In a recent meeting with my upline manager I was challenged regarding the selection of my staff for the transformational learning project.  My upline manager expressed concern that I had chosen two young and relatively inexperienced staff members, and specifically two staff members without experience in implementing this particular syllabus.  I appreciate and encourage this questioning as it ensures I am reasoned in the decisions that I make.

There was one critical factor in my selection of the staff.  Choosing two teachers new to the school, who have not taught the specific subject previously, certainly enables radical change.  And there is no doubt what I am asking for is a radical change.  No teacher in this school has taught in this manner previously, and no student has learnt within this type of environment.  I feared that if I recruited staff who had already taught the specific subject then I would be dealing with “tradition” and “hangover” from what has occurred previously.  I don’t believe this would have enabled the success I am aiming for.

What has excited me is the professionalism displayed thus far by the project teachers.  I permitted them open license to design a work program that enabled them to teach effectively.  I have never been concerned about changing work programs, and in Health Education have made changes annually.  This is the first change for Physical Education since the original work program was approved in 2004.  In the re-writing of the program, both of the project teachers have independently accessed the syllabus to ensure what they are planning is appropriate.  This has even resulted in them picking up on an error I made with suggestions for the program.  Considering I did not ask or suggest they access the syllabus, in fact I expected they would propose a program and I would check it for syllabus suitability, has really impressed me.  Coupled with this is the independent research they have each done on the transformative theory of learning to prepare themselves, which is impressive.  Inexperience has not restricted them.

The project team met yesterday to finalise the program skeleton.  In this meeting (held whilst on playground duty!) I believe a significant indication of progress was achieved.  The teachers were discussing logical ordering of content across the two year program and decided that we should begin with a unit on Motor Learning.  Their justification was based on the fact that the students would not have experienced this type of learning environment previously, and this allowed us to teach them “how to learn” and to specifically learn within the environment we are establishing.  This to me was a breakthrough as it demonstrated an understanding of what they have volunteered to be part of, and deep thinking on how to structure the learning environment to enable success.

I couldn’t be happier with the progress of these two teachers.  I’m excited by the changes they have proposed.  I’m excited by the enthusiasm they are displaying.  I’m impressed with the professionalism they are demonstrating at this stage of the project.

The next phase of the project will be collaborative visioning and the establishment of mechanisms for measurement.  Our visioning will be based on a number of documents that I have grouped as “Documents informing the project” and categorised under a range of headings.  I will outline these in another post.  The teachers will be asked to familiarise themselves with the documents and then discuss how they will impact the project.

Teacher toolkit

Now that I have my staff selected, I believe my time is best spent exposing them to the software that will enable transformative learning.  My first focus will be on software that enables sharing of information.  In this initial phase I will install software that utilises data stored on the local hard drive.  This is purposeful so that I can facilitate use of the team site for the project to share files.

The software I will install tomorrow is;

1. Mozilla Firefox
2. Zotero add-on for Firefox
3. X-mind
4. FoxIt PDF Reader (including FoxIt toolbar)

FireFox is essential for the functionality of the add-ons, particularly on the Windows powered laptops provided to teachers in our organisation.  Zotero is a notebook and research tool.  We will build notebooks and share them out to the learners.  FoxIt toolbar allows the markup and annotation of PDF files.  Simply choose “Save As” when finished and all markups and annotations are saved as part of the file.  X-mind is a concept mapping program, within which we will build learning maps for the units we implement.  Each of these programs are cross platform.  I’m aware there are platform specific programs that may perform these functions more effectively however I want a solution that can be modelled in class and implemented on any platform.

Tomorrow I will install these items on my staff’s laptops.  I will then provide them with the Smart Classrooms Professional Development Framework file (PDF).  They will be tasked with opening it within FireFox and using the markup tools to identify the indicators they believe they are currently demonstrating.  As well as providing them exposure to PDF markup and file sharing via One Portal, this will also provide base data to map performance improvement upon.

Its been reassuring that both staff have been showing real interest in this and a desire to learn.

Yesterday I invited two staff members to be the teachers in this project.  Both seemed excited by the invite which is a good thing.  I have purposely picked them for a number of reasons.

Staff member A sits in the main HPE staffroom and I believe has the potential to be an excellent teacher.  2010 will be their 3rd year at our school.  They are well organised and always working within timelines from myself or administration.  They have spent large amounts of time preparing resources for their classes, and although this will change tact with this project the time commitment is important.  Their learning management needs refinement, and I believe this process will allow them to critically reflect on their influence on the learning environment and improve their practice acordingly.

