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My reo journey continues

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Andrew is continuing to create opportunities to include a greater range of kupu and kīwaha into the video and web conference resources he develops through LEARNZ virtual field trips. Image: LEARNZ.

Caption: Andrew is continuing to create opportunities to include a greater range of kupu and kīwaha into the video and web conference resources he develops through LEARNZ virtual field trips. Image: LEARNZ.

Over time, I have come to appreciate how the Māori language is intimately woven into the fabric of nature, history, customs, and beliefs. I see much more clearly now how te reo is an essential element of Māoritanga — more than just a means to communicate. In a blog I wrote last year, titled ‘A Stranger in a Strange Land?’, I talked about why I think learning te reo is one of the best ways to develop empathy for Māori culture. In part of that blog I said that it was:
…the active learning of Māori language which I believe is the key to breaking through Pākehā paralysis to a point where Pākehā educators have an experiential understanding of Māori language and culture, not just an intellectual understanding, to make the teaching and learning environment a properly inclusive one.

(For more information on the notion of Pākehā paralysis, watch Alex Hotere-Barnes on EDtalks).

In that blog, I also explored my own te reo Māori journey. “I’ll let you know how things are progressing in my next blog!” I said. Well, here it is!

Te Reo Manahua Māori

Last year, I enrolled in Te Reo Manahua Māori, an intermediate course for te reo Māori. This course is part of CORE’s ngaiotanga/professional learning services, and is preceded by Te Reo Puāwai Māori, the Stage 1 beginners’ course. Both courses are online, with an opportunity to attend a face-to-face hui at both the beginning and end of the course.

The courses are organised within the Moodle platform, which made the content easy to follow, flexible, and allowed for a range of different media to suit various learning styles. Additionally, the weekly Adobe Connect session was a great opportunity to connect with other course participants, to share and reinforce the week’s learning. I also found the Adobe Connect sessions helpful in a sense that I could interact with others at a similar stage of te reo learning journey, which gave me a sense of reassurance that what I was doing was of value.

Commitment and encouragement

I admit that, at times, I felt somewhat overwhelmed with what I didn’t know (and that I still need to learn!) Such is the nature of learning, eh! But, making the commitment to take part in Te Reo Manahua Māori was a key step in the right direction. And it wasn’t like I felt forced to carry on with my te reo learning just because I had made this commitment — it was more that I felt encouraged, for which I give credit to the course facilitators and the way the learning experience has been structured.

Next step

Although I am no longer teaching in a classroom setting, I could certainly see how one could translate learning within the course into lessons for students. For my job as a LEARNZ virtual field trip teacher, Te Reo Manahua Māori has increased my repertoire of kupu (vocabulary), as well as the confidence to use these words; improved my whakahua (pronunciation); and I am gradually incorporating a greater range of kīwaha (idioms) into field trip videos and web conferences. My next step is continuing to search for and find opportunities to further my learning in this space.

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EDtalks website

Eight years, 800 videos and 8 million page views

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EDtalks

In October 2008 as CORE Digital Producer I registered edtalks.org and began loading videos.

Eight years, 800 videos, and many millions of page views later, we are launching the fourth version of the EDtalks site.

EDtalks has always been a place where the videos recorded by the CORE Digital team around New Zealand can be made freely available to educators everywhere. The site has prospered because of its popularity and relevance. We are encouraged by viewer contributions and support, and will not only continue to do what we do well, but also bring bigger and better EDtalks experiences in the future.

CORE’s own events, especially uLearn, have always been rich sources for EDtalks videos. In fact, the very first videos were recorded at uLearn 2008, and included Ewan McIntosh’s  “Identity in a digital age“, and CORE’s Mary Ann Mills explaining “How schools are approaching the revised school curriculum”.

These days, EDtalks is visited by thousands of educators each month. From our surveys we know that our videos are regularly used for professional learning in schools, and are viewed by teachers all over the world for their own professional learning. And it’s easy to see why — in the last eight years we have interviewed more than 350 experts, leaders, researchers, thought leaders, enthusiasts, and talented practitioners. We have filmed EDtalks throughout New Zealand, in Australia, Thailand, and England. And, we have focused on new and emerging themes in education in order to provoke and inform school leaders and educators in early years, primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions.

EDtalks video options

What’s next? We have plans for more ways to capture and share conversations about innovative practice. We currently have a series of 12 videos in postproduction that explore different aspects of culturally responsive practice in primary schools, and these will be published as a series in August.

