Brought to you from MentorMob

One of my goals in coming to the "States" was to visit MentorMob in Chicago and to meet the Team responsible for one of the great tools in educational technology, the "playlist." In fact, it is so great that MentorMob recently were voted one of the Chicago Innovation Awards winners for their work in the use of technology in education.

I had met Erin before my visit. We had skyped a few times and on one of those occasions, Kristin introduced herself. I had also met Vince, one of the co-founders of MentorMob by email when they made me one of MentorMob's innovators. Other members of MentorMob were familiar to me, particularly Charles Perry and Eric Pitt. They make really useful contributions to Edmodo through the MentorMob community.

MentorMob and many of its Team are active users of Twitter: MentorMob (@MentorMob), Kristin Demidovich (@KristinMMarie), Erin Sheffer (@ErinMentorMob), Eric Pitt (@SuperBad) and Charles Perry (@CharlesUpTop). Following them on Twitter has opened up many avenues for me in the world of ed tech.

On Friday, March 15, Erin met me in the lobby of 321 N Clark Street, in Chicago. A huge building, not the tallest, but really tall nonetheless. I signed in and took the sticky label that identified who I am and who I was going to visit. Then she took me on a quick ride to the dizzying heights - I hate heights - of the MentorMob office on the 25th floor. Nothing palatial. If they could see our RE Office, they would be so jealous. It's more than twice the size of their office - but it doesn't have the views that they have, so maybe it would be us who would be jealous of them. Such a small space used by nine MentorMobsters! However, as I discovered, they are very active and often on the go, promoting their work and establishing a network that ensures the continued development of the playlist as a signature ed tech tool. Kris Chinosorn, who co-founded MentorMob with Vince, was working from home and Charles and Kristen headed off to the DML Conference.




[The view from MentorMob's Office. The Chicago finger is pointing in the direction they are moving in the ed tech world. Notice the sticky notes on the window. They use lots of them to chart their way towards their goal: to provide free education to everyone through the use of technology.]

I sat with Erin and Kristen in a work area outside their office and shared with them some of my experiences of the schools I had visited. We swapped stories about how the environment and the style of school buildings help to shape the education we receive.

One of my reasons for coming to MentorMob was to argue for a fully functional mobile version of the playlist. They are aware of the trend towards the use of the iPad as the principal technological device in schools in the developed countries, however, their goal is to reach out to the whole world. Right now that is more important than tackling some major programming issues related to making it possible to create and edit playlists on the iPad. It just hit me that not even Apple has been able to do that for iTunes-U!

I sat and listened to a conversation between Mike, James and George about the development of the beta version of the playlist.




[George, who works on the front end of the playlist is discussing with Mike and James (who's off-camera) about changes to the work flow chart and the impact of those changes on their timeline and also on the power and flexibility of the beta version of the playlist.]

It didn't take me long to realise that pushing the mobile technology barrow would do no good for anyone, so I put that aside and focused on what I had to offer to make the beta version better - as I understand the teaching-learning process. Erin made notes (using Evernote, Erin?) as I spoke about the need for the flexibility that would allow for alternate pathways in a playlist. (When I get access to the Internet - I'm composing this on my way back home - I will add my thoughts to one of the threads in the beta version conversations.)

Programmed learning has been around for a long time. When I studied to be a teacher, it was drilled into me that teaching is about taking each student from the "known" to the "unknown". That is what I try to do every time I step into a teaching-learning situation. And I saw it demonstrated well in some of the schools I visited - the ones where I observed lessons being taught.

When I create a playlist and add a step, I am conscious of providing users with information about the some aspect of a topic, or theme. I want that information to become knowledge. Without entering into a treatise about the nature of knowledge, I would like to offer this: knowledge is preceded by understanding. If the point behind the step is not understood, then there is no point to proceeding further. We need to be able to step aside and work on what confuses us. It is this side step that is missing. Put another way: in flow chart style, "If yes, then 'this'. If no, then 'that'. The 'yes' represents the linear model of the playlist. The 'no' represents stepping to one side to clear away the confusion so that you can enter the playlist at the next step, or whichever step you choose to do next.

