Educational Origami

Our classrooms are not limited to the four walls of the physical building we teach in but can encompass the entire of the planet. Technology, and much of it is free, has enabled us to push back the classroom walls and stretch our virtual arms across the globe to shake hands with classrooms and students almost anywhere.

WHY?

Source: http://www.soil-net.com/album/Places_Objects/slides/Globe%20Planet%20Earth%20NASA.jpg

Some may well ask why would we do this and this is a valid question. We live in a world where the physical borders between countries fade  as we move from the concrete real world to the virtual/online one. Icons of today like facebook continue to reduce the distance between countries and people as more and more people join these sites (there are over 900 million members now) and as more and more devices support access (over 200 million people access facebook via mobile devices). Our students are residents of these virtual worlds.

So for us as educators, in our ongoing task of preparing them for life, we must help to shape them into being global digital citizens who are respectful and protective of themselves, others and of intellectual property (See http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/The+Digital+Citizen). But its more than just being respectful of the different people and different cultures we may encounter, its also accessing the wide range of experiences, places, teachers and students that are available often at the click of a button. To visit and talk to people in places we may never have had the opportunity to visit, to experience the differing environments that young people learn in.

Our students respond to this, they are engaged and motivated, often challenged and sometimes confronted, but this is of value too.

HOW?

Some of the most successful projects I have seen require nothing more than access to a shared space online.

A great example is the wiki comparing hemispheres http://comparinghemispheres.wikispaces.com/ which is a collaborative space set up for primary students at two primary school one  in Nelson, New Zealand and New York. The Wiki compares one day in time in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. The staff worked together collaboratively to plan the day, and the students in the two classroom collaborate to answer the guiding questions about where they live in one hemisphere and what is different in the other.

Another example based around a wiki is the casestudy wikis set up annually for the International Baccalaureate ITGS (information technology in a global society) course. The case study that the students will be examined on is made available to the students undertaking the ITGS course at least one year prior to their examination. The students are presented with a scenario and then required to develop a depth of understanding of the technologies, issues, impacts and importance of the topic.  The wiki is scaffolded and students in he participating schools around the world are assigned a page or pages that they initially develop. Once they develop the page their peers critique the pages using a strictly enforced set of guidelines and processes. Having had feedback and an opportunity to refine their pages, the pages are opened up to the other members of the group to contribute to.

• http://itgs-casestudy-2010.wikispaces.com/
• http://casestudy-itgs-2011.wikispaces.com/
• http://casestudy-itgs-2012.wikispaces.com/

source: http://www.flatclassroomproject.net/uploads/2/9/3/9/2939181/6542080.jpg

On a larger scale are the stunning projects developed by the flatclassroom project http://www.flatclassroomproject.org/ These global projects link classrooms across the planet as they investigate common goals and objectives. These projects are more complex expanding beyond the use of wikis, into invitation only social networks like ning as well (http://www.ning.com). Flatclassroom offers a range of projects including:

• NetGenEd – http://www.netgened.org/ based on the annual horizon project, this wiki looks at technology, education and the networked generation
• Eracism http://www.eracismproject.org/a global student debate that joins diverse cultures and includes authentic debate for global competence and international mindedness.
• Flatclassroom – http://www.flatclassroomproject.net/
• Digiteen - http://www.digiteen.org/apply.html
• “A week in the life…” http://www.flatclassroomproject.net/a-week-in-the-life-project.htm

WHAT?

What can I do a global project on? The flatclassroom projects have a defined set of goals and objectives that match well with many subject areas. They require the teachers to work along side the students and offer a certification course for flatclassroom teachers.

If you want to organise your own project there is really not limitation to what you can use global projects for. They can be simple, like answering a single guiding question or complex and on-going. Some of the projects may be collaborative projects between members of the same class, or within the school or potentially across the world.

source: http://www.public-domain-image.com/nature-landscape/hot-spring/slides/yellowstone-thermal-spring-in-morning.jpg

Skype is a very well known tool used by many, it also has huge potential in the classroom. Skype has an education program that connects classes, teachers and students to experts around the world. For example skyping with the park rangers at Yellowstone National park in the USA. This is a great opportunity for science classes. http://education.skype.com/projects/2237-yellowstone-national-park-rangers-can-skype-with-classrooms

The tools and technology used like the project itself can be simple or more complex. Here are some useful tools

• Wikispaces – ad free wikis for education http://www.wikispaces.com/content/teacher/
• Wetpaint wikis – http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/
• Skype – Simple video conferencing – http://education.skype.com/
• ning http://www.ning.com Social networking (this service has a cost)
• Facebook Groups – this is potentially a useful feature, but may have issues with school policies

Considerations

Global projects are very beneficial, I have found them to be engaging, motivating, challenging and as I noted before sometimes confronting. The learning opportunities are diverse and provide huge opportunity to interact with not only students in different cultures but also with renown experts and leading teachers. But like everything there are some considerations:

• Does your schools/districts network policies allow access to the different mediums like wikis, Skype, social networks like ning etc
• What are your schools policies in regard to students online, privacy, sharing images & names etc
• Do you have suitable and compatible software/hardware/infrastructure to enable connection and sharing?

