Teaching artistry

I taught my first art lesson today. Ever. Passing colleagues were a little surprised to see me teaching in the art room, completely out of context. Normally I'm found teaching a session on educational theory or psychology, or information and communication technologies. Teaching an art lesson is therefore a little outside my comfort zone. And yet, earlier today, I found myself surrounded by students with easels, wielding pencils, as we conducted a drawing class.

The drawing session was a part of our BA degree in Education Studies, and the module we were teaching - 'Creativity in Education' - which encourages students to explore through embodied practice the theoretical and practical relationships between education and creativity.  Throughout the year we will be exploring creativity through a range of activities, including dance, photography, video, music, and art. During the module the students will be asked to keep a reflective blog or video diary. At the end of the module they will present their work as a creative portfolio, and the final session will see a public performance of their work. Many of the sessions will involve some aspect of learning by making, a powerful pedagogical method also known as constructionism.

I say the drawing session was outside my normal comfort zone, because it is quite a departure from my normal teaching topics. And yet those who know me will recall that when I was younger I studied fine art and graphic design for a couple of years at Hereford College of Art. I have never stopped being an artist. Whether painting a water colour landscape (my favourite medium) or making a new slideshow for a talk, I always try to portray my ideas creatively, in a manner that is pleasing to the eye. Although I have never given an art lesson before, it seemed fairly natural to me to do so now. With the students we explored a range of drawing activities, from conventional still life drawing, through to speed drawing, where the objects were constantly changing. Of particular interest to me, as always, was the conversation I had with the students as we were working. Many also admitted to being outside their comfort zones as they participated in the drawing exercises, because they professed no skill or expertise in art. Their willingness to engage spoke volumes, because ultimately, the session was not about learning how to draw, but learning an appreciation about how creativity can be applied to classroom layout, curriculum design and teaching. One aim of the module is to encourage students to think creatively about education, using their imagination, and exploring a variety of perspectives on how creativity can be unleashed in the current school systems.

Most of us would acknowledge that teaching is an art as well as a science. There is a certain artistry that educators need to acquire and practice if they want success in the classroom. Teaching is a performance, and those who are creative are constantly able to reinvent lessons, resources and spaces. Creative teachers tend not to worry too much about barriers or constraints, but are constantly seeking solutions and new ways to do things, to improve and enhance learning. Too often, teachers and learners are constrained by their environment, time, school culture, legislation or simply not having access to appropriate resources. Probably the worst barrier to good teaching and learning though, turns out to be lack of imagination.

"Anything can make you look, but only art can make you see."

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Creative learning spaces

For me, one of the highlights of the Estonian Elearning Conference in Tallinn was listening to Stephen Harris, principal of the Sydney Centre for Innovations in Learning. SCIL is an Australian secondary school that practices teaching and learning within open spaces, where student autonomy and personalisation of learning are top priorities. Under Stephen's leadership, the school enables BYOMD - bring your own multiple devices, which means that students can learn in a number of different spaces and places around the school, using their own familiar tools. Stephen spoke about the metaphors for creative space that are used to contextualise learning:

The Camp Fire: This is a social learning space where students face each other, and in doing so gain an expectation that each should contribute something to the discussion and activities.

The Cave: This is a personal learning space where students can be on their own. Personal learning spaces enable them to reflect on their learning, and create their own learning pathways.

The Sandpit: Sandpits are places where young people can try out new ideas and experiment without fear of failure. They can take risks and ask the 'what if' questions, in a psychologically safe environment.

The Watering Hole: Informal spaces where students can gather spontaneously, either inside or outside the school. Children can meet at the foot of a stairwell or under a tree to discuss anything, whether it is school related or not.

The Mountain Top: Here young people can share their work and ideas. They can publish or broadcast them in a public performance space, or use blogs, podcasts, videos and other technology tools to share their content with their peers and the world. 

Stephen reported that enabling these kinds of activities inside the school, children gained a sense of autonomy they would otherwise not have, and as a result, they also gained ownership over their learning and a new sense of responsibility. The incidences of behaviour problems deminished to manageable proportions. 

