… and this is a nice treatment of that song.
Lily Allen “The Fear.” mk II from phil tidy on Vimeo.
2000 people from around the UK were filmed singing The Fear for this promo for Lily Allen which was part of an Xbox Sing it with Lips game campaign.
Video directed by Caswell Coggins and produced by Phil Tidy, http://vimeo.com/channels/philtidyproducer
The Rumpus Room http://therumpusroom.tv/ provided the post production magic to make this work.
If traditional media is dying and being overtaken by real time social media sources …
… then why are most of the links posted by my Twitter network come from mainstream news websites?
If it is generally agreed that we need educators who are self directed learners and that social media allows anyone to publish and contribute…
… then why do so many need How To guides and workshops to do what is supposedly so easy?
If we want our kids to be creative and critical thinkers …
… then why do politicians get such a big say in how our education systems should run?
If we want all students to use technology seamlessly with and as part of their learning …
… then why do we make a big showcase of certain technologies (take your pick – iPad, IWB, clickers)?
If we believe that the learning is more important than the software, hardware or device …
… then why do we let corporations decide what is innovative or worthwhile?
If basic skills around being literate and numerate are as important as critical thinking and creativity …
… then why is there so much debate around one approach trumping the other? Don’t learners need both?
If reflecting on one’s practice is such a big key to improving teaching in the classroom …
… then why is Twitter so celebrated as a place for instant PD?
If my goal is to contribute to the greater pool of learning via the internet …
… then why am I publishing such a cynical and hypocritical post?
Google Maps Street View now becomes Google Beaten Track View as I discovered that the Googlemobile has been documenting the Mid-North of South Australia where I grew up. My brother is still on the family farm and it is amazing to be able to virtually drive down the dirt roads out of Wirrabara and head towards the almost ghost town of Appila and drive past it. So, even though others have done a better job of using Google Maps to take a trip down memory lane, here are a few grabs to show where I come from.
This stone wall on our family farm is over 120 years old.
This is the Three Chain Road, aptly named because it is “three chains wide” in very old measurements. I remember minding mobs of sheep for my father taking advantage of the free grazing sitting on my old green bicycle and later on the Honda Ag Bike.
This is the gate to Daley’s, a piece of land that my Dad bought in the mid seventies a few kms from our original farm. I still remember him coming home shaking after taking out the then sizeable loan from the local ANZ bank.
Here’s the Appila Rural School where I went to school in Year Five. I was the only Year Five in the school and went there after the local Lutheran School closed after dwindling down to six students. I only lasted one year before my mum decided to send me to the larger primary school at Wirrabara which had over fifty students for my final two years in primary school.
Finally, heading back towards Wirrabara where the road dips through the Pine Creek that weaves its way through much of the family farm. I recall a flash flood that cut off our farm on three sides when I was about eleven or twelve. The water was up around the half way up the gum tree on the right hand side.
This was a standoff that was guaranteed to have no winners. Thank goodness a solution was found today, one that was engineered so that both parties had minimum egg on their respective faces.
I’m a union member but in this case I wasn’t comfortable with the stance of refusing to administer the NAPLAN tests. I know that the mySchool website is narrow, flawed and open to all sorts of misuse abuse. But I still couldn’t see how boycotting the tests which have been with us for a while now would actually bring a stubborn Education Minister to the table. But come she has, so I suppose the threat was effective. All I know it gave the vitriolic letter writers, article commenters and soapbox editors a chance to once again chastise teachers for refusing to bow to the greater political wisdom, to show how out of touch with the “real world” they are and how terrified they are of being accountable.
For me, this article takes the cake for pomposity and probably illustrates the problem so many educators have with the over-valuation of once a year tests.
It is no accident NSW schools dominate the list. The history premier, Bob Carr, ensured there was a substantial reformation of the NSW years 7 to 10 curriculum. The result was a content and skills-based curriculum rather than a process-based one. It is also no accident that NSW private schools are the high-flyers.
Well, if you ignore process altogether, then it is no surprise that schools taking this path might do well on tests that can only measure content and skills. But if this new working party can look at ways to stop this league table garbage, maybe we can ensure that an education that values process, content, skills and understanding is the end result. That this article was written by a teacher makes me shake my head in wonderment. I’d have hoped for a more enlightened viewpoint that can take in a broader perspective of Australian education.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gozalewis/3585052105/
I’ve got Leigh Blackall’s retrospective screencast paused at the half way mark and I’m mulling over a few of his points. I’ve also been at a meeting together of the partner schools in my own system’s Learning Technologies Project where we’ve been tossing around ways to ensure that what we’ve discovered in our documented journey over the last two years is able to used by DECS to ensure that learning enabled by technology is valued and integrated into the work that we do. I’ll connect back to some of my thoughts about that meeting as I go and I’ll add the preface that I’m thinking about Leigh’s ideas and today’s discussion from a very personal, what’s-my-role-in-this-all point of view.
Leigh speaks about consciously avoiding using the institution’s tools in order to take his learning and his network connections wherever he goes. His institution happens to be the University of Canberra, mine happens to be DECS but you could substitute any over-arching body that funds and directs your daily work in education. His first example is email and how being locked into the institution’s email system compromises portability. People who use that system invest in it and when they move on, it is hard to take all of that built up digital history with them. The institution owns your email. The institution owns resources and initiatives developed by you whilst on their time or their domain. So, in a sense, my institution owns the professional me. But exactly how much? Where are the boundaries?
In the words of my principal, I am a user (of technology for learning!). When I go online and read blogs, leave comments, publish posts, respond in forums, create and share resources, I do so for my own learning first, and as an extension of my profession second. I want to be a better educator so naturally the lines between when I am doing something for my own personal betterment and when it can be beneficial for those who work alongside of me within my institution become somewhat hazy. I use tools that I sometimes bring back into my classroom. But I always start with the selfish premise of how can this tool / community / node / resource benefit me? In my mind, I strongly feel that this is my own stuff. My blog is my own content. My presentations that I develop for the audience reading here is my own content that I believe that I can share as I see fit. But it isn’t totally clear cut. Because on that Slideshare account mixed in with my Blogging As Professional Learning and my OpenEducatorPLE, content created for an audience beyond my institution, are slideshows like iwb+literacy and my Blogging@School which were developed as part of my paid employment. Who owns what there?
I use GMail as a personal email account. I have an sa.edu.au account for school. Occasionally, I communicate with people about school related matters on my GMail. Does it matter? Is it a case of either an institution owning my email or a giant corporation?
And things get even blurrier when it comes to my students. When Leigh mentions students in his screencast, he is talking about adult learners for whom the barriers to use of free-ranging social media for learning are much lower. It makes perfect sense for them to want the portability of their own online spaces of their own choosing as they could (potentially) move between courses or even institutions. I work with primary school students. They have an email account for as long as they are students at my school. They leave – that account is retired and they no longer have access. We use Edublogs as a blogging platform and the process comes down to decisions that are grappled with at a local level as these blogs are hosted beyond the jurisdiction of the institution. The student leaves primary school and then what happens to the blog they have worked on for two years? I’ve tried to treat their blog to be their content as much as possible while still maintaining that duty of care via my role as administrator of all student blogs, through my moderation of comments and exerting of my teacherly authority in the maintenance of certain standards and purposes. So their ownership is not as pure as it would be in the higher education world. So my obligations handed down to me from my institution become a method for control of the use of an outside tool, even one hosted on the open web.
To wind this up (and you’ll note that despite my promise in the first paragraph, I have not linked any of this back to today’s meeting; that might the subject for another post) Leigh talks about operating as an autonomous independent from the institution. I concur, but it is not easy. We find that our ideals are constantly compromised by reality and that what I pursue as a private citizen is inevitably intertwined with my professional goals. It is hard to see where one ends and the other begins.
I work three days a week in a primary classroom. So, theoretically, I am in a good position for putting edtech and Web 2.0 idealism into a realistic roadtest situation. I don’t stand behind podiums at conferences berating and exhorting the masses to bring their classroom into the digital world. I don’t have influential push (or pull) within my own system – and I’m not sure what I’d be suggesting even if I did. But I have invested an enormous amount of my life over the past four years into this networked learning thing. If anything, I have a lot of digital runs on the board. Heh, the Geoffrey Boycott ¹ of edublogging. That could be me.
