Ulearn Roundup

The best thing about Ulearn for me this year was that feeling of a community working together.
Educators are a friendly bunch and there were great moments when the people around breakout tables 
added to and complimented what the Presenters had to say and do. 

Facilitators

Facilitators like Mark Osborne (http://theopensourceschool.blogspot.co.nz/ http://osborne.kiwi.nz/) and Amanda Signal (http://heymilly.blogspot.co.nz/) had alot of involvement from the teachers attending their workshops. 

In Mark's workshop he used  a collection of what research says improves learning. I like the simplicity of this idea with the effect size stripped away but how to be effective left. 

My "to do" from Mark's workshop is to make these visible somewhere in my learning environment and to try to make this a "theory in action" rather than an "espoused theory."


 


Amanda was working with a large group of teachers using the animation programme scratch. When I came into the room every one was hard at learning and when I consider the collection of  the effective above Amanda's workshop was a great example of many of these theories in action. 

• Working at their own pace
• Creating and using worked examples
• Learning co-operatively
• Teaching each other skills
• Guided and independent practice etc

Amanda had a great site she used with some starter tasks (or fun in other words.) https://sites.google.com/site/ulearnscratch/

I have had and seen alot of super learning using Scratch and Amanda's wasn't the only session looking at scratch unfortunately I missed Bob Bottomley's one but am pleased to see people getting in behind the kind of learning Scratch promotes, at Ulearn.

My "to do" from Amanda's workshop is to work with scratchers again at my school this term and to connect with the other educators scratching at learning.

Bob Botto

What Students want to Say to us

The Key Message: That we don’t just enjoy using the computers but they help us to do research.
               We can learn alot faster using the technology we have today.

I found Says it on Lenva’s Cool tools for teachers Wiki and
put some of student messages into images

The students came up with these in a Google Doc

Sayings we could use:

1. I can do 3 different types of homework at once on a laptop and still talk to my friends.
2. I can see France, England, Japan and go on top of Mt Everest all in one day just by clicking a few buttons.
3. I can search, listen to music, type and personalize at the same time.
4. I can be made more interactive.
5. I understand the topics by thinking real world problems.
6. I can see more clearly how things happen and work.
7. Instead of taking forever by drawing diagrams, I can make diagrams online.
8. I can think about how to make some technology better which expands my thinking.
9. I can use art programs to make my ideas more creative.
10. Most people don’t think how technology helps us in learning... we do.
11. We explore our technology instead of using it only for it’s designed purpose. We become curious.

Tomorrow we looking to develop this more into a movie watch this space

Learning to collaborate? – Games can help

Did anything come out of our collaboration using the Xbox game viva piñata yes it did!

A recent Visit From Ewan McIntosh Reminded me of some key factors

• A shared interest or goal makes for a good opportunity to share: blogs and information. It creates that purpose for communication
• Problems often require communication to solve: a puzzle is a good place to start a collaboration
• When you are describing something new and dynamic you can’t rely on others you have a unique experience to describe
• The imaginary world of games reflects the real world, presenting lots of opportunity to think and bring ideas together

Next Term a Syndicate at school has decided to put an Xbox in each class and use them for Creative Writing. I am excited by the  prospect of this an hope that I can be involved in some way. Will blog about this as it takes place.

• There is still a lot of reluctance to recognise the

  potential

  of Games in Learning
• Viva la revolution

Learning to collaborate? – Games can help from Media team on Vimeo.