Steedy's Blog

Leadership

2011-10-06T16:06:00.003+13:00

I've been involved in initial process of getting Year 12 students to be considering leadership positons for 2012 and have shared these quotes which I like:

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader - Quincy Jones

A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader, a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves" - Eleanor Roosevelt

I particularly like the second one!

Nearly a year?!

2011-10-06T15:49:00.002+13:00

Yikes, my last blog entry was 8 October 2010. Why have I not been doing anything, I ask myself. From being a big believer and participant in a twitter/blog PLN I've really dropped off the radar (and boy do I miss it). Then I sit their thinking I need to get back on board but with so many ideas buzzing around my head where do I start again, where do I put my focus? Then I get side-tracked and another week has gone by.

I was just raeding the latest Interface and the page on twitter with "The five excuses for not using twitter"
a. ...because I don't have anything to say
b. ...can't say anything meaningful in 140 characters
c...I don't have time to use twitter
d....I'm not interested in hearing what people are eating for breakfast
e. ...it's a waste of time.

What's my excuse? I feel like I've just fallen out of touch, time being the convenient excuse, but I need to get back on board because I miss the learning, miss the people and feel I am not growing as I should as a consequence.

Key Note - Stephen Heppell

2010-10-08T14:20:00.005+13:00

Stephen Heppell (@stephenheppell) starts early acknowledging the importance of experience over expertise, acknowledging the importance of action research, reflective practice and the art of the teacher practitioner.

Interesting throwing out the idea of 3 teachers taking a large class - one teacher leads, one manages differentiation, one intervenes for remedial repair work. He says, when one teacher does all this it is often serial when a team do it, it is parallel, learning occurs a lot faster.

"We've put stabilisers on learning" - Nice anaology with bike stabilisers and the use of a balnce bike for his two year old granddaughter which enabled her to be readied for when she got a bike with pedal at the age of 3 she rode it immediately without any problems. The challenge is how can we provide 'balance bikes' for our kids that then enable them to go for it independently, rather than put on the restraints on have them 'stabilised'.

Embarrassed to have not come across google translator and google earth timelines - which show the historical development of cities/paces over years.

Note to self, check out Matt Locke's blog channel 4, behind the interesting Mapumental.

Breakout 6 - Derek Wenmoth (Future Focussed Schools)

2010-10-08T11:27:00.007+13:00

Derek Wenmoth presented a challenging talk (available on slideshare) on future focussed schools. OECD future schools sceanrio produced six possible sceanrios:

1. Status Quo - bureucratic systems continue
2. Status Quo - meltdown scenario
3. Re-schooling - schools as core social centres
4. Re-schooling - Schools as focussed learning organisations
5. De-schooling - Learning networks and network society
6. De-schooling - Extended market model

Of course, the likely outcome is a combination. However, if you could start from scratch, without constraint of inherited plant, existing buildings and dedicated real estate, you are pushed back to first principles and if you could do this what would you do? Knowlsey had an interesting approach worth reading about with their 7 schools, shutting them all down on Friday and reopening 4 community learning centres.

If we are condsiering future focussed schools five areas we could consider are:

1. Vision, planning and governance (there are competing philosphies e.g. instead of driving change technology enables, supports and accelerates change; instead of seeing education as broken we need to see it as an investment in the future, teachers are not a problem to be fixed but supported professionals, students are more than a future workforce...). "Organisations that are built to change have a clear sense of who they are and what they stand for" Lawler & Worley, 2009, p.193 (Built to Change). A book worth considering, an oldy but a goody, Beyond the Stable State - Donald A. Schon - the idea that once so and so happens/finishes then we'll be back to normal is a falicy.

Another great question is how do we become a learning organisation? They have five features:
1. awareness throughout the organisation,
2. environment - flatter structures with openness encouraged,
3. leadership - Shared and resources are committed to enable them to lead,
4. empowerment - locus of control shifts to workers,
5.learning - through learning labs which are small scale real-life settings (Again based on a book by Schon)

2. Curriculum - the effective pedagogies & key competencies are great but there are inevitable tensions with technology, cuuriculum, and pedagogy. Again work on TPCK explores these tensions.

3. Buildings and architecture - at the forefront, what are your learning principles and how do you want to learn? There are so many examples of new schools with craetive design approaches including Albany High School.

4. ICT infrastructure - should be flexible, agile, simple, reliable, sustainable, scalable - openness. Need to consider movement towards cloud computing, mobile technologies and personalisation of learning.

