Tom 2.0

Posted on May 7, 2013 by tmarch

So begins a new chapter. Yesterday, on the 13th aniversary of my wife’s passing away, our youngest son joined the Australian Army, embarking on two long blocks of intensive military training. Our eldest son is in year 2 at UNSW studying Maths and Computing, working through the challenges of managing this phase of life. So today I begin what I’ve been calling my sabbatical, five months that I’ve been able to set aside to see what to do when the role of being a father changes literally overnight. Seeing this coming, I’ve organised some travel to explore life after single parenthood. The journey begins with several weeks back in Cambodia where I want to follow-up on things I didn’t get to complete when we did some service tourism there in January. The main thing is setting up an iPad for the students in Phnom Penh so they can video conference with myself and Aussie students and continue to develop a Web site we began where they write posts on their interests and what life is like growing up in Cambodia. Then it’s back to San Diego to reconnect with good friends of many years and then to Arizona for time with family. In June, I’m taking a month in my hometown of Milwaukee to reflect and write, to listen in open-heartedness for a calling to what comes next. The time off concludes with a couple months back in Austalia where I plan to complete drafts that I’ve been working on intermittently for years. I will continue to work with schools and cients to support their digital learning initiatives, but I also expect to use this time to define new ground, to integrate what we know about the mind, learning and motivation. Stay tuned.

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ISV 2 Day Workshop

Posted on March 12, 2013 by tmarch

 Welcome Cutting Edge-ucators!

It’s always nice to start another year of seminars at Independent Schools Victoria. Please go to the special Workshop Page to get into the activities and resources.  This session is Called “Cutting Edge-ucators – Leverage Learning Theory with Powerful ICTs”.

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King’s College

Posted on January 29, 2013 by tmarch

Ice-Breaker / Warm-up!

Before formally beginning today, please add any Questions or Comments by using the comments feature of this post.

Welcome to 2013!

Just as we began last year, 2013 starts off with sessions at King’s College in Warrnambool, Victoria. This follows on with the commitment of a King’s College team who participated in a 5 Day workshop series at Independent Schools Victoria and continued focus on teaching and learning.

Like many schools, King’s is running an iPad program for Year 7 & 8 students.  However, unlike most other schools, the Head of King’s College is himself an Apple Distinguished Educator.  We will also capitalise on a Triple T (Try This Tomorrow) culture using Look to Learn activities to promote Visible Thinking.

Let’s Get Started!

Activity 1

Activity 2

Look to Learn – Making Thinking Visible

Activity 3

Activity 4 – CEQ•ALL

  • Review the Rubric (pdf) – How could you use this for a group or research project?
  • Think-Pair-Share

Break-out Sessions

  • Junior – Look to Learn and CEQ•ALL
  • Middle & Senior – Look to Learn, ClassPortals, WebQuests and CEQ•ALL

  

Resources for Breakout Sessions

WordPress? - Creating your Online Platform

Look to Learn

Weekly – Participation in Blogs

RSS Feeds

Other Media

Social Bookmarking

The ClassPortal Twist

References:

C E Q • A LL / Seek all!

Self-managed Learning Framework for students

The Pedagogy

Pedagogy Review

Of course my focus will be on pedagogy and powerful frameworks so that the individual good work of teachers contributes to a whole-school impact on authentic and engaged learning for students. Those I find most powerful for 1:1 personal learning are Self-Determination Theory, Cultures of Thinking, Habits of Mind, Flow Theory, Grit and Authentic Happiness.

Extension: WebQuests - Transforming Information to New Understanding

The WebQuest Designer’s Checklist – especially “Transformative Thinking”

Ah-ha. That’s what we’re after. Yes students can learn a lot of information from the Web, but it offers so much more. When you think you’ve got your WebQuest shaping up, really look hard and long at what you’re asking students to do. Look at their cognition, not their outputs here. What’s going on in the learners’ brains? The usual place in a WebQuest to engage learners in higher order thinking is during that phase when they come back together from developing expertise in their separate roles. The right way to do this is to give the groups a task that requires them to make new meaning, not just to assemble the separate pieces they have learned about. This is the tough part, but it’s the critical piece. Good luck.

Transformations Sampler

Help pages from Web-and-Flow

Current Examples

The Edge-ucators Way Strategies

 

 

Whole Staff Re-Cap

Slides on Change 

EtherPad on “What I want to make routine in 2013″

Review of 2012

  • Presentation 2012: Core ideas, implications & how to initiate and sustain?
  • Reflecting on Change: Why do we want to?  Why do we have to? 

So How do We Change?

