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.

 

NewTube

YouTube is finally available to DET NSW teachers- after years of frustration beating on doors. Access will of course allow teachers to plan, research, display and embed YT videos in their resources, within their working context . One giant step…for liberal access and OER . Now state teachers can enjoy the same access entitled to many private school colleagues. The interesting aspect will be to see what impacts it has on:

• DET produced resources

• Teaching practice in respect to utilising video clips as a valid resource and involving group participation esp. with IWBs

• Use of video as a legitimate presentation form and for student self expression

• Student engagement.

For many students (my kids included) the preferred source of information is through YT and not text based sources, or even Google. They are also furiously loading up clips to YT for personal use and school assignments. Look at the collections building up under any school banner- its becoming a contest between schools and a personal badge of honour for students in building their own portfolios.

 

Blogs and Leadership

Often wondered how blogs and leadership interact. Abi Signorelli recently comments on how she has seen the effects blogs have had on  internal leadership. Witnessing the build of trust in her own workplace, and regard/notoriety for many of the senior leaders through their blogs activities. In education I don’t think anyone can regard themselves as having authority on social networking, or in fact learning- if they aren’t doin the same. But teachers need to be given the time in their professional life to engage with these tools, for personal, class, communities (networks). 

 

Wait’n for the revolution

A recent seminar on our DER left me wondering (again) how many times I’ve sat through expositions of the wonders of Web2.0 , and how our schools are failing to engage students with technologies of the street. Over the years inspired presentations by bloggeratti’s best -Pesces, Downes, Levine, Siemens, Seyfangs and Wales, of the wired world. All very eloquent and persuasive – but there I sat yesterday wondering when we’ll stop twittering with the technologies and start properly engaging the stakeholders (political/education community) on what all this means/implies and how to more properly move education from the domain of institutions towards  that of the individual.  Time to move from the ‘experimental ‘to embedded practise.

 

Diffusion of innovation

Gerry White recently recommended  to me Everett Rodgers book on Diffusion of Innovation. Rodgers nominates the 5 categories of adopters-

1. Innovators
2. Early adopters
3. Early majority
4. Late majority
5. Laggards

 

Appreciative Enquiry

Reading more on AI recently (methodology for  looking at the health of an organisation).The general philosophy of seeking what is good – positive values in an organisation and the Appreciative Inquiry cycle of Discovery, Dream, Design and Destiny can be applied to a number of  other situations. Analysis for example of strengths and weaknesses of a product or application might also be better undertaken using this approach rather than classic SWOT or problem based analysis. 

 

Ubiquitous computing & Smart objects

Flicking through latest edition of Ed Tech (still a must read)- and two articles jumped out.   One on Ubiquitous computing – a term often misused to referring to PDAs etc (inferring mobile rather than truly ubiquitous). Louisa Rosencheck’s article quickly dispels what it is NOT- and what are the implications for education. Currently most of this is hypothetical in relation to the classroom, but some examples are emerging in workplaces and homes. What I like about the concept  is that Ubicomp will help merge formal and informal learning. True Ubicomp will go beyond relying on handheld devices , an see a blending of devices which are ‘built into’ the environment. Rosencheck develops some good scenarios to explore its educational use. Ubicomp would seem to get ticks against the big issues including; personalised and situated learning,and certainly add a new dimension to assessment and outcomes based education. It also links to the concept of ‘smart objects’ – things that know about their surroundings. Again the same edition carries a good article on this.   Education al TechnologyMarch- April Vol 48, No 2.

 

More predictions

eLearning Magazine has polled a good X section of commentators. All the posts see Web2 beginning to bite, with integration of tools in different contexts. Jay Cross “2.0″ will be appended to everything- and Brent Schenkler reinforces Jays crystal balling in endorsing turmoil in management and emergence of the ‘human issues’. Karl Kapp predicts increasing dissagregation of content and instructional design becoming instructional assembly- as related content is mashed or stitched together. Want more-then look at Tony Karrer’s  list

 

First lists for 2008

 Back to the Blog  (and work) after being ‘off air’ due to a lightning hit & feeling the need for a break from everything…

The Trendsters are making their proclamations for 2008 . Closer to home, Jerry’s list shadowed my experience of purchasing a computer/peripherals. Especially liked this one from The Sydney Morning Herald (thanks Grant)

1. Google will still have access to more information about you than your mother has.2. The DVD drive on your computer will still be ideal for holding your first cup of coffee while Windows Vista loads.3. Internet filters will still require children to help their parents view the websites they want.4. Spammers will still exploit the inverse relationship that exists between IQ and greed.5. Social networking sites will still be the best place for identity thieves to refine their craft.6. People will still visit Second Life trying to discover if there’s something to do other than to see if there’s something to do.7. YouTube will still be the definitive source for guidance on how to train cats to flush a toilet.8. Mobile phones will still come with a choice of 200 ring tones, none of which anyone wants.9. Broadband in rural Australia will still involve paper cups and string.10. Video iPod users will still squint into postage-stamp screens and convince themselves they’ve enjoyed watching something.

In my work space I’m hearing calls for orientation to ‘immersive learning’ (why not a good dunking) and Web 3.0(…why not). I think the reality check of the BECTA report  (Times) says it all- lets just genuinely deliver what the teachers/students want in an accessible environment which supports online learning and leave the semantics to the spin merchants.

 

At work at play…but not in schools

Adrienne Goehler (former Berlin senator for culture/media) recently quoted in a visit to Sydney “ The philosopher Theodor Adorno wrote ‘little distinguishes the intellectual lifestyle so deeply from the bourgeois as the fact that the former does not acknowledge the alternative between work and pleasure’. As Lisa Pryor (SMH Sept 17-18) observes, this feature has now liquefied and expanded to other social classes- we are living like intellectuals. Pryor states that work is only one of the pursuits people do in the office. “Employers expect us to be flexible [linked to work related matters outside normal hours], so we expect the same from them”.

 

Alan Levine-being there…

Alan’s presentation on behalf of the AFLF group in Sydney, was a whirlwind trip of Web 2 offerings. After a number of these events-its time to act on how we as educators/administrators can knock down -or at least provide gates in the walled gardens that surround our formal education environment. Alan’s visual metaphors of walls were very effective- maybe we need to adorn our offices with some of our own images. His (attribution) use of the term ‘permeable’ is also interesting in the context of providing access through these walls.

 

Re-architecting our spaces

Advantage of being at home and hearing daytime radio (ABC at least), last week on the conversation hour, Richard Fidler interview with architect Tim Hill was a ripper. Hill was responsible for designing the Brisbane Library- yet another boring public library? Not the way Hill describes the role libraries such as Curitiba in Brazil-take on. In Curitiba libraries are seen as information hubs- they ‘unroll’ their city through their library network. These are key civic places, and transport/shopping hubs. He also explores the theme of masculine /feminine practices: men build railroads, women build libraries . Men need quantifiable, singular outcomes and deadlines; women tend towards qualitative experiences represented not by a single point of declaring a project ‘finished’.

 

Digital literacy in a knowledge economy

Essay on the ABC website (thanks Ian) by John Hartley, is a good encapsualtion of the argument for fostering real critical literacies to create open innovation networks. Although schools and universities certainly teach “ICT skills” and even “creative practice”, so far they have not proven to be adept at enabling demand-driven and distributed learning networks for imaginative rather than instrumental purposes. Here is where creative innovation must be nurtured.
The piece is stirring a lot of polarised responses, revealing why governments and institutions are bound by collective inertia.

 

Digital literacy in a knowledge economy

Rich piece from John Hartley (thanks again Ian), arguing the point for an open innovations network. Such a network will harness the energies of the whole population, not just those of ‘isolated expert elites’. In a Web 2 knowledge economy, democratisation of knowledge is a key outcome/principle. But still we call on ‘experts/gurus’ to validate and consult on our own work (even in an innovation organisation) .

 

Handle in the wind

Inspiring story by Elissa Baxter in the Sydney Morning Herald recently, about a young African (Malawian) guy who left school at 14, built two wind generators with little formal assistance. His work got him an invitation to an international conference where he received a standing ovation for his presentation. While at the conference he saw the Internet for the first time, delegates soon taught him to research and he now has had assistance in establishing a http://www.williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/williamkamkwamba/

Hopefully we will see many more instances of disadvantaged students being empowered by connected knowledge-recognising their own work and worth and discovering others.

 

A country that has stopped thinking

Steve Burrells report in this weekends (June 16-17) Sydney Morning Herald will hopefully rally some public debate (whats it take?). Australia is currently riding on the back of the coal truck (once was sheep) to prosperity-but that betrays our failure to really engage in the critical planning needed in our public infrastrucure and its also is a good metaphor for our failure to embrace appropriate alternate technologies. Our failure to introduce true Broadband is a classic example of lack of imagination, risk taking and future planning. Aus. ranks 42nd in the world in internet costs, 16th in OECD countries in use, and failure (until prompted by an impending election) to understand the economic consequences of not rolling out at least 12Mb ps (IGb should be target) to all homes. The three tiered government is suffering inertia at all levels. Can we really embrace a creative information economy with anything less?