All of these projects should be deliberate and considered, they are hugely beneficial but do require careful identification of goals, proper planning, establishing acceptable norms and expectations of behavior and suitable reflection. I love this adage

failing to plan is planning to fail.

But I guess this is more than computers and computing, its actually all about ICT – information and communications technologies.

Many of us may have seen the recent release from Google about a project they are working on called Project Glass. http://g.co/projectglass and perhaps you have looked up the video on youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c6W4CCU9M4 Aside from the privacy and security issues that the boys on Facebook (yes Andrew and David) mentioned, and these are real concerns too. This is a great project and it heralds what we can expect to see in the future.

But this is not alone and its also worth looking at this offering from Corning the glass company – A day made of Glass - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38

The potential here is amazing and again we will be increasingly challenged by issues of privacy, security and anonymity. We are heading towards an incredibly information pervasive society, where connection is ubiquitous and constant. While in some ways I find this exciting, I also find it challenging. are we going to get to a point where there is no OFF switch. We already know that the OFF switch on most of our devices does not actually mean OFF it means standby, it means don’t display, it means hide and process in the background.

The BBC has on their website a number of very interesting articles in a column called Future. These are some that also relate to the future of ICT:

• Voice Control - http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120323-future-interaction-voice-control
• Touch screens - http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120316-future-interaction-touch-screens
• Gesture control - http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120221-future-of-interaction-gesture
• Brain Control - http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120229-future-interaction-brain-control
• BBC Future - http://www.bbc.com/future

In this update of on the wire we have resources available from MS Australia, the open library a cool school and much more.

1. Free Tools in the classroom – http://www.microsoft.com/australia/education/teachers/teachertools/free-tools.aspx- Applications and resources available through MS Australia. This is a good start and has links and resources for

• Autocollage
• Photosynth
• Moviemaker live

Worth investigating – look at this PDF to – http://view.atdmt.com/action/slcepg_AUSFreeToolsGuide_9

2. Open Library – http://openlibrary.org/ - this site hosts over 1,000,000 free ebooks. This is a hugely powerful resource,

source: http://openlibrary.org/images/logo_OL-lg.png

accessing these can effectively save school thousands of dollars. Great stuff

3. Zooburst – http://www.zooburst.com/zb_about.php – This is a digital storytelling site that allows you to develop digital storybooks in 3D. The basic account is free and allows you to develop upto 10 books of 10pages each , the premium account has a fuller feature set, is Ad free and obviously a cost. Pricing and sign up here – http://www.zooburst.com/zb_pricing.php

4. Think Global Schools – http://thinkglobalschool.org/ – this is an interesting concept. I met some of the students at the flatclassroom project in Beijing. The catch line for the school is 12 countries in 12 trimesters. This is an exciting system. The students luerally travel around the world spending a trimester in a different country and school. They are developing outstanding global citizens. A great concept and one I will watch with interest.

5. Digizens – http://www.digizen.org/ This is a useful resource for digital citizenship materials and resources. Well constructed and planned this should be on your reading list.

and finally from National Geographic this cool zoomable image made up of 7000 human figures – Zoom in and zoom out it is very cool – http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/age-of-man/face-zoom-interactive

One of the frustrations I had in China was the so called “Great Firewall of China” which blocked access to many sites often without apparent reason. The Blocked sites include social media like facebook, communication tools like twitter and strangely enough Google Spreadsheets , sites but not documents. However, tools like Astrill which allow you to access these sites and more through the firewall are not blocked by the Chinese government.

Some of the blocked sites included:

• Diigo
• blogger.com
• WordPress.com
• Google docs and spreadsheets
• Google Sites
• PB wiki
• NetVibes
• YouTube (and many other video sharing tools)
• Edublogs.com
• tinyurl.com

The reasons for these actions, in China, have to do with control of the populous, freedom of speech etc. They are, after all, a single party state, communist and at times quite repressive.

source: http://sendanonymousemail.com/img/Firewall.jpg

Reflecting on this state of affairs has me wondering about schools policies regarding firewalls and access to web 2.0 tools and social media. There are perhaps some parallels that could be drawn and it is worth reflecting on the reasons for blocking sites.

Why do we block websites?

Well, we block some because they are total unacceptable. For example pornographic sites

But what about some of the other sites like social media?

If a student is accessing social media in class we should be asking why are they accessing this rather than learning. This is surely a teaching/engagement/motivation problem. (This is not pointing the finger at the teacher, as sometimes inspite of interesting programs, student involvement and motivating activities some students will not engage, however often it is a reflection of the teacher him or her self. ) Blocking the site is masking the issue rather than addressing it. Would it not be better to monitor the site and act appropriately when require seeking the source of the issue be it lack of engagement, motivation or classroom management.

A concern is the potential damage to the school of students posting material that may not be appropriate, the abundance tools and sites combined with the students level of access from their own tools (like cell phones) and at home have rendered this agrement obsolete.

The argument for conserving bandwidth is also now weakening. The availability and reducing cost of internet connection is reducing this argument. So students do not seriously effect other by surfing such sites.

The question of duty of care arises – blocking the site may mean that we can say yes we are protecting them, but it doesn’t really holistically address the issue, its a bandaid a sticking plaster. it protects the schoolat the expence of the students.  Isn’t it better to allow opportunity, monitor and then deal with the issue rather than saying “I’m alright” its now someone else’s problem.

We expect our students to be responsible digital citizens, we do not encourage or develop this by removing the potential. An ethical and moral digital citizen makes a conscious decision or choice rather than having the decision removed. Similarly, we expect the students to make appropriate decisions about when and where to access social media, and again we don’t do that by removing the opportunity.

I think it is time for us to consider what we are filtering and whether such filtering reflects the ethos that we uphold.

The flatclassroom conference was a very interesting event for a number of reasons. The two parallel strands, one for teachers and one for students, with the interaction between them was brilliant. As was the fact that this was an action based conference, not a sit and listen conference. The students and teachers both had to produce a product (or project) by the end of the  conference. In the students case the product was a video and for the staff it was to design and develop a global collaborative project.

The students in developing their product had to “pitch” the video concept to the teachers twice. The first pitch was a ‘elevator pitch” an oral explanation of their concept. The second pitch was an “animatic pitch” where they storyboarded their video and presented this to the teacher. These were both challenging stages of the product development. At each stage the students received formative assessment and detailed feedback and were able to modify their design and concept if required or if they felt the feedback was justified.

The teachers also had to “pitch” their global collaborative project to the students and receive formative assessment and detailed feedback from the students about the concept they had developed.

Students pitching ideas to teachers and receiving feedback is pretty “run of the mill” stuff. The inverse isn’t. When we asked the teachers about the experience most of them said they were nervous presenting to the students. When we debriefed the students they said the process was empowering and that they would be more engaged in their learning if they were able to shape how they learnt it.

Discussing with my own students has indicated that they would love to be involved in the method and mode they are taught. they accept that the content is often dictated from “higher authorities”, but the way they are taught isn’t. Some students, at the conference,  didn’t want to do this and I suspect that is the exam focused “I want it handed to me on a plate” approach, but for many or actually most, they would love to be involved.

source: http://cus.oise.utoronto.ca/UserFiles/Image/PEV116.jpg

The advantages of this are obvious – student buy in to their learning, student engagement, student ownership and improved learning. The disadvantages are that is threatening and challenging to teachers, that it can make learning messy, that the teachers vision of what teaching should be and the students reality of how they want to learn could be different. It requires the teacher to be flexible and open to critique and to have developed a level of repore with their students.

One of the sessions I ran at the Flatclassroom conference was iPad, iPod, iPhone and iEducation. The session was short but very well attended and Apple China lent the conference 10 iPads and 40 iPod touches to use.

The premise of the session was what would I put on a class set of iPads or iPods for use in a classroom. Some comentators have said that the iPad is a consumption device and I would agree with that comment for the average user, but in education, the iPad is a tool of creativity, imagination and production. One of the teachers at the session asked me what were the limitations of the iPad and my answer was that, other than size related issues and lack of a camera, that web development and programming was hard. But for your average student is this a problem?

The iPad doesn’t have the power of a laptop or desk top, but do we use that power to its potential? For the average student, i suspect that the iPad would be a more than adequate tool.

So what would I place on my class set of iPads and what assessories would I want?

1. Productivity tools
   1. pages – Word processor
   2. keynote – presentation tool
   3. numbers – Data processing
2. mindmapping tool – iThoughtsHD (I am sure there are other but I know and like this one)
3. Image editor – Adobe Photoshop Express
4. File management tool – Good reader
5. Comic development tool – Comic Strip CS
6. Video editor – I would probably have either Splice (i haven’t yet got it to find video on my iPad though) or ReelDirector
7. Language application – iTranslate
8. GIS tool – Google Earth
9. Note taking tool – Audio Note (records sound while allowing you to type notes and draw illustrations)
10. Projector – enables other applications to use the VGA adapter
11. Communication tool – Skype

This is the basics, these are the tools that I would make regular use of in the classroom. There are many others worth mentioning too like Math Board, Virtual Frog dissection, storybook, Play2learn all of which are of value and worth using.

For the iPod the list is not as broad. You lack the productivity tools  but the others remain the same.

1. mindmapping tool – iThoughtsHD
2. Image editor – Adobe Photoshop Express
3. Comic development tool – Comic Strip CS
4. Video editor – Splice
5. Language application – iTranslate
6. GIS tool – Google Earth
7. Note taking tool – Audio Note.

In my class set of assessories I would have

1. Camera adapter (SD Card and USB adaptor allowing direct connection to the iPad)
2. VGA adapter – connect you iPad to a projector
3. One microphone/earphone set per iPad

Have I missed anything? What would you add?

In this update we have some interestingr esources for science and the environment, humanities, the arts, ipads and the flat classroom.

1. The story of Bottled Water – http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/ This is a great video that examines bottled water. The story, which is animated and real video talks about the history of bottled water and the environmental impact of this. Great and challenging. Also look at:

• http://www.storyofstuff.org/capandtrade/
• http://storyofstuff.org/index.php
• http://storyofstuff.org/cosmetics/
• http://storyofstuff.org/electronics/

2. Google Art Project – http://www.googleartproject.com/ This is a stunning resource for the Art historian and art student. Imagine visting the best galleries and museums and creating your own collection to share with your peers. Well this is the virtual way to do this. A google project it has huge potential – http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/explore-museums-and-great-works-of-art.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FMKuf+%28Official+Google+Blog%29

3. Apps for Education – https://market.android.com/apps/EDUCATION/ – this is an application store for the Android operating system. Like the Apps store for the iPad and Ipod this store has a variety of free and purchased tools to use. Worth considering if you are an android user.  In a related article Singapore is trialing the iPad as a replacement for textbooks – read the article here – http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/ns_life/2011-01-14/196332269116.html

4. RPGMaker – http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/ - if you have ever wondered how to combine the language arts, with computing, imagination and creativity this is a tool for you and your students. RPGMaker allows you to create your own Role Playing games. This is a bastion for higher order thinking – creativity, analysis and evaluation

and finally at the end of the month I am heading over to China to the Flat Classroom Conference – this will be an amazing trip and one I am looking forward to immensely. I have a number of sessions I am running, including Global Digital citizenship, ipads and ipods in education and a TED Style talk… http://www.flatclassroomproject.org/ and http://www.flatclassroomconference.com/

In this installment we have a number of interesting sites to look at including some brilliant resources for building applications for Apple iOS

1. Developing apps for iOS - http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/developing-apps-for-ios-sd/id395631522 This is a series of 23 podcasts that cover the basics of developing applications for iOS the operating system for the iPad, iPhone etc. They are a free download/subscribe from iTunes. Nice.

2. MammalsRus - http://mammalsrus.com/index.html The name isn’t the best and does make it sound like a shoe or toy store, but its a nice clean straight forward site that is a good reference for science and biology. A good selection of video are posted/linked to the site too. I would also recommend my favourite camera site  - http://africam.com for live video of waterholes etc.

3. NuVu Studio – Innovation Center for Young MInds - http://nuvustudio.org/ This is a site to watch, its a joint project between MIT and Harvard, students work on a theme or as they describe it a specific studio and work in small teams with access to professors, experts, practitioners etc. Each of the studios is about 2 weeks long and has a review process and exhibition. worth looking into and would be great fun to play in. This reminds me a lot of the excellent work done by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis in the Flat classroom project- http://www.flatclassroomproject.org/ and the exciting flat classroom conference next year in Beijing - http://www.flatclassroomconference.com/

4.Real time collaboration tools – text editing - http://open-tube.com/real-time-collaborative-text-editing-software this is an interesting post which details a series of collaborative text editing tools. Some like etherpad I have seen before but other are quite new to me. Here is the ones reviewed here:

• Etherpad – Browser  based
• Doing text – browser based
• SynchroEdit – Browser based
• Collabedit – Browser based

and finally I would like to end with a quote from American educator Derek Bok

If you think that education is expensive, try ignorance.

I have to ask what is a classroom?

I know that sounds a little strange but its a reflection on the world we live in. The other day I had a year 11 study class period one. For the first day in I don’t know how long the sun was out and it was a nice comfortable warm day. The students asked if they could sit outside and work. After a minute or two’s reflection I agreed and the students and their laptops moved out into the courtyard area and settled into to work. A couple of groups were doing french and german oral comprehension, a pair of students were quizzing each other on physics, another couple were listen to music while working on their art portfolios.

Prayer Flags - Nepal - Andrew Churches

All of the students were engaged and working. They all were working effectively and efficently outside of the classroom while still having all of the facilities of the schools network via wireless.

I had my year 13 for the final time yesterday, they are on study leave for their IB ITGS examinations. The students and I went across the road to the local cafe, as both a celebration of two years of work, but also to sit and discuss the information systems embedded in the cafe. While there was a fair amount of hilarity, there was also a good discussion which had relevance and significence on IT systems and business

Again I have to ask what is a classroom?

So what is a classroom?  I feel that all to often we as teachers are tied up with the concept of the physical space as the place of learning. That to teach we must have tables or desks, chairs whiteboards etc. And I guess that for “Teaching” this might actually be true, but are we about teaching or learning? LEarning can and does occur anywhere. Teachable moments are not restricted to classrooms, learning isn’t limited to the desk and seat in the room with 4 walls and a whiteboard.

Every 2 years we take students on a community service trip to either Nepal or India, as I saw in the Year 13′s leavers book, this years trip to Nepal was the highlight of many of the students time at school. They learnt so much, they experienced more than they could possibly have from a classroom. They savoured the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch and texture, highs and lows of a very poor country struggling at the lower end on the third world.  I don’t know if anyone has coined this term, but I am going to do that now – this was ADVENTURE BASED EDUCATION. There was learning, there was teaching, there were revelations and epiphanies. There was engagement, context and relevance. I love the definition of adventure that OPC uses: “Any undertaking where the outcome is uncertain“. We had uncertainty, and that helps with engagement and focus.

And there wasn’t a whiteboard in sight. So what is a classroom?

The world is my classroom

Wow, the last two weeks have been frantic and the first thing that suffers is blogging.

Here is my collection and finds for the week (oophs 2 weeks)

1. NetNewsWire – http://netnewswireapp.com/mac/ The announcement by blog lines that they are closing down, has forced me to move from using bloglines as an aggregator. So a quick surf and comparision of reviews led me to NetNewsWire – I have to say I am impressed and the fact that it is also available for the ipad and iphone is a bonus.

2. Christchurch Quake Map – http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/ – This is not only a topical site, its also a great example of a mash up combining data from GeoNet http://www.geonet.org.nz/index.html and google maps. Well worth visiting and discussing – a useful resource for ITGS, social studies and geography.

3. Visual Studio 2010 quick resource – http://vs2010quickref.codeplex.com/ if you are a programmer using the MS environments this will appeal to you.

4. Nuclear Detonations – http://images.vizworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/NuclearDetonation.jpg – this is an infographic that shows nuclear explosions since the first tests in the desert at Alamogordo in 1945. Its interesting, but quite sad reading.

5. iPad Curriculum – http://www.ipadcurriculum.com/ This is a useful blog which focuses on the use of the iPad in education. Worth subscribing to as we see this tool start to flourish into its educational potential.

6. Rock Our World – http://www.rockourworld.org/ this is a global project, with a musical theme. Great idea – here is what they say “Using Apple’s GarageBand, each country creates a 30 second drum beat.  Every Friday, that drum rotates to another country, where the bass guitar is added.  It keeps getting passed along, from country to country.  At each stop, one more instrument is added.  When it comes back to the original country, it has touched students from all over the world!”

and if we are talking of Global Projects we can’t go past Julie Lindsay’s and Vicki Davis’s Flatclassroom Project - I have been involved in this for 2-3 years with my students doing the NetGenEd Project – its a stunning start for the ITGS curriculum for us. They have the flat classroom conference, a conference for teachers and students, coming up soon. This is a great opportunity to participate and be involved in a stunning global project and amazing collaboration event in Beijing http://www.flatclassroomconference.com/index.html I am privileged to be one of the presenters  – YEEHAA

key Links -

http://www.flatclassroomproject.net/about.html

http://www.flatclassroomconference.com/index.html