Author: wenmothd

Derek is regarded as one of NZ education’s foremost Future Focused thinkers, and is regularly asked to consult with schools, policy makers and government agencies regarding the future directions of NZ educational policy and practice.

Derek’s Blog, launched in 2003, serves as a platform for sharing thoughts and reflections related to his work. It offers over 20 years of searchable posts, categorized by the tags below. Feel free to comment, as your feedback contributes to ongoing reflection and future posts.

People Aggregator

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New forms of social networking services are coming thick and fast at the moment – and here’s another, PeopleAggregator . PeopleAggregator is the product of 3 years of self funded work by developer Mark Canter to bridge the gap between all the online social networking services available and move the industry towards a standards-based place of collaboration.

The thing that is worth looking at with this product is that it is all about using open standards to prevent lock-in in one of the most important sectors of the new web – online social networking. PeopleAggregator.net will be a fully functioning online social network in and of itself, but it will share information with other services through common identity standards for our profiles and through APIs (application programming interfaces) for our writing, multimedia and contacts.

For more read the article in TechCrunch While the article itself is interesting, the comments it provide further insights into what some are thinking about the importance of this sort of interoperability – certainly a range of views!

Using Wikis in the Classroom – Innovate

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The June/July edition of Innovate has just been released, and in it are several great articles that will be of interest to practitioners and researchers in the area of online learning etc.

My favourite in this edition is an article by S. Pixy Ferris and Hilary Wilder titled Uses and Potentials of Wikis in the Classroom. . The authors introduce their research with reference to the notion of secondary orality as a means of understanding the impact of electronic and cyber technologies on teaching – asserting that they see teachers as part of a print paradigm of learning whereas they propose that students are increasingly part of a secondary-oral paradigm of learning.

The article traverses topics such as the way emergent technologies go through phases of acceptance and use (they use Wikipedia as an example here), through to focusing on how wikis can be used to promote collaboration and a shared construction of knowledge in an online environment. Some useful comparisons with blogs and other social software are also referred to.

The article is optomistic in tone and in the view of how wikis can be used by educators, providing a broader picture view of how they may be implemented unlike a number of case study reports I’ve read recently.

The full list of articles in this edition of Innovate are:

  • From Digital Divide to Digital Dividend: What Will It Take? by John Daniel and Paul West
  • Teaching Social Software with Social Software by Ulises Mejias
  • Uses and Potentials of Wikis in the Classroom by S. Pixy Ferris and Hilary Wilder
  • Synchronous Discussion in Online Courses: A Pedagogical Strategy for Taming the Chat Beast by Craig W. Smith
  • Teaching Students about Plagiarism: An Internet Solution to an Internet Problem by Eleanour Snow
  • Creative Commons: A New Tool for Schools by Howard Pitler
  • Term Length as an Indicator Of Attrition in Online Learning by David Diaz and Ryan Cartnal

NB – you must sign up for an account (free) with Innovate to see the full articles.

Linking Thinking

Thanks to Jeremy Heibert for drawing my attention to a report from Australia titled Linking Thinking: Self-directed learning in the digital age (pdf) . It’s a pretty big volume to download as the pdf (350 pages), so if you prefer a shorter read the executive summary may be more managable.

Written back in 2004 by Philip Candy, funded under the Research Fellowship Scheme
of the Department of Education, Science and Training, the report is in four main sections:

  1. sets the scene by dealing with the dual themes of the digital revolution and self-directed learning
  2. analyses the six major conditions that must be met in order for people to be able to participate in the digital world.
  3. presents a six-part model of online learning, and concludes with an examination of the support that may be provided to self-directed learners in each of these various elements of the online learning process.
  4. revisits the dual themes of self-directed learning and the digital revolution, and places them into the context of discourses about lifelong learning and the development of a Learning Society more generally.

Although the author is careful to say this report is not specifically intended to generate practical advice for government policy makers, administrators or even for teachers, trainers or educators, there is plenty here to inform the thinking of those who are in any of these roles.

Not sure why I haven’t come across this before – but certainly still a relevant document with some very compelling analysis.

pdf.gif Download full report

Gliffy

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There are many times that I have wanted to create diagrams similar to those that are created in Visio – for flow charts, floor plans, network diagrams etc. Today I found Gliffy – a web-based diagramming solution. It only took a few moments to create an account – which was confirmed by an email to me. Once logged in, I was really impressed by how easy it was to create all sorts of diagrams using the range of symbols from the menus. The files you create are stored on the web for you to go back and modify at any time. The thing that really impressed me was how easy it is to export the diagram you create as a JPG image that you can then paste into other documents etc. Well worth a look.

