Professional Development and the Web

Here are my notes for my workshop at the ELH11 conference on "Professional Development and the Web". We will kick off by watching this video. 

The event is now over but you may find the four activities below interesting.

There are links and activities:

Option #1 Join Twitter	Option #2 Attend a Live Event
Option #3 Explore a Virtual Edu-World	Option #4 Browse Crowd-Sourced Resources

Still got nothing to do? Research 'edupunk', 'flipped classroom' and 'gamification'. These are hot topics in the twittersphere. 

---------------------------------------------------------------

 Join Twitter

1. www.twitter.com and sign up.
2. I suggest you use your real name. This is your public face. You won’t post anything even remotely sensitive.
3. For your username, think of something catchy.
4. Mention you are a teacher in your ‘bio’.
5. Upload an image, any image, to your profile. Otherwise you will appear as an ‘egg’, which brands you as unlikely to continue using Twitter.
6. Now go here: http://t.co/cHywD9B and add your Twitter ID and then follow the others that are there, by clicking on them and clicking ‘follow’. Also read the tips on this page. Down the bottom of the document is a list of teacher's reasons for being on Twitter.
7. Send a tweet including the letters “#elh11” which is the code you include to clarify you are referring to the ELH conference.
8. Send a tweet to me! Do this by including “@steve_collis” somewhere in the tweet, and I will be sure to see it in my ‘replies’ column

---------------------------------------------------------------

 Attend Live Events

1. http://www.classroom20.com/ and click ‘Webinars’. Scroll down and click on a few upcoming sessions.
2. Click here: http://bit.ly/pKv8pA to get a video tour of the website.
3. Sign up and become a member, browse the website, join a special group!
4. Homework: go along to some of their live sessions!
5. Visit other teacher networks: http://www.educationalnetworking.com/List+of+Networks

---------------------------------------------------------------

Browse Crowd Sources Resources 

1. Visit http://edte.ch/blog/interesting-ways/ and browse the final documents.

2. Consider how I quickly crowdsourced the twitter google doc. 

---------------------------------------------------------------

Join a Virtual Edu-World 

1. Visit http://www.jokaydiagrid.com/ which is an Australian network of teachers exploring virtual worlds for education.

2. Join!

3. If you have Second Life installed, click here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia/108/159/23 and explore.

4. Visit the Rez Ed website http://rezedhub.ning.com/, and note the specialist groups on Minecraft, WoW, and the use of other virtual worlds with students.

5. Watch this video introduction. Join the website! 

6. Consider attending one of these upcoming events. 

---------------------------------------------------------------

Ref: image of crowd from http://www.flickr.com/photos/anirudhkoul/3786725982



ELH Conference - video stream starting now

CONFERENCE NOW OVER. SEE LINKS AND RECORDINGS BELOW:

The Broadcast Channel: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/technology-in-education-show

August 14 to 16, 2011

In brief: I will use this page to broadcast a video stream of the Expanding Learning Horizons conference is taking place RIGHT NOW in Lorne, Victoria, Australia, whenever I can. I'll get permission from presenters as I go. I'll send updated via my Twitter feed as to my intentions.

I love the thought that rather than travel, pay $$ for conference rego, get permission from your school, etc, etc, you can participate in the conference from your arm chair, with a cuppa, just when you feel like it!

Sessions by myself and colleagues from NBCS / SCIL:

- my colleagues Lou Deibe and Ro Beale - on 'Empowered by Immersion' Monday 2.30pm (international time here), excitingly, they will cross live via Skype to 'the zone', an open space with 180 students, 6 teachers, gamified science, and a heck of a lot of learning!

- I will stream my own session, on 'teacher learning and the web', Monday 4pm (international time here)

- my colleague Coral Connor on 'Mathematical Matrix of Bloom's Taxonomy and Multiple Intelligences' Tuesday 10.15am (international time here)

/GAT Project/ "My Initial Thoughts", by Talar Khatchoyan

This is post 6 in a series about an experimental new learning structure at our school, with no program, no assessments, no teacher talk. In this post my colleague Talar Khatchoyan shares her thoughts thus far.

GAT: My initial thoughts

I first heard about the GAT project at the end of Term 2. At that stage it felt to me to be the undeveloped brainchild of Steve Collis. It sounded like the sort of project I would have naturally gravitated toward whilst a student because it offered so much freedom and time to pursue a project of my choice. However, beyond this, I had no idea what to expect. I cannot even tell you the exact point GAT went from being a distant possibility, to a project I had willingly signed myself to. My most coherent thoughts at those early stages were:

- I am worried

- I can t understand how it will work

- I think working with Steve will be an adventure

Now, four weeks into the initiation of GAT, I feel mostly the same- though perhaps more excited than worried.

So far, GAT has meant letting go of all my teacher-instincts and going with the flow of the students, of the course and of its demands. With each conversation I have with Steve or a student, I feel as though things are slightly more defined and yet, strangely, less so- which, is truly, the nature of learning. It feels something like the moment you first pick up a Shakespeare you haven t studied. You feel overwhelmed, excited, with a touch of trepidation because you know that what will come will teach you something new about humanity, about Shakespeare s craft, about culture and sub-culture, and a whole lot of other things. Learning cannot fit into a box, just as Shakespeare cannot be confined to one page. They breathe and grow and endure; they inform future learning. This is GAT.

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid ~Einstein

I love this quote, because it is a humble reminder to me. I am reminded that my students come with their individual talents, goals and abilities. I am reminded that they are unique thinkers and that there are many things they can do better than I can. I am reminded that I need to celebrate their successes and recognise their genius. GAT helps me see this. I see students pursuing their craft, their learning, and their passions.

