marg’s edubits

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The virtual classroom and on-line learning is coming. With them comes a proliferation of learning management systems. The Proceedings from the Informing Science and IT Education Joint Conference includes a comparison of a number of these new systems; such as Moodle and Blackboard. There is one new system not included in the comparison that is causing quite a lot of excitement among teachers: LAMS.

The UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) conducted a workshop for a LAMS (Learning Activity Management System) evaluation workshop held in Birmingham 11 January 2005. LAMS allows the author to visualise the learning process. It enables teachers (or students) to design and reflect on the online learning activities. The sequences are easy to change so they can be easily improved or tweaked for a particular class/ situation. Teachers often have a pre-conceived lesson sequence template that they usually apply according to their pedagogical theory. LAMS encourages teachers to take a new and objective look at how they are sequencing learning sequences. This is where LAMS comes into its own. In its final report, JISC recommends LAMS as a good system for learning designs – however, not necessarily a good system for the acquisition of knowledge or skills.

Wilbert Kraan from the Centre for Educational Interoperability Standards, notes that LAMS uses people in roles, learning objects, and resources as the basic building blocks, “it allows educators to facilitate all kinds of interaction between not just content and the learner, but also learners and other learners, the teacher or virtually anyone else. It is also designed to integrate online activities with offline, face to face activities. In a word, it focuses on context, rather than just content.”

It seems that teachers around the globe are being seduced by the drag and drop ease and the visual readability of LAMS – what do you think? Test LAMS out here. Let  me know what you think.

No kidding – a course with no content! According to Oliver and Herrington, that is the task assigned to the IMM4141 students of the Edith Cowan University in Australia, where they develop a prototype on-line learning task that exemplifies recent theory and research. Their support is mainly collaborative, with some guidance from tutors. Resources for the task are identified and justified by the students and include on-line articles and papers, databases, books and links to web-sites (created by their own collaborative networking).

This task uses the framework established by Oliver and Herrington for successful web-based learning settings so that tasks can be open-ended, cognitively complex, be realistic and authentic and incorporate authentic assessment. The three stages are

1) Design tasks to engage and direct the learner.

2) Supports for the learner.

3) Learning resources.

They claim that by following this framework when designing on-line courses, the teacher can focus on outcomes, assessment and resources, and that the learning activities rather than the content should be the focus of task design.

Misterteacher, James Tubbs, advocates joy in the classroom and urges us to use technology to help create a joyful place. He recommends we become inspired by Steven Wolk’s article that urges teachers to nurture of learning, choice, audience, creativity, time, inviting spaces, outdoor time, good stories, gym and art classes, alternative assessment and fun together.

Misterteacher’s blog has so much to offer teachers who are interested in using technology to improve learning. He has information, resources and terrific links, including this link to the Daniel K. Schneider’s EduTech wiki, that he finds an invaluable first stop for e-learning research – it’s great. Take a look for yourself.

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I have just read the article that Miriam referred to regarding the departmental shutdown of blogging in Al Upton’s school in South Australia.

This school had been a widely acknowledged model for effective classroom learning using blogging, but the blogging was shut down (it is believed) upon the complaint of a parent who had changed their mind about their child’s participation in the blogging exercise.

In the last ten years we have witnessed a worrying increase in the level of stiffling molly-coddling in schools. First see-saws and swings went (too dangerous), then the rest of the play equipment. Oh! but that wasn’t all – why not have passive play? (that means sitting, by the way). And whilst we are at it, that snow trip always causes trouble – let’s play it safe – cancel it.

Let us not stand by and see the same level of fear prevent us from 21st C learning initiatives. Yes, there will be mistakes along the way – but that is life!

We will all experience opposition to our digital initiatives. We must learn to network and support each other in both our successes and our trials.

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Beware that this video may haunt you as it did me. Those little green monsters have turned me into a little green-eyed monster. I really want one of thse machines, and I cannot stop thinking about how they will turn this world upside-down.

Seymour Papert, in his quest to improve education and active learning, managed to have the Govenor of Maine legislate, in 2002, that all students have a laptops. Teachers reported a drop truancy to almost zero, full attendance at parent/teacher meetings, drop in behaviour problems, greater participationand engagement of students, and the requirement that servers be turned off at times, because of the numbers of emails and questions for teachers. So educators in Maine are convinced of the educational benefits of one laptop per child.

He, together with some very big names in education, including Nicholas Negroponte, have also been working towards addressing injustice in society. They have managed to close the gap between educational opportunities in the first and third worlds with their One Laptop Per Child Foundation, which is starting to make an impact all over the world with its one hundred dollar laptop.

Nicholas Negroponte stepped down from his position chairman of the media lab of at MIT to concentrate on his vocation of OLPC. OLPC is a non-profit organisation, mowhose mission is promote education: active learning with laptops.

 

 These men see that the solutions to big problems; such as poverty, peace, and environmental, come through education. They have put their words into action all over the world. Negroponte describes a place in Cambodia that has no electricity and no telephone, but has broadband internet connections. The laptop is a welcome addition to the household , where it provides the brightest light source in the hut at night. He also notes that the first English word they learn is “google”.

This clip will show may lead you to many other useful and thought provoking articles, but be warned you may end up lusting after one of those outdoor friendly, all-in-one, knock-about green machines.

In her article How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century, Wallis claims that the only place where time has stood still for the last 100 years is the classroom. I find it difficult to disagree with her. The reactionary back to basics curriculum concentrating on literacy and numeracy is providing a solid excuse for educations to move backwards instead of forwards.
If we take the advice from employer groups, we find that they are looking for employees who are creative and cross-discipline thinkers: the types who might design the next Google or YouTube. They want technological literacy.
The fundamentals of the 21st Century education are identified as international mindedness; deep and careful learning of fundamental mathematics, science and literacy; teaching students how to be critical thinkers; how to make thought connections, how to maintain a commitment to life-long learning; and how to be discerning users of the abundance of information that surrounds them.
Wallis looks at schools in the US that are taking learning in new directions, and positioning their students for the future. Several innovative programmes are outlined in the article which includes a review of the increasingly popular International Baccalaureate program, and the and–voilà!–Curriki.org, which began as a teaching resource and is now gaining momentum as part of the Web 2.0 revolution in education. She notes that Michigan requires that students complete at least one online course. Another innovative cross curriculum teaching strategy at Farmington High (Michigan again) has teachers as project managers of an engineering firm as the platform to teach calculus, physics, chemistry and engineering.
Take a look at her article; you might be inspired by what you find there.

Jane’s review of Papert’s key note address to the i3 1 to 1 Computing Conference, sponsored by Apple Computer, on May 31, 2004 in Sydney, Australia, led me to a most inspirational man.

Papert has accused educators of becoming experts in the making of suet, and not being aware of the existence of other culinary delights. He accuses teachers of remixing bland and indigestible ingredients into the best of possible foods, but that they can never be anything but bland and indigestible: a meal of suet. He challenges us to revolutise our vision, our expectations and our enthusiasm to get education blasting into the future.

Jane identifies the main obstacle to the usefulness of computers as an educational tool. We are  stuck on the ‘computers for information’ which is simply the tip of the ice-berg. We need to look deeper and utilise the opportunities computers offer in the area of creativity and exploration, especially in the conservative curriculum of mathematics. We are pre-occupied with how to write things on paper, rather than on mathematical thinking. Active learning and use of computers can help free us from this paper prison.

What a priveledge to be meet such a passionate educator. Thank you  Jane for introducing him to me. 

podcast2digitaleducation1

Questions for students in the virtual world.

The following are the five questions to be posed to teens:

Q1. Tell me about a lesson the surprised you by interesting you in something new?

Q2. What is the most creative thing you have ever done using digital media, and did you do this at school?

Q3. How important to you is it that your teachers know how to use the technology at school?

Q4. Have you ever used iPods, mobile phones, instant messaging or webquests for school work?

Q5. How could a teacher create a good technology lesson?

We like to think that part of what we teach our youth is discernment in mass media advertising and resistance to big budget multi-national media campaigns. How are we doing so far? Our children are ripe for the picking, just as we were at their age. Teachers and parents have always needed to monitor and moderate the influence of advertising on our children.

What will happen when we no longer know what advertising is bombarding our children? This will be the next generation of advertising to hit the streets. ‘Truly, Madly, Deeply Engaged’, a market research report commissioned by Yahoo and OMD (media communication specialist), recommends that advertising must be more cleverly matched to the target market, and utilise the global appetite for portable music to deliver a slick (entertaining) and personalised advertising message to their internet and mobile device: marketing communications should play to community, self-expression and personalisation.

This changes the game. Currently, broadcast advertising is regulated by government regulations and industry code of conduct self-regulation. What regulation will occur when it is personalised and streamed through to the user of a mobile phone or PDA? How will we know when our 13 year-old daughter is being brain-washed by the latest alco-pop jingle?  Personalised advertising is a new area of interest for parents and teachers that must not be ignored. Will marketing to our digital generation go underground?