Sunday 22 February 2015

Creative Commons: Matt McGreggor & updated by Elizabeth Heritage

Session at Fendalton School as part of Connected Educators Month: 
Matt McGreggor from Creative Commons
(Additional post by Rob Clarke)

NZ Goal: 
Universal access to research and education and full participation in culture by maximizing access to the Internet.

Our argument:
We argue that poubically funded works should be held in common to enable access.

1. Free licences:  
Free legal tools, legal documents making it easier to share online.  Covers liability.

2. Projects: 
Creative commons in schools, arts and culture, indigenous knowledge, open education etc.  If there is public money involved then the public should have free access.
  • it is much esier to share online
  • can't predict who could find your work useful
  • hacking the textbook - collectivelly on-line write a relevant textbook that might not be published by a normal company
  • resources can be shared and adapted to fit the community 
This movie was created and placed under Creative Commons.  As a result, many different people have adapted and uploaded without breaking the law.



There are increasing large numbers of resources to use:
DigitalNZ, Flicker  NLNZ have all opened up lots of resources for people to use.
KHAN Academy
Wikipedia
Te Papa

Mix & mash - Lego Life Lessons.  Competition using a mashup of Creative Commons music etc.


While the technical isues are coming down, the legal issues still stand.
Copyright is automatic, applies online and lasts till 50 years after death.  (70 years in Australia, 100 in Mexico.)  It does not need a 'C' sign to qualify!  It is also applicable accross borders and in every country accross the world.

Teachers don't own the copyright of things you have produced during the course of your employment.  We have no rights to share anything we make or do with other people online!

We need permission form the BOT to put Creative Commons on our blogs both class and teacher personal.

Free licences:  
Clear, simple free and legally robust.
They clarify legal ownership for people while allowing sharing and collaboration.

Attribution:  Give credit to the creator, name, title, link to original work, CCommons licence.
Non Commercial: Can change but not make money over it.
No Derivatives:  Can't change the work, only quote or use.
Share alike: If you use this then use Creative Commons as well - opening it up for others to use, including the attributions to the original people.



Register: http://creativecommons.org/choose/ 


Really simple search option for the kids.  Use CCSEARCH.  Make a link on the blog and Google Site to give kids access to Creative Copyright images and resources. 

The vision of the school should be a collaborative learning environment.  As part of the vision, we need to make this part of our school policy. 

Next Step:
Begin educating colleagues and leadership.  
Present to the Board and get them to sign off as teacher resources being part of Creative Commons.
Begin to look at how as a staff you can develop resources to share with the wider world.

Advanced notice:  Notify the BOT that you are looking at writing a personal book in your holidays.  They need to sign off as you having copyright over your own creation.

Monday 2 February 2015

SOLO - the next step

Pam Hook Lincoln Cluster PD

Citizenship
Like the road outisde - there are a number of given rules like the Road Code that govern our collective safety as we use this common space. This is the same as our learning spaces and school.

Example: Wikipedia - collective pool of knowledge. It depends on the input andcollective agreed rules - no trolls, no destroying what we have made.


Check out the poster created by Pam to show the aspects of collective citizenship:

We want to describe, explain and demonstrate citizenship.
SOLO related strategies to give kids a voice as part of our learning space.



What types of citizens can we develop? Different levels of citizenship:

Responsible:
  • act responsibly
  • obey rules and laws
  • Volunteers
Participatory Citizens:
  • take a skilled and active role in groups for the common good
  • know effective skills for collaboration

Justice Orientated Citizens:
  • seek social justice, equity, human rights & moral justice
  • take skilled action for social change
  • know effective strategies for changing exiting practice

Is there something small in your classroom or school where students could practice one of these levels of citizenship?


Responsible:
Class jobs
Behaviour on the bus
Phone duty
High viz vests

Participatory Citizens:
Bike track safety
Peer mediator
ECO Team
Bus Monitor

Justice Orientated Citizens:
Why is 'respecting things' as issue?
Investigate and take action about why we don't take responsibility.

Why do we think 'service' should be sone by the institution or state?
Investigate why we think service should be the responsibility of someone else.

