Digital Week 4 & 5

Collaborative Learning week 5

Computational Thinking

In his book 'Mindstorms', Seymour Papert (1980) stated that 'when a child learns to program, the process of learning is transformed. It becomes more active and self-directed. In particular, the knowledge is acquired for a recognizable personal purpose. The child does something with it. The new knowledge is a source of power and is experienced as such from the moment it begins to form in the child's mind." (p.21)

Computational Thinking is a problem solving process. It is a fundamental skill for everyone, and involves solving problems, designing solutions and systems to solve open ended problems based on multiple variables. We illustrate the concept in this week's session with the following quotes:

“Everyone should learn how to program a computer, because it teaches you how to think.” (Steve Jobs, cited in Sen, 1995)

"Computational thinking is a way humans solve problems; it is not trying to get humans to think like computers." (Wing, 2006)

"Computational thinking is taking an approach to solving problems, designing systems and understanding human behaviour that draws on concepts fundamental to computing." (Wing, 2006)

According to Google (n.d.), Computational Thinking Means Solving problems by using:

• Decomposition: Breaking down data, processes, or problems into smaller, manageable parts
• Pattern Recognition: Observing patterns, trends, and regularities in data
• Abstraction: Identifying the general principles that generate these patterns
• Algorithm Design: Developing the step by step instructions for solving this and similar problems

Scratch for Computational Thinking

Last week we used Scratch with Makey Makey. This week we will be using Scratch for computational thinking. 

Pair Programming

Pair programming is a common technique in agile software development. One member of the pair is the ‘driver’ (does the typing, and focuses on tactics) while the other is the ‘navigator’ (can review and suggest, and focuses on strategy). When pair programming you should change your roles within the pair on a regular basis, and also change your partner on a regular basis.

"This combined effort, which requires frequent role changes between the two developers, and changes of pairing, has been argued to provide benefits such as improved team discipline, cohesion and morale, better code, a more resilient work flow and creation of better solutions. It raises the working knowledge of the entire code base by all the developers, and enables mentoring of team members" (Parsons, Ryu & Lal, 2008).

Scratch Examples 

With Scratch examples you can click the 'See Inside' button to see how the code was written and, if you want to, you can make a copy to modify yourself by pressing the 'Remix' button. This example shows repetition and selection

There is also a ScratchJR for 5-7 year old and Snap! (formerly BYOB) which is an extended reimplementation of Scratch that allows you to Build Your Own Blocks. It also features first class lists, first class procedures, and continuations. These added capabilities make it suitable for a serious introduction to computer science for high school or college students.

Celebrating 50 Years of Kids Coding

This Google Doodle (which appeared the Google homepage in 2017) is a short coding game to celebrate 50 years of kids coding.

Digital Curriculum

The new digital curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2017) emphasises computational thinking. 

“In this area, students develop algorithmic thinking skills and an understanding of the computer science principles that underpin all digital technologies. They become aware of what is and isn’t possible with computing, allowing them to make judgments and informed decisions as citizens of the digital world” (Ministry of Education, 2017). 

We will be looking at the 8 progress outcomes/whakatupuranga of the Computational Thinking technology area, which you can find through the following links: 

• 8 Progress Outcomes: tinyurl.com/CTOutcomes
• 8 Whakatupuranga: tinyurl.com/whakatupuranga

This image from the curriculum shows how the 8 progress outcomes are intended to align to levels.

Collaborative Learning week 4

Collaborative learning is a learning process that brings learners together (including the teacher) and enables students to be responsible for their own learning as well as the learning of their peers. Collaborative learning is aimed at having students fully appreciate the process of building knowledge together and improving learning outcomes by collective knowledge and collective capability. We might link these ideas with the concept of kotahitanga, as outlined in this week's in class video from Trevor Moeke

In the flipped preparation discussion this week we will be looking at how collaboration links with the learning theories of constructivism and constructionism. A learning theory is about changes in observable behaviour. It addresses: how such changes become relatively permanent, whether the change is immediate or potential, what role experience plays, and what aspects of reinforcement are present (Olsen & Hergenhahn, 2013).

