Transforming Learning

Archive for the ‘Transforming Learning’ Category

Lesson Plans or Learning Plans?

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

: Image via Wikipedia

In a previous post I mentioned the opportunity I had to observe a group of teachers doing team planning. As well as the observations I noted in that post, there was a further observation that I want to talk about in this post. It appeared to me that most of the teachers taking part in the team planning exercise were essentially still creating what I’d regard as an old style lesson plan. That is to say, it was to be a lesson that was to be delivered by the teacher and the planning focused more on what the teacher was going to do or what the teacher was going to get the pupils to do and what resources would be needed. The lesson, while not always a straightforward ‘sage on the stage’ approach, was certainly one that emphasised teacher direction or teacher facilitation, focused more on the teaching rather than the learning or the learner.

This type of planning was very familiar and would have been easily recognisable to a teacher 10, 20, even 30 years ago, it was only the resources available which were different; the approaches were much the same. This led me to wonder how might we change lesson planning to be more reflective of modern learning approaches?

It seems to me that the plan could be less about the structure of the lesson and more about the learning. I know they are called ‘lesson’ plans and in the past they have tended to describe the content of the lesson. Nowadays, though learning doesn’t just take place in the lesson; it can extend into the home and via out of school activities. There are also a wide range of informal learning opportunities which a learner can bring to contribute to their learning. So there is no need now for our planning to be restricted to a traditional lesson structure.

I know some people will argue, quite correctly, that we have always given homework to learners, where appropriate, to supplement their learning in school. However, the concept of ‘homework’ is quite dated now. It would be wrong, perhaps, to continue to think in terms of schoolwork and homework. It would be better to think simply in terms of ‘learning’ and what formal learning that takes place at home is an integral part of the ‘school’ work that takes place also in school.

So instead of presenting the learners with schoolwork in a lesson and then giving them homework to be done afterwards at home, a teacher would present learners with, say, an area or topic for study. A lesson or a series of lessons would be made available for the learners to study this in school, supported by the teacher, a range of resources and the face to face guidance of the teacher. In addition to these school sessions, a learner would be required to continue or extend their studies outside lessons, bringing in any experiences, resources available to them together with outcomes from any informal learning they may feel is relevant.

So Learning Plans would contain more than just plans for a lesson, they would seek to set out a number and range of ways in which learners could explore a subject area. Each of these ways would be designed to ensure the learner encounters particular objectives. Each of the ways could incorporate a different learning style, so as to appeal to different learners. There could even be discussion between teacher and learner as to what particular types of activities they would like the chance to explore.

In a way, I guess you could see a learning plan a bit like a treasure map but with different routes to the treasure, or maybe even several different treasure locations.

Developing independent young learners through learning how to learn (slideshare.net)
Diverse Children’s Learning Styles And Activities (brighthub.com)
Creating and Using a Learning Styles Chart (brighthub.com)
Lesson Plans Integrating Differentiation (brighthub.com)
Designing Informal Learning (elearningstuff.wordpress.com)
Learning Score, a lesson-planning tool. [Review] (dougbelshaw.com)

Possibly Related Posts:

Tags: Education, Educators, K through 12, Learning, Learning styles, Lesson, Lesson plan, Teacher
Posted in Transforming Learning | 2 Comments »

What Does it Take to be Innovative in Education?

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

This post is inspired by the Microsoft Partners in Learning conference which I attended recently. Basically, taking part in the conference led me to ask myself what does it take and what does it mean to be innovative in education nowadays.

Of course, I do realise that you don’t have to be involved in technology to be innovative in a school but as I’m involved in and dead made keen on educational technology, that’s the area I shall be mainly thinking about.

At the Cutting Edge

This is possibly the easiest area to identify. If you or your school are on the ‘cutting edge’ of technology and innovation then you are very likely to be regarded as innovative in education.

To be at the ‘cutting edge’ would mean that you are planning on utilising something that has been untried before in your school or in any education setting. As such, you could be regarded as a pioneer, an innovator, an early adopter or a risk-taker.

Some people appear naturally averse to taking risks. Certainly, taking risks with a child’s education or future prospects is not something to be considered lightly. I am sure no professional teacher would even consider doing so.

