__ LIPS - Leading in Proactive Schools

 With the imminent rollout of thousands of wireless enabled notebook computers for students in Years 9 upward in Australian schools, the imperatives for changing views of pedagogy are fairly evident.  What we are still coming to grips with, however, is a strategy to achieve a shift in how the computers are viewed by teachers and how they can be assisted to ensure that an excited bunch of Year 9 students arriving in a class with their notebooks are not met with a direction to “Put those away..you can play with them after you’ve finished your work!” Read the rest of this entry »

Here we are at the end of another year.  In NSW the year has been an eventful one as the pressure has mounted on government to deliver services in a massively constraine resource environment.  Coupled with the global economic credit crisis, the huge shift in opinion in the US which has seen the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency sends a signal that we are on the verge of some new ages in thinking.  Maybe it is a time where we will need to develop and ability to rapidly ‘zoom’ between a close view and a long view.  We need now, more than ever before, the ability to ‘think globally, act locally.’ That is, we need to be able to appreciate both the bigger picture context  and then micro actions which can create a difference at the local level. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, it’s definitely time to get back into keeping this blog alive.

We are living through a time of need to look ahead with optimism. 

This may sound odd, when there is the appearance of so much to be pessimistic about.  Economic commentators draw comparisons with the Great Depression; G8 leaders gather to consider Global Warming; and the continued polarisations which seem to be occurring across so many social, religious and political dimensions, all combine to paint a bleak picture: if that is how we choose to view it.

Whatever our predisposition for seeing bleakness, we have responsibility, as educators, to create an optimistic environment for our young people.  To do so is to encourage and support the growth of the skills and attitudes within others which promote the synthesis and organisation of the exponentially growing streams of ideas and information by learners in ways which have significance and richness within their lives.

There..something esoteric to get the posting started again.

Imperative #One

Look around.  I travelled to a meeting by train recently and walked through a commuter tunnel.  The remarkable thing for me was the age spectrum of those around me: the modern urban workforce. They were largely spread across the age range: unlike, arguably, our schools where many of the workforce tend to be concertina’d into a 45-55 year range.

And, in Japan, they may well be doing more than just travelling to work.  A recent story on the SMH tells of a young woman who has written a number of novels while travelling: all written onto her mobile phone and originally uploaded in instalments to the net, thence by subscription to the mobiles of thousands of young teenage readers.  The hardback edition topped 400,00 sales  !!

Click here to read the story in the SMH

Imperative #Two  - OK: Now that they’ve started to acknowldege the reality of climate change, maybe we can get some acceptance around the need for some different ways of conceptualising the delivery of educational resources and services, and the critical role of a revitalised and affirming teacher within this process.

I was reminded to day of just how powerful some of the content from things like the ‘Pay Attention’ video can be.

If you haven’t seen this piece, then you can see it here on   Just click the icon to visit the page on TeacherTube. 

You’ll see that you can register an then be able to download content from TeacherTube.  For some ideas about some utilities which can help with some of these processes, have a look at the info here

There is no doubt that online video content has emerged as a powerful medium for getting all sorts of messages through.  A look at any of the online news sites will show just how extensively short video grabs are being used as an “on demand’ means of getting information.

The growth of sites like YouTube and Google Video has also allowed the opportunity for almost anybody with some simple hardware, software, and the inclination; to publish their own creations on the internet for sharing with others.

You may be interested to see another site, set up to provide a place to share short video content which can have a link toward education and leadership practices.  There are a number of  short demo videos at the link below.  You may have some content or ideas you would like to share too.  If so, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Click here to visit the site now

Much of the discussion at the recent Curriculum Corporation Conference assumed a shift in context for the things we do. 

Even within this thinking, however, there are many consequences which we may or may not have considered.

The article in today’s SMH Technology section uses the example of journalism and online feedback to illustrate an outcome of the web, and web 2.0 especially, which may cause a reassessment of the nexus between qualitative and quantitative measures when it comes to evaluating a skill like writing.

Makes for an interesting read.  Click here to read the story

It reminds me of the quote I have on a slide somewhere which draws a parallel with the sense of unanticipated consequences when he related the view that probably, when automobiles were first used, that nobody was thinking of pollution or traffic snarls or multi storey carparks ! 

