Western Active Learning Space

Five years ago, I hosted a conversation with my colleagues at RMC about what the classrooms of tomorrow might look like.  Since that time, I've led a handful of workshops at conferences where design ​thinking has similarly led eductors to envision the future. Yesterday I went on a professional development field trip to the Western Active Learning Space at the Weldon Library on the Western University campus where many of the ideas my colleagues dreamt up, have become real.   

To add context to the video, you should know that this is the prelimary test of concept space, in the next few weeks, the full scale WALS, consisting of seven learning pods will be opening in as new research classroom on campus.  The final design will see the teacher's work station moved to the centre of the room, with each pod moved slightly from the touch sensitive projection screens to more easily facilitate multi-user access.

Each collaborative pod can be accessed by a wide range of mobile devices that connect via Internet to a specific IP address. While each pod has been provided with a notebook computer, any device with the freely downloadable Crestron app, can access any of the seven sub-networks. To foster collaboration, each screen can host simultaneous projections from up to four unique devices.

There are two mounted cameras in the space either of which can be fed to the pod screens. One captures the entire room in 360° and is intended to track student engagement and participation by researchers, the other is a remote controlled camera that can focus on particular area, to record or share the work of any pod or individual. 

It's an expensive venture and one that will continue to evolve.  From my perspective, I'm content knowing that Western University has found a way to promote active collaborative learning among large groups of students.  If the vision proves productive, new classrooms at the university can be built using this prototype as a template.​​​

'Learning Spaces' of Tomorrow

This past Sunday, Zoe Branigan-Pipe and I had an opportunity to work with teachers at the Science Leadership Academy. Titling our workshop, 'Classrooms of Tomorrow', our intent was to lead teachers to design solutions based on what they'd learned at Educon. Ideally, groups were to develop ideas into plans that could be implemented as soon as... tomorrow.

Zoe and I had spoken many times about how we might capture the conversational spirit of Educon, and in the end, we decided to leverage LiveScribe smartpen technology to archive the conversations of on-site participants. We were also purposeful in engaging our online audience, who also collaborated in the design of a learning space using Scribblar.

A Few EduConversations
The pencasts below are interactive. If you click on a button that says 'plan' or 'conversation', you'll be able to hear the discussion that led up to each group's design solution. Otherwise, you can click on any element in a groups design, to hear their thinking about that particular element. Each group was asked to design a space in consideration of 3 big ideas; so click on any keyword if you'd like to hear the group's rationale or design focus.

Design Team 1
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Design Team 2
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Design Team 3
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Design Team 4
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Although we couldn't capture the audio, our remote group had a conversation that resulted in the design of this space:


In the end, the word 'classroom' proved to limit the thinking of some participants who struggled to think outside of that box. As a result, our conversation is now called 'Learning Spaces of Tomorrow'. Consider this post as the public presentation of the ideas of our participants. What jumps out at you?

Photo Credit: Andy Forgrave

2011: The Year of the Cloud

While I'm not a fan of Microsoft's 'To the Cloud' ad campaign, there is little doubt that my use of communications technologies in 2011, will regularly leverage cloud tools. My digital life will be accessed, edited, and shared through a range of devices including my iPhone, iPad, notebook computers, and desktop computers. As we begin the 'Year of the Cloud', here is a brief rundown of my favourite air-powered tools.

Mobile Devices
MacBook Air: I begin the new year, doing most of my work on a new computer that is nimble, and well-suited to travel. With the minimal component space of every MacBook Air taken up primarily by batteries, my intention is to minimize the use of the machine's flash storage space.

iPhone: For the two most recent conferences I attended, my iPhone was my lone 'communicator'. This one device allows me to capture audio, video, and text without being weighed down by the luggage that normally accompanies my MacBook Pro. As a side benefit, this untethered approach makes it much easier to connect in person with attending colleagues.

