I attended the 5th Annual EduTech Conference, held in Brisbane this year. It is Australasia's largest education & training event.
It was great to listen to so many inspiring educators echoing my thoughts and beliefs. It was also fantastic to see a dedicated Maker Space in the Expo Zone, hosted by none other than Gary Stager, Sylvia Martinez & Super-Awesome Sylvia.
Speakers who had an impact:
Eric Mazur
Link to notes: Assessment: The Silent Killer of Learning
It was great to listen to so many inspiring educators echoing my thoughts and beliefs. It was also fantastic to see a dedicated Maker Space in the Expo Zone, hosted by none other than Gary Stager, Sylvia Martinez & Super-Awesome Sylvia.
Speakers who had an impact:
Eric Mazur
Link to notes: Assessment: The Silent Killer of Learning
Take-aways:
- Flash cards: 35% retention after 1 week
- Assessment in its current form doesn't work and is not an accurate reflection of how our world works.
- Students are assessed in isolation. Many students now can't even wear watches to exams. What's next? Naked exams??
- What's wrong with open book exams?
- Inauthentic assessment questions can be googled.
- Problem with known procedure to reach a known outcome vs. problem with an unknown solution to find a known outcome.
- Focus on skills, not content
- Feedback, not ranking
- Team-based assessment - working together to problem solve - about the process not the outcome
Take-aways:
- Baby Steps
- Cheap is Good
- Failure happens. Learn from it
- Be the student
- Don't sweat the small stuff
- Who are the Sylvias in our classrooms and why this learning happening outside of school, not in it.
Take-aways:
- QUEST - Question, Uncover, Explain, Share Together
- TPACK - Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Mishra & Koehler 2006)
- High Possibility Classrooms: 5 conceptions
- Theory-driven technological practice
- Creativity for learning through technology
- Public learning through technology
- Life preparation using technology
- Contextual accommodations using technology
- Permission to play
- Students not all learning the same thing at the same time
- Letting go and giving students control
- Opportunities to solve real world problems
- If teachers take risks, so will students
- Is the learning personally significant?
- Planning hard to teach easy
Sylvia Martinez |
- Making meaning, not stuff
- Eliminate worksheets!
- 3D Printing - planning, design, thinking, iteration, maths, joining communities to solve global problems
- e-nabling the future
- Physical computing - adding interactivity to the real world
- Programming - unlocking the educational value of making in the classroom
- Learning Manifesto:
- Learning occurs when a new experience makes connections to existing knowledge
- Learning cannot be delivered to the learner
- The best way to ensure understanding inside your head is through active constrcution of shareable things outside your head
- Iterative - do many times but not do over
- Start quickly, don't overplay, tools and materials inform the learning
- Teach less, do more
- Where do we add complexity to push kids' limits?
- Making is not a shopping list or a special place, it's a stance towards learning
- Knowledge is a consequence of experience - Jean Piaget
- Give the kids the mindsets, tools and techniques to make sense of their world and take charge of their world
Matt Richards The Mind Lab, Wellington Link to presentation: Immersive Learning, Real World Tech & Learning Adventures |
Take-aways:
- Student-centric practice
- Multi-age learning commons
- Give space for exploration
- Community links
- Immersive learning experiences
- Not "When I'm an explorer/inventor/engineer.." but "I am an explorer/inventor/engineer..."
- Design thinking and computational thinking
- Minecraft for computational thinking
- Experiment.com - crowdfunding for new learning initiatives
Take-aways:
- Compliance does not equal engagement
- The students have to buy into your change process
- Problem-based learning rather then project-based learning
- Kids' problems are brought into the classroom
- Rather than "What did you learn today?" ask "What did you create today?"
- How can we make every day better for our kids?
Take-aways:
- Computational thinking has huge value in the classroom
- Future jobs are in the service and creative industries
- Programming is not just about extending the gifted kids
- Make this accessible to girls.
- kodeklubbers.weebly.com
Dr Heidi Hayes Jacobs Link to presentation: Future Schools Now: Bold Moves/Thoughtful Leadership |
Take-aways:
- Make decisions with students at the forefront - arguing for their best interests makes for good discussion
- Learners now create and share knowledge differently from previous generations
- Digital Literacy, Media Literacy, Global Literacy
- Just being able to access tools doesn't mean they can dive deep and make meaning
- Just having a pencil doesn't mean you can write and the same applies to laptops
- You can use a smart board to do dumb things
- "There are so many apps out there." Do you say the same about books? Do an app study instead of a book study
- Overwhelmed=paralysis, underwhelmed = bored. Be whelmed.
- Combine the best of classical teaching and contemporary teaching
- Antiquated systems = What will you cut?
- Classical systems = What will you keep?
- Contemporary systems = What will you create?
- The best way to predict the future is to invent it - Allan Kay
- Beware of habits & imagine possibilities
- 19th Century Structures, 20th Century Curriculum, 21st Century Learners
- MLEs foster a sense of purpose and a sense of belonging
- Personalised learning - fascination, not just interest