10 characteristics of authentic learning

I argued yesterday that authentic learning is a vital part of education in the 21st Century. The need to create learning opportunities that are grounded in reality, and form a concrete basis for real world transferable knowledge and skills has never been more important. We also need authentic assessment for learning. Too often in school classrooms around the world the delivery of content is abstract, disconnected and decontextualised. Students are then regularly tested on their recall of what they have 'learnt' and graded as successes or failures. But exactly what is their success or failure? And what does this process of assessment teach students about the school system? Part of the problem is that content is delivered, with little opportunity for students to make personal sense of that content. Another problem is that students are then expected to replicate that 'knowledge' in a form that is recognisable as the original. Students are therefore learning exactly what is already known, rather than exploring new knowledge and gaining fresh insight on the world. 

Some have previously argued that students at this stage in their education require some knowledge that they can build on. True, but how long should this priming of initial knowledge be allowed to go on? When do we begin to develop independent, autonomous lifelong learners? Authentic learning (and authentic assessment) are related not only to the knowledge students receive, but also to the knowledge production they can themselves achieve. Such learning is not instant, nor can it be achieved over a brief time period. But it can be nurtured early. Complex and iterative learning of this kind takes a lifetime of study, and is always grounded in real world experience. Reeves et al (2002) have much to say about the characteristics of authentic learning, including an emphasis on personalised learning that can be achieved through ill structured problem based learning, where meaning is negotiated within collaborative learning environments, and learning can be situated within multiple contexts and perspectives. Their list of 10 characteristics below are a very useful toolkit for any teacher who wishes to ensure that authentic learning is supported in their classroom:  

1. Real-world relevance: Activities match as nearly as possible the real-world tasks of professionals in practice rather than decontextualized or classroom-based tasks.
2. Ill-defined: Activities require students to define the tasks and sub-tasks needed to complete the activity. 
3. Complex, sustained tasks: Activities are completed in days, weeks, and months rather than minutes or hours. They require significant investment of time and intellectual resources. 
4. Multiple perspectives: Provides the opportunity for students to examine the task from different perspectives using a variety of resources, and separate relevant from irrelevant information. 
5. Collaborative: Collaboration is integral and required for task completion. 
6. Value laden: Provide the opportunity to reflect and involve students’ beliefs and values.
7. Interdisciplinary: Activities encourage interdisciplinary perspectives and enable learners to play diverse roles and build expertise that is applicable beyond a single well-defined field or domain. 
8. Authentically assessed: Assessment is seamlessly integrated with learning in a manner that reflects how quality is judged in the real world.
9. Authentic products: Authentic activities create polished products valuable in their own right rather than as preparation for something else. 
10. Multiple possible outcomes: Activities allow a range and diversity of outcomes open to multiple solutions of an original nature, rather than a single correct response obtained by the application of predefined rules and procedures.

How much of this is currently being achieved in our schools? What would it take for schools to adopt some or all of these approaches?

'In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.' - Fran Lebowitz.

References 

Reeves, T. C., Herrington, J., & Oliver, R. (2002). Authentic activity as a model for web-based learning. 2002 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA, USA.

Web source

Photo by Dana Bateman

10 characteristics of authentic learning by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Promoting change in schools

In yesterday's blogpost I discussed the problems of change management in schools and suggested that the biggest barrier to the successful adoption of new technologies lies in the minds of teachers. The attitudes of  teachers toward new technologies for example, are shaped by their perceptions of the usefulness of these technologies in day to day practice. In 2005 I edited a book entitled 'Transforming Primary ICT' (Wheeler, 2005) in which I authored a chapter on change management. Here is an extract, much of which, I believe, still holds true today:

The arrival of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the primary classroom has produced some astounding outcomes. For many, teaching and learning has been transformed, with new methods and practices often emerging as a direct result of the use of computers. The internet has unleashed countless new resources and caused teachers to rethink what teaching and learning are all about. Electronic records and databases enable the classroom practitioner to access a wealth of useful information that was previously out of reach. Tedious and mundane jobs can be automated, liberating teachers to concentrate on the more creative aspects of their professional practice. ICT is quite simply transforming primary education, and it is doing so at many levels.

Teachers have met the rapid uptake of computers in schools with both positive and negative responses. From a positive perspective, ICT brings a number of clear advantages for the teacher and the learner, which encompass new resources, new ways of teaching and new ways of learning. The internet, for example, can provide children with access to a vast repository of information, learning resources and experiences. The use of interactive whiteboards can enhance lessons by providing teachers with a range of new delivery methods and teaching resources. Use of e-mail can cut down response time from days to minutes, with teachers connecting to each other, school governors, Local Education Authorities, suppliers, specialist teachers and advisors, and of course, pupils and their parents. In short, the introduction of ICT has the potential to radically alter the face of teaching and learning in schools.

Less positively, ICT has been instrumental in alienating many teaching staff, causing them to question their role as educators, and engendering a great seal of disquiet and anxiety for the future. With any change comes uncertainty and, in the case of the computer, this change has been all pervasive. It is no wonder that some teachers feel threatened by technology. (pp 7-8).

Seven years on from writing this piece, I am seeing schools adopting technologies and embedding them within the curriculum. Things are improving, but there are still many schools who lag behind, either due to lack of vision or leadership, lack of resources, or a fear of the implications of technology. The latter may be one of the most trenchant barriers to the adoption of new technology in schools. In my next post, I plan to explore 'technophobia' and how it impacts of the adoption of new technologies in education.

References
Wheeler, S. (Ed.) Transforming Primary ICT. Exeter: Learning Matters.

Image source


Promoting change in schools by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Teacher beliefs

How can we promote successful change in education? Schools are notoriously conservative institutions, so it is often difficult to introduce new ideas. Much of the resistance to change comes from teachers who 'have always done it this way' and who have the mentality that 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. Teacher beliefs about pedagogy are central to the successful integration of new technologies into schools. The extent to which they see technology skills as relevant and valuable directly relates to the extent to which these skills are practised and applied in their work. If teachers believe that technology adds no value to their teaching, they will simply not use it. New technology really has to be shown to be relevant and useful. The technology in any given school can be as high quality, shiny and compatible as you like. Technical support can be second to none, and all the support in the world on offer, but if the teacher is not convinced of its usefulness, forget it.

A long history of psychological research supports the argument that an individual is more likely to perform a behaviour when there is a high probability of a positive outcomes. See for example the work of Ajzen and Madden (1986) or Doll and Ajzen (1992). Teachers will only adopt new technology if they can see the benefits and are convinced something can be improved or enriched.

Perhaps even more important is the issue of professional practice. If teachers see no need to question or challenge their own practices, another barrier to the adoption of change arises. Reflection on practice is therefore a vital component in change management.

Put the political issues (such as regulation of activities and bans on the use of certain technology in schools) to one side for a moment. Do the same with the technical issues such as lack of bandwidth or hardware, or human issues such as lack of knowledge or skill. These have an impact on the success of technology integration in schools, but by far the biggest barrier to change lies inside the head the teacher.

More on change management in schools next time.

References
Ajzen, I. and Madden, T. (1986) Prediction of goal-directed behaviour: Attitudes, intentions and perceived behavioural control. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 22, 453-474.
Doll, J. and Azjen I. (1992) Accessibility and stability of predictors in the theory of planned behaviour. Journal of Personality and Social Behaviour, 63 (5), 754-765.

Photo by Steve Wheeler


Teacher beliefs by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Five things

This is the third in a series of blog posts entitled 'Shaping Education for the Future.' Yesterday's post can be found on this link.

Previous posts in this series have outlined the need for universities to respond to changes, and to develop strategies for survival in a world where the future is uncertain. It is increasingly apparent that learning technology and digital communication will play a key role in the shaping of future higher education. For digital technologies to become as successful in education as ‘paper and pencil’, I believe that five strategies will need to be put into place:

1. Technology will need to become more ‘transparent’ (Wheeler, 2005). That is, technology will need to become so embedded into the day to day experiences of teachers and students that it becomes common place, and even mundane. The novelty value and opacity of technologies often prevent users from ‘seeing through them’, beyond the shiny toy with the buttons and lights, to a tool that is useful because it does something previous tools could not do.

2. Universities must offer better support to academics. Often teaching staff are pushed into situations where they need to cope with new ideas and new technologies without clear guidance. In such situations, many teachers will struggle and fail with technology, or they will resist to the point of rejection. Very few will actually succeed without help. Appropriate training, support services and dialogue will invariably overcome many of these issues (John and Wheeler, 2008).

3. Teachers need to see the relevance and application of new technologies. For teachers to adopt new technologies, they must first see the applications and understand the benefits (as well as the limitations) of the tool. If a tool adds nothing new to the teaching and learning equation it will be perceived as irrelevant and will be rejected (cf. Norman, 1990). I would add that new technologies should only be adopted widely if they have a use and can actually add something new to the learning experience (see point 5 below).

4. Teachers will need to gain greater confidence in the use of new technologies. This will mean that they will need to be continually adaptive and responsive to change as it happens. This relates back to training, which brings familiarity, but teachers also need to see beyond the technology, using it as an extension and enhancement of their own cognitive capabilities,in the sense of a ‘mindtool’. They will also need to see that technology can be contextualised into real and authentic teaching situations. And they will need to be willing to change their own practice occasionally.

5. Ultimately, more research is required into what can be done and what cannot be done with new technologies. How do we know whether or not something works, who it works with, and under what conditions it becomes less successful unless we study it? We can of course find out through trial and error, but more preferably, we can evaluate through thorough and systematic research where new technologies are tested out in authentic situations.

References
John, P. D. and Wheeler, S. (2008) The Digital Classroom: Harnessing the Power of Technology for Learning and Teaching. London: Routledge.
Norman, D. (1990) The Design of Everyday Things. London: The MIT Press.
Wheeler, S. (2005) Transforming Primary ICT. Exeter: Learning Matters.

Image by Freefoto


Five things by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Inspiring a generation

Many of us have watched in awe as the drama of the London 2012 Olympic Games unfolds. Emotions ebb and flow, and we find ourselves transfixed as we witness the triumphs and disasters of competition at the very highest level. The extraordinary skills, strength and stamina of the athletes has been compelling, exciting, inspirational. Many of the back stories emerging from the Games could be rewritten as screen plays for Hollywood movies, and indeed some may very well be. For teachers and educators there must be many lessons that can be learnt by observing the supreme dedication and commitment of the athletes as they compete for the ultimate prize - sporting immortality. Last week I read this piece from Learning and Skills Group Chairman Don Taylor, which set me thinking:

In women's volleyball, team GB beat African champions Algeria in its first Olympic victory. This is remarkable given that the team is 53 places below in the rankings. Even more extraordinary is that they did it with no funding. The team managed to fund its own way to London2012 through a combination of money making and cash saving schemes. The team is an inspiration to anyone facing budget cuts.

