The presentation was broken into three parts; my research, a chance for individuals to look through 7 of my student’s ePortfolios and lastly a look at three ePortfolio perspectives (students, parents and mine).

The video interviews (lasting 6 mins long) with a sample of my Parents is not viewable from the slideshow below. I do not currently have permission to share the video publicly. However if you are interested email me at j_lietze@yahoo.co.nz or if you have a Centre4 login you can view my presentation with the video and notes here.

Recently I chaired my first meeting of the newly formed Primary and Secondary ICT Committee. I am excited that we are already engaging ourselves on meeting our first challenge; developing an ICT strategic plan that will hopefully sharpen the level of eLearning in our school.

This challenge has caused me again to explore current research into ICT and it’s impact on learning. I have  been interested in the developments of mLearning so have been looking for research in this area. I put a call out on Twitter the other night and Paula Jamieson responded with some helpful pieces of research:

1. Victoria’s (Australia) Department of Education and Early Childhood Development released this helpful piece of research entitled “iPod Touch Research Report” (November 2008). I found the recommendations simple but helpful.
2. Carly Shuler published “Pockets of Potential; Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Childrens’Learning” (January 2009). This research presented some clear opportunities and challenges with mobile learning.

It has also been helpful for me to follow New Zealand’s own Toni Twiss. At the end of 2008 Toni published her research into mLearning entitled: “Ubiquitous Information”. Since then she continues to pursue this topic and in one of her recent posts Toni made this pivotal statement:

In-light of some of the ways that educators are choosing to use mobile phones as covered in this review, it becomes very clear that the technology enables a wide-range of variation for the use of these devices within an educational setting.  However, in order to make the most of many of these learning opportunities, it is going to require a fundamental rethink of the way teaching and learning happens.  Simply using mobile phones to teach using traditional methodologies will not be effective.  However, nor will planning teaching and learning episodes solely focused on what the technology is capable of.  From the findings of this review, rethinking when and where learning opportunities can take place and how mobile technologies can facilitate this is fundamental to developing sound teaching and learning practice.

In my mind Toni has ‘hit the nail on the head’. If there is going to be change in our classrooms and effective integration of ICTs to enhance teaching and learning then it is pedagogy that needs to be addressed. If our pedagogy is not rethought we will just keep on teaching the way we have always done it but with modern tools for example; using an interactive whiteboard in the same way you use a whiteboard. This equates to a very expensive whiteboard! So as my school and I go about developing an ICT strategic plan I have in the forefront of my mind the awareness that our biggest challenge is not finance or the teaching of tool tools, but helping to develop sound pedagogy in our teaching staff.

I would appreciate your help. What ways have you found effective in developing Teachers’ pedagogy about the integration of ICT? Do you have any websites that could help us develop an ICT strategic plan?

I am also interested in the use of notebooks in the classroom. Do you have any links to research on this topic? Do you use notebooks in your class? What have you found are positive and negatives about integrating such a tool?

Picture Authors (Creative Commons License = Attribution):

- "Winding Pathway" http://www.flickr.com/photos/g-hat/2050774790/

- "Brain" http://spacesuityoga.wordpress.com/

Below are several that stood out:

• Ray Tolley stepped into my world after he left a comment on a previous post of mine. His knowledge and perspective caught me and I have since enjoyed communicating with him and reading the following writings:
  • “The Prime Directives for an ePortfolio” Here Ray identifies 10 criteria for an ePortfolio (compiled 18 months ago).
  • “A Universal ePortfolio?” was put together for a conference Ray presented in Paris in Feb 2008. It explores the potential for a universal ‘5-95′ ePortfolio.
• I was excited to finally see Nick Rate’s completed research in December and so enjoyed the 73 page read entitled “Eportfolios and Assessment For Learning.” What interested me was:
  1. His writings on “Assess to learn – a formative approach to teaching, learning and assessment.”
  2. The reflective perspectives of both the teachers and students who engaged in ePortfolios.
  3. His investigations into the following ePortfolio platforms: Elgg Classic, Wordpress MU, Knowledge Net, Marhara and DrupalEd.

So what am I up to now?

