Day 1 Theme
Rethinking Schooling
Keynote: Ted McCain www.infosavvy21.com
Ted McCain delivered an energetic and thoughtful keynote on shifting to discovery learning. He spoke about technology "disappearing" in that the use of technology became seamless and so intuitive. Examples he gave were the futuristic movies (but not far distant) Star Trek computer and Minority Report.
The critical skills students need are higher level thinking skills.
9 skills:
• Intra personal
◦ Self confidence
◦ Initiative
◦ Perseverance
◦ Setting goals
• Inter personal skills
◦ Communication
◦ Listening
◦ Accepting criticism
• Independent problem solving skills
◦ Structured process
• Interdependent collaboration skills
◦ Organise teams
◦ Criticise ideas not people
◦ Group problem solving
◦ Using online tools to collaborate
• Information investigation skills
◦ Apply what we learn
• Information presentation skills
◦ Text superseded by graphic design and video
◦ Typography, design skills
• Imagination and creativity skills
◦ Produce meaning, add beauty
• Innovation creativity skills
◦ Function
◦ Not genetic, everyone has the ability
◦ Divergent and convergent thinking
• Internet citizenship skills
◦ How to protect yourself
◦ How to respect others
◦ How to respect the work of others
Technology is not the focus, cognitive skills are the focus
Attributes for effective teaching
1. Embrace discovery learning
◦ Telling is the native language of teachers
◦ Least effective way to learn
The problem with telling is it takes the excitement of discovery out of learning - we need interest! We need to create interest...
We are creators of engagement!
2. Ensure problems come first
• Be the crafter of problems
• Alternate approach to teaching Victoria goldrush ... Ted did a demo of a typical class with a teacher lecturing and reminding students of the facts and dates they neede to memorise for the test. He then offered an alternate task:
- Kids you are going to play the role of advertising executives today. Mr Smith from Victoria tours, one of your clients, will be calling in soon.
- Mr Smith asked the "company" to design an advertising brochure about places, facts and details of an upcoming Goldrush tour they were doing
- The students were put in groups and given freedom to come up with an advertising campaign.
The task, when analysed, has all of the features of the 9 Is that students need to develop.
• Technology is not the focus with the task... Learning is. Technology is inherent
• The teachers role shifts, from provider of content to learning guide
Workshop: Working in effective teams - Steve Francis www.stevefrancis.net.au
Why should we work in teams?
If you list the teams you work in, there are a surprising number! Is it really a team or a collection of people forced to meet?
Key questions:
Does it have a clear purpose for existing? Will working together lead to better results?
Effective teams need all of these:
Effective teams need all of these:
5 Dysfunctions of a team
• Absence of trust
• Fear of conflict
• Lack of commitment
• Avoidance of accountability
• Inattention to results
Teamwork lessons from MAMILS:
Keynote 2: Are Schools like dinosaurs? Steve Francis
Why haven't schools changed like other areas? Banking, Finance, Taxis...
Possible reasons?
• What we do is important - we are risk adverse
• We do incremental change rather than transformational change
• Change fatigue... Lots of incremental change makes us weary!
• everyone is an expert because everyone has been to school
Good is the enemy of great
• Parents rely on us to mind their children every day
Book - Malcolm Gladwell - Tipping point
We need more than a tweak, but a revolution
Sal Kahn TED talk - Mastery learning:
What does active use of technology look like?
What is bird flu broke out and students had to stay at home? Could students still learn?
https://edtechenthusiast.wordpress.com/2016/08/25/10-ways-to-use-video-in-your-school/
Flipping the school ... 30fps, 1 minute, lots of pictures! Hi can be conveyed in many different ways!
• Communicating with parents
• Feedback to students - parents get it also? Joel makes videos of marking exams - feedback on steroids!
◦ Screencast-o-matic is the tool he uses
• PD for staff
• Subject selection night - videos from each learning area on a site
• Parent teacher interviews - video before prepares parents if bad news!
• Staff Meetings - best use of time? Time for shower comeback!