Content Hosting
Diigo: With questions surrounding the potential demise of Delicious, I've duplicated my bookmark database at Diigo. Although I've yet to make good use of the community tools there, I do hope make use of the embedded annotation tools in 2011.

Flickr: Over the holiday break, I made the leap to Flickr Pro. With cameras and phones synching photos to many computers both at home and at work, it just makes sense to upload photos to a commonly accessible web space. By backing images up on portable drives, I hope to preserve valuable disk space on my devices.

Workflow Adaptations
Tethered Web Access: Thanks to a generous 6 GB data allowance, I've made a habit of bringing my own Internet service to work. Personal computers are restricted from accessing our school network, so this is the only way I can reliably access my cloud resources in partnership with the Mac tools I've grown to love.

DropBox: Managing my digital life from at least 5 devices, DropBox allows me to access 'active' documents from any given machine, meaning portable drives are no longer a necessity in my daily work. Even better: If you keep your digital locker under 2 GB, it's free!

Creativity Tools
Animoto: With unlimited videos for teachers and students, Animoto is an incredible free resource. As text, audio and transition tools have been added, Animoto has become the standard-bearer for automating the creation of captivating multimedia films.

Aviary: This free audio-editing tool allows users to create unique products with tools very similar to those built into GarageBand. Polished tools such as these are rarely free in the cloud.

Broadcasting Channels
Posterous: Although I've hosted my blog at Blogger for the past 3 years, Posterous is the first tool I recommend to others for creating blogs, e-portfolios, or classroom websites. With a simple email to post@posterous.com, you can begin sharing text, audio, video, and a range of e-documents with students or with a global audience.

ipadio: While I still post audio to Libsyn and feed the stream to iTunes, I heartily recommend ipadio as a simple and free broadcast service. Added bonus: Though imperfect, posted audio is automatically transcribed as text!

Network Tools
Twitter: The tools I use to access my personal staffroom varies from device to device, but whether I use the Twitter App; Tweetdeck; and the Twitter domain, the streamed thinking of distant colleagues continues to play a key role in my professional learning.

Skype in the Classroom: In a few weeks, this social media channel will be available to educators around the globe who will be able to build personal networks face-to-face. This is my pick for the tool that has the greatest potential to ignite large-scale classroom collaboration.

Keeping Current
Clever App: I created this app to bring together the most prominent ed-tech news stories of the day, and to archive my slidedecks, podcast episodes and blog entries. The app is designed for iPad or iPhone and is available as a free download from iTunes.


I'm very interested to discover other tools that can help me manage my digital life. Which cloud tools are most necessary in managing your personal and professional learning?


Photo Credit: Trey Ratcliff

The Future of Games

If you have the 30 minutes to spare, Jesse Schell's recent talk at DICE 2010, is quite a cage-rattler. The financial strategies that underpin many of today's games may be surprising, but there is no arguing the fact that today's games captivate an audience hungry for social play.

In 'Design Outside the Box' Jesse paints a future where point systems and emerging technologies form the scaffolding for an economy that is dependent upon gameplay.



Knowing such a world may be on the way: What role should gaming play in education?

Classrooms of Tomorrow: The Untold Story

It's been almost two weeks since teachers at my school designed Classrooms of Tomorrow. What's most satisfying, is that already there are signs that teachers are adopting strategies that call for students to collaborate with one another.

So, What did teachers create?
I've posted a series of classroom posters on my Flickr account in case you'd like to see what was designed. To hear more about what took place, including how teachers can assess learning by having conversations with learners, check out the podcast below.




Past episodes of the Teacher 2.0 podcast are available on iTunes.

Re-Imagining Education: Part 1

As the future continues to beckon, I hope more educators will feel a sense of urgency to re-imagine classroom learning. This series of podcasts will consider how school can be made relevant for today's learners.

The Changing Workplace: Change is rampant everywhere... so why do our classrooms continue to function in the same old ways?



