Archive for category technology

Why I fight for my curriculum

Posted by kmcg2375 in english, technology on March 4, 2010

Some interesting conversations have converged for (on?) me this week following the release of the draft Australian Curriculum.  Discussions with Roger Pryor and Jan Green through tweets and blog posts about the power of social networks and leadership have challenged me to be more optimistic about what will happen in classrooms after the launch of the National Curriculum.

Roger and Jan are both advocates of leadership models where participative (loose) practices within the school can mediate the directive (tight) policy environment and accountability systems within which we work.  In a post to her blog Jan describes being filled with confidence for the future of students because of the powerful and passionate debate about national curriculum taking place between education professionals through social networks.  On this point I certainly agree.  In this brave new world of federal curriculum control strong leaders and their PLNs will be key in influencing the spread of new ideas and practices.

But optimism about curriculum enactment is not enough for me.

Tonight I have been re-reading a paper by Colin Lankshear that identifies dominant meanings of literacy and related reform proposals, and I would like to quote him here at some length:

The meanings of literacy in educational reform discourse and their associated modes of “doing and being around texts” are both informed by and intended to inform ideals and practices of literacy much more generally.  They are also intended to permeate larger “social ways of doing and being” – such as being workers, citizens, parents, consumers, and members of organisations – that are mediated by texts.

…Hence, investigating meanings of literacy in educational reform proposals also involves asking what (and whose) perspectives, priorities, and world views prevail within them.

…Reform proposals are like scripts, frames, or “cultural models.”  They encode values intended to change people and social practices – and which will change people and practices to a greater or lesser extent depending on how fully they get implemented in practice.

…The key question here is: what kids of “visions” for life, people, and practices more generally, are encoded in these scripts?

Lankshear is discussing literacy here, which for me is apt as it is the English curriculum that is of most concern to me.  But his observations about educational reform apply to all curriculum areas.

Just a few days on from the release of the draft Australian Curriculum for English, my biggest problem with its “vision” for English is the constraint of new literacies.  Even if we were to accept the (100 year old) notion of Language, Literature and Literacy being divorced as separate ‘strands’, the lack of reference to explicit spoken and visual ‘skills’ in the Language strand is a gross neglect in this curriculum reform. This is without doubt a reaction to conservative media hype about ‘dumbed down’ curriculum, and a pandering to parent-voters who will feel reassured by a ‘back to basics’, ‘3Rs’ approach to teaching English.

While I too am hopeful that schools will be able to implement this curriculum in meaningful, ‘loose’ ways, it simply isn’t good enough to stand back and let through a script that, as Lankshear insists, will change people and practices, in such a retrograde way.  English teachers have fought long and hard for rich and generative definitions of literacy, and of what it means to understand and create meaning in a wide range of texts.

*sigh*

What are we going to do?

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NSW DET teachers and web2.0

Posted by kmcg2375 in online tools, technology on February 10, 2010

Teachers in NSW public schools are invited to add a profile of themselves and share online resources with other teachers in a new wiki, NSW DET Staff 2.0 created by Sydney Region’s Stu Hasic.

What a great way for NSW teachers to find each other, network and share expertise.  I love the way that you can search the wiki for the tool you are trying to use (e.g. edublogs, ning, twitter) and find like-minded professionals who have used it before.  Networks like these are becoming increasingly important as we learn new pedagogies required to bring on the Digital Education Revolution in our classrooms.

Thanks for bringing us together Stu!

PLN Wordle (used on the staff wiki) by Cobannon – http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobannon/2983755525/

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My English faculty Moodle

Posted by kmcg2375 in english, technology on February 3, 2010

I’ve been working on my faculty Moodle course this past week at my high school, and wanted to share some of what we are doing in English.  I’d love some critique, and ideas for what has worked well in other English faculties specifically.

