Moodle as a tool for Innovation

Hi everyone

I thought I could talk about moodle as a tool for an innovative teacher as well as a tool for a teacher to innovate. I’d like to look at how a learning management system like moodle figures into the 13 codes for pedagogical roles of teachers.

T1 – Explain or present information – moodle is used as a digital cupboard for useful readings, interesting videos, guiding presentations. In fact, information organization lends itself to automatic understanding on the part of the student, with little explanation required from the teacher on how information is organized. The teacher can focus on the content and on encouraging debates since moodle handles the task of presenting the information.

T2 – Give task instruction – in my class, the teacher sets a central weekly reading and discussion questions around that reading. Task instruction is very simple, straightforward and the teacher doesn’t spend very long on explaining the tasks to the students. Again, moodle seems to afford great convenience to a teacher in terms of managing the more administrative tasks related to teaching.

T3 – Monitor students’ task progression – because the discussion forums are so well set up and embedded inside moodle, students upload all of their individual as well as collaborative work onto moodle. The teacher can scan through the discussion forums to see that students are on the right track. Also, the use of bush graphs to show connections between student performance (grading is also possible on moodle) and student activity can help a teacher identify which students are doing badly and why.

T4 – Assess students – Moodle allows for peer assessment, so the burden for part of the grading can definitely (and personally I feel like it should) be delegated to the students. Using a standardized rating system, students can rate each others’ work. The teacher obviously still does the majority of the grading but this system makes students more conscious of each others’ work.

T5 – Provide learning support to students – Moodle allows for private dialogue between students and teachers so that students who are lagging can be supported separately from the rest of the class. In general also, constant monitoring of student responses to discussion questions allows the teacher to provide support to students who may not be doing as well as they should be.

T8 – Select ICT tools – Obviously moodle allows for a range for ICT apps that can be used in education. RSS feeds – subject related news from around the world on same page as course, videos, images, pdfs, charts, tables, links – everything in one space.

T9 – Support students’ inquiry process – Wikispaces on Moodle: students collaborate on drafting answers together. Discussion Forums: students ask each other questions to deepen their understanding. Glossary and definitions – students come up with definitions for words/phrases used in class.

T10 – Co teaching – Moodle allows for collaboration between teachers – same subject teaching (like Peter and Bob for instance). Both teachers can provide their inputs and make the experience generally richer for all students.

T11 – Support team building of students – Since moodle is available 24/7, students can work together outside of class, Forums like notice boards, discussions, chatrooms are meeting points for students and teachers. Especially the quieter students will often participate more in chatrooms than they would out loud.

Using Electronic Games in Classroom

(I will use T1-13 to indicate the 13 pedagogical rules in the following)

Electronic games(e-games, video games, online games) are always attractive to children. Especially these days, lots of portable devices are released, says, smartphone, tablets, etc. It lead to a rapid development to the electronics entertainment industry.

Though children/teenagers love electronic games so much, most parents and teachers usually do not like it. One main reason is that they think that e-games would distract children from study and make them be so isolated from the real world. Is it really true? The answer, of course, is No. In Hong Kong, there are certain schools do not be reluctant to e-games, instead, they provide e-games and encourage students to play the e-games. Teachers would ask students play the "RPG"(role-play game) provided by the schools network.(T5) The RPG may include several subjects, using MC, matching, pictures, etc to ask students to finish some "quests".(T1, T2) If students can accomplish those quests(T4), their avatars in the RPG will be level-up. So that students can have more accessories for their avatars. It encourages students to self-learn and teachers can also check students' progress.(T3)

In this kind of learning, teachers change their role from assessor to facilitator. In the past, teachers might encounter a problem that students did not have the motivation to learn or teachers could not find a better way to draw students' attention in the class. But with e-games students can be excited when playing games; they can also interact more with their classmates and teachers, as a result students can also gain social skills. Moreover, students can get information from different topics. Teachers can easily provide any content they want in the e-games. In such case, teachers do not the only one who teach students, but students also teach themselves from the games. It is a good example of self-learning.

There are some examples showing how electronic games(T5, T8, T11) are adopted in classroom and what teachers would do.

1. Nintendo DS Plays It's Part In The Classroom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-_7c1VOMT4

2. Schoolteacher Ananth Pai Brings Video Games to the Classroom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6KCgZY-7HU

3. Wii Fit Class of 30 doing hula hoops together in new PE class

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA6u5vCot_o

(T6, T7, T11, T13)

Further reading:

1. Eric Klopfer, Scot Osterweil, and Katie Salen (2009), moving learning games forward
2. Elaine Pearson and Chris Bailey (2007), Evaluating the potential of the Nintendo Wii to support disabled students in education
3. http://www.ted.com/talks/johnny_lee_demos_wii_remote_hacks.html (turn a $40 video game controller into a digital whiteboard, a touchscreen and a head-mounted 3-D viewer)
4. http://www.kinecteducation.com/ (open-source community using Kinect, a motion sensor gaming device, in education)

Transformer QR code

Innovative Practice - Mobile learning

Posted by Kevin Tsang

In definition by MOBllearn., Mobile learning is: Any sort of learning that happens when the learner is not at a fixed, predetermined location, or learning that happens when the learner takes advantage of the learning opportunities offered by mobile technologies. In the recent years, mobile phone becomes more and more popular and mobile technologies had been developed very fast. In Hong Kong, about 99% of people carried at least one mobile phone and about 70% of Hong Kong people have a smart phone that the mobile phone can access internet for multipurpose. Those users can use their mobile devises to interact with portable technologies and learning that reflects a focus on how society and its educational institutions can accommodate and support users. An advantages of mobile learning is that it is accessible anywhere, it can be collaborative and constructive, we can share a huge of information to others, teacher act their role as facilitator which can be give instant feedback and evaluation. Moreover, mobile learning can also provide learning materials in very small boxes that can be easier to create innovative practice in school, learning materials including text book, presentation materials, animation, simulation and internet search.

QR code

One innovative practice by using mobile learning is the application of QR code. QR is the abbreviated from Quick Response, which is similar to bar code but QR code is much more fast readability and comparatively large storage capacity.

One example of using QR code is an international school teacher which is teaching mathematic in Grade 7 students. The lesson is about cardinal direction, teacher prepare QR codes in somewhere of the campus, and ask students form a groups to finish the task. The task is like orientation, At the starting point, students have to scan the QR code by using mobile devices, some questions about Cardinal direction will be asked, if students answer correctly, next check point will shown. Students than have competition to see which group is faster.
I think this is very interesting for student and motivate them to learn.



There are two more innovative practice examples in youtube:

Using QR Codes in the Classroom

QR Codes: Applications in Education


MLearning can create new ideas of teacher to think more about teaching and learning and generate innovative practices.

New Collaboration Platform

We created a google site for our group project and discussion. Please take a look:
https://sites.google.com/site/icttransformers/home

Use the edit button (top right hand corner) to make changes.

Interacting with students through FB

FB is a new thing to myself, mind you but I really started 'actively FBing' for just a little bit more than one year. I never thought of FBing with my students, due to the privacy issues and well, students sometimes post things on FB that as a teacher you'd rather not see it.

This idea of FBing with students was actually suggested by the students of my class, they created an FB group for the class and invited me to join. I didn't want to reveal my 'real' FB account to them, so I registered a new one. The students also know that, but they didn't mind.

Since I am also teaching them science, I decided to occasionally upload some interesting pictures, videos and links to useful websites that may help them learn. The students welcomed what I did and I am also glad to see from their comments that the links added motivation to their learning.

Therefore starting from last month, I decided to make FB groups for the other subjects that I teach, compared to groups for class, less activities happen in pure groups for subjects. Students seem to prefer asking me questions through private messages instead of posting their questions in the group, if a question that is worth discussing came by, I will put the question into the group and invite for some discussion, however this usually doen't work very well and I eventually had to answer the question myself.

I think the FB idea changed my role as a teacher in the way that I became more accessible to the students, it also granted me a very convenient way to share resources with my students, which used to be quite tedious and even paper-costly before we had FB. Students are also more willing to ask questions because doing so in FB seems to be less threatening to them, compared to that you have to wait for the teacher outside the staff room.

In order to be able to utilize FB in a better way, I am thinking of using it as a formative assessment tool to several of my classes, I think the idea works somehow similar to what we are doing now in this MITE course, which is to ask students to post something related to their learning on FB regularly. Some self-assessment and peer-assessment tools can also be posted on FB so that the students can try making use of them out of the classroom setting.

NEW Blogging Platform

We created a google site for our group project and discussion. Please take a look:
https://sites.google.com/site/icttransformers/home

Analyze case study in exploring challenges and success factors for innovation in Education, reflect the issues and make references to Joyce’s comments:

I looked at this case study in terms of three questions: 1. What was innovative?, 2. Why it worked and 3. What were the issues? - Through a bubbl.us 'map'. Please let me know if this is difficult to read...and I am happy to post text.

What do you see are the major reasons for innovation failure and success in education?