These top ten learning theories are particularly relevant to digital and collaborative learning

1. Conditioning
2. Connectionism and the Law of Effect
3. Progressive Education
4. Constructivism: Social Development Theory
5. Constructivism: Equilibration
6. Social Cognitive Theory
7. Situated Learning / Cognition
8. Community of Practice
9. Constructionism
10. Connectivism

Constructionism

Constructionism argues that collaborative learning is particularly effective in environments where learners are required to actually produce what Seymour Papert refers to as a 'social product' - and this may be anything from a robot to a computer game or even a mathematical theory.

Papert & Harel (1991) state that constructionism is the idea of learning-by-making and that these activities display qualities of "learning-richness":

"The simplest definition of constructionism evokes the idea of learning-by-making... I do not believe that anyone fully understands what gives these activities their quality of "learning-richness." But this does not prevent one from taking them as models in benefiting from the presence of new technologies to expand the scope of activities with that quality." Papert & Harel (1991)

Constructivism

Constructivism is based on a type of learning in which the learner forms, or constructs, much of what he or she learns or comprehends (Cashman et al., 2005). This means that knowledge is constructed, and transformed by students. The learning process is something a learner does by either activating already existing cognitive structures, or by constructing new ones that accommodate the new input. Learners do not passively receive knowledge from the teacher; teaching becomes a transaction between all the stakeholders in the learning process. One of the ideas associated with constructivism is Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (what the learner can do with the guidance of a knowledgeable other).

Liu and Matthews (2005) put constructivism in its historical context, contrasting it with earlier behaviourist and cognitivist theories; "knowledge is not mechanically acquired, but actively constructed within the constraints and offerings of the learning environment… The mechanistic positivist accounts of learners as recipients of hard-wired knowledge were supplanted by accounts of learners as situated, active knowledge constructors.”

Scratch

The first activity of this session will be using Scratch, a visual programming tool with Makey Makey kits to make a musical instrument.

Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab, and it helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively. With Scratch you can program your own stories, games and animations and share and use other projects on the online library. When combined with a Makey Makey it can be used to respond to external events to create interactive programs. Makey Makey is an electronic circuit board that allows users to connect everyday objects to computer programs that respond to events.

After the activity, we will reflect on how constructionist and constructivist theories apply to this type of learning.

Some other ways in which Makey Makeys can be used are:

• Building scientific instruments
• Flight simulators
• Power motors
• Lighting LED's
• Rain gauge
• Home security system
• Selfie switch
• Bringing code to life.

These ideas are described in the video on the portal: Makey Makey: An invention kit for everyone.

Cooperation and Collaboration

One area of debate in education is the difference (or similarity) between cooperation and collaboration. To begin our discussion this week we ask you to answer the PollDaddy question at poll.fm/5zccy to share your own viewpoint on collaboration and cooperation

In his book chapter, 'What do you mean by collaborative learning'. Pierre Dillenbourg suggests that it is not easy to define what we mean by collaborative learning, since there are many different opinions. “This book arises from a series of workshops on collaborative learning, that gathered together 20 scholars from the disciplines of psychology, education and computer science… The reader will not be surprised to learn that our group did not agree on any definition of collaborative learning. We did not even try. There is such a wide variety of uses of this term.”

This, however, is not very helpful to teachers who are required by 'Our Code, Our Standards'  to “Teach in ways that enable learners to learn from one another, to collaborate, to self-regulate and to develop agency over their learning.” (Education Council, 2017).

Fortunately there are some ideas in the literature that can help us to define what collaborative learning means. Kozar (2010) uses the analogy of a pot luck dinner to compare cooperation and collaboration. In a potluck dinner, people cook and bring different dishes to the table. Had they cooked together they would have learned a lot more from one another; they would have taken away some practical, hands-on skills even if cooking together had meant a messier and a more chaotic process. In the cooperative process, guests return back to their homes being able to cook only the same dish they brought. In collaboration, guests cook together to  gain new knowledge or experience from the interaction.

