Flipped Classroom & Blended Learning

How can we use a 'Flipped World' 
...at McDonalds, on the train on the way to work, at morning tea time...

How can we engage kids home learning.... ICT is active, constructivist - engaged in a task.
Only some have access to devices and or Internet connections.

Barriers... engagement, access, habits of playing games rather than working on home learning.
Why should they do homework - teachers should be doing that in school time.

Use with younger kids:
 - handwriting word study tutorials as part of the classroom programme.
 - maths videos and activities to review to support group sessions.
Learn those dispositions and be independent. All have access with devices and Internet access. How does this activity fit with our targets?

How can we fit it in with limited time:
 - use other peoples resources and link into an organised format allowing easy access.
 - move into the next step of the kids making their own tutorials.

Focus on...
* bite sized
* purposeful

Four pillars of Blended Learning:
Flexible environments
Shift in learning culture - who does the learning (kids making their own)
Intentional content
Professional educators (share resources around the world)

Tips for a better flipped classroom:
1. Devised a flipped strategy - why are you doing it?
2. Start small
3. Get student buy-in (Get them to video the sessions then make them)
4. Get parents involved
5. Teach the kids how to WATCH the videos! (sentence, pause, note taking)
6. Encourage rather than push kids
7. Don't use videos as the only engagement tool
8. Make them short and interactive
9. Find fellow flipped educators

How might it work?
Have the lesson content in a video.
Have a series of activities that stand alone but build into the learning.
Have the one follow up session that comes after the video.

This allows for the teacher to interact with the stations, ask those challenging questions and record the learning of the students.


Blended Learning:
Distance learning
Any place any time

Traditional learning is focussed on the safe traditional approach when we want to get into the creative activities. Khan Academy allows us to move the physical classroom into the creative side as videos and Khan Academy helps cater for the instructional sessions.
 - projects
 - experimentation
 - real world maths: menu & costs for camp, litter production and cost, products from 1m squared garden, soup kitchen.
 - share simulations, projects and real world games
 -

Challenge
Team work
Competition
Fun
Real life


Different Blended Learning Models:

Blend-space:

A cool place to search for videos and dump them into a collective.

Add rich text to explain ideas.

Link this to your website. 

Add resources....

DCL 1 Assignment

Session 4: Learning Theories

There are no technology shortcuts in Good Education - article Kentaro Toyama
- Is this article balanced?
- What are the areas in which technology does not work?


Class notes:

THEORY - Analytical tool - EXPLAINS AND PREDICTS...

Gravity - what goes up must come down!

Theory or style? Leadership style - the theory exlains and predicts a style. Leadership style is how you react in that environment, based on what you know. Often based on a leadership theory. 

The theoretical foundation for teaching and learning applied within any learning environment underpins fundamental values, beliefs and priorities within the educational experience. It is through our own adoption of theoretical elements that we reveal our personal approach to practice.

While it can be debated that most education theories have influence on the new education practices that inform contemporary teaching this course reflects a "collaborative constructivist" view of teaching and learning. This view supports the inseparable relationship between personal contribution and social influence in shaping the education process. More specifically, collaboration and constructivism correspond respectively to teaching and learning responsibilities in the education experience. The learning transaction supported in this course recognises the two interests of collaboration and constructivism, while philosophically the approach belongs to the work of John Dewey's 1938 principle of "interaction" which unifies the subjective (personal) and objective (social) worlds.

The dual purpose of education includes the need to construct meaning (reconstruction of an experience) from a personal perspective and confirmation of understanding within a community of learners as part of a unified education transaction.

With the introduction of technology there is even greater focus on the creation of cognitive and social conditions that allow us to approach learning in a meaningful way that enhances the learning experience and increases ownership of learning outcomes.

Learning theory - a theory about changes in observable behaviour.
 - how do changes become permanent?
 - Is the change immediate?
 - What role does experience play?

10 Theories from the Hat: (Check out the video)
Conditioning: Mind =  black box, can't see in can only see the behaviour. Teaching has influence on the mind and changed behaviour.
(I still need to watch the video and add a summary of each theory.)

Connectionism or Law of effect:

Progressive Education:

Constructivisim: social development thery (a collection of theories)

Constructivisim: Equilibration

Social Cognitive Theory:

Situated Learning / Cognition:

Community of Practice:

Constructivisim:

Connectivism:

We employ a whole range of these in our classroom, even within each lesson.

Session 4: Research Informed Practice

There is a good deal of research that has been completed about teaching in the past 100 years. Are we aware of this research and are we applying it?

We need to design learning on the basis of previous research. Are we aware of the wider debate?

Research Informed Teaching Adults - article (Unitec Website)
We must apply the research, not just theory for the sake of theory.
Theory without practice is meaningless but practice without theory is blind. One must inform the other. They are both essential.

Ministry of Education - Best evidence synthesis - focuses the same things rather than tralling through lots of different stuff.

Research and Teaching:
Research-led: Curriculum based on research interests of teachers.
Research-orientated: process is as important as the content.
Research-based: curriculum based on inquiry-based activities.
Research-informed: consiously draws on the teaching and learning process. 