I sat in on part of their Team Meeting and was introduced to Chris, who was working from home. He and Vince founded MentorMob about eighteen months ago. Sitting in their office reminded me of the days when I was a part of the inner workings of Perth YCS and we would meet and plan and each person had specific tasks that were all seen as important. It was obvious to me that each of the nine members of MentorMob contributes to the success of their work.

The most amazing insight I gained from the day is the motivation for what they do is not so different from my own. Changing the world to make it better for everyone, especially those who have become enslaved by systems, or individuals is an awesome vocation - and the single-minded ness and commitment that I find here is like what I have found in so many teachers and youth workers who I have been privileged to meet in my life.

It was in this context that I came to an appreciation for the work of entrepreneurs. I had been of the view that such people were self-centred. Erin used the word to refer to innovators and initiators who sought to make the world better for others through the use of creative processes. The Kwagala Project, which is being promoted by MentorMob, is a powerful example of entrepreneurship, as is MentorMob's iEmpower Campaign. Search for #iEmpower on Twitter to gain some insights into the entrepreneurship that is at the heart of MentorMob and its work.

Google was part of our conversation during my visit. I learned that there was a new device called the "Chromebook" which is a cloud-based computer running Google's Chrome OS and using Google Apps. My investigation of this resource will be the subject of another post.

I'm really grateful to Erin and Kristen and the others who made me feel welcome and shared with me how they work together to create learning opportunities for people around the world. I left their space with the commitment to find ways of using playlists to the max on iPads and then to share that through my blog, through Twitter and through Facebook.

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Location:Inside 321 N Clark Street, Chicago. - I wish!

A Day at Brophy College Preparatory

Monday, March 11, 2013




The cross draped with a piece of purple cloth is placed in the centre of the college. It stands as a reminder that we are in the Season of Lent. In the background is another cross, one of four such structures, representing the four corners of the earth and symbolising aspects of the Summit on Human Dignity, an annual event, that the school is engaged in.

The 2013 Summit is about "The Opportunity Gap." The College Office of Faith and Justice (OFJ) has published the following aim for the Summit: "Through this Summit, we hope to create a forum in which the Brophy community, and in particular our students, will consider education, health care, wealth, access to resources, and the realities faced by individuals and families of various income levels, as well as the Catholic tradition’s perspective on how to navigate these arenas, so as to guide our personal and communal response."

I came here to find out about campus ministry, particularly the involvement of student leaders in ministry. I also hoped to find out about the teaching of RE and the integration of technology in curriculum, particularly RE.

As with the other schools I have visited, I was not disappointed. I was made to feel welcome and was given some insights into how Catholic education is conducted in Arizona.

Campus ministry is well-developed in the school with an Office of Faith and Justice being the powerhouse for the integration of faith and culture and life. They don't have a Student Ministry Team, but they do have an elective called Contemplatives in Action, which provides opportunities for students to become involved in giving service in the areas of prayer and liturgy.

Christian service is part of college life as is immersion.

Religious education is called "Theology" in American Catholic schools. There are core units and electives. The core units address Scripture, Sacraments and Ethics. Chris, one of the RE teachers I spoke with and observed in full flight in class, had planned a unit on Judaism with the help of a colleague with an interest in and knowledge of the area.

Watching Chris teach his Freshman Scripture class was enlightening and inspirational. He commenced the lesson with a review of what they had learned about the reasons behind the writing of St Matthew's Gospel. That had been part of their last topic. They had been tested on the work and Chris told them that their marks were available online. He also used the review to introduce the topic for the lesson, which was St Mark's Gospel. He was keen to establish the reasons why St Matthew's Gospel was placed prior to St Mark's Gospel, even though the latter had been written before the former.

