VUCA - Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous

Sharon Taylor - Thompson University (Williams Lake)

Henry Jenkins refers to todays students as producers(creators, collaborators, convergers) rather than consumers.  Time Magazine identified 'you' as the person of the year - with the release of Web 2.0

This was the only the second presentation during this conference that actively integrated YouTube into the session.  Many still have not seen what are now 'classic' videos with the "A Vision of Students Today" and "The Machine is Using Us."

Many of our technologies are converging.  Facebook, Wikis, Blogs are bringing many areas together.  YouTube has many remixes or mashup.

Aca-Fan is a term for an Academic in a Fandom.  There are many assumptions that 'Fan Clubs' are for younger generations.

Educators work in a VUCA world (military term first used in 2004).  This is where history happens.

Bob Johansen in Get There Early (2007) shifts this to Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility.

While we may not have the answers, we can network and have a quick search and get valuable information.  A starting place looking up the Abject Learner could lead to blogs from

Brian Lamb(UBC Professor), Bruce Eisner, Future Blogger, Daniel Lemire(Professor in Montreal)

We have all heard how close Wikipedia and Enclyclopedia Britanica are for accuracy.  The difference Michael Wesch highlighted was that Wikipedia's errors were all corrected in 30 days or less and Wikipedia is 15 times larger.

I found it amazing that a professor told his class how bad information about Latin American Authors was on Wikipedia.  He made it a class project to improve Wikipedia in this area.  Working for the semester only 3 articles made it to Featured status and 8 to good status. What a great way to show students that you need to be thorough and referenced and with good writing to be accepted in academic terms.  

Sharon Recommended the book, "The University of Google" by Tara Brabazon

We have no idea what our students will be doing a year or 5 years from now.  In 2003 blogs didn't exist.  Today there are over 71 million blogs (including this one).  Returning to the video that we started with is that university students are training for jobs that won't exist and not training for the jobs that have yet to be created.  We need to remember that students are adaptable and need to continue to be adaptable.  Instead of providing information, our job needs to be to build skill to create knowledge for themselves with the information that they can find.

Kevin

A final comment that Sharon made was rebutting another presentation that said students were lazy, unmotivated and disengaged.  She said they are not any of the above.  Instead they are extremely productive, motivated and engaged, but not in the world you may be teaching in still.

Designing for Success

Often first year students at university struggle or are not successful.   Working as a cohort for the first year allows a time to think and develop the ability to think.  They have three programs that use a cohort model.  The one discussed today was the Explorations program.

The content is interdisciplinary and process of learning is stressed.

Success is felt by students and staff.

The students enjoyed the smaller class size (only 100) and that the instructor actually knows your name.  

It is student focused and develops students who are involved in their learning.

It sounds like a good program is developing.  It is now in its third year and creating a positive teaching and learning experience.  It will be continuing next year with another 100 students having a cohort First Year Experience.

Kevn

Edutainment and Technotainment

Both of these methods of teaching offer opportunities to reach students and improve their learning.  This might include learning tools such as:

• multimedia
• animations
• music 
• interaction
• gaming

If we pick media that is relevant to students lives, they will be better prepared to connect to the content we are trying to share with them.

Several examples were shared including subscription service for multimedia, YouTube, Images, and Clickers.

Integration of Facebook / YouTube in Learning

McGraw-Hill Ryerson & SFU Teaching for Learning - Session 1

Social Networking Integration

This session highlights two forms of social networking - YouTube and FaceBook

The integration first involved students creating promotional videos for the Co-Op department of SFU.  A few important considerations:

• FOIPOP
  
• Legal - Copyright images, music
  
• Making the regulations achievable with reasonable effort
  

This first effort of this contest received 39 entries from the SFU Co-op community

A question from audience was about the amount of tech support provided to the students.  SFU provided links to resources and highlighting on campus support.  Some students were from graphic arts classes, but many of the top videos were students first attempt at video.

Students posted their videos to the SFU Coop Video Contest Group and the voting feature was enabled so that a 'People's choice' award could be given.

Facebook

Another form of Social Networking.  Students are very active with Facebook in Canada.  For many it is becoming a hub to keep in touch with friends and family.  While you may not have time to phone your network to tell them about your new job, you can update your status and all of your friends will have the update.

Embracing Facebook involves

• Going where the audience is
  
• More effective and efficient service/messaging
  
• Email is becoming ineffective
  
• Students enjoy being able to personalize and create a profile.
  

