And all of this happened at an introductory astronomy session at the Starfield Observatory run by John Henley west of Nambour on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland .  I’ve always been interested in the night sky and have fond memories of investigating it with my 30 magnification telescope when I was a kid.  I actually “discovered” that Alpha Centauri was a multiple star  only to find out later that serious astronomers had actually known this for a very long time.

The session really re-ignited my passion for the night-sky. And it was great sharing the evening with a bunch of like-minded people who not only thought “outside the square” but also “outside the planet”.  John would type in the coordinates on his dedicated laptop and his beautiful twelve inch reflector telescope would swivel and arc up to a seemingly ordinary part of the night sky. Then as we looked through the eye-piece we would marvel at the  sight of our sister galaxy Andromeda in all her remote beauty!

The evening’s interest was heightened by the running commentary provided by John as we learned about the history of humankind’s interpretation and naming of the stars, planets, constellations and other heavenly bodies (yes I know you’re thinking about that red carpet again).

But there was so much more to the night than just looking through the telescope.  John, an ex-principal and teacher, was very astute in the way he ran the evening.  He didn’t seem to be running from some “prepared script”.  He cleverly gauged what our small group already knew and listened as we discussed various astronomy related topics.  He didn’t preach or lecture.  He’d ask us questions and then that would lead us to the next topic or the next search in the sky.  About midway through the evening we went inside for a short video session and then a chat over a coffee and biscuits.

It struck me when I got home how much primary classroom teachers could learn from his approach.  Just learning a bunch of facts about our solar system means absolutely nothing to kids.  Teachers need to find excellent resources and really get into the topic themselves.  Maybe even run an astronomy night – you don’t need to be an expert to do this. And all you really need is for the kids to bring along a pair of binoculars (teach them to use them properly at school first) and maybe a small telescope on a tripod if you can get a hold of one.

In the southern hemisphere Jupiter is starting to rise earlier every night and its four biggest moons are clearly visible even with binoculars!  Just make sure that there’s not too much moon to spoil the rest of the night sky – say a quarter moon at the very most.  Other than that all the kids need to bring are a torch covered with red cellophane so that no-one’s night vision gets wrecked.

Beneath the title on the home page of the Starfield Observatory’s website is a well-known but perhaps not very well-heeded saying, “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted.” All the curriculum content in the world will not “light any fires” but a genuine passion and curiosity on the part of the teacher just might!  Particularly if their students are given some freedom in exploring  the amazing world of the night sky.

NB: The Starfield Observatory website contains information for teachers including some  wonderful weblinks including one that  is really worth mentioning – Stellarium - which contains a free software download program that shows you in beautiful graphics what the night sky in your neighbourhood has to offer on any night – it’s simply stunning!

• I can’t share my ideas on learning without sharing the other aspects of my life that help to define who I am as well (sorry in advance)…

• The name “Arcadian” better reflects my basic attitude to life – a kind of cautious optimism.  And anyway I’ve always liked the word “Arcadia”…

• I’d like to share more of the brilliant stuff that I see from my PLN on Twitter.

• I really like orange and green on the black background.

So there you go – you’ve been warned…

But would tying your shoelaces be one of them?

Well I have to say that up to this point in my life this has been the case for me. I have always known that I did up my shoelaces differently to others. I would watch others carrying out this seemingly mundane skill in awe wondering why their technique looked so fluent and elegant whereas my efforts seemed so ungainly and clumsy. I’m sure that in some cases my close observations of others carrying out this supposedly everyday task may have raised suspicion.

Well in the category of “You CAN teach an old dog new tricks,” my life changed drastically this week and will never be the same again!

You see I was in YouTube looking for online resources to support children learning about organisation as a part of the You Can Do It program (I think the teacher manual may have been written some time in the seventies), using the words “life-skills kids” as a search term. Well the results were fairly ordinary until I came across a clip called “How to Tie Your Shoe Laces like a Pro”. As well as thinking that this might be really useful for kids I have to say that my interest was very personal.