1. I have booked Nick Rate to come and visit my school, speak with my ePortfolio team and share his research with interested staff.
2. Ray Tolley is currently arranging for me to view and play with his eFolio platform.
3. Pebblepad has just been pointed out to me as a “nice user interface for children.” So I have been investigating this.

Animation Author: http://www.free-animations.co.uk/animation.html

• JISC publication (Sept 2008), “Effective Practice with e-Portfolios: Supporting 21st century learning”
  
• Ian Fox’s research (Feb 2008) “Eportfolios; a personal space for learning.

During this time I put together a brainstorm of ideas identifying:

1. Why we have chosen eportfolios (the purpose).
2. How they could be set up based on Nick Rate’s criteria for an eportfolio platform.
3. Management ideas to facilitate eportfolios in the classroom, including the ICT skills/resources we might need to teach the students.
4. What the eportfolio might contain (targeted at my Year 6/Grade 5 students).

Click here to download the brainstorm.

Our next step is to finalise the platform that we will use for the trial. Can you help us?

• What platform have you used that has been successful?
• How does it compare with Nick Rate’s criteria?
• Has anyone used Mahara, Wordpress MU, 21Classes or Edublogs for eportfolios and can comment on these?
  

Picture Authors: Reading = http://www.barnstable.k12.ma.us/bhs/Library/1index.htm Brainstorm = http://www.sitefriends.com

From time to time you come across a post that is worth sharing and collecting for future reference.

Today I was catching up on my Netvibes account (as you do) and Durff’s post “Who Do You Want To Be?” caught my attention.

According to research there are three types of teachers: expert, experienced, and novice. They each focus on different aspects of classroom culture.

Expert teachers are more effective scanners of classroom behaviour, make greater reference to the language of instruction and learning of students, whereas experienced teachers concentrate more on what the teacher is saying and doing to the class and novices concentrate more on student behaviour. (Hattie, 2003).

Reference: Hattie, J. (2003). Teachers make a difference: What is the research evidence? Interpretations, 36(2), 27-38, Retrieved November 23, 2007 from http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/RC2003_Hattie_TeachersMakeADifference.pdf

Hmmm now which one am I?

Thanks Durff (and Hattie) for challenging us with your work.

Picture Author: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Blue_flag.svg

In his post Wesley says “The fact that my own children are regularly taking spelling tests at school continues to both trouble and irritate me as well. There is virtually NO academic research I read or was exposed to in my masters and doctoral graduate coursework in education which suggests giving students spelling tests of decontextualized words on a weekly basis improves their abilities to spell, read or write. The real skill related to spelling is WRITING, and the best way to improve writing skills (according to the body of literacy research reviewed by Dr. Stephen Krashen of USC in his excellent book, ““The Power of Reading, Second Edition: Insights from the Research” is to encourage students to READ prolifically.”

Options I have used in the past include:

1. Giving Parents a list to go through with their child.
2. Using Essential Spelling Lists and then placing these new words into children’s homework books.
3. Progressing through spelling activity books where children complete fun games that teach them to learn how to spell and use grammar correctly.
4. Taking misspelt words out of their writing and placing it into their homework books.
5. Teaching spelling as part of my “Word of the Week” feature where I hit an English rule once a week eg: “When two vowels go walking, the first does the talking.”

In all of the situations above there is a test on Friday with the teacher/buddy to monitor progress. Sometimes we graph the results so the students can see a trend.

I don’t feel I have hit the nail on the head yet – does anyone else have any other ideas??

Picture Author:

"Classroom" - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart

Last term I was asked (along with my colleague) to present to the School BOT on the topic of what a 21st Century Classroom and Learner looked like. During the question time one Trustee asked us “what is the difference between information and knowledge…… Have you read “The Flickering Mind” by Todd Oppenheimer?” Well………..

• Firstly this book is critical of the use of computers in education. It comes out of 3 years of research completed in American Schools.
• He agrees to some “exceptional” use of ICT but believes ICT is often used in excess.
• Click here for the excerpt.

To cut a long story short I want to share my current thoughts after reading this book. These are a collection of positive and negative thoughts on the impact of using ICT in education: