The value of knowledge!

Posted on December 2, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

I spent today, Saturday, at The Kings School, working closely with professional colleagues from the School Library Association of NSW, doing some strategic planning for 2007 and beyond.

ASLANSW Planning Day One way or other we covered a lot of ‘territory’, driven by our need to respond to the constantly changing landscape of learning of students, and the needs of ‘school 2.0’. Admitedly we didn’t actually use that term all day, but School 2.0 was actually what was pushing the strategic planning. Amongst other things, the results of our planning saw professional development initiatives for 2007 that have a strong digital and Web 2.0 focus, alongside literature and learning.

We spent a lot of time talking about ‘knowledge’ – including knowledge access, knowledge creation, learning networks and connective knowledge. Knowledge will underpin our future thinking and planning and I am planning on writing a paper on this topic in the coming months, and plan to deliver a presentation early in 2007 on a ‘knowledge commons’ as the new direction for blended learning – merging school libraries further into the main knowledge work of a school. We need knowledge specialists to support knowledge processing (finding, thinking, creating), not librarians shelving books or recording videos.

After the action research I undertook this year in 5 schools on digital learning I am as convinced as ever that teachers and students can benefit from a ‘knowledge expert’ at the school. (The results of this research will be published in 2007).
In addition, we will be responding to the NSW Board of Studies HSC: All My Own Work program that is designed to strengthen the capacity of HSC students to follow the principles and practices of good scholarship, including understanding and valuing ethical practices related to locating and using information as part of their HSC program.

The program has been developed as part of the NSW Government’s Respect and Responsibility strategy and complements other approaches such as brochures for teachers, students and parents and strengthened student and teacher declarations for the HSC. The HSC: All My Own Work program is integrated with other NSW syllabuses and programs. The program is designed to be delivered flexibly as self-paced learning modules, and is now available online for schools, for online delivery, and quiz completion. We will be running workshops in Sydney in term 1, and hope to repeat these in country areas later in the year.

Great day everyone!

Some notes on why I am doing this!

Posted on November 22, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

Quite surprisingly, the anniversary of the first six months of this blog is about to arrive May 29……. see first post Hello World. Yikes!

To celebrate I am going to spend some time in the coming weeks tinkering with my BlogRoll….because it’s time! I can’t fit all of my Heyjude Bloglines in the roll – but there are some blogs that have provided great leadership for newcomers like myself and to whom I want to say ‘thanks for supporting innovation and change’. As a group you represent the ‘big names’ and the ’emerging names’. You pick which one you are! Without your inspiration I wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t be learning at such a breath-taking pace.

When I hit the 12 month mark I hope to be able to list a significantly growing Australian list. Come on Aussies – let me know if you are out there in the blogosphere!

Here’s a recent (though well-known) arrival at Parallel Divergence.

You know, it shouldn’t be this easy to engage in such far-reaching and indepth professional learning. It has been the best six months – and I have learned more in this six months than I ever could have done any other way. Is this a true reflection of blogging…. or the rapidly changing landscape of the digital scene of Web 2.0.

I don’t know the answer to that. But I do know that the amazing personal and professional links with fellow bloggers, fellow social bookmarkers, fellow photo-sharers, fellow bloglines buddies, fellow poddies (yes, that’s what we do in Australia…truckies, roadies, firies, sparkies…) has been terrific.

Just to be different, I’m going to share another blogger with you….Alison Croggon, who provides independent theatre reviewing and discussion. She’s Australian too, and has been making her mark in the blogosphere for some time now.

I’ll let her share her own beginnings about why she is doing this!

Some notes on why I’m doing this

“honest and searching dialogue about theatre”

theatre notes

Blogging, like much else in the cyberuniverse, is a chance to be your own star. Even if no one reads your blog, there’s the mirage of public exposure. It’s peculiarly seductive. But apart from the appeal to an illusory sense of self-importance, there’s another reason to like the concept. Blogging has re-introduced the independent public commentator; but unlike underground magazines or samizdat, which were available only to the few, anyone who has a computer with an internet connection can look at a blog.

So I decided to start this blog, as an experiment. Will anyone read it? I don’t know. But I hope it will be fun to do and interesting to read.

Well I guess lots of people are actually reading her blog.

Just like mine – lots of people are reading it too.

So as I said in my first post –

Time to chuck our preconceptions away! Time to undertake a journey of discovery. Time to influence the shape of things to come.

