A School for Watambune: a 21st century school fund raising effort

Its been a while since my last post. Long Service Leave of 18 weeks has meant that I could completely refresh my mind, indulge in a lovely long holiday and visit places and people that inspired me to think differently and be a better person.
My travels took me to Sulawesi, an Indonesian island. In 2011 I connected three schools in a fund raising project, the "Watambune School Building Project". It was obvious to me, as we were building a brand new multimillion dollar school for our students, that we could do something for another community that needed a new school of their own. Of course a more modest set up, but I was keen to engage our kids in a fund raising effort to make the joy of a new school happen for another community while we were looking forward to our own brand new facility.

My own Principal, Michael Dunn was supportive and encouraged the effort and the wonderful Chris Rawlins Principal at ACG school in Jakarta was willing to participate, leading an effort in her own school which raised several thousand dollars. We already had established connections with our online Bear Exchange project which operates annually. Our third school was Red Hill Primary School and Principal Chris Hamilton, in Canberra. All three schools are PYP and saw the benefits in the global connection, the online collaboration and action that could occur for our students.
We met (online and face to face), talked, planned and made possible a student led fund raising effort to build a new school for a very needy community in central Sulawesi which is managed by the Salvation Army Education Korps. A late participant was the ACG English school in Auckland, whose students contributed money raised in an event at the school. Four schools across three countries made it a truly international effort.

The collaborative wiki kept us in touch, celebrated our successes and documented our journey to learn about the community and raise money to make this new school building a reality. Discussions on the wiki became useful forums for ideas by the students and teachers. Our Twitter hashtag #wsbp, announced milestones in the project. The wiki site tells the story, but suffice to say the effort put in by the students of all three schools was inspirational. We raised a total of AUD$34,000, exceeding our $25,000 goal and we now have a bit of a kitty to launch the next project, a boarding facility in Palu to accommodate 25 students who wish to continue to high school education.

In November a team, which included 2 teachers from ACG Jakarta, myself and other supporters visited the region and attended the Foundation Stone ceremony. Jaka the orangutan and star of our Bear Exchange was a fellow traveller and a huge hit with all the kids. A 3 hour journey - by car and when the road petered out, by motorbike into the mountains afforded us spectacular scenery and an exhilarating ride in a 35 bike convoy! The ceremony was a joyous occasion and the visit also a great opportunity to see how the students are fairing from the first school building project in near by Bambakanini (carried out in 2010 by QHHC and a UNICEF grant). The kids are happy (and now going to school regularly) - the village has a more settled feel and has become a growing community with access to electricity for the first time. During the visit we called in on several other schools at Tomodo and Dombu as well and delivered new stationery items, books and toys. It was lovely to meet the locals, teachers and kids. We have also uploaded slideshows and video footage of our trip to share with teachers, students and other supporters.

The ultimate goal of the project is to offer a quality education to the kids in these villages around Palu so they can enjoy, and benefit from, their learning which we hope will give them greater opportunities in life. As well as the new building, the school will be equipped with furniture and resources. Uniforms have already been provided which gives the students more of a sense of community and pride in going to school.
July will see the opening of the school. Teachers from all three schools will be attending as well as key people who have administered the effort from QHHC (Qantas Helping Hands Community) and the Salvation Army Education Korps, Palu. Video and photos, regular postings and tweets will connect the schools with the trip.
In the first half of this year we will be able to follow the building process with our Palu friends taking photos of each building stage when they visit the site. These will be uploaded to our wiki and engender discussion and comment from all our participants. Being able to follow the process in this way, engages our students with the effort and makes it very real to them - they can see the fruits of their labour through to completion.
I hope this has begun a more permanent relationship. There are plans for a village soccer gala during our stay in July, upcoming teacher training workshops and ongoing support with resources, equipment and clothing are also important contributions we can make. Our connections will grow and flourish and through our online presence we can watch the school build, find out about the students' progress and understand more what its like to be a child in rural central Sulawesi.

