Backlash or Implementation Dip?

Are you seeing and hearing a bit of a backlash against the use of digital technologies in our society?

More robust discussions around learning with digital technologies have also been happening in the education sector in recent times.  People are questioning the role of digital technologies because around them they see less face-to-face interactions and more face-to-digital which is disturbing them. It is making them feel uncomfortable.   I have heard people say, we just are losing the ability to communicate with each other.  And yet we are communicating with each other more that ever before. It is just in a digital way.
In the beginning, digital technologies were increasingly seen as some kind of black magic, whizz bang tools for learning.  Some of the comments I heard were

• Wow, isn't that so cool?
• It is so amazing.
• My students will love this.
• I can't wait to try it out in class.
• This will really impress the parents  

People did not focus on the "why" then - they were more interested in trying out the whizz bang tools, and excited by the "showmanship" of different fonts, making links, using different apps, making QR codes, altering images, making their own videos, making comic books and ebooks. The list goes on. Confidence grew quickly at the beginning of their journey and now......... new discussion is emerging.

• Why are we expected to do this?  
• Why am I spending so many hours learning? 
• This is taking me away from my regular work.
• What is the point of connecting and collaborating anyway?
• I don't have time for this - is it worth it?
• What evidence is there to show this improves outcomes for my students?
• I have no connection in my classroom so why should I try?
• Dont you think there are too many barriers for me?

These are all really good questions and actually, although it has come as a bit of a surprise after all this time, I am glad that educators are actually asking.  Because that is what they should have asked in the beginning.

It feels like a kind of backlash against using digital technologies. Some are actively slagging the use of digital technologies.    I think there are those who are looking for excuses not to use digital technologies.   They are putting barriers in the way rather than trying to remove them.

But actually I think they have struck the implemetation dip. They are in the trough of disillusionment.

It is well documented why we need to change the way we teach.  Our students will be entering the knowledge society instead of the old style industrial model.    We live in an unsettled world. We are entering a future with wicked problems.   Our learners will be expected to work in teams, use connectivity to communicate, collaborate, be critical thinkers, and to be creators.  How are you empowering your student to be ready for these uncertain times ahead?

Can educators really imagine a world without digital technologies now?  Look at the journey you have travelled.  Now that you can see the potential, how can you turn away from empowering your students to be the best digital citizens they can be?

When people tell me that they don't like the effects that digital technologies are having on society, I tell them to get used to it.  I strongly believe that people will do what they need to.  If you have a problem about the way digital technologies are being used in society, work out ways that you can deal with it.  If you need to take control, do it.  But don't expect that digital technologies are going to go away any time soon.

What is the most important thing?

I have a great builder.

He can visualise what can go into a space to make it more beautiful, and he crafts and builds with skill and accuracy.  He is also dyslexic.  This means that he doesn't read my emails very easily and I have difficulty understanding what he means when he replies to my emails. So, I have learned through experience (and finding out about his dyslexia from his offsider plumber) that it is best to phone him and/or talk to him face to face.  He has a successful business, is always busy, keeps to his spoken schedule and is genuinely a nice man.
Why am I telling you about my builder?  Well, at school I believe he would have struggled to meet the literacy standards of the day.  And therein lies my problem with the obsession with measuring literacy and numeracy standards across the country, and I suspect, across many countries' education systems.
Unfortunately, I think much of this focus on meeting national standards is driven by the idea that people must be literate and numerate to be able to succeed in life.
Is this paradigm is driven by the people who are in business in high places right now?  Outmoded education systems were built for the Industrial Age, and we must start to prepare our students for an unknown future.  It is, however, apparently still very hard for some schools, some teachers and some parents to make the shift to a more personalised, future focused education for children.
I think that very often, parents support and perpetuate the old system of education.  They seem to want to be educated the way that they were educated.  You hear these phrases often: -

• You should get back to basics.  
• Focus on the three Rs.  
• You are not getting enough homework
• The teacher knows everything you need to know
• You just need more discipline slash respect

I do understand how literacy and numeracy are important for many real life situations.  But they are not the most important thing.  The most important thing is that success will come from focusing on learning through and about what interests you. Teach yourself how to learn, how you learn best and seek help as and when you need it.  

I believe that technology opens up a number of different pathways to success.  My builder uses an ipad to help visualise the project, along with his own notes which may not be very comprehensible to others.  It works for him.  There are a whole bunch of successful creative people out there who do not need to know when to use particular punctuation, or know the difference between an adverb and an adjective.  Instead they have learned to improve, how to strive for improvements, how to learn and often they have had a supportive mentor, a guide on the side, a teacher, partner or parent who has encouraged them to go further, or even keep going when others would have given up.

So in your quest for success, always remember these important things.

• Be prepared for failures.  
• Be prepared to unlearn what you may have learned in the past. 
• Be prepared to adapt.
• Be prepared to work on improving.

This way you will find your own niche in life.

 

Image sourced from openclipart vito.andolini7110

What do we know about learning?

