Collaboration in learning Mal Lee August 2013

Overview

•Solitary insular teaching - that of paper based world •Collaborative, networked 24/7 – that of digital and networked • •Concomitant change of mindset •Structural impact of digital operational base •Awareness of macro trends and natural growth •Ever lessening importance of the physical place and ‘its’ boundaries •Increasing centrality of Web and demise of school walls, •Shift – logical extension of wider societal developments •About readying your school, staff and community

School teaching today

•Insular, conducted behind closed doors of physical place •Within set hours – for less than 20% of learning time per year •Mass, class group based •Paper based – paper technology shaping nature of the teaching and school organisation •Constancy and continuity – 50/60 years largely unchanged •Solitary teachers – closed classroom doors – teacher as gatekeeper controlling teaching and assessment •Distrust – cyber walls to ‘protect’ young •Pronounced focus on cognitive/the formal curriculum

Out of school teaching

•By default left to parents/children •In context, anywhere, anytime, 24/7/365 •Pronounced impact of learning culture of home/parents •Networked, collaborative, connected •Normalised use of suite of digital technologies •Universal nature evidenced since mid 90’s

Out of school teaching

• Personalised, largely self-directed •Increasing self-teaching – with peer and network support •Constantly evolving, ‘buzz of the new’ •Unfettered exploration of ever-evolving opportunities •Intrapersonal, interpersonal and to a lesser extent cognitive development focus (Pellegrino and Hilton, 2012) •Trust and respect

Collaboration between home - school

•Rhetoric and reality – miniscule •‘One – way collaboration’ (Grant, 2010) •Tokenism •Unilateral control with schools/teachers/bureaucrats •Parent/student disempowerment

Collaboration between home - school

•Pronounced turnaround with digital normalisation and move to networked mode •Teacher willingness to collaborate – when school has astute principal •Why – yet to be researched •Uncertainty re need for digital normalisation by school •Natural growth in school’s desire to collaborate

Teaching in pathfinder schools

• Experience of pathfinders in UK, US, NZ and Australia • Early days - relative rarity • Across socio-economic, size, location, sector spectrum • Visionary leadership • Digital operational base

Teaching in pathfinder schools

• Willing staff • Conducive learning culture • Willing and capable community • Apposite digital infrastructure • Concern to provide apposite C21 education for every child • Recognition of out of school learning • Ever more integrated ecology

Nature of the collaboration

• Multi-faceted, networked and unbounded • Networked mindset • Using resources beyond school gates • Using community as a teaching space • Authentic and inquiry/project based learning • Collaboration across professional teaching community • Collaboration with other professionals • Collaboration with families – parents, carers and grandparents

Evidence for collaboration

• Parents as prime teachers – from birth onwards • Grandparents/community elders as teachers • Students as their own teachers • BYOT – 24/7/365 learning • Student attainment and home-school collaboration • Potential for more personalised learning • Bridging home-school divide/practises • Streamlining and improving teaching • The untapped potential

Connected learning

• Enhancing the sophistication of the young’s ‘out of school’ connected learning • Building on near 20 years evolution • Bringing the networked mode into the school • Recognising individual children’s preferred mode of learning and building upon • Impact of current laissez faire approach • Propensity for the educationally advantaged to be continually advantaged • Vital need for astute teacher intervention

Connected learning

• Enhancing the sophistication of the young’s ‘out of school’ connected learning • Building on near 20 years evolution • Bringing the networked mode into the school • Recognising individual children’s preferred mode of learning and building upon • Impact of current laissez faire approach • Propensity for the educationally advantaged to be continually advantaged • Vital need for astute teacher intervention

24/7/365 teaching

• Merging of the ‘in’ and ‘out’ of school teaching trends • Shaping apposite 27/7/365 holistic education for life and work • Involving all the teachers of the young – from birth onwards • Who best teaches what, when and where?

• A curriculum for a networked world • The teaching mode of the networked world – that is already transpiring

Connected learning

• Enhancing the sophistication of the young’s ‘out of school’ connected learning • Building on near 20 years evolution • Bringing the networked mode into the school • Recognising individual children’s preferred mode of learning and building upon • Impact of current laissez faire approach • Propensity for the educationally advantaged to be continually advantaged • Vital need for astute teacher intervention

Questions?

• Presentation posted – http//www.malleehome.com

Contact

Mal Lee – 02 44 717 947 [email protected]

http://www.malleehome.com

http://www.byot.me

PO Box 5010 Broulee NSW Australia 2537