Image by Steve Wheeler

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Positive deviance and the IPD

We all know that organisations and institutions impose barriers to innovation. The larger they are, the more rules they tend to generate. This is because by nature large organisations are conservative and there is a perceived need to protect the status quo and maintain order. But this isn't always good news for creativity and innovation. James Clay once called such enforcing agencies 'Innovation Prevention Departments', and claimed that every institution has one. I think he's right. Trying to innovate in such circumstances, especially when there is an IPD saying 'that's against the rules', 'it can't be done' or 'it's too expensive' can be hard going, but innovation is never impossible. I was interviewed at the Learning Technologies conference, about my views on innovation, organisational constraints and positive deviance. The interview was actually recorded downstairs in the Learning without Frontiers dome zone, which explains the theatrical lighting. Above is the video of the interview in full (duration 90 seconds).

Interview by Martin Couzins


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Thinking on your feet

A woman takes her pet chihuahua with her to Africa on a safari holiday. One day the chihuahua wanders away and gets lost in the bush, and nearly runs right into a huge, hungry looking lion. The chihuahua realises he's in trouble, but, noticing some fresh bones on the ground, he settles down to chew on them, with his back to the big cat. As the lion sneaks up behind, the chihuahua smacks his lips and exclaims loudly, "Wow, that was a delicious lion. I wonder if there are any more around here?" The lion stops mid-stride, and slinks away into the trees. "Phew," says the lion, "that was close - that evil little dog nearly had me."

A monkey nearby sees everything and thinks he'll win a favour by putting the stupid lion straight. The chihuahua sees the monkey go after the lion, and guesses he might be up to no good. When the lion hears the monkey's story he feels angry at being made a fool, and offers the monkey a ride back to see him exact his revenge. The little dog sees them approaching and fears the worst. Thinking quickly, the dog turns his back, pretends not to notice them, and when the pair are within earshot says aloud, "Now where did that monkey get to? I sent him out ages ago to bring me another lion..."

Thinking on your feet means being able to solve problems as they arise. It is one of the key skills of the 21st century, and it's based on previous experiences, the ability to handle unpredictable events and creative thinking. It is the ability to recognise changing conditions and respond appropriately to them. It is the ability to recognise an opportunity and exploit it to your advantage when the time is right. It is also the very reason that Kodak, one of the giants in the photographic industry of the last century, is now in financial difficulty. The company, a pioneer in photography, used to own an unassailable share of the world market, but Kodak failed to adapt to the digital age as quickly as its competitors, and it is now paying the price. It didn't move with the times, and its leadership team didn't learn to think on their feet. Being able to adapt quickly to changing conditions is the stuff entrepreneurs are made of, and this is how young people need to be equipped when they emerge into the world of work. But how can schools, colleges and universities help students to learn these skills?

The recent Head Teacher Update (January 2012), features an article written by Graham Brown-Martin entitled 'What the future holds'. In it, he outlines some of the current limitations of school and critiques the failure of schools to respond quickly enough to the rapid changes currently taking place in society. He demonstrates how video games are the defining art of the 21st Century, but we clearly have to temper this view with the fact that we are only in the second decade of the Century, and with the rapid changes taking place, we can expect other art forms to emerge and even dominate in short periods. For the time being however, Graham is right - the video games industry is now grossing more worldwide than the publishing, music and movies industries combined, and is a defining feature not only of youth culture, but all western culture, because games are incredibly engaging. Graham makes a memorable statement when he declares that when we play games we rapidly solve abstract problems in real time. He points out that game playing often involves continual assessment by peers, and many games rely on teamwork and collaboration. These skills, he argues, are exactly the skills young people require in today's ever shifting world of work. Stanford University professor Elizabeth Corcoran takes a different stance, suggesting that gamification (the art of using games to engage and inspire learning... 'is creating an expectation among people that real-life interactions follow simple mechanics, and some disillusionment when they do not'.

Yet despite such objections, games based learning in all its guises is one of the most powerful methods currently available to engage young people in learning, and facilitate the learning of transferable skills that they will need to help them to think on their feet.


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Those who are about to blog...

If you are considering taking up blogging this year, and wondering what it might involve, I would be happy to offer you a few tips from my own experience. I have been blogging for just over 5 years and during that time have learnt a few things. Blogging can be a thoroughly absorbing activity, which ultimately will pay you back as much as you invest in it, and also some interest. It can also be a very creative pastime, enabling you to develop your ideas, and sound them out in public. I have already written extensively about the benefits of blogging for professionals in several previous posts including Seven reasons teachers should blog, so I won't elaborate here. What I will do though in the space I have on this post, is offer you some caveats, and a few words of advice...

Firstly, blogging can be time consuming. It's not quite the 'time sink' that Patricia Wallace (1999) warned about, but it can take up a lot of your time, especially if you are a bit of a perfectionist. You may also struggle at first to think up ideas for your blog. However, the more you involve yourself in your own sphere of professional practice, the more you will find to write about. Social media such as Twitter provide a lot of inspiration. Get networking and you'll have a lot to write about. Before long, if you persist with your writing and don't give up, you will have a growing archive of blog posts to look back on.

Secondly, you may not receive a lot of interest at first for your blogging. There are probably many other blogs already that represent your field (unless you are extremely specialised), so there is a lot of competition for people's attention. But don't let that put you off - join in. Some of your posts may go unread, and even if people do read them, you may not receive any comments. Persevere. The more you blog, you more likely you are to receive comments, especially if your content is useful, controversial or laced with humour. Some people blog simply to get their ideas down in some concrete form. This is valuable in itself, because sometimes you don't know what you are thinking until you externalise it in some tangible way.

Thirdly, if your site becomes popular, and you gain a large audience, you may begin to receive spam messages and comments on your blog. You can detect them easily, because they normally arrive as a bland message along the lines of 'I enjoy reading your blog because it is very interesting to me', often in bad English, and then accompanied by the tell-tale hyperlink. I learned very early on to moderate comments to my blog, and these kind of comments are deleted very quickly in the filtering stage. Moderating comments can be a little more time consuming than open comments, but it's worth the extra effort to filter out the dross and maintain some sort of quality control over your content.

Some people may approach you with ideas or contributions for a guest blog. Again, treat these offers with caution. A few are quite genuine, but many are opportunists who wish to gain some exposure on your site, but don't actually have a lot to offer. If you are interested, ask for a sample of their writing before you go any further. Often the question is, do these would-be bloggers not have a blog of their own? And if they do, why are they bothering you? I wrote about this problem in a post a year ago.

Finally, you will need to develop a thick skin. If your site becomes popular, you will present a target that is there to be shot at. Not everyone will agree with what you say, which is usually very healthy. Those who disagree with you will say so, and some will not be particularly kind in their comments. Some may even make quite personal comments, but this often reveals more about them than about the topic under discussion. Ultimately, all comments that engage with the topic you have blogged should be welcomed, because they lead to dialogue that makes people think. There are some though, who have an agenda of their own, whether it is self-promotion, or just trouble making. Occasionally you may receive a comment that is abusive. It is up to you to decide whether you allow such comments to appear. Some argue that 'feeding the trolls' is a bad idea, and simply delete such messages. Others welcome them and respond appropriately to them.

So if you are embarking on blogging, remember - it is a public space. What you write becomes a part of your digital identity. Some of your writing will be misunderstood, some will be much appreciated by those who read it. Sometimes it's a walk in the park, but occasionally it can be an arena in which a form of gladiatorial combat can take place. So speak softly, but carry a big stick.

Reference
Wallace, P. (1999) The Psychology of the Internet. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Image by Benjamin Cooper


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Creative learning

I took some risks today during a workshop I gave at Plymouth University. The workshop was all about creativity and how we can tap into imagination in learning contexts. I tried out several things I had not attempted before in workshops, but that was the idea - often, creativity requires some kind of risk. 


