Innovation and Learning
Start with clarity of intent.
Now build it out with an evocative vision. Improvise progress by tinkering: with lots of trial and lots of error. The not knowing is the best bit: the mysteries the surprises, and from time to time the windfalls!
Hello there, I'm Steve Collis!
Click on "contact", won't you, and wave right back at me?
Here are the worksheets for our FrenchFM channel on YouTube:
Pilot Show - Download FrenchFM Emission Pilote worksheet
Episode 1 Tricolore #1, Unit 1 - Download FrenchFM Episode 1 worksheet
Episode 2 Tricolore #1, Unit 9 - worksheet coming soon
I announced on Thursday morning at assembly that our school had acquired 3D Virtual property.
When I made this announcement there was a shock-reaction amongst all our students. It was one of those spontaneous crowd response moments. There was a some laughter, but it wasn't mocking laughter, it was disbelief laughter. It was quite an electric moment.
The shocked reaction of the students in itself holds a lot of meaning to me.
Why would students be so shocked that technology they'd almost all be accustomed to, is being used in a school context? Why is it unheard of?
The tools that our young people use to connect socially & to express themselves creatively, ought also to be provided to them in school and harnassed for learning.
I announced that we were wanting to recruit moderators for the virtual world & that we'd let them in early. At the meeting I held at lunch, there was an overwhelming crowd and I had to turn many students away (they came back the next day to an alternative meeting).
On Friday, the day after the announcement, a core group of students had filled in applications to be moderators and had permission slips signed.
So I set them up.
I write this on Sunday evening. What a weekend it has been.
On Friday night there was chaos... students trying every wacky thing they could. Objects strewn everywhere. They immediately discovered all kinds of stuff I didn't know existed. One student wore about 8 parrots on his avatar. Others discovered they could become dinosaurs.
On Saturday I gave some of the students plots of land to build on. By Saturday night one of them had created a shop. By Sunday morning he had stocked it with a virtual version of our school uniform.
By Sunday evening, more buildings, including a paint-ball maze and a parrot shop with a teleporter to a building way up in the sky.
And that's the students, while several of my colleagues have worked on some beautiful facilities near a waterfall, and a 'fortress of physics' up in the sky. (My colleagues are on Twitter - @tim__barrett and @peter_robson).
Here's how things have been going...
Before Christmas we placed an order for a Private Estate in Teen Second Life, which is a 3D virtual world that users themselves create and build.
The order came through a few weeks ago, with me set up as the estate owner. From that point only I could access our virtual estate! Since then we've transferred about 5 of my colleagues who showed interest last year. In a few more days we'll transfer another 20 or so who've shown interest in the new year.
We still have to set up a system to allow the creation of student accounts. I'm waiting on Linden Lab to get that set up for me at the moment.
In the meantime, I've been terraforming our estate, ready for its first inhabitants!
I've set it up as an island covered with forest. There's only one small building... as if we're settlers in a new land.
Today I've spent some time creating special surprises for students (& teachers). I want to create a lot more before our settlers arrive.
Click on the images below to make them open in their full size in a new window:
A view of the island. Hmmm the mountains look a bit ridiculous and pointy, don't they?
This looks like just water... but...
even though under the water looks normal too... there is a hidden cavern under this sand!
So how to you get in? Well there's a hidden entrance to be found...
And after following a long, windy passage you get to the cavern under the sea...
So, next I thought I'd try something more ambitious - a much bigger hidden cavern in the middle of a mountain. As you can see, to create these hidden caverns you have to dig a ditch in the landscape and then cover it up with a ceiling... you then disguise the ceiling to look like the landscape.
Here I've just added the first parts of the ceiling over two huge, steep arms that I've extended from the mountain.
A few minutes later...
And now we jump to the final version... I had huge troubles disguising both the ceiling and the front covering. I ended up shoving trees everywhere! This will have to do for now, oh well!