In October, CORE Digital will be filming the new Connected Conversations at uLearn 2016 — three 90-minute sessions over three days, each featuring a number of expert educators. As well as live streaming these sessions CORE Digital will be posting all of the presentations on EDtalks.

And we have a series based on students’ perspectives of learning now and in the future, planned to be released before the end of the year.

There are many reasons for CORE to continue to provide this service to education: teachers are early adopters of technology and eager for personal professional learning; schools are now used to accessing and using media rich resources across a range of devices; and New Zealand teachers continue to be more than happy to share good teaching and learning practice with their peers.

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The Possibilities of Education for Sustainability (EfS)

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transitioning in the environment

Aotearoa New Zealand has seen more than 40 years of education for the environment. Globally, education for sustainability (EfS) is viewed as imperative, and education is orientating towards sustainability. In 2003, Bolstad argued that within the Aotearoa New Zealand context environmental education had yet to become accepted as a part of teaching and learning, and lacked integration within the school curriculum. However, a shift is now evident.

EfS can be identified as a framework that does all the following:

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Sustainability through distributed leadership

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Change

Sustaining change in any organisation hinges on distributing the key elements in order to create a shared system of leadership. Schools often face the challenge of sustaining and developing change due to staff turnover or long term absence. It is in those organisations that, prior to any change, there is a need to have multiple change agents, people, and tools. So often schools have passionate change agents that end up holding much of the power to effect substantive change. They upskill, develop, and modify their skill set to assist in shifting whole organisation mindsets. And then, inevitably, they move on to a new challenge. It’s what remains that is the true reveal of an organisation’s capacity for sustainability. Worse still is the challenge left when the agent is an organisation’s leader, leaving not only the task of finding someone new, but also the difficulty of maintaining and extending their work.

I’ve blogged recently about “lone nuts, disruptors, and followers”, and truly believe the three are quite distinguishable from one another. However, by their very definition it is their passion for difference and change that drives them, while setting them apart from their peers. It stands to reason that when change has been affected, they will seek out a new challenge, and this could well be within a new organisation.

Sustainability — the capacity for continuous improvement

“I define sustainability as the capacity of a system to engage in the complexities of continuous improvement consistent with deep values of human purpose” (Fullan 2004)”

Fullan lends a new perspective to the concept of sustainability in his use of the word ‘continuous’. The change agents within an organisation have the potential to develop their leadership and grow the understanding of their colleagues through guidance and support. But, what happens when the goal is reached? Who decides on the next step? And, perhaps most importantly, what happens when the direction changes? Top-down leadership and hierarchy will always exist. As a colleague of mine recently said, “If we consulted on every decision we made, change wouldn’t really happen.” We need to find the balance between informing and empowering. Therefore, the concept of driving change from the top is still valid, but when that person at the top decides to move on, does it mean that change ceases? Not if the leadership and strategic direction is shared.

“School leadership and management (often equated with school principals’ work despite empirical evidence calling for more inclusive perspectives) are thought critical for successful schools. School-level factors matter when it comes to improving student learning and maintaining these improvements over time.” (Spillane et al 2015)

Continuity over time appears to be the key to successfully reaching a sustainable model for change. Spillane goes on to remind us of the importance of having various lines of inquiry, multiple paths leading to a shared vision. So, I return to my title and a look at the need for distributed leadership to successfully underpin a culture of sustainable change. This, in itself, has many challenges and requires in-depth collaboration to achieve, but simply taking a step outside of one’s comfort zone is a positive start.

Negativity and the need for collaborative distributive leadership

Further unpacking of the journey requires leaders to look carefully at the effect of negativity on the process of change. Fullan accurately describes this when he states:

“If we want sustainability we need to keep an eye on energy levels (overuse and underuse). Positive collaborative cultures will help because (a) they push for greater accomplishments, and (b) they avoid the debilitating effects of negative cultures. It is not hard work that tires us out, as much as it is negative work.” (Fullan 2004)

The resistors to change (blogged about here) often provide a greater level of work than the actual change. The constant struggle with those that hold an alternative or negative perspective can be extremely wearying and, should change leadership rest with an individual, a debilitating factor. However, a collaborative and distributive leadership system means that any battle can be fought on multiple fronts simultaneously, helping regulate the expenditure of energy and time as well as providing multiple perspectives. In achieving multiple perspectives with the shared goal, an organisation’s leadership is able to actively engage with a wider staff and effect change on multiple levels. Should one leader leave, the sustainability is relatively unaffected. Should they be replaced, a new perspective can be gained and the shared vision can potentially be modified. And in that moment, not only is there sustainability, but also continuity, evolution, and even a new breadth of understanding.

