The Connected Educator

One of the basic principles of the Scottish curriculum is the concept of the ‘learner’ at the centre’ or the learner as responsible citizen, reflected in the curriculum outcomes which consist of a series of statements beginning, ‘I can……’  The attraction of this format is that it shifts the emphasis from teaching to learning, and places the responsibility for learning exactly where it should be – with the learner. Supporters of the new curriculum, and I am one, have argued that its values, principles and purposes could apply equally well to teachers as to students, which is one of the central themes of a new book from American educators Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Lani Ritter Hall.

I wonder how much longer it will be necessary to preface any educational discourse with a statement about how dramatically the world has changed since the turn of the century, but in case there is still any doubt, the authors of The Connected Educator - Learning and Leading in a Digital Age, reflecting the words and thoughts of  Sir Ken Robinson, lay it clearly and eloquently on the line:

“Producing a skilled workforce in the past required standardization that was easily replicable across classrooms – a need for predictable curriculum and methods. Drill and practice may have prepared a generation of factory workers, but it will not educate learners for tomorrow’s world of work. Schools have habitually prepared students for life by making them dependent on others to teach them, rather than placing power over learning into the learner’s hands. Classrooms that operate like connected learning communities- where students do meaningful work related to service learning and social justice – prepare students for their futures, not ours.”

At the heart of The Connected Educator is an irresistible argument for a new model of professional development to fit the modern-day classroom, one where educators are learners first and teachers second. Connected learners take responsibility for their own professional development. They figure out what they need to learn and then collaborate with others to construct the knowledge they need. Instead of waiting for professional learning to be organized and delivered to them, connected learners contribute, interact, share ideas, and reflect. The ‘connected learning community’ model advances a three-pronged approach to professional development:

Local community: Purposeful, face-to-face connections among members of a committed group – a professional learning community (PLC).

Global network: Individually chosen, online connections with a diverse collection of people and resources from around the world – a personal learning network (PLN).

Bounded community: A committed, collective, and often global group of individuals who have overlapping interests and recognise a need for connections that go deeper than the professional learning community or the personal learning network can provide – a community of practice or inquiry (CoP).

*The main difference between personal learning networks and personal learning communities is that the work of professional learning communities is designed around the specific, identified needs of the school and its students while personal learning networks are something that educators design for themselves to further their short-term and long-term goals for professional growth and personal learning. While each can benefit from the other, they are distinctly different. Communities of practice, on the other hand, are made up of people with a common interest, who collaborate to learn to do it better. By way of illustration, the authors offer the examples of a group of diet enthusiasts experimenting with eliminating grains from recipes without reducing taste, programmers working on an open-source computer application, nurses seeking to reduce errors in hospitals, or educators working to promote writing across the curriculum.

This book will challenge many of your assumptions about learning and about classroom practice. It will make many teachers, young and old, feel uncomfortable for a while as they are asked to ‘unlearn’ much of what would have been taken for granted in the pre-internet era. To take just one example, the  following extracts from the text would make an ideal starter for a lively discussion at any staff gathering. Consider especially, each of the statements listed in the second paragraph:

“Connected learning is a process of learning, unlearning, and then relearning as we participate in networks and communities. A fast-changing world creates a need to unlearn tacit knowledge (Brown, 2001). Unlearning is necessary, although it is often difficult and painful because it involves grieving for what we leave behind………….

Yet in most schools, still, the assumptions are that learning is an individual process, that learning has a beginning and an end, that learning happens in schools separately from the rest of life’s activities, and that learning is the result of teaching. Technology is beginning to shift those assumptions and change the way, we, as educators, learn.”

Nussbaum-Beach and Ritter Hall draw on their own extensive experience to provide solid practical advice on how to go about creating that all-important connected learning community. A whole chapter devoted to finding and using the best online tools for the job, invaluable especially for digital ‘newbies’, comes with the caution that what matters above all else is the building of personal relationships, and leads to my favourite line from the book:

“Contrary to what many techno-enthusiasts believe, he who has the most tools does not win.”

