Learning in the 21st Century

Introduction Based on my belief that all students should have some exposure to modern learning methods such as PBL and Inquiry Based Learning. I have been trying to get a 20% Time Project Based Learning initiative off the ground in 2017 with my GR10 Maths class. One of the characteristics of these modern learning methods is increased freedom in the learning process. In this particular case,  students get a full 20% of their class time to explore new approaches to learning with only scaffolding and feedback provided by the teacher and outside experts. Students can initially find this freedom a little overwhelming, having been trained for so long to follow direct instructions when engaging in learning. What I will do for the rest of this post is summarise what we have managed to do so far this year and provide links to the various resources that have been created to guide the learning. My hope is by doing this, it will assist everyone involved in the project to reflect on th...

After the success of the experiment in project based learning in 2015, I decided to try and scale it up from around 25 students (one class) to 200 students (eight classes) in 2017. I used the rough framework from 2015 that me and Carynn had built and adapted it for the time the school gave us this time round. I also made a number of structural changes to co-ordinate the much large number of people involved this time around. Website We Built to Run Discovery Week Student Assessment of Core Learning Objectives 

This is a slideshow I put together for a GEG meeting. It is mainly focused  on the process of becoming google certified, from the point of view of the teacher.

  

This is the slideshow that me and Carynn presented at the Cape Town Central GEG Meeting when explaining the ideas we used to run our Project Week as an initiative to get students experimenting with Self Directed Learning.

THE STORY OF PROJECT WEEK              Introduction  In September 2015 me and a colleague (C Underhill) decided we wanted to push the boundaries of our students learning. We wanted to give our learners a sense of what a more independent learning style looked like. A Project Based Learning week was the result, where learners were given far greater control over their learning than is normally the case. It was definitely an eye opener for us and we learnt a lot on the journey. Below are summaries and reflections of what happened and links to resources to assist any teachers who would like to try a similar initiative. Summary Video  Resources Podcast Reflecting on the Experience a Month After Folder with all Resources required for Preparation Examples of Work Produced   Individual Endeavour Instructions  Individual Endeavour Work Group Endeavour Instructions Part 1 Part 2 Part 3   Group Wor...

CHE’S WORKSHOP ON BUILDING A PLN

This is a talk I did  at a Think Tank  hosted by UCT's Etilab. I was invited by Professor Dick Ng'ambi to share on the experiments we were attempting  at WGHS, in an effort  to modernise learning at our school. cc

In the Oct 2013 holidays I attended another Google conference at Parkland College in Cape Town and these are some of the slideshows from the workshops that stood out for me.

1. Is there anything special we need to know about your video My particular passion is the “Maths of the Real World” and opening the eyes of learners to the fact that Maths doesn’t exist in a vacuum as many of them imagine. This video is intended to give a taste of that as well as a sense of my creativity and humour as an educator. The video is primarily intended to motivate my application to the Google Teacher Academy. However, I also wanted to showcase the possibilities for basic storytelling (using free or relatively inexpensive digital media tools) in learning today. My particular passion is the “Maths of the Real World” and opening the eyes of learners to the fact that Maths doesn’t exist in a vacuum or textbook as many of them imagine. Rather, it is used actively in their lives on a day to day basis. This video is intended to give a taste of that as well as a sense of my creativity and humour as an educator. 2. Describe an obstacle you encountered in you...

After working with Staff at  WGHS  for 18 Months introducing ICT into the classroom, an opportunity arose for me to attend a Google Apps for Education Conference (ZAGAFE2013). About 6 weeks before the conference they put out a call for local presenters and feeling brave I decided to volunteer. I was really into Google Forms at the time and wanted to show other teachers how easy it was to make a formative assessment tool at no cost,  that greatly resembled the clicker systems being sold at the time. I enjoyed the process of presenting, but a far bigger highlight was being able to meet fellow presenters especially those  on the EdTechTeam. The depth of conversation and pedagogical rigour was something I had not experienced before, but i really liked!! It felt like this was a group worth staying connected to. It also felt like the journey they were on in terms of reforming Education was something I wanted to be a part of. Two presenters who I was fortunate enough t...

Recently I have set about documenting my learning over the last couple of years with the purpose of trying  to preserve a record of how my learning occurred, together with learning artifacts from the process. The event I describe in this post was the first training event I organized for other teachers and was inspired by my experience at  EdTechConf  2011. Below is the original email invite together with the original logo above. Original Invite – March 2012 Intro: WGHS has decided to have a monthly optional meeting for those who would like to hear more about and discuss exciting developments in the field of educational technology. Purpose: Develop Technology based skills to make learning easier & less admin work for the teacher Where: Room 10/11 Focus S1: Using a safe social network to create a virtual classroom environment Tools: Edmodo Why: Free coffee and biscuits , good conversation and the chance to see something that could make your life a...

In May 2011 I was lucky enough to go to my first Educational Technology conference. The conference was organized by Tim Keller and Arthur Preston and took place at the International School of Cape Town situated in Wynberg. I had been interested in the potential of Ed Tech to improve learning since 2010 when I came back to teaching after some time working in financial services. However this was the first time I truly began to understand the latent potential and under achievement in our Educational System. It was here that I realised that there were lots of other educators thinking about the same things as me and experiencing the same frustrations. I also encountered the concept of a Professional Learning Network(PLN) for the first time. It’s not an exaggeration to say that this concept alone has changed the course of my entire career. I was also fortunate enough to be introduced to Twitter. At first sight it seemed rather peculiar to me as well as a tad overwhelming. It felt a lo...