Yes, we do live in a time of economic uncertainty and austerity. It is a time where budget cuts affect many of our learning and development activities. School budgets are squeezed, and CPD suffers from cutbacks. One challenge in the coming months and years is to try to optimise learning in these stringent times. It's a time where we must try to maintain good learning experiences regardless of the economic difficulties. But this is not the main challenge. The main challenge has and always will be to inspire learners to reach their optimum level of achievement. Doctors save lives. Teachers make lives.

The theme of London 2012 is 'Inspire a Generation'. I am certain the London Olympics will do just that for the next generation of sporting heroes. But inspiring the next generation of learners has, and always should be, the ethos and ultimate goal for all educators, wherever they find themselves.

Image by Fotopedia


Inspiring a generation by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

More fabulous learning spaces

The space in which a child learns is important. If a school gets it wrong, learning can be constrained or even completely stifled. I remember the dire environment that was provided for me as a kid in one particular school. The room had bare floorboards, and the desks were fixed to the floor. The classroom echoed with every footstep, and there was no central heating. All we had was one fireplace which was never lit, due to 'health and safety' issues. The toilets were in a block across the playground, and we avoided going there because they were exposed to the elements. We therefore made sure we didn't drink at all during the school day, so we wouldn't need to find our way across to the toilet block. We were often cold and thirsty, because the environment dictated it. It didn't lead to very good learning outcomes. Recent research has shown that drinking water regularly actually improves concentration and focus. It's often the simple things that improve the learning environment, and as Stephen Heppell says, better school toilets = better results.

Last year I wrote about  some fabulous learning spaces I had seen while visiting schools in New Zealand. I wrote about the idea of knocking down walls and joining three classrooms together to provide more circulating space for students. At Albany Senior High School in Auckland, three classes are conducted next to each other, with students given the freedom to move between the classes as they wish. Last week I heard Stephen Heppell talk about another version of this, which he called 'Super Classes' where three classes join together for one lesson, and the three teachers team teach. The lead teacher (or narrator) is responsible for conducting the session, whilst teacher 2 (the 'breakdown engineer') offers the intervention when students are struggling, and teacher 3 provides differentiated intervention for those learners who require it. Conducting classes in this way drives the session forward with fewer stops and starts. Teachers can focus on their individual roles and in so doing maintain the impetus of the lesson without being sidetracked to respond to the needs of individual learners.

In Australia, Stephen Harris, principal of the Sydney Centre for Innovations in Learning has devised a range of metaphors that describe different kinds of activities that can take place in shared learning spaces.  Such space and activity juxtapositions rely extensively on the teacher's willingness to be flexible and adaptable to change and responsive to needs as they arise, but also tap into the huge potential of young people's innate ability to be agile and adept at using new technologies. Schools are often designed by architects and designers who may have spent little time in school since their childhood days. Getting those who actually use the school every week - the students - to design them in conjunction with their teachers seems to be a much better strategy and might lead to creative learning spaces.

It's clear that learning spaces are a vitally important component of the school to get right. If we don't provide the best possible spaces that are conducive to learning, we are letting the children down. It's not just what we provide in schools that make a difference, but how we provide it.

Photo source unknown


More fabulous learning spaces by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Web 2.0 culture

In previous posts I argued that as teachers, we should be prepared to give our content away for free. There are two reasons for this. One is to benefit those learners worldwide who wish to learn from you and need to see your content. Secondly, it is so you can reap the exponential rewards the social web offers. In Giving it all away I showed how offering free online access to your ideas and works actually increases your audience size. Licensing your content under a Creative Commons agreement that allows for repurposing or remixing provides an opportunity and invitation for others to translate your slides or blogposts into another language. Several of my posts and slideshows have been translated into Spanish, which opens up vast new audiences in South America I can share my ideas with, with no extra effort.

Look at the photograph. There were several images I could have used to illustrate this post, but all were protected by a copyright licence. In doing so those photographers lose the opportunity for their work to be amplified to a larger audience. The image I chose was licenced for free use and remix with attribution, so Noel Hidalgo gets the prize and receives a larger audience for his fabulous picture.  But the ethos of sharing on the social web goes deeper than the act of sharing content. It's also the adoption of a new mindset and a new culture for many professionals - the culture of Web 2.0. By way of explanation, here's an adapted extract from a book I published a couple of years ago:

The introduction of wikis into conservative environments such as classrooms requires all participants to adopt a new culture - one of co-operation and sharing. When they understand they can actually create and share content on a global stage, students can be both excited and daunted. Many of those who welcome the experience are probably in some way already connected into the culture of Web 2.0 and will probably already have accounts on social networking sites such as Facebook. They may be familiar with other media sharing sites such as YouTube or Flickr, and aware of the protocols that are active within these micro-cultures.


Those who are reluctant to share or co-operate, or anxious in some way about posting their content up on the web for all to see, may need to work a little harder to assimilate the culture of Web 2.0. It is only later, when they are more immersed into the Web 2.0 culture, and they have begun to develop the specialist digital literacies which gain them full access into it, that these students begin to understand the power and potential of sharing, co-operation and collaboration. Some never make the transition, and steadfastly refuse to allow their work to be edited by others, preferring instead to protect their ideas and maintain sole ownership over their content.