The Your Idea, Our Health event was a health related conference, so there were lots of delegates of the nursing and midwifery persuasion in attendance. My session was a two part session, with a Devon cream tea intervening, and incredibly, almost everyone came back for part 2 - so I guess I was doing something right and the risks were paying off. I revisited the concepts I wrote about in my last blogpost, including the idea that creativity takes a lot of time before any eureka moment is achieved. The workshop was lively with plenty of activity and discussion, and participants were encouraged to write on the paper tablecloths, circulating every so often so that others could read each others' comments, questions, ideas and graffiti. Below is the slideshow, with a few annotations for clarity (...and to my workshop participants - yes, I did write this post in about 5 minutes)

Creative Learning

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Ingenuity, creativity and time

Creativity is such an elusive thing. For some, waiting for inspiration is a familiar past-time. It's more than just staring at a blank page, or waiting for that tune to arrive out of thin air. If the muse has deserted you, it can be quite a time of anguish, particularly if your living depends upon being creative. At that moment there is simply nothing you can do. Creativity, said Margaret Boden, is the ability to come up with new ideas that are surprising yet intelligible, and also valuable in some way. Creativity is what many of us yearn for, in the classroom, in our homes, in our lives. It's a problem when it appears to be in short supply. Sometimes, it seems, the answer is to just give it time.

When Thomas Edison (allegedly!) came up with the idea of the light bulb (the archetypical symbol of genius and creativity) he didn't do so in an instant. It took him some time, through periods of trial and error, and many shades of failure and near success, before the idea had incubated enough to crystallise in an intelligible form, and then, as if by magic - the idea was finally born. Tim Berners-Lee's wonderful, revolutionary idea of the World Wide Web actually took more than ten years to reach full realisation. The psychologist Graham Wallas suggested that there is a gestation period - an incubation process that leads to transformation - and the creative transformation that brings imagination alive on paper, or on tape, or on canvas, or in the laboratory, is where the genius resides. Watch the video below, a TED talk given by the writer Elizabeth Gilbert, who explains where our concept of genius and creativity comes from.



In his book Where good ideas come from Steven Johnson supports this argument, seeing recurring patterns that foster creativity and innovation. He recognises what he calls the 'slow hunch' which he describes as a long period of evolution of an idea, before it matures to become accessible and useful. Creativity is almost never instant. It takes time. But it sometimes takes on this guise, when apparently from nowhere, a musician or poet can conjure up a haunting melody or a killer line. No, creativity takes practice, and this is why, when we see creativity in the classroom, it is almost always the product of a long period of immersion in study, and an intimate familiarity with the subject. Musicians and poets take time to master their crafts, and then the tunes and words visit them. Give your learners time to practice their art, their thinking, their craft, and you will be providing them with the tools to become creative in their own right.

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Uncertainty principles

In the lead up to eAssessment Scotland where I will be speaking later this week, I offer some thoughts on assessment. There are some things you just can't assess. One is creativity. Another is character. Yet another is how tenacious or resilient a student is - do they persist in their learning despite the odds? Attempting to measure such things actually makes a nonsense of assessment. It's a bit like over-analysing a joke. What makes a joke funny? Is there a formula involved? Look at it too closely and it's no longer funny. It begins to disappear in front of you as you stare at it.

In 1927 Werner Heisenberg proposed a theory of quantum mechanics that became known as the Uncertainty Principle. In essence says Heisenberg, you can measure the position of a particle, or you can measure the future momentum of the particle. What you can't do is measure both at the same time. The more precisely one property is measured, (say the Wikipedia article) the less precisely the other can be controlled, determined, or known. Applying this outside of particle physics could be problematic, but let's try (because we're all made up of particles).

So you want to assess creativity? What are you actually trying to measure? A child's natural imagination? The creative outputs that are a result of that imagination? The value of their creativity in relation to that of the rest of the group? Against your own creativity? Against the standardised norms of the creative expectations of the entire society perhaps? Oh dear. You can identify that a child is talented in a particular area and their art is easy on the eye. They are good at painting. They have a propensity to be able to play a musical instrument pleasingly. Can you attach a value to it though? So what about Pablo Picasso? Or Karlheinz Stockhausen? Picasso wasn't particularly pleasing on the eye, Stockhausen was not easy to listen to. Although not everyone agrees with that last statement - even if they don't understand the art of the music - few would dare to suggest that Picasso and Stockhausen lacked creativity. Creativity is a very subjective thing, so should we attempt to assess it?

If you try to measure the current state - the effects of creativity on your emotions, the atmosphere, the ambiance of the experience, you will not discover where the creativity is leading - the message, the genre (sometimes) the theme. What are we doing with assessment of learning in our schools? Are we measuring the worth of the learning, or (as is inevitably the case) the worth of the individual? If we do the latter, we are betraying the trust of the child, because they will own that grade for the rest of their lives, citing it on every CV and job application form they complete. Is this fair? Is it fair that the grades they are awarded do not reflect their personality, their creativity, their tenacity, their resilience, their uniqueness? Standardised Testing and end of term examinations are absolutely unfit for this purpose. They are great for testing the recall skills of students, but useless in finding out more meaningful information about the knowledge and skills of the individual.  And yet we measure children's worth in exactly this way. Unfortunately, in this society that is what seems to count the most. Unless we value creativity, character and resilience (and resist measuring them), we will only create uncertainty in the minds of the young people who are in our charge.

"The person who scored well on an SAT will not necessarily be the best doctor or the best lawyer or the best businessman. These tests do not measure character, leadership, creativity, perseverance." - William J. Wilson


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Product or process?

Picture the scene. You walk into the reception area of your local primary school and you see the wonderful displays of artwork created by the children. There are paintings and drawings, and there are mobiles and models made from cardboard, silver paper and other materials, all resplendent in their vibrant colours. It is a bright celebration of learning and it showcases the creative talents of the children. Or does it? What about the children who are not as good at expressing themselves through painting or sculpture? Where are their pieces of artwork?

Sophie's painting of a cow is excellent and it takes pride of place in the centre of the display. But what you don't see is all the learning, thinking and the skills development that went into the mix leading up to Sophie's production of such a wonderful piece of art. What you don't see is the learning process, all the mistakes and corrections. All the learning. What you don't see is all of Sophie's previous rubbish cow paintings. Perhaps they should be on display as well? They would certainly demonstrate to anyone observing that this little girl has come a long way in the last few weeks, and has developed greater skills than she had before.

When did we ever get the idea that children's work must be perfect before it can be displayed, and that some kids' work is not good enough? I visit a lot of schools as a part of my role as a teacher educator, and it always strikes me when I enter a school reception area, that only the best children's paintings, photos and other artwork are on display. To see the less perfect ones you need to go into the classrooms, or into the kids art portfolios. Why is that? We are not running a production line, and we don't need quality control. Why shouldn't the kids express themselves in their own ways? If you are a teacher stand back and watch - you will find that they have extraordinary imagination, and their creative work doesn't have to be perfect to be good. They can express themselves creatively in more ways than you can ever imagine. All you have to do it create the conditions in which it can happen. Do so, and they will astound you.

Unfortunately, the practice of only allowing the display of perfect art work is symptomatic of a deeper underlying problem in many state funded schools. It is the age old question of product versus process, and it influences the delivery of the curriculum. It also dictates how assessment is conducted. If we are only interested in production of knowledge, then we will apply summative forms of assessment - exams and essays designed to test what students have remembered. If on the other hand we are more interested in the process of learning, we will design assessment methods that feed forward as well as back, showing students what they have done well and what they need to improve upon in their next pieces of work. Standardised testing does not prepare learners for the real world, nor does it provide teachers with anything more than a snapshot of where the student is at that point in time. On the other hand, process based assessment represents a long term plan, which supports learning over a period of time, a lot more effective than simply taking superficial and ultimately, meaningless measurements.

"We are now living in an age where the recipe is more important than the cake". - Charles Leadbetter

Image by Dietmut Teijgeman-Hansen


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Pay attention at the front!