So, I feel that my personal benefit has been enormous. I connect with a wide array of educators who feed me a daily diet of inspiration, insight and practical resources. I have become more aware of how education systems work in various parts of the world. I’ve had the opportunity to meet some of the most interesting people that I’ve come across in my lifetime – some I’ve conversed with on Skype and in Elluminate and Adobe Connect or just the comments sections of blogs. My network connections have given me opportunity to present about my experiences at conferences and online events, and I’ve learned about connectivism, social media, gained a more balanced view about cybersafety issues and heard about Illich, Gatto and Postman for the first time.
I couldn’t give up my Network now – it gives too much to me.
But I work in a role where I’m meant to be bringing the “good oil” to teachers, helping them to get their feet wet in technology use and showing them how the web can transform student learning. It is a role that sets me up as some sort of “expert” which can be a problem in a couple of ways.
Firstly, Darren Kuropatwa points out in his reference to neophytes that “Experts have a different aura about them. That aura of expertise is intimidating for neophytes.” His basic premise is that any message that an educator with “expert” status might try to seed with his or her own colleagues will be perceived to be unattainable and beyond their reach. So all of my efforts to highlight how easy digital tools are and how empowering technology can be via workshops, team teaching and other training could actually be unproductive.
Dean Groom also talks about the burbclave effect – where teachers don’t have to go and become innovative users of technology because if they have one connected educator on staff, they just have to wait until it is brought to them. It’s the effect when staff say they can’t use their IWB until they’ve had some training, where they wait for a list of good numeracy websites to be emailed to them (or given to them on a printed piece of A4) or wait until they are given release time for planning before they will even look at something like the ISTE Standards.
Ironically that while someone like me may well be viewed as somewhat of a local expert, the educators I connect to and learn from leave me feeling very neophytic indeed. When I measure myself globally, my local credentials shrink down to small proportions.
The building of your own social media network is such a personal journey that it is a very difficult beast to describe in such a way that non-web-savvy educators see the point. It’s why I won’t ever bother offering a Web 2.o / PLN / using social media to learn presentation or workshop ever again. I’ll guarantee that no-one has ever been turned onto blogging based on anything I’ve ever said or wrote – its value is intrinsically linked to the individual’s needs. If a teacher is not interested in exploring the internet on his or her own time, then they are never going to see where this could take them or how it could impact their classroom.
Which brings me to my next point. Many of us edubloggers assume that what we learn online is directly transferable into our classrooms. We also assume that if more educators did what we did (read, write, link, share, create) then we would end up with these amazing transformed classrooms. So, we spend time preaching the benefit of social media tools even though there is no one simple recipe, even though this networked learning thing is intensely personal and damn near impossible to replicate.
I keep wondering if the time spent to become proficient in the online world (note I wrote proficient, not expert!) is worth the investment in potentially transformed pedagogy in the classroom. I have spent many hours online, eschewing television and other possible hobbies, and I know that many, many of my colleagues are not prepared to invest the same amounts of time into this medium. I know that my investment is worthwhile – for me. But I struggle to see how social media can transform the primary school classroom. There are so many compromises that need to be made in the name of online safety and duty of care, barriers in terms of computer access and the pressure of the traditional curriculum that I can see why so many teachers wait to be told what to do in terms of technology use, rather than take the risks involved with being an innovator.
I think my next step is examine my own classroom practice to see what has changed in my approach since becoming connected back in 2005. I suspect that the process is so gradual that I may find it difficult to recall my former practice with any accuracy. And if I, the enthused educator playing with connected technologies in my spare time, can take so long to work out what can translate into today’s classroom, what hope does a less enthusiastic teacher have of bridging the gap of digital possibilities?
Just thinking, that’s all.
So, I did something unusual for me the other day when I re-posted one of Dean Groom’s 2010 predictions in a style that one would more likely find on Tom Hoffmann’s or Dan Meyer’s blog. It was just one of those things where Dean’s words hit a chord and I thought that I’d want my own easy reference point. So, I blogged it. No big deal. I didn’t think anyone would even notice except to maybe follow the link and give Dean more feedback on his post.