Staff member B is my most energetic and motivated staff member.  They are constantly seeking advice and feedback on performance and show an ability to critically reflect and adapt their practice.  They sit in a staffroom across the other side of the school, which should result in a spreading of the influence of the project.  The fact that they like to talk about their teaching will aid this process.  This will also encourage me to leave the main HPE staffroom more often to interact with my other staff.  This staff member is well organised and always works within timelines.  They seem to thrive in team situations, although I see the potential for leadership within them.

So now I am getting excited.  At this point there are three priorities that need to be addressed.  First and foremost I need to formalise the plan for the project.  As it is an action learning project I need to frame it as such.  This includes the recruitment of critical friends.  I’d like to have critical friends for each of the following aspects;

• syllabus implementation
• staff development
• student achievement and satisfaction data
• pedagogical practices
• digital pedagogy (incl. use of specific tools and processes)

There may be other areas I incorporate critical friends and no doubt they will become evident in the plan formalisation process.  I have not yet identified the requirements or commitment of critical friends, but if you are interested in being one for this project then I encourage you to let me know.  If you can’t dedicate the time (I know we are all busy) there will be opportunity to read our progress and comment as such.

Secondly I need to provide a range of readings to my staff to increase their understanding of transformative theory.  I will do this through the creation and transfer of a Zotero notebook, demonstrating to them the use of such technologies that I want incorporated into the project.  Thirdly, we need to meet to refine the work program so that it enables the success of the project.  Aspects like the use of physical activities that allow the teachers to be “close” in the early stages.  Our classroom is next to our hall, so if the first unit of work has an activity in the hall the teachers will be relatively close.  This will enable student choice and teacher support of each other.

I can feel the momentum building.  I am excited, I am heartened by my staff’s excitement.  And I am strong due to your support.  Those that are reading this and sending comments via the blog, twitter, email or facebook are keeping me strong.  Thanks to those who have already volunteered to be a critical friend.

I have a lot of ideas running through my head about how I can set my learning environments up next year.  I’m thinking of this now as the potential project I have recently blogged about, and my previous entry on learning space design will impact on this planning.  I’ve also been doing a lot of reading around Bloom’s taxonomy and critical thinking strategies.  But today I’d like to share with you two posts that have inspired a significant amount of reflection and thinking in order to best prepare for 2010.

The first post dates back to the 6th June this year, by Dean Groom, and can be read here.  The post is titled 5 Ways to Create Spectacular Classrooms but I think this does not reflect the power of the suggestions within.  Dean does not suggest practices that could be considered groundbreaking or pioneering, yet they could easily align with any curriculum area or learning context.  I’ll reproduce the 5 suggestions below with my interpretation on how they could be applied in my context.  For Dean’s original explanation of the 5 suggestions, visit his site.

1. Use reflective, self reporting activities – In his entry Dean focuses on organisation and managment of resources and learning using Diigo.  I am thinking of applying the same concept to a learning log.  If I can establish a personal learning space in my classroom and students will have choice on the learning activities they undertake, then I see benefit in them keeping a record of what they choose to engage in and reflecting on those choices in consideration of goals set and perception of learning gain.  What resources I use to achieve this will need some further thought. Currently my students use Google for calendar and RSS reader, Zotero for notebooks, BlackBoard for LMS and Delicious for bookmarking.  I need to consider how I will get these services to work collaboratively.

   I am also keen on reflective activities for both teachers and students.  Significant changes to the shared learning space will need training for teachers and students.  This will include seeking their input on management of the space.  The potential approach described in the project idea will also need some initial framing as we expect students to learn, not be taught.  This will be fundamentally different to how they operate in any other class, but significantly beneficial to their lifelong learning.

2. Students must believe their choices and opinions matter – this extends from the previous point.  Students will have choice in learning, and I see the reflection as a method to ensure the learner sees the importance and influence of their choices.  I plan on seeking their opinions on the learning space construction and management, learning task management and evidence submitted to demonstrate achievement of assessment tasks.  But I want to add to this that I believe my teachers will also be learners in this process, therefore they must believe their opinions and choices matter also.
3. This week matters – this is essentially a process of journalling, the learning log I suggested in step 1 could address this.  Dean suggests a service called Today’s Meet which allows a time limited backchannel for open communication.  I’d prefer something more permanent at this point and will possibly tie in my concept of asynchronous conversations to achieve this.  Essentially students will construct a blogpost over the week however the blog may be written, video or audio.  However the Today’s Meet concept could be used to post a single question for the week which the students need to answer.  They can then choose the learning tasks that they believe will lead them to the answer, and reflect on those choices and the quality of answer submitted.  Blackboard has a managed release of resources option which could assimilate this functionality yet retain an archive for teacher access.
4. Make authentic connections – essentially, bring the outside world into the learning environment.  Services such as YouTube, TED Talks, iTunesU, Elluminate, SnagFilms, ABC iView, ClickView, blogs, podcasts, chats, forums and others allow this authenticity and relevance.  It will also serve the personal learning space and choice of learning tasks I am trying to achieve.
5. Build a vocabulary bank – now this is a simple, but great idea.  Each week a student is charged with the task of identifying a relevant term which they add to a dedicated wiki.  They add the term, a definition, a web reference and an application example.  A great way to build a relevant resource.

