Category: research and papers

Education Futures, pedagogy, research and papersLeave a comment

Makerspaces

wenmothd

The buzz words around many areas of education at the moment include STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and the Maker Movement – both of which emphasise 'hands-on' learning and 'learning by doing', emphasising engagement in real world problems and the use of design principles and approaches. This interest has been  building for some time now – Mark Osborne discusses the Maker Culture in CORE's Ten Trends in 2014, noting that active learning increases the rate of learning faster than passive learning. Simply watching others build or make things fire up parts of our brain that are left untouched by … Continue reading Makerspaces

Mobile Technologies, pedagogy, research and papersLeave a comment

Tech-enabled personalised learning

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I've just been browing a new report A new report tiled "Technology-Enabled Personalized Learning: Findings and Recommendations to Accelerate Implementation," from the US. The report is based on the recommendations and observations of over 100 educators who gathered last year for the TEPL summit at North Carolina State University's Friday Institute for Educational Innovation. It summarises advice and insight on how to use technology to facilitate personalized learning, and seeks to help users work towards goals based around: data, content and curriculum, technology architecture, research and development, and human capacity. It's always interesting to read this sort of document, particularly as it has been developed … Continue reading Tech-enabled personalised learning

Education Futures, professional development, Reforming schooling, research and papersLeave a comment

Innovating to create 21 century learning environments

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 The International Summit on the Teaching Profession is under way this year in Banff, Canada, with a contingent of NZ educators attending. Last year I had the privilege of attending this event when it was held here in NZ, and it provided a a great opportunity to hear from a variety of international 'experts' and leaders from a range of countries in the OECD.  Among them was Andraes Schleicher who is the OECD's director of the Directorate of Education and Skills, and the person most will associate with the research behind the PISA results. He is also author of a … Continue reading Innovating to create 21 century learning environments

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Digital learning report

wenmothd

We've seen a significant uptake of digital learning in all forms and guises in schools over the past few years, driven by a number of things, including the desire to 'keep up' with what other schools, a sense that this is important for our young people and their digital future, or to replace traditional approaches of using text books with something more relevant and engaging.  But how do we know our use of digital technologies is actually contributing to powerful learning? The Evergreen Group have recenty published their annual review of policy and practice titled "Keepng pace with K12 digital learning" … Continue reading Digital learning report

Curriculum, Digital Literacy, research and papers, Uncategorized1 Comment

Computing our future…

wenmothd

 To code or not to code – that is the question that has been debated hotly for more than two decades now in many countries around the world – including New Zealand.  Like many other countries, New Zealand put all of its eggs into the 'ICT and digital literacy for all" basket from 1990, when the first MoE-funded professional devleopment programmes began. That philosophy has underpinned all of the ICT-PD strategies and spending to the current day – the argument being that ICTs (or digital technologies as they're now being referred to) are a part of everyone's experience, not simply … Continue reading Computing our future…

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Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) – 2013 Results Published

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The 2013 TALIS report has just been released and makes for some interesting reading in light of the work I'm currently focusing on regarding modern learning environments and modern learning practice.  This is the second cycle of the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey. The first survey was conducted in 2007/2008. The main focus of TALIS is on the learning environment and working conditions of teachers in schools. It offers an opportunity for teachers and school principals to provide for education analyses and policy development in relation to the issues being studied in TALIS. I always find this sort of 'meta-level' research of … Continue reading Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) – 2013 Results Published

Education Futures, research and papersLeave a comment

NMC and CoSN Release the NMC Horizon Report > 2014 K-12 Edition

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The New Media Consortium (NMC) and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), with the support of HP, are releasing the NMC Horizon Report > 2014 K-12 Edition at a special session at the 2014 NMC Summer Conference in Portland, Oregon. This sixth K-12 edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on teaching, learning, and creative inquiry. 2014 K-12 Edition identifies "Rethinking the Role of Teachers" and the "Shift to Deeper Learning Approaches" as fast trends accelerating the adoption of educational technology in … Continue reading NMC and CoSN Release the NMC Horizon Report > 2014 K-12 Edition

eLearning, professional development, research and papersLeave a comment

Motivating and retaining learners online

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I've had the privilege of participating in the DEANZ conference, surrounded by a veritable smorgasbord of national and international experts in the field of open, flexible and distance learning.  This morning we had Curtis Bonk join us by video conference for a short presentation as a part of the SITE panel presentation on teacher education. Curt introduced us to the book that he has co-authored with NZer Elaine Khoo from Waikato University titled Adding some TEC-VARIETY – 100+ activities for motivating and retaining learners online.  This book has been released just today as a free download viat the TEC-VARIETY website. … Continue reading Motivating and retaining learners online

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Are we making the most of our ICTs?

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I've just come across this report from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation detailing the results of 3,100 teacher surveys and 1,250 student surveys on the kinds of digital instruction tools that are useful and effective. The foundation asked teachers and students what they need when it comes to digital instruction, aiming to close the communication gap between commercial developers and schools. The sample size makes this a pretty comprehensive survey by any account, so the results are worth considering. One of the findings that interests me is that most teachers surveyed (54 percent) reported that they don’t find many of … Continue reading Are we making the most of our ICTs?

Education Futures, modern learning environments, national standards, professional development, Reforming schooling, research and papers1 Comment

Learning from the PISA results

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I attended a meeting of the Minister's Forum today where we had further discussion around what we can learn from the latest PISA results, and implications for future policy and professional decision making in the NZ education sector.  We began the day by viewing a webcast from Andreas Schleicher, the international 'architect' of the PISA process (see video above). A key point he makes is that global comparisons such as PISA allow us to see what's possible in education – a useful perspective I feel as we begin to see the media frenzy begin.  An old colleague of mine, and … Continue reading Learning from the PISA results