Friday, 24 February 2017

Day 13

DIGITAL

Inquiry
Inquiry has been described  as “the organised pursuit of curiosity.” (Stenhouse, 1981)
Inquiry Learning
This week, in this course we are covering inquiry learning, and in the leadership course we are covering teacher inquiry. Team Solutions (2009) make the distinction between them as follows:  
Inquiry Learning (DIGITAL)Teacher Inquiry (LEADERSHIP)
A process where students co-construct their learning in an authentic contextWhere teachers inquire into their own practice and use evidence to make decisions about ways to change that practice for the benefit of the students
Slide Set for the Before/In Class Activity
For the before class activity, you should have contributed to the shared slide deck of models used in NZ schools:
Decide, as a group, what model you will adopt for this week’s activity.
Try to find out (and possibly comment on the slides)
  • Is it based on (theory)?
  • Who has designed it? 
Tools that can help manage inquiry projects
Some tools we have previously introduced that may be useful for inquiry:
When using the library website. do not rely on on Articles-Express to find all the resources you need, since it does not cover the whole of the library's holdings. Also search the databases, e-journals etc..
When using Google Scholar, make sure that you have linked the Unitec library to your searches (Settings -> Library Links). Remember that you can also save references to articles you have found in Google Scholar ('Save' -> 'My Library') and generate APA references ('Cite'). 
Fertile Questions
Here are some ideas from Harpaz (2005) on six characteristics of 'fertile' questions that might be used in an inquiry:
  • Open - there are several different or competing answers
  • Undermining - makes the learner question their basic assumptions
  • Rich - cannot be answered without careful and lengthy research, often able to be broken into subsidiary questions
  • Connected - relevant to the learners
  • Charged - has an ethical dimension
  • Practical - is able to be researched given the available resources
Library Website Feedback Survey
If you have encountered any issues with using the library website, please give your feedback at http://tinyurl.com/TMLlibrary
Robot code
To program the robot arm you will need to have installed mBlock version 3.2.2 (Windows) or version 3.3.1 (Mac). The respective links are below:
To install on Mac you may have to change your security settings to allow downloads of apps that are not in the app store.
The program downloads as a zipped archive file. Make sure that after you have downloaded it, that you extract it to another folder before attempting to run it.
Do NOT update the version after you have installed mBlock
When you create the code for your robot, you will also need to use the mBlock project file that is included in the video about programming the robotic arm. Click on the link below, then download the file to a local folder. Then you can add it into your mBlock workspace (File -> Load Project).
The Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards
This year, digital technology is in the spotlight.
The Education Focus Prize will recognise the design of responsive local curriculum, delivered through the innovative use of digital technologies to meet the aspirations of students, their whanau and communities, and achieve improved outcomes for children and young people.
So, how about it? Isn’t it time you shared your success in teaching?
Entries close at 4pm, Friday 17 March 2017 Be in to WIN!
References
Harpaz, N. (2005). Teaching and Learning in a Community of Thinking. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 20(2), 136-157. Retrieved from http://yoramharpaz.com/pubs/en_learning/teaching-learning.pdf
Healey, L. (2015). A Student-Led, Flipped, Inquiry-Based Learning Classroom Doing Authentic Work. Teachthought. Retrieved from http://teachthought.com/learning/student-led-flipped-inquiry-based-learning-classroom-authentic-work/
Stenhouse, L. (1981). What counts as research? British Journal of Educational Studies, 29(2), 103-144.
Team Solutions. (2009). Thinking about Inquiry. Retrieved from http://teamsolutions.wikispaces.com/Teaching+as+Inquiry
LEADERSHIP
Teacher Inquiry into Student Learning
This week, in this course we are covering Teacher Inquiry into Student Learning, and in the digital and collaborative course we are covering inquiry learning. Team Solutions (2009) make the distinction between them as follows:
Inquiry Learning (DIGITAL)Teacher Inquiry (LEADERSHIP)
A process where students co-construct their learning in an authentic contextWhere teachers inquire into their own practice and use evidence to make decisions about ways to change that practice for the benefit of the student

