The Rule of 6 implies – iPads in the classroom

In my search for some sort of scaffold of which to provide my colleagues with to help them plan for the implementation of iPads in the classroom, I came across a brilliant book by Jim Norwood of Zoomable Media, Inc.  The book he wrote is called ‘The Rule of 6: How to Teach with an iPad’.  I love the practical applications and process that this book suggests for designing and delivering lessons that integrate the iPad.  It follows a 6 step process, which is very hierarchical, and it is very possible to see the relationship to such models as Bloom’s Taxonomy and the SAMR model.

The 6 processes listed in the book are:

1. Gather
2. Organise
3. Transform
4. Format
5. Transmit
6. Collaborate

I did a lesson in my music class on Friday that followed this process and it was a great success.  The lesson utilised the iPads for the entire lesson but was not limited to just using the iPad but had students chosen to, they could also use their music workbooks as well.  The outcomes for the lesson were that students would be able to: demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of instruments of the orchestra and to produce a multimedia resource to inform others about a specific instrument.

The lesson went through the 6 processes as follows:

Gather: Students gather information about a chosen instrument of the orchestra using the iPads.  They gather information that identifies what family of the orchestra the instrument comes from, what it is made of, how it is played, what it sounds like and what other instruments are in the same family.

Organise:  Students rewrite the information they have gathered to be a personal introduction as if they are the instrument and introducing themselves to someone.

Transform:  Students introduce themselves as if they were the instrument and they record it as a video interview on the iPads.

Format:  The students then use Aurasma to create an Aura with the video they have recorded as an overlay.  This is done on the iPad and when the iPad scans an image of the instrument so that it then brings up the video introduction by the student.

Transmit:  Share the Auras with the class through scanning iPads over images or through demonstrating by mirroring iPads interface onto board.

Collaborate: Students form groups and discuss how they could use Aurasma to create a resource that introduces all the instruments of the orchestra to others.

As I said, the lesson went so well and I was really happy with the results.  I will be continuing to use the 6 step process to implement the iPad more intentionally .

iPurpose before iPad

See on Scoop.it – Kristina Hollis – Teaching and Technology

See on mgleeson.edublogs.org

Pedagogy for iPads – ‘iPadagogy’

As I plan for the increased implementation and integration of iPads across the school in which I work, I am constantly pondering what is best practice teaching and learning with this ‘heavy-weight’ mobile learning device.  ’iPadagogy’ is a term I came across recently in my research and reading but have yet to find the kind of definition and outline of what this explicitly means for the integration of iPads.  However, whilst I may not have termed the word ‘iPadagogy’ I would like to define it for myself and explain how it applies to teaching and learning with iPads.

So if pedagogy is the ‘art and science’ of teaching and learning what does it mean in the context of utilising iPads?  The video above had an even better definition of pedagogy that might shed some light on this too: “it involves creating an educational process that will lead to knowledge transfer to a new learner”.  The presenter in the video also explains that “the pedagogy is the process of presenting content in the context of learning strategies that connect with a cognitive process. It now generally refers to creation of effective lesson plans for classroom instruction and online education”.  The words I get most from in this video are creating, content, strategies, process, instruction and transfer.

If I’m to go by the key words above then ‘iPadagogy’ is about creating content and developing strategies and processes for delivering instruction as well as allowing the transfer of knowledge to occur between teacher and student, and between different students, with the explicit use of iPads and all that they enable.  Got to do a lot more research and reading I think to define this more for myself and for my colleagues.

‘H’ is for Habituated learning – A to Z of learning Ls

You might be wondering why, if you have been following my series on the A to Z of learning Ls, I skipped out on D for Design-based learning (DBL) and G for Games-based learning.  I didn’t really skip either though because on the blog post The complete (almost) A to Z of Learning Ls you will find the list links to Moodling by Design – Design by Moodling as well as Gamification – hype on the rise, which are posts I did on DBL on GBL previously.  I’m not sure where it was that I came across the notion of habituated learning but it did provoke some thought into how we learn when we do things out of habit.

I’ve struggled to write this entry a little and the draft has sat here for several weeks but habituation is the notion that repeated exposure to the same stimuli eventually leads to decreased response to that stimuli (Read these explanations: Wikipedia, Cognitive Science, and PSY 376 Wiki).  It’s a very hard concept to grasp in terms of learning but what it might be is the decrease in response to classroom distractions and other disruptive stimuli in the learning process.  When we are continuously exposed to something we become used to it and I think this is what habituation is.  What might make us struggle to learn, for example, distractions and the unfamiliarity of a learning experience/activity but the more that these are part of our learning experiences the more it becomes a habit and routine and it won’t negatively effect the learning.

This is a very hard concept for me to get my head around so I may leave this post with this and update later.

Moodle Heaven…. but how to make everyone see it that way?

