TheFlippedScientist

So after travelling for a couple of months during the summer break, I finally have time to sit down and process my experience at ISTE 2017. So for those that do not know the ISTE Conference & Expo is recognized globally as the most comprehensive educational technology conference in the world. The ISTE conference is designed to engage attendees in hands-on learning, exchanging ideas and networking with like-minded thinkers seeking to transform learning and teaching. This year the annual event was held in San Antonio, Texas and attracted over 23,000 attendees and industry representatives, including teachers, technology coordinators, administrators, library media specialists, teacher educators and policymakers. So what were the main thoughts I took away from the conference? #1 – Sometimes ISTE forgets there is an I in their name. One of the first sessions I attended was on global collaboration. What really surprised me was the emphasis this collaboration took from the p...

Recently I managed to obtain a copy of the Ditch that Homework by Matt Miller and Alice Keeler with its manifesto on making homework obsolete. Straight off the bat, I would say I would like to make the word home work obsolete as we are wanting to create learners not just workers, so I prefer the term home learning . There is little doubt that globally schools find home learning a challenge. In my home country New Zealand, Karori Normal has banned traditional home learning as it causes too much stress for parents and students and was seen by educators as not actually helping them learn. At Wanganui Intermediate students are expected to spend up to 40 minutes on home learning after school, however just like at Karori Normal staff are unsure if such a strategy has much impact on their learning. Principal Charles Oliver states: “We do it for two reasons. Firstly so the children become self-managing learners, and secondly because parents like it. Parents judge a schoo...

M oving countries and moving schools have meant a change in the environment in which I teach in. This has been difficult and has allowed me to reflect on why I teach the way I do.  But should I be reflective? Should I as an educator challenge or question what, why or how I am teaching? Should I just focus on teaching the curriculum set out in the textbook or is teaching more than this? One of the hardest things I have learnt as a teacher is that even though I have the sincerest of intentions, this does not always translate to what happens in the classroom. Teaching is complex and when the power dynamics of student and staff relationships are then put into the mix, teaching becomes less than straight forward. It is my opinion that by not considering the complex nature of the profession, creates the idea that I can always understand exactly what it is that I'm doing and what effect I'm having. However, this assumes that the meanings and significance I place on my tea...

The Microsoft E2 education exchange is upon us and I have been following from afar on twitter. The keynote on the first day involved a discussion on how do we instil students with the courage to fail and then learn from failure. This led to me be involved in the discussion of the use of such language as a failure when teaching students. One particular contributor to this discussion was Garret. Z of PBJ games and we both came to the conclusion that digital games could be an approach to develop the skill of setbacks as just a short-term hurdle to learning and a way to reduce risk averse behaviour to learning. This is in part because game-based learning could be a way to revolutionise learning through technology, something that I have explored in detail in the New Zealand context. Along with the United States, online assessment  is fast becoming part of the New Zealand educational landscape  (Baugh, 2011). Addition...