Mandala Maker

Yesterday during an INSET day, we were treated to an informative session from Jane Simister on active learning techniques we can employ with our students. As is my wont, when each activity was introduced, I couldn’t help thinking how ICT might be employed … not that that would always be appropriate or desirable.

One of the techniques helpful in drawing out the essential significant points in a topic is using a Mandala; a framework to scaffold students’ interrogation of what they know. These can be completed independently or in pairs/groups. Using a blank Mandala, the central topic is written in the core, then sub-topics in the next ring and so forth, gradually teasing out the important points which describe the topic as a whole. Useful as a revision technique; useful for planning extended writing activities.

On the fantastic Classtools website, Russell Tarr has an interactive Mandala creator, although described there as a Target diagram, and this completed version gives you an idea of what a finished product might look like:

Click here for larger version

Useful though that is, it has the drawback of a fixed number of sectors which might not be appropriate for all topics. Having been unsuccessful in finding anything which might address that, I wondered if it might be possible to create my own customisable Mandala creator. Since it look very similar to the doughnut charts found in Excel, it was to that that I turned. After a little mental huffing and puffing I got to something which works.

Mandala Template Generator

By inputting the number of sectors you want in each ring, a blank chart template is automatically created which can then be printed off for writing onto … or for the more adept, maybe even annotating on screen. What I couldn’t quite figure out was how to have different numbers of sub-sections in different segments, if you needed it. As it stands, the finished product will always be symmetrical.

So there’s your challenge: how might this be adapted to increase its flexibility? I’ve left the sheet which performs all the calculations visible if you want to interrogate and/or adapt that … or maybe you have a slicker method?

Am I now digitally literate?

I like pomegranates … but I rarely buy them. I see them on the counter in the shop, am tempted for a moment, but then remember the zen-like patience needed to extract the delicious little jewels at the rate of a few morsels per minute. Either that or take out chunks at at a time and endure the additional flavour of bitter pith. But what has all this to do with ICT? Well surely there has to be a better way of deseeding a pomegranate … we’ve sky-craned a vehicle onto the surface of a planet tens of millions of miles away for goodness sake! Now I didn’t expect there to be a technical solution necessarily, but I did hope that Google might know if it could be done.

In less than a minute I had the answer (on an iPod Touch), had watched a video and in no more than three more minutes was drooling over a perfectly juicy spoonful of pomegranate seeds … and then several more.

What a wonderful little learning episode in which a problem was posed, solution sought, alternative possibilities skimmed, single solution chosen, then executed. A known unknown to a known in under five minutes. It may only be a small change, but my life is now enriched and more enjoyable thanks to Google, YouTube, the producer of the video and the iPod Touch. Just think if you could do that every day … several times!

Pomegranate is back on the menu!

Science 140 … or [subject] 140?

Recently came across Science140, an interesting project using Twitter :

The idea is that anyone can submit Science definitions of 140 characters or less to the Science 140 Twitter stream.
 
An interesting spin on revision perhaps, but maybe not just from a consumption point of view? Putting a complex (or simple!) idea into 140 characters requires a sound understanding of the principles in the first place, then of course there’s the processing needed to ensure the message gets across without losing its meaning. Perhaps this could be built into a revision programme? Perhaps students might be encouraged to contribute to the live stream?
 
Or how about having the students confirm (or correct) the content of the tweets for clarity/accuracy?  A real test of understanding surely?
 
And whilst this resource centres on Science, how about starting something similar in other subjects? 140 character tweets on different topics in a second language? Tweets arguing the main points from a historical context? Tweets summarising the maind points illustrating a geographical principle? Plenty of scope for all subjects surely?

>101 Questions?

Recently Dan Meyer kicked off a Math(s)-themed project which has gained considerable traction. There are two sides to the project, but both hinge on either a single photograph or 1 minutes worth of video which acts as stimulus material. The 101 Questions site is clean and uncluttered, encouraging the user to focus on the main conceit – ‘What’s the first question that comes to your mind?’ when you are presented randomly with one from a database of images and videos.

On the one side are the contributors – anyone challenged to present an image which ‘perplexes’ the viewer sufficiently to want to ask a question. On the other side are the viewers – those challenged to provide an answer to that simple question.

Which set me thinking how this idea could be introduced in any subject in the curriculum as a way of stimulating questioning in our students, questioning rather than answering. I wouldn’t want to put words in Dan’s keyboard, but I guess having students ask questions demands of them much greater metal processing than answeringquestions the teacher has asked, to which there are often a finite number (one?) possible responses.

