Improvement or Transformation

I have been reading, with interest, posts by Derek Wenmoth, the e-Learning Director for CORE Education. Into my email came a post by Derek, with the title TWO AGENDAS.  I have to say that this one 'hit the curiosity button' and I stopped what I was doing, as you do, and proceeded to read. Derek is talking about the difference between improvement and transformation. As I read the post TWO AGENDAS I found myself saying 'YES' after every statement. It is the type of message that Steve Jobs would have said 'makes your heart sing'. The table below was devised by Derek and can be found on the CORE Education blog. 

Table from: Derek's Blog "Two Agendas" (Derek Wenmoth, 2014)

Two points I would like to make
1. Working in a transformational way starts with how we THINK. The thinking then impacts how we PLAN, which in turn impacts the LEARNING ENVIRONMENT, which all impacts how our children LEARN. I visited a classroom this week and it was very apparent that what was happening in the classroom was transformational. As the teacher spoke to me, they shared their thinking with me - it was clearly transformational. What was most interesting was the fact that they didn't realise that what they were saying was transformational. It was just happening. 

2. Transformational starts with you and me. We dont wait for an edict to be delivered that says 'be transformational'.  Sir Ken Robinson in his RSA keynote "How to Change Education" says "the teachers in the system are just as important as the policy-makers .. if you (the teacher) begin to change your practice ... if you concentrate on your own micro-climate ... eventually you will effect the whole."

So what is Transformational Learning?
I was going to post again things like the SAMR Model and Dr Ruben Puentedura explaining what transformational means ... but nothing is better than a real life example. You might all remember Anne-Marie Murray who taught at RDS in Year 5. Anne-Marie wrote this account of her Year 5 Topic on World War II. Skype was simply the tool which connected the children with an expert - a person who can answer questions from first-hand experience. Note some of Anne-Marie's statements: 

• I quickly realised that these children would need something much more personal.
• To make their learning memorable and real, I had to think outside the box.
• Children naturally began to collaborate together to create lists of questions to ask.
• I used the children’s questions to plan my lessons.
• Lessons were based on their genuine interest in the war and the planning became personalised.
• They were well and truly gripped and it was brilliant to be driving their learning forward.

Year 5 Topic: ‘World War II - Skype to New Zealand’

Teacher:  Anne-Marie Murray

The day that I introduced the topic World War II to my Year 5 class in Royal Dubai School I quickly realised that all of the planning I had prepared for the next 3 weeks would be completely useless. Having taught World War II for 3 consecutive years in England I was pretty confident that the activities and lessons I had planned would provide the children with all the skills and knowledge that they needed to understand the war and its impact on children in the UK. I was wrong!

It quickly became apparent in my first lesson that I was dealing with a number of different nationalities, each bringing different perspectives, experiences and stories of WWII. The classroom became a hive of discussion about how each of their countries had been involved in and affected by the war. It was fascinating to watch, but I quickly realised that these children would need something much more personal and real to help them understand the perspective of the war from a child in Britain. Books and photographs were useful to an extent, but to make their learning memorable and real I had to think outside the box.

That’s when I approached our Digital Learning Coach, Mark Stone. I was fortunate enough to have a weekly coaching session with Mark and in that time we had set up Skype links with a school in Sweden, introduced Edmodo, had the children using Dropbox to collaborate in their learning and had incorporated the SAMR model in my classroom, making the children familiar with using the terms of the model to describe their learning.

I would regularly chat to Mark about my classroom practice and the challenges that I faced as a teacher in an international setting. Mark quickly came to know about my ton of useless planning for the WWII project and as I banged my head against a brick wall he told me about his parents’ story. Mark’s parents had been children in England during WWII. They now lived in New Zealand and had always shared stories of the war with Mark as he was growing up. Mark realised that there was no point in him telling me the story when in fact his mum could tell me the story herself; moreover, through the medium of Skype, his mum could tell the whole class her story.