An interesting event is the Career Guide - Wil Fraser.  He is on facebook with almost 800 friends.  Updates can be sent to students and students can ask questions.  When Wil responds, he provides links directly to existing resources and answers from the university.  He is a character while on each of the three campuses.  

This project has integrated department support, facebook, real life interaction with him.  Wil is a person with personality, history, photos, friends and interacts with his friends.  Wil Fraser has acted as a hub for communication and community for the Work Integrated Learning Department at SFU.

Understanding Todays Youth and Educating

Max Valiquette - Youthography

Youth is defined as 10 to 29.  The distribution of the 5 year sub-groups is even so each sub-group has equal push on popular culture.  

Adulthood is starting earlier

- starting schooling by 4 years old

- if they smoke - 1st cigarette by 12

- early onset of puberty (27% of African-American girls begin puberty by age 7)

On the opposite side Adulthood is taken on in fullness later

- average age of post secondary grad - 25

- average age of first marriage - 28

- average age of first child - 29

This is resulting in a prolonged pre-adult stage

Youth value:

1. Relationships
2. Communication (70% of teenagers have a cell phone)
3. Information
4. Diversity
5. Empowerment
6. Technology (can now send message to one person with same energy as all of your network)

Max shared an interesting consideration - 24 year olds or younger are Digital Natives, while older are Digital Tourists.  (Organizing music by CD cases and titles or click on sort by artist)

Change - things used to change but the way we get them didn't.  There has now been a change in how we get them and how much we pay for it.  TV, VCR,DVD, HD TV - each time the speed and cost has gone down.  HD TV reached 70% market penetration in 5 years.  iPods have changed 8 times in 6 years.  (The Sony Walkman took 8 years to change to the walkman 2.)

Charge - Personal Control - Culture and Control on demand - You can record you TV shows with PVR, you can purchase a cell phone without a credit card on a Pay as you go system.

Challenge - The street starts to drive and dictate trends.

NBC aired a SNL show - reached 5 million - somebody hacked it and posted to YouTube - 7 million views.  The next major skit was then sent to YouTube by NBC- instead of 5 million hits - 45 million hits.

The control is changing.  There are ways now to become a member of an online company that is a large group of consumers paying a small amount of money ($35).  SellaBand allows you to own part of an upcoming artist.  There are 21 artists that have been sponsored this way for $50 000 and 3 have already paid dividends.  There is also a soccer team, and a clothing brand done this way.

We are at a stage of convergence - You need only a couple of devices - your mobile device and desktop entertainment system (cell phone and iMac).  With an iPhone you can call, watch TV and surf the internet.  Students often start research with Google.

This all leads to choice. - The number one TV show is getting less following.  Gunsmoke in 1961 had 61 million watching it weekly.  Now American idol has 30 million weekly following but 500 channels available.  (Younger people are reading less books; however, they are reading more than any previous generation.)  

Implication for Teachers - How do we move from content providers to content facilitators.  The learning environment is changing and going to continue to change.    The main branch of the library is no longer needed.  You can request from smaller branches or access online databases with the same content.  Instead the Library is the gateway to the knowledge out there;however, so is your bedroom!

(Interesting with podcasting - How do you compare to the other 'lecturers' they are watching?)

Implications for Teachers - What is official and unofficial for referencing?

While wikipedia is not considered academic, it references other works and now other works are referencing wikipedia.  Wikipedia is more current for news than any print work or 'official' encyclopedia.  Wikipedia also contains information that you will not find anyway else such as your favourite band, artist, or product.

Content Facilitators also need to be content improvers.

The top 4 websites in Canada

1. Google
   
2. YouTube
   
3. MSN
   
4. Facebook
   

The next trend will be a single online delivery system that can go anywhere we go.  Young people have redefined book, music store, and social networking.

In closing :

10 thought starters for Education

1. They are used to networked communication
2. They are more collaborative than any previous generation
3. and they have a different definition of plagiarism and copying
4. We are on the verge of the $200 laptop
5. We can't keep media of any sort of school... and by the time they get to college, it is simply expected
6. So some of the learning that comes from you might have to come on-line
7. What if you don't have the Internet - that question is the same as what if you don't have a calculator (desk, watch, cell phone, computer)
8. What is the value of 'official' source right now? Who determines what is official any more?
9. What is a career now any way - what is the right level of education for that career?
10. Remember that as a facilitator of learning you have experience and expertise to share.

