Post Grad Pt2: Wk 12 - Responsiblity and Agency

 Digital Responsibility and Agency

Whakataukī

Hāpaitia te ara tika, pūmau ai te rangatiratanga mō ngā uri whakatipu / 

Foster the pathway of knowledge to strength, independence and growth for future generations

What is Student Agency?

For years, I have asked for clarification on this, and to be honest, the easiest definition is when I Google it: Student agency is the capacity of students to take active ownership, make meaningful decisions, and exercise control over their own learning processes rather than passively receiving information. However, Vaughn supports this.

As she defines agency, it is 'the "sociocultural mediated ability to act" (Ahearn, 2001) and is the ability of students to, "give significance to the world in purposeful ways with the aim of creating, impacting and/or transforming themselves, or the conditions of their lives".' (Basu, Calabrese Barton, Clarimont, & Locke, 2009). As cited in Vaughn, M., Premo, J., Erickson, D., & McManus, C. (2020). Student agency in literacy: Validation of the Student Agency Profile (StAP). Reading Psychology, 41(6), 533–558. https://doi.org/10.1080/02702711.2020.1783147 

Insights

With free version it is all public, and doesn't use your voice.

What do people agree on about student agency?

Rangatiratanga - self-determination

Takeaways

Ways to check you are safe online

Reflection

Check Out my Slideshow

EHS Writing Workshop

 EHS - PD

• Three workshops this term covering;

• oral language foundations, 

• explicit writing instructions, 

• modelled, shared and guided writing and 

• building independent writers.

Teachers will;

• Understand the effective writing instructions

• Recognise the role of oral language

• Identify successful wiring classroom practices

• Selecting one practice to implement immediately (after each workshop)

Creating School-Wide Conditions for Great Writers

What have we noticed about Student writing?

• Less lived experienced - Motivation
• Creating ideas to prompt discussion and then writing
• Not always writing for writing sake 
• Clarity around what they should be learning
• Focus on phonics has taken from the larger aspect we taught in reading. (Focus using BSLA has watered down the writing program. - Time for structured literacy)
• Poor spelling 
• Punctuation
• Providing feedback and time allowance
• Sound to letter knowledge
• Lack of Published writing
• Recording ideas
• Knowing where they are and where to next
• Teaching structure and purpose 
• Written work in a book

What challenges are we experiencing?

Post Grad Pt2: Wk 11 - Learning Environments and Networks

 How and Where we Learn and the Networks we Use.

Whakataukī

Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa 

Let us keep close together, not far apart

Insights

 

Communities of Practice, Face-to-Face and Online

Online CoP are more reliant on being led, so everyone can reach the goal. 

Connectivism - Whanaungatanga

To help your whanau grow, to help your tribe grow and your iwi.

Who's at your table - video 

So many interesting facts, and the focus has changed over time. There were some interesting findings.

Social Media, such as LinkedIn is a great way to get our brand out there.

Reflection

Although we may have had unpleasant experiences with social media and suffer from FOMO, there are places we can seek CoP that are useful and constructive.

Post Grad Pt 2: Wk 10 - Leading Change

 Leading Innovation

Whakataukī

He rangi tā Matawhāiti, he rangi tā Matawhānui.

The person with a narrow vision sees a narrow horizon; the person with a wide vision sees a wide horizon.

Insights

 Kotter's 8 Steps for Leading Change:

'The Big Opportunity' is at the centre of why change is necessary: We need a sense of urgency, more wins, and faster success.

Transformation is a process, not an event.

Even with new learning, change happens, and we need to adapt.

 Students should be part of your army.

Linda Hill talks about how setting direction was a strategy in 1922, but in 2000 we want visionary, to help shape , co-creation. Her main types of leading change are Architect, Bridger and Catalyst. The ABC of Change Leadership.

Robinson explains how this is better than tell, sell, and buzz.

The best things come from other educators, as we can walk the talk.

Robinson often summarises 

Crossing the Chasm - where most innovations fail.

'Early Adopters' need to share their stories; this helps the Early Majority to take it to the next level.

Starts with the lone nut; the first adopters are the most important, as they change the lone nut into a leader. Followers emulate followers, then everyone wants to be part of the crowd; no one wants to miss out and being public makes it easy to follow (so share people's stories).  

Be Courageous and Follow

Laggards: when they become 'Early Adopters', they become very powerful.

Takeaways

We can do this but should we?

Reflection

How do I make change, through purpose or with a vision? What do I forget when making change?

Post Grad Pt 2: Wk 9 - Serving Leadership

Agile, Lean and Servant Leadership

Whakataukī:

Waiho mā te tangata e mihi 

Let another sing your praises

This is about how the leader can assist others

Insights

Agile thinking, or agility in companies: software companies want to be more adaptive and responsive. They have 4 values:

         * Individuals and Interactions

         * Working Software

         * Customer Collaboration

         * Responding to Change

The more traditional focuses they had, such as processes, tools, documentation, contracts, and plans, weren't wrong, but they weren't the most important thing either. 

"He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata."

How does this relate to education?

The first value stayed the same when Steve Peha (who works in both industries) made some modifications:         * Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools

        * Meaningful Learning over measurement of learning

        * Stakeholder Collaboration over constant negotiation 

        * Responding to Change over following a plan

Traditionally, working in teams was more like passing the baton: everyone did their job, then handed the product to the next team to do theirs, and so on. Companies that were moving forward said it was more like a scrum: everyone working together toward a common goal and supporting each other. In this method, there is a leader; their job is to serve the team rather than tell everyone what to do. And they work with the customer to ensure the product serves its purpose.

Students are both the customer and part of the team; they need to be agile, as they can help design the learning context and be each other's end users. This method gives students agency in their learning at a sustainable pace to meet their goals, and fosters collaborative teamwork. It is not all on the student; the teacher still needs to set up the why and what of the learning. Work with students to create the backlog (all the things they need to achieve to get the final product); these tasks can evolve over time.

Like all new experiences, start small. It is about adapting to what is happening around you.

Agile Leadership: Simon Hayward talks about - What makes an Agile Leader? 

* Learning Agility - pause and take stock of what is happening around you

* Empathy

* Thoughtful, decisive decision-making

* Digital Literacy

Lean Thinking - Womack, Jones and Roos 1990

This too started out in a different industry, manufacturing, to reduce waste and upskill workers. But what is the relevance to Education?

We need to focus on the 'Value Stream' (from Lean Jargon), ensuring we deliver value to the learner.

* Reducing waste - teaching content that is not relevant, moving around when it wastes time,

* Replace Batch and Queue with Flow - learning moves on regardless of where the learner is at.

* Replace Push with Pull - Moving from learning being pushed at students to a situation where students pull what they need when they need it.

.Kanban boards are part of Lean thinking and can be used with Agile thinking too. Using a Kanban board helps students to manage learning flow and do tasks in a way they can self-manage. (Examples to the left, from Trello.com)

Kaizen - Incremental Change, to help move forward

Kaikaku - Radical Change

Both of these types of change are important and can be complementary  

Servant Leadership

     

   

Takeaways

Final Individual Assessment - 

Action Reflection Assessment

Kanban Board - Data collection is too big; break it down into small/short tasks that can be done in two weeks. 

.   

They will always be dynamic 

Reflection

It is important to have a to-do list no matter how you do it. This helps to keep you on track, and if they're bite-sized, they are achievable.