Exploring Learning

In the academic year 2012-2013 I took or qualified in the following Professional Learning:- Extended Essay Category 3 Training (IBO, Malaysia) Google Apps for Education Teacher Certification Presenting Read? Me?  at Hands on Literacy Conference 2012 (Singapore) Designing New Learning Spaces (Stanford University) Professional Learning in the Digital Age (Virtual book club with the author) English B IB Diploma Training (IBO, Online) Flipped Classroom Certification E-learning and Digital Cultures (Edinburgh University) PBL Certified Teacher Flat Classroom Certified Teacher Most of the learning from the above is documented in this blog.  Now, at the end of the year, not feeling the need to slow down for some reason, I have begun my Masters in Education and Instructional Technology at the University of Maryland University College .   This advanced degree program focuses on integrating technology in the preK-12 schools to strengthen and transform te...

For one of my final assignments for my PBL training course, I had to reflect on the reflection opportunities I had provided my learners. I firmly believe that without reflection, there can be no real learning - and I am talking here about educators as well as the children before us. The Flat Classroom Teaching Certification course I am also currently working on, also advocates 'personal reflection and celebration [as] a vital habit of the successful 21st century person' (217) and as part of this, I may try to bring in a daily journal that records the little things I often miss in these 'bigger picture' blogs. In The Octopus's Garden Project, I tried to build in many opportunities for discussion and verbal reflection throughout and learners completed two main written reflections. The first one was after the first checkpoint, which was a practise presentation that was completed in teams. This was used to determine the progress of the next phase and inform our decisio...

I recently had to write an assignment reflecting on the learning that happened during my capstone project for the PBLU teaching certification course, ' The Octopus's Garden '. I firmly believe that without reflection, there can be no real learning - and I am talking here about educators as well as the children before us. The Flat Classroom Teaching Certification course I am also currently working on, also advocates 'personal reflection and celebration [as] a vital habit of the successful 21st century person' (217). I tried to build in many opportunities for discussion and verbal reflection throughout the project though learners completed two main written reflections during the project. The first one was after the first checkpoint, which was a practise presentation completed in teams. This was to determine the progress of the next phase and how to complete, the final presentations. Learners were able to make informed decisions about the next part of the proj...

Dipping my toes... For the first three months of 2013, I took part in my first MOOC, 'Designing a New Learning Environment' offered by Stanford University via an initiative called Venture Lab . I signed up because it ties in with my Octopus's Garden Project and also because I wanted to experience this Flat Classroom-global-type of learning for myself. The course required us to watch weekly lectures and complete readings; for assessment we had to submit five individual assignments, one final team assignment and five peer assessments of other final projects. We signed up for teams of our choice and developed an area within new learning environments; developing our final project design based on our findings, readings and experience. Leading & Contributing I became team leader late on in the project as the original one, the one who set up the actual topic, went quiet and dropped off the radar. Having 40000 people taking part in a course makes it hard to communicate wi...

My latest assignment for the PBLU course is a reflection on formative assessments or 'checkpoints' in my capstone project, The Octopus's Garden . Along with a short Professional Learning course I led at school on AfL using Google Forms , my focus lately has been very much on assessment and on ensuring I build in enough opportunities for essential revision and reflection before summative pieces are submitted. As a result of this thinking, I wrote a post on my ' Golden Rules ' for AfL, which I am sure I will edit and develop as I continue to explore this vital component of teaching and learning. Can we rethink the classroom? PBL Guidance states that learners should be allowed two formative assessments for each summative assessment. The final product for The Octopus's Garden Project is a presentation to the Principal of the school with design ideas for a 21st century classroom that will enhance teaching and learning in the school (post on this coming soon)...

One of the challenges of any big project is managing the different streams and places information and creation is happening. Challenge 16 of the Flat Classroom certification also requires us to explore and create a Classroom Management Portal. For my PL, I use NetVibes to manage my PL as I am usually doing about 3 or 4 online courses at once; without NetVibes, I would get totally lost! Here is a screenshot, open on my Flat Classroom Certified Teacher tab. NetVibes allows you to set up different tabs for different projects and add the content you need. I love it because I can include all the different websites and feeds etc that I need for any particular project, all on one tab, all in one place - and best of all, I can include a 'To Do List' widget so I can list my tasks - and more importantly, tick them off as I go :) I have not used NetVibes as a CMP though, as I use Edmodo . However, for this challenge, I created one for my project The Octopus's Garden ; my capst...

Individually we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean. Ryunosuke Satoro (126) CC0 1.0 Universal Image, clkr.com Module 4 of the Flat Classroom Certification course concerns, "Contribution and Collaboration". To me, these are essential components of being reliable digital citizens. Despite feeling I am the only drop in my school's ocean sometimes, I do think that courses like this really help build my PLN so I know I am not alone. The kind comments from Vicky really help too, as I am so used to not feeling appreciated or feeling isolated - a drop adrift. I operate on a knife-edge; on the one hand, I am very lucky to have an awesome principal who is into risk-taking, who encourages teachers to learn, read and try out new things and who wants me to keep blazing a trail; on the other hand, this means I am viewed as more knowledgeable than other teachers and have even been accused of being aloof and acting superior. Which is so NOT true - else why would I keep ...