Canadian academic Brian Lamb once declared that during times of economic challenge, when so many people need access to learning, it seems preverse to hoard knowledge in any form. And yet, in schools, colleges and universities around the globe, there are many teachers and academics who jealously guard their content, as if by doing so they will benefit in some way from their protectionism. They may receive some financial reward, but will they have the satisfaction of knowing that in some way they have also helped other people, without cost? I have a message for such professionals. Change your mind. Choose to share your content openly and freely - it is only through giving it away that you will begin to reap the full rewards of the Social Web. Knowledge is like love. You can give as much away as you like, but you still get to keep it.

Adapted from Wheeler S. (Ed: 2009) Connected Minds, Emerging Cultures: Cybercultures in Online Learning. Charlotte, NC: Information Age. (p. 9).

Image by Noel Hidalgo


Web 2.0 culture by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Shock of the new

Teachers in many schools will tell you they are running hard just to stand still as they attempt to adopt new technologies for learning.  It is a real struggle to keep up with the rapid pace of change that defines the digital age. Often, this is a bewildering process, and one which many teachers try to avoid. And yet, with a clear framework or roadmap for adoption, many of the challenges of adopting new technology can be met, and many of the fears teachers have can be assuaged.

Mandinach and Cline (1994) identified four distinct phases of adoption of new technology in schools. In the first phase, known as survival, teachers struggle to define what they wish to achieve with the new technology, and attempt to learn how to use it effectively to support pedagogy. Often, schools make the mistake of purchasing new technology before they have fully considered the reasons they need it. This suggests that the survival phase could be shortened if forethought went into the design of learning, before technology was procured.

The second phase of adoption is known as mastery, and involves teachers moving beyond the survival phase and into a phase where they start to apply the technology to meaningful and authentic learning contexts. During this phase, the technology should become transparent to the users - that is, it should begin to be used without significant cognitive energy.

The third phase, impact, is evaluative, and requires users to apraise the extent to which the technology is being effective . It also involves an assessment of how well teachers and learners are coping with any new issues or challenges that may have arisen during the implementation of the new tools.

The final phase, referred to as innovation, is where teachers have developed enough expertise to begin experimenting with new and innovative ways to use the technology. This can be a particularly creative phase, and often gives rise to the incorporation of even newer technologies, or the development of new pedagogical techniques. Venezky (2004) suggested that this final phase is recognisable by the number of restructured learning activities that occur within the classroom and the extent to which these enhance or extend best practice. Schools that are in the fourth phase of adoption are generally staffed by teachers who feel free to adapt technology to their own particular styles of teaching.

[Adpated from John, P. D. and Wheeler, S. (2009) The Digital Classroom: Harnessing technology for the future. Abingdon: Routledge/David Fulton. (p 99).]

References
Venezky, R. L. (2004) Technology in the classroom: Steps toward a new vision. Education, Communication and Information, 4 (1), 3-21.
Mandanach, E. B. and Cline, H. F. (1994) Classroom dynamics: Implementing a technology based learning environment. Hillside, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Image by David Wright


Shock of the new by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

In the same boat

It is comforting and reassuring - but also somewhat disconcerting - to attend an international event on education, and discover that whatever problems you experience in your own system are also present in just about every other education system in the world. As we converse with delegates from other countries, it dawns on us that we are all in the same boat. And that is one very good reason why educators around the world need to continue their dialogue, whether face to face, or at a distance. Why we are all in the same boat is perhaps an indication of the power of governments around the world to 'sing from the same hymn sheet'. Each in its own way wants to measure and judge the effectiveness of education, but each does it in the wrong way - by relying exclusively on metrics that impose impossible pressures on teachers and students alike, and ultimately end up getting in the way of good learning outcomes. It's a universal challenge for teachers and change is definitely long overdue. But how do we send this message strongly enough that our respective governments will sit up and take notice?

The 8th International Seminar on Teacher Training: Reconsidering Teacher Roles (hosted by the Open University of Catalonia, in Barcelona) took on this challenge. The two day conference was well organised, and ideally located, attracting a worldwide audience, both through physical attendance and via streaming channels and Twitter. Teacher roles are changing, ran the theme, but exactly what do teachers need to learn to enable them to exploit the potential of new media and technology? The roles may change, but the institution often does not. What tensions are there and how are they fracturing the fabric of the teacher/institution relationship? How can we train teachers to hit the ground running when they enter the profession? These and other pertinent questions formed the basis of the dialogue that ensued.

One of the important points made during the conference was that content on the web is overwhelming, whilst context is vitally important. I suggested on Twitter in summary that content is a tyrant, and context is now king. Content floods our lives and it is difficult to filter, whilst context frames learning, and provides the grounding to apply it in real life situations. This theme was reiterated throughout the two day event in many ways, especially in an analysis of creative approaches to teaching and learning. Douglas Thomas (USA) argued that it only takes about 12 years to beat the wonderment and joy of learning out of children. It's sad but true, and it is often the death of divergent thinking - one of the key building blocks of the innovation that is often sadly lacking in the world of work.