I was impressed not only by the technology, but also by his teaching style. Clear, direct statements, moving forward by means of question and answer - Socrates would have been proud of him - and skilful use of technology: these were valuable lessons for me. The students used iPads. What Chris projected on the screen, which he addressed from around the room, was also available to the students on their own machines. Chris had converted his PowerPoint to a PDF and the made it available to his students via Blackboard. He reviewed the lesson material about Mark's Gospel with part of a YouTube clip, not the whole clip, but just enough to reiterate what he had addressed through the PDF and through his questioning. Really neat!

It is a pity that we cannot embed videos in PDFs. It would have been so much easier for him had it been seamless, like the ePubs I have been creating, or the web apps. Chris made use of two videos in the 50 minutes he had. The second one was projected from the laptop that sat on his desk. He used it as a back up to his iPad - not yet ready to trust mobile technology completely.

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Inside BC High

Tuesday, March 5, 2013




The first thing that struck me about BC High was its size. It is a solidly built school, probably to withstand the weather, to keep the heat trapped inside its thick walls - it was cold outside and there were piles of snow.
Inside, it was warm, comfortable, secure - in every way. I felt welcomed and appreciated. It was quiet - partly because the walls were solid, the ceilings high. From the Principal, Mr Stephen Hughes to the delightful, wizened-faced Terry in the canteen - she was one of the keepers of the story, along with the Principal, whom she had known as a child when he attended the College - there was an obvious pride in the school and what they achieved there.


Benefactors make change possible …

It became clear to me that finding benefactors from among the alumni of the College was an important factor in the continuing development of the College. Here the role of the President is crucial. High schools like BC High rely on the generosity of benefactors. Whereas at Kolbe, capital development happens because Federal and State Government funding is made available through the Catholic Education Commission, at BC High the construction of new facilities and the refurbishment of older structures happens through the relationship the school has with individual donors.

Through the generosity of their donors, BC High placed a roof over the area between two multi-story wings of the College and created a huge indoor gathering space and cafeteria. I recall something similar being contemplated for Kolbe some years ago: the area between blocks 3 and 4 being covered to provide a gathering space for the school community, with a canteen, a cafeteria and a meeting space for students. I have seen a similar design in a school in Adelaide, but it lacked the feel of the setting in BC High. In the school in Adelaide, the lockers dominated the space. By this I mean they remain embedded in my memory, along with the grey walls and concrete. BC High will remain in my memory as a colourful space with the flags of many nations hanging from balconies – part of a United Nations experience organized by one teacher.

The Principal took me on a quick tour of classes to show me how BC's teachers integrate technology in the classroom. I visited an American literature class. The teacher had projected two pages of the novel on the Smart board using a state-of-the-art overhead projector connected to the smart board. The students had their own copies of the novel and the teacher taught his class seated at his desk at the front of the room. 

We entered a history class. The students were looking at post-war Europe. The teacher had projected a map of Europe on the Smart board. He had also handed out copies of the map to students. Then by question and answer and also by way of instruction, he proceeded to analyze the map to draw out political themes and the lessons of history. He wrote on the whiteboard to help students with their note-taking. He was a dynamic teacher, but he later apologized for not being more engaging. Many of his students had iPads. The Principal focused his attention on one student and quietly instructed him on a more effective way of using the iPad.

Next, we visited a freshman Maths class. The teacher was sitting at the back of the room next to a student. All the students had the work in front of them on their iPads. The teacher's work was projected on the screen. She was using her iPad and Apple TV. The worksheet was made available to the students through Blackboard, a popular LMS in the US.


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Re-imagining RE

Saturday, March 9, 2013




I walked down this avenue in Arizona State University, Tempe completely uncertain of where I was going - and then walked up the avenue two days later convinced that I was walking the right path in re-imagining religious education.

I went to Arizona to find a knowledge community to share my view of religious education and my vision for the future of the subject - and I found a listening audience and people who questioned me about my ideas.

I started on this journey with the decision to change how I looked at the world and at knowledge. My research led me to conclude that I am more likely to be a social constructionist than anything else. What do I mean by this? Well, the faith that I profess is socially constructed. It has relevance and meaning in the society that I choose to belong to, that is, to the Catholic community of which I am a member. So here is my social constructionist argument.

