Getting there. (Yes, finally!!!) - Research in Education

Oh wow! I have worked my little brain off this morning.

It was with some trepidation that I started my Week 20 Mindlab work today. The LOOMING question was: how to narrow down and focus on one idea for my teacher inquiry project and the up and coming literature review?
In last week's blog I recorded so many possibilities for my teacher inquiry that my head was spinning. So... after watching all the videos and reading (most of 😇) the readings, in a roundabout way I have come back to two key features I am REALLY interested in exploring and applying in my practice, that I had recorded in last weeks blog:

Design Thinking in education and Learner Agency.

I fell across Core education's website regarding top ten trends in Education for 2016 and 2017 and after a morning of scribbling down ideas and processing my thoughts, am really excited about how I can combine these ideas together to benefit my students and their learning for next year's class.

My beginning scrawlings.

Getting closer!

So why have I chosen to focus on these areas?

During my Mindlab experience for last year, my colleague and I created a learning unit where the students (after a lot of teaching and preparation) created and designed a digital television episode that they shared with our families. In that, I really got to experience students having and taking ownership of their learning, some elements of design thinking, experiencing the 'messiness' of learning and not rescuing students from finding their own solutions to problems.

At the heart, though I would like to explore learner agency more, helping kids have the mindset that it's okay to not have the answers, to fail and to persevere with their learning. I want to look at who really owns learning- who comes up with what is to be learned and why? I want to look at learner engagement over entertainment, as I see a bit of that going on and have probably been guilty of this myself at times. Something one student in my class last year would do was rate the learning going on by it's fun-level. I could have used that as a learning opportunity but want to explore that with my students next year. How can students really use technology and create with it? Collaboration is real and tangible in our classrooms so how can we apply these ideas to a new classroom and continue to grow the collaborative skills in a new group of students

So to me, Design Thinking with its:

• humanistic elements 
• students and teachers learning alongside one another 
• explorations of multiple perspectives and collaboration 
• creating and testing ideas
• problem-solving focus  
• future focus- 21st Century skills

is a great fit. I don't know enough yet but think this will work in beautifully with our school inquiry model. 

So what is my question at this stage?

Please feel free to comment and critique my question:

• How can student/learner agency and engagement be fostered through Design Thinking?

Future Oriented Learning and Teaching

Today students face an uncertain and ever changing future (2Revolutions LLC, 2012). Bolstad, Gilbert, McDowall,Bull, Boyd & Hipkins (2012), note that a paradigm change in education is needed to help students meet these demands; “The old understanding of knowledge is no longer sufficient” p. 14. How we use, apply and think of knowledge has changed. Students need to be actively involved in their learning rather than passive recipients of content.

The 2012 report written by Bolstad et al, Supporting Future-oriented Learning and Teaching - a New Zealand Perspective, outlines key themes for educators to work towards to help prepare students for 21st century life.

1. Personalising learning 
2. New views of equity, diversity and inclusivity 
3. Knowledge to develop learning capacity 
4. Rethinking learner and teacher roles 
5. Continuous learning 
6. Partnerships and relationships 

Two sub-themes also flowed through their work:

1. Current and emerging technologies 
2. The role of the collaborative process 

I found it difficult to not see the connectedness between these themes. The Ministry of Education (2012) also commented on this; “What is needed is, not more effort focused on the parts of this system, but strategies designed to put these ideas together: to join all this up in a way that is driven by a coherent set of shared ideas....”

At the heart of my change in practice since working with Mindlab, has been a focus on ‘knowledge to develop learning capacity’. This moves away from traditional subject/ content/ learning area focus towards a shift in thinking to ‘knowledge as a verb’, Ministry of Education (2012). Creating and using new knowledge to solve problems and find solutions, with ‘just in time’ teaching and learning.

A colleague and I created a learning experience to develop our students’ collaboration skills. Although this was our focus, the learning outcomes were much broader than we could have ever imagined.
So what did we do?
Noticing a lack of student voice in our community correspondence we implemented HTV - a student-led and designed digital television programme. As educators, we wanted to allow our students to take charge of their learning, work collaboratively and leave their mark. We put a lot of work into the foundations of this project. Setting up a shared vision and purpose of HTV, establishing an understanding of collaboration, co-constructing success criteria, and setting up frameworks to support students as they took over the running of the project through agile and design thinking learning processes.

