‘Channeling captain planet’ – Nostalgia and Knowledge – Teanau Tuiono

Posted on by

I like this planet. I live on it along with my kids, family, and those that follow my tweets of wisdom via Twitter. In the 80s I watched Captain Planet. Those of you of a similar vintage to me might remember him. He was a cross between Spandau Ballet (the hairstyle anyway), Richard Simmons (spandex), and had a blue mullet — classic 80s.

Captain Planet worked with a multi-national, multi-cultural 1 team of young people called, “the Planeteers”, who defended the planet from environmental disasters with five magic rings given to them by the spirit of the earth (Whoopi Goldberg). Often these environmental disasters would be personified with names that identified the issue like Sly Sludge (Martin Sheen), Dr Blight (Meg Ryan), etc.

In situations that the Planeteers could not resolve alone, they would combine their powers to summon Captain Planet, who possessed all of their powers magnified, symbolising the premise that the combined efforts of a team are stronger than its individual parts. I liked that.

Inspired by Captain Planet, I did an Environmental Science paper in the 90s — our lecturer Jeanette Fitzsimons introduced us to concepts such as global warming and overpopulation, along with an appreciation of the finite nature of our planet — that, despite its immensity and beauty and ability to sustain our western lifestyles, is very limited. (Those magic rings would be handy about now.) These experiences coupled with spending a lot of time at kaupapa Māori hui and wananga meant that I often wondered about these issues, not only from a Māori perspective, but also from the perspectives of other peoples from similar and not so similar cultural backgrounds.

My environmental bullet points of the 80s and 90s can be summed up as follows:

  • Spandex and blue mullets get exponentially un-hip as the years go by.
  • We need to have environmental advocates/leaders/heroes of those perspectives, particularly at the local level
  • There are different ways of understanding the natural world around. Societies from all parts of the world possess rich sets of experience, understanding, and explanation — particularly those with long histories of interaction with their natural surroundings.
  • Personifying our problems into easy villain caricatures is handy, but harder when you’re focussing, let’s say, our collective consumer behaviour, or something like overpopulation, which is a wider societal issue that requires collective responsibility, as opposed to taking out some B-grade bad guy. (If life was only that easy.)

Different ways of understanding the environment

One of the great things I’ve been able to do as a part of my working life is to visit and stay with different indigenous peoples in, sometimes, quite remote locations, working on supporting different Indigenous Knowledge 2 projects, and, occasionally, they come and stay at my house. Earlier this year I had Victor Steffensen stay. Victor is a traditional fire practitioner, using fire as a land management tool. I remember thinking to myself, this would be great for some of our students to do — some comparative learning, comparing concepts of conservation with our own.

Here in Aotearoa we refer to this type of knowledge (which has its basis in the arrival of our tipuna and its ongoing development) as Matauranga Māori. A definition from Landcare Research:

Mātauranga Māori can be defined as ‘the knowledge, comprehension, or understanding of everything visible and invisible existing in the universe’, and is often used synonymously with wisdom. In the contemporary world, the definition is usually extended to include present–day, historic, local, and traditional knowledge; systems of knowledge transfer and storage; and the goals, aspirations and issues from an indigenous perspective.3

Connecting with advocates

There are environmental heroes in our communities. I’ve been lucky enough to meet some of them.

As some of you will know, our long fin tuna are now endangered. This important issue was the focus of an interesting documentary called Saving Tuna (you can watch it on the Māori TV site) It highlights the work of Kaitiaki Bill Kerrison who has been helping eels to bypass river obstacles by guiding them into traps, and transporting them up or downstream by hand, and releasing them into tributaries along the Rangitaiki. There, they grow up to 1.5m long and can stay for up to 10 years before wanting to return to their ocean spawning grounds.

Another example is some whanaunga of mine from up in the Nōta, Ahipara — Reuben Taipari from Te Rarawa, and Heeni Hoterene from Ngāti Hine. I interviewed Rueben for a resource that I’m working on that looks at how the moon phases, along with seasonal changes in the natural world, would, among other things, inform planting and traditional food gathering practises. Passionate about the North becoming self-sufficient in terms of food, he also supports projects that encourage people to use land and sea sustainably, ensuring that it is nurtured, as it provides sustenance to whānau and hapū.

My point here is that often these people are in our communities, it is just a matter of finding them and connecting them to the teaching and learning of our students.

Incorporating Indigenous Knowledge into teaching and learning

UNESCO has a number of publications that can be requested as hard copy or downloaded as PDF:

On TKI there are a number of resources that use science as a lens to incorporate a Māori world view:

Have you heard of LEARNZ virtual field trips? They are a great source and learning experience for students and teacher:

LEARNZ promotional video from LEARNZ on Vimeo.

CORE’s LEARNZ virtual field trip programme provides opportunities for students to interact with experts across a wide range of sectors including environment, conservation, engineering, science, social science, and the arts. In 2014, conservation-based field trips in partnership with agencies such as DOC and regional councils include:

Footnotes:

1 The young people came from all youths across the globe: Kwame from Africa, Wheeler from North America, Linka from the Soviet Union (hands up if you remember the USSR), Gi from Asia, and Ma-Ti from the Amazon (Ma-Ti was my favourite — I had a similar haircut a number of times in my childhood).

2 Local and indigenous knowledge refers to the understandings, skills and philosophies developed by societies with long histories of interaction with their natural surroundings. For rural and indigenous peoples, local knowledge informs decision-making about fundamental aspects of day-to-day life. This knowledge is integral to a cultural complex that also encompasses language, systems of classification, resource use practices, social interactions, ritual and spirituality’. These unique ways of knowing are important facets of the world’s cultural diversity, and provide a foundation for locally-appropriate sustainable development. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/priority-areas/links/

read more
Posted in

eFellowship: they’ll let anyone in — ‘e’ isn’t just for e-learning

Posted on by

Background

The CORE Education eFellowship is based on a strong belief that action research can drive innovative practice. The annual programme, run since 2004, supports up to ten teachers from early years, primary, and/or secondary sectors to be released from the classroom to conduct an inquiry with academic support and mentoring. Over 80 educators are now part of the ever-growing network of eFellows.

The 2014 eFellows are (L-R): Tim Gander, Anne-Louise Robertson, Marnel Van der Spuy, Vicki Hagenaars, Bec Power, Rowan Taigel, and Ben Britton.

CORE eFellows 2014
CORE eFellows 2014 at their first Masterclass in Auckland (L-R): Tim Gander, Anne-Louise Robertson, Marnel Van der Spuy, Vicki Hagenaars, Bec Power, Rowan Taigel, and Ben Britton.

The lurker

Since 2014’s seven eFellows were selected back in October 2013, I have had the pleasure of lurking about at some of their masterclasses (face-to-face meetings). As a bewildered outsider to the fellowship, I observed and conversed with these fine folk in order that one day I might tell the story of their first year as eFellows. Although their first year is not yet over, and their action research will continue even after they share their discoveries at the Ulearn14 conference this October, I thought it might be timely to share with others what this eFellowship thing looks like. This story is for those who, like me, might have wondered: What does the ‘e’ stand for?

What does the eFellowship look like (to me)?

I guess the first thing I’d say is it’s not actually about teachers. While there are definitely some pleasant by-products of being selected for the fellowship (networking, career, and presenting opportunities) it is the learner/ākonga who is at the centre of every story, presentation, debate, discussion, and collaborative Google doc I witness. Voice, diversity, new forms of knowledge and identity are just some of the terms-most-treasured I hear coming from the mouths of these educators. At the first masterclass in Auckland, I recall a palpable desire to transform education — to extend that word ‘education’ into something that means ‘learning which meets the needs of all learners’. I get tingles, my heart beats faster as I tap away at my keyboard, trying to capture the weight of that yearning in the room, and the hope and possibility that go along with it. Tim would later sum up my feeling in this blog post he wrote after masterclass number two, in Christchurch: “Suddenly the thought pops into your head that you know the reason behind why we exist in this world, and as quickly as you feel like you are going to solve all of humanity's problems, it disappears…”

Tim Gander at work on eFellows project
Tim Gander surrounded by the enormity of his task. Wellington masterclass, the last face-to-face before research is presented.

A safe place to wonder

Wherever the eFellows meet this year, virtually or face-to-face, their room is a room of wonderings — even the facilitators and experts share theirs with the group. Louise Taylor, who co-leads the eFellowship programme with John Fenaughty, emphasises that the programme “will be guided by discussions within the group, with contributions from the fellows as much as from the programme leaders” with John adding that “openness and vulnerability [are] crucial starting points for the growth that will take place this year”. Doubts and anxieties are acknowledged, and everyone understands that they have the support of everyone else in the ‘wondering room’.

The eFellows are, afterall, only human: “The more I research, the more I discover I don't know! Will I be able to manage teaching full-time, looking after my 5-month-old baby, and embark on an e-learning fellowship inquiry project? Have I bitten off more than I can chew?” writes Rowan in October 2013.

And yet, they are all happily venturing into some uncomfortable territory: Marnel aims to shed some light on the dark spot that is current research into Modern Learning Pedagogy in New Entrant Environments; Ben is boldly (in his own words) “sailing off in his own little boat” to the nascent world of 3D printing; and Bec was only 15 days into her new role as Deputy Principal at Tatahai Coast School when she attended her first masterclass.

I am in awe of these educators, who have pledged to be more critical and questioning; to maintain an objective perspective; and interpret their data faithfully and honestly (says Anne in this blog post) as well as being open to the criticism of their peers to be challenged in their thinking.

Anne at work
Anne sketches out her early thoughts at the first masterclass in Auckland.

So, this isn’t going to be ‘e’ for easy then…

Not easy, no, but this group don’t take themselves too seriously, and they’re really fun. This somehow makes their task seem less daunting. It’s nice to have someone to laugh with when you realise just how vast the education landscape is — how much there is still left to explore. Perhaps the ‘e’ of eFellows stands for exploration?

eFellowship group masterclass activity
Louise, Rowan and Bec share in a light-hearted lunch during the third masterclass in Wellington.

Vicki Hagenaars, another of the 2014 seven, wears an ‘evolve’ bracelet, each charm denoting a part of her life’s journey. Cook Strait, Canterbury, Ohakune are there, as well as a koru for the eFellowship. Could the ‘e’ stand for ‘evolution’? Do the eFellows see education as forever on its own continuum of development? Perhaps the 80+ fellows are people who envision education as something that should excite, engage, enable, be equal, encourage, empower, entrust, expand….

Yes, I think the ‘e’ in eFellows stands for all of these things, and more.

What about the ‘e’ for electronic?

I can’t say I learnt all that much about the ‘e’ for electronic from my time with the eFellows — or at least, that wasn’t the most rousing part of their masterclasses. It was their passion and the stories of their learners that gave me goosebumps. The wondering that had led them here, that overrode any tentativeness they had about applying, and spurs them on to uncover more and better ways to help their learners.

If you’re a fellow wonderer; if you have a strong desire to see positive change in your school, kura, and learners; if your ākongo are at the centre of what you want to do in your practice…then the eFellowship is definitely for you. Educators and kaiako, apply here.

Snapshots of the 2014 eFellows' journey so far. Serious work, and serious fun.

Links to further information:

read more
Posted in

Ten Trends 2014: Maker culture

Posted on by

Trend 7: Maker culture

CORE's Ten Trends for 2014 have been published. This post considers the seventh of these trends: Maker culture. We publish posts on one of the trends approximately each month. You are encouraged to comment or provide supporting links.

Explanation

Think of learning at its earliest stage: a baby learning to play with blocks or manipulate objects in three-dimensional space. It’s something our human brains are hard-wired to do. Researchers like Dewey and Piaget talk about constructivism — suggesting that learning is an active process in which people actively construct knowledge from their experience in the world. People don’t get ideas; they make them.

This idea of making, of building, of constructing has a strong basis in research. Active learning increases the rate of learning faster than passive learning, Even just watching others build or make things fires up parts of our brain that are left untouched by passive learning.

Drivers

While the maker movement has been around in many forms, it’s only now that we’re starting to see technology catch up with our aspirations for a powerful, active, authentic education.

Last week we broke the bracket that holds up the towel rail in our bathroom. The first thing I thought was not, Oh, we’ve broken it. It was, ‘I wish we had a 3D printer’, because I could scan the broken part with the camera on my phone and print a replacement. And it’s conceivable that there will be some form of 3D printer in many homes in the foreseeable future.

Is your Nan having trouble plugging the jug in because of her arthritis? There’s your year 7 technology project. Learning about insects for science? Design and print a bug hotel that you can attach to a tree or a fence for insects to live in. It’s all made possible by the magic of 3D printing, and a range of 3D modelling software tools — many of which are open source, and able to be installed on any computer learners have access to.

Another driver of the maker movement has been the emergence of a powerful suite of small electronic microprocessors that you can programme with a bit of code. Often they snap together with little extras, like light or movement sensors or Bluetooth and wireless modules, and all of a sudden you’ve got something you can attach a solar panel and a rechargeable battery to, and you’ve got a completely self-contained, internet-connected data-gathering tool. So what do you want to know? How many sunlight hours there have been each day this month? What the maximum temperature has been every day this week? The Arduino and the Raspberry Pi might sound like funny names, but they are essentially tiny, extremely affordable computers that kids can add onto like Lego. This freedom and creativity is right at the heart of the maker movement.

Impact

Art, technology, design, music, film, science all come crashing together in the maker movement. Want to sew a circuit into the hoodie you wear when you ride your bike home so that a arrow made of LED lights on your back indicates which way you’re turning? Piece of cake. What about creating an interactive sculpture that changes colour depending on the kind of music you play in the room? No trouble.

So what’s the impact of all this possibility on learning? For one thing we've got more chance to unleash student creativity than ever before. And we’ve got the chance to really connect our learning to the real world for another. We can solve real world problems and give students the kind of voice and confidence

Implications

Our learners have the ability to shape and bend all sorts of technology to meet their needs — we need to make sure we’re giving them plenty of opportunities to do it. Design thinking and design processes need to be central to our planning, not only to meet learners’ needs but also to give them opportunities to meet others’ needs. We can start small:

  • Grab a little electronics starter kit that doesn’t need soldering skills or even a good understanding of circuits, and see what your kids can do with it.
  • Talk to your principal about getting a 3D printer
  • Download something like Sketchup so kids can start playing around.

Because, it’s this playfulness that’s at the heart of the maker movement.

Examples and links:

For more about the Ten Trends:

read more
Posted in

Unpacking 3D in Chromebook

Posted on by

I don't know about you, but I've always found it hard to get my head around stuff like

F(x,y)=x*y^3-y*x^3

As a boy, I'd chew my pencil and stare out of the window and wish I was playing with my kite or riding my bicycle. With dreams of being a navigator I would need not just to pass maths, I'd need an A.

Easty (we called him that because his brain had gone west) failed to capture my imagination. The chalk squeaked on the blackboard, and some days tears would well up as I tried to get to grips with it all. Mr Kirkwood's class was a slight improvement, we plotted parabolas on graph paper. We weren't sure what parabolas were for, but at least there was a physical manifestation, a drawing on a piece of paper. Not until I was 17, and attending sea school, did it all start to make some sense, because now there was a globe, and angles subtended at the centre of the earth, and arcs described on the surface of the earth. Arcs along which you could steam a ship.

But now, in second childhood, I am happy playing on my Chromebook. I have just grabbed 3D Function Graphics from the Chrome Web Store. It's free, so I didn't even need to think about it. Click. Done. It's obvious how it works. All I need now are some cool 3D functions (if I was at school my maths teacher would be writing them on the board). In another tab I go to Google and put in the obvious search string "cool 3d functions" and I land on the Physics Forum page 'Cool 3-D functions for graphing' by LPHY.

I try a few – you just enter the function in a text box at the top of the page – and the one I like the best is

F(x,y)=cos(abs(x)+abs(y))

It makes an object that looks like this

3D Function Graphics - 1

I wonder… what would it look like if I … put this?
 
F(x,y)=cos(abs(x*1.4)+abs(y*1.4))

Wow, look what's happened to the corners!

3D Function Graphics - 2

Now, I didn't tell you that another thing I've found in the Chrome Web Store is Pixlr Editor. I'm wondering if I could turn my object into a character. There's an 'export as image' feature in 3D Function Graphics, so it's easy to get these 2D snapshots of my object (viewed from any angle) Pixlr Editor. I try a few filters, and then hit on this one… that's one mean duck. Quack! Quack!

3D Function Graphics 3

Since discovering 3D Function Graphics I'm taking a lot more interest in functions. All this fun has put me in mind of Ed Catmull, the brains behind many of the algorithms that powered Pixar and gave us Toy Story, and Finding Nemo, and Cars. It seems that all those numbers can be an enormous amount of fun. Serious fun. Hard fun.