Social Constructivism

Wahoo! We’ve just updated our blog server at CORE to the recent version of Movable Type – ther are lots of interesting features that allow me to do interesting things with the look and feel of the blog, but, more importantly, you can now do things like include linked URLs in the comments space!

enough excitement…
I thought I’d blog about an interesting page I came across this weekend titled Social Constructivism by Beaumie Kim. It’s a really useful, succinct introduction to the ideas about social constructivism, and I thought would be useful in terms of some of the ideas explored in the paper from Futurelab that I’ve blogged about below.

Social Software and Learning

Really interesting research paper from FutureLab in the UK titled Social Software and Learning . The paper is introduced thus:

    This paper is focused on exploring the inter-relationship between two key trends in the field of educational technologies.

    In the educational arena, we are increasingly witnessing a change in the view of what education is for, with a growing emphasis on the need to support young people not only to acquire knowledge and information, but to develop the resources and skills necessary to engage with social and technical change, and to continue learning throughout the rest of their lives.

    In the technological arena, we are witnessing the rapid proliferation of technologies which are less about ???narrowcasting??? to individuals, than the creation of communities and resources in which individuals come together to learn, collaborate and build knowledge (social software).

    It is the intersection of these two trends which, we believe, offers significant potential for the development of new approaches to education.

The big questions explored in the paper include:
– How do we learn in an era of connection and collaboration?
– What is social software?
– Does learning change in an information society?
– How do we move towards ???c-learning????

With a growing amount of information appearing on the web about social software and the emergence of Web2.0 technologies, it is good to see some thinking like this that explores what the impat might be in our classrooms and schools.

WetPaint : Wikis Evolve

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Looking for a good Wiki tool that’s free and easy to use? Wetpaint has until now been available in beta form only, but this week they have launched to the world, allowing anyone to create a free wiki on any topic.

Michael Arrington provides a useful summary of what it does in his article on TechCrunch

List of Social Networking Sites

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At last – a list of Social Networking sites has made it onto Wikipedia! There are sixty examples listed at the moment – I’m sure more will be added to by the Wikipedia community. Each of the sites is listed with its focus, user count and registration details (ie open or invite only etc.) What is staggering are the numbers of users quoted for some of these environments – MySpace 86M, Friendster</a< 29M and Xanga 40M for example! Most of the user figures are backed up with a reference that you can check (no doubt these figures will date very quickly)

Flock – latest release

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I’ve just downloaded and installed the latest version of Flock – and boy am I impressed! Flock is a free web browser that makes it easier than ever to share photos, stay up-to-date with news from your favorite sites, and search the Web. The download and installation went like a dream – importing all of my favourites and cookies from my existing browser, and taking me through a simple set-up that links with my flickr, del.icio.us and blog accounts.

Once loaded I could then set up the newsfeeds that I regularly look at simply by dragging and dropping the RSS link from the feeder site. This is where I became seriously impressed – the newsfeeds open in a browser window, with a panel below each thus:
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If you click on the “blog” selection it will automatically upload that feed to appear as an entry on your own blog! Now that’s nice.

This is another advance in the idea of a browser being the aggregator for a Personal Learning Environment – and it’s only in Beta 0.7 release!

Improving Instruction Through the use of Weblogs

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Anne Davis has developed a very useful and informative wiki titled Improving Instruction Through the use of Weblogs that provides anyone interested in finding out how blogs can be used in education with some great reading!

I was particularly struck by Anne’s personal statement in the Shaping Pedagogy Through Blogging section:

    I think I’m a better writing teacher now than when I previously taught it in my classroom. I was bound within 4 walls and had been taught to work at getting a good final product. I was not a writer myself. That’s the most important part I was missing. Blogging myself shows my students that I value writing and I realize the hard work it requires.

The wiki contains everything from curriculum-based examples to more theoretical pieces on pedagogy and blogging and webtools for teachers. It’s worth a look just for the RockYou slideshow in the Language Arts Examples.

What others say

The Learning Environments Australasia Executive Committee  has received a lot of positive feedback, which is greatly due to your wealth of knowledge and information you imparted on our large audience, your presentation has inspired a range of educators, architects and facility planners and for this we are grateful.