I have set our faculty area of the Moodle up with the following courses:

  • Year 7 English
  • Year 8 English
  • Year 9 English
  • Year 10 English
  • Standard English Prelim
  • Advanced English Prelim
  • Standard English HSC
  • Advanced English HSC
  • English Extension 1 Prelim
  • English Extension 1 HSC
  • English Extension 2 HSC
  • Fundamentals of English (Years 11-12)

Each course is set to topics view, and begins with 2-4 topics that are relevant to the entire course.  For example, in the Year 10 course:

Underneath the general course information topics, each class has been given a topic area – individual teachers will maintain their own class topic area, adding information and resources throughout the year.  Here is an example of one Year 7 teacher’s class information:

Am I on the right track here?  I didn’t want to make a whole course for each class – too cumbersome.  And I’m setting up class ‘groups’ in each course now.  Has anyone else had experience with this?  Any advice?

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I heart Hillary

Posted by kmcg2375 in technology on January 22, 2010

In an address to the Newseum yesterday in Washington DC, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton explored the importance of internet freedom.  The position of the United States was spelled out very clearly:

We stand for a single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas. And we recognize that the world’s information infrastructure will become what we and others make of it. Now, this challenge may be new, but our responsibility to help ensure the free exchange of ideas goes back to the birth of our republic.

Hillary Clinton, I’d like to introduce you to the dishonourable Stephen Conroy.  He likes long walks on the beach, and slowing down Australia’s internet access because he’s awful scared that we Aussies are going to get into bestiality and stuff.

I mean, we ALL acknowledge that “when it comes to curious kids with technically-adept mates and plenty of time on their hands, or desperately secretive pedophiles trading their nasties, the filter will be nothing but a minor inconvenience.”

But today I was just so pleased to see this debate return to the sphere of philosophy, rather than technicality.

Yes, I oppose the filter because it will slow the internet down.

Yes, I oppose the filter because it is a wate of time and money to implement a scheme that anyone can bypass if they are so inclined.

But, above all of this, I agree with Hillary, and applaud the United States for taking such a hard line on the restriction of the free exchange of ideas.

Colin Jacobs today put it nicely when he explored the Australian Government’s self-serving media release which took Clinton’s comment that “all societies recognise that freedom of expression has its limits” and spun it so fast that it made me dizzy.  Jacobs republished Clinton’s comment in context, and it is worth reposting them here:

Now, all societies recognize that free expression has its limits. We do not tolerate those who incite others to violence, such as the agents of al-Qaida who are, at this moment, using the internet to promote the mass murder of innocent people across the world. And hate speech that targets individuals on the basis of their race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation is reprehensible. It is an unfortunate fact that these issues are both growing challenges that the international community must confront together. And we must also grapple with the issue of anonymous speech. Those who use the internet to recruit terrorists or distribute stolen intellectual property cannot divorce their online actions from their real world identities. But these challenges must not become an excuse for governments to systematically violate the rights and privacy of those who use the internet for peaceful political purposes.

OK, so she’s probably talking a little bit more about China than she is about Australia here, but as a teacher in a NSW public school, I have seen how horribly wrong a well-intended filtering system can turn out.

FACT: People in charge of filters get it wrong.  Anyone who’s ever had to deal with government agencies like Centrelink know that the system can’t be trusted to make no mistakes.  Carbon-based errors abound.

FACT: Filters are not sensitive enough to ambiguous content. The classic example in schools is the filtering of sites relating to the book Moby Dick.

FACT: SLOPES ARE SLIPPERY! And I don’t trust our government to decide what’s best for me considering decisions that have been made relating to euthanasia, gay marriage and abortion laws.

Senator Conroy’s report was released last December, just in time to spoil our Christmas break.  I’m so glad that an antidote has come today in the shape of Hillary Clinton to bolster our cause in time for Australia Day!

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Down with written exams!

Posted by kmcg2375 in school, technology on January 15, 2010

I want to marry this opinion piece and have its babies.

In UK paper The Independent yesterday, Brandon Robshaw writes that It’s time to ditch written exams for students and go digital. I couldn’t agree more, if for no other reason than:

It seems obvious, but is seldom remarked, that students are being obliged to do something that they never do or need to do in real life: write with a pen for two or three hours non-stop.

