Feed aggregator

Indigenous children of Peru with indigenous educators from Canada

Tamara Bell continues her review of the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference 2011 (WIPCE). See Tamara’s first post: Thank you WIPCE Peru!.

In this post, she reflects on the five key areas she took from the conference, and poses some challenging questions.

What value do you place on indigenous education?

I want you to ask yourself as an educator, what value or place does indigenous education have in your school or workplace?

WIPCE 2011 (World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education) had me asking myself this very question.

I know CORE Education understands the importance of indigenous education in the New Zealand education system. Their commitment and passion is obvious through their involvement in the PLD area of te reo Māori in English medium and Māori medium. Further proof of this is that they saw the value of supporting me to attend WIPCE this year.

Looking to our past to learn how to move forward: key learnings from WIPCE

What makes WIPCE so special is that it not only makes you look at your own context and beliefs, but it also presents you with new insights into indigenous education, with a stance of looking to our past to learn how to move into a brighter future.

The top five key learnings I have taken away from WIPCE are (and it was hard to limit it to 5):

• The impact of colonisation is something tangible and real and must be identified and discussed openly before moving forward.
• Until the New Zealand education system better addresses the misconceptions around the Treaty of Waitangi, and explicitly teaches our tamariki about its importance and relevance to our nation’s history, we will continue to have conflict and prejudice about its worth and value.
• The struggles in equality for indigenous education are the same the world around.
• Ko te reo te mauri o te mana tangata whenua – the language is the life-force of indigenous people. Indigenous education must be steeped in the language of the indigenous people.
• We must work to revitalise the language if we are to revitalise the culture. Learning and speaking it only in the classroom is not enough, the language needs to be in the home. The answer to language revitalisation is intergeneration transmission.

The presentations I attended were inspiring, informative, and provocative. They forced me to ask myself those hard questions. I learned so much about what is happening in the area of indigenous education in places like Australia, Hawaii, Canada, Sweden and Peru, but, more specifically, what is happening in New Zealand. And like Pandora’s box, once it is opened, there is no going back.

Some important questions…

I had the chance to reflect on my experiences, knowledge and practice—have you?

I would like to know what is happening throughout our classrooms, with those of you at the chalkface, working with our tamariki everyday. What are you doing to meet the needs of your indigenous students?

 

Interview with Rawiri Waratini-Karena

In her review of WIPCE 2011, Tamara told the story of Rawiri Waratini-Karena. Two of Tamara’s five takeaways from WIPCE were the result of a session that Rawiri conducted at the conference:

• The place of the Treaty of Waitangi: its meaning and purpose in New Zealand
• The impact of colonisation here in New Zealand and across the world.

In this interview, Tamara asks Rawiri to express his views on these two issues.

 

The Story of ‘QR Codes Treasure Hunt’ at Whangarei Primary
by Tara and Tania

Planning: setting up the QR code treasure hunt with the senior students

There was great level of excitement at Whangarei Primary School at the end of Term 3, 2011 as the students shared their learning about QR Codes with the junior class. Lots of planning and initial work had gone in to this event which focused around the school inquiry on Pirates. You can read more about the planning in our earlier blogpost.

Preparation involved five groups of Room 23 students collaborating and designing a treasure hunt that would lead from clue-to-clue around the whole school. The end result, in true treasure hunt style, was to find some treasure, in this case chocolate money! The students planned their treasure hunt, wrote their clues, created their QR codes, walked around the school to ensure it all worked smoothly, and finally printed out their codes and laminated them ready for the big day.

The application: senior students run the event for the juniors

After morning tea, the junior class were led into Room 23 and greeted by Pirate Lass, Mrs Moore. Poppy, one of Room 23’s students, gave a brief introduction to QR codes and how to read them. Students were then supported in using iPod touches to scan the already prepared codes that revealed their names. As this was happening, another group of senior students were busy setting up the clues. Finally, the time arrived to used the skills we had gained and ‘go forth’ for the authentic experience of a true treasure hunt with a 21st century twist!

Students were divided into small groups and led by senior students on their discovery. The treasure hunt began!

As groups arrived at the first clue, there was an alarming look from the senior students. What had gone wrong? The students suddenly realised that the sequencing of the clues wasn’t right. They had put the clues one step ahead. For example, the clue ‘Your ship just sank, swim to Monkey Island but watch out for sharks’ was at the monkey bars rather than at the clue before, which would have then led the group to the monkey bars.

When disaster strikes…

Problem solving in action and on the run! Students had different ways of overcoming this challenge, and were quick to solve their problems. One group sent a ‘runner’ off to move the clues as the students were moving from clue to clue. Others sat the students down, and took time to “get to know them better” as someone started the clue placement again! Great fitness as well as mathematical sequencing. As teachers, we noted the positive learning from this challenge, and while we hadn’t anticipated this particular aspect being a learning moment, it turned out to be highly beneficial for the senior students.

A successful treasure hunt ended with the students discovering a bounty of chocolate with lots of laughter and learning along the way.

All good learning requires reflection—juniors and seniors gathered around to discuss the highlights and challenges of the day. We were amazed at the feedback from the students—check out the short video below.

Reflections: Highlights

1. The excitement of the students as they found the clues
2. The opportunity for junior and senior students to build relationships
3. Senior students taking on a leadership role—overhead one senior student saying to junior, “Walk beside me, I’m supervising you!”
4. Senior students acknowledge that they felt proud supporting the junior students and sharing their skills
5. The respect the students showed for the equipment. One junior student, while running, fell and grazed both of his knees, HOWEVER, the teacher’s iPhone was held in the air and no damage sustained
6. Junior teacher reflected that it encouraged reluctant “reading out loud” readers to do so in a safe and different environment.
7. The weaving of the key competencies throughout the treasure hunt—preparation and on the day.