But I can never tell when something will strike a chord with a reader (and I’m still constantly surprised by who is actually reading!) and I received a number of really great comments that deserve more airing than just an @commenter reply. Because you’ve all made me think and that is a good thing in this self indulgent, slack off summer holiday time that I’m currently enjoying. So, I going to reference these comments and see where they take me while I listen to some Laughing Clowns in the background.
One of the interesting things about being an edublogger is that there is always a danger of taking yourself too seriously and over-estimating your potential impact on any form of meaningful change. The other danger, of course, is that you don’t take your own place in the network seriously enough and consequently fail to capitalise on opportunities that could make a difference. There are many wrong turns to be taken so being a bit flippant and pessimistic can act as a buffer and reason to sit comfortably in the critic’s chair.
Firstly, Dean’s predictions were interesting and I see that he has expanded on his first prediction and the concept of Bubblegum Edupunk. He covered a lot of ground including his view that consultants widen the digital divide instead of bridging, the impact (or lack thereof) of DER laptops on learning outcomes, Conroy’s filter, tech issues around portable technology and virtual worlds and there finished on the paragraph that I featured.
Simon was the first commenter and his words seem to indicate that private schools are not necessarily all progressive in the technological sense and that Dean’s ‘virtual glass ceiling’ might not be applicable in his experience. I get where Dean is coming from in that the bigger the education system the more things are “locked down” system wise in terms of filters, software and hardware agreements etc and therefore there are predictable limits on what can be achieved even with the most enthused switched on, innovative teacher. I think that many teachers and leaders over-estimate their own place in the implementation of technology within their own places of learning. I know of several schools where the principal is pleased with his/her whole school roll out of interactive whiteboards, feeling that must place his/her teachers somewhere near the cutting edge. And as Dean’s prediction states, that is a potential recipe for 2010 stagnation.
So, right when I was feeling smug about my “I’ll be saying I told you so come year’s end”, Christopher drops in to whack me around the ears with some well chosen words.
Rather than bemoan the current state of affairs, use social media to lead others. Get your community involved. Hold rallies. Organize parents, civic leaders, students.
Leaders lead, mate. Be creative. Put all of your great theories about change into action. Get off your duffs. Remember, governments are reactionary; they respond to the conditions on the ground. Lead your legislatures. Start at the edge, work your way in. Lead by example. Stop whining.
And I know what he’s saying. Sitting around whinging doesn’t actually do anything. But here is where the right take on my own place in the world is necessary. Because who you are and how much influence you actually wield is a big determining factor is whether you can swing at the iceberg of education change with a sledgehammer or a toothpick. I like what Tim Holt is doing at the moment where he is leveraging the power of edublogs with elected officials. I can see how one could take his US based idea and use a similar tactic in Australia, even if our method of electing representatives is quite different and responsive to different pressures.
A modest proposal:
I propose that all US edubloggers (that are not specifically writing for a school, a district, or a job that would prohibit such activity) use their blogs this year ask people that are running for office in their congressional districts/senate districts, gubernatorial races or any public elected office questions about education. They then publish the UNEDITED responses without comment. That way, the blogger is neither being pro nor con, merely reporting back on what was asked.
So, I was a bit taken aback by Christopher‘s challenge and even now, still not sure what my actual response should be. Ideally, I’d be planning my own fantastic contribution to the education change but for me, it is really a case of how to best use the time that I’ve got. I don’t usually sit on my hands – I like to think that I contribute in a number of small ways – but like most connected educators, I know I could always be doing more. I still have to balance that against my own family’s needs, the responsibilities of the job that pays the bills and even leave a bit of time to ensure that my own batteries aren’t completely drained. But I have presented at conferences, contributed to Ning communities, visited interested schools in my own time, facilitated a blogging community with my own students, plus a few other things that don’t readily come to mind right now.