  • Daily – micro lesson level
  • Weekly – participation in Blogs
  • Unit Level – CEQ•ALL for Inquiry units / Research
  • School-wide – Change management, Making Thinking Visible 
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Learning Environment

Posted on January 28, 2013 by tmarch

Where’s your best place to learn?

Connect – Extend – Challenge

1. How are the ideas and information presented connected to what you already knew?

2. What new ideas did you get that extended or pushed your thinking in new directions?

3. What is still challenging or confusing for you to get your mind around? What questions, wonderings or puzzles do you now have?

SCIL Building tour – Stephen Harris from SCIL on Vimeo.

Posted in Look to Learn | 4 Comments

Studies of Asia – October Workshop

Posted on October 22, 2012 by tmarch

Welcome

Please begin by using the comments link on this post to share your personal learning goals for this workshop.

I have the pleasure of facilitating another 2 Day workshop for the Studies of Asia group at the Victorian department of education. Lindy Stirling, State Advisor, Studies of Asia (see the Studies of Asia Wiki) has organised this session at the Clifton’s in Melbourne’s beautiful CBD.

After adding your comment, you might like to download the handouts for this 2 Day Workshop

Studies of Asia Links

Participants’ Blogs

Activity 1: Great examples from previous Studies of Asia Workshops

To get a sense of what we will be creating over the next two days, please explore the work created by participants in previous sessions.  Try to notice the features, strategies and benefits gained from such a learning platform.

Brainstorm what you noticed using a shared Stixy board

Activity 2: Creating your Online Platform

Fine-tuning your Blog

Resources

Interesting Videos (all on YouTube)

Images for your blog (Creative Commons-licensed content)

Podcasts

Links

Added Bonus?:Web 2 Tools

Presentation Interludes

Activity 3: Look to Learn

“Asian” Tumblr Look to Learns

Work Period

Task: Create 2 – 4 5 – 10 Look to Learn Activities for your students

Activity 3: Enrich your site with content and rich media

RSS Feeds

Other Media

Activity 4: Manage your Rich Media Links

Activity 5: The ClassPortal Twist

References:

For Ideas & Inspiration

C E Q • A LL / Seek all!

Self-managed Learning Framework for students

Feedback – links!

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ISV Series Wrap-ups

Posted on October 17, 2012 by tmarch

Welcome Back!

Welcome to what is a bitter-sweet day where we get to see what great work everyone has done this year, but also have to say good-bye.

The main focus is giving people enough time to share what they have trialled (and mastered!) in terms of integrating ICTs and authentic student learning.   As such, I’ve asked participants to send along links to illustrate their journeys.

I’ve asked participants to reflect on the following:

  • your own learning,
  • how you have supported collegial learning, or
  • how you have fostered student learning

Real, Rich and Relevant

 

Thursday – AGQTP

Madhuri Noah

Ian Daw

Anne Tonga

Amy Thompson

 Susan MacKay

Sandra England

Renee Hall

Mike Dye

Michelle Nachsatz

 

Joel Halperin

 

Lisa Duggan

Daryl Davey

EtherPad Collaboration on Choice, Competence, Challenge and Culture

 

Trial ClassBubbles (oxley)

Review Concepts & Links

Looking to Learn

Example: History Compressed – See – Think – Wonder

ClassPortals

For Ideas & Inspiration

WebQuests

Recent Samples

Older Examples

Tom’s WebQuest Resources

Transformation Tweakers

C E Q • A LL / Seek all!

Self-managed Learning Framework for students

Web 2.0

Tools

Platforms

Additional Challenges

  • Create Collaborative Partnerships
  • Prepare Staff PL / Presentations
  • Tweak WebQuest Transformations
  • Explore Twitter
  • Build a Netvibes Feed page

 Preparing for 2013

 

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Working at St Paul’s in Port Macquarie

Posted on October 7, 2012 by tmarch

Welcome!

It’s a pleasure to be working with teachers in the St Agnes’ Parish in Port Macquarie.

Getting Started – Any Questions?

Because the schools already serve courses on Moodle, support student learning with laptops and will launch an iPad program for Year 7 students in 2013, let’s focus on integrating Web 2.0 tools to advance student learning and success.  In other words, you’re already quick a ways along your journey.  So to begin, let’s see what questions people have.  Let’s take a risk and try some new software – go to this forum (if it stuffs up – come right back and use the Comments function for this post! – or you can always use the Contact Form)

Brainstorming the Challenge

What are the positive and negative aspects for having students pursue learning through 1:1 digital devices?  Or Plan B with Stixy.  (By the way, in case you want a quick fil-in on Web 2.0 here’s a clickable tagcloud)

So how do we keep to the positive and avoid the negative?

