My Mindlab Notes:

Assessments:

Online Tasks
Applied Practice: Part 1
* Wk 17-19 blog posts and comments due 5th Dec 5pm

Applied Practice: Part 2
* Wk 28-32 19th Feb 5pm

Research and Community Informed Practice:
* Assessment 1 - Literature Review 30th Jan 5pm
* Assessment 2 - Reflective Portfolio 20th Feb 5pm
* Assessment 3 - Class Participation 20th Feb 5pm

In-Class Tasks

Digital:

• Assessment 1-due tues 15th Aug 5pm
• Assessment 2 - due tues 10th Oct 5pm

Leadership:

• Assessment 1 - tues 12th Sept 5pm
• Assessment 2 - tues 7th Nov 5 pm

Assess 1 Digital: Plan an innovation:

DUE ON THE 15TH AUGUST 2017 17:00

(Remember to focus on justifying how you and your students are learning something future-focused and meaningful.)

Identify, justify and plan a digital and collaborative learning innovation applied to a specific area of your practice.

Either individually, or in groups of two or three, create a cohesive video presentation where you critically reflect on a problem or challenge you have identified in your own practice and suggest a competency / skills related area for improvement. Justify a digital and collaborative innovation that you think can address your identified problems / challenges and compare it with alternative options. Identify your stakeholders and the outcomes that you hope to see. Plan how you can begin to implement or trial your innovation (or the first part of it) in your practice.

An innovation can be a combination of many types of tools, the ways you use them, new collaborative practice(s) etc.

NOTE: If your planned learning innovation is only digital or only collaborative, you must include a strong justification for your approach

Individual Submission

• Video presentation of 6-8 minutes in duration (failure to adhere to length requirements will result in grade penalties in the presentation category. Excessively long submissions will be returned for editing)

Group Submission (optional)

• Video presentation or 10-12 minutes in duration (failure to adhere to length requirements will result in grade penalties in the presentation category. Excessively long submissions will be returned for editing)
• Assessment Criteria 80% Self + 20% Peer Evaluation (only impacts on grades if contributions are not equal)
• Fill in the Self and Peer Evaluation Form after you have submitted your assignment

Digital Assessment 1 Rubric - July 2017 Intake

Assessment breakdown

20% Identify and analyse the 21st Century skill and/or Key Competency / He Tikanga Whakaarorelated area for improvement based on a critical reflection of your practice, considering the viewpoints of the main stakeholders

30% Explain what pedagogical outcomes you hope to achieve by addressing your identified problems / challenges, using supporting evidence (e.g. research literature, policies/guidelines, current practice, quantitative/qualitative data etc.)

30% Propose a plan for a digital and collaborative innovation and explain how it addresses the identified area for improvement, compared with alternative approaches

10% Use and present suitably cited and referenced source material in APA format, including peer reviewed journals

10% Deliver and present content effectively, considering structure, narrative and presence. Include reflections on your learning.

Te Reo

Apply for Specific Assessment in Te Reo

Uploading your assessment

How to upload your assessment to the portal

ICT to be more challenging form Yr 1&2-Basic Facts

Problem/challenge: Students struggle with Basic Facts knowledge

Pedagogical Outcome: (What is it in the teaching and learning part that needs to change/improve.)

KC’s:self management

21C:  

Collaboration

Knowledge

Real-world

Innovation

the use of ICT for learning skilled communication

Plan with the students on what they want to use-media for showing their basic facts with an art theme. Eg: playdough on white boards, paint on computers. Etc

Video their creations as they present to the class, get the kids to video this.

Justify why and what you are doing using vids, pics

Assess 1 Leadership: Reflect on Leadership:

• Critically analyse the leadership of a change of initiative that you were involved with. Identify the leadership theories, styles and attributes used and evaluate their effectiveness. ESSAY

Assess 2 Digital: Implementation & reflect:

• Implement, document and critique a digital and collaborative learning innovation applied to a specific area of your practice. ANY FORMAT

Assess 2 Leadership:

Week 1:

• Knowledge is:

1. Something learned or obtained that you can either agree or disagree with.

• Assessment 1= a video -filming

-video editing

-video uploading

-Video voiceovers

-music overs etc

Due: Tues 15th Aug 5pm

• Assessment 2: Due Tues 10th Oct 5pm

Homework:

• 21C learning video
• Article (read summary)

Week 2:  Digital

• 21C Learners (21st Century learners)

-Self evolving learners into self evolving systems

• Word Cloud generator - in Add-ons in google drive

• ITL Research   (Innovative Teaching & Learning)

-Self evolving learners into self evolving systems

six rubrics of 21st century learning, each of which represents an important skill for students for develop:

Collaboration

Knowledge

Construction

Self-regulation

Real-world

Problem-solving

Innovation

the use of ICT for learning skilled communication

the description of each rubric has three parts:

an overview of definitions of key concepts and related examples;

a rubric to help you assign each learning activity a number from 1 to 4,* according to

how strongly it offers opportunities to develop a given skill;

and a flowchart that shows how to choose the best number in each case.

• Making Videos:

-Be present in your video-being in the video,

-Do you have an introduction, discussion/content and conclusions

Music covers= Free Music Archive

Movie Maker

Leadership:

"Learners are most likely to develop and strengthen their capabilities for living and learning when they learn with teachers in a school whose leadership creates conditions that stimulate key competencies." (MoE, 2014)

Key Competencies and 21st Century Skills - How do they compare?

Key Competencies: Thinking Using language, symbols & texts Managing self Relating to others Participating and contributing

ITL 21st Century Skills Collaboration Knowledge construction Self-regulation Real-world problems / innovations ICT for learning Skilled Communication

Can you line up an ITL Rubric with a key competency? More than one? How do they fit?

“Good leaders should enable more leaders” there the principals in our schools should enable their teachers and allow them to be the leaders in their classes, etc. Make sure that they have a voice and that they are being listened to.

• Reflection:

Reflective thinking turns experience into insight. Reflect on a blog-digital footprint.

Week 3:  Leadership

• SAMR & TPACK

Two simple models, used by many teachers, can help us to plan and analyse our digital classroom innovations. Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition (SAMR) supports the design and development of learning experiences that utilize technology. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) attempts to identify the nature of knowledge required by teachers for technology integration in their teaching.

SAMR

-Substitution: Tech acts as a direct tool substitute, with no functional change.,

-Augmentation:  Tech acts as a direct tool substitute, with functional improvement

-Modification: Tech allows for significant task redesign

-Redefinition: Tech allows for the creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable

SAMR

The SAMR model was developed by Ruben Puentedura and disseminated through Apple education initiatives. It is a very simple layered model of ways that technology can be integrated into teaching and learning. For further information see Puentedura's Weblog and the TKI page on Using the SAMR model. Mark Anderson provides a very similar 4 layer model that focuses more on teacher confidence in delivering digital learning

&

TPACK

Venn Diagram model:

-Technology (IT)

-Pedagogical Knowledge (How to teach a subject)

-Content knowledge (What I know about a subject)

TPACK stands for Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (in the original version it was call TPCK). TPACK is a framework developed by Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler that identifies the knowledge teachers need to teach effectively with technology.The TPACK framework is somewhat more academic than SAMR and extends Shulman’s idea of Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Puentedura (2010) links SAMR and TPACK together..

For further information see the tpack.org web site

• Google Maps / Google Earth / Tour Builder group task

Create a Google Doc where you design a learning activity to last 20 minutes using either Google Earth / Maps or Tour Builder and informed by SAMR and/or TPACK. Make sure that your group members can edit the document and anyone ‘Can comment’ on your document. Once done, link your learning activity document onto the Google+ community (session uploads) and ask others to critique it.

If you want to focus on Google Maps, you may find Thom Cochrane’s image-based guide to creating a custom map helpful. For more information about Tour Builder, see https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/

• Conditions for Classroom Technology Innovations

To what extent do you think the homework reading, a research article from 2002, is still relevant?

Digital:

• The Reality Continuum

From Milgram, Takemura, Utsumi & Kishino (1994). Between the two extremes of the real environment and a completely virtual one, the continuum goes from overlaying reality with a few additional elements on the left, to the occasional introduction of real elements into a digital environment (e.g. the user’s hand) on the right

Aurasma Terminology

Trigger Image: The image recognized by the app, which launches the overlay. Images with high contrast and unique features are best. The app uses a ‘traffic light’ to tell you if an image will be a good trigger.

Overlay: An image or video linked to a trigger image

Aura: A combination of trigger image and overlay

• Where could you use AR? (Nesloney, 2013)

There are many approaches that can be used to bring learning to life through augmented reality:

• A Student Photo Wall: Set up a display of student photos in the classroom linked to a personal student videos about the individual student that can be shared with parents and visitors.
• Book Reviews: Have students record a video of themselves giving an review of a book. The trigger image to launch the video review could be the book cover, a picture of the student or an image they have drawn. Afterward, other students/teachers can scan the cover of the book and instantly access the review.
• Parent or Inspiring Role message: Source a recording from an inspirational speaker or record a message from a parent/friend of the student that provides words of encouragement to the student. Attach a trigger image to student desks or cover of their books.
• Year books/School magazines: Add an AR to printed school publications and include video profiles from sports events, school plays or award ceremonies as a rich memory of school activities.
• Word Definition Walls: Students can record themselves providing the definitions to different vocabulary words on a word wall.
• Lab Safety/Safety Messages: Put trigger images linked to safety videos around a science laboratory/workshop so that when students scan them, they can learn the different safety procedures and protocols within the learning environment.

Week 4:

Leadership:

Similarities and differences between leading a teaching team and leading a research team.

Differences:

·        Researchers earn HEAPS where as we don’t

·        End results are different – our aim is to produce effective engaging teaching programmes whereas there goal is to have an academic outcome – report, thesis

·        Implementation of what they do is different to us, i.e. time restraints, teachers teach AND study

·        Time pacing – researchers are more thought driven, whereas teaching are required to make on the spot decisions - urgency

• Skill sets, they are more specialised skills and backgrounds whereas teachers skills are more broad and built through life experience and preferences.

Similarities

• knowing your researchers’ strengths

• showing that you respect their background and their past experience

• devolving more responsibilities to researchers as they grow in experience

• helping individuals understand how they are developing in the project

• giving individuals feedback and recognition for work well done.

*aware of limitations and needs

Acknowledging your sources

You must acknowledge what you have read in order to avoid plagiarism, and so that:

• readers of your work can find the original sources you used
• the authors of the original sources you used are given credit for their work
• your own research and ideas are clearly evident and you are given credit for your work
• your work has credibility in the larger realm of scholarly knowledge

There are two parts to acknowledging another's work within your own:

• You use an in text citation in the main body of your work that has some brief information about the source (Author(s), 2015).
• You provide the complete information about the source at the end of your work in the form of a list of references or bibliography.

(Unitec, 2017).

Unitec Library

The Unitec library is at http://library.unitec.ac.nz. It provides a source for many peer-reviewed articles and e-books that will relate to your DIGITAL 1 assignment problems or solutions. When searching, remember to test different search (word) combinations

Make sure you can open and read the articles and ebooks online. If you have tried several and cannot download anything then contact Unitec IMS Support (askims@unitec.ac.nz)

• Find tools that will help you to reference those in your Reference list in APA style - libguides.unitec.ac.nz/apareferencing
• Learn how to download the PDF version of articles

Google Scholar

To set up the link between Google Scholar and the Unitec Library

• Go to Google Scholar
• Click ‘settings’ -> ‘library links’, search for ‘unitec’, check the box and save

Example of using the link

• In Google Scholar, search for ‘digital collaborative learning’
• Scroll down the results to find the article ‘Learning, teaching, and scholarship in a digital age Web 2.0 and classroom research’
• Click on the link to the right - ‘full-text at Unitec’ then download the PDF from the library (if you don’t have library access, use the other link

There are more detailed instructions on the library web page http://library.unitec.ac.nz/help/google-scholar.htm

Reference / Citation Management Tools

Tools like the ones listed below are very useful for managing your references and generating citations. They all have different features (and frustrations!). Try a few out and find one that works for you. Recommend your favourites and user tips on the G+ community.

Mendeley works online and with a local client. As well as storing references and geberating citiations, you can share reading lists, references and full-text articles with your network, publicly or privately. Create groups to tackle research assignments, share feedback and write papers with your collaborators. It has a special Plugin for Microsoft Word and integrates well with Chrome.

Zotero is simlar to Mendeley with a local client application as well as working in the browser, and is designed to store, manage, and cite bibliographic references, such as books and articles. It allows you to share collections and work closely with colleagues on a project. It integrates well with Firefox.

EEWOWW replaces the old Wizfolio on-line reference manager. Unlike Mendeley and Zotero it does not need a local client application and runs entirely in the cloud.

Citeulike has automated article recommendations and allows you to share references with your peers.

Docear This video explains how Docear is used. You are able to create categories, highlight and pin notes on your electronic pdfs as well as draft and write your own documents which can be exported to Word.

Citethisforme can be downloaded as an app via google play. Scan book and journal barcodes using your phone’s camera to automatically generate a citation. Sync with your account to manage your bibliographies on the go.

Unitec currently uses EndNote X7 which can be installed on all student PCs if you personally attend Unitec to get this installed due to licensing agreements. Copies of the programs for PCs and Macs can be borrowed from all 4 library branches for use with your own computers.

Example of video referencing

You may also wish to view Dr David Parsons' video on Citing and Referencing Sources in a Video Assignment

Reference List

Benseman, J. (2013). Research-Informed Teaching of Adults: A Worthy Alternative to Old Habits and Hearsay?. Unitec ePress. Number 2. Retrieved from http://www.unitec.ac.nz/epress/index.php/research-informed-teaching-of-adults-a-worthy-alternative-to-old-habits-and-hearsay/

Freeman, R., Reiss, M. & MacDonald, J. (2013). Good Practice in Leading and Supporting a Research Team: A Guide for Research Staff and Project Managers. University of London Institute of Education. Retrieved from https://ioersa.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/good-pr...

Unitec. (2017). APA 6th referencing. Retrieved from http://libguides.unitec.ac.nz/apareferencing/introduction

Cite this for me:

http://www.citethisforme.com/

Digital:

• Kotahitanga- Greater together

Constructionism: building things to get new ideas

Constructivism: Getting new ideas from others

• Collaborative Learning

Collaborative learning is a learning process that brings learners together (including the teacher) and enables students to be responsible for their own learning as well as the learning of their peers. Collaborative learning is aimed at having students fully appreciate the process of building knowledge together and improving learning outcomes by collective knowledge and collective capability. We might link these ideas with the concept of kotahitanga, as outlined in this week's in class video from Trevor Moeke

Walker & Daniels (2001) suggest several collaborative learning techniques, for example the "1-2-6" approach to discussing situation improvements. After each participant has developed an improvement idea, they discuss that improvement with one other person. Those two join four others and talk about each person's ideas for improvement.

