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.

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!

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.

I am eclectic in my professional learning tastes.  I follow links posted on my social networking sites, usually aimed at facets of education.  I also attempt to keep my personal web space up date and every so often will become focused on learning how to add things to the site, e.g. a flickr cloud.  I also speak at conferences once in a while about my experiences or to share IT skills.  So in my professional role I am staying up to date with trends, usually via contacts on Twitter or Plurk.  At school I lead a group of teachers working towards their Digital Pedagogy Licence.  A couple are really committed and turn up each week which is great, others have signed up but are coping with demands on their time.

So what I want is a fix for engaging the others, we have a virtual classroom through which I share reading and reflection material. I post links to Learning Place, Smart Classroom and various other professional readings.

Learning Place

Smart Classrooms

Delicious links

The knowledge economy.  How do you access it?  I have been engaging in this digital environment for a few years, I am at the point where I do have my opinions but there are others who are more vocal or more successful at succinctly stating their points of view.  Others again who have power to act on and follow through, that is the power of the digital PLN (personal learning network).  I can peek into the conversations of those who hold the power.  Your network gives you “know who”  accessing knowledge via social media such as Twitter which is one way to develop a network and one I subscribe to.

Big picture trends, digital advances forward have been innovative and inspiring, especially of late with the introduction of the new Learning Place.  Education Queensland has been encouraging staff to get involved in recognizing and explaining their own good pedagogy through the Digital Pedagogy Licence, Certificate or Advanced Licence.  The Smart Classrooms initiative has been moving forward from the introduction of a managed operating environment to provide uniform standards and system for all students and staff to work with, through to providing a space that encourages collaboration, connectedness, reflection, support, pedagogical conversation, student input – and more. “The overriding aim of the Smart Classrooms strategy is to make ICT integral to learning.”  http://www.learningplace.com.au/deliver/content.asp?pid=47912

My digital position.  I enjoy constant contact with my global personal learning network.  Most of my connections on Twitter are with educators of all fields – university, leaders in the field, classroom teachers, student teachers from all over the world.  Each time I sweep through the stream of 140 character comments I get a link to follow to something new, innovative or inspiring.  If I am lost for ideas or need to find out about something Twitter and Google or Google Scholar are where I head to first. I have been involved in a couple of successful online projects.  I love the annual 365 photos on Flickr, I don’t get through the whole year but it is wonderful seeing what others see through their view finders.  I collaborated with a teacher in Germany a couple of years ago who was after English language practice for her students.  My computer club set up a project room and we had a wonderful time sharing photos, using comic chat and exchanging cultural gifts.  We were both awarded for our collaborative efforts.

My next step is to be more vocal, to learn how to succinctly explain my beliefs about digital pedagogy in face to face situations.  On paper or online I have the time to reflect before I publish, when I present at conferences or PD sessions I am leading from the front. My goal is to develop as a facilitator, to be able to engage others in meaningful discussion, substantive conversations that highlight the power of effective digital pedagogy, to overcome the barriers of those who block themselves and limit the experiences they have the potential to provide.

Until recently I added content to virtual classrooms without reference to design theory or research.  I responded to requests and generated online spaces which contained resources.  FET5601 has reinforced my drive for collaborative spaces, offering networking opportunities to expand the breadth of knowledge available to participants – children or adult.

FINAL NOTES:

On reflection, in future I will prepare a timeline on a calendar to improve how I monitor my own progress.  Unforeseen circumstances presented a major obstacle at the end of this course for me.  In the normal course of events time management for this project would have been more successfully handled.

The wealth of resources available, both freely available through online searches and paid for through organisations such as The eLearning Guild (2010) offer scaffolds for appropriately developing online learning experiences.  In future I will evaluate online developments with reference to these resources in order to justify design decisions, which until this point, had generally been made intuitively.