Make sure you're ready for change

Time for a change

Whatever the organisation and the desired change, the establishment of process and structure without trapping the habits of old remains key. The racing driver checks his car, fuel, and tyres before driving, the pilot checks his aircraft before flying, and the leaders within an organisation must check the readiness of a staff before pushing them forward.  They must avoid assumptions. Assuming an organisation is ready for change could be quite different from it actually being ready for it. Once resistance has been validated or a vision has been reshaped, staff at all levels can begin to push beyond their limits and train in a way similar to athletes (Fullan 2004), giving “the extra” needed to effect a lasting change. To start with trust and inclusivity must guide the initial decisions.

Key factors for sustainable and continuous change

I see the key factors for establishing a culture of sustainable and continuous change as:

  1. Collaborative development of strategic goals with an openness to further development.
  2. An environment that highlights resistance and validates it over dismissing.
  3. Shared responsibility for outcome with regular strategic ‘check-ins’ to ascertain whether a task requires further review or sharing.
  4. Visual representation of the change, whether language or ongoing collection of successes and case studies.
  5. Motivation for staff, opportunities for replenishment and learning.
  6. Clear organisational structure and workflow, showing clarity and representing a scaleable vision for the change desired.
  7. Resourcing and procurement of the necessary tools to enact the change.
  8. High trust in all levels of management and leadership with opportunities to address multiple audiences.
  9. Model the expectation desired.

This list clearly isn’t exhaustive, and any change needs to be underpinned by a supportive environment in which risk taking is promoted. I think the bigger question is one that directs those engaged in change and looking at sustainability, towards asking them to delve further by probing the breadth of continuity and evolution within a shared vision.

 

References

Fullan, M. (2004) Leadership and Sustainability, Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto. Prepared for Hot Seat, Urban Leadership Community, England

Spillane, J and Diamond, J (2015) Distributed Leadership in Practice. Hawker Brownlow Education, Australia

Image credits
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/14/14320717_1283cbdf4f_o_d.jpg
https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2015/03/13/08/41/change-671374_640.jpg

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Playing to learn

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Playing games at uLearn

The pre-conference theme at this year's uLearn was titled "Permission to Play". As the day unfolded, and during my own session in the afternoon, I noted how apt that title was. We were giving delegates permission to get out of their chairs and have fun. The learning, and for the meta cognitives, the learning about learning, was sneaked in under the radar.

I had smashed four books together. Two were about learning design, and two were about games design. Essentially, we set up a learning environment based on well-established principles of constructivism, and then we overlaid a symbolic games language. These sources came from recognised authors listed at the bottom of this article. Then we created and played a sample game within this framework, and at the end, asked each other how it went. For me, it was a way to get peer feedback about my incubator project, and for the delegates, it was an introduction to how easy it is to make games that can be played out in an environment wider than the classroom and augmented using near zero cost tech. All you need, really, is the light scaffold of ARGEF (Alternate Reality Games in Education Framework) that I have just described, and a free mind.

First failure, but try again…

In an earlier blog post, I wrote about the spectacular failure of my first analog mission. It was a puzzle game in which a wooden puzzle called the Locked Cross was disassembled, and each piece was packed into a luscious and mysterious blue purse with a gold cord for hanging it around a player's neck. Then the purses were hidden around the venue, which served as the game environment. The first mission failed because we were playing in a sprawling venue and relying on Twitter for communication, but there was a no-Tweeting policy in place. Oops. This time, we played the game in one room, and I facilitated by good old-fashioned unmediated voice and gesture. Success! Serious fun was had, and the players cooperated to solve the puzzle. Step up you geeks, you Meta Cognitives!

The type of game that fits with learning

What were we doing here? We were playing a teeny, tiny pretotype of a cooperative pervasive game — the very type of game I believe is a tight fit with learning. While an air of healthy competition exists at one level, it is only when the players start to cooperate that they will beat the game. Pervasive, because it can be played over an hour, for the duration of a lesson, over a day, a week, or a whole school year. It scales. It can scale from the six players in one room that we had, to thirty players in the school grounds, and potentially beyond to national champs.

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