To be honest, I don’t even care if exams don’t go digital…but putting an end to pen-and-paper exams must surely become a priority as the skills of extended handwriting and unaided recall of extensive amounts of facts go the way of the dinosaurs.

Robshaw argues that a computerised examination system would not only “be far kinder to students, it would also be far more useful, requiring them to employ a skill that is used outside the exam hall.”  Amen to that. The most salient point for me, however, is not the usual evangelising about digital learning.  In my experience, while many teachers can be convinced of the benefits of using digital technologies, the reality of poor funding and resources at both the school and system level make this utopia seem like a distant dream.  Or, at best, an unholy uphill battle and minefield of ‘teething problems’ that we’re just too tired to contemplate.

No, for me the point that really needs to drive this campaign is that as extended handwritten work becomes more and more antiquated, the continued use of pen-and-paper exams becomes an increasing barrier to learning, as well as a significant equity issue.  Fact:

no one writes at their best in an unfamiliar medium.

How can we, in good conscience, continue to set our students up for failure in this way?  If we know that students are not going to do their best in a written exam, why do we persist with them?  Especially when the impact is going to be felt most heavily by students with already low literacy skills.  It’s no exaggeration to say that

Change can’t come too soon. The present system is akin to forcing candidates to write on slates with chalk, or chip away at stone tablets with chisels.

Thanks to @principalspage for the link to this article.  It made my day!

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Hit Refresh!

Posted by kmcg2375 in conferences, english, online tools, social media, technology on December 4, 2009

Last weekend I attended the English Teachers’ Association Annual Conference in NSW, which was held at the University of NSW on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th of November.  The conference theme was ‘Hit Refresh!’, so it was apt that this was the first conference we have run that had an officially constructed online aspect, using both Ning and Twitter to engage presenters and participants in discussion and networking before, after, and behind the scenes of the conference.

This (longish) post is a report I wrote on the success of these online tools at the conference.

Many educators by now have heard of ‘blogs’, ‘wikis’, and learning management systems such as Moodle, and hopefully we are fast approaching a time where the these strange names and terms are accepted as useful (rather than childish) jargon.  In the meantime, jokes about the ‘Ning-nang-nong’ and Twitter users being ‘twits’ will abound.  But while these tools might sound goofy, they are anything but.

Ning.com is an online tool that is fast gaining popularity with educators.  It combines many other features for writing and connecting online – such as being able to have a personal profile page, make ‘friends’ with other members of the Ning, write blog entries, add to discussion forums, and join sub-groups – and for that reason the term Ning was coined to describe the NetworkING that occurs on the site.  For our conference we created a Ning a few months ahead of the conference (http://etaconf09.ning.com/), set up all of our conference workshops, presentation, keynotes and plenaries as ‘events’, invited presenters (first, then later, people who had registered for the conference)…and waited.

The response was slow but sure.  Before the conference had even started we had 70 people who had joined as members of the Ning.  ETA committee members and presenters who were keen to explore the Ning started adding discussions and material right away.  New presenters felt welcomed and included in the lead up to conference, and could ask questions and establish contacts with others before arriving on the big day.  On the Thursday before the conference, the number of members had grown to 130.  Many more joined up during and following the conference, and the count currently stands at 230 members.  Some presenters used the Ning directly in their workshops, getting participants to add their own questions, ideas and resources.  Many people were glad to have an easy way of contacting and keeping in contact with other members, and as many people did upload information about themselves, including a photo to their profile, there was a definite sense of familiarity and closeness at the ‘real life’ conference between Ning users.

As well as establishing a conference Ning, the micro-blogging service Twitter.com was used to ‘tweet’ short, 140 character updates from the conference, in particular from the Saturday morning panel on National Curriculum.  This allowed attendees to create a ‘backchannel’ at the conference, communicating with others from around the globe, as well as other members at the conference, about events as they happened.  Before the conference I blogged a description of a backchannel, which was used at the conference to explain the concept.