What do you see are the major reasons for innovation failure and success in education?

I agree with Dennis and Zachary that whether innovations in education fail or succeed depends a lot on the actors involved - teachers, administrators, parents and students.

Often teachers get so caught up in finishing the curriculum that there is little time for them to think of innovating. In a traditional classroom (the ones I have seen in Indonesia/India) people are suspicious of 'new-fangled' ideas. They just want kids to score well on exams and not be 'distracted'. While creativity is encouraged in the younger classes, as children get older, the education system 'streamlines' them, conditions them for the world. Of course the interesting thing to note is that in today's world, Innovators are doing well, and the rest are just following them. To change the way we educate, there has to be a collective buy-in from all actors involved. This is really hard to get. Perhaps because schools are naturally more democratic than private businesses, that change is slow to take root.

In terms of successful innovation: I can't think of a school. But someone I know started a business. In Jakarta, Indonesia, there is a massive traffic problem - to the extent that it can take you 2 hours to cover 10 km!!! My friend started a motorbike taxi business, but he didn't buy his on motorbikes, he just organized the already existent motorbike taxis under his company's umbrella. He started GPS tracking and a call center to take orders (just like ordering a cab). The motorbike taxis also deliver groceries and other items. His company was recently recognized in the Global Entrepreneurship Program conference in Bali and I know he's got angel investors who want to invest in his business. It's a case of him solving a problem in a simple way, with existing resources. It's also a small company, all friends, and they think alike.

Group Blog activities Session 2

Analyze case study in exploring challenges and success factors for innovation in Education, reflect the issues and make references to Joyce’s comments:

Key Reference:

Wycoff, J. (2004). The big ten innovation killers and how to keep your innovation system alive and well. Retrieved on 29th September, 2011 http://www.innovationnetwork.biz/library/BigTenInnovationKillers.htm

Case Study: DE014 Promoting Team Potential in the project "Economy and Schools" and Acquiring Key Qualifications for Entering Jobs

Background Infomation

The Innovation is carried out in the senior grade of a grammar school of a small town. The school with its approximately 730 students and 56 members of the teaching staff has a large catchment area due to the area's rather rural nature. The majority of the students come from families without any social problems. A special emphasis is laid on the new media in the school. Computers and the Internet are frequently integrated into the normal lessons. In addition, the "multimedia centre" with the "Open Channel", the library and the "district's education centre" are located on the school premises as well. In the school much emphasis is laid on the globalisation of the school, which can be seen in the several projects progressing during and outside the lessons. One of these projects is the economy project, which provides not only an insight into economic relationships but also some help in dealing with the new media.

Group Project

Assessment Task :

Group Work (50%) Ongoing assessment. Final submission 6 December, 2011

Individuals within a Group select a case from the research-based SITES-M2 study to analyze innovative practice at the classroom and the school level. Groups then identify recent examples of IT-based innovative practices (eg the use of Facebook to teach science classes in secondary schools). Case analyses in each group will then be combined and compared to address and discuss a selection of the following questions:

1. Nature of the innovation
   • Why are these practices considered innovative?
   
2. Similarities and differences
   • How are these practices similar and different from one to another?
   
3. Success criteria
   • To what extent have these practices transformed aspects of learning and teaching?
   
4. Contextual Factors
   • What contextual factors are associated with these innovative practices?
   
5. Sustainability and transferability
   • What practices appear to support more sustainable and transferable change? And why, at the classroom and school levels?

Each group will develop an e-portfolio of work associated with their case studies. The e-portfolio should include analysis of the case studies, links to research on innovation and relevant resources in a repository as well as engagement in activities online to address questions about innovative practices.

Students will be marked on the quality of their contributions in the e-portfolio to:

(a) Individual and group completion of weekly activities

(b) Individual and group case study analyses, links to related research, models and resources, presentations and feedback on the case study work and those of the group;

(c) Critical reflections in relation to the integration of innovative practice and change concepts and models; and

(d) Demonstration of active individual participation in group work as well as engagement in reflecting on other groups’ work.

MITE6310 Key References and Resources

1. Anderson, R.E. (2002) (Ed.). Special Issue: International case studies of innovative uses of ICT in schools, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18(4), pp. 381-502.
2. Christensen, C. M. (1997). The innovator's dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
3. Dowling, C., & Lai, K. (2003). Information and Communication Technology and the Teacher of the Future, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
4. Hargreaves, A., & Goodson, I. (2006). Educational change over time? The sustainability and nonsustainability of three decades of secondary school change and continuity. Educational Administration Quarterly, 42(1), 3.
5. Kozma, R. (2003) (Ed.). Technology, Innovation, and Educational Change: A Global Perspective, ISTE.
6. Law, N., Pelgrum, W. J., & Plomp, T. (Eds.). (2008). Pedagogy and ICT in schools around the world: findings from the SITES 2006 study. Hong Kong: CERC and Springer.
7. Law, N., Yuen, H.K., Ki, W.W., Li, S.C., Lee, Y., & Chow, Y. (2000) (Eds.). Changing Classrooms & Changing Schools, Hong Kong: CITE. Retrieved on 6 September, 2011 from http://sites-old.cite.hku.hk/index_eng.htm
8. Law, N., Yuen, H.K., & Fox, R. (2011). Educational Innovations Beyond Technology: nurturing leadership and establishing learning organizations. New York: Springer. Retrieved on 6 September, 2011 from http://www.springerlink.com/content/v12347/#section=841804&page=1&locus=0
9. Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108, 1017-1054.
10. Rogers, E.M. (2003). Diffusion of Innovations, 5th Ed., NY: Free Press.
11. Rowe, A.J. (2004). Creative Intelligence: Discovering the Innovative Potential in Ourselves and Others, NJ: Pearson-Prentice Hall.
12. Shavinina, L.V. (Ed.) (2005). The International Handbook on Innovation, Oxford: Pergamon.
13. Spence, W.R. (1994). Innovation: The Communication of Change in Ideas, Practices and Products, London: Chapman & Hall.
14. Technology Enhanced Learning at HKU. http://tel.cite.hku.hk/
15. Venezky, R.L., & Davis, C. (2002). Quo Vademus? The Transformation of Schooling in a Networked World, OECD. Retrieved on 6 September, 2011 from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/48/20/2073054.pdf
16. Zhao, Y., & Frank, K. (2003). Factors Affecting Technology Uses in Schools: An Ecological Perspective. American Educational Research Journal, 40, 807-840.

Innovation Killers in Education

From my experience, those "killers" come from 1) teacher, 2) student, 3) school.

Teachers play an important role in education since teachers are the one who teach/transfer knowledge to students and help students avoiding making mistakes from experience. Belief of teachers is the most challenge. If teachers don’t want to carry out something new, it is no way to let students get something new. It may appear amount some “success-teachers”. They are the teachers whose students are getting good results in school/public examination. The success-teachers sometimes think it is useful using their original teaching style, why bother changing it into something they do not be so familiar? It may be the first reason. The other reason is that the success-teachers face lots of pressure from the parents/schools. Schools/parents expect student to get an excellent result; if the teachers adopt innovation in their teaching (that means they have to change their styles), students’ good result can’t be quarantined. So teachers may not be willing to take such risk that they may lose their job.

Students may also face similar problem like teachers, especially secondary/universities students. They have already developed their own learning styles and some may not really want to change their habits. Besides, students usually focus on homework (workload). For example, in blended learning, students are encouraged to discuss on internet forum and to share anything related to the courses. Actually it is good for students to learn much more, but, in fact, they may not agree that. They may feel uncomfortable because it is an endless homework for them.

School culture also affects the trend of education. I have met a situation. There are two schools which cultures are totally different. In school A, the principal is very interested in using new technologies but the school teachers are very reluctant to that. In school B, the teachers are happy to change but the principal do not believe that it is not necessary to have innovation in the school. In both cases, innovation cannot be carried out.

Zachary

What do you see are the major reasons for innovation failure and success in education?

In a school that I used to serve two years ago, there was an issue that was brought out every year at the year-end staff meeting, which is to make use of the e-class system to allow students to apply for extra-curricular activities (ECA). Traditionally, the students had to fill in forms in papers and hand them in to class monitors, the class monitors then sorts them and hand in the forms to the corresponding ECA teachers. The ECA teachers will then need to verify each student's application, or to decide which students' application to reject. They eventually generates a list which is posted on the office notice board for the students to check. Such traditional practice uses a lot of paper and takes a very long time. Collecting the forms from each students is a tedious task already, and sorting them by hand sometimes cause error and will waste even more time. The call to use the e-class system was supposed to solve these problems as all the transactions can be done online and man-made errors can then be reduced. However for several years this suggestion had been turned down by most of the teachers in the staff meeting. The major reason for not using this technology is that the teachers are not confident enough to use the system, They did not believe that using the e-class system is going to save them time, but thinks that it will cost them more time to learn how to use the new system. Therefore they feel more comfortable sticking to the old method which they already got used to, including the old problems that they already got used to meet.

I think one of the major reasons for innovation failure in education is it is very difficult to change teachers' beliefs. If the teachers were not convinced that an innovation is going to help them, they tend to become very reluctant to try it out. I think one of the ways to increase the chance of success of innovation is to create more chance of success experience for teachers. And certainly this needs to be done along with enough training and coaching in order to make sure that the teachers have enough skills and feel comfortable with using the innovative practice. Afterall teachers can always challenge innovative practices by saying 'if my old way could get the job done, why should I consider doing it the new way?' And that I believe, is one of the major obstacle to innovation success in education.

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Dennis Chan

My expectation and my experience on Innovation

Hi, everyone, I am Zachary.

I am a software engineer that often manage some web-based system projects.

Some of that are educational systems, such as, e-Learning, e-Testing. Through these projects, I find that it is really hard to introduce IT, or innovation to the schools. Coz some of the schools do not really believe what IT can benefit to both the teachers and students. And they just use some old-style teaching/learning. I am not sure it is the best way for education.

Some teachers believe IT and innovation can help students to learn. But the problem is that they don't really know what technologies/tools they can use, and also they are too busy to design something that students are interested in.

Therefore, I want to develop something new to help teachers and students.

Kevin - Identify one example from your group of an educational ICT-innovation and it’s impact on practice

I am a local secondary school teacher. In my school, many ICT facilities were set up in this academic year, including iPad2, net books, notebook for teachers, and interactive white board. Our school hopes that students can learn in more interactive and collaborative way by using those facilities. In summer time, All teacher needed to back to school to have training course on how to use those ICT facilities. In the coming new academic year, some of the teachers who is younger and more enthusiastic have more power and generate more innovative ideas to use those ICT materials, just like role play games; online competitions, discussion in forum etc. while most of the teachers who is elder and more ‘sustainable’, they feel very worried and wondered on how to use ICT facilities. They like chalk and talk and they thrust they can teach the best students in the public exam.

I am the one who want to make use of those ICT materials on teaching and learning. In this year, I try to setup a google site for my students, create various chat room and discussion forum for student learning. I give up using powerpoint that provided by educational press and make my own teaching material that compatible with interactive white board.

During the lesson, I found that I started to change my educational pedagogy. In my lesson planning, I have to consider students’ activities rather than teaching content, because I want students to use those ICT materials, I want them try more and construct the knowledge by themselves. Although it is very time consuming, students evaluate that the lesson they take is interesting and meaningful. I believe that I am going on the right track.

My expectation of MITE 6310

Hi, I am Kevin Tsang, A local secondary school teacher who teaching science and infomation technology. In my preious teaching and learning experience, chock and talk is a formal teaching pedagogy for all local teacher. No doubt that, it is an effective way of getting high mark for public examination. But it is so Boring for students and not a good way for low motivational students. In order to generate more new ideas to change my teaching and learning concept, learning new pedagogy which can suitable for new generation. Make teaching practice more interactive and engaging is my goal to learn in this course. Hpoe we can generate more ideas in the coming lesson. ^_^

Megha - Introduction + Example

Hi everyone,

I've lived in Indonesia for over 20 years and for the last five 've worked for the Education Unit at the World Bank as well as for the statistical unit at UNESCO Bangkok, for a year.

My work involves a lot of interaction with policy makers at the national level. I'm doing the Masters because I want to be more informed about ICT in Education, and I want to be able to share my knowledge with policy makers in Indonesia and in other developing countries.

Example of ICT innovation:
I've just uploaded a couple of videos on youtube. The videos are of real classrooms in Indonesia.
1. Teacher using a computer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr_3Df6gJ44
2. Teacher using a blackboard - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Vw7MIsrk4

I think the one in which the teacher is using the computer and the projector, I find the students are much more engaged, they are laughing and paying more attention. In the one where the teacher has his back turned to the class the entire time to write on the board, the students are quiet and maybe even asleep!

In this case, technology definitely affords the teacher to ability to improve his interaction with the students. He has to prepare for the lesson before class (which saves time during class for actually teaching, unlike the teacher with the blackboard who spends most of his time just writing on the board). I think this is an example of technology changing teaching practice.

Your thoughts are most welcome.

Introducing myself

My name is Dennis, I am currently having my second year in my M.Ed.(Sci Ed.) studies. I chose this module as one of my electives because I would like to see what new practices are out there which I could possibly apply in my own classroom in order to engage my students in a better way. Its nice to meet you all.

Just to say hi

Hi, I am Kevin.

This is the first time I am using Blogging.

I have to spend some time to explore the functions of this stuff.

Nice to met you.