I think my favourite moment is when students pose an idea. We talk about it, we play around with it, bounce it around and stretch it to see how far it will go and then suddenly, they see that there is potential there. What they had thought to be a quick task, or a distant dream, has now developed into a larger, complex project. I love the moments when they are excited that their work will be published, read, accessed, assessed, by peers and professionals.

During our GAT session today, I spent half an hour talking to a student who had a fairly developed idea. Their project was to create a social justice kit to help schools in raising awareness of the issues in our world today. She had finished a first draft and wanted an opinion. After half an hour of discussion, she walked away with a totally transformed idea. We spoke about taking her project and developing it as a website resource for schools. We spoke about the possibility of networking with student designers to produce posters that could be downloaded as resources to be used in schools. We spoke about the potential for this to become a long-term project that could be maintained and updated to be used for many years. This is GAT! I couldn t help but feel excited with her as we peeled the layers of restrictions we often feel are placed around our ideas to discover the true possibility of our imagination and thought.

I'm so excited to be a part of this project. I love the fact that students are directing themselves and that they are learning and helping one another access resources and information. I can t wait to see what happens next!

This is the sixth in a series of blog posts entitled /GAT Project/ They will appear regularly at this website, categorised under 'GAT Project'. If you'd like to receive future posts, you can:

- click here to subscribe to Steve's blog in general by email, or here in a reader.

- click here http://www.happysteve.com/contact/ and indicate 'GAT Posts Only' in the message body - I'll email you when I update the GAT Project just for the duration of the series.

- or regularly check this link for new posts: http://www.happysteve.com/blog/tag/gat-project

9 Year Olds in a Community of Practice

A brief break from the /GAT Project/ series, although this topic is highly relevant.

On Thursday afternoons I've been supervising groups of Year 4 students as they discover our school 3D virtual world environment, which we run with free Open Sim (*) software.

Before we go on, whatever you do, watch the video below before you leave this page!

It is hilarious, and instructive, to stand back and observe the way these little people are enticed by the environment, make their own discoveries, and then share the discoveries with each other. Different students become experts in different skills, and are sought out by the others. I don't teach them.

As I observed the incredible scene around me, I thought to myself: this pretty much sums it all up for me. 

I quickly whipped out my phone and captured the scene on camera.

Listen to what the students are saying to each other (or screaming at each other!). Watch out hyper-engaged they are. You couldn't stop them from learning if you tried. They're unstoppable. 

And notice how they're oblivious to my presence. I'm invisible. They don't notice I'm filming. They're not asking me questions. I'm irrelevant. I've done myself out of a job. They're teaching each other. Every students is a teaching-and-learning node:

Once we've witnessed this dynamic occur, once we've seen what's possible, how could we ever go back to a teacher-centric model of pedagogy? I'm going to show this video to everyone I meet from now on, and say "Do you see!? What more is there to say!?"

In teacher-centric model, the teacher sets the agenda, then requests that the students become complicit in that agenda.

In a learning-central model, the students bring the agenda, and become complicit in each other's learning. The so-called 'teacher' becomes complicit in the students' agendas. 

(*) A collaborative 3d space, where each student has an avatar and can discover, communicate, and work together to build the world. Objects can be created, sculpted, sewn together, and programmed using code to behave in particular ways.

/GAT Project/ The Rubber Hits the Road!

We've had just 4 lessons in the 'GAT Course' and I am just over the moon. For new readers, the GAT Course is an experimental course in Year 9 & 10 at my school which we are hoping to expand out to be a 200 hour course involving every student in Stage 5. It's experimental, because every student is involved in completely different projects. Read previous posts to get your head around the idea.

When I look around the space

I see...

A student has already constructed a robot from a kit, but next is the challenging part: discover its design principles and then create a robot with similar capabilities from scratch, with home-made parts. I was skeptical at the ambition at first, but the student started describing how he had already made a mechanical hand at home with string and motors.

I suggested he run a hand on robotics demonstration class for Primary students later this year!

I see...

Another student has her heart set on writing a book. This very morning, she tells me, she had a flash of inspiration. She raced to a computer, captured the ideas, and printed them out before running out the door. They're on a folded up bit of paper. So now she's revisiting them; fashioning and forming them.

I suggested we establish a test-readership of 30 or 40 volunteers who could give her gut-reaction feedback on her story. 

I see...

The planning notes and draft document by a student passionate about social justice, and determined to take concrete action to combat slavery. She's recruiting peers to assist her set up a website, and is preparing a school-wide publicity drive to raise awareness and educate our community on how we can act to help the voiceless.

I see...

My colleague Ms Khatchoyan assisting a team to finalise their initial project timeline. They are bouncing ideas around. Her role, and mine, in these meetings, is to throw left-field ideas into the mix. What if we tried to get you on-set for a professional film? What if we tried to market and sell your product? What if we got a professional film director to give you some feedback? 

Ms Khatchoyan will be posting here soon with her thoughts, and I'll post student voices too. 

Here's the thing: as I scan the space I see every student engaged, eager to aim high. There is momentum, movement, excitement. They're focused. They're taking initiative, solving their own problems, getting on with the job.

It's every teacher's dream, and it works because rather than the teacher having to be the engine for everyone, dragging the class forward by sheer force of will and dogged determination, instead every student is bringing their own unstoppable locomotive engine.

And each engine is going in a completely different direction!

This is the fifth in a series of blog posts entitled /GAT Project/ They will appear regularly at this website, categorised under 'GAT Project'. If you'd like to receive future posts, you can:

- click here to subscribe to Steve's blog in general by email, or here in a reader.

- click here http://www.happysteve.com/contact/ and indicate 'GAT Posts Only' in the message body - I'll email you when I update the GAT Project just for the duration of the series.

- or regularly check this link for new posts: http://www.happysteve.com/blog/tag/gat-project