This morning I gave the Kaurna Acknowledgement at the beginning of a gathering of educators. I researched it to make it unique and I hope it came across well. Here is what I said and the images I used…
My name is Karen Butler. I work in the Digital Learning and Communication Team
At the beginning of this year the team working within Australian Curriculum in Aboriginal Education issued a challenge to learn more about Aboriginal students, from historical and contemporary perspectives. Since then I have taken this challenge to heart and have looked to improve my personal understandings of pedagogy and content knowledge that puts Aboriginal learners at the centre of my work. As such I am deeply privileged to have been asked to provide the acknowledgement for today’s meeting.
I took this responsibility and the initial challenge and considered four perspectives. I’d like to share those with you if you’ll indulge me.
The first is language. I’ve discovered the Kuarna language is rich and complex. Pronunciation is tricky. There are many more complex versions of acknowledgement – but I was not that brave – so I am going to attempt to make this simple acknolwedgement in Kuarna. Apologies if I get it wrong, I mean no disrespect.
Kaurna miyurna, Kaurna yarta, ngadlu tampinthi. (I listened to the MP3s on this site over and over for this)
Translated this means
We recognise Kaurna people and their land
I also discovered a great series of videos by Jack Buckskin teaching some common saying. One of those
Wanti Naa
Wanti meaning “where to”
and Naa meaning “you all” you mob.
Where are you going. It may be timely to consider this – where are we going? What are we hoping to achieve and how are Aboriginal students featuring in the centre.
Wanti Naa.
The second perspective is History, looking back in order to look forward. As many of you may know the image on the left is of a Kuarna shield housed in the South Australian Museum. It is also featured in the Changing Worlds resource by the Outreach.
The Kaurna Shield, or wokali as it is known in the Kaurna language, is a bark shield that was used by the original people of the Adelaide Plains.
Research suggests that this wokali shield is more than 150 years old, and was used in ritual combat by a Kaurna man of the Adelaide Plains.
The sign on the right is a contemporary reworking of this shield into a symbol used by the Adelaide City Council in the CBD and Park Land’s as signage, along with a plaque on the Adelaide Town Hall, which acknowledges the Kaurna people’s original custodianship.
So I invite you to do battle with the obstacles that hinder us and use our collegiality as a shield to allow us the protection to grow and learn.
The Kaurna are the original people of Adelaide and the Adelaide Plains. The area in which we are meeting today and the surrounds were called Tarntanya (red kangaroo place) by the Kaurna – According to History SA we are meeting in the heart of Kaurna country which before 1836 was an open grassy plain with patches of trees and shrubs, the result of hundreds of generations of skillful land management.
As I’ve discovered the Kaurna spoke a complex language which reflected their sophisticated culture and deep knowledge of the environment. The Kaurna people valued learning. Learning about culture and environment began in childhood and continued into adulthood – and this gaining of knowledge was recognised as the basis of an individual’s authority.
This is valuable learning for me. I have a lot more to learn. I hope it is useful for you today to hold in mind the importance of our work in developing ourselves and all learners.
Finally, I was reminded about the importance of contemporary Aboriginal Culture when I was reading some work by preservice students who sought to include Aborignal perspectives by always using traditional examples from the past. And I felt that we sometimes neglect to remember that the Kuarna ways are as important today as they were thousands of years ago. That we should not relegate to the past, that which is powerful for today.
Lewis O’Brien a well known Kuarna man, went into the government archives when he was a young man, and was able to confirm family stories about his great-great grandmother Kudnartu and details passed down orally through almost a century. He explained in 1990:
‘I thought for a long time that I was a Narrunga person but I found out, through tracing history, that there were some survivors of the Kaurna – including myself – and now there’s probably a thousand of us Kaurna descendants who can trace their ancestry back to a number of Aboriginal women who had children. It pleased me to think that we were survivors and that we are still here and still doing things’ O’Brien 1990
Let’s acknowledge the present. Lets keep doing things that create a culture of thriving rather than just surviving.
And I return to Wanti Naa
Where are you going. Where are we going.
What challenge will you take up today?
And finally let me formally make the acknowledgement in English.
Today we are privileged to be meeting on the country of Kaurna people
We recognise Kaurna as the Traditional Owners and
Custodians of the Adelaide Plains
We recognise the significance for Kaurna people of:
* their cultural and spiritual relationship with the land, sea,
waterways and sky
* their rich cultural heritage and beliefs
and we recognise the continuing importance of this to Kaurna people living today
and we ask that their ancestors walk with us to achieve clarity for “Wanti Naa“.
Tweet Yourself Smart: Building a professional learning community online
Often I find myself at conferences or collegiate activities and someone will ask in conspiratorial tones “Do you use Twitter?” and the conversation usually goes like this.
Yes, you?
Well I joined, but I don’t use it, not like Facebook or anything. I just don’t get it?
It’s great for professional learning
(incredulous) How? What can you say in 140 characters or whatever it is?
Well, you follow people and hashtags
What’s a hashtag, I just don’t get it, how many people do you follow?
About 500
What?! You can’t read 500 posts.
Well, I make lists and then I check the lists I am interested in at any given time
I just don’t get it.
