Techgirls and Makerspaces - two recent events

Summary of two professional development occasions attended recently. Both are initiatives to increase children's exposure and interest to science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects, although the sessions attended were focused mainly on technology.

Firstly, a lively evening session with TechGirls are SuperHeroes with Jewella (aka Dr. Jenine Beekhuyzen). Held at Ara on 15th March. The main objective of the session was to launch the Techgirls movement's main international event. NZ will participate in the annual technovation challenge for the first time this year. Teams of primary / secondary school girls are mentored over a 12 week period to develop and pitch an app, to solve a real world problem relevant to their context. Technovation is looking to sign up not only teams of girls, but coaches and mentors as well. Coaches could be parent, teachers etc. who assist with the logistical and support issues. Mentors are women or men from industry who will be able to help the teams meet the technical challenges.

Secondly, a session with Dr. Kylie Peppler from the University of Indiana who is in NZ for a 6 weeks Fulbright visiting scholar to Otago University. She was in Christchurch briefly to provide a session, organised by Professor Nicky Davis at University of Canterbury. Dr. Peppler shared her work on Maker Spaces. She provided background on the Maker Movement and provided examples.

Quoted the work of Resnick & Rosenbaum (2013) extensively - Designing for Tinkerability including the following:
Process over product; themes not challenges, diverse examples; tinker with space; engage with people not just materials; pose questions, not just seek answers; combine diving with stepping back.

Examples included the use of Arduino based sets; working on e-textiles to learn how circuits work; using 'scratch' to learn basic programming principles.

All in, two interesting sessions to provide some background on what is happening in the junior school sector. These students will be coming through into tertiary study within the next few years. Tertiary educators need to tap in to students' prior learning rather than be continually focused on treating students as 'blank slates'.

Future of Ubiquitous learning - book overview

Worked through this book last week, Future of Ubiquitous learning: Learning designs for emergingpedagogies.
Edited by B. Gros, Kinshuk and M.Maina and published 2015 by Springer.

The book is available as an ebook via the Ara library.

Timely book to inform on e-assessments project and the learning design work which makes up a large part of my present work. The book provides direction for the future of learning design as traditional models, based on constructivist / or even behavourist/instructivist models, are no longer pertinent as the education is challenged to assist learners to be sufficiently prepared for the future of work. 

The book has 14 chapters organised into 3 parts.

Part 1 – foundations of emerging technologies had 5 chapters

An introductory chapter ‘the dialogue between emerging pedagogies and emerging technologies’ is by B. Gros and sets the scene for the book and provides overviews of each chapter. Some of the changes: learner-centred, individual and social learning; personalised and tailor-made learning; innovative pedagogical concepts – experiential and immersive learning and social and cognitive process; formal institutions will need to be flexible and dynamic; and education and training made available and accessible to all citizens. Introduces the emerging theories of learning: theories focused on the network (networked learning, connectivism, actor-network theory); theories focused on social-personal interaction (heutagogy, peerology); and theories focused on the design of network (Learning as a Network – LaaN). ). LaaN combines aspects of connectivism, complexity theory and double-loop learning. Learning is envisaged to be a personal network of knowledge attained through interactions with the ‘ecological’ spheres of learning. Hence ‘emerging pedagogies are held to: support lifelong learning and ecologies of learning; use different forms of knowledge; integrate the use of technology as ‘mindtools’; change the nature of the traditional roles of teacher and learner; integrate self-regulation, co-regulation and social share regulation; promote deep learning tasks; are transparent; based on socio-constructivists pedagogies; and require new forms of assessment.

Chapter 2 overviews principles of “heutagogy: a holistic framework for creating 21^st century self-determined learners’ by L M. Blashke and S. Haase. Introduces, defines heutagogy as a form of self-determined learning and rationalises it as a holistic, learning-centred approach. Characteristics are learner-centred and determined; based on capability, self-reflection and metacognition; allows for double-loop learning along with nonlinear learning and teaching. Presents the affordances for heutagogy as availed by digital technologies. The heutagogy learning ‘loop’ cycles through / touches base with activities to explore, create, collaborate, connect, share and reflect.

P. B. Sloep contributes the next chapter on ‘design fornetworked learning’. Networked learning is defined as learning using computer networks for educational activity. Uses the distinctions between epistemic, social and set design to guide the design of networked learning. Critiques the process and suggests improvements. Epistemic design involves ensuring learning activities are aligned to the achievement of learning outcomes. Uses Laurillard’s work – design patterns for learning – as a frame complete the epistemic design. Social design is based on socio-cultural learning theories including the work of Brown and Duiguid – the social life of information and Lave and Wenger’s communities of practice. Set design includes the selection of appropriate tools to support epistemic and social design. It is essential these tools are used in a holistic manner, so the various ‘elements’ of learning are connected and assist self-directed (heutological) learning.

Chapter 4 is on ‘why do we want data for learning? Learninganalytics and the laws of media’ by E.D. Gazulla and T. Leinonen. Provides theoretical and analytical understanding and discusses pros and cons. Of note is the connection between LA and the types of pedagogies that can be supported. Examples include analytics to support learning through the use of social networking, discourse, content learning, dispositional learning and student centred approaches. The proviso is to ensure the correct type of LA is used to support the appropriate learning approach. Mis-match leads to invalid data being used to support decision making!

The fifth chapter is on ‘articulating personal pedagogies through learning ecologies’ with M. F. Maina and I.G. Gonzalez. Proposes learning ecologies as one way to explore ‘frontier’ pedagogies to connect the formal, non-formal and informal learning contexts of individuals. The chapter provides background on the evolution of learning ecologies including personal learning ecologies. Presently, attempts to match the needs of individual’s learning to the offerings of ‘mass education’ have been disappointing. Moving to personal learning environments (PLEs) requires large shifts in how education is valued, measured, accreditated etc. PLEs implies learners use their self-direction to learning through all spheres of their lives, through formal, ‘informal, networked, socially-connected means. Having to ‘measure’ these, and whether this is the way to go, requires investigation and rationalisation. Chapter 6 provides some ideas.

Part 2 covers learning design for emerging technologies with 5 chapters

N. S. Selander contributes with chapter 6 on ‘conceptualization of multimodal and distributed design for learning’. The chapter describes the shifting from SYSTEM 1 (stable structures, national curricula, classroom teaching, printed school textbooks and assessment standards) to SYSTEM2 (dynamic (global change), development of digitized media, cognitive systems, mobile learning and individual learning from 2000 onwards. SYSTEM 2 requires the development of a new paradigm for the future curriculum, including new ways to recognise learning and need for new assessment practices (and standards); need to account for and understand learning in relation to multimodal design; and the role of digital media in organisation of school work at scale.