I can't say enough how much I value the work of researchers, Bolstad and Gilbert et al who wrote the report for the Ministry of Education on "Supporting future oriented learning and teaching".
The report focuses on a vision for New Zealand learning and what transformation of education could look like for New Zealand.  In some schools, the transformation has begun.  We need to focus on the six themes of future oriented learning and teaching to undergo the transformation.
They are personalised learning, new views of equity and diversity, new connections to the community (local, national and international) using knowledge to build learning power, lifelong learning for leaders and educators, and new roles for teachers and learners.  Another earlier blogpost refers to these themes.

My mind keeps wandering back to page 15, table 3 in the report.  "What we know about learning." The table heading is a statement, not a question.   In other words, this is what we know about learning from the research.
I think the table provides a great basis for a  reflective tool to check out how we as teachers are supporting learning.  I have made up a form (see below) based on the table so you can do a self review.

• It would be great if you could answer all ten questions.  That would allow you, and other teachers to view your responses.  
• This form is completely anonymous and I see it as a way to think about the learning that is going on in your class, and learn from others as well.  
• You are able to edit your responses.

If you are the first person here, go on, fill it out and allow others to learn from you, as well as reviewing your own performance as a teacher.
You are also welcome to make a copy of the form to use in your schools.  Make a copy of the form here by going the the menu "File" and choosing "Make a copy"  (You will need your own Google (free) account to do this).
The responses can be viewed at this link (which is also available at the end of the form)
For those of you who do not want to complete the form: here are the ten questions:

Are students in my class thinking?  How do I know this?

Am I providing experiences to draw on? Examples of this are?

Am I supporting my students to build deeper knowledge by searching for different approaches to answers?  An example of when I have not “given the right answer” is...

Are my students actively engaged in processing new knowledge (is there a task which required them to engage and interpret the new knowledge?)  The new knowledge is ….  The task is ….

Do my students want to learn this material?  How do I know this?  Is it relevant to them is there another way of learning the material which makes it more relevant?

Do my students have control over the pace and goals of the learning?  I have given choice to them when …..  The students can go back to the learning at …...time.

Is there structure to the learning? When students are ready for the learning, have I resources and learning management systems that allow them to do this?

Does the learning involve interaction with others? Do my students work with each other to create new learning?  What evidence do I have of learning that happens with people other than myself?  Do I enable connections for interactions to happen?

Does learning happen outside the classroom and do I acknowledge it, and plan for it?  In what ways have I enabled learning outside the classroom?

How do I expand the intelligence of each of my students?  Can I demonstrate ways in which learning has happened for students who thought they were “no good” at something?

Presentations to share

As I make a lot of presentations on Google, it seems sensible to share some of them in my blog. I am trying to embed a lot of them in my site so that they are available to everyone. I know they won't suit all but hope they will be able to suit some educators, so please do make your own copies if they suit you. I will start with one I did on the 6 Future Focus Themes identified by Bolstad, Gilbert et al in 2012.

I live to revisit these often as it makes a lot of sense to me why we should be learning to learn using digital technologies, because each of these themes are "doable" simply because of digital technologies.  And, not only are they doable, but they are transforming the way that we learn.

Views of Knowledge

I am freshly back from the Virtual Professional Learning and Development (VPLD) conference in Auckland.  It was an awesome hui, a great chance to catch up face to face with my mentees and mentors alike.  Two days of celebrations of  personal journeys in educational contexts and lots of learning for all.                  

As with all meetings,there is a lot to digest and mull over for the next few weeks.  The VPLD is where I grew my "learning with digital technology" wings.  It is a supportive and empowering community and I have enjoyed presenting at each one over the past four years.  This year, I facilitated a short session on Future Focused Learning.  his blog post is about my reflections from that presentation.
I have blogged about these 6 themes of future-oriented teaching and learning before, as they resonate strongly for me about the power of transforming learning with digital technologies.

As part of the session, I asked the group of about 70 educators to reflect on what each of the themes could mean in their classrooms.  I gathered responses via a google form (answers are collated in a spreadsheet) and this give me the opportunity to see how well people understand the concepts.

The theme which was least understood was about using knowledge to build learning capacity. So I thought I would revisit this concept and try to clarify my understandings, and as always, look for further comment and discussion around this theme.

From Curriculum Update 26 comes these words " learning can happen through collaborative knowledge building" and "disciplinary knowledge provides context within which students' learning capacity can be developed".  What I understand from this is that as students grow their knowledge, they should also be growing their capability to learn more.  We need to provide supports and scaffolds to ensure that they learn to understand how they learn and build their knowledge.  This in turn will allow them to become more independent, self directed learners.
Sometimes this just means having a model for learning - like the many inquiry learning models I have used and seen around the country.  These provide students with the framework to reflect on the way they grow their knowledge.
Just by chance, I spotted this poster in social media yesterday, about some attitudes which will support students build their capacity for learning. I am not sure where it came from but it really does reflect the kinds of things I believe we should be teaching our students.  Guy Claxton also  talks about "learning habits".  So as our students widen their knowledge base, we should also be instilling these habits and attitudes, which will enable them to be lifelong learners.
Knowledge is important.  Students should be able to use knowledge to help them build more knowledge.  But knowledge is now growing at such a rapid rate that it is impossible to be able to able to claim that what you know now will be relevant or even true in 10 years time.  (In my day, Pluto was a planet.  It was knowledge that I learned for my exams.)
It makes perfect sense to me now to use knowledge to build learning capacity now..... how do you feel?