And then someone on the side, who is eavesdropping, will inevitably shout Twitter is for TWITS , like it’s the first time anyone has ever had that thought or made that comment, and the conversation will achieve an awkward silence.
It’s not an uncommon scenario. Check out this search prediction from Google
There are always those who dismiss Twitter as a tool for celebrity watching and the meaningless posting of photos of lunch, followed by equally inane comment. However, most of the time the person inquiring about Twitter has a curiosity and desire to understand, but becomes frustrated when the application of the tool is not immediately apparent.
Social networks fulfil many purposes and if ‘lunch photos’ are your thing, it will cater for that. But if you really want to learn more about a particular aspect of curriculum or have a conversation with an expert, Twitter is also an amazing forum for learning. So here’s THREE “to”s – how-to, why-to and where-to with Twitter.
(For a quick orientation on Twitter go here)
How ‘To’
Joining
For an extensive guide on how to join up to Twitter I advise using this Google Doc – Guide To Twitter by my excellent colleague Kristen Morgan, @Morganiseit
For a quick summary to getting started I suggest you think of these four things
An email address you are likely to check and can access easily from anywhere – I use a Gmail account
A “Twitter Handle” – this is your username Most people who are interested in professional learning and maintaining a professional presence on Twitter use their given name. Undoubtedly you will find that your own name is “unavailable”. So some version of your name, possibly combined with a number may be required.
But that does not mean you have to use your given name! You can be as creative as you like. I have both a personal and professional presence as I like to separate my work and personal life. Other people have one identity on Twitter that they use for both personal and professional dialogue. How you represent yourself as a professional is important. As Twitter is open to the world you should consider your name and your tweets carefully.
Avatar – Get rid of the egg. Twitter will assign a generic “egg” avatar. Get rid of it as soon as possible. If you don’t want your face on there, use an image. No-one takes eggs seriously!
Your first Tweet – It’s a bit daunting staring at the “compose new tweet” screen, because compose suggests something clever, witty, erudite or complex and all you can think of writing is “this is my first tweet” whichyou are posting to absolutely no one because you have no followers, as yet! Do not be alarmed. Tweet away and put in the hashtag #firsttweet and draw attention to it by putting a friend’s twitter handle, or you can of course use mine @klbutler65. Once you are off and running, it will seem less foreign.
Very boring! However in the process of writing this blog I discovered Twitter has an app to find your first tweet! There really is an app for everything! https://discover.twitter.com/first-tweet
The Twitter tool bar
Microblogging is an art –
Be concise as you only have 140 characters, so if you want to say more, link to a site or further information.
This user tells stories with his 140 characters
The grass isn't always greener on the other side.
Bry decided to create her own destiny. She made her life better where she was.
If you want particular people to pay attention include them with the @ sign as well as adding a hashtag to attach your comment to groups of content. (more on this below)
Here’s a useful wiki on How to write in 140 characters or less. As links to other sites can be long and use up your character limit, create an account with a URL shortening service like Bit.ly.
Following – using the @ symbol
Who you decide to follow is entirely up to your interests. Whoever you follow will appear in your feed and may link you to professional learning in areas of interest to you.
Here is an excellent article, with this infographic from @edudemic, on Twitter for teachers
Use the @ symbol followed by an account name in your posts to:
address your tweet for the direct attention of someone – useful if you want to ensure they will see your tweet … and/or if you want them to respond to you.
virtually tap people on their shoulder and get their attention. Facebook users will find this the same as ‘tagging’. The tweet might not be about them but you want them to see it.
to cite, reference, credit/give kudos to someone.
If you only want the person you are addressing to see your tweet use the @ symbol at the beginning of your tweet. If you want the world to read your tweet start with a fullstop and then the @ symbol eg
Adding a hashtag to a word in your tweets immediately hyperlinks your tweet to groups of discussions globally. Education hashtags for South Australia include
#DECD
#EdTEchSA
#CESALearn
See the above infographic for more hashtags or go to these useful sites
You can make your own hashtags and invite people to join in a conversation on a topic. To check if a hashtag is being used, type it into the search window. If it has not been used before it will not produce any search results. Some hashtags I have made up, on the spot or in consultation, have been original or I have discovered they are already in use
#GreenwithPS – to facilitate a PD at that school using Twitter as a back channel
#dontgoogleit – as a response to a keynote about students going deeply into knowledge
#keynote commenting while attending a keynote at EdTechSA conference
#powlearn – working with the Numeracy and Literacy team on powerful learners.
Lists
When you start to follow a lot of people it can get pretty busy in your Twitter feed. It may be a good idea to add people to lists so you can check feeds according to your interests. To create a list just click on the cog icon, at the side of the person you want to add to a list, and create a list title on the spot. Here is an example of list names I use but you could be much more creative and strategic about yours:
Organising
When you have more than one Twitter account or many lists a useful tool is “TweetDeck” – it’s free and can display multiple Twitter feeds at once. Another tool if you want to keep track of twitter and Facebook is “HootSuite“, which similarly allows you to view various feeds at once.
Why “To”
I asked my networks for the top three reasons why educators use Twitter and their responses can be found on this storify page.