Students’ ideas for next time

1. Individual clues were not ‘tagged as such’ so, if more than one clue was in same place, it was hard to know which group it belonged to. Students’ ideas included having colour-coded clues or stickers that corresponded to each group.
2. Ensure ‘the treasure’ for each group isn’t buried in different places, as there was confusion when groups chose the same ending spot. Whose treasure was whose?

Students tell the story

At our ULearn conference in October, we had some of the latest mobile devices on display for teachers to try, along with a survey on teachers’ views on the increased use of mobile devices in schools. All those that completed the survey went into a draw to win a Samsung Galaxy Tablet. The lucky winner was Paul Elkerton, and we caught up with him a month later to find out how he was using his new device, both as a personal and a professional tool.

- Glen Davies, CORE Education’s IT Manager

In the weeks leading up to ULearn I had been considering finally purchasing an iPad or a tablet running the Android OS. I’ve had an iTouch for two years now, and have enjoyed using it for everything from personal note taking, diary, games, music, email and cooking (recommend Nigella Lawson’s app), to using it in the classroom with educational apps. However, I could see the benefit of a tablet with its bigger screen size, quick web surfing, book reading, and for sharing my photography.

I was pleased to see a number of trade stands at ULearn11 with iPads or tablets up for grabs in exchange for completing simple surveys. So, between browsing what innovations were on offer and enjoying the food, I completed surveys. Thanks to CORE Education, I won a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 at the end of the conference.

Here’s how I’ve found it…

Set up

The first thing I did when I finally got home was to start charging it and setting it up. It was a simple process requiring me to download Samsung’s Kies software to my laptop so I could sync my files and calendar. The tablet also connected to my wireless quickly and through the built-in browser I was soon able to access all my accounts such as Flickr, Facebook, Trade Me, YouTube, and even manage my photography webpage.

Personal use of the tablet

In terms of personal use, the Tablet has taken precedence over my iTouch.

Personal management

The Memo app is a great way to keep organised, and the calendar allows me to keep track of all important events, especially meetings at work.

Surfing the web and communication

Instant and easy web surfing without waiting for my laptop to boot has been enjoyable. Skype is great with the front facing webcam.

I have transferred my portfolio of photography to the tablet which has been a great tool for sharing with potential clients.

App shopping

The Android app market is easy to use, and those used to the iTunes store will quickly become familiar with it, although, I found it takes longer to find the appropriate app.

Reading

Recently, I downloaded the Amazon Kindle app, and was surprised by how easy and cheap it is to purchase books. And the reading experience is just as enjoyable as an actual book. —likewise, reading the paper through the NZ Herald app.

Games

In terms of games, I have become addicted to Angry Birds. And recently, my cat even started using my tablet to play CrazyCat, a simple app for cats. A mouse wanders around on the screen, and he gets points every time he swats at it.

Using the tablet and apps in the classroom

Around the classroom and at school the tablet is rarely sitting idle. I have it with me to quickly type notes and to add events and meetings to the calendar.

It is most popular during maths time, when children use it to play a range of Maths apps (Math Genius, Math Training, Math Magic, Math Ninja, Math Workout, Math Maniac) during their game rotation. During reading we have used the camera to record our plays so we could critique the expression in our voices and actions upon playback. The quality of the videos is impressive.

As the Android OS supports Flash Player, educational websites that don’t work on Apple devices work on the Samsung Tablet. Thanks to this we have been able to access our usual educational sites (BBC Bitesize and Snappy Words are great). We have used the StopWatch & Timer app for athletics, and recording the time of our model land yachts for maths so we can then work out their speed on the Calculator app.

Conclusions

Overall the tablet is an engaging educational tool.

I see potential in the Tablet for bringing devices into the classroom 1:1. However, I feel that a lack of a publishing programme such as Word, which our current Microsoft-based schools run, will for now hold the tablet back from widespread adoption. Our school will be looking for replacements of our net book pods next year, and the lack of this publishing option would see us steer away from tablets (unless we adopt Google Docs). Likewise, I can’t see the tablet replacing my teacher laptop yet, not until it can connect to and run our interactive whiteboards, or allow us to plan through a publishing programme.

Paul Elkerton is a Year 5/6 teacher, syndicate leader, and Director of Technology (ICT) at Stratford Primary. He is also an amateur photographer (www.pjelkerton.com).

 

As we wind up the education year it is time to think about what is important to teachers in our schools. At this time of year with school reviews, reports and exams, it is difficult for teachers to lift their heads long enough to look beyond tomorrow and their well-deserved break.

Change is happening so fast—but children adapt

Noted futurist and technical historian Dr Jack Bacon, who recently keynoted at the ULearn11 conference, spoke in his recent EDtalk about how, in the past, we could have expected two major shifts in our lifetimes, with plenty of time to adjust. Now, change is happening so quickly that we struggle to keep up. With the advent of the Web and mobile technologies, students are connected

24/7, and part of global communities at a very young age. He says in this time of constant change, teachers, schools and businesses are being forced into “broken-field running” scenarios, reacting moment-by-moment, constantly re-thinking and adjusting.

 

This has huge implications for the teachers in our schools and centres. How can they keep in touch with the changes happening around them when four year olds are more “expert “ in using the technology for learning and connecting, than teachers?

Personal professional learning vital—teachers must become self-motivated, life-long learners to keep up

Teachers will need to become self-motivated life-long learners in order to keep up with the students they are teaching.

Many teachers have already started this journey, undertaking their own study and developing their own online professional learning networks. Some schools are also running school-based professional learning sessions, or participating in staff retreats such as the Learning@School conference in January next year.

One thing is certain, there is no time to lose. Teachers have to start their personal professional learning journey soon, to ensure they continue to be effective learning facilitators, not only for our students’ sake, but also for their own sanity.

 

Creating schools of excellence requires a shared vision, clear action plans for what matters most, and continuous reflective practice.