The rest is now history (albeit fairly parochial history) and my only regret is that had I discovered this technique when I was a kid I could have used all the time I saved (rough estimate seventy-two hours) for more productive activities!

Now I have to say that the new technique and the video have been big hits with the kids who have seen them (although I have probably confused some year one children for the rest of their lives). But imagine if you will a class of year four students first of all in hysterics at my old technique and then totally gobsmacked with the new one. Imagine a bunch of nine and ten year olds totally engaged with learning this new life skill. Kids with lace shoes feeling pity on the less fortunate (with their sissy Velcro straps) by lending them a shoe so they could also experience this new wonder.

Imagine my chagrin when one of the boys was so enthralled that he challenged me to a “lace-off” using the new technique in front of the whole class. With the rest of the kids providing the countdown to the showdown the boy completed the task at least as quickly as the demonstration on the video leaving me a very poor second!

Who says real-life learning is dead? Who says that teachers can’t be learners too?

If you too wish to experience a life changing moment and want to share it with your kids then watch the clip at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr1fcHyuHjw but be warned it can be quite addictive and distracting. On the positive side you may never have to put up with the incredibly annoying sound of kids playing with their Velcro straps ever again. And you know something? I’m really glad that NAPLAN ** doesn’t require assessment of this new skill – it would take all the fun out of it!

(Be warned that the clip starts with mild language which children may find amusing – judicial use of the volume control can easily take this out).

** For those outside Australia NAPLAN is a national standardised testing “regime” – seems to be the main focus in my part of the world at the moment although personally I wish that engaging students as learners was.

As a part of doing this I would like to discuss with our staff what they think their role as teachers actually involves.  Do they see themselves as:

• Disseminators of knowledge (as in curriculum content)?  or…
• Learning facilitators who assist children in the process of becoming lifelong learners?

I would like to discuss what these two approaches might “look” like by asking the following basic questions:

• What would each approach look like in terms of the physical classroom layout and decor?
• What would the teacher sound like in each of the approaches?
• What would the students actually be doing in each of the approaches?
• How could curriculum goals be met in each approach?
• What would the students actually be learning in each approach?
• How might teachers communicate with each other in each of the approaches?

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this and would welcome comments with links to papers, articles, images, video clips and any other information you might think relevant – oh and Happy New Year!

Initially my thoughts were along the lines of setting up a standalone blog in LP lasting a week or so.  When I spoke to the Principal at our school about this he suggested that we have a webcam hook-up instead.  So not being a qualified Elluminate moderator at the time (I have actually since done a day-course in Brisbane), I had to contact Learning Place to get things organised.  A quick look on Google Maps helped me to choose a school  in a suitably central Christchurch location and a quick email to the Principal resulted in an email back from a wonderful teacher by the name of Emma who was eager to go ahead with the project.

The short story is the hook-up went ahead and everything ran perfectly.  How powerful for our year six kids to hear and see first hand the Kiwi kids recounting their amazing stories (brick walls collapsing on a parent’s bed seconds after she got up to check the kids etc).  The Kiwi students were articulate and a pleasure to watch and listen to.  I’m sure that our year six kids will now listen to any news of further aftershocks in the Canterbury region with a totally different perspective.

The long story is that actually setting up the hook-up proved to be a nightmare! 

First of all because of EQ policy I knew we had to use Elluminate as the software program of choice – mainly the webcam aspect of it of course.  So I organised a tentative hook-up date with someone from LP who was willing to moderate the session.

Emma and I then organised via email that we would chat at home via Skype so that as well as organising the format of the hook-up she could become familiar with Elluminate (this after explaining to her about EQ’s policy on not using Skype – something she had a hard time getting her head around).

Whilst we were video-chatting on Skype she installed Elluminate and we then switched to communicating with each other via the “sandpit” in iConnect.  She was actually quite impressed with Elluminate as the webcam quality was as good if not better than when we were using Skype.  She was also getting excited about the prospect of putting up some pictures of earthquake damage on the whiteboard during the hook-up.  Now all she had to do was get Elluminate working at her school.

