Modern Learning Environments without the Pedagogy- Building a Plane In the Air?

Well, MLE's are the flavour of the year, aren't they?  I want to get on my high horse over this one.  I have seen MLE's fail in a number of schools.  It is not that the idea behind it is not an excellent one. It is just that those schools have not looked at the reasons for change closely, nor have they looked at the pedagogy behind the concept and so teachers have been caught unawares, ill-prepared and doomed to failure.  It has left a bad taste in the mouths of the schools and their communities, who saw their students start to "run wild" without structure to their schedules.  It has put those schools back to square one with a lot of rebuilding and public relations to be done.
The schools went into the MLE with good intentions but eyes shut.  These changes take a lot of planning.  Time for all involved to settle down to establish a clear vision, set strategic intentions and goals, provide targeted professional development for teachers, engage in consultation and dialogue with the community, establish agreed outcomes, develop a long term plan and a short term plan.  Years not months.
I started writing about this a few weeks back but got inspired to say more when this blog by Karyn at Te Karaka School caught my eye in my facebook feed (via Rebbecca Sweeney).   Karyn asks teachers and schools to lots of questions about what they are doing and how they are doing it.
I started thinking again about the tension between striving to meet school goals around numeracy and literacy, or NCEA and the seemingly opposing pull toward future focused personalised learning, nurturing of individual talents and abilities, and desiloing of schools, with establishment of contextual learning in the "real world."
It seems to me that the short term numeracy, literacy and NCEA goals are looming too large in the teachers' worlds.  I am not a primary school teacher but a secondary one.  NCEA can and does open up opportunities for a lot more peronalised learning pathways, but not within the existing timetable  restrictions that many schools place on themsleves because that is the way they have always done it.
How do we build this plane while it is flying?

An update on making a digital mihi using Google Maps

Some time ago, I made a video on how to make a digital "mihi" (a greeting and introduction of yourself and where you are from).  This was useful if you wanted to embed this in a google site or in a blog.  Google Maps have changed in appearance and functionality since then so here is a bit of an update.
In a traditional mihi, you usually say, in Maori, where your mountain is, where your river is, what your name is and other information about yourself.  It is a culturally placed protocol to establish links with the people you are introducing yourself to, and you can learn more about it here.
I think it is a nice and appropriate way to introduce yourself, particularly if you go into a lot of different schools as I do, but I also think that in an educational world, a digital mihi can be used for other purposes.  For example, students can be encouraged to make a digital mihi to introduce themselves on their blog.  It is a great way to help focus on improving writing for an authentic digital audience, in a culturally responsive way.
Students love to gather images and videos about their important places, and this makes their learning much more engaging.  It is relevant to them, and they are learning new skills and how to write for an audience.
One enhancement in a digital world may be to embed a sound recording of the student speaking their mihi in a blog or site, but a video is a pretty awesome way of doing this as well and so this method is for you to check out and use as you wish.  I hope you enjoy it.

Developing life-long learner skills

How do you become a life-long learner?  I was qualified and worked for some time as a microbiologist.  I then married someone who lived in the middle of nowhere and there were no jobs for microbiologists within a 100 mile radius.  But the local secondary school needed chemistry and science teachers, and so, I entered the teaching profession, without any training and I learned how to teach on the job.
This set me up for a lifetime of learning on the job.  My skills developed through need and, of course, I was putting in effort along the way.  As a chemistry and maths teacher, I kept thinking about better ways to teach the students, and attended professional development opportunities to help me improve.