Current theories of learning founded on SYSTEM 1. Proposes the use of ‘learning design sequences’ as a basic unit of learning. LDL model – Learning design sequences – see this article for further details.

Chapter 7 by A. Littlejohn and L. McGill covers ‘ecologies of open resources and pedagogies of abundance’. Presents analysis of diverse pedagogies enabling learners to capitalise on digital, open resources. The emphasis is not on the content but on helping learners to create and navigate their own pathways. This is a modern take on ‘constructivism’ with good examples of how to leverage off the ease of access to open resources and how learning can be designed to make the most of the affordances availed.

The next chapter discusses ‘educational design and construction: processes and technologies’ by S. McKenney and T. C. Reeves. Comprehensive chapter which provides a range of learning design approaches to deal with the present and future challenging learning environment. Design through exploring and mapping and construction of solutions is covered. This chapter provides the ‘how do we get from design’ to actually implementing the solution. Strategies for idea generation (synectics, SCAMPER, Slip writing, picture taking) followed by how to consider the idea (Dr Bono’s hats, courtroom challenges, SWOT analysis, weighted ranking) and idea checking using logic modelling. The solution mapping involves refining design, using skeleton design and constructing the detailed design specifications. Initial solution building includes management of the prototyping process using assistance form project management tools – critical path, gannt charts, milestone map, Rasci matrix followed by evaluation of iterations and consideration of revisions. Outputs of the entire exercise include the need to record and synthesise frameworks.

‘User-centred design: supporting learning designs’ versioning in a community platform’ is by J. Chacon-Perez, D. Hernandez-Leo, Y. Mor and J. I. Asensio-Perez. Reports on a project whereby a community platform called Integrated Learning Design Environment (ILDE) is used to share and assist with co-editing of resources and activities for implementation into learning programmes. Represents a ‘worked-example’ case study genre. Many of the ideas presented in the preceding chapters are used in the ILDE.

Chapter 10 by F. Pozzi, J. I. Asensio-Perez and D. Persico is on ‘the case for multiple representations in the learning design life cycle’. As per chapter 9, chapter 10 reports on a project. The project uses visualisation to assist with learning design across time. Principles of multimodality are applied and used across both the approaches deployed in the learning design and in how the overall learning design process is recorded for later evaluation and analysis. Of importance is the assertion that ‘one size does not fit all’ and the use of the ‘life cycle’ as a guide, not a framework set in concrete.

The last part is on adaptive and personalised learning with 4 chapters

Chapter 11 covers ‘measurement of quality of a course: analysis of analytics’ by J. Seanosky et al. Recommends not just the evaluation of courses at the end through learner feedback, but continually, formatively and summatively, using factors across learner motivation, learner capacity, learners’ increasing competency and instructor competency.

The next chapter by T. Zarraonandia, P. Diaz and I. Aedo is on ‘modeling games for adaptive and personalised learning’. Of interest to those incorporating elements of gamification into learning design. The chapter provides a good overview and discusses ways to ensure games are developed to allow for personalised learning to flourish.

Chapter 13 is by I. A. Zualkernan who discusses ‘personalised learning for the developing world’. Introduces various models supporting the development of PLE type educational programmes for developing countries. Acknowledges the difference in resource and access between the developed and developing contexts and provides some ideas to assist with circumventing challenges.

Last chapter is by A. Alun on ‘understanding cognitive profiles in designing personalised learning environments. Describes the use of neuropsychological tests’ potential to determine learners’ cognitive profiles and how these can be applied to better understanding and designing programmes based on personalised learning environments. Perhaps a chapter that could have gone earlier into the book. This chapter uses neurological / cognitive characteristics to assist with the design of PLEs. Takes on the view of ‘know the learner’ and matched to better way to present learning so learner is able to access. Various neuropsychological tests detailed. Discusses how we all deal with attention, memory, navigate through information etc. differently. Proposes future work on harnessing the individual’s ‘ways of doing’ to help enhance / mediate / support their learning.

All in, the book rewards for time put into reading the many chapters. Each chapter brings with it an approach to learning design that is supported and informed by previous scholarly works and supplemented by projects in the field. My challenge is to tease out the items which are relevant to our work at Ara. Given the diversity of discipline areas and levels of learning within Ara, there will be congruence between some of the theories described in the various chapters, and the graduate profiles / learning outcomes required. Will need to read through the salient chapters to identify the approaches which we can use or adapt. 

What makes us uniquely human - role of vocational education

 ‘Super artificial intelligences (AI)’ are currently able to churn through vast amounts of data to create solutions. Used in tandem with other digital tools including embedded chips in other machines, humans and appliances (i.e. the internet of things), AI has and is set to replace blue and white collar workers. AI will be installed in machines, turning them into automated ‘robots’, self-drive vehicles, automatic stock control ‘containers’ and self-repairing appliances.

 One perspective is dire. 46% of the current jobs in NZ are predicted to disappear or be significantly changed due to effects of technology. (see NZ Labour party website set up to discuss future of work as an example).

The other, and in my humble opinion, more realistic scenario, is that new jobs will be created and current jobs will be transformed. History supports this perspective. When work in certain sectors become scarce, people move on into other types of work. These new types of work would have become necessary to support the technology that removed the original work itself! (see this article from Forbes for more detailed discussion)

A recent bbc article also supports the above. There are some things, currently still uniquely human, that cannot yet be replicated by machines.

We are now back to the challenges presented to education by the rapidly shifting demands of the world's workforce and economies. Change in education moves ever so slowly. Debates have swung backs and forths as to whether 'Learning Transfer' occurs easily, whereby individuals trained in specialists vocations are able to switch into another (preferably) related job, if their current work disappears. There is the spectre of 'near' and 'far' transfer and for some educationalists', the argument is for very little transfer!

So where does that leave the individual? Continual life-long learning is a given but what of continually retraining to on and on to try to fit into continually changing work? Who bears the costs? the individual? the organisation? the country's educational system? A shared responsibility is the key. It will be interesting to see the final iteration of the 'productivity commission report on tertiary education'. The final report is due out late February but it looks like it is going to be slightly late. The draft sent out for submissions raised more questions than recommended solutions :)

All above important for educational developers to be cognisant on. The 'new' programmes of study we are now working on need to reflect the challenges presented for development of the 'future workforce'. 

The Originals - what makes original thinkers

Had a quick look through this TEd talk by Adam Grant - who is a professor at Wharton. The talk summarise Grant's book - The Originals. There is a summary / review at the following Forbes site.