What is the BIG ISSUE to kids?

What is SOLO?

1. SOLO is just a way of looking at a learning outcome. It is not about a kid. This work at this point in time is multi-structural not this child!

2. SOLO looks at performance - independent learners at the different stages

3. SOLO looks at writing - apply the steps and outcomes of writing.

4. SOLO gives us the PROCESS for making the next step.


We are going to create a 'Tool Box' to move the learners onto the next step.

(Wait for the chart to be sent through by Pam)







How do we move our learners on from pre-structural to abstract?

Task: 
Make a series of questions to arrange around the SOLO display to be a toolbox to scaffold both the teacher and learners.


Students need a strategy or tool to scaffold them moving up the SOLO stages.

Task: 
Investigate the SOLO learning log that identifies prior knowledge, learning from peers, learning and next steps.

Look for the learning intentions - Learning Intention Generator


We then spent valuable time working through a planner as a team and here is the begining of our ideas…

So what:
Work through the SOLO progressions.
Use active verbs and Hot maps.
Find issues that matter to the learners.
Think very carefully about which e-tool if any will be most effective at meeting the learning intention.









The Future is Now

The Future is Now
Greg Whitby

Learning is about:
Passion, precision and focus

It is not all about the kids but all about improving learning.
Innovation does not drop from heaven but comes from structure and planning.

Three focus areas – learning, leading , teaching

Technology change:
In  the past it was all very exciting because we went digital... but it then progressed...
Digital       E-learning: worksheets became digital
-       Me learning – kids can publish and create
-       We learning – connection and collaboration

This is not an experiment but the best of what we know of theory and practice:

We can't invent the future but need to learn the future. The question 'How will we make this work?' will lead to our adaptation and innovation.

It is the deep engagement needed around learning, leading and teaching.
Coming together as a team, principal and the team where there is dialogue. It can’t be just one teacher in isolation, removed from their class for PD.

People learn in
Context: your class, community, world
Connection: we have more powerful connections, teacher-student, student-student, expert-student
Metacognition: thinking about learning
These aspects are all essential in a continual dance of learning. The most powerful learning comes from a powerful context, deep connections or relationships and deep thinking about learning.




It is the deep engagement needed around learning, leading and teaching.
Coming together as a team, principal and the team where there is dialogue. It can’t be just one teacher in isolation, removed from their class for PD.

People learn in
Context: your class, community, world
Connection: we have more powerful connections, teacher-student, student-student, expert-student
Metacognition: thinking about learning

These aspects are all essential in a continual dance of learning. The most powerful learning comes from a powerful context, deep connections or relationships and deep thinking about learning.
How do we improve learning?
We have good teacher teaching them.

How do we get good teachers?
Constantly sharing, learning and growing as a teacher. Committed to own PD.
We need leaders who understand good learning.
Leaders who understand how to be collaborative.

We need to move from I Know to We Learn.
  
Three core strategies for precision – enabling strategies:
-         Data walls: collaborative access to the evidence on each child. The dialogue is around how we can improve student success.
-         Instructional Walks: Intentional, focused, well planned. Looking for evidence and making contact with the learners.
-         Case Management: The entire school is responsible for ‘At Risk’ students so the case manage these learners not leaving them to one person.

Roles of teachers in the future:
Prophet: Person who knows what the theory says and drive to make it happen.
Activator: Person who makes it happen.
Innovator: The person who looks for new ways to make things more effective.

We collectively have a huge depth of knowledge. We need to combine our knowledge to make a change.

Our next steps:
We need to make our projects authentic with links to the community.
Evaluate and adapt units so that they are more effective for the next year.
Reflect on our practise, including student voice, resulting in change.
Problem based learning big in OZ and Singapore.
We need to begin to do our own research to prove effectiveness.


This is all a it of a muddle of blogging while listening so my idea is to just get the essence of what I am taking away:

  • Teachers to take on roles of facilitators & co-learners within project engaging and 'real' learning.
  • We need to be bold and taking the step, do the research based on the theory and evidence.
  • All learning is based on deep relationships.