Daniel Smith Chair Learning Environments Australasia

Derek and Maurie complement each other well and have the same drive and passion for a future education system that is so worthwhile being part of. Their presentation and facilitation is at the same time friendly and personal while still incredibly professional. I am truly grateful to have had this experience alongside amazing passionate educators and am inspired to re visit all aspects of my leadership. I have a renewed passion for our work as educational leaders.

Karyn Gray Principal, Raphael House Rudolf Steiner

I was in desperate need of a programme like this. This gave me the opportunity to participate in a transformative journey of professional learning and wellbeing, where I rediscovered my passion, reignited my purpose, and reconnected with my vision for leading in education. Together, we got to nurture not just academic excellence, but also the holistic wellbeing of our school communities. Because when we thrive, so does the entire educational ecosystem.

Tara Quinney Principal, St Peter's College, Gore

Refresh, Reconnect, Refocus is the perfect title for this professional development. It does just that. A fantastic retreat, space to think, relax and start to reconnect. Derek and Maurie deliver a balance of knowledge and questioning that gives you time to think about your leadership and where to next. Both facilitators have the experience, understanding, connection and passion for education, this has inspired me to really look at the why for me!

Jan McDonald Principal, Birkdale North School

Engaged, passionate, well informed facilitators who seamlessly worked together to deliver and outstanding programme of thought provoking leadership learning.

Dyane Stokes Principal, Paparoa Street School

A useful and timely call to action. A great chance to slow down, reflect on what really drives you, and refocus on how to get there. Wonderful conversations, great connections, positive pathways forward.

Ursula Cunningham Principal, Amesbury School

RRR is a standout for quality professional learning for Principals. Having been an education PLD junkie for 40 years I have never before attended a programme that has challenged me as much because of its rigor, has satisfied me as much because of its depth or excited me as much because of realising my capacity to lead change. Derek and Maurie are truly inspiring pedagogical, authentic leadership experts who generously and expertly share their passion, wisdom and skills to help Principal's to focus on what is important in schools and be the best leader they can be.

Cindy Sullivan Principal, Kaipara College

Derek Wenmoth is brilliant. Derek connects powerful ideas forecasting the future of learning to re-imagine education and create resources for future-focused practices and policies to drive change. His work provides guidance and tools for shifting to new learning ecosystems through innovations with a focus on purpose, equity, learner agency, and lifelong learning. His work is comprehensive and brings together research and best practices to advance the future of teaching and learning.  His passion, commitment to innovation for equity and the range of practical, policy and strategic advice are exceptional.

Susan Patrick, CEO, Aurora Institute

I asked Derek to work with our teachers to reenergise our team back into our journey towards our vision after the two years of being in and out of 'Covid-ness'.  Teachers reported positively about the day with Derek, commenting on how affirmed they felt that our vision is future focused.  Teachers expressed excitement with their new learning towards the vision, and I've noticed a palpable energy since the day.  Derek also started preparing our thinking for hybrid learning, helping us all to feel a sense of creativity rather than uncertainty.  The leadership team is keen to see him return!

Kate Christie | Principal | Cashmere Ave School

Derek has supported, informed and inspired a core group of our teachers to be effective leads in our college for NPDL. Derek’s PLD is expertly targeted to our needs.

Marion Lumley | Deputy Principal |Ōtaki College

What a task we set Derek -  to facilitate a shared vision and strategy with our Board and the professional and admin teams (14 of us), during a Covid lockdown, using online technology. Derek’s expertise, skilled questioning, strategic facilitation and humour enabled us to work with creative energy for 6 hours using a range of well-timed online activities. He kept us focussed on creating and achieving a shared understanding of our future strategic plan.  Derek’s future focussed skills combined with an understanding of strategy and the education sector made our follow up conversations invaluable.  Furthermore, we will definitely look to engage Derek for future strategic planning work.

Sue Vaealiki, Chair of Stonefields Collaborative Trust 

Our Principal PLG has worked with Derek several times now, and will continue to do so. Derek is essentially a master facilitator/mentor...bringing the right level of challenge, new ideas & research to deepen your thinking, but it comes with the level of support needed to feel engaged, enriched and empowered after working with him.

Gareth Sinton, Principal, Douglas Park School

Derek is a highly knowledgeable and inspirational professional learning provider that has been guiding our staff in the development of New Pedagogies’ for Deep Learning. His ability to gauge where staff are at and use this to guide next steps has been critical in seeing staff buy into this processes and have a strong desire to build in their professional practice.

Andy Fraser, Principal, Otaki College

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