Social Effect of Learning

Went to a discussion led by Secondary Futures about the social effects of schooling a week or so back. Dr Tom Schuller from OECD was present and was able to link our education system into what was happenig in other places.
There was a small turnout which was a surprise.

Two observations

1. Everyone thinks they are at the cutting edge of education. Most are not; including me.
2. Most think the new curriculum will make a difference. But will it? It appears that most of new curriculum was in the old one. A better structure, better terminology and more coherence. But are we just 'shuffling the deck chairs'.

What is important is what goes on in classrooms. I still see words, phrases and ideas in the curriculum that belong to last century and I do not see big ideas reaching forward into this century.

Regarding the social effect of learning. A comment by Schuller was that there is "an enormous range of evidence that confirms the very strong correlation between educational achievement
and outcomes such as good health or more active citizenship". The importance of education then is not only to allow our learners to make choices about career and employment; but it also means they are more healthy and more active citizens.

This raises huge importance about our role as educators and what we must do. It is not simply about teaching for employment but about teaching for life and living.

Educated people are more healthy and live longer.

New Curriculum

Well tomorrow we have a new curriculum. It is no longer a DRAFT. All very new and up to date I'm sure and I understand a Prime Ministerial release.

But what will change?

• Will we see learners using IT like everyone does in the 'real' world?
• Will there be thinking practices ingrained in the curriculum?
• Will the assessment in NCEA reflect the new curriculum?
• Will be there be open-ended rich tasks in our classes?
• Will learners be blogging, using wikis, podcasts and so on?
• Will I see learners talking about their learning?

Or maybe I will still see

• NCEA assessments asking people to draw pie graph!
• Children learning about what is an ester!
• Learners still learning science, maths etc from different teachers with no relationship with each other
• Learners sitting still, being quiet, and accepting more content from teachers
• Learners having little access to digital resources and internet access

Yes, a new curriculum is important. And yes there are some positive changes in the the new curriculum. But there are still subject boundaries and content still dominates.

When I see our exams assess in depth thinking then I will believe that the curriculum has made a difference. Otherwise the battle around assessment will dominate and our children will continue to be educated for a world that no longer exists.

Health

Spent most of the day at a meeting at Auckland University as a member of a secondary school princpal's group advising on the Youth 2007 survey.

This is a survey of youth in New Zealand and factors around there work. It is a follow up on a survey done in 2000. The 2000 survey has some wonderful data about the risks around our youth and the 2007 survey is even better.

I look forward to the information coming out next year.

One of the concerns we talked about is how the data will be used. Will it be just another opportunity to bemoan negative statistics around various health, ethnic and education data or will a brave person use it to drive real change?

Some fun stuff

Some kids doing some interesting and fun stuff. even some learning in there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wz6ctLIM24

New Zealand curriculum

Spent the day doing work around the new curriculum in New Zealand being released a week or so away. I feel the new curriculum is not offering much change except about removing some constraints that exist at present.

The new curriculum developments are going to be introduced through digital links and that is exciting. especially around the stories and the ideas which I think have the potential to be very powerful in this method.

however for secondary schools the two unanswered questions are

1. How are we going to assess in our high stake qualifications system? Is this still the same if so that will be the driver.
2. Are we going to let the text book writers choose the resource? I am nervous around whether the teaching fraternity are ready to move in development in this way

Exciting and commendable to the Ministry for choosing this way.

Research in New Zealand

Read an interesting article in the New Zealand Herald by John Langley. In this article John talks of the 'dogma and myths' that surround education and especially education initiatives in New Zealand (and probably worldwide). We seem constantly bombarded with the latest view of how we can do things better. Whether it is technology, governance structures, testing or something else which is going to 'solve' education.

John's five myths are great.

1. That experience is the best way to gain success.
2. That process is more important than product.
3. That learning must be fun and easy.
4. That you must "like" the person who teaches you.
5 That opinion equals fact.

Especially the last one. I feel it is because everyone has been at school so everyone is an expert. This is something we must work against. Valid research tells us how to act and teach Let's use it.

Green stuff

Spent Labour Weekend at Broadwood, a small isolated area in the north of New Zealand. No broadband, no cell phone coverage, no TV coverage.

The people I was with own a dry stock farm. There has not been much money in dry stock farming so even though they are asset rich (millions) they have no money. Old car, old house, run-down farm, limited food.

But a great life. Work all day outside at ease with the surrounds. Feel like a break then take it. The relationship with the environment is important and I noticed where we tend to fight the environment all the time. Progress in the city is about big alterations to the environment and battles around that. More speed (for everything) is important. We expect to spend our time doing more in less time.

I takes me a day or so to slow down enough to enjoy myself. I always want to check my email, watch TV, or rush off to do something. Is this the right way? Or am I being old and stupid thinking that we can step back and live life slow and more at tune with the environment?

And by the way what is education's role in this?

Maybe sustainability is important ito teach as the way of the future.

Feedback

After my presentation on Monday for the Ministry I got very good feedback. I got emails, txt messages and verbal feedback. But only one comment on my blog.

I feel that for many in positions of deciding the future of education they are still trapped in last century's technology. Where is the future? My belief in it being around Web 2.0 technologies means that educational leaders need to be using this to find out how it works if nothing else. I don't mean the future is learning how to use Web 2.0 technologies, but learning in an environment based on collaboration, instant information and communication, and control of knowledge.

But it is not happening. No blogging, no social networking, no flickr, no wikis, etc. We think by using email we are modern but email is very much last century's way of communicating. My children never email for instance.