The second post is from 27th August on changED by Angela Cunningham.  Her post is entitled Tips for a Successful Cafe Conversation and is dedicated to guiding student discussion for learning.  This post was relevant to me as I enjoy the process of what I term discussion circles, where we move to a comfortable space to form a circle and openly discuss.  Angela also has 5 suggestions on how to generate productive learning discussion, but it is specifically point number one I am interested in.

1. Create a classroom environment that supports meaningful discussion – Angela has generated a set of Classroom Discussion Guidelines that she uses to teach her students how to participate productively in a discussion.  This resource is fantastic, and although I will modify it to suit the terminology of the syllabi I am working in, it certainly frames the expected participation of learners in the discussion. This is something I have been missing from my classroom.  I utilised a process of modeling appropriate engagement in the discussion however upon reflection feel that this may encourage some learners to wait for my input first.  A set of common guidelines, displayed prominently, should make this process much more effective.  I thank Angela for publicly sharing her guidelines.

So as my September holidays draw to a close, I am thinking of pedagogy, teacher training, virtual learning spaces and physical learning spaces.  I’m thinking of how these can be aligned to syllabi objcetives and Bloom’s Taxonomy.  I’m thinking of how this can be combined to enhance, enable and excite learning.

Remember way back when, those days when you packed up the bulky desktop and CRT monitor to drag it over to a mates place.  The old parallel and serial cables would come out to connect a few of the old beasts together to play multiplayer RPGs and the like.  Those days we were all concerned about input / output (IO), interrupt and relay quotients?  Well those memories came flooding back recently when I was asked to present to a conference about how I manage information flow within my learning environments.  The old terms of input, output, interrupts and relays are still relevant today.  Don’t look too closely cause it’ll cause strain, but I’ve tried to represent the process in a mind map below.

Communication, conversation and collaboration (3Cs):

As messy as this looks, any attempt to describe it in one go would be even messier, but here is an attempt.  Essentially my students receive and transmit information with a range of media.  I spend significant time teaching them how to gather the information in a manageable manner so they can sort and select as they desire.  This wouldn’t be possible without tags.  As a group we bookmark resources and assign pre-determined tags.  I have previously developed the RSS feeds of searches that retrieve any updated or new bookmarks with that tag.  There are RSS feeds that I add to in a Learning Place Project Room, they set up their RSS catchers (I encourage Google Reader) to retrieve these feeds.  Typically I compile a separate feed for each unit of work. Conversations (asynchronous) occur using media devices, mobile phones, posting or emailing to transmit and transfer.  Chat rooms and discussion forums are used intermittently as the need arises.

In the next unit of work with my year 12s I will be facilitating them searching for and retrieving RSS feeds of relevant information.  I will purposely not search for these beforehand, instead relying on my students ability to judge the validity of information.  What I have not done at this point, is show them RSS for audio or video.  All of them use iTunes, so one suspects it would be a simple process.

In this next unit, my students will be required to consistently blog.  I have not had this focused attention on blogging before – allowing students to choose their method of information flow.  However I have a plan in mind.  I’m not yet sure of the finer details, but definitely think it is a workable possibility.  As the exam, I want my students to blog a response.  This response would then be accessed by invited guests who will comment and question as they see appropriate.  I’m thinking I’d like the responses to include links to further information (potentially oppositional viewpoints).  The students would then need to submit a subsequent blogpost that addressed the comments and questions with reference to the original post.

Is this a suitable examination proceudre?  I think so, just need to nut out the details.

Every worker has a toolkit.  In the kit are tried and tested tools they can rely on to enable effective and productive work.  A teacher is no different.  We all have toolkits, and our toolkits are all individualised – different from each other.  The rapid expansion of technology has enabled this richness in teaching toolkits.  I have my particular favourites that I will use consistently, and others that are replaced when something more functional appears.  However for me the key value is its functionality for my teaching and my students learning.

There are so many tools out there, to list a top ten would be only a point in time reflection.  The world has moved beyond lists for the effective management of data.  For me, I need a range of tools that I can search quickly to determine which is most appropriate for the task at hand.  THis is particularly important when providing advice to students on what tools they should use.  I always strive to offer my students options, then encourage them to make a judgement and choice.  My only pre-requisite is that the software must be legally free.  I have always found a free tool, or group of free tools, that could achieve any result desired by any teacher or student.  Sometimes they choose not to use the free tools, but this is their choice.  I feel contented as I have been able to show them the free option exists.