If you do want to take this high risk approach, then you should take some recognition of the potential risks involved and, where possible, ensure there are mitigating procedures in place to reduce the negative effects of such risks.

Taking a risk is almost inevitable and when working at the cutting edge, it is almost essential to have an eye on the potential benefits of your innovation.

If you do adopt this approach to innovation, then I’d hope too that you’d be prepared to share your findings and experiences. That way, you would be helping other schools and professionals to make decisions regarding innovation and development in their setting. Hopefully, too, such other schools or professionals will be prepared to share with your their findings and experiences; after all you cannot be innovative in every area!

Introducing Something New that has been Tried Elsewhere

Introducing something new, is probably essential in being innovative, after all, isn’t that what the word ‘innovative’ means? What I want to argue here, though is that even if something has been tried elsewhere, introducing it to your school or into your teaching practice can still be regarded as being innovative.

So you don’t have to be on the ‘cutting edge’ in order to innovate. You can take something from elsewhere and introduce it to your school. If your school hasn’t tried it before then you can regard that as being innovative; you are trying out something new for your school or for your own professional practice.

In doing this you have no idea that it will work. Just because it worked elsewhere does not mean it will work in your setting. The appearance of it seeming to work in another setting(s) may help you to ‘sell’ the idea to your head or whoever but you cannot be certain. This is part of the ‘risk’ of innovation. It may work, it may not work but, at the least, it should do no harm.

So, being innovating by introducing something that has been tried elsewhere already, you may, at least, have a comfort cushion to help you in your project. You may have the work and results from elsewhere to help support your introduction of the project. You may also have the findings from elsewhere by which you could measure and record your progress. This may give you some ‘boost’ or ‘comfort’ while working on your innovative project but always remember, your setting is likely to be different in some ways to those of elsewhere and your innovation may not always achieve the results you hope for.

Introducing Something the School has Tried Before

Okay, this one may seem a bit more unusual. I am claiming you can be innovative by introducing something the school has tried before. Let us say that your school has tried an idea or an approach before, may be sometime back, but it had not worked. There may be many reasons why it did not work, you would be wise to try to find out if you can. Just because it did not work before does not mean it could not work this time. It could be that technology today makes it easier to implement this time around. It could be that staff felt they did not have the training or relevant skills when they last tried it but they feel differently now. It may simply be that staff could not see the benefit or advantage of it before but could regard it differently now.

So I guess what I am saying here is that just because something has been tried and failed before, does not mean that it would not work now. Your school may, or indeed may still not, be in a better position to implement your innovation.

One of the drawbacks, naturally, of re-introducing something that may have been tried before, is that you get the ‘grumpy old men’ complaining that ‘it is nothing new’ or ‘it has been done before and failed’. You just have to convince them that it’s worth giving it another short, perhaps working in a different way. … good luck with that!

The Desire to Improve

I feel that the ‘desire to improve’ is perhaps what lies behind most innovative teaching. Whether you want to improve the way a school works or approaches something, whether you want to change the way you work or just to get better results and more engaging teaching, this desire to improve is possibly what drives most of us to innovate.

There is always a risk that you might not achieve what you desire but balancing this risk with the possibility of planned improvement is what will take you forward.

Of course, one of the most exciting aspects of innovation is that you sometimes achieve results you didn’t expect or you exceed your highest expectations. Maybe this too could be a driver for some innovators. It is certainly a beneficial aspect where it does occur but don’t let the fact that it may not occur in your innovative project stop you from being innovative.

Conclusion

What prompted me to look into innovation in education was the pleasure I felt in meeting people at a recent conference who were willing to go out and develop innovative products or practices in education. Especially at a time when economics and politics appear to be against innovation.

It seems evident to me that there are people who what to improve and continue to develop learning and teaching within schools and may support and praise goes out to them.

In this short post I have suggested various ways in which an individual or a school could be innovative in education. I hope it is clear that you do not have to be on the ‘cutting edge’ in order to be innovative. Of course, there is nothing wrong in being on the edge, if that is where you want to be.

You can be equally innovative by introducing something that has been tried elsewhere but is ‘new’ to you or your school. You can be equally innovative by introducing something that you or the school has tried before but had rejected, so long as you feel it has a chance of succeeding this time.

What seems to underlie all innovation would seem to be a desire to improve. Even in times of economic restraint, it seems people want to improve, and there can be nothing wrong in that!

How to tackle innovation in education (guardian.co.uk)
Innovative Teaching and Learning (ITL) Research Project and Self Evaluation Tools #msftpil (olliebray.typepad.com)
Microsoft Innovation in Learning (dougwoods.co.uk)
Innovation in education: what I’ll be talking about at the Guardian event today. (#IIE2011) (dougbelshaw.com)
Taking Risks with Leadership, Learning and Teaching (5 of 5): Further Considerations (olliebray.typepad.com)

What Does it Take to be Innovative in Education?

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Tags: Education, Innovation, Microsoft, Technology
Posted in education, Transforming Learning | No Comments »

A Hundred Ways to Show What They’ve Learned

Monday, October 24th, 2011

When it comes to exams, assessments, or just asking learners to show what they have learned, education seems to offer only two options;

1) write an essay / thesis / report / paragraph/ sentence

2) tick the correct answer from a list

Yet there must be hundreds, perhaps a thousand different ways in which a learner can demonstrate what they have learned. If you want evidence of some of the many ways, then take a look at John Davitt’s page here, where over a hundred different ways have been listed (you can add your own new ways too).

Technology, e-learning, ICT (call it what you will) seems to be the worst for offering only limited ways of allowing learners to record what they have learned. You are far more likely to be offered a multiple choice question in an e-learning exercise than be asked to, say, draw a picture or make a video. Learners are more likely to use a computer to write an essay rather than make a podcast.

By limiting the ways in which learners use technology we restrict the things we teach them. By focusing upon a narrow range of uses of technology, we restrict the benefits of technology to only those learners whose style of learning best suits that narrow range. It is by widening our uses of technology that we allow the widest range of learners to experience the benefits of technology.

For a tool that is capable of displaying multimedia, multi-sensory and exciting resources, it is despairing to see a computer used in ways that are largely text based, unexciting and favour learners who learn best through reading and writing. When used in such narrow ways, learning technology can be said to be letting down the majority of learners.

Who, though, is to blame and what is the answer? By way of irony, let me give you a multiple choice question and ask you to select the correct answer!

Q) How are learners being let down?

a) Technology is letting down the learners

b) Teachers are letting down the learners

c) The way in which we use technology is letting down the learners

The answer is not a) – technology is not letting down anyone; it is a tool, a versatile tool which can be used in a myriad different ways and has appeal to many people of different backgrounds and personalities.

The answer is not b) – it is not the teachers who are letting learners down; teachers know about different ways of teaching, teachers are great at devising new and interesting approaches to engage their learners.

I believe the answer to be c) – it is by changing the ways in which we use technology that we can improve, expand and transform learning for the benefit of learners.

100 ways to use a VLE – #95 Setting an Assessment (elearningstuff.wordpress.com)
eAssessment (iangardnergb.blogspot.com)
Fast Forward – How Emerging Technologies is Transforming Education and Training (downes.ca)
TECHNOLOGY In 2010 and beyond (slideshare.net)
The challenge of quality in peer-produced eLearning content (downes.ca)
UK Microsoft Innovative Teachers Forum and Conference 2009 (olliebray.typepad.com)
Why Schools Should Learn To Use Online Services Like Facebook & YouTube Rather Than Banning Them (techdirt.com)
The effects of peer-versus self-editing on learner autonomy in ESL writing (scienceoftheinvisible.blogspot.com)
Digital Learners – Pay Attention (q-ontech.blogspot.com)
Giving Children the Tools is Not Enough (edte.ch)
TeachMeet Inspiration (l4l.co.uk)
The Myth of the Digital Native (ictineducation.org)
Emerging Tools and Main stream practice (elgg.jiscemerge.org.uk)

A Hundred Ways to Show What Theyve Learned

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Posted in Classroom Technology, Transforming Learning | 1 Comment »

Darn Lesson Plans … Damn Them I Say

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

: Image by dougwoods via Flickr

When I was a class teacher, lesson plans used to be the bane of my life; I hated them! I hated writing them and I would waste, I mean spend, so much of my time writing them. Of course, when I first started teaching, we didn’t have computers so we used to handwrite our plans.