So maybe a lesson starter might consist of a randomly generated image (or images) for which the students have to say/write ‘What’s the first question that comes to your mind?’ The 101 Questions site could be used to provide the images, or they could have been preselected (Flickr, Picasa) in order to set up activities to come later in the lesson. Reviewing the questions that students have suggested might initiate interesting discussions – they get to drive how the lesson starts. Are you up for that challenge?

Then there’s the flip-side. Once students are used to thinking of questions about images, make them the source of those images. Have them search for images they think would perplex others and challenge other people’s thinking. Gather the images by whatever means are open to you and present them to the class. How will they react to images chosen by their peers? What will their questions be like? How will those who submitted the images feel about the responses? Managed well, it could be a rich, metacognitive experience where students learn about their learning, about each other … and maybe a bit about your subject too!

Less might just be more?

Following a post by Mark Warner on Teaching News, entitled “10 Inspiring Youtube Videos for Teachers,” I tried to watch the third example from Steve Spangler Science.

As it played on my PC, there was no sound, so I tried the usual stuff of turning up the volume etc, etc until I spotted I’d got a set of headphone leads plugged into the audio out socket. Doh! and problem solved. But I realised that as my colleague was watching the muted video with me and I was trying to troubleshoot the sound problem, he was asking ‘What’s he doing?’ and ‘Why’s that happening?’ Which set me thinking.

How about playing the same video in a Science class, with the sound purposely muted and asking them to note carefully what was happening so they could explain the final outcome. Having watched the video once, the class could be split into groups to discuss the story behind their observations. Without the narration, the tasks of watching the video, offering and considering different possible explanations and arriving at a plausible conclusion, set much higher cognitive demands. I guess it’s similar to listening to an audio book compared with watching a film of the same story; removing one of the sensory inputs demands that you fill in some of the blanks yourself and the outcome is a much richer appreciation and understanding of your experience … I might suggest.

Wonder if there’s any research on this …. ?

A Century of Learning

And before you ask, no it’s not my Century of Learning, but a century, the last one in fact. This timeline contains some of the significant theories developed to describe and explain the learning process.

One of the things I need to consider as I analyse data from my dissertation is where they fit in what the world knows. And perhaps more importantly, since I’m undertaking a constructivist grounded theory approach, how and in what ways my knowledge of these facts might impact on the findings. With care and consideration, this prior knowledge can contribute to the outcomes … it is simply one more set of data elements. If I’m less careful, or perhaps less astute, then it may blur, taint, corrupt or at the very least skew my findings.

So no pressure there then?

Sources of information and places to find much more detail include:

• Theories of Learning in Educational Psychology
• Learning Theories
• Learning-Theories
• Theory into Practice
• infed
• History of Learning & Training
• Frameworks for Thinking
  

Timeline images from Wikimedia Commons

[Please note that the precision of the dates (i.e. 1st June) is due to the requirements of Timetoast, rather than an indication of exactly when the work was released]

Handing over the reins …

A while ago a couple of our Y13s came to see me having just returned from a conference where they’d seen a student using Prezi – they loved it and wanted to know more.  I did no more than providing them with a link to the site and suggested they would find the ‘Learn Prezi‘ tutorial section useful.  As part of their EPQ studies, they were required to present their findings and wanted to use Prezi for that.  Here’s one of the results from Katie:

Alzheimer’s and the NHS on Prezi

I only wish I’d been around to see and hear the presentation this accompanied as it’s clearly intended to reinforce points which were being made ‘live.’  However apart from the role for which it was intended, I was so impressed with the degree of proficiency Katie had achieved, largely under her own steam.  We seem to invest substantial amounts of time ‘teaching’ students how to use Word, Excel, Access etc and I find myself asking … why?  Is it really necessary?  OK I accept that some will need a little more guidance than others, but how much time could we recapture by allowing those who can cope independently to do so and targeting our support more effectively?  One other thought springs to mind – why is it that these students were simply able to go away and find out how to do something themselves, yet many colleagues wouldn’t touch a new application like this without first being ‘trained?’  Given my more … ahem … advanced years, I don’t think it’s an age thing. Is it about ‘time’ then? For the majority of teachers, there’s no imperative to make learning different/new presentation tools a priority … but why would an A Level student with a full life in an out of school be any different?  Perhaps it’s just the way certain people are wired. At the risk of sounding rather Prenskyesque, maybe there are those people, young and old, who are digital explorers? Who want to know what happens if you press this button. Who want to take a peek over the next horizon. Who want to explore the way less trod.  So dare we just … hand over the reins?

