Reading Writing Responding

creative commons licensed (BY) flickr photo by Cea.: http://flickr.com/photos/centralasian/5433404872  I was challenged today with the question: where will innovation be in five years time? With schools creating strategic plans, it was something being considered. What should be the goal, the aim and drive for the coming years. My thoughts jumped to ideas such as: Utilising 1:1 devices create, communicate and collaborate, not just PowerPoint and publish . Developing flexible and creative learning spaces envisioned by +stephen heppell and the like. Empowering students through the development of digital student leaders as modelled by people like +Steve Brophy , +Nick Jackson and the Digital Leaders Australia group. Going global by connecting with other voices via video and blogs, something championed by +Anne Mirtschin . Converting traditional libraries into imaginative makerspaces as demonstrated by +Eric Sheninger and +Laura Fleming through their work at New Mi...

creative commons licensed (BY-NC-SA) flickr photo by mrkrndvs: http://flickr.com/photos/aaron_davis/14422391611 Yesterday I took my daughter on her first train trip into the city. She had a ball and loved every minute, but what struck me was what grabbed her attention the most. One of the most interesting things was the digital billboards. It is not that she had not been to a shopping centre before and spotted the oversized posters, but these had the extra appeal of having the sheen that comes with a digital image cycled every few seconds. She stood and watched for minutes, mesmerised. Me, I couldn't think of anything more boring, until it dawned on me, I was seeing this from the wrong perspective, this was her experience to have. So I let her be. This all kind of reminded me of the efforts to introduce change in the classroom and the experiences that such actions bring with them. At the opening day of the TL21C program , +Will Richardson  suggested identifying one th...

'Nepal - Embraced by Shangrila' creative commons licensed (BY-SA) flickr photo by dhilung: http://flickr.com/photos/dhilung/3904555723 This post was originally posted on +Peter DeWitt 's Finding Common Ground blog on the 6th of January. It seems with the latest changes to the Performance and Development Process and +Will Richardson 's message in his #TL21C Keynote to change just 10% of your practise pertinent to repost it here. Recently, as a part of the Ed Tech Crew Christmas Hangout , +Darren Murphy  posed the question, what would your ideal school be? It got me wondering, what does the talk of ideals really achieve?  Often discussions about the ideal school converge with the amalgamation of a diverse range of ideas and practises. Where there is not only a wide range of technology on offer, but it is ubiquitous. Where connections are made around the world. Where students are creators of original content that is published for authentic audiences. Wh...

creative commons licensed (BY-NC-SA) flickr photo by Jack Snell - USA: http://flickr.com/photos/jacksnell707/3176997491 I recently helped clean up some of my Mum's stuff. She was a heavily religious person and had kept endless diaries and journals containing various thoughts and reflections. Although my siblings and I got rid of a lot of bible study materials, however I just couldn't bring myself to dispose of all her diaries. Beyond the images and memories, those diaries represented my last connection to my mum. The reality though is that there is a fine line between holding onto objects and items for prosperity and actually clearing things and moving on.  Often the same can be said about education and the call for change. It is so easy to get caught up in nostalgia. Remembering things as they once were. The problem with such memories is that they often reference an idyllic reality that was not such idyllic. However, having said this, it is also important to recogn...

For a while, denial worked for me. I treated it like some sort of solution. However, I've learnt the hard way that denial is a coping strategy, a way of masking a problem, a way of pretending everything is ok. The issue though is that at the end of the day everything isn't ok and the problem still remains. I was reminded of this recently with the death of my mum of kidney cancer at the ripe old age of 54. I remember when she told me in the middle of last year that she first told me she had cancer and that it had already moved into her liver, I just thought that she would be ok. No matter that it would be incredibly difficult to operate, I just thought that she would somehow get through it. She overcame other challenges in life, why would this be any different? She didn't and it wasn't until the last few weeks that I truly realised the extent of it all. No matter that she hadn't eaten properly for six months, that she had lost much of her weight. Like her, I...

'Meaning of Success' by  Celestine Chua (Flickr) The other day I got some feedback about a leading teacher position that I had applied for a couple of months ago. Although I had demonstrated the elements required in my application, it was suggested that I did not provide enough evidence in regards to my competency to lead change management. This got me thinking about what change that I had been a part of. The two things that came to mind were the introduction of the Ultranet and the roll out of interactive whiteboards across the school. However, in reflecting upon both of these situations I wondered if I was successful in bringing about change and how you actually measure such success anyway. Change and Technology The Ultranet was a learning management system developed by the Victorian State Government to support staff, students and parents by providing an online space to communicate and collaborate. It was also seen as the answer to ongoing student reporting and ...

Universal Design for Learning by  Giulia Forsythe  (Flickr) In a recent post , I wrote about the idea that a PLN, whether professional or personal learn network, as actually being something that you do, a verb, rather than something done, a noun, I think that the same argument can be applied to the notion of curriculum. Too often when we discuss 'curriculum' it is as something stagnant, something finished, something complete, a document held in the hand. However, treating it in this way misses something, denies the reality that it is something that is constantly developing, growing, adapting, changing and evolving. One of the reasons that we see curriculum as being something stagnant is that often the changes can occur over long periods of time so we do not consider it as something constant. For example, in my time teaching, I have seen three significant curriculum shifts. Firstly the transition from CSFII to VELS. This was significant because it moved subject b...

As I have written about elsewhere , a small amount of furore erupted on Twitter last Saturday in response to Johanna O'Farrell's tirade against 21st century learning habits in The Age titled ' Splashing Cash won't Fix Australia's Broken Education System '.  One of the things that I really notice whilst following the conversations through a medium like Twitter is that moments like this really draw a line in the sand and bring the tribe together.  Three questions that arose out of the ashes was:  Do moments like this further the wider conversation in anyway?  What is the role of the connected tribe in regards to continuing this wider conversation?  What does it take to move an idea from a point of change to evolution? Connected Learning At the heart of all our connections, whether online or not, is our PLN. There are many different definitions for PLN's including: personal learning network, professional learning network or personalised le...

Strength is in the Weakness In my view, the strength of any team is not in the leadership group, although having strong leadership is important, rather it is in the supposed lower ranks, those individuals and stakeholders deemed to be at the bottom, and their ability to carry the overall vision for the organisation. To use a sporting analogy, it is often the depth of the reserves rather than the strength of the seniors that a teams metal is truly tested. With enough money, any team can buy enough players to be a good side, but to be a strong and successful side, it is the ability to stand up against injury and adversity which often decides between winning a game and maintaining long term success. This same mentality can be applied to the day to day actions in any educational environment . Often effort and money is put into key areas associated with big data, such as NAPLAN . However, it is those areas found in the margins of the curriculum, areas which neither provide clear measur...

Reform needs Team I was in a staff meeting the other day, the start of which focused on auditing the curriculum in regards to a whole school initiative that had been progressively implemented over the last few years. The task was divided into year levels. As staff all sat down together, many looked at each other wondering who had sufficiently incorporated the different modules in their planning. There were a few cases of ' it doesn't fit into our learning in ... ' and ' I just did it informally ', while others simply had a blank look of ' what are we talking about here '. The one thing that did become apparent was the necessity to work as a team, crossing all learning areas, focussing on the student at the centre. The River of Education Being in a somewhat unique situation of having both 'Primary' and 'Secondary' classes in the same school - and having taught in traditional 'Secondary' schools in the past - it can sometime...