The Power of Self-Organising Learning Processes

Hi all,


I have been brushing up on some earlier readings in preparation for the Quizzes which are due to be completed tomorrow, and I stumbled across some interesting information by Luis Mateus Rocha talking about the  phenomenon of  self-organising learning processes emerging from random initial conditions (1998).


This set some mental bells ringing, as it sounded like one of my favorite TED talks ever.  I've popped the video in down below if you'd like to watch it yourself, I highly recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in the latest educational theories.  In his TED presentation, Sugata Mitra outlines an experiment he and his colleagues have undertaken in a poor region of India, where good teachers are loath to venture.  The exercise involved putting an internet-connected computer in a "hole in the wall" of a public space and giving children access to the mountain of resources that are available online... with astounding results.

The experiments have shown that, even without supervision or a teaching professional, learners are able to teach themselves and each other, drawing their motivation from competition with their peers and curiosity alone.  A similar approach could be successfully implemented in my Math class by assigning tasks such as; "who was Fibonacci, for which mathematical concept is he famous, and what are some examples of its use by man and occurrence in the natural world?"  Students could be given the opportunity to develop higher-order thinking and demonstrate their declarative and procedural knowledge through activities such as:

• Racing their peers to tabulate up to a certain level in the series.
• Formulating ideas as a group as to why the golden ratio might appear with such frequency in nature, followed by research to discover the veracity of their hypothesis.
• Additional group work could involve students working together to apply their newly acquired knowledge by having them analyse potential uses for the series and design, implement and evaluate practical, real-world situations in which it may be applied. 
• The Fibonacci activities can provide a convenient segue into fractals, where further activities can be undertaken.

It is evident upon reflection, that an exercise structured in this way walks students through almost every thinking-skill set in Bloom's taxonomy, starting from the basic level of discovering and remembering what the Fibonacci series is, how it works, where it can be found in nature and its usefulness, and progressing on through understanding, applying, analysing, designing and evaluating its potential implementation.  A similar  approach could be adapted to subject areas as diverse as Pascal's triangle, Pythagoras' theorem, the Mandelbrot set.  The list extends ad-infinitum, a useful tool indeed.

A day in the Khan academy

Howdy fellow bloggers,

It's my opinion that this website is the single most useful and versatile tool for teaching mathematical and scientific concepts out there in the jungle that is Web 2.0. I was so keen to show everyone that I've skipped ahead a few weeks and popped a link in here.  The video below is a sample of what I'm talking about.  I get gee'd up every single time time I watch it and can't wait to try out some awesome pedagogy techniques in real life!

Here is a link to my wikispace page on the Khan Academy where you will find some more detailed info on some of the ICT methods I employ to create this blog page.

The image below depicts the pyramidal structure of the amazingly effective scaffolding method employed by the Khan Academy.  The student is guided efficiently through their learning, whizzing through the parts they've mastered, affording extra time to work on elements with which they are struggling.

I just wanted to update my blog with what I've been doing all day.  There's some impressive peer-reviewed literature to back up the Academy's impressive pedagogical claims which I intend to include at a later stage on my blog.  The images above was how much I managed to get finished today.

TPAC for Dummies

The Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge framework is an updated version of the traditional Pedagogical Content Knowledge that throws technological knowledge into the mix.

The diagram above is a good example of what TPAC refers to.  We can see that there are 3 separate knowledge areas; technological, pedagogical and content, with their overlapping sections forming TPAC at the center.

In short, TPAC simply states that in order to have the best student learning outcomes, teachers must have the following 3 attributes:

• We must have technical (ICT) skills.
• We must have content knowledge.
• We must know how to communicate that knowledge to our students effectively (pedagogy).

To briefly expand upon this, competent teachers will be masters of the technologies covered by this course, have rock solid content knowledge from our previous studies as an undergraduate, and a thorough, up-to-date understanding of the latest, evidence-based pedagogical practices gleaned from other courses in our GDLT program (Mishra, Koehler, 2006).

Reflection on deBono's 6 Thinking Hats

I actually enjoyed participating in the 6 hat wiki quite a lot.  When I first thought about the implications of allowing students the use of their mobile phones in class, my initial mental image was big flashing red neon sign that read:

DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!

Next, my imagination was flooded with the thought of a class of 25 teenagers, their heads buried in who-knows-what on their phones, as a well intentioned teacher madly rushes about in the vain attempt to maintain a semblance of order while engaging in the futile task of keeping students on-task.  The more I pondered the practicality of students' in-class use of mobile phones, the more I became convinced such an undertaking would be nigh-on impossible.  How does one prevent unauthorised texting? Emailing? Surfing? Blogging? Gaming and goodness knows what else, on a student's private, unfiltered web device?  

The potential problems seemed insurmountable, which was convenient as black was the first of deBono's hats I was to wear.  My fellow colleagues had done a great job of articulating many of my initial concerns, along with a number I'd not considered.  I managed to add a few more to the list after doing some research on Google Scholar and discovering there was solid peer-reviewed evidence that points to a consistent correlation (importantly not causation)  between high levels of mobile phone usage among young people and some mental health issues. 

The processes hat followed, which stimulated my thinking in the direction of how my aforementioned concerns might best be overcome.  What surprised me after reading my colleague's contributions, was that I could now see each issue we covered in the black-hat section had a plausible solution.  My own offering put forward the proposition that a school's IT department might be tasked with ensuring internet access be made possible only through the school's own properly filtered and monitored secure WiFi network.  Bullying could be curtailed by ensuring all communication between students be collated and stored in a way that complies with the appropriate privacy mandates, and students informed of a strict zero-tolerance policy to bullying.

Being able to learn and understand the various perspectives of my classmates in the hats that followed stimulated me to conduct additional research into some benefits of integrating ICT.

DeBono's scaffolded wiki activity struck me as based mostly on constructivism, as we were working cooperatively and gaining new knowledge through interactions with fellow peers. Vygotsky (1962) proposed that learning is heavily influenced by social interaction.  It can clearly be seen that the wiki facilitated higher order thinking, as we worked through the hats, we were able to conduct a mental SWOT analysis and evaluate which side of the mobile phone debate held the strongest position.  I was quite surprised at the outcome of my evaluation stage, as I had entered the exercise skeptical about the use of mobiles in class, but after due consideration, changed my view to that of cautious optimism.  The bullet points below point out some of the strategies used in the scaffolding to support complex thinking.

1. Support contributions by ALL students in the group
2. Make thinking "visible" so that teachers can see inside the reasoning of EVERY student in the group
3. Create a permanent, text-based record of discussions and conversations for future analysis and reading

(CQU 20491 week 1 resource materials)

A cooperative learning environment was created by deBono's scaffolded wiki when we were able to bounce ideas off each other while working with our working memory before finally internalising our new knowledge in long-term memory.  This shows that there was an element of cognitiveism in the exercise too.  I was also able to show learning through connective methods of learning theory by tasking myself to undertake independent research in peer-reviewed professional journals through the use of Google Scholar.  This is an example of connecivism because, according to Siemens (2005), knowledge exists outside the realm of the individual in networked environments exactly like that available online, accessible through Google and many other means.  Connective learning is achieved as I practice and refine my search skills and continue to develop successful techniques to locate and evaluate the relevance and credibility of different sources.

Lastly, I noted the 6 hats wiki activity was an example of a well structured learning environment, where learners were given the opportunity to see other peoples perspective, giving us the chance to discuss, debate and challenge each other, thereby providing an oportunity for peer tutoring.  These are all examples of higher-order thinking, which as we know, is always the goal when teaching.  According to Hattie (2009), the following are core principles of co-operative learning, as opposed to 'group work.'

• Positive Interdependence:  This means that members of the group need to work together to finish the task, as it's not possible to do individually; the group sinks or swims together.

• Individual Accountability:  Everyone must contribute, and the project should be publicly displayed with each contribution's author acknowledged; there's no place to hide.

• Monitor the Group:  Which students are working? which are playing?  What kind of co-operative learning is taking place, such as listening, compromising and negotiating?  Which are lacking?

• Equal Participation:  The co-operative learning activity mustn't be dominated by one or a few people, while others remain silent.  Teachers must ensure even levels of participation through strategies such as timing conversations where one student discusses a topic for a certain period before swapping to a different student.

The 6 hats wiki ticked all the co-operative learning boxes listed above, and can therefore be considered to be a quality learning exercise that truly stimulated higher order thinking.  As such, it is something that I look forward to using in a classroom of my own.

Lastly, I just thought I'd pop this video in.  It's a quick little video clip that has some innovative pedagogical strategies involving cooperative learning.  I particularly enjoyed the part about borrowing other teachers' methods and adapting them to suit one's own style.  'Standing on the shoulders of giants' at its best!

Engagement Activity 3: Reflection on Prensky's ideas

Prensky's Engage Me or Enrage Me initially struck me as overly pandering to underachieving students and laying the blame at the feet of established pedagogy.  Honestly, when I read it in week one I thought it to be a bit of a cop-out, after all, didn't we all tread the traditional education path?  Weren't we bored in class,  distracted by technology, and at times resentful of the time school stole from us so unapologetically?  Perhaps you were lucky enough to be what Prensky calls "truly self-motivated."  I, fortuitously or otherwise, most certainly was not.

Computers have always been a part of my life I reasoned, I wasted as many hours playing video games through my schooling as many kids today.  I had a mobile phone by the time I left high school, so what's so different about kids today?  After all, kids have resented authority for as long as there has been kids and authority, "spare the rod spoil the child" anyone?

So I've put off answering this question because I disagreed with the answer, until that was, I had the opportunity to think a bit more deeply and discovered some experiences common among youth of today that lay in stark contrast to the X's of my gen.  The elephant in the room turns out to be the technology that facilitates this very medium.  'Blog' was not a word when I was in secondary school, well, at least I don't remember it, and that's because the internet was still being toilet trained during my graduation... Wow, that's when it hit me.  Sure, I had many of the digital gadgets around today (albeit in 16bit), what my generation lacked however, was a way that they could all be linked together, in one place, accessible from anywhere, anytime, and by anybody.  What a huge thing for me to miss.  Suddenly I realised why I stopped playing modern warfare online, it was full of 12 year olds... it was full of 12 year olds!


Ok, so now I'm starting to get it.  Kids today live in an online, social, massively multi-player, multimedia world that never sleeps, never goes home, never goes on holiday.  It's just there. Always.  But here's the kicker; nothing a child does in these environments demands attention, there's no big, boring adult looking over the young-un's shoulder, "do this, don't do that."  Everything our students engage with online is voluntary.  This, in my opinion, is where ITC can shine in the classroom.  It's our job, our duty, to engage kids in ways that stimulate their interest in the same manner as the activities in which they so tenaciously participate online.  The video below is an example of something I, as a future math teacher, hope to emulate with my learners.

 Felder and Solomon learning styles 

So, this is what happens when I take one of these personality tests a few weeks apart and answer the questions as honestly as possible.  I saved the top one after completing it in week one so I could take it again a few weeks down the track when I'd forget the answers I'd chosen the first time.  I have no idea what that says about my learning style at this stage, but it has helped me to realise that like myself, my students will have needs that can change over time and I should be careful not to pigeon-hole them based on my initial impression.

"To teach means scarcely anything more than to show how things differ from one another in their different purposes, forms, and origins.  Therefore, he who differentiates well, teaches well."

- John Amos Comenius

Multiple Intelligences

This is also a test I'd saved from week one to compare with the results of another test I've undertaken today.  I only included the one screenshot this time because the results were pretty much identical.  It appears the results from my little self-experiment are; my learning style varies according to my mood, environment etc, while my multiple intelligences remain static.  This double-blind, placebo-controlled and statistically randomised study with the impressive sample size of 1 seems to suggest that an effective pedagogical strategy is to tailor ICT's to match a student's multiple inteligences using a variety of methods that adapt to learning styles that vary over time.  Also (Beetham, 2006).