A few other ideas about what defines collaborative learning include

• Shifting the responsibility for learning to the student (Panitz, 1999).
• For non-foundational knowledge (picks up where cooperative learning leaves off) (Bruffee, 1995).
• A social contract (instructions, settings, constraints) (Dillenbourg, 1999).
• Horizontal not vertical division of labour (reasoning layers, not subtasks) (Dillenbourg, 1999).
• Interdependent, with shared responsibility to make substantive decisions together (ITL Research, 2012)

leadership week 4 & 5

Mindsets week 5

Mindsets are beliefs; how you think about yourself, your intelligence and talents, what it is you can and cannot do. Ultimately, this affects how you perceive other people and their abilities, talents and capabilities, what they are and are not capable of.

One of the flipped learning tasks before the session was to complete a quiz to explore your own mindset

Intelligence

In the session we will address the question of whether Intelligence is innate and, therefore, cannot be developed beyond what you are born with. Claxton (2008) notes that "intelligence [has] become defined as the kind of mind that responds most readily to the peculiar demands of school."

Dweck's Theory of intelligence

Dweck (2006) descried two different views of intelligence. The previous view is that there is a fixed intelligence that can be measured using an IQ Test. No matter how much you learn, or how hard you work, your intelligence stays the same. Her view of intelligence is that  the brain is malleable: it is like a muscle that can get stronger and work better as you learn and stretch yourself. Over time, you can get smarter. This leads to two contrasting views of mindset, fixed and growth:

Fixed Mindset

People with a Fixed Mindset believe that the abilities and capabilities they have are fixed traits. Their intelligence is set, they are talented at certain things and not others. They believe that it is whether or not someone is talented at something is what allows them to be successful at something or not. Intelligence is fixed and can be measured.

Growth Mindset

People with a Growth Mindset believe that their intelligence, and abilities can be developed and grow. Through hard work, dedication and time, people can learn new talents, learn new things and become more intelligent. Teaching a growth mindset encourages learning, develops relationships and self efficacy. The brain is malleable, it can grow, stretch and expand. The harder you work, the more you can learn.

Ways to Develop a Growth Mindset

By changing the language we use. The power of 'not yet' in the classroom. "I have not learnt this yet" shows a growth mindset, rather than saying "I can't do this", or "I failed" which shows a fixed mindset. Changing the way we talk in the classroom, 'What we are learning' rather than 'Here is the work to do'. What is it that we value? Do we value the end product or the learning process? (Dweck, 2006)

Myth Busting

During the class session we will be making 'myth busting' stop motion videos where we bust myths relating to human brains and growth mindset. One of those we mention in class is 'False Growth Mindset'

“It all started when my Australian colleague Susan Mackie informed me that she was seeing more and more false growth mindset. This is when educators think and do all sorts of things that they simply call growth mindset. And then I started noticing it, too.” (Dweck, 2016, January 11). 

Stop Motion Movie Making

Stop motion is an animation technique that physically manipulates an object so it appears to move on its own. An object is moved in small increments, then individually photographed, creating the illusion of movement when played. Dolls, LEGO® and clay figures (claymation) are often used since they are easy to re-position. Stop motion films can also involve humans, household appliances etc. for comedic effect.

Stop Motion Tools

You can make stop motion movies manually using generic video editing tools like VideoPad or iMovie, or use a dedicated stop motion tool such as those listed below.

Stop Motion Studio (for iOS or Android)

Dedicated stop motion app for smartphones and tablets. It includes many features such as frame-by-frame preview at different speeds, fade in/out, select, copy, paste, reverse and delete frames, green screen, themes etc.

Stop Motion Builder (iOS/Android)

This app allows users to create stop motion videos by taking pictures frame by frame with their cell phone camera and adding sound effects and music.

Pic Pac (Android)

Stop motion movie app for Android that can also do time lapse.

