Tough Love

So today was the last day of term for Mr7. A big day for a kid who struggles with emotions. He didn’t last the day, and was pretty distraught about having to leave his 5 close friends as we move to the Central Coast, an hour and a half away.

We are also going to miss the passion and enthusiasm of Mrs Harris and Daniel Harris at St. Clair OOSH. They have been so supportive and had a massive impact on Mr7s life. In fact, the few hours he spend there were far more productive that those at school (a trend we don’t want to see. One of the reasons for our move, is that Mrs Campbell was leaving Mr7s school. She was the teacher that ‘got him’ and she was a upset as he was to be separated.

So a big day in our household. My wife was fare welled by parents who we’re crying – maybe because she took kids from reading level 1 to level 25 in 1st grade, or that she wasn’t going to let ’staff room opinion’ of ‘kids’ get in the way of finding ways to connect with them. She was sad to leave, not because she would miss the school, but perhaps knowing that some of those kids really didn’t get too much quarter from other staff.

This is the part of ’school’ that makes it so damn tough. Schools are not equitable and at times you have to wonder why some ‘teachers’ even bother going to work (i mean school) every day. That’s the point. Its not really a ‘job’ but a massive honour to know these kids and in some way help shape their lives.

But at the end of the day, we’ve had to take a tough love decision – which is to try and find the best environment for our kids, and in doing so I think has a big impact on not just us, but the parents and teachers that we’re all so inter-connected with. I find it really hard to see a teacher’s decision to give up their worksheets, rote learning and wordsearches is that hard in comparison with what parents and kids will give up – learning relevant to the times we live in.

It is amazing how just a few people actually matter in a kids life when it all boils down to it. So if you are lucky enough to have one of those teachers in your kids life, then smile and be happy, cause just around the corner are laggards who think that what they do is ‘work’. It is just a shame that in order to give Mr7 and Miss5 an enjoyable and relevant learning experience … so much else had to change. I really find it hard to accommodate these people these days … yes it’s time consuming to do, yes it’s more work than you have to do, yes it means getting to know kids (and really caring), and taking the harder road even when presented with the easy one. If that all sounds like bs or work … consider getting the hell out of our kid’s lives. We won’t be worse off.

I’d like to thank everyone who’s read this stuff, helped me, inspired me and continues to influence and motivate me – I hope to catch up with lots of your at NECC in 2009 – and more than happy to do as much as I can to repay all of it back to ‘the network’ of amazing people who know it aint a job – it’s an imperative.

Rant Over.

Sea Change – People Change.

More on the negotiated curriculum. My wife has been appointed to new school this week on the Central Coast, about 70kms north of Sydney, so this holiday we have to find a new house and move in about 5 weeks. Its an opportunity to get Miss 5 to start school with her and also to move Mr 7 to the same school. Aside from the hours and hours of running around to pick up and drop off kids that will come to an end – the principal of the school was really open to the idea of negotiating Mr 5s curriculum and finding ways of developing that with us, him and the teacher. To her, supporting the idea that the ‘extra’ time that he gets is used to do someting authentic within the context of what is happening in the classroom – seemed obvious. Previously it was seen as totally disruptive to the ‘teaching of the class’.

What a difference one person could make. I say could, as it may not play out the way we hope, but at least the door is open. Once again it is really clear that improvement opportunities in education of children simply come from open minded people. There really is no benefit in ‘yeah butting’ ideas, simply because they are different.

In the case of children with special needs, 21st Centruy skills – collaboration, communication and construction of knowledge towards goal-orientated learning to me are far more important than ‘rote’ learning. The are not, as I heard this week from someone, ‘motherly’ statements – but imperatives. Personally I think they are more important than remembering discipline information, and in Mr 7s case unless he aquires them at the same time as ‘content’ – then quite simply he tunes right out.

Mr 3 we noticed this week asks us ‘teach me to …’ when he wants to do something. As a fiesty 3 year old it’s already clear that he is an active learner and wants to be hands on, trying and collaborating. He doesn’t accept (beacuse he’s 3) that he can’t do something unless he tries, and has learned to working with his siblings yeilds benefits – but is not about to accept their version of what he can or cannot do. This of course leads to frustration – especially when dealing with Mr 7 who generally makes instant judgements and is not a trial and error kid. Give Mr 7 Lego and ask him to contruct something. Not in the least interested as he visualises only the ‘end’ product. The fastest way to that is to get an adult to do it.