I think what I'm trying to say is this: When you see a student idly playing around in their Chromebook, fiddling about with something, don't be in too much of a hurry to pull them back on task. They may be learning something very important and personal to them.

Number 6 of CORE Education's 10 Trends 2013 was 'Thinking 3D'. I think you can unpack that in many ways.

read more
Posted in

UDL at the dentist

Posted on by

“To promote understanding of information, concepts, relationships, and ideas, it is critical to provide multiple ways for learners to approach them”. David Rose.

An unexpected learning experience

Photo taken by Chrissie at dentist
A UDL experience: My dentist simply explained what was happening in my mouth highlighting each tooth with different coloured lines and marks.

A couple of weeks ago, Scott Turner, a Wellington Endodentist described how he was going to clean around and possibly retrieve the broken drill piece lost deep in my root canal by my dentist.

At the end of the consultation, he asked if I had any questions.

“Actually I do”, I said. “Do you think I could take a photo? The way you have explained what is going to happen when you work on my tooth perfectly modelled something called Universal Design for Learning (UDL). You have just modelled the principle of offering multiple representations to support understanding. I’d like to write about it.

A regular part of any trip to the dentist, is the inevitable post procedure chat, the bit where they talk about what they did and what is going to happen next. As fear is my trusty companion in a dental surgery, my ability to listen is significantly inhibited. In fact all my energy and attention is generally consumed by trying to hold myself together until I am out the door.

The chat with Scott, looked like it was going to go the same way. He pulled up a photo of my tooth on his computer screen. I in turn moved into auto-pilot and began singing, “la, la, la” inside my head to block out the expected medicalese and to distract myself from the enlarged image of my filling-filled mouth.

To my surprise, Scott didn’t launch into the technicalities of the procedure. Instead he gave me a walk through of each tooth on the screen, its integrity and said things were in great shape. No-one has ever said anything positive about my teeth and hooked my attention. He also usefully connected his storytelling directly to the examination he had made of my mouth. He linked specifically to the way he had tapped here and prodded there and I could feel myself actually connecting to some kind of shared experience rather than disassociating myself.

The practical and effective use of digital tools

Scott then introduced some x-rays and opened them in a programme that looked like Microsoft Paint. Again rather than launching into details of the medical procedure, he orientated me to my own mouth. It was a bit like being introduced to a new landscape. As Scott introduced each feature, he highlighted it with different coloured lines and marks, as in the photo. He made no assumptions that I knew what anything was. He consistently linked his storytelling back to the photo and my shared experience of the examination. His use of the technology was absolutely fluid and functional. It was actually a joy to watch.

By the time Scott introduced the nitty gritty of the actual procedure, I felt almost confident. He described each stage of the intervention with words and by drawing and where applicable made analogies to ordinary things. At the end of section of the “chat” he would pause and check if I understood and for once I actually felt like I did.

So why the strong UDL connection?

Multiple means of representation: Engagement - Stimulate motivation and sustained enthusiasm for learning; Representation - Present information and content in different ways to support understanding; Action and expression - Offer options and support so everyone can create, learn, and share.
Multiple means of representation

The principle “Multiple means of representation”, one of the three principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is about the need to offer students a range of options and supports to increase their understanding.

In the text, UDL Theory and Practice, David Rose reflects:

"Learners' ability to perceive, interpret, and understand information is dependent upon the media and methods through which it is presented. For learning environments to support varied learners in all of these recognition processes, three broad kinds of options for representation are needed: options for perception; options for language, mathematical expressions, and symbols; and options for comprehension. A learning context with these options presents few barriers, regardless of the variations in biology and background of the students."

As the student, in this context, Scott offered me options in each of the three recognition processes. Interestingly, he probably does that for every client. He takes a universal approach, building into his way of working options to support understanding. He plans for the diverse needs of clients at the outset.

As an unknown client and one who brings a swag of negative expectations to the environment, the learning experience was quite honestly inspiring. I couldn’t help but make connections to teaching and learning and to the potential UDL has as framework for the inclusive flexible design of environments and the innovative use of technologies.

Useful links:

read more
Posted in