Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Lee Crockett: Understanding The Digital Generation (raw notes from Typepad)

Notes for Lee Crockett  (from Canada) Keynote 1
Understanding "The Digital generation"
Introduction
Some places can be called "terminally rural"
No hobbits to be seen in NZ :)
The accent is definitely hooking me in ... Jokes are great!
Praised CORE said Ulearn best organised and friendliest conference - yay for CORE

Don't let assumptions get in the way
Knowledge = knowing a tomato is a fruit
Wisdom = knowing not to use it in a fruit salad

Challenge
Step back and get a kick in  the assumptions stop looking from the inside
Spent our entire lives in education (not all of us tho!)

What paradigms are we naturally unaware of
Putting your hands together a differnet way (Feels yucky!)
We face a world on the move. Present disappears into the past. In 2003 - Total globe's production - estimate 5 exobytes of data - 37 000 x books of biggest library in world. In 5 years grown 10 000% - 500 exobytes (sp?). 

How big is that?
13 stacks of books all the way to Pluto - deforest planet 12x - in one day!. Every year 120 years out of date on youtube.
Great infographic on content generation and size of cloud storage here:

Google book search - financing digitisation of books from lots of libraries. 60 million books on google book search.
Is that not the next stage fro our libraries? Libraries also concerned with how this will work - affordable up-to-date ethical use of/access to content with equity of access still big issues to be worked out.
Books will beome obsolete (will tho though?!)  image of hand coming out of computer to grab all the books.
Keyboard and mouse will become obsolete.
Amazon's kindle can store a libray worth of books. Digital books outselling paper books. 

Entire works of humankind will be accessed wirelessly anywhere, anytime. Begs the questions - what implications will this have on the skills and knowledge people will need?
How will they determine authenticity and bias? Critical literacy skills so important.

Are schools preparing students for this world? Unlike us - this generation grew up with a mouse in their hands. They also have the belief that the stuff on the screen is not PASSIVE. 

Books and research is telling us that digital bombardment - digi generation are quickly adapting - they have develeoped a cultural brain. Brain changing physically and chemically. Our kids are neurologically wired differently to us - hyperlinked minds. They process info in a parallel manner - not sequentially. Brains are malleable and plastic. Previously thought that the brain stopped developing at age 3. We now understand measureable intelligence rises and falls depending on stimulation. 

Eyes process content of photos 60 000x faster than text. 
Track differently. New research Kent State Uni - their Digital generations eyes first scan bottom then sides then read in an F pattern - different to 'our' generation.  Consiously avoid bottom right of screen (is this where the ads are?!). Specific colours of text appeal to digi gen. Red/Pink then Green then Orange with Black then blue background. Will ignore black text unless highy engaged to read it (think I will be changing the colours on my IWB!).

Digi learners prefer to learn info from multiple sources. Implications - many teachers do not process this way. Digi learners process info very quickly. To really connect with digi learners - need to... If we ban digi devices we are blowing it. Missing a huge opp to connect with our digi learners.  Digi learners prefer multi tasking and parallel processing of info. Continuous partial attention - multi tasking. Happens faster in our digi kids. 

Old school study environment very different to children of today - mess with music etc - and they are still bored! Music helps them to concentrate - contrary to what they think - they are not as effective if they are multi tasking than if they focus on a singular task. They need to appreciate both sets of skills. 

Digi learners prefer to process photos, videos and sound to text. Role of text is to provide clarity to image - not the other way round (as it was). Participants could recall 25 000 pictures 90% accuracy 72 hours later even if only viewed for 10 seconds each. Recall rates a year later still hover around 60%. Presented orally or text only - 72 hours later 10% of content. Need to create 'presentations' based on images not text. 

Multi-sensory - gaming. Words complement images - sharpened their visual literacy. Highly developed visual spatial skills. Moving towards right brained society. Colour sound and graphics mixed in interesting ways.

Random access preferred to hyperlinked multimedia access. Educstors prefer linear, logical, sequential access. Hyperlinked minds - move from info at the speed of thought. Books are an antiquated interface.

It is not us or them - wrong or right - but equally essential. Digi learners prefer to network with multiple.... Hundreds of ways to communicate. 

We can become dependent on this media. Digi learners have internalised it. Kids interact socially different. We do not need to teach technology anymore - they know it - they have internalised.

Need to teach communication skills, problem solving skills, creativitiy, design skills to harness this. 

Digi Learners - just in time. Traditional educators - just in case. Estimate of number of jobs in a lifetime - 10-17 careers by 35. Jobs that dont technically exist yet. Totally different skill set. Such a focus on standardised testing - just in case model of teaching. Digi learners revolve around just in time. 4 year degrees replaced with 40 years of doing and undoing.

Which world are we preparing them for? 

Instant gratification vs deferred gratification and delayed rewards (e.g. if you do well in school = good job). What they do determines what they get. Immediate feedback from new technologies - video games. Design games to ask the gamer to make a critical decision every .5 second. Rewarded every 7 seconds. Instant feedback and/or reward. 

Ave students get positively reinforced, positive feedback once every 25 minutes (?). Graduations on 2nd Life.

Relevant, active and instantly useful vs. teaching memorisation of material in the curriculum guide. 

"What gets measured gets done.... What doesnt get measured doesnt get done" Tom Peters.

Why memorise capitals? Google on phone. World on the move - students will need a completely dfferent set of skills. Fundamentally different kind of studen

Fluencies for Digital Citizen
Infomartion
Media
Collaboration
Creativity
Solution

Leadership, ethics, accountablitiy

Need to be more important than everything else At every age level. 21st Century Fluency Project. Significant gender difference in remembering detail - NOT!!!! It was a trick. 

Oh my goodness - didnt see the gorilla!!! oh dear. Did see the black shirt leave tho! - Dan Simons research "The Invisble Gorilla" - Perceptual blindness. If we do not have a specific frame of reference then our brains refuse to see it. 

Eyes of digital G process photos 60,000 times faster than text. They scan the bottom of the page first, not left to right. Red for boys, pink for girls, not black on white.

Maybe that's why it's so hard for many teachers - it doesn't feel right to do something differently to what they're used to.

You only see the present as it is becoming the past. 10,000% increase in information in 6 years - Knowledge changes and facts becomes obsolete. We will soon have the same access to books as what pods and pads have given us to music. We are at a new paradigm in computer - devices will be voice and touch - keyboard and mouse will be obsolete. Digital data at our finger tips - brings up need for critical literacy and digital literacy. Digital generation's brains are changing physically and chemically. Neuro-logically different to us. 
Educators must acknowledge the centrality of digital connections for our children. :) The digital generation can multi task faster. Brain Rules - multi tasking digital students need to develop essential skills in focussing on a single task. Coming to school is like hitting a wall for digital learners. This teacher needs to develop visual literacy in the classroom... We are moving towards a right brain visual society.  Hyper linked minds - digital generation looks to books as antiquated. "Why can't I follow my own links and develop my own logic?" "Just in Time" vs "Just in Case" learning. Our children need skills to acquire as they are needed - 40 years of constant learning, unlearning and relearning. They need skills, habits of mind and attributes to develop them for their future world. This world is on the move and we are facing a fundamentally different student.  Dan Symon - "The Invisible Gorilla"  - http://fluency21.com/

More information has been sent that we are able to store
Screens are not for passive consumption, but for active particiaption.
Digital Learners prefere multi-tasking. <=> most educators
Digital multi-tasking is here to stay, but students need to learn to appreciate the pros form both ways of learning. 
Role of the text is to clarify the images.
90% recall rate 72 hours after viewing 2500 images for 10 seconds - 10% of oral / text only
This generation creating a right-brained, visual society.
Digital learners 'learn' in a zigzag pattern - traditional learners in logival, linear pattern. Means they are making own meaning, prioritising what is impt and discarding rest.
Again, need to appreciate values from both methods.
Methods of communication grown exponentially since 10 years ago.
Not about hard ware anymore - now about 'Headware"
This world not geared towards just-in-case learning - just-in-time impt in today's society
DLs understand instant gratification - kids getting bored at school because not getting the instant grat. 
"What gets measured, gets done" Tom Peters
Because world is changing so much, so quickly, we need to rethink how we are teaching our kids, and the world that they need to be prepared for.
"21st century fluencies" need to considered, worked on, improved on forever.
Perceptual blindness - once primed to notice something, can not see other things. No right way, but different. Understanding how our kids learn is impt, not to "fix" them.
What is going on in your life, kids' lives, other areas that you are missing, because you are 'primed' to notice certain things - urgency.
Invisible gorilla.
3 things that you didn't know before, 2 things that you will tell people, 1 thing that you will commit to to do differently.

Books are an antiquated interface

Ipad new paradigm in computing.

This generation grew up with a mouse in their hand.Image  of foetus with iphone A little spooky.

Reading list
  • A Whole new mind Dan pink
  • Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learnby Larry D. Rosen
  • iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind [Hardcover]Gary Small 
  • Grown up digital Don Tapscott
  • Understanding the Digital Generation (21st Century Fluency Series)by Ian Jukes, Ted McCain,  and Lee Crockett
  • Dan Symon - "The Invisible Gorilla"
  • Fluency21.com - commit to be a sardine

By ignoring tech devices, we are blowing it, missing the opportunities to engage with digital G.

DG Prefer multitasking.  engaging with sound, video and images first
90% recall of 2500 images after seeing them for 1 seconds.  Hyperlinked info.

Educators prefer linear tasking. engaging with static image and text.

DGs are visually literate.  The words are there to compliment the pictures.

NATIONAL STANDARDS!!!!!! 
Just in time I don't think so . What doesn't get measured doesn't get done
"What gets measured gets done.... What doesnt get measured doesnt get done" Tom Peters

Saturday, September 4, 2010

My Sister's House


You can see the foundation of the house has shifted. Floor is on a total lean. Enough to roll a candle down it.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Epic Learning - Term 4

Big Learning for Term 4 is Participating and Contributing and Leadership/Social Studies.

I really want some powerful learning to occur next term - as Ewan McIntosh would say - 'Epic Learning'. Thinking we could create a reality TV show - kind of Survivor/The Apprentice - where the students compete in teams and undertake challenges designed to test their leadership. The students will create an episode a week that is shared on the school television network and via internet. Each student will have the opportunity to partake in the challenges as well as the TV production.

Not sure what software we would use to create the episode. We hope to have access to Flip video cameras to film the action.

What do you think? Does this sound like an engaging (and doable) idea?

Friday, August 20, 2010

3 Takeaways

  1. Use posterous to post classroom practice
  2. Make next term an Epic Learning Project
  3. Integrate gaming into teaching and learning

Asttle Reading Analysis

Example of one of my students explaining how he uses an asttle reading test to define new reading goals and next step learning.

Download now or watch on posterous
reading_goals.m4v (8134 KB)

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Andy Hargreaves: The Fourth Way of Leadership and Change L@S09

The following notes were collaboratively created by Jan-Marie, Amanda, Jo, Rachel , Jacqui, Dave, Heath and myself using an excellent tool called Etherpad. Read more about it here. The keynote was inspiring and confirmed my beliefs about systems of change and my own view of quality teaching and learning.

The Fourth Way of Leadership and Change

Andy Hargreaves websites http://www2.bc.edu/~hargrean/
Collaboration started with heheboy via twitter
The Fourth way - What are the other 3?
How did we get here. What did we leave behind?

Other notes on: http://etherpad.com/7WRSymcSBh

The First Way of Change - 60's - 70's
Wanted to change the world. Age where there was alot of flexibility. Alot of innovation in this period, but few ways of spreading it around.


Second Way
Top Down Government
Trying to add some coherernce to performance of schools. Goals / performance / Targets. Reminds me of the ticky box culture we went through and coverage.

Third way: Combination of Top down government and bottom up support.

Fourth Way
Finland a different perspective
Nokia - Finland has not always been high performing - lost access to Russian Market
unemployment 19% Head of Nokia (no tourism - no resources - all they had was people) Become the leading knowledge economy.Skills unmatched any where else. They had very few resources but recognised that people were greatest resource - Therefore set goal to become the best knowledge economy in the world. Nokia named after a town in Nokia - large furry rodent called a Nokia!!! Was a timber company then a rubber company (GUMBOOTS!!!!) 30s ladiesw rubber highheeled shoes cables. Change job every 15 months in mangagement so you are loyal to the brand not the job.

Nokia is named after a town/River Nokia/Large furry rodent! Nokia galoshes/high-heeled showes/electrical communication cables. Bad news travels fast?

Collaboration is direct in Finland

So agree with comment: To be the best you have to reconnect to what you did well in the past. We do need to reinvent the good stuff that we did in schools. That's so right - too much throwing baby out with the bathwater has happened
its the return of the cycle

less than 1 in 10 chance of becoming a primay teacher in FInland - fantastic (!)

competition is a good thing, we need to be more competitive
See teachers as leaders
More value on teachers
Switzerland also recognises value of teachers to uplifting society into knowledge skills,sustainability etc.
Broad Guidlines.
Teachers create curriculum together - trust, cooperation, responsibility important.