Web 2.0 to Library 2.0 – the next publication

Posted on November 6, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

PART 1

Earlier in the year Part 1 of a two-part series of papers was published with the title Engaging the Google Generation through Web 2.0. This article was just a small effort on my part aimed at introducing teachers and teacher librarians to the world of Web 2.0. It has worked quite well for introducing newcomers to Web 2.0. I have seen copies of it with highlighter pen marking key concepts and places to visit. I have had people come to workshops and sessions with their well-thumbed article ready to learn more.
Part 2

Now Part 2 has arrived Engaging the Google Generation through Library 2.0. Perhaps it has something to offer you as well.

I was not as happy with this paper, but writing it inspired the Library 2.0 Matrix. I will have to update my Matrix on Flickr now to reflect the version presented in the article. The pace of change means that anything we read these days needs to be sifted and sorted for ideas – so I guess it’s your turn to sift right now 🙂

There are points in the article which are not correct. The editorial addition of the SCIS (Schools Cataloguing and Information Service) website review is confusing and misleading. I suspect that the writers of the review of the Second Life Library 2.0 blogspot didn’t quite understand what they were writing about. The blog is now at InfoIsland, and is a great place to get an overview of the action in SecondLife even if you don’t yet want to go into the 3D world.
Delany Library’s Delicious account is a good example of how one of our teacher- librarian is making use of the social bookmarking site to hook teachers and students into Web 2.0, as well an ensuring currency and relevancy of her library services. But it is not a ‘blog’! Sorry.

Anyway, you might find something of interest in the article, or you may like to circulate it between friends or colleagues. Enjoy!

Web 2.0 Sushi train moves on

Posted on October 30, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

After spending an exhilerating couple of days at the Global Summit, I am happy to say that the opportunities for more learning haven’t stopped yet. Now it’t time to dip into the K12 Online conference which is already well underway.

Nevertheless, the roundup of the Global Summit has been a bit hard to track, therefore for anyone who missed out finding or following the Global Summit, here is the link that will give you all the papers, presentations, podcasts and related links. You’ll want to save some of these for later!

But for now, if you haven’t already caught up with the news of the K12 Online Conference, go to it now! There has been some criticism of this initiative by some blogosphere gurus.

My take on this is that they are great leaders, but perhaps they could do with some grassroots involvement to see how important the material coming out of K12 online is for teachers and people like myself working with teachers who are wanting to learn more about Web 2.0.

I have promoted K12 Online to my schools – and at a Web 2.0 Workshop I ran last week was delighted to find that some teachers had picked up on the promotion, and were ‘cherrypicking’ the conference papers – and were very pleased with the information they were getting. I guess Stephen’s pessimistic comments aren’t true – at least not ‘downunder’.

I want to really thank those people who put up such great material in Week 1. This hands-on, step-by-step compilation of training and motivation via Web 2.0 is terrific and just what we need! I am not a great fan of online conferences personally, simply because I find it hard to follow online along with my usual busy day at work. But being able to pull down all the material during or after is ‘just the ticket’.

So the Web 2.0 sushi train has goodies from the Global Summit, and now K12 Online. Very nice thank you.

Some further thoughts.

I really like the idea of ‘grass-roots’ driven professional learning. After a couple of school terms promoting Web 2.0 via a number of routes, I am delighted to report that people are now ‘asking‘ to have a hands-on workshop – not formal training, but a ‘sandpit’ ‘lets learn this together’ approach.

In keeping with the informal but informative approach, and using Web 2.0 tools exclusively, I have begun to use delicious (with the tag ‘training’) (includes the link to set up the IE extension as part of the workshop – nice one!) and flickr to provide materials for these sessions – the point being that I provide these at the same time as working with folks to set up their own social bookmarking, and discovering what photosharing can do. Another one coming up this thursday….hard to keep up with the demand 😉

In addition, I held a full day session with school leaders of the Stanhope School Project – involving 3 schools. Greg Whitby was interviewed by Leigh Blackall about this. We have actually started the journey of change and this workshop was one of many more sessions to come. You can pick up a very short, very rough record of the day at Heyjude’s BlipTV.

Global Summit 06 – Geetha Narayanan

Posted on October 21, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

How do you measure the personal value of such a succesful event as the Global Summit hosted by Education.au? As John Connell pointed out so well, we had the opportunity to meet such a good group of leaders as well as practitioners, and we had the chance to engage in deep dialogue for two whole days. I was thrilled to have the opportunity!

