ChangSchoolTalks 2015: Stephen Downes

A very condensed overview of the thoughts of Stephen Downes on future learning. In New Zealand/Aotearoa we still seem to be in some sort of design mode; we talk about iteration, enquiry, and we amplify structural problems by throwing computer power or better WiFi at schools. The challenge is deeper; it's actually a societal question that must in some part transcend the politics of the day, but politicians are too embedded in our secondary education system, they're implicit in it, and their neo-liberal logic means schools are the babysitters of capitalism, not cauldrons of intellect or innovation. I believe we can change this, but we need to think on it more like Downes and less like Hekia Parata.

John Hattie interview

John Hattie talks about his Visible Learning programme.

Liberal Arts Education in 50 years

Some interesting thoughts on the future of higher ed liberal arts education. If change comes from below then perhaps we should model at Secondary level.

Notes on personalised learning environments for NZ secondary schools

Speculative thoughts on a personalised learning environment for NZ schools.

A truly personalised learning environment would consists of: a platform, a paradigm, and a pedagogy (The 3 Ps).

Some features of the Platform:

Digital - Seems pretty straightforward but ... everything is digital. I join, I sign-in, I aggregate, I share, I create, and I'm assessed digitally. (This "I" should probably learn how to type as a pre-requisite, it replaces penmanship and is part of an expanded digital literacy. How young can you learn now to type? Primary school?)

Data - Curriculum (in NZ, NCEA standards) is incredibly valuable - it creates the matrix through which I can track my progress. Personalisation depends on being able to view your learning accomplishments, your requirements, and your needs and interests from a birds eye view in relation to what is considered accomplished in a particular subject area. Collecting aggregating, and presenting this data is large part of this; as is protecting it. But it's not "data driven", in the sense that this is not about algorithms dictating to me. It's not Spotify, but it might be Pandora (in case you're a music geek.) The fact that I'm also creating digitally means I'm creating more data. This requires a big-data strategy. Big Data is not just the realm of scientists; but it does require computational expertise to be applied. Schools not only need pipes to carry data, they also need expertise. We need fully digital hi-tech librarians perhaps.

Social - School is a social experience. My peers are there to help and support me (this is behavior that teachers and community need to model online ... please!) They may be at different stages in the same journey, and are connected via strong and weak network bonds (see: interpersonal ties). Social includes the community outside of school. Yes, real people in real life. Just because it's all digital doesn't mean I don't get my fingers dirty.

Visualization - data about me needs to be able to be viewed from a variety of perspectives, and in ways responsive to the needs of the user. For example, an administrator, a counselor, a parent, and a teacher may wish to view data in a variety of formats that are relevant and make sense to them. Visualization needs to be in real time. It's not about surveillance. I don't see this as tracking progress in the traditional sense. It's about mapping. How can I help steer you towards resources, goals, and people? How can I know you and the thousand others?

There is definitely an ePortfolio like element to this, but the problem with the current ePortfolios I have observed are that they are not much more than content management systems for user generated documents. There is no intelligence built into them, they are tied to the desktop, and they are begrudgingly social. The platform needs to be geo-spatially aware and mobile as well because we are creating modern learning environments where learning and support for learning may be targeted towards specifically designed architectural spaces (the majority of school buildings in NZ were built between 1950 and 1970). Being geo-spatially aware also alerts the user to the proximity of peers. I will "check-in" to the library and "check-out" digital books. The point is to pair devices and their owners.

This is a quick brain dump, not a plan, or a blog post even. Add your thoughts in the comments if you care to.

Next up ... The Paradigm.

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Reference: 

Further reading about Modern Learning Environments

#edchatnz

#edchatnz is a group of New Zealand teachers who meet on Twitter every second Thursday at 8:30pm NZ time to talk about teaching and technology. They're also using blogger to capture the twitter stream that ensues as well as summarizing the evenings discussion. Here's their latest discussion:

edchatnz: Networking 101: The Topic: Networking 101: Why bother networking as a teacher? How does networking affect your teaching? 

Pond, Network for Learning portal

Pond is being promoted as a hub for digital discovery and participation, where educational resources can be accessed and shared more easily and effectively. While I appreciate that it is handy to have some reputable sources (and hopefully ones' that encourage Creative Commons licensing) that are by default searchable through the site, I'm also hoping that Pond will also allow users to aggregate from other resources as well. NZ seems to be sorely lacking in the development of a social platform for teachers to use to help with planning around our particular curriculum requirements and if Pond can fill that gap I think it will be a great investment for education generally and an invaluable space for teachers.

Introducing Pond, the Network for Learning portal from Network for Learning on Vimeo.

#glass Interviews

Series of recorded Google Hangouts by Alexander Hayes of his interaction with the Google Glass Explorers Community and other related contacts from industry, research and affiliated organisations. The intent of this research activity is to gain an understanding of the key motivations, experiences and understandings that these individuals gain from engaging with this emergent wearable technology.

University of Auckland dips toe into MOOC waters

The University of Auckland has teamed up with pilot MOOC platform FutureLearn and is expected to start delivering some courses on the platform shortly. FutureLearn is a private company wholly owned by the Open University and with over 20 UK and international university partnerships, as well as institutions with archives of cultural and educational material, including the British Council, the British Library, and the British Museum. It's a small step for the University which has been in the past, according to various statements by vice-chancellor Stuart McCutcheon, hesitant to jump on the MOOC bandwagon. It will  be extremely interesting to see how this pans out over the back-drop of a university which seems to be increasingly in a phase of creating new physical spaces with both the demolishing and rebuild of the Science faculty and the purchase of a significant space in Newmarket. 

Civic Engagement at NetHui

I recently spoke at the NetHui conference in Auckland on the topic of Civic Engagement (see post below this one). This is a video of that session; Russel Brown spoke first, then I come on at 21 minutes.

ownership blues (or, diversity rag?)

A few nights ago the "public service broadcaster" TV One had prime minister John Key live on the evening of the governments latest budget. They employed a very weak trope to fill this half an hour: an average white family, 2 kids + dog and mortgage, asking questions to the prime minister from location in their suburban home. In another stroke of brilliant political television the prime minister had been prepared prior to the event with background economic information on the family on the other side of his monitor, as he quite freely confessed. When asked by the scruffy Close-Up presenter Mark Sainsbury how the budget was going to impact them financially the father sort of shyly responded "actually ... not much". Wow! This was to be a thrilling people's counterpoint to the smug pinstriped accountant now sitting in the highest seat of power in New Zealand@!!!! Not. Our public service broadcaster? Controversial budget during tough economic times in a continued global recession plus an upcoming election ... and this is what the public service broadcaster came up with in the face of having the governments leader in the studio. Oh boy :-(

I'm increasingly distressed by the sense that the New Zealand public sphere and subsequently our democracy is a failed modernist experiment in need of revision. Television in New Zealand is truly depressing; and the level of commercialism we seem willing to tolerate just cripples our pride and deepens our inability to grow as a nation. I actually believe that what holds us back from being the truly innovative and sustainable country we would like to believe we are, is the rampant commercialisation and almost total international ownership of our media. When a government comes to New Zealand that can return the media landscape to a more equitable diversity of ownership and use of media, then we can start again on moving forward politically and socially.

Man ...

its vacant around here. Should dust this place off again perhaps.

Reading ...

this: Open education: the need for critique

Wish I could go to this...

but i can't. So I wish them a good conference and will catch some on uStream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/uc-ip/v3

Meeting Poem: Identity and Access Management

I was put into the system
I acquired an affiliation
I added my address
  entered my emergency contacts
  submitted my identity to downstream systems
Some of me was verified for accuracy
  read-only
  updated

I started
  and I would end.

Was I dead?

Yes. No.

Thanks and

praise: VLC

Monopsony

In economics, a monopsony (from Ancient Greek μόνος (monos) "single" + ὀψωνία (opsōnia) "purchase") is a market form in which only one buyer faces many sellers. It is an example of imperfect competition, similar to a monopoly, in which only one seller faces many buyers. As the only purchaser of a good or service, the "monopsonist" may dictate terms to its suppliers in the same manner that a monopolist controls the market for its buyers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopsony

The Internet as Playground and Factory - Ulises Ali Mejias from Voices from The Internet as Play on Vimeo.

Social Media Course

The past few weeks i've been guiding 9 locals in my neighborhood on a Webdesign with Wordpress course, but they're pretty savvy and inquisitive and I can't get through the course without alluding to RSS, my own Twitter obsession, open source software, embedding media, and getting them somehow intertwined with my own social network(s). This is great but it can get pretty confusing for some, and a bit off the topic of just creating a simple site using Wordpress ... so, i've been thinking about developing a new course for next semesters offerings along the line of "Social Media for ..." something. I haven't figured the right label yet, but it would a fast paced workshop on how to develop your social media network, how to manage and cultivate such a network, and why you might want to do such a thing (personal, marketing, professional networking, etc.)

So it was timely to see gnuchris (a member of a network I sometime inhabit) tweet a reminder of his Planet Talo river of news feed ... where I saw this post by Steven Parker about developing a master course around some networked principles originally articulated by George Siemens:

1. Amplifying
2. Curating
3. Wayfinding and socially-driven sensemaking
4. Aggregating
5. Filtering
6. Modelling
7. Persistent presence

My experience in the community education centre's Wordpress course really resonated with this idea by George, that

"For educators, control is being replaced with influence. Instead of controlling a classroom, a teacher now influences or shapes a network"

As I work on ideas for this course over the next few weeks I think i'll organize them around these principles rather than any really specific technologies or tools.

(Image Credits: Patch, by VirtualErn. CC-By)

aaahhh...

I feel as if I may be back, for real. I have a new job here: http://www.creative.auckland.ac.nz its kind of full-circle for me as I started out at the University of Auckland when moving back to NZ 7 years ago, got a bit waylayed at AUT, but am back at where I really wanted to be the whole time. I'm not leaving this time ... so you're stuck with me. I'll try to play nice.

A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn

RIP Howard Zinn

Kill everybody

"In April, they told us, "In a crowded area, if one person shoots at you, kill everybody."