Assembling a learning sequence in SharePoint

In a post elsewhere, I described working with colleagues in English who were preparing Y12/13 students for a forthcoming exam.  They wanted to deliver a sequence of activities through our learning platform which is a SharePoint implementation.  These are the five tasks which they wanted to deliver and my suggestions for possible ways in which this could be achieved:

1. An introduction in which Q1 is stated with key phrases highlighted and explained in more detail using ‘balloons’ which pop out when hovering over the phrases.
   Here we used a simple html page (Content Editor web part in SharePoint) to contain the introductory text with Q1. Each key phrase had a hyperlink attached to it which simply led back to the same page, but the ‘alt text’ provided the explanations of each of the phrases.  An alternative way to do this might be to turn the text into an image, then create an image map with hotspots which pop-out the explanations of the text when hovering over.
   
2. The texts to be provided online so they could be read in turn and also to be ready to hand, whatever task the students were engaged in.
   Here the texts were simply scanned (it was important to capture the original look and feel, rather than use an OCR tool to convert them to text), then uploaded to a Picture Library. This can be viewed as image thumbnails which can be clicked to open the texts full size.  Importantly, this picture library can be surfaced on any of the other pages for the other tasks to allow provide the students with ready access to the texts.
3. Provide a means for students to choose a term by which the texts could be grouped (e.g. phonology, passive voice etc).  To encourage a range of choices across the class, when a student chose a particular term, this was then to be disallowed to the rest of the class.
   This was tricky and I settled for a second best by using the survey tool with a single multiple choice question.  The allowed responses included approx. 15 suggestions for themes around which the texts could be grouped, but in addition, a free-response option was provided in case students wanted to provide their own theme.  The results were visible at all times, so students could see which themes had already been chosen – in the instructions they were advised not to choose a theme which someone had already selected.
4. Provide a way in which each of the texts could be classified as either a good, less good or poor fit with their chosen term.  This should be an interactive, graphical tool, similar to an interactive whiteboard.
   A diagram had been provided by my colleagues of how they wanted this activity to work. I chose DabbleBoard as that seemed to provide the required functionality and provides an embed code which meant I could integrate it back into a SharePoint page in our platform (again using a Content Editor web part).  It also allowed students to download a copy of their finished diagram as an image in case they needed to refer back to it.  Despite instructions to the contrary, one student chose to ‘Save’ the DabbleBoard, which then meant their amendments became visible to all. Having a spare, fresh copy of the DabbleBoard prepared meant I could quickly swap a URL and the new one was immediately available.
5. Allow the students to write a paragraph each, justifying and discussing the grouping they chose.  At this point they should also be able to refer to the mark scheme for clarification of the points they needed to home in on.  In addition, students should also be able to comment on the choices and justifications of their peers.
   A Discussion Board seemed to satisfy the needs here, allowing the students to create a post for their submission, then comment on each other’s posts using the Reply feature.  Importantly, the visibility settings meant that initially it could be arranged so that they could only see (and edit) their own post, thereby not being able to crib from what others had written.  When satisfied that responses were complete, the teacher could allow all posts to become visible with no more than a couple of clicks.

Given that you’re reading this edtech related blog, I guess you could have undertaken a similar process as I did, perhaps using different tools, perhaps arriving at more elegant solutions.  But here’s the thing; what about the average teacher?  Could they do that?  Perhaps more importantly, do they need to?

 

What happens when the school gates close behind you?

Had some building work done today by an excellent plasterer and his apprentice, a young lad not long out of school.  Now I realise I am about to make a HUGE assumption, but given 20 years of experience teaching lads like him, I’m going to stick my neck and say he probably didn’t leave with a sheaf of paper qualifications.  He did a grand job here though, was assembling a useful skill set with the support of his mentor and clearly had the wherewithall to make it his trade if he wished.

I was out in the garden fixing the bike and as we nattered over a cuppa, he commented on the potatoes growing in the veg patch.  This was an opening to a completely unexpected topic (and here I risk stereotyping once more!) – Bonsai.  He was clearly passionate about his hobby and had developed a wealth of knowledge which he was keen to share.  He was currently striving to master ‘grafting,’ by all accounts well beyond beginner level.  And what was his knowledge base for acquiring this skill?  Youtube!

Just wondered to what extent having access to a resource which is a. easily accessible, b. capable of vivid demonstrations of practical techniques, c. carries no ‘stigma’ of being uncool, had in fostering this rather unusual pastime, for an 18/19 year old lad.