I Can Animate (lite) (iOS)

A simple and easy to use animation app that will capture frames using either camera on your iOS device

iMotion (iOS)

Time-lapse and stop-motion app for iOS.

Animator DV (PC)

Windows based software, frame grabber, for creating stop motion and time lapse animation.

iStopMotion (iPAD)

Frames Per Second (fps)

One of the main question you need to think about when making stop motion movie is how many frames per second (fps) you will use. The more frames per second, the smoother the action is, but the longer it will take to make the movie. Typical options are:

• 2 fps - recommended by Slowmation
• 10 or 15 fps - bouncy type of animation used on Instagram/ Facebook
• 24 fps - cinematic

Growth Mindset in Leadership

If you want to include the role of growth mindset in your leadership assignments, you might consider some of these ideas. 

Growth mindset in a leadership context comes from a belief that those we lead can be motivated to improve and grow their practices. This choice usually involves including many stakeholders in decision-making, over-communicating the vision, mission, and goals, building shared values, and providing specific, targeted, timely feedback. Dweck (2006) reports on a number of studies of CEOs that suggest that CEOs with a fixed mindest, who believe in natural talent rather than growth, are less successful over the longer term than growth mindset CEOs, even if the former can achieve short term success.

A Growth-Minded [Leadership] Choice (Diehl, 2013) might be one that:

• Validates and addresses staffs fears and barriers
• Communicates the vision explicitly
• Provides support to those who lack knowledge or skills
• Creates an opportunity to share research and information
• Allows everyone access to growth opportunities
• Shares the work load among all staff  

An Oracle blog post (Oracle, 2015) suggests that leadership is all about the willingness to grow and change and to help your people do the same. The Harvard Business Review (2014) suggests that organizations focused on employees’ capacity for growth will experience significant advantages.

References:

Research Informed Leadership week 4

Research informed leadership means being able to lead in your practice by having the knowledge and skills to use evidence and critical thinking to support innovatiosn and lead others to change.

Developing Research Informed Practice

1. Develop a personal commitment to review research to determine what is likely to works best and to determine what ‘best-practice’ models exist.
2. Encourage your peers to work with you to empower a collective of teachers who collectively participate in research and literature reviews.
3. Disseminate information and research findings with your students and your peers to raise awareness of research informed practice and decisions in your school.
4. Encourage your students to be reflective of their actions and decisions so that they learn to self critique and take greater responsibility for their learning outcomes.
5. Develop a class culture of referring to credible sources of data and let the class develop a sound understanding of how to evaluate data/content soruces.
6. Be a consumer and promoter of evidence
7. Pose questions without pre-determined answers or expectations. Identify ways to enhance a commitment to investigation.

Whakataukī

Ehara taku toa I te toa takitahi; engari he toa takitini

Success is not the work of one, but the work of many

Related Standards for the Teaching Profession

Design for learning
Select teaching approaches, resources, and learning and assessment activities based on a thorough knowledge of curriculum content, pedagogy, progressions in learning and the learners.

Leadership in Digital and Collaborative learning Week 3

Conditions for Classroom Innovations.

  TPACK
Draw your own TPACK
This is the plan using TPACK for the up and coming assignment.

SAMR

Substitution - same task

Augmentation - direct substitute - different tool same thing

Modification -technology has been used to modify a task

Redefinition - Redefine the task

Google Tour Builder (Beta)

Change location name

Digital and Collaborative Learning - Blended Learning Week 3

This video shows the use of Edpuzzle. We have used screen o matic to capture our google slides. We also used a voice over to discuss what Edpuzzle was.

Edpuzzle would be good for creating Flipped learning videos to explain a concept or idea.
You can create your own content or use content from the sight and add to it.

It could also be used by the children to create video showing their understanding of a concept or to share their knowledge with others.