Hanna Teras (Finland) convinced her audience that authentic learning can be promoted through the appropriate application of social media. She also emphasised the point that although the tools are available for all teachers to use, many cannot do so effectively without developing their own personal 21st century pedagogical skills. Peter Baptist (Germany) offered very similar recommendations, but used visual media and animations to liven up the teaching of numeracy and mathematics. An excellent session on Day 2 by PhD student Janak Bhimani (Japan) impressed the audience. He demonstrated how contextualisation of learning has been creatively realised in Japanese schools through the use of animated videos and finger puppet movie projects. Children script, perform, produce and direct - all with minimal supervision from their teachers. This form of narrative story telling in digital form enables young people to express their creativity and can transfer these skills to real world applications. Other schools are doing the same, providing exciting and challenging authentic learning activities for children.

Great closing day keynotes by Edem Adubra (UNESCO, France and Namibia) and Ferran Ruiz Tarrago (Spain) encapsulated the running theme of the conference - that a reconsideration of teacher roles is simply not enough for today's educational requirements. There needs to be reform, because education as a system is broken and cannot be repaired or patched up, said Terrago. A telling remark from Terrago was that teachers must be aware that they are required to be excellent in an outmoded system. He was scathing of the academic publishing system and the strangle hold it currently has over tenure and funding. Governments are complicit in perpetuating this ivory tower syndrome, he suggested, and that needs to be challenged at all levels. The conference has been summed up succinctly in blog posts by Hanna Teras and Ishmael de Pena Lopez.  


The final remark from conference co-chair Julia Minguillon (Spain) said it all - don't sit on this discussion and let it pass you by, he warned. By doing so, he suggested, you perpetuate the ivory tower syndrome - go out and make the changes that are needed to reform our education systems. We all need to row in the same direction.


Image by Adam Poselli


In the same boat by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

I think, therefore I blog

There seems to be a growing divide between teachers who share their content, and teachers who don't. In a recent blog post, I gave seven reasons why teachers should blog. It was subsequently expanded to 10 good reasons by the contributions from readers - which is actually an eleventh reason why teachers should blog - you get back such great comments, suggestions, arguments and advice, it would be crazy not to share your content. I followed that post up with another highlighting some of the reasons teachers don't blog. Again, there were interesting comments from those who read but don't write, offering further reasons why teachers don't share their content. 


Blogging for me has many clear benefits for professionals. Putting your ideas 'out there' as a public performance can be risky, but also very rewarding. The comments alone are worth the risk, but even if no-one else reads or comments on your blog, you still get the chance to clarify your thoughts in your own mind, and as you write, they become even clearer.

Perhaps the prime practical reason teachers don't share their content is time pressure. Most teachers are passionate about education, but can't stand the idea of even more work added to their load. For some, blogging and other content generation is just extra work. But let's be frank - all teachers create content on a regular basis including lesson plans, assessment tools, learning and teaching resources and new ideas for plenaries, starters or revision. It would be another small step, with very little extra effort, to share these resources through some social media tool. This leads on to another objection - many teachers feel they don't have the skills or the confidence to share their ideas and content once they have them.

The seemingly impenetrable jungle of social media tools, the strange and quirky names, the alien concepts of content sharing are all quite daunting to the average teacher. Again, in reality, many social media tools are quick and easy to use, and don't cost anything in terms of hard cash. If you like using post-its and getting kids to comment during lessons, then Wallwisher is the ideal tool. If you wish to find out who else is bookmarking the same websites as you, then Delicious fits the bill. Want to keep an archive of all your note-taking? Evernote is a great tool for that purpose. For sheer crazy visual inventiveness, try Blabberize - you'll laugh your socks off. There are many blogging tools available - the one you are currently reading is Blogger, but Wordpress and Posterous are just as simple to use. There are so many tools for so many teacherly jobs, making life easier and more organised, so that you can get on with the daily task of shaping young minds. You have plenty of thoughts and ideas that would benefit the rest of the education community. So why don't you share them?

Image source


I think, therefore I blog by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Reasons teachers don't blog

I'm a little overwhelmed by the response to my post yesterday entitled Seven reasons teachers should blog which as I write this, is racing toward 2000 views in just 24 hours. Thank you to all those who have taken the time to stop by and read it. It is turning out to be one of my most successful posts of the year, and not just because of the hit rate. It seems that many teachers are interested in blogging (or edublogging), but for various reasons are not yet in there, getting their hands dirty. Some of those commenting on yesterday's post added further reasons why teachers should blog. Currently we are now up to 10 reasons, and I'm sure there will be more added in the coming days. You are very welcome to add your own reasons there.

But I'm concerned about the reasons teachers don't blog. One of the reasons teachers don't blog is because of fear. Fear of posting something they think will be 'below standard' or 'missing the mark', and I would imagine that many fear their ideas and best practices being held up in the spotlight in public, on the web. Some teachers may fear what their bosses might say if they start blogging and say things that their institute might not agree with. Others simply cannot blog because their school is blocking access to certain tools and services on the web. Some complain that they don't have enough time to blog, and are tired when they get home from a hard day in the classroom. Some may think that they have nothing to say that would be of interest to other teachers. These are all valid reasons, but probably the most trenchant barrier to blogging is that many teachers still don't - or can't - see the incredible benefits blogging can offer to them, personally.

