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te reo Māori safe place

The limits of my language mean the limits of my world

Posted on October 19, 2017 by Jane Nicholls

(Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 5.6)

te reo safe place

Recently I listened to the Radio New Zealand interview with Te Taka Keegan and something he mentioned opened an avenue of new thinking for me.

“When you become fluent, you can see things through a different lens.”

In 2007, I was privileged to be a CORE eFellow. The quote by Wittgenstein in the title of this post informed my eFellow research, which looked at podcasting as a tool to help students develop their oral language capability. My findings revealed that some students needed time to develop and become confident in their use of oral language within a safe space. In this way, they can develop the necessary skills before being expected to use those skills combined with standing in front of an audience. With podcasting, students could record and listen to themselves, and practise, and improve. They could then tentatively put this recording out to the world for others to engage with through a podcast, but still be one step removed from the oral presentation. Emboldened by the positive feedback of their peers, they could take the next step of using those oral-language skills within a real-time presentation to the class or school.

The key learning was that we needed to enable those who couldn’t speak in front of people to continue to develop the necessary skills in a different environment. And, in this way, I felt that I had supported these students to extend the limits of their world.

Now, the same quote has come to mean something more to me as the limits of my world expand.

There is a debate in New Zealand at the moment about the inclusion of te reo Māori as a compulsory subject in schools. Te reo Māori was given official language status in New Zealand in 1987, and te Tiriti o Waitangi is a founding document of this country. New Zealand is a bicultural society — so, let’s look at Keegan and Wittgenstein again:

“When you become fluent, you can see things through a different lens.”

“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world”

If we are truly to live the vision of being a bicultural society, shouldn’t we all expand our world and see this country through the lenses available to us? Shouldn’t we truly be able to ‘talk’ to each other and bridge the barrier that is in place through these limits? Don’t our children deserve to be able to see the world through as many lenses as possible? Especially if one crucial lens was taken away from some of our children through draconian policies that banned the use of their language in the first place.

jane nicholls

I am in the privileged position of having the choice to be part of a bicultural society. I can make the choice to see through another lens. Many of my friends do not have that choice — as someone once revealed to me:

“When my children and I open our door in the morning to head out to school, we don’t have a choice to be bicultural. We have to step out into the dominant culture and look for signs of our own culture within that world.”

I am taking the time to learn and practise my reo in a safe space, which is my very supportive workplace. Through its support and encouragement, I am emboldened to begin to expand my language as I step out into different parts of my world. Our schools can be that safe place for our children to learn and practise.

Have you found your safe place yet?

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ulearn education conference

Getting the most out of uLearn17

Posted on October 6, 2017 by Anne Kenneally

education conference

School holidays are upon us. Time to relax and recharge. It is also time to take up professional learning and development (PLD) opportunities.

uLearn is CORE Education’s annual professional learning conference, suitable for teachers, facilitators and school leaders alike, from early childhood through to tertiary.

Across three days of continual PLD (or four days if you also attend the pre-conference), you will get the opportunity to connect and collaborate with like-minded New Zealand and international educators as you develop practical solutions to innovate in your teaching practice.

But wait, there’s more! You can take part in uLearn even if you are not coming to the conference!

The #notatulearn hashtag offers you the chance to follow along and experience uLearn virtually this year. There are two live streamed sessions available to you in our Connected Conversation series:

Connected Conversation 1: Student learners at the centre

Live-streamed on Wednesday 11 October 2017, 11:15 am – 12:30 pm

Panelists:

Juliet Revell @Juliet_Revell — Connecting with Kids #KidsedchatNZ

Melanie Matthews @melaniem8 and Olivia Graham @zlivz — Connecting to expert teachers virtually

Bronwyn Joyce @JoyceBronwyn (virtual) — Learning beyond the walls

Connected Conversation 2: Connected conversations going global

Live-streamed Wednesday 11 October 2017, 1:30 pm – 2:45 pm

Panelists:

Grant Lichtman @GrantLichtman (virtual) Moving the Rock: Seven levers we can press to dramatically transform education now

Christine Trimnell @TrimChris1 – Global Projects — 21st Century learning in a Digital World

Dean Shareski @shareski (virtual) — How to be Generous in a Connected World

(Maybe this will tempt you to join us in Auckland for uLearn18.)

So, whether you are joining us face-to-face or taking part in #notatulearn … Here are some quick steps to get the most out of uLearn17.