So in one household there is massive differences in learning, communication, language and collaboration skills. Miss 5 loves to visualise her ideas, Mr 3 likes to ‘build’ things (he wants a bridge for Christmas) and Mr 7 loves technology to contruct – but not kinesthetic construction. There are ‘core’ skills kids need to know – but there is no one ‘rote’ way to learn them. More importantly, having a teacher or school who actually listens to the parents and allows the children to expore authentic learning preferences will, in my view, be a better school.

It’s not the amount of IWBs, the size of the pool, the 1:1 laptops or the prestige name that matters – but the teacher. Mr 7 has survived this year because of the support of 2 people at St.Clair OOSH, before and after school care – who have gone to tremendous efforts to understand him, engage him and support his interests. This is why I think that as ‘people networks’ grow – my kids stand a better chance of at least spending some time in the future with people who have the capacity to interact with them in ways that work (for them).

David Warlick posted about his answers to the ‘yeah buts’ this week and Kevin Jarrett posted about the power of networks. Both of these things give me a lot of hope that teachers begin to wake up to the idea that ‘rote’ learning, based on authoratarian power – is not going to work into the next decade, as effectively as learning how to engage todays kids in todays cultural and social contexts.

Where does it start – with open minded teachers – not ‘tech savvy’ ones. Technology helps grease the wheels -but is neither a cure for engagement – or a disruption to learning methods – and striving to talk about ‘learning’ without using any reference to technology I think brings much greater clarity to the discussions about what 21st Century Learning is. Open minded, authentic, individual and student centered – based on inquiry, but underpinned by ‘core’ explicit learning activities. Not all ‘computer’ based and not one ’style’ or another – blended learning – because we live blended lives.

I re-read my first post today – and pleased to think that I started with one idea – and that was to try new things. Almost 2 years later, I think I am still doing that, except now I have a much better understanding of how to achieve it and now working with some great people that help me.  The point is, that I decided one day, that change had to start with me, not the system.

Just too easy!

Just too Easy is a fantastic tool for educators. It allows for synchronous publishing in a kind of hybrid manner. Word processing, desktop publishing and webpages. Its something that I think is well worth investigation – especially in K-6. From a pedagogy viewpoint, I can see a great deal of potential for using it really effectively in the classroom. Here is a more formal review that you can look at that I created, just touching on the features and benefits as a quick start guide.

There are videos on their website that are also well worth a look. The classroom management features are excellent and all wrapped up in almost ‘tux paint‘ like simplicity of it’s graphical interface. The live nature of it’s collaboration is a real step forward to me. I especially liked the idea that a teacher could prepare a task, throw it up on a projector and then ask students to work on it with them from their PC. It almost has IWB like characteristics in that regard, so would make a cheap but engaging addition to the classroom. I am not a fan of teaching kids about ‘office automation’ which is largely what Microsoft Office has done for a decade or more.

J2E allows for simple creation, embedded web objects (YouTube, Teacher Tube) and easily moves between paper and web activities.

It would make a great platform to migrate K6 lesson activities into the collaborative, digital classroom. There are a few things that I would like to have seen differently – but these are very minor in comparison to the potential use of this – within a properly structured programme of work. I think it would make for a great web based project too for students too, given that it seemed to be very able to embed a massive range of object code – and allow for really simple voice recording and drawing. Its at times like these you want to grab a year 3 class and do something fun!

Never mind the blogging …

A few people have been talking about ‘the end of blogging’, suggesting that the rise of more micro-blogging platforms such as Twitter has transformed the exchange of information and communication.

The ‘end of blogging’ discussion is akin to that of the ‘end of the long copy advertisement‘, which has be raging for decades.

One of the texts I remember in Ad-School was first published in 1938, and continuously modified in the following decades. “Tested Advertising Methods” by John Caples. He mentions about writing

“Ads with lots of facts are effective. And don’t be afraid of long copy. If your ad is interesting, people will read all the copy you can give them. If the ad is dull, short copy won’t save it.”

David Ogilvy, in 1963 commented

“Research shows that readership falls off rapidly up to 50 words of copy, but drops very little between 50 and 500 words. In my first Rolls Royce advertisement I used 719 words—piling one fascinating fact on another.”

