Sliced Bread

Now that DET’s CCP rollout is gathering momentum and is now goût du mois for the mainstreamers, I’m thinking how can teachers best utilise this flattening ICT to best effect for PD?

Darcy suggested sharing ideas on Year 7 teaming. Troy and Tony replied, “Yep, why not?”

What other action research would schools like to collaborate on via VC?

DET schools already connected have a data base of other DET VC contacts, but lets broaden the base of potential learning via VC sharing, to lets say, the rest of the world. Now that sounds web two oh 21st century to me.

Stephen Heppell presented the trend chart below over 2 years ago and it still raises many reflective questions on how learning is rapidly changing. His RSA speech is also equally valid for those yet to hear his 2016 vision.

What are the trends that we can see around the world in learning as we move further into the 21st century?

The changes below are all easily observed, but for different schools, communities, countries and cultures the movement may be more or less pronounced and the rate of progress slight or may be rather greater.

I recently asked “What did you learn at work today?”. I’m curious as to how we can better reflect on current QTL practices so they become more meaningful, not because there are dire problems. Learners should strive to integrate improvements lest we get left behind in our exponential times.

I’m up for sharing, not only through static blog pages, tweets and skypes, but via our newest toys the CCP’s.

Heppell states

Today teachers want, and seek, a place to exchange their insights as to what constitutes effective practice. As they move to become more reflective they also need a place to archive their action research.

The video conference component of DET NSW CCP will assist in the archiving and transference of such collective knowledge beyond the traditional school districts we work within. Modelling VC PD collaboration, that should also involve the student voice, can now happen.

Which NSW DET schools with CCP are up for it? I know Darcy and Troy will, why not join us?

An annoying ad for a certain cornchip cried a decade ago 
‘CC’s, You Can’t say No.’ Fat kids resulted.

Now the world can’t afford to say ”NO” to two vital 21st Century CC’s.

One CC stares our planet in the face, hope they’re listening, Al is. 

The world trusts BO is THE new energy and will urgently address climate change.

The other vital CC is forcing 19th century proponents of copyright to seriously rethink their views on sharing in the digital age.

Creative Commons AU, is a worthy cause and worth searching for.

For those still unfamiliar with CC, this explains it simply.

 
If you also like CC sharing, would you mind CCing this to all your contacts? You really can’t say no, you know?

I enjoyed Jeffrey Cole’s National Press Club address this morning on ABC TV. 

Jeffrey, probably best known for his work with the Digital Future Project, has also spoken regularly at NPC and to other Australian media. 

Topics discussed this morning included impacts of social networking like Facebook and My Space, carbon offsets, paper media vs online media, future trends, teen brand awareness, parents role in net safety and implications of mobile learning and degrees of connectivity. As usual, he raised a range of important issues that will continue to impact on our lives.

Catch the replays next week, well worth a look for what he has to say about the digital age we live in.

NSW to Censor student laptops reports ZDnet from last weeks AIIA symposium.

The proposal has outraged long standing e-business consultant and civil rights advocate, Roger Clarke. 

“What credibility can a government organisation and educational bureaucracy have with the people they’re trying to communicate with when the students, through all of their own devices and through friend’s devices, have access to the world,”

Stephen Wilson DET CIO, rightly argues for theft minimisation, but isn’t DET NSW’s solution enforcing a crushing sledgehammer approach when a gently persuasive ball peen would do? Overkill? absolutely.

It’s very noble that DET NSW doesn’t want to flood the pub black market with Rudd’s edrev hand me downs, but to nobble poor old pricepoint laptop so it is useless to all who may desire it, borders on learning terrorism. Big Brother is still alive and well in DET land.

This issue highlights another reason why explicitly teaching digital citizenship is far more important than externally imposed filters, which only ”protect” DET, not the student anyway. They’ll resume unrestricted browsing on their personal mdevices in their own time anyway.

If the political squabbling ceases and the laptop promise is eventually delivered, my concern is what will NSW’s 21st century connected learners actually be able to achieve with them? Looks like notepad is safe.

Is this weeks NSW DET announcement regarding the configuration of Rudd’s laptops an example of censorship, filtering, common sense or prudency? I dare say we’ll be mlearning like this or this before students even receive the Ruddy laptops anyway. What do you think?

image photogamer on flickr

All students reflect as part of our college Reflection, Organisation And Reading programs. ROAR not only involves using a learning log (diary) to plan, record homework and organise assessments, it also encourages students to consciously record how they best learn. With fine tuning and more realistic goals, I think ROAR, a 4 year old program, will improve further in 2009.

My question however is, how do staff reflect on their profession? I assume they do, I’m just not sure how. Maybe we could introduce a staff learning log and model this reflective practice?                                                           

Jeff Cobb’s thought provoking question What have I learned at work? on Mission to Learn keeps resonating. I especially like these questions

Does what I am doing right now (i.e., having a conversation, participating in a meeting, completing a routine task, etc.) increase my knowledge or skill level in any significant way? How?

What might turn this activity into more of a learning experience? What do I need to do to make that happen? What could my employer do?

What could I add into my activities for today that would provide for a learning experience?

What could I take out of my activities that does not contribute to learning and would not really be missed?

An interesting set of questions which I have answered sporadically since April. Some answers alarmed me. Talk about “stuck on the wheel” and in the massive “same old same old rut.” I needed to change, hence the toe dipping web2.0 experiment before me.

I see future positives, but still question the change rate of the massive edubureaucracy I sometimes feel stuck in. It is responsive, but at a glacial pace. DET NSW really needs a dose of Usain’s speed, to gain  momentum for the hurdles ahead. 

In“Leading A Digital School” , Mal Lee, said,

Only when the vast majority of Australia’s teachers are using the appropriate digital tools as a normal part of their everyday teaching, and are provided all the requisite development and support from the school and system leaders can Australian education begin to assist enhanced national productivity

The key words, in red, need to have bipartisan, enequivical political support across all tiers of government if Australia as a nation is to be fair dinkum about advancing 21st century learning in schools.

In amongst the questionable tangents of the blogeratti there is a growing alignment of dedicated learning professionals striving to  deblinker administrators, policy makers and governments. Those that do not listen, change and innovate do so at their systems, and learners, peril and decline. 

I’ll leave the last word for Jeff as he says it so well;

I’d go so far as to suggest that:

1. Individuals who become conscious of their learning at work and take charge of their learning at work will be by far the most successful in today’s economy.
2. The primary focus of learning professionals should be helping individuals become conscious of their learning and take charge of it.

…if you undertake the exercise above and discover that you really are not learning much on the job, it may be time to look for a better job. The second is that, if you are counting on your employer to understand the new dynamics of workplace learning and help you out, you may be waiting quite a while.