So its been in the works for awhile but over the last week we (school ICT manager and myself) backed up all the courses from our school’s Moodle 1.9 instance and restored manually one at a time into new Moodle 2.4 instance… 160 plus courses!!! It’s been a tedious and at times very frustrating process as we configured not only Moodle 2.4 but Mahara 1.7 and our authentication process through Google apps and LDAP.  I don’t completely understand all of the authentication stuff but I’ve been handling a lot of the other stuff and it does your head in but the fruits of our labour are now showing… and it’s Moodle Heaven to me

So what have we got?  Moodle 2.4 with a theme that we will be changing very shortly to be a consistent theme across both Moodle and Mahara, making a Mahoodle configuration complete.  Our Moodle instance also has about 8 different course formats and I am a huge fan of Collapsed topics, OneTopic and Tab Topics format.  We have also eagerly added in many new blocks and modules including:

• Assignment submissions : PDF submission and Assignment feedbacks: PDF feedback
• Question types: Concept Map Question Type
• Question types: Drag and drop onto image
• Question types: Music Interval
• Question types: Music Key Signature
• Question types: Music Scale
• Question types: Select missing words
• Activities: Booking
• Activities: Certificate
• Activities: Checklist
• Activities: Flash Card Set
• Activities: Game
• Activities: Pcast
• Activities: Stamp collection

These are only are percentage of what we have added but I am very excited from the little play I’ve had with them.  However, this does pose the question… how to we train teachers bit by bit and not have them overwhelmed?  How much is a good number to cater for all faculties and experience levels, without being too much?  It’s a hard balancing act but in the past I’ve seen watered down Moodle instances that simply do not engage or motivate staff to take it up so I want to go the opposite way and see if this effects the uptake and motivation to learn more and use more than files and URLs.

Some of my plans so far to tackle the staff training and initial familiarisation with 2.4 is to post a set of times when I have lessons off and they can come to the library and have training with me on Moodle.  I will use the wonderful activity module called Booking, which I’ve had a bit of a play with and it will be perfect for them.  Why would I use a booking system and not just the usual channels of email etc?  Well, I think the benefits of using this booking system will be the email notifications and reminders and ability t add to calendar etc.  Another thing I will be doing instantly is starting an FAQ database that will be in the Learning Technologies courses but also in the staff Moodle page.  I will also keep creating instructional guides as I have and also creating screencast videos and putting them on YouTube for them to learn about Moodle 2.4.

I’m optimistic that it will all work out well and that staff will be very happy by the end of term 2 with the changes and be more confident with Moodle but we will have to see.  It will be a big learning curve for all but I believe that is a good thing… a great thing!!! I also believe that if I put the training for Moodle into the context of learning about something else that they will learn Moodle skills without focusing on Moodle so much that they are overwhelmed.  More to ponder and plan  No staff need to worry too much about Mahara at this stage as I will be taking every year 9 class through this myself and training them to use it and staff will take it up a lot more slowly.

‘E’ is for Experiential learning – the A to Z of learning Ls

The ‘E’ is for experiential learning and experiential learning is very similar to constructivist learning.  There are two thoughts though when it comes to defining what experiential learning is:

As Stephen Brookfield (1983: 16) has commented, writers in the field of experiential learning have tended to use the term in two contrasting senses. On the one hand the term is used to describe the sort of learning undertaken by students who are given a chance to acquire and apply knowledge, skills and feelings in an immediate and relevant setting. (From infed)

The other position taken on experiential learning is one that believes that experiential learning is learning that results from the direct participation in a certain event or events.  I personally agree with this statement but we can’t expect every event a student goes through the bring about positive or effective learning if we don’t help them understand how they have learned from the experience.  I think therefore that it is about teaching students to recognise the outcomes achieved and skills or knowledge gained from an event when it may not be completely explicit.  This can be done effectively through ongoing reflection.

The video below presents a great perspective of what experiential learning is in its purest form.

What do you learn from the simplest experience?  An experience I’ve learned from that is certainly not simple is the experience of finding a new house to rent and the moving in etc. I learned a lot about being organised, assertive, persistent, patient and many other skills.  Its not academic knowledge and skills but experiential learning can be foundational in learning the skills that help in the increased development of academic knowledge and skills in the future.

How can you ensure your students students learn from every situation and event that they experience?  Would love to hear everyones ideas.

‘C’ is for Constructivist learning – the A to Z of learning Ls

When I was in my first year of university and studying educational psychology I came across constructivist learning for the first time.  I remember the confusion that surrounded this term and how everyone in the tutorial tried to make sense of it.  I think I’m still constantly trying to make sense of it as I consider it in different teaching and learning contexts but it wasn’t long into the year that I started to grasp it and love it.

The constructivists greats, the foundational researchers, are Vygotsky, Piaget, Dewey, Kolb and Montessori to name a few.  All educators are familiar with these names and may feel plagued by them at times but the work of these theorists has been pivotal in shaping constructivist learning theory.  Here are some of the definitions they and others have for constructivism:

“Constructivism is a learning theory found in psychology which explains how people might acquire knowledge and learn. It therefore has direct application to education. The theory suggests that humans construct knowledge and meaning from their experiences.” (From The University of Sydney)

 

“Constructivism is a theory to explain how knowledge is constructed in the human being when information comes into contact with existing knowledge that had been developed by experiences.” (From Wikipedia)

 

“Constructivism is basically a theory — based on observation and scientific study — about how people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. When we encounter something new, we have to reconcile it with our previous ideas and experience, maybe changing what we believe, or maybe discarding the new information as irrelevant.” (From Concept to Classroom)

 

In a nutshell, constructivist learning is about the learner and how they construct their own knowledge and understanding through making connections with what they experience.  This video below is a great explanation and example of constructivism in action.

In lessons we have a school for years 8-10 where they get to learn more study skills and do independent study I would really like to see the constructivist learning theory played out a bit more.  I’m in the process of integrating the eportfolio open source software Mahara into these lessons to help facilitate more reflection on the learning experiences that students have.  I want to see them become more aware of their own learning processes and be able to improve their outcomes because of it.  I can testify to the power of being aware of our learning processes through experiences we have.  I myself have relished the opportunities I’ve had to learn about how I learn and have used that as much as possible to keep growing.  I want that for my students so much too