Mrs_Banjer’s Blog

Way back in 2008 I became involved in the Education Queensland trial of Virtual Worlds led by Colleen Stieler-Hunt.  A number of us who had applied to join the adventure explored five online worlds and worked collaboratively online to establish if this type of learning environment was appropriate for school based teaching and learning experiences.  (http://bit.ly/bOTvbG).  We made frequent reports and collaborated with the other Team Leaders on the direction of the trial.  Towards the conclusion of the trial a couple of us were invited with Colleen to share our adventures at the eLearning Innovation Expo held at the Powerhouse in 2008.

Virtual Worlds remain on the elearning agenda, Deb Jones who is a Senior Project Officer with the Learning Place is continuing the project.  Currently students in remote locations are meeting to explore and collaborate together.

Hargreaves, A 2003, ‘Beyond standardization: professional learning communities or performance-training sects?’, Teaching in the knowledge society, Teachers College Press, New York, pp. 160–88.

Which model reflects my workplace?

Unfortunately there are elements of each area highlighted by Hargreaves alive and kicking in the institution.  Management of individual schools is a major factor.  I will focus on the positive.  Hargreaves describes cultures of professional learning ranging from “permissive individualism” where teachers work alone, perhaps spearheading short term innovation; to the other end of an extreme “performance training sects”  to encourage the re-culturing of the education institution (2003, p. 164).  Engaging teachers in collaboration through a regime of contracts, the Digital Pedagogy Licence is a move such as this, encouraging teaching staff to reflect on and celebrate their digital pedagogy with the reward of institutional recognition.  Administration are also expected to become involved as the contractual element is linked to the ICT index rating of each school in part linked to the successful participation of staff in the process.  “it’s about building capability and supporting change of practice” @drewqld on Twitter, 5.44pm April 9th, 2010.

Professional Learning Communities contract teachers to work collaboratively in response to data to create innovative means of responding to the needs of students.  The goal is to “promote shared learning and improvement.” (Hargreaves, 2003, p. 170)  The professional learning community focuses on the positive rather than seeking to embarrass working through ‘teamwork, inquiry and continuous learning.’  A number of the policies for promoting PLCs cited by Hargreaves are evident within EQ.  Leadership Development through Principal practicums available at the LIC and ongoing professional support.  School inspection and accreditation, seed money for self-learning, professional self-regulation, professional networks, regionalization of professional development and support services.  There are barriers to the progress of these policies, a large number of staff who block the integration of ICT experiences for numerous reasons.  For these people performance-training sects offer a reform strategy, large scale initiatives that ‘prescribe compliance and consistency.’ (Hargreaves, 2003, p. 176)  This will be described in a future post!

That is THE observation I am sharing.  Somehow this semester has flown past and I am now attempting to catch my tail and record my reflections.  Last week, the final calls for Assignment 2 (FET5601) were being posted and I was <this close> to throwing in the towel.  Somehow all of the excellent ideas and projects I was involved in came tumbling in on each other and deadlines were flying around right, left and centre.  As I pushed through the grey cloud that was descending, certain that something had to give way it occurred to me that online activities, connections that I had initiated or responded to were by their nature flexible.  Asynchronous meetings are recorded and can be listened to later, blog posts can be responded to any time, online chats can occur any time anywhere.

Most of my commitments are virtual, it is the face to face events which bring a lead boot into the equation.  The course I am doing through USQ has allowed me to read when I want.  Communications through Twitter and Facebook with various committees are ongoing 24/7, work commitments although in the main prepared for, require tweaking on the day they are used but again there is flexibility as to when that is done.  Real life deadlines for assignments are a real dead weight.

My point here being why are deadlines (read that as assignment due dates) insisted upon?  Surely connectivism and the associated philosophies should guide course designers who relate to this approach to be including ongoing assessment and evaluation to monitor participant progress.

An example: http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/AnAutomaticAnalogDigitalClock/