Autonomous schools- outed

Finally the curtain has been raised on the NSW Govs. intentions over autonomous schools- as the initiative now comes out of the trial phase and into implementation late April.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/principals-want-more-power-but-no-strings-20120311-1usob.html#ixzz1oqSYJ3kO

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/bureaucracy-of-the-department-of-education-will-be-stripped-back-under-the-states-biggest-education-revolution/story-e6freuzi-1226296356803

While Public school principals have endorsed a NSW government plan to give them much greater autonomy to control staffing, finances and maintenance at a local level- inevitably the NSW Teachers Fed is sceptical of the intentions. After years of sitting on local school P&C meetings and hearing the frustrations of the staffing formulas vented – its got to be a welcome move- If properly implemented and supported. 

The Decisive moment

The demise of Kodak is a telling story for the digital age. The once near monopoly held by the company has been shattered by its failure to see the potential in its own invention. In its death throws the company is now hoping to cash in on a number of patents on digital photography. Meanwhile digital photography itself is about to enter another dimension. From Digital Photography 2.0 – digital cameras, to DP 3.0 – (mobile phone/HD ) , to DP 4.0 light field photography. The about to be released  Lytros cameras  herald a significant revolution in photography. These cameras are based on the science of ‘light field’ photography -using new sensors which are capable of capturing far more data than conventional cameras (ie light intensity, colour density, directional vectors).

Copyright winds of warning

The arrest of Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom (self titled)- is the latest hint of the voracity of the US copyright agencies in protecting their IP. Now wait for them to cross the ditch and who will be the next victim in Australia (after iiNET)? The issue of cloud storage in relation to IP and copyright is ongoing- but the media seem more concerned with the security issues and potential loss of data rather than copyright. The growth of cloud storage services over the past year (just Google ‘file sharing’)- has been one of the IT success stories- but the range of providers is emblematic of the intentions underlying their business models: to make a quick buck or provide a genuine systemic & integrated IT service.  The Googles/Microsoft/Apples maybe fall into this later category while there are a hundreds of small third party providers, giving ‘dump’ access to anyone and anything. So while we wait for the next move from the US studio custodians- we should also be more guarded about what is happening in our own schools re: file sharing.

The real barrier to IT adoption

In response to Dan Haesler’s piece For today’s learners , it just clicks.SMH Nov 14(http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/for-todays-learners-it-just-clicks-20111113-1ndwi.html). Yes, NSW schools now have access to great learning technologies thanks in large part to the National DER initiative and our State Connected Classrooms Program. I believe most teachers are willing adopters of technologies, but let’s not portray them (esp those more seasoned ones) as luddites – turning their backs on the technologies. Rather I’d argue that its the assessment system that is the real barrier confronting our adoption of C21 learning in classrooms. I’ll always remember a senior science teacher commenting; “I’m not against the technologies, but after successfully teaching HSC students for 25 years- I can’t risk deviating from my existing practise- for something which may not work.” Free our schools of outdated modes of assessment, and students and teachers will readily embrace learning strategies that align not just to the curriculum content but new and appropriate ways of assessing them.

Returning to the blog

After a year feeling too uninspired to keep contributing to the existing blog, this is a fresh start. Having recently left NSW DEC to enjoy some time off and become a house dad, I’ve realised how much I miss contributing to the education space either through work or this blog. I’ve always ensured what is published on the blog was independent of work, and now there is no conflict of interest- another reason to re-engage. Doing domestic things over the past few months has been rewarding (talking twenty years of neglect there), but something has been wanting- an outlet for at least my own writing (not to presume a flurry of conversations anytime soon). So goodbye-Blog de Blog (that was a red wine moment) after four years and lets see how ‘View from the outside‘ works-for me and hopefully a few other past followers.

 

UGC or not to UGC?

What is the future for learning resource production?  Up until recently media resource production demanded specialised skills both technical and in learning design. However a number of factors have changed which have led to the increasing ‘democratisation’ of resource production . Firstly teachers and students now have access to a large pool of both enterprise and 3^rd party authoring applications, secondly sharing of these resources is facilitated by the use  of  learning management systems such as Moodle, better network connectivity, Web 2 tools such as blogs, wikis and file sharing tools such as Edmodo, Dropbox or Sugarsync .  Peer to peer resource  production is a central plank of C21 learning- and as a system we must  acknowledge this, and better accommodate for an  increasing shift away from centralised resource production-linear networks.  P2P also acknowledges the power of such networks and student content creation and sharing.  Teachers  have always leant towards creating  or shaping their own materials (a premise of learning object design), and now they have the opportunity to match the more formal production facilities; having access to authoring, storage and sharing systems. UGC often provides better currency, relevance and context to learning resources. Sitting with my own kids this weekend and seeing the topics they are studying,  I searched for information/resources online, only to find their own teachers notes/resources  (online), were more relevant than even those produced by the relevant education authorities.  So let’s place our efforts into facilitating teacher resource production (TRG)- I suspect systemic support for this effort might be better placed.

More on Yammer (2)

With NSW DET Yammer now with over 5 000 users and growing, its now far outpaced more established collaborative tools in DET. After 17 months of Yammer use Deloitte, have hit paydirt with its deployment, as CIO peter Williams declares: “Generally being a firm of accountants we measure it based on how many dollars we get back and the answer is: a sh!tload.” Innovation program generates 400% return on investment per annum for technologies they’ve developed in-house.

Deloitte now have over 250 communities, and its obviously a big part of the culture which is working for the company. One of the interesting things Deloitte have found is how different groups use it- and express a community identity through its use,  from professional knowledge sharing to personal  affiliations.  One fascinating observation is they  have virtually 0% staff turnover of those that are frequent users of the Deloitte internal social media tool, Yammer.  

The take up of Yammer in  DET is now highly impressive; it’s a very sticky tool and when people use it I suspect they tend to keep using it. But the growth rate its time to do some analysis on where its all heading:  what is the purpose of Yammer – to create a Knowledge platform?  And what is the purpose of the various communities and their relationship to each other and the DET network?

Getting of wisdom

Steven Schwartz’s concerns of universities becoming training factories and neglecting a fuller (wisdom based) education, echo back to when I was at Macquarie uni in the 70’s. Then called the ‘arts factory’ MU was offering the rounded Oxbridge degree; insisting arts subjects were a part of all degrees and all students awarded a BA . The science swats always felt cheated by this- and in 1979- the approach was abandoned (with a lot of blood letting), for those doing science and fully reviewed  in the more economic rationalist ‘80s- as students wanted a more marketable degree  – and not the  artsy  degree ( ‘marriage’ 101) . The argument that institutions must offer a more industry oriented education reflected the concerns of the (business) community- at least in the rationalist decades. This orientation also spilt into our schools and perhaps its now time to ask the same question in the schools context- or is the getting of wisdom only for those more ‘aged’?  The teaching of ethics perhaps signals this intention? And the catch-all of C21 learning skills- are focused on learning to learn. How to access, interpret and represent information. But it still falls short of Schwartz’s notion of teaching of wisdom. Of course its difficult to teach wisdom- but maybe its more a question of making the teaching point-‘how would we teach wisdom’? This would make it a more personal undertaking for school students to carry into higher education, when they might come to confront the ultimate questions- and have possible answers.

Lost in a garden

Two days off and no family or neighbours around,  time to dust off the secateurs and steal into the garden.  Mid winters days perfect for pruning, mulching and getting all those dormant plants ready for their summer awakening . After alternating between sitting in practised meetings or at a computer five days a week,  I can now empty my head of the collective noise accumulated from the office  and constant  dialogue in the blog/twittersphere. Its cleansing  to immerse your hands and mind not in a virtual/contrived  reality, but rather the sensory reality in the realm of  mother earth. The ooze that you knew so well as a kid, reconnecting with dirt,  feeling the tug of weeds between the fingers, the smell of compost and occasional prickle of thorns, scratching of flesh – ah alive and reconnected with my real self! But deep down I feel some pangs of guilt- not so much from being away from  work;  but rather doing something no longer fashionable- gardening.  New age blokes don’t garden anymore- they cook. People around me hire gardeners to slip in while everyone’s at work to do the deed.

Yammering

Nearing  2,200 members on the NSW DET Yammer community its undoubtedly the most subscribed (and active)  professional online network in NSW DET.   So I thought it might be timely to look at emerging patterns of use and engagement. Sampling the past week of activity (which was taken to be typical), there is clear group of regular contributors, with the majority relegated to either ‘joiners’, or ‘lurkers’.  Last week for instance we had on average 35-45 unique ‘contributors’ daily, and for the entire week this panned out to be (generously) around 70 . That’s a large imbalance. This ratio can be seen increasing since this community started in December 2009 (earlier?).

Becta & beyond

With the recent snuffing of BECTA, must also come the warning signals for similar organisations in many other western countries including Australia.  While an outpouring of comments might suggest messages are mixed on the success of BECTA, inevitably a structure like  BECTA will have detractors, especially within its own homeland. But over the years whenever I sought a reliable research paper – BECTA was  first up. This was so when colleague Sue Beveridge and I were looking at background work to the IWB experience in the UK many years ago. And in respect to the evolution of LMS/VLE/ePortfolios etc again BECTA was always my key reference.  As Gerry White stated BECTA “has been one of the leading global lighthouses in the use of digital technologies in education and the envy of educators worldwide seeking to improve education through the use of digital technologies”.  

Adoption of new technologies

With the release of BlogED into its second month, we are quickly trying to assess its uptake. Since April 25, over 6 000 teachers now have been provisioned , and over 24% have actively built a blog. The rate of uptake of any new technology is always a source of interest, and needs to be carefully understood before we can say with any confidence if the adoption is what might be expected . Of course its not just the act of setting up a blog which might constitute real uptake, but rather to what extent teachers are embedding it in their own or students learning- is it innovation , true adoption or diffusion? Everett Rogers now seminal piece on the diffusion of innovation laid the ground for the famous Adoption cycle. Its not the exact % of adopters tht important but understanding the characteristics of each group and how adoption/ diffusion occurs. Moore (1991) suggests that the transition from the early adopters to the early majority–one that is essential to an innovation’s success–offers particular potential for breakdown because the differences between the two groups are so striking.

Building Innovation: learning with technologies

Kathryn Moyles Building Innovation is another example of some provocative issue papers already emerging this year. The paper explores national and international policy priorities for building students’ innovation capabilities through information and communication technologies (ICT) in Australian schools. Importantly it helps contextualise key current initiatives such as the Digital and Building Education revolution and National Curriculum and the Australian Govs Innovation Agenda. Inevitably tensions will exist between some of these policies, as they attempt to introduce innovatory practice into a rigid system of assessment and uniform traditional knowledge transfer. How do teachers/educators make sense of the competing interests and try to juggle competing those expressed in the new policy frameworks?

ICT and Educational Outcomes

With the paucity of good educational research on ICT on educational outcomes this report  (Are the millenium learners making the grade? ) makes a significant contribution to redefining the landscape and better focusing the research question. In 2006, PISA ran its third triennial survey of 15 yearold students to assess their knowledge and skills. 57 countries, involving 20 million 15‑year‑olds were surveyed. The report is strong on recommendations- especially in the policy areas. Coming into an election year this should resonate – (after having a number of large State and Federally funded ICT projects)- the questions are being asked – “has the investment in educational systems fulfilled expectations? ”

Demise of the Blog?

A senior colleague often ranted years ago about the death of blogs- (he was always one to bury something when a new fad bit) Andrew Keen and Alan Levines recent comments on blogs, suggest  personal blogs might be dying- like Alan I’m struggling to keep the momentum (or is it work burn out?). Commercial blogs (esp. media organisations) are thriving. I think using the blog as an aggregation point is worthwile but so are many other social networking tools which do this. Roger Pryor comments there is ” a base of lateral connectivity between us and others and adds another layer to a laminate of learning which sustains us all”. And there are many ways to do this-blogs are evolving to suit niche needs-the micro blog being most successful in recognising the need for immeadiacy (or are our attention spans shortening). The DETs BlogED tool however might fall into the same category as a commercial blog- that representing institutionalised interests-giving another channel to voice a ‘personalised’ representation. BlogEd allows the student/teachers voice to be expressed within the confines of DETs policy and educational  culture. So has the blog now become a more potent tool for reinforcing  the ‘hidden’ values of an institution? Maybe thats not a bad thing. It will be interesting to see how many teachers and students participate in this newest form of ‘personalised’ publishing-but after all its what schooling is all about- set responses -learning to articulate ideas within certain boundaries and expectations.

Predictions for DET 2010-joining the dots

The  2010 IT predictions  are in, with many hot favourites including: Cloud computing, OER, Mobile devices and virtualisation (including gesture based interfaces).  And of course the Gartner and Horizon reports are always  grounded  and set the script for  the IT agendas. So what’s on NSW DET’s ‘technology radar? A couple of themes are prominent-  in sum its all about joining the dots on many disparate initiatives including the DER, CCP , TeLs, schools websites  and SALM projects.

1. Systemised/enterprise  social networking opportunities. While teachers and students have had access to social networking tools in their own practises, DET is rolling out tools such as blogs, eBacpack and wikis, and other collaborative tools which are integrated into the technical, and policy frameworks of the Dept. Some of these tools such as BlogEd when going into full release before end of Term 1, will offer unique pedagogical opportunities for the use of such tools. Of course TAFE and many schools have accessed these tools for many years now- but it’s the integration of these into backend ID systems, notifications, email, filtering services, and policy framework – which should give them the edge (hopefully not encumbering them).

Our favourite pastime

Whos top and bottom of the class? Well the media revelled  (“todaythe door has opened to knowledge…”) in the Myschools website data this week- and so did everyone else. On the Train Thursday morning SMHs spread out and into the offices- even my barber wallowed in the rankings. With over 9million hits on the site in the first few days- it has become the latest preoccupation for our fascination with ‘league tables’ especially in relation to private V public schools.  My 15 year old could see that using the NAPLAN scores were not a good indication of school merit (esp when he claims few undertook them with any seriousness in Yr9) – but don’t let that stop some political point scoring and media positioning.

Cyberbullying forum

This weeks forum on cyberbullying was a day well spent out of the office. New (and young) faces from across Aus gave a welcome mix of opinion– the highlight was the two keynotes- Donna Cross (Edith Cowan) and Marylin Campbell (QUT). But also the student voices-some of which contradicted the conventional wisdom. One thing was clear legislative and technical preventative measures are not the solution. We need a whole of community approach, to behavioural change. This includes resilience training. For too long I think we (as a Dept) have sheltered behind techhical protection- kidding ourselves its a ‘solution’ which has detracted from more educational/behavioural based approaches. Also we need to remind everyone (esp parents) that access to the www and social  networking technologies are of high educational value.  The tools we are introducing will ensure that students have the opptunity to use these constructively- modelling good practise and pedagogical benefit.

BlogEd

The DET blog (BlogEd) is nearing full release – dates to be confirmed for Term 4. Below I’ve summarised key features which differentiate it from any ‘open’ blog. I’ll post a slide show after the hols.

What does C21 learning look like?

Yesterdays seminar What does C21 learning  look like? – interesting day with Mark Pesce doing a great job of hosting what could be argued to be an event dominated by vendor interests. This was the formal agenda but thanks to an undercurrent in the twitter back channel, a parallel commentary was running.  Mark & Gary Putland tried to bring the channel into the mainstream conference. This is becoming an emerging  aspect to the conference format– with the informal chat running ‘underneath’ – both with conference attendees and those outside.  But maybe at the end of the day  its the more potent discourse. Provided some tweets below which captured the undercurrent. Must get an IPhone…

C21 Learning

A good discussion running on David Warwicks  blog on what is 21s Century learning. Dipping his toe into a muddy puddle, he has offered some succinct points, being careful not discount 20th century practise of- listening, watching, remembering, his following points grow out of these dimensions: questioning your learning experience, engaging your information environment, proving (and disproving) what you find, Constructing (inventing) new learning and knowledge teaching others what you have learned being respected for the power of your learning, and being responsible for your learning and its outcomes.

Agile methodologies

With the development of the Learning tools for NSW DET there has been building interest about development methodologies. The traditional waterfall method is well in favour by software developers, but change is happening. Rapid application development underpins most Web 2 technologies and of these methodologies Agile development seems to be getting particular attention. Agile is about easily adapting to changing requirements throughout the process. Agile development is pragmatic in understanding the fact that requirements in a business environment changes constantly. They all incorporate iteration and the continuous feedback that it provides to successively refine and deliver a software system. They all involve continuous planning, continuous testing, continuous integration, and other forms of continuous evolution of both the project and the software.