I raced back to my classroom to tell the children about our idea. The excitement in the classroom was amazing. Children naturally began to collaborate together to create lists of questions to ask and within an hour we had come up with fascinating questions for Mark’s mother and father to answer. We emailed the questions to them to have a look at and set up a date for our Skype. In the meantime I used the children’s questions to plan my lessons. These lessons were based on their genuine interest in the war and the planning became personalised for my class rather than a general plan to work from. The learning was transformational and the children’s motivation was off the scale. They were well and truly gripped and it was brilliant to be driving their learning forward.

On the day of the Skype the children were so excited. They had their questions lined up and, as Mark’s Mother and Father appeared on the screen, the whole room fell silent. The children listened attentively to their responses and the level of their questioning indicated that they were captivated by the stories being shared.

Following the Skype session the children wrote letters to Mark’s parents. The letters demonstrated that the experience had had a massive impact on the children. They were deeply touched and inspired by the stories they heard and they invited Mark’s parents to be VIP guests (via Skype) at our VE day celebrations the following week to signal the end of the topic.

On VE day the children sang WWII songs to our New Zealand guests of honour and shared some of their learning throughout the project with them. The Skype with New Zealand became an integral part of the celebration day.

At the end of the project I was keen to see what the children thought of the process. We used De Bono’s thinking hats to evaluate our learning and to think about how we could use Skype in the future to help us engage in our learning. Their responses were honest and inspiring. Skype had given them the medium to engage with WWII survivors who had lived in England at the time. The children still had their own stories of the war but they now had a real understanding of what life was like for children in England during WWII.

Skype to NZ Gallery   https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xldiwrxmj4djxa7/VnWngt9gXt

During the last week of this term, children at RDS have been Skyping experts all over the world as part of ESI Week. This is what Neil Osborn, RDS Science and DT Technician had to say.  "This week Year 4 children at Royal Dubai School have had a Skype question and answer session with Dr Sylvia Earle in California. Dr Earle is an is an American marine biologist, explorer, author, and lecturer. Year 6 children questioned Katie Lee a marine biologist in Cambridge, UK.  Sarah Perry from Global Ocean, a worldwide ocean conservation charity based in London presented to our Year 1 children. Using skype, allowed the children to interact with the presenter and asked questions that clearly helped direct the way the presentation was delivered. It was just like a live presentation. We used Quicktime to simultaneously record the presentation so that the children can revisit the presentations and subject matter at a later date."

Children of all ages are now meeting experts face to face on Skype and asking them the 'burning questions' and getting an immediate, up-to-the-minute answer. The question now is this. Can we move from a whole class or year group managed situation like the examples above to a situation where an individual child can do this for themselves with the help and or supervision of their teacher. The thinking going through my mind is simply this - these children, even in KS1, are extremely digitally capable.  They know what to do. They have the capability to leverage the digital to 'make contact' and answer their questions. Through digital media they have the ability to develop their thinking, to read, write and publish. I am watching, with great interest, as teachers in KS1 and ELL develop the PADLET wall in their classrooms. They are leveraging the digital in such a way that children, at this level, are starting to work in the 'continuum of learning spaces' (R.Puentedura). Children and their parents begin to understand that learning happens everywhere. Teachers are giving their children an understanding of how to post their work, find the challenges set for them to work on at home with their parents (flipped classroom) and work in the online environment. This is excellent preparation and understanding for Year 3-6, when children will work fully with Edmodo, Google Apps for Education and Skype in Classroom. At the same time, these children will receive excellent digital citizenship training that is 'on the job' 'hands-on' based. The children's parents will also have the opportunity to put the same practices in place at home and role model it. We know that when these things are put in place at a young age, they will more than likely be learned for life and have a high possibility of being transferred to the next generation. Powerful stuff.

There has never been a better time to be at school and there has never been a better time to be a teacher. In my opinion, history will tell us that this is the most significant time in learning since the printing press was developed.

So what will you go with? IMPROVEMENT or TRANSFORMATION?