As the big day of the hook-up approached it became clear that it just wasn’t going to happen – Emma was having trouble getting Elluminate installed at her school – reluctantly we had to postpone the event until one week later.

Meanwhile, a very helpful lady from LP was emailing Emma’s school with information that might assist them with installing Elluminate. In the week leading up to the revised date I became determined that the hook-up must go ahead.  On both sides of the Tasman Sea we had kids (and teachers) with high expectations that this would happen.  The Kiwi kids were ready to tell their story and Emma was sure that it was going to be good (even therapeutic) for them.

In the meantime I made enquiries as to what the official Education Queensland policy on Skype usage really was and was advised that whilst not “officially” blocked the use of it was “highly discouraged”.

With that in mind we pressed ahead with the idea of using Elluminate thinking that if needs be we could use Skype as a back-up.  Emma told me that their tech was visiting the school two days before the revised hook-up date and that with luck we’d be able to use Elluminate.

The end of this story is almost an anti-climax.  Needless to say Emma’s tech didn’t even get around to looking at the problem with installing Elluminate and we used Skype without any hassle at all!  Had this been a sports game the conclusion would have been – great game, final score Skype 1 Elluminate 0.

Discussion Points on the NZ Hook-up:

• In the end the NZ hook-up was a big success.  Our kids learned a lot about what living with a disaster really means.  They learned things about the human spirit and how humour helps people cope with uncertainty – apparently KFC in Christchurch is running a special promotion at the moment – with every large “chips” (chups) ordered you get the chance of getting a “Free Shake”.  It was a very worthwhile learning activity.
• For all of the talk about ICTs enabling collaboration and communication on a global scale this exercise was not a seamless or easy operation to carry out (at least from my part of the world) – it would have been so easy to give up on it and disappoint the kids in the process.
• Having done the training session for Elluminate I think it’s a brilliant program for what it’s designed to do but are Skype and Elluminate really designed to do the same thing?  I don’t think so.
• Was it fair to put the NZ school and Emma in particular “under pressure” to try to install Elluminate? 
• St Albans school was able to use Skype without having to gain any special permission at all – they were simply using a proven technology. (I’m envious).
• With regard to bandwidth usage does Elluminate use less bandwidth (in webcam mode) than Skype?
• I still cannot understand why the use of Skype is highly discouraged by Education Queensland.  When I read articles online about things like the Skype Online Class Directory (see the reference in this blog – http://ilearntechnology.com/?p=3329&utm_medium=twitter  and Skype in schools Directory – http://skypeinschools.pbworks.com/w/page/11008311/Directory  I get really disheartened that we can’t be part of what many schools in the world take for granted.

If you are a teacher I would like you to imagine for this exercise that you are a student in your own class (or one of your classes).  Now that you have placed yourself mentally in that position try answering the following questions (be brutally honest because no-one will hear your response except you):

1. Does your teacher like kids?
2. If you were worried about something at school would you ask your teacher about it?
3. Does your teacher give you freedom to investigate ideas that are of particular interest to you?
4. Does your teacher let you “off the hook” if you don’t have a clue what they’re talking about?
5. If you felt that you have been treated unfairly by your teacher what would you do?
6. Has your teacher ever apologised for making a mistake in front of the class?
7. What does your teacher do when they can’t directly answer a question?
8. Does your teacher talk too much?
9. Does your teacher provide you with choices in the way you learn?
10. Is your teacher actually interested in the stuff you are supposed to be learning about?
11. Does your teacher ever get really excited about the ideas, concepts and achievements of students in your class ?
12. Do they laugh when a kid in your class says something genuinely funny?
13. Do they give you helpful feedback on the work that you do?
14. Do you think your teacher allows for the fact that maybe you have a different personality type to them?
15. Does your teacher “break the routine” sometimes to do something really wacky?
16. Does your teacher seem at all knowledgeable and / or understanding about what’s going on in your world?
17. Does your teacher inspire you to be the best person you can be?
18. Does your teacher really listen to you when you are explaining how you did something?
19. Does your teacher let you use different types of strategies including ICTs to learn, communicate and explore?
20. Is your teacher ready to “scrap” an activity if it’s obvious that it just isn’t working?