Darcy Moore pointed me over to his blog post where he writes:
I believe ‘teaching’ will have a renaissance this century, as we co-operate and collaborate and the citizens of the planet have the need to solve the growing challenges we will have to overcome. This renaissance has already commenced but will become truly evident during this new decade. Skilled teachers are already at a premium but those with vision, relentless enthusiasm and who love to learn, challenge and be challenged, will insist on thriving!
I note with a smile that Darcy talks about change over the next decade, not just the next year. There is no doubt that the education system will have to change significantly over the next few years but like Dean, I’m not sure that my own system senses the urgency yet. The DER laptops have forced the issue to a big degree for many high schools and Darcy’s school have obviously embraced the initiative and run with it. Dean points this out in one of the comments on Darcy’s blog:
Yours is one of the exceptions to the stagnant norm. We see individual brilliance and even school brevity — but what we must ask for is evidence that these machines are improving outcomes on the same scale they are being rolled out at. It will be interesting to see how this is evaluated and measured this year if at all.
Then a veritable giant in the elearning world, Leigh Blackall, offers an actual plan of action. This is a person who does in fact do all of the things that Christopher identifies as “leading by example”. He has contributed original thought and content, challenges the status quo and creates his own working alternative models for others to use. His Facilitating online communities course is a testament to his get things done approach. Leigh has a confidence in his own ability to prioritise things to get ambitious things off the ground so his suggestions are right in line with that approach. He suggests growing a community which in my world might take more than 2010 to grow legs, but with a National Curriculum fast approaching would have plenty of traction to draw passionate educators in to interpret that new document for the betterment of student learning using the online tools of communication, collaboration and hopefully cooperation.
So, I’m still not sure what I will do. I think I know what I should do, but think and will are two different beasts. I have my own work at my own school which via the DECS Learning Technologies Grant has its own chance to influence system and other schools’ direction. I will continue to work with my own colleagues, raising their awareness so that they have their own eyes opened to the potential of technology facilitated learning and with my students, giving them the chance to take charge of their own learning. I will pitch in for my professional association, CEGSA, providing sessions at the annual conference and hopefully, offer similar to other professional opportunities throughout the year. I will gently push some ideas at my own sons’ school’s Governing Council so that their educational opportunities are not compromised. I will endeavour to blog regularly, the good, the awry, the ambitious, the half baked and I will comment more frequently on others’ blogs. I will look to do something meaningful that furthers the cause of educational change that helps to match the rhetoric of “learning spaces, personalisation of learning” to actual practice. What that will be, I don’t know. But these comments have helped me to start contemplating that next move.
And hey, if you think I’m full of it, you can let me have it in the comments…
I have been very reluctant to think too much about the world of learning / education / technology since school broke up two weeks ago. So I’ve actually been relishing every excuse to NOT go online and consider this blogging thing because that would mean re-engaging with this multi-tailed beast of learning in a more taxing and serious manner than I’m prepared to right this minute. That could change on a whim but I have enjoyed heading to the beach with the family (going for three days in a row tomorrow), watching a few movies at the local cinemas and overdosing on a whole season DVD of The Wire over the course of a week. We’ve given board games a real bash after Christmas and I’ve even moved up to Number Five on the blacklist on Need For Speed Most Wanted on the PS2, which is as much of a gamer I ever get to be.
The post Christmas catalogues came out and one item at Harvey Norman caught my eye – a turntable/tapedeck with USB connection for the conversion of LP records and cassettes to digital format – and so I went off to see if they had any in stock. They were all sold out before Christmas so I wondered if it was as simple as having the right cable to connect our old “boombox” to make it happen in a cheaper fashion. A quick Google turned up a surprisingly easy result that even a non-techy, non-geek could manage. I have a large collection of cassettes from my mis-spent youth that I rarely ever listen to because of the format they are tied to but as I’m entitled to make a copy of music I already own, I went down to Tandy this afternoon and bought a 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm plug to see if I could get this to work. $19.95 to get a better quality insulated connection and I was back ready to experiment.
