Week 32: Changes in Practice and Future Plans

Activity 8: Changes in Practice and Future Plans

The what: Identify one key change in your practice

The main change is in the increased flexibility of my thinking and in my teaching. This applies to the Teaching standard in Our Code, Our Standards: ‘Teach and respond to learners in a knowledgeable and adaptive way to progress their learning at an appropriate depth and pace’. (Ministry of Education n.d. p20)

The main reason I signed up for the Mindlab course was because after nearly 30 years in the profession, I was beginning to lose the joy of teaching and learning. Although, over these years, I have attended myriads of PD sessions, I wanted something that I hoped would be truly transformative to my teaching rather than merely adding to my knowledge.

Now What – Evaluate the identified change

The problem was that my students were not engaged in their learning, They were not on task or if they were, they were not enjoying what they were doing. Many could not see the purpose in what they were doing and believed that they were unlikely to achieve.  A further problem was that of technology – their use of it inappropriately in the classroom. I needed to harness it for learning.

Observation and Analysis

Surveys using google forms, observations and one on one interviews revealed much of the results above but also that many did not feel confident about writing. They also felt that English required too much effort compared to other subjects and there was too much writing. The lack of purpose and confidence was revealed in homework not being done and classwork not being completed. I felt like I was the one doing all the work.

Abstract reconceptualization and experimentation

Through the Mindlab course, I have been exposed to current research and theories so that my teaching is now more evidence-based. Reading about Carol Dweck’s Growth mindset and the ‘power of yet’ (2012) helped me to shift my thinking and change the language I used with my students so they can see that improvement is possible. Another important concept for me is that of student agency ‘In his Edted talk, Derek Wenmouth explains agency as

‘When learners move from being passive recipients to being much more active in the learning process, actively involved in the decisions about the learning, then they have greater agency. (Core Education 2014)

I have begun to give students more choice in topic and in activities. The author of  ‘Learner in the driver’s seat’ Chris Watkins like Dweck asks teachers to recognise and change their mindsets: “They haven’t got the skills.” Rather than talk about students in terms of deficits, can we think about their experience to date and whether we have helped them master it yet? (Watkins 2009 p.31) Part of the learner being in the driver’s seat is knowing where they are going i.e. the purpose. I am being clearer on the destination and the signposts need to reach it. Following my literature review which looked at the impact of blogging on writing, I am now trialing this in an inquiry with my students; the authentic audience is engaging and motivating them.

What Next? Future Plans

There has definitely been a change in my teaching through this course. I want to continue to develop and apply student agency in my classes, to ensure that the student is in the driver’s seat; to enable students to learn from each other and in way that suits them rather than a one size fits all approach. I want to continue to be informed about current research and directions in education. Most of all I want my students to enjoy learning and to be flexible enough to face whatever the future brings.

The Standards from Our Code, Our Standards (Ministry of Education, 2017)

References

Dweck, C. (2012). Mindset – How you can fulfil your potential. Robinson. Great Britain.

EdTed (2014). Ten Trends 2014: Learner Agency. Core Education. Retrieved from https://core-ed.org/research-and-innovation/ten-trends/2014/learner-agency/

Ministry of Education (n.d). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standards

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

Osterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (2015). Reflective practice for educators: professional development to improve student learning.(2nd ed.) New York: Skyhorse Publishing.

Watkins,C. (2009) Learners in the driver’s seat. School Leadership Today. 1.2 pp 28-31 Retrieved from http://library.teachingtimes.com/articles/learners-in-the-driving-seat

Week 31: Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsiveness in my Practice

Activity 7: Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice

What is culturally responsive pedagogy?

It is about responding to both the tangible and the intangible culture, i.e. not just pronouncing students names correctly (although this is important) and participating in Kapahaka, but more importantly valuing the perspectives of all my students by recognising everyday their lived experiences.  I can do this by asking my students what they already know so connections are made between their prior cultural knowledge and what they need to know today and for the future.   I agree with Jacqueline Jordan Irvine’s view it is about cultural bridge building or being ‘cultural translators’ (Introduction to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, 2010).

Moreover, as Bishop emphasises, ‘relationship-centred education is paramount’. This is a relationship between the teacher and student in which there is both caring and learning.

From my reading, I have discovered that I need to improve in all areas. I have chosen ‘Planning and assessment’ and ‘Learning activities’ because changes in my practice in them will have the greatest immediate impact for my learners.