Before:

  1. Get organised! Join Twitter and follow the hashtag #ulearn17 and #CENZ17
  2. Join edspace uLearn group, introduce yourself and tell us what you’d like to get out of uLearn17.

 

Connected Educator (CENZ) Team

connected educators nz

  1. Come and see us at the Connected Educator Stand for Flipgrid challenges, connecting, photobooth and more — including the release of our revitalised Starter Kete. In the Connected Educator Room, we’re running practical, hands-on sessions to support you in getting connected Breakouts 1–5
  2. Find out about the keynotes: Eric Mazur,@eric_mazur Dr Ann Milne,@ann_milne  Brad Waid, @Techbradwaid  and Abdul Chohan, @Abdulchohan. What do you know about them already? What do you wonder? Have you followed them on Twitter?
  3. Check out the spotlight sessions, aligned to the conference strands.
  4. Think now about how you are going to capture your new learning. Are you going to blog it, tweet it, capture it on Evernote, set up a group/school google doc for collective gathering of insights? Take notes using shared Google Docs where possible and share in uLearn discussions.
  5. Bookmark links in uLearn discussion groups.
  6. Pack comfortable shoes, and clothes. You are going to chalk up some steps at uLearn. Have you got your personal fitness wearable charged and ready to go? Have you got a suitable backpack to carry all you need for the day? And, don’t forget to label your belongings — just like camp!
  7. Sign up for Night at the Movies ‘the heART of the matter’ and an interview with the producer on Wednesday night.
  8. Organise your Op Shop Ballroom costume for the gala dinner.

During:

  1. Find your tribe. Take the time to meet new people. The friendly tribe you’ll meet at uLearn17 can be your support network going forward. Follow them on Twitter, find and follow their blogs, share and connect beyond the face-to-face event.
  2. Be charged! Pack the ‘right’, fully charged, device for you. Can you capture all you need on your iPad, tablet, or phone? Do you need to bring your laptop or chromebook? Make sure you have all your charging cords with you, but travel as light as possible!
  3. On your own? It’s okay to hang out at the Connected Educator Station, ask questions, and, hopefully, meet up with others. Also, when in workshops, join someone else who looks like they are on their own and introduce yourself. If you are alone, choose workshops that are interactive, because then you get to talk to people.
  4. Keep an eye on Strea.ma
  5. Don’t forget to allow time to visit the Trades Hall and talk to the vendors. Don’t forget the various competitions and prizes being offered there. You need to stay to the end for the draws. Use ShowGizmo, scan QR code posters on exhibitor stands to go in the draw to win.
  6. Visit the CORE Education stand (inside the exhibition hall). Meet the team, explore our 2018 professional learning solutions, and purchase resources.
  7. Spin the digital prize wheel and be an instant winner! Prizes include a complimentary uLearn18 registration plus flights (within NZ) and accommodation.
  8. Join in the Conference Showcase Rātu / Tuesday 5.00pm
  9. Take some time to enjoy the culture and arts around Hamilton in your evenings or early mornings. There are lots of places to walk and explore.
  10. At uLearn17 and uLearn Changing Spaces (the pre-conference day at Rototuna Junior High School focussing on ILEs), you will have the opportunity to collect He Tohu Oranga (CORE’s digital badges). Digital Badges are an evidence-based certification of learning to provide a record of your achievements.

After:

  1. Continue the discussions via social media, on Twitter #ulearn17, #CENZ17, Facebook, edSpace
  2. Share your learning:
  1. Plan a date in your calendar to follow up with team or staff meetings
  2. Plan for ‘uShare’ experience where two or more schools get together for

face-to-face staff session to discuss their action plans

Now that you’ve read this, come along to the Connected Educator station at uLearn, and share the ‘secret message’, which is, “Learning is sweeter when you are connected’’, and receive the first free offer. Then find out how to work towards the set…

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creating or creativity

Creating or Creativity?

Posted on September 28, 2017 by James Hopkins

Recently, I’ve found myself engaged in several conversations around what it means to create and whether you need to have creativity to do so. It could be argued that creation is the process taken and if done creatively, then it becomes an outcome of much higher order of thinking.
creativity or creatingOne question that seems to resurface regularly is ‘Do you need to be creative to create something?’ Again, we need to return to the simple definitions of the two terms and highlight their differences. One is clearly a verb (to create) while the other is an adverb (creatively) but is this enough? Sure, you can create something with relative ease. It is a process. Something that can be tracked and talked through. A fine example of creating is the simple act of following a recipe. If followed correctly, the outcome has been predetermined and will be successful. However, if we look at the very heart of what it means to be creative, the use of imagination and original ideas, then I would argue that following a recipe is not. Should you choose to deviate from the recipe and experiment with different textures, flavours, and spices, then you should expect a more unplanned outcome.

