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Can I hack it? A reflection on designing digital solutions to authentic problems

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Written by my colleauge, Megan Tubb

I didn’t realise I’d been hacked! After 12 years of teaching highly structured units of work, I found myself teaching in a way that forced me to loosen my grip on the reins of the curriculum. What started as a small discussion with my grade 6 students about the problem of litter in our playground had grown into something so much richer.

My 11 and 12 year old students were: 

  • driving the direction of our learning.
  • thinking of digital solutions to address a real problem in their environment
  • making strong connections to the adults in our local and wider community

The kids were empowered and full of pride! Meanwhile, I was struggling with self-doubt and fear. I had been pushed right out of my comfort zone to face each day with a level of uncertainty. It was innovative. It was challenging. It was exciting.

Could I hack this new way of teaching?

As the world continues to evolve, our education system is lagging behind. We know it is our imperative to develop our students to become active adults, well-equipped to fulfil their potential and find meaningful pathways for their future. Yet for so many teachers it is too threatening to step away from complete control of the direction of learning.

There are educators who are pushing back against old paradigms. Teachers who acknowledge that the old way just isn’t good enough. These teachers know the value of 21st century learning skills. They recognise that in order to equip students with these skills, they need to take a different approach that shifts away from teacher-centred learning. It requires educators to be innovative, creative and brave enough to value students as capable and contributing citizens – key players in the act of learning.

How can we utilise these pockets of innovation within schools to generate cultures of innovation across a whole school? One possible avenue is to draw on the Stanford d School’s principles of “hacking for school improvement”.  ‘Hacking’ has the following characteristics:

  • quick and fast with a bias to act
  • a culture of prototyping (just try)
  • using what we have
  • low risk

This model acknowledges that some teachers can be reluctant to try new ways of doing things because of a need to ‘get it right’. It aims to remove this pressure by grounding innovation in low-risk experiments that value and encourage a bias towards action. According to the Stanford d School:

“Since doing beats talking about doing, we embrace jumping into new, invigorating experiences. Sure, there’s some initial discomfort, but the reward becomes clear as educators stretch beyond their comfort zone to pick up new skills and mindsets.”

By taking a leap of faith and trying something new, rather than waiting for it to be perfect or right, teachers speed up their own learning process. In adopting a fail forward approach, they use their own valuable experiences and reflections to improve the practices they have experimented with.

Leadership at Taroona Primary School saw the initial litter work I was doing with my students. They applied ‘d School’ school improvement hacks to enable, encourage and support me. My experience not only built my personal capacity in the area of authentic learning, it also served as a model for my colleagues.

Pushed by my principal, pulled by my students’ passion, I very quickly came to realise some of the benefits of bravely working in this new space.

Buy in

Students identified litter in the playground washing into the River Derwent as a problem.  The first thing that excited me was that the students were passionately connected to their learning. This created

Students installing the bird feeder they designed to keep currawongs away from rubbish bins

motivation, as they were invested in their efforts and outcomes. I realised that authentic learning is not only ideal for extending highly able students but also for students who are disengaged and difficult to motivate. There was buy in from my whole class!

Students are likely to think laterally, go left of field and dream big, rather than think something isn’t possible.

I had many projects on the go with students. Some worked, some didn’t. But what each project showed me was that with the naturally inquisitive, creative and uninhibited character of children, creatively solving real problems is a gift for teachers. Students are likely to think laterally, go left of field and dream big, rather than think something isn’t possible. And throughout all this, the significant community connections and learning that took place as a result of the journey, cemented my conviction that this was worthwhile, despite the uncertainties and challenges of working in this new way.

Digital Technologies

What also became obvious was the natural fit for digital technologies. Students intuitively considered digital solutions as part of their design-thinking approaches to problems. Our school had recently taken up the challenge of being early adopters of this curriculum area within the primary sector. It was so exciting to see digital technologies being organically applied within the authentic learning process. It brought alive our vision of ‘aligning and enhancing our current work with the digital technologies curriculum’.