Projects such as this are a major team effort. As well as a big thank you to the Principals of all four schools that supported the effort - I also want to thank and acknowledge Marianne Doble and David Holmsen from Cranbrook School for their support and facilitation of our big events to raise money via the Cranbrook Cares Community. Michelle Eddy and Bianca Cheshire from ACG Jakarta who did a great job both at their school and on the visit in November and all the other teachers and students who participated across the schools. Also Janneman Usmany, Grace Nelwan and the team from Salvation Army, Palu for making our November trip so wonderful. And finally Brett South, who tirelessly works to make these projects happen, and the team from QHHC.

Gaming – playing and creating using 2DIY

Our kids are learning content increasingly through online computer games. It’s a fun way to learn with an added bonus of some of the better designed ones requiring problem solving and critical thinking skills. So its great when game making can be introduced as a skill – a problem solving and thinking task as a natural extension to playing games in the younger grades.
Firstly I like to start with a bit of a brainstorm – what makes a good game. Is it the content, the characters, the design, the challenge? We have a bit of a discussion which can get quite animated with many students very knowledgeable about the games they play.
Its time to then direct our attention to educational games, the point of them and how best to construct a situation where the game player can have fun and learn at the same time.
Queue 2DIY, part of the 2simple suite of software. It’s possible that they have played a 2DIY game in an earlier grade. Its something I sometimes prepare as a pre-test or a learning task – they are familiar with some of the formats too – the snake or maze game, multiple choice quizzes, cloze exercises, labelling diagrams etc.
Some ‘Sandbox’ time is then scheduled in a computer session where students investigate the videos and play the example games. The point is for them to identify the best games for learning. The session wraps up with a discussion focussed on their top suggestions for an educational game.
The understanding of the mechanics of some of the games now out of the way, the students turn their attention to writing a game proposal. Some criteria needs to be considered, the purpose of the game, the player age range, the type of game, the content of the game. At the bottom of the proposal page it is important for students to gather information that might be useful when they are making their game. I require students to find at least 10 pieces of information so they can kick-start the content and inform the background to their game.
I give feedback to each student on their proposal and then its time to start designing the games. The range and depth of creativity is obvious. Our topic this time is finite resources of the world with a particular focus on rainforests.
Some of the games created by students include:
* A snake game where the snake collects endangered trees.
* A catching game where points are scored for catching renewable resources and points deducted for catching finite resources
* A matching card game identifying endangered trees of the rainforest
* Lots of different labelling games including maps that identify the rainforest of the world
Time is also spent making sure the instructions for the game are clear and concise and timings, sounds and images are all appropriate to the design of the game.
Once the games are made its time to test them. Each student game maker then becomes the game reviewer, testing one game designed by a classmate. A rubric looks at the design, the content, the creativity and the appropriate age level.
Our students always cast a critical eye on their classmates work and come up with some great comments for each other. All the games are then put on our school portal and all our school community can have a go.
This task is filled with 21st century learning skills: creativity, communication and critical thinking as well as problem solving are successfully combined with real learning for a real (game playing) audience – they really understand their topics and can explain the purpose. The students are understandably proud of their creations and cant wait to play each other’s games.
This task was created for Year 4 students as part of their work in the PYP unit of inquiry 'Sharing the Planet'. Other game creation methods are investigated in other years including Scratch and we are soon introducing a similar free tool Stencyl.

Boys and Technology Conference 2011: 5 take Aways, 10 Tweets and 3 videos

5 take-aways from the Boys and Technology Conference 2011

1) Teachers in 2025
Teaching may be very different in 2025. This is the year that next year’s K students will be graduating. It will also be the end of the first quarter of the 21st century. Those of us who believe in the skills and values of 21st century learning will be hoping that this framework is entirely embedded in our curricula; students and teachers involved in different types of learning – both face to face and online. But the sense of community a school brings will still be important – a community of learners with teachers as the facilitators of knowledge gathering and synthesis, innovation and creativity – empowerment through ICT enhanced student-led learning. Teachers do not need to be the expert, rather be able to assist students to manoeuvre the vast arrays of information out there. Quality teachers will still be important as coaches of life skills and inspiration to their students.
What we need to be increasingly aware of is the safe and responsible use of the internet for students. The digital and mobile world poses challenges for teachers and students that need addressing. The ability for future employees to Google the digital presence of an applicant means that students need to be directed in safe and appropriate behaviour online.
Teachers working in collaborative teams should be a feature of how we work not just for planning but also for teaching. This is a preferred model for Steven Harris from NBCS, the power of many rather than one to excite and engage learners working independently and in groups.