Finally, I've noticed little shapes appearing around the island. A good sign that my colleagues are beginning to experiment with building.
I've have plenty of conversations with a range of teachers who are keen to give this a go with their students. I'll blog as it happens!
I often wonder about how teachers set up rules for students that adults never have to worry about. Lateness, in particular, comes to mind. Adults show up a little late to stuff all the time... but they're on time for important things, and sometimes they're early. So why do I put so much mental energy into maintaining a military regime of punctuality? Sure, punctuality has some worth, but have we perhaps lost a bit of a sense of proportion?
Anyway that's not what's on my mind right now. I ran a whole series of 30 minute training sessions for our school conference this week. The sessions went wonderfully, with my colleagues attending in droves and having a ball, and learning heaps. By all measures I couldn't be happier with what was achieved.
But I noticed a whole series of interesting behaviours in my class of colleagues. Some didn't read the instructions on the board and got stuck for this reason, some raced far ahead of me, and some remained several steps behind. When I gave instructions, in my assertive, clear teacher voice, many of my colleagues were clearly tuned out, focused as they were on what they were doing at the time. Indeed they'd talk over me, incessantly.
I smiled to myself about this even at the time. All my colleagues wanted to learn, and they were getting on with it, in their own way, through experimentation, asking the person next to them, and yelling out for me to come over and help. It was very loud and chaotic, and wonderfully fruitful. They learnt far more than if I had insisted on confining them to some rigid master-plan, relying on an 'all eyes on me, listen to me!' approach.
The punchline, obviously, is that teachers try to eradicate the very behaviours that, from what I saw this week, go hand in hand with great organic learning.
I think we do this because we assume bad faith, like we're trying to get students to do something they don't want to do. Therefore, we have to wrench control of student behaviour. In the result, we sell ourselves and our students short, and learning limps along slowly and stressfully.
But if you assume good faith, then there's no need for control, and from the chaos springs great, often unexpected, and always idiosyncratic learning.
We shouldn't
stamp on our students
when they display behaviours
that we ourselves display
when we're learning!
Today I ran a training session on Twitter. Quite a large number of teachers elected to attend. I don't think they had any idea what Twitter was before the session.
Twitter is a simple, free, text messaging website that allows you to connect to other educators around the world. Here's a video explaining it. You can send and receive short messages via your web browser. (To join, go to twitter.com now and register, and follow me and other people: www.twitter.com/steve_collis).
I have been on Twitter for 6 months or so now and have found Twitter to be invaluable. Apart from anything else, my interactions on Twitter have made me much more aware of the global education community. I feel part of a global teaching movement.
I also get a string of brilliant ideas dished up to me!
Anyway, I was delighted by the 26 people who replied to me in a matter of hours!
The training session went really well! My colleagues had a ball and seem quite enthusiastic about continuing with Twitter.
Below, I'm going to post three different things.
1. A list of my colleagues who are now on Twitter. Please feel free to 'follow' them!
2. A list of the replies I got on Twitter.
3. A google map actually showing where people replied to me from. This is what I mean by a global community! (by the way it was easy to make this map. I went to www.umapper.com and copied the text from the twitter messages into it, and it generated the google map, cleverly, by scouring the text for recognisable locations)
1. A list of my colleagues who are now on Twitter. Please feel free to 'follow' them!
http://www.twitter.com/jenny289
http://www.twitter.com/Clive_Thomas
http://www.twitter.com/markliddell
http://www.twitter.com/shhartley
http://www.twitter.com/Lillipilly
http://www.twitter.com/gharbor
http://www.twitter.com/jennyscotney
http://www.twitter.com/DanielDawes
http://www.twitter.com/peter_robson
http://www.twitter.com/spot_dog
http://www.twitter.com/The_Norman
http://www.twitter.com/TimBrownSnr
http://www.twitter.com/connorc
http://www.twitter.com/chimofee
http://www.twitter.com/anne_sharkey
http://www.twitter.com/cwoldhuis
http://www.twitter.com/Stephen_H
http://www.twitter.com/Tim_Barrett
http://www.twitter.com/linfoot
http://www.twitter.com/schultzie86
2. A list of the replies I got on Twitter.
What I find really interesting about people's replies here are their reasons for using Twitter.