5... missed this, maybe it was interconnectvity with other groups?

Derek finished with a caution - dangerous enthusiasms, book reviewed by Otago University. It's not about going back and telling them the jobs they should be doing but instead inspiring them with the vision for the future.

Breakout 5 - Cheryl Doig (Paperless Productivity)

2010-10-08T09:07:00.005+13:00

Cheryl Doig's presentation is available on a live binder as a model for going paperless as much as possible. I've never heard of livebinder but this video tutorial may help open up some interesting uses. We looked at a bunch of different web2.0 tools

1. Dropbox - useful for sharing files (e.g. pdf) in a public way. It has the advantage of having permissions and synchronising both ways. Hot tip, the more teachers you can invite the larger the storage size made avaialable.

2. Google docs.

3. Tungle for scheduling, making meeting times and so on.

4. Stixy, not convinced.

5. Diigo. A more powerful bookmarking site than delicious. This is one thing I need to be exploring as I'd dismissed it earlier as another delicious (which I was happy with) but the snapshot facility and the sticky notes make it more powerful.

6. Evernote -a way of tracking things over time and not fogetting things.

Cheryl Doig's website thinkbeyond

Note to self - this invite to school of e-learning came via twitter while at Cheryl's workshop. Looks like a great collaborative space.

Breakout 4 - Tony Ryan (Solutions)

2010-10-07T14:07:00.006+13:00

Tony Ryan - Rather than talking about problems, let's start thinking about solutions.

Here's a range of suggestions:

1. Fun theory - take a problem and get kids to suggest a solution to it.

2. Elizabeth Gilbert, on TED talks, on nurturing creativity.

3. Get rid of small talk: Mindless banter, gossip, inconsequential comments' often use the word 'but'. Get into Big Talk, proactive dialogue, solution focus, challenge, paraphrasing. Teaching kids to paraphrase is a really valuable exercise - using "so...what you're saying that...".

4. If you want to get into solutions with kids, use student voice. Soundout.org has a whole range of ways of doing this and getting schools to measure their use of student voice.

5. Kids have to have good strategies, they also need to know how to use them in particular contexts. We need to teach them to self talk and to think about their thinking (to be cognisant of their thinking - metcognition).

6. Use of thinkers key cards, to get kids thinking.

7. Reflection - what did I do well? What can I do differently? (reflective journals).

8. Another interesting way of getting kids thinking is to photocopy a whole bunch of famous people in shots, or people in different situations, then put speech bubbles above them - get kids to enter dialogue into speech bubbles. Must be plenty of ways of doing

9. Celebrate - we need to do this more. Love the idea of 1000 Awesome things blog.

Now putting this into practice - can I answer these questions...

1. What are three concepts/processes you are most likely to put into practice?
2. What could you do with it?
3. What will you do with it?
4. What will be the process of implementation?
5. How will you keep it going?

Breakout 3 - Teaching as Inquiry

2010-10-07T12:17:00.003+13:00

I was keen to get into thinking about Teaching as Inquiry as I see it as an important next step for our school and a critical part of teaching practice, being constatntly reflective. I've always done that, to varying degrees, but I like the way the NZ Curriculum puts it there as an effective pedagogy reinforcing the fact that this is important for improving kids learning. Notes from the workshop is available on the softwareforlearning wiki. Got introduced to the idea of TPCK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge). Knew of PCK and I suppose this is a logical extension of it - the importance of teacher TPCK in how to effectively incorporate technology in their teaching. Also having a good opportunity to explore TKI, which I honestly need to spend much more time investigating, there's good learning here for teachers, for example these snapshots of teachers inquiry experiences using different ICT tools.

Key Note 3 - Lane Clarke

2010-10-07T10:32:00.001+13:00

Lane Clarke is asking some probing questions -

1. What does it mean to learn?

2. Is their a difference between learning and knowing?

3. What is the difference between theme and authentic learning?

How does 'real world' learning compare to 'in school' learning? Shouldn't the school classroom prepare students for an authentic context rather than an artificial context.

Pleased to hear she's mentioned killing question stems and encouraging the use of 'wonderwalls' a place for kids to stick questions. Nice idea and I like the idea of encouraging the wondering, although that's why we need ICT because realistically who wants to wait for a question to be answered, maybe the next day, or next week? No one.

Critically here's some great questions to be asking after the initial finding out: So what? How can we use what we know to make a difference in our life and the lives of others?

