I'm have a great time in this LSDA course. Getting into Twitter has been an eye-opening experience. I'm now connecting to some really great thinkers and it's affecting me. Take today for example,  one of my friends tweeted this http://www.edutopia.org/blog/hands-off-teaching-cultivates-metacognition-hunter-maats-katie-obrien and it has had a great impact. My first response has been to send the article to every staff member in my school in the hope of prompting some discussion. I'm sure it will because I won't be able to keep quiet about it.

Metacognition has always something I have been drawn to and now I see it as a key to unlocking productive learning. I must confess after reading the article I realise that I am a learning hog. I need to encourage student emulate some of my practices.  As the article says ...
"Teaching is hard work -- you have to be constantly engaged and aware of your process and how to improve it. That's exactly what makes an expert learner. So share the wealth! If you really want your students to be better learners, then let them walk a mile in your shoes."

The Learning Curve

Here's something I have always wondered about - a description of learning. I found this HERE. Basically it goes something like this, as told by Tim Ferris;

“Whenever someone first begins learning a new subject or skill, there will be a period of accelerated learning that brings a very satisfied feeling of learning in a very short amount of time. This part of the learning is related to the concept discussed in my previous post about the 80/20 rule, in which 80% of the material can be learned in 20% of the time, which explains why so much is learned so quickly in the beginning, making the learner feel very confident.

Shortly after learning the basics of a new language, skill, or subject, comes a point where a person begins to realize how difficult a new skill actually is, and has run out of the “beginner” material that is simple concepts and memorization. Additionally, at this point, the person realizes that they are no longer learning as quickly as they were before, dropping their confidence and morale a little bit. Regarding languages, this is the point where the person begins creating their own sentences and thoughts in the new language instead of using simple canned responses.

At some point later, the person’s learning confidence hits rock bottom, and the brain begins neurally adapting whatever it is they are learning, pulling it deeper than simple surface level memorization, working to allow the brain to do less thinking to accomplish the same tasks. It may be muscle memory or habit formation.

The graph then plateaus out to a place where the person is still using effort to learn, but it feels like they are not learning as quickly as they did in the beginning.

Then eventually, the person reaches the inflection point, which is casually referred to as the “click”, and the learning becomes easy and accelerates the person to fluency, or proficiency.”

I come across this manifestation quite often not only in the classroom but in training staff with various approaches with software such as our Learning Management System. They may understand it’s a good idea to use it but coming to terms with it’s complex structure puts them off and often they give up (Just email me the work!) I wonder where the breakeven point is where the desire to know something overcomes the issues of actually learning it. Obviously this is not a problem for Mitra’s learners, or maybe we never hear of the failures because they just drift away.

Fullen in his paper says that technology should be easy to use and intuitive, irresistibly engaging and elegantly efficient and incorporate latest design principles for user experience. In the best innovations, digital tools are participatory, engaging, co–creative, and collaborative. It should not, on the other hand, lack engagement for the learner. The user experience and design elements should not feel heavily dated. I essentially agree with him but it’s not always that simple and no amount of careful scaffolding appears to help.

I remember a story of a young boy who had found a moth cocoon. He had placed it on a table and was intently observing it. The moth had started to emerge from its cocoon. The process was labouring and the moth struggled. The hole it had made for itself seemed too small and it couldn't get out. The boy felt sympathy for the moth in its struggle to emerge. He suddenly had a thought. He grabbed his pocket knife a slit the opening of the cocoon where by the moth easily gained an exit. But something was wrong. The moth could not use its wings. The reason for the struggle was to push blood through the its wings to make them functional.

The connection I’m trying to make in all of this is that learning can be hard but perseverance is an admirable quality, we should not be put off by difficulty. We need to build resilience in our learners. Failure is an option.  

Sugata Mitra: Build a School in the Cloud

This is an interesting concept because it demonstrates unfettered, uncontrolled learning in the context of poverty and ignorance. Given the opportunity, particularly children with curiosity, will use the technology to learn. Mitra wants to build schools with this approach to learning and only wants Granny’s to staff the school.

In my thinking I now have a spectrum to guide my approach. If I think ‘middle of the road’ I will tend towards an innovative school approach. If I move right of this, towards Mitra’s school of the cloud, I would probably meet up with some innovative home schoolers. No doubt I would like to visit Mitra’s school just to see how it works because it is totally beyond anything I could conceive working as a viable educational institution. What about assessment (formative, of course)?

“In Reclaiming Our Teaching Profession: The Power of Educators Learning in Community, Hord and Tobia (2012) outline what leaders do to generate the favourable conditions for powerful professional learning to occur:

• Create an atmosphere and context for change

• Develop and communicate a shared vision for change

• Plan and provide resources

• Invest in professional development

• Check progress

• Give continuous assistance. “  

21st Century Leadership: Looking Forward An Interview with Michael Fullan and Ken Leithwood

It is interesting to note that the Victorian Department of Education and Training’s research web site (http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/research) lacks significant educational research papers on any forward thinking regarding a system wide approach to changes in teaching and learning. If Fullan and Leithwood have much to say about a system wide approach to 21st Century leadership and the necessity for change then our leaders are not listening, or so it would appear. On the basis of the amount of research targeted at social justice which is good in itself, there appears to be a deafening silence on how our students should navigate a digital future where change is incredibly prolific and productive communication is as mandatory as knowing how to spell.

“ … It’s a matter of striving for the best, a kind of “moral Olympics” in which you're doing better and better for the good of the students. So in that sense we are competing with Finland and that’s a good thing. Because we want to outperform them, not for the sake of surpassing them, but because we want to do better and better and because the world will be better as a result. “

21st Century Leadership: Looking Forward An Interview with Michael Fullan and Ken Leithwood

Or am I being overly critical? The Finnish educational model produces results and Ontario is keen to chase their success and claim it for their own. Have we dropped the ball somewhere? I can see the need for system wide change and that this needs to be supported and driven from the top, at a Government level. Who is responsible? How can a small-time, worker bee like me really affect change?