learning in progress ….

i wondered recently, and ages ago, about the unrealised potential of tinkering with software to learn maths  etc, from the "inside";  more of a modelling approach using iteration etc.  So here's an example of that ... taking the popular internet game LineRider  -which is full of neat, but hidden, school level maths - and adding a cartesian grapher in the left corner to make some of the maths a little more visible to the kids who can't see where y=mx+c kicks in

(click the pic to launch it, then click the little icon on the left hand edge)
[if you  want to download the swf, you'll need this file as well]

(an enquiry about borrowing a science kit prompted me to post some notes about a project we ran earlier this year).

A group of students at Weeroona College have been working with the Discovery Centre to develop curriculum resources for primary schools.  Phil Sparks, Discovery Centre’s education officer, said that this was a win-win situation for both primary and secondary students :  “the project provided an opportunity for year 8 and 9 girls to follow their interests in science, and also to develop a resource kit for primary schools”. Students have tested and refined their kits in some of the local primary schools. They were also featured in a recent professional development for Bendigo primary teachers at the Discovery Centre. In a role reversal, the class of 25 teachers in attendance listened attentively as the kits were demonstrated by the year 9 students.

There were a number of enquiries about borrowing the kits during the session. Discovery Centre will now loan the kits to all local primary schools in Bendigo, and keep them stocked.

The Project kits have been developed for insects (“mini beasts”) , Kitchen Chemistry and Fabric Olympics. The kits, which are sponsored by the Discovery Centre, include a range of scientific equipment and chemicals. Students have developed the experiments and selected the materials that are most appropriate for their project.

the kits should be very useful for other schools to borrow, since resourcing science in many primary schools can be a challenge

The project itself was a good example of project based learning, cross age tutoring, with clear "performances of understanding" challenging the students to demonstrate their work in progress and final experimental kits.

thanks heaps to Tina Morrison who co-organised this project.

(6/12 update - Discovery Centre says kits are heavily booked by local schools)

ok. this is rather exciting, i think

Some of the Whitehills cluster schools (and a few schools in Mildura) have been involved with a pretty cool virtual world project called River City - immersive 3D world for learning science, where you engage in enquiry learning tasks via avatars (virtual characters). Kids and teachers have really liked it, and there is also research confirming it is particularly effective in communicating science concepts to kids who might be at risk of dropping out of science (they've tested control classes etc)  (i've described it here before)

 Access to their simulation has been free but is limited – its developed and run by Harvard graduate school of education - we’re the only Australian schools they’ve taken on and they are having some resource issues supporting that (eg our access clashes with them upgrading or testing software at night etc) At one stage it looked like they could give us a full copy of the simulation, which was going to go on the Flinders Uni servers, at the Aus Science and Maths school – but that fell through – turned out the legal people weren’t quite as ready to give away tools like this, even though the researchers liked the idea of a greater pool of student data as a trade off

so, they offered to give some advice if were interested in building our own "next generation" version - ..... which was nice - but felt a bit huge.. right - so we'll just go out develop an enquiry learning, immersive virtual world, simulation project, here. Sure, no problem.  But unlikely as that may seem ... it seems to be happening...

The principal of the Australian Science and Maths School, Jim Davies, suggested we try to tap the “Science by Doing” / enquiry learning agenda . to cut a long story short, we've been talking with a few people about developing a simulation in the same style (with a sustainability theme) and Swinburne uni have just committed themselves to definitely taking this on – fits very well with their expertise and desire to take their games and multimedia dept into developing educational simulations - in short they think they can make a rich and immersive and customisable simulation - in fact a flexible simulation producer -  for very minimal costs, using their inhouse and student expertise, graduate projects etc, for schools

(i met one of their lecturers when i took a programming class to the ACMI - has bubbled away since then) - the official "science by doing" agenda hasn’t got behind this yet - but Swinburne are keen to build a prototype by middle of next year  - using student and inhouse labour. ASMS is also partnering and sponsoring this. it will be a simulation builder - and will leverage our experience so far.

River City is engaging and well designed – but as a user (or trainer) you can’t change anything in the design or curriculum. (there was also a tech problem that stopped it working from some locations). We’re planning to keep this model more easily customisable. The first version will be around "sustainability" and will be customisable in itself. River City is also built on older technology which has dated somewhat - good as it is, the new stuff will look better, allow richer interactions, has a full physics engine (the Unreal engine) inside it etc.

Swinburne's expertise is the technical side - i saw what the 3rd year students are doing on global warming simulations etc and so i can well believe that. We'll need to develop a group to look at curriculum for science learning in this environment, comparable to the River City curriculum and training docs  

Didn't look like it was all going to come off for a long time ... but now looks it will ... which is great. Spin offs should be interesting-  eg maybe linking in programming students - some real project examples for them - and swinburne looks likely to allocate a 3rd year student via an industry placement to work on it - so we can aim to get the secondary students to meet the undergrad developers etc - and of course the science currculum needs development and testing by teachers etc. we also can get an explorable model of one of the new Bendigo schools in there as well (technically, its quite easy, apparently, if we can get enough access to plans). .. have discussed that with a the regional office staff etc . Weeroona, or loosely Whitehills cluster, and the Aus Maths and Science School, are the nominal "client" (ie between us we will provide the design brief, look at developing curriculum etc)

the harvard "River City" person i met through video skype and email, Ed Dieterle, is also willing to give some general support  ... so no shortage of ideas flying around at the minute  - he just wrote an email, from Chicago airport, as i finished this at midnight ... so all interesting developments. (Like River City, it will most likely be targeted at middle school - upper primary to mid secondary - and maybe older as well - the appeal of RC was pretty broad. ) 

links  :
 story of how we got involved
Education Times article (p15)
background on our attempts to tap the Science by Doing agenda     (and Swinburne rebuild project)
River City site (this is not the simulation - just an info site, with movies, overview etc)

One of our cluster projects this year has been on "Sustainability", supported by a grant from Australian Schools Innovation in Science, Technology and Mathematics.

So, since our launch earlier in the year, schools in Whitehills cluster have been working on “sustainability” related projects. The aim has been to embed sustainable practices and thinking into each school.

From a curriculum viewpoint “Sustainability” can be considered as a big picture theme or "fertile question" (eg how can we live sustainably?) , or a “through line” that runs through studies of science, sose, civics and citizenship. It can also be used as a context for systems thinking.

Sustainability also offers relevant contexts for literacy and numeracy – students are aware of global warming, drought and related issues that are getting a huge amount of media attention; many want to know if they can do something about it.

We had a sustainability expo recently, showing some of the classrooms projects which have been in place. Students ran most of the sessions, and also rotated through sessions run by other schools and external groups.

Following some of the photos below, there is a link to an independent review of the day – from our externally appointed critical friend.

(as a sustainable initiative, this isn’t a once off; all schools in the cluster have agreed to work towards becoming accredited as sustainable schools, taking on the framework of “Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative” with its various modules and external PD facilitation via CERES)

Now, some pictures and explanations of the day : 

(more...)

i've written a couple of slightly more formal things over the last couple of years - so i thought why not upload and link them all in a blog post.

1. here's an article i wrote that relates to a concept mapping software idea - a personal project thats been ticking away in the background for a few years - its a bit waffly but aiming at what i thought was the genre of their conference (and although it was accepted, i couldn't get there)

2. here's a review i wrote of an article relating to educational innovation - part of my masters studies, and relates to river city (the original article under review is here)

3. lastly, a research proposal. don't know what i think about this. its pretty heavy going - a week in writing, over the hols - and one of the lecturers - who marked it - thought it was full of throw away lines and no substance, while another in the same faculty:

"i haven't seen anything as analytical as this anywhere and it's an area that causes immense philosophical problems but no one I know of has properly analysed it so the discussion on it tends to be in absolutes"

i think its flawed in its balance - its more a background to a proposal - but i needed to get the ideas out of my system, i think

anyway thats part of why i upload them - the image of a solitary student doing all that work, only for it to be read by one overloaded lecturer seems as futile for adults as it is for school age learners

cheers

River City - I’ve referred to this in some previous updates but here’s some detail. River City is a MUVE “multi-user virtual environment.”An online game would qualify as a MUVE - a place you can interact with other characters (avatars). In that sense, like the SIMS game. And of course kids tend to like that environment.

River City takes the game-like environment and uses it for learning – the puzzle is why are people getting sick in the simulated town? (turns out there are several overlapping factors – complex issues, without the need to "get it right"). The students work in teams, test hypotheses, measure and observe the environment, set up experiments, answer quizzes for online reporters.

Its also a Harvard Uni research project, investigating the effects of these environments for learning. (more...)

Schools are intense places. I remember someone saying that schools are full of talented people who stay in the career for the buzz, the “hit the ground running” stimulation, and the satisfaction of being in the hothouse exchange of teaching and learning. But there is also an increasing body of literature that says its getting more intense; that the satisfying buzz is rising to the whine of an overstretched engine; and the term used to describe this seems to be “intensification of teachers work” (the push to greater professionalism,  greater ICT usages, greater social issues are some of the threads. Teaching is not alone in this, but its certainly intensifying an already heavy load).

Anyway, we all know that.  The exchange “how are you going?” “Flat out” –  is sort of a call sign for teachers, and a point of pride for some. Or the variant :"Flat out – here at an event till 9 o’clock last night, camp next week, organising this and that, reports due etc".

Anyway, it often seems there is little time for reflection – for nurturing creativity and new ideas, for properly integrating the latest reform, establishing and reflecting on  core values, learning with colleagues.

Technology is a two edged sword in this regard. It opens up the realm of possibilities in interesting ways, but can also multiply the information flow and tasks. (more...)