The circa 1991 JVC tape deck was connected to my MacBook Pro, Audacity opened up and a few preferences changed before getting started. I had to ensure that I selected line in, not microphone, and check that it was enabled for stereo. Put in a cassette to test the levels and I was away. Now I just want these tracks for my iTunes so a bit of tape hiss is to be heard but that could be erased with a bit of work in Audacity as well. So, now I’m listening to Matt Finish’s Short Note album for the first time in many years and hope to slowly convert my cassette collection over the course of the year. Of course, I only need to convert songs that I really want as in the 80′s I was in the habit of buying a cassette for only a couple of tracks. Why cassettes? Well, it was the portable format of the time and I remember many a trip over to the West Coast of South Australia scrabbling for a new tape on the long trip. I am looking forward to seeing what I’ve forgotten about – but being the respecter of copyright, you won’t find my offerings on Limewire anytime soon.
I’m not trying to be a matyr here but I am pretty tired at the moment. I know that my blogging has slowed to a minimal trickle and with one school day to go, it’s just the effects of a very full on year taking its toll. For the first time, I actually felt envious and resentful towards those colleagues who seemed to have the time to go home and watch mindless television shows, who can afford to leave their laptops at school and who seem to gracefully swimming while I have felt like my head is barely above water.
There have been a few things that have made 2009 a challenge and I am coming away from those experiences as a better educator and hopefully, a better person. Even after over twenty years in this job, I am still figuring out what I can hope to influence in any given student’s attitude and achievement, and that external factors like family and culture can be massive thick walls against which to bang one’s head.
Part of the heightened stress has been taking on Year Sevens for the first time since 2004. I had forgotten how dramatic a transition adolescence is, how powerful peer group pressure can be, how self absorbed thirteen year olds can be and how resistant to change this particular age group can be. This burden has been shared by my teaching buddies (Kim and Maria) and when we look back over the year, it is with an interesting mix of accomplishment and frustration that we view our journey. Just this final term has seen preparation for our School Open Morning blend into the time sapping report writing ritual that ebbed into preparations for the Year Seven Graduations and trying to wrap the year up in a positive way.
I’ve been missing a lot of stuff lately – haven’t noticed the Edublogs Awards at all, still to look at any of the posts from the K12 Online Conference and still to fulfil my obligations to Christian Long’s Alice Project.
So, I’m feeling pretty washed out, in need of a break, some time family time and to rediscover some personal joy in my online connections. Maybe even some time to read that book I got for my birthday back in July.
One more day.
After reading an extract from a new Nikki Gemmell book about her Australian childhood memories and the contrast with her own children’s lives, I decided to think back to my own life as a kid in the seventies in rural South Australia. Here’s what memories come floating back to the surface.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blundstoneboy/1357568029/
Icy poles after swimming lessons at the Booleroo Centre pool, Sunday roast chicken with mashed potato and boiled vegetables and playing cricket in the farmyard with my sister and brother (we used a real Kookaburra cricket ball; no pads or hats). Firing a slug gun at a friend’s tenth birthday party, being the only kid in Grade Five at the local rural school and summer tans that ended at the ankles due to the constant wearing of elastic sided Blundstone workboots on the farm. Minding sheep on the roadside for hours to give them a “free feed”, sitting in the car after church waiting for my parents to stop talking to the other parishioners and wading for a kilometre at Port Germein beach to get to waist high water.
Golden North icecream with stewed apricots, stomping down bales of wool at shearing time in July and chopping out thistles in the home paddock. (It was always the neighbour’s fault that there were so many thistles because he let them go to seed and blow across the fenceline every year.)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sellerto/2448636450/
Meat pies from the local bakery where you could take the top “lid” off and let the gravied mince cool for a while, watching the Top Ten on Countdown every Sunday evening. Learning to crack a whip at the cows and getting a whack on my bare calves when I got it wrong. Sitting in the wheat truck with my father on the way to the Port Pirie siloes hoping that the queue would pit us outside the Sportsman’s Tavern so my dad would get a lunchtime schooner of beer and I would would get an ice cold lemon squash made the old fashioned way – lemonade with a dash of Bickford’s lemon cordial.
I could go on … but I won’t. What about you? What are your essential childhood memories?
Creative Commons licence
Subscribe via Feedburner.
Recent Comments