And from this I gleaned the following seven reasons why educators can and should use Twitter.
Professional Learning -: Twitter gives access to experts from all over the world who regularly post videos and thought pieces that can be used to inspire and support innovative practice. For example @SirKenRobinson is a respected thinker in Education. A tweet I discovered
20 most powerful storytelling (short) videos of 2013. Great resource: fascinating facts and stories: http://t.co/QZMWQIh4hU
led me here to this excellent animation that could be used with students to talk about activism and the cross curriculum perspective of sustainability.
Authentic Connection with Communities – A Twitter account created for a classroom offers connection with families of students and educators around the world. Students can view a Twitter feed without having to join if they are under 13. Two colleagues who share a class, Jarrad Lamshed and Jessica Ottwell have a Twitter account for their classroom.
A quick look at the feed and you can see that they have received comment from around the world.
And this account received over 70 retweets at the time of writing this blogpost
Professional Leaning Networks: By hashtagging PLN you can see tweets from educator groups around the world, but you can also create your own professional learning network by creating a list of interested teachers and sharing conversations and insights as they occur to you. A powerful and active PLN can be a source of excellent learning
A strong PLN is the most powerful professional development tool of all times. I've learned more in past year, than I did earning Masters'
Social Action – During the “Arab Spring” Twitter was used as a main vehicle for organising protests. Other accounts are set up to directly influence the ways in which we treat each other, for example the Everyday Sexism account was established to call out sexism that was occurring everyday and has been linked to a change in behaviour by multinational company Dove and American Express by mobilising followers to target their Facebook pages.
Have a look at our #ShoutingBack hashtag today for thousands of women's stories of workplace sexism, harassment, homophobia & transphobia
Deprivatising Practice – Most good educators, at this point in time have come to the realisation that closing your classroom off to the outside is no longer possible or in fact desirable. Being continuously connected, and the ubiquitous presence of mobile devices means that half thoughts, drafts and incomplete ideas are shared all the time. Polished publications can evolve out of the open dialogue and debate that inform our practice. Therefore anxiety about saying something wrong, or putting yourself out there for scrutiny can be tempered with this knowledge i.e that it is expected that a person can change their minds, form new opinions and generate, contribute and construct new knowledge. While your digital footprint is permanent, your thinking is not – it evolves over time and can be viewed as a “work in progress” This avoids subscribing to “on-message” ideologies and “group-think”.
Ideas Exchange – This is similar to professional learning, except that it is a little more immediate. It is the opportunity to rethink what you will do Monday, in your classroom. Ask a question through the hashtag #mathchat and you will probably get many suggestions for maths lessons or links to places that hold lots of information about great activities to do with students in your year level.
Feedback – You can provide and receive feedback. Imagine being able to ask a group of people the so-called “dumb” questions. My mantra is always “there are no dumb questions” when I am running PD on using technologies for learning, but inevitably there is a shy teacher who thinks their question is too basic to warrant verbalising but usually he/she is not alone in “not knowing”. You can ask a heap of strangers for answers on questions you have and generally people are very helpful, and if someone is not helpful – you block them. You are in control of who you listen to and are not under any obligation to acknowledge anyone using Twitter inappropriately. Through topic based hashtags you can engage with people who are endeavouring to improve our collective knowledge.
Twitter like any tool is neither inherently good nor evil. Its potential for either is entirely up to you. Where you take your involvement in Twitter and how beneficial it will become is under your control. Some ideas to consider however are
Digital Citizenship
When using Twitter in an educational setting, especially with students and families it is important to make sure you make digital citizenship an ongoing part of your teaching. Discussing a digital footprint and behaviour in online spaces is not something you can cover in one session with a guest speaker or through a few workshops. Digital citizenship is a conversation with no end point, just like literacy or numeracy. It must be taught explicitly and embedded into practice. It is an integral part of the ICT General Capabilities and the new Digital Technologies curriculum. For links to excellent resources regarding the use of digital technologies with young people, I have compiled a list in this google document.
Curating
There are times when you want to collect Tweets and use them for professional purposes or – even better – share your insights with others. Storify is one of many curation tools that allows you to collect tweets by topic and publish them for other users. But there are many sites that already curate content and document the use of Twitter and how it benefits educators. This article on teachers to follow on Twitter for example might be good starting place for educators new to Twitter.
With any social media platform or emergent technology there will be a new set of language and practices. Here are some forms of language that have developed around the popularity of Twitter that reflect both its lighter and darker sides and some Twitter literacies you will develop.
Twitter Handle: Your username. The word handle was made popular in the 70s when people communicated via CB radio. Often a handle was used to conceal identity, but has been absorped into modern speak to be synonomous with username, whether it reveals your actual name or not.
# – followed by a topic will link you to talk about that topic. The hashtag also makes searching Twitter based on your interest or query much easier.
@ – followed by a name will draw the attention of that person
Followers – People you follow will appear in your newsfeed, they are not “friends” in the same sense as Facebook, they are simply people you are interested in whose tweets will appear when you log in to Twitter.
Following – People who follow you – ie your tweets appear in their newsfeed. People you don’t know will follow you.
Retweet – often listed at the beginning of a tweet, you will read RT which means that someone has retweeted or copied a post on Twitter into their own feed. Or someone may have made adjustments to a tweet they have read and posted it with “MT” = Modified Tweet” or commentary along with a copied tweet will be listed as QT – Quoted Tweet
Twitchfork mob – when groups of people band together to attack users on Twitter
Trolls – people who attack other users, often anonymously and continuously, without obvious motive and unfairly.
Tweet-up – Meeting your Twitter followers at a “real life” function organised on Twitter. I went to one once for @socadel – it was awkward and fascinating at the same time!
Tweetable – information worthy of a Twitter post
Back-channels: When attending conferences Twitter is often used with a hashtag so people can comment on insights as they occur to them throughout keynotes and workshops. This is referred to as a back-channel. It is also interesting to watch tweets appear on television in relation to a particular program. @QandA on the ABC is a popular one which combines a televised panel of guests with live tweets posted across the bottom of the screen. If you are working with children under thirteen and you would like to introduce them to the literacies of Twitter, a great tool is Today’s Meet which allows you to establish a back-channel with 140 character limit. The comments can be transcribed and saved as a PDF for later reference.
Audience awareness – be aware of who you are Tweeting to and who is following you. Someone may retweet a post you have posted and may be of questionable character and someone with whom you do not want to be associated with. It is important to check your notifications regularly. You may get a request to follow someone and it is important to check their profile, because they can sometimes simply be seeking Followers to market something or may be soliciting your attention for something inappropriate to your ethics or values. Always read a profile to ensure they have listed who and where they are and read some of their tweets, before deciding to follow someone.
Reporting someone on Twitter – Twitter has a detailed and rigorous method for reporting abusive Tweeters which is important to persist with, as ‘Trolls’ will report people regularly to get them removed from Twitter, however if someone is behaving in a way that you find offensive it is important to react as you would in the physical world and take action.
Tolerance for risk – You have to evaluate your preparedness for critique and confrontation when embarking on Twitter, because there are people with whom you will disagree. Discomfort is the place where deep learning exists and hearing conflicting information is an opportunity for reflection. There is obviously a difference between being challenged and being abused. You need to be prepared to set your parameters and make sure you are being challenged within your limits.
If you have any more that you would like to add to this list feel free to comment or Tweet to me at @klbutler65.
Public vs Private
Being online has created a situation where many taken for granted notions, like privacy, are being redefined. You are in charge of how much you share. Jeff Jarvis, the author of “Public Parts” and “What would Google do?” offers insight,
Publicness is less complicated than privacy. It’s not about fear, limitations and laws. It’s about sharing, connecting, joining, learning, acting, adding. Knowing one’s privacy is secure makes it easier to be public
and
Privacy is an ethic of knowing. Public is an ethic of sharing.
It is our responsibility to be aware of our privacy settings and to consider our behaviour online as whether it is adding value. This does no mean we sanitize what we say so that it is of minimal value, but that we act responsibly with our own information and the information shared with us. We also expect the same from the organisations that are recipients of our information and challenge them when they use it unethically.
NB: Here is a great article from @edudemic on the 8 Digital Literacies need to participate online
So now when I have a conversation with a colleague about Twitter, I will glare meaningfully at the colleague who announces Twitter is for Twits and point them here.
The ubiquitous nature of mobile devices and being connected anywhere, anytime offers opportunities to challenge the sociocultural limitations set by dominant narratives and rewrite new visions for societies and education systems as we would like them to be. Are you on board? Are you helping to rewrite this narrative, into a story that puts all learners at the centre and provides them with a voice that can redefine the future to a more trusting and accepting society, through the public sharing of our collective smarts. And if you are not tweeting yourself smart, [there is no need to platform centric] are you in a space that allows you to contribute your knowledge to the collective? Are you building onto your knowledge through many voices including those who are often marginalised? Let me know!
Recently I was asked to do a workshop on using QR codes for educational purposes. Too easy I thought… But then maybe not so much! When it came to it, I really had to think, “how can we use QR codes meaningfully, not just as a new shiny thing!”
I remember the first time I encountered a QR code. About 5 years ago a colleague showed me one he had on his new business card. He asked me to try it out and asked for my phone – an android at the time – and then expressed disappointed disapproval – “Oh you don’t have a reader” he said, brandishing an iPhone. As if non-verbally implying, someone who is really up with technology would so have a reader on their phone. I blushed, my embarrassment at being a techno-neophyte obvious. And to make matters worse he nodded to the young, trendy guy next to him and said “You have a reader right? Here scan my code”
A reader? I didn’t even know what a QR code was or even what QR stood for. Quite Right? Queen Royal? Quickly Retreat? Quantifiable Ridiculing? After the code was scanned there was text matching the other side of the business card. So, I thought, you have a business card on your business card? The Point???? But of course I appeared very impressed, and asked lots of questions.
How many times have I been through a similar dialogue. Being a woman interested I technology, it often goes this way for me. I am surrounded by men who have been immersed in the IT field for a long time and never, ever, let themselves be found lacking and thus are always on the hunt for the newest, shiniest thing. But I just tinker around the edges and always admit when I don’t know something because I think, that’s what is like for teachers. We are busy. We can’t always keep up with the latest and greatest – but when we find out about something new, we are learners. We want to apply practical solutions in meaningful ways that match with our pedagogy.