Within a formal programme of learning, students study using a mix of on-site face to face learning and some degree of online learning, which may take place on site and/or remotely. There are several models of blended learning, which vary in their balance between the face to face and online learning, and how much of the online study is on site or off site. Some models emphasise some kind of rotation between learning activities, which may be more or less prescriptive, depending on the context. The important thing is that there must be some element of face to face learning, contrasting with, for example, MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) or distance learning courses, where all the learning is online. 

The flipped classroom is a form of blended learning that brings together advances in education and technology to deliver instruction online, outside of class, typically via video-based materials, and moving 'homework' into the classroom. The end result is a personalized, engaging learning experience for every student — whatever their learning style, pace, or ability.

The definition of blended learning is a formal education program in which a student learns:

1. at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace;
2. at least in part in a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home;
3. and the modalities along each student’s learning path within a course or subject are connected to provide an integrated learning experience.

The majority of blended-learning programs resemble one of four models: Rotation, Flex, A La Carte, and Enriched Virtual. The Rotation model includes four sub-models: Station Rotation, Lab Rotation, Flipped Classroom, and Individual Rotation.

Flex Model - content that is personalised that they self manage while the teacher is with a group - Chn choose what they are doing using Google sites/

Teaching Standards

TeachingTeach and respond to learners in a knowledgeable and adaptive way to progress their learning at an appropriate depth and pace. 

Kath Murdoch Teaching and learning through inquiry

Teaching and learning through inquiry

Which of these questions are unGooglable?

Which can you Google?

Pause to question the questions

How do questions work

Provocation 

Learn the art of provocation 

Think 1

What does ... mean to you?

I think ...means...

Draw Pictures

How does my thinking compare to your thinking

Similar thinking

Design the learning experience so you can stand back and listen

 Provocation- earthquake , create an earthquake in the classroom 

What are you noticing? Not what are you noticing, that, I want you to notice.

How might I make this work?

Powering up your potential - you can't make someone learn. You need to give kids the tools to learn.

Growing my learning assets

Refer to page in handout

Building learning assets 

Creative thinking

Inquiring into learning

Turtle video

What do we relate this to inquiry? 

The learning pit

Don't save to quick

Need to know the kids - when is the right time to step in? And help? 

Kids jot down what they intend to learn during the day. Their learner pathway focus. Maybe?

Picture cards to show what 'learning skill' they have achieved during the day.

Perhaps use skills to learn during golden time

The collaborator 

The researcher

The thinker

The creator

Etc

Split screen learning intentions

Check they are learning the skills of learning

How are you as a learner

Skills for life

What does it mean to be...a learner

What does it mean for a thinker to infer?

Use the add on brainstorm technique 

Research can be done with a picture

Coding the text. Increases your understanding of the text

Questions to the author as you read.

Text to what I know

Text to text

Text to  

Could be done within guided reading session

Do activity in silence

In a circle

Note taking

How will you take notes. Get anything you want to take notes.

Come up with shared criteria 

What worked best?

Work in progress 

1-3-6 routine 1 person shares with 3 agree on lists, 3 share with another 3 have to agree.

Mind Lab Week 2 Leadership

He Tikanga Whakaaro	Our Values
Rangatiratanga (personal autonomy and leadership)	Whakamana: empowering all learners to reach their highest potential by providing high-quality teaching and leadership.
Whakawhanaungatanga (establishing relationships)	Whanaungatanga: engaging in positive and collaborative relationships with our learners, their families and whanau, our colleagues and the wider community
Manaakitanga (a context of caring relationships)	Manaakitanga: creating a welcoming, caring and creative learning environment that treats everyone with respect and dignity.
Whaiwāhitanga (engagement and participation).	Pono: showing integrity by acting in ways that are fair, honest, ethical and just.

Key Competencies	He Tikanga Whakaaro
Thinking Using language, symbols & texts	Tātaritanga (thinking and making meaning)
Managing self	Rangatiratanga (personal autonomy and leadership) Whakawhanaungatanga (establishing relationships)
Relating to others	Manaakitanga (a context of caring relationships)
Participating and contributing	Whaiwahitanga (engagement and participation).