However for me the highlight of the second day was the opportunity to see and hear Geetha Narayanan. Gerry White of Education.au said to me just before the start of the session that Geetha would be wonderful. I expected clever, or good ideas, or something along those lines. What we got was humbling and inspiring all in one magical combination.

Geetha has dedicated her life to finding and establishing new modesl of learning that are creative, synergistic and original in their approach. To know that she worked for many years with Seymour Papert indicates the type of thinking that energises her work. Geetha talked fervently about bringing people, technology and learning together within a new conceptual framework.

She suggests that what predominates is conventional thinking.WE need to ask more of technology. Can new technologies create a sense of well-being? Rather brilliantly, she argued against the ‘flat-land’ rhetoric of the digital age.

Working with literacy in the slums Geetha has moved to a new Project Vision, and is working with a hypotheses that embraces an ideology of critical pedagogy through media arts.

Now that we can do anything what will we do?

As a Science Fiction buff, I particularly enjoyed Geetha’s use of the movie Matrix, and the choices that Neo was asked to make being used as methaphor for significant life-shaping decisions.

She told us that there is NO better example of personal choice than that portrayed by Neo in the matrix – the choice between red and blue pills – the question is what will you choose?

BLUE PILL: if we concsioulsy make that choice it will leave us in the secure, routine, everyday, conventional thinking. We will stay as we are with habits and secure in the safety of our beliefs.
RED PILL: represents critical and transformatory thning – it involves risk, doubt, and questioning. The blue pill, will leave us as we are , in a life consisting of habit and secure in the safety of our beliefs.

So let’s ask ourselves

What is the truth and reality I want? Where is it that I want to go?

Personas of Practice (practicing teachers) Geetha’s description of the kind of characteristics she sees in educators:

Techno-skeptics
Nothing can or should change people – back to basics movement in education type of people. Sequential thinking. Perspective on culture is classical. Value technology as tool so long as it is in the right place – lab, specialist, computer studies teachers. They privilege the authority of the printed word. Promote drill and practice. Cannot trust internet information

Techno-evangelists
Come from a wide range of disciplines. World view is that a combination of speed and simultaneity and virtual simulation and distributed cognition will facilitate survival in 21st century world. Information is key and must proceed learning to deliver promise. Use research on brain, learning styles, constructivism etc to foster project-based inter-diciplinary approach to education. Technology must soak into the culture of the school. Endorse the inventive and innovative mind

Techno-mimetics
Settle for the latest fads and fashions in education. Interest in technology is short-lived and transient. Imitate skeptics and evangelist, with their style of verve. ‘state of the art’ is there logo. Brochures reflect rhetoric on technology learning. Education is like a shopping mall or theme park. No original position on culture. Engage in bricolage. Tinker. Preserving and innovating culture is not part of their brief. Such school can hire an event manager to deliver and promote.

Geetha refers to conventional thinking as having resulted in bricolage of learning with technology that preserves and perpetuates everyday schooling. It is a qualitative patter of thinking that has stabilized our current schooling.

ON the other hand, Geetha’s typology is very specific and vital to crafting a new approach to learning. She asks us to consider deeply what the impact of the technologicl revolution on society and education really is.

What I was particularly interested in and will pursue further were her key focus points and explanations of the following:

literacy as code
ways of world-making or sense-making
the impact of vulnerabilities or deprivations
the value of capabilities or substantive freedoms
the consideration of linkages, networks, and flows in our society
our status of “freefall” – culture of immediacy (Stuart Brand, Clock of the long Now)
fast knowledge
knowledge which is valued because it is measured.
The error of no distinction between information and knowledge
The need for the right information at right time
The fact that intangible knowledge is (unfortunately) considered irrelevant
That Content is considered as the only relevant source/formof learning
That the cultural impact of this view has been a negative and the professional knowledge of school teachers has been increasingly disconnected from their very valuable tacit knowledge base
The major problem of alienation or our tacit knowledge base

THE SLOW SCHOOL

My favourite learning…Geetha explained that deep and systemic change is representative of ‘punctuated’ evolutionary approach – one that is reverse engineering – moving education to a view that encourages slowness and wholeness to become living institutions.

Slowness as an idea. Frames of reference for today – one that centres the wellbeing of the individual, the community and environement.