Followed by: If I want to do this then what do I know and what do I need to know to achieve my end outcome?

She's into using thinkbox and thinktower (which cynically you can buy via her website - no creative commons). I like the ideas, the schema, the concepts of you don't know what you don't know, that's all good. Why do we have to pay for it and why at a conference like this do we have a keynote who does a sales pitch to a captive (captured) audience?

Nice to finsih with this video celebration of the crazy ones - the ones that believe they can change the world and do

Keynote 2: Steve Wheeler

2010-10-06T16:43:00.005+13:00

We are in times of rapid change, teacher should be at the forefront leading this change rather than just reacting to it,

A few great quotes from the key note...

Doctors save lives, teachers make lives.

" Somewhere in your organisation people are already doing things differently and better. To create lasting change create areas of positive defiance and fan their flames" - Pascale and Sternin (read more from these guys and download the pdf here)

What students need - digital literacies, engagement and fun (for example serious games, interactive narratives, role play simulations), personalised learning (moving from just for me model - apprenticeship, the just in case model - standard curriculum,and the just in time curriculum bespoke curriculum back to the just for me model of personalised learning.

Steve Wheelers blog here

Breakout 1: Stephen Heppell (Learning Spaces & Places)

2010-10-06T12:43:00.004+13:00

Stephen Heppell has presented a pretty interesting array of school space ideas accompanied with a dry English sense of humour. What I take from the is the importance of students being involved in the design of the learning spaces along with the improtance of considering the three spaces: Me, We and See.

Me: your private space (probably the main focus of schools currently and typically done quite well)
We: you and your collaborators (can be done OK but still desks often designed or arranged counter to this)
See: the here I am, this is my stuff space (schools are typically shocking at putting the the learning they do to their community and celebrating what they do).

Further thoughts and ideas can be explored at Stephen's website and of course many of the rules that work for physical spaces also apply to virtual spaces or his blog.

Keynote 1: Lee Crockett

2010-10-06T12:22:00.003+13:00

Great start to the proceedings at ULearn10. Lee Crockett provided an entertaining look at learning based on his book Understanding the Digital Generation. Worth exploring further are the different fluencies as described by the 21st C fluency project: solution fluency, creative fluency, collaboration fluency, media fluency and information fluency. These provide an immediate challenge to what and how we teach.

Also enjoyed again the Daniel Simons video on the Invisible Gorilla and while some of the connections were tentative at best I think, like the intention of the video really, people will draw different inferences from the clip. It's worth exploring some of the thoughts about what we see or don't see, what we all indivdually draw from the same material presented on the invisible gorilla blog.

ULearn 2010

2010-10-05T13:59:00.011+13:00

Right, finally I'm back at ULearn. I missed last year (and rightfully so) as RSNZ deemed it to be too focussed on professionally development, not personal development. Fair call. But I missed it after having been the previous 3 years. Today I'm at Suzie Vesper's workshop on web2.0 tools and the main reason I'm here is just to have the time to play. A day of mucking around with this wonderful array of web 2.0 tools, some I've use, but others I just need time to explore and that's what today is about. You can surely get lost in the wiki she's established, go on dare you. If you exhaust that one, then there's another using this link and if you make it through every tool you're doing better than me! Made this little fella, useful if you're not keen for your mugshot online. Easy-as to make using potrait icon maker.

So here's my first play, voicethread. Man I find it difficult to talk and be recorded, so ignore that! Lots of potential uses for this in the classroom though.

Also been playing with funky text, which I'm not so keen on (must be getting older) but I'm sure kids would love, glowtxt.

Yikes, Ok finally a bit of a simple play with prezi

Those amazing godwits on Prezi

A fresh start, but before I do, some closure

2010-07-20T21:00:00.004+12:00

Ok, so it's been 6 months in the new job as DP and it's been a whirlwind. In that time I've not really had the headspace for blogging but steadily the urge to put my thoughts down has built and the time has come. I'm going to be blogging my thoughts about education - leaving the birds behind for now. But before I do I've got to tell a story, it's the final note from the Armidale Conference and tells of how a novice birder made a punt and did good.