 So what? Evaluation of my practice using Milne’s action continuum

Planning and assessment

After reflecting on what I have read and viewed, I believe I am currently somewhere between the ‘some language and cultural content’ purple stage of Milne’s ‘Action continuum – eliminating White spaces’. In my roles as an English and junior French teacher, I do some planning of short stories with content from Maori and other cultures and in French, we make comparisons between vowel pronunciation and also la bise/hongi and have used the mihi structure for introductions in French. In French, at this beginner level, many of the formative and summative tasks are oral and performed with peers or groups. However, in my planning and assessment of English, I realise I have not included enough opportunities, especially at the junior level, for students to work collaboratively and have the option to present their work orally or visually (there is currently less flexibility to do this in English at NCEA level). Something else to plan for are opportunities for the students to be the teachers (either within the class or with more junior students). I certainly acknowledge that I can and have learnt from my students but I have a lot more colouring in to do in this area. I need to plan from my Maori students’ point of view; this quotation from Russell Bishop gave me pause for thought:

Despite many teachers saying that they do care for Maori students, their actions that express this need to be in ways that Maori students understand’ Te Kotahitanga Effective Teaching Profile 2009 p.30)

Learning activities – This is directly related to the planning area. I am clear about where the activities are leading and why we are doing them. I need to provide more opportunities within the class for collaboration, for opportunities to ‘think and compare’. This year we have become a 1:1 device school and I realise to some extent I have neglected the collaborative speaking opportunities.

What next? So where to from here? How do I colour in the white spaces and see Maori ‘As Maori’?

I need to become an ‘agentic thinker’ (Bishop.) I absolutely believe that all students are educable and have high expectations of everyone but this not sufficient. As yet, I do not have all the cultural knowledge to help all students. I need to sign up for a He Tikanga Whaakaro course, see my classroom as a place of reciprocity of learning and feel able to embrace Te Ao Maori at every opportunity at my school. To this end, I will need my school to support me by going beyond the timetabling of culture to embracing and sustaining culture (Milne, 2017).

Week 30: The Broader Professional Context: Comtemporary Trends

Activity 6: A Contemporary trend in New Zealand or internationally

What: Identify one trend that is most relevant to your practice:

A trend or statistically observable change (Visser & Gagnon 2005) that I am captivated by is the rise and impact of technology. Why? In the 21^st century this rise has been exponential. It is now ubiquitous in schools especially in the form of cell phones, ipads and/or laptops. It is impacting on both how and what we teach as we try to prepare students for future living.

So what: Analyse the trend

There are three main areas: Education, Employment and Cyberisks.

It has transformed our understanding of teaching and learning. Learning can now be more personalised.  ‘Anywhere, anytime’ - students are now connected 24 hours a day. It is common for people to be involved simultaneously in several activities.(OECD 2016)

Digital disruption will lead to the discontinuing of many jobs. The Oxford Martin Institute survey of 702 occupations in the USA predicted that 47% could be automated within 20 years. At 0.0078 probability teachers are likely to be around for a while yet. (KPMG International 2014)

The speed and power of new technologies allow individuals and organisations to stay one step ahead of formal regulations (OECD 2016) We need to think about how to problem solve this.

Key challenges/opportunities trend poses to my practice and context

With 24 hour connectedness and a developing fear of missing out (FOMO)  some students are becoming dependent -  even addicted to technology; for example, on the internet and gaming. Research shows that

It is associated with structural and functional changes in brain regions involving emotional processing, executive attention, decision-making and cognitive control.” (Lin & Zhou et al, 2012)

This has implications for the classroom and society. Furthermore, even if students are not addicted, their ability to focus for longer lengths of time is decreasing.

Additionally, the teachers ICT skills often lag behind the technical skills required by students for the workplace. The challenge is to better prepare teachers for teaching using technology.

As for employment,  Frey and Osborne, authors of the Oxford Martin research, expect low-skilled workers will  move to tasks that are not susceptible to computerisation — i.e., tasks that required creative and social intelligence,” “For workers to win the race, however, they will have to acquire creative and social skills.”(2013)  

There is an opportunity for education to be more interactive and collaborative to meet this need and we are therefore heading in the right direction. Furthermore, there is a need to help our learners to be adaptable and flexible in the face of change.

It is already impacting the teaching context. With the abundance of information now available through the internet, it is vital that critical literacy skills are taught so students are not manipulated by those with dishonest intentions.

