Learning from Chinese New Year

NY day in Shanghai - tourists line up to take photos of...
tourists - my blonde children

There are, I guess, plenty of learning opportunities around the festivities I'd like to share - and any you have, please add.

Keeping the d in distance learning

Boulton, Watt and Murdoch under a Brummie moon

The Ed Tech Team at University of Birmingham wanted to make a presentation at the 10th annual conference, teaching and learning at University of Birmingham touching on current issues in teaching practice.  It's hard to avoid the rise and rise of MOOCs and the shift in education many believe they will bring.  We haven't yet made any big investment into MOOCs, but not a day goes by without the suggestion that maybe we should be.  I'm not intending to write solely about MOOCs - there's no shortage of material out there should you want to find out more, but look at the broader school of 'distance learning' of which MOOC is a family member, and something we've been doing rather well in Birmingham for some time.

I am refering to the wonderful Lunar men of the late 18th century, who met at every full moon, usually at Soho House, but mainly shared their thoughts via mail.  When I worked in Birmingham Archives and Heritage, I had the privilege of working with the Boulton and Watt Collection.  One day I was flicking through Watt's letters when I came across the very letter he sent to Priestley suggesting Joe might be onto something with his "dephlogisticated air" (Oxygen).  It even appears they were conducting 'distance experimentation' :

The Lunar Society believed in argument and cooperation. They had long discussions about why thunder rumbles and decided the best way to test their various theories was by experiment. Boulton made a 5-foot-diameter balloon from varnished paper, and they filled it with a terrifying mixture of air and hydrogen (“inflammable air from iron”). They lit a fuse underneath, released the balloon into the night sky on a calm, clear evening and waited for the bang. Unfortunately, the fuse was rather long, and they all assumed it must have gone out; so they began to talk among themselves, when there was a colossal explosion, and they all said, “There it goes!” and forgot to listen for the rumble! Watt was at home 3 miles away and wrote that the bang was “instantaneous, and lasted about one second.” This seems self-contradictory, but in any case, the experiment failed to produce a simple answer to the original question.

Adam Hart-Davis

Starting with historical perspective, it was interesting to note the Oxford English Dictionary has not yet cited any published use of the term d-Learning, dLearning, dlearning or the other variants.  There is plenty in OED and others on e-Learning, but somehow d-learning has been missed.

Defining e-Learning, the e stands for 'electronic', of course, but there has been lively discussion about what it should stand for, or even if, in the proliferation of e-Learning across learning, mainstream, whether it is useful as a term anymore at all.  Some of the suggestions:

electronic, enterprise, exciting, energetic, enthusiastic, emotional, extended, excellent, and educational,

everything, everyone, engaging, easy - Erik Parks

You could also question if there is still a need to define separately d-Learning, but if we are, I would argue the d in d-Learning needs to be discussion.  There are challenges to learning from a distance.  We need to play to the strengths of modern digital learning networks, and actively promote and value the contributions and learning of our students and our staff.

I found the lack of literature defining d-learning rather curious, even though it seems in common currency in Education establishments, and so looked to how the big MOOC and other distance learners are defining themselves.  I looked at Open University, Harvard university, Massey, Coursera and some of the other big MOOC and distance learning providers.  The variation in how they defined their distance learning was striking - all included 'discussion' as an important element - for some it was central, for others it seemed mentioned more as an additional extra.

Changes in MOOC definition on wikipedia have also been noted and discussed as the MOOC providers appear to move away from the professional network 'connectivism' model of MOOC in a bid to find and promote the most eminent Professors to provide resources, represent their courses and displace peer-to-peer discussion and open access.  Such has been the shift that a separate 'connectivist MOOC' sub-group is now defined in Wiki, based largely on what is seen as a more 'purist' interpretation of the principles all MOOCS were founded.

Distance Learning and MOOCs are increasingly being debated within Ed Tech groups like the Association for Learning Technology (ALT), within our own University, across Education Establishments  across the world, and creeping nearer our newspaper front pages.  If discussion in d-Learning is kept central to MOOCS and all distance learning, I believe new technolgies could still provide a shift in learning and learning establishments to engage and meet the needs of more students worldwide.

Useful links:

• https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/as/claddivision/clad/confs-events/tlconf.aspx
• http://www.revolutionaryplayers.org.uk/home.stm
• http://www.askinternational.com/knowledge/articles/eBasic/whatsElearn.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOOC
• http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/distance-learning/index.htm
• http://youtu.be/U6FvJ6jMGHU

Back to School

The 'perfect' teacher

It's the morning of the second day at school, and the excitement of meeting old friends is over.  The holidays are over.  It's back to work.

Arthur (our 8yr old) is awake early and we start talking about school:

'So what did you do yesterday?'

'We wrote about our holidays.  We always write about our holidays.  It's so boring.'

There's still a while to go before school, so we have a chat about it.  I can see the teachers will want to find out a bit about the children they will be working with, and that the most recent bit, their holidays, is probably a good place to start.  I put this to Arthur.  He agrees:

'But why do we have to write about it?'

On this, I think, he has a good point.  Writing is obviously a key skill children will learn in school, but it's not the most natural way your average 5, 6, 7, 8 yr old will express themselves.  If the teacher's objective is to find out more about a child, then I'm pretty sure most essays about 'what I did in the holiday' will tell you very little.  Except possibly how good at writing a child is.

It reminded me of Arthur's first meeting with his new teacher last term, where they were all warned, ''If you give me grief, then I'll give you grief, if you give me joy, then I won't give you grief...you'll get to like me."  The teacher very much setting out relationship boundaries.

Arthur goes on to tell me more about his first day.  At assembly they set 'ground rules, and reviewed the '10 Golden Rules'.  He got a star, for remembering one.  He remembered (and I was proud of him) that you've 'got to respect your teacher and the other children'.  The rules he remembered all were important.

I understand why so many teachers start with 'the rules', but how is reviewing the rules appreciating the wider objectives of education (developing confidence, ability for deep learning, reflection...) or indeed, the most immediate challenge to develop good relationships with the new children and their parents?  I know what my response to what appears to be a lecture on 'ground rules' would be.  As a parent with a mixed experience of school it does re-enforce all my poorer experiences and, I find myself quickly falling into the cynical trap of seeing school as a problem, something to be endured, and have to resist putting this across to Arthur

This is all my perspective, as a parent.  I'm also aware Arthur may say a very different thing about school tomorrow.  Also that the teacher may be overcoming  insecurities about their children and their relationship with children and parents, and things will get better as the year continues.  The school Arthur goes to is a good school.  He is very happy there, and throughout the last four years there have been many creative projects and topics which have engaged Arthur, in which he has expressed himself, reflected and learned.  I am sure soon we will think as highly of Arthur's new teacher as we (parents and children) do of his previous teachers.  The sort of open-ended projects, where children bring things (or people) into school, use of film, artwork, photographs to document and to provoke conversations - anything, that might be seen firstly as fun, and can develop a richer understanding of the children, their parents, their lives, will help the teacher find out more and to initiate more positive relationships.

It is interesting to see which teachers Arthur likes and respects, and why.  Without a doubt, those teachers that are seen as 'fun' are the 'best'.  'Fun' to Arthur, turns out to be enjoying learning with the children - the teacher who plays Ukele, is prepared to laugh at themselves, plays with the children, dances to Abba, who gets into the swimming pool with the children, is prepared to admit they don't know it all, wants to learn with the children, taking risks with them.

The teacher's role is not the same as a best friend, and I'm not suggesting all teachers should learn the Ukele (although would be fun), but that the best way to secure an effective learning environment, the starting point for any teaching, must be to develop good relationships with children and parents.

Useful links:

Overcoming 10 common barriers to parenting

Back to the wrong school

The PIP Award

Holiday homework

On last day of holiday in Ilfracombe Arthur decided he wanted to map out the next one, incorporating Brazilian rainforest, New York, Sidney, Antartica and New Zealand.

We are planning an Xmas visit to my sister in New Zealand this year, following a holiday of a lifetime three years ago when we first went out there. Our school threatened us with loosing Arthur's school place if we take Arthur out of school for any time in the next five years, which makes a trip to NZ very tricky.

Odd, when research clearly identifies 80% of learning happens outside the classroom, and that schools want to involve parents more in learning, that such a fantastic opportunity is not just ignored, but actively discouraged.

In the last year the schoolwork that have most excited Arthur (and us parents) was 'The Great Fire of London' and 'Brazilian rainforest'. We visited London, went down Pudding Lane, climbed monument, walked around Thames, visited 'The Museum of London', had a great day out that contextualised 'The Great Fire' for Arthur and Jago (3 years old). Shame not to have picked a Birmingham based topic, and admittedly, not everyone gets the chance to visit London, nevermind the Brazilian rainforest, but at least we got to find out about the topic with Arthur.

Schools should actively involve and encourage parents to take part in learning, and support parents and children bringing their learning back to the classroom. To only value learning in the classroom reinforces an insular view of school disconnected with our reality and unimportant to our lives.

The New House that Jack Built

This is an archive I found out about through Dr Ian Grosvenor (who has recently published a paper on it), in Birmingham Archives and Heritage. The original 'House that Jack built' is an old English Nursery rhyme:

"a cumulative tale that doesn't tell the story of Jack, who builds a house, but instead shows how the house is indirectly linked to numerous things and people, and through this method tells the story of 'The man all tattered and torn', and the 'Maiden all forlorn', on top of other smaller storylines."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_the_House_That_Jack_Built



It isn't unusual for a parody to be made from nursery rhymes, and this story in particular. There are many examples dating back to the eighteenth century. Initially I thought about using the story as an example of slave campaigning in nineteenth century England.

Then I thought the structure of the story would be useful to develop their own parodies, looking to where products they bought had come from. Finally, as I read closer, I found more in the story, to explore attitudes to learning, science, geography, race and learning - a history of ethics, a pedagogy for 'creative learning' and fair and ethical trading.

Tract ends with 'God save the King!' - a reminder of the times, perhaps, to avoid any accusation of harbouring Frenchie Republican notions other slavery abolitionists had been tarred with.

In the end, the group (Yr8 Science class exploring 'A Scientific justification for Fair Trade') moved on from it to their own products, and exploring where they have come from. However, it was useful in framing our project - laying out a 'scientific' reductionist framework, mapping out and linking mechanical, chemical, geographical, historical, social and any and all aspects of the manufacture and sale of their products, promoting their own creative and well reasoned connections between goods, people, and our responsibilities in a consumerist society!

http://www.breakingthechains.co.uk/event.jsp?eventID=54





'Explications' at end give extensive notes on all from slavery, wheat production in Norfolk, and (here) what is salt. Written in 1800, Joseph Priestley had only just discovered Oxygen, and Lavoisier the 'Father of Chemistry' only recently made discoveries which led to the periodic table later in nineteenth century.