So, field trip days in Armidale and while I was on the bus with a bunch of made keen Aussie birders I just happened to mention I'd seen a plum-headed finch on the outskirts of Armidale the previous day, perhaps a couple of miles out of town. Well, that got the blood flowing as for many on the trip, this bird was a lifer. Momentum quickly gathered and about 15 birders were keen to go finch hunting at the end of the field trip day. We organised the bus to drive us out of town to drop us off knowing we would have to walk back. The committed watched the road lengthen ahead and it felt a long 5 - 7 km or so out into the country by bus to get to the site where I'd seen the birds. Those on the bus looked at what they would have to walk back along to get back home and started asking "Are you sure this was a plum-headed finch you saw?" (after all what would a novice kiwi birder know?). I was pretty confident I'd got the ID right, but I started to have my doubts.

On arriving at the spot we all bundled out and started wandering around looking for the birds. There was plenty of birdlife around but no sign of the treasured finch. Then a call from across the paddock - people rushed over and there on teh fence was about 4 birds, perched for all to see. This is my one, quick photo - I'd opted to enjoy watching them through my bincoulars instead. The walk back was a great laugh, I couldn't imagine what it would have been liked if we'd not seen the birds!

A strange birding highlight, this one. But now, goodbye fellowship. Bring on the classroom.

Armidale

2009-11-30T23:50:00.008+13:00

So here I am in Armidale, here for the Australasian Ornithological Conference (AOC). It's a nice town. That said I only momentarily got distracted with the architecture while in search of a decent coffee! Armidale is at a reasonable elevation (>1000m) so is relatively cool - warm days and cool evenings. Yesterday I joined a Susie & Isabel from Massey on a trip out to Little Llongothlin, a highland wetland. This in itself is special as these days wetlands are disappearing at a frightening rate here in Australia (and other countries for that matter). Great little spot and some great birds - highlights were the gorgeous Superb Fairy-wrens, Sea-Eagle and Crested Grebe. The grebe especially as it was one of those birds in my birdbook as a kid I always looked forward to seeing one day - crazily, its taken this long.

Little Llongothlin, New England, Australia

The delightful Superb Fairy-wren

Retrieving data-loggers

2009-11-20T14:54:00.010+13:00

Processing station - Manawatu Estuary

About to release a banded godwit

A couple of weeks back now an important catch took place down at Foxton Beach, at the Manawatu Estuary. The main purpose of the catch was to retrieve as many of the 24 data-loggers back off birds that had been carrying them around the globe. Data-loggers record data on hours of light/dark while attached to a bird. From this data longitude and latitude can be calculated, giving the migration journey of the birds. However, to retrieve this data the device needs to be removed from the birds leg, where it has been sitting for a year (or in some cases 2 years). Of the 24 birds that had dataloggers placed on them all 24 had been sighted back in New Zealand, 23 of those in Foxton and 1 in Christchurch. A 100% survival indicating no adverse effects on these datalogger birds. We were able to join with a number of NZ birders and DOC staff to catch birds with cannon-nets, the dream goal being to retrieve all 23 data-loggers from the birds present. Radio NZ was also there, recording the action and seeking insights from participants as the day unfolded. A touch of careful movement of birds from down the end of the beach found them roosting in the catching zone, so then 3,2,1 fire! Off went the cannons, firing the nets over the birds. We raced to the shore to release the birds and within 10 minutes all birds had been placed safely in bird boxes, thankfully with no casualties! In the end, amongst the catch, were 17 birds with data-loggers. A good result, though still leaving the question of how to get the other 6 or 7?

Manawatu Estuary - a local gem

2009-11-10T10:18:00.006+13:00

Another aspect of the Fellowship I have enjoyed this year is the time spent at Manawatu Estuary. It really is a local gem, with a great diversity of bird and plant life. While the regular birds at the estuary (godwits, knots, oystercatchers, spoonbills, wrybills and so on) are fantastic in themselves the chance to see a bit of a rariety always adds to the visit. Over the year visitors have included a pied shag, glossy ibis, white heron, sharp-tailed sandpiper, golden plover, turnstone and red-knecked stint. Here's a couple of shots of a wrybill and juvenile turnstone I took down the estuary recently. You can read more about Manawatu Estuary Trust at their site.

Wader ID

2009-11-05T09:30:00.006+13:00

You'd think by now, a year into my fellowship, I'd be nailing the bird identification in the field. I'm certainly getting better, but those waders can be tricky and so I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity over Labour weekend to attend the wader ID course at Miranda. For me the time to be at the shellbanks observing the birds, getting the size comparisons, differences in body shape, plumage characteristics and feeding techniques allowed me to become even more attuned to the subtleties of waders. We had a good range of birds present over the weekend including NZ Dotterel, Banded Dotterel, Bar-tailed Godwit, Hudsonian Godwit, Red Knot, Pacific Golden Plover, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper and a Red-necked Stint.