As this was our first attempt at using a backchannel, we decided not to display the tweets live on a big screen behind the speakers – though this is something that is occurring frequently now at many conferences that use a backchannel.  For our own, and the speakers’ peace of mind, Darcy Moore and I fielded questions and comments that came in via Twitter at the same time as chairing the panel and the real-life questions from bodies inside the auditorium, and integrated these into the plenary.  The response was very positive, and people (speakers included) only seemed disappointed that we didn’t display the tweets on the big screen!

So, next year we are bound to do this again, with the screen on live display.  Using technology this way can be risky of course, as there is far less control being exercised when members can publish their unfettered thoughts for all to see.  But the benefits of this far outweigh the risk, and the message from members was ‘bring it on!’

Increasingly, educators are connecting online in very powerful ways.  This includes English teachers.  As online tools become easier to use to connect, communicate and collaborate with colleagues they are being seen as more of a joy (and a time saver) than a chore.  I heartily encourage other professional associations to consider adopting online elements for future conferences and events, and would be happy to share ideas and advice with anyone who is going in that direction.

Anyone else care to share their experiences or tips?

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English Teachers: Waving, not Drowning

Posted by kmcg2375 in english, online tools, technology on December 2, 2009

I have Google Wave!

Well, I’ve had it for a week now, but have had no-one to play with in it (on it?), so effectively I didn’t have it at all.

But now I have Wave buddies 🙂  And so the messing around begins!

I’m joined by fellow English teachers and Tweeps Bianca (@BiancaH80), Julie (@JulBain), Darcy (@Darcy1968) and soon also Troy (@TroyM7).

The Negative Nancy in me is screaming “Don’t bother! They’re never gonna let you use anything this USEFUL in school anyway (because lewd images and pervy old people COULD be on a Wave too – QUICK EVERYONE, HIDE THE KIDS!)”.  But after using it for not very long at all, you just know that this is one of those things that is going to have a big impact on how we ‘do’ activities, lessons, even school.  Web 2.0 tools have opened up a whole new world of collaborative working and creating, but the way Google Wave uses in-text editing, integration of images and video, real-time editing (you can see each other type!) and, perhaps most excitingly, playback (so you can see additions and comments appear in the order they were added)…it just has oodles of potential that I am only just comprehending.  And best – it’s really FUN to use!

Just now, I have started a collaborative poem with my English teaching ‘Wavers’ – I wrote in a couple of lines, and hopefully others will add and we’ll see how it goes.  (I would love ideas for other English-y activities/tasks for us teachers to trial on a Wave, if you have any?)

Maybe this is what I find the most fun – getting to try old activities in new ways by testing them on myself!

Or, is it the real feeling of a ‘playground’ that I’m getting by making a collaborative Wave with my peers?

All I know is that tonight, with Twitter AND Wave going bananas, I felt like a teen on MSN or something!  My PLN just got so much more…personal.  I wonder if the novelty is going to wear off?

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ETA Conference: The Backchannel

Posted by kmcg2375 in conferences, english, online tools, social media, technology on November 26, 2009

Friday morning will see Darcy and I braving the stage prior to the opening of the annual English Teachers’ Association conference ‘Hit Refresh‘.

Why?

Because for this ETA conference, for the first time, the conference is going web 2.0 – we’re stepping up the interaction, participation, and networking by providing some seriously cool online spaces for teachers to wet their toes in, and hopefully also dive right in to!  So, we’ll be getting up (in our awesome Twitter t-shirts 😉 ) to show the folks at the conference how to get involved in communicating with others, and how to use the backchannel.

What is a ‘backchannel’?

You know when you’re sitting, watching a keynote or presentation, and if you know the person in the next seat you might make the odd remark in their ear?  Well, a backchannel is like doing this on a mass scale – it’s like having a silent ‘channel’ on in the background for anyone who wants to make comments or ask questions that the rest of the audience can see, and if they want, silently respond to.

It’s like passing notes for grown-ups.  Ones that you know the teacher can read too if they so choose (so you can be critical, but must also be polite!)