Slowness is not just an antidote to fast knowledge, it is a reaction to it.
Slowness is a value that works at the level of knowelge, culture, and preserves culture and heritage.

Slow schools – move beyond unnecessary digital access and unnecessary access to digitized information. They truely embedd and use technology for slow learning – deep, critical, responsive, personalised learning.

GlobalSummit06 – Seymour Papert

Posted on October 19, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

Back to another day, and I am feeling inspired again, because the day started with a few key reflections of the events of yesterday. I felt the strong energy of the group, and the wonderful sense that attendees were genuinely reflecting, cutting and dicing – not just accepting words as received, but using them to further discussion and move in new directions.

Our online link to Dr Seymour Papert was also inspirational for the focus points that he provided us. [Dr. Papert is the inventor of the Logo computer language]

What a great thing to see this leading thinker up on the big screen, and to hear his thoughts flowing in response to questions being presented.

Seymour urged us to move our thinking from HOW to WHAT. Not how students learn and how to teach, but what children learn and what to teach. How can kids learn things in better ways?

As to our how our technology future is looking? Seymour offered four key points:

Every kid must have a computer! It is ridiculous to waste further time to debating this. Every knowledge worker (with the exception of our students) finds that technology is the proper medium for thinking work. If knowledge workers have computers, then why don’t kids!
Shift from HOW to WHAT to learn.
Recognise that it is global forces that drive change in education. Look to the forces in the global scene, rather than relentless educational debate to find the focus for future learning initiatives.
Stop talking to the computer industry, and do not accept their economic agenda to spend more in order to buy bigger and better. We should be setting the pace and saying what we need. The $100 laptop project shows the clout that we can have if we wish to really make a difference.

Through all this Seymour urges us to focus on the fundamentals (not ‘back to basics’) . Now more than ever we need to return to the fundamentals of HARD THINKING – the real issues that are below the surface.

It was great to hear these important concepts articulated by a global leader. Literacy, mathematical thinking, digital thinking ……….. or we could say that literacy remains an enabling mechanism for effective Cognitive and Metacognitive engagement …… hard thinking…… real learning.

People laughed at Seymour Papert in the sixties when he talked about students using computers as intruments for learning and for enhancing creativity. Not any longer!

Knowing Knowledge – George Siemens at Global Summit

Posted on October 18, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

Knowledge is changing. It develops faster, it changes more quickly, and it is more central to organizational success than in any other time in history.

Our schools, universities, corporations, and non-profit organizations, need to adapt. We need to change the spaces and structures of our society to align with the new context and characteristics of knowledge.

Knowing Knowledge book site – and email request page

Knowing Knowlege available in pdf format

Knowing Knowledge – .pdf Files for the book Knowing Knowledge:

Section 1
Section 2
Section 3

Color images are also available on flickr: Knowing Knowledge Photoset

…and if you are interested, you can contribute to the wiki and correct the errors of my ways: Knowing Knowledge Wiki

Knowledge explosion – future directions!

Posted on October 18, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

Robert Cailliau, co-developer of the WWW, acted as Provocateur for Session 1. His aim was to explore emerging trends in a connected world and to delve into concepts of knowledge explosion and the ability of an individual’s brain.

I enjoyed listening to his session, in particular his ‘take’ on ideas and issues that have significant relevance to our work in education. He has, of course, an in-depth and longstanding understanding of ICT and ‘informatics’.

He asked

How will people cope with the world as it might be a decade from now, if that means ever more informatics and ever more ‘intertwinglings?

Interestingly he focused on science as a research tool, and the relationship between science and common sense. He suggests that the use of common sense in daily life is the norm, but the scientific approach focuses on observation of facts, formulation of hypothesis, predictions, hypothesis etc. He also recommends that scientific methods should be the basic tool for all thinking. We should use scientific methods and common sense in all subject matter, not just in science classes – BECAUSE – thinking is very ‘effort-full’.

However, Robert seemed to focus on science research as an empirical tool and did not include qualitative research processes, evidence-based practice, and evaluation as a process approach of change. Measurement tools of social research can enable thinking and conversation in order to create deeper understanding of our actions and our learning endeavors.