Here’s some key ideas for developing momentum for whole school participation in reflective and developmental change:

Learning together

• Culture – develop a culture that is based on relational trust and co-created vision. Build in opportunities to experiment and to fail safely.
• Challenge – develop internal expertise to question beyond the known.
• Connection – adapt any ideas to fit your context rather than adopt practices of others.
• Conversation – develop a culture of inquiry, discussion and dialogue. Listen!
• Collaboration – work as a team. Use external sources, conferences and online tools to connect you nationally and globally.

Taking action

• Catalytic – focus on the one of two things that will make a difference to learners and drive that focus relentlessly.
• Cunning plan – develop plans and set goals based on the shared vision and direction.
• Coalition of leadership – grow others in the team to take action.
• Commitment – once you have your plan keep focused AND be flexible enough to change the plan if needed. Develop systems to report on what matters.
• Continuous reflection – provide professional learning and reflection opportunities,

Leadership takes courage. In an increasingly complex world, schools that wish to remain relevant to young learners of the future must move forward.

This week’s post comes from guest blogger, Cheryl Doig of Think Beyond, whose tagline is “Challenging leaders to think for the future”. Cheryl is a recognised leader in education. She is managing director of both Think Beyond Ltd and ALPinE Leadership Ltd.

 

Check out our interview with Cheryl Doig

 

 

Hola, tēnā koutou katoa!

Thank you WIPCE! Thanks for giving indigenous education a global stage and audience!

World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education, this year in Peru

This August, with the much-appreciated support from CORE Education, I was lucky enough to travel to Cusco, Peru to be part of WIPCE 2011 (World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education).

        Tamara with new friends made at WIPCE 2011, Peru:

This amazing three-yearly conference brings together some of the world’s leading indigenous organisations, students, academics, and professionals to share their stories and promote best practice for the development of programmes for indigenous peoples of the world.

WIPCE has been running for 24 years, but WIPCE Peru was the first time a non-English speaking country has hosted the conference. As you can imagine, this brought several problems. It’s true, the organisation and communication could have been better, however, the local people and the city of Cusco made up for any frustrations we may have had.

My colleague Dee Reid and I had the honour of presenting on our work Te Manawa Pou, an online te reo Māori programme for teachers in English medium schools Years 0–8. We were thrilled at the opportunity to share our methodology and experiences at an international level. We were rapt at the interest in our programme—many seeing our model as something that could easily be modified and implemented in any country, for any indigenous language worldwide.

In one word: whanaungatanga

A colleague of mine asked me to sum up WIPCE in one word, which I thought was impossible. But when he pushed me for an answer, I had to say ‘whanaungatanga’.

This is the Māori concept of a relationship based on shared experiences and working together. My professional and personal learning was immense, and I have now established numerous professional networks. But more importantly, I have made great friends from all corners of the world—all of them with a passion for and commitment to indigenous education, and all doing their best to make a difference.

Whanaungatanga is a concept that we should all take the time to explore. I believe it impacts on us every day. It influences where we live, where we work, what we like to do socially, and most importantly, what we learn. Those around us—those with whom we share relationships—are shaping who we are.

The story of Rawiri Waratini-Karena

Tamara (left), Rawiri (centre), Tamara’s sister, Luana (right)

One particularly moving WIPCE workshop I attended was by David (Rawiri) Waratini-Karena.

Part of his presentation was sharing his family history. He went back through four generations of his whānau, and his story of loss of language, loss of culture, the impact of violence, gangs, drug and alcohol abuse on his whānau, moved me to tears. The sadness of what his whānau had endured and suffered resonated greatly with me, as it is a common story for many Māori in Aotearoa. However, what brought home the inspiring impact of whanaungatanga is the path Rawiri is on now. Through his professional and personal relationships, coupled with his motivation and belief in himself, he has broken that pattern. He is now a respected and inspiring lecturer at WinTec, currently working towards his PhD, and, thanks to WIPCE, someone who is now a much-loved friend. Whanaugatanga in action!

Can you see whanaungatanga in your life?

Can you think of an example of whanaungatanga in your professional or personal life that has had a profound impact on you? Is there something that has shifted your thinking, or even changed your life pathway somehow? Has there been a time where you may have been the one to form a relationship that has impacted on someone else in that way?

Leave us a comment below and share your story in the true spirit of whanaungatanga, and build relationships so we all may grow.

 

This was a trip of a lifetime. Thank you to CORE for allowing me this opportunity, and thank you to the people of Peru. Ngā mihi nui ki te tangata whenua o Peru me te rōpu CORE hoki. Nei te mihi aroha ki āku hoa hou ki te whenua whānui. I am a WIPCE fan for life, and I will definitely see you all again in Hawaii for WIPCE 2014!

And there’s more to come…

Tamara will follow up this review with a post about indigenous education. She hopes to include a video interview with the above-mentioned Rawiri Waratini-Karena.

 

With the rise in mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones we wanted to see if a teacher could manage with just an iPad as their only device for the duration of one of our professional development conferences. Would it provide the full range of functionality the teacher needed for consuming and creating content, or would the teacher have to reach for his or her laptop when it came to the heavy work.

We put a tweet out for a willing teacher that did not own an iPad, but would be willing to try putting aside their laptop and using an iPad for the full three days at Ulearn11. Tracy Tindle (@CrimsonNZ) stepped up to the mark, and here is how she found it.

- Glen Davies, CORE Education’s IT Manager

Arriving at ULearn, I was excited to get my hands on the iPad! I had some experience with Apple products, being an iPhone owner, and, of course, having played with iPads at electronic stores. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the device other than that I hoped I could learn as much as I could, and gain some insight into how I could use this for teaching my digital class next year. I had brought my laptop with me in case the iPad didn’t do what I needed it to do. It turned out the only thing I ever used my laptop for over the whole 3 days was to sync to my iTunes account.