As Garrison (1993) cited in FET 5601 Module 3 Course notes (2010) points out, “If the goal of distance education is to facilitate learners in their construction of meaning, then methods, materials and evaluation must be congruent with that goal” It is a priority to enable the participants in my course to use the media which Blackboard virtual classrooms make available. The method of encouraging networking and communication, a key component following the framework of Connectivism, will needs be a non threatening experience. Materials included in the course are to be driven by the participants who will either share what they know of the resources we have or request assistance as well as material from the Smart Classroom Professional Development Framework to encourage them towards the Digital Pedagogy Licence. Evaluation will be in the form of self assessment as well as my observation of interactions, the quality of their digital portfolios as they develop and the comments of the children in their class who will hopefully notice a difference to their own learning experiences!

Boud (1998) lists the following as “key strategies” for assessment tasks;

“Maximising the use of
• assessment tasks that involve students in meaningful learning and adopting deep approaches to their study.
• learning from each other.
• rich, detailed, descriptive feedback.”

Opportunities will be included that have the potential to provide this type of assessment.

References

Boud, D. (1998) Assessment and learning – unlearning bad habits of assessment. Retrieved December 22, 2007, from http://www.tedi.uq.edu.au/conferences/A_conf/papers/Boud.html

FET 5601 Module 3 Course notes (2010). Retrieved June 29, 2010 from http://usqstudydesk.usq.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=204762

Of interest also is the explicit identification of learning styles.  In my classroom I cater for each child, over time and with constant interaction I am able to determine various approaches to maximise learning potential.  Adults online also require a variety of teaching and learning strategies and it has been made explicit through the readings about adult learners that they are the same.  Reflecting on this for my course, although I see the participants (my teaching colleagues) each day it is only for short periods and we do not have a lot of opportunity for discussion. Either I generate enough variety in the media and resources I provide in the virtual classroom or respond on the spot to their needs.

The Myers Briggs psychometric questionnaire (Myers, McCaulley, Quenk, Hammer & Allen, 1998) would be perfect to indicate the personalities and highlight potential needs but as this formal test is not available I will include a typology test which I have been given at a couple of professional development sessions myself to complete.  It is free and fun – offering links to potential careers and personalities with similar traits.  From there I will know whether to include more individual resources or follow my own interests in online real time forums such as iConnect (Eluminate) or group activities.

References

HumanMetrics.com (1998-2008) Personality test based on Jung – Myers-Briggs Typology. Retrieved May 8, 2010, from http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

Myers, Isabel Briggs; McCaulley Mary H.; Quenk, Naomi L.; Hammer, Allen L. (1998). MBTI Manual (A guide to the development and use of the Myers Briggs type indicator). Consulting Psychologists Press; 3rd ed edition

Nebraska Institute for the Sutdy of Adult Literacy (1997) Assumptions about the adult learner.  Retrieved May 8, 2010, from http://archon.educ.kent.edu/~nebraska/curric/ttim1/aaal.html

Retrieved June 30, 2010 from http://www.kyae.ky.gov/NR/rdonlyres/1F4CD5AF-D1FC-40ED-93B2-61738E0B6084/0/Section2AdultStudent.pdf

As an early years classroom teacher I am constantly negotiating the curriculum with 6 to 8 year olds, as far as teaching to the test (preparation for NAPLAN) will allow when I am designing Learning events. We use the Smarts at my school (http://parklakess.eq.edu.au/wcmss/images/stories/smarts_pamphlet.pdf) to develop a wide range of learning activities for students which attempt to embrace the gamete of learning styles. For example, identifying students’ preferred ways of working offers opportunities for everyone to engage with the curriculum and demonstrate understanding.

Connectivism is also a philosophy which I aspire to.  “A person’s knowledge is the sum of their experiences and network”, a quote from a peer in my Twitter network (@marragem). I see my role as one of facilitator, to establish online communities, to develop a network of peers and contact with knowledgeable others for the children and to set them up in a supportive environment for their rapidly evolving world, where knowledge is at their fingertips as well as a lot of useless information. We experience global interaction with travel buddies, online projects through The Learning Place and I am continually battling with virtual worlds to work at school to support our endeavours.