"Miss, where does Pooh come from?" asks the little boy. The teacher raises her eyebrows, takes a deep breath and then proceeds to explain all about nutrition, eating food, the digestive system, and how waste products are eliminated from the body. The little boy nods, but looks unimpressed, and then asks a follow up question: "So where does Tigger come from?"

When I was in primary school I remember asking a question of my teacher. I asked her if the word 'desert' (noun: arid wilderness) was related to the word 'desert' (verb: to abandon). She looked at me with raised eyebrows, and then told me it was a stupid question. All my classmates laughed at me, and I was very embarrassed. I learnt the lesson - never, ever ask a question in class. You will be laughed at. It took me years to unlearn that lesson. Years later, I looked up the etymology of the word 'desert', and discovered that I was in fact correct. The words are related, as both have the same root Latin word dēserere - meaning to forsake. So I was correct in spotting that there is a link between the arid wilderness and being abandoned. I was merely seeking confirmation from an older, more knowledgeable other, and I didn't get that confirmation. All I received was a mild reprimand, and a lot of ridicule.

What I had asked wasn't a stupid question. It was my young mind, ever inquisitive, seeking answers and asking searching questions. I asked a creative question which the teacher could have capitalised on, and made a teaching point from. Instead, she misunderstood me, in all probability thinking that I meant dessert - which might very well have been looming large in her mind, so close to break time. Now I'm older, I know that there are no such things as stupid questions. But there are plenty of stupid answers.

So, the lesson today is: Always pay attention to what kids ask when they are learning. Listen to them. Never dismiss what they say. Every child has something to contribute and their ideas should never be devalued or their confidence undermined. Teachers who listen to children's questions, and consider all the possible meanings will tap into a huge reservoir of creative energy. The Pooh question could have been capitalised on in so many ways, to create teachable moments. In asking such questions, children are exploring their own reality, and assimilating a vast amount of knowledge, simply through the responses of their teachers and peers. Flexibility, creativity and the ability to question are some of the most important transferrable skills that children will need in the fluid, changeable and unpredictable world of work they will emerge into when they eventually leave school. So pay attention at the front!

Image source by theirhistory


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Free thinking

A lot of stuff never gets done because it's 'against the rules'. Rules and regulations are the bane of creativity, and can stop innovation dead in its tracks. Every organisation has an IPD - an Innovation Prevention Department which is there to ensure that the rules are abided by, and that nothing happens without a rubber stamp of approval.

My reading of 'The Facebook Effect' recently has led me to believe that mavericks and anarchists - those who tend to bend the rules, or simply ignore them - are at the centre of many creative projects, and in some cases actually become the gamechangers. Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard student friends have radically changed the way we communicate with each other, and they have changed it on a global level. Regardless of your opinion of Facebook, you would probably agree that it was a game changer. Zuckerberg was not, and is not someone who 'tows the line'. He got into trouble while at Harvard and ever since, he has led an edgy existence at the vanguard of a movement which has fractured many of the social conventions that existed prior to the advent of online social networking.

Zuckerberg isn't the only one who has kicked against the rules and bent them to get where he needs to go. Richard Branson, in his recent book 'Screw it, let's do it,' also admits to being a maverick (but we all knew that anyway). He says 'Though I have never followed the rules at every step, I have learned many lessons along the way. I am still learning and I hope I never stop.' Branson has carved out, time and time again, business opportunities that have broken the conventional mould with outrageous success. Beside their vast fortunes, what do Zuckerberg and Branson have in common? They are both free thinkers. They disregard the structure and restrictions of their surroundings, and dream up new ways to circumvent the constraints imposed upon them by 'the rules.' For them, the way forward is to 'just do it.'

There are many other free thinkers I could talk about - in the field of art (Picasso, Monet, Pollock), music (Mozart, Stockhausen, the Beatles), and science (Einstein, Darwin, Edison) - who were renowned for bending the rules and sometimes ignoring them. Creativity in this sense, is not so much about building on old models (although this is sometimes the case), nor is it about extemporisation around a known theme. No, it is more to do with what Margaret Boden called 'transformational creativity' where scant regard for what is acceptable or achievable, is replaced by the will to make something happen regardless of the constraints, the rules, the expected.