The iPad was better than I expected. I found the keyboard so easy to use, and loved the time saving predictive text function. Typing was so much easier on the iPad as I didn’t end up hitting other keys by mistake, which sometimes happens on a normal keyboard. The screen size was great, and there was no trouble using both hands to type.

I was able to connect easily to the internet, even to the dreadful third party Wi-Fi my hostel offered. I could also swap in and out of different Wi-Fi networks simply and quickly. There was no trouble connecting to my school webmail accounts or to any websites I needed for breakouts. I could also access my Google Docs account easily, but I did have trouble enabling the editing options, which seemed to be only available to desktop/laptop users, but that could simply have been my inexperience.

I was lucky enough to go to the fantastic iPad App Harvest breakout with Paula Jamieson, and got some fantastic app suggestions from there. One of the best suggestions I had was to get the Appshopper app, which allows you to search for free and discounted apps. Really handy to have, and I got a lot of great free apps from there in just one day.

Other apps I found which I have really liked were:

• Tour Wrist - a great app for exploring places and sights around the world,
• Prezi Viewer - to view Prezi presentations (my class uses Prezi a lot)- the only downside to this app is that you could not edit a Prezi.
• Elementals — was a great chemistry elements app I found free through App Shopper which is easy to use and interactive.
• WordPress –I also use the WordPress app a lot to update our class blog, and loved the layout and improvements in the iPad version. We will be continuing to use this next year and it will be great for students to use to update their own blogs.
• Storyform, Strip Design, Voicethread, Rocket Math, Word Bubble and Storie are also some favourites.

Using the iPad was such a highlight for me, and having that time to experiment and play around with it was great. I have come away from the whole experience with some fantastic ideas for my 1:1 iPad class next year, as well some great apps to use for different ability levels right across the curriculum. We have even decided to just use the built in keyboard the iPad has rather than buy separate ones for each of the kids.

A huge thanks to Glen and the team at CORE Education for letting me have the opportunity. I was very sad to have to give it back and can’t wait to get my own one in the next few weeks!

Tracy Tindle (@CrimsonNZ) is a year 7/8 teacher at Wellsford School. She is an ICT enthusiast, a recent Apple convert, and an e-book fan.

 

What an amazing six weeks. The whole nation has been captivated by a sport that’s almost synonymous with the nation And what an outcome—just look at how the nation has responded to that! What a unifying event this Rugby World Cup has been.

The effects of the Rugby World Cup tournament have been strongly evident in Christchurch. While tourists haven’t swelled the streets, Rugby World Cup fever has infiltrated Christchurch early childhood environments across the city. Our youngest citizens are keenly engaged in all the areas of learning that having the Rugby World Cup in Aotearoa New Zealand has afforded them.

The moment you set foot in the door of Christchurch ECE services you can be met by amazing displays of children’s ‘Rugby World Cup’ investigations. In ECE centres, this has taken them on various learning journeys such as:

• discovering the flag for each country
• learning the greeting in each country’s language
• learning the rules for playing rugby, practicing the ‘crouch, touch, pause, engage’ routine
• finding out about players from their local area and from other countries
• associating a colour with each country
• learning the New Zealand and other national anthems

…and the list goes on. There is an intense sense of national pride and excitement, when children begin to tell you what they have been doing.

A couple of weeks back, I was in a centre in Invercargill where I became totally mesmerised as the children and teachers joined together in a circle to sing the New Zealand national anthem. There was a culturally diverse mix of children and teachers, some of whom were New Zealand born, and others recent immigrants. The influence of culture was evident in siva and kanikani movements as children rhythmically responded to the music. The anthem was sung with such passion, and most competently in both Māori and English. I listened as one 3-year-old Pakeha girl used harmony as the song ended. Before I left, I commented to the supervisor about how I was emotionally touched with this very moving rendition of our Anthem.

The supervisor shared with me how introducing the national anthem had come about, and it had nothing to do with the rugby world cup. “It was after the earthquakes’ she said, ‘ we heard about the looting.’ The teaching team was very disturbed to think that anyone would even consider looting from people who had just experienced such a devastating event in their lives. This team of teachers looked to find a way to contribute toward strengthening a sense of community and responsibility for children. Using the national anthem was their way of promoting unity in Aotearoa, of giving children a sense of pride in ‘our place’ regardless of who they are or where they came from. The supervisor commented, ‘This is all about unity. We all live in Aotearoa and this anthem is a special song that belongs to each and everyone of us.’

So, to all ECE services and other education settings in Aotearoa, now that the Rugby World Cup is over:

• Will your children move on to other things?
• Will singing the New Zealand national anthem become something you ‘did last month?’
• Will your children only ever associate the national anthem with rugby?

I think we could learn a lot from this small ECE centre tucked away at the bottom of our country.

Educators, parents and community groups alike, are becoming increasingly aware of the issues associated with digital citizenship and cybersafety. Some are observing a growing chasm between what we aspire to and what our students actually do.

Online conversations within the secondary school sector have identified specific issues around cyberbullying and the effective use of Facebook. In addition, there is the challenge of resonding to inappropriate websites that are designed to ridicule and defame.

Let’s consider issues related to cyberbullying, and managing inappropriate content…

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying or digital disrespect is identified as a growing problem amongst our young people. Compounding the issue is that some young people don’t see this as anything serious as this article from ED Week highlights. There are some members of the younger generation who yearn for their 15 minutes of fame and who put themselves ‘out there’ in pursuit of recognition – even if this means beings noticed for the most adverse, undesirable behavior.

A recent thread in the  VLN Groups asks, How can we help students use social media appropriately — and why?  It comes down to, says Karen Melhuish, “how well students are prepared to manage themselves with responsibility and integrity online”. It’s about wanting our young people to be good digital citizens – individuals who have the moral and ethical judgment to make the right decisions when engaging online.

