Cyberbullying: information and advice

Do we know what constitutes cyberbullying and how prevalent it is? Marilyn Campbell is a highly-regarded researcher in this area (and rightly so!)। In a recent publication, Cyber bullying and young people: treatment principles not simplistic advice, Marilyn outlines cyberbullying, its prevalence and what to do about it in the context of a whole-of-community approach. This is well-written with up-to-date, practical advice.

Marilyn also co-authored another easy-to-read, valuable article with Desmond Butler and Sally Kift recently called A school’s duty to provide a safe learning environment: does this include cyberbullying? This article examines the legal issues in relation to a school’s responsibility. A must read for every school leader!

The Australian government commissioned two studies on covert bullying as

• The Australian covert bullying prevalence study, Edith Cowan University, looks at the prevalence and impact on Australian schools.
• The second study, Behind the scenes: insights into the human dimension of covert bullying was conducted by the University of South Australia in conjunction with Flinders University highlights the complexity of cyberbullying in the complex parallel world of cyberspace by collecting real-life experiences.

What's education.au up to?

Well, there seems to be quite a lot of activity at education.au recently (or maybe I've just noticed!)

• Teacher professional learning: planning for change The promise of ICT transforming teaching and learning relies heavily on professional learning. An education.au survey found that only 27% of teachers use ICT effectively in the classroom! So, the recommendations include the development of a national professional learning strategy based on research evidence, development of national ICT standards.

• What does 21st century learning look like? A one-day seminar with opportunities to find out more about what this might mean for the learning environment and what might be the impact on schooling. When: 11 Sept. Where: Australian Technology Park

• Annual report on emerging technologies: planning for change ‘The focus is on recommending actions that will support an environment that normalises change.’ The recommendations that are of interest (to me!) are #1 implement an ICT in teaching and learning continuum to enable a smooth transition for learners through the education sectors; #3 plan a program of research around the use of ICT [This is sort of like futurelab which is focused on promoting innovation in education by encouraging exchange of ideas and a place to experiment. Check out the research articles.]; #7 develop a strategy for professional learning based on sound research; and #8 implement an ICT competency framework for teachers. Challenges! Of course there are but these are best described by the Horizon report 2009 K-12 edition.

Great ideas, makes perfect sense but I reckon by the time all this happens, ‘new and emerging’ will be a thing of the past!

Dialogic teaching

Using interactive whiteboards in the classroom is a great opportunity to embrace talking for learning in the classroom as students express opinions, talk about issues and ideas, build confidence and extend their thinking skills.

Here are some links to interesting information to inspire and motivate:

• Talking to learn: dialogue in the classroom: NSW Institute of Teachers The digest
• Dialogic literacy webpage
• Dialogic teaching in science classrooms leaflet
• Using interactive whiteboards for dialogic teaching slideshare
• Guidance for introducing dialogic teaching: a guide to planning and implementing dialogic teaching

21st century educators, work and students

Friday afternoon is a good time to kick back and relax thinking about the wins of the week. Why not spend some time thinking about the powerful influences on education in the 21st century? Here are some things to excite and inspire - or at the very least interest you.

• The 21st century educator: creating a personal learning network “The kind of questioning, collaborative, active, lateral rather than hierarchical pedagogy that participatory media both forces and enables is not the kind of change that takes place quickly or at all in public schools.” Howard Reingold, Smart mobs

This is only one quote from an incredibly interesting look at 21st century teaching and learning, personal learning networks and technology tools.
This presentation is on slideshare. If you haven’t had a chance to explore the presentations uploaded to this site yet, set some time aside … there’s lots to learn!

• Shoulder pads are out! Working from home is outré! Enter the Digital nomad. “Wireless internet has develop a new kind of colleague – the digital nomad. They work wherever they can find a wireless Web connection and then reach their co-workers via instant messaging, Twitter, Facebook, email and more.” The Washington Post (story and video).Seems to me DER NSW is getting us moving in a direction where students are preparing for this emerging world of work!

• How teenagers consume media was an instant hit on the internet just recently. Why? Well I’m not sure … the article was written by a 15-year-old and whilst this cannot be considered to be representative it nonetheless a really interesting insight in how teenagers consume media.

This document has been published at Scribd, a place to upload and share your documents. Not been there before? Take a few minutes to trawl and see what’s of interest. I just found one … Reinventing Edison, maybe not something you’re interested in though.

Connected learning

Mark Treadwell: At the Connected Learning conference last week, Mark made great use of narrative to describe the ‘most dramatic paradigm shift of all’, the Internet-based paradigm. He argues that we have reached our upper limit in the book-based paradigm. Also of interest is his stuff on thinking, Thinking 101 where he explores What is thinking?, how the brain works, Socratic questioning and much more.

Trudy Sweeney: At the same conference, Trudy touched on her work which I think is most interesting, i.e. Interactive whiteboard developmental framework which give technical and pedagogical indicators through the stages of ICT integration. There is a neat description of her study to develop this model published in the Australian Educational Computing journal (Vol. 23 No. 2 pp. 24-31). It captures teacher practices at different levels of sophistication that would allow teachers to identify their professional learning needs. She also draws on the NSW model of Quality Teaching making this a most interesting framework.

TED talks is always a great sources of the new and very interesting – the latest big GASP is Pattie Mae’s wearable device with projector, Sixth sense on TED talks. If this is achievable then …

NSWIT, The digest, Talking to learn: Dialogue in the classroom promotes lengthy interactions between a teacher and a student or group of students for collaborative and mutual support, the importance of dialogue and interactions to help students build understanding, explore ideas and develop thinking skills. Well worth a read!

Creativity, imagination and innovation

Anyone caught the interviews with Ken Robinson on ABC, 7:30 report over the last two nights?
Most interesting ideas on driving innovation in education and developing creativity and thinking skills - ideas such as promoting diversity, not conformity and allowing children time to play, socialise, explore and let their imaginations run wild are worth thinking about.

• 7:30 report (16 and 17 June)
  
• TED Ideas worth spreading
  

Forty years on ...

Did you know that it has been forty years since the first moonlanding in 1969! Much has changed since then and some things have stayed the same. It’s worth reflecting on.

For example:

• What sort of educational technology was in place in schools then? How far have we come?
• What content was taught and how was this delivered?

Watch the video of the moonlanding ... and think about:

• What could have happened if NASA forgto the parachute?
• What were the challenges for the astronauts?
• What opportunities were provide for us by the space program?
  

In looking back, it’s quite incredible this was possible in 1969 - space technology was a sharp focus for many years but not so much now - we are much more focused on global issues of climate change and economic crisis.

Times have changed – how are these social changes reflected in education?

What is the role of digital interactive technologies in promoting student learning, particularly in relation to learning with laptops?

Ladies and gentleman - this is our moon shot - let's not screw it up!

Starry messenger

Four hundred years ago, Galileo Galilei stared out into the night sky, very much as the ancients had. However, this was different as Galileo was aided by a powerful instrument – the telescope. Rapid developments in optics technology lead to new and interesting ways of viewing the very small and the very large. And so, this development in technology paved the way to some remarkable and astounding discoveries.

From what he saw, Galileo gained a better understanding of our position in the universe; he discovered craters and mountains on the moon; the existence of Jupiter’s moons; and he saw even more stars out there than we ever thought possible! These discoveries forever changed our view of the world. Like the telescope, laptop computers will influence the education of students for many years to come in all sorts of ways that we are yet to be certain about.

We too live in a rapidly changing world where digital technologies enhance, influence and empower much of what we do. At work, study or play, digital technologies are interwoven in to the very fabric of our lives. Mobile phone, global positioning devices, mp3 players and the internet are just a few examples that are in everyday use.

Within our communities, students and their families expect that interactive digital technologies to be an integral part of school education. NSW public schools are fortunate to have access to the best resources, including interactive classrooms with interactive whiteboards and videoconferencing facilities enabling students to communicate and collaborate within their classroom, between classrooms and beyond extending opportunities for active and interactive participation in a contemporary learning environment.

Now with wireless-enabled laptops being provided over the next four years, our senior students and secondary teachers have the very best information technologies for their educational and working lives.

The Laptops for Learning Program represents an unprecedented and significant investment by the Labor Government in personal learning technologies signaling our entry into the digital education revolution. It is fitting that this revolution coincides with the International Year of Astronomy as we celebrate the birth and achievements of an outstanding human, Galileo.

A rationale for learning with laptops

Human developments are not gradual or smooth; they are punctuated by surges in development such as that experienced in the Bronze Age, the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. These periods are evidenced by rapid advancements in medicine, economics, transportation and agriculture greatly improving knowledge, health and wealth.

Life in the 21st century is engulfed in an explosion of advancements, not just in isolated locations but across our global community. There are many more graduates, many more inventions, we’ve decoded the human genome and we are operating at the nanoscale. And, with growing access to the internet and World Wide Web with increasingly affordable, powerful and portable technologies, many more of us are able to access and contribute to the exponential growth in the world’s knowledge. These developments continue to impact on the education sector through curriculum, pedagogy and educational technologies.
To prepare our students for life, work and study in the 21st century, a period characterised by inconceivable intellectual growth, our students need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to enable understanding, engagement with and contribution to our growth as a civilisation. A modern learning environment should be very different to the time when we were preparing students for an industrial world where mass production guaranteed regularity of pattern and form. This is not what characterises life in the 21st century, where innovation, creativity, problem solving and critical thinking abilities are vital.
Placing a wireless-enabled laptop in the hands of every senior student in our schools will fundamentally and irrevocably change the learning landscape. These laptops will allow students to learn more in a greater variety of ways.
They will enable teachers to draw on the power of the internet and software applications and they can offer all students the chance to write, draw, create, communicate and collaborate - aided by technology. This will contribute to an environment where students are motivated and engaged in learning. And we know that when students are enthusiastic and interested in what they are doing, they can achieve more.

• Students need to develop skills in gathering, selecting and analysing information to engage in deeper knowledge and understanding of fields of study.

An explosion in the generation of new information and, more recently, the ever-improving access to this has meant that the emphasis has shifted from the importance of information itself, to the importance of being skilled in identifying, organising, synthesising and evaluating information. The role of teachers is critical in ensuring our young people can find relevant, accurate information, and extract and organise data and evaluate its usefulness to improving learning outcomes.

• Students need to learn to create content for a particular purpose for an identified audience using appropriate technologies, especially through access to interactive digital technologies.

Users of the World Wide Web can expand their role as consumers to creators of content adding fuel to the information explosion already described. Web tools allow users to easily comment on others’ work and create content for a worldwide audience within minutes. This is changing our position in the world from passive receivers of information to one that is much more participatory where more and more people are able to share their views and engage, more fully, in global citizenship.

In schools, students need access to interactive digital technologies such as personal laptop computers, blog tools, webpage creation software and the internet as tools to assist their participation in this world.
Teachers designing technology-rich lessons, scaffolded learning in a purposeful way will build skills to enable students to interact safely and constructively within online global communities.

• New technologies being introduced in schools will allow students to communicate and collaborate in a greater variety of ways for a range of purposes.

The communication and collaborative capacity of the World Wide Web has changed not only what we do but how we do those things. Scholarship, research, banking and recreation are but a few of the aspects of our modern-day lives that have changed irrevocably. In an educational context, access to digital technologies provides students with a myriad of tools to communicate and collaborate with their peers within and beyond the classroom in ways that may not yet be imagined.

Laptop computers, software applications and the internet are modern-day extensions of pens, paper and a postal system to greatly expand the repertoire of ways students can find information, build knowledge and make connections from the classroom to the world beyond.

• Students need to develop high-level technological capabilities.

Underpinning these strategies is the development of students’ knowledge and skills in information communication technologies (ICT) to ensure successful participation in this learning environment. Teachers have a pivotal role in identifying the ICT demands of their learning area and designing activities that integrate learning about ICT and improving skills in relation to learning about their subject.

• Teachers need to be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to design a technology-rich learning environment to enrich students’ learning

Thorough teacher professional learning supported by innovative ready-to-use curriculum resources is essential in creating learning environments where these technologies will be used by students to learn more in novel and interesting ways.

Teachers are seeking subject-specific training with practical solutions for key learning areas, with a focus on how to utilise the technology in the classroom extending across a range of programs and their applications.

The interrelationship between curriculum, pedagogy and technology is at the core of education in the 21st century. The exploration of the concepts that students might learn better when empowered with laptops and investigating the effect of using laptops on student engagement and achievement is central to an approach to support the Laptops for Learning Program.