Dillenbourg (1999) identifies the difference between collaboration and cooperation as defined by a degree in the division of labour. In cooperation, partners split the work, solve sub-tasks individually and then assemble the partial results into the final output. In collaboration, partners do the work 'together' (Dillenbourg, 1999). Similarly, Kozar (2010) uses the analogy of a pot luck dinner where cooperation is defined as the guests bringing separate dishes to contribute to the meal, and collaboration as a messier chaotic process where guests cook together to create the meal, but gain new knowledge or experience from the interaction.

Week 4:

Digital:

• Computational Thinking is a problem solving process, an algorithm. Computational thinking is a fundamental skill for everyone and involves solving problems, designing solutions and systems to solve open ended problems based on multiple variables. We will be exploring computational thinking using both classroom based activities and programming with Scratch.

According to Google (n.d.), Computational Thinking Means Solving problems by using:

-Decomposition: Breaking down data, processes, or problems into smaller, manageable parts

-Pattern Recognition: Observing patterns, trends, and regularities in data

-Abstraction: Identifying the general principles that generate these patterns

-Algorithm Design: Developing the step by step instructions for solving this and similar problems.

Algorithm (Recipe) for directing my partner around our desk:

1. Stand up, turn 90 degrees to the left and take 4 steps forward.
2. Turn 90 degrees right and take 8 steps forward.
3. Turn 90 degrees right and take 8 steps forward
4. Turn 90 degrees right and take 8 steps forward
5. Turn 90 degrees right and take 6 steps forward.

(Steps or meters??) Need precise language, must be accurate.

• Scatch

tinyurl.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/170887039/#editor

www.edx.org

Leadership:

Knowledge is not understanding- knowledge does not = understanding

• Fixed Mindset

People with a Fixed Mindset believe that the abilities and capabilities they have are fixed traits. Their intelligence is set, they are talented at certain things and not others. They believe that it is whether or not someone is talented at something is what allows them to be successful at something or not.  Intelligence is fixed and can be measured.

• Growth Mindset

People with a Growth Mindset believe that their intelligence, and abilities can be developed and grow. Through hard work, dedication and time, people can learn new talents, learn new things and become more intelligent. Teaching a growth mindset encourages learning, develops relationships and self efficacy. The brain is malleable, it can grow, stretch and expand. The harder you work, the more you can learn.

• Ways to Develop a Growth Mindset

By changing the language we use. The power of 'not yet' in the classroom. "I have not learnt this yet" shows a growth mindset, rather than saying "I can't do this", or "I failed" which shows a fixed mindset. Changing the way we talk in the classroom, 'What we are learning' rather than 'Here is the work to do'. What is it that we value? Do we value the end product or the learning process? (Dweck, 2006)

An adults neuroplasticity (ability to learn) is much harder than for a child, example: learning to ride the backwards bycicle.

• Stop Motion Movie Making

Stop motion is an animation technique that physically manipulates an object so it appears to move on its own. An object is moved in small increments, then individually photographed, creating the illusion of movement when played. Dolls, LEGO® and clay figures (claymation) are often used since they are easy to re-position. Stop motion films can also involve humans, household appliances etc. for comedic effect.

Stop Motion Tools and

You can make stop motion movies manually using generic video editing tools like MovieMaker, iMovie or WeVideo, or use a dedicated stop motion tool such as those listed below.

Stop Motion Animator (Chrome extension)

A simple tool for creating stop motion animation sequences using a webcam. Animation sequences can be saved to a video file in the widely-supported webm format. Previously-saved videos can be loaded into the app and extended

Stop Motion Maker (Android app)

This application can create stop motion movies. You can edit movies, export movie files and import image files

Stop Motion Studio (for iOS or Android)

Dedicated stop motion app for smartphones and tablets. It includes many features such as frame-by-frame preview at different speeds, fade in/out, select, copy, paste, reverse and delete frames, green screen, themes etc.

Pic Pac (Android)

Stop motion movie app for Android that can also do time lapse.

JellyCam (Windows or Mac)

A stop motion too for laptops (Windows or Mac). You can create stop-motion movies from webcam snap shots, add an mp3 soundtrack and export as a .flv video for upload to YouTube. JellyCam needs Adobe AIR to work (this is a free download). Once you've installed AIR you can download and install JellyCam.

Mega Construx Stop Motion Builder (Android and iOS)

A stop motion movie app from Mattel

Frames Per Second (fps)

One of the main question you need to think about when making stop motion movie is how many frames per second (fps) you will use. The more frames per second, the smoother the action is, but the longer it will take to make the movie. Typical options are:

• 2 fps - recommended by Slowmation
• 10 or 15 fps - bouncy type of animation used on Instagram/ Facebook
• 24 fps - cinematic

Week 6:  Leadership

• Leadership Theories

As time has progressed a number of leadership theories have emerged which deal with various styles and methodologies about leadership. These theories could be labelled in four broad headings; namely the Trait theories, Behavioral theories, Contingency theories and the Power and Influence theories. In 1922, Max Weber (see Weber, 1978) identified three kinds of leader/follower relations; traditional, bureaucratic and charismatic. He also noted that they occur in combination, and there may be gradual transitions between these types. Since then, much has been written about types of leadership. Some examples of leadership theories relevant to education include

• Transactional
• Transformational
• Pedagogical
• Distributed
• Servant (Agile)
• Tū Rangatira
• Situational

Burns (1978) outlined the original ideas for both transactional and transformational leadership. He stated that both are 'moral' forms of leadership, as opposed to 'amoral' power-wielding.

Bass & Riggio (2006) developed their transformational leadership theory based on Burns' original ideas. This has been the one many of our students have found interesting to reflect upon in their Leadership 1 assessments. According to this theory, transformational leadership can be defined based on the impact that it has on followers.

Providing a different perspective, Tū Rangatira: Māori Medium Educational Leadership (Ministry of Education, 2010) presents a model of leadership that reflects some of the key leadership roles and practices that contribute to high-quality educational outcomes for Māori learners. It focuses on leadership practices, providing insights into how effective professional development programmes can work towards strengthening leaders’ capabilities, growing capacity and sustaining exemplary leadership in the Māori medium education sector. Its message is not, however, limited only to kura. "Contemporary times call for innovative thinking. This visionary role of leadership entails understanding the past, recognising the present and envisioning the future, to bring about optimal education and life outcomes for learners.” (p.24).

Situational leadership (Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson, 1969) is interesting from the perspective of linking theory and style.It suggests that leaders adjust their leadership styles based on the 'readiness' of their followers. There are four styles in the the theory, 'telling', 'selling', 'participating' and 'delegating'.

• Leadership Styles

Complete the University of Kent online quiz about your typical leadership styles When you have finished record your results and thoughts for later use (Leadership 1 & 2 Assessments).

Based on a three-year study of over 3,000 executives, Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee (2013) identified six different leadership styles

Pace-setting leaders expect excellence and self-direction, and can be summed up as ‘Do as I do, now’. The Pace-setter very much leads by example, but this type of leadership only works with a highly-competent and well-motivated team.

Authoritative leaders move people towards a vision, so are often described as ‘Visionary’. This style is probably best summed up as ‘Come with me’. It is the most useful style when a new vision or clear direction is needed, and is most strongly positive.