One of the other aspects of the weekend I enjoyed was having my kids up so they could check out the birds too, hopefully a bit of the interest will rub off on them!

Wangauni Pelagic Trip

2009-10-15T10:36:00.004+13:00

October's windy weather had already resulted in the postponment of one pelagic (meaning open water as opposed to coastal) trip off the coast of Wanganui. However, a break in the weather and good timing saw the opportunity to get out on the water on Tuesday. Ten of us from Wanganui and Palmy had chatered a fishing vessel and a 7am departure from port meant an early rise for the Palmy crew. Choppy, sloppy seas greeted us and depsite optimistically popping sealegs prior to leaving home a number of us quickly turned green-faced and took turns farewelling our breakfasts (Wild Bean Coffee & Muffin, $4.90, going, going gone!). Still the seabirds more than made up for it and soon after departing the shores we were joined by White-capped Albatross and Northern Giant Petrel. Laying out a line of chum at a later point resulted in higher number of visitors with a number of White-capped Albatross, Cape Petrel, Fairy Prion, a Fluttering Shearwater and Sooty Shearwater. Other birds came and went over the day and the spectacular dynamic soaring of the albatross was always a stirring, stunning sight to witness. Seeing these birds above the waves should surely be on everyone's bucket list. Here's a few shots from the day...

Communicating Science

2009-10-01T10:08:00.005+13:00

As part of my year I need to be communicating to others about my fellowship. Of course this blog is part of that but at the moment it is also being complemented with a few speaking engagements. The most recent was at Napier Forest & Bird where I spoke. It was a talk I wasn't sure I'd get to give as the weather when we left Palmy packed in and we were greeted by snow as we travelled through the gorge! This continued right through to beyond Norsewood and thick snow settled onto the roads making for a slow, treacherous drive.

I also enjoyed putting the whole year together as a presentation, there's some great stories to tell and photos to share. I always admire great communicators, Paul Callaghan being one of the best science communicators around - he can make science accessible and just engage an audience with his experience, knowledge and clear commincation style. Actually I'm currently reading his great book, As far as we know, basically transcripts of his Saturday morning interviews with Kim Hill, which I highly recommend. I can only hope my talks are enjoyed and give a sense of the awe I feel about the epic migrations of these amazing shorebirds.

They're coming back!

2009-09-24T11:47:00.003+12:00

The godwits are returning and arriving exhausted after their journey south. I took the opportunity last Sunday to head down to Foxton and see about 100 godwits that had returned over the previous week or so. That is about half of the resident population down there. A number of Jesse Conklin's datalogger birds have also returned, which is great for his project where he'll be able to get a record of their flight paths. I didn't get any photos of the birds (godwits, red knots and pacific golden plovers) before a pair of inconsiderate kayakers went close to the roosting colony and spooked them off. However, I did get a nice shot of a white heron which has been resident at the estuary this winter - a nice treat.

Miranda - mistnetting

2009-09-03T11:31:00.006+12:00

The birds flying in at dusk - Miranda

Last weekend we made a journey up to Miranda to do some mistnetting over a couple of nights. The main goal was to catch Godwits and Red Knots to collect blood from the juveniles that had overwintered in New Zealand rather than migrating north to the Russian/Alaskan breeding grounds. These birds would then be used as a comparison group to the adult godwits and knots that are due to arrive back from the breeding grounds this month. We aim to catch some of these birds soon after their arrival, again collecting blood, to look at their physiology such as amount of muscle fatigue. While not specifically for the project I'm working on we did take the opportunity to get samples of any red plumage that birds had on them.

As you can see from photo, it was a beautiful evening on the first night but perhaps too clear and the high tide a little too early as the birds flew over to the stilt ponds just prior to total darkness. As a consequence many avoided the mist nets. Consequently, our catch of godwits was low, just the one. We did catch half a dozen red knots and a huge number of South Island Pied Oystercatchers (SIPO) which we didn't particularly need for the study, but banded for records. On the second night the godwits showed their superior intelligence and figuring we were up to something, didn't come into the stilt ponds at all. Still plenty of SIPO though, even a recapture from the night before! This did mean I had the opportunity to upskill on my banding with the fine teaching of Gillian Vaughan. Always good to be the field!

