The writing process and a Year 9 Student - A Students Reflection

This is Megan's reflection of the Writing Process using digital tools.

What did you like about the tools for writing?

• I really liked using poppet it was really easy to use and it was easy to organise the way you wanted it to be and you could move the text boxes around wherever you wanted to. 
• Wordle was very useful just because it was a different and cool way to show what words you had used too much. 
• The speech selection was also good because it would speed up it's talking when there wasn't enough commas and full stops. 
• Book creator was a good app to use once you got the hang of it to set out your work. 
• Write about this was a good app to decide what to write about it had good pictures to use if you wanted to and it was just good in general because I'm pretty sure it had topics.

What barriers or problems did you find with the tools?

• With dictanote I found it very awkward to use because it did not fully understand my voice and I feel like if you were to use this in the classroom that the computer would go physco trying to understand what you were saying. 
• Book creator was a little bit fiddly at the start learning how to use it and putting the text in the right place was a bit annoying.

What did you like about Write About This?

It was a a good app to get an idea of what you were going to write about. I think I got one of my pictures in the book from there.

What barriers/issues/problems can you see with using Write About This at home/school?

It looked like it was made for little kids, the app could be designed for older kids and teenagers.

What did you like about Popplet?

It was handy to show your ideas clearly and you could customise it sort of.

What barriers/issues/problems can you see with using Popplet at home/school?

I don't know I thought it was a good app overall and I would use it and I'm sure that other kids would use it in class

What did you like about Googles Docs/Track Changes?

I already use it at school so I am used to it now, I like it because it has the search thing at the side of the screen that you can get images and just normal google search. It's good so you know what you have fixed and you can go back and and change it back again.

What barriers/issues/problems can you see with using Google Docs/Track Changes at home/school?

Not having internet and having other apps and program's already like Word and Pages. You would have to know how to track changes in add ons and not many people know how to use it.

What did you like about Wordle?

I liked wordle because it all you have to do is copy and paste all your writing in and it makes the words you use most the boldest. It's quite a good tool because then you can compare your changes with the first time you did it.

What barriers/issues/problems can you see with using Wordle at home/school?

No internet. On the iPad it doesn't like using it because I tried and it didn't work. Wordle is a Web Based Java program the equivalent on an iPad may be Word Collage  https://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/word-collage/id527057508?mt=8 

What did you like about Speak Selection - iPad reading your text aloud?

I liked it because it would speed up speaking when there wasn't enough commas and full stops.

What barriers/issues/problems can you see with using Speak Selection at home/school?

It had a Horrible voice which made it a bit frustrating but you could have it set to your voice maybe.

What did you like about Book Creator?

It was a good way to set out your work. Once you knew how to use it, it was quite good.

What barriers/issues/problems can you see with using Book Creator?

Not knowing how to use it. It took a while to figure out to change the font and change the size of the words. It was just quite fiddly in general.

What other tools or digital opportunities would you like to see at school?

Getting to use more apps in school to help our learning. I think that the teachers need some training about new apps to help kids in the classroom.

Anything else you would like to share about the day?

It was a good use of my work day.

Creating personal knowledge from existing knowledge - Understanding the How

Agency, Collaboration, Connectedness and Ubiquity are all catch words in the New Zealand education sector.

But do we truly understand these terms as educators. Along with two of my colleagues we attempted to gain a greater understanding of Agency as we were about to present to a cluster of schools at a teacher only day.

Having mentioned these terms in workshops in the past we were quite surprised to discover that between the 3 of us our understanding of Agency was not very consistent or well formed in our heads.

So we looked to existing knowledge to help us clarify our understanding. After turning to Art Costa, Derek Wenmoth and numerous other papers and articles we started to form a greater understanding of agency especially when we had to think about teaching others about it. By collaborating together on the presentation and bouncing our ideas and thoughts about agency, a greater clarification occurred for ourselves. The ability to connect with others thinking at anytime ensured our learning could occur when we were ready, as we all needed to first process some aspects of the new knowledge before we could move on.