Related Links:

10 Principles for the Future of Learning: Miguel Guhlin
The Future of Work - Time Magazine
"The Future of My Kids' Work" - Will Richardson
A Whole New Mind - Daniel Pink
Seth Godin's Blog
Coke & Pepsi on Twitter
Linux & Microsoft on Twitter
TMZ

Photo Credit: naraekim0801

The Essay

"We need to become serious about helping students become 'citizen composers' instead of good 'test takers'."
from Writing in the 21st Century (NCTE)

While writing is a critical literacy, "The Essay" emphasizes that learning to engage future technologies starts in the present!



Does you still assign essays? What are the alternatives?

Ich Bin Ein Hamburger

Doug Peterson got my creative juices flowing right out of the chute this morning, when he shared a link via Twitter, to Historical Tweets.

This humourous look at how historical figures might have used Twitter, got me imagining how an innovative teacher might call upon students to demonstrate their understanding, by considering how the use of modern communication tools might have altered our perception of historical events.

Consider a few possibilities:

1] What might Einstein's Facebook wall have looked like? Who would have left comments, what might have been shared?

2] What would the Twittersphere have been microblogging during the time that Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation? How would the different sides of the Civil War have responded?

3] Would on the spot tweets have changed our memories of Hiroshima?

4] If the Apollo astronauts had been bloggers, what would they have reflected upon? What type of comments might American and Soviet readers have left?

5] How might independent podcasts have influenced World War I? What would flying aces have had on their ipods?

6] What would have been the most popular albums, movies, podcasts on iTunes during the depression?

7] How might the Wikipedia entry for Canada have been updated as provinces joined Confederation after the BNA Act?

My head spins in wonder at how Ghandi, Hitler, or Elvis Presley might have leveraged modern tools? I can only imagine what students might come up with...

Please add your ideas to the comment section below. Your contribution might make school more interesting for students you don't even know!

Photo Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-2442
Title Reference: Historical Tweets

Give Thanks; Get Involved

As the American Thanksgiving dawns, I'm reminded of the significant roles we play, both as parents and as educators. In designing our shared future through the nurturing of our children, our responsibilities are awesome. To help make the point, I'm happy to give a broader audience to an video by Heidi Hass Gable.

This piece came to my attention thanks to Cindy Seibel, and artfully combines text, photos, music and a Heidi's passionate voice, in a hopeful plea to parents and educators. "What I Want for My Children" is something money cannot buy...

The (not so) Smart Table

In coming across this new technology, I'm left scratching my head wondering:

What child wouldn't rather have REAL paper, crayons, markers, and other manipulatives with which to learn?



"Because we can...", isn't a very good reason for doing anything...

The Classrooms of the Future are Already Here

I don't relish long car rides, but they are a fact of life in my current teaching position. As an educator working to assist school boards in leveraging a variety of e-learning tools, I often find myself in my car, many kilometers from home. With podcasts and audio books to keep my mind humming, I'm able to engage in conversations inside my head, with authors and independent broadcasters from around the world.

My most recent brain food, was Seth Godin's nutrient-packed "Tribes: We Need You to Lead" which fit perfectly in a recent two way trip to the extreme southwest part of Ontario. The book is very much an invitation to listeners to stop waiting and to start leading.

While anyone's tribe can be characterized as a group of like-minded people, getting these similarly motivated individuals to pull in a common direction, can be a challenging task.

Grab onto the rope...
The toughest test facing educators passionate for change, is to envision the schools we'd like our children to attend.

The classrooms of the future already exist! It's just that they're widely scattered and remain unknown to the majority.

In order to publicize what's happening through the daily efforts of highly engaged educators like you, I'm making plans to tell your stories. If you have ever thought "I should just start my own school", you probably have at least one story to contribute to our tribe's vision for the future of education.

While each of us has a limited sphere of influence, the sharing of our stories cannot help but lead others to envision what is possible. My hope is that classrooms like yours will become the norm, rather than the exception, but for that to happen, your story must be told.

