Janine’s blog

Pictures of Practice In Schools (LS-South East schools) http://popis.edublogs.org/

Windows into the classroom (LS-South schools) http://winclass.edublogs.org/

Background

The Tasmanian Education Department has undergone massive restructure in recent years (and it is an ongoing work in progress). One of the elements of the restructure is that the central statewide bureacracy has now been transformed into 4 regional ”Learning Services”. So we have Learning Services South, Learning Services South East, Learning Services North and Learning Services North West. Each makes their own decisions about various support structures depending on the needs of the local schools.The two Learning Services for the South of the State have decided for the time being to continue having a full time person whose role is to provide ICT Professional Learning services to schools, again in response to school identified needs.

These two educators (Ros and Julie) have been working in such roles for many years. Last year they both decided to start documenting their observations of teacher practice in schools via  blogs with monthly postings. What I like about this use of blogs is that the unique opportuniries they have to observe classroom practice are being documented and shared. That knowledge (dare I suggest wisdom?) is preserved regardless of the longevity or otherwise of their current jobs. Of course the other side of the coin is that such writing in the public domain requires a high level of personal awareness of privacy, copyright and professional ethics else (to quote a learned colleague) the excrement can hit the rotating device big time.

In their own words from a posting to the local ICT-learning email discussion list …..

“Hello everyone,

During 2007, Julie Fielding and I both kept a blog relating to the work that we do in southern schools, and we will be continuing our blogs this year.

We each make a new posting approximately once a month and choose a focus that reflects what is happening in our schools at the time.

We hope it provides teachers and principals with general information about what is happening in the ICT area, along with examples of local teachers using ICT to enhance learning for their students, as well as giving them the opportunity to ask questions, share their own experiences etc. using the ‘Comments’ facility at the end of each posting.

Here are the links to the 2 blogs so you can have a look:

Pictures of Practice In Schools (LS-South East schools) http://popis.edublogs.org/

Windows into the classroom (LS-South schools) http://winclass.edublogs.org/

If you would like to subscribe to the blogs and be automatically notified each month when there is new material posted on the blog, use the ‘Subscribe by email’ facility on the right hand side of the pages, or use an RSS feed if you would prefer.

[copied from http://lyris.education.tas.gov.au:8080/read/messages?id=40717]

“This research will identify the key features of successful and promising personalising learning strategies, supported by exemplars of excellent practice. The project seeks to respond to the following questions:

What are the key characteristics of excellent and successful personalised learning experiences through the use of digital technologies? …..”

According to the website, the field research for this project is winding up now (December 2007) and the report will be out in March 2008.
Read more on the website

The latest Australian Flexible Learning framework online event kicked off today. Whilst the site requires login, a public facing e-Show nTell blog  is also happening. I believe a recording will be available and I look forward to that.

e-learning with an emphasis on learning - Ron Oliver

 I was unable to attend Ron Oliver’s opening keynote but the slides are available on the event blog together with some screenshots (1 and 2) of the audience interaction. I really like his 3 circles description of learning design - the intersection of

• learning tasks
• learning resources
• learning supports

Naturally each of these is a deep study in itself and he goes into exploration of each. 

I have been revisiting the e-learning design resource http://designing.flexiblelearning.net.au/ . I like the depth and richness of ideas. The section on learning design includes sample designs. These in turn use a generic format of providing a photo story (with audio) and a map of the learning design which I found most effective. I note that the last update appears to be August 2005 - it would be a pity if this resource were not kept up to date.

This is a single case study that basically finds an association between improved teacher knowledge through an online model compared to face to face. It makes the point that the key advantages appear to be cost savings by reducing travel costs and the well known fact that spaced professional learning over a sustained period of time generally provides better results than short bursts.

http://www.edvantia.org/publications/pdf/05CostEffectiveness.pdf

Just browsing around and came across this article re online teaching in K-12 sector form the Florida Virtual School

Key points cited:

- excellent communicators in online media (email. discussion forums, chat, other…)

- providing timely feedback

- active participation and frequent interaction among teachers and students

The article includes a checklist for assessment which could be quite useful as a self-audit tool.

elearning 1.0 - know thy learner- the importance of context in e-learning design http://www.learningcircuits.org/2001/oct2001/elearn.html

Related, though not specifically for the K-12 sector, this elearning circuits article also provides some good guidance

A presentation by Stephen on 27 July titled Learning objects - their use, their potential and why they aren’t dead yet.  Audio is also available. The slides have lots of diagrams and cross referencing to other material and thus read as an historical narrative/critique on learning objects from both technical and educational perspectives with commentary on the current state of play.

At the Simulations, games and learning symposium held in Melbourne in February Vanessa Pittard from Becta in the UK gave this presentation. She made extensive reference to recent research in order to explore the potential of games in education and note future research needs.