Students also need to be taught how to keep themselves safe online and respectful commenting behaviour. Teachers need ongoing education in order to be proactive about alerting students to cyberisks

Now What?

The Ministry of Education has introduced a new digital literacy curriculum  which encompasses Years 1-10 which is future-focused  and includes coding. The establishment of professional development courses such as that offered by the Mindlab are essential for teachers to try to keep up with the constant rate of change

The limitations that might impact the adoption of this trend could be the lack of technology teachers, the lack of access to technology for some schools,  (we only became a 1:1 device school this year – until now we had to rely on being able to book the computer room),  the lack of finance and the lack of technology PD.

References

Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Davis, A., Freeman, A., Hall Giesinger, C., and Ananthanarayanan, V. (2017). NMC Horizon Report: 2017 Higher Education Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Frey, C. & Osborne, M. (2013) The Future of Employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 114,January 2017 p254-280. DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.08.019

KPMG International. (2014). Future state 2030: the global megatrends shaping governments” [Video]. KPMG International Cooperative: USA. Retrieved from http://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/future-state-government/Documents/future-state-2030-v3.pdfNew Media Consortium. (2017). NMC and CoSN Release the Horizon Report: 2017 K-12 Edition [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-rPhEltg9o

National Intelligence Council. (2017). Global trends: The Paradox of Progress. National Intelligence Council: US. Retrieved from https://www.dni.gov/files/images/globalTrends/documents/GT-Main-Report.pdf

OECD. (2016) Trends Shaping Education 2016, OECD Publishing, Paris.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/trends_edu-2016-en

Visser, L., & Gagnon, K. (2005). Defining “Trends” and “Issues” in Distance Education. Conversation with Donald Paul Ely Y. Visser, L. Visser, M. Simonson & R. Amirault (Eds. de la serie), Trends and Issues in Distance Education. International Perspectives, pp.83-89.

Zhou, Yan, Fu-Chun Lin, Ya-Song Du, Ling-di Qin, Zhi-Min Zhao, Jian-Rong Xu, and Hao Lei. “Gray Matter Abnormalities in Internet Addiction: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study.” European Journal of Radiology 79, no. 1 (July 2011): 92–95. doi:10.1016/j.ejrad.2009.10.025.

Week 29 Reflection: Professional Online Social Networks

Activity 5: Using social online networks in teaching or professional development: Raising one’s head above the parapet.

Until now, my use of social media tools has been reluctant and limited to professional development. Why? The answer is a four letter word: fear.

In 2011/12, on a scholarship to Belgium I shared a blog with friends, colleagues and family but not my students. I now see that as somewhat bizarre as I am sure my students would have engaged in my journey and had lots of question to ask.  I have used excerpts from that blog with them but they lack the relative immediacy and excitement of connecting with someone in a different time and place. In April 2017, through professional development, I reluctantly joined Facebook. I have rarely used it since. Why not? Once again – fear - of someone mining my data.

Nevertheless, I belong to the English online forum, Secondary Literacy and nzaft websites. On these I have lurked: I have read most posts and occasionally participated in the discussion. Although Melhuish (2013) states ‘it would be a mistake to suggest [lurking] is non-learning’, she sees it as a challenge to determine the impact of professional development. However, links and ideas in others’ posts have given me resources and strategies that I may never have had otherwise.

Moreover, on this course, I have joined Google+ and participated in discussion – mostly because it was required as part of the course.

The main characteristics that I have harnessed are synchronous and asynchronous engagement – the latter allowing for reflection before posting.

 So, have I been disadvantaging my students by avoiding social media tools in my teaching?

The Constructivist theory of Vygotsky (1978) fits with social media in the opportunity it provides for creating knowledge.  Many teachers also support the use of social media. Teachers in the ‘Connected Educators’ video promoted the use of social media which they claimed was ‘transformative and powerful’. This is a claim borne out by Kathy Cassidy in her ‘Using social media in the classroom’ video. She has used blogging with her classes for the past three years: individual blogs become digital learning records; they also enable students to be connected to other classrooms, to compare and contrast ideas. Cassidy claims these connections have given her students a greater world view and developed their empathy. Social media tools can also personalise learning and put the learner in the driver’s seat (Melhuish, 2013) which therefore increases student agency.

Yet there is still some debate: Silius et al found that their research the student’s motivation for social media ca enhance their learning (2010). On the other hand, 56% respondent believe social media is more distracting than helpful (Seaman,Tinti-Kane 2013)  Potential problems also include: a lack of quality control, privacy/identity  issues and management of information (Greenhouse 2011).

