Trainer Klaus Hammermüller worked with the group on Tuesday. Here’s his summary of events of the day. The workshop was entitled BYOD – bring your own device – and ended with a visit to the Lernbüro (Learning Office) of the TGM Vienna.
Infrastructure:
If legal / financial restrictions limit the use of tablets / smartphones, consider Raspberry Pi as a state-of-the-art low cost solution to bring computer power into your classroom. In Vienna there had been a very successful project with Ingo Stein (before he switched to iPads).
https://www.ingostein.at/minicomputer-raspberry-pi-im-unterricht/ (German only, sorry)
Having only few devices available might be a benefit – sharing resources and forming small learning teams seem to be a very productive approach. It also reduces cost and operational efforts. I made very good experience with topic centric devices (different software packages deployed).
You might compare the approaches from Sugata Mitra and Nicolas Negroponte on ted.com:
https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud
BYOD might require a lot of network bandwidth – if not available local school server for learning content might be required.
State of the Art Learning Platforms
Check out https://www.khanacademy.org
It is the world biggest, most advanced and most successful learning platform. From a “State of the Art” Learning platform like this expect 3 things:
- Tutorials which allow you to “flip the classroom”, freeing up your time
- Interactive assignments, providing instant feedback for learners
- Learning analytic insight allowing to manage individual learning processes
There are other platforms as well and schools which implement such learning processes, including the “Steve Jobs Schools” in the Netherlands, or the “Alt School” in Silikon Valley or the “School for One” in NY (Bronx).
Maybe you want to check out the video of Salman Khan on ted.com – it’s pretty impressive.
Flipping the classroom, video production
- Find ready made tutorial videos e.g. on Khan
- Maybe some of them need translation (so no need to do video, just audio)
- Maybe you like to do some yourself. That’s actually pretty easy – google “How to make Khan like movies” …
- Maybe you do those for the book you are using as complementary material and share them with others using the book
- Maybe you assign the video-making work to those students as an assignment
I did present some examples I did myself for an Austria school-book publisher, a platform combining books, video tutorials, interactive assignments and learning analytics in one BYOD enabled package, e.g. https://digi.schule/gm1b9 (BYOD) for a math book https://digi.schule/digibuecher/books/genial-mathematik-1/1164 – a video tutorial is available in the “Hilfe” (help) button.
In general, every book can be “upgraded” to become a “state of the art” learning platform, given funding – e.g. by an EU project. I would look forward for any opportunity to collaborate.
General Purpose Learning Apps
Intro Programming:
https://www.catrobat.org – pocket code
https://education.lego.com/en-us – first lego league (robot programming)
Math, Geometry:
Geometry, Architecture, Design:
Lermnbüro, Learning Log-Book
In the afternoon we visited a “Lernbüro” (“Learning Office”) where learners can decide when they are learning what. The role of the teacher is more supporter than driver. However, there are schedules and deadlines for topics. It is a quite popular concept in Central Europe – and completely driven by the teachers (a grass-roots-movement). No politicians involved (yet):
http://www.schule-im-aufbruch.at/ (Sorry, German only. But have a look at the map!)
It is based on a concept from Gerald Hüther “Jedes Kind ist hoch begabt” (available only in German). It gives one (out of many possible) answer to the question of Sir Ken Robinson (check him out on ted.com) how to organise modern education (and why).
One component you did see is that every learner does a “diary” or “learning log-book”. That is the tool to manage the individualized learning processes. Out of one EU project we did a digital version you will find at http://lip-app.eu
Again, if this is interesting for you this could be a nice topic for a follow-on EU project in order to see if such concepts can be adapted in Greece too.
Outlook
As you are visiting a Maker-Lab tomorrow, here a little ted-talk about the not-so-distant future in design:
http://www.ted.com/talks/maurice_conti_the_incredible_inventions_of_intuitive_ai
It was a pleasure to spend the day with you,
Open Leaning Association
PS.: If you are interested in Learning Analytics, one of our two core-topics, have a look at John Hatties book “Visible Learning”. The skill assessments are built on his theory of effect in teaching.
PATRAS - VIENNA 2017 