Another great day of learning from other passionate, talented educators.
Some great ideas - including the way we are using technology to do old things in new ways. Making a more refined version of what we already have is not going to work if we want to see significant wins. Defining what that looks like is challenging and through all of this I don't see any end-game. Perhaps there isn't one, so we will never arrive BUT if we can get more students with autonomy, mastery and purpose (see Dan Pink - Drive) the world will be a better place!
Gamification - huge model we can use! Kids fail lots but keep going.
Some quotes that struck me:
There was also a powerful and moving tribute to Ruby Bridges, an incredible story of a 6 year old going to an all white school in 1964 and the persecution she faced and the teacher who, defying the threats, taught this amazing young coloured girl.
Well did Obama recognise that he would not be President of the United States without her.
Introduction
We started with a video mini-documentary that was a powerful reminder of what we are all striving for in education.Some great ideas - including the way we are using technology to do old things in new ways. Making a more refined version of what we already have is not going to work if we want to see significant wins. Defining what that looks like is challenging and through all of this I don't see any end-game. Perhaps there isn't one, so we will never arrive BUT if we can get more students with autonomy, mastery and purpose (see Dan Pink - Drive) the world will be a better place!
Gamification - huge model we can use! Kids fail lots but keep going.
Some quotes that struck me:
"The main thing being taught at school is how to sit for an hour, be disengaged, and take it." - Sal Kahn
"If given the internet and permission to interact with each other and given the absence of the teacher kids can learn almost anything. The absence of the teacher in the presence of the internet can become a pedagogical tool" - Sugatra Mitra
"One of the principles of adult learning is you should learn something when you have a reason to learn it." - Dr. Catherine Lucey
"I think our biggest job in our information saturated age is to give a child an armour against doctrine" - Sugata Mitra
There was also a powerful and moving tribute to Ruby Bridges, an incredible story of a 6 year old going to an all white school in 1964 and the persecution she faced and the teacher who, defying the threats, taught this amazing young coloured girl.
Well did Obama recognise that he would not be President of the United States without her.
Breakout sessions
Lorinda Bruce
- A great session on inquiry using Dan Pink's model for motivation. Session slides here Bit.ly/InquiryLB
- Without autonomy, mastery and purpose motivation dips.
- We spoke about the steps for inquiry learning.
Summer Howarth
- Seriously good session! Summer spoke about inspirational Edu-preneurs like Blake McCosky, Sal Khan, Geoffrey Canada and their commonalities:
- They help kids get better outcomes
- The help teachers get better
- The help build better communities
- The improve the well being of students
- The are doers and not talkers
- Their ideas are super simple
- They are always getting better
- It's not about them, it's about their idea
- It is inspiring to see people who have been a real agent of change, who have had a vision and focus that has driven them through all barriers, doubters and negativity. Anyone can do this!
- One question I wrote down - we need to have a narrative around why we want to have 1:1 devices - what are the problems devices solve? What pedagogical imperatives outlined in our vision of learning do having devices help achieve?
Mel Marshall
- A great, passionate introduction to Ingress and its applications to learning.
- Gamification has a great role to play!
- Ideas
- 4D Elements
- Aurasma
- Minecraft Edu
- Mel told an amazing story about a Uni course that was conducted in a Minecraft world of the Uni campus that had been built by a professors children where students would go to interact.
The only thing more powerful than ownership is authorship
Seqta in the Primary setting
Peter Hazebroek took us through some ideas on using Seqta in the Primary school setting which included:- The use of calendar classes to define when classes are actually on
- The need for dynamic class groups to manage this
- Making release time an event so it appears on the teachers schedule
- Using emojis for class groupings in the marksbook
- Using a cutoff template for a checklist in the marksbook (Y/X)
Summer & Louka
- A great energetic session to finish! We spoke about questions we had and enagaged with others to get answers - rapid fire!
- Activity - think of an item that is unused at your house, partner with someone else and find a new item that is useful that combines the two.
- We spoke about Prototyping, a great way to present ideas for input:
- Lego - design your idea
- Storyboard
- Persona
- Different ways to share an idea for others input.
Overall an amazing, challenging, thought provoking and POTENTIALLY life-changing conference. Fantastic structure provided by Summer and Louka.