Robert reminded us that knowledge is increasingly becoming more difficult for the average brain to understand – things we know that the average person cannot grasp – e.g. quantum mechanics. There are things that cannot easily be explained, discussed, etc

Overall the audience was following his words closely – and his reference to SecondLife and other tools from a Web 2.0 environment was good to hear. However, his ‘take’ on SecondLife was rather skewed I thought. OK, only a few hands went up to the question ‘who has an avatar in second life’. Robert said that people go into interactive virtual worlds in SecondLife because

People don’t like the real world
Imagination is better
It can now be yours to build!

He then asked

Will education cope with people who are increasingly disinterested in the real world?

Oh dear – a very bad representation of the potential of SecondLife environments, and no recognition of the valuable education uses for which SecondLife is already being used.

So finally, because we will have to save the planet…keep learning and developing…we can only do this with

Real knowledge, good tools, and good leadership

Technology Connected Futures

Posted on October 18, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

I am attending the Global Summit 06, hosted by Education.au, and reporting and reflecting on sessions over the course of the next two days.

The conference program has a telling quote from Marchall McLUhan which sets the framework for the Summit discussions. I’ll share it with you here:

Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today’s jobs with yesterday’s tools”.

A great quote, and good setting for the Global Summit.

Our first Keynote address was delivered by Keynote: Andrew Cappie-Wood, Director General NSW Department of Education. He reminded us that education is about engaging young minds in stimulating curriculum, amongst other things to develop decent, thoughtful, resourceful students. He also highlighted that the intent and the use of ICT isn’t different across the different states of Australia – but that there is a tendency for comparison and competition. Bragging rights!! Are a common problem as people show ‘how good we are’.

Since ICT is just part of the competitive advantage Andrew said ‘lets hear the brag!’ We heard about email for students across the state, and ‘leveraging the size to engage in ‘efficient’ procurement and system architecture’.

There are many key drivers for the system for ICT to deliver quality education to everyone everywhere.

Imperatives in action are:

Demography
Community expectations
ICT developments in personalized portals, personalized learning etc
Federal rollout of national education system will be strongly underpinned by ICT – ICT will be the binding that will hold this all together
Digital Divide – Capacity to take up innovation is lagging because of staff capability
Digital Draw – to facilitate change – e.g. ICT tools such as interactive whiteboards

Change is expotential – and technological changes are providing challenges for safe working environments. The example was YouTube, and the question was asked as to what we do to effectively respond and adapt to challenging technologies. There are superb opportunities, and many factors that will influence our adoption. There is no future for us without ICT in an increasingly global world.

How can ICT improve our educational outcomes? I would have liked to hear Andrew go beyond the generalized summary of ICT potential and infrastructure developments and get closer to the social networking imperatives of Web 2.0 beyond a brief mention of change with a YouTube example in the last minutes of the address.

‘All Your Own Work’ in a Web 2.0 World

Posted on August 26, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

I attended an a full day seminar organised by ALSANSW looking at the issue of Plagiarism in light of the NSW Board of Studies unit “Working with Others” soon to be compulsory for testing in Year 10. My task was to provide a context for thinking about plagiarism which included an understanding of the Web 2.0 world of students and teachers.

Apart form ‘showcasing’ Web 2.0 my aim was to encourage teachers and teacher-librarians to re-examine what it means to create a community of enquiry for themselves and for their students…by participating in new forms of information organization and sharing…..like social bookmarking, wiki, and blogs. We have to recognize the level of social networking that kids engage in more and more, and the fact that information seeking will sometimes take place via instant messenger, myspace or other social ways.

With Web 2.0 the purpose and function of learning as defined by teachers needs revision. Maybe……..

The purpose of learning should…

Be informed by connections and communication
Promote open sharing of knowledge
Allow for individuals making decisions on their own

The function of learning should be….

About being a member of the community of practice
Recognize that all spaces are learning places

Perhaps Web 2.0 learning is defined by three things:

Focus

On identity
Who we are in society

Framework

Multitasking multi-modal environment
Virtual learning mode

Future

Personal integrity and social contribution
Individuality and creativity

A very interesting day, with some curious interactions and comments afterwards. The one that made me chuckle was “we are never going to use these [Web2.0] technologies”.

Hmm, a bit like the network meeting I organised back in Term 4, 1995. Some ‘system’ representatives came along – because I had organised a chap who brought his own computer, and who could access Ozemail at $5.00 hr and show us ‘THE INTERNET’. Yes, these visitors said to me “Judy, you shouldn’t have organised this – this internet business will never happen in schools!”.

OOPS! How about Web 2.0 then??