An Affiliative leader values and creates emotional bonds and harmony, believing that ‘People come first’. Such leaders demonstrate empathy, and strong communication skills, and are very good at building relationships. This style is most useful when a team has been through a difficult experience, and needs to heal rifts, or develop motivation.

The democratic leader builds consensus through participation, constantly asking ‘What do you think?’, and showing high levels of collaboration, team leadership and strong communication skills. This style of leadership works well in developing ownership for a project, but it can make for slow progress towards goals, until a certain amount of momentum has built up.

A coaching leader will develop people, allowing them to try different approaches in an open way. The phrase that sums up this style is ‘Try it’, and this leader shows high levels of empathy, self-awareness and skills in developing others. A coaching style is especially useful when an organisation values long-term staff development

Coercive leaders demand immediate obedience. In a single phrase, this style is ‘Do what I tell you’. These leaders show initiative, self-control, and drive to succeed. There is, of course, a time and a place for such leadership: a battlefield is the classic example, but any crisis will need clear, calm, commanding leadership.

• Leadership Attributes

There are many personal characteristics that may be identified as aspects of leadership. However it may be helpful to explore some of the attributes identified within various categories that we have introduced on the course previously. These include:

• Key Competencies (e.g. relating to others)
• 21st Century Skills (e.g. real-world problem-solving and innovation)
• Growth Mindset (e.g. resilience)
• Emotional intelligence (e.g. social skill)

• Emotional Intelligences

Sympathy- “I feel you…”

Empathy- “I understand you…”

Compassion- “I want to help you…”

Digital:

• 3D Modelling

3D modelling is no longer the domain of visual effects artists and animators. Due to the increased availability and affordability of computers and laptops in the classroom and the abundance of free 3D creation software the opportunity to bring these technologies into the classroom has never been greater.

• 3D Printing

3D printing is a lot more than just a niche technology. Over the past few years 3D printers have started to appear within a broad range of industries from medicine, manufacturing, engineering, aerospace, retail, mechanical engineering, dentistry and food science.

As with the launch of social media more than a decade ago, 3D printing is a rapid disruptor experiencing exponential uptake. By the time our students enter the workforce there is a high likelihood that 3D printers will be as commonplace as household ink printers. Using basic design skills 3D printing can be used to trigger new learning and acquire new skills.

• Topology Sculpting

A type of 3D modelling that is like sculpting clay. SculptGL lets you do this in the browser

http://stephaneginier.com/sculptgl/

• Tinkercad

Tinkercad is a free, easy-to-learn online app anyone can use to create and print 3D models. You need to Sign Up / Sign In. For this we recommend you use a laptop with a mouse.

If you haven't used Tinkercad before, you should find  these videos useful for reference:

• Introduction - TinkerCad
• Basic Features - TinkerCad
• Tools and Shortcuts - Tinkercad
• Creating holes - Tinkercad

Alternatively, if you prefer to read rather than watch, you can use these step by step text-based guides made by Coco at The Mind Lab

• Starting Tinkercad
• Tips & Tricks using Tinkercad 1
• Tips & Tricks using Tinkercad 2
• Tinkercad - Using the Hole Tool

Remember to save your 3D model frequently

References

Karon, P. (2015). Teaching 3D Modeling to Children. CG Cookie. Retrieved from https://cgcookie.com/2015/05/29/teaching-3d-modeling-children/

Week 7:  Digital

• EdPuzzle:

The TED-Ed website allows you to engage in or create dynamic lessons around the hundreds of thousands of educational videos on YouTube. In this video, the familiar illustration assembled at the beginning of each TED-Ed video finds his [computer generated] voice and gives viewers a tour of ed.ted.com. The features explored include the ability to add multiple choice questions, open answer questions, "dig deeper" materials, and custom discussion topics to any video on YouTube.

• Blended Learning Definitions

The definition of blended learning is a formal education program in which a student learns:

1. at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace;
2. at least in part in a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home;
3. and the modalities along each student’s learning path within a course or subject are connected to provide an integrated learning experience.

The majority of blended-learning programs resemble one of four models: Rotation, Flex, A La Carte, and Enriched Virtual. The Rotation model includes four sub-models: Station Rotation, Lab Rotation, Flipped Classroom, and Individual Rotation.

1. Rotation model — a course or subject in which students rotate on a fixed schedule or at the teacher’s discretion between learning modalities, at least one of which is online learning. Other modalities might include activities such as small-group or full-class instruction, group projects, individual tutoring, and pencil-and-paper assignments. The students learn mostly on the brick-and-mortar campus, except for any homework assignments.

a. Station Rotation — a course or subject in which students experience the Rotation model within a contained classroom or group of classrooms. The Station Rotation model differs from the Individual Rotation model because students rotate through all of the stations, not only those on their custom schedules.

b. Lab Rotation — a course or subject in which students rotate to a computer lab for the online-learning station.

c. Flipped Classroom — a course or subject in which students participate in online learning off-site in place of traditional homework and then attend the brick-and-mortar school for face-to-face, teacher-guided practice or projects. The primary delivery of content and instruction is online, which differentiates a Flipped Classroom from students who are merely doing homework practice online at night.

d. Individual Rotation — a course or subject in which each student has an individualized playlist and does not necessarily rotate to each available station or modality. An algorithm or teacher(s) sets individual student schedules.

2. Flex model — a course or subject in which online learning is the backbone of student learning, even if it directs students to offline activities at times. Students move on an individually customized, fluid schedule among learning modalities. The teacher of record is on-site, and students learn mostly on the brick-and-mortar campus, except for any homework assignments. The teacher of record or other adults provide face-to-face support on a flexible and adaptive as-needed basis through activities such as small-group instruction, group projects, and individual tutoring. Some implementations have substantial face-to-face support, whereas others have minimal support. For example, some Flex models may have face-to-face certified teachers who supplement the online learning on a daily basis, whereas others may provide little face-to-face enrichment. Still others may have different staffing combinations. These variations are useful modifiers to describe a particular Flex model.

3. A La Carte model — a course that a student takes entirely online to accompany other experiences that the student is having at a brick-and-mortar school or learning center. The teacher of record for the A La Carte course is the online teacher. Students may take the A La Carte course either on the brick-and-mortar campus or off-site. This differs from full-time online learning because it is not a whole-school experience. Students take some courses A La Carte and others face-to-face at a brick-and-mortar campus.

4. Enriched Virtual model — a course or subject in which students have required face-to-face learning sessions with their teacher of record and then are free to complete their remaining coursework remote from the face-to-face teacher. Online learning is the backbone of student learning when the students are located remotely. The same person generally serves as both the online and face-to-face teacher. Many Enriched Virtual programs began as full-time online schools and then developed blended programs to provide students with brick-and-mortar school experiences. The Enriched Virtual model differs from the Flipped Classroom because in Enriched Virtual programs, students seldom meet face-to-face with their teachers every weekday. It differs from a fully online course because face-to-face learning sessions are more than optional office hours or social events; they are required.

Source: Michael B. Horn and Heather Staker, Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2014).

TesTeach

EdPuzzle

TedEd

Leadership:

Twitter, Second Life, google drive and plus

• Distributed Leadership

Distributed leadership acknowledges that the work of leading and managing schools involves multiple individuals – not just those with formally designated leadership and management positions but also individuals without such roles. It is primarily concerned with the practice of leadership rather than specific leadership roles or responsibilities. It equates with shared, collective and extended leadership practice that builds the capacity for change and improvement.

