The ULearn conference takes place annually and was this year hosted in Auckland. I attended ULearn 11 in Rotorua (for which I made a series of posts starting with this one ) but since it’s been difficult to attend with my basketball commitments always falling in the October holidays. Similar to the GAFE summit this year (see previous post), I thought I’d again lurk on the social media channels. Always a great source of ideas and resources that you would not normally come across – this year I was not alone with even Twitter trending a hastag – #notatulearn15. Here’s some stuff I found useful:
- Agency and Ownership – An overview post from Cargill’s Classroom that includes a question grid that gives guidance on how students can improve their question.
Some thoughts on 'Agency: the why and the how' by @GeoMouldey https://t.co/Ke1YaXww34 #ulearn15
— Jerome Cargill (@chicargill) October 7, 2015
This was taken from a presentation by @geomouldey.
Two slides focused on getting student feedback – Rose/Bud/Thorn & HAKRS
https://twitter.com/zacmills/status/651581744362188800
One slide had a continuum of ‘shared construction’ – this was the topic of a presentation I gave to staff earlier in the year and this provides a more detailed range than my one.
Student Codesign #ulearn15 #agency pic.twitter.com/NVAra6Mzby
— Nathan Janes (@NathanJanes23) October 7, 2015
2. Breaking the Moulds – a quick 6 min video on how we seem to be in mould of education where the desire for constant improvement overrides the ability to be different.
3. Use of iPads with examples! – often you see app reviews of what you could do but this post has links to the actual products that students made.
4. Using Twitter for teachers – a useful, succinct resource on taking the leap into twitter.
Need some help sorting out your Twitter acc? Cheat Sheet: https://t.co/rutAe8USAT
Presentation: https://t.co/MSzefbwZaa #ULearn15— Alex Le Long (@ariaporo22) October 7, 2015
5. Keynote by Grant Licthman – this keynote generate quite a bit of twitterness and re sharing of notes and resources (see this post for an example). One idea from him is that we should reject this notion of being a ‘guide on the side’ – teachers are right in the middle of the learning in a classroom. Here’s a summary of his view on 21C learning from a TEDx talk:
Here's the graphic artist images from @GrantLichtman #ulearn15 keynote pic.twitter.com/kGHMVctNnp
— uLearn (@ULearnNZ) October 12, 2015
6. Most Likely to Succeed – this edu-documentary had it’s NZ premier at ULearn. Check out the trailer – would be worth a look.
7. Cool stuff – Gotta love this production:
8. Maker – have been getting more into this in my teaching this year with making some bio-fuel powered steam boats and trying to teach electronics with students making something electronic (using a 3D printer). Link to CORE Educations list of resource. Some useful kits are Brainbox, Littlebits,
9. Kids write their teachers job description – would be interesting to see what would happen if we asked secondary school students.
Children writing their teacher’s job description as part of the Kaikohekohe Cluster #CENZ15 #ulearn15 https://t.co/O23hUKiAu4
— Tara Fagan (@Taranz1) October 7, 2015
10. Why guide to 21C learning – a great visual summary by ‘iPad’ Wells.
12. Failure – I’ve become more aware of the importance of failure in learning. The acronym – First Attempt At Learning.
Risk and Failure #ulearn15 pic.twitter.com/BJoAMCrhiU
— Mark Riley (@NZRILEY) October 7, 2015
13. Implementing Technology into learning – I’ve experience both ends of schools doing it well and doing it poorly. It is a current and constant challenge. Steve Wheeler has some good advice on developing a digital strategy and making sure that learning comes before technology. “Pedagogy is driver. Technology is the accelerator”
14. HPSS – since it started in 2014 with a Year 9 cohort, I’ve always been interested in this school to see if an Inquiry style learning programme can be upscaled for a whole school, rather than just one class of selected students like at TBC. This presentation gives a great overview of how they operate with thematic Learning Modules, have Learning Hubs with comprising of 15 students and one Learning coach, and make strong connections to a student’s interest and the community they live in.
Fourteen things has to be good value for a couple of hours on Twitter – and who says PD has to only happen at 8am on Tuesday mornings.
those clever people have just released an update. You can now have open ended questions that the teacher marks in amongst self marking questions. The interface looks great – let me know if you need help trying this out.
This is the latestest educational initiative in the USA that uses celebs to promote working hard in school. Behind all that faf and paf is this useful explanation relating brain science to learning. Has mainly a math focus but can apply to all curriculum areas.
Flip
KAMAR iPhone/Android Application 
Google Image Search – Tricks Every Teacher Must Know!
Mile of Pi – Numberphile – YouTube
EducationHQ – Teacher of many talents
Using Chrome as your default web browser will make your Google Drive/Apps experience much more enjoyable. Google created the Chrome browser and all things Google just seem to work better with it. One of the great benefits of using Chrome as that it can separate the use of different Google accounts. You may have already experience the frustration of having another google account having logged in on your computer and you can’t seem to sign out of it. Here’s a 
information about people with qualifications; highest qualification; post-school qualification field of study; and study participation. Could be useful when have conversations with students about option selection and academic coaching.