We tune in to all types of discourses, that is, we are aware of sets of images, symbols, statements and so on that have the power to create realities if we choose to align ourselves with them. We navigate our way through life choosing to move in this direction, or that, and accept the responsibilities and restrictions that come with holding to the realities that are constructed from the decisions we make. In some discourses, there are absolutes, while in others, there are no absolutes. My argument is this: most students I teach reject the idea that there are absolutes. They have moved from accepting a religious identity given them at Baptism and supported and nurtured by their parents (if they were ever in that position) to forming their own religious identity. When religious education teachers ignore this reality, they invite disaster. Students become disengaged. RE is irrelevant.

In my research, a Year 12 student who calls herself Morgan, reports on the conditional loving God
her mother thrusts on her. This God requires her to go to Mass every Sunday and to be good, or he won't love her. Morgan recalls this discourse amidst others some of which are critical of the religious education she receives at her school. Foucauldian discourse analysis highlights the orientation of people's actions in response to discourses. It also draws attention to responsibilities and the restrictions discourses place on people, that is, their thinking is constructed according to the discourses they accept. Morgan recalls her mother's attempts to make her go to Mass so that she can counter it with other discourses that are more meaningful for her. She draws on the unconditional loving God discourse and also her father's discourse - he goes to Mass when he feels the need to go, that is, when he is worried and needs help. Morgan reports that he goes to Mass at Easter because his wife makes him go. The discourse that Morgan listens to does not require weekly attendance at Mass. She wants to be like her father and go when she feels like going.

Cameron is a Year 12 student from a different Catholic school. His parents took him to Mass when he was a child and made sure that he understood what was happening. He reports that when he entered secondary school, they gave him the responsibility of choosing whether he went to Mass with them or not. The discourses he listens to support his freedom to choose. It is reflected also in his interpretation of the Church's teaching about Sunday Mass observance. He considers it to be of lesser importance than his experiences of needing God.

Both students "listen" to discourses about religious education being there to help them make their way through life, but they reject the Church's attempts to teach the truths of the faith. They want equal say with the Church, that is, their views are just as important as what the Church teaches. They endorse the use of discussion about issues that affect them directly. Morgan rejects much of the content of her religious education course as "bulk material." Cameron is critical of producing written work that regurgitates the teaching of the Church, but does not allow for individuals' beliefs to be expressed and respected.

You can access the paper I wrote here.


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Visiting Bishop Feehan High School

Monday, March 4, 2013




BFHS is a Catholic co-ed high school with about the same number of students as Kolbe, but in Years 9-12. Their Senior Year (Year 12) has around 260 students. I spoke briefly with its Principal, Dr George Milot, a respected Catholic educator and then spent time with their Deputy Principal of Academics Ann Perry and their Technology Coordinator Susan Kiley to look at the integration of technology in the curriculum. Of particular interest was their intention to go 1:1 iPad across the curriculum in all years in 2014.

Every classroom is equipped with data projectors and they will soon have 20 classrooms with Apple TV. While they still have some desktop computers in the school, most students use laptops. There are some sets of iPads which have been allocated to groups of teachers in the various learning areas to develop pedagogical skills that draw on the use of iPads. One Maths teacher has been flipping her Maths class in much the same way Shane and Lian do, with some amazing results.

What I found interesting was the approach to integration. At a diocesan level, Catholic secondary schools have been directed to evaluate their curricula with the Common Core Standards. This has been embraced by BFHS and they have drafted a skills development framework designed to be achieved through the use of mobile technology. Put into our language, it looks like the following: The HOLAs have collaborated to determine which learning area would take responsibility for developing which skill at which Year level during which Term.

So, what does this look like? Here are some examples given to me. I will apply them to our situation. At Year 10 level, students are taught how to blog in RE. Year 8 students are taught basic research skills, including how to reference sources accurately in their SoSE classes. These and other skills are programmed to be taught at specific times in the overall school curriculum so that other learning areas can follow up with activities that draw on and reinforce these skills AFTER they have been taught in the learning areas that have taken responsibility for teaching these skills.