We may not know exactly where the web world might take us.  Like any binary model, however, we will always have clear choices we can make about how we treat our part of the journey.

Big Picture Schools

One of the speakers at the Curriculum Corporation Conference in Sydney this week was Elliot Washor, one of the founders of the Big Picture Company which is in the business of providing public education to a design specification which they believe provides an optimum environment for authentic learners and learning 

The Big Picture Company was founded by educators Dennis Littky and Elliot Washor, both formerly of the renowned

Thayer High School in

New Hampshire and the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. In 1995, they began collaborating with

Rhode Island policymakers to design a student-centered high school, and created The Big Picture Company as the launching pad for what has now become a national education reform movement.  http://www.bigpicture.org/aboutus/index.htm

Big Picture Schools all operate based on some common criteria or ‘distinguishers’  One of these related to engagement of parents and families.  Clearly one result is absolute clarity about product definition… or, could we even suggest that there may be a basis for comparison with other ‘chain’ operations.  Elliot wanted us to not see a sense of similarity with a quick anecdote about differences in Starbucks in different places..Still..there is a wealth of information on the site which outlines fairly specifically a whole range of expectations and beliefs about whole range of facets of provision of a learning environment.

The following excerpt will give you an idea of the specificity of expectation observable..If you get a chance, have a look at the material on Principal Development and the ‘capabilities’ required

There will no doubt be some other reflections on other content at the conference.  I’ll hope to post some more commentary here in the next few days.  If there is anybody else who was there, why not click to link to ‘Comment.’ It seems there is no shortage of ideas about how we can do “it” better.  The trick, it seems to me, is building enough critical mass of understanding and desire within our culture and community that we actually collectively begin to celebrate and value our access to free and secular education.  I have deliberately left out the third word: ‘compulsory’ as it works against what was no doubt the original intent, the ensuring of participation.  In a country which has its heritage steeped in hugely unbalanced power relationships between groups, with the only power available to some often being the power to subvert or non-comply, we need to find a way to reconfigure our view of the concept of being compelled to attend ‘school’ to be ‘schooled.’  And yes, another way of suggesting that we need to work beyond school planning to actually planning schools

Anyway..back to the excerpt from the Big Picture website 

 Families play an active role in the school community that includes supporting the school politically, participating in celebrations and social gatherings, and supporting new parents and students. They are also viewed as life-long learners who need support in learning how to play a proactive role in the school life of their children through high school and on to college and the work world.
Essential Elements of Parent/Family Engagement – Adult Support Include:
·         Families are educated and asked to play an active role in the education and school life of their children ·         Parental voice in school organization and culture ·         Families attend and participate in learning plan meetings and exhibitions each quarter ·         Parents as well as students are Interviewed and sign participation agreements along with their students upon enrolment·         Families are educated to play a proactive role in the college process ·         Families play important and proactive roles to garner and show political and community support for the school http://www.bigpicture.org/aboutus/distinguishers/parentengagement.htm 

This is another attempt at using an embedded video content.  The video was taken with a mobile phone.  Super was then used to convert to .flv format.   The file was then uploaded to a folder within the same directory as the wordpress blog linked to the Anarchy Player using the button within the posting box in the Wordpress blog.  Clear as mud?  Contact for details. 

This would obviously provide a relatively simple way of replicating something like YouTube while retaining control over the content.

Download

A very rough trial

This is an attempt at using a plug in to display a flash video in a Wordpress post

Download

Sample movie taken with mobile phone

 The excerpt below is from the resources section of the Enquiring Minds website in the UK.  You may find that some of the resources and sites listed are useful.  If so, why not use the ‘Comment’ link to post a coment ? (That is, just click at the top right on the word ‘comments’)

Click the logo to visit the site

Digital technologies are an integral part of the Enquiring Minds approach. This review of digital tools is intended to provide some examples of the kinds of new technologies that might support teaching and learning in the 21st century.

In the early stages of the project we have concentrated on freely available resources, or on demonstration versions of software currently available on the web. Many of these have not been specifically designed with education in mind. Also note that we have not systematically trialled most of these resources in educational settings (though some of them have been tested by other organisations and institutions). We offer the list as a set of resources that we believe have the potential to benefit learners and teachers.

Over the course of the project, we intend to extend this list. We will also be trying out some of these tools and resources in our partner schools, and will report on what worked and what didn’t.