I had previously thought that getting a degree in microbiology (and a post graduate diploma) would set me up for my working life, and that was all that I would need to be the most invaluable microbiologist in New Zealand.  I look back shamefacedly at that notion! Little did I know that knowledge was expanding at an exponential rate and whatever I knew back then, would be well out of date in five years.
As I moved into a senior management role at my school, the job description changed even more and now also included presenting and working with the staff.  As a classroom teacher, I had seen the development of the internet and digital technologies in education as opening up a whole new world for me and my students.  I started reading, watching and listening to as much as I could, and more importantly, started searching the internet for strategies using digital technology skills so that I could engage my students and deepen their learning.
 I looked for the "just in time" professional knowledge rather than the "just in case"  because there was so much to learn, it would have been overwhelming otherwise.  And so began the next stage in my learning journey. The age of the confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learner had arrived.  I am confident because I know that the knowledge that I need is out there in the ethernet.  I am connected because I have expertise at my fingertips, and have professional learning networks I can tap into 24/7.  I am actively involved because I seek out new learning myself as I need it and give that learning back, whenever and wherever I see the opportunity. I am a lifelong learner because the journey never stops.

 I don't tell you this story to celebrate my success as a learner.  I tell you this story so that you can think about your own journey and how you become a lifelong learner so that your professional expertise is based on your own wants and needs in a changing world.  And I also tell you this story because your students need to know and understand it, as they enter a rapidly changing world.

The internet has changed the playing field for everyone.  So much knowledge and learning available for all.  If I want to learn how to copy and paste, I just google "how to copy and paste".  If I want to make a podcast, I just google "how to make a podcast".  There are instructional videos about everything and anything on youtube.  You can find out anything "just in time".  And that knowledge may be redundant in a years time, so be prepared for change.  Never have Heraclitus's words been more true - “Change is the only constant in life.”

Do you have a class blog?

When you have a class blog, it is often about a "showcase" - showing your parents what their children are doing in class and celebrating their achievements.
If you are ready to take the next step, it can be very empowering for your students and will help them raise their literacy levels through more careful attention to correct grammar and presentation, with your guidance.
When you use student blogs in this way, it moves the blog from a "showcase" to a "process" portfolio.  Students make progress and are able to show their learning in an explicit way.  If you can encourage your parents to make positive comments and to extend the authentic audience for the students by letting their friends and relatives have the link as well, you will see great progess in student literacy achievement.
Not only will you be able to show learning, you will also be able to show evidence of students reaching the National Standards.  This will make the blog an "accountability portfolio."
You will need to make a decision about whether you want to check every post on the student blogs or whether you will do spot checks and address digital citizenship issues as they arise.  I prefer the latter because the students do need to learn to "live" in a digital world.
Teach the students how to comment positively on their peers blogs and you can also let your parents know what kinds of comments will help their child's progress.
If you have a class blog on Google Blogger and you want to add links to your students' blogs to the class blog, this short video will tell you how you can do this.

I would love to hear your stories of how student blogging has empowered you and your students in these ways.

Recording my professional learning in one place

This year I have resolved to try to record my PLD (professional learning and development) a little more conscientiously, as I have ended up storing it all over the place in other years and it has been messy to retrieve. I have made a page on my 2015 Appraisal Site in order to do this. It looks like this.

I have a form on one side where I can enter the details of the PLD and the response spreadsheet on the otherside which includes links to the resources.  So far it has worked well as it is easy for me to open the site page and enter the information during the PLD session into the form but also view the previous PLD in the embedded spreadsheet.

If you are interested in this method, here is a video on how to do this.  I hope it is useful for you.

Googling: Embedding a blog into your site

A couple of people have asked recently how to embed their blog into their site, so I have made this youtube tutorial of two different ways to do this.


If you want to see other tutorials, have a look in my youtube channel.  My videos are made in the traditional Flipping way - warts and all, so I hope they are of use to you.

A great infographic from e-learning infographics which explains why flipping your class really works.

This great infographic reminds us of the importance of reviewing what we learn to be able to commit it to memory. This totally explains to me why videos are so good at helping us learn. We can stop, pause rewind, review a video, at our own pace. No teacher interruptions. If we have a video stored in a central place like on a site, this adds to the benefit as we are able to review regularly. Enjoy!
Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics