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He kōrerorero, he whakaaro

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He kōrerorero, he whakaaro
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Open access

Banish the gatekeepers and bring forth the creators

Posted on May 31, 2016 by Paula Eskett

Have you ever found something from the Internet that could be a perfect resource (image, video, quiz, etc.,) for your class worksheet, website, or research and then spent hours trying to figure out the copyright issues with that resource? You couldn’t find any Terms of Use, and there was no author information, so you didn’t know whom to contact to get the permission?

Wouldn’t it have been nice if that resource somehow said, “I’m free to use, no strings attached, you don’t need to ask for my permission because it is already granted”?

Well guess what … Open Educational Resources (OER) are an answer to that need!

There are millions of educational resources out there that are available for others to freely use. There are all kinds: full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and many other tools, materials and techniques used to support access to knowledge. 1

Worldwide academics, politicians, teachers, scientists and everyday citizens are making and sharing what they’ve researched and created with as part of a worldwide OPEN movement.

Waving the flag high and shouting from the world’s rooftops are Creative Commons, who are passionate about constantly growing the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share.

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pohiri Moutahora

A stranger in a strange land?

Posted on May 27, 2016 by Andrew Penny

I recently read a blog post by Wharehoka Wano and watched Alex Hotere-Barnes on EDtalks. Both of these discussions centred on Māori/Pākehā dynamics within education settings. Reading Wharehoka’s blog and listening to Alex got me thinking about an experience I had a few weeks ago when I was in Whakatāne as part of the LEARNZ Waka Voyaging virtual field trip.

pohiri MoutahoraEnd of the pōhiri on Moutohorā

An honest appraisal

I don’t mind admitting that throughout the course of my life to date I have internalised some of those ‘white privilege’ examples that Wharehoka refers to in his blog. A lack of empathy and misunderstanding about Māori culture and its place in our society has surely led to a fair amount of ‘Pākehā paralysis’ on my part throughout my involvement in education.

On the other hand, I did go to a primary school that had a lot of Māori culture within its curriculum. We learned many waiata along with their actions, how to pronounce words properly, some vocabulary and phrases, different games, as well as incorporating Māori culture and history into artwork and so on. Although this was now many years ago, I can certainly credit those formal experiences with grounding me enough to at least reflect on and question my own beliefs and assumptions around issues of ‘privilege’.

What a pity this great start in Māori education didn’t extend beyond primary school!

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John cusack

Keep the fear off the set

Posted on May 25, 2016 by Karen Spencer

John cusackDo you remember the actor/director John Cusack? He of ‘High Fidelity’ and ‘Being John Malkovich’ fame?  I recently heard about ‘The John Cusack Rule’. When asked in an interview about how he saw his role as film producer, he said his main job was, ”To keep the set free from fear.”

This ‘rule’ was offered to me as a guiding principle for working in large-scale volunteering spaces — and it feels equally useful for anyone working with others through challenge and change. I have blogged twice this year about transformative change (‘Transforming learning’ and ‘Can we create conditions for transformation?’) — and this post continues this theme.

The John Cusack story was shared by Joe McCannon and Becky Kanis Margiotta, the two founders of the Billions Institute, and I was lucky enough to spend a day working with them as part of the Carnegie Summit on Improvement Science that I attended last month. Both Joe and Becky have notched up years in health and social impact fields, rehousing thousands of homeless and scaling the rollout of vital health services. Not in education — and all the more refreshing for it! Looking to other sectors can help us make new connections that can fuel innovative thinking back at base.

The following ideas were shared by them on the day and I offer them as useful nuggets to help us support and scale innovation in our own contexts.

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information overload

Navigating the Flood and Avoiding the Fog of Information Overload

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Sue Bridges

information overload

I wonder if you’ve felt in recent years that life is constantly overwhelming — that there’s so much more to deal with than you have time for, and that you are always in ‘catch-up’ mode?

Welcome to my world. In fact, welcome to our world: an increasingly-digital world of multiple demands and stimulations, full of so many challenging, exciting and diverse opportunities that it becomes difficult to decide what to do. Perhaps we feel a little like the proverbial children in a sweetshop, but faced with much more complex situations. And as educators, we are tasked with the additional responsibility of helping the next generation to navigate this world.

Does it make your head whirl? Do you sometimes find yourself so busy being connected and available, that you fall into the trap of thinking of ubiquity as:

‘everywhere, all the time’

rather than:

‘anywhere, any time’?

Does the mental fog sometimes descend and paralyse you temporarily? Do you feel the slight panic and fear of missing out, if you don’t feel up-to-date or on top of everything? I know that I do!

Recently I found myself discussing this very issue with members of my book discussion group. Among our number are several educators, businesswomen, and psychologists, so the conversation ran deep and drew on wide bases of knowledge and experience. This powerful social context for learning led us to discovery of a taonga – which, if you did not already know of it, I now pass on to you.

Introducing…

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student sensitivity to devices

Personalising student devices

Posted on May 19, 2016 by Lynne Silcock

Developers are working hard to make devices easier to use and more accessible, but most people don’t even scratch the surface when it comes to using all the features their device offers.

The inbuilt options are not just for those with specific disabilities. Just as we would adjust a car seat to suit our individual needs, our devices can be personalised for a best fit with an individual profile as unique as a fingerprint. A device can be personalised by the user themselves and/or set up for them by someone who knows them well and is aware of the options available.

Personalisation can help to make the experience of using technology more enjoyable and efficient. It can affect a student’s emotional state by reducing stress and addressing access and learning barriers. These, in turn, can make a big difference to productivity and behaviour.

Standard devices now include options that mean that they work well for many more users than they did in the past. People who would have traditionally needed quite specialised devices can now use the inbuilt features in standard devices to work alongside their peers.

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