Martin Levins Martin currently teaches and is Director of Information Technology at The Armidale School in Northern NSW, Australia. He’s keen on learning; both in helping others to learn and learning stuff himself. He is a regular contributor to Australian Macworld where he writes the monthly Education column (which is podcast after the magazine comes out) and has been a regular writer and presenter at conferences in Australia and overseas. (see 1997 Musings for how much our education landscape hasn’t changed!) A keen photographer, Martin is a happy traveller.

navcon 07

Tue, 9 Oct 2007 20:57:35 +1000

Held in Gosford NSW, the 2007 International Navcon conference concentrated on Web2.0 technologies and how today’s students react to their use.

I Spotlighted a session on how we use iWeb on the students’ laptops to construct their own ePortfolios.

The presentation (quite a large file) can be accessed by clicking on the curtains above.

NECC notes

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 16:49:16 +1000

Mike Muir, University of Maine at Farmington gave a spotlight outlining his thoughts re successful One to One laptop programs.
Just the 38 000 laptops in Maine’s program so he should know something.
Strategies used for success:
Model for success: Model for learning, teacher practice and learning.
Focus on engagement, world is trying to engage students - teachers compete for this attention. We have to find more ways to engage so we compete on a level playing field.
He outlined three basic criteria for success in the classroom: the activity is well connected to curriculum, the use of technology clearly enhances learning, and students use higher order thinking skills.
Don't be seduced by WOW factor.
He discriminated between Type 1 and Type II use:
Type 1 automates existing practice. Whiteboards are an example of using technology but they are just a technological way of writing on a board. Type I stuff may add value, but is not disruptive and not sufficient by itself to warrant the expenditure on technology
Type II describes new possibilities exploited by the tech that couldn't be done before.
Leadership is everything: it can come from a team as well as a person.
Leadership sets direction, develops people and changes things.
Maine finds that good teaching decreases inappropriate use. Kids goofing off is essentially an indicator that the teacher has failed to engage.
Research based (partly) on direct classroom information (form downloadable from Maine “doing it right” website.
To engage teachers, develop a school based vision: select a favourite student, what do you want them to be doing in 12 years? What is your preferred vision. What therefore should they be doing now? How can we make this happen?
Revisit decisions to check progress
Disruptive technologies such as phones, social networking sites: Logic says block them. Psychology says students will find a way around it anyway so look for curricular use (or just leave it: can;t kids have phones just like real people?).
Vygotsky's zone of proximal development employed to guide intervention in learning.
Overall? One thing?? Professional integrators are the best thing you can do.

NECC notes

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 01:55:15 +1000

Andrew Zolli (above, from NECC website) of Z+partners and panel
What happens when you get a panel discussion regarding 21st Century learning?
Panelists Mary Cullinane, chief technology architect of the Philadelphia School of the Future Project, Michael McCauley of Proactive (the Chicago ad agency, not the acne cream), Francesc Pedro, senior analyst at the Paris-based Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), and Elizabeth Streb, world-renowned choreographer specializing in the unique application of scientific principles to movement-based aesthetics
The slides from OECD guy were impossible to read, but he spoke about them. What's more important? Home or school use? OECD research has found a negative correlation between school use and Maths competency (although how this was measured was unclear)
Cullinane spoke of the need for gathering spaces for socialisation, and "safe failure" as the tenets of the Phildelphia project.
McCauley stated that the creative process requires mess - echoing the “creative garage” idea of Streb. “Alchemy” is the new vibe. (changing leaders into golders?)
Remarkably incoherent "creative" people. A lot of “It’s like... so great”, “Cool” and “awesome”. Like listening to a comic book (or a 12 year old).
Zolli summarises with three more buzzwords: risk, empowerment and courage.
Pedro talks of the range of sounds between "B" and "P" that can be discriminated between in one day olds, who lost 80% of this ability by age 7 and >90% by 14 years old - about the time US (and a lot of Australia) starts teaching languages.
Their recommended reading:
"Dream society", "Whole new mind" by Daniel Pink
oecd.org: neuroscience report on learning coming up in a week or so
askaninja.com a “cool” site

NECC notes

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 05:20:54 +1000

Howard Levin is IT Director at the Urban School in San Francisco where a laptop program has been in existence for several years.
The title of his presentation refers to the “normalisation” (my quotes) of working with laptops. They become normal tools rather than a tourist attraction.
He posited that learning requires organisation, communications, information retrieval and production (his personal passion)
A paradigm shift occurs when laptops are used to change adopt/adapt to transform/create. “Today is like yesterday” becomes “Tomorrow is not the same as today”.
So get ready.
He showed survey results and student stories that supported his views. Students felt they were more organised for school, used Stickies, Inspiration (toggling between linear and concept mapping to suit needs)
Students communicate extensively about classwork outside of class, compared to teachers. His point was that teachers don't get barraged by kids emailing them - kids ask one another the simple stuff and speak to teachers when that fails.

Constructivist Consortium Launch

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 04:40:14 +1000

Under the direction of Gary Stager (www.stager.org), Generation YES, LSCI, Tech4Learning, SchoolKit, Inspiration and Fablevision all came together at Atlanta’s Botanic Gardens for a celebration of constructivist educational philosophy.

The organisation of the day was simple: take a hundred educationalists, with laptops and cameras, add some open ended software that begs play and creative expression.

Stir

The learning was self-directed, collaborative, exciting and productive.

www.constructivistconsortium.org