Martin Levins
Tom hails from the US, but is now living in Australia. He was involved (amongst other things) in the development of WebQuests with Bernie Dodge in San Diego.
What challenges does a "beyond bandwidth" access bring?
Melbourne Declaration, OECD New Millenium Learner, the USA "Race to the top" are examples of global movements that are attempting to address these challenges (although we haven't heard what these challenges are specifically)
He points out that the availability of portable bandwidth means that all the discussions regarding blocking of site are over.
We've moved from grey, HTML 1, web pages to the complex, phones with intelligence, (he didn;t mention augmented reality, although alluded to it with this TED talks video clip (sixth sense), without using the term (maybe it was my phone ringing that put him off ;-)
The availability of exciting, empowering tools raises the question: "do we always chase the new?" (may you live in interesting times)
So, he asks us to reflect on our "invisible master" where we chase the new because we love learning and want to provide the latest to the kids.
He relates to the stimulus package "cash for clunkers" program in the USA where mass production vendors are now paying us to buy their stuff (there's a bit of politics here as well)
Moving on: school 1.0, single room has adopted the factory approach, even in architecture. Similar to the points made by Stephen Heppell
Asks: "Is it time for a new model for schooling?" (a bit rhetorical here) Plays Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia) talking about restaurants that server steak and should we put patrons in cages so they won't stab one another with the steak knives?"
Refers to the culture of wikipedia and compares to the school. Asks "what do students do in the library when they are not being watched?"
More on this philosophical idea: Wikipedia has principles similar to Google's "Don't be evil"
He makes the point from Ryan and Deci that extrinsic motivation is bad, intrinsic, good. (I'm channeling Buffy here)
Appropriate, because he shows a video (youtube "primitive dentistry") that looks fairly evil. His point is that it may work, but is it better?
To nurture intrinsic motivation, Deci suggest Autonomy, Choice, Self Control, Competence achievement, relatedness and connectedness.
Real choice, not "choose from these 10" My perception is that kids are fairly bad at this as well (in class anyway) as it goes against the "rules" (or the culture)
His next points regarding critical thinking, emphasise the need for practice - you can teach critical thinking, but we can't teach disposition, you motivate it.
And extrinsic motivation won;t work.
He introduces the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, where the concept of Flow is discussed in terms of how a one size fits all won't work.
Instead, using rich media, creating dissonance, motivates kids to ask "why?" Similar to the Gary Stager"one good question is worth a thousand words" idea.
His "taxonomy for personal learning" (choice, effort, quality, attitude, labour of love) begins with embedding real choice, and making the effort real - no new unit for you until you're done: learners can't hold their breath until the unit is over.
Quality depends on the kid, and his or her view as to whether it is quality.
If students are stretching for quality, and we measure them against base standards, we have a disconnect.
Liked his CEQALL self assessment rubric
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