So when I was asked to present on QR codes I had to really think carefully. What are good uses for them? This is why, in my presentation, I put QR codes into the contexts of mobile learning and the SAMR model. So I offer you here – QR – the basics – and thoughts on how to apply them to deeper learning. Skip ahead, skim or ignore according to your level of expertise! Even better add your ideas in the comments.
An excellent article on QR codes is QR101 and an excellent website is http://www.qrcode.com/en/about/
But for now here are my reflections on using QR codes in the classroom.
What is a QR code?
A QR code is a two-dimensional scannable code, similar to a traditional bar code. While a traditional bar code can hold up to 20 digits a QR code can hold 7089 characters. The code is a square series of black and white pixels. The three squares in each corner make the code readable from any angle. QR codes can hold data such as numbers or text, links to websites and coordinates on a map. Here is one linking to my “about me” page – impressive on a resume but maybe you could have 30 of them on your door that link to text profiles on each child in your class. A get to know me QR code.
Getting Mobile
Mobile devices are a game changer. Students are no longer tied to the desktop. They can take their learning anywhere, anytime. So QR codes offer ways to get students interacting with the curriculum and each other through the use of mobile devices. For an overview on QR codes view the following useful video…
The SAMR model
The SAMR model is a useful way of thinking about technology.
If we consider them as fluid levels in which we operate when using technology, rather than a hierarchy, we can see that teachers can use technologies in a variety of ways to support learning. Often we will begin to access the technology at a substitution level, like putting a business card QR code on a business card! But it is from there that we can see future potential and begin to use them in more pedagogically sound ways. Here are some geographical learning examples.
Substitution
Imagine placing an orienteering trail around the school. You could create directions using the QR codes. In this case the QR code simply acts as substitution because it replaces text that could be on paper signs. However it is more engaging for students if they can scan and see the directions on their device and keep the directions with them as they progress through the trail. QR codes are great for
• Creating trails
• Orienteering
• Captions and signs
• Quotes or inspiration
• Links to more information
Augmentation
Skitch and other mark-up apps are great for augmenting the use of maps. You could have a QR code linked to a map and use the latitude and longitude in a mark-up app to get students to locate land marks, map out their journey to school, record the sites that are significant to Aboriginal Peoples or simply to investigate mapping literacies like using a key, coordinates, symbols etc. Collaborating on marking up in online spaces would augment this even further to allow for joint projects. Or, using geocaching for treasure hunts created by others or creating your own is also a worthwhile activity, especially on excursions.
Modification
As a teacher with a YouTube channel, I have uploaded unlisted videos so that students can access each other’s work online without fear of inappropriate commenting or a mass public audience. You can also make videos private. This would allow students to make content for teachers to upload. Of course the relevant permissions are required if student images are to be used. However imagine filming landmarks and asking the significance of them from an Aboriginal perspective or a gender specific perspective. Then, ask students to create a video response. This significantly modifies the task. Students can engage with research and integrate it into a multimedia response. Sharing online creates an authentic audience. Teacher controlled YouTube channels allow for safe filtering and hence collaboration within agreed respectful boundaries.
Redefinition
Redefining tasks requires us to take students deeper into the learning. According to TfEL research the three areas where there needs to be significant investment in change to pedagogy are
Therefore Another way to use QR codes would be use them to link to a provocation that students have created and post them in and around the school and the community and/or in online spaces.
What if students were negotiating learning involving global issues about which they were passionate? What if they could use infographic software to create their own provocations that ask their audience to think differently about a particular issue? What if they could get their audience to think differently or take social action? Asking students to synthesise information into an audience friendly infographic or video graphic requires higher order thinking but then sharing these with the community and making a call to action takes this into authentic contexts for learning.
You may have better examples, and if so I would love to hear about them!
In terms of learning, QR codes can be the latest and greatest shiny thing or they could complement your pedagogy. The difference in these two scenarios is the teacher and the ways she/he manages the learning.
Using mobile technologies to interact in online spaces offers a way into the general capabilities and in particular the ICT general capability.
WIth the new Digital Technologies section of the curriculum, you may want to use QR codes as your entry point. To find out more about the Digital Learning Curriculum you should consider registering for this free MOOC.
So how do you create a QR code?
There are lots of QR code generators and many of them are free. If you want your QR code to last beyond a thousand scans, you may want to consider buying a subscription.
The generator I often use is QR stuff which allows for basic QR codes to be created and offers a built-in URL (Universal Resource Locator or the address you put in at the top of a web page) shortener. A URL shortener makes the code less complex. The more characters you have in your URL link, the more complex the QR code will become and may be more susceptible to failing or incorrectly linking to a site that is different to the one you intended. Other URL shortening sites are bit.ly and ow.ly,which are really useful when working with students because typing out really long URLs is often a source of frustration for kids. Another generator is QR code monkey which allows for use of images inside the QR code which is always a winner with kids.