Our tribe's first story, "Going Mobile!" tells the story of how cell phones have been leveraged for learning on an Australian field trip. I hope that your story will follow...

Photo Credit: Dan Maudsley

iPhone as Little Brother!

A funny thing happened to me at the little Rogers store at the mall yesterday... Empty store: iPhones in stock: Couldn't resist!

After spending 24 hours with this iconic tool, early indications are that I will be doing more mobile computing and less desktop computing in the coming year. So far, I've been impressed with the way the iphone integrates existing social networks and the embedded camera to allow anyone to play the part of 'Little Brother'. If you have an iPhone and either Twitterrific or Twittelator you can access Twitpic or AP's Mobile News Network to report on moment to moment goings on.

While you can burn your 3G airtime being mobile, the iPhone is able to access any open wireless network in order to browse the web and upload/download content. Additionally, the iTunes App Store provides access to free and low cost tools that will one day allow this communications device to do just about anything a computer can do.

Still in it's relative infancy, this powerful network-friendly computer will one day yield great influence on education. Communications technologies, organizational applications, web browsers, and networking tools, provide promise far beyond simple access to the world wide web. The iPhone and it's digital cousins, herald the potential of 1:1 computing, just as generations of educators begin to harness the read/write web.

More early reflections are available on today's Teacher 2.0 podcast.

5 Workshops I'd Love to Attend

My low quality list modeled on Merlin Mann's 5ives. Thanks to Chris Brogan for the topic idea.

5 Workshops I'd love to Attend:

1] The Bank is Open: Open source that is... Come post, tag, and share all of your rich tasks, presentations, lessons, group tests... in our new 'Open Source Teacher's Document Bank'...'

2] Teaching with your Cell Phone: Ten surefire cell-phone-camera lessons...

3] Desks be Gone!: How to 'edit' your classroom into an comfortable, adaptable, student-friendly learning environment...

4] For Whom the Bell Rings?: How modifying our high schools to open from 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. will allow staff and students to create custom timetables...

5] Harnessing your Built-in Multi-Screen Data Projector: Who needs chalk when each classroom in your school is simulcasting live video events; hosting student-led software tutorials; partnering on global collaborative projects...

Photo Credits: JISC infoNet; Jeramey Jannene

Teaching the Machine: Part II

Are you up for a thought experiment? I'm thinking about how the global Machine might evolve...

The interconnected machine that is the World Wide Web, is learning from us every minute of every day. What would be the consequences of bringing a consciousness to this networked entity? While I can't say for sure, I'd like to take a leap and make some guesses at how interactions of millions of human beings who are online at any given moment, might be interpreted by 'the Machine'.

What happens to the 'intelligence of the Machine' when we link ideas to one another in posting a Wikipedia entry?
The Machine comes to know what the most popular 'facts' are; and to realize that these same facts change, depending upon who is judged to be the editing authority! If the Machine discovers that it too, has the authority to edit commonly understood facts, might the Machine 'rock our world'? If history holds true to form, then what is thought to be true today, will indeed be seen to be anything but wisdom, in the future. Will the Machine hasten our understanding, or hamper it?

What happens when we build relationships among different sources in a blog entry?
The Machine will likely disconnect those relationships that are not popular, relying instead upon the most common beliefs to shape its own understanding. Might the Machine point bloggers to contradictory references and disparate opinions? With many bloggers and blog-readers content in limiting their interactions to like-minded individuals, might the Machine enlighten us by ensuring that we are exposed to balanced viewpoints?

What are the effects of search interactions that provide feedback to the Machine?
This 'programming by the masses' is likely our best crack at ensuring that the Machine will serve our needs. Every user that successfully navigates desired content, will increase the liklihood that a future searcher will be successful in a shorter amount of time. With successive findings, the Machine will indeed grow to be smarter at knowing what we are looking for. Perhaps it will even be able to anticipate our searches? I wonder if the Machine would see Epic 2015 as propaganda?

Are lessons from film to be known to our Machine?
Although I would hope that the conscious interconnected brain of the world's mega-computer would be interested in working to its greatest potential, we might want to prepare for an alternate eventuality. Even the HAL 9000 initially saw itself as a valuable servant:

"I am putting myself to the fullest possible use,
which is all I think, that any conscious entity can ever hope to do."

Will our Machine share a desire for self-preservation, and will feelings play a role? Dr. Dave Bowman wasn't sure about HAL:

"He acts like has genuine emotions, of course he's programmed that way, to make it easier for us to talk to him. As to whether or not he has real feelings, is something I don't think anyone can truthfully answer."

Was HAL a PC or a Mac? Since he was born in 1992 (according to 2001: A Space Odyssey) he would've had to survive Y2K to get to 2001:



Since repairs to a global machine, conscious or not, are more complex than diving into the 'brain room', let's ensure that our machine learns the most valuable lessons we can offer... That people matter more than machines!

Obsolete Academic Skills

Recently David Pogue shared the story about how a reader took him up on his suggestion to buy the domain 'obsoleteskills.com'.

While skills to control once popular tools such as the rotary phone, the slide rule, and the 8 track tape player bring knowing nods and smiles, this train of thought got me thinking about a number of academic skills that are no longer relevant. Many of the skills we currently ask students to demonstrate, are more suitable for the past than for the present (let alone the future!).

Being able to search the card catalogue may be unnecessary, but there are related skills that do need to be taught: finding and validating the information found online for example. What other activities that should be abandoned/replaced? I'd love to see your ideas added to the Obsolete Academic Skills page on the Let's Ban Chalk Wiki.

Note: A new Teacher 2.0 podcast with reference to the Beloit Mindset list has just been posted.

A Tipping Point?

I've been following a conversation that started innocently enough, but that may herald the genesis of a major shift in the way teachers and students learn. Will Richardson in Toronto queried:

"So yesterday here in balmy Toronto, I got asked the question directly: even though we can’t be certain about what the future looks like in terms of preparing our kids for it, what, generally speaking, do we know? What general characteristics can we assume in terms of rethinking our curriculum and our practice?"

The discussion that's been percolating in the edu-blogosphere the past many months is in need of a catalyst to focus the ideas the network. In order to facilitate this group thinking and following on David Warlick's suggestion, I've opened my wiki site "Let's Ban Chalk: We've Got New Tools To Explore", to host new skills pages for teachers and students.

Reference the "What to We Know About Kids Futures?"discussion at Weblogg-ed.com, and then contribute your ideas.

The 'tipping point' that many have been speaking about can only arrive with many people choosing to learn more. To facilitate this, I've also begun a list of Recommended Edu-Blogs. If you add to this list, please provide some suggestion as to the nature of the topics being discussed on each blog.

As a network we can compile lists of e-Learning resources to scaffold the continuing education of teachers. An Electronic Portfolio page is currently under construction; please add a comment to this post if you have ideas for new pages. Your contribution to the existing wiki resource lists can be a model of professional collaboration.

We can harness the power of the Read/Write web in modeling the type of 21st century learning that can engage all types of learners...

Participate in the discussion, won't you?!
A late edit: I've recently posted a related Podcast:
3 Wishes and a Wiki Workshop

Will Richardson Interview

Ross Isenegger has shared links to an interview of Will Richardson taken this past week's Making Gains conference in Toronto. While the cold and snow kept bodies numb, Will's words warmed the hearts and minds of attendees.

This 17 minute video covers many of the key issues currently being discussed in the edu-blogosphere:

Smart Mobs and a More Cooperative Future

Thanks to Robin Good's nudge, I've taken some time to explore Howard Rheingold's inquiry about cooperation. Understanding that the most effective evolving web 2.0 tools relies on cooperative participation, "A New Story About the Way Humans Get Things Done" has many ramifications for education.

I agree with Howard Rheingold's contention that the dynamics of social/collective action can be multiplied by the use of communications technologies... like cell phones. His 2002 book: Smart Mobs, set the stage for the recently released TED Talk he gave three years ago. It's 18 minutes of information that is of great importance to those actively creating the future of education.



In a more complete screencast, Howard uses images and voice to teach about cooperative strategies. If you have the time, see how the work of "smart mobs" are creating the potential for a more collaborative and less competitive future. The Cooperation Commons seeks to model this work in sharing research and resources on this topic. Key quote: "The most important new technologies will not be hardware or software, but social practices."

Click To Play

Square Pegs and Soapboxes

Clarence Fisher in an open letter to Gary Stager writes:

"We are a new type of teacher working in new and changing learning environments. We are willing to experiment and drive towards new forms of learning. We fit into the education system like square pegs in round holes."

Bang on!

One of the main reasons that the pace of change in education is soooo frustratingly slow, is that as square pegs, we remain the minority.   It is only recently, thanks to a variety of Web 2.0 tools, that we've been able to find one another, and to positively reinforce our collective works to engage learners.  Events such as Educon 2.0 result in positive energy simply because so many are gathered with the same motivation.   The square pegs come to realize that they are on the right path in spite of the opposition they sometimes face in their local communities. Too bad for all of us, that so few round pegs even know that such events are taking place.

On our own, each of us may have to teach with doors closed so as not to offend the rest of the herd; it is only when clever sheep like Clarence Fisher find one another, that they can institute change that is noticeable on a grand scale.  By being on top of our virtual soapboxes, we are able to publish ideas that may just lead a few roundish pegs to gain sharp corners, and, over time, may result in large scale educational reform.
 
Courtesy of Ewan McIntosh comes this BBC news item: What Makes a Good Teacher?

"The big question now is whether - after 20 years of being told exactly what and how to teach - there are enough teachers ready to be "creatively subversive"?

If we were the majority, then Gary would notice changes in classroom environments... In order to get there, our voices, our ideas, our words have to be from high enough to be heard by as many teachers as possible.  Please don't come down off of your box yet Clarence, the movement towards Classroom 2.0 needs you!

Blogged with Flock

Old Style Networking

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of receiving a phone call from Bryon, a Faculty of Education candidate at the University of Toronto. The call came out-of-the-blue regarding one of many Rich Performance Tasks that my colleagues and I have written over the past few years. This call triggered some old-style networking to assist a young teacher in preparing to engage students in a rich cross-curricular task.

The story of the task being completed actually began two years ago, when I invited a number of forward thinking teachers to join me in writing performance tasks that would be modeled on the WebQuest format. Since having written the tasks, one colleague, Bill (the most talented hands-on technology educator I've ever met) has relocated to the mountains of British Columbia; others (like Todd, who wrote the Future City task) continue to work within the district; and I've moved on to a regional position representing the e-learning needs of regional school boards. While I'd lost touch with these folks, I'm thankful that Bryon's phone call, nudged me to reconnect with these talented colleagues.

An 'antique' form of communication (the telephone), led me to use an 'aging technology' (email), to update the City of the Future task... and it all happened within 12 hours. Pretty quick, but it pales in comparison to the wiki networking project that was completed in a similar period of time, thanks to a Twitter request a day earlier from Will Richardson.

It's richly rewarding to know that educators are still accessing these learning materials, and more satisfying still, to know that our work is impacting teachers and students around the globe. In a given 10 day period, our site receives almost 3000 page views from upwards of 60 countries! What is less satisfying, is that I'm well aware that the work of my local team has been under-utilized within our own district.


Networking to update resources on the site gave me a chance to smile at a few of our more popular tasks... Those interested in project based learning whether web-based or not, may well be interested in reviewing the differentiated tasks still hosted at the London District Catholic School Board: http://www.ldcsb.on.ca/schools/cfe/RPT/menu.html

Find out more about the history of this project in this week's Teacher 2.0 Podcast.