Random thought for day

I was thinking about how the mantra of "Pedagogy first, Technology second" was and still is the mantra of so many.

It was certainly mine until about 12 months ago. Then I started thinking that if, as we say, technology is just another tool and we don't say 'Pedagogy first, Pencils second', maybe it should be 'Pedagogy first, Resources second' or maybe just 'Pedagogy first' and technology should just be ubiquitous. Then I started thinking about what pedagogy is and can it always come first. In an ideal situation, absolutely but pedagogy is the method and practice of teaching and can that always come first? In different schools with different contexts and for individual students there may be other things that must come first such as basic needs, compassion, guidance and support.

So I no longer have a nice succinct mantra regarding pedagogy and technology. It goes something like this 'Good pedagogy should drive classroom practice and should come before technology and other resources.'

MakeyMakeys and Scratch

I have to admit I have got to play with some pretty cool toys this year but I would have to say the coolest one has been the MakeyMakey. After reading a little bit about them on a tweet one day I was intrigued so I did some research and, pretty soon, had one on the way. After having a play I ordered another ten to use in IT and in our maker space.

If you don't know what a MakeyMakey is you really need to check out this website and watch the videos. MakeyMakey It was invented by two MIT Media Lab graduate students - Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum. These guys, funnily enough, were also on the team of developers who created the first version of Scratch - for those who don't know what Scratch is - straight from the website, it "is a programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games and animations anbd share your creations with others around the world." Scratch. 

In IT, we have used Scratch for the three years I have been the teacher but, this year, students are using Scratch to create games and other resources that can be controlled using the MakeyMakeys. They have way surpassed my expectations in their willingness to problem solve and experiment. My original plan was just to use MakeyMakeys with the year 5/6 students but, after only three weeks, I have included the year 3/4 students.

We have started with basic music games and pacman style games but I am excited to see what the students come up with on their own!

Teaching Students How to Learn

While its been a long time since I last posted, I wanted to share my latest thoughts. I plan to try very hard to blog at least once every week.

It has been an extremely busy year so far and doesn't look like slowing down. I have been to two conferences this month and they are what I wanted to share my thoughts on.

The first conference was the 2015 ADE Institute in Singapore. This was an amazing meeting of passionate and determined educators who are currently doing fantastic things in schools in the Asia Pacific area. I gathered so many great ideas and resources but, mostly, I learned that, with persistence and technology, anything can be achieved. It was refreshing to see educators from Kindy right through to Higher Ed with the same goal in mind - using technology to improve learning. Particularly impressive, was the way some teachers and/or schools use technology to improve learning for students with additional needs. The consistent theme was the use of Apple tools to create, to collaborate and to make learning accessible to all in order to improve learning and teaching. It was remarkable to see what teachers are doing in schools in countries with far more traditional education systems than Australia.

The second conference was the Leading a Digital School Conference in Melbourne. The conference was based around three distinct themes - BYOT, Flipped Learning and Change Now. The keynote speakers were brilliant - Jill Hobson, Mal Lee with Martin Levins, Jon Bergman, Phil Stubbs, Lee Watanabe Crockett and Will Richardson. My takeaways from this conference were:

• The need to let go of standardisation with BYOT programs. We need to let students bring what they are using at home because the ultimate goal should be learning. If we are putting the pedagogy before technology, it shouldn't matter what technology is being used. 
• The need to continually go back to our ultimate goal (learning) and ask ourselves what the objectives of our BYOT program are.
• The need to move from appropriate use to responsible use - focus on the 95% of students who will do the right thing and focus on what to do - not what NOT to do.
• Teaching Digital Citizenship is vital.
• Flipped learning is not just about videos - you need to be more innovative than that and one size does not fit all. It could be a combination of teacher made videos, discussions, students made videos, etc. Is having students simply watch a video really any different than having them read a chapter of a book - there needs to be a way of interacting. To me solutions like EdPuzzle and Verso or simple blogging seem like obvious answers.
• Schools were created to disseminate information to students. This is no longer necessary as information is at everyone's fingertips. There are people anywhere who know more about what we are trying to teach and students can connect with these people with one tap. Our job is to teach students how to find the right information.
• As we know, technology is advancing at a ridiculous rate - schools have not changed all that much. We need to be more innovative, keep our eyes on the future and be willing to continue to evolve.
• With information at their fingertips, we need to look at what we can do for students apart from disseminate information or more students will become disengaged. Schools should be about relationships and developing passion for learning.
• Students are more engaged if they are interested and can see real life applications.
• We need to show students what is possible and allow them to play, to discover, to experiment, to make mistakes and to problem solve somewhere they are safe and supported.

Nothing new I know but I love revisiting it. I know we are ticking a lot of boxes at KPS and I know we can tick more. I really think Discovery Time in K-2 fits in well to this idea because, while it is so important to establish the foundations of literacy and numeracy in these early years, Discovery Time also allows young students to begin to think for themselves, problem solve and follow their interests. 

Things like Genius Hour in year 3 or 4 and up certainly allow students to follow their interests but should it be Genius Day? Thinking back to ideas I had before I became a specialist IT teacher. I had no desire to teach above year three because of behaviour. Maybe this is because this is when some students begin to show the very first signs of disengagement. If we could help those students follow their own passions and use our expertise as teachers to provide cross curricular links and support them in their journey - could we maintain that engagement level we see in younger students? I am certainly going to look at what I am doing in my own lessons.

Direct Instruction or Inquiry Learning

People often debate whether direct instruction is better or whether it is inquiry learning. Research says that sometimes it's one and sometimes the other.

Direct Instruction
Direct instruction is an instructional approach which is structured, sequenced, and led by teachers. Direct instruction involves many features that are fundamental to good teaching:
Establishing learning objectives for lessons, activities, and projects, and then making sure that students have understood the goals.
Purposefully organising and sequencing a series of lessons, projects, and assignments that move students toward stronger understanding and the achievement of specific academic goals.
Reviewing instructions for an activity or modelling a process—so that students know what they are expected to do.
Providing students with clear explanations, descriptions, and illustrations of the knowledge and skills being taught.
Asking questions to make sure that students have understood what has been taught.

Some people argue that direct or explicit instruction implies that the teacher is an authority fully capable of delivering correct information in a natural progression - hopefully this is the case - if we are doing our jobs. As teachers, we should know more than students about the topic we are teaching because in fully preparing for lessons we should be making sure we do. Certainly, when it comes to teaching students reading, writing, spelling and maths facts, direct instruction is important.

Inquiry Learning
Inquiry learning is a constructivist approach, in which students have ownership of their learning. It starts with exploration and questioning and leads to investigation into a worthy question, issue, problem or idea. Effective inquiry learning needs to be well designed by the teacher. With its emphasis on 'hands on' learning inquiry learning fits in well with the old adage 'I do I understand'. Through inquiry learning, students can develop higher order, information literacy and critical thinking skills. In this age when students can 'Google' any fact it is more important that students are involved in meaningful, authentic learning tasks that lead to deep understanding about the world.

Inquiry learning fits is well with learning areas such as science, society and environment and general capabilities such as critical and creative thinking.

When it comes to the question of inquiry learning or direct instruction, it has to be a case of whatever fits the task at hand.

Google

I remember the first time I saw a thumb drive. I was given some photos and maps on one for impending trip. Up until then I had been using rewritable CD Roms and DVDs and thought the thumb drive was the coolest thing. This was in about 2002. Since then I have accumulated at least 20, maybe even 30, of these devices along with several external hard drives. What I do know is that I have an incredible amount of double ups of data and have always had some ridiculous idea that one day I will go through them all and organise them.

Then along came cloud storage. Being a big Apple fan, I do use iCoud for my documents, keynotes and photos but I also like the simplicity and versatility of Google products. I have long used GoogleDrive to store photos, movies, presentations and much more, Gmail for email and GoogleForms for surveys but I have only recently started using GoogleDocs, GoogleSheets and GoogleSlides. It's funny because I was introduced to then long ago and thought they were great. It's almost like I have an adult equivalent of a zone of proximal development - as far as technology goes I need to be developmentally ready to take the next step.

So it comes that now I use GoogleDocs for all of my word processing, GoogleSheets for all of my spreadsheets and I am working toward GoogleSlides for my presentations. No more double ups for me and they make sharing and collaboration so easy.

iPads in the Early Years

It is very tempting, when working with Kindy and Pre-Primary students, to use iPads as an independent activity. Downloading content based apps and setting them up as a rotation, thus freeing up the teacher and EA is certainly an easy option but is it making the most of this fantastic tool? In my opinion, the answer is a definite no. While the iPad is extremely intuitive and the touch screen makes it well suited to young children, can we be sure students are actually getting anything out of the activity? Are they actually learning or is the iPad being used as a babysitter while the teacher does the 'teaching' at a different table.

What if the teacher takes the powerful tool and uses it with the students? Quality teaching, powerful tool, engaged and motivated students = learning!

Some ideas:

Make use of the camera to film students or have them film themselves or each other as they develop phonemic awareness.

Have students use basically any app that they can create text on (pic collage, pages, Educreations, book creator, drawing pad, doodle buddy) to explore graphemes.

Have students reflect on stories from whole class reading or reading groups using apps that they can create pictures and text on (book creator, drawing pad, feltboard).

Have students reflect on stories by drawing and writing but also recording their voice telling the story using apps such as Explain Everything, Educreations, Book Creator.

Teachers create relevant games and stories to fully differentiate and personalise the learning.

Teachers use resources such as Nearpod, Beat the Teachers, TinyTap and the camera to collect assessment data.

These are just few ideas but hopefully readers can see the value in using the iPad table as a teacher led station rather than an independent one where it's questionable whether or not the intended objectives are achieved.

Differentiating Content with Nearpod

I have blogged about Nearpod quite a few times on my previous blog but I just can't help it, I have to mention it again. If you are looking for a way to extend more independent students while providing support to those who need it - Nearpod is your tool. If you are looking for a way to differentiate for a range of levels in your class - Nearpod is your tool. If you are looking for a way to deliver content straight to student devices - Nearpod is your tool. If you are looking for a way to ascertain student understanding of a topic through preassessment - Nearpod is your tool. If you are looking for a way to gather evidence/data about student learning after a unit of work - Nearpod is your tool. I could go on but, hopefully, you get the idea.

With the free version you can do all of this but can only run live sessions in which you control student devices through your own - perfect for younger students - but, for older students, the investment of $10-$12 per month is well worth it to enable students to work at their own pace or even at home.

My favourite Nearpod features are the range of question types, the detailed report you can view/print and fact that students log into sessions with a pin without the need for student accounts. I am currently looking at the School Edition which opens up even more features such as the ability of teachers to share, more storage space and even more activity options.