My experience therefore served to build personal capacity in the area of authentic learning, as well as serving as a model for my colleagues.

We know from our own experiences that teachers are dedicated and want the best for their students. It’s what drives them to turn up every day. So why then is there a reluctance to adopt a culture of innovation that welcomes authentic learning? Why aren’t all teachers using the genuine and novel problems that exist within schools and communities to provide an opportunity for students to actively contribute as citizens in their own right?

Authentic Learning is Messy

Innovative, authentic learning can be a bit like what it feels like letting your toddler have a playdate with some friends. Even though as a parent you know the benefits of free unstructured child-led play, adults can be reluctant to just let kids go. As an adult, structured activities are easier. The adult knows that the fall-out following child-led play can be messy! And the mess can be both literal and figurative. For those who like to be prepared, organised and in control, this style of learning can be challenging. While pre-teaching and scaffolds are a critical part of the journey and are a requirement for student success, the open-ended nature of authentic learning means that it is not always predictable, the progress can be slow and the outcomes are often unknown.

Like a child led playdate, authentic learning in a school setting provides genuine opportunities for creativity, collaboration, communication and innovation in a way that could never be achieved in a highly structured, adult-centred environment.

Many teachers like the comfort of having content areas mapped out for the year in neatly-defined lessons.  They may justify their reluctance to relinquish control by claiming loss of curriculum coverage. Yet the curriculum is firmly at the centre, incorporated in every aspect of the authentic learning journey. Will everything you try work? No. Will the failures be frustrating? Absolutely. The difference is, authentic learning allows the curriculum to come to life through the actions of engaged, contributing citizens who are making their mark within their school, community or beyond.

It is no longer an option to see schools as places that prepare students for “the real world”.  We ARE the real world!

Hilary Purdie and I are presenting two sessions together at the Leading a Digital School Conference being held in Melbourne at the Crown Promenade Hotel on 8, 9 and 10 August 2019. Our sessions are Bias to action – using hacks to create a culture of innovation and Pump your PL – why mindset alone is not enough for teacher transformation, please come and join us.

 

Abandoning ‘The Age of Manufacture’ concept: How collaboration works for learners and teachers.

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Finding your passion changes everything

 In his book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, (2009) Ken Robinson writes  “Students are educated in batches, according to age, as if the most important thing they have in common is their date of manufacture.”

Children all around the world are growing up in villages where the “date of their manufacture” has never been considered. Children enjoy opportunities and experiences based on their interests and their needs. However, throughout much of the developed world, this is not the case. At some point in our history, the idea of ‘schools’ was born and the industrial model was applied. Children of similar age were placed in rooms, provided with information (inputs) and then tested on their ability to remember this information (outputs). They were taken out of their learning environments and placed in schools and classrooms but for what purpose?

These are the kinds of wonderings that have niggled at me for a number of years. I have taught in classrooms where students were grouped by age, I’ve taught in small country schools were siblings, cousins, children of all ages learned and played together. I am a parent of three children and at no point could I say “well you are 10 and at 10 all children must be ….. or do ….” My children learned to walk, talk, read, write, ride a bike, cook at different ages. Their needs could not easily be correlated to their “age of manufacture”.

I have been principal of Paekākāriki School since October 2015. In that time we have implemented a school structure that helps students find collaborative learning and playing opportunities with children of a variety of ages. Our systems enable teachers and leaders to be collaborative in their everyday practice. Our process started with extensive community consultation in 2016 and we began the 2017 school year with multi-level classes in collaborative learning environments.

Paekākāriki is a small village and it was important to us that our school reflected the village values and philosophies. It no longer seemed right for us to separate children based on their age, these were children who joined clubs and sports teams with younger and older peers, they played with others in their neighbourhood based on similar interests, not a similar age. We carefully planned out how this could be actioned within our school setting, a setting that still had a very traditional physical layout. We began 2017 with 3 learning areas; our first area is aimed at supporting transition into school for our 4 – 5 year olds and their families, the second space is for those more settled into school (typically years 2 – 4), and the third space is for the students in Year 5 – 8. Students work in these spaces with a number of teachers based on needs and interests. Some students and their families took to the changes quickly and with ease, for others it has been a more difficult process as change can be very uncomfortable. Families are given the option of having siblings join the same ‘whānau’ class or to be separated – there has been an appreciation for this choice and families are able to do what works best for them. Regardless of the decision, a family has made we will often see siblings sitting together to share ideas, discuss a problem or even just reading together.

Adjusting to this new way of working provided challenges for many families and learners. Spending time educating our community about how this works on a day to day basis has been important. Students are now reporting higher levels of enjoyment of school, they have more flexibility over their learning programmes as they are not having to wait for others, they can move on and work with other students as needed. Being exposed to a wider range of skills and opinions is also helpful. There is a sense that behaviour is calmer as students know and understand others better.

A key factor that led us to implement this approach was the recognition of the importance of relationships for the learner and the stress and anxiety that can be caused when students transition from one class/teacher to another every year. Our students transition between learning areas twice in the 8 years they are with us. Over their 8 years, they will learn in 3 main learning areas forming relationships with 3 key teachers, known as ‘whanau teachers’. Families also build strong relationships with teachers – everyone develops strong relationships and a deeper knowledge and understanding of one another. We have experienced more settled starts and less downtime at the start of the new year meaning that the learning is picked more quickly and progress is faster.

Teaching teams required more time together to plan and problem solve so we had to make some changes to our meeting schedules to enable this to happen. Staff have worked collaboratively to overcome some of the challenges associated with reporting to parents, communication, timetabling and meeting a diverse range of student needs. We have used a variety of digital tools to achieve this, however, we still recognise the value of face to face communication and sharing information.

This is an ongoing process for us as we seek to continually modify our systems and processes. Paekākāriki School is situated in a village, we embrace the philosophy that “it takes a village to raise a child” and we enjoy working and learning collaboratively as a group of learners with individual needs, where our ‘age of manufacture’ is not the thing that determines our daily pattern.

Come along and meet me at the Leading a Digital School Conference where I will be presenting on this subject along with a session called Barefoot Learner Capabilities: How we are developing competencies for the real world.

No ordinary digital technology conference

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As you would expect in a climate where the use of digital technology is gaining traction in all of our schools, digital technology conferences and other digital technology professional learning flourish. The choice for school leaders and teachers is huge.
When it comes to embracing what it takes to lead a digital school two critical ingredients must be readily accessible to the leader:
An understanding of and experience in leading staff to achieve superior digital technology outcomes for themselves and their students

An understanding of the crowded digital technology product space and the ways digital technology can best be employed to advance teaching and learning.

The Leading a Digital School Conference addresses both of these critical ingredients ensuring that it rightfully takes its place as “no ordinary digital technology conference”.
The Leadership
Attend the conference to immerse yourself in contemporary leadership issues and environments. Hear from your colleagues who are successfully grappling with the contemporary challenges that school leadership must address. Reflect on the models of leadership that can position your school as a leading digital school striving to provide that competitive advantage for your teachers and students. Network with and learn from schools that are leading digital programs from the top, through synergistic team leadership and through powerful grassroots influence.

The Technology
One of the biggest challenges a school leader faces is keeping up with the rapidly evolving technology available to them so that the digital programs they lead are cutting edge and relevant with high educational value.
Attend this conference to take the opportunity to explore among other things how global networks and emergent connective technologies empower learning communities; appreciate the power of iPads as a learning tool; explore practical strategies of how to share innovative practice across a school and scale projects for a global audience; discover the various programs, networks and agencies that can assist with protecting your students’ online presence and identity; see how simple robots can create deeper connections across your curriculum, support developmental play, inspire deep learning and thinking and enhance and extend problem solving; discuss how to use social media to interact with students, engage parents and promote your school to the world; ask questions about data and the educational value of data collection; consider the positive effects of disruptive technologies and much more.
Special Feature – Jukes and Mohan Program
A special feature of the conference in 2017 is the Jukes and Mohan program, a 3 day program included within the Leading a Digital School Conference. It will provide a very attractive choice for many delegates.
Three (3) workshops (Leadershift: Renewing Schools for Modern Times; Disruptive Innovation in Education; and Creating Significant Learning Environments) presented by Ian Jukes and Nicky Mohan have been developed in partnership with Lamar University (USA.) Participants can choose to attend purely for professional development to enhance their own practice; or they can utilize attendance at this PD to begin the process of completing the course requirements for a Masters of Education. This model, which is a perfect fit for busy educators, has been carefully designed so that it seamlessly integrates into your daily practice.
Learn more
If you wish to learn more about what it takes to lead in a digital school in today’s challenging educational climate, why not attend the Leading a Digital School Conference to be held at the QT Hotel, Gold Coast on 17, 18 and 19 August 2017? For more information and to register go to: www.ereg.me/digital17

Flipped learning growing at pace globally

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All the signs are indicating that flipped learning is a teaching and learning phenomenon gaining rapid and strong traction globally.
Flipped learning is not complex if we focus on Jon Bergmann’s 5 essential core principles:
     Thinking
Time
Training
Technology
Simplicity.
Flipped learning requires a radical redefinition of the role of the teacher, the student and the best use of time between them.

Successful migration to the flipped learning model requires an investment of time. This means support from school administrators and school leaders is pivotal.
Successful implementation of flipped learning requires a mastery of the pedagogy and best practices of the flipped classroom.
Technology is central to flipped learning. Identifying the right technology, the right technology providers and securing the necessary technical training are vital.
In the end, successful flipped learning comes down to fostering more productive relationships between students and teachers and keeping the process simple.



With these 5 essential core principles at the fore of his work, Jon Bergmann is very successfully taking flipped learning global.  Around the world, increasing numbers of teachers and school leaders are flipping their classes. Jon’s goal is to help spread flipped learning’s best thinking, best practices and best technologies worldwide.
FlipCon Australia 2017 will contribute to this global movement. It is a national conference embracing flipped learning. Emerging and established flipped educators will attend this concentrated high touch, hands-on event. No prior experience in flipping a class or school is needed. When delegates return to their school after attending, they will have the skills, knowledge and passion to start or continue to cultivate a learner centred classroom and get to know their students better.
At the conference experienced flipped educators will share their knowledge, experience and skills with their colleagues offering beginner and masterclass streams and sessions focussed on: making flipped resources; pedagogy and best practice; subject specific flipping; assessment and flipping; scaling up; research; flipping a lesson; and learning outside the classroom.
Jon Bergmann is one of the pioneers in the flipped class movement after successfully flipping his own classroom and sharing the teaching model with other educators. Jon will be one of the keynote speakers at the conference.

Join Jon and other teachers experienced and not so experienced in flipped learning, at FlipCon Australia 2017. We look forward to meeting you at the host school – Inaburra School, Sydney, NSW on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 October 2017.

For further information about FlipCon Australia 2017 go to: http://www.ereg.me/FlipConAUS

Social media and its place in the classroom

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Do you need to be wary about using social media in the classroom? Probably, but we argue that this should not be an impediment. You will ignore social media in the classroom at your peril. If you aren’t going to teach your students to communicate online, then they will do it themselves in their own way without valuable guidance from you. Is this desirable? No!