Follow these steps to create your own codes –
1. Go to QRStuff and select the type of code you would like…
2.For example you could select “plain text” from the list on the left and create a direction you would like students to take
3. Before selecting “download QRcode” select the option to use “qrs.ly” which will shorten the URL and make the code less complex. Alternatively, use a URL shortening website before you paste the URL into the web link option.
4. Select DOWNLOAD QR CODE – this will send the QRcode to your downloads folder, but make sure you rename it so you will easily identify it later – because QR codes do all look the same!
QR codes offer fun, creative and exciting mobile learning opportunities for students as well as supporting community connection and involvement through multiple ways to access online spaces and places. I cannot wait to try it out with the educators I work with. If you have time, respond to this blog post here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jg0s0RWHhTLkHz4nM_yFFOyvkOaeODDEsApxxXcV580/viewform or try this shorter URL http://bit.ly/BlFdbk or scan this QR code to take you to the link!
I have just spent two days with George Couros (@gcouros, http://georgecouros.ca/blog/) and I really hope he isn’t offended by my playful addition to his name! Because he is really curious, always learning and seeking to learn, to understand. He is an engaging speaker, an innovative educational leader. Despite managing to implement massive changes in his school district in Canada he always positions himself as a co-learner and that is one reason you leave his presentations thinking “anything is possible”. He says he is not a “technology” expert but an educator interested in innovative practice. Practice that leverages technology for exciting learning. He says relationships are the foundation of good schools and learning and technologies help us build these relationships.
I found myself nodding so much I looked like one of those dog toys you see on people’s dashboards or rear windows in cars.
At a CEGSA talk I gave in 2010, called “Get me on the net” I talked about how my students had produced amazing videos with a fantastic environmental message. And while we invited the broader community in to view them – we had government ministers and guest expert speakers- there was very little available to me to get their work out to a global audience. I wanted to bring the world into the classroom and take my classroom out to the world, but it was so difficult finding free tools that were not filtered and I had to work my way through the labyrinthine red tape of permissions and risk management of using social media with children under 13. So I played at the edges until I thought, well I would drop at least a hundred dollars on teaching resources at a local bookstore – why not pay for a blog that lets me upload video and communicate directly with my parent community? I did that, but it still didn’t quite have the participatory effect I really wanted.
Now DECD has social media guidelines, high-speed Internet and new tools are being created every minute of every day! The task just got much easier. I want to leverage the tools that are out there to make learning AMAZING. I want my students to be active, aware global digital citizens. So here are my top ten changes I’d like to work towards making with the parents and colleagues in my school community.
Go Paperless – I am never printing another handout. Last time I printed handouts a participant complained that the screen grabs weren’t large enough despite looking at the identical screen on a massive projected image! Going paperless creates the necessity to engage with information online. And once you are online you are in a global learning place.
BYOD– When I return to my classroom I am having a serious conversation with parents and my leaders about allowing students to use their own devices. We will never have the budget to provide one to one devices so why not let the kids access the wireless and be able to engage in connections with real learning with a global audicnce.
Crowd Source Solutions – Next time I want to know a really good way to approach something I am going to send out a tweet to my peeps and ask for help. If I am always relying on my own brain I will never have that creative innovative learning place that I envisage. My first question? How are people suing iPads to innovatively teach mathematics in the middle school? or What are some really great problem based tasks to set mathematics students in the middle school and how can I leverage mobile devices to support them? And if my meagre 100 followers can’t help I will go to #edchat or #mathchat and ask again.
Teach Digital Citizenship – I have always taught year 6 students to be careful online, but I have always been really nervous about letting them into those global spaces. This is despite the fact that they laugh every time I say “You’re on facebook? But don’t you have to be 13?” But instead of being overly cautious I would run whole day workshops on how to behave in online places and how to manage your digital footprint.
Invite the Parents – to be learners in these spaces too. I would get them in, give them an iPad and teach them about digital citizenship and learning in online spaces with really cool tools and ask them – how do you want to see learning happen for your kids right now? I would also create a Facebook Page and Twitter feed that parents can access to see what is happening in our class and the cool exciting learning that is going on. I’d also ask for their help – the parents are all experts in something, we can source their expertise and get real answers for real problems.
Leverage Social Media – I would set up an Edmodo class so that students can interact outside of school hours and they would also be able to access all those paperless assignments as well as share their really cool discoveries with each other.
Vlog – I would set up my own YouTube channel so that kids could get real feedback for their work and share their learning with a global audience. They could ask real astronauts questions about Space, or an electrical engineer about solar power or an author about plot lines.
Blog – I would blog regularly, so that learning is shared – my learning, the students’ learning and the parents ideas too. I would also write about my spectacular failures as well as successes! I would get kids to set up their own Blogs so that they can develop an e-portfolio that goes with them wherever they go.
Mange my online “selves” – I will install Hoot Suite, to keep track of my social media accounts, as they are growing exponentially and I can’t seem to marry the personal and the professional – so until I do I need help with a gazillion usernames and passwords.
Collaborate – Use Google apps for education or Google Docs to get student feedback and opinion on learning in our class. I’d create open documents for parent and student contribution.