Distributed leadership means mobilising leadership in order to generate more opportunities for change and to build the capacity for improvement. It is ‘leadership by expertise’ rather than leadership by role or years of experience. Genuine distributed leadership requires high levels of trust, transparency and mutual respect.

• Wicked Problems

A wicked problem is a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. They are highly complex, uncertain and often value laden. The use of term "wicked" here has come to denote resistance to resolution, rather than evil. (Rittel & Webber, 1973). Bolstad et al. (2012) argue that learners and teachers, families and communities need support to develop the skills needed to engage in solving the wicked problems of the 21st Century.

Is teaching a wicked problem?

The original TPACK paper argued that teaching was a wicked problem, referring to the following factors (Mishra & Koehler, 2008, p. 2).

1. Requirements that are incomplete, contradictory and changing
2. Uniqueness, in that no two wicked problems are alike
3. Occurring in complex and unique social contexts
4. Solutions that are difficult to realize and recognize because of complex interdependencies and contexts
5. Solutions that are not right or wrong, simply “better,” “worse,” “good enough,” or “not good enough”.
6. Solutions that have no stopping rule, the best we can hope for is “satisficing".

The 2016 Horizon Report (Adams Becker et al., 2016) divided educational challenges into solvable, difficult and wicked, suggesting that achievement gaps and personalised learning were wicked problems.

• Mess Mapping

Mess Mapping is a process for collecting, sharing, organizing and evaluating information regarding a Wicked Problems. A Mess Map diagram or mural represents a model of the problem at hand that shows the important “chunks” of information and their relationships with other “chunks.” (Horn & Weber, 2007)

Education is complex. Wicked problems don't have a single answer, but through the use of online tools and digital media, independent people are able to work together to find ideas and concepts to explore wicked problems. Distributed leadership allows many people to work together to tackle these wicked problems. Refining traditional roles for students and teachers allows distributed leadership to occur.

• Assessment 1 Leadership:
• Due Tuesday 12th Sept

-Read the rubric

-Enjoy the learning

-Don’t ramble

-Remember to add both essay and the Turnitin report (pdf) to the portal.

Week 7:  Digital

• Connected Learning

If “Connected learning is about much more than plugging youth into technology.” Then what is connected learning?

Due to the rapid change and technological advancement, the demands and opportunities placed on our students are greater than ever. Constantly changing networks (personal, social, and work) challenge students to process, learn, and respond to torrents of new information and new technologies. Learning is no longer framed by restrictions of time and place. Knowledge is now available everywhere, 24 hours a day so new models of education need to recognise learning as a constant with delivery modes and learning times as the variables.

New education models are needed to expand learning beyond the school through connected networks that bring education opportunities together into a seamless, integrated experience. In 2016 there is no reason why the abundance of resources and knowledge on the internet should be contained within a physical classroom, and there is little reason why a student should be confined to only taking courses offered by their school.

• Connecting and Collaborating

Learners in the digital age are able to connect and collaborate with people beyond their physical environment. They can connect a range of information or data and draw on a range of perspectives to collaboratively generate and critique new ideas (Starkey, 2012).

• Connected Learning and Equity

We’re seeing a widening gap between the privileged and less privileged young people...The tragic thing is that this inequity is expanding at a period when the technology actually allows much broader access. There’s nothing from a resourcing point of view that is keeping kids from accessing these opportunities online, but young people don’t have the institutional, the social and the educational support necessary to find those opportunities (Ito, 2014).

Leadership:

• Change

Kotter's 8 step Process - 8 steps for managing change.

Kotter (1996) suggests that there is an 8 step process for leading change.

1. Create a sense of urgency (identify crises and opportunities)
2. Build a guiding team
3. Develop a vision and strategy
4. Communicate the vision
5. Enable action by removing barriers
6. Creating and celebrating short term wins
7. Sustain change by building on gains
8. Embed the change in culture

There is a useful diagram that summarises Kotter's process:

• Personal Learning Network PLN
• Personal Learning Environment PLE

Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) and Environments (PLEs)

A personal learning network is an informal learning network that consists of those people who a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from. These may be people known personally, but equally they may be people who are only connected via the Web, and there may be no personal interaction, simply an exchange of learning. The term 'personal learning environment' (PLE) is sometimes used in conjunction with PLNs, but focuses more on the toolset that learners use in order to implement their learning networks. In essence, it is possible to have a personal learning network that is entirely face to face (though this would be rather limiting). In contrast a PLE assumes a digital toolset that will support the interactive learning process (EDUCAUSE, 2009

Week 9:  Leadership

Nationality Versus Culture

Nationality is not a very meaningful concept. Culture is much more significant. “It is remarkable how fast and how effectively you can construct a nationality with a flag, a few speeches, and a national anthem.” (Taleb, 2008). Nick Taleb, who might be described in these terms as a Lebanese American, is dismissive of nationality, he sees it as a largely meaningless way of defining someone.

School Culture

According to the Ministry of Education (2016), a school's culture consists of the customs, rituals, and stories that are evident and valued throughout the whole school. An effective school culture is one in which the customs and values foster success for all; and where clear boundaries are set, known, and agreed to by everyone. In developing a positive culture, effective principals ensure that educational practices are inclusive. They make certain that students and their families do not feel alienated either from their own culture or from the culture of the school.

Hauora - Well-being

Hauora is a Māori philosophy of health unique to New Zealand (Ministry of Education, 1999). Could Hauora be one of the key concepts on defining a positive school culture? The concept is recognised by the World Health Organisation and comprises the following types of well-being:

• Taha tinana - Physical well-being - the physical body, its growth, development, and ability to move, and ways of caring for it
• Taha hinengaro - Mental and emotional well-being - coherent thinking processes, acknowledging and expressing thoughts and feelings and responding constructively
• Taha whanau - Social well-being - family relationships, friendships, and other interpersonal relationships; feelings of belonging, compassion, and caring; and social support
• Taha wairua - Spiritual well-being - the values and beliefs that determine the way people live, the search for meaning and purpose in life, and personal identity and self-awareness (For some individuals and communities, spiritual well- being is linked to a particular religion; for others, it is not.)

Cultural Literacy and Awareness as 21st Century Skills

Cultural awareness can also be considered part of the 21st century skill set. The following image from the World Economic Forum (2016) includes cultural literacy and awareness as 21st century skills.

International Capabilities

The Ministry of Education (2014) defines international capabilities as the knowledge, skills, attitudes, dispositions, and values that make up the key competencies that enable people to live, work, and learn across national and cultural boundaries. Being internationally capable includes not only the awareness of other cultures, about also the awareness of one’s own culture as particular and specific. It involves the understanding that we all experience our lives through a number of cultural and personal "lenses", and that comprehending and accepting others’ needs and behaviours rests as much on understanding ourselves as it does on understanding them.

PISA

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a worldwide study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in member and non-member nations of 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance in mathematics, science, and reading.

Do one of the PISA 2015 Science or Financial Literacy tasks (You might need to zoom out in your browser - Ctrl+-)

Science from http://www.oecd.org/pisa/test/ (main page)

• Bird Migration
• Running in Hot Weather
• Slope-Face Investigation
• Meteoroids and Craters
• Sustainable Fish Farming

Financial Literacy

• Financial Literacy Test

Changes to PISA since 2015

There have been some changes to what is assessed by PISA since 2015. These include collaborative tasks, wellbeing and global competence.