Some suggested strategies:

• Address school-wide policy as well as identified classroom practices to promote digital citizenship. “It’s not just about having a cyber safety policy; it’s about connecting that policy with a procedure. And it’s a procedure where everyone has a role and needs to know what that role is.” http://www.core-ed.org/breakfasts/Schools-can-help-protect-children-from-cyberbullying
• Unpack what desirable actions and good digital citizenship looks like online. Relate this to the Key competencies in a digital realm.
• Discuss the issues of cyberbullying and reputation with your students. For example, is it helpful or is it hurtful? If you wouldn’t do it in real life, then why would you do it online?
• Adopt some handy tips for managing cyberbullying as a teacher.

Creating and accessing questionable material online

As our young people get older, they are considerably more influenced by their peers. This includes how they interact and communicate online. “That’s why, rather than trying to put barriers on what kids can do with technology…we need for them to discuss possible problems and consequences with their peers and with adults who will encourage positive behavior”. (Power to Learn life)

Some suggested strategies:

• Explore with your students the long-term implications of a digital footprint and help them make a personal discovery about whee they are online. Check out these resources on YouTube and the Innovative Educator blog.
• Discuss the consequences for a worse-case scenario. If our young people see this merely as a joke, then it’s our job to convince them otherwise. Have a look at this relevant article in ED Week and this YouTube video.
• Address the cause for the behaviour. As Michele Martin writes in, Negative Online Behavior is a Product of Culture, Not Your Social Media Tools: What I’m Learning from the Work Literacy Course the root of the problem may be more about the culture of the community and there needs to be a strategy or, “plan for dealing with this.”
• Involve everyone (students, parents, educators) from policy through to implementation. Everyone wants the best for our young people. After all, we want them to make the most of the life – in the safest possible way.

Other resources include:

• Enabling e-Learning: An online hub for e-learning, including content and community
• ICTs in English mailing list
• ICT PD digital citizenship and cybersafety resources
• ICT PD digital citizenship at home resources
• Prezi presentation for teenagers

“Do we have to go to fitness today Mrs Moore—can’t we just stay doing this…” The room was buzzing with excitement as the children engaged in learning with QR codes.

Tania Coutts is an ICT Facilitator based in Whangarei. As part of her work with CORE Achieve, she has been spending one day a week working with the teachers and children at Whangarei Primary School. CORE’s Tara Fagan has also been involved as a colleague for collaboration and discussion, and provided a podcast for the children to access using a QR code, as well as being part of the QR Code treasure hunt.

QR codes are a barcode-like image where QR stands for “quick response”. They can be read by most devices with a web camera, and almost anything can be turned into a QR Code, including a short piece of text, and contact details such as a website or email address, or phone numbers.

The QR code reading app that we downloaded for free on the iPod touch  for this activity was QRReader from the Apple apps store. If you would like more information about QR codes, check out this previous post.

Room 23 Whangarei Primary

As an introduction to QR codes, we wanted to show the children a variety of ways in which they can be used. As Tara wasn’t physically with us in the classroom, she recorded a podcast to connect with the children in a virtual way. This was also an opportunity to show one of the ways QR codes can be used to access data, with a QR code that linked straight to Room 23’s blog, demonstrating a quick way of accessing websites. The children were very surprised to see their blog come up on the iPod Touch!

We also utilised a YouTube clip made by a child talking about how they used QR codes in their class. Thanks to Allanah King and an idea from her blog we were also able to introduce the idea of using QR codes for story writing. The highlight for the children was scanning a QR code and discovering their name and the names of class friends. The iPod Touches were provided for our activity, but having seen the success and range of ways in which these cn be used, the school has now purchased their own set.

This might sound like loads of fun, but what learning is actually happening here for the children? It ws clear the students were strengthening a range of skills and knowledge:

• They were learning how to use the technology to access new content.
• Literacy sklls were evident as the children read, interpreted and create their own codes.
• The increased engagement from the reluctant readers and writers was noticed by the classroom teacher.
• There was also much lively talk between the students about the patterns formed by the codes.
• They noticed that more text creates more complex code, as they compared their names.

As we know enabling meaningful collaboration is essential, and the teamwork shown by the children in this learning opportunity was very noticeable, including the turn taking within the groups (5 children to 1 iTouch), and a real sense of ‘fairness’ as groups organised the way they would work.

A highlight for me was the children’s respect for the ‘tools’. Because of her total trust in the children, it wasn’t until the end of the session that teacher Katarina Moore realised she hadn’t discussed the cost of the tools, and the need for being careful. This care had already happened automatically and I felt very proud to feed this reflection back to the children.

After much fun and experimenting, scanning and reading QR codes, our next step was to create our own codes. A quick ‘how to’ and the children were away! The children were already thinking about other ways they could utilise QR codes as they worked, as well as trying to come up with ideas for how they could get iPod Touches for their class!

Where to next?

Because the junior school at Whangarei Primary School have been learning about Pirates, and our idea is for them to create a QR code treasure hunt for the junior classes. The children in Room 23 have been given the mission of creating this treasure hunt. In teams, they are working on developing their clues utilising pirate language. They are reading pirate stories to give them ideas and inspire their creativity. We look forward to sharing this treasure hunt in a blogpost soon.

We would love to hear any other ideas teachers have used in their classrooms with QR codes.

Check out this QR code that was sent to me at the end of the session.

As ULearn11 is just round the corner, I thought it might be a useful exercise to examine some metrics from the CORE Events system.

Although these metrics are based on a few assumptions, I believe they are fairly reflective snapshot of the education IT sector. The three assumptions I’ve made are:

• Traffic coming to http://event.core-ed.org is from delegates that are registered for ULearn and Learning@School conferences, and these visitors are inherently from the education sector.
• Most visitors will be browsing the site on a school supplied device, and most likely using their school network.
• You must be logged in to browse http://event.core-ed.org, so we can safely assume that all traffic is from genuine conference delegates

We use the Google Analytics platform to gather visitor metrics, and the following snapshot is based on these visitor statistics.

