Global trends

Global trends in education: preparing for the future

Despite years at the forefront of education New Zealand educational circles still regards with some hesitancy overseas scholastic achievements - such as China's standardized test results. As Zhao Yong (2014) implies forcing students to perform to tests is internationally the worst path for creativity. In other words we should pay less attention to number crunching and more to trends such as those in Scandanavian countries where homework has been outlawed for younger students and achievement climbing.

New Zealand under the leadership of National has been falling steadily in the results charts. Exactly how much should we worry about that? Should we not be bringing other types of school environments to our students to enable them to collaborate and create freely according to their interests and skills at the pace that suits their development. 

The secondary system in France now lags far behind in creativity and innovation and does not seem to be taking steps to counter this. Whereas Aotearoa is buzzing with energy, KEP endeavour and local centres and universities such as Ministry of Awesome and Mindlab which are leading the way to the future. A future shrouded in questions. But not in fear as we learn that hands across the nations - and the ubiquitous internet allows us to do just that - will be our best way forward.

While some questions about interdisciplinary approaches and collaborative flipped classrooms are being solved the age-old assessment ogre has not been dealt to. Collaborative achievements do not give individuals a workforce recommendation. It may be that systems of badges will become more normal. It is already a measure that sits easily in the psyche of parents and employers, hinting as it does of boy scouts and honest endeavour.

Learning needs to meet the four criteria (Pearson, 2013)of being accessible, affordable, personal yet - and this may be the bigger challenge - completely scalable.

The future is here now. We are able in a moment to connect and share issues and challenges. Even those that most worry us will cede to the force of goodwill that is beginning to burgeon in the internet. Our neighbours are our online community – in political, educational and leisure domains. Long live the future.

References

Pearson. (2013, April 26). Global trends: The world is changing faster than at any time in human history. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdZiTQy3g1g

Zhao Yong - World Class Learners. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk--J3E8yqc

▶ 10:20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk--J3E8yqc

Using social online networks in teaching

Using social online networks in teaching

Activity 6: Using social online networks in teaching and/or professional development

Create a blog post where you critically discuss the use of social media in teaching and/or in professional development in relation to the two following questions:

1. What are some key features of social media that are beneficial for teaching and learning? Why?
2. What social media platform do you feel best supports engagement with your professional development? Why?

Using social online networks for learning has become the normal environment for many school children. It may be fraught with dangers as well as troves of information, it may be disputed whether in fact it is distracting (the guardian 28 July 2015) rather than enhancing of students' learning, but it is indisputably here to stay. While digital tools reach across disciplines, countries and ages of learners, it is yet to be seen if longer term, the early uptake of phones and tablets by very young children is productive or damaging. Silicon Valley parents don't seem to think it’s good during the day, banning technology from their schools and out of the lives of some youngsters until they are 14. 

There is some evidence in cerebral development that might support this position (Wallis, 2014).

www.radionz.co.nz/.../what-3-to-7-year-olds-need-to-learn-nathan-mikaere-wallis

12:00 pm on 8 May 2014

• Share on Twitter
 
• Share on Facebook
 
• Share on Google Plus
 
• Share on Reddit
 
• Share on Linked In
 
• Share via email

Nathan Mikaere Wallis is part of the Brain Wave Trust, and X Factor Education, Christchurch. He has been a lecturer at the Christchurch College of Education, lecturing in human development, brain development, language and communication and risk and resilience. Nathan has a background of working with children in counselling settings relating to domestic violence, sexual abuse and childhood trauma.

But there is one area of education that may reap benefits from digital tools more than any others and that is language learning.

Signal theory and statistical models show us the early language acquisition is a number crunching business that relies on vibrations and other characteristics of speech that we cannot consciously hear. We have never been able to manipulate this data for the benefit of language learners. Yet the possibility is now there with the level of accuracy reached by speech-to-text databases. Applications designed to lift the power of databases into cerebrally designed programmes for language learners may bring major disruption to the way we go about acquiring other languages.

Technology companies like Samsung have developed databases whose performance is far in excess of anything we have seen earlier. Speech recognition and translation to the written word includes complex variables that can be seen in the number of choices the phone will give when decoding speech.  Language teachers, app makers and game developers world-wide have yet to understand what we have in hand.

It may take time before the embedded interests of linguistics departments and other traditional language stakeholders are ready to move towards dealing with a subconscious system of weighted connections that forms the early stage of language learning. And which may provide the best key yet for adult or mature second language learners' easy path to mastery.

Language learners however have grasped a totally different aspect of online communicating. And to a modest extent, teachers have too. That is social apps. 

My class uses kakao for its online media. It's a robust reliable free Korean app that appears to have no qualms about uploading large videos or storing massive amounts of data on your page.  Unlike VLN - Virtual Learning Network - which suffers, notwithstanding the endorsement of Melhuish (2013), from being not user-friendly for busy teachers.

Whether teachers use whatsApp, Line, kakao or others has little bearing on the extremely positive push that casual relaxed chatting brings to the language learning domain.

Universally students of language dislike writing and it is a task greeted often by groans. Yet online in social media platforms, they see themselves in a different non-judgmental, non -assessed space.

Already for native speakers the culture of texting, emails and chats is that mistakes are overlooked, as long as the message is still there. It is this environment that gives to language students the freedom to plunge into conversations without much care about grammar.  Thousands of non-native speakers world-wide now do not hesitate to share their opinions and information in whatever kind of English they can manage. And generally their postings are accepted in the same vein. This is  very advantageous environment for students who have been brought up in a heavily standardised, competitive, silo version of learning.

The online social media is here - chatterers throughout the internet are practising their English at rates of about ten to fifty times more than before I would estimate. Thanks Facebook and the other apps. You've provided a great learning media for language learners.

References

Melhuish, K.(2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrieved on 05 May, 2015 from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/han...

Wallis, N. (2014). "What 3 to 7 year olds need to learn."  National Radio New Zealand. 8 May 2014.

Appendix:

Uses of online social media. Examples from kakao.

  

week 32: Changes in my practice

Week 32: Evaluate the impact of issues on your practice and plan for the future.

Firstly, reflect on your personal 32 week learning journey through the whole postgraduate programme and provide a critical discussion of two key changes in your own research informed practice in relation to the Practising Teacher Criteria (PTC) in e-learning. Then share your next dream regarding your future professional development.

My first impression from Mindlab people was How friendly they are! And that was the staff and other students. Every time I left the building I was buoyed up. I was allowed to think. Allowed to share. Could listen to really interesting material. And challenge it. Nobody minded. Everyone contributed. Actually it reminded me of being back in Europe where I found in my 12 years there, people are totally unconcerned about how good or not good you are at various things. I love Aotearoa, but I've had to wear a lot of prejudice here and it saddens my Irish heart. So from a personal point of view Mindlab is mighty. It was so uplifting to be amongst other educators who cared (even if we were exhausted at the end of a day's work).

However much more has happened. Can I illustrate? But some big changes have happened in me in the last 30 odd weeks. MLE? Flipped? Robots, coding. Future scenarios. Lots of reflection on practice. And although the journey has been hectic bit by bit internal re-orientations have been taking place.Big important changes that I cannot fully articulate yet. It needs more time. And I met myself actioning some of these changes recently. 

Our school is promoting kia eke Panuku as an integral part of curriculum. My students are all Asian. Instead of seeing what we should teach I decided to let our experiences unfurl. First a visit to our lovely whare. As I explained to the Matua - for the first time, just the experience and a little information. I wanted to let them feel the whare. So we did that. (I think our class could profitably revisit that event and share feelings.) And just letting the concept go, I found an idea surfaced - why not look at some moko? And perhaps learn about local iwi through that. And learn patterns and what's sacred and what's distinctive through that? So you can see PTC 3 - commitment to bicultural partnership in Aotearoa - is a special part of my practice now. Where our waka might take us? I don't know. And I can trust the process now.

http://www.zealandtattoo.co.nz/tattoo-styles/maori-tattoos/

Not everything has to be standardised and tested. Not everything has to be captured and regurgitated. And especially things Maori is a good place to make space for deeper reflection. The goodest part though (!) is how comfortably that sits with me. And so far with the students. They were fascinated with the moko and patterns they saw on the website zealand: http:// www.zealandtattoo.co.nz/

Before Mindlab I was technically fairly proficient. Now I have become much more e-learned! The blogging process I found tangled at first has become easy and convenient. And I'm annoyed we don't use one for our staff. 

So that feeling of reflection and awareness around learning instead of it being just a mind journey, that is important learning for me. In me. An awareness that we are all leaders at different times. That we can allow for different paces - that's a helpful insight. And a knowledge that not only will society, the world, education change rapidly and soon, but that it already has. While we have been thinking about it. Witness: electric cars, Otago University reducing its arts department, unemployment rising.

Mindlab has put me in touch with the implications of globalization and technology on education  - and with Singularity University and such like. I am alert and ready to follow this through: Twice last week I went out to talks. Christs College is putting on a series and I want to catch in person, Yong Zhao whose work I especially like. I am now part of the conversation on the future. I am de-isolated. I felt isolated in my interests and skills before. And no doubt I was pre-sensitized when the opportunity came to be a robot driver in Boston from my classroom in New Zealand. My early bird students also participated in that.

My Mindlab changes have made me happier and wider in my school context. I'm more open to other people, now I see that that year 10 swearer in the playground is part of my akonga too. PTC 2.  I feel more connected to the world, more equipped to initiate and interpret change and ready for the future. 

My passion for improving the lot of English speakers remains. I mentioned in passing my next stop will be making a chip to be linked to cerebral processes. Well, I'm not sure about that. But a startling question emerged for me from the Osterman & Kottkamp (1993) article. 

I relate to Schon's statement (1983) “Competent practitioners usually know more than they can say. They exhibit a kind of knowing-in-practice, most of which is tacit” but it was the question "What lead to a successful outcome?" that gave me food for thought. I'm used to focusing inquiry on areas for improvement. It will be fruitful to focus on success as well.

I believe I will be a more successful digital and collaborative leader in future, and I also have to learn to connect and spread my wings wide to respond to requests from Teacher Trainers in Italy, collaborators in Russia and magazines in the U.K.and U.S.A. I want to learn to package myself better so I can give what I have got.  And I would like to investigate the new role of keyboards and their databases in language learning. Plenty to do. 

I want to thank Mindlab, the tutors and the organisers. The workload has been painful. The content priceless. Thanks!  And thanks to my fellow students. 

  

References

Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R. (1993). Reflective Practice for Educators. California. Cornwin Press, Inc. Retrieved on 7th May, 2015 from  http://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files/RefPract/Osterman_Kottkamp_extract.pdf

Schon, D. (1983) The reflective Practitioner: How Professionals think in action. New York:Basic Books

my interdisciplinary map

My Interdisciplinary map

The context of my practice is second language acquisition by adults. As English remains a much needed tool in international trade and leisure, the requirements to be fluent are everywhere. My search to find a means for adult Asian speakers to hear and speak English better than currently available has borne fruit. Yet I think there is much more to learn especially testing and assessments of the model I have used.

My interdisciplinary search has taken me far from my original language, music and poetry field that I finished my first degree with. Because I was fluent in three languages I wanted that pleasure and that skill for my students. Nearly all of my reading and research pushed the boundaries of all I knew and from an arts to a science field is a significant change. Yet I kept my eye on one thing - practical outcomes for my students. It probably has helped that most of my research life - the last 20 years - I have also been a full-time teacher. I enjoy teaching and especially have come to appreciate the culture, and respect the way of life, of my many students. 

Yet I was always an outsider in my research - in brain networks I had to struggle to learn the architecture of the brain, to stretch myself to learn the chemistry of connections. Always I was the neophyte. And often I was regarded with disdain by the embedded experts in their field in tertiary institutes. I had to take it on the chin and go on my way. I was on a mission. That helped me read and not absorb vast amounts of research. When it wasn't helpful or when it didn't contradict the model I was developing my head, I left it behind and dug further. I even uncovered research on owls that helped my model!

When I found what explained the difficulties and puzzles of my focus - Asian adults who can't hear English - then I fastened it securely to my kete. Thus I can name about half a dozen acclaimed scientists whose work forms the bones and basis of my own model and the practical exercises I have created from that. They are Paradis for implicit linguistic networks and their character, Ullman for proving that particular networks are used by second language learners, Pierrehumbert for her statistics. And my students, my only proof so far.

 The interdisciplinary ripple effect | IB Community Blog

blogs.ibo.org

I would welcome an interdisciplinary approach at all levels of knowledge, Schools I think will be quicker to take up the baton. It seems as if universities who have long protected the quality of their work, and understandably so, by a protectionism, are often reluctant to open up to others

.Heidi Hayes Jacobs (2014) describes interdisciplinary as  a “curriculum approach that consciously applies methodology and language from more than one discipline to examine a central them or topic”.

For these brave new worlds to come about there needs to be informed teachers willing to take those steps. It requires not just an un-learning but also a new learning: interdisciplinary work with the best will in the world is a practice we have to learn. Its great we are moving towards it – Microsoft 21^st century skills include that reaching out and sharing in its goals. The tzatziki virus was brought under control because in a first all the labs in the world involved in such research decided to co-operate.

For neophytes and experts to be just as welcome one as another in a field of discussion major changes in attitude need to occur. Up until recently it has not been uncommon for untrained newbies to be kept out of disciplines they had just a passing interest in.

Instead our new policies for broadening our perspectives need to include a friendliness and a protocol which is not yet developed. David Wiley (2001) has spoken on the outcomes of innovation which interdisciplinary work can facilitate.

For teachers we can take those small steps available by showing students how different fields of knowledge can feed one another. Working across curricula with friendly colleagues breaks down barriers in our students’ minds. And that’s where interdisciplinary really begins.

Hayes Jacobs, Heidi (2014) Source: Lacoe Edu (2014, Oct 24) Interdisciplinary Learning [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA564RIlhME

Paradis, M. (2009). Declarative and Procedural Determinants of Second Languages. Amsterdam, Netherlands. John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Pierrehumbert ,J. B. (2003). Phonetic Diversity, Statistical Learning, and Acquisition of Phonology.In Language and Speech, 46 (2-3) 115-154. Northwestern University.

Ullman,M.T. (2004). Contributions of memory circuit to language:The declarative/procedural model.Cognition 92 (1), 231-270.

Wiley,D, (2001) Source: TEDx Talks (2001, April 6). TEDxBYU - David Wiley - An Interdisciplinary Path to Innovation. [video file].Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ytjMDongp4

Indigenous knowledge, cultural responsiveness

 Our whare!     

I have learnt to love our whare as I get to know it more and more - from taking my classes in to meet the Matua, and experience and hear things Maori. My students are from Korea,China, Japan, Syria, Taiwan. 

Indigenous knowledge is not just about Maoritanga - it is about people. And this is the great advantage we have in Aotearoa: my school and our government have programmes and incentives for Maori and pakeha to lift the use and profile of te reo and Maori culture in all aspects of school life. While we are seeking to address "the accumulation of achievement gaps year on year" (Bishop 2012) and our PTC 1, 2, 3 and 4 support the opening up of Maori treasures within our classroom - that is the treasures of cultural knowledge and experience of Maori identifying students - while we are seeking to address these issues, we are also practising just those skills that we need to embrace change for the 21st century learning environment: values of being committed to the good for all people, respecting oneself and others, and the key competencies involved in thinking, relating to others and working together.

Recently I began to familiarise my students, with the help of our Matua, with the whare protocol and their feeling comfortable there. Later in the year we are visiting a marae. But my mindlab adventure and the ongoing PD in my school encourages me to open up to Maoritanga in a more meaningful way. That means opening up to myself, opening up to the diverse backgrounds of my students and in the end becoming more open to respect and hear every individual I'm going to meet in my daily life. That sounds like peace to me. And better collaboration. Better hearing one another's problems. And better collaborative solutions. I'm really excited. Because I think New Zealand is in a unique position that gives us a special advantage.

The new part of my indigenous journey is that I know now not to force it. Culture, like people, lends itself to being unwrapped gently. Not forced open. So I'm not going to give my students things to learn, but be ready with resources to supply them with knowledge and opportunities. I have an excellent booklet for teaching about the marae.

Te Kawa O Te Marae: A Guide for All Marae Visitors

Book by Wena Harawira. Edition 2009.Originally published  Reed N.1997. 

But I don't want to "teach" the marae, if anything like that could be attempted. I want to unwrap it, unfurl it before we get to our visit. After I reflected on our first visit with Matua in the whare, and the meal we invited him to in thanks,  I decided that perhaps through carving and tattooing we could arrive at an understanding of the people. 

So I have begun a short voyage into moko and non-maori tattoos - kirituhi.  

A website  about mokos http://www.zealandtattoo.co.nz/tattoo-styles/maori-tattoos/  has already opened up our understanding of koru, hei matau (fish hook), twists, hei tiki and patterns like pakati, unaunahi. 



I am hoping this will naturally lead us to learning about local and South Island iwi. Let our journey be one of discovery, innovation, collaboration and sharing.

I am now convinced that the endeavours in Aotearoa New Zealand over the last forty years with Treaty negotiations and te reo efforts, combining with the more recent PTC requirements and PD drive to recognise culture and reward and encourage each of us to be ourselves, is going to pay great dividends in the multi-cultural, collaborative future which the digital age has framed for us. We are possibly better equipped for international cultural responsiveness and even interdisciplinary work than other countries who have not had to work through the Treaty and these issues of culture, identity and belonging.

I understand an agentic position as a teacher needs to include not only the "historical links between culture, ethnicity, class and the education system" (Gutschlag, 2007) and that responsiveness can mean challenges on the way, but I am sure we have a head start. And that makes me excited for our education system and country.

 The Pouakai, largest known eagle in the world, now extinct. Once soared the plains from Canterbury to South Canterbury.

I know now that my turangawaiwai ngakau, the place that is home, is Aorangi, South Canterbury. And also France, Italy and Germany where I spent many years, have many friends and whose languages I'm fluent in. As my Asian adult class learn their own mihis, they will also be opening up their pathway into indigenous knowledge and relationships. As Bishop said the future is "relation based education". We've got to get to know one another better.

References

Bishop, Russell (2012). A culturally responsive pedagogy. Source: Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file].Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994

Gutschlag, A.  (2007) Some Implications of the Te Kotahitanga model of teacher positioning. New Zealand Journal of Teachers' Work. 4(1), 3-10. 

Harawira,W. (1997).Te Kawa O Te Marae: A Guide for All Marae Visitors. Reed, New Zealand.