Collaborative Tasks

The Released Field Trial Cognitive Items document (PISA, 2015) includes an assessment unit where the premise is that a group of international students is coming to visit a school. The student must collaborate with 3 agent teammates and a faculty adviser to plan the visit, assign visitors to guides,and respond to an unexpected problem that arises. The assessment involves the following challenges requiring collaborative skills

• solicit and take into account criteria for assessing the options
• clarify statements made by teammates
• correct misinformation and avoid deadlock
• prompt team members to perform their tasks
• ensure that the final recommendation meets all specified criteria

The student must collaborate with 3 agent teammates, a faculty adviser and respond to an unexpected problem

Wellbeing

Three indicators are chosen to make up the educational well-being dimension.

1. PISA 2006 country score for education performance, averaged across reading,mathematics and science literacy test scores.
2. inequality in achievement around these scores using the ratio of the score at the 90th percentile to the 10th percentileaveraged across the three PISA literacy measures.
3. The proportions of 15-19 year-olds not in education and not in employment or training (NEET).

the PISA assessment placed New Zealand 13th out of 30 countries in terms of educational well-being. In particular, it found high levels of bullying in New Zealand schools (OECD, 2017).

Global Competence

The assessment would include various tasks that draw on different types of knowledge and thinking processes (OECD, 2016). The final framework could include a classification of tasks according to their content area (e.g. identity and culture, environmental sustainability, etc.), context (e.g. relationships at school, etc.), and the main cognitive process required (e.g. analytical and critical reasoning).

The case studies should privilege contexts and stimulus material that are familiar to 15-year-olds, in order to facilitate students’ engagement with the task. For example, a real case study featuring a fourteen-year-old indigenous Peruvian who became a YouTube celebrity by singing famous songs in Kuetchua, an ancient dialect that has long-suffered a social stigma in Peru, could be used as a stimulus (http://renatafloresperu.com/). One open-response item would then ask the students to reflect about the teenager’s motivations to become an activist in order to preserve her native language and culture. Multiple-choice items in the unit would test whether the students understand the role of language as a verbal expression of culture and the competition between majority and minority languages.

Here is an example of some of the global competence multiple choice questions (OECD, 2016).

Tower of PISA - 2015

Where does NZ sit compared other countries? How much do leaderboard results really tell us? You can compare countries at:

www.compareyourcountry.org/pisa

The PISA discussion

Even if there are many positive affects in this sort of skills comparison it also provokes strong debate from educators the world over. When it was developed, it was created as a diagnostic tool to bring together education policymakers together to discuss and track education and education improvement. However, in recent years, it has become widely criticised as a league table that is used as a indicator of a country's education health. Sir Ken Robinson criticised PISA for “squeezing out” other more creative subjects and creating an anxiety around education that was “grotesque”. Academics from around the world expressed deep concern in the 'PISA letter' (The Guardian, 2014) about the impact of Pisa tests and call for a halt to the next round of testing.

However,  PISA tests are developed further all the time and they do assess an unprecedented range of learning outcomes and their contexts, including student performance measures, measures of social and emotional dimensions, student attitudes and motivations, equity issues, and parental support. The OECD has announced that Pearson has been chosen to develop the PISA 2018 Student Assessment 21st Century Framework (Pearson, 2014).

Does money buy strong performance in PISA?

It has been shown that greater national wealth or higher expenditure on education does not guarantee better student performance. Among high-income economies, the amount spent on education is less important than how those resources are used. Successful school systems in high-income economies tend to prioritise the quality of teachers over the size of classes and school systems that perform well in PISA believe that all students can achieve, and give them the opportunity to do so.

Digital

Week 10:

Leadership:

An entrepreneur are leaders, motivators, innovative and create and build on ideas and they also take risks.

• Entrepreneurialism and Crowdfunding

Increasingly, it is important for students to gain skills in enterprise and entrepreneurialism. This may relate to them setting up their own enterprises, but its also a broader skill set that will become increasingly important in the gig economy.

Crowdfunding is an increasingly popular way of using the crowd to financially support enterprising ideas, whether commercial or socially beneficial.

• Entrepreneurialism

We begin this weeks' session by asking questions such as what do entrepreneurs do? Who can be entrepreneurs? Why is this so powerful now? and what must we do as teachers?  Is there risk? Is it managed? Can everyone do it?

• The NZ Curriculum - Education for Enterprise

Education for Enterprise is about promoting an approach to learning – one that is real, relevant, and gives students responsibility for their learning.

The Vision of NZ Curriculum (2016) is for young people who will be creative, energetic, and enterprising, who will seize the opportunities offered by new knowledge and technologies to secure a sustainable social, cultural, economic, and environmental future for our country.

Digital Assignment 2

“In digital one I identified that my students were essentially IT illiterate, they had no skills or knowledge of IT and I wanted to come up with a way for them to become successful using IT programmes that were also related to cross-curricular elements as well as developing their IT knowledge and skills.”

Week 13:  Digital

Games and Game design:

• PBL = Play Based Learning

Games:

• Sparx
• Quest2Teach
• Play To Cure : Genes in space
• Plague
• Reach for the sun
• Mindcraft (Maths)  (Re-create poems/stories using minecraft, with voice overs and music etc.).
• Kupuhono.co.nz (Maori Language game).-Kiwi made
• Magical Parks - Kiwi made

Educational game model

According to Amory (2007), Educational computer games should:

• Be relevant, explorative, emotive and engaging
• Include complex challenges, puzzles or quests
• Be gender-inclusive and non-confrontational
• Provide appropriate role models
• Develop democracy and social capital through dialogue
• Support authentic learning activities
• Support the construction of tacit knowledge

Educational games need all the usual qualities of games, plus they should not contain any socially undesirable features (racism. sexism, violence, etc) but provide positive models, plus they have to have some embedded pedagogy. Maybe this explains why successful educational games are so hard to create.

Game creation tools:

• Gamefroot
• Sloder!
• GameSalad
• Gamestar Mechanic
• YoYoGames

Mobile Games creators:

• ActionBound

Mobile Learning Tools

A number of tools have been developed for mobile devices that support game-like learning experiences linked to exploring outdoor environments. They include such features as competing individuals / teams, ‘treasure hunt’ style activities, scores/ badges for achievement and leaderboards. Some examples of this type of tool include:

• Seppo
• Wikitude
• ARIS
• ActionBound
• Layar

Week 13:  Leadership

Game Mechanics

Can you find examples on how these mechanics were used in the games you played today (ActionBound or homework games) use? (adapted from Arnab, S. et al., 2015).

Week 14: Digital

The Mind Lab by Unitec Design Thinking Process + materials, which uses our 'kite' model

• Empathise
• Define
• Ideate
• Prototype
• Test
• Reflect

Teaching Practices that encourage Design Thinking

Immersion: Have students work together in small collaborative groups to do a deep dive into the subject/topic area. Ask the students to undertake research, observation and develop questionnaires or evaluate data to gain a technical, personal and community views on a topic.

Inquiry-based Feedback: Instead of value-based feedback, inquiry based feedback coupled with observation encourages a more open-ended and in-depth approach to learning. Students are encouraged to minimise expressing their likes and dislikes, and encouraged to first spend time silently observing, and then asking questions prefixed by phrases such as "I noticed that...," "why," and "how."

Before this process begins ensure students brainstorm ways to gather information. For example:

• Research that includes eBooks, case studies, experiments, data, academic papers etc
• Observation that includes personal viewing, filming, online videos, documentaries, recorded interviews
• Questionnaires that includes personal questionnaires, online surveys, research and data including census, government agency information, non-government organisation data, OECD reports etc.

Synthesis: Have students deduce interesting gaps to explore, problems to solve or opportunities to solve, using the information they have gathered from their immersion process.

Ideas on how to gain a new perspective

• Put visuals on the wall which relate to the topic but at the fringes of the core subject.
• Ask new questions. Create a how, when, why, what, who question and define the answers.

Note: Ask "thinking" questions – don’t make suggestions. Instead of asking questions to which there is a correct answer, ask students to create the problem. For example instead of saying"Does your girl need ears?" A thinking question would be, "What kind of music does your girl like to listen to? How can she hear the music?"

Students should pose their problem by first tapping into their own wishes and goals that might have real-life results or be largely theoretical and in end in the modeling stages. Such questions such as "How can we grow vegetables without using pesticides?" And, "How can we feed the world's population in a sustainable way?" Both encourage students to think divergently.

Questions, not suggestions, allow personal ownership based on observing, on experiences and on the imagination.

Zoom out: Put the subject/topic in the centre of focus and scale out to the next logical layer. For example if the topic was endangered tigers of India, scale back and look at the life of poachers, the local communities, the black market skin/medicine customers etc. Explore each logical layer of influence as you scale back from the heart of the topic to develop a macro view of the subject.

Ideation, Prototyping and Feedback: Have your students test ideas, solve a problem and extend their understanding without focusing on the ‘right’ answer. This part of the Design Thinking process helps students to 'hold their ideas lightly' in order to review and gain feedback from other student groups and their teacher/s.

The emphasis is on thinking skills and mindsets that allow students to create early and often, adjusting the course of their learning and applying an iterative approach to outcomes that is tweaked from the input of feedback.

Note: Nurture a culture of divergent thinking. Encourage students to be choice makers. Ask students ‘what their work needs’. If a student asks for help, assist by asking the child to give several of their ideas to discuss.

Implementation or Display: As ideas and defined the Design Thinking process moves to the celebration stage where concepts are shared. In this stage have students talk to the group about the changes they applied in their approach, what they reflected on, what evidence they found to support their findings and what new knowledge they gained or shared.

Useful resources

This free 'Design Thinking for Educators' toolkit, created by IDEO, contains the process and methods of design along with the Designer’s Workbook, adapted specifically for the context of K-12 education. It offers new ways to be intentional and collaborative when designing, and empowers educators to create impactful solutions.

IDEO has also published a free  Field Guide to Human-Centered Design reveals their process with the key mindsets that underpin how and why they think about design for the social sector, it has 57 clear-to-use design methods for new and experienced practitioners, and from-the-field case studies of human-centered design in action.

Stanford University Institute of Design has created many useful resources, such as the Design thinking for teachers The K12 Lab Wiki and Design Thinking Crash Course that helps you to run or participate in a 90 minutes long design cycle by redesigning a Gift-Giving Project.

For you personal interest (LEADERSHIP 2), you might want to view the curriculum for the 6-week Design Kit: The Course for Human-Centered Design -coursethat will introduce you to the concepts of human-centered design and how this approach can be used to create innovative, effective, and sustainable solutions for social change.

Eco-innovators have also developed a range of educational resources for use in and outside of the classroom, these ones are though not free.

References

de Saint-Exupéry, A. (1943). The Little Prince. Retrieved from www.odaha.com/antoine-de-saint-exupery/maly-princ/...

Brown, T. (2009). Change by Design – How Design Thinking Transforms Organization and Inspires Innovation. Harper Collins, USA

Week 14: Leadership

Rogers’ adoption of Innovation Adoption Lifecycle

Potential adopters have been determined to have traits that affect their likelihood to adopt an innovation. Many individual personality traits have been explored for their impacts on adoption, but with little agreement. Ability and motivation, which vary between situations (unlike personality traits), have a large impact on a potential adopter's likelihood to adopt an innovation. Unsurprisingly, potential adopters who are motivated to adopt an innovation are likely to make the adjustments needed to adopt it.

Rogers outlines several strategies in order to help an innovation reach this stage, including when an innovation is adopted by a highly respected individual within a social network and creating an instinctive desire for a specific innovation. Another strategy includes injecting an innovation into a group of individuals who would readily use that technology, as well as providing positive reactions and benefits for early adopters.

Innovators, Early Adopters and Early Majority

According to Rogers (2002), whereas innovators are cosmopolites, early adopters are localites. This adopter category, more than any other, has the highest degree of opinion leadership in most systems. Potential adopters look to early adopters for advice and information about an innovation.

Robinson (2009) has summarised Rogers' ideas in of the Diffusion of Innovations and he suggests that when working with early adopters one should

• Offer strong face-to-face support for a limited number of early adopters to trial the new idea.
• Study the trials carefully to discover how to make the idea more convenient, low cost and marketable.
• Reward their egos e.g. with media coverage.
• Promote them as fashion leaders (beginning with the cultish end of the media market).
• Recruit and train some as peer educators.
• Maintain relationships with regular feedback.

Robinson describes the early majority as pragmatists, comfortable with moderately progressive ideas, but won’t act without solid proof of benefits. They are followers who are influenced by mainstream fashions and wary of fads. Majorities are cost sensitive and risk averse. They are looking for simple, proven, better ways of doing what they already do. They require guaranteed off-the-shelf performance, minimum disruption, minimum commitment of time, minimum learning, and either cost neutrality or rapid payback periods and they hate complexity.

Week 16:  Digital

The last week of the face to face sessions provides some opportunities to leverage the power of today's technology for teaching and learning

Mobile Sensor Inquiry

The mobility of today's devices, coupled with a range of features such as wireless connectivity, GPS and network based location finding and built in data capture tools and sensors opens up many opportunities for situated, contextual, collaborative learning.

Wear Your Own Device - Brain Sensing

The rise of wearables is very much a part of the the Internet Of Things, where every device is connected. The scope for wearables to be used for teaching and learning has been explored for many years by researchers, but is now becoming possible in the everyday classroom. We will take a look at brain sensing wearable devices in this session

Online Communities for E-Learning

E-learning does not have to mean only sitting on your own in front of the computer. You can support your learning by participating in an online community of practice. Also, you might continue with a blended learning approach by arranging face to face meetups with your fellow students. There are plenty of digital tools to help you do this!

Standards for the Teaching Profession

Professional Learning: Inquire into and reflect on the effectiveness of practice in an ongoing way, using evidence from a range of sources.

Whakataukī

Me mātau ki te whetū, i mua i te kōkiri o te haere

Before you set forth on a journey, be sure you know the stars

Station rotation - fixed schedule

This week there will be four activities for you to complete in groups

1. Establishing your community of practice
2. Mobile sensor inquiry activity
3. Brain sensing
4. Student feedback (first 16 weeks)

This is a fixed-schedule station rotation. Each group will be allocated 15 minutes for each station in a specific order.

STATION 1: Establishing your community of practice

First read the one-pager about Online learning and then

• Find a study buddy or a study group (can be f2f or virtual)
• When and where are you going to meet?
• Record your plan by using an appropriate tool
• Share the plan, documents and/or contact details

In doing so, reflect on the following:

• How might you actively find further peers for your study group.
• How might you work collaboratively on the second part of the course? Maybe creating your own FB or G+ group might help you have discussions and share ideas? Or maybe you could have Weekly Google+ hangouts or Skype meetings? Or maybe there are teachers that live or work close to you who you could meet with in a cafeteria (with a Wifi connection) to work over a drink? Maybe you can schedule meetups using Doodle?
• How do you make sure you have the grit and perseverance needed for online learning?
• How do you manage your time and gain knowledge while online?
• How do you create and maintain an online identity?
• Now you’ve come to the class each week, how do you remember to go online?
• What do you want your physical environment to be like? Even if you study online, you are in a physical space of your choice.