• Visits from September 13th 2011 to October 13th 2011
• 5,200 visitors browsing 42,000 pages on the site
• Each visitor browsed an average of 8 pages per visit, and they spend an avergae of 10 minutes on the site

So, lets move on to the more interesting stuff.

Browsers

Browser statistics follow the general industry trends, and there are no major surprises over your choices of browser. Interestingly, Safari debuts at the number 3 browser, so, unless many of you use Safari on a Microsoft platform, it shows how prevalent Apple computers are becoming.

• 29.22% of you use Firefox
• 28.64% of you use Internet Explorer
• 21.57% of you use Safari
• 20.09% of you use Chrome
• Less than 0.50% of you use Opera, Camino, or Rockmelt

The majority browsers show some interesting statistics.

Firefox

Of the visitors using Firefox

• 25% are using Firefox 3
• 6% are using Firefox 4
• 5% are using Firefox 5
• 25% are using Firefox 6
• 20% are using Firefox 7
• and 5% are using the beta of Firefox 8

75% of Firefox users are not using the latest version of their browser, and 31% are using an outdated version. If you are a Firefox user, check and update your browser now.

Mark: C — could do better

Internet Explorer

Visitors using IE as their browser:

• 0.54% are using IE 6
• 8% are using IE 7
• 73% are using IE 8
• 19% are using IE 9

The good news here is that only 8 of you are still using IE 6 (if this is you, do not pass go, or collect $200 until you have updated your browser immediately).

Unfortunately, you need to be on Windows 7 to be using Microsoft’s flagship browser, IE 9, so those of you on XP or Vista will need an OS upgrade to take advantage of a truly modern browser.

Mark: B — trending downwards

Safari

Without exception, all Safari users were using the latest major version of Safari. Either the Apple updating process is smoother, or you like to be running the latest and greatest.

Mark: Good work A+

Chrome

Chrome has a mandatory updating process that is mostly invisible to the user. Almost all visitors were using the latest Chrome point release, with only a couple of stragglers.

Mark: A — solid performance

Operating systems

The eternal, age-old debate of which does what and how much better. Again no major surprises here, although the Apple share is a little higher than normal, and, surprisingly, 4 of you are using Chrome OS.

• 55.94% are using a Microsoft Windows platform
• 41.53% are using a Apple Mac platform
• 1.5% are using an iPad, and 0.6% an iPhone

Microsoft visitors

• 58% of you are using Windows 7
• 38% of you are using Windows XP
• 4% are using Vista

Sadly 1/3 of Microsoft visitors are using an operating system that was introduced in 2001, and if it wasn’t for the introduction of netbooks, would have been dropped several years ago. If you are using XP you needed to upgrade yesterday.

Mark: D — must do better

Apple visitors

• 84% are using 10.6 Snow Leopard
• 8% are using 10.7 Lion
• 8% are using 10.5 Leopard

Quite surprisingly, most of you have bucked the global trend, and haven’t upgraded to the latest Apple OS, 10.7 Lion. There are still 4 of you using a PPC Mac.

Mark: B — middle of the road

Browser OS / Combination

Who is using which browser on which operating system?

• 28.64% use Internet Explorer / Windows
• 19.26% use Safari / Macintosh
• 14.65% use Firefox / Windows
• 14.45% use Firefox / Macintosh
• 12.27% use Chrome / Windows
• 7.56% use Chrome / Macintosh
• 2% use IOS (iPad and iPhone), and 9 people use Chrome on linux

So, to answer the age-old question, it appears that Internet Explorer and Windows are the dominant platforms in the education sector.

Other Metrics

The amount of information from Google Analytics is truly staggering, and after sifting through the data I found a few interesting points.

• 3 visitors were from Nigeria, presumably looking for relatives of your recently deceased uncle?
• 75% of you returned to the site more than once
• less than 1% of you have English New Zealand set as your browser locale, 85% are using English United States
• 92% of you on desktop / laptops are using a screen resolution of greater than 1024 x 768 pixels
• 11% of you are reporting that you don’t support Javascript in your brower
• 0.4% of you are reporting that you are at the Ministry of Education
• Telecom is the clear favorite ISP
• 2% of you are using mobile devices

Conclusion

The metrics show that the education sector is in a pretty good shape IT-wise. Apple has a greater share than the global norm, but it certainly appears that this is an education sector thing.

I will repeat the exercise before ULearn 2012, and compare the results. I hope we will see more of the legacy devices and platforms drop off the radar.

Key takeaways from this exercise are:

• Windows users should upgrade to Windows 7 immediately, which may include new hardware to allow this.
• Macintosh users should upgrade to Lion immediately. Most of your machines are Lion capable.
• Not many education sector people use mobile or tablet devices to browse the internet. Based on the number of delegates I saw at ULearn 2010 with iPads, iPhones and Android devices I’m surprised.

I am a great advocate of the cloud as a way to share, and a way to store.

I have for many years been drawn to the concept of folksonomies — organising knowledge by tags (with knowledge as a pile of leaves—as opposed to taxonomies (knowledge as leaves arrayed on specific branches sorted by traditional classification).

I would always argue for open and shared creation of documents and files, rather than closed and private. Collaboration. Informal. Shared. Cooperation. As a child of the sixties it all makes perfect sense, man.

But now I have the practical reality of using Google Docs and the cloud every day. I should feel at home, confident, and at ease. I am, however, conflicted, discombobulated even, and I have been trying to think of a metaphor that sums it all up.

In many ways it’s like making the huge shift from storing all your own clothes in your own drawers and cupboards in your own way, sorted in a manner that makes perfect sense to you, (my wardrobe is black on the left, white on the right, grey in the middle), to sharing your clothes in one huge bedroom or closet with 100 other people.

I can find any item of clothes in my own room in an instant. No problem. In the dark. Half asleep. Socks: top drawer, paired, all black. Tee shirts: third drawer down — just grab one. No problem.

With 100 people sharing my storage area, getting dressed can be a real worry. People are constantly moving clothes to different drawers—throwing them out when I expect them to stay there forever, adding a constant flow of new clothes in a big pile; items of clothes are never named, so I don’t really know what I’m looking at; people are renaming clothes just when I know where they are—it drives me crazy. And then (pushing the cloud and Google Docs as communal clothes storage metaphor further), when the Internet is not available to me, there is no access to my clothes at all. I am left with few options: going back to bed, resorting to old items—yesterday’s clothes from the laundry—or going shopping.

Judging from the Google Doc forums I am not alone. Collections missing, new clothes don’t show up in the right drawer, strange items of clothing turn up with me as the owner, my clothes have disappeared, and so on. Good to know I am not the only one struggling with this problem.

For assistance and ideas on how to use Google Docs, I suggest you add the Google Docs blog to your reader. If you want to keep your drawers tidy, that’s over to you.

Making learning spaces and resources work for users is an ongoing challenge. Everyone has different needs and learning styles, and there is definitely no one-size-fits-all.

But one thing we can do, is raise the bar, so that from the outset, our ways of working and the presentation of our resources is the best that it can be.

Universal Design for Learning and Design for All

Two approaches to learning are gaining momentum in education. In the US, Universal Design for Learning is beginning to become a touchstone for education departments looking to underpin ways of working that are more inclusive. In Europe, a similar approach known as Design for All, is cutting a similar path, and which also places an emphasis on the need to collaborate with a cross-section of users in the design of environments, resources and services.

The retro fit

Underpinning both approaches is the belief that, if we consider the needs of all users at the outset, rather than an “illusory” group of homogenous mainstream users, we can avoid a massive effort in retrofitting environments and resources for individuals. This approach doesn’t negate the need to personalise environments for very particular needs, but we may have to make many less adaptations if we have planned for diversity in the beginning.

In education, one obvious example, in a property context, would be the inclusion of wheelchair access to all parts of a new school when it is first built, even if there are no members of the first cohort of learners who use a wheelchair for mobility. The rationale underpinning this design decision would be the understanding that parents, whānau, a staff member or visitor to the school, a new student or a current student following a sporting accident may at some point use a wheelchair.

E-learning and eAccessibility

Avoiding the retro fit is also applicable in the area of e-learning. Our use of ICTs in our classrooms and learning-communities is increasing, and there are great examples of schools using technology to improve outcomes for learners. Also, many teachers are confident in their ability to differentiate learning activities. But the concept of eAccessibility may still be unfamiliar.

Yet, if we are going to avoid having to retrofit resources, we need to collectively get our heads around new ways of thinking about access to learning. Again, it is the planning at the outset that makes a difference.

A tangible example of where we can make a difference and model eAccessibility in teaching and learning is in our use of video. When working alongside students or colleagues who are making a video, initiate a discussion around audience and purpose. If the intention is to share the video publicly, draw into the discussion the need to make a resource that will be meaningful to an audience with a range of access preferences. Some people can see but not hear; some people use only their hearing. Some people read more slowly than others. The video needs to work for everyone.

Use of captions and transcripts to assist users who have a hearing impairment to have access to the same material as sighted learners seems like common sense. But captions and transcripts also provide access to the video content in an alternative visual medium and provide opportunities for increasing understanding for all users. For learners who may have cognitive or second-language needs, a transcript provides an opportunity to access the content at their preferred pace, or pause on unfamiliar words. As a sighted user, I will often scan a transcript for a quote, or re-read something I want to clarify.

Both in and outside education, the awareness and the ability to create more inclusive video is increasing. In New Zealand, the Curriculum Stories on NZ Curriculum Online site provide a sophisticated example of how to provide a range of access options for users. Each video is captioned, and has the transcript placed below the video—the preferred option, so that users don’t have to jump backwards and forwards between pages.

YouTube and Blip TV also now enable video producers to add captions to uploaded movies. Both services are a little clunky, but it is worth honing some captioning skills now, and passing them onto your colleagues and students.

Useful links for further reading

Universal Design for Learning – the website for the National Centre for UDL in the US
UDL examples and resources – link to implementation support page at the National Centre for Universal Design for Learning (CAST).
Design for All – the website for the European Design for All e-Accessibility Network.

Competing on the world stage … will require intensive reforms …. Inflexible, exam-based school systems stifle creativity and channel top students into a handful of fields … parents are forced to spend extra money on private tutoring .…Vocational training is also lacking. The result is a skills gap: a chasm between the qualifications of graduates and what employers actually require.

No, not New Zealand, but Egypt.

I have picked the ‘eyes’ out of a Time magazine article on education in Egypt: Seeking Growth After the Arab Spring (subscription required to read full report). But what captured my interest was that here is a country with a struggling education system, yet quite a few of the statements ring true for New Zealand, a country which may be considered on the opposite side of the continuum from Egypt, educationally.

What are the similarities?

Our ‘long tail’ of underachievers certainly matches Third World OECD statistics. We, too, have a heavy focus on assessment and standards. Sure, we don’t have an inflexible exam-based approach, but, arguably, assessment still drives learning rather than the other way around. And, as a high stakes investment, assessment-driven learning has less to do with equipping students for the 21st century, and more to do with league tables and the self-preservation of school status.

Many New Zealand parents feel that schools are not meeting their child’s needs and pay for outside tuition to help their children succeed. Successive governments have axed many vocational courses that provided alternatives for students. The result of all of this, as it is in Egypt and the rest of the world, is the growing problem of large numbers of disaffected youth.

