Lesa2Learn: Mind Lab - My Reflections

Week 4

How is leading a research team similar/different to leading a teaching team?

Theory! Theory! Theory!

In our group we believe 'Theory' is what you believe, the underpinning 'Why' you do things, 'What' you do and supported by research and is evidenced based whereas the 'Style' is the 'methodology' and 'how' you present the things you need to.

What is Learning Theory?

In our group we thought 'learning theory' is using what we already know and believe in (evidence based and researched) and all these connections and beliefs guide how we learn. Ways to learn such as 'brain-based' learning and knowing what we know about 'learning to learn' and applying these (eg Switch Ons and Offs)

Learning Theories from the Hat?

All groups selected one theory each from 'the hat', quickly planned what our Stop Motion movie was going to portray and began 'shooting'. After tweaking our video, up it went to the Google + site for public viewing! Our theory was 'Constructivism' and how Lee Vygotsky saw learning as a socially interactive event where one learnt and used prior knowledge as well as developing a deeper understanding through the active participation and contribution with others (ie 2 minds are better than 1!).

Just to recap about constructivism...learning is a socialcultural event where social interaction shapes cognitive development.

Stop Motion Movie to present our 'take' on a Theory
(our movie)

My Reflections about 'Theory'

How do I see theory? Everyone has to have a 'theory' about something otherwise how do we start to construct our beliefs about how things work or how the world works so to speak? I start with my basic understanding of how I will do what I do and then with experience built over time, layer upon layer I begin to develop and extend my 'theory' and by this stage, my theory is beginning to evolve into something a little more sophisticated. Included in constructing a good working 'theory', I am consolidating ideas, beliefs and deeper understanding through evidenced based research. Do I make good choices all the time? Nope! But i truly hope my decision making does not take me down an already used path.

Week 3 - To augment reality or not to augment?

Augment reality and virtual reality sound like one of those sci-fi action pack movies where the reality as we know it, doesn't really exist and what is in fact normal, is horrific and terrifying! Well...way too many sci-fi movies I think! What is interesting is the fact that augmented reality can be very exciting and a new way of looking at your class-world through the lenses of an ipad or mobile device. Anyway, augmented reality has an exciting component to it - it's engaging and eye-catching.

Here are a few photos of my children experimencing 'augmented reality' during a low-level activity but they were engaged for a while talking about what they could see, what they knew about the focus and what else would they be able to do with this type of function (this was low-level but mentioned).
(PHOTOS AND VIDS OF KIDS WITH QUIVER)

Virtual reality however is online living (I mean this loosely in the terms) in a 'virtual world' (I know I saw a horror movie on this subject once upon a time). Well...one popular virtual reality game I know is the Sims game where people create communities for themselves. One person explained that the Sims games (apart from the bling-bling) is actually a problem solving game (eg how to get things, what do you have to do? The tasks and activities to achieve things).

Week 2 - Reflections after last week's session?

At the moment, we are discussing aspects from our first week and how we (our group) have been coping or reflecting about what we have read or viewed over the past week. Blogging - I am slowly perusing other student's blogs but I'm spending a bit of time in mine reflecting, I don't always get to see others in detail...but boy, I've seen some pretty inspiring blogs!

Before I forget, I watched this video as part of our tasks and it's an oldie (by which I mean, I've seen this before) but I do like how it represents 'collaboration' and 'working together' nicely and simply.

The Purpose of Education:

We briefly re-discussed this question, which tied in nicely with this week's 'reflecting' question posed for this week..."20th century and 21st century skills and do we need both?"

In the above slide, we looked very briefly at:

Qualification - learning skills/knowledge to use and do something with this
Socialisation - taking their place in society, culture and tradition
Subjectification - becoming independent, autonomous in thinking and acting

I had already reflected about this earlier but to revisit this question again...the simplest reason there is, is for students to learn and acquire the necessary skills to find work and to take their place in society therefore, the world. Well, that was the popular rationale in the 20th century and to a degree, yes for the 21st century...however, may I add a twist? Not only do our children need to take their place within society and to find employment in an ever-changing landscape with rapidly changing technology within this society if not the world, but what if it were on their own terms?

The NZ Curriculum has allowed schools to become the innovators of creating a new curriculum based on the needs of the students, the school and the needs and diversity of their community with the idea of any student can compete with anyone, anywhere else given the right tools, mindset and skills-set, which also involves preparing students to cope with technological changes occurring globally.

I find the thought of my 5 year old students (even younger!) beginning a lifetime journey of learning in a world where distance does not mean isolation, access to education and learning is open and learning through a variety of mediums is possible. Synchronous learning occurring anywhere, anytime, even for our 5 year old students, occurring after school has closed its doors for the day.

Technology has opened the world to my students but I believe those born in this age of learning will better cope with changes to still occur. Like the industrialist age where schools eked out workers equipped to take their place in the workforce therefore, the economy. So too is this the partial notion of today! Our economy will thrive if we have the workforce to help develop and maintain it but unlike the industrialist age, our knowledge society of today are modernized and based on technology. Schools producing students who are hopefully 'geared up' to learning to learn and to continue learning, problem solvers who will find solutions for needs and issues, co-collaborators, co-constructors who will think outside the 'box' and be innovative thinkers and doers.

Being a realist, this won't happen for all our students, and preparing students with knowledge and skills best suited to them, their needs and diversities are hopefully part of our creative and innovative inclusive curriculum development.

Do we need skills from either century? I believe we do. Those from the 20th century can compliment and give grounding to those in the 21st century...like:

kindness, empathy and creating a culture of caring
resilience - able to cope with what may come their way
developing a work ethic
the impact of our actions on society and those around us

as well as:

independent learning, self-directed, self-regulated
co-constructing learning and knowledge through collaborative efforts and activities
technological skills and knowledge
learning to learn and developing a thirst for learning
how to learn
identifying how our learning and knowledge can help to find solutions to issues and needs
creativity, innovation
communication

Here is a tagul cloud after all students filled in their top 5 skills for the 21st century:

We also discussed rubrics used to display the level of learning and understanding for different topics and our topic was knowledge construction. Our group had to quickly review 'knowledge construction' and then understand what the different levels of understanding might look like for KC.

Here we are brainstorming and discussing these different aspects:

Here we are after our video task! Happy our task is finished and uploaded for viewing! :)

Week 1 - We have started!

Four hours in a room with a lot of people sounds daunting...but not-so when you're in a room filled (and I mean 'filled') with people who are interested in learning and acquiring new knowledge and skills to uplift their teaching practices and knowledge.

Ahhhh...which brings me to 'What is Knowledge?'

Our first group collaborative task was to brainstorm 'What is Knowledge?' then present this in video form. 30 minutes to give our group's 'spin' on this topic, film, edit, title, give credits and then upload to our course's Moodle site! Whoa!

Here is our brainstorm: