So here I am on my holidays, and I've been catching up with housework, family, friends and the accounts. I've even had time to give an on-line session through wiziq on Shakespeare. I am interested in the Blended Learning and Project based learning. I have been reading about  Century Learning by Elena Silva a report funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. She is a senior policy analyst for Education Sector an independent think tank that challenges conventional thinking in education policy. Their commitment is to achieving measurable impact of innovation in education and reforming things like assessment and curriculum.

"The initiative seeks to strengthen
public education by examining key elements of accountability,
for instance, who should be responsible for student success and
how they should be held responsible. Our work seeks to build
on the strengths of current school accountability systems, more
fully and effectively measure the depth and breadth of students’
educational experiences, and encourage educators, parents,
policymakers, and the larger public to pursue educational equity
and excellence for all students."

Quotes like the following " The intellectual demands of 21st
century work, today’s leaders say, require assessments
that measure more advanced skills, 21st century skills.
Today, they say, college students, workers, and citizens
must be able to solve multifaceted problems by thinking
creatively and generating original ideas from multiple
sources of information—and tests must measure
students’ capacity to do such work." get us thinking about the future of education. Silva mentions various frameworks developed by various agencies but states:" The framework with potentially the widest reach is that of the Definition and Selection of Competencies
Project, created by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an organization of 30 industrialized nations. This framework describes
a set of key competencies—for instance, the ability to consider the wider context of decisions and actions—that marry the need for basic literacy with essential deep conceptual understanding. This framework helped to define OECD’s long-term strategy for
assessing competencies of young people, including its development of the PISA." The International Baccalaureate Organization is given consideration as providing an approach that seems a better fit with the aim of retaining more students through to tertiary levels.

Its an interesting read and there are some interesting findings regarding the best way to promote authentic learning from students. It also explores the question of how we get better value for money from changing approaches to standardized tests. The title Measuring Skills for the 21st Centuryby Elena Silva. I found it on one of my many random searches of the net. So if you're interested its out there.

It was a very late night when I finally turned in. After midnight. I met Benjamin Stewart and members of his on-line class in the supercoolschool and we discussed his Moodle site and the learning opportunities it affords to some of his ESL students.

Its always great to get another perspective, and don't we value the feedback that colleagues can give us as we struggle to get a perspective on our own e-learning projects? Benjamin's site has given me some ideas - getting the balance right - well as right as it can be - between static activities and interactive components of the course he is teaching. Today I watched APAC  (Australian Public Affairs Channel) - it is our public affairs channel and can be viewed on-line.

www.a-pac.tv/

It was interesting to hear the debate regarding how the issue, the health effects of smoking is perceived by key individuals, and what a country like China is doing to discourage tobacco smoking compared to initiatives here in Australia, where the Rudd government is moving to force the tobacco industry to use plain packaging with adverse health impact images on them. This conversation could be carried out because the presenter was proficient in English. It was wonderful that he was able to ask the essential questions. It was wonderful that our own representative from Australia gave an informed picture of the issue and how the public response is also driving policy changes. We can see how significant our work is in this forum when we are creating links that are moving us closer to a better world where informed discussions about serious issues can be carried on in relevant and respectful ways. However we need to remember that many of these discussions are not being heard by the people who need to hear them the most. To think that the information could be only a click or too away for some is exciting though.

As this is my first official blog on this site I feel I should explain my purposes in creating it. Obviously we are all here for similar reasons, we know that our professionalism as educators is something we value, and in the best possible situation, we are valued for it. The demands of the workplace seem to have taken over large parts of our personal lives, we now spend much more time on-line or engaging in social networking on-line, than our parents generation could ever have imagined. The world has grown larger - but ironically it has also grown smaller. This reminds me of the story Alice in Wonderland. We have fallen into a rabbit hole that seems to be throwing all manner of strange and challenging situations at us. Our desire for control over this new journey seems absurd at times. Do we have the necessary skills to feel at home in this new environment? It seems like there is so much to learn to project a sense of competence to our students, many of whom find themselves much more at home and comfortable with mobile technologies than we are. They have already created vast networks on Facebook, and can carry on dozens of chats with friends in a manner that seems effortless and seamless. The 'wow' factor that we experience when for the first time we successfully upload a photo - is 'passe' for them. Yet increasingly we feel we are lagging behind because we have yet to learn even more advanced skills that are not yet part of the job description. Putting my own Moodle/wiziq site together was by far the biggest technology challenge for me yet it was really only one step in a journey that is now leading me closer to feeling like I have achieved a significant degree of competency in creating my on-line persona. I am not talking about talking avatars here - though I think there is a place for them. I don't plan to become a talking billboard either but this journey is leading me closer to creating global and local connections which I hope to share with others. I have been a long-term advocate of the think globally/act locally philosophy. I will keep you posted on what this means for me over the next 12 months so stayed tuned. Meanwhile lets share, care and make others aware.