Critical Inquiry
In the Practising Teacher Criteria (Professional Knowledge in Practice), critical inquiry is part of the criteria (Education Council (n.d.) 
Criterion 12 is "use critical inquiry and problem-solving effectively in their professional practice"
The key indicators are:
  1. systematically and critically engage with evidence and professional literature to reflect on and refine practice
  2. respond professionally to feedback from members of their learning community
  3. critically examine their own beliefs, including cultural beliefs, and how they impact on their professional practice and the achievement of ākonga
Further details can be found on the Education Council Website. 
Teaching as Inquiry
The NZ Ministry of Education also has a series of web pages explaining what they define as Teaching as Inquiry
The Spiral of Inquiry
This is described on the MoE's TKI website as “a fresh rethink on the structure of teaching as inquiry.” (Ministry of Education, 2015). It emphasises involvement of learners, their families and communities and developing learner agency. It states that engaging in inquiry is a process of developing collective professional agency either within a school or across a cluster of schools. The approach is described in Timperley, Kaser & Halbert (2014). They emphasise agency and collaboration: "Engaging in inquiry is a process of developing collective professional agency either within a school or across a cluster of schools”, and “Nor can leaders decide what the focus of their inquiry should be. It is the collaborative inquiry process that matters”
A number of teachers use this approach rather than the Teaching as Inquiry cycle, described in more detail on the Ministry web site.
Preparing for your Research and Community Informed Practice Assignments - Suggestions for getting started
In the Research and Community Informed Practice course, you will be doing an assignment based around a Teacher Inquiry project, following on from a literature review that will ideally be on the same topic. Here are a few ideas that may help you prepare in advance, adapted from Hubbard & Power (2003).
  • Keep a teaching journal for at least a week. What surprises or intrigues you?
  • Brainstorm a list of 10 things that you wonder about in your classroom.
  • Be specific in your concerns
  • Write down your draft question, as fully as you need to
  • Focus your question with stems like “What is the role of…?” “How do …?” “What procedures…?” “What happened when…?”
References
Education Council (n.d.) Practising Teacher Criteria - Professional Knowledge in Practice. Retrieved from http://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/registered-teacher-criteria-1
Hubbard, R. & Power, B. (2003). The Art of Classroom Inquiry: A Handbook for Teacher-Researchers (Revised Ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Ministry of Education. (2015). Before You Start. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Teaching-as-inquiry/Before-you-start
Team Solutions. (2009). Thinking about Inquiry. Retrieved from http://teamsolutions.wikispaces.com/Teaching+as+Inquiry
Timperley, H., Kaser, L. & Halbert, J. (2014). A framework for transforming learning in schools: Innovation and the spiral of inquiry. Centre for Strategic Education. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/content/download/74475/611763/file/Spiral%20of%20Inquiry%20Paper%20-%20Timperley%20Kaser%20Halbert.pdf
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Friday, 17 February 2017

Day 12

Maker rather than inventor - Maker movement


 Digital
You have 3 hours to upskill in Maker Culture, 3D Modelling and Innovative Learning Spaces. You can choose to do all of the 6 stations, or do just some. Minimum is 3. Please spend at least 30 minutes in every station you choose. Some of the stations have suggested zones, for some you can choose the space freely (freezone).
On a new station read all of the three steps through, and then act on them 
  • firstly there is always something for you to start with (reading(s), viewing(s), reflection(s)…) and
  • based on that we then suggest how to produce something, and
  • there is also before you leave this station part (how to finalise, publish…)
Once you worked through those three steps you can move to the next station of your choice!

STATION 1 - Reflect & Sketchup / Zone 1 / LEADERSHIP

Goal: Re-design your learner's environment with a future focus in mind.
Reflect: Read these two sources:
Base your reflection on the above:
  • How could you as a leader make your main learning spaces (i.e classroom) better from a digital and/or collaborative aspect?
  • How could even slight changes in your environment maybe help you to up skill as a more distributive and collaborative leader?
  • What changes, no matter how small, could make the biggest difference to the learning outcomes?
Sketchup: Model the changes you’d like to make, either using a simple Floor planning tool or the more advanced SketchUp that you can do 3D-wonders with!
Before you leave this station: Once your model is ready, screen record it as a video or picture (print screen, screen castify or https://screencast-o-matic.com/ and publish that to G+ community with the hashtag #sketchup.

STATION 2 - View & Construct / Zone 2 / DIGITAL

Goal: Making sure that we’ll have robotic arms in each location ready for next week’s session.
View: First view this video that explains how these robotic parts were made. We’ll use all of the constructed MeArm robotic arms on next week's programming task.
Please bear in mind that this is a new activity that we have not tried before, so regard it as a shared exploration. You might also need extra hands, and even viewing the instructions is better with more than one pair of eyes. Collaborate if possible!
Be aware that this is not a simple activity. It requires great patience, focus and methodical thought. It is a true makerspace activity, challenging but rewarding.
Construct: Construct a part of a MeArm robotic arm, by following this 20 step-by-step guide. There is also one MeArm on the table that you can look at and visually re-engineer when needed.
When viewing the guide online, be sure to click on the images for each stage, which will take you through a sequence of highly relevant pictures for each step. We suggest at each stage you read the description, then view the picture sequence, then repeat, until it starts to make sense.
Keep in mind that every step is really important, even the first one, the small bolts are different sizes! 
Please try to finish every step that you have started, so that it is easier for the next one to continue from where you finished. 
You will need a small screwdriver, and you may find a ruler useful for checking the lengths of the bolts. Note that in some cases the bolts are pushed through one hole and then tapped into another to enable the components to move. If you screw them too tight then the robot will not work.
Do not feel pressured to try to do this task quickly, or to do more steps than you are comfortable with. Remember that this is a Collaborative activity. Work with others. Contribute what you can. Peeling the brown sticky backing off the acrylic and counting or measuring the screws is as important as assembling the components. Remember from (Agile) pair programming that the navigator is as important as the driver.
Before you leave this station: Once you feel like you’ve done your part (about 30 mins to an hour) make sure that (if the robotics arms are not ready yet) there is someone there to continue the work. This means, that if you are about to leave the station empty, go and advertise that to others. We would need all of them ready by next week! 
It might be wise to leave some notes next to your robotic arm, that tell others how far you’ve gotten. Or if there are issues they should be aware off. 

STATION 3 - Analyse & Suggest / Free Zone / LEADERSHIP

Goal: Consider the environment as the third teacher, from a learner's point of view.
Analyse: Check that you have done your homework, if you haven’t started by doing that first. Your task was to prepare for this session by gathering survey data about how teachers and students feel about their learning spaces. Once you have filled in the survey, view and analyse the data gathered.
Maybe you could even draw suggestions from it? Recommended readings might help you with the analysis?
Add your analysis into this collaborative slide set, and put your name on the slide you are working with, so others will know. Look at what others might have already done, and think what you would like to add.
You can for example
  • create a graphical analysis of interesting parts that could influence how we design a learning space.
Suggest: Based on the analysis of the data, make suggestions on the same collaborative slide set set, for example:
  1. What are the perceptions of learning spaces from a learner's point of view?
  2. Was there anything in the data that stood out to you as interesting, why?
  3. How could we use this data to inform future decision making?
  4. How might we involve learners in the design of their learning spaces?
  5. What other questions could you include in the survey?
You can use as many slides as you like to present your data analysis (charts/graphs), as well as conclusions and recommendations - you do not need to use all of the data, only the parts that you think are relevant.
These readings may also help guide you and act as a reference:
Before you leave this station: Make sure you have named the slides you worked with http://tinyurl.com/learningplacesslides. You could also add the date when you did the analysis, since there are more and more data coming in each day. If you think of an interesting aspect some other student could work with, or how to continue your work, you could add a comment there?

STATION 4 - Design & 3D Model / Zone 4 / DIGITAL

Goal: Rehearse a universal design and prototyping mindset.
Design: Familiarise yourself with the Universal Design Ideas and their guidelines. Then design an ideal classroom object you are missing (i.e table, chair… )
Model: 3D model the classroom object by using https://www.tinkercad.com/. We’ll print one of these 3D models out based on your votes on the G+ Community at the end of this session.
Tinkercad is a free, easy-to-learn online app anyone can use to create and print 3D models. You need to Sign In or Sign Up. For this we recommend you use a laptop (either your own or one provided by TMLBU).
If you haven't used Tinkercad before, remember to view these videos first:
Alternatively you can watch these step by step guides made by Coco
Remember to save your 3D model frequently.
Before you leave this station: When you have finished your design, save it and make it public. Then publish a picture of your model in our G+ Community and include short description and the link to your model as a description or comment. Remember to also include a hashtag #tinkercad and one of these based on the session you are on ( #aucklandcentral #aucklandnorth #aucklandsouth #balclutha #christchurch #hawkesbay #invercargill #wellington #rotorua #tauranga #ruatoria).
We need your model to be public to be able to access it (.stl file) for the possible 3D printing, and we'll need those hashtags to find it in G+ Community. Also sharing your models makes you part of the Maker Community!

STATION 5 - Read & Feedback / Free Zone / LEADERSHIP

Goal: Witness maker culture and students as makerspace designers.
Read: Read first The 'Open University: Innovating Pedagogy report 2013' article about Maker Culture. Then read through the blog written by Justine Hughes’s students: http://thecreatoropssteam.blogspot.co.nz/. We suggest you start from the oldest post and work your way upwards. This project was part of Justine’s LEADERSHIP assignment plan and it was mostly run by her students. True transformational leader helps others to be leaders?
Feedback: You can give feedback for these amazing students by commenting on their blog - they really do appreciate that! You can also post your ideas and thoughts to our own G+ Community by using the #makerspace or #makerculture hashtags.
Before you leave this station: Consider whether you would be interested in starting a similar project? If so, this framework might be interesting to look at Question Driven Pedagogy-Space-Technology Framework for Developing Learning Space
Maybe your LEADERSHIP 2 assignments change initiative involves changes in your learning spaces? If so, Lee, Tan, and Tout (2011) identified approximately 100 articles, reports, presentations and books that focused on the design and evaluation of learning spaces. These comments they raise in their literature review and the ‘Evaluation Learning Spaces’ Baseline Development Model' they created‘ might help you to get started.

STATION 6 - Embrace Change & Video / Free Zone / DIGITAL

Goal: Share your insights with the future postgrad students
Embrace Change: We are now in Week 12, so it has been 3 months since you started your Postgraduate journey. Have you embraced change?
You might remember how you felt in the first couple of weeks? Is your attitude towards using technology in your classroom the same? Has something changed? If so, what?
Take a look at this article we wrote last year, and consider where you are now on your journey in relation to the sections 'Transforming Teaching and Learning' (p. 38) and 'Discussion' (p. 44).
Video: Make a short video that we could share parts of with the next intake who start their journey in early November. Make sure that the sound quality is audible, so that the new students can hear you tell them, for example:
  • How did you feel during the first few weeks?
  • How do you feel now? What have you learned?
  • Have you any tips or wisdom to share on being the learner at The Mind Lab?
  • Have you any insights you could share with the November students? How could you help them to embrace the change?
Before you leave this station: Please add/save your video to this folder, so that the facilitators can edit and cut together a final one. You can of course also share your video in the G+ community, but the most important task is to save it to the folder.

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Friday, 10 February 2017

Leadership
Agile Teams are Self-Organising Teams
We will explore this idea using a combination of Boris Gloger’s Ball Point game (Gloger, 2008) and Mike Rother’s Kata in the Classroom (Rother, 2015).  Kata is a term from martial arts. The Improvement Kate is a repeating four-step routine for continuous improvement: Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA). The goal of the ball point game is for each team to get as many balls as possible to pass through the hands of every team member in 2 minutes. The game involves both estimation and self-organisation.
The four  basic requirements of the game are that:
  1. As each ball is passed between team members, it must have air time
  2. Every team member must touch each ball for it to count
  3. No ball to your direct neighbour on either side, you must pass to your front
  4. Every ball must end where it started. For each ball that does, the team scores 1 point (make sure you count your points)
Agile Leadership Style
Agile leadership is situational, adaptive, empowering and inspirational. The most important leadership theory applied to agile is that of servant leadership (Highsmith, 2009).
“For the Agile Leader, servanthood is the strategy. Situational actions are the tactic” (Filho, 2011).
The key characteristics of the servant leader include awareness, listening, persuasion, empathy, healing, and coaching. Situational leadership means that the servant leader may act as a democratic leader, a laissez-faire leader, or an autocratic leader in different situations (Koganti, 2014).
Servant Leadership
The originator of the servant leadership concept (though inspired by a Herman Hesse story) was Robert Greenleaf. “The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?” (Greenleaf, 1970)
A longer extract from this work is in this week's media
Teachers as Servant Leaders
Servant leadership has been applied by a number of authors to teaching. “The teacher as servant leader functions as a trailblazer for those served by removing obstacles that stand in their path. Part of unleashing another’s talents is helping individuals discover latent, unformed interests. Art, music, and science teachers are prime examples of educators whose genius lies in leading students to discover unarticulated interests.” (Bowman, 2005),
References
Digital 
The Agile Manifesto
The key ideas of agile are embodied in the 'Agile Manifesto' - http://agilemanifesto.org/
  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  • Working software over comprehensive documentation
  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  • Responding to change over following a plan
Agile is fundamentally about learning, people, and change - three things we struggle also with in education and handle poorly at the present time. 
Agile Schools
Steve Peha, a technologist and educator in the US, has worked extensively in applying the lessons of agile and lean to the classroom. His article on InfoQ, 'Agile Schools: How Technology Saves Education (Just Not the Way We Thought it Would), can be found at http://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-schools-education
Agile vs Waterfall video transcript (for in-class activity)
Meet Harry! Harry owns a car dealership - he needs a web application that will help him manage his current customers and their needs.
Looks like you're due for an oil change!
Meet Sally! Sally owns her own beauty salon. She needs a web application that will help her manage her clients and the services they enjoy.
Would you like to use the same color in your hair as last time?
Harry chooses to use traditional development - also known as the waterfall approach. In the waterfall approach, decisions are made at the beginning of the project. During development the customer is not involved with the creative team. Harry is only able to provide feedback at the end of the project when the creative process has been completed.
Sally chooses to use the agile approach. Agile development focuses on one area of the project at a time. During development Sally works with the creative team. Sally is able to provide feedback throughout the entire creative process.
When Harry sees the final product he realizes he needs a login feature. Harry is disappointed when he is told changes can’t be made.
Harry used the waterfall approach. Like water that flows down a waterfall cannot come back, it is not possible for Harry to adjust the scope of this project once it's been developed.
As Sally reviews her project with the creative team - together - they decide a profile feature would provide increased value. Sally is excited when the team tells her they can add it.
Sally used the agile philosophy. With agile, the client and creatives constantly work together to prioritize what is going to be the next feature that provides the most business value.
Every project has three main components: cost, scope and schedule. In order for Harry to get changes made, he is forced to spend more money and wait longer.
In order for Sally to get her changes made, she works with the creative team to decide which features will provide the most value.
The bottom line: Harry is left with a mediocre product and no money.
Sally is left with a superior product and extra cash to celebrate her success with!
The next time Harry needs a web application: “I'll have what she's having!”
Lean Production
According to Barney and Kirby (2004), educators can learn from lean production the importance of empowering teachers by training them to problem-solve and then expecting them to be self-reflective and to continuously improve their practice.
Kanban
One of the ideas that has been taken from Lean Production by agile practitioners is Kanban - which means 'visual card' in Japanese.
For an example of how Kanban boards can be used to help children plan, see Princess Kanban. This is on the agileschool blog, which you may find interesting. More recent materials are now on the Agile Classrooms site.
Trello
Trello is one of the tools that can be used to create Kanban style boards online. It is an easy-to-use, free and visual way to manage your projects and organise anything. Naturally there are other tools too, but this one seems to be the most popular right now, and amongst teachers and their students too. 
User Stories 
In software development and product management user story statements are many times following the format: As a (role) I want (something) so that (benefit). The idea is to capture what a user does or needs to do as part of his or her job function. It captures the "who", "what" and "why" of a requirement in a simple, concise way, often limited in detail by what can be hand-written on a small piece of paper.
User Story Cards
In software development, if the agile team considers a requirement too complex, the requirement splitting technique helps the customer to divide it into simpler ones. This helps agile teams to better understand the functionalities requested by the customer, and helps agile teams working in parallel with frequent communications between them.The requirements are written on story cards, which means that the complex user stories are broken down smaller stories. (De Lucia & Qusef, 2010)
3'c's
User stories have three critical aspects, Card, Conversation, and Confirmation. Ron Jeffries wrote about the 3'c's all the way back in 2001 and his advice is still good today. A good story card will likely end up with a back side covered with results of the conversation(s) and confirmation tests.
References and further reading
Andrea De Lucia, & Abdallah Qusef. (2010). Requirements Engineering in Agile Software Development. Journal of Emerging Technologies in Web Intelligence,2(3), 212-220.
Barney, H. & Kirby, S.N. (2004). Toyota Production System/Lean Manufacturing. In B. Stecher and S.N. Kirby (Eds.), Organizational Improvement and Accountability Lessons for Education From Other Sectors (pp. 35-50). Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation.
Briggs, S. & Briggs, S. (2014). Agile Based Learning: What Is It and How Can It Change Education? InformED. Retrieved from http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/agile-based-learning-what-is-it-and-how-can-it-change-education/
#agile 
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