Keywords from Art Costa's Video

The personal knowledge of agency that I have gained through this collaborative approach of synthesising existing knowledge has enabled me to understand agency and also see a much bigger picture when it comes to Modern Learning Practise.

What we need to focus on as educators in this new and exiting time is not the Why or What aspects of technology in the classroom, as these are focussed on continuously and often lead to the digital tools being used as consumptive or as substitutes for traditional tools.

Instead we need to focus and unpack the How. Looking at Agency, Ubiquity, Collaboration and Connectedness. By focussing on the "How" we can use the digital tools to ensure personalised learning, creativity and sharing are embedded in our practise. 

So the next time you open a Google Doc for your learners, start to think "this is not a word processing tool", instead see Google Docs as an opportunity to increase collaboration, give learners agency, connect them outside the classroom and allow them to learn anywhere and anytime.

The writing process and a Year 9 Student - My reflection

Last Friday I had the opportunity to work with a student from the local college who was on work day and I employed her to play with some of the apps I had found and to give me feedback from a students points of view. I was thinking as part of the writing process she could use digital technologies to enable her to express her creativity.Megan is a Year 9 who does not particularly enjoy writing however she is a very creative person.

Megan started by using Popplet to create a brainstorm of what she wanted to write about. After a few moments it was apparent that she needed more guidance around the topic and what to write about. Using Write About app gave her some ideas to create her story. Once Megan had chosen a topic she asked if she could brainstorm her ideas using pen and paper.

Once Megan completed the brainstorm I asked to her to create a copy using Popplet so she had an experience of using Popplet as a brainstorming tool.

Reflection of Popplet

On reflection some students would not choose Popplet as their first choice as a brainstorming tool and neither would I. To brainstorm I like to get my ideas on paper as it gives me more freedom to quickly build a mental image of my thinking.

In hindsight I tend to use an electronic brainstorm when I need to publish the output and would generally still choose paper over digital for my own personal use. In a class situation with a group brainstorm I can see the power of collaborative brainstorms that are digital and would lean towards Popplet or similar.

Drafting was done using Dictanote as was this reflection. Dictanote was not an easy tool to use on the Megan’s Acer Laptop as the microphone did not pick up the words well. We tried to calibrate the microphone and used the train the computer to Megan’s voice with little success. We also tried my Macbook however I think it was tuned into my voice and this did not work well either.

Reflection of Dictanote

• Works best on an individuals own device
• need to set spoken i to capitalise to I
• Takes awhile to learn the tool but worth the effort (device also takes awhile to learn your voice)
• Speak naturally and pause to allow dictanote to catch up
• realise there will be mistakes that need to be fixed later (try not to fix as you go)
• Really need a good brainstorm with good sequence to help prompt speaker what to say next
• Stop mic recording to enable think time
• Text will need cut and pasted into a word doc or equivalent to edit

Using google docs Megan drafted her writing using her handwritten brainstorm as a guide.  On completion of drafting we cut and pasted her text into Wordle keeping the common words boxed ticked to enable repeated words to be shown larger on the wordle.

We used Wordle to see which words were most commonly used, in the case above we focussed on cutting back the use of and. From the Wordle Megan focussed on what words can be changed in her writing to make it more interesting.

Reflection of Wordle

• Needs flash plugin on a Mac
• Fantastic to focus students into words they have used too much. The above Wordle shows how Megan used and to join sentences together.
• Visual easy to see or screenshot

Finally we turned track changes on in Google Docs and Megan went about the process of editing her writing.

I emailed the text of the document to myself and opened the email on my iPad. This enabled me to use speak selection on the iPad and get Megan's text read aloud so she could hear her mistakes. The less punctuation the faster the iPad speaks the text, so easier to hear where punctuation needs to go.

Reflection of Speak Selection

• Easy to use
• Makes mistakes very obvious
• Student can hear and fix the mistakes as they go
• The less punctuation the faster the iPad reads, inserting punctuation correctly, slows down the speaker.

Finally we used Book Creator to publish Megan’s writing by cutting and pasting the text from the google doc into Book Creator. Some images were added to the book and then it was published to iBooks and as a PDF.

On reflection the day was a great success for me as I gained a lot of in sights in how to use the apps in a class situation. I also feel it was successful for Megan as she produced a good piece of writing and hopefully will use some of the tools she used with me in her own work. Even though it looks like a long process it was very quick to flick between apps and digital tools to complete the writing.

Dictanote or an equivalent app really would allow a reluctant writer much greater opportunities to get text onto a page as long as you are willing to give some time to learn the skill of dictating text.

Thank you very much Megan for allowing me the opportunity to work with you.

MLP and LwDT Workshops

Reading Campfires in Cyberspace has got me thinking about our new Modern Learning Practices in relation to our LwDT PLD contract. We have an opportunity to create a new way of delivering PLD to schools. On reflection of the article below it has made me think we should be looking at modelling MLP in all our workshop sessions, TOD and Leadership forums. The idea of campfires, waterholes and caves needs to be factored into the learning, whether this is during or after the “session”. A campfire obviously is often catered for in the expert delivery model but what about opportunities for watering hole interactions and quiet, reflective cave experiences. How do you set up a watering hole or cave experience in the setting of a staff room or Hyde House? The cave experience may in fact occur in the car on the drive home or at some quiet reflection time in the learners life. With a bit of thinking we could set up exciting learning opportunities that will model and enhance learning. What are your thoughts?

Excerpt from Campfires in Cyberspace:Primordial Metaphors for Learning in the 21st Century David D. Thornburg, Ph.D.

There was a mathematics conference. A thousand or so school teachers gathered for a weekend at the beautiful location on the Pacific coast to learn more about the teaching of mathematics. Numerous presenters shared their insights through formal, scheduled, presentations. Exhibitors had their wares on display in a separate hall. Meals were held in a huge dining room, and lodging was on-site so people with common interests can share their ideas into the early hours of the morning. A visitor to this conference would see, at any given time, examples of all four learning environments. Some attendees sat in conference rooms listening to experts sharing their insights. The glow of the campfire is replaced by that of the overhead or computer projector, but the metaphor of the shaman or troubadour remained intact.Outside these conference rooms, other participants gathered at the exhibit hall, shuttle bus stops, main lodge, or other gathering places where they shared ideas with each other. These interactions ranged from choosing an off-campus restaurant for a special dinner, to sharing new strategies for introducing calculus to children in middle school. In the absence of a clearly defined watering hole, gathering spots are chosen by convenience. As in the film, Field of Dreams, “if you build it, they will come.” The exhibit hall, Asilomar lodge and dining hall are probably the closest this conference came to providing metaphorical watering holes. In addition to the two settings in which people are grouped together, the conference visitor would also see people walking by themselves along the trails through the dunes to the ocean shore. Individuals might sit for hours looking at the water, exploring the trees on the grounds, or just engaged in quiet thought. This “cave time” is facilitated by the nature of the Asilomar site. In fact, the ability of this one site to support all three of these learning environments probably accounts for its great popularity as a conference center, even if these multiple aspects of the facility are never overtly addressed. And, finally, participants might gather in informal groups to try ideas out to be sure they truly understood them before the conference was over.

 Compared to

 A major invitational conference on educational technology in Washington, DC had brought an audience of about 600 highly regarded experts together for an intensive two days of presentations. The presentations were set up back to back, with no breaks until lunchtime, and then again after lunch with no breaks until dinnertime.The presentations were (generally) excellent. For example, Arthur C. Clarke held us spellbound with his visions of the future during a live two-way remote video conference from Sri Lanka. Even so, by lunchtime on the first day, there was a lot of grumbling from the attendees. They had been exposed to some intense campfires with no access to watering holes or caves. The conference was so tightly scheduled that several people complained of “overload.” On the one hand, people were free to walk out of sessions they didn’t like, but the presentations were of such high caliber (or the presenters were so well known) that most people were reluctant to walk out. Even so, by the second day, the audience had started to vote with its feet, building in breaks where none existed.This experience brought home to me the importance of scheduling in opportunities for all four learning experiences, and showed the disaster that awaits those who neglect the need for balance.

Modern Learning Environments

The following blog post is excerpts that interest me from 
Mark Osbornes White Paper  and other readings.
Reflective Questions

● What is your school’s vision for teaching and learning? Does everyone share this vision?
How do you know? Which aspects of your school culture would you like to improve? How
would you measure the improvement?
● What are the key pedagogies required by teachers in the 21st century? Are these the ones
in use in your school most days? What systems and processes are in place to help
teachers reflect on their own practice and learn from each other?
● If you were to build a new learning space that reflected your school’s vision and
commitment to learning, what would it look like? What would students need to have access
to over the course of a day? What activities would they engage in over the course of a day?
What technology would be required to support this?
● If curriculum, pedagogy and learning environments are helping to make learning more
personalised, what other elements of the schooling ecosystem need to change? Who is a
‘teacher’ and who is a ‘learner’?

Learning Studios
A da Vinci studio might help students to combine art and science to make discoveries.
In the same way that Leonardo da Vinci used his artistic and scientific skills to invent
helicopters, bicycles and submarines, what might our future students invent in a studio
that contained space for experimenting, building, testing, drawing, studying, observing,
questioning, discussing, debating?

An Einstein studio might house quiet spaces that encourage reflection and exploration
of difficult, abstract concepts. The acoustics would be subdued, allowing students to stay
‘in the flow’ with difficult ideas without being interrupted by noise. Deep reflection might
be encouraged by personalised furniture, technology, lighting and access to resources.

What might these studios look like?
• Ralph Hotere studio combining art, politics and society
• Karen Walker studio combining design, business and innovation
• Jamie Oliver studio combining health, nutrition and social justice
•      A Dan Carter Studio

Caves, Campfires and Watering Holes
Watering hole - coming together to share, brainstorm, exchange ideas, modify ideas
Mountain Top - A place to celebrate your your learning, presenting
Sandpit - a place to play, experiment, create, destroy, prototype with learning
Cave - a quiet place to reflect, question, draw conclusions and make connections
Campfire - share stories, exchange ideas and allow the group to build on each others’ ideas.

MLE Matrix
How children learn
Visible Learning - Hattie (Govt Treasury)

Machines for learning -Mark Osborne
The house is a machine for living, the school should be a machine for learning.
Schools of past where machines for listening, sitting and writing as a whole class.
Should not look like industrial model as longer need to impart knowledge to learners at that level.

Young learners will make their living through creativity, ingenuity and imagination - Charles
Alive in the swamp - Michael Fullan and Katelyn Donnelly - graph of love of school

Vision needs to drive MLE as it does for all aspects of the school. It's not what you know but what you can do with what you know.
Individual instruction is very inefficient way of teaching as no social, collaborative reflective learning. Inquiry teaching and teaching as inquiry very powerful tools. Adult tutors and same age tutor learn about same amount. Cross age tutors more powerful for both individuals. Hattie

http://openlearningspaces.blogspot.co.nz/ 

Need a new name for Bar Leaners in schools! Is it not funny that good pubs and bars were MLE in design by providing a variety of spaces years ago. How come education has taken so long?

Further reflection of Engaging Diverse Akonga

After removing some of the content from my last presentation and adding in Todd Roses Video I felt the session went much better. Removing the google form and just discussing some possible solutions enabled more time to actually play with Tellagami and Text selection. I still need to link to or create a step by step instuctions for tellagami.

As it was not a big staff I did not have to worry about talking over them and I did feel more comfortable with quiet time, however at times still tried to fill the void of silence, this will be an on going skill to develop.

Reflection of the Engaging Diverse Akonga

I came away from the session a bit flat as I felt I could have done better. I was already reflecting on the session as I was completing it.
It was great to get guidance and feedback from Emily during and after the session.
Why did I feel flat

1. Too much content next time I will drop the google form and also text typer as the staff where very involved in filling out the padlet and google doc and put a lot of thought into this. I might look at combing the form and doc together some how.
2. I did not cover Puppet Pals as I think that on the day text selection on the iPad and Tellagmi was enough.

Why I should not have felt flat

1. The staff were really engaged and enjoyed the diversity simulator really getting into the role play.
2. New content for most of the staff.
3. Positive feedback both verbal and written.