Learning... accelerated

Sometimes I am grateful for he amazing opportunities I have been given to learn and keep getting better at what I do. Yesterday was such a day as Apple put on a workshop with some top-class presenters + loads of amazing people there to meet and get to know.

One of the ideas I came away with is based on the idea of evidence. We need more than gut instinct, a feeling to answer questions such as

“how do we know if our 1:1 iPad program has been successful”, or

“how can I measure the effectiveness of my approach to formative assessment?”.

Any technology initiative should be thought through before implementation and success criteria established - which won’t be about technology ironically. If the aim of the technology is to increase collaboration, independent learning and help empower more student entered classrooms - awesome! But how do we measure that? Intangibles such as these are WAY harder to put in a nice pie-chart when compared to standardised test scores. Simply because that is easy is why our current system uses those measurements to determine the level of success of a school.

Which is really dumb.

Schools do more, a lot more, that help students get good marks in a test. Yes teaching and learning is the core business of any school, but the close examination of school mission statements emphasis much broader ideals - particularly the development of the whole person - physically, emotionally, spiritually and of course academically.

Which leads to the thought - if schools (as many do) spread their focus TOO wide do they end up being OK at a lot of things and not GREAT at anything?

Utilising the SAMR model as a framework applied to other ideas beyond classroom activities was refreshing. We worked on the idea of professional learning and particularly on lesson observation and feedback.

• Substitution - instead of a handwritten report, typed notes would be shared along with verbal feedback

• Augmentation - Use the SWIVL to video lessons and edit the video, teacher writes a reflection on a shared Google doc that the observer then adds comments to.

• Modification - a 360˚ camera is used to capture students reactions and body language during the lesson. Students are asked to complete a survey at the end of the lesson. Video could be uploaded to videonot.es and teacher and observer could add comments that are time stamped.

• Redefinition - As above but teacher then shares the video(s)on a YouTube channel and shares with other people to review and comment on

There were many great examples shared!

Resources for SAMR - examples of redefinition - here is a great activity - take each card and ask teachers to sort and then rank using any method they like? What would they come up with? How many of these activities are at the redefinition level?

Also: As we may teach podcast Hippasus website http://www.hippasus.com/ iBook by Shannon Soger One Best Thing - iBooks by ADE’s

We spoke about ways of starting with tech integration and ways to move from substitution (where a lot of teachers are) to higher levels. I think that we must be cautious here to not assume that every lesson and task must be at redefinition level to be considered “good”. The underlying assumption that technology can enhance teaching and learning also allows for the fact that a great lesson can happen without any technology. But THAT is a whole new post!