Engaging in media environments is really important for learners today, as Mike Wesch says It’s this idea that media are environments, media are not just tools, , media are not just means of communication , that media mediate our conversations and that when media change, our conversations change and because our conversations dictate who can say what, when, where and how…that means we are looking at broad cultural changes.
I think these changes would make learning in room 34 really exciting and I cannot wait to try them out. But more importantly I want to invite my students into this global conversation, where they can be powerful, responsible leaders. What do you think?
The views and opinions expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the South Australian Department for Education and Child Development
The Learning place
Karen Butler
I learned something. I know that I learned, because I was definitely in that squirmy, uncomfortable place between understanding and not quite grasping – on the edge, the precipice if you will, between knowing and not knowing. It was a bit precarious for a while there, hanging on by a fingernail waiting for my credibility to tumble into the abyss. Because not knowing can be a very vulnerable place, yet it is somewhere we place students every day. Discomfort is the seated emotion, I think, of real, deeper learning.
So how did I arrive at this uncomfortable place? At a recent professional development, my team presented a session on contemporary, connected learning and I was asked to talk about social media as a tool for learning. So I trolled through research looking for evidence that it was actually a good tool for learning, just to support my case and credential the message. But two or three days before the session I experienced the power of social media first hand.
Like most people I use Facebook and twitter – I dream of posting a tweet and seeing it on QandA, because like lots of others I am greedy for tiny titbits of fame! When someone retweets me I am awash with pride. Ridiculous though this may be it is what keeps me going back and checking my twitter feed. That, and I follow a lot of interesting people who have the ability to send you on a labyrinthine like journey through hyperlinks to all four corners of the Internet universe, consuming a staggering amount of time but also, I think, creating a path for pursuing dialogue and interest.
A girlfriend who had asked me how to use twitter had no sooner started but was recommending that I follow a group called “Destroy the Joint”. How did she find it before me? I was feeling a little out of the loop so I did follow them and found ,myself in that labyrinth, following links to all sorts of online news generators of which I had scarcely any knowledge. The story goes thus, Alan Jones, a radio shock jock in my conceptual framework but described by his station as…Australia’s most popular talkback presenter, Alan Jones is a phenomenon. He’s described by many as the nation’s greatest orator and motivational speaker. Alan has the mind and capacity to make complex issues understandable to the largest Breakfast audience in Australia. (Let’s hope lunch and dinner listeners can decipher complex issues for themselves and avoid oversimplification that often descends into vitriolic rhetoric). On Friday August 31, 2012 he is quoted as saying
“She [Prime Minister Julia Gillard] said that we know societies only reach their full potential if women are politically participating,” he told his listeners. ”Women are destroying the joint – Christine Nixon in Melbourne, Clover Moore here. Honestly.”
So in response, Jane Caro a freelance author and frequent commentator on The Gruen Transfer, tweeted
“Got time on my hands tonight so thought I’d spend it coming up with new ways of ”destroying the joint” being a woman & all. Ideas welcome.”
Over the following four days the hash tag “destroythejoint” trended on Twitter with well over 20,000 tweets, using it as a call to action for women to describe the ways in which they contribute positively to society and hence transforming the oppressive intention of “Destroying the joint “ into a term that meant the opposite. Indeed the folks at Destroy The Joint on Facebook state the term “destroy the joint” or… “destroying the joint” has entered the Australian lexicon. It rejects the suggestion that women are destroying the joint and represents a call to action for Australians who reject sexism and seek a civil and decent society. We’re not out to destroy the joint – that was someone else’s description. We’re rebuilding it with good humour and optimism…
Men and women took up the call to action. Tom Cummings who Tweets as @cyene40 wrote “Whatever my daughters choose to do with their lives I just hope they find time to #destroy the joint #prouddad
And “Destroy the Joint” have playfully been appropriating twentieth century images, from post war women workers to popular cultural references, to engage social media activists in their mischievous, roguish, yet powerful exposes on sexism everywhere.
They have garnered broad sweeping support and have grown into a movement for social action. Very powerful indeed, their social media presence is extremely active, with 25,000 likes now on their Facebook page alone. For some time now I have enjoyed reading and tweeting with #JointDestroyer – I was even retweeted once which sent that warm flush of belonging right through me to produce about fifty other tweets which were, rightfully, ignored. I joined campaigns on the Facebook page and was feeling my self-esteem balloon as I added “clickivist” to my resume and felt like I was changing the world through my angry, yet witty, commentary. On February 14th, 2013 I joined a campaign to shame advertisers on Alan Jones’ show into withdrawing support for his misogynistic rants.
So I responded, and went to the FB page and registered my dislike for their apparent support of Alan Jones. To which some people had responded with venom
Including me!
While I was enjoying the to-ing and fro-ing, the banter and debate I was commentating to my husband. He had heard a little about this on the radio (sadly he listens to AM radio and talk-back in particular, I have warned him that this is a slippery slope towards premature old aging) He asked me if the DTJ were taking social action or if they were swamping a website, and was it social action or was it Internet Vandalism?
