Here’s Ian Gilbert speaking at TEDx in Dubai. My Thinking-Illustrations are below if you’re interested…sit back and be re-energised.
C21st Learning means…
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Creative Behaviours
The time when I am able to work from home is precious. It gives me the opportunity to immerse myself in readings, resources and videos that push my thinking forward. It also allows me the time to develop my creative behaviours. I’ve just started ploughing my way through an overly-long reference list I have compiled over the past two months from my Personal Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter and I’m now exhausted in the best possible way! There’s some amazingly inspirational thinking around and all of it is only a click away, especially now I have my PLN up and growing.
I’ve just watched Gregg Fraley @greggfraley speaking at TEDx hosted by NASA and whilst I listened, I doodled…only to find that one of his key recommendations was to purchase and use a notebook. How good did THAT make me feel?!
Watch and enjoy…my sketches are below (ordinarily, I wouldn’t have included them, but on removing the “YARDSTICK OF COMPARISON”, I found that they are perfectly valid forms of my self expression – thanks, Gregg!).
The Power of Twitter (ONCE AGAIN)
Thanks to Jamie Portman for his cracking endorsement of the power of Twitter found here: http://www.jamieportman.com/blog.
Jamie has been part of my personal learning network for a long time now. I’ve been through the lurking stage with him right through to mentions, DMs and emails to share resources with him (which reminds me that I have some more for him I MUST send – sorry for the delay, Jamie!). Next, I really hope I’m going to be able to visit and see the amazing work of Jamie, his staff and students since a fire ripped through the school buildings at Campsmount, Doncaster in December last year. Please do follow Jamie on Twitter @jamieportman – he’s got some great follows and followers and is leading some very innovative, pragmatic learning in his school. The real power of Twitter is all that I’ve said, but It’s also enough to bring me out of my self-enforced silence during my holiday in an attempt to SWITCH OFF. I try really hard to relax and clear my head when I take time off but to be honest, it doesn’t really work.Just today I have been reading “Over-schooled but Under-educated” by John Abbott. I continue to lurk on Twitter during my ‘silent holiday’ (I’m not supposed to be interacting in this ‘switch-off’ mode) and this afternoon, I have researched a number of educational readings…I’m currently checking out a range of different teaching models including the Autonomous Learner Model and the Cognitive Apprenticeship Model (http://www.edtech.vt.edu/edtech/id/models/cog.html) with which I’m undertaking some action research in our ‘Confident Communicators’ Project’ (see previous post) at the moment and will be talking about at a number of conferences in the next few months.
I’ve also done some work on my book plus I’ve downloaded Dan Pink’s talk at the RSA (www.thersa.org), which has been added to the RSA Animate series – check it out if you’re interested in finding out about intrinsic motivation, with some powerful scientific evidence to support the case…it brilliantly enriches the TED talk (www.TED.com) he gives around the same issues. I also went on a four mile walk this morning along Monmouth Beach, Lyme Regis and saw some spectacular fossils and the other side of the day involved a final circuit of the harbour and the Cobb. ‘Switching off’, it would seem, is very subjective…
The wonders of Prezi.com
I’m at the explore & play stage with Prezi (www.prezi.com) at the moment as I keep getting intimidated by some outstanding work in the ‘showcase’ section. Sometimes inspiration has the opposite effect, don’t you think? Anyway, not one to give up too easily (well, not at all, if the truth be told and this is a place of truth, after all) I shall keep going and learning. In the meantime, you may see a few more of Prezi examples cropping up on this blog. I love this one – all about metaphor…enjoy!
Creative collaboration
Over the past 18 months, I have been involved in one of the most powerful projects in my career to date. At first glance, the role of facilitating a group of educators as they explore questions related to creative learning may not appear so very innovative. On closer inspection, however, any enquiring eye will discover a powerful and very real example of teachers and teaching assistants collaborating to build a purposeful and safe learning community. The result of which is having a powerful and sustainable impact on learning opportunities for children and on the professional confidence of all the adults involved.
I have learnt so much about the importance and value of investing time and space to provide quality regular opportunities for educators to reflect on, develop and evaluate their practice. At times it has felt so slow in comparison to the frenetic nature of everyday school life that I have worried that we’re not achieving anything. I have been acutely aware of my responsibility to demonstrate concrete outcomes (the production of ‘stuff’) in order to justify teachers’ time out of the classroom and away from their classes, but I haven’t known what ‘stuff’ we could present. Instead, I have focused relentlessly on documenting the conversations, discussions and reflections of the group members. I have subjected them all to their own documentations including writing, video and digital photography and insisted that they provide their own sources of evidence of impact throughout the meetings. They have kept their own learning logs, recording ideas they pick up from each other and things they have tried with their own classes and other colleagues back in school. I have set homework for them and required them to take a ‘Creativity Pledge’ at each meeting to state what they had done, the impact of this, their next steps and some possible outcomes. It has been rigorous for all involved, but this approach has, without doubt, sustained a purposeful, thoughtful and very very safe learning community.
I hope that the findings that the research group produce provide a way forward for all schools to support innovative developments in teaching and learning and take 21st century learning by the scruff of the neck once and for all. This is an 18 month snapshot and there will, I know, be much, much more to follow…
Thinking about learning
I delivered an INSET session with an AST colleague yesterday to a group of FE teachers. The teachers were all Lead Practitioners for the 14-19 diploma and it was fascinating sharing their insights and reflections about how young people learn and what they need. Great day all round. Here’s a VERY edited sample of some of the resources we used…
I {heart} Futurelab
This is a great thought-piece that we will be using for our ‘Confident Communicators’ Project. The teams of Year 8 students have been challenged to research the future and this film will help stimulate their thinking and discussions. Thank you, Futurelab! I highly recommend their work – why not make yourself a cup of tea and set aside a chunk of time to explore their work if you haven’t been there before OR been there for a while.
IDEO Education Animated Films: Living Climate Change
So now I’ve explored the IDEO Living Climate Change site (www.livingclimatechange.com) a little more and found the education section. Here are a couple of great animated films that could be used to stimulate thinking and discussion about the lives we live now and the possible futures we could have. I personally love the idea of having a curriculum subject called, “Consequences” (referred to in the second film, “A Little Brighter”). Much more to explore…
A little dimmerA Little Bit Dimmer from IDEO on Vimeo.
A little brighterA Little Bit Brighter from IDEO on Vimeo.
IDEO imagine the future of play
I love the way IDEO think. Some of their projects have clear opportunities with which educators can connect. More importantly, the questions that IDEO raise and use to inform their thinking are incredibly powerful. I’m involved in a ‘Future Researcher’ project with Year 8 students at the moment. I wonder how they would use this and the films that IDEO say are yet to come in their projects….
(From the IDEO website www.ideo.com)
As part of Living Climate Change, IDEO imagines a future shaped by electric power dependency – where schoolyard play offsets the cost of fossil fuel and kids take an active part in their powering their world. Tune into IDEO next week, when we’ll envision a brighter future. For more scenarios, click through to Living Climate Change, a place to discuss the most defining design challenge of our time.
The Lazy Teacher
One of the most inspiration teachers I get to work with…do buy his book!
Full On Learning 