Is this the kind of ethos we see in our schools, colleges, universities? As teachers are we fostering a sense of the impossible in our learners, and are we nurturing dreamers and entrepreneurs? Or are we instead continuing to impose rules and constraints which are no longer necessary or simply outmoded, because 'it has always been done that way?' Carl Rogers, a free thinker in his own right, once made it clear that the educational situation which most effectively promotes significant learning is one in which 1) threat to the self of the learner is reduced to a minimum, and 2) differentiated perception of the field of experience is facilitated (Smith, 2004)

In clear language, this means that people learn best when they feel that they are under no constraints to express themselves and when they are given licence to change things and make them personal. How could this be applied to our own classrooms, and how many of us as teachers facilitate free thinking within our practice? Next time, don't ask for permission. Just do it.

'It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission'

Image source by Jack Lyons


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Collaborative and cooperative learning

I enjoyed presenting my workshop entitled 'Collaborative and Co-operative Learning: The How and the Why' at Olympia 2 in London on Tuesday. We stared a little earlier than scheduled, which was a relief to me, as I had a cab booked to dash me across London and out to Gatwick Airport for my flight to Valencia. I even had some time to talk to delegates as I was making my way from the workshop room to the lift. Here are the slides that accompanied the workshop. Some are repurposed from other slideshows, but I hope that none the less they will be of some use to a few people who read this blog.

Collaborative and Co-operative Learning: The How and the Why

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My workshop was an invited session, and constructed with help from Don H. Taylor, the chair of the Learning Skills Group. My main mission was to spend 70 minutes getting the 85 or so delegates who opted for my workshop to think about competition, collaboration and co-operation and how each might contribute to the motivation of learners in predominantly corporate based training environments. I used the analogy of the London Marathon and showed several pictures representing each concept. In essence, I feel that collaboration is more about inter-dependency than co-operation, but that both forms of learning involve people working together to reach a common goal. There was some discussion around this theme, and then we moved on to examine Web 2.0 tools and participatory media in training. We tocuhed briefly on problem based learning and creativity, and my closing statement was - think outside the box!


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Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

That'll teach him

My school career was patchy to say the least. My father was a Warrant Officer in the Royal Air Force, and I spent most of my formative years switching schools on a regular basis, which played havoc with my education. I went to 10 schools in total, starting in Gibraltar at St George's Primary School and finishing in Holland at the AFCENT International School. My school years were difficult for one important reason. There was no National Curriculum, which meant that every school taught essentially what they considered to be most important. Because I switched schools every year or so, I learnt some content 2 or 3 times, and I missed some content completely. Turns out that I learnt more about process than product during those turbulent years.

On reflection, I can now see exactly how teachers can either make or break a child's education. The old maxim 'Doctors save lives, teachers make lives' is true. I recall one teacher in particular who took me on and inspired me to learn new things. Mr Handel was one of the two primary teachers at Cherhill Primary School in Wiltshire, who stand out in my memory. He spent time with me helping me in the areas I was struggling with, and he really went the extra mile, to make sure I achieved to my full potential. The other teacher in the same school was a polar opposite. I once asked her a question about English grammar. She looked at me with contempt, told me I had asked a 'stupid question' and then made a big joke out of it. The whole class laughed at me, and I went bright red with embarrassment. I was only 8 years old, but I can still recall how it felt. It taught me a lesson. I never asked another question in class throughout the whole of my school life. I will refrain from naming that teacher.

Many teachers are excellent at what they do, and really care about the children in their care. I try to do the same, aspiring to be like Mr Handel, taking time to give my students individual attention if they are struggling in some difficult area. I try to instill some of these values in my student teachers too. But there are a very few teachers who can stifle creativity and discourage individualism - exactly the traits we need to draw out from our learners so that they can develop the skills to transfer into lifelong learning. Teachers can make all the difference, but sometimes it is time and pressure that militate against this. I look at my own children now as they negotiate their way through school and into work, and I sometimes cringe at some of the things they come home and tell me about their school experiences. It's as tough for them as it was for me. But school isn't the be all and end all and nothing is graven in stone.