2) What needs to Change
Currently the average age of teachers in Australia is 48. In the next 14 years most of those teachers will not be teaching. Steven Harris believes that there are 10 key factors that need to change to promote the skills and support educators.
• A shared vision
• Intuition
• Risk-taking
• Collaboration
• teamwork
• Creativity
• Edbed ideas
• Action
• Lots of PD
• Creative curriculum models


3) Schools in the 21st century
Restructuring of school staff, particular management structures to reflect new ways of teaching and learning will be paramount to the success of a 21st century learning environment. Professional development of teachers is also a big ticket item for schools expecting their teachers to shift to new learning models – the support is vital. ICT features but there will be a move to a BYOD (bring your own device) model and ICT needs to be seen as the tool NOT the driver of the learning.
Schools need to change – the salutary tale of Borders (Steven Harris) is a warning to all institutions that we cannot keep teaching and learning in the old factory / industrial models of the past but look to a future educational paradigm that engages students and prepares them for a future that we cannot predict.
Learning spaces will require more flexibility for different styles of learning and enhance group work and collaboration as well as support the use of technology (in all its forms).

4) Technology as an empowering tool for all
The proliferation of the mobile device – the iPad or Android tablet, the smart phone, the iTouch, various recording devices and portable video has meant that learning can take many forms and be tailored to the learner’s special needs or preferred learning styles.
Apps for the iPad are numbering 425,000 and growing. The power of being able to find (or create) an app that suits a particular needs is extraordinary in range and capability. Assistive technology is one area that has benefitted from the growth of mobile devices and speech driven software for example is useful for many students that face learning challenges.
There are apps for the management of learning, organisation, collaboration, independent learning, communication and creativity. Using these tools helps us to create new models of learning, re-thinking teaching.
The trick is to use these apps as a tool to facilitate learning, discovery, creativity and innovation and as a place to organise learning to save time and manage.
It is however a cautionary tale. Distraction is a major issue, especially with boys using mobile technology. We all know how easily it is once a mobile device is in your hands to experiment and get off task and its no different in a classroom situation. The quality of the teaching and integration of the use of the device must be carefully targeted.
Mobile devices such as the ipad have a real place in the delivery of epublishing and an advantage can certainly be seen once there is a good availability of text and other books to download. The portability, the ability to copy and paste text, highlight and make notes etc means that the text becomes more easily manipulated, portable and available.
Mash-ups are the future of learning – the ability for a variety of delivery methods to students via video, audio, text and image and also students doing their own mashing up of content to create and innovate new knowledge.


5) Learning Spaces
During the conference several providers of technology equipment were available to chat to and there were a couple of really exciting products that would enhance any learning environment.
Video conferencing
Digital microscopes
Digital measuring equipment
Tables with short throw IWBs
To name a few….
After the conference I dropped in for a quick visit to the RM Education Real(Re-thinking Education and Learning) learning centre for a tour. The set up there is one that is designed to provoke discussion and debate about how an integrated approach to design, furniture and technology can extend teaching and learning opportunities. The space is divided into zones:
• Mobile presentation and discussion
• Collaboration
• Creativity and Media
• Individual
• Explore

Ths space is perfect for inquiry learning, collaboration and creativity. It is a rich 21st century learning environment that incorporates a range of technologies from green screen video recording set up to digital microscopes, a write on wall space using ideas paint, listening and speaking equipment and interactive white boards. Inspiring spaces that epitomise 21st century learning in action.

My top 10 tweets from the conference

• Education occurs when you ask what sort of society do you want? What sort of people do you want? (Gardner)
• By 2025 we need to change the way we measure success in education
• Technology can connect learners with similar interests across ages across cultures
• The gathering of content is not learning how to learn
• The tablet is not necessary for people in this room, it's for normal people. (Steve Wozniak)
• Use the SAMR model to define tasks you want to do with a mobile device
• Some students (the quiet ones in class) like the anonymity of commenting online
• The ipad is a game changer in education because of ‘hope’ ‘serendipity’ and ‘convenience’ (Gerry White)
• Flipped classrooms as a model for better learning
• Think then do … dot then think, which one are you?

3 Videos... the future:
Watch these for a taste of what our student’s world will be like:
The Pranav Mystery
A day made of glass
I teach therefore you learn (or do you)

Animation the online way

Claymation is a tool that has been used in primary schools for some time. So many skills can be applied to one task and students benefit in so many ways. Animation group work tasks promote collaboration, sharing, technical skills, patience, creativity, design, writing, time management, storyboarding, character development, plot and scene development, problem solving and organisational skills. It is a valuable way to present information or tell a story.

Claymation however is time consuming and has organisational and logistical issues that may or may not be convenient in the classroom environment. There are a number of online options to get those animation ideas and creativity going that are suitable for primary aged children. Here are a few.

Zimmer Twins This site is a fun, safe place where kids can use their imagination and create their very own movies. The site is moderated daily and uses text filters to make sure all posted content is appropriate for viewers of all ages. You must make an account on Zimmertwins.com to save movies.
Dvolver . In this tool you can make a short animation with no need to sign up – no passwords required. Choose from a range of backgrounds and characters. It’s quick and easy and the results are very effective.
Kerpoof is a suite of online tools that includes animated movie making. Teachers can access lesson plans and register for teacher accounts
DoInk is an easy to use tool for animation which has a very child friendly interface.
The Go animate suite is expanding and is a very popular animation site with students. The parent site, the original go animate, should be used in the classroom under supervision as some of the content (eg the characters) needs some vetting for younger children. Go animate for schools, allows teachers to create 100 accounts to use with their class which might be a better option.
Domo Animate is powered by Go animate so uses the same format. The scenes, characters, and the props are all from the popular Japanese Domo animation series. Unique animations are made by adding characters, backgrounds and lines of dialogue.
Aniboom allows students can create frame by frame animations using geometric shapes. Each fortnight a new tutorial is uploaded to the forum.

Gaining Inspiration
Inspiring young animators is easy. There's plenty of amazing Youtube videos that showcase the very best of animation to give students ideas and something to aspire to and presents are variety of animating techniques. Try viewing Kiwi, Lego Raiders of the lost ark Goyte’s “Hearts a mess” music video The making of Wallace and Gromit and a remix animation of The Wizard of Oz called Mellow Brick Road
.
What's for certain is that just a small introduction to animation as a tool for story telling is often enough to get your students working as mini Nick Parks, who knows one of us might just unearth the next animating genius!

Innovation in Education: a day with Charles Leadbeater @ SCIL

SCIL at NBCS is very pro active about innovation in schools - different learning spaces, different teaching and learning models and innovation that includes technology. These photos (taken from a blog post in Playducation) are great and reinforce what they say about learning, how it should be: motivating, fun and inspiring.
Love the furniture options and the flexible classroom models:

Learning from Extremes challenged us to think about where and how learning takes place. Being involved in a project to build schools in Central Sulawesi, I was particularly taken with the ideas of learning and innovation in developing countries, three ideas stood out:
1) Where need is greatest and resources least there’s radical innovation
2) Innovation in learning is needed at the most disadvantaged places in the world - currently they are in school and not learning
3) Mobile devices have a big future in the developing world – expanding access to communication and the scope for learning.

Charles Leadbeater suggested there were three important ingredients to innovation in education:
1) Learning: He asked us to think about what is at the heart of learning: emotions, thinking, self regulation, need, desire
2) Technology: Technologies have always been a part of education - whether its the blackboard, the printing press or online technologies - they all enhance our learning experiences.
New technologies (particularly mobile) have given access to learning to more people than ever before, its immediate, its anytime/anywhere, its creating knowledge as well as consuming it. It leads to a different style of learning to which we all need to adapt.
3) Innovation: Educators should take the leap to discover new ways to engage and relate to the 2025 generation. Innovation comes from crisis, curiosity or need - we need to discover our vantage point and this will determine everything.
We were challenged to think hard about our own questions about school innovation, first determining an end point and then working to understand how we are going to achieve it. Schools need to be high systems / high empathy organisations in order to cater for today's learners.

Innovation, Leadbeater analogises, is a series of recipes and cakes – blending ingredients to create some sort of new cake.
By blending our approaches we will rely on making connections - most good innovation relies on connections, best innovators are socially connected. We should, as educators, learn from this and apply it to our learning models - both for ourselves and our students.

In the break out sessions we spent time in groups devising some sort of disruptive approach to innovating schools, here are some of the ideas that came from the groups:

1) Combine school /family and community - we are all learners and should learn from each other - use experts and the community to extend the learning beyond the classroom walls
2) Distributed architectures: learning in all sorts of places - traditional classrooms loose their relevance.
3) Collapsed timetables: focus days/weeks where students are emersed in relevant, learning that develops their curiosity, interests and focus. Teachers available as tutors, convenors of groups and one to one mentors - not classroom teachers
4) Assessment happens when the student is ready to be assessed - when they have mastered the outcomes - not necessarily at a designated time.
5) Make outside spaces learning spaces - places to play and learn, relevant to real life eg coffee/food court plaza style
6) Use school spaces in innovative ways outside of school hours - community comes to school to share the learning
7) Connect classrooms across the globe - not necessarily like with like schools and classes - but look for difference
8) Engage virtual mentors using technology to connect learners - through social networking and mentorship programs
9) Have greater movement of students through grades and stages and subject areas to match their abilities
Out of the day - the group decided that it was important to keep the enthusiasm and interest going for change, we proposed that a group be formed called the "Coalition of Innovative schools" and have teachermeets / online conversations and ongoing thinking. This is a really exciting outcome of the day and I'm looking forward to getting involved.

An amazing day - full of people who really care about future learning and the future particularly of our schools and how we can adapt to our changing students and the changing environment.

365 Project

This year I have taken on the task of documenting our school year as a visual diary using 365 Project. As I'm just about half way through, its time to reflect on the process and its value.

The Process:
The 365 Project is a simple photo blog, take an image a day, add a caption and tag and upload to the site. For some students and teachers in the school it's been an easy entry into the world of blogging and interacting online in a safe environment.
The fun part has been taking the photos. Each week I look at the school's ever increasingly busy calendar and decide what should be covered. Often two or three days have special events going on - visitors to the school, a fund raising activity, excursions, sport etc - so they are easy days, but often not the most interesting. Its the random little snapshots of the school I find the most endearing. For example a Yr 3 boy has started a 'french knitting' craze in the grade. Its building, and each day more boys are getting into it. In fact I overhead the other day one student saying to another "I'm going to take this up a notch and get into sewing". These moments are priceless and in the big picture of a school year would normally get totally lost and forgotten. Now its there for posterity.
Taking photos around the school also allows some students to shine - they are not the sporting successes, the brilliant musicians, the popular boys that always seem to get in the money shots for the school - but instead I have been also highlighting the quiet achievers, the quirky characters. This is what makes a school rich.
I've been also asking for teachers to watch out and send me shots that they think might be worth including. Here's where the buy in from teachers and students begins. If they have contributed - their willingness to join the conversation about the images is heightened and we suddenly have a social network talking and looking at the pictures.
The photos literally take a couple of seconds to upload and write a caption - not a burden and at the end of the week I send out an email letting teachers know what's on for the week so they can share it with their class.
Each month I take a screen capture of the month calendar and print it - so an accumulated set of thumbnail images is growing on a notice board. This also serves as publicity for the project.
Next term I'm going to allocate responsibility to different classes each week to take "a week in the life of the class" - where their class is showcased. Similarly I think that can also work for specialist areas such as Art, Music and Sport.

10 ways to use the project with students:
The project can be used in many ways by many members of the school community. Here's some of what I've observed from the project so far:
1) Classes look at the weekly photos and vote on their favourites - discussion, argument and stating a case and finally voting for a favourite gives the boys a chance to think and reflect on the week.
2) Teachers and students select photos to include - again this is whole class decision making in action. Classes can agree on captions to accompany an image - or a student can be set the task.
3) Boys independently log on and comment on photos and therefore events around the school.
4) Parents can see what's been going on and also be part of the community and comment also.
5) The schools we connect with in other cities can see what we are up to and when we do things together, these images can be included and they can also comment - joining our community conversation.
6) Teachers can set a reflective comment as a homework task.
7) Once the Project comes along some of the way, there are mathematics opportunities for the class to tally number of times a class or subject is featured using the tags.
8) There are also opportunities for text type writing that can launch from the photos.
9) It presents an opportunity for the students to become engaged in a web 2.0 environment, interact with others and value the power of the image and reflective thought.
10) By the end, it becomes a really nice time capsule of the year.

I would recommend the project to anyone, a class, a student or teacher with a special interest or as a simple a reflection of the year. A family even can work together and collect their favourite snapshots and share them online, the site really has many possibilities to use it in a variety of forms. I'm hoping exposure to the project will give our students and teachers some inspiration to have a go.
Visit our site at http://365project.org/cjsphotos/365 and follow us, or join the project and leave us a comment.

What is iLearning?

I have had reason to think about what ilearning (or innovative learning) is lately. It encompasses many things and involves buy-in from all parts of a school.
Ilearning is not just about the technology, although to truly innovate an educational program the technology should be a piece of the puzzle. It not just about the skills set, although when thinking about the delivery of curriculum one must be aware of the skills that need to be embedded into learning experiences. And it is definitely not about the content. The content is the driver of the learning – but the underpinning approach by teachers is what can make learning truly innovative.

We are teaching in exciting times – although this sort of phrase is turning into a cliché – it is true enough. There is lots of thinking going on about what students should really be learning about at school, the new National Curriculum has a huge content component attached to it although it does pay some attention to the skills students also need. It is also true to say that students are now more than likely learning more outside of school time that within it. We are battling with multiple sources of connection and engagement in the real world that if we don’t keep apace with the how and what of learning outside the school, we are in danger of becoming irrelevant institutions, something students ‘have’ to do rather than something they see as relevant and interesting.

21st century skills are the gateway to understanding what’s required to live and work in this century. The 4 C’s are front and centre to a modern educators thinking. Students need to be able to competently communicate in a variety of ways, collaborate with others both online and face to face, be creative in their output and think critically – understanding issues and solving problems. They also need to be reflective and socially / globally aware (my 5th C – global citizenship).

Engagement is the key – if students are engaged in their learning, more will follow. Developing passions and understandings in students, being culturally and socially aware and giving students the tools to see past what is feed to us on a daily basis by the mass media is our task as educators.

A “Bells and Cells” model to learning is not in keeping with an innovative approach to curriculum. It is artificial and counter productive. It is not how we conduct our lives in the real world. Opening learning spaces, team teaching, collaborative and anywhere/anytime approaches to curriculum should be investigated. The freedom to have learning choices, in the ways we not only find our information but also communicate it to others.

Information technology, our ability to connect, work and learn in online spaces and reach people we could not previously even know about, are exciting prospects for educators. We can blend our students learning to expand horizons, see possibilities and foster creativity and hopefully engage students to so that they not only learn effectively during their school and tertiary years, but that they become life-long learners.