Mindlab by Unitec: Global and Local Trends in Education

08 February 2016 (APC Week 29, Task 6)

Reflecting on Some of the Current Trends in Education

When we're considering 'where to next', it's important that we consider the issues and trends that are likely to influence education over the next ten to twenty years. Looking first at the international trends helps us to see the bigger picture as it were. 

In the "Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds" report released by US National Intelligence Council (2012), they found four significant 'megatrends' that will likely have a huge influence on the geopolitical framework our education systems take place within.

Screenshot from "Global Trends 2030" pp.7 (Source)

The use of online digital media is now widely being used to allow for both collective and individual empowerment at a scale that has been previously unequalled. 

We're able to find out and share ideas online like never before, with learning-based and social media websites allowing individuals  to collaborate in a manner that is likely to be a potential source of both innovation and fundamentalism. In essence, we're all at a bit of a nexus - those clinging on to traditional modes of thought may find the 'future is wide open' and wish to keep the status quo.

Essentially, it has become imperative that educators and administrators alike climb onboard the collaborative technology train as digital immigrants, as the millenials are living and learning as digital natives. (Prensky, 2001).

However, the efficacy of this process before now has been inversely affected by changing demographic patterns - such as high transience in low socio-ecomomic areas within New Zealand impacting on these students in particular gaining equaitable access to the technology that facilitates this process. 

This has seen schools in low socio-economic areas to sign up for apparent 'social enterprise' models in order to provide their students with both the digital tools and internet access they will need to empower their students in the twenty-first century. 

With this model of enablement, there is the risk of gearing educational outcomes within these schools to enhance philanthropic input from private organisations. But, given the real need for access to the tools and skills our young people will need in the coming years, it is essential that we take a collective approach to providing more equitable learning pathways for millenials and their decendants.

By contrast, those schools in more socio-economically advantaged areas are still free to develop curricula that more adequately reflect the wider learning needs and/or educational interests of the community around them, thereby engendering the underlying values and principles of the New Zealand Curriculum document.

In conclusion, it is important that we fully grasp the increasingly globalised nature of living and learning in the current day. We need to make every effort we can muster to adapt our way of thinking and doing (i.e.: theories and pedagogies) to better allow us to provide our students with the insights and learning styles they will need to answer the issues that will arise in the coming decades.

In my next blog entry, I will look at how the rise of social media may provide us with an effective and engaging platform for empowering both ourselves and our learners over the coming year(s)...

References Cited & Recommended Reading/Viewing
Bolstad, R., Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012). Supporting future-oriented learning & teaching: A New Zealand perspective.Wellington: Ministry of Education.
Education Review Office (2012). The three most pressing issues for New Zealand’s education system, revealed in latest ERO report - Education Review Office.
KPMG Australia. (2014, May 22). Future State 2030 - Global Megatrends.
US National Intelligence Council (2012). Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds. Washington, DC: United States National Intelligence.
OECD (2015). Education at glance 2014.
Pearson. (2013, April 26). Global trends: The world is changing faster than at any time in human history.
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants - Part 1. [pdf] 
Science News (2014, Nov 26). New Mega Trends.
The RSA.(2010, Oct 14). RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms.

Professional Learning and Develoment : SOLO Taxonomy

What is SOLO Taxonomy?
"Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes" - Links into Blooms, with the pedagogy extending student's critical thinking skills.

Click on image for larger viewable size. Source: http://www.educatorstechnology.com

Discussion Points:

• What is constructivism?
• What are the five levels of SOLO?
• How can this link to practise in the classroom? 

Reading: "What is Constructivism?"
Comments:

• It's a great article - allows us to make links to our own prior knowledge, constructivism;
• We often need to adopt different roles within the classroom;
• A way to engage our students/community of learning and have a clear understanding of where we're going!
• We know the difference between LI and SCs, the importance of talkalouds, modelling books etc-
• We're digging deeper - recognising that our children need to develop their critical thinking skills;
• Takes Blooms Taxonomy to the next level -
• Learners co-construct their knowledge - if we don't have a 'hook' for something to link it into, the knowledge falls away...
• Thinking critically - do I need to change my view / understanding? Is this information relevant? 
• Learn Create Share links to second paragraph - along with formative practise, knowing you students well. Might look at this as a spiral, also (i.e.: Spiral of Inquiry);
• In closing, the article notes "constructivism taps into and triggers the student's innate curiosity about the world and how things work. Students do not reinvent the wheel but, rather, attempt to understand how it turns, how it functions. They become engaged by applying their existing knowledge and real-world experience, learning to hypothesize, testing their theories, and ultimately drawing conclusions from their findings."

Resource Used

Introducing SOLO Taxonomy 
(article cited from Pam Hook's book as per image above, published by Essential Resources Educational Publishers Ltd, 2011, pp. 5-6)

Next steps: trial this instructional approach in your classroom - through Inquiry / Literature, and including the use of SOLO hand signals across the school. Will arrange to have visual cue cards / laminated in folders to begin to introduce these - to begin to help our students to express where they are at with their learning

Key for the five SOLO levels (Pam Hook 2011, pp.3-4). The first is emergent, the next two are quantitiative, with the final two being qualitative i.e.: as students move from learning, through researching/knowing to deeper 'critical thinking' along the continuum.

PLD Activity: Discussion of "George" Case Study, to help us understand what each of the five SOLO levels looks like for our learners.

Resource used: "A Children's Guide to SOLO Taxonomy: Five Easy Steps to Deep Learning" by Pam Hook, 2011.

Other Recommended Readings (Online Source)
"Where To Next When Introducing SOLO Taxonomy and Hot Maps"