And it was when my online presence and my real life presence collided that the squirmy discomfort took place. Because now I wasn’t justifying myself to some crazy faceless right wing misogynist, who I noticed I had dehumanised and demonised so that mockery became sport rather than reasoned debate, but to someone I loved and respected. And I did justify myself with persuasive, rational explanation and interrogation into what I was doing. Still, it was an uncomfortable moment. And that is where the learning occurred, in that space. Because while social media is a powerful tool for learning and organising for social action, it must be remembered that online or virtual spaces do not exist in a vacuum from real life spaces.
They coexist and interconnect and this is potentially a powerful place for us as adults and teachers to take kids, to interrogate ideas, debate and apply critical thinking. This is the power of social media.
There is abundant research to support this. Metzger and Flanagin (2008) refer to studies into digital media and youth where they report that Digital Media have escaped the boundaries of professional and formal practice, and the academic, governmental, and industry homes that initially fostered their development. Now they have been taken up by diverse populations and non institutionalised practices, including the peer activities of youth. Although specific forms of technology uptake are highly diverse, a generation is growing up in an era where digital media are part of the taken for granted social and cultural fabric of learning, play and social communication.
Yet it is not taken up in schools with the same vigour that social media is saturating people’s personal lives. The moral panic and fear around privacy issues and cyber bullying prevents a critical mass of take up in schools. Fear of predators is not unwarranted, however, when interviewing my own class I discovered that 90% of them were already on Facebook for example, while being under thirteen. So kids are already out there, the school has a responsibility to bring this popular medium into the regulated school environment where students can be taught about cyber safety in real contexts.
In a study looking at Twitter use, Rinaldo et al 2011 report that in three studies, both quantitative and qualitative data suggest that when students engage in Twitter use with the professor, students feel better prepared for future careers. In addition, students indicate that Twitter facilitates achieving traditional educational goals. Why would we avoid using such a powerful medium within the discursive practes of the classroom?
And there are ways of doing this with under thirteens. Edmodo for example, is a social media site that teachers can use and keep groups private, closed to people outside the immediate school community, which helps minimise fear of predators and brings the medium into the surveying gaze of the teacher. A real-time, virtual space for contextualised teaching about online participation.
Baird and Fischer (2005-2006) report that This net-centric generation values their ability to use the Web to create a self-paced, customized, on-demand learning path that includes multiple forms of interactive, social, and self-publishing media tools.
A colleague of mine has just started using Edmodo and has invited me to be a part of the group. She is however, on her own, experimenting in this space. But I can see that already her students have, to varying degrees, gone in and taught each other how to participate and comment on each other’s learning. And the learning conversation takes place outside of classroom hours as well as within, and homework which always seemed an add on to both of us has come into the classroom sanctioned learning space where children can discuss their work and get help from each other. This is a place where homework is far more likely to be completed and engaged with as part of learning. Social media has enabled this classroom to catch up with the anywhere, anytime experience of learning with which our students are already engaged. Yet why is she the only one brave enough to dip a toe in? In my opinion, the fear and panic around perceived risks of this medium has slowed classroom uptake to the point where engagement with the medium is spasmodic and scattered across the system, rather than strategic.
With mobile devices becoming cheaper and more prevalent, students will be able to connect anywhere any time. The time has come for classrooms then to stop insisting students switch off and power down as they walk in the door, but rather to establish protocols so that students can connect in real and online spaces to deepen and accelerate their learning.
Tony Bingham and Marcia Conner (2010) state that the most enduring impact of social media might be on learning rather than marketing and “our inherent drive to learn together can be facilitated through emerging technologies that extend, widen and deepen our reach (to) enable a new kind of knowledge building ecosystem.
And Education Departments are actually finally catching up. DECD in SA for example has Social Media Guidelines for schools. We need to join the conversations, take up the debates and prepare students to participate fully. Henry Jenkins a researcher into participatory cultures suggests that Changes in the media environment are altering our understanding of literacy and requiring new habits of mind, new ways of processing culture and interacting with the world around us. The safety nets are being put in place, the kids are primed and ready with expertise, and equipment, where there isn’t any in schools, so there is no excuse for classrooms not to experiment, play and ultimately revolutionise learning within dynamic, interactive learning places and spaces.
Baird, D and Fischer M, (2005-06) Neomillenial user experience design strategies: Utilising social networking media to support “always on “ learning styles. Journal of Educational Technology, Volume 34, Number 1 / 2005-2006
Bingham, T and Conner, M (2010), The New Social Learning Berrett Koehler Publishers Inc
Jenkins, H (2007) Confronting the challenges of participatory culture – media education for the 21st century part 2. 2007, Nordic Journal of Literacy Number 2
Metzger, M and Flanagin A (ed) (2008) Digital Media and Youth MIT press 2008
Rinadlo, S, Tapp, S and Laverie, D (2011) Learning by Tweeting: Using Twitter as a pedagogical tool Published online before print May 31, 2011, Journal of Marketing Education, August 2011, vol. 33, no. 2, 193-203
For your unwavering support of the learning in room 34. I hope you have a restful break and a wonderful 2013.
To all the students of room 34
Thankyou for being a BRILLIANT class. I hope to see you all flourishing in your final year of primary school and if you are leaving I wish you every success in your new school.