Fastcompany.com suggests, “Creativity isn’t a talent you either have or you don’t, it’s a skill that you can build with these practices.” The article that follows, suggests several simple steps to improve your creativity. But hang on — by its very definition, creativity is the use of imagination or original ideas to create. Surely, if an idea is original it cannot be built upon in the first place!

Looking further back into history, the Ancient Greeks suggested that creativity was a divine gift from the gods; one that was given to some, but not all. Those who had it were chosen for a purpose and given an incredible reward to further the thinking of their peers.

Some 2500 years ago, Democritus (c. 460 BCE – c. 370 BCE) asked Hippocrates (c. 460 BCE – c. 370 BCE), “Why are extraordinary men in philosophy, politics, or the arts melancholics?” After a lengthy conversation, Hippocrates reasoned that they were not melancholics, but geniuses with such tremendous creativity and ability to think differently, that their emotional state was unable to cope. So, is creativity now a gift from the gods that only a handful possess? Much like our clothes have changed, we need to accept that our views can do the same. We now believe that creativity lies within us; it is not bestowed upon us by another.

So, are we any closer to unpacking the difference between the two concepts and their application? The challenge we have is that many intertwine the expressions, and I sincerely hope that my brief outline above shows just how different the two terms can be. In its simplest form, creative is something you are or can be. To create is something you can do, but not necessarily through your own creativity.

A colleague of mine recently facilitated a staff meeting around questioning and inquiry thinking. She was challenged towards the end of the meeting when talking about students being given the opportunity to create. A teacher in the room asked the simple question, ‘What about the students who just aren’t creative?’ Herein lies one of the common challenges we face. The teacher, although well within her right to challenge a concept she felt uncomfortable with, was suggesting through her question that one cannot create without creativity.

I wholeheartedly disagree with this thinking.

Create
All students can create. If given the opportunity to do so, the tools or skillset and enablers to access learning, every student can produce something. Therefore, by its very definition, they can create.

Creativity
Creativity is a wholly different concept. Original thoughts and inspiration are needed. Many use innovation as the verb best suited to creativity, over the simple act of creating something. Creativity relies on thinking differently, pursuing imagination and ideas, to develop a concept or ‘create’ something fresh.

Although I accept creativity can be involved in creation, I do not believe it is a ‘must have’ ingredient. In the case of the teacher asking her simple question, I felt the need to both challenge it and unpack it on two separate levels. The question, although relatively innocuous, was flawed because of its initial assumption. If rephrased to meet the criteria I’ve suggested, it could be one of two:

  • What about the children who cannot create?

Or

  • What about the children who have no creativity?

The first, I believe, isn’t reliant on the child, but the scaffolding and planning supplied by the teacher. If you give a child a simple set of instructions, they will create. Some will create exactly what is asked for, while others will end up with something quite different, but all will have created something. Surely, it stands to reason that with the right level of support, every child has the ability to create.

creativityThe second question puzzles me. A well-known children’s author, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, wrote in her book, ‘Also an Octopus’, that a good story ‘…starts with a little bit of nothing...’ and beautifully followed up with, ‘and everyone has a little bit of nothing.’ My point is simply that to be creative in its purest form, we often start from nothing. When not starting from nothing and building on the ideas of others, much of the challenge around ‘starting with a little bit of nothing’ has already been tackled. So, to answer the question in a roundabout sort of way, I truly believe that every child has a little bit of nothing and that every child has a wonderful imagination. It’s just a question of finding the right catalyst to ignite the fire —  and the right tool to enable the flow.

Without creativity, the world would be a very different place. Someone, somewhere, once decided man should walk on the moon. They were creative. Innovative. That someone, undoubtedly with the help of many others, created the technology and equipment to make it happen. Well, every child has their moon — we just must find a way to help them get there.

 


Image credits
Innovation Lightbulb https://pixabay.com/en/photos/innovative/ CC0

“Photographic proof that NASA faked the moon landing” https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/2695056366 CC2.0

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What do you use your Moodle for?

Posted on September 21, 2017 by Stephen Lowe

free-roaming hens

Technology doesn’t always get used in the way that the creators originally intended. By the turn of the millennium, for example, my 486-66 tower computer was being used to prop open the office door; it was Lifehacker air conditioning. Today, it is well established in our minds that there are technologies that disrupt, and technologies that sustain. Then there are technologies that can be used to either disrupt or sustain; Moodle is one of these technologies.

Martin Dougiamus, the creator of Moodle, in an article in Moodle Docs titled Philosophy, stated his case for constructivism, constructionism, social constructivism, separate, connected, and constructed behaviour. He said, “Moodle doesn’t FORCE this style of behaviour, but this is what the designers believe that it is best at supporting”. So, from the start, he had conceived Moodle as a disruptive technology that would give students an online environment of their own, a voice, and agency. Unfortunately, a lot of teachers grabbed the platform and used it not to disrupt, but to sustain their teacher-centric practice.

Here are some teacher-centric ways you can use Moodle: Create content for the students to read; publish a list of useful links to get more reading; post a video of yourself talking in an authoritative way about your subject; create a quiz so the students can self-assess their progress; post homework exercises for students to do over the weekend. If you’re a geek teacher you can create badges and award them to those students who choose to play your game. That’s using Moodle to sustain teacher-centric practice.

Here are some learner-centric ways you can use Moodle: Set up a forum where students can ask questions, let the other students answer first, let them upvote good answers,  only intervene if you need to; set up an empty glossary and invite the students to explain concepts in their own words, solicit feedback through the comments; encourage the uploading of short video clips made by students as they reflect on their learning journey; spend some time showing the students how a wiki works and familiarising them with markup language, then encourage them to create their own revision resource; invite them to co-construct a revision quiz. That’s using Moodle to disrupt.

Here are some truly radical ways to use Moodle: Flip the online space – make all the students teachers and all the teachers students, switch roles, take teach-back to a whole new level; encourage your students to open free accounts on H5P and embed their interactives into the Moodle space; suggest each small study group creates a whole Moodle course around their project for the other students to access, don’t tell them how to do it just watch and learn from what they do. Now as a modern teacher all you have to do is follow Sugata Mitra’s Self Organised Learning Environments and make like a granny. Login to the Moodle and use the comments and forums they will have set up to appraise and support.

It was popular once to say everything becomes television. Today you could say everything becomes a network. This freer more distributed knowledge base is moving like tree roots to dislodge the pillars of the monolithic Learning Management Systems like Moodle and Blackboard. In an attempt to regain control, the universities started offering MOOCs like tweed jacketed, pipe-smoking professors making lame attempts to be hip. They entirely ignored the original intention of the MOOC as it was conceived by connectivists Stephen Downes and Dave Cormier, and once again the old school hijacked a learning environment to sustain their old institution-centric practices. I never used to understand the famous Marshall McLuhan quote, “The medium is the message”, but I totally get it now.

One technology that has emerged to support the trend towards distributed and democratised knowledge is rather charmingly called, Tin Can. I recall as a child turning two empty baked bean cans and 10 metres of string into a field telephone. For people who want a more important sounding name, it is also called xAPI or the eXperience API. xAPI is SCORM turned on its head. SCORM was the aviation industry’s solution to delivering consistent pre-approved learning packages across a world campus to a guaranteed consistency and standard. Faced with compliance training of a hundred thousand baggage handlers, it was a reasonable solution. xAPI allows the learner much greater freedom and ensures them recognition for their efforts. Now, free-range learners can roam the networks, and their interactions with learning objects embedded almost anywhere in the wider online environment can trigger a log entry to a Learning Record Store (LRS). Over time, the aggregate of these interactions builds up into a useful and insightful history of the learner’s journey. It’s early days for xAPI yet, but I think we will see it linked with micro-learning, micro-accreditation, and personalised learning environments.

If we are preparing our students through project-based learning for the increasingly likely gig economy, then the employer of the future turns out to be someone remarkably disinterested in what you have done and interested only in what you can do for them now. If you’re a geeky data-informed learning designer, then you’ll be best-fitting regression lines to learner trajectory scatter plots to predict their future performance. The employer of the future is more likely to turn to a recommender system that produces a list of suitable candidates available to start now than they are to browse portfolios. Anyway, the employment agents of the future won’t be people, they’ll be an algorithm.

 

If you would like to connect with CORE’s LX Team, come, see what we can do.

 

Image Credit:
Free range hens, Mullaghmore:
cc-by-sa/2.0 – © Kenneth Allen – geograph.org.uk/p/5280001

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matarua kapa haka 2017

Te Puna Mātauranga Māori

Posted on September 11, 2017 by Whare Isaac-Sharland

Whare Isaac-Sharland Nā Whare Isaac-Sharland

E tangi e reo, mōu e ngaro haere nei.
Ko te Huia kua ngaro noa atu,
Otirā ko ana kupu tohutohu.
Kāore ko tōna reo, i waihotia mai.
Kia hiwa rā, kia hiwa rā!
(Nā Whare Isaac-Sharland rāua ko Apera Clark)

Ko Tawhiuau rāua ko Hikurangi ngā maunga,
Ko Rangtaiki rāua ko Waiawa ngā awa.
Ko Ngāti Whare, rātou ko Ngāti Koro, ko Ngāti Ruapani ōku hapu.
He uri ahau o Ngāti Manawa ki Murupara me Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa.
Ko Tangiharuru te tangata, ko ngā tukemata o Kahungunu!
Tēnā tātou katoa.

Te Roopu Kapa Haka ō Matarua 2017I tērā tau, 2017, i riro i a au te karahipi iWhara a Tākuta Vince Ham, nā Tātai Aho Rau.  Nōku te whakamānawa, nōku te whiwhi, nōku te hōnore.  Ko te iWhara a Tākuta Vince Ham, he karahipi rangahau hei whakapakari i ngā pūkenga o te pouako.  Me aro te kaitono ki tētahi kaupapa whakahirahira o te ao whakaako, o te ao mātauranga anō hoki.  Mā te kaikarahipi te kaupapa rangahau e kōwhiri, māna hoki e whai.  Mā Tātai Aho Rau ngā pukenga o te kaikarahipi e tautoko, e hāpai i te roanga o te tau, kia tutuki ōna hiahia, kia eke tana rangahau. Ka mihi ki a Tātai Aho Rau e whakawhanake ana i ērā pūkenga rangahau ōku.

Ko te kapa haka me ana hononga ki ngā pūkenga ako o te tamaiti ngā whāinga matua o taku rangahau.  E pēnei ana te takoto o ōku whakaaro i te korenga o ētahi o Ngāi Māori i whakaae he kaupapa whakahirahira te kapa haka ki ngā wharekura rānei, ki ngā kura tuarua rānei. Kōtore whererei ana te rongo e noho ana ētahi ki te pae o kore whakaae!

Hohepa and Whare Isaac-SharlandKohukohurangi Isaac-Sharland, Te Mauri Isaac-Sharland, Putorino Isaac-SharlandE 23 ngā tau māua ko taku tane e whāia ana ko te reo me ōna tikanga te reo matua o te whānau, hei whakarauora hoki i te mātauranga Māori ki ō māua whānau.  Kua roa tā māua whawhai i ngā whakaaro auraki.  Heoi, i tētahi o ngā wāhanga o taku rangahau iWhara, i warewaretia katoatia aua akoranga, nā te mea i taku tuhinga e mea ana, “he iti noa iho ngā kōrero rangahau mō te kapa haka i tēnei ao hurihuri”.  Tērā pea ka pānuihia tēnei o aku tuhinga e ōku karangamaha o te motu, ā ka puku ngā rae.  Ka rongo au i ā rātou kupu e whakatika mai ana, me aro kē au ki ngā mātauranga Māori.  Ka tika hoki tēnā kōrero, kei te ao Māori kē ngā tini kōrero hei taunaki i ngā hua o te kapa haka.

E hia tau au e kite ana i ngā hua o te kapa haka mō te iwi Māori?  Pērā ki te reo, he taonga tuku iho nā ō tātou tupuna.  Nā te kapa haka, ka rere te reo rangatira, ka ako ngā tauira i ngā kōrero a te Māori, i ngā tikanga Māori, ka mutu, ka tangata whenua ēnei akoranga i roto i a rātou.

Mōku ake ko te rongoā mō ngā raru katoa e patu nei i a Ngāi Māori, kei te ao Māori, kei te mātauranga Māori. Nā tēnei rangahau iWhara kua oho anō au, kua titi ki te ngākau, ki te whatumanawa ngā mōhiotanga, ngā māramatanga o te mātauranga Māori, kia taunga ēnei āhuatanga i roto i a tātou, ka māmā ake te hīkoi i te ao Pākēhā.

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