Who do we know:
Piaget, Dewey, Vygotsky, Wittgenstein, Bruner, Feuerstein. 
There are heaps of theorists. There is no way we can know everyone but we usually work within a small field of knowledge.

Researchers vs. practitioners:
Practitioners feel like researchers are not in the classroom and write for other researchers rather than for teachers. It does not make sense or relate to the classroom. The issue is that they need to write in a way that will be accepted by 'Peer Review'.
We, as teachers, need to part of the discussion and debate that is happening in education. The best researchers will try to unpack what it what it means in a clear and concise way. We both need each other - the same relationship as theory and practice.

So what?
Am I just using effective strategies ofered by people such as Daily 5 or can I be challenged by a theory and adjust my assumptions and change my approach? Do I use things or approaches because I know they work or can I explain how they fit into a theory?

How does this fit in with neural placisticity? In the past you would never believe that the brain can change and re-wire. This new knowledge should be changing how we develop learning experiences.
Feuerstein method.

Moderm Learning Environments:
We should say that the pedagogy of effective learning should drive the space we are provided.
The 7 principles of learning - article.

Session 3: What is augumented reality....

The new reality?
The rate of change is increasing. 
Disruption - the more overdue change is - the more sudden it appears & catches you offguard.

Two options - 

• Expensive but use my product or none....
• A new product crosses over into a different market, at a lower cost

What is now possible that never was....

• bendable bateries, wearable technology
• ubiquitous computing - computers disappear and become part of life, clothes, watches, walls, smart buildings, quantum dot solar panel windows

The class of 2025 - kids entering school this year.  (Friedman - The World is Flat)

• Population increasess by 1 billion people from 6, 534 to 7, 518
• Shrinking working population - too may old people
• 200,000,000 25 - 34 year olds with degrees - same qualifications
• The old model of trade has gone - University degree @ Canterbury for thousands of dollars or go online e.g. MIT then get your learning examined at a different centre. Free qualification & learning from home!
• Indian graduates have the same qualification and willing to work at 1/4 the price - Global Village!

Digital Divide - 1st world countries have cheap devices and Internet access. Develping countries not so much access - this is changing. Wifi solutions for countries - Internet balloons etc. The wold world will eb Wifi enabled very soon. 

If you have a device and the Internet - can you educate yourself? Hole in the wall project.

Heutagogy - approach of kids can teach themselves. Self education is now becoming a reality.

If we can learn ourselves - what's the role of Key Competencies? 
1. Literacy, numeracy, science ICT social and financial literacy.
2. Character traits... grit...

In 20 years time - with mathematics became a recreational activity? Will coding be more important?

Opportunities and risks for our students:

• must be open to new learning and change - slow adopter or use the tools available today and the new ones as they arise
• World of Apps - constantly changing and throw away when no longer needed
• positive mindset

How do we accommodate this world in the way we teach?

• Multiple jobs, pick up new specific skills and discard them daily
• How can augmented reality support this learning?

Augmented Reality - a digital overlay over the real world - e.g. details about the stars n the sky.

Virtual Reality - virtual word with some real life aspects overlayed.

Class Notes:  
There are many approaches that can be used to bring learning to life through augmented reality 

• A Student Photo Wall: Set up a display of student photos in the classroom linked to a personal student videos about the individual student that can be shared with parents and visitors.
• Book Reviews: Have students record a video of themselves giving an review of a book. The trigger image to launch the video review could be the book cover, a picture of the student or an image they have drawn. Afterward, other students/teachers can scan the cover of the book and instantly access the review.
• Parent or Inspiring Role message: Source a recording from an inspirational speaker or record a message from a parent/friend of the student that provides words of encouragement to the student. Attach a trigger image to student desks or cover of their books.
• Year books/School magazines: Add an AR to printed school publications and include video profiles from sports events, school plays or award ceremonies as a rich memory of school activities.
• Word Definition Walls: Students can record themselves providing the definitions to different vocabulary words on a word wall.
• Lab Safety/Safety Messages: Put trigger images linked to safety videos around a science laboratory/workshop so that when students scan them, they can learn the different safety procedures and protocols within the learning environment.

Building a Community Garden - an innovation or not?

Innovation requires putting students’ ideas or solutions into practice in the real world. For example, it IS innovation if students design and build a community garden on the grounds of their school; just designing the garden is NOT innovation.

In cases where students do not have the authority to implement their own ideas, it is innovation ONLY if students convey their ideas to people outside the classroom context who can implement them. For example, it IS innovation if students present their ideas for building a community garden in a public park in their town to a local environmental group or to local officials, but NOT if students design a community garden for that public park and only share their plans with their teacher and classmates.

Innovation also benefits people other than the student; it has value beyond meeting the requirements of a classroom exercise. The townspeople who tend the new garden in the public park and the teenagers who attend the rewritten Shakespeare play benefit from students’ efforts, for example.

It also counts as innovation if students create a project for a science fair or submit an original poem to a regional poetry contest, for example, because the fair and contest are not educator-controlled and have real audiences who are interested in and may benefit from the students’ work.