Writing plans by hand took time, of course, as you can imagine. So when computers came along, you’d think things would get easier, wouldn’t you? Don’t be silly! People thought that using a computer would be quicker and neater than handwriting your plans. As it was quicker, you’d have more time, time to spend writing other things, like schemes of work, reports, or even more lesson plans.

Using a computer certainly made my lesson plans neater; if you had seen my handwriting, you’d understand! As for time, though, using a computer took just as long as writing by hand. What people seemed to overlook is that it wasn’t the writing of the plans that took the time, it was the thinking;- thinking about what to do, how to do it and choosing resources. Once you had identified these, the writing them down took no longer than typing them on a computer.

In the early days, a teacher would have to type each lesson plan from scratch. As word-processing developed, along came templates and the teacher found she could simply add text into a lesson-plan template. This was designed to make the task of creating lesson plans a bit easier but it did mean that your thinking and planning had to be constrained into the format of the template used.

So at the turn of the century, teachers and schools would find that they had tens, dozens, hundreds of lesson plans all written on the ubiquitous Word program and all lying around on sheets of paper! Then people started thinking, wouldn’t it be nicer and tidier to start collecting and collating all these lesson plans. This led to a boom in the market for ring-binders and hole punches which staff would use so that they could store all their nicely typed lesson plans.

All of that may have seemed fine for the 1990s but nowadays we seem to think that we needn’t print off our lesson plans, we can read them on screen, we can store them electronically. In addition, we often find it useful to have active hyperlinks in our lesson plans so that we can call up and run digital resources quickly, easily and directly from within our plans. We also seem to think it is ‘greener’, more environmentally friendly, not to print our plans but to display them on screen. In this way we do not waste paper or printer ink and reduce our ‘consumables’ cost (while perhaps ignoring the cost of electricity in running our laptops!)

Why is it, though, that when we go around schools, we still see lesson plans being drawn up using a program that is principally designed to create documents to be printed on paper? Why does the pagination in our word-processing program still fit A4 or Letter sizes, does this matter? Equally, should we be concerned about how to orientate between portrait and landscape layouts? If our work is not going to be printed, why do we concern ourselves with these tools? Surely, at the start of the 21^st Century there must be a better way for teachers to plan lessons!

I have seen a few schools use spreadsheets for lesson planning and some use a mind- or concept mapping tool for planning. Neither of which are ideal, though they appear to work well for some circumstances.

I believe there is a better way. I believe also that the first example of a better way can be seen in a program called Learning Score. It is a program that allows teachers to link directly to digital resources, to allocate time to them within a lesson and to call them up directly on a computer. It allows time also to be allocated for non-digital work within a lesson. It also allows for such time to be adjusted according to the differentiated needs of groups or individual learners.

I will not go into all the merits of Learning Score here, this post has gone on too long already and I have mentioned the program elsewhere on this blog. I would , though, urge all teachers or edtech leaders to examine the program. I will admit that the program has not yet made the impact on schools that I feel it could/should but I guess that is because not enough have yet tried it out.

By way of a final thought. In these days of personalised learning and learning transformation, should we not be showing the learners how to create their own lesson plans? Rather than follow the traditional route of having lesson plans that are teacher created and teacher led, could we not hand lesson planning over to the pupils to encourage them to take on the responsibility for their own learning?

31 Days to Become a Better Ed Tech Leader — Day 16: Create a Lesson Plan Bank (ictineducation.org)
Operation Reboot in US News and World Report (computinged.wordpress.com)
31 Days to Become a Better Ed Tech Leader — Day 14: Look at the Docs (ictineducation.org)
Schoolteachers not switched on to computers (flanderstoday.eu)
Learning Score, a lesson-planning tool. [Review] (dougbelshaw.com)

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Tags: Lesson plan, Lesson planning with technology, teacher tools
Posted in Classroom Technology, Transforming Learning | 3 Comments »

Transforming Learning

Monday, September 26th, 2011

I have just posted an introduction to a new project on Learning Transformation. You can view it here on the main website. This is just the introduction, further posts will follow in due course.