Background Presentation

I’ve been working on this challenge for many years, so let’s make sure we understand the real issues.  This is where I do a presentation.

Pedagogical Validation

People rightly want to validate the research – as they should – so here are some direct links to fields of research that I find most powerful for 1:1 personal learning: Self-Determination Theory, Cultures of Thinking, Habits of Mind, Flow Theory, Grit and Authentic Happiness.  Which integrate into the two core frameworks below.

Introduction to the Edge-ucators Way

Look to Learn examples

Tom’s Archive, stream and prompts + the “About Page“

Snapshot of ClassPortals and WebQuests

  • Tom presents

Your Learning Session

Orientation

  • ROWE – Results Only Work Environment: Time, Team, Task, Technology
  • SOLE – Self Organising Learning Environment – Sugata Mitra TED Talk
  • The CEQ•ALL Rubric to guide your process.

C E Q • A LL / Seek all!

Self-managed Learning Framework for students

Immersion Activity

You can choose any of the three levels to achieve results on (ROWE) during this hands-on workshop session.  So that we get an idea of how many will choose each level, use the poll here to indicate your choice.

Other support

1. Looking to Learn

Required Result: Find or make 3- 5 Look to Learn activities you can use with students or colleagues

Example: History Compressed – See – Think – Wonder

The Tumblr Twist

To “Work the Web” for education, we need a flexible space that empowers us to easily work with rich media. Our first stop will be Tumblr.

Full Tumblr Tutorial page – new!

Web 2 Tools – Social Bookmarking

Web 2 Tools Sampler Panel

RSS Feeds

Other Media

3. WebQuests

Required Result: Review examples and online resources below, meet with Tom and complete the Designing a WebQuest handout for a specific unit of work.

Recent Samples

Older Examples

Tom’s WebQuest Resources

 4. Other?

  • Come chat with Tom

Conclusion

Feedback?

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Gender Matters

Posted on August 27, 2012 by tmarch

Look to learn: Learn to look – the first step for nurturing lifelong learners.

I’ll be presenting a short break-out session at the two conference presented by Critical Agendas and The Crowther Centre:

Web 2.0’s rich digital media can be used to engage students in a lifelong spirit of inquiry. The trick is linking compelling media like videos, podcasts, cartoons and photojournalism with Looking Prompts that scaffold an appetite for critical and creative thinking. Furthermore the strategy readily advances gender-specific learning.

To support this session, download the overview handout and the following links will be useful.

Look to Learn Intro Presentation

Sample Look to Learn Activities

Gender

BoysEd

GirlsEd

Leveraging Web 2.0

Background on Visible Thinking

Harvard’s Project Zero

Ron Richhart

 

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Visiting Northern Beaches Christian School

Posted on August 23, 2012 by tmarch

Died and Gone to Heaven NBCS

Yesterday I finally got around to something I’ve been meaning to do for over a year.  Ages ago, I began hearing through the grapevine of a school in northern Sydney that was really taking on integration of Moodle.  As few schools were getting beyond the install/die-on-the-vine phase, I filed the name Northern Beaches Christian School away as one to look into.  Then last year, many of the participants at the CEFPI conference I keynoted came back from day visits to NBCS raving about what they had seen.

Finally, when the team I’ve been working with at Launceston Church Grammar School came back from touring several Sydney area schools, they said one that really impressed them was Northern Beaches. Because I’m looking forward to an on-going partnership with Launceston Grammar, this prompted me to make the drive up. So I contacted Anne Knock, director of development, and she generously set up a time when we could chat and she could take me around the school. That was yesterday.

I’m guessing that this a the first of what might be several-to-many posts celebrating the great things going on at NBCS. So I’ll be brief and simply bullet out a few of the things that most impressed me.

  • Every student I saw was engaged. Some were working in groups, others in pairs, some alone.
  • If they weren’t in the industry-standard design & tech work space, art studio or a playing field, students were using their BYO device without any dramas.
  • Teachers were relaxed, respectful and focused on individual or small group learning (meaning – supporting differentiated student learning).
  • Students were relaxed, respectful and focused on individual or small group learning (meaning – pursuing personal growth).
  • Of course the architecture, learning spaces and furniture all announce a game-changing from “playing school” to something different.  It’s refreshing to get out of the school boxes.
  • All of this to say what everyone knows when they spend even a short time at a great school – this is the real thing: the joy of learning’s happening here.
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Women in the 50s

Posted on August 15, 2012 by tmarch
YouTube Preview Image

See – Think – Wonder

What gender assumptions did you see?
What do you think were the consequences for women?
What does it make you Wonder?

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