Bruce Dixon and Richard Olsen – Ideas Lab 17/5/12 (CLRP)
www.ideaslab.edu.au
Using technology and virtual pedagogy – not just doing on screens what we’ve
always done with pen and paper.
When our grade six students were in prep, there was no facebook.
Web2 tools – emerging technologies. Usually free.
Forget blogs – think open dialogue
Forget wikis - think collaboration
Forget the tools think about the restructuring of how knowledge is created,
shared, etc…
Where students are learning is changing
When students are learning is changing
How ….and what…. Students are learning is changing.
18.5% of a child’s year is spent at school.
What are they doing and learning the rest of the time?
Chn used to come to school to use computers. That changed in about 1987. It’s
now flipped.
Bow drill set (video – youtube) Kid making fire. Proud of his mistakes “I’m doing
this wrong, leave me a comment and tell me what I’m doing wrong..”. Great demo
of contemp learning. About 98% of the replies were valid and helpful. No filter –
9 year old kid – knows his cybersafety – doesn’t show his face, give his name etc.
Has had over a thousand replies. Asked the world. Didn’t ‘ask the teacher’.
We are challenging traditional approaches to how we learn, our assumptions
about classrooms and teaching, our assumptions about knowledge, information
and literacy. What are the implications for your school?
Emerging web technologies provide architecture for participation.
What if every child had a laptop and nothing had changed?
Our goal must be to find ways in which children can use technology as a
constructive medium to do things they could not do before, to do things at a level
of complexity that was not previously accessible to children – Prof. Seymore
Papert. (He also said that computers were instruments that play ideas).
We have an unprecedented opportunity to reimagine teaching and learning.
The skills sets we are providing for children are being outsourced in the
employment world. Hence unemployment and lack of relevant talent/skills for
the job market.
Skills we need to be successful are TOTALLY different to what we are preparing
them for. The contemporary work environment is all about ‘self-directedness’ –
this is the top competency in the job market now. Coming up behind it is
‘collaboration’. How are we preparing children to become self-directed or
collaborative? How often are we preparing them for a skill set they don’t actually
need?
21st Century Skills Defined (ATC21S) ways of thinking, ways of working, tools for
working, ways of living in the world. Multi-million dollar research.
Bruce asks us to put the debate aside and just ASSUME that using technology
WILL improve tch/lng. Stop wasting time trying to put language around it, just
accept that with the wonderful new tools we have – we have the opportunity to
raise standards.
We have the ability to access high quality content – this enables learners to draw
upon a diverse range of external resources.
WHY PUT FILTERS AROUND IT? – Why waste time and energy even discussing
this?
One of the first rules of online collaboration = TALK TO STRANGERS. One of the
most important competencies for 21C. New thinking. New self-direction skills
needed.
The big change – knowledge is fleeting and growing ‘too big to know’. AND it’s
incredibly accessible. New knowledge being created great rate. Learners access
info whenever they need it and from whomever they want. How do schools
respond? BY LETTING LEARNERS ACCESS INFO WHEN THEY NEED IT.
What do schools need to rethink: ACCESS AND FILTERING.
“Yes, all kids need access to their own personal, portable computer” Bruce Dixon.
Is the Internet making us smarter or dumber?
How much of what we teach will be irrelevant when our students graduate?
What are the universals that chn need to know?
How does availability change the way students learn?
USED HIGHX Canvas to begin the thinking about term three Inquiry.
Learning Intention: Children will explore the idea that story telling from a stage
requires a certain set of skills and knowledge.
Success Criteria:
*Positive audience response to production
* Use of theatrical language and techniques
* Chn will understand themselves as storytellers and performers and evaluate
own skills.
* Chn will identify and investigate own areas of personal interest and build on
own storytelling skills.
Strategies:
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Watching and analysing various performances (youtube)
Oral storytelling programs (eg. audioboo) – doing own storytelling and
critiquing others.
Filming selves and posting on youtube/blogs to seek feedback.
Seeking professional feedback/skype.
Research different acting schools (eg. Bertold Brecht)
Workshopping in relation to areas of student interest (could be student
led).
Higher Expectations:
The children will be more self-directed, resilient and discerning because they are
learning in ‘real world’ – beyond the walls of school.
Children will present themselves to wider audiences and practise seeking,
receiving and giving feedback.
Successful school production that reflects richer understanding of stagecraft and
personal growth for each student.
Rethink:
Access and filtering policy (esp. for juniors)
How we plan inquiries.
The resources we gather and where we store them.
How we match this learning to our research questions and ensure we have
opportunities for multi-age collaboration.
Connecting: Big Idea = It’s too big to know (all about accessing tools)
Communicating: Big Idea = The world is our sounding board (all about
FEEDBACK)
The ability to publish using a variety of media enables learners to share their
ideas and get feedback from others.
What is the big change? = Publishing is not the end point.
So what do learners do now? = Expect feedback comments. They publish their
process and their failures.
How can schools respond? = Acknowledge that learning is not a series of
seemingly isolated activities.
What might schools need to rethink? = Transparency and publishing.
Reflection questions: What opportunities are presented to schools when
students publish online? What is the role of audience? Who is the audience? Is all
publishing now authentic?
ADDED TO THE HIGHX CANVAS: How can we build expectations because of the
Communications strategy?
- Through the power of seeking feedback at the beginning of the learning in
order to set learning goals and inquiry questions.
- Through explicit teaching and learning about feedback (how to seek it,
work with it, grow from it, give it…)
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Continual feedback guiding the learning sequence.
Our Quadblogging will really support these goals. We are aligned and moving in
the appropriate direction with our research.
Collaboration – Remixing, contrasting, personal sense making.
All about the ability to form networks enables learners to contrast ideas and
experiences with other learners.
Remixing = Using other people’s content.
Diversity trumps curation.
What is the big change? Experts draw on multiple sources.
Why has it happened? Content is too big to know.
What do leanrers do now? Establish learning networks
How does the ability to create networks change the way students learn?
How does online, self-directed learning change pedagogy.
“Every teacher who thinks they could be replaced by a computer should be”
In collaboration I value your ideas/opinions/experiences as much as my own.
Learning Collectively – curating, synthesising and collective meaning
making.
Big Idea: Objects bind us
The ability to form highly interconnected groups around an object of interest
enables learners to engage in shared meaning making.
What’s the big change: Significant progress and breakthroughs are only made by
learning collectives.
Critical reflections:
Knowledge is no longer based on authority.
Is there dissonance between collective/autonomy?
We need to provide more opportunities for chn to create and participate in
learning networks.
Need to look now at Independent/Interconnected/Influenced/Iterative
Learning.