Week 27: Performance: ‘We Can Change it’!

#becomingeducational W27 The Final Performance!!

AND WHAT A PERFORMANCE IT WAS!!!

We all had an absolutely fabulous session with Sarah’s Group – so much to do – and so much to think about.

All of the activities required people to be themselves and to think – share – support each other – and BELONG.

These were all excellent exercises to build into any teaching context – as ice breakers – as communicators – and to encourage everybody – no matter how shy or reserved – to take part…

Personally I really liked all these activities coming at the end of our year – so that we could get to know a bit more about everybody… including perhaps those that had been too shy to speak till now.

Well done – AGAIN – to our fabulous students!!

Thanks for a truly engaging morning – and thanks to everybody who joined in with such energy, enthusiasm – and joy!!

All the best,
Sandra & Tom

(We are so proud of you all!)

Becoming an Educationist

Today was our group performance and it was fantastic. Our own idea ‘We Can Change it’! is based on the idea of Unity, Harmony and Cohesion. It is constructed to understand more about the feelings of children/students/adult learners and anyone really coming into a new experience such as work/school or learning. To be able to act in a positive manner with our peers and ultimately aid in effectively shaping wider institutions we are part of. There are a number of different personalities that make and form a class or come across on a daily basis, this will vary from those of us that are bold and will speak out vibrantly, those that are happy and will blend in with any situation and individuals that are sad and anxious at the daunting experience in starting something new.

Step 1: We all took part in the process of designing out T-shirts at…

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Learning Log – Week 26

W26: They’ve taken over the classroom, Ma!!!

 

Second week of performances – second week that you’ve been wonderful – exciting – creative – challenging – dynamic…

 

All those good words.

 

Tom and I could never capture the excellence of this week – thankfully, Chloe did.

 

Here’s her blog post for this week.

 

Thanks to all of them for putting on such a great session – thanks to all of you for joining in with such energy and flair!!

 

Learning Log – Week 26.

Becomingeducational: W26: The Report, Essay and Blogs

A quick recap of where we are with the Assignments:

Research Project (30%):

• Proposal – 1000 words – week 19 (10%) DONE – FINISHED!!
• Report – 1000 words – week 29 (20%)

If you are not sure about this – scroll back through this blog – because we have discussed the Report in great detail over several weeks!

Week 30 – final submission of at least three portfolio components (30%)

These can be logs/blogs, self-representation, art portfolio, collage collection, reading record, research artefact, Digital Me artefact; Digital Me Poster, End of Year Performance…

You can submit anything that you want to get recognition for!! If in doubt, we did set you several projects to seed your creative engagement:

PROJECTS

Reading – Make it fun

Writing – Blogging to learn

Develop a Digital Me

Resource based on your Research Project

End of year Performance.

Portfolio items – through Blog

Some of you want to offer your portfolio items through your blog extracts. Here you might have ONE blog post per thing that you want to submit. In each 300-500 word post, you need to discuss the artefact or resource or activity. Discuss means more than describe! Say something about why you have chosen it – what difference it has made to you as a student and/or you as a prospective educationalist. A good blog consists of concise, effective writing – with pictures – and possibly with links. You will need to PRINT OFF THE THREE BLOG POSTS AND SUBMIT THEM WITH A COVER SHEET.

Portfolio items – where one item = Blog

Some of you are really pleased with your whole blog (or with two or three of your whole blogs!!) – and so you want to submit the blog itself as a portfolio item. Here you might write a brief piece explaining the what, why and how of your blog – with the URL – and submit that…

Then think about the other things that you want to submit – and how you will do that – either through a blog post that you print off and submit – or you may be handing in a beautiful, illustrated note book or self-representation – or reading record… where you actually have to hand in the physical item itself.

Essay 1500 words – week 30 (40%)

‘To what extent has the module ‘Becoming an Educationalist’ prepared you for the reality of becoming an educationalist? Justify your answer with reference to at least three aspects of or activities on the course.’

Things to think about:

• What does the module Becoming an Educationalist include? Why? What has it asked you to do/think/read/discuss/make? Why?
• What is an educationalist? What do they have to do? How do they have to behave with their students? What characteristics or attributes would it be helpful for an educationalist to have? What should they DO? What should they NOT DO?
• What activities have you enjoyed the most from the module? Why? How has any one particular one prepared you for the reality of becoming an educationalist?
• What aspects of the module have you felt were useful or important for someone who is becoming an educationalist? Why? How has any one particular one prepared you for the reality of becoming an educationalist?
• What other activity or aspect do you want to write about? Why? How has that particular one prepared you for the reality of becoming an educationalist?

COMMENTS NOT EMAILS

PLEASE ask more questions – but  THROUGH THE COMMENTS box of the blog – then we can have WHOLE CLASS discussions rather than many one-to-one discussions through emails!