The overall premise of Grant's work, as summarised in the Ted Talks is how to recognise the difference between innovators and followers.

In short:

- innovators may be slow to get off the ground. They are the ultimate procrastinators.Procrastination may be used to mull over ideas and come to better solutions.

- innovators may not be the first or the best. They make mistakes and learn from them.

- There may have to be many bad ideas before good ones come along!

- therefore resilience and ability to learn are also important.

Perhaps deep pockets, ability to garner funds, high social / economic capital to start with which translates to access to 'angel' funding are also important!

Education, in particular summative assessments whereby students attain a final grade are therefore not a good measure of entrepreneurship or innovation as the learner is penalised (marked down) for mistakes! We perhaps need to make overt to students, the subjects or topics which are important towards attainment of foundational knowledge and skills, the canon of the discipline. Then the courses whereby project work, portfolios etc. are the mechanisms for assist 'learning by making mistakes', allowing for reflection and review to inform the next stages of learning.

Super-intelligent Artificial Intelligence (AI) - impact on work

Despite TV series like Human and movies – 2001 Space Odyssey, Matrix, Terminator etc. the actual performance of AI is still emergent. However,  we perhaps have an innate fear of non-human intelligence. Especially if we are unable to totally control all aspects of the intelligence.

Here are two videos, providing a more nuanced view on how AI may or may not impact on our lives, in particular, the work that humans do.

First up, a TED talk video from Grady Booch in a 10 minute presentation, delivered late last year. The title, Don't fear super intelligence, is apt. The presentation provides  a good overview of the possibilities and challenges. Optimistic slant similar to book by-  – teaching AI to value human characteristics – ethics, emotion and judgment.

In short, humans are still the directors (we can still unplug the computer at the moment!). 

Second video, another TED talk by David Autor on the topic, of why jobs will not be lost despite advances in technology and AI. This talk also from late last year and is 18 minutes long. Another optimistic viewpoint, creating machines to do work for us, has actually not led to human labour becoming obsolete. The %age of working adults actually increased.

Two aspects support Autor's argument. One 'the O-ring principle' – determines the type of work with do

General principle of work means all work requires a range of skills. Automating some aspect of the work means need for worker to upskill and a different aspect of work becoming the focus. Example bank tellers who now do not have to do the mundane tasks but have become ‘sales’ people and problem solvers. Improvement of tools increases importance of human expertise and creativity.

Secondly the 'never get enough principle' – certain industries did not exist before, but now take up large sectors. Argues less work equates to more leisure. Leisure generates new sectors.

Automation creates wealth by creating more time for us think, create and re-create.

The challenge is not that we will run of work, the challenge is skill mis-match. High skill jobs and low skills jobs increase, but the middle skill jobs are the ones most treathened. Examples used of agreicultural revolution in the US whereby young people were encouraged to complete high skill, increasing skills for manufacturing. Key still through education.

Technology actually magnifies human’s strengths – creativity, innovation and problem solving. We never have enough, so new industries will create new types of work. 40% of Americans in agriculture, now 2% but producing sufficient food for now. 95% decrease in workforce but increase in productivity. 

Again, the importance of education, continual need for workers to up-skill, is reiterated. For education to keep up, the learning of occupational specific skills require distillation into salient 're-configurable' skills as technology shifts job types and needs.

Modern Professional Learners' Toolkit

I have followed Jane Hart's blog for many years. Her Top 100 Tools has been my go to and recommend to others site for a comprehensive list of elearning tools.

Of late, Jane's focus has been on 'learning in the modern workplace' with the book - ' learning in the modern workplace 2017' summarising much of her frameworks and approaches.

This year, a series of articles on the modern workplace learning magazine provide for contributions from other consultants in the field.

So far, articles include:

4 articles by Jane with relevance for me in these two - 'why organisations need to empower employee-led learning'; and 'the modern professional learners' toolkit'.

The former has a good diagram on how individual workplace learner's personal learning space may be constructed.

Two other articles of relevance are by Clark Quinn on experimentation and reflection and by Harold Jarche on mastery takes time and effort.

So, a site with worthwhile resources to follow into the future.

Future of work - not all bad news - some optimism and guidelines

Many of the items we read in the news about the future of work, tend to focus on the ways in which technology will impact on humans in a negative manner. In all endeavours, there are good and bad sides to the story.

For example, this article from Forbes, argues that the future is not that scary. The article does a good job of summarising the salient impacts and approaches the future of work by distilling the personal, organisational and societal impacts. Of importance is the need for individuals to shift from a pathway of education, work and retirement into a cycle of where education, work and leisure are continually 're-invented'. The 're-design' of organisations also includes a need to continually 're-skill' with the 'middle management' layer the ones to most likely be wiped out as jobs which are more 'mundane' disappear and AI replaces 'company wisdom'. Jobs may disappear, but many other jobs well be changed and created as well. There is a call at the end of the article for education and public policy to keep up. These two megaliths have always been slow to change. For education, the recommendation is to ensure vital 'basic skills' including thinking, writing, analysing and maths and science are pre-requisites to completion of formalised schooling. The is then space for 'new education companies' liked Pluralsight, General Assembly, EdX and Coursera - offering small / just-in-time training / educational packages.

On a related note, an article on 'crafting the employee experience' from Deloitte University Press, advocates for the use of 'design thinking' to help employees and employers (i.e. HR). HR becomes 'experience architects' and are tasked with reimagining all aspects of work in their organisations. Aspects include the physical environment; how people meet and interact; the focus of management; and the processes of selecting, training and evaluating workers. Therefore, a focus on individuals and their experience, not just the process of HR.

For many years, education have had 'personal learning environments (PLEs)' as an approach. There are considerable logistical and funding challenges to implementation. The current models based on 'one size fits all' and  'factory production' of outputs (i.e. learners) are being dismantled but only in small pockets of education. So a challenging but exciting time to be in education.

Kevin Kelly - What does Technology Want / The Inevitable - book summaries

In an effort to get to grips with the role of technology, going forward into the future, I worked through two books by Kevin Kelly over the summer ‘break’. In much of the literature and media collation of ‘the future of work’, the role of technology is the all present BIG elephant. Technology is seen to be ‘a good thing’ but also the harbinger of changes to our way of life and the types of work available in the future. In more dystopic and pessimistic versions of the future, the cause of social inequalities and division is how technology changes the availability of 'mundane / unskilled' work. The more able and educated are able to transition rapidly into new work leaving many others behind who are unable to make the shift.

So, firstly, read through Kevin Kelly’s first book, published in 2010. Kelly was editor of Wired and has an interesting background. In effect, coming from an original 'back to basics' philosophy to becoming an early adopter and 'observer' of technology's eventual pervasive influence on our current lives.

What does technology want provides an interesting comparison between natural evolution and the development of technology. The overall approach is optimistic and the main argument is for us humans to understand and maximise the strengths technology provides to augment human potential. The book has been critiqued for imposing a technological view on to biological evolution. There is a 16 minute TED Talk to summarise the book's premises and the concept of 'the technium'. 

The second book published 2015, The Inevitable, is perhaps more readable and applicable to the current context than the first. In this book, Kelly brings evidence from the recent past and the present, to support 12 coalescing ‘verbs’ on how technology impacts on the near future. There is a one hour Youtube video summarising the book's thesis.

These, as recorded in wikipedia are:

1.    Becoming: Moving from fixed products to always upgrading services and subscriptions

2.    Cognifying: Making everything much smarter using cheap powerful AI that we get from the cloud

3.    Flowing: Depending on unstoppable streams in real-time for everything

4.    Screening: Turning all surfaces into screens

5.    Accessing: Shifting society from one where we own assets, to one where instead we will have access to services at all times.

6.    Sharing: Collaboration at mass-scale. Kelly writes, “On my imaginary Sharing Meter Index we are still at 2 out of 10.”

7.    Filtering: Harnessing intense personalization in order to anticipate our desires

8.    Remixing: Unbundling existing products into their most primitive parts and then recombine in all possible ways

9.    Interacting: Immersing ourselves inside our computers to maximize their engagement

10. Tracking: Employing total surveillance for the benefit of citizens and consumers

11. Questioning: Promoting good questions are far more valuable than good answers

12. Beginning: Constructing a planetary system connecting all humans and machines into a global matrix.

As prefaced in the book, there are overlaps between the inevitables. So each does not stand alone and there is synergy between several 'inevitables'.

What is the impact on the 12 inevitables with education, especially vocational education? 

Unlike the compulsory-school and the higher education (preparation for work) sectors, vocational education has the advantage (or disadvantage) of having a foot in the 'formal / structured' learning environment and the more 'informal' learning accessed by people across their lives. Just-in-time learning, micro-learning etc. via mlearning and summarised for example via Jane Hart's blog, already evidence some of the inevitables. 

People can 'subscribe' (belonging as in #1 inevitable) to learning via MOOCs or other methods to 'bespoke' their own personal learning environments. Flowing (#2), Screening (#4) and Accessing (#5) all add to people's learning experiences as they learn collaboratively on a global scale (#6 sharing), interacting (#9) and often have to use tools to filter (#7), remix (#8) to their own requirements. They can, along with others, track (#10) all their activities. Their learning may be supplemented by AIs (cognifying as in #2) and their are opportunities to question (#11) are availed through being part of networks, social media, access to multitudes of 'content' etc. 

The Inevitable provides a good overview of where humanity may be headed. There is importance in understanding how the rapid shifts in technology impact on us. We can then make more informed choices as to what initiatives we support and advance. To use technology for betterment of the human condition rather than just let technology overwhelm our humanity. 

Ako Aoteoroa Professional Development facilitators day - Friday 27th Jan

The facilitators' 'Day' began with the evening before with a meet and greet session, dinner and after dinner session with Dr. Marc Wilson from Victoria who presented on "passion and excellence in teaching".

On Friday, the day officially opened by Dr. Joe Rito, Deputy Director Maori with welcome from Helen Lomax Deputy Director - sector services - who also set up the scene for the day. 

There is a quick round for participants to set up their workshop goals.

Dr. Stanley Frielick, Director, set the scene with update on where the P D portfolio is likely to move and develop towards. Referred to 1999 article in Higher Education whereby the author takes on the persona of Machiavelli to 'speak' to higher ed. leaders and managers. Shared his own journey as an educator to discuss how the concept of Ako contributes to the NZ context. Is 'just being good enough' sufficient and a goal to try to get to the entire sector? What is the contribution of requiring all of sector to be 'registered' with proviso for the completion of a qualification? Can professional development form a 'badging' component? And the who develops the professional developers? Should there be better contextualisation of PD to meet the needs of the diversity of the sector, discipline specific pedagogical approaches and diversity of learners? What other modalities can be useful beyond F2F to engage with PD participants? Especially the components unique to NZ including biculturalism and Pacifica. 

Session to unpack 'my teaching method'. An opportunity to share and learn from others. Main themes were using appropriate activities (active learning), application to practice, synchronous feedback through twitter tags or answergarden which creates wordle in real time . Groups reported back on similarities, active learning increases engagement leading to better possibility of participants adopt new practice, a 'product' to work on to bring back into future teaching practice, flexible learning to meet participant needs, astute observations - safe learning spaces, learning is universal across levels and disciplines, post workshop followup required to continue the beginnings of a community of practice formed during the PD session. 

Guest speaker Derek Wenmoth from CORE eduction provided insights on PD and strategies that work with educators. Summarised the CORE approach as developed through experiences from working with the compulsory schools sector. Discussed contemporary professional learning demands and how CORE meets these. Importance of ROI, return on investment. Principles include opportunities for pragmatic in-depth learning, sustained over time, contextual, linked to practice, grounded in theory and research and connected to others as part of a network of others working towards similar goals. Advocated using the concerns based adoption model (CBAM) from awareness (what is it), information (how does it work), personal ( how does it impact on me and what is my plan to do it), management (how can I master the skills and fit it all in), consequences ( is it worth doing), collaboration (how do Others do it) and refocusing. Presented on how CBAM applied at CORE across f2f, online and blended (all courses and used the most). Used the course - modern learning curriculum- as an example. A 20 week course build around a cohort with challenge based focus, content is support to activities, assessments are transparent and there is opportunity to link to qualifications. Encourage students to co-construct content through the course. Rubrics for assessment are available from the beginning so learners know what to work towards. 

Then a forum on growing sector capability: barriers and enablers. 3 groups shared discussion on how to move PLD forward in the NZ tertiary context. Themes included continuing mentoring and coaching - how to support, blended learning challenges, issues of transition from school to tertiary, are we ready for the different learner profiles and expectations, engaging with reluctant learners on directed PDL, using competency learning in a workshop context to frame, how to support participants after the return from workshops, PLD options across personalised learning journey, surveying to find out what is required.

After lunch, two sessions to discuss themes arising from the morning's presentations and discussions. In first session, a master chef show format used for creation of course to be innovative, have impact, be blended learning, embed literacy and numeracy, with Kaupapa Maori approach. Second session to collate tips to add to how to improve facilitation in workshops. Each facilitator providing one tip used before, during or after session.  

Closed with Stanley providing reflections for the day and Joe with poroporoaki. 

Future of work - labour party (NZ) final report

As signalled at last year's NZ Vocational Education and Training research forum and through posts last year - changing nature of work and through the presentations at the tertiary education symposium - the Labour Party in NZ (currently in opposition as the National Party is governing) has had a 'think-tank' on 'the future of work'.

The full report is now available, with the contentious 'universal basic income' given a small bit of space. The BBC provides a global viewpoint on the UBI and there will no doubt be more debate on this issue into the future.

Back to the report. The main rationale of the report is the forecasted changing nature of work, In particular, how technology will change the demographics, objectives, content of work. In NZ, prediction is for 45% of current jobs to be shifted by technology in the next 10 - 15 years through 'computerisation' aka as automation, globalisation and collaboration. The main risk to NZ is growing inequality between people who have the 'right' skills to shift with the times and people who are unable to re-train, up-skill etc. to move into the 'new economy'.

The recommendations are tempered by the Labour Party's 'social responsibility' mandate and it will be interesting to find out the National party stance on the issue. This year being election year in NZ, there will be opportunity to gauge each party's vision and strategy for the future of work.

There are 19 recommendations on education and training including important initiatives at the school level to improve careers advise at the secondary school level, introduce 3 years of free post-school education and training and create gateways back into education for older Nzers.

Security of work and income garners 19 recommendation including the support of 'self-employment, investigation of alternative income support models and providing training and support for workers who lose their jobs due to technological change.

There are recommendations specific to equity for Maori and Pasifika as NZ demographics indicate increase in population to come from this sector.

Specific recommendations are proposed for working with the impacts and opportunities for technology and balancing economic development with sustainability.

Many recommendations have been brewing for sometime through the public sector in NZ. As both National and Labour are basically centrist - National is centre right (slightly) and Labour is centre left (more pronounced), I would think that many of the initiatives in this report, will, at some time in the new future, become policy. Which ones will depend on the party governing after the elections later this year.

Iphone 10 years old this month - has mlearning become established in education?

This NZ article, provides a historical overview of the evolution of the smart phone and its impact of the technological landscape. In ten years, we have seen phone companies come and go. However, the continuing influence of smart phones on the world has been and continues to be far reaching. The article, as with this other one from the BBC, describes the iphone as a key transformative technology for the last decade. The smart phone has afforded access to a powerful computer to over 2 billion people. As reported in another article, peopleare enamoured by smart phones and we are emotionally attached to them as the conduits to social media.

On the teaching and learning side of things, the advent of the smart phone must surely be one of the most important contributors to mobile / mlearning initiatives. With the smart phone, ready access to the internet via WiFi, the untethering of knowledge, content and the ‘sage on the stage’ approaches to teaching and learning accelerated. Tablets have added another dimension to the ways in which smart phone technology may be leveraged. 

Many of the ‘cutting edge’ applications discussed at mlearn in 2006 – 2010 are now common place. A recent NZ project, provides salient examples of the breathe and scope of mlearning in the NZ tertiary sector. However, the potentialities of mlearning are still largely untapped. In large educational institutions, two barriers have taken time and patience to surmount. The first is the security aspect around institutional IT systems, the second the provision of adequate and robust WiFi. BYOD is one way to move through the IT security challenge but BYOD use hinges on ease of access to WiFi. Blended learning and the integration of TEL via mlearning to support active learning through inquiry, project or problem-based learning becomes normal.

Learners having access to a wide range of resources now require skills to evaluate and collate material. To be able to bricolage, one has to know what, where and how to look for information and then to critically appraise the material and incorporate into informing how to solve an existing or new problem. Learning shifts from learning content to learning how to think. Teachers, especially ones assisting learners to learn a specific occupational, need to now be able to help learners learn how to ‘become and be’. Therefore, there is an important shift in pedagogical focus, from learning how and why to learning how to extend beyond the here and now. 

Food Heroes - Channel New Asia series

Came across this series while I was in Singapore in November. I have been dipping in and out of it across the break from work. Here are notes taken of each episode - each around 25 minutes long.

All the featured chefs are young, in their early to mid thirties. They come from disparate backgrounds but all have an innate respect for food. All attended some form of culinary training before embarking on journeyman experiences, mostly in well-rated, influential restaurants, often through unpaid internships but strategically selected – the best restaurants. Archive of the series also available via toggle.

Janice Wong – 

A graduate but with a love of food and an innovative pastry chef / owner of 2AM Dessert Bar. Her innovation is anchored by perseverance. Has clear ideas on how to provide food with experience. Food is not just to be eaten but to invoke memories and add to individuals’ collection of sense of place. Provides ingredients, in the form of jars of coloured chocolate, sauces etc. to customers to make their own versions. Completed work experience in France before embarking on her own entrepreneurial journey.

Jason Tan - chef at the  CornerHouse 

Jason comes from humble roots and is still living in HDB (public housing in Singapore) apartment with his parents.He is inspired by nature and the restaurant is aptly situated in the Singapore botanical gardens. A Singaporean who helms a top flight French restaurant – there is no Frenchman running a Chinese restaurant in France.  He is praised by food critics for technique, precision and innovative use of local ingredients. Allowing ingredients to shine through careful cooking technique, appropriate to each ingredient and various combinations to feature and highlight natural the flavours. Shared how he learnt the exacting attitude required to produce excellent and consistent food. Work experience in Franc with this article detailing some of his training

Hashida ‘Hatch’ Kenjiro – helms Hashida Sushi in Singapore.

 Hatch epitomises the Japanese tradition of sushi chef training by his father – stealing knowledge by observation. Started at 12 cleaning tables after school. Only at 14 was he allowed to assist in the kitchen. He still follows traditional processes as learnt from his father but his presentation is modern and often inspired by modern art. He takes procurement of ingredients seriously. All fish is air-flown from Tokyo and he visits the suppliers often to maintain person to person relationships.
Another overview plus video of sushi making from ieatishootipost.

Julien Royer – head chef at Odette, a fine dining French restaurant 

Julien grew up in a family of farmers where his grandmother, Odette was his first cookery teacher. His philosophy is of using simple food as the best ingredients and then continuing with minimal cooking and modernistic plating. Keeps taste pure rather than masking natural favours. Uses smell and sound to enhance the dining experience. Not just to push boundarie and innovate for the sake of innovation, but to stick to the basics and do them well. Offers a vegetarian tasting menu J Stresses the importance of educating the palate for young chefs. Uses a collaborative style for training emphasising co-creation of dishes.

