Collaboration, Transformation and Innovation: Challenges for the future in a "new school" context

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

I have had the unique experience of being invited to be a foundation staff member of an Education Queensland school that opened its doors to students on the first day of the 2010 school year.  My role was to establish the school library, or “Discovery Centre” as we call it, the computer network, and to support teachers with digital pedagogies in the planning, resourcing and to a certain extent, collaborate on the implementation of rich and differentiated curriculum.  A key aspect of my role is to develop digital literacies in both students and staff alike, and as we are constantly growing in numbers, my colleagues are also my learners, and I continually reassessing needs as our school community defines itself and evolves.

As Dezuanni (2010) states, the relationship between young people, media and popular culture is changing, and education needs to respond to this.  I see myself perfectly situated to not only respond personally in my role as eLearning/Resource Manager, but as a member of our school curriculum leadership team I can ensure that my colleagues do so as well.  In fact I think it imperative that I lead by example as an advocate for transformational pedagogies.

I stay up to date by:

•    Subscribing to the blogs and “follow” influential practitioners in digital pedagogies using social networking applications such as Twitter
•    Maintaining membership on a range of TL, curriculum and eLearning discussion lists as well as professional associations such as SLAQ, QSITE and ISTE
•    Participating in OneChannel (EQ’s version of Elluminate) live and “on demand” (recorded) PD sessions
•    Attending the annual eLearning Innovation Expo and Creating Future Libraries Conferences (have also attended the Leading Digital Schools and Digital Diversity Conferences, both in 2010) and Slide-to-Learn conferences and online events this year
•    Participating in eLearning, 1:1 and Library 21 masterclasses as the opportunity has arisen
•    Undertaking Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship) studies
•    Attending the Australian Council for Computers in Education international study tour in 2009 (planning to go again in 2012, visiting a number of international schools that are leaders in digital pedagogies, culminating in the ISTE International Conference)

Having always been an early adopter of new technologies, utilising and promoting the use of the tools and resources available through the Learning Place, Education Queensland’s (EQ’s) secure eLearning environment and mentoring my peers in its effective use became and has been a part of my role over the past 10 years as a district and regional eLearning Mentor.  In addition to this I am an Accredited Facilitator of the Digital Pedagogy Licence level of the Smart Classrooms Professional Development Framework, as well as an Intel Teach to the Future Master Trainer.

Most importantly, I have collaboratively coordinated statewide online events such as the 2007 and 2008 Online Literature Festival, and continue to utilise the Learning Place’s edStudio and Virtual Classroom spaces in my daily practice.  I design online collaborative spaces that engage my students and colleagues in contemporary teaching and learning experiences and modeling digital literacy lessons for my colleagues at school.

Why am I sharing this information??

Because maintaining my accreditation and personal certification (Digital Pedagogy Licence Advanced - 2009) for this period of time is a result of currency of knowledge with digital practices and current learning theories.

My goal is to continue mentoring my colleagues, as I have found a passion for collaborating with my peers and enjoy their successes with new ways of teaching and learning as if they were my own!

I believe the Australian Curriculum is a perfect vehicle to explore and extend the relationship between young people, popular culture and text.  The term “prosumers” (Lee & McLoughlin, 2007) is an appropriate description of where the Australian Curriculum writers see our learners being situated in the coming years, where they will not merely consume content that is already available, but produce content and artifacts of their own to share their ideas, knowledge and understandings of the world with others.  The Internet is a media form that enables students to do this with a wider audience than has ever before been possible.

Examples that lend themselves to prosumerism can be found throughout the English curriculum.  Students having opportunities to construct multimodal texts or respond to bias in advertising by viewing and analyzing advertisements accessed from YouTube will be more the expectation rather than the curricular exception in future classrooms.

This means that our teachers need to “get with the program” NOW!!

The availability of and ready access to resources via the Internet means that our students will more that ever be faced with the challenge of judging the quality of sources they come across, and determining their validity, suitability or otherwise for a variety of purposes (Lee & McLoughlin, 2007).  A new set of digital literacies needs to be developed to ensure that students can participate effectively in this new knowledge economy which emphasises creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation and is enabled by ICT tools designed to extend personal boundaries and increase social connectedness (McLoughlin & Lee, 2008).

Jenkins (2006) describes an extension of existing literacy skills that incorporate higher order critical thinking skills and visual literacies associated with interpreting information online.  Beetham and Sharpe (2007) also subscribe to the notion of different kinds of knowledge practice, and new processes of inquiry, dialogue and connectivity.  Prensky (2009) calls this practice “digital wisdom” - the wisdom arising from the use of digital technology to access cognitive power beyond our innate capacity, as well as in the prudent use of technology to enhance our capabilities.  This wisdom involves understanding the implications of accessing and remixing or retransmitting information produced by others, including awareness of Copyright restrictions and acceptable use and attribution requirements.  The flip side of this is students being aware of the implications of sharing their own artifacts and personal information beyond their trusted circle of immediate family and friends.

As an educator in these changing yet exciting times, the challenge is to facilitate learning, be open to new media tools and strategies, as well as fostering information evaluation skills, as well as the blending, remixing and recombination of ideas to reach creative solutions (McLoughlin & Lee, 2008).  It is my goal to stay abreast of the tools, contemporary media forms, technologies and pedagogies so that I will be able to continue to succeed in my role! Not a small task, but one that I relish!

This blog entry was posted by Bronwyn White


References and Resources

Beetham, H., & Sharpe, R., (2007). Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age: Designing and delivering e-learning. London, England: Routledge.

Dezuanni, M. (2010). CLN647 Innovative Pedagogies, Transforming Institutions and Mapping Future Directions. Lecture 11 QUT Portal [Lecture Notes]. Retrieved from: http://week11resources.notlong.com

Jenkins, H. (2006). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. MacArthur Foundation

Lee, M. & McLoughlin, C., (2007), Teaching and Learning in the Web 2.0 Era: Empowering Students through Learner-Generated Content. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning. 4:10, 21-33

McLoughlin, C., & Lee, M., (2008), International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. The Three P’s of Pedagogy for the Networked Society: Personalization, Participation, and Productivity. 20:1, 10-27

Prensky, M (2009). H. sapiens digital: From digital immigrants and digital natives to digital wisdom. Innovate: Journal of Online Education. 5(3). Retrieved from: http://www.wisdompage.com/Prensky01.html

Twitter link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NshQFrpC2O4
(Clip on YouTube explaining the social networking tool Twitter)

Labels: Production - Bronwyn