I’m working with some Year 11 English students who are studying Rebel Without a Cause and The Catcher in the Rye. I have created a WebQuest called Fit In, Break Out or Break Down that explores the culture of 1950s America. You are free to use this.
I have also combed through recent Look to Learn posts I’ve made that show examples of Conformity and Rebellion. They are linked below. Individually, many are great. Taken collectively, the sparks are amazing and rich!
Sugata Mitra, a professor at Newcastle University and MIT, began his “Hole in a Wall” experiments many years ago. This clip shows the computers placed as “holes in the wall” where children accessed them without any supervision or instruction and then he goes on to describe another experiment where Tamil speaking 12 year old children were challenged to teach themselves biotechnology in English.
See-Think-Wonder
What’s one significant thing you noticed?
What does it make you think about?
What does this make you wonder about yourself or the world?
Whose Side are YOU On? Getting Ready for Next Era Education
We now live in era when self-motivated students with digital devices can learn more on their own than in many schools. Society has changed around us, undermining cultures focused on standardised outcomes and the myth of uniform excellence. In other words, a culture like “school.” The world surrounding education has moved from a “one-size-fits-all” mentality to one where digital customisation enables a world “all-fit-to-one’s-size”. Although education has tried many reforms in the past thirty years, all have been based on fixing a model designed for 20th Century realities that no longer exist. It’s time to understand exactly where the old model is broken and to decide what’s needed for a new design. Next Era Ed provides a comprehensive approach that allows all staff to support outstanding student achievement through a shared culture of inquiry, self-initiative and continuous improvement. Find out how you can get started today!
As my first school-based work of the new year, I get to begin on a special initiative. The principal of King’s College in Warrnambool, Victoria has organised a multi-tiered approach that’s very exciting to be a part of. First, I will spend the day working with both the whole staff and then two separate smaller groups focused on more beginning and more advanced technology using educators. What’s we hope will make this day really useful, however, is what comes after: several staff members will join the 5 Day workshop series I run at Independent Schools Victoria and all Year 7 students this year will get an iPad to support their personal learning.
After a King’s College variation of my It’s Broken (So Let’s Fix it!) presentation, the two smaller sessions will target CEQ•ALL and The Edge-ucators Way.
2011 has been an especially busy and productive year here at TomMarch.com. I thought I’d take the opportunity that the holidays present to reflect on some of the highpoints and even look ahead a little to 2012.
In-Person
I’ve had the good fortune to be able to keynote several of the main technology and education conferences in Australia this past year including in Adelaide (CEGSA), Melbourne (ICTEV), Sydney(CEFPI), Brisbane (QSITE) and Perth (WASLA & WASTAA). If you have not been able to attend one of these excellent events and are interested, the crew at the Sydney Exhbition Centre did a great job at capturing my keynote at the Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI).
Other in-person work included the ongoing series of workshops I’ve been leading at the Independent Schools Victoria since 2005, the Studies of Asia & ICT workshops Lindy Stirling and I lead across Victoria and the various schools where I’ve spent time this year in QLD, NSW, TAS and VIC. I hope to cross paths with some of you former participants during 2012 sessions.
IP
It’s nice to report that 2011 was a great year for Intellectual Property with the fruition of a long-term effort to license Web-and-Flow templates to the Victorian Department of Education for use in the Ultranet. The eLearning team at the DEECD in Victoria have done a great job blending the two environments and I hope that the effort contributes to student learning and teacher effectiveness in the years to come. Similarly, the most popular link on my site, the ThesisBuilder was also licensed to a private university in the US to support its students ability to quickly formulate a persuasive thesis and essay outline.
Consulting
Through much of 2010 and all of 2011 I’d been working with the team at Sungard Higher Education to prepare Sungard’s K-12 products for the Australian and global markets. I enjoyed working as an analyst on international curricula and data metrics & reporting for this environment which is suited to large K-12 organisations that seek continuous systemic improvements.
As this contract has concluded, I am interested in consulting with other large educational software providers to help shape their products to support integration of authentic student learning and data analysis that leads to improvements in achievement. Please contact me if you have such an opportunity.
Best tools & environments
Every year I find that a new tool, platform or environment has come along that becomes core to the work that I do. 2011 was no different. Here are three that have taken their place with WordPress, Diigo, Skype, Evernote and YouTube as things I wouldn’t want to live without.
Netvibes – Since Pageflakes got a little too flakey last year, I decided to shift my RSS / widget platform to Netvibes. I introduce Netvibes to participants in any workshop longer than one day and invariably find that once people “get” the benefits of a customised stream of rich feeds and embeds, their use of online resources is never the same. Netvibes gives teachers and students easy access to podcasts, TubeChop clips, Web 2.0 embeds and realtime news feeds on any topic of interest.
ClassBubbles – Described by creator Dan O’Brien as, “an on-line tool used to deliver collaborative learning using the best functionality from blogs, wikis, webquests and Twitter,” ClassBubbles fills in an important missing piece in the 1:1 digital learning classroom. I see ClassBubbles as a tool that allows students to use their own devices in a productive way and for teachers to shift from leader to orchestrator. It’s a perfect platform for WebQuests but also a range of uses. I plan to use it to support and certify students’ and teachers’ ICT skills in the coming years.
Eduplanet – Created by Jeff Colosimo, Eduplanet is a professional social learning platform that is heading in a new and useful direction. Eduplanet combines a very slick social learning environment with rich proprietary content, structured around specific “Institutes” featuring educational leaders such as Bena Kallick and Art Costa. Jeff has been very good about giving me sandbox access to see how I might use Eduplanet to support colleagues in ICTs and student-managed learning. Watch this space!
Writing
I’m presently sitting with 240 pages of a draft of my Next Era Ed book (pdf overview) that I hope to have circulating to publishers early in 2012. The book aligns with what’s been my focus for many years: shifting schools away from the 20th Century’s mechanistic mass production approach to one that can accommodate individual’s joy of learning. In short, Next Era Ed clearly establishes where our schools are “broken” and offers a comprehensive, evidence-based model to begin the fix.
Homefront
Who would have thought it possible so many years ago when I started ozline.com and wrote about our lovely eldest son, that he would now be graduating from Year 12 and getting ready for university. This has been a miracle that many of you will have already experienced, but this is our first time. Here’s a lovely shot from the Farewell Dinner.
Please send me an email about any of the above.
It’s always great to hear from you.
On June 16, 2011, I had the opportunity to keynote day two of the CEFPI Conference (Council of Educational Facility Planners International) at the Sydney Convention Centre. This was a fantastic conference in a great facility. Fortunately the organisers secured InfoShare Technologies to record the keynotes. Simon Gazey and his team have really done a professional job. Over the years I’ve had a number of my sessions recorded or streamed and have never bothered sharing the result, but his time the production is so good that I feel their is some benefit in making it available.
The blurb for this keynote goes like this:
We are entering an era when a self-motivated student with broadband access can learn more than he or she could in school. Society has changed around us, undermining cultures focused on standardised outcomes and the myth of uniform excellence; in other words, a culture-like “school.” The world surrounding schools has moved from a “one-size-fits-all” mentality to one where digital customisation enables “all-fit-to-one’s-size”. In this new reality, learn about the four critical pieces needed to succeed and how you can get students and staff started.
Click on the graphic above or this link to view the keynote. The video will begin to play with the slides automatically synced.
If you’re really desperate for something to watch, I just came across this 2006 presentation recorded by the Computer -Using Educators Group of South Australia:
As the culmination of an evolving model called The Edge-ucators Way, Tom will engage participants in exploring three core strategies and a model to promote student self-initiated learning.
(Want to try ClassBubbles? – use key: detnsw)
Keynote
I have the pleasure of sharing “It’s Broke – So Let’s Fix it” with the leaders of government schools in the Sydney region. The key points are to focus on our most important tasks: changing classroom practices to leverage ICTs to support the best in evidence-based pedagogies, to break free from a century’s worth of habits and emerge into a new Era of Education. A pdf of the keynote is available.
St Peter’s College Junior School, North Terrace, St Peters.
Keynote: “It’s Broke, so Let’s Fix it” – re-making education for our Digital Era
We now live in era when self-motivated students with computers and broadband access can learn more than they could in school. Not surprising since “school” is a construct designed using the best technology available one hundred years ago. Although education has tried many reforms in the past thirty years, all have been based on this old model. It’s time for a new construct. Society has changed around us, undermining cultures focused on standardised outcomes and the myth of uniform excellence. In other words, a culture like “school.” The world surrounding schools has moved from a “one-size-fits-all” mentality to one where digital customisation enables a world “all-fit-to-one’s-size”. In this new reality, learn about the four critical pieces needed to succeed and how you can get students and staff started today!
Presentation slides – download: 22 mb .mov (download the file and then open in a movie viewer or Firefox)
90 min hands-on Workshop: “Unpacking Next Era Ed”
This hands-on workshop follows from the keynote, “It’s Broke, so Let’s Fix It!” and details the main strategies of The Edge-ucators Way and CEQ•ALL (“Seek All”). Find out how Web 2 tools and rich media can be integrated into evidence-based frameworks that you can use to shift from teacher-directed to student-managed learning that will span students’ school years and result in greater achievement and preparation for their futures.
The Council of Educational Facility Planners International is currently holding their conference at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour. I will be contributing to a discussion session on Wednesday and a keynote on Thursday.
During the discussion session I will be able to make the case for where current schools are “broken” and during the keynote I will share my version of the “Fix:” Next Era Ed. Essentially, today’s schools are built on the assembly line model which worked reasonably well last century given the available technology. When resources and expertise were limited and the goals were “basic skills,” the Factory School was our best option.
Today’s digital technologies, however, “change the game.” Not only is this the beginning of a Golden Era of access to rich digital media and interactions, but the data mining behind the scenes allows for what Alvin Toffler called “mass customisation.” So why do we continue to operate schools based on last century’s “one-size-fits-all” mantra instead of shifting to the possibility of “all fit to one’s size?” This is my shtick.
Theme Session: “It’s Broke”
Challenge: Contribute environmental planning ideas around 3 versions of Digital Schooling
Thursday morning I have the chance to make my case for the four areas we must address if we are to succeed at shifting away from the “virtual learning” of the assembly line school in favour of the Joy of Learning available in the digital era.
I’m working with some Year 11 English students who are studying Rebel Without a Cause and The Catcher in the Rye. I have created a WebQuest called Fit In, Break Out or Break Down that explores the culture of 1950s America. You are free to use this.
I’ve had the good fortune to be able to keynote several of the main technology and education conferences in Australia this past year including in Adelaide (CEGSA), Melbourne (ICTEV), Sydney(CEFPI), Brisbane (QSITE) and Perth (WASLA & WASTAA). If you have not been able to attend one of these excellent events and are interested, the crew at the Sydney Exhbition Centre did a great job at 
It’s nice to report that 2011 was a great year for Intellectual Property with the fruition of a long-term effort to license 
Through much of 2010 and all of 2011 I’d been working with the team at Sungard Higher Education to prepare 
Welcome!
The Council of Educational Facility Planners International is currently holding their conference at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour. I will be contributing to a discussion session on Wednesday and a keynote on Thursday.
It gives me great pleasure to publicly share what I’ve been working on since last years (really my whole life).
3. Digital Learning Pedagogy