Good luck – and enjoy the assignments – Sandra & Tom

#becomingeducation_W25 And so they begin…

So we started the Becoming Module with a challenge: weeks 25, 26 and 27 you would take over the course – you would take over the whole class each week. What happened – what we learned – how we engaged – was up to you.

We hoped that you would divide into roughly three groups – and each group would have a week. How you tackled that week was down to you – you could make us sing or dance – you could put on a play or a musical – you could deliver academic presentations or organise an exhibition.
We did not know what to expect – we just hoped that you would enjoy the challenge – and that we would enjoy the results…

This first week we had ‘The Unstoppables’ – this group of 23 people worked together to put together a two and a half minute animation that brought together their thoughts on education… Yes – just 2.5 minutes!
They also produced a very short ‘How to…’ animation – and then they let us loose to make our own cartoons, animations, films.
Tom and I thought that they were wonderful:

and that their session was great!!
We also thought that you engaged with energy and enthusiasm.

Thank you all so much for joining in – we hoped you enjoyed it – we hope you had fun – and that you thought that valuable things happened!

Next week – Dan’s group!

And now another little challenge!
Tom and I are joining in with #rhizo15 – a sort of non-MOOC that explores the notion of education not from set readings or videos or lectures – but by starting the week with a challenge – a question – a provocative statement… and then the course or curriculum or learning emerges from the conversations and blog posts and tweets and FaceBook chats that emerge from the participants. It is a completely different way of education; very different from the formal schooling or higher education system. If this interests or intrigues you – why don’t you join in with #rhizo15 too?

The course opened with a challenge:
http://rhizomatic.net/2015/04/14/learning-subjectives-designing-for-when-you-dont-know-where-youre-going/

Check it out here:
http://rhizomatic.net/

Join in the conversation:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/rhizo15/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/rhizo15dg/

And on Twitter by checking the hashtag #rhizo15

This is one of the blog posts that we really enjoyed:
https://avisodemiranda.wordpress.com/2015/04/17/intentions/

And here’s a bonus – cos it seems to fit – Henry Reed and ‘The Naming of Parts’ – you can listen to it as well:
http://www.solearabiantree.net/namingofparts/namingofparts.html

#becomingeducational W25: Thinking about the essay

This bonus blog post is inspired by – and copied from – a post by Maha Bali on preparing a talk for an #edtech company – for the whole post – go here: http://blog.mahabali.me/blog/educational-technology-2/brainstorming-an-upcoming-talk-for-an-ed-tech-company/

What I like about this post is that although she is talking about #edtech – she is fundamentally talking about learning – what it is – and how to facilitate all the messy business that learning entails. So why post this here? Well – you are thinking about the essay: “To what extent has the module, ‘Becoming an educationalist’ prepared you for the reality of becoming an educationalist. Justify your answer with reference to at least three activities on or aspects of the course.” See how far the module has achieved some of the things that Maha argues education is – and thus what an educationalist should be trying to do!

Here’s that extract from Maha’s blog:

1. Learning is social and connected.Does the learning technology allow for more social interaction than is currently possible in our classrooms? Or does the learning technology allow us to have more space and time for social connection in the classroom? Even better, does the technology help us integrate our social connections inside and outside the classroom? Communication is important between learners, between learners and teachers, but also with parents and the community beyond the classroom. (one of their products creates space for this with a facebook like interface).
2. Learning is about creating, constructing, remixing.Does the learning technology treat the learner as a consumer to follow a pre-set path, or does the learning technology allow the learner to remix existing material or to create their own? Two good learning tools to look at are Play-Doh and Legos. Legos sometimes come with a pre-defined look you are supposed to build, but you still have freedom to create something different. Play-doh is so versatile that you can create almost anything with it. How can we design ed tech so that the child programs the computer rather than the computer programming the child (ideas of Papert – maybe get a quote?)
3. Learning happens when we take risks and fail.The wonderful thing about play-doh and legos is not only that you can create anything – but that you can fail comfortably and try again. A good learning environment allows us to take risks in a safe space so we can learn from our failures. (they have a virtual lab that works like a Wii so it seems really cool – but how can they give learners even more choices? More room to make mistakes?)
4. Learning needs to be accessible to different people.(Refer to Universal Design for Learning and gender – and accessibility issues in design of learning materials)
5. Learning should encourage values we wish to promote like sharing.We live in an age of knowledge abundance. Leveraging the power of the internet and open sharing in order to advance everyone’s knowledge is important. For younger children where open sharing is risky, smaller scale sharing within a school-based technology tool, and sharing between teachers in the same school or across schools can make a difference. (they have a tool for teachers to find resources made by each other or the web – ask if it allows them to share across schools??)
6. Learning is about human beings.No educational technology should attempt to remove the need for human interaction; instead, it can be used to enhance it. Even when there is no direct human interaction through the tool, the material learners interact with are produced by people, programmed by people, and builds on the ideas and work of other people.

Ask audience: why do you do what you do? What inspires you to keep going? What worries you about what you do?