In 1963, most people read newspapers and long copy ads were perfectly acceptable, predominantly full of ‘important’ facts – to sell an idea or product.

20 years later, Ogilvy explained why they still worked

“I believe, without any research to support me, that advertisements with long copy convey the impression that you have something important to say, whether people read the copy or not. Direct response advertisers know that short copy doesn’t sell. In split run tests, long copy invariably outsells short copy.”

We are immersed in media that knows and exploits that we are essentially ‘difference’ engines. We notice things that are ‘wrong’ or opposite to the expected perception. They are smothered with aspiration, sexuality and cultural semantic devices – in the hope, we will ‘read their message’ before the next one a few moments later.

Retention in advertising and education is desirable, yet conflicting.

In doing this, the media are very comfortable to rehash, remix and leverage past media messages – and often blatantly rips off the work of artists in the process. Few are making the effort to create new ideas in the way Ewan McIntosh is attempting at 4ip. But then again, it takes a stack of cash too, and that is not something education can draw on.

We then wonder why teens find it acceptable to do the same – remash, repurpose, rip off – and call it evidence of learning.

We constantly devalue communication by taking shortcuts. Students are continually exposed to commercial ‘push’ content, who’s sole intent is retention through differentiation. I learned in advertising that very few copywriters are great at the long copy ad and just about everyone thought they could write a short ad.

A short ad is star burst  information usually designed, like Twitter, to grab your attention to do one action in just a few words. As the price of media placement falls and the opportunities increase – they can blast us more often. The long ad strives to inform you of much deeper thoughts, and relies on accuracy and relevance. It contains much more information. You don’t advertise using long copy to teens. They are conditioned to receiving short, sharp busts of information – which they cope with by learning to multi-task.

Educators never needed to market themselves in K12 – they have tenture! We never needed to allow for multi-tasking or digitally media ’savvy’ read/write/create learning environments.

Teachers always set the agenda and the pace and held the keys to formal learning. Web2.0 is then a disruptive technology. People have become brands and brands now leverage popular culture and visual imagery to grab your attention. The messages are no longer about, as Oglivy said, “piling one fascinating fact on another”‘.  Like it or not – educators have to ’sell’ learning in new ways, using new approaches and help learners make sense of it all.

Today’s teens are fed a daily diet of  instant, franchised information – short messages that have specific intentions – few of which worry too much about being un-biased, impartial, ethical, moral or accurate. The result has been a generation who now ’skim’ content, not critically analyse it.

Ever seen a teen read a game manual before playing the game?

In 140 characters I can make a point, shout or push a link, but I really hope that people don’t pass the idea to students that ‘blogs’ – or more specifically – extended writing is not relevant or worse -  as long as you can short message and skim, you’ll succeed.

Second Life – using, not exploring possibilities

I took part in the end of year ISTE Presenter fire-side chats on Friday (Thursday SL time). To me, some of the most thought provoking inputs come from informal discussions in Second Life, and this was no exception.

For a while now, I’ve been talking with Judy O’Connell, Jo Kay and Konrad Glogowski about developing a Second Life curriculum, that will allow teachers to use a ‘toolkit’ approach to developing work for students to undertake virtual Worlds.

At ISTE, I was engaged in a fantastic discussion with Peggy Sheehy about ‘negotiated curriculum’ – an approach to learning where students are asking more of the questions than the teachers. We also talked about how Second Life allows for a distributed classroom model – where it would be possible for that to be ‘facilitated’ by multiple teachers around the world. We thought it was possible to find some ‘third space’ for learning using virtual worlds – which has been highly successful in Quest Atlantis – because it has curriculum and measurable goals, facilitated by technology, students and teachers. Second Life still does not do this, though a range of TSL projects obviously do. In short, the efforts of us all are driven to similar goals, yet atomised.

We also thought that the model would suit some definition of 21st Century capabilities. All those things we know are important – yet are not on the test.

In a very recent NMC report, educators are actually increasing activity in Second Life. The NMC survey suggests

Educators are moving from exploration to use of Second Life for teaching and learning. More respondents report being involved in an educational-related activity in Second Life (increasing from 54% in 2007 to 71% in 2008). More than half report that the organization they are affiliated with owns a sim (up from 36% in 2007) and 74 individuals report in 2008 they own their own sim. This year 29% of survey participants report holding virtual office hours in SL; 37 of them (12%) have taught a class entirely in SL (up from 14 or 8% in 2007).

In 2007, Judy and I started SecondClassroom and TeenSecondClassroom, a place for teachers to talk and work on Virtual Classrooms and TeenSecondClassroom, a reflective space in which students of those teachers can form groups to talk about and evidence work. Now with over 100 members, perhaps there it is time to start meeting in Second Life and talking more about this idea. I would assume that this, like most ‘community’ approaches will suffer the Long Tail, however even if 10% of the group actively participate – then in 2009, we could develop this to a point where we could also deliver it.

Macquarie University joins Second Life

I’ve been busy this week working with Jo Kay developing a Second Life build for Macquarie University. As part of the ongoing ‘innovation to integration’ research, the MQ teaching and learning centre has joined Jokaydia. An extension to the capability of the learning and teaching centre it will serve as a classroom for educators wishing to explore Second Life. The build will also be used as a practical venue for distributed staff to meet and work.

I arrived at MQ just as the Learning and Teaching Centre was developing its 2009/10 strategic plan, so it’s been a busy few weeks trying to get up to speed and working with so many passionate educators and meet an end of year deadline. I am really impressed that in adding this element to the centre’s operations, that I really didn’t have to go through the ‘why don’t you get a first life’, ‘is it a game?’ conversations. I wasn’t quite expecting that or the depth of understanding already of Virtual Worlds. Everyone recognised these are an important technology in educational development research. It has been fully supported and very easy to deliver (mostly thanks to working with Jo). So in just over a week, the centre is ready for our first professional development session next Monday.

MQ already runs a successful iLecture system in many classrooms, deliverying recorded audio content to students which continues to grow, and will begin testing of video-lectures in 2009. The LTC has Elluminate, Adobe Connect and Elluminate as core technology offerings – Second Life however was missing from the ’set’. It is interesting that once you talk about Second Life, all sorts of people come out from the shadows and say that they have been investigating or un-officially ‘doing something’, something which was echoed at the recent Open Education Workshops, where many presenters said that their now successful projects started life in-secret.

MQ on Jokaydia has two spaces, a practical resource, information and teaching ‘building’ and a second area, which the University can use, as a collaborative space. The aim is to allow students and staff to have a workable and sizeable space in which to develop anything that supports learning and teaching. We talked about developing an ‘island’, but felt that the nature of Second Life is as an synchronous, interactive first person experience – rather than a visual statement. I have been part of the Jokaydia community for some time, and so know just how engaging and inspirational some of the work has been. The professional development opportunities are created through the community engagement on Jokaydia – so placing MQ students and staff into the community to me is significantly richer than just wandering around your own island or occasionally running a symposium.

In 2009, the MQ space will also be connected with student and staff support mechanisms, together with a series of symposiums that I’m working on as face to face events (open to all), webinars etc., In addition, we are going to explore connecting Podcast content in-world. It will then be possible to ’stream’ content on demand into the classrooms. This then allows students to meet and discuss the lectures – which is particularly important to MQs on-going focus on student engagement, given the vast number of students that are enrolled in distance education though various study pathways such as Open Education.

This facility will assist staff and students in exploring the multiple opportunities and impacts that ‘first person’ experiences has in learning and teaching – all supported by the amazing Jo Kay.

Thursday’s child is full of woe

Sitting above children are numerous infrastructures designed to orgnise teaching and learning, from government policy, syllabus, school governance down to scope and sequences. All of this is linear documentation designed to provide the best learning for children. A parents, we experienced that and now place out children into that structure. We don’t have a choice. We are further limited by geography, culture, faith and financial capacity to select which school our children can attend.

So this might sound self-serving, guess what I don’t care. I am a parent and I want my kids to enjoy relevant schooling.

We are assuming that we provide a macro experience via scope and sequence – and that the teacher will be able to differentiate the emotional, intellectual or intrinsic learning preference of our children. I am reminded of the childrens nursery rhyme and wonder if Wednesday’s child has far to go or if Thursdays’ child is full of woe. The rhyme perhaps indicates we have always known that everyone is an individual. At some point we decided that trying to average out what we mean by a ‘student’ at any stage of development is somehow better. Maybe now we finally have an opportunity to rethink it.

Can technology enhance learning by including parents and students to add input to it? Perhaps ePortfolios are a way of doing this. But to be effective they need to be individualized. I know that is what teacher are charged to do, but seriously, it does not always happen that way. If Thursdays child is indeed full of woe, perhaps that is because the daily content dump and ‘programmed’ learning schedule doesn’t allow them to explore things they are passionate about. The way we organize schools does not promote sufficient time to explore things children find ‘more’ interesting.

It is now possible to model better individualized learning. We can use technology to mediate between the child’s interests and the syllabus requirements. Teachers spend an enormous amount of time ‘preparing’ for ‘scope and sequence’ delivery – and maybe by rethinking this, we can generate the time that children and teachers need to work together more closely.

Is the ePortfolio a record of ‘what I can do’, or ‘how I leaned to do’? Why for example, why can’t a parent or student have input into that ‘scope and sequence’. We have the technology to do this. We are saying that ‘learning is a conversation’, but still very selective about whom participates and on what terms that takes place. I am not suggesting that all of the student, parent or teacher ideas will be used – but surely the overall learning would be enhanced. If not for all kids, but for some kids, especially those with ‘differentiated needs’.

Do we simply ‘give’ the responsibility of learning (and learning in the 21C to teachers), or can we act ourselves as an intervention. I wonder what the reaction of my son’s next teacher will be when I ask why we can’t do this?  Is there a policy that says what happens to my children between 9am and 3pm, for 42 weeks a year is exclusively only open to the schools determination. Why do we get a ‘term’ report of only a few lines? As we know, we are A-E reporting and the ‘comments’ are so PC and vanilla, that they are almost meaningless.

How much better for me as a parent, with a kid that has alternate-views of life that he can’t control, if I assist in the mediation process. Is it a legal, technical or social barrier – perhaps a combination. But to explore it, all parties need to agree to participate.

Thanks to everyone whos offered myself and Mr7 support this week. He’s doing better, but not at all confident about actually going to school right now. I am sure I am not the only parent in this position, nor am I the only one looking to improve the situation.

The rise of the meta-teacher

Has 2008 been a significant juncture in education?. K12 Online was a huge hit, Connectivism ran online and numerous ‘fringe’ edu-events went mainstream. Of course the Australian government has decided it would like to filter the entire internet for us and drop low end laptops in schools.

We wonder why reforming ICT in school is hard … look at the vast differences in what is happening.

Regardless of 2008, it seems obvious that in the last decade – the power of the internet to connect us to things we want to know, buy or with people we want to know or could never meet has changed great parts of our society – of which students and teachers belong. You only have to compare the Australian Bureau of Statitics ‘Internet’ data from 1998 to 2008 to see how powerful the internet has become in our lives. We are not the same as we were.

It is not a ‘digital revolution’ any more than it was an ‘information superhighway’ a decade ago.

I see the rise of the ‘meta-teacher’. A teacher who understands that as information spews out of our desktops, laptops and phones – it sticks to the internet and potentially has to be navigated. These teachers are different. They have skills and understanding that makes them critical in the classroom, and the global ‘edu’ community. They lead, mediate, inspire and collaborate. More importantly they understand how to read, use, integrate, technology, and ‘meta-language’. They understand how ‘things’ get connected to other things. They are aware that ‘tagging’ is significant.

The teacher who thinks that a website address and Google are enough to navigate media and networks of information is gradually becoming media-illiterate – and passing that on to their students.  The ‘universal resource locator stopped working correctly as soon as we stopped hand-writing html and turned on our data-base driven interwebs. The internet is not a level playing field when it comes to content, nor does Google know which is the most relevant site for you. It has a good guess, but without critical literacy skills – how can you tell?

Meta data and meta language are how we tie information, people, ideas, resources and communities together – not links or search engines.

These teachers are power-influences . They can integrate web technology into the curriculum,  interpret, aggregate and organize information to help other’s do it too. Meta-teachers are seen as a ‘problem’ to the incumbents, and despite the enormous goodwill and passion they have – struggle to engage the laggards (who are too busy). When will parents start saying ‘enough’. Is it possible that we could blend face to face with online and rethink schools?

Right now schools are trying to stick a digital clock on a poodle.

Will Richardson recently talked about the school of the future and the discussion that followed was very thought provoking. Will increasing numbers of meta-teachers allow the school of the future – the ‘meta-schools’. Is that how we’ll reform pedagogy and curriculum. How much with Open Education influence this?

Will they appear in the same way ‘charter schools’ appeared. It’s not so crazy and idea as sooner or later someone with money will pay for it – and there will be both parents and teachers who want it. Perhaps the role of meta-teachers is not to  ‘change’ their schools. Maybe they represent an opportunity to create ‘better’ schools – or at least offer an alternative to what we have. It really would be nice to have the choice.

Aspi2.0

I stared a blog post and discussion form on Classroom2.0 for this, which I figured was the best place to ‘go fishing’.

As a few of my friends know, Mr.7 is a kid with Aspergers. Not so much a kid with special needs, more a kid with special interests and a different perspective on the world. These kids simply learn in different ways and are often ‘above standards’ in their given year group, highly perceptive, but struggle to deal with implied meaning in language, social situations (especially new ones) and struggle to understand emotional decisions ‘neuro-normals’ make.

They will often have an affinity with technology (machines are more predictable than people), and have some kind of interest focus. This can be transient – with the interests moving over time, or a range of interests : Star Wars, Mythology, Cars – to more extreme single interests. I once met a child was only interested in cornices.

However, they generally enjoy maths and sciences – subjects which are are less interpretive.

There’s way to much to say about it from a medical view point here, but as a parent, the most significant issue is that their schooling is not inclusive – even though they attend an inclusive school.

These amazing kids often appear to be just like every other kid, their needs are often not explicitly addressed in school.

This is a great video, I love to share with teachers.

Simple things make a BIG difference – one way or the other. For example, moving from one class to the next is a very anxious time, yet schools will almost no effort to ease the transfer (they are busy). Putting kids into more general ‘funded’ groups is another. In my case, our kid is stuck in a reading group with a few other kids. He can read, and he knows the kids – and they are always the same kids. This is a waste of time and funding – yet try as we might, the teacher and school fobs us off continually over this.

I think the start reality is that the mass of information on kids with Aspergers concerns itself with medial and social (behaviour) issues. There really is little out there (or that I can find) that is hands one classroom advice.

So here’s my idea.

To create a wiki – Apsi2.0 – that:

• Can be used by parents to give to teachers as a general resource with classroom activities they can use.
• Practical lesson/learning activities that last about an hour – that specifically address their needs
• Differentiated use of technology to engage them in the same ‘classroom’ activities as their peers – but approached from alternate, less confronting social situations. (Quest Atlantis, collaboration, peer review etc.,)
• To allow parents to develop their own ‘life long learning’ wiki for their kid that they can give to teachers, as a resource so the teacher knows what the students engages with or dis-engages because of.
• Allow teacher/parents to share pedagogical success stories (be them based on individual focus’)
• Allow teachers who DO engage properly (no lip service laggards) to share interventions and learning approaches that have led to better learning outcomes
• A resource for siblings to learn about their brother/sister – and help support them
• A resource for parents (struggling with schools) to self-help learning
• A knowledge bank of lessons/strategies/activities that can be used – right out the box – to improve the lot of our kids in schools.

I am not saying that the whole spectrum of Autism is not a major concern in inclusive education. But I am saying, that from experience, the professional development and ’self’ development in teachers is just not there. I am sure there are amazing teachers, but a lot of the time – these kids struggle in school as they try and interact with other students and kids. They need to learn how to interact. An example of this could be, a new student joins a class. There is an established group of friends, and one kids has Aspergers. While the new kid joins the group, the Apergers kid will not understand why, and probably see it as a bad thing, as it disrupts the social balance. The immediate reaction might be to try and get rid of the new kid. That seems logical. It was okay before, now it’s not – what changed? Easy – get rid of the annoyance. They don’t understand that making friends is the way that new people enter a group. They have to learn it, while most kids will learn it by doing it. The danger is that in attempts to bounce the new kid, they are segregated from them, and most likely segregated from their friends.

The teacher doesn’t understand this, and indeed might have no idea that the kid with Aspergers is frustrated, anxious and burning up to understand why thier world is suddenly under attack, not just from the new kid, but from the teachers and their friends.

My point is, that schools are highly social spaces. Teachers need to know how to, and be seen to, use any funded time, spare time to create social learning opportunities. They often don’t, or won’t. It’s easier to get a reading group than it is to address their specific interests or needs. It means doing something different – which is not in their program.

You might tell me, yeah but there is an individual learning plan, there has to be. I’ll tell you that is all crap. There might be a piece of paper somewhere, but that is not the reality that parents know. We can’t be there all the time, we can’t negotiate the world for them, so we must advocate for them – as they can’t do it for themselves.

Here’s a couple of examples of the replies I got in Classroom2.0 – these are exactly what we need to hear.

I showed your post to my daughter and she suggested having a section on your Wiki for the siblings of children with Aspergers. She benefited a great deal when she understood her brother’s special interests and wanted to know ways to become closer to him. Our school system found simple ways to let her become a resource for my son during the school day without making her assume adult responsibilities. For example, the school scheduled their lunches so they could eat together. They simply felt like they were enjoying time together and never realized my daughter was providing a model of social interaction each day for half an hour. She never resented this time together and eventually my son began to sit with other students and interact successfully. Tanya Travis.

Here is one from a teacher, David Wees

I had a student with Asperger’s who spent every lunch hour reading by himself. His favourite thing? Japanese mythology and culture. So I introduced him to a collectible card game about Japanese mythology and then introduced him to some people he could play with. Now he plays cards at lunch time with his peers, interacting socially far more often than before.

How amazing would it be to hear things happening for my kid. So far this year, I have had nothing positive or volunteered by the school, yet have been ‘up there’ several time to get tea and sympathy messages – when quite clearly they are wasting his time and mine. It is all very frustrating for us, but easier to pass off than address by the school.

Critical, hell yeah! – but we want our kid to be in public education and to be included. As he goes through life (not in a wheelchair), the world won’t deal him a different deck, but the biggest need he has is to learn about how the social norms work. He won’t pick it up unless it is taught. We do it at home – but we want to see it in his school – and so does every other parent like me.

I’d hope that this something I can ‘teach’ parents in the future, as it seems to me to be a direct positive step.

So that’s my ‘new’ thing – if I have a ‘thing’. I’m over the apathetic approach, the light on pre-teacher preparation. Right now, as a parent, I think this is the ONE thing I can do for my kid. Have a resource that explains to his teacher how he has learned over his whole school engagement. I would love it if his teacher added to it – but it’s not likely this year. I think this every year, maybe I’ll get a teacher who ‘gets’ him.

A fresh approach to Higher Ed Course Design

There are times when you hear someone talk and you think, bloody hell! – that is going to change everything. Now it seems you only need to read 140 characters, and get the same reaction.

Howard Rheingold posted a link to his ‘social media’ wiki on Twitter.

It’s not the fact it is a wiki and not a course in Moodle, WebCT or Black Board that is impressive though.  HR has built a very sophisticated information architecture that is simple to get around (a massive step forward in itself) and packed it with language that leaves students in little doubt as to the how exciting, challenging and rewarding the course will be.

It’s not there to ‘inform’ in the way most online courses do. It’s not some kind of digital point of reference (though it does that superbly) either. It’s language advocates adoption, adaption and infusion of technology, as a transformational experience that will deliver life long benefits. In just a few pages – HR clarifies, engages and sets up his course as being something you just want to sink your teeth into.

For example: students will have practiced mindful self-observation of the ways they use their own attention. Increased facility at inquiry and collaboration are other meta-skills diligent students should expect to gain: the methodology of collaborative inquiry used in this course is expected to generalize beyond the classroom.

Another significant element of the site is the ‘How To’. He’s immediately set out his expectations, guidelines and criteria for success. He talks clearly about how that success will come about using a range of ‘un-passive’ technologies … but then immediately scaffolds them out of ‘entry’ level uses of technology with a self help guide on how to blog, make a wiki page etc.,

He’s not treating the method of evidencing learning as a separate ‘training manual’. The learning method for evidence is using the tools themselves.

This is the best and most influential ‘course design’ example I’ve seen – but I’m not surprised – as HR is just inspirational.