So how do I manage my toolkit.  I used to carry around a 4GB USB stick that stored a range of installation files and portable applications.  However my toolkit has expanded beyond the storage capability of this USB stick.  For a time I went to 2 x 4GB sticks.  But this was inevitably risky, often I would forget one stick or lend one to someone and not retrieve it efficiently.  I have now moved to a portable HDD.  But this has resulted in a cluttered mess of install files, and as we all know a program’s install file may not naturally be named logically similar to the program.  Apparently I am not bright enough to consider renaming files until I decide I urgently need a particular one.

I need to find a tagging process for this. Perhaps Evernote can help me.  I have not looked into Evernote to se if it has this capability but it is pretty useful for most other things so I should be able to find a way for it to manage this also.

Discovery of tools to trial is never difficult.  There are a range of blogs and podcasts I subscribe to that provide never ending lists of tools to trial.  Some reviewers do a great job of exploring pedagogical application of these tools, whereas other times I need to play, think and trial.  As an attempt to make this process easier for others on this journey with digital pedagogy, I have decided to publish a regular, brief podcast describing one tool at a time how I apply each to my context.  If you think this can help you then listen here.  You’ll need to excuse audio quality, I’m still learning.

One way I will use this podcast, is as I research / review each tool I will be able to tag it in whatever management process I deem useful.  This will enable me to search effectively, or at least more effectively than I am currently.  If only I knew about tagging before I started collecting all these tools.

Further to my recent posts where occurrences and conversations at my school have caused me to reflect and refine my approach to developing staff capabilities in digital pedagogy.

I have spent considerable time this week working on the tools, in preference to the pedagogy.  In particular installing software for IWBs onto teacher laptops and showing teachers how to connect their laptop to projectors and printers.  Not exactly what I had in mind when my administration offered me a position of eLearning support.  However, an amazing thing has happened.  Teachers are talking.  Conversations about pedagogy have emerged around the tools enabled.  So I listen and think “What is more important here, the tool or the pedagogy.”

Its at this point I have one of those “aaahhh” moments.  In my pet subject of Health Education we often discuss the need to enable a population to change health behaviours and outcomes by providing them with the skills, knowledge, support and services.  Why should the development of digital pedagogy be any different?  Having been through this process, how can I enable the development of digital pedagogy?

Skills and knowledge – I need to tap into them, their teaching colleagues and HODs to ensure this is maximised.  The Ways of Working and Core Curriculum Elements will provide a base for discussions about pedagogy as they should be consistent across subject disciplines.

Support and services – getting the tools to work, providing access.  But I think there is more to it than this.  There needs to be an environment where teachers can experiment, and fail.  Although I am looking for an alternative word to fail, as that insinuates they have done something wrong.  But there needs to be support for trial and refinement.

I need to go and plan my enabling approach.  I’m ecstatic that setting up IWB software has sparked conversations about pedagogy.  There have even been decisions about what the IWB would not be useful for.

All this talk on regular blogs about preparing for school (still 12 days away in my part of the world) has resulted in me feeling less than fully prepared.  I have been pushed into some resource research and collection as my initial preparation.  In performing this, I realised how efficient certain tools have made this.  This should be something I pass on to my learners to aid them in their studies.

First, some context.  Within my organisation students are restricted to the standardised computer image, where only IE is installed.  Within IE, students cannot bookmark a favourite (who made that decision!).  However, portable applications can be run.  I will use this functionality to have students set up a browsing system that will enable their research instead of hinder it.

Barrier #1 – students will need to provide a USB.  Won’t need to be big, but still a purchase if they don’t have one already.

The personal research assistant looks like this:

1. Portable Mozilla Firefox – Firefox allows extensions to be installed, and the extensions provide the assistance I am blogging about.
2. Zotero – this add on is an essential for me.  It allows the user to create collections of resources, and then tag any number of sites within.  You can store additional notes, pics, text.  Where available, Zotero will automatically read and store bibliographical information.
3. Google notebook – there are other more effective note taking options out there, but Google Notebook add on within FireFox is more than satisfactory for my learners.  They can always research others and include them later if they so desire.
4. Diigo Toolbar – As I’ve posted previously, Diigo is awesome for research, and the sharing of research.  The toolbar allows it to be done easily from withi the browser.
5. Essential bookmark #1 Bib Me – build a bibliography, formatted and ready to go.
6. Essential bookmark #2 Class Portal – this is essentially the public netvibes space I’ve set up for the class.  This is the starting point / launch pad for all our internet activity.

Barrier #2 – Browsing the add-ons section of the mozilla firefox site is filtered at the school level, therefore relying on students following instructions at home or on an unfiltered machine. Zotero and Diigo can be installed from the linked sites, external to the FireFox add on centre.

I believe this will establish an enabled research experience for my learners, with the added bonus of portability.