questions

Guest post: Mike Buckham – Impact of the EdBlogNZ challenges

Posted on by Nathaniel

This guest post is written by fellow #EdBlogNZer, Mike Buckham, as part of the #EdBlogNZ 2015 Connected Educator challenge.

 

<– This guy 🙂

Follow Mike’s blog: MB@WORK.

 

My experience with the Edblognz challenges and the impact it has had on me

My experience with the Edblognz challenge has been nothing short of transformative. By participating in the challenge I have connected with other educators across the sector (ECE to Research) and this has re-invigorated my passion for learning and my part in the journey (my own and that of my students).

The impact? A massive (read, “possibly completely overwhelming” aka “Am I nuts!?”) learning journey has been sparked from the experience. I’ve connected with educators and ideas that have me thinking about more ‘big picture’ questions:

  • Is it possible to have a ‘unified field theory of education’? If so, what might that look like?
  • Should we stop talking about “21st C learning/education” and simply talk about future-focussed learning? What does that look like?
  • Does educational achievement equate to societal progress/success? Does this help us tackle the “wicked problems,” or create more ‘highly-educated fools’?
  • What is ‘achievement’ in a truly diverse and inclusive education system?
  • How do we define success, and who gets to define it? What biases are inherent in those definitions? How is our success then to be measured?
  • How do we deal with these challenges? Individually and collectively?
  • How do I bring all of that down to my kura/students and how do we move forward?

I don’t have the answers and probably never will. Maybe my students will carry on the journey for me. With a life-long journey there is always another horizon.

 

Thanks, Mike, for sharing your thoughts on this blog.

 

Monday Mentions: 4 August 2014

Posted on by Nathaniel

BlogCheck out my favourite blog posts from the past week.

  1. Schools that work for kids by Eric Sheninger from the blog A Principal’s Reflections. In this post Eric reflects on his son and his technology use at home and relates that back to a school situation, stating that the structure of many schools is at odds to the world our children are growing up in.
  2. Why are more teachers not sharing their practice? by Steve Mouldey from the blog Steve Mouldey: Emergent Reflections of a Secondary Teacher. I know I shared a post from Steve last week but this, to me, is such an important question to consider.
  3. HPSS and Seven Sharp – The School Behind the Soundbite by Claire Amos from Teaching and E-learning. TV current affairs show did a segment on Hobsonville Point Secondary School (HPSS) looking at the modern learning environment and practices that the students learn in. Overall it was very good. Claire takes this and expands on what a school week is like at HPSS to show that the normal stuff people expect from school is still covered within the project work they are doing. This is a great post for anyone interested in seeing how a brand new school operates within and MLE, using modern practices.