Questions

How do you get students to figure out the 178 000 hits from a search?

- Instead of Googling students will be reaching out to their networks.  If you want a hotel in Paris, you would ask your network who has been there.  Then they might give you a couple of ideas, you would then tag the sites and consider the hotels.  Once you have been, you become an additional resource in your network.

I was able to speak to Max afterward and asked how a teacher can manage to keep up with the change and all of the tools that students might bring to the classroom or want to use?

- his response was interesting that we needed to reduce the workload of teachers and reduce the curriculum to allow them to spend time together learning.  It could be that every Friday afternoon staff worked in groups and one presented to the group about teaching and learning to meet their needs.

Kevin

Assessment for Learning - Kathleen Gregory

Tonight was the second session of the Assessment for Learning Series.

One of the opening quotes that was useful was that Assessment of Learning is the looking back, while Assessment for Learning is looking forward.

The focus of the workshop is on six aspects of Assessment for Learning.

1.  Making Learning Intentions clear

2.  Setting Criteria

3.  Increase the use of Open Ended Questioning

4.  Descriptive Feedback

5.  Self and Peer Assessment

6.  Ownership / Communicating Learning

Kathleen highlights the use of cards from a couple sources

Shirley Clarke - Formative Assessment in Action

and

Voices of Experience

Examples from Increase the use of Open Ended Questioning

• finding opposites
• your own questions?
• Right?Wrong? Why? (Show several answer 5 squared = 3,7,10,25,125)
• Agree / Disagree
• Give the answer - ask for strategies - Strategies - Answer - Written Evidence (SAW)
• Alternative Viewpoints

I appreciate how Kathleen engages the group with only about 10 minutes of talking then 10 minutes of work / engaged discussion time.  The time is well used providing real examples from colleagues.

The final one shared that was neat was called Review Cues - Students created an alphabet book as review (fold 11x17 into 24 squares) then pull words for each letter with

A ll letters used

I llustrations

M eaning - connections to meaning

Then to 'mark' it, students can be given an AIM, AI, AM as feedback.

While we can engage students and grow assessment for learning, eventually we need to evaluate.  To do so we take assessments of learning, observations and interactions with the students to determine the 'marks.'  The Assessment has been for learning and for the student.  The evaluation is for the school, parents and the student.  I like how evaluation and assessment were connected but aimed at different audiences.

Kevin

McGraw-Hill Ryerson & SFU Teaching, Learning, and Technology

Pre-Conference Session: Extending your Class to the Internet

http://extendingclass.wetpaint.com/

The above wiki was created to share the presentation during the conference.  I like how they configured separate pages for each topic.

I have to admit, I was a bit of a sprite.  I went into the wiki while we were discussing and added the class summary from the discussions.  This use was similar to Google docs.  I think that if more of us were thinking the same way then Google Doc would have been the better solution, but this way I was able to add directly to the document.  A huge advantage to keeping it in a wiki is the readable URL.  

This was a good foundational session.  I was most impressed with the Second Life demonstration.  I have tried several times to explore Second Life but I think I need some F2F time to get the real feel of it.

It was good to know the room was filled with Post-Secondary educators interested in meeting the needs of students and using online tools.

Kevin

McGraw Hill Ryerson - Teaching, Learning & Technology Conf - Pre Conf 1

Increasing Student Achievement with Synchronous and Asynchronous Online Tools

Jaron Easterbrook

To ensure we have increased student achievement, we need

• increased retention
• increased engagement
• increased relevancy

Technology is not the answer but course management software, laptops, websites, podcasts can be tools.  People are the answers.  How a teacher delivers content with passion provides the retention, engagement and relevancy.

It was interesting seeing how similar and yet different Wimba is to WebCT or Blackboard or Moodle.

It is exciting to see the opportunities that are available.  While any one tool may not be suitable for all locations, the selection of choices means there should be one to meet needs.

Kevin

Google Literature Trip with Hana's Suitcase

I feel privileged to have created a Google Earth file that follows the lives of Hana Brady and her family as documented in Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine.

The project involved the basics of reading the book and identifying geographical locations along the way.

The learning for myself (and that I predict for your students )was incredible. I have learned more about WWII than in all my years as a student. I also have learned the value of authentic sources. I have been able to contact several sources including speaking to Ela Weissberger - one of the 132 child survivors of Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia. This project was by far one of the best learning experiences I have ever had.

I am looking forward to expanding this resource as well as working with other books to create the Google Lit Trip resources.

I have just completed writing the whole package up and publishing in the Apple Learning Interchange. You can find the resource at http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/story.php?itemID=15418

Kevin

100 Uses for an iPod - too cool

Thanks Jerome Burg for sharing this site
http://www.airlinecreditcards.com/travelhacker/how-to-turn-your-ipod-into-anything-75-tutorials/

I checked out the links and it is cool to see what you can do with an iPod.

While I would not try most of them, it is interesting to see the human ingenuity of taking something that was build with a purpose be then repurposed in ways that were not even imagined.

I hope that my ideas become repurposed many times and in many ways.

Kevin

Math 8 Curriculum Changes - Bruce McAskill - STA Convention 2008

I joined this session on a bit of a whim.  I have taught both Grade 7 and Grade 8 Mathematics.  

It is exciting to see that the new curriculum.  The number of outcomes have been reduced and reordered. The shift will allow for conceptual understanding rather than rote learning.

We will be able to make the teaching more student centric.  There would be time to group projects, challenging questions, discussions.  Working in this way we can grow the project focus.  We had an interesting discussion about the difference between activities and projects.  The activities ended up being smaller chunks with less connections over a shorter period.  Then having projects allows for a greater depth and connection building over time with connected concepts.

The Grade 8 curriculum has changed 66% and for Grade 9 there is a 71 % change in the curriculum.  .  There are many topics deleted or moved to other grades as well as new concepts being added.


A neat quote from Bruce McAskill was that he doesn't like the term Differentiated Instruction because it really should be just good teaching.  

While focusing on talking about the Math Curriculum, he also challenged us as to where we are on continuums of teaching in relationship to meeting student needs.

Bringing it all together - We need to combine Differentiated Instruction, Assessment and Support.

Milt McLarren speaking at the STA Convention in Surrey

Milt McLarren

 

One discussion was about Global Warming.  He raised the awareness that it is Global Climate Change not warming, some will get hotter, colder, or wetter.  The world will get slightly warmer which will cause differences.

 

We assume that plants will use the excess CO2 but they need Nitrogen to process the CO2.  We are actually limited by Nitrogen.

 

To make real changes, we need to change the political systems including education. 

 

If we want to make change in environmental education, we don’t want another class or adding more to existing classes.  We need to realize that we have good curriculum but we need to give permission to take time to make meaning and connections to issues such as environmental education.

 

We need time for intelligent conversation, Reflection, Dialogue and Debate, Making Sense, and many more.

 

If you want to make a difference you need to engage the power that you have.  Pick up a shovel and make a difference.  You may not change the world but you can make a difference.  You also raise the awareness for everyone else to do their shoveling.

 

One comment summarizing the session was that his presentation was about integrating environmental considerations and how to cut through the noise.

I am taking a one week online cours through Knowschools.ca.  It is on Google Everything.  I just found a nugget that I had no idea about.  When you are logged into Google, it tracks your search history.  If you know you searched for something a week ago but can't remember the search words or how you found the site....  Google History has your answer.  I checked for myself and I have 2038 searches since June 2007.

Check out www.google.com/history

I can see lots of potential for education with this gadget.  You can have students look at their own history for the length of a project.  Once finished they can go back and do a meta analysis of their searching - and compare to their peers.  Who has less searches?  Why?(because they are more efficient or ....)

I continue to be amazed with the tools available for us.

Kevin

Blogging improves student writing

Thanks to Mike Silverton for fowarding me the PEW internet study.  http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/247/report_display.asp

Here are two quotes I wanted to highlight from the study
"Teens who communicate frequently with their friends, and those who own more technology tools such as computers or cell phones, do not write more often for school or for themselves than less communicative and less gadget-rich teens, according to the study, released April 24. Teen bloggers, however, write more frequently both online and offline, the study says."

"Most students (82 percent) believe that additional instruction and focus on writing in school would help improve their writing even further--and more than three-quarters of those surveyed (78 percent) think it would help their writing if their teachers used computer-based writing tools such as games, multimedia, or writing software programs or web sites during class."

I am glad that our district has not taken a stand to try and stop blogging or access to the blogging tools.  There is so much value that we can see when we use the tools.  It is good to know that what we see and believe can also be backed up in research.

Kevin