My travelling took it's toll on my formative years, and I left school with few qualifications. I made a lot of friends, and had to keep making new ones, so I became very adept at interpersonal skills, but weak on content. All of my academic achievements have been made off my own bat, and all of them after the age of 30. The week I left school for the last time, my form tutor met with my parents. 'Steve is a great lad, and is very sociable' he told them, 'but I'm afraid he will never be an academic'.

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That'll teach him by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 International License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

What's so innovative about ICT?

I was recently invited to write a post for the Dell Education blog. Below is my article, which first appeared on the Dell website on 22 April, 2010.

In my role as an academic researcher in learning, I am often asked the same question: What is so innovative about ICT in schools? I assume that people ask this question because they are so used to seeing computers they have forgotten what the world was like before they arrived. I usually respond by starting off with an examination of what ‘ICT’ actually means. ICT - Information and Communication Technology - is more than just computers. In education, it’s really better referred to as ‘learning technology’ and I made my views clear about this recently in a blog post entitled ‘Stop calling it ICT!’. Whatever we call it, it’s a term that embraces an entire spectrum of tools, including the Internet and World Wide Web, telecommunications, cameras and audio, mobile phones, computer games, and other interactive devices in the classroom, such as Interactive Whiteboards, turtles and pixies (small programmable floor robots) and voting systems. We limit our vision if we simply see learning technology as ‘computers’, but I concede that computers are often the gateway into many of the above tools.


So just what is so innovative about this spectrum of tools? There are three key points I want to make to answer this question, and they all relate to what I term ‘affordances’ – the attributes of the technology that we perceive are useful to us. I wrote about this recently in a post on my own personal blog which I called ‘Angels in the Architecture’.

The first innovative quality of learning technology is that it has a flexibility and provisionally that supports learning across the sectors, from reception classes through to higher education and lifelong learning. Remember the time when you had to retype something, or use Tippex, if you made a mistake? You probably won’t if you are under 35 years old. When word processors were first introduced into education, they were an absolute Godsend to many people, particularly students who were writing long essays or teachers who had to create a large amount of content. The provisionally of the computer, not only in terms of text manipulation, but also images, sounds and video, means that the computer and learning technology in general have become indispensable for most people who find themselves studying or teaching.

Secondly, learning technology can be a platform for creativity. Creativity is often overlooked in learning – especially if it’s not art or music. We need to acknowledge that creativity is an important aspect of learning across the curriculum. We need to think laterally when trying to solve some mathematics or science problems for example. When we write essays, read literature, or learn a new language, we need to call upon our imagination and creative skills to make sense of the learning resources. Learning technology supports, and often extends our creative skills, and can act as a ‘mindtool’ for us to develop our thinking skills too. We can store all our thoughts, useful collections of knowledge and questions in the memory of our device, and then leave it there until we next need it, thereby freeing up thinking space for the immediate problems at hand.

Thirdly, and probably most importantly, learning technology is very effective in connecting people together, and enabling them to share their ideas, resources and comments online. Social networking tools, blogs and wikis are just a few of the tools that are in common use in education, where students and teachers can create content, share, discuss, vote, and otherwise participate in a community that extends beyond the boundaries of the traditional classroom. We are only at the start of the innovation curve of learning technology. The provisionally and flexibility of the tool, its capability to harness and amplify creativity, and its ability to connect people together wherever and whenever they are in the world, will ensure that learning technologies will continue to be innovative in education.

There are many more things I could say about the innovative nature of the tools that we call ICT – the learning technologies – but space and time do not permit. In conclusion, I will give this word of advice to any teacher in any sector of education: Don’t be afraid to take some risks with technology – if you can think of an idea to use in your classroom, it is very likely that there is a learning technology tool out there that can help you realise it.


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Learning with 'e's by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.