How did you go?

As a kid in your class would you be hanging out until the next time you were in your class or silently hoping that a human sized asteroid would randomly and permanently put you out of the picture?

Essentially the basis for what he’s talking about isn’t new.  Take for example a high school student studying in the 1960′s.  To become proficient say in Chemistry that student had to build up their internal knowledge by referencing “outside” knowledge in the form of their basic text-book or the content of lessons delivered by the teacher.  Understanding any of the concepts behind the facts being presented  to them then would have required internalising the information to construct conceptual meaning from it.  If they were having difficulty with visualising a concept they could always discuss their concerns with the teacher (if the teacher had time), try to find other reference material in the library (usually in the form of other books) or in the most unlikely of scenarios discuss the problem with other students.

Now fast-forward to the present digital age.  Depending on the geographical location of the high-school that you might have in mind, the method of curriculum delivery may not have in fact changed much since the 1960′s.  However, with the advent of ICTs (including the Internet as we known it since around 1995), the way in which students can access knowledge and communicate about that knowledge has seriously challenged the validity of the “business” of what schools do because much of the learning that kids are involved in is actually happening outside of the school environment!

And there-in lies the challenge for today’s educators.  Knowledge is power the saying goes but I suspect that many teachers (and teaching institutions) still confuse their role as “knowledge brokers” with that of “power brokers”.  With our available digital technology kids can now (more than ever) learn more outside of school than in it – without the burden of the power-play that still exists in so many of our schools.

So does this make teachers and schools obsolete?  No – it just makes what we’ve been doing obsolete.  Now more than ever our kids need enlightened teachers and enlightened schools helping them to connect with and guide them through the marvellous learning opportunities available to them today.

“…The traditional passive transmission mode of teaching that still dominates much classroom activity is not favoured by students. Students report that school work is interesting and engaging when it is:

• active and experiential in nature,
• varied rather than repetitive,
• meaningful and linked to life outside school,
• challenging, providing opportunity for sustained thinking and exploration, without being too difficult,
• individualized, recognizing that students differ from one another in needs, capacities and perspectives,
• designed to involve them in making decisions about the planning, implementing, reporting and assessing of work, allowing some autonomy and control, and
• when it involves talking and working with other students.”

Why is it that students would much rather build giant castles with MAB blocks with turrets precariously balanced on spindly pieces of wood than use them for their intended purpose – namely the exploration of the base-10 number system?  And why is it that the kid who can barely give you 10 minutes of engagement all day just can’t wait to play his latest computer game that he’s found online and then sit there for twenty minutes totally enraptured by what he’s doing?  Why is it that activities that children choose to do themselves will engage them far more thoroughly than activities that are chosen for them?

“That’s all very well,” I hear you say,”but I have a curriculum to follow.  I haven’t the time to let kids do just what they like.”

And as teachers of course we do have a curriculum to follow.  The trouble with “curriculums” and “unit-plans” etc  is that they are essentially content-driven and that teachers are under such pressure to “get through” the curriculum they end up leaving themselves very little time to think about how they’re going to engage their kids in an area of learning that might potentially offer huge scope for engagement.  In the battle to gain the attention and professional expertise of the teacher, curriculum content and assessment win out over pedagogy and student engagement resulting in a classic “lose-lose” situation for both the teacher and the students.

So how could teachers go about increasing the level of engagement of their students when starting out on a new unit or project?  Here are some of my observations based on project style work I have done with students over the years:

• When starting a new project or unit involve the students right from the start by allowing them to contribute ideas on the actual activities they might do.  Be ready to be flexible and really listen to what the kids say – then really act on their suggestions.
• Give the students enough lead-in time including background reading on the topic being handled.
• Allow time for proper group or team formation – always give them the opportunity to make their own groups factoring in the individual skills required (a team of kids who can’t read isn’t going to be a very independent work group).
• Remind the kids right at the start that working with others always involves compromise and that difficulties with decision making within a team is totally normal – and is a learned social and cognitive skill.
• Make sure your unit presents the students with choices of content and delivery methods (including the use of blogs, virtual classrooms etc)  and let them experiment with different modes of delivery for sections of the unit as well.
• Make sure you build in enough open-endedness in to your challenge tasks within the project – kids turn off when all they are doing is regurgitating information…
• Keep the assessment simple so that the teams really understand what they are working towards.  Better still involve the kids as to what they think should be actually assessed. Whatever you do don’t let your unit suffer from “Death by Rubric”.
• Let the kids experiment with ICTs to come up with best options – remember you don’t have to know everything about the ICTs yourself before you let the kids loose on using them.  If there is technical stuff that needs solving along the way then encourage the kids to use the “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it” approach. 
• During the course of the unit or project hold regular whole class meetings to review how their team work is going.  Encourage the groups to talk about their failures as well as their triumphs. 
• Talk up what the kids are doing and above all maintain your sense of humour.
• Be aware right from start that the end product may not be the same as the one you planned – most likely it will be far better! 
• Once the project is over run a reflection post-mortem and have the kids discuss aspects of what they liked and didn’t like about the unit.  If you used a virtual classroom as the main vehicle for your project make sure you include a forum or blog that encourages good critical feedback (like a PMI for example - what were the Pluses, what were the Minuses, what was Interesting). 

Armed with nothing more than a piece of chalk and a  magnetic personality the “chalk-and-talk” teacher uses his “me channel” to engage the kids on a variety of “learning” experiences.  So caught up in his own voice Mr Chalk and Talk doesn’t even realise that after his stunningly witty and engaging introductory anecdote the students one by one and in a polite manner (after all they do like him) start to disengage totally from whatever it is he is rabbiting on about!

After the lesson Mr Chalk-and-Talk reflects briefly on his lesson happy in the knowledge that he has performed well.  However, he thinks back to the lesson and realises that the kids became “chatty” and when challenged by his carefully crafted questions the kids were sluggish to reply.  Some of them (amazingly) looked distracted.  “If only they were better listeners”, he thinks. “Then they’d really engage.”  What Mr Chalk and Talk doesn’t realise of course is that the biggest obstacle to their “engagement” was his teaching style.

“Talk is cheap” the saying goes and even in today’s inflationary world chalk is still extremely affordable.  “Talk and chalk” as an approach in the classroom (both in the pedagogical and resources sense) is more than just cheap – it’s “Cheap and Nasty”.

Lee Emerson

• had freedom to express themselves.
• had input into the outcome of the project or specific learning experience.
• had the opportunity to experiment and make mistakes without censure.
• had the chance to collaborate with other kids and adults to achieve a goal.
• had freedom to make choices within the framework of the particular learning activity they were involved in.
• were given permission to question the validity of the activity (and in essence where was I coming from…)

Perhaps the term “project-based” learning is in itself a little misleading and daunting.  To many teachers it conjures up horrendous scenarios of massive unit planning, chaotic group work and assessment nightmares.  To me the spirit of “project-based”  learning can be applied to everyday smaller tasks as well as the larger learning projects that we do with our classes.  Perhaps we should replace the term “project-based learning” with “empowered learning” – where the emphasis is on creating learning situations that empower the students themselves.

The whole concept of “empowering the learner” is not new and anyone game enough to try this approach has always had to use whatever resources were available at the time – including audio-cassettes, encyclopedias, reference books etc. The thing is the “constructivist” approach to learning was around before the advent of ICTs but was still not accepted as the norm as far as teaching methods were concerned.

Since about 1995 with the serious development of the Internet and all of the other aspects of ICTs the world has changed dramatically.  People (including kids) can access information and are able to communicate in ways never before thought possible. More than ever the “chalk and talk” (instructivist) approach in classrooms is a dinosaur – it just won’t cut it.  But then again it never did!

The role of ICTs in modern pedagogical practice is crucial!  However the technology of ICTs is useless (or at least  ineffective) if it’s being used in a “chalk and talk” classroom.  The basis of this blog then is to look at ways to empower the learner through both sound pedagogical practice AND the use of ICTs.

Lee Emerson