Loh Pik Peng

 A hotelier and restauranteur with 20 hotels/restaurants inSingapore and a trendsetter and also in Sydney, Shanghai and London. He specialises in identifying the x factor in chefs so that each restaurant is subsequently successful. An innovative, creative and technically well versed cook may not actually make a good chef. Running a restaurant also includes the business side of things.

Began with Ember as his hotel needed a restaurant. Then webt on to open a whole series - Restaurant Andre, Majestic restaurant, The Study, Cheek by Jowl, contributing to revival of heritage areas around Singapore.

He is from a family of foodies – father, grandfather and studied law before beginning the unlisted collection.

First hotel / restaurant in late 1990s and early 2000s, a challenging time due to financial recession. Learnt by doing and distilled factors that would contribute to successful restaurants. See this article for his ideas on entrepreneurship in hospitality.

Focuses on quality food accompanied with quality service, ambience / atmosphere and attention to details.Mentors promising chefs to helm his restaurants. Currently employs 170 chefs / cooks. Programme profiled 3 of his chefs, a multinational group with an Australian, Sri Lankan, Singaporean but is now working to support and groom local chefs. Especially the ones who are keen to  work with locally sourced ingredients and provide a distinct Singaporean interpretation to fine-dining.

Han Li Guang, 

As one of the most experimental chefs in Singapore and the flag-bearer for emerging Modern Singapore cuisine, Han Li Guang reinvents well-loved local dishes into something never encountered before. Think chicken rice without chicken and rice, and chilli crab ice-cream. 

Article for more background information found here.

Han is a banker turned chef with little formal cooking background. He completed his apprenticship to a fine dining restaurant when he first started out. He had to learn basic skills rapidly but sought to stay true to his food philosophies. Reads voraciously to expand his horizons and obtain learning on techiques.

Han brings ingredients together to make familiar Singaporean dishes with a twist. Experimental cuisine reinterpreting the food Han loves to eat but to push the boundaries to define and elevate flavours and come up with something unexpected. Articulate in explaining how his cuisine has developed and his reflections on how he goes about innovating. See this article for more. For example, how to present Hainanese chicken rice and make it a culinary taste adventure. So the dish honours the ingredients and presents a surprise take on something which is familiar to Singaporeans. As he is working with iconic Singaporean dishes, the challenge is made greater. R and D is intensive and time consuming. His goal is to create something unique to his personality but retaining the integrity of his philosophies on cooking. Advocates for the need of young potential cooks to not only learn Western cuisine but to be also train in how local food is produced.

Malcom Lee – Candlenut specialising in Peranakan gastronomy – 

The food of my childhood. Ieatishootipost video with American ambassador being introduced to Peranakan cuisine. 

Malcolm odernised the ‘fusion’ of Malay and Chinese cuisines. He honours the integrity of hallmark Peranakan dishes but presents innovatively. Traces the development of his journey towards paying attention and respect to traditional dishes, based on the recipes of his mother. Moved Peranakan food up a notch from its home cooked food foundation towards fine dining expectations. He originaly refined the classic dishes to satisfy his own vision / palate expectations of the dish by creating either a better version or a modern version. The episode also covered the challenges of introducing diners to new interpretations of familiar and beloved favourites. While studying towards his undergraduate degree, he interned at several fine dining restaurants in Europe, strengthening his resolve to become a chef. After graduating, he studied at cooking school in Singapore. Peranakan cooking has always been based on the cooking of the family, the traditional dishes cooked by grandmothers. Malcolm’s goal is to stay true to the roots of Peranakan cooking but to also modernise and extend the cuisine.

Innovation includes the use of ingredients traditionally used in savoury dished in sweet desserts. An example being their signature dish, buah kelauk ice cream. The bauk keluak has a distinct flavour and traditionally cooked with chicken, giving the dish a very dark black colour and a distinctive bitter end note. Using the buah kelauk in ice cream extended the nuttiness and chestnut like texture into a smooth, ice cream.

Persistence and adherence to his foundational philosophies pay off with the attainment of one Michelin star in 2016. What began as a passion, evolved into an obsession. Eventually, the business stress caused him to re-evaluate his priorities and to seek better work-life balance.

Andre Chiang – restaurant Andre

Andre helms the third-placed restaurant in Asia and 32 in the world and a restaurant on the list of top 10 restaurants in the world worth a plane ride. Andre is renown for creating degustation menu with 8 courses. His food is innovative, visually attractive and adventurous in taste and texture. Based on octo philosophy, the eight essentials of dishes. Meals are to be an experience, with the 8 dishes spaced across 3 hours and matched with appropriate wine, service techniques and accompanying serving theatherics. An example, seared meat, served with heated stones and covered with a range of herbs and spices in a closed container. The dish is enhanced with the aromas, textures and ‘surprise’ elements.

Menu elements change each day. The lunch menu is a ‘menu in process’ based on what is available at the market each morning. His mother was a chef in Taiwan and some of this legacy, the importance of food and eating, is reflected in his cooking. Moved to the South of France at 15 and trained in a 3 star Michelin restaurant. He had to train his palate towards what was expected in a French kitchen.

He is able now to blend eastern and western philosophies of cooking, bringing elements of the best of each culture into his current repertoire. Provided example of how he worked with foie gras to create a unique product to lighten the dish but acceptable to the French palate. Always seeks to retain the natural flavours of the food but adds sufficient elements to enhance and improve the natural ingredient. It is a daily collaborative effort to maximise the ingredients available to create the best interpretation, worthy of service to his customers.

The series is beautifully filmed. A must see by anyone interested in how cooking evolves with its strong links to socio-cultural connections.The food videography is done well so best to view each episode after you have eaten :) 

Indications there will be more episodes to come in series two.

Plans for 2017

Looking forward to another fulfilling year after a good week plus of R & R up in Nelson. The weather cooperated, so lots of cycling and a good walk up to Mount Arthur to admire the Celmisia Dallii which only grows in the NW of the South Island and was in full flower. 

There will be several ‘projects’ on the go for 2017, all of which will require concerted effort!!

Firstly, there is the e-assessment project with NMIT, Te Tapuae o Rehua and Unitec. The project begins officially with a two day workshop at the end of January. During the workshop, there will be some team building along with ensuring all the participants understand the commitments required for the project. We will have short sessions on what ‘assessment for learning’ means, along with an introduction and overview of qualitative research through a variant of participatory action research - the spiral of inquiry. By the end of the two days, each sub-project team should, or be close to, confirming their research question and plan.

Secondly, the Batcher of Construction moves into ‘teaching and learning plan’ development. Although the degree is not officially approved, we begin working on year 1 and 2 courses which are currently part of NZ Diplomas in construction.