The New Zealand Institute, in their article ‘More Ladders, Fewer Snakes’, address this concern suggesting that an ‘accelerated roll-out of e-learning to low decile schools and improving the school-to-work transition will materially reduce youth unemployment and resulting social issues.’

For New Zealand to continue to compete positively on a shifting world stage, schools need to look closely at their curriculum and ask the following questions:

• Is it a whole school curriculum harnessing the best of technology and designed to meet the future learning needs of students within their catchment?
• How are key competencies being embedded into subject areas?
• Are schools teaching subjects or teaching students for lifelong learning?
• What opportunities for creativity, problem solving and higher order thinking are students being given?
• How do current assessment expectations contribute positively to students’ futures?

I wonder, too, about the extent to which school communities have an understanding of globalisation, 21st Century learning, and the need for rethinking the way schools deliver education today?

Schools across New Zealand are now expected to be implementing the Registered Teacher Criteria for all teachers renewing or reapplying for a practising certificate in 2011. These criteria have been designed to be used as a framework for teachers’ ongoing reflections and professional learning, not just as criteria to be assessed against (Registered Teacher Criteria Handbook, 2010).

The criteria do provide plenty of guidance based on what is known about quality teaching and learning. However, in a modern 21st century teaching and learning context, it is quite surprising that there is no mention of e-learning or teaching using digital content in any of the twelve criteria. Given the roll out of ultra-fast broadband to schools, I believe we are approaching the ‘tipping point’ where the expectation will be that all teachers are implementing e-learning in their classrooms. Therefore, I would have thought that the criteria would have been a place where this could have been embedded to send a signal to the teachers still pressing back that they are going to have to take a deep breath and come on board.

Working as Digi Advisors, my colleague Rocky and I felt that this was an area where we could try to ‘plug the gap’ and give some guidance on how the criteria could align with e-learning. Out of this work has arisen the Registered Teacher Criteria wiki.

The wiki has a page for each of the criteria with a range of ideas and examples on how this criteria could be met through the use of e-learning.

The feedback on the wiki has been very positive to this point and the speed at which it has been ‘passed around’ through social networks has shown us that there is a place for this kind of resource. We have also been in touch with the New Zealand Teachers Council and we see some exciting possibilities in aligning our work with theirs in the future. At this point, we are really keen to get the perspectives of those working in schools on what is useful and what could be improved. So if you can, why not go and look at the criteria and be part of the conversation.

In general, though, I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts in relation to the following questions:

• Do you think that e-learning should be an integral part of the criteria or was it appropriate that it wasn’t included?
• If the implementation of e-learning should be considered, what are the things that should definitely be a ‘baseline’ in terms of e-learning implementation that all teachers should be demonstrating to be considered ‘satisfactory’?

What would you see as the way forward to best promote the use of e-learning in schools in relation to the critieria?

I recently had to loan my Apple iPhone 4 to a colleague while we looked at getting his broken iPhone 3Gs repaired. I thought this would be a great opportunity to try out one of the cheaper Android handsets that are currently flooding the market. Why?

• First„ to see if a relatively cheap smart phone can provide the level of functionality I have become accustomed to with my iPhone 4.
• Secondly, to think about how these cheap smartphones might impact on teaching and learning in schools

Which Android handset to try?

With more android handsets than you can shake a stick at, it is hard to know which one to choose. To narrow things down I looked for:

• Something under $500NZD — I wanted it to be more in the price range of your average teenager than a new iPhone
• Had to have GPS
• Must be able to use Wi-Fi as well as 3G connections
• Needed to have a Wi-Fi hotspot function to allow sharing out of the 3G connection
• The processor needed to be a reasonable speed
• Built-in camera had to be 5MP at least, with some level of video capability.

After reading a number of reviews, it was obvious that to get all of the above in a new Phone, it currently needs to be in the $400NZD price bracket. It didn’t take too much more looking around to settle on an HTC Wildfire S, which I managed to pick up from a parallel importer for $425. Full specs for this phone are available here.

How does the Wildfire stack up?

Having used the Wildfire for approximately a month I have to say that I could easily survive with it as my permanent smartphone. It is by no means an iPhone 4 equivalent. I miss that crystal clear retina display, but for checking email, basic web surfing, the odd twitter update, an occasional snapshot, and some help from Google Maps to get to places, this handset more than adequately performs.

What I really like about it is:

• It has a much smaller profile than the iPhone 4, fits nicely in the palm of the hand, and so, combined with the cheaper price tag is less impact on the pocket in more ways than one.
• With Swype installed, the smaller keyboard performs better than the larger iPhone 4 keyboard.
• The Wi-Fi hotspot also seems to perform much better than the iPhone equivalent.

Will cheap smartphones impact on education?

The arrival of these cheap Android handsets means that smartphones are going to have a much faster impact on schools than if this technology stayed at the $1000 price level of the iPhones and higher-end Android devices. While a student is not going to spend the day working on an HTC Wildfire, this and other devices like it provide a highly usable communication, research and data gathering tool. As ownership of this level of device increases, schools need to be asking the following questions:

• Do current policies on the use of cell phones in classes need to be revisited in order to make use of the potential of these devices?
• Does the school have the wireless infrastructure and policies in place to allow connection of these devices? If students are also bringing a laptop, then, for a school of 1000 students your infrastructure needs to be able to cope with at least 2000 connected devices.
• You may have filtering in place to prevent inappropriate use of your school Internet connection, but do you have policies and education programmes in place to cope with the fact that a student can share out an unfiltered 3G connection? Currently, 3G traffic prices are too high to allow this to be a widescale problem, but there will be students willing to pay the monthly data charges to have uncontrolled access to Facebook, etc., on the school grounds.

What do you think?

I am sure there are many other questions that schools and teachers need to be asking about the potential uses of these devices, along with any downsides. We would love to hear your comments if your school is currently grappling with this issue, or if you have forged ahead and are doing creative things with student-owned smartphones.