Me banding a SIPO

Bird Photography

2009-08-14T13:37:00.003+12:00

One of things I did part way through this fellowship was purchase a Canon 450D camera so I could get better at digital photography. This combined with Phil's gorgeous f5.6, 400mm lens has allowed me to learn a lot about photography and take some great photos. As a kid I always dreamed of doing bird photography and now this year, for the first time, I've really been able to get my teeth stuck into it. Particularly so in Alaska where a colleague Murray Potter, who is an excellent photographer, gave me lots of practical advice on white balance options, ISO levels and so on. It's been one of the most satisfying aspects of the year. This complimented the evening photography workshops I did with Bin Trinh, one of Palmy's best photographers. Now I'm always looking for opportunities to photograph birds. Even the other day, while I was out with friends down Cape Palliser, I was able to have a go using my basic 70-300mm lens and end up with a couple of nice shots of spotted shags. Now I need to save my money big time, so I can improve my lenses and continue getting some great shots next year when my access to such a nice lens disappears.

Alaska - the contrasts

2009-08-14T11:21:00.014+12:00

One skinny godwit, Alaska

For my final reflection on our recent work in Alaska I can't help but marvel at how godwits have to adapt so quickly to such radically different habitats, the tundra being so different from the inter-tidal flat in New Zealand. These contrasts struck us regularly:

- the wide open grassey tundra, miles from the coast, compared to the sandy/muddy inter-tidal flats and the obvious associated change in diet. The birds we saw were mostly eating berries, compared to polycheate worms and other invertebrates in NZ.

Australian bird (orange flag) eating berries in Alaska.

- feeding is determined by tide cycles in New Zealand, birds getting to feed on low tides, yet in Alaska feeding depended, at least for breeding pairs while we were there, on being able to get off the nest. We went with assumption of 12hr shifts, though we had no strong evidence of this. Other failed breeders of course could eat as they wanted.

- birds in NZ congregate together, whereas on the tundra they were largely isolated pairs, possibly kilometers from the nearest godwit. Failed breeding birds did start congregating towards the end of our stay however.

- they shift from NZ cycles of night and day, to 24 hours daylight

- birds had to deal with entirely different species around them, long-tailed jaegers contrast massively to knots, gulls and other birds from NZ. Godwits would be regularly seen beign chased by, or chasing jaegers. One thing that surprised us though was how the majority of godwit nests we encountered were in close proximity to a jaeger nest!

Overall, no matter how you look at it, you can't help but marvel at these amazing birds. Not only for their staggering migrations, but also for how they can cope so well in such contrasting environments.

Alaska - the nests & chicks

2009-07-27T10:34:00.009+12:00

While wandering across the tundra on the hunt for godwit nests we would regularly stumble across nests of other birds. Often this discovery arose following the heart-stopping flush of bird from the nest as we stepped only centimetres away. Ptarmigan often gave the most dramatic flush from the nest. Nest discoveries sometimes proved useful for other researchers in the area at the time, such as those working on Short-eared Owls or Pacific Golden Plovers. The size of a clutch would vary - all Godwit nests we found had 4 eggs, long-tailed Jaegers 2 eggs, but Ptarmigan nests typically had over 10 eggs, the largest I found had 14. There was also a variety of nest type and colouration of eggs. Here's a few examples

Ptarmigan Nest

Godwit Nest

Short-eared Owl Nest

We were also fortunate enough to still be around as the chicks hatched. It was always a delightful sight seeing a chick bumbling its way across the tundra, in the company of the adult or hunkered down on a nest.

Short-eared Owl

Of particular interest was the fact that due to the abundance of voles and lemmings the clutches of some birds, such as Rough-legged hawks, was unusually large. In the photo below you can see a picture of a Rough-legged hawk chick, one of 6 in the nest. According to Ted Swem, a biologist who has been studying rough-legged hawks for 25 years, the typical clutch is 2-3. He had seen only two clutches of 6 in the past 25 years.

Alaska - the other wildlife

2009-07-16T14:08:00.010+12:00

So there's no denying that one of the major perks of being in Alaska was being able to see such amazing wildlife every day we headed out into the field. While the bears stayed at a comfortable distance, I did find myself wishing for a closer encounter (though not too close!). Winning us over the most were the Musk Ox. We saw them every day, with one exception, and delighted in observing them with their young.

Reindeer were a common site in the area and we were told by a local Inupiat how they would round them up using helicoptors and remove their antlers for sale to overseas markets, a valuable source of income for the indigenous communities. The Red Fox we saw were few and far between, but we did encounter depredated nests (why not predated one asks?) which could have fallen victim to a fox visit.

The Arctic ground squirrels were great little companions, popping up in all sorts of places as if to say Hi. I love New Zealand and I love our birds, but I sometimes wish the country had evolved with a few mammals present so we could have our own encounters in the bush, as they really add to the whole experience out there. I'm not sure our introduced possums, deer & pigs cut it I'm afraid. That said, we probably wouldn't have such iconic birds like kiwi, kakapo and takahe had that been the case. I suppose it means I just have to keep travelling!

Alaska - collecting data

2009-07-16T13:39:00.008+12:00

During our time in Alaska, the focus was on catching male Godwits, such as this gorgeous male with the most stunning breeding plumage. Unfortunately, despite a number of treks across the tundra to this male's breeding area, we never managed to catch him. He was just too clever.

However, of the ones we did catch we recorded typical data such as mass, bill length, wing length, and plumage details. We also collected feather samples to analyse for melanin content and to score the degree of wear.

Before releasing the birds we would add Aplha numeric flags and metal bands so they can be identified in the future, hopefully this summer back in New Zealand! So keep an eye out for J6, J8, J9, K0, K1, K2, K3 and K4, coming to an estuary near you soon.

Alaska - the catching

2009-07-16T13:10:00.010+12:00

As you can see from the photo below, the Alaskan tundra is a vast expanse of low lying vegetation, pocky mounds, typically moist and below which lies a layer of permafrost. In this vastly different habitat from the inter-tidal mud flats, godwits nest... somewhere. We had to find that somewhere. Our job had four key steps: 1. Find the birds. 2. Find the nest 3. Catch the birds on the nest 4. Process and release the birds. However, both step 1 and 2 required hours upon hours of work each, mixed with a large measure of good luck. Once we had established typical "Godwit habitat", finding the birds became less problematic, but finding breeding birds was always a challenge. We needed birds on the nest to capture because Godwits typically sit tight on the net and don't flush until a person is remarkably close, in fact, in all cases we could lower the net over the bird and it would stay on the nest!

Locating the nest typically involved relying on viewing a nest exchange (where the male swaps with the female to incubate the eggs, or vice versa). Working on the assumption of 12 hour shifts we would observe foraging individuals to work out schedules and predict when an exchange might occur. Sometimes this worked perfectly, other times not at all... maybe the 12 hour shift idea was a good assumption, maybe not? Once the nest was located however, the next steps of catching and processing the bird could be completed within an hour.

The photo above shows Jesse and I taking the net to lower over a Godwit. The photo below is of a female Godwit still on the nest, look carefully and you can see the net at the top of the photo!

Once the eggs had hatched, catching relied on an entirely different approach and involved catching the young chicks briefly so that the parents would swoop in and be caught by a mist net being flicked up with perfect timing. We also tried various other strategies, such as using recorded chick calls and decoys (to little effect mind you). All up we caught 9 Godwits and 3 Red Knots. This might seem like small numbers, but it has been known for people to be out for up to 6 weeks and not catch a single bird on the breeding grounds. They can be very illusive.

Alaska

2009-06-26T05:42:00.005+12:00

Well I made it to Nome, Alaska about a week ago now and have had a brilliant first week here. The godwits have been tricky to find but strategic searching, along with networking with other birders and some good luck has enabled us to catch three pairs of godwits on the nest. To our knowledge, this is the first time pairs of godwits have been caught on the breeding grounds.

The weather is warmer than anticipated, so the mosquitos are out in force on still days, never before have I been happy for the wind.

The wildlife as we travel around is stunning - musk ox are seen daily, bears, squirrels, Artic hares, moose and caribou have all benn seen. It's great.

Fellowship Reflections (week 20)

2009-06-12T13:38:00.007+12:00

The Pandemic has begun

Last night, just four days before I am due to travel 36 hours sardine-like in an aeroplane and associated congested airports, the World Health Organisation announce the world is officially experiencing a flu pandemic. Does this really make any difference? Honestly, I don't know, it will depend on how others react and what officials decide to do about it. No recommended changes to international travel are recommended at this stage, so I am feeling comfortable about it all. That said, I have taken advice and armed myself with Tamiflu and facial masks for my travel. My only concern really, is getting some small cold or sniffle and being quarantined as a "suspected case" because I exhibit "flu-like symptoms". Here's hoping all goes smoothly and come mid-next week I find myself comfortably enjoying the view from my cabin in Nome - better still, from my wanderings across the Alaskan tundra!