From wikipedia:

The term “backchannel” generally refers to online conversation about the topic or the speaker

…it is the practice of using networked computers to maintain a real-time online conversation alongside live spoken remarks.

What are we using?

The most effective way of paticipating in a live backchannel during the conference is to join Twitter, and post short 140-character messages called ‘tweets’.  Anyone who ‘follows’ you can see your comment or question – and some people might also respond.

Do I have to have a lot of followers for this to work?

(or ‘yikes! but I’m not that famous yet!’)

If you are new to Twitter, never fear.  If you tag your tweet with the ‘hashtag‘ ETAConf09, then the comment that you tweet will also be seen by anyone who has searched for that tag – not just the people who follow you.  This means that even if you have NO FOLLOWERS, you can add to the backchannel discussion, and people can tweet responses to you.  Here is an example:

Wow! I thought Kelli and Darcy did a great job explaining the backchannel! #ETAConf09

To which another user might reply:

Does anyone know where I can find the video they showed at the start? #ETAConf09

You see the potential here?  And it’s easy!

What’s this I hear about a conference ‘Ning’?

‘Ning’ is the cute name that the people over at Ning.com made up to describe their online site that is used for NetworkING.  It’s a very easy site to use, and a great way to introduce yourself to online learning if you haven’t already.

ETA members (all of you – whether you are physically at the conference or not) can join the ETA conference Ning and add comments and questions there too.  Darcy and I will be monitoring the Ning as well, and it is another place that a kind of backchannel will likely spring up.  It’s probably less likely that this will happen during the sessions though.  I imagine a lot of people will be logging into our Ning on Friday and Saturday night, and for awhile after the conference, to send comments to friends, colleagues and presenters, and to share ideas and resources.

For the most effective participation in a LIVE backchannel, I seriously recommend you use Twitter.

Any questions?

If you have any questions, you can post them here as a comment, or ask them on Twitter.  You can find and follow me at http://twitter.com/kmcg2375, or Darcy at http://twitter.com/Darcy1968

See you in the Twitterverse!

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Facebook Note: Time to show your colours

Posted by kmcg2375 in online tools, school, social media, technology on November 18, 2009

While many teachers choose not to share their online spaces with students (in Queensland, where I have just moved, teachers are now officially prohibited from communicating with enrolled students on any social networking site), I do have about a dozen senior students (from NSW) who have added me as a ‘friend’ on Facebook.

My personal policy has always been to only add students in my HSC (final year) class.  Since going on leave, I have accepted invites from some in year 11 too.

Over the last few days I’ve noticed in my news feed a few of my students becoming ‘fans’ of the group “Your Gay” or “Thats Gay” is a excellent response to ANY situation.

So tonight I posted this in my ‘Notes’ section, tagged the students in question, and waited…

I’ve noticed a few of my friends becoming a FAN of the group:
“Your Gay” or “Thats Gay” is a excellent response to ANY situation.

Really?

You REALLY think so?

I guess you must not know anyone who is gay then, or have thought very much about how this might make a gay person feel.

Or maybe you really believe that everyone has ACCEPTED that the word ‘gay’ can be used out of context. Because no-one REALLY thinks that you mean ‘gay’ when you say ‘gay’, right? Like, you’re not actually saying that something is homosexual!

Buuuut…last time I looked, there were plenty of people out there, gay and straight, begging people like you to stop using this word. Plenty of people who are HURT when you say it. Plenty of people who understand the origins of this word being used as an insult, ON PURPOSE, in a very directed way, to literally mean that GAY = BAD. Plenty of people who have suffered verbal and physical (sometimes violent) abuse at the hands of viscious (as well as oblivious) homophobes, just because they are gay.

But hey, it’s just a word, right?

Ah ha! I know – maybe you think you are a postmodernist, and you believe that words should be detached from their historical meanings so they can be used again in new and exciting ways. Ironic ways! Contradictory ways! In ways that are self-reflexive, and therefore actually subtly critical of social institutions at large! (Wow, that would make you pretty smart…but I just can’t help but think that Derrida and Foucalt had other things in mind when they encouraged people to challenge social norms.)

If you’re tagged in this note then you probably don’t think that “gay is just another word for happy” is a good reason to use the word ‘gay’ as an insult, because that whole argument just makes no sense whatsoever…and I’m not usually friends with idiots! No, chances are you don’t think that, anymore than you think anyone actually uses the word “faggot” in regular, non-woodsman-type life to describe a ‘bundle of sticks’.

MAYBE you’re actually a social activist, and you’re trying to reclaim the word ‘gay’ the way that black people reclaimed the word ‘nigger’, or the way the GLBT community reclaimed the word ‘queer’. But if you thought about THAT for longer than two seconds, you’d realise that no…using a word as an INSULT doesn’t count as reclaiming language. In fact it’s kinda the opposite. It’s more like how when people say ‘nigger’ as an INSULT they are being RACIST.
(Though perhaps you have never watched important historic speeches like Martain Luther King’s famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, and really been shocked at what African-Americans had to endure at the hands of the law, let alone at the hands of racists citizens, back in those days. Like, did you know that black people couldn’t vote! That they were made to ride on the back of buses! Kinda like how women couldn’t vote at the turn of the last century – or how they weren’t allowed to buy property, open bank accounts, or divorce their husbands! Or like how gay people are not allowed to get married, or adopt children as a couple, or work for schools owned by the Church! Oh…wait… that’s now. My bad.)

No, I DON’T think that “You’re Gay” or “That’s Gay” is an excellent response to any situation.

And friend, I don’t think you’re cool when you say that it is.

You know for a FACT that it is hurtful to use ‘gay’ as an insult, so now you have the choice – are you gonna do it anyway? How mean are you? How disrespectful to the struggles of countless others, their families and friends? How callous? How cruel?

Use your imagination and come up with a new word already.

It’ll take you awhile to kick the habit, but it’s worth it.
Swear if you have to.

AND UN-JOIN THAT STUPID GROUP OR UN-FRIEND ME!

The response was immediate, and resoundingly positive.  Many students who picked the note up through their news feed ‘liked’ the note without being invited.  Here are some of the comments that were posted:

“never thought of it like that, unjoined!!”

“thank you for showing me the light 8P”

“yer that is totally fair enough. i actually joined on account of an injoke with some friends, and the group related to the context of the situation, but fair point.”

I also got some lovely messages from fellow teachers who shared their stories and experiences, and the students would have read this too.

So…cost/benefits of dipping into the ‘teacher’ role on social networking sites?  You tell me. But I just got a whole bunch of students to leave that stupid group, and some are re-posting the note to their friends.  For tonight, 100% worth watching my online p’s and q’s to ensure I maintin my duty of care.

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It’s hip to be square

Posted by kmcg2375 in english, technology on September 29, 2009

With the Digital Education Revolution and the Laptops for Learning program putting laptops into the hands of every NSW public school Year 9 student next term, we ‘techies’ are finding ourselves very popular indeed.

There’s just not going to be enough support – tech support or curriculum/pedagogy support – for everyone to get it right straight away.  The laptop program can work in spite of this…in fact, it may even work better because of this.

The L4L program seems to many in schools to be a radical and dramatic project.  So radical and dramatic, in fact, that teachers seem to be happier than usual to admit they don’t know everything, and actually ask their colleagues for advice and help 🙂  Teachers in my faculty have started acting far more like a ‘community of learners’, rather than an ‘office of colleagues’ – people are motivating each other, praising each others achievements, and mentoring as much as they can.  Power relations are being disrupted as principals and head teachers are being mentored by classroom teachers; parents are having to concede that teachers have a level of knowledge and professionalism that deserves more respect than is usually see; students are realising that access to ‘technology’ means higher expectations, not more ‘bludge’ lessons.  Many are happy with this, and are rising to the challenge.

It is a Revolution indeed…one where it’s hip to be square!

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