Interestingly email is not the new way. An article about the problems of email suggest it is not suitable way of communicating. In my immediate team no one is allowed to email. It's ability to miscommunicate instead of communicate is huge. so we have banned it my team. communication is now so much better.

Presentation

Have a presentation tomorrow to a 100 people or so from Group Special Education who deal with special needs in New Zealand Schools. I have the after lunch session.

Education in the 21st Century is the title!! Will they stay awake?

Homeward

Have been out of internet contact or have had to pay for access which usually annoys me so I don't bother. Lots of stuff to read now though. Sittong in Kuala Lumpur airport where they have free wireless so can fill in some time before I need to catch my plane.

Enjoyed KL though very hot and dirty. Nice people and interesting sights. Good shopping which should keep my children happy when I get home. Don't know if the cat will be happy though.

Interesting time in London Heathrow leaving. Computers went down!!! All check in was done manually so meant that there was huge delays. Three hours in queue to check in and a rusth to get to the plane to find it could not get a leaving slot on the runway so we sat waiting for a time. So left 3 hours late. Massive delays. Recommend Malaysian Airlines though.

Lets us be aware of how technology is so crucial. The manual process was extraordinary in the work required. Many mistakes made which meant multiple checking.

Some thoughts on the trip overall.
* Conference was enlightening on the way that thinking can enlighten the curriculum.
* David Perkins outstanding as was De Bono on what he said.
* Disappointing how technology in schooling is still not occurring even in important areas regarding thinking. There was nothing on how IT and thinking work could together to create a modern education curriculum.
* Some really old fashioned stuff occurring and being trotted out as new.
* Everyone in Europe thinks, talks and cares about green issues especially global warming. They do talk about in the most unusual occassions. New Zealand has no discourse in comparison.
* Sustainability I think is becoming the key of the issues. Nothing happening much in education though.

Enjoyed things and lots to think about.

Next blog is from New Zealand. More stuff on thinking, IT and sustainibility to consider on the flight.

Conference

The conference coninued with some great stuff. Howard Gardner with a wonderful new study on good work and also listening to Edward de Bono was great. David Perkins still the highlight.

I ended poorly. A panel discussion on IT in education. The first person said "IT is just a tool". Educationalists must realise it is "the tool!" It has the capacity to transform education (and thinking) and to treat it as just a tool means we in education will be left behind. IT has transformed medicine and commerce and is now changing the way buildings are designed and built.

It is important that is is not just another tool. If world leaders in the field of education see IT as this then the task to change our perceptions is hugely challenging.

Spending a few days in Stockholm before off to London. Stockholm is a wonderful place. Everyone needs to visit here. Don't come in mid-summer as half the place is closed.

Conferences

I am in Sweden at the moment at a conference on Thinking. not just in education but across sectors. I feel that thinking is the solution to the problem of where our education goes. It necessarily to me involves the whole area of digital collaboration and the developments in literacy around that.
There has been considerable discussion at the conference about what education needs to do to develop further around where we need to go on thinking and some of this (although not enough in my opinion) is about linking digitally.
But the slowness of pickup by educators is huge and this concerns me. There is so little change in what people are actually doing that I still see the issue is that education trails the 'real' world in how it operates.

The recent conference on 21st Century Learning Environements in New Zealand had only 3 out of 100 people who used RSS feeds, had their own blog and web page. That is quite scary when these people are supposed to be the leaders of where we are going.

At this conference the same ideas are dominant. We need to change to embrace new learning but how when the dominant paradigm of testing, assessing, and transmitting knowledge is so entrenched. Learning of thinking in a digital environment does seem the way forward. We need adaptable, creative, resourceful citizens of the 21st Century. This is what Richard Florida talks about in his creative class.

Highlights so far in the conference have been Guy Claxton again and David Perkins. As well there was a very interesting presentation on the thinking of being chess master by Jonathon Rowson.

More interesting stuff today.

Leadership in Education

I have been asked to do a workshop on leadership in education.

This has meant that I have spent sometime thinking around what are the most important issues for educational leadership at the beginning of the 21st Century.

I believe there are two major strands

1. Connectivity - I believe that connectivity between people is becoming of greater importance. The rapid growth of myspace and bebo is testament to how important this and Web 2.0 technologies are obviously critical here as well. However in schools we also need not only to think about digital connections but visual, spatial and personal connections as well.
2. Sustainability - Environmental sustainability is obviously important based around concerns about global warming and resource depletion. So sustainability includes education about sustainability as well as making our schools environmentally sustainable. But there is a bigger issue here as well, which is what is sustainable educationally. With the amount of information exploding exponentially and access to that information becoming cheaper what is sustainable in our schools. Or does the notion of 'schooling' become redundant as we move through the 21st Century?

When I get things worked out I will post my workshop for others.

This is the first listing of mine on a blog. My role is principal of Whangaparaoa College a large secondary school in Auckland, New Zealand.

The school is new only been open two years and has had a number of difficulties getting underway due to hassles with project managers architects and planners and not least the Ministry of Education in New Zealand. But we do have many wonderful buldings which I will post pictures of in a few days time.

The school has been built with learning at the fore front and this is the continued challenge as we move on. The challenge of keeping learning the key while surrounded by the so many other demands. Even more the challenge is about what does learning mean in our Web 2.0 world and as a school leader what does this mean? While the excitement of working in a web enabled way the management of that around risks of internet safety are huge and I would be interested in how that works.

If Web 2.0 is the future what does that mean about our schools and the way learning occurs?