Social media is another tool that you can use to make your classroom more engaging, relevant and culturally diverse – making learning irresistibly engaging, attractive, seductive, pervasive and sophisticated for all.
Exciting times

There is plenty of evidence to demonstrate that teaching with Twitter creates a classroom of emboldened students. Students who are not outspoken in class seem to love the chance to make their voices heard without having to actually speak. Twitter encourages questions that may have never been asked by students who would not dare to ask them – a fantastic opportunity to change the dynamics of the classroom and engage many more students in personal and meaningful learning.

Social media is a common sense way to keep parents informed. Schools are always looking for ways to bring parents into the classroom and to include them in their child’s learning. This is not an easy task to achieve as parents are time poor and have plenty of other things to do. But believe us, parents are very interested in how things are progressing. Newsletters are fine but a bit impersonal and frankly “old hat”. Set up a blog,get some discipline going in posting to it, get the parents engaged in commenting on your posts and the sooner you know it you will have built another dimension into your teaching, and you, your students and their parents will be the richer for it. Quick, easy, interactive feedback is gold to a dedicated teacher.


School projects have grown a new life and brought new meaning because of social media. Kids can now create projects that are polished, vibrant, dynamic, interactive, and their learning shared with the world. Facebook is so much more than vapid status updates. Take for example a Facebook project where your students use Facebook to follow politicians. If your class is studying the current election, using Facebook to follow politicians on the local, state, and national scale brings a reality and authenticity to the lesson that far surpasses how you might have otherwise tackled the topic. You can even ask students to interact with the candidates, posting questions and getting feedback.

Pinning with Pinterest! This is an easy medium for your students to share likes and interests by posting or “pinning” to their own or others’ boards, images and videos usually with a common theme. This is a perfect way for them to dig deep, focus, explore, grow and refine an interest. This is the stuff of forming and feeding life-long passions and hobbies. This social network has a visual orientation which attracts another type of learner. It is very much focused on the concept of a person’s lifestyle, allowing one to share tastes and interests with others and discovering those of likeminded people – quite a social and sophisticated learning experience for your students wouldn’t you agree?

With Google Hangouts kids communicate by video. Up to 10 people at one time can “hangout” in a virtual room. The experience can be as simple or as complex as needed by the task. All your students need is a Google account. Great for connecting classrooms. Imagine a group of primary students spread across different countries participating in a weekly book club meeting, to discuss the book that has been assigned for reading. This is a powerful opportunity for students to understand different cultural perspectives and build tolerance for difference in a world that surely needs it.

Emboldened students, greater parental participation, real authentic learning, awareness of passions and lifestyles and cultural perspective and tolerance – this is what social media offers!

What precautions do you need to take?

These examples of social media in action in the classroom are exciting, inspirational and have great educational potential. Let’s now turn to the things that should happen or should never happen!

When teaching with social media you will want to be confident that you have the privacy issues sorted. Train your students to check all privacy settings and have them articulate the implications of setting privacy settings in the way that they have chosen.



Also pay attention to assisting students to:
  • Manage their passwords
  • Always assume that everyone in the world will be able to see what they write even if the site limits their posts to friends exclusively – it is important that that they understand this standard for posting
  • Be vigilant about cyber imposters
  • Be responsible global citizens.

K-12 Digital Classroom Practice Conference
The K-12 Digital Classroom Practice Conference provides a fantastic opportunity to explore the digital technology terrain suitable for using in your teaching in your classroom, including using social media. You have an amazing choice!

If you are just getting started in teaching seriously with digital technology, or you have considerable expertise, you will walk away from this conference with great ideas to take up in your teaching.

A special feature of the conference is the spotlight on social media: the good; the bad; the must dos; and the never do!

The social media up for discussion include: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest, Google Hangouts, Edmodo, Blogs and Wikis, LinkedIn, Padlet, Voicethread, Podcasts.

Learn about using social media in your teaching, and be ready to share what you know.

Register for the K-12 Digital Classroom Practice Conferencenow at: www.ereg.me/k12dcp