This project is part of my work as an education consultant and will lead to presentations on the subject of transforming learning. I hope also to include some of my work on Personal learning networks and home access, maybe including some of my earlier work on learning styles. The ICT aspect, so much at the heart of my work, will be seen as a vehicle for delivering the transformation of learning.

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Tags: education consultant, learning networks, Learning styles, learning transformation, Technology/Internet, Transforming Learning
Posted in Transforming Learning | 1 Comment »

Thoughts on Game Based Learning

Monday, September 12th, 2011

There was a lot to inspire at the 2010 Game Based Learning Conference, it was a shame it was only 2 days as I would have loved to have heard more from many of the presenters.

GBL

I take the view that games have always had a place in learning, so why not computer games? I guess too many people, when they think of a computer game, think of the violent war-like games that proliferate. However, as this conference showed, there is a far wider range of computer game available, many of which are suitable for education. For me, though, the bottom line comes down to having trust and faith in the teacher, can we simply not trust the teacher not to include an ‘unsuitable’ game in their teaching?

The term ‘game’ covers a wide multitude of genres from simple noughts and crosses type games (tic-tac-toe) through to complex simulations. There is clearly a wide variety of games which can be considered for their educational use. A further point that came across in the conference is that we should not just consider ‘educational’ games or games written especially for the educational market; commercial games too must be considered. The commercial game often has power to engage users in exciting storylines and game play that draws the learner in.

However, we should always remember that engagement is not the same as learning. A pupils may be engaged in a game or activity but they may not necessarily be learning from it. Engagement is, however, often a pre-requisite or pre-cursor to learning and anything such as computer games that bring about engagement should be welcomed. I feel the work of Dawn Hallybone and Derek Robertson demonstrate quite clearly how games can be used to generate learning and how that learning is taken away from the computer screen and into the classroom or other learning environments.

I was intrigued by the presentation by Massimilliano Andreoletti in which he showed the different way in which young learners and adults engage in game play. The young learners adopted a more collaborative and participatory style while the adults adopted a more autonomous and individualistic style. This was intriguing and could have implications for web2.0 learning in general and , perhaps, shows the discrepancy between adult and young person learning. It is unclear, though, whether this is a difference between the generations or a maturational factor. However, it would seem to suggest that success for young learners comes about more through collaboration and sharing than through competition.

Overall, I found all the presenters at the conference had something significant to say or offer to the delegates, true, some presenters were better at presenting than others. I wouldn’t like to pick out one presenter more than others but as well as those I have already mentioned, I must make mention of Gill Penny who demonstrated the work her pupils had been doing, Tim Rylands for his usual excellence in engaging the audience, Ollie Bray, Derek Robertson and all from the Consolarium team for demonsdtrating how Scotland is leading the field in this area, and Jesse Schell for his uplifting closing speech.

What I find most interesting is the way the iPod Touch has become a gaming device. This little device is already a fantastic tool for handheld learning but now it has a wide number of game apps. Sure, not all will be suitable for educational use but that is equally true for all other devices. Where I think the iPod touch scores well is that apps generally are reasonably priced, however, where it falls down is that there is no preview or try before you buy facility on iTunes store unless you are fortunate enough to be able to download a free version then upgrade to a paid version.

For me, the Nintendo DS remains a disappointment. Even with its enlarged screen and new stylus, it still looks very plasticky, the graphics to my mind are generally unappealing and the price of games is ridiculous!

I do use a Wii at home, which also has poor graphics but is sold on its motion sensor and, let’s be honest, is good fun. I would not recommend accessing the internet on it though.

What I’d really love to see, though, would be a games console with a handheld device so that you can play a game at home, then continue it on your handheld.

