Activity 2: Reflection on learning and practice

Using Rolfe’s model:

What happened?

Unitec promoted the digital and collaborative learning course to schools, offering a free scholarship to study. My principal approached me in my capacity as the e-Learning facilitator to think about studying. I spoke with my wife and considered the home situation - we were hoping to buy our first home in NZ. Weighing up my situation and the developments at school I felt it was too good an opportunity to turn down.

24 weeks has flown by, from techno gadgets, apps, stop motion to discussions and provocations not forgetting singing the Welsh anthem in my head to blow up a barrel of dynamite. Digital and collaborative learning have opened my eyes to new experiences like you wouldn’t believe. The weeks of practical assignments and learning activities were, for the most part, enjoyable and they provided the foundation upon which discussion around each topic was built.
In week 3 I was asked to provide information about my own key competencies and what I wanted from the course:
Which of the following KCs are your personal strengths?

Response: Thinking, relating to others, participating and contributing

Which of the following KCs would you like to develop further during the next 32 weeks? Response: Using language, symbols, and texts, managing self

How does your own KCs have an impact on your leadership?

Response: I am able to think in relation to problems and analyse them to present others I find difficulty in relating my intentions to others.

So What?

However, upon reflection one area mentioned in passing is thinking and this is the area I feel I have developed most. In writing and engaging with different forms of media and academic papers for the assessments,  I have been made more aware of the need to back up assertions with current academic thinking, notwithstanding the need to communicate my own point of view on the topics.

I love to argue, and do so regularly on forums around the world, but not necessarily on professional topics. These weeks provided me with the opportunity to challenge and verbalise my thoughts and feelings about topics each week. Finding scholarly articles to back up or enable me to promulgate topics with some sort of authority I found quite enjoyable. However, I do feel that I scan read too much in the fear of missing the obvious, but I certainly know how to use the features of Google Docs to research topics easily.
For me the most enjoyable part of the 32 weeks were the first 16. In those weeks were actually learned the technology, we learned about new tools and tricks. It’s here I felt most at home. I need to understand the  tool or app or device to be able to apply it in my class. The scholarly work took me away from the tools and back to the mundanity of sharing learning for assessment purposes. I did learn to make a video for an assessment and this helped me share this style of sharing learning for assessment purposes with my year 11 class, but not all students engaged with video making, subsequently I have further explored YOUTUBE’s creator studio to make videos. This is an app and part of the GAFE suite which is free and completely underutilized at my school. However, students did enjoy the opportunity that creating videos gave them. A chance to collaborate on a making task. I wanted the students to make one of these, a sliding bevel and that was my main focus. Students were finding creative ways to waste materials and generally avoid completing the task.

Sliding bevel

Introducing the video element turned the sliding bevel project as secondary. They now wanted to complete the tool to be able to make a video which included music of course! Some persevered and completed the video. All students completed the making of the sliding bevel which was my main concern.

Now what?

Our ERO report asks us to:

• affirm New Zealand’s bi-cultural heritage and be responsive to students’ various cultures, languages and backgrounds
• promote high levels of interest and challenge, and encourage critical thinking and problem-solving
• support students to make decisions about what and how they learn, and make seamless transitions between schools and into the world of work and further learning.

This where GAFE can help.

The plans for this year reflect the key next steps of the ERO report. A lot of effort is going in to building a seamless curriculum. However, this can not be achieved without support from all the members of staff and by utilising the maximum benefit of the GAFE tools. Google forms can help connect with a number of members of staff and students so that we can build and ongoing understanding of the needs of teachers and students as we move towards a seamless curriculum and using research and best practices e.g.  ASCD. Furthermore, incorporating 21st CLD assessment grids for staff to be able to reflect on their progress towards developing critical thinking and problem-solving learning activities along with revisiting SOLO taxonomy as another means by which staff can construct their own So What’s to engagement with learning activities are our next steps.

Like me, many staff enjoy learning the new tools, but it is the pedagogical challenges we face to make the learning activities 'irresistibly engaging' Fullan 2013 as we build our future together.

Key changes to my practice:

• Teaching teachers tools to use by providing a drop in PL workshop. Teachers come and we talk about learning design and then try and find a tool to help. 
• Using the 21st CLD rubric to assess and measure learning activities in the department and use it as a discussion tool with staff.
• A more sensitive appreciation of cultural pedagogy and the application of Kota hi tanga within the classroom

References

Bishop, R., & Berryman, M. (2009, September). Maori Achievement: Te Kotahitanga Effective Teaching Profile. Retrieved January 27, 2016, from http://www.nzcer.org.nz/system/files/set2009_2_027.pdf


Dunne, K. (2016, January 12th). Retrieved from http://inservice.ascd.org/a-pd-plan-that-works-begin-by-asking-teachers-what-they-need/

Fullan, M. (2013, March 20). Stratosphere: Integrating technology, pedagogy, and change knowledge. Pearson Canada.

Microsoft Educator Network - Professional Development : 21st Century Learning Design. (n.d.). Retrieved January 27, 2016, from https://www.educatornetwork.com/pd/21CLD/Overview 

Rolfe (2001). Retrieved January 27, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_practice

SOLO taxonomy. (n.d.). Retrieved January 27, 2016, from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/solo.htm