This approach has been possible at BFHS only because the HOLAs worked together to decide on a list of 21st century skills and then volunteering to cover them in their subject areas. Then a small team programmed their commitments and published it.

Their next step was to develop sets of rubrics for assessing the learning of these skills. To this end, weekly learning area meeting times have been built into the school day so that learning area teachers can collaborate in drawing up the rubrics for each skill. They are currently involved in completing this task.

Susan told me that they do not want to be depending on specific apps across the board, eg, requiring everyone to use Evernote, but rather to find apps that help their teachers to teach effectively using the technology. Helping teachers to find apps that will be useful in their learning area and to become comfortable i using those apps seems to be the focus of their PD for staff. Ann and Susan were off to a curriculum PD meeting at another school after meeting with me ... and the PD was about using iPads in the classroom.

I asked about Edmodo, but they don't use it because diocesan policies discourage the use of social networking sites, of which Edmodo is one. They use Edline, which sounds like an upmarket version of Myclasses. It appears that it is run on their intranet and provides everything they need. I found the following introduction to a testimonial from Bayside Academy on the Edline website:
"With Edline, Bayside now has a coordinated and systematic method for sharing information with parents via a private and secure website customized for Bayside. When something new is posted or when important details change, parents receive an email alert encouraging them to access that information."

I asked about the use of Google Drive and Google Docs. It appears that they make use of these apps to store files for easy access and for collaborating on projects.

Some Gems found along the way ...

The school has PA announcements in the morning and in the afternoon, when school starts and when it ends. The announcements are delivered by students. Morning announcements begin with prayer. Afternoon notices end with a prayer. They have been experimenting with producing "TV news" with some success. There present efforts have been posted to the school's YouTube site. They make use of their Facebook page to publish their productions so that ex-students and current students and their families can view them. Their aim, according to Ann Perry, is to produce their morning and afternoon news as video broadcasts, possibly from their TV studio, which is in their media room.

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Cultivating the Imagination

I have been reading A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change by DOUGLAS THOMAS and JOHN SEELY BROWN.
I was drawn to it by the title and their reference to the imagination as opposed to "cultivating imagination". The sense of purposiveness in the use of the definite article attracted my. I had deliberately chosen to do the same in my doctoral thesis. The imagination is more than a mental construct.

I found in the book a structured reflection on matters that concern me (education, teaching, learning, change, the digital world, knowledge, passion, the imagination, play). I am going to use this blog to reflect on the ideas that have challenged me and that I want to work into my efforts to re-think my approach to teaching and learning. I have chosen to post my thoughts here rather than in the security of my school's intranet because the system is clunky and the effort to provide such security works against what I think the internet can provide to the learning collective I want to belong to (which embraces and includes more than those with whom I work).

Fearing God

When I was preparing for my Confirmation a long, long time ago, I was taught that one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit is "fear of the Lord." I found that pretty difficult to understand and I think I grew up being afraid of God. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I suppose.

When I was much older, I started to discover that the "fear" of God was not the same as my fear of other things, such as snakes, death, and so on. I have spent some of my life reflecting on the loving mercy of God and have come to the conclusion that the "fear" I was taught about when I was about 11 years old, is really revering God, placing God before all, and acknowledging that God is the source of all that exists.

It was the death of my parents - my Dad passed away in 2007 and my Mum died in 2009 - that taught me about relying on God. I have to rely on God to look after them. Yes, I believe that there is life beyond this earthly existence and I pray daily that God will be merciful to my parents and grant them eternal life with all the angels and saints.

Today, I came across a reading about fearing God. I liked what I read because it resonates with my belief. You might find it worth reading, too.

http://www.godtube.com/devotionals/our-daily-journey/daily-devotional-may-27-2011-fearing-god.html?utm_source=GodTube%20Today&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=05/27/2011

This link is through GodTube. If you want to go straight to the source of the reading, then use the following link:

http://www.ourdailyjourney.org/category/daily-devotional/