As Melhuish notes, further research needs to be done in this area (2013). She sees the  challenge as ‘harnessing  their [social media’s] power in authentic learning experiences’. (Melhuish 2013 p36).

Now what?

Through reflecting on these readings and my learning through the Mindlab course, my fear has been somewhat assuaged. Although I am still wary of sites such as facebook, not only for privacy concerns but also because of the superficiality, I understand more of the benefits; for example, the connectivity and the ability to create knowledge. I better comprehend how to deal with privacy issues. Of most benefit to my students, is the potential of blogs both individual and collaborative, where they will have access to an authentic audience and diverse opinions. As part of the process, we will discuss netiquette and appropriate commenting.

For my own PD, I will join the VLN and challenge myself to interact more and keep my head above the parapet.

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…

NZ Education Council. (n.d.). What is social media . Retrieved June 16, 2017 from http://teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/what-social-me...

Seaman, J., & Tinti-Kane, H. (2013). Social media for teaching and learning. Babson Survey Research Group. Retrieved from http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/social-media-for-teaching-and-learning-2013-report.pdf

Silius, K., Miilumäki, T.,Huhtamäki, J.,Tebest, T., Meriläinen, J., & Pohjolainen, S.(2010) ‘Students’ motivations for social media enhanced studying and learning.’ Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal, 2, (1). Retrieved on 7th May,2015 from http://www.kmel-journal.org/ojs/index.php/online-p.

Tvo parents, Using social media in the classroom EdTED.com retrieved from: https://ed.ted.com/on/LY83ADUs

Week 28 Reflection: Influence of Law & Ethics in Practice

Activity 4: Legal and ethical contexts in my digital practice

 For this post, I will use Rolfe’s Reflective Cycle of ‘What? So what? Now what? ( as can be seen in the diagram, it neatly encapsulates Gibbs' version which I have used previously) to critique a situation that is based on a real life incident.

What was the ethical dilemma?

A Year 7 female student  took photos of  a sexual nature of herself on her phone and then sent these to her Year 7 boyfriend. He shared the sext with his friend who shared them with other students at school. The female student complained to school staff and her parents who threatened to take their daughter from the school if the boys were not suspended. One of the Year 7 boys involved has issues with truancy.

So what should we do - all things considered?

An analysis using Hall’s (2001)  model of ethical decision making:

The Stakeholders: School (Staff/Board/Principal), Parents, Students, Police (In this case although the original sharing of the sext was consensual, the sharing with others was not and this would constitute an offence).

The Priority stakeholders: The students as they are the most vulnerable. Under the Code of Professional Responsibility 2017, teachers have a commitment to learners to protect them from harm. The age of the students involved (11) is relevant as it is unlikely that they were unaware of the full impact of their actions.

What restrictions are there to your actions?:

Harmful Digital Communications Act: Students are 11 years old, too young to be prosecuted.

Restorative model - We are a restorative school so punitive action such as suspension as desired by the parents is not the first action. In this situation, it is  likely that the restorative methods may conflict with the parents’ beliefs and bias.

The school’s ICT policy is two sentences. Students sign a piece of paper saying they will uphold the school’s values of ‘Respect, Responsibility and Excellence’.

Which courses of action are possible?

• Removal of images from digital device and report person/url to social networking sites if involved. Ministry guidelines support this.
• Banning of digital device use by students involved. With the co-operation of the students’ parents, this is possible. However, as we are a 1:1 device school, the students may be disadvantaged by an ongoing ban of devices at school and at home.
• Suspension - This would not be ideal for at least one of the students who has had issues with truancy.
• Restorative Meeting with students and parents - essential as part of the restorative process. Helps everyone to be heard and for the instigators to understand the effects of their behaviour. Hopefully, everyone can then move forward.
• Education of safe and  responsible social media use. Imperative!

How should this course of action be implemented?

Guidance Counsellor/Dean meet with students/whanau separately. Youth constable also meets. Restorative process explained to parents and students. Arrange a time to have a restorative meeting with all parties. Parties to agree on outcomes. Access to digital technology limited. Digital Safety Education given to  students involved and other students by homeroom teachers and digitech teachers.   Students involved to help create posters about cyberbullying. The well-being of students should be the priority.

Now what?  

Under the Code of Professional Responsibility teachers should promote the well-being of learners and protect them from harm.  From the Standards, Teachers should  ‘develop a culture that is focused on learning, and is characterised by respect, inclusion, empathy, collaboration and safety’(2017). Thus, I need to promote the safe and responsible use of digital technology and  help students to  avoid making themselves vulnerable online. I also need to  ensure students understand what our very general ICT policy actually means. 

Engaging parents/whanau in their children’s learning will be beneficial as they will be more aware of what their children are doing online.

References:

Connecticut’s Teachers Education and Mentoring Program. (2012). Ethical and Professional Dilemmas for Educators: Facilitator’s Guide: Understanding the Code of Professional Responsibility for Educators. Connecticut, US: Author. Retrieved from https://www.ctteam.org/df/resources/Module5Manual.pdf

*Hall, A. ( 2001). What ought I to do, all things considered? Paper presented at IIPE Conference held at the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance,

Griffith University, Nathan Campus, Brisbane, 8 April 2001

University of Waikato. Hamilton: New Zealand. Retrieved from https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gB3t_wBea_57afXbhkYBNwfSoFvBm9k_/view

Ehrich, L.C., Kimber m., Millwater, J. & Cranston, N. (2011). Ethical dilemmas: a model to understand teacher practice, Teachers and TEaching: theory and practice, 17:2, 173-185, DOI: 10.1080/13540602.2011.539794

Education Council. (2017). Our Code Our Standards. Retrieved from: https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Our%20Code%20Our%20Standards%20web%20booklet%20booklet%20FINAL.pdf

Ministry of Education.(2015). DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY Safe and responsible use in schools. Wellington:New Zealand: Author. Retrieved from https://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/School/Managing-and-supporting-students/DigitalTechnologySafeAndResponsibleUseinSchs.pdf

Ministry of Education (2015) Bullying Prevention and Response a guide for Schools. Wellington: New Zealand. Retrieved from:

https://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/School/Bullying-prevention/MOEBullyingGuide2015Web.pdf

Week 19 Reflection: Community of Practice

Activity 3: Contribution of teacher inquiry topics to my communities of practice

What is a community of practice?
Wenger et al (2002, p4) define a community of practice as ' groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interaction on an ongoing basis'. Not all communities are a community of  practice. He further identifies 3 essential aspects  which he terms  'joint enterprise, mutual engagement and shared repertoire' (Wenger 2000, p229).

In the video 'Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making them Grow',  Knox (2009) states that the key areas to develop are:

Domain: the area of shared inquiry and of the key issue
Community: the relationship among members and sense of belonging 
Practice: the body of knowledge, methods, stories, cases, tools and documents

So how does this apply to my two teacher inquiries?
My first inquiry topic is:
 How can blogging improve the engagement and enhance the learning of language students? (The Domain)

I chose this because research shows that student's capabilities are enhanced when they have an authentic context for their learning, (Gilmore 2007) and blogging, for example quad blogging, could provide an opportunity  for my students learning French to collaborate with students in France or New Caledonia or even other students in New Zealand who are also learning French.

My community of practice would be other teachers, particularly language teachers, who are interested in blogging. They would not need to be French teachers as the same Language learning philosophy and methods apply across all foreign languages. Knox comments that diversity of contributors is important. Members could come from the NZALT listserv, or I could join Quadblogging  Aotearoa on the Virtual Learning Network. A further possibility would be the ICT pod of my school's COL.

The Practice: Joining an established group such as Quadblogging  Aotearoa could be intimidating  as Wenger points out, we might 'feel like a bumbling idiot among the sages' but he  posits that the learning takes place in the interplay between  personal experience and social competence. 'Knowing involves the competence the community has established over time and our ongoing experience as a member.'

My second teacher inquiry topic is:
How can digital and collaborative tools such as google docs improve the writing of junior English students? (The Domain)

I chose this topic because a number of  students at our school find writing 'boring' and difficult. They often give up easily and are reluctant to redraft or edit their work. Many of these students are boys who prefer working with others to working individually and who enjoy working on computers.  We will become a 1:1 device (chromebooks) school next year so access and equity will no longer be an issue in this area.

My community  will be the other teachers in the English Department and possibly other teachers who are interested in investigating this topic. Certainly, there would be interest from social studies and science so it could be cross curricular 'literacy across the curriculum'. It would certainly be of benefit to the whole school as well as the students themselves if they were to become more motivated, effective writers.

Practice  - There will be a range of expertise. Some of our younger teachers have expertise in using digital tools and more experienced teachers can add ideas on grammar and structure. In this community we can learn from each other which will hopefully provide the 'value' which is key to the community.

 Image from Serrat, O.  (Jul 10, 2014). A guide to Communities of Practice. Powerpoint Presentation
Retrieve from: https://www.slideshare.net/Celcius233/a-guide-to-communities-of-practice

So... now it is time to get fostering a CoP!

References

Gilmore, A (2007). Authentic materials and authenticity in foreign language learning. Language Teaching, 40(2), 97-118.

Knox, B.(2009, December 4). Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk

Wenger, E.(2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization,7(2), 225-246.

Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Week 18: Reflection: A Change in my Practice

Activity 2: A Change in my Practice Towards Future-oriented Teaching and Learning

What is the purpose of teaching and learning in the 21st Century and beyond? What do we want for our young people? The often quoted line from the Vision section of the New Zealand Curriculum sums it up for me: young people  who are 'confident, connected, actively involved, and lifelong learners'. 

For this week's reflection, I have chosen subtheme 1: The role of current and emerging technologies. I believe they are a vital tool in enabling the transformation of education for the future, through personalising learning, enabling students to be actively involved in creating new experiences and allowing learners to go beyond the borders of the classroom.

One of my main reasons for participating in the Mindlab course was to learn more about digital tools and how I could use them to enhance student learning.  This was an area that I did not feel confident in ,yet, my students relished every opportunity to use their phones and other devices  in class. Before the course, I was making some limited movement in my use of ICT; for example, moving from using Word with my students to using google docs where I could give faster, sometimes instant feedback and feedforward. I used youtube clips and some websites with my French and English classes but that was about the extent of it. Over the thirty years I have been involved in education there has been almost constant change but none so great as the 'paradigm shift in practice' (Bolstad et al 2012)that is occuring now.

Since starting this course,  I have been introduced to the Constructivist Learning Theory of  Vygotsky (somehow my year at Teacher's College in the 80's  overlooked this) which suggests that the more active involvement a student has in their learning, the more likely it is that he/she will remember and  learn from it. I was also introduced to Knowledge as a 'verb', the idea  that  it should be active - something we do, rather than passive. I have become familiar with the SAMR model and I now have a better understanding of the progression of ICT use  that with the aid of digital tools students' learning capability can be transformed as they can create and use new knowledge. Reflecting on my practice using the model, I understand that prior to Mindlab, I mostly used digital tools at the substitution (word processing) and augmentation levels of SAMR (youtube).

 The Digital and Collaborative assignments gave me an opportunity to reflect on my use of ICT.  One of the most exciting things was setting up a virtual exchange between my Year 7 French students and a class in New Caledonia using Jitsi and email. This might have been more successful if the New Caledonian students had had better access to technology. The NC students were only allowed to use their school intranet so emailing was difficult but it was a taste of how technology enables students to go beyond the classroom walls and connect with other communities.   I have also used google classroom with all of my English classes. Students have submitted assignments and work on google docs is automatically saved . I will continue to use this next year so that students can collaborate on documents (modification). 

Next year, our school will become a one-to-one device school which will make it easier to use the technology and allow for more personalised learning using a flipped classroom approach. This will give me more time in class to spend with individuals on what they find challenging. From my use of google cardboard VR on the course, I can see that the use of  virtual reality can enable students to  have a greater understanding of other places for example, in French to visit the Eiffel Tower or the Champs Elysee in Paris,  or English students to tour the Globe Theatre. I still have much to learn about digital tools but I now have questions to guide me as to how to choose the 'best tools for the best practice'.

References:

Bolstad, R., Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching — a New Zealand perspective. Report prepared for the Ministry of Educationve. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306

.

Claxton,  G.  (2007).  Expanding  young  people’s  capacity  to  learn.  British  Journal  of  Educational  Studies, 55(2),  115-134.

ITL Research. (2012). 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics. Retrieved from https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research

Ministry of Education. (2007b). The New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.

Puentedura, R. (2006) SAMR model. Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/Teacher-inquiry/SAMR-model

Roessingh, H. (2014). Teachers’ roles in designing meaningful tasks for mediating language learning through the use of ICT: A reflection on authentic learning for young ELLs / Le rôle des enseignants dans la conception de tâches pertinentes en apprentissage des langues. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology / La Revue Canadienne de L’apprentissage et de La Technologie, 40(1). https://doi.org/10.21432/T2PP4M