# 4ngel4 @Steve_Collis location: England,
Weather: raining, twitter is great for discussing ideas with like minded people.
Enjoy your training about 4 hours ago
but can see that it has great opportunities to find resources, methods and
ideas to help children to learn. about 4 hours ago
England,
cold and raining. Now there's a shock! about 4 hours ago
Tinley Park,Illinois
Sunny and 34 F today. I ♥ Twitter b/c I learn so much from the brilliant minds I follow! about 9 hours
ago
support person in a small rural district. Twitter allows me to "find"
my colleagues frm all over the world. about 12 hours ago
USA,
Kansas,
1/21 weather was 50 dgrs F and today it shld be down to 35 dgrs F! No snow on
ground about 12 hours ago
my deck in Warrimoo. Twitter is short news bursts from people that count. It is
very moist and sticky indeed. about 12 hours ago
Sydney ...
really hot here in
but you knew that! Have a great PD workshop! about 12 hours ago
my Nokia in Chiswick - Twitter helps me never miss little and big discoveries
by the people I _really_ follow! about 12 hours ago
Lisbon ,Maine
+8F(-14C) and overcast. Love twitter for PLN connections, new ideas, tools, resources.
about 12 hours ago
beautiful & cool evening in Ballarat! Love twitter because it keeps me up-to-date
with ed & world issues. about 13 hours ago
Elstree, UK
Weather grey and wet, twitter is great company when you're sick at home! Also
good 4 resources about 13 hours ago
FrederictonNB. ,Canada
mild -11 C in
Twitter for me is 2 things: connect and learn. about 13 hours ago
Sydney
ringing someone and asking their opinion times 1000 about 13 hours ago
my personal learning network, and provides opportunities to broaden areas of
interest, understanding about 13 hours ago
galeforce with fires, now calm with rain ; enables immediate contact with
friends, contacts, quick research about 13 hours ago
twitter because it is relaxing and it is amazing how much important and new
information is generated on Twitter about 13 hours ago
because its mobility and capacity to put forward ideas as they come out of your
head... not losing the moment. about 13 hours ago
sultry NSW Australia. Violent storms and much needed rain - hoping it will be
fine for water skiing on the weekend about 13 hours ago
Sea ,UK
grey, wet and windy Southend on
like 24 tv show - "events occur in real time" about 14 hours ago
Sydney at, share ideas & learn - its PD & u
more about 14 hours ago
helps u connect far & wide, c beyond where
and learning with lots of people. In Brisbane Aus. Going to be hot 2tomoorow. about
14 hours ago
I'm in Kiama NSW & like Twitter as it is a fun professional & personal (up
to the minute) networking tool. about 14 hours ago
of it about 14 hours ago
cooler finally- like twitter because verbosity is verboten & tweets are
entertaining and sometimes valuable about 14 hours ago
Twitter for its global reach,ease of cross industry sharing, great information
filter for busy educators. about 14 hours ago
Oxfordshire , UK
based in
with tech news, world news, colleague's news and is fun :-) about 14 hours ago
Nottingham , England
wet
connect with people in the simplest way. Hope you have good day about 14 hours
ago
Tasmania ,
Launceston,
where it is cool, overcast, raining :-) I like Twitter because there is always
more to learn about 14 hours ago
it lead to meeting you at a conference.. and you said "yay you're ackygirl
- can I give you a hug" lol about 14 hours ago
great deal of trouble sleeping tonight/this morning. about 14 hours ago
Philadelphia
currently in
for Educon. It is 24 F here and I learn so much from the collective knowledge
of PLN about 14 hours ago
3. A google map actually showing where people replied to me from, around the globe!