During the presentation she noted trends and developments wrt young people’s

• general use of ICT
• use of games, and
• use of ICT at home for educational purposes.

She went on to descibe the UK policy context in terms of lots of money invested towards supporting engagement of students:

• BBC online curriculum and BBC Jam - to support student-led learning in he home and elsewhere, incorporate the latest digital technologies combining video, games, audio and animation, an aim is to inspire even the most reluctant learners
• “extended school concept” – home/school/parents
• the “e-mature” learner – need “e-mature” leaders at all levels (Note: UK coined term - not yet in Wikipedia!)

The survey UK children go online concluded that students are a fairly confident generation.
Research references:

Bober and Livingstone, (2004 ) UK children go online - surveying the experiences of young people and their parents , LSE
http://personal.lse.ac.uk/bober/UKCGOsurveyreport.pdf, accessed 17-Feb-2006

DfES, (2005) Harnessing technology- Transforming learning and children’s services
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/e-strategy/docs/e-strategy.pdf, accessed 17-Feb-2006

Kirriemuir, J. and  McFarlane, (2004) A.  Literature Review in Games and Learning - A Report for NESTA Futurelab  http://www.nestafuturelab.org/research/reviews/08_01.htm  accessed 28-Feb-2006

Pratchett, R. (2005) Digital Play, Digital Lifestyles
http://crystaltips.typepad.com/wonderland/files/bbc_uk_games_research_2005.pdf  accessed 28-Feb-2006

Valentine et al, (2005) Children and Young People’s Home Use of ICT for Educational Purposes, DfES  http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RR672.pdf , accessed 28-Feb-2006

UK children go online - surveying the experiences of young people and their parents (2004):

The UK Children GO Online report presents key findings on childrens and young peoples’ internet use. The report is at http://personal.lse.ac.uk/bober/UKCGOsurveyreport.pdf and a BBC news report about it titled “Parents underestimate Net risks” is at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3910319.stm .The UK Children GO Online report presents key findings on childrens and young peoples’ internet use. The report is at  and a BBC news report about it titled “Parents underestimate Net risks” is at .

I attended an Education.au update seminar this week in Melbourne. The theme was “The Changing Landscape of Communication”. I was particularly taken with Illana Snyder’s presentation about smart strategies for reading the research, recognizing the rhetoric and then extracting what is important for teaching and learning, what changes are warranted?

Illana drew on themes from a William Gibson  book called “Pattern Recognition”, apparently now in production as a Peter Weir film.

She went on to articulate  a number of patterns and to suggest better research questions than the ones that assume cause and effect.

“What patterns are there in the research? If you can recognize the patterns you can avoid being seduced by them. Think not so much of new worlds but old worlds with new meanings.

1. The technology revolution – appears to be a mandatory reference. The danger of repetition is that predictability can remove meaning

2. The techno-enthusiasts/ techno-demoniser false dichotomy. Such division is uncritical. The transformation of education (by technology) is not automatic but the landscape has definitely changed

3. Technological determinism – a perception of technology as autonomous agent of change is not new. Such claims tend to assume cause/effect relationships ignoring contexts, human agency and control

4. Policy agendas – no longer rely on improving or enhancing but refer to educational and economic transformation. Because of the economic link, issues of equity of access of even more important.

5. Commercial imperatives – inevitable USA dominance – rhetoric of empowerment (through technology) leading to enhanced learning leading to improved futures leading to economic productivity – need to recognize the patterns of incursion of commercial interests into the educational sphere

6. Different accounts of e-learning: have we gone too far towards the social end and too far away from the psycho-liguistic eg overuse of “new”  whereas in reality, old and new interact in complex ways. E-learning suggests a new mode whereas multimodal and hybrids are closer to the reality of what really makes a difference. ICTs ARE being used to a greater or lesser extent. How to use them well in schools? Finding creative ways to do more with less.

7. Shape of questions researchers ask (and are currently attracting research funds)
- Does the use of computers improve ………eg The impact of ICT on literacy education (assumes cause/effect). Such questions lead inevitably to randomized trials before further investment

More effective questions might be:
How can educators best use new media to achieve teaching and learning objectives that are socially and culturally empowering?

If the use of new media is changing the communication landscape, how can educators design learning spaces that accommodate and maximize what the technologies might offer?

8. Interrogating the narratives about the use of ICT in education - Simplistic chronological cause/effect or creationist style claims are problematic. Claims need to be critically examined in the local context.

We need to tell stories of ICT that are more nuanced and not just good and bad – taking account of the perspectives of educators, response of learners, learning journeys. We need to use ICT for our own purposes rather than be used by it. There is no single coherent narrative but some are better informed than others.”

All of the speakers’ presentations will be made available via the web in due course.