The Future of Learning

This is an infographic from KnowledgeWorks and you can download your own copy from their site. KnowledgeWorks  looks specifically at the  connection between education and technology and how it can be delivered effectively at the school level. In the News Room you can find their World of Learning blog. I found the infographic and it is something worth sharing because it puts into a manageable form the sorts of things we should probably be discussing and looking at. As an infographic the attention is automatically created so the conversations can and will start. Just talking about where learning could, will and might occur is a conversation which would go a long way. Do we want schools to be as they are? Change? Do we want to access students 24/7? Do we want students there all day or could we create different sorts of days because we have technology? Lots to discuss about the future of learning. Whose learning will it be, anyway?

Australia is massive

The one thing the internet does very well is give you visual feedback which is mindboggling. The capacity of the internet to deliver information in a visual form which will really make you think is astounding. As Australians, one of the things we find hard to explain is just how big Australia is. People don’t get it. These 17 maps put Australia into perspective for the rest of the world but even Australians will get a clear vision of just how big Australia is and will be able to explain it better. Buzzfeed is where you can look at 17 maps of Australia which will give you a clear idea of how massive Australia is. I love map 17.

Let them do nothing

Image funinventors.com via Nae’s Nest

For me it is a simple choice. My primary objective in a classroom is to teach French. If I can use technology to create an effective learning landscape I can and I will and I believe it really enhances and facilitates learning. I also believe it is essential to effective teaching in 2014. When solving a problem I put my primary objective first and then work in the technology. Getting my year 8s who have iPads to deliver assessment pieces to me has been an interesting challenge. We can connect to the board and I can assess work that way but it’s time consuming. I can assess work loaded up onto the learner management system we have but they can only upload image files so that limits what I can assess that way. They can bring their work to me on their iPads and I can see it on their iPads. That works well. It is one to one and they love doing it and they learn a lot. It is also time consuming. We have a project they need to get to me by the beginning of term and it was looking like it would come into me in various ways so I said we needed a plan and we would need to be more or less doing the same thing or it would get too tricky for me. It came down to OwnCloud and USBs as far as they were concerned. Our school has offered us the option of using OwnCloud this year.This is their first major project so I want the delivery to be easy for them. We had a vote. The OwnCloud option won by 3 votes so the decision was more or less split down the middle. I have set OwnCloud up on my iPad and just have to send out the invitations. My plan is to get as many of them as possible to deliver their work that way but give them the easy fall back position they seem to want of putting it on a USB and bringing it to me. This takes the pressure off. The Australian School of Business has run an article about some research from Georgia State University where giving people the option of doing nothing will actually create the possibility of getting them to do what you had in mind. This is my plan. I am hoping by having the acceptable soft option in place I’ll actually be able to get most students to upload their work to OwnCloud because I’ll be sending the invitation with the link which ought to make it easier for those who aren’t feeling safe and secure with this option. What the nothing option offers is an opportunity to feel confident you can complete the essential task without feeling threatened. That’s important with technology. People need to learn in their own way and in their own time but you can make it easier for them in different ways.

Personalise and connect their learning

When I wrote the post Teach to their needs I discussed how I could approach students and create a lesson where they felt they were stupid, didn’t know anything and were inadequate. As a teacher you hold success or failure in your lesson planning and approach. My students could see they had quite an important learning gap but we spoke about how I had picked that gap and used it to make them look like they were incompetent. I had come back the next lesson and done something even harder and showed them they knew much more than they thought. On both occasions they had to blog about it and the feedback I got showed me they had understood what I was trying to show them and had realised their learning was also their responsibility and that feeling successful was how I could connect them to their learning. When you create lessons you are creating content for who you are teaching NOW. They may be year 11s but they are your 2014 year 11s. Their lessons need to provide what they need to feel successful. You create the content and you think about how you are going to share it with them. You then get their feedback and you work out how that will then be grown and changed into newer and better knowledge. I am following the same principle now. I am creating content for this post. I have used a four square graphic organiser from Teach-Nology because I want my content to be clear and accessible. I want the messages to stand out. I have shown Teachn-Nology by putting up their graphic organiser and sharing it they are now getting feedback from me as to how it can be used in practice. My post is published and I will get more feedback here, on Twitter, at school. That will then put this post into a new light and a new perspective for me. It will grow my post into something new. My thinking, creativity and knowledge don’t stop because I have “done” something. It’s the 21st Century. I have to keep moving!

1. Create content
2. Share content
3. Get feedback
4. Grow content

You have to grow to blossom.

QV06 menace

This is a Windows problem. Linux and Apple don’t seem to suffer from these opportuntistic, vile downloads. QV06 is a nasty virus-like acquisition which you can unwittingly download. Not exactly sure how I got it but probably the freeware I downloaded last weekend. Freeware will often come with extras you don’t want but they are often programmes which are helping to support the freeware site. At no stage did I see QV06 nor was it offered as a download option like reputable extras. QV06 is not readily identified as malware by malware search software. You know you have it. It sets itself up on any browser as the homepage and takes you to that site. If you try and remove it as the home page, it just puts itself back. I did the obvious and removed it from my computer and went into my registry and took out the files which seemed to be associated with it. It is invasive. It still loaded. It was slowing my browsers and stopping me some doing some of the things I wanted to do, most notably with Flash files. I did a search on it and it is very well known! Not surprised. Nothing suggested worked since I had thought I had removed the files. My cleaners couldn’t seem to identify it as malware. Wonder why because they do a great job with everything else? My solution was to download a free Adware removal programme. That fixed the problem and got rid of the QV06 files. Now, once a week , I’ll be back to running an Adware programme. I always used to and then the new cleaners seemed to be able to catch everything. Not any more! Can’t believe how fast my browsers are running again