Daily Spotlight on Education 03/31/2010 (coolcatteacher.blogspot.com)
Games-Based Learning: 3 Things You Need To Know About (ictineducation.org)
Minister backs ‘brain’ games role (news.bbc.co.uk)
[ #gbl10 ]: Game-Based Living: the core of new media literacies [Part 1] (edu.blogs.com)
[ #gbl10 ]: The National Gaming Curriculum: new media literacies [Part 2] (edu.blogs.com)
#SLF10 – Scottish Schools Mario Cart Competition (olliebray.typepad.com)
Consolarium (Games Based Learning Podcast) Podcast (olliebray.typepad.com)
The 5Ws and H of Playing [Video] Games in School: Part 1 – Why Play Games? (isteconnects.org)
Let’s Hear It For The Digital Pioneers (ictineducation.org)
Why are we still arguing over Gaming in Education? (l4l.co.uk)
Visualisation explains why games-based learning gets a hard time at the same time every year (edu.blogs.com)
[ #ghc GameHorizon ]: Seminal change in experience- & games-based learning with Kinect (edu.blogs.com)

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Tags: education technology, games based learning, online learning
Posted in Classroom Technology, games based learning, Handheld Learning, Transforming Learning | 2 Comments »

Working with what You’ve Got!

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

There may be a lot of talk, discussion or debate about ICT in schools. Some people advocate big installations with large networks, ICT suites or ICT rooms. While others talk about handheld devices and wifi or 3G accessibility. Others talk of combining the two. The image seems to be that if we have the money, we’ll spend it. Reality is often different, though, while we may listen or indulge in theoretical discussion about ICT provision, in reality we have to work with what we’ve got.

That’s not to say that having a vision and working toward it is wrong, far from it, but today’s learners need to be educated, they need to be educated for the 21st century and they need to be educated with the equipment the school has now.

We live at a time when we cannot be sure of our funding and a time also when the money does not seem to go as far as it once used to.

Fortunately, 21st century education is not about equipment, it’s about approaches. It’s about putting the learner at the heart of their learning and allowing/enabling them to use the equipment you have in creative and collaborative ways. This seems to be often overlooked in discussions and, indeed, in implementations of modern ICT. Perhaps this may be why capital projects seem to display evidence of infrastructure implementation but little, as yet, evidence of learning transformation.

So is it a time to put our visions on hold? I certainly don’t think so. Yet it may be the time to re-evaluate the equipment we have and the ways in which we use it. Time perhaps to explore new uses of the equipment, time for professional development to disseminate new ideas and new skills. These are perhaps the first steps in transforming learning in our schools and they good news is that they are steps all schools can take, not just those undergoing new installations or BSF building.

Innovative Schools (bededtech.sjwc.hct.ac.ae)
Where We Sit As A School (slideshare.net)
Amplified Education (l4l.co.uk)
Connected Kids (Andrew Kirk, DEANZ 2010) (ictelt.blogspot.com)
iPrimary ICT Guides and 180 Tech Tips (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
What can you do with IT? (deangroom.wordpress.com)
Managing Change: Engaging The Teachers (ictineducation.org)
ISTE’s Top Ten in ’10: Final Priorities for 2010 (isteconnects.org)

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Tags: Educational technology, Information and communication technologies in education, learning transformation
Posted in Classroom Technology, Transforming Learning | 2 Comments »

Archive for the ‘Transforming Learning’ Category

Lesson Plans or Learning Plans?

What Does it Take to be Innovative in Education?

A Hundred Ways to Show What They’ve Learned

Darn Lesson Plans … Damn Them I Say

Transforming Learning

Thoughts on Game Based Learning

Working with what You’ve Got!

Contact me

Follow us on Twitter

Doug Woods

Archive for the ‘Transforming Learning’ Category

Lesson Plans or Learning Plans?

Related articles by Zemanta

What Does it Take to be Innovative in Education?

Related articles

A Hundred Ways to Show What They’ve Learned

Related articles by Zemanta

Darn Lesson Plans … Damn Them I Say

Related articles by Zemanta

Transforming Learning

Thoughts on Game Based Learning

Related articles by Zemanta

Working with what You’ve Got!

Related articles by Zemanta

Contact me

Follow us on Twitter

Doug Woods