Having challenged us to examine our current practice, a key message of The Connected Educator is that educators (the term ‘teacher’ is avoided, something which will challenge many in itself), as well as taking responsibility for their own learning, ought to think of themselves more often and take the time to build their own networks, a task which the authors admit takes ‘time, effort, and perseverance’. Ultimately though, the tone of the book  is overwhelmingly optimistic and, far from being a threat to teachers or another dull ‘handbook’, it is an encyclopedia of useful information, inspirational in its themes, and infinite in its reach:

“As you start to think about change in technology and education, do not change anything about how you teach or lead. Instead, change everything about how you learn. Be selfish for a time, and make everything about you and your learning. By becoming a learner first and educator second, you are serving your students and will be in a better position to model lifelong adaptive learning strategies for your students. You can’t give what you do not own.”

TeachMeet Ayr

Last week I had the honour of chairing the first ever TeachMeet Ayrshire, on the campus of UWS (University of the West of Scotland) in beautiful Craigie Park. It was only the second TM I had ever attended, but as we approach the fifth anniversay of the first ever event from an original idea of Ewan McIntosh, the appetite for such meetings shows no sign of diminishing. A capacity crowd packed into a computer lab in the former Craigie College – soon to be abandoned in favour of a state-of-the-art building on the banks of the River Ayr – and they were joined by many others who couldn’t be there in person, via the live video stream. Topics ranged from ‘Geocaching In and Out of the Classroom’ to ‘How to Motivate the Demotivated’ with a strong emphasis on active and outdoor learning. Discussion was lively and animated, the emphasis very much on the fun of learning. Especially pleasing was the wide demographic of the audience as well as the presenters, from students and newly-qualified teachers to those with many years of experience behind them, representing primary, secondary,  further and higher education, youth work and outdoor education.

For teachers and others who are unfamiliar with TeachMeet, it is a structured but informal gathering of teachers, coming together to share ideas and classroom practice; teachmeets often take place alongside more formal conferences as ‘fringe’ events, are slightly anarchic in nature, and encourage the belief that the best professional development for teachers comes from listening and talking to fellow professionals. Originally the emphasis was on the innovative use of technology, but increasingly the discussion is about general pedagogy. Participants may volunteer beforehand to make a standard 7-minute presentation or a 2-minute nano-presentation, and presenters are chosen randomly during the event, meaning that there is no guarantee that anyone will ‘make the cut’, no matter who they are or what their background is. TeachMeet is not about being lectured to by experts, and therein lies its main attraction.

Let Tim and Moby of BrainPop explain it better than I do!

TEACHMEET UK Ayrshire [SaveYouTube.com]

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The Lewis Chessmen

Storm clouds roll in across Lerwick Harbour

This time last week I was in Shetland on the final leg of the Discovery Film Festival Road Show, presenting a CPD session on Moving Image Education with a number of local teachers, and preparing to brace myself against the hurricane-force winds which were about to batter the islands later that night. The weather was so severe in fact that a number of children who were due to come from the neighbouring Bressay to our screening of The Secret of Kells on Friday morning were unable to come when their small ferry was cancelled.

Some of the famous Lewis Chessmen

Despite the weather we had a great time, and I also took the opportunity to have a look around the Lewis Chessmen Unmasked exhibition which is currently in the Shetland Museum until the end of March when, appropriately, it moves on to Stornoway on Lewis.  One of the most significant and iconic archaological finds ever in Scotland, the beautifully crafted chess pieces were carved from walrus tusks and whale teeth, probably in or around Trondheim in Norway in the 12th Century. How they came to be lost and subsequently re-found on the west coast of Lewis, and what has happened to them since, is as good a real-life detective story as you will find anywhere. The Lewis Chessmen Unmasked website is also beautifully crafted and has loads of great activities for children and teachers. Go there and immerse yourself in the story now.

