Session 14 Futurists and learning spaces

Frances Valintine, Chair and Founder of  Mind Lab http://themindlab.com/ inspired us all with her presentation around her research and futurist ideas.  She discussed what we will need for  future skills and how technology will impact on the type of jobs for the future.  Frances presented some very interesting data for future skills from:

http://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-10-skills-you-need-to-thrive-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution

Frances also discussed the history of 3D printing and how fast technology is changing...with many types of materials and structures being printed at speed. 

http://www.engineering.com/3DPrinting/3DPrintingArticles/ArticleID/6262/Infographic-The-History-of-3D-Printing.aspx

*This was just a 'taste' of a very fascinating and informative experience from Frances presentation. 

Learning Spaces - understanding what learning spaces area? Do they have to be a building? Why do we associate these with a building? When a space is designed within a constraints of a building it however lends itself to a particular leadership style of learning?

Open plan classes in 1970 and got rid of them? How do learning environments cater for all students needs?

The structure peripheral things that can be adaptable and we need to find out what our learning should look like before we look at our spaces. When the building is built it imposes a particular learning theory. It also influences your thought patterns and the way you think.

Flexible spaces that can be large or smaller for different activities.

Virtual and outside environments also to be included.

Our ideas for an outdoor learning space relating to a technology context:

·         Outside kitchen pizza ovens

·         Herb garden/fruit trees

·         Hard materials

·         Seating/picnic tables – time out area/ outdoor learning spaces

·         Wet area for dying

·         Wood stumps for in a circle for ‘circle time’

·         Shade sail

Our collaborative  meme around learning spaces:  

"Learning spaces have to be flexible, movable, collaborative

and give choices to grow innovative adventures. "

Session 13 Robots and Inquiry

Had fun programming robot so that it completed a pre-determined pathway. It was a very collaborative, problem solving and rich thinking learning experience!!

The Rise of Robots –what will the extend of technology will impact on jobs?

Low skilled jobs threatened.

Robots and manufacturing – software escalation is having an impact on jobs. It is having a broad impact on jobs not just manufacturing. The kinds of robots in manufacturing  are industrial, powerful machines and have precision. They also need to have safety cages around them to protect humans. 

Technology is changing and robots are becoming reliable and safe, so humans can work alongside them.

 Inquiry  -Teaching as inquiry- co-constructing knowledge

                  Teachers inquire into their practice.

Inquiry designed by Anne, Sue & Fiona -Mind Lab 2016

Questions need to be:

Open

Undermining – makes the learner question their basic assumptions

Rich

Connected

Charged-ethical

Practical resources

Session 11 Agile versus Waterfall?

Which process do we use in our schools?

Possible ideas...

Kanban in the classroom  

an example of website: Kanban
http://leankit.com/learn/kanban/online-kanban-board/

Visualise the workflow in three columns on the board:

Things to be learned / Things we are learning/ Things we have learned

Another edition to the idea: story cards -  what the user wants and why? The story card is just enough to identify the requirement (Agile academy). Identify as many stakeholders as possible and get their ‘stories’. This means you get a much better design. There would need to be conversations between all these stakeholders to gain a better picture of what they require for the final design.

Practice at writing a story card: As a …….. I want to……. So that I can ………

We used trello.com to experience another type of story card/board.
Useful site: Trello board:  https://trello.com/

The agile team: plan, do, check, act.  (KATA) Consistent and continuous improvement.

Adapting and changing depending on the context.

Agile Leadership Style: facilitate, remove obstacles, encourage reflection, be a servant leader (provides support), create a safe environment, allow team to self-organise. An agile leader aim is to improve development over time.



http://www.integral.co.nz/about-us/agile-methodology/

The servant as a leader – developing people and works well when you are working well with self-organising teams. It works well when there are team members have different sets of skills that they can bring to the team.  Readings:  Robert Greenleaf – The servant as a leader (1970) 

We reviewed our earlier exercise at looking at how we plan in our school/team and reviewed in under the agile process. How could this be done better? 

Session 15 Gamification

There is link between play and learning... preschool children learn through play. It is also known as playfulness.

Reasons why people play games?

Killer focus on winning.
Achievers focus on achieving goals
Socialites focus on socialising
Explorer focus on on exploring onto the unknown  - this is the most popular reason

Website for games:
http://www.gamesforchange.org/play/

Other examples of gamification in everyday life: flybys, collecting rewards on cards, free giveaways, from stores these influence the consumer and happy hours.

Appointment dynamic - returned to a pre-determined time action e.g. happy hour
Influence and status dynamic- influence the player by extrinsic reward
Progression dynamic- start a lower level and progress to a higher level
Communal discovery - Eg the fun theory to encourage groups to try a new way of doing an activity

Assessment is built into the task of the game and also tested, as the game's design has a trusted way of testing the player of their ability.




http://www.q2l.org/about/  from Quest to learn

Our idea around gamifying our school integrating the seven principles of game-based design:

Create A Virtual World - “School Life” - career pathways

• Students create avatars
• Accept challenges and go through a series of learning experiences to  achieve the next level to earn credits and avatar advancement

Ideas:

• become movie/director and design a movie trailer for a film
• become a fashion designer  and design a garment and design a pattern including costings for resources.

Each week students would present their pathway on “School life” to their class and students can invest their idea. Teacher and students to give feedback on their pathway and students can make iterations to improve their idea. The focus is on the key competencies and teaching skills around communication and collaboration.