Recommended Reading
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/06/20-ways-to-use-augmented-reality-in.html

Educational Technology and Mobile Learning
http://www.researchgate.net/profile/HsinKai_Wu/publication/235703112_Current_status_opportunities_and_challenges_of_augmented_reality_in_education/links/0a85e532fe1b0299eb000000.pdf

We argue that viewing AR as a concept rather than a technology is more productive. We identify features and affordances of AR systems and applications.

The instructional approaches adopted by an AR system are discussed.While AR offers new learning opportunities, it also creates new challenges.
We provide solutions for challenges and suggest directions for future research.

Augmented Reality in Education by Dr Mark Billinghurst
http://www.solomonalexis.com/downloads/ar_edu.pdf

Ingress, Google cardboard, Zombie Run, Anatomy 4D.

How can we use VR in schools?

• Art work - explanation from the artist
• 2D technical drawing not detailed enough - make a 3D version or model that can be a walked through e.g. architect modelling a house
• School - focus on construction of atoms, famous buildings, battles (Minecraft), life cycle of a frog, flight simulator  - using the expertise of the students to unpack the learning, using real sources and manipluating them. 

The making of Gallipoli in Minecraft®

Try Simcity or Civilization!

What are the barriers to using technology in class?

What models are there for this in the classroom?

• We need to embed this process into the strategic plan

• Artists - free souls
• Adaptive competence - knowledge workers to innovate for our employers (Teachers s there is a definate end expectaion.)
• Delivered competence - workers are the owners, 

SAMR Model:

Do we just use ICT to reproduce drill and skill worksheets? How can we use ICT to totally throw the task on its head and integrate collaboration? The new experience could not happen without the technology e.g. live through a volcanic erruption or walk to the South Pole, ask real explorers questions as they are walking to the Pole.

TPACK Model:

When we are teaching there are different aspects involved. Where do knowledge, pedagogy and knowledge of technology overlap? How can we balance our knowledge in all areas e.g. history - history channel videos - used in an effective pedagogical way.

Session Notes 2

What skills do kids need for the 21^st Cent?

How does leadership allow for these?

Grant Lichtman: What 60 

Some schools have the answers but we are not connected and sharing our ideas.

Suggests that educational change is not hard but is complicated.

The issue might be more change management. Are we all pushing in the same direction?

Ecosystem model: Schools are a range of adaptive connecting systems. They are not finished but are being created - living ecocystems. We as a school need to learn and know that we need to grow.

If schools grow - it happens at the fringes of an ecosystem. The edges of the ecosystem need the ability to make changes - leadership.

Industrial model: Kids all same age, same intervention, same outcomes. 

Spheres - land, ocean.... 5th sphere - cognitoshpere - system of knowledge creation and management.

Problems - anchors of time, space and subject, dams and silos. 

Solutions: 

1. Teach to kids future not our past - teach into the unknown (design learning arund a game?)

2. Self-evolving learners

3. Self-evolving organisations

Schools are not very good at finding spaces in which people are encouraged and enables to fail.

If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we are robbing our children of tomorrow. - John Dewey.


The Purpose of Education:
Gert Biesta's domains - three fuctions - we need to address all three..

Quailfication
 - gain knowledge to be able to do something

Socialisation
 - cultural integration, part of society

Subjectification
 - become more autonomous in thinking and acting

ITL Top skills for the future

• Collaboration
• Knowledge construction
• Self regulation
• Real world problems/innovation
• ICT for learning
• Skilled communication

Key Competencies

• Thinking
• Using language
• Managing self
• Relating to others
• Participating and contributing

To what extent do we model these Key Competencies as a teacher?
How do our strengths influence our leadership skills?
How do we develop these competencies?
 - mentoring
 - self assessment
 - peer assessment

 - work within a community of practice
 - wide professional reading - accross education and even business (Leadership theories)

These Key Competencies need to be expressed in form of outcomes, daily activities and forms of assessment. Rubrics for KC are an excellent tool for deveoping competencies.

Trumping Leadership: 
KC of leaders

Thinking:
- strategically
- outside the box

Collaboration:
- break down those walls, pool funding, shared PD, relational trust between school, students, community. Links and relations with other school e.g. local high school, networks.

Managing self:
- maintain balance so we are in an effective working flow. Away time from work.
- forming networks so there is communication with other colleagues

Micheal Fullen - Sustainability in Leadership (Great book to read)

21st Century Skills

Grant Lichtman - Denver TED Talk

We want to disrupt the industrial mindset of education to create lots of little workers. Teachers who want to develop students who can solve problems and answer questions rather than follow lots of routine activities.

Bad news:

Schools are not very good at innovation.

 - competing intersets

 - risk adverse

- they struggle with change and innovation

Good News:

Schools down the road have some of the answers but we need to make connections with them and share our progress.
Institutional change is uncomfortable, complicated and messy but not hard in comparison to other things in life!

Schools are becoming dynamic, messy and chaotic as a result of student ownership of learning, permeable, adaptive, self correcting - authentic reflection.