Please consider sharing a summary of your ideas on the G+ Community with the tag #cop.

STATION 2: Sensor-based inquiry

The increasing number of sensors available on mobile devices is opening up new avenues for inquiry-based activities that capture data from the environment. “On the opportunity side, many mobile devices are equipped with a vast array of sensors and versatile components (e.g., camera, microphone, speaker, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi), that opens the door to curricular modules that make clever use of this technology to showcase computing concepts in new ways that are more effective and more engaging.” (Dabney, Dean & Rogers, 2013).

Most mobile devices now have built-in sensors for motion, position and environment. These can be applied in many different ways. "For example, a game might track readings from a device's gravity sensor to infer complex user gestures and motions, such as tilt, shake, rotation, or swing. Likewise, a weather application might use a device's temperature sensor and humidity sensor to calculate and report the dewpoint, or a travel application might use the geomagnetic field sensor and accelerometer to report a compass bearing." (Android Developers, n.d.)

Your smartphone probably has a range of sensors that you are not even aware of. Can you find a decibel meter? You can look at the Sense-it app if you have an Android phone, or check the app store for what types of sensor apps can be downloaded onto an iPhone.

Join the nQuire website and look at the existing Sense-it missions. Using a decibel meter on your mobile device, record your learning space’s noise data to the Noise Map mission

STATION 3: Brain Sensing Activity

We will be trying out the brain sensing devices provided by from ThoughtWired. The Neorsky headsets we use have many apps available for download. We use the Brainwave Visualizer in our sessions.

“The combination of educational data mining and brain sensing techniques has the potential to facilitate the detection of critical cognitive and motivational states during use of an online learning environment” (Keating, Walker, Motupali & Solovey, 2016).

Thought-Wired are offering 10% off the Neurosky Brainwave Starter Kit for the Mind Lab students

• Use the link https://shop.thought-wired.com/collections/mindlab
• Use the code MINDLAB2017S3 at checkout

STATION 4: Student Feedback

This feedback is for the first two courses of the Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice programme at The Mind Lab by Unitec: Digital & Collaborative Learning in Context and Leadership in Digital & Collaborative Learning.

The questionnaire is divided into five parts - Demographics, Content, Assessment, Teaching and Learning Support.

Please fill in the optional free text feedback questions if you have any specific responses. Your feedback is golden!

Student Feedback Form for Weeks 1-16: tinyurl.com/TMLJuly17Week16

And if you have time, a Problem Solving Test from the New York Times (Leonhardt, 2015): tinyurl.com/TMLProblemSolving

References

Android Developers. (n.d.) Sensors Overview. Retrieved from: https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/sensors/sensors_overview.html

Dabney, M. H., Dean, B. C. & Rogers, T. (2013, March). No sensor left behind: enriching computing education with mobile devices. In Proceedings of the 44th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education (pp. 627-632). ACM.

Keating, S., Walker, E., Motupali, A. & Solovey, E. (2016). Toward Real-time Brain Sensing for Learning Assessment: Building a Rich Dataset. Proceedings CHI ‘16.

Leonhardt, D. (2015, July 2nd). A Quick Puzzle to Test Your Problem Solving. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/03/upshot/a-quick-puzzle-to-test-your-problem-solving.html

Leadership:

Critical Reflection

Since we are on the last week of this particular course, it is time to reflect. We've asked you to critically reflect on your leadership practice multiple times during this course, still, the concept might be foreign or vague to many. During this week's class well reflect how do we think criticism differs from critique? How could you be more critically constructive in your future reflections? And how much did you reflect-on-action and for-action in your assignments?

• “reflect-on-action” (ie past experience),
• “reflect-in-action” (ie as an incident happens), and
• “reflect-for-action” (ie actions you may wish to take in future experiences)

"Critical reflection is an extension of “critical thinking”. It asks us to think about our practice and ideas and then it challenges us to step-back and examine our thinking by asking probing questions. It asks us to not only delve into the past and look at the present but importantly it asks us to speculate about the future and act."

Upcoming 16 Weeks In a Nutshell

Many of you have been wondering what the online part of the programme will look like. Here are the upcoming 16 weeks in a nutshell:

First 3 Weeks of PRACTICE Course

• First you need to set up your blog (if you haven’t already done so) or choose an alternative medium for your online reflections
• Then you write three blog posts (one per week) on specific topics
• These will be explained in the portal
• After that, you will be moving on to the RESEARCH course and begin to work on your teacher inquiry project
• During the course, you’ll need to gather some evidence of your online participation

Next 8 weeks of RESEARCH course

• First you need to decide on an overall topic that you would like to investigate for your teacher inquiry,
• Then you research literature around that topic
• Define the research question for the Literature review
• And then you write your literature review
• After that, you can plan the rest of your teacher inquiry project
• Using the literature from your literature review as evidence to support your inquiry plan
• During the course, you’ll need to gather some evidence of your online participation

Last 5 weeks of PRACTICE course

• First you need to get back to your weekly blog writing (but hopefully you never stopped!)
• Then you write five blog posts (one per week) on specific topics
• As before, these will be explained in the portal
• After that, you’re done!
• During the course, you’ll need to gather some more evidence of your online participation

Applied Practice in Context & Research and Community Informed Practice

The course aims and learning outcomes for these two upcoming online courses are quite generic, since we share them with other applied practice programmes at Unitec.

During the PRACTICE course, you get to critique and critically analyse your practice from a variety of viewpoints. The outcome of that process is published in short and precise blog posts.

The intention of the RESEARCH course is to help you understand how to use the literature to critically engage with your chosen topic and ensure that your Teacher inquiry plan is based on good evidence and your own critical reflection.

“Good research is a thinking person’s game. It is a creative and strategic process that involves constantly assessing, reassessing, and making decisions about the best possible means for obtaining trustworthy information, carrying out appropriate analysis, and drawing credible conclusions.” (O’Leary, 2004).

Why Literature Reviews?

According to the Spiral of Inquiry model (2014) “We also want the scanning process to be informed by current research from the learning sciences.”

In the Teaching as Inquiry model (MoE, 2009) “Teachers search their own and their colleagues’ past practice for strategies that may be more effective, and they also look in the research literature to see what has worked in other contexts.”  

Research Questions - Collaborate Ultra

During this week's session, we will be using Collaborate Ultra to share ideas about good research questions. You can find a guide for using Ultra for webinars at this link tinyurl.com/TML-BBCUltra. but for this session, the facilitator will guide you.

Inspiring Teacher Inquiry questions

Please share the inspiring and challenging Teacher Inquiry Question ideas with this Padlet tinyurl.com/teacherinquiryquestions

Flipped Preparation Task

Flipped preparation link howshouldiblog.blogspot.co.nz

References

MoE. (2009). Teaching as inquiry. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-stories/...

O’Leary, Z. (2004). The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: SAGE Publications.

Timperley, H., Kaser, L. & Halbert, J. (2014). A framework for transforming learning in schools: Innovation and the spiral of inquiry. Centre for Strategic Education