Then...we handed the reins over. This involved a rethink of the roles of both teacher and learner. Together we were learners. Students were in charge of organising their learning, making decisions, sorting out disagreements, researching and finding solutions about how to do things. They had use and apply their digital learning in a professional way to create the HTV episode and hold a premiere evening for whanau and caregivers.

Was this the regular and tidy learning programme- no?! It was messy at times and pushed me out of my comfort zone. I had to stop myself from directing students and allow them to make mistakes. If I did that it would take away their decision-making processing, their autonomy and their voice; and that was really challenging! I became the question asker- what do you think, can you look at this in another way, who else could help with this etc?

My students too, found this very challenging - why wasn’t I playing the game? Wouldn’t it be easier for me to just say what to do or give an answer? Some students found it very hard to make decisions in case they were ‘wrong’. Others didn’t seem comfortable having to think for themselves. And on the other hand… some students just flew- they relished in the opportunity and surprised us with how they worked, what they learned and the skills they demonstrated.

Constructionist theory (Papert & Harel, 1991) underpins this learning. Bers (2007) outlines four key elements important to constructivism in the classroom.

1. Learning is designed in communities, is interactive and students evaluate, assess and debug their learning as they go. 
2. Technological tools are used for collaborative teamwork and feedback. 
3. New ways of thinking assist in the creation of powerful ideas which have a personal connection for students. 
4. Learning about learning through technology. Students use technology safely, make positive contributions to themselves, their community, the world and technological development. 

So what have I learned from this?
Students need to be challenged and given more opportunities to think for themselves, to create together, to give back to their community. Messiness is okay (truly it is) and the learning gained from this can be uncomfortable at first but is so empowering. That way we can more fully prepare students for their futures.

References:

2Revolutions LLC. (2012). The Future of Learning. [Online Video]. 1 March 2012. Available from: https://youtu.be/xoSJ3_dZcm8. [Accessed: 30 November 2017].

Bers, M. U. (2008). Blocks to robots: learning with technology in the early childhood classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.

Bolstad, R., Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching — a New Zealand perspective. Report prepared for the Ministry of Education. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306

Build Learning Capacity [Digital image]. (2010, October 14). Retrieved December 1, 2017, from https://pt.slideshare.net/StonefieldsSchool/community-consultation-14-october

Creative Clip art Thinking Cap [Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2, 2017, from http://moziru.com/explore/Creative%20clipart%20thinking%20cap/#gal_post_4664_creative-clipart-thinking-cap-1.gif

Ministry of Education.(2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching: A New Zealand perspective. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306

Papert, S. & Harel, I. (1991). Constructionism. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing

Ahh Overwhelmed!

One week and so much can be crammed into one small cranium.
So after posting my reflection on how we use 21st Century skills in our teaching programmes, its been really great to see how and what other teachers are doing around the country. I was somewhat resistant about getting involved in the G+Community at first but am now finding it a great place to learn. I was super nervous about posting my thoughts (once they're out - they're out!) on the forum but it's been really positive. I am finding myself being drawn back to see what else is going on and seeing the examples of work, reflections and ideas that are being shared. Love it.

So Tuesday's session was quite hands on. We were looking at how we can incorporate more innovative technology into our classrooms and looked at a couple of models that support this incorporation. The SAMR model and TPAK. I found both models interesting but need to take a bit more time to reflect on these and my understanding of the key concepts and differences between the two.

One of the innovations we looked at was how mixed reality will/could/can be used in the classroom. I personally have created Aura's from the Aurasma Augmented Reality (app?/programme?) years ago. Note the key word- "I'. I haven't ever handed this over to my students who could have done some fantastic things with this application I'm sure. My focus at the time was: how can I make this into a cool sharing/learning platform for my students.
Grant Lichtman's Ted talk  (What 60 Schools can Tell Us about Teaching 21st Century Skills), was a clip we had to watch for class. Initially, I didn't take too much from this viewing but am finding the ideas he presented in the clip, sneaking into my thinking quite often. One idea he speaks of is about the things that hold us- (teachers, educators, schools) back from becoming the progressive educators that really do equip our students with the skills they will need for their futures. He calls these silos, anchors and dams. Reflecting on why I never actually gave my students the opportunities to play around, suggest ideas and use Aurasma in the class themselves, was mainly down to some of those walls I myself had put up. This again related to the ideas in this weeks reading in prep for class  Conditions for Classroom Technology . A weighty little 30+ pager *eyes sagging out of their sockets, but this was very thought provoking. Although quite old in terms of a tech paper, the ideas behind it still apply. What are the things that hinder the successful use of technology innovations in classroom? For me, relating this to why I never even gave my students the opportunity to use Aurasma in the class, was fear of it not being successful. Not all students had their own devices, the school didn't have the programme on the school devices, the internet was too slow etc etc. Although at the time these were very valid issues, basically it was too hard, so it wasn't even attempted. This is something I really need to think about and battle- what am I doing to limit the use and application of technologies in my own classroom practice? How am I using silos, anchors and dams to hide behind?

This then leads me into the ASSIGNMENT! OMG!! Holly and I worked on this for quite a few hours  yesterday. We both want to do well on this assignment and it is going to be very interesting to see how this goes. The problem we identified in our practise was that students were not given the opportunity to share their learning outside of the classroom community. So although we both have home/school links to share digitally what is happening in our classrooms (we both use google classroom and Seesaw), when do students share outside of their family etc. An idea that was floated and didn't really go anywhere was H TV. A programme that would reflect what was happening in the lives of our students, the school and our community. Both Holly and I would like to step right back from this and truly allow the students to design and take charge of this project. This will be a BIG challenge. We will seek the feedback etc and ideas from students tomorrow about what ideas they have, whether they see value in it, and how they would like to see it run. We are also going to ask parents and other staff (the stakeholders). We are prepared for failure; there are many things that can go wrong but we are both willing to try and see this up and running. Where will it go?- we don't know. Teaching into the unknown- Grant Lichtman. Now we need to apply all the theory etc to our idea- hence the title of this post.

Teaching Reflection + The Ghosts of Students Past

Kia ora! I had a day at work on this fine and fabulous Sunday. It was a bit of a shame but it was open day for our school (we show case the school for prospective students to come and have a look around and decide if our school is the school for them).
So we were just wrapping up and I was in the school hall talking to a colleague i walked past a young man who stopped and said Hi to me. I looked at him... no register.... nothing! I have never had that happen to me and felt so bad. But once he said his name it all came flooding back. KEVIN! So of course I was picturing the 12-13 year old boy in my mind and here was this stocky, handsome twenty year old young man! WOW! We spoke for about ten minutes and it truly was such a wonderful thing to be able to catch up Kevin. He was a bit of a twinkly eyed child you could say, but was always polite and just a great human being. He said some really lovely things about his fond memories from his time in Room 16 and we spoke about where other people were and what they had gone on to do. I truly feel so proud that I get to do this job and his conversation today was a really timely reminder. I LOVE what I do. It is NEVER easy, although you have some days easier than others. Thanks Kevin for taking the time to speak with me.

SO again on to my mind lab work. I really just wanted to post my first attempt at creating a screencastify video. Exciting and scary. I had to reflect on an aspect of my practice and relate this to the 21st Century learning skills created by ITL ITL Research. (2012). 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics. Retrieved from https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research.

My first screencastify.
I was really excited to get my first likes etc and was a little bit surprised at how much it meant to me to know others saw what it was that Holly and I are doing with our students. I find myself thinking about how we are using these 21st century skills all the time and how we can make the learning better in the future for our studnets.

The Amazing Hand Puppet exploration AKA Collaboration

Session Two: planned as possible!
I read what was mandatory and wrote down what I thought were some pertinent notes.

What I was really excited about on a practical level was the ITL 21 Century learning skills rubrics (ITL Research. (2012). 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics. Retrieved from https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research ). I really enjoyed reading these especially as our school has been undergoing a transformation in our approach to foster learning that is more of a skilled based curriculum. I just loved the practicality of these rubrics. Well defined, easy to use and don't even get me started on the flow charts. AMAZING!

Any who... I still need to get my head around the Knowledge Construction rubric. This is important to me because as we have been designing our PRIDE inquiry model of learning as a school, one part that has been, not neglected, but steered away from, is the development of knowledge through content. Many times it has been uttered, it's not the content nor the context that matters, it's the skills. I get that, but if we don't have a meaty, perspective rich area to explore, we are not paying nor acknowledging the importance of having a good understanding and KNOWLEDGE in which to apply, develop and practice these skills on. I think its like reading and writing- the two are inextricably linked.  But that's just my opinion.
What I do need to clarify is...

1. I am not too sure I understand all aspects of this rubric clearly and...
2. I think knowledge construction may be lacking in my practice. 

Do I really (truly) give my students the opportunity to construct their own meaning and create NEW understanding? I always thought I was good at getting students to do that but maybe I am only just getting them to reproduce (or regurgitate) what I provide for them to explore? This is an area that I am going to try to really think about as I go along in this journey. The whole creation aspect of learning.

Which takes me to my next part: exploring a collaborative approach to explore the ITL's rubric of COLLABORATION!

Last session we were given the task of recreating one of the rubrics and after looking at the actual task that is posted on our learning portal I am unsure if we actually have completed that task properly? 

(Choose one of the ITL rubrics and reflect upon the activities you provide for your students/staff. Film part of that reflection. You can use any device. Make sure the video is no more than 3 minutes long. Publish your video to the Google+ Community with the hashtag #21CSreflection, remember, as always, to add your location specific hashtag. This is your chance to familiarise yourself with your devices, and to honestly reflect upon your own practice.)

But anyway here is our collaboration. 

#OTT #whatabouthatvoice? #givingthingsago #washeapsoffunforus

What I really enjoyed about this collaboration was that in doing this task I truly feel like I have such a deeper and better understanding of the concept. Already in my teaching classes I have tried to use this approach multiple times because it really was of benefit for me. I had my students create their own definitions of volume in math. Sounds really simple and boring but by just using key questions my students were able to clarify and distinguish the difference between volume and capacity, give definitions in their own words, create their own understandings. My fav was Alice and Mackenzie who said the volume was just 3d area. I loved it. They showed the transference of the concept we had learned before in a way that made sense to them and built on previous learning. So much more powerful than me giving them a definition and a formula. Students used a variety of digital methods to show their understanding and shared it on Gclassroom. Although I have always done this sort of thing, I have put myself in my students seats and am handing a lot more of the discovery over to them. I get them to clarify each others ideas. We make mistakes together and fix them together too.

One of the reflections we were asked to complete was to identify 3 or more issues or problems in our practice and how this applied to either the 21st C skill rubrics or The NZ Curriculum key competencies: http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum.

Problems, Challenges, Frustrations or Concerns In my practice:	Related to Key Competencies or ILT 21st C Skills
Am I really promoting Knowledge construction with in my classroom programme? Do students really get to use HOT skills and critical thinking in the classroom? Is student thinking surface or deep?	21CS: · Knowledge Construction KC: · Thinking
How can I get my students taking more ownership over their spelling skills and proficiency in the classroom?	21CS: · Knowledge Construction KC: · Using language, symbols and text · Thinking
How can I design learning tasks that show true collaboration or promote true collaboration?	21CS: · Collaboration KC: · Relating to others · Thinking · Managing self · Participating and contributing
How can I promote the use and competency of our PRIDE learning model with other staff?	21CS: · Collaboration · Problem Solving · Knowledge Construction KC: · Relating to others · Thinking · Participating and contributing
I would like students to use and have a digital presence through documenting or sharing themselves, our school etc, their learning  through the use of Blogging or VLogging.	21CS: · Collaboration · Problem Solving · Use of ICT for Learning KC: · Relating to others · Using language, symbols and text · Thinking · Managing self · Participating and contributing Problem Solving

 There are many more things I could look at and I am sure that I will refine this even more but it's just a starting point at the moment. 

The other reflection we were invited to do was identify which 21st C skill we would like to work on for our assignment. I am a bit divided about that at present because there are lots of things i would like to focus on. Collaboration- helping grow such an important skill with students who are very cooperative but not necessarily collaborative. Use of ICT for learning- apart from the old G Suite and google classroom etc, I know this area of my practise could definitely be improved. Am i teaching really good ICT skills for learning too? Knowledge Construction- as mentioned above am I creating learning experiences and tasks that really deepen thinking and promote the students own construction of knowledge? Problem solving and innovation- I think I do this at a minimal level. This is one area i find myself not really interested in for my homeroom class- so maybe this is what I should look into more because I really am unsure how successful I could be and how I can really help the kids make a positive difference. I see a lot of really fluffy problem solving or innovative things go on. Students who were involved in another teacher in my school doing Mindlab last year really sort of negated what it was that they achieved (and they achieved something good too)- they seemed almost disconnected in a way where as the teacher was highly engaged. How could I do something authentic that the kids were proud of and valued too?

Sooooo as you can see this session has brought up more questions than anything else for me. I have't blogged on the leadership portion of last weeks session- that may be for another time. And this has taken me far too long to do!