Create success by lifting EVERY child up from the bottom

Responsible for all students in your school, not just those in your class

Collaborative trrust and responsibility. For leadership it means if you are away or sick or drunk
school belongs to all of the teachers not just the principal - trust of staff high trust model where have we heard that before norms become important
Capabilities to deal with staff/situations.
Community is

Finnish Improvement Qualities
clear societal vision
strong public investment
high-quality high-status teachers
steering by the state
local curriculum development
trust, cooperation and responsibility
improvement through uplift
leaders who teach
no initiative -itis

Commited to future of community together

Strong helping the weak - not ideology but human decency - lift them up

Tower Hamlets. low decile.

Poverty is no excuse for failure!(Chrisine Gilbert)

imposes impossible expectations...excellent

Measureable targets set with the principals; better to have ambitious targets;
Better to have ambitious targets and not quite get to them than to have mediocre targets and achieve them. Know your people the district the school before applying standards that don't fit.

Finland has no standardised assessments. Lot of data

Great investment in families, communities etc in Finland - not just in education.

high quality teachers with commitment to the community.

They got rid of the poor teachers.

Yay, we want classroom assistants! They are called Parent helpers if you can get good ones (YEP! - just have to train them well). Would like less paperwork!!

And someone doing playground duty - could then get out and play more with the kids.

Support for teachers from the community - including the Imans in the Mosque!
Work with your parents and community.
article from guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2003/mar/11/schools.gcses2002
Community engagement.

Competition & collaboration can go together
Frienldly Win win rivalry not at the expense of others
How to get schools to work together for their communities...

sticking-ness?
keeping people on websites - rather than browsing away

Do we favour students who remind us of "our fabulous selves"?

Andy hates rubrics! - "how can you divide life into four different levels?"
- loves using them too much, penalising students who had different talents, valuing things important to him
Tthe rubric should be a check against our favoritism.

It's like trying to make people think according to the 'De Bono Hats' when their way of thinking doesn't fit any of them.

Powerpoint on the conference website:
http://centre4.core-ed.net/modules/kb/viewentries.php?space_key=21231&module_key=70381&category_key=950

**Fourth way**

* Open professionalism working together
* If you want achievement you have to have investment - there needs to be a return on investment
* ROI - return on investment
* Corporate partners - who practice corporate social responsibility - only be partners with coroprations that practice corporate social responsibility
* Students as partners in change - students are usually the targets of change efforts and services - without students there would be no teachers!

3 Priciples of Professionalism
-high quality teachers
-powerful professionalism
-lively learning communities

Invest in the development in leadership to ensure and develop change

Not heroic leadership but sustainable leadership - so that things can continue in your absence

Network with no nanny - hope NZ Govt is listening!

Responsibility before Accountability - accountability is the reminder that is left when responsibility has been subtracted.

Notes are already up on the L@S09 website: http://centre4.core-ed.net/modules/kb/viewentries.php?space_key=21231&module_key=70381&category_key=950

Tony Ryan: Digital Pedagogies L@S09

Tony Ryan: Digital Pedagogies

Stumbleupon

Think outside the dodecahedron

Staffroom dialogue and conversation defines a school

Get kids talking about learning

Big 4 Learning Support Framework

o Curriculum – what
o Pedagogy – how – MOST VARIANCE – Not necessarily legally mandated
o Assessment – what you measure
o Reporting – how you share


Collective intelligence

Online learning way of the future

HOW DO YOU ASSESS? Music example – assess the music or the collaboration

20th c learning theories – behaviourist/constructivist/cognitivist (cog – thinking skills stuff)

21st c – constructivist/mega-cognitivist/connectivist

SELF-TALK meta-self and physical self - mega-cognitivist - can then take ownership of their learning

CONNECTIVISM.CA few philosophical holes

Online gaming environments do have positives – eg. Working with others

Quality of teacher pedagogy that makes the difference.

YOU MUST HEIGHTEN the learning – intellectual rigor

Pedagogy is the art and science of learning for 4-18 year olds

What is the quality of the support you provide?

Digitial/ visual literacies as using symbols

Not the APPLICATIONS that drive the learning it is the ELEMENTS

“Charlie Bit My Finger” – youtube

Ripple Effects blog

Delicious account /TonyRyan