Think about it. Blogging is essentially an online diary that enables you to put down your ideas and return to them at any time. The blog can be private - for your eyes only. You only publish what you want to when you hit the Publish button. But sharing ideas and growing a personal learning network are becoming synonymous for many teachers. The advent of social media such as Twitter and Facebook is ensuring that teachers can quickly build contact lists and engage in conversation with their counterparts all over the world. I will stick my neck out and suggest that this kind of informal and free continuing professional development is making more inroads into better pedagogy than any single CPD programme could ever achieve. When teachers blog, they create content, commentary, arguments, resources, links and artefacts that are freely available on the web. In return they receive comments from colleagues that may include other useful resources. Combined, this dialogue creates a digital footprint of useful materials that other teachers can use, engage with, and reflect upon. Edublogging is creating a global discourse that transcends the physical constraints of time and space.

In my view, there are more reasons for teachers to blog than there are reasons against. There are more benefits and barriers. So I encourage you to take the plunge if you have not already done so, and get blogging. Barriers are only barriers if you can't get around them, and if there is a will, most barriers can be broken down. If you are a new teacher blogger I invite you to post your blog URL in the comments box below, and if you are a genuine edublogger, I will make sure it appears for all to see on this blog.

Image source by 2create


Reasons teachers don't blog by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Seven reasons teachers should blog

I have written extensively on what makes a good blogpost and why it is so powerful. From personal experience blogging is one of the most beneficial professional development activities I have ever engaged with. I learn more from blogging than I do from almost any other activity I participate in. Here are 7 good reasons why teachers should blog:

1) Blogging causes you to reflect. Donald Schon suggested that reflection on, in and through practice were vital components of any professional practice. Teachers naturally think back on what has happened in their classroom, and often wonder what they could have done better. Blogging can help with this process, enabling teachers to keep an ongoing personal record of their actions, decisions, though processes, successes and failures, and issues they have to deal with.

2) Blogging can crystalise your thinking. In the act of writing, said Daniel Chandler, we are written. As we write, we invest a part of ourselves into the medium. The provisionality of the medium makes blogging conducive to drafting and redrafting. The act of composing and recomposing ideas can enable abstract thoughts to become more concrete. Your ideas are now on the screen in front of you; they can be stored, retrieved and reconstructed as your ideas become clearer. You don't have to publish if you want to keep those thoughts private. Save them and come back to them later. The blog can act as a kind of mirror to show you what you are thinking. Sometimes we don't really know what we are thinking until we actually write it down in a physical format.

3) Blogging can open up new audiences. You can become a teacher within an infinitely larger classroom, and as you blog on subjects you think are interesting, you will discover that there are plenty of other education professionals 'out there' who are also interested. People who are interested will eventually find your blog and visit it regularly to see if they can learn something new from you.

4) Blogging can create personal momentum. Once you have started blogging, and you realise that you can actually do it, you will probably want to develop your skills further. Blogging can be time consuming, but the rewards are ultimately worth it. In my own experience, I find myself breaking out of inertia to create some forward movement in my thinking especially when I blog about 'edgy' topics that may be emotive, controversial, challenging. The more you blog, the better you become at writing for your audience, managing your arguments, defending your position, thinking critically.

5) Blogging can give you valuable feedback. As you gain feedback from your readership, you gain a sense of peer review, sometimes challenging and refuting your ideas (tricky to handle, but be open minded and you will learn a lot from constructive criticism) or affirming what you already believe to be true (some feedback from readers adds further value to your blogpost, and it's there for all to read). Affirmation of your own beliefs can be a powerful enabler for you as a professional practitioner.

6) Blogging can be creative. If you persist with blogging, you will discover that you develop new and creative ways to articulate what you want to say. As I write, I often search for alternative ways to express myself, and this can be through images, quotes, a retelling of old experiences through stories, videos, audio, or useful hyperlink to related web resources. You have many ways to convey your ideas, and you are simply limited to your own imagination. Try out new ways of communicating and take risks. Blogging is the platform that allows you to be creative.

7) Blogging can raise your game. Blogging is immediate. As soon as you press the Publish button, your ideas are on the web in front of a potential worldwide audience. Time and again I have heard from other teachers (and students) that they take much more care over grammatical construction, spelling and punctuation when they discover they have an audience.

Image source (edited)


Seven reasons teachers should blog by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Best years of our lives?

They say that our school years are the best years of our lives. But for many children, that is untrue. About a year ago, I wrote a personal account of an incident during my primary schooling that shaped my young adulthood. In That'll teach him, I recounted an incident where I asked a question in class, and the teacher ridiculed me. It was a bad experience. Being laughed at by the whole class on the teacher's instigation was humiliating, embarrassing and also a very powerful negative influence on me. I learnt never to ask questions in school again. It took me a long time to shake off that stigma and be bold enough to ask questions again. And it was important for me, because we learn by asking questions. Teachers have such power and influence over their young charges, and many are largely unaware of it. It's true that doctors save lives, but teachers make lives. That post served to illustrate some of the bad practices some my teachers adopted, and said a lot more about that particular teacher than it did about me. From that bad experience, eventually, came some very positive outcomes. But what about my positive experiences in education? Well, there have also been some very inspirational teachers...

The teachers who have inspired me most are those who have been accessible not remote, personable instead of standoffish, and knowledgeable without being arrogant. One of my lecturers in my first year of my undergraduate degree (he is now a well respected colleague of mine in the Faculty of Education) inspired me to learn more and to push myself to my limits to become more knowledgeable in my subject area. He did this through the use of nothing more than a whiteboard and pen, and constant discussion and questioning. This kind of simple socratic discourse was deceptively powerful, and did wonders for both my self esteem and piqued my appetite for more knowledge. He didn't need to use any other visual aids or learning resources. He simply pointed us in the direction of useful reading, and strategically slipped the names of key theorists into his discussions with us. For me this was a skillful, but relaxed and unobtrusive kind of pedagogy, involving everyone in the room, debating, deliberating and generally exploring together the nuances and intricacies of our subject. There was no lecturing, and there were no absolutes. Just the inspiration of the discussion and the joy of knowing that you were going to leave the classroom with more questions than when you came in.

Who were your inspirational teachers?

Image source

Best years of our lives? by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

2020 teachers

What kind of teachers will we see in 2020? Will they be any different (and will they be doing anything different) to what they are now? It's hard to say, because we can't predict the future. But can we help shape it? Take a look at what has already appeared on this blog in my 2020 Vision series, and there may be some clues. I have written about 2020 learners, 2020 classrooms and 2020 curriculum (focusing mainly on assessment of learning), and also touched on what we might see with 2020 learning technologies. Much of what I have written has been informed by crowdsourcing conversations with teachers on Twitter and other social media, as well as face to face. Those who are currently at the 'chalk face' will tell you that teaching at the moment is fraught with all sorts of difficulties. Many have already left the profession or are planning to, because they feel they don't have enough room to breathe - the restrictive practices and oppressive levels of performativity required by governments and funding bodies is driving many from teaching, often never to return. This is a tragedy. It's also unnecessary. All that talent lost to education, simply because education has become management heavy. We could easily do away with standardised testing, overcrammed curricula and league tables - we don't need them, and they do little to help learners - and concentrate instead on personalised forms of learning, open and relevant programmes of study, and a celebration of what each individual school does best and excels at. Most teachers would agree with this as a definite and positive future for schools. So what might teachers be doing in 2020?

I will predict this: there will still be a place for teachers, because teachers are irreplacable. It's still true that any teacher who can be replaced by a computer - should be. No amount of technology, self-study or user generated content can ever replace teachers. They will still be there to motivate and inspire, and they will still be there as pedagogy experts to facilitate and support learning. What they may do less of is - teach. There will probably be less 'front of the classroom' activities and more drawing alongside learners in project work, small group activities, problem based learning and technology enhanced processes. Most importantly, teachers will need to work more in partnership with their students. Finally, teachers may not actually be physically present in some classrooms, instead, taking on a virtual presence, particularly in places difficult to reach - a view endorsed by Spanish educator Jose Luis Garcia.

For the teachers who responded to my Twitter questions, there seemed an unanimous view that there will be a sea-change in the way teachers conduct themselves in education, and that teachers will drive these changes. Heidi Siwak, a Grade 6 teacher in Canada predicted: "I'll spend very little time designing lessons and more time assisting students in meeting their own learning goals." These sentiments are echoed by several others. Martin Homola in Slovakia, said teachers will pay "more attention to specific needs and interests of pupils. Less authority, more friendly older sibling approach. More discussion." Jack Beaman from the UK wanted to see small groups and a scenario where top experts would "use technology to reach masses allowing people to dictate own learning." He envisaged an education provision that would be "less top down and more social." Another UK teacher, Sonia Cooper, believes there will be a more dialogic kind of pedagogy, with teachers "hopefully talking less to the class, not imparting knowledge, but guiding learners by asking the right questions." She sees teacher tasks such as assessment (marking) being "very different with verbal feedback recorded and recognised as vital." She thinks that feedback to students will be given using other ICT tools too. A UK Headteacher, Andy Hampton, believes that teachers will teach and promote "Junior PLNs" (Professional Learning Networks) as university style teaching filters down to schools. Ben Jones sees the vital importance of learners taking centre stage, but warns that we should not confuse personalised learning with individualised learning.

From these views, it would appear that future changes in education will come from teachers adopting new practices, where social learning comes to the fore, and there is more negotiation through dialogue with learners. Teacher Linda Barron in Australia even goes as far as to suggest that collaboration should be so entrenched in future learning that it will be difficult to tell the teachers apart from the learners. Changes will need to come through flexibility and personalisation of learning, which will also bring new technologies into play. Changes are coming, and we will need to wait to see what they are, but we need the right changes. It is best that the future of learning will be shaped by teachers and their students in partnership, rather than by governments. Let's start now, shall we?

Image source


2020 teachers by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

2020 Classrooms

Will we still need classrooms by 2020? If so, what kind of learning environments will they be? Or will students learn on the move, in their workplaces, at home, and through the multiple connections facilitated by new communication technology? This is a difficult question to answer, because school and education, although not synonymous, are deeply ingrained in our culture and have become a key component of our social, political and economic thinking. Implicit in the question are a number of issues, including the relationship between teaching and curriculum, and nature of state funded education and the role of teachers. Also under the spotlight are the demands of society, work, family and community, and how these are balanced against the needs of individual learners.

I recently used Twitter to crowdsource a number of responses to what would be obsolete in education in 2020. The discussion can be found under the hashtag #learning2020. In this post I would like to present some of the tweets, and provide a critical commentary around them, in the hope that it will provide a useful contribution to the discourse surrounding the purpose of education and the future of learning.

The design and configuration of classrooms was a particular concern for several people. Melissa Brown Boyle, an elementary school teacher in the USA, predicted that school classrooms of the future will have "fewer individual student desks and more tables or open floor space conducive to discussion and movement". She also believes in moving learning beyond traditional settings: "open discussion space must be global not just local, virtual links are just as real as graffiti on desks.” She has a point, because often, classrooms are cluttered with furniture, and provide less space for creative activities to be organised. These are sentiments echoed by another teacher, Vanessa Camilleri, who calls for more creative options through flexibility - the global classroom is already there for the making. So, do we need to redesign classrooms to make them more conducive to personalised and creative forms of learning? Evelyn MacElhinney is even more radical. She envisages 'hologram rooms' where students can 'learn in the scenario' and she advocates doing away with tables and chairs completely in schools of the future.

What about the way education is currently conducted? What about the closed nature of the classroom? Mr Colley, a teacher in the UK wants to see closed door classrooms become a thing of the past. He also predicts that teachers will very soon need to determine the differences between cheating and collaboration. Martin Homola, a PhD student in Slovakia, made the prediction that education behind closed doors will be obsolete by 2020. He suggests that 'online, open channels' will be the building blocks of future education. By this, I assume he means that open content, open source and open learning will come to the fore, and schools will be less protective over their content and classroom methods. Theo Kuechel agrees, and hopes to see 'more CC' and less 'C' on learning content in the future.

Sonia Cooper, also a teacher, wanted to see learning environments where each child had one device that 'did everything' including connecting to each other, the teacher, and content for learning. The scots had a lot to say about future learning: Kenny Pieper, an English teacher in Scotland, saw a future where the classroom was replete with iPads, Kindles and other personal tools for learning. Others such as Fraser Speirs, a head of computing, at a school in Scotland, also called for 1-1 technology provision, but added wisely that children should be presented with challenge-based learning. Yet Ian Stuart, a Deputy Head teacher in Scotland, warned that perhaps the "idea of 1-1 tablets in 2020 is like man in 1900 thinking we'd have really fast steam engines by 2000". He's right of course. When gazing into the future, we should certainly not constrain our thinking to current mindsets and conceptions of technology. Instead, we should try to be like the children in our classes - to let our imagination run riot, because from this can come the creative solutions for the problems of the future. What is your vision for 2020 learning?

Previous posts in this series on 2020 Learning include 2020 Learners and 2020 Vision.

Image source by Shuichiro


2020 Classrooms by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

2020 Learners

Children who are born this year will be halfway through primary school when 2020 arrives. What will be their experience of education?

If the last few years is anything to go on, we can expect some far reaching changes between now and 2020. We will witness the introduction of many new digital tools and technologies. We will also see changes in the curriculum, teacher roles, and learner needs. But what will these changes be? Will they be good ones? Over the next week or so, I want to explore what possible changes we can see on the horizon, and how they might affect learners and teachers, school and education.

But a word of warning... Predicting the future can be a hazardous occupation. In Biblical times, if a prophet got it wrong, he was stoned to death. Harsh. When clairvoyants get it wrong, the worse they can suffer is possibly having to pay you your money back. Astrologers don't often get it wrong, because they know better than to say anything specific. Everything they predict and advise is just far too vague for anyone to detect if it's accurate. While most of these 'futurologists' are playing games, if politicians wish to decide what is best for children they had better get it right. If they fail to plan properly for the future of our schools and education, their decisions will have a profound effect on our children, our grandchildren, and ultimately on our society.

We can't accurately predict the future of course, but what we can do is watch the trends. So will learners in 2020 be any different from those we see in our schools today? Will their needs and aspirations have changed from our own? It's highly likely they will. My own children have had very different school experiences to my own. My son, who will be 16 this year, wants to become an interactive games designer - a job that was unheard of when I left school. Many of the jobs that will appear in the next 10 years do not yet exist. Most of today's jobs rely either exclusively, or to a large extent, on information and communication technology of one form or another. This trend is on the increase. It follows that children of the future will need even more digital literacy skills than they have now. Does the current curriculum cover these skills fully?

Globalisation is also on the increase. Worldwide systems, nations, communities are more interdependent than ever, and this trend is upward. Employment mobility is also on the rise as borders come down and people move from country to country for work. Whole populations are migrating across continents to seek better living conditions thanks to European Union legislation and other international border agreements. Children of the future will need to learn more about other cultures and how they can maximise their skills in other countries. They may need to learn more languages too, but with intelligent systems providing ever more accurate translations, it may simply be a case of mastering yet another digital literacy.

Children of the future will also need to learn for life - learning to be flexible, adaptable and open to changes that might - for our current generation at least - be perceived as a threat. Of one thing we can all be certain - that change will accelerate in the next few years. Change can be disruptive and can take time, energy and effort to adapt to, but learners of the future will need to see change as an opportunity, and will need the requisite skills to take the opportunities that are presented and turn them into positive and sustainable outcomes.

Finally, children will need to be able to design their own learning spaces, create their own content and learn from it. They will be less reliant on didactic and transmissive forms of teaching and will turn instead to more independent learning from the vast storehouse of knowledge we know as the World Wide Web. This does not preclude some form of 'schooling' however. The teacher's role will change to accommodate these new needs. Teachers will become facilitators, mediators, co-authors and co-producers of content, and ultimately, companion travellers with children on their road to better learning. It is already happening in some schools. In posts later this week, I will explore what possible new roles of teachers in 2020 will need to adopt to help to prepare learners for an uncertain and certainly unpredictable future.

"The arrow of time says the future will be different to the past." - Professor Brian Cox

Image source by 'Back of the Napkin'


2020 Learners by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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'.

Image source

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.