this term in school so busy I rarely had chance to pause and pick up the book let alone read it…. Less about me, more about the book.

It clarified several things for me and made raised a few questions too.

1.My Generation

I realised while I was reading this, that my generation “Baby-Bust” according to the book, is a light-weight generation, the fag end of the Boomers so to speak. The situation for me in the
UK when I left school has just been put into some sort of perspective by Don’s writing. There was a reason why jobs were scarce, why finding Saturday jobs was somewhat of a ‘mare even. The experience of my generation was shaped by neither the news cycle of the TV nor global networking. I sat in the in-between time where TV had turned banal and Compact Discs had only just come onto the seen. I relate to the Wedding Singer if anything.

2.Their Generation

Then it got me thinking about my current children, whether it is just the children in my class or those in my primary school. According to Tapscott the Net Generation began in 1980 and runs to 1997 or something, when the book was published. You could argue that the Net Gen continued to the current. Either way the impact of the Net Gen on current school age children could be similar to that of the Baby-Bust. Maybe the current cohort is not Net-Gen but Net-Bust. By the time my class reaches 18 and ready for ‘work’ the oldest Net-Gen will be 38 and filling the jobs, with experience as well as expertise in use of current Net-Tools. What will that mean for my class? They will have to adapt further, be quicker, smarter and even more determined than the Net-Gen. How is that going to impact on my teaching today, tomorrow, next week? I introduced my kids to the concept of a wiki. Check out my class wiki. It is basic, but it has them communicating, sharing and presenting their work online. I’ve begun to look at what ICT teaching looks like for the Primary (Elementary) level. All thoughts and ideas in the comments section below please.

I am looking forward to reading wikinomics and other books. Again suggestions below please. The impact this technology is having on the education of our young people is huge. I would hate for my class to be placed in the have-not category that Tapscott talks about. Does the responsibility for whether they are or not lie with the student, the parent or the teacher?