A merry un-conference to you!

“A very merry un-conference

To you
Who, me?
To you
Oh, me

Let’s all congratulate us with another cup of tea
A very merry unconference to you

Now statistics prove,
Prove that you’ve one conference
Imagine just one conference every year
Ah, but there are 364 unconferences!
Precisely why we’re gathered here to cheer…”

[with apologies to Disney:)]

Why wait for that all important conference once a year? Come to that, why wait for someone to arrange any kind of professional learning for you?! Grab that learning with both hands and hare along to an Educamp!

Unconferences – or barcamps – allow the participants to drive the agenda, offer topics themselves, network with others, or vote with their feet when a session loses interest.

Two of these ‘unconferences’ are happening in NZ  for mad hatters – sorry, educators – who are interested in e-learning/education through ICTs.

• EduCampAKL 2011: Saturday 6th August at Epsom Girls’ Grammar, Auckland
• EduCampWelly 2011: Saturday 21st May at Wellington College, Wellington

Why go?

Meet like-minded folk, take control of your own learning, share what you know – and to get a buzz from a day where everyone wants to be there, wants to share, and really cares about their students’ learning. A veritable wonderland of learning. We hope.

And they are free (koha donation welcome).

Pop along to the websites and pop your name down. Teapots optional.

[Image/lyrics source: Alice in Wonderland, Disney Pictures]

Helping teachers use digital content

I have a looong list of reading to catch up on – but have started today with Gaffney’s (2010) Enhancing teachers’ take-up of digital content: factors and design principles in technology adoption.

The vital importance of teacher development aligning with factors beyond themselves, such as school culture, government policy, availability of technology and so on, is central to the paper.

Most importantly, in my view, the paper acknowledges that teachers are most likely to explore and embrace digital content, such as Digistore’s Learning Objects, when they have time and support to align their own practices, the learning required for the students and the technology they must use. In other words, the TPCK framework comes into play.

Gaffney’s proposed Technology Adoption Model sums up key factors for schools and governments to consider …while the table of challenges and obstacles makes for rather sad but useful warning of where the integration of digital content can fail. And boy, are there lots of issues to address.

Teachers’ views on technology: snapshots from the frontlines

This is a neat selection of videos that explores the way different technologies are being integrated into teaching and learning. The New York Times asked teachers to submit videos that explored how technology had changed the way they teach…

The overwhelming themes that emerge are:

• Trust the students – be prepared to work with them.
• Collaboration and relating to others lies at the heart of how students learn about their worlds through technology.
• Connections and inquiry that never would have been made previously, both locally and globally, are now possible.
• Technology can support engagement for all students, especially those with different learning needs.
• The vital importance of everyone having access, not just a few, is central to strategic planning.
• Mobile computing, combined with cloud-based technologies, free the students and teachers from constraints of time and place.

 

An open letter to educators…

This is a compelling video from Dan Brown, a self-declared drop-out who forcefully drives his argument that education must reflect the way the world is today. While we have seen many riffs on this topic, and you could blow holes in many of his arguments (and there are some great video responses that do just that), he does remind us that the landscape has changed and that often, educational institutions have not.

And he dropped out because school was interfering with his education.

I wish he’d been in my debating class at school, too;-)

Thanks to Claire Amos (ICTs in English) for the tip.

What would Pixar do with elearning?

The short film that precedes Toy Story 3  - Day and Night – is a fabulous example of how filmmakers can make the most of the opportunities that are inherent in 3D.

While it’s a bit hard to appreciate this in 2D on your computer, this clip, and the making of Day and Night, show how 3D affords a depth of field that accentuates the differences between the two characters in the short.

And, if Pixar were elearning aficionados, I think they would be looking at tools and technologies to identify those very opportunities (affordances, if we must) that would make their use absolutely right in a given moment, in a teaching experience, in a strategically planned unit. So, for example, the collaborative nature and the tracking of history of a wiki must surely be the prime reasons why this tool is chosen as a channel to support shared, developmental writing. And to not use its features, is to miss an opportunity and risk the use of a tool or technology being ‘busy work’….

The technological-pedagogical-content-knowledge (TPCK) approach captures this idea - but I think Day & Night presents a neat analogy.

Tell me you see a difference between board and screen..?

If there is no difference, then we need to talk.

This video by mokmcdaniel – Online Student Experience – highlights in grim tones, how depressing it is to be in a world in which exciting teaching and learning (with and without technology) is possible, but not happening for him.

While part of me can appreciate the drama and heightened negativity that this skilled filmmaker has amplified, part of me wonders how prevalent this kind of teaching is.

Just replacing a board with a screen, a pen with a keyboard, is clearly not the answer.

So what is? Where would you start?

Thanks to the Committed Sardine for the link.