Thirdly, there is the ramp up of support for tutors in architecture and engineering as they plan towards move into a new, purpose-built facility – Kahukura. Most of the tutors have identified some ‘project’ they plan to put in place in the first semester, in anticipation for the move into Kahukura in the second semester. The learning spaces in the new building are set up to be flexible learning spaces. So the main objective is to assist tutors with shifting to a learning focus from a mainly content-focused teaching approach.

Fourthly, ongoing programme development work commences with the re-development of the Bachelor of Information Technology (BICT). This is a large programme and continues on from work accomplished through 2015 on programme design for level 3 to level 6 NZ Diplomas in computing. Some of the NZ diploma courses may require re-visiting to align with the move into graduate profile outcomes for the BICT. Last year, quite a bit of my time was taken with supporting the level 3 and level 4 programmes offered by Campus Connect. These courses are largely to prepare learners to become users of technology and courses are offered across campuses across Canterbury. ‘Blending’ the programmes have been a good learning experience for both myself and the Campus Connect staff.

Fifth item on the list, support of a smaller group of staff, still working through mobile learning projects from Project Tablet. Several are ready to shift up a notch and work intensively with embedding TEL into all their courses.

Lastly but by no means least important, my development as a scholar with articles to complete from previous projects. Hopefully several conferences (with papers) to present at and usual work to support tutors at Ara with educational research projects.

As per usual, I will share my learnings on this blog, of the continual journey to understand how people learn a trade, how to incorporate techonology enhanced learning into vocational education programmes and the maximise on the important contribution of sound programme development towards better learning experiences for students.

Review of 2016

This year has been rather hectic. There have been ‘peaks and troughs’ throughout the year. As most of my work this year has been focused on getting new or re-developed programmes ready for approval, deadlines have led to times of intense activity, bracketed by less busy weeks. The less busy ‘programme development’ free weeks have been devoted to drafting articles and prepping up for an Ako Aotearoa funded National project to begin next year one-assessments.

Much of my work this year has been to shepherd a degree through the programme approval process. The work will now continue into next year as the programme moves into generation of teaching and learning plans.

The beginning of the year was busier than usual as two of us ‘established’ educational developers assisted new staff into the fold. We inducted and mentored four ed. devs. brand new to Ara and one shifting sideways within Ara. Each of the new educational developers bring with them strong skills and add much needed expertise to our team. My objective has been to nudge out their strengths so that we are able to leverage off these. We also now have an ongoing ‘professional development and learning’ programme for our entire team. This will assist all of us to gain skills and expertise in ‘new’ areas of learning and add to our overall capability. It has been good to have a larger team to work with and I have learnt much from the collegial and collaborative work environment.

‘Research’ has revolved around two evaluative type projects. Both were small and provided information to the wider Academic Division team as to how to proceed with use of technology and the connection of tutors’ research to their curriculum and teaching development.

Publication (see here for updated list) has proceeded as planned with two journal articles published. Currently there is another one in the review and a book chapter in press. The book chapter includes contributions from 5 other Ara staff. I have a couple of articles now in draft and will work through them through the summer, ready for submission early next year. The publication cycle will see these published end of 2017 or into 2018.

Looking forward to some R & R over the Christmas and New Year with a trip up to Nelson to complete most of the great taste bike trail and a foray up to Mount Arthur to continue by learning of alpine plants.

Pecha Kucha presentations - Ara Department of Humanities

Organised by Libby Gawith, chair of the Humanities department research committee. These short show and tell sessions are popular with our tutors at Ara Institute of Canterbury. Presentations are over lunch time with each presenter given 6 minutes to provide an overview of their work. Some of the presentations are based on just completed Diploma in Tertiary Learning and Teaching (DTLT) projects which are based on practical strategies to enhance learning for students.

Andre de Roo from Engineering trades presented on  taking tec to the coal face based on work undertaken as his last DTLT project on programme development. Rationalised through needs of industry with lean manufacturing and CAD / CAM controls, robotic workshops and 21^st century pedagogies with needs for deeper learning. Class set of tablets had logistical issues. Created covers and used onenote class notebook in welding classroom to help learning. 

Louise Sheppard  reported on trialling an e-book version of a course textbook within context of anatomy and physiology. Presented rationale, details of the ebook, costs and principles. Ebook comes with a ‘learning space’ which is a trimmed down LMS revolving around the book. Able to select / hide / structure text book, assign reading week by week (and see learning analytics on this), includes quizzes, multi-media content, book-marking etc. Students also able to like, comment, interact and post picture, videos and links.

Adrian Blunt spoke on the concept of "great expectations". Overview of his study leave over this semester whereby he explored the relevance of the work of Professor Jo Boaler – on math mindfulness and Professor ChristineRubie-Davies (Auckland University) on high teacher expectations.  Teachers with high expectations had equitable classrooms, did not lose sight of individuals, encouraged goal settings, effective feedback and communication between students and teachers. Challenged all to consider setting high expectations for our student.

Mary Brett-Kohistani presented on "the digital divide", part of her final paper on a MA with the topic of what is the digital divide and how does it apply to literacy. Especially what the implications for tutors. Have, can and will or nots. Digital divide is focused on socio-economical issues but also generational differences. So digital = access or ownership or not. Literacy = able or not yet able. Practitioners may assist to close the divide using social media aligned to needs of learners.

Ian Patterson – Peer assessment and feedback – reporting on his DTLT project – how to motivate students with lab work if model answers were published at the end of each week. Involved students through peer assessment, students had to figure out the answer and then provide feedback to their peers. Explained the logistics, challenges, some solutions and reflections. Took more time as tutor was the manager of the assessment process.

Hossein Askarinejad overviewed using BYOD in the classroom which was part of his DTLT project. Need to incorporate active learning through real / live practical activities along with BYOD to engage students. Provided an example whereby learning activity encourages students research article online, check against NZ standard and assess the various options. Summarised logistical needs – enhanced WiFI, charging stations, support for software / hardware and having backup available (shared tablets).

David Cooper  presented on Sound 3 M.A.K.E. – musical audio kinetic electronics which anchors his Year 3 course to assist students to learn the HOW and WHY behind their music theory and practice. Based on using Arduino and open source software to extend their parameters. E.g. connecting musician’s heart beat to musical composition. Encourages students to be innovative but within a budget to encourage sustainable practice.

Graeme Harris provided details of his project – Motorsport and how to also assist a group of Indian students on a block course to learn about engineering analysis. Provided background, the Indian context, the needs of the students – what they want to learn and how the course is structured / design to meet the student learning needs.

