Interface Expo - May 2015

Spent Thursday at the Christchurch InterfaceExpo. These expo days are often about selling a product - BUT there were some great learning tools on display and demonstration.

1 ) Mind Lab - were one of the main sponsors. Their philosophy includes the statement 'Technology takes the classroom out into the world.' 

Frances Valentine - Founder MindLab - NZ Tech Board - was one of the opening speakers. The aim of Mind Lab is to create innovative kids of the future. Last year 12,000 students went through each of their 3 'workshops'. This year they are hoping for 30,000. 

One key message was that we have a fantastic primary school system. A system that 'does' learning well - student focussed, contextualised, project based - then they hit secondary!! Secondary teachers are having to cope with the 'tsunami' effect of these primary students flowing into the secondary system! 

She noted that even traditional careers are being  influenced by new changes - eg 'big data' - medical outsourcing ?

Mind Lab - is partnered  with Unitec to deliver a  PostGraduate Programme - philanthropic support to keep costs down - $750 for post grad programme. Looks good to me!

Excitingly - won $1000 staff PD voucher! Checkl out The MindLab - here

2) The GAFE team - clearly reminded us that online /blended / elearning focusses on the 5Cs- 

Communicate

Collaborate

Create

Consume

Coordinate

And that teachers need to ensure that they are making best use of GAFE by making sure that students have - 

1.  customised chrome experience 
2.  automatic web pages 
3.  enforce bookmarks URLs 
4.  chrome web store - apps and extensions 

At RHS we use Google Sites for teacher portfolios and appraisal - this presentation was a good reminder to me that Sites can be key for- 

- developing digital communities of practice 

- increase student agency 

Clearly we need to use Sites for more than just teacher inquiry in fact any opportunity for  divergent thinking via individual creating - could be Site based

Learn Create Share 

As school leaders we also need to remember that the 'pedagogical experts may not be the technological experts' - pedagogy 2.0 and 3.0 - new pedagogies need to be taught 

Google Classroom and Blogger 

Blogger as a portfolio - teacher, student, class 

Importance of linking to RTCs 

Student blogging - authentic digital footprint, student led conferences

3) ETV - while I have delved in to ETV and 'archived' a few really useful clips, I have not used them in the classroom yet!! 

I liked ETV's 'tagline' of  'real time, real life, learning resources'

- live TV - only live TV service in NZ 

- in the cloud - no software, no boxes

- biggest supplier of video content in NZ 
The fact they when contacted, they will search for ANY resource to assist you with ANY topic you want to work on.

BUT - what we do need to get onto using is their ZAPTION app

- research simply pointing students to a piece of video does not work 

- students bombarded by 'noise' - they need to interact with content 

- Bill Gates education award winner - 

- wrap learning around the video content - easy to use and many ways to engage students

4) N4L - making our schools safe online....

- the education system is becoming digitised - exams, moderation

- we need to know that it will work and work safely

- apparently our schools are under attack from overseas locations - thousands of times a day...who knew???
So I have bitten the bullet and signed up to the Pond, which seems to me to be another aggregator - I already use Delicious and Twitter and Google alerts ......

5) By 3.00pm my brain was starting to hurt - but not enough to stop me buying (well Josh actually buying) a  SWIVL - robot controlled camera - track as you move, insert content during the lesson, 360degree, tracking, can be paused, stored in the swivl cloud, can include slides and still record lesson in action. I have it on very good authority that it is excellent for tracking evidence in the PE clasroom - but for me the most useful use, would be for teachers to view their own practice. 
You can see more about how it works here http://www.swivl.com/




OK - enough new things to be think about ....and try out....and find the time to ......

Academy of Innovative Learning (AIL) - Birdwood High School - Steve Hicks

Today I was the school's official 1000th visitor (complete with bubbles) since Steve and his staff began the transformational change of introducing a project based personalised learning programme. 

http://www.birdwoodhs.sa.edu.au/

Birdwood HS is situated in the Adelaide Hills, about 50km northeast of Adelaide. It has a roll around 500. The school has an agricultural component and runs a brewery and vineyard. It boasts a amazing automotive training centre and a commercial bakery. The 4 local high schools collaborated and each one took responsibility for a tertiary career pathway area. No seniors ( Yr12) have allocated subject time on Weds- they can come to school to work in the Senior hub if they choose to, they could be at a TAFE (our gateway) course etc. this flexibility in senior timetabling was also a feature of a number of these innovative schools. 

Auto workshop

Steve has been Principal at Birdwood for 6 years. He had always been aware that in the  middle years (8-10) engagement - lack of - was a real issue .

When kids aren't engaged no matter how long you make them sit there in rows doing the same thing over and over, they're never going to get it.

All the things that we've know about students and schools today sit behind Birdwood's decision to make radical changes to curriculum and curriculum delivery 

- schools no longer need to provide information 

- kids communicate in many ways

- employment possibilities are changing

- one size fits all will no longer work 

The change to an integrated approach to the Yr  8 was initially optional - and Steve and the team were initially surprised that 2/3 of the kids opted for an integrated approach to their Yr8 schooling. After 3 terms of this approach, all data sets showed significant positive shifts in the integrated classes results - literacy, numeracy, attendance, engagement - interestingly the same teachers were teaching both courses!!

Refitted Yr8 space - student designed and made the furniture - with supervision from 'techies'

Since then all of Yr 8-10 curriculum, that's our 9-11 has shifted to 'problem based learning' -  initially as part of the 'Big Picture' schools, more recently as part of the 'Learning Frontiers'. For a large chunk of the week all the Yr 8 students are together in AIL generally working on PBL. The same for Yr 10 and 11. At other times they are multilevelled or on taster courses (Yr8). Students,  community and teacher feedback is overwhelming supportive of the changes that have been made. Attendance, which was always high, rose to 96%. The 'time out room' clients dropped by 85% in the first two years - and the room has since been closed at staff's request. 

I was lucky enough to see some of the presentation practices from the Yr 9 students - 

The main learning was around the history curriculum content of the Industrial Revolution - set content. However science (the chemistry of developing photos using a pinhole camera) and technology (building a machine that incorporated movement and showed the develoment of something that came from the industrial revolution era) and the skills of oral presentation were being assessed using a multi-curriculum rubric. 

Michael's piece was not quite finished but he explained that each box held a picture, some taken with the pinhole, was lit up and showed the develoment of sound. He had made every component - and was working through recesses to complete it. 

He was part of a group of three who presented - a key part was the 'warm' and 'cold' feedback given by both teacher and the audience of peers. The group reflected on the feedback as part of the presentation. This is seen as a key part of the learning process.

Other structural changes have taken place. The library (which was huge compared to ours) has been down-sized and more compact shelving installed. This has created a spacious and interesting Yr9 learning area. Some walls have been knocked out; students redesign their spaces; Yr level school camps have disappeared and have been replaced by 'immersion activities' linked to student interests; Faculty structures have been dismantled and a different approach to leadrship has replaced them and what we would call the 'learning coach model' (advisory teacher) was introduced. This was a common amongst all the schools I visited and the ones we saw at conference. Each teacher has a group of no more than 18 students, they meet daily for a good chunk of time (4 hours a week) that  is part of the teaching allocation. It's more than just roll, notices and uniform. It's about ongoing learning conversations and tracking of achievement, curriculum goals and pathways. In a PBL and personalised learning system, this advisor is essential. The staff have become better at these since their introduction. 

The school is not an overly affluent one and Steve openly admits that they have done things on a shoestring! But this does not matter - the kids were calm, engaged and willing to discuss their learning. Even with a fair few relievers in the mix! Collaboration both between groups of teachers around planning, and with students around the learning is evident - and this has challenged and changed teachers' around 'deprivatising' their practice - for the better.

The Birdwood  HS staff and students that I spoke are incredibly proud of what they have achieved and passionate about continuing to look for improvement. They believe there is a lot still to work on -like getting 'truer' integration in the senior curriculum.

I really appreciated the hospitality of Steve, his wife Ngaire and family, Georgia and Liam. The evening I spent with them highlighted the passion and dedication they have in searching for continual improvement.

Kia kaha!