• Demonstrate learning - students
• Students make videos ...
1. Use Project based learning/problems to solve
For student projects:
◦ Only accept original images
◦ Accept mashups
◦ Ask for a least two media types
◦ Ask for the personal narrative voice
◦ Ask for multiple answers/solutions
◦ Give marks for graphic design
2. Embrace formative assessment
◦ Assessment for learning
WADILT - we have always done it this way
How much of this exists in your classroom?
◦ Allow students to fail - which is at the heart of being creative
◦ The essential part of creativity is not being afraid to fail
◦ Marks make kids scared and stifle creativity
Other forms of assessment - portfolios
3. Meaningful collaboration
◦ It is easier to come up with ideas in a group
Structure is important, not anathema to creativity. Structure helps you to be creative.
4Ds of structured thought and creativity
• Define
• Design
• Do
• Debrief
The innovation idea think tank... an idea to get students working together. This reminds me a lot of the Future Problem Solving competition structure.
Rules:
Strategies:
Our challenge was - a Yr 8 S&E teacher has been donated 4 laptops for her class. What should she do with them?
Our group decided (after much discussion) that the class would be divided in 4, each group given a laptop and then asked to get the best price for it through advertising and marketing. We could then buy lots of iPads!
Will an idea work?
Is it impracticable?
Is it cost effective?
Do we have enough time?
Workshop: Flipping everything - Joel Speranza www.edtechenthusiast.wordpress.com
Joel looked at ways video could be used beyong flipping a class. Here is a post that captures this sessionhttps://edtechenthusiast.wordpress.com/2016/08/25/10-ways-to-use-video-in-your-school/
Flipping the school ... 30fps, 1 minute, lots of pictures! Hi can be conveyed in many different ways!
• Communicating with parents
• Feedback to students - parents get it also? Joel makes videos of marking exams - feedback on steroids!
◦ Screencast-o-matic is the tool he uses
• PD for staff
People are resistant to change, no one is resistant to improvement• Tech tip Tuesday
• Subject selection night - videos from each learning area on a site
• Parent teacher interviews - video before prepares parents if bad news!
• Staff Meetings - best use of time? Time for shower comeback!
• Demonstrate learning - students
• Students make videos ...
Workshop: How Do We Teach Creativity and Innovation? Ted McCain
Creativity - applied imagination... It involves action.
Culture eats strategy for breakfastTo encourage creativity skills:
1. Use Project based learning/problems to solve
For student projects:
◦ Only accept original images
◦ Accept mashups
◦ Ask for a least two media types
◦ Ask for the personal narrative voice
◦ Ask for multiple answers/solutions
◦ Give marks for graphic design
2. Embrace formative assessment
◦ Assessment for learning
WADILT - we have always done it this way
How much of this exists in your classroom?
◦ Allow students to fail - which is at the heart of being creative
◦ The essential part of creativity is not being afraid to fail
◦ Marks make kids scared and stifle creativity
Other forms of assessment - portfolios
3. Meaningful collaboration
◦ It is easier to come up with ideas in a group
Structure is important, not anathema to creativity. Structure helps you to be creative.
4Ds of structured thought and creativity
• Define
• Design
• Do
• Debrief
The innovation idea think tank... an idea to get students working together. This reminds me a lot of the Future Problem Solving competition structure.
Rules:
- Work in groups
- No idea is bad
- Criticism is not allowed
- Everyone participates
Strategies:
- Reword the problem
- Ask questions about the problem
- Absence thinking
- Draw a picture
- Mind mapping
- Brainstorm
- Reverse brainstorm - how could we make this worse?
- Reconnect the dots
Our challenge was - a Yr 8 S&E teacher has been donated 4 laptops for her class. What should she do with them?
Our group decided (after much discussion) that the class would be divided in 4, each group given a laptop and then asked to get the best price for it through advertising and marketing. We could then buy lots of iPads!
Will an idea work?
Is it impracticable?
Is it cost effective?
Do we have enough time?