 Good to see progress in the various projects. Almost all projects have had some contact with our educational development team, with two projects being off-shoots or continuation of the tablet projects begun 3 years ago. 

Innovating Pedagogy 2016 report

Via ignatia web, report on Innovating pedagogy for 2016 from a report by Open University and the Learning Sciences Lab, National Institute of Technology in Singapore.

A short (40+pages) report with following (out of 10 proposed) of relevance to eassessment project.
 - Learning through social media
- productive failure (i.e. learning thorough experience and from making mistakes)
- teachback (learning by teaching others)
- Learning from the crowd
- Learning through video games
- Formative analytics (developing analytics to help students improve)

The 2015 report is more traditional, advocating
- crossover learning (formal connected to informal),
- learning through argumentation,
- harnessing incidental learning
- context-based learning
- embodied learning

The 2014 report covered pedagogies now taken for granted e.g.
- massive open social learning
- learning design informed by analytics
- flipped classroom
- learning to learn
- BYOD
- dynamic assessments
- learning through storytelling
- threshold concepts

The older two reports advocate similar recommendations to the annual US of A Horizon reports. Trawling through the innovative pedagogy reports provide a good historical record of how pedagogy has shifted over the last 5 to 6 years.

We will need to mesh some of the above with the work on vocational education pedagogy. There are good synergies across the above and the work of Lucas, Claxton and Spencer. Summaries of the three pieces of work on this blog:

-vocational pedagogy
- remaking apprenticeships and
- practical guide to craftsmanship.

Plus also work from recent 'Learning a trade' project - learning as becoming by learning to do, think, feel and be within the NZ context of biculturalism for example with Maori trades training.

Each of the sub-projects in the eassessment project will integrate at least one if not more of the 'innovative pedagogies' and apply the recommendations from the various international and NZ vocational pedagogy studies.

Microsoft Classroom - interim thoughts

One of the platforms to pilot through a recently approved Ako Aotearoa National Project funded 'eassessment' project will be Microsoft classroom.

This platform was launched in April 2016 and currently in preview ( ie.beta ) mode.Microsort classroom requires access by students to Office 365 and allows teachers to to manage classes and assignment. It is different from OneNote and more akin to an LMS.

There is a website to learn how to use the platform.There is an overview video on syncing microsoft classroom to school data - 12.20 minutes long. In short, the platform allows for bringing custom office tools (OneNote, Word, Powerpoint, Sway etc.) to the classroom.  

The video covers  how the platform runs and overall the visual / user experience is similar to onenote class notebook layout. The process of how microsoft classroom integrates outlook, planner, has announcements, conversations, office mix, sway etc. and cassroom experience also over viewed.

Apps for iOS and Google are also available to smooth the path to BYOD.

Ako Aoteoroa Academy Symposium 2016, Day 2

Ako Symposium day 2

Day 2 begins with keynote with Dr. Alan Wright from Windsor University in Ontario, Canada.

He is assisted by his partner, Marie-Jeanne Monette.  They present on 'teaching excellence is ... engaging conversations'. The focus of the presentation is on how to develop rapport with students and collegiality among teaching colleagues. Modelled the teaching and learning conversation between two teachers, one who is going to assist the other improve 

their teaching and the teacher seeking improvement. Find a catalyst for conversations between students and students, teachers and students and teachers and teachers. How can we create an environment or atmosphere where students are motivated and self directed? Intrinsic motivation requires ignition. Developing student's sense of ownership of their learning is one solution. Teachers need to create conditions to allow students to take responsibility. Survey distributed on how to develop learner autonomy. Suggest using the same survey with teacher and students and having a conversation on results as often there will be a difference. Assumptions by teachers of students' self efficacy, motivations and goals require better synchrony. 

After morning tea, concurrent sessions begin and I attend the 2 ITP sessions. Firstly with Matt Thompson and Richard Nyhorf on 'redesigning every course! Why, how and why?' Presented the priorities for the Otago Polytechnic D4LS programme to redevelop programmes post MROQ. The curriculum and development cycle includes prep and orientation (includes evaluation of student learning profile, stakeholder consultation), programme course workshop, blueprinting (teaching and learning plan), integration workshop (for entire programme), online development, lesson planning, programme delivery with reflection and review through each step. Priorities included building staff capabilities, developing learning analytics, strengthening experiential learning, increase student managed learning, grow on line elements of blended learning and embed strategic frameworks into programmes as appropriate. 

Second presentation with Adrian Woodhouse and Stephen Elwood on 'considering the relationships between pedagogy and technology with culinary education '. I had seen an earlier version of this and good to now see the implemented version and changes made through previous feedback. TasteIT app presented as a way to collect feedback from tutors, peers and customers. Detailed project bringing together 3 papers - product development, taste and consumer  sensory process and financial management - for year 1 bachelor in culinary art programme. . Groups of 5 students work to set up a burger stand for a function. Each group allocated budget of $75. Sensory evaluation and feedback play an important role based on work of Synovate, 2007 concept of how to collect sensory feedback and triangulate the data. 

App easily generalisable as far as criteria inputted is concerned. Feedback on each control point collated into a spider chart, the objective is to bring the data points towards the middle of the web. 

Small group discussion follows on the topic 'what will teaching excellence in the future look like'

Angus McFarlane and Alan Wright provide some perspectives to start us going. Each group discusses and propose some possibilities. 

After lunch, an update from Dr. Graeme Benny, who is on the interim chair of the board for Ako Aoteoroa on 'tertiary education for employment in NZ today': whose purposes are being served?'  Summarised the things we do well and the things we need to work more on. We do many things now as we have done them for long time. There are perceptions and realities. Tertiary learning is costly. Harder for young people to get jobs. Fixation with university and non uni as second class. Young people start working life with more debt and lower income to debt ratio. Kids think education is for a career but most do not have idea of what to do.  Key issues. Are we really fitting our kids for employment. Are employers helping us to help them? Is the tertiary sector really efficient. Why is there o much fragmentation in NZ? Are there real measures used to evaluate effectiveness. Does system support good teaching? Is great teaching able to be taught? Do we have a vision of the future for tertiary sector? Shared educational value change to increase students to be self learners. Summarised some strategies of Ako board and academy. A partnership between both important to raise profile of good teaching, shared vision, and build profile as exemplars of great teaching. 

Academy hour follows to discuss and make decisions on various issues impacting academy members. These include upcoming elections for executive committee members, replacement of myself on to the tertiary excellence awards selection committee, membership of the recently formed international fellowship of excellent tertiary teachers and opening the symposium up to other teachers next year. etc.

Another busy and productive symposium with plans for next year's symposium to be held in Dunedin.