One of my highlights of this week was getting back into the classroom again, admittedly with students much younger than I am used to. I was able to visit a bunch of great kids at Aokautere School who are studying Antarctica. I was able to take down some of the museum resources from the Ecology Department, such as a King Penguin and Polar Bear skull & leg. I was able to link in their studies with some of my work on Godwit migration, comparing some the geology and fauna of the Arctic with Antarctica. It was great fun.

Next time I write will hopefully be next week from Alaska!

Fellowship Reflections (week 19)

2009-06-08T09:49:00.010+12:00

A close shave

Over this week the four of us heading to Alaska depart with various separate schedules. The first to leave was Jesse on Saturday, reason being, he was to visit Fairbanks to look at museum specimens of godwits - take photos and do some spectrometry work. However, in the 5 months here at Massey we had no success in getting the spectrometer to work as we required. First attempts back in February centered around trying to get the light source (a Xenon PX-2) to fire up while connected to the spectrometer. We then found out from the sales rep. that we were missing the breakout box, a critical part that assisted communication between the two pieces. That then got ordered. Arriving April or so, we tried again. Still no luck - we then had to go through each part to work out where the problem lay. We finally identified the actual spectrometer had faults and so needed repairing. Now early May we faithfully shipped it off to the States with URGENT written all over it, hoping repairs could be completed prior to our departure, early June. Well, Wednesday last week the part arrived, 3 days before Jesse headed off and needed to take it with him. We carefully put all equipment together, having already tested each part knowing individually they worked, we then pressed the critical ON button and... silence. It still didn't go! Grrrrrrr!! Thursday morning, as a final desperate check, we were up at the Chem lab at Massey (they had a functioning unit we could troubleshoot with), we then piece by piece replaced their parts with ours, the hope was to create our own fully functioing unit. Eventually we found that one cable was the cause of the problem - the thing was, for the whole system to work the cable actually needed to be inserted upsidedown! So, now with just over one day to go before departure, we needed to perfect the actual use of the gear. Talk about cutting it fine!

Here's the setup I'm talking about...

Innocuous looking stuff, caused us enough grief though. Anyway, positive outcome in the end.

So, Saturday was a great day because I got to pick up my Sibley Field Guide to North American Birds. I've always travelled with a field guide for each country and have a great stash of them in my book shelf. This one though will be very special as the birds we see in Alaska are going to be just amazing. I will of course, gleefully scribble each sighting in my book as a wonderful record of my time up there. I love being a bird geek!

Fellowship Reflections (week 17)

2009-05-26T09:57:00.013+12:00

Alaska Planning

Diagram - polartrec

A fair amount of time over recent weeks has been spent planning the forthcoming trip to Alaska. It has been hard to avoid some horrendous flights to get to where we are going (I have something like 36 hours worth of travel to get to Nome - Nome is home for 3 weeks), but it's going to be worth it. We are heading up to Nome because the Seward Peninsula is a good breeding ground for Bar-tailed Godwits, though they are notoriously hard to find on their nests.

A Nome Godwit - Ralph Poanessa

They have fanastic cryptic plumage and sit tight on their nests, apparently you can get 1-2m away before they fly off! So the trick will be finding them. A current expedition in Alaska, finding Bristle-thighed curlews, is taking about 40 person-hours per nest. Here's a great photo to give a sense of what the challenge will be...

Photo USGS

Nome is also the ending point of the the famous Iditarod, the trail dog sled race. Not quite the season for it when we are there, given we will have 22 or so hours of daylight, but I'm sure we'll find some of the history of the race around the streets of Nome. Bring it on!

Fellowship Reflections (week 15)

2009-05-11T12:10:00.013+12:00

Sexing It Up

Red Knots are monomorphic, they show no significantly different features that would allow them to be sexed in the field. So, over the last week or so, my focus up here at Massey has been on methods to extract DNA from Red Knots and to use this DNA to determine their sex. Of importance is developing a method that allows me to extract and amplify DNA from feathers. We usually pluck only about 3-5 breast feathers and 2 scapulas from the birds. I therefore have trialled just using one feather as a DNA source and this has been hugely successful. I was able to extