One word Goal

At the beginning of this year we were asked to identify one word that we will use for inspiration. I had just recently watched Sir Ken Robinsons ted talk titled "How to escape educations death valley." We were given a range of materials to create an artefact based on our one word. This was the presentation I gave at a staff presentation. 

An inquiry into collaboration

Goose bumps and Aha type reflections

Friday Reflection with MYSY learning community.

In Te Karaka Area School we complete each day with reflections on learning.  We often have a prompt statement linking to our TKAS Learning muscles or concepts based on Dwecks Growth Mindset. This practice has resulted in many wonderful and revealing sharings between all our learner community members. I feel its necessary to point out that our MYSY learning community is made up of learners from Yr6 to Yr13. Therefore the sharing is an amazing array of insights that often transcend age barriers.
Yesterday I used this...

 The reflection question is: How does the learning you gained this week relate to this picture?

The reflections are recorded individually on devices and after that our sharing begins. The statements shared included these learner responses;

• Walkway to success
• Freedom
• Path to growth
• Arotahi
• Pathway through the distractions
• The right path may be bumpy
• Appreciate the now
• Pathway towards my dream
• Achievement 

A range of Learners shared many personal insights with us. It reminded me of my own ponderings while tramping, that often lead me in my own life. Thats when i realised i was getting goosebumps..

This was an inspiring reflection for me because if this is how our learners are thinking when they see a picture like this, then I feel that together we are enabling our community to experience a life where learning is in everything we do and all that is around us. This to me is connecting very closely with the purpose of education.

Kia kaha koutou.

Matua_Morgs

Gamers..Gaming and Gamification..its all GamEd to me.

Its late… 1am…and I’ve still not succeeded in the task Id set myself to have completed by midnight. I know this situation isn’t unusual for us teachers…however this time was unique for me because the task was to complete a mission as a titan guardian/warrior on my sons PS4 Destiny game.  Destiny is a first-person shooter video game set in a "mythic science fiction" world, the game features a massively-multiplayer "shared-world" environment with elements of role-playing games.

Ive intentionally devoted time towards exploring gaming with the purpose of learning how these games educate gamers (like both my 12 & 14 yr old sons) to develop key skill sets and strategies to succeed in their games…(No really..Honestly, this is not just what I’m telling my wife.)

I have recently begun focusing on gaming for education because of the interest our learners at Te Karaka Area School have with games. During a course I was shown a short clip about gaming and its role in education by James Gee.  It’s a thought provoking insight into the culture of gaming and the divide between traditional education and gaming based education developed by businesses like Bungie (the creators of Halo and Destiny). I initially focused on his comparison between assessments of learning between conventional systems and gaming. Its well worth watching and only 5 minutes long.

As I begun to write this blog, my 14 year old son sat down with me and asked what I was working on. I replied Im writing a blog about what Im learning about through playing Destiny. I explained how Im thinking about how valuable games like Destiny can be for teachers. I immediately saw a flicker of interest in my sons eyes…”What will you be saying?” “Well I’ve seen how much time and effort you devote towards developing the skills and strategies you need to succeed in your game… and that’s an amazing blog in itself, but this blog is focusing on the obvious value you and your brother place on even the small and (in my mind less important) details like appearance and affiliations. You spend hard earned credits on making your guardian look colourful or upgrading armour based on style or clan instead of function or purpose. My son laughed at this..” Yeah its real fun..and they (the creators) are about to put a person on Tower whose whole purpose is to teach your guardian new dance moves….” Yep your Destiny guardian can save the universe and bust out the meanest dance moves at the same time… go figure. I said to K.. “ It must be annoying when teachers or adults talk about games as being irrelevant and of no real value when they are clearly so important to you..” My sons reply…“Yep..” I could see I got him thinking… “Hey Dad I read on line recently of a study that showed that people who played Portal 2 did better on spacial awareness tests that luminosity users.”  We checked it out..There is and its true. (Man am I setting his learning advisor up for a fun time next term.)

Gee describes games as a combination of learning and problem solving experiences. I am beginning to think that this is a simplification of the  deeper learning & problem solving experiences games like Destiny provide. My children have committed a reasonable amount of effort into their on line characters. This is clearly their online identity..not just in appearance but also in status, affiliations, reputation and style (as in dancing..) Why discredit this identity as nonsense or of no real worth? Who are we even to say such a thing? Perhaps most importantly how can we use this concept effectively when designing learning programs within our education systems? In asking these questions I have a short list of suggestions that have been had shared with me recently that may be a good starting point.

An online site called Classcraft appears to be successfully helping teachers to bring status and identity into the classroom. I haven’t yet tried it out but the more I learn about gaming and gamification of learning the more I return back to this as an option.

Digital badges are being used more frequently now for recognition of specified achievements. One site recommended to me is credly.com .  This again may be used as an indicator of progression (another key gaming concept according to Seth Priebatsch in his Tedtalk on building a game layer on top of the world.)

This last suggestion is referring to a suggestion that both Gee and Priebatsch make in their video about "leveling up". At TKAS we use SOLO Taxonomy for guiding learning within our programs. Levelling up can be used to incentivise our learners to progress towards extended abstract. I often explain to our learners that gaining extended abstract is not much more work than what they have already have completed for achieved. Its not about quantity but quality. Developing a rubric system that shows that achieved is <75%, merit 76% < 89% and Extended Abstract 90% + may better express this concept while helping with the level up idea.

Finally I would whole heartedly encourage teachers to take some time to explore digital gaming from a pedagogical view point. Ive had some amazing discussions with TKAS learners and clearly see their appreciation when I take time to listen to their stories and share my own gaming experiences with them. I know that I am only just beginning to experience the amazing learning oriented concepts being applied in modern online gaming. I know this is well worth staying up for.

Creative blogging

On the weekend I was invited to contribute to a Google Doc that was titled:
Senior students choosing their own NCEA standards in a course that is not pre-prescribed.

As a result I was reminded how using the KISS method is always a good way to begin something new. Sharing a G doc on twitter to share ideas and experiences is both simple & valuable. So here's my contribution

Being new to the blogging world I've been struggling to see how I can make this a regular part of my routine. I realised today that this was probably a result of seeing blogging more as an essay rather than journalling. Recently I've decided to begin exploring different ways to journal my professional ideas and reflections. I'd love to hear from anybody that has tried blogging using a range of different methods.

Authenticity through playful purpose

Yesterday myself and a friend & colleague called AC introduced magnetism as part of our Invisible World inquiry. We initially thought about teaching how to make electro-magentic nails. While we both really liked this idea, it became apparent to both of us that the obvious question that could be rightfully asked by our learners was, "ok... so what?..."

If we were going to establish learner engagement throughout both the active learning tasks and written exercises it had to have a clear value to our learners. The task had to become authentic.

 What does this mean? #edchatnz  recently discussed this very topic. Many of us edchatters agreed that when referring to learning authenticity means that the learning is seen by the learner as of real value. So I assumed the learning would be clearly valuable for the learner by either or all of the following;

• chosen career path, 
• personal interests 
• cultural identity
• community. 

Initially I couldn't think about how to make this context authentic for our learners. Then we decided to set authenticity through creating the purpose ourselves. We decided to set the purpose for learning about magnetism towards designing magnetically powered drag racing cars.

I wasn't sure if this purpose was going to result in the authenticity we required. The aim of this workshop was for learners to practice using observations and researched information to direct their investigations. The lesson plan was a mix of collaborative exploration (or play), note taking, researching terms and hypothesis development. Both AC and I realised this was a complex plan that required our learners to transition through several different tasks. The value of learner engagement towards behaviour management was going to be tested today.

What we found was a high level of participation in all stages of our lesson. The learning was explorative and intentional, it was fun and perhaps most importantly it was purposeful. In my opinion authenticity is essential. Students shouldn't need to ask why? What I learned through this lesson was how authenticity can be established through something as simple as purposeful play.

Our school: Te Karaka Area School

Kia ora all. This blog is one of my many attempts to begin journalling this amazing pathway of learning that I have been on for more years than I have been in this profession. My name is Morgan Ngata, Im a father of 3 beautiful kids, a very lucky husband, son, brother and a passionate teacher.
I am a Maori with a dash of Bohemian, English and apparently much more. Home is the Tairawhiti region on the Nth Island of New Zealand.

I know what this must be reading like...I kind of feel like Im beginning the first day at a new school...But the formality is over.

Honouring that "sense" of Discovery

Im a teacher that is fascinated by the act of learning. I recently came across this amazing video clip featuring Noam Chomsky talking about, "what it means to be truly educated?" This insight has struck a resounding chord with me. It simply expresses what I feel my responsibility is, not just as a teacher but in every role I have in this life. I see being educated as having the knowledge and ability to construct new understanding from a range of information & experiences. Clearly this isn't about reciting periodic tables or pi. It is about knowing how to investigate, experiment, analyse, reason and evaluate. In his response Chomsky refers to an MIT teacher that says to his class, "Its not what we cover in class that is important, but what you discover in class that truly matters." In my words Its not the act of acquiring knowledge but the attainment and application of a deep understanding in real life. The sense of Discovery is vital to this philosophy. As a teacher I often remind myself about not stealing the "sense" of discovery from our learners. 

What do I mean by this?

I have seen in my own practices and in others a tendency to teach to a very structured predetermined timeframe. As a result questions can be asked and often answered by the teacher. This is "stealing" the opportunity for our learners to gain that discovery. Clearly this may not be the teachers initial intention for asking the question, "...but time is a limited resource therefore i'll answer it and move on....." Obviously effectively denying the learners an opportunity to gain experience & confidence in developing their ideas. Another practice is when Teachers interfere with learning opportunities when the student appears to be stuck on a problem. Students are discouraged to explore their ideas to a deeper level on their own when teachers are over enthusiastic in jumping in to "fix" the problem. Is struggling not vital in learning? Are we too keen to resolve these struggles because of the time struggles take up? How long do I allow them to struggle?? 

If we don’t step back at these points in learning then how else can we learn essential attributes like resilience?  What other learning opportunities are undermined because of time management? It’s not difficult to see the connection between Discovery and student centred ownership, curiosity and intrinsically motivated learning. This article helped me to think about my own practices, the link between cultivating a "struggle friendly" learning environment culture and positive mindsets. I am really excited about exploring Dwecks Growth mindset for this reason as well. 

When we teach to a predetermined timeframe we need to consider what is the cost? Are we cutting off our noses in spite of our face? I think we are. I wonder do we teach to help our learners gain a deeper understanding or do we teach to meet our timeframe requirements as teachers? 

Setting Labels #5

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Setting Labels

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