Read more from me on The Lewis Chessmen here.

Watch a trailer for the beautiful animation The Secret of Kells and find some excellent classroom activities here.

The Secret Of Kells – Promotional Trailer

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You can buy a replica set of the Lewis Chessman here.

Discovering the Western Isles

The Literacy Adviser is currently on tour to Skye, Lewis and Shetland with the Discovery Film Festival road show. We are screening some fantastic short films from around the world for young audiences, as well as public screenings for all ages, and tailored CPD sessions for primary and secondary teachers at each of the venues. The venture is aimed at raising awareness of the range of short films  available (emphasis on SHORT which is the key to using films successfully),  and demonstrating the ways in which film texts can be used in the classroom to develop literacy skills using a medium which is familiar and engaging. On a slightly different but related note, plans are well under way to include moving image texts in the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy from 2012. I have been working with the assessment team at SQA and a great bunch of highly committed teachers on that front and I hope to be blogging about it very soon. Watch this space!

Multiple Intelligence Re-Visited

One of my favourite modern-day educational thinkers is Howard Gardner, whose Theory of Multiple Intelligences changed the approach of many teachers in the last decade or so of the twentieth century. The notion that instead of asking ‘how smart are you?’ we should be asking ‘how are you smart?’ arrived, for me, like a bolt of lightning, simultaneously lighting up the way forward for learning, teaching, schools and education, and blowing away the myth that the only way to learn was by reading from a book or listening to an expert, and that the only way to prove your learning was through a written test.

Gardner’s reputation suffered somewhat when a minority of over-zealous teachers misunderstood what he was advocating, started labelling children according to their ‘preferred learning style’ (sometimes putting them in long-term groups with like-minded children) and trying to cater for the various learning styles simultaneously in every lesson, thereby driving themselves, and presumably the young people, to distraction. What Gardner was actually suggesting was that teachers take into account the fact that learners are individuals, and that learning is more effective when the differences between individuals are taken into account, rather than denied. Nor was he suggesting that it is possible for an individual to learn in only one way. Here he is, in his own words, from Intelligence Reframed – Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century, published in 1999:-

“…..whether or not staff members have ever heard of MI theory, I would happily send my children to a school that takes differences among children seriously, that shares knowledge about differences with children and parents, that encourages children to assume responsibility for their own learning, and that presents materials in such a way that each child has the maximum opportunity to master those materials and to show others and themselves what they have learned and understood.”

Fortunately, Edutopia have recently revisited their 1997 interview with the Harvard University professor, along with a full transcript of the talk. Recommended professional development for all teachers, new or otherwise

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1

Storytyne Gateshead

For me, narrative is at the heart of learning, so you can guess how delighted I was to be part of the Storytyne Conference in Gateshead on Friday. Organised by the irrepressible Steve Bunce (@stevebunce), Regional Manager of Vital in the North East, the event was headlined by the amazing Tim Rylands, aided and abetted by his lovely partner Sarah (@sarahneild). If there’s anyone out there promoting literacy for young people in more exciting and innovative ways than this couple, I’d like to meet them. It also gave me the opportunity to meet and hear a number of people I had only met previously on Twitter, including Bill Lord (@Joga5), who certainly didn’t disappoint. A great storyteller himself, Bill shared with us some of his work as a Primary Literacy Adviser, which he does with such enthusiasm that he has been known to dress up as Burglar Bill to take part in a webcast with kids from various schools. Both Tim and Bill have blogged at length about Friday’s event. Read their accounts of the day’s events here and here.

For my own part, it gave me the opportunity to introduce a whole new group of teachers to the joys of Inanimate Alice, the digital novel which I have spoken about previously in the blog. Breaking my own rules on PowerPoint, where I would normally focus on images and very few words, this time I put together a few slides consisting of some powerful quotes – gathered mainly from the Inanimate Alice website – which represent a small sample from teachers around the world. If you follow the links on the last slide you will find some interesting resources as well as some lesson plans and case studies. You can also catch up with Alice and friends on Twitter and Facebook.

In the final session of the day, Tim and Sarah rattled through some of the many free Web tools which are available to help teachers and young people develop their language skills. I will be reviewing some of these in the weeks to come, but if you can’t wait to find out what they are you can find links to all of them here. This list was created using Linkbunch, another handy little tool I hadn’t heard of before. As if that wasn’t enough, delegates left with a handful of goodies, including the very useful Thinking Dice, and they were even invited to take away their own ‘storychairs’.

In a very full and busy day, some of the key messages for teachers:

• Storytelling is a vital part of learning. Do everything you can to encourage young people to tell their stories.
• Think carefully about how you construct your own learning and teaching narratives.
• Don’t be limited by outdated definitions of ‘text’.
• There are no reluctant readers, only the wrong books.
• There is a plethora of free online tools available to help you (and the kids) make exciting narratives, but it isn’t about technology. Talking and listening to stories, exploring, thinking critically, and creating, are what really matters.
• Start with what they know. Young people who think that their stories are not worth telling, are wrong.
• You can’t write about what you haven’t experienced. Immerse young people in experiences before asking them to write.
• Visit other worlds, real and virtual. Put them in situations and ask them to record what they see, feel, hear, smell. Take time to look around.  One of my favourite quotes from Tim’s presentation: ‘Don’t just do something, stand there!’
• Stories are not just about fantasy and make-believe. Information is communicated via stories too.

Thanks again to all of those who were involved and to the organisers, especially Steve Bunce, for a truly magical day. I hear a rumour that a storytelling roadshow may be in the pipeline, but like those subtly dropped hints about Christmas presents past, I don’t want to think about it too much in case it doesn’t happen.

Flip’n Dumfries

Spent another highly enjoyable day yesterday working with some very dedicated primary teachers, in the beautiful new Lincluden Primary School in Dumfries. We were looking at the development of higher order reading skills in young people, and the seven reading strategies which are really beginning to take hold and cause a bit of excitement amongst practitioners -see earlier posts on Snow White and the Seven Reading Strategies. The event also gave me an opportunity to try out my new toy, a Flip Ultra HD video camera, which I believe has enormous potential for use in the classroom as a tool to improve reading and communication skills. These pocket video cameras are easily affordable, easy to use, and connect directly into a PC or laptop to produce instant results. The quality to price ratio is really quite amazing, as I hope you can tell from this short clip. The files were cut to size using the inbuilt Flip editing facility, converted to mpg using Zamzar, the free online conversion site, uploaded to Windows MovieMaker and stitched together for the final product. The whole process took no more than half an hour. With thanks and best wishes to the brave people who were willing to sit in front of the camera and be used as guinea pigs. I hope you feel it was worth it.

Dumgal

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To find out some of the best ideas for using video in the classroom have a look at this excellent post – Forty-Three Interesting Ways to Use Your Pocket Video in the Classroom -  from the amazingly talented and informative Tom Barrett.

Brave New World

I would guess this is by far the most significant post I have written since I started the blog, as today I announce to the world that I will be leaving Learning and Teaching Scotland in early July and stepping out into the world on my own as an independent learning consultant. Finally, I will actually be The Literacy Adviser, and the title of the blog will be a reality rather than a statement of intent. I never really knew what I wanted to be when I grew up, and while it’s too early to establish whether I have finally grown up or not, the prospect of being completely independent is at once daunting and hugely exciting.

Having been an English teacher, a Principal Teacher, Staff Tutor, Depute Headteacher, and latterly an Education Manager at LTS, the time has come for me to really put myself to the test and see whether I actually have the knowledge and skills which I have been claiming all that time. Again, after working for just over thirty years in the public sector, for the first time in my life I will be selling my wares in the educational market place, but to paraphrase Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, we’re all selling ourselves in one way or another. The market is depressed at the moment of course, but it is something of a paradox that only by investing in teacher training and education generally will the country be able to move out of recession. And just in case I forget what the education business is all about, I’m planning to do some supply teaching as well.

If one or more of the following statements applies to you, then you need to contact me as soon as possible to discuss what I can do for you (see, I’m warming to it already):-

• I have just taken on a responsibility for developing literacy in my area of work
• My staff need to have a better awareness of Curriculum for Excellence
• I would like to explore Moving Image Education but don’t know where to start
• We need to improve our literacy results in P6/ P7/ S1/ S2
• Our school cluster would like to develop reading strategies to improve transition from primary to secondary
• I would like to explore the use of new technologies but I don’t have the time and I’m a bit scared of it all
• I know we should involve our parents more but we never seem to get to it
• I need to develop a better understanding of literacy as “the responsibilty of all” within my school
• I am organising an event and I need a first-class presenter/facilitator/chairperson
• In preparation for the new literacy qualification, we want to look at how to develop e-portfolios

 

I hope that gives you a flavour of what I am about. Over the coming weeks and months I will be using the blog to upload resources, advertise events and share what insights I have gained into the vision of Curriculum for Excellence. In the meantime, here is a brief summary of some of the areas I will be working in, and where I can offer support and advice to teachers, schools, local authorities and others:-

Reading Strategies to Improve Literacy

Improving literacy is a key feature of most education improvement plans, yet there is often a lack of clarity about how it can be achieved. Motivation, and understanding the key strategies involved in developing higher order reading skills, are the route to success. Over the past couple of years I have been looking at what some of the world’s leading thinkers have been saying about reading development and at the key strategies we employ as we move from acquiring basic reading skills to becoming sophisticated readers. These strategies are often regarded as “instinctive” but in order to be effective they need to be made explicit to learners, and before they can be made explicit, teachers need to be aware of what they are and how they can be developed.

 Improving the Transition from Primary to Secondary

HMIE’s Improving Scottish Education report in January 2009 had some fairly damning comments about the primary-secondary transition, confirming that in the first year of secondary school young people are still too often “passive observers in lessons”, and going on to say that “while many schools recognise that improving links with primary schools helps progression in learning, too many do not build on what has been achieved in P7.” While we are now very good at the social aspects of transition from primary to secondary, we are failing to build on prior learning when young people enter secondary school. Developing a common pedagogy, especially around literacy, can change all that.

 Improving Literacy through Moving Image Education

I have recently joined Scottish Screen’s core group of Lead Practitioners in Moving Image Education. This is an area which has huge potential for teachers as they come to terms with the re-definition of “texts” in Curriculum for Excellence – using the kind of texts which most of us engage with on a daily basis viz., short films. Through an understanding of the film-making process and through working collaboratively, young people develop the “traditional” literacy skills of talking and listening, reading and writing, while at the same time developing critical thinking skills and a better awareness of modern media.                                           

 Using Web 2.0 technologies to Improve Learning and Teaching

Working in Learning and Teaching Scotland has given me the opportunity to develop a wide range of skills and knowledge of new technologies, internet and networking tools – such as Blogging, Wikis, Twitter, Delicious and a host of others – which can make learning and teaching much more fun and effective, and at no extra cost! Finding the right resources for the modern-day classroom need not be an issue if you know where to look, and with a few simple lessons teachers and learners can become part of a global learning network.

 From Inputs to Outcomes – Making Sense of the Literacy and English Framework

As one of the original writing team for the Literacy and English Framework, I have a comprehensive understanding of the thinking behind the Experiences and Outcomes, and of Curriculum for Excellence generally. I have presented extensively on various aspects of Curriculum for Excellence over the past couple of years to a wide range of audiences. Whether you are looking at specific outcomes, beginning to look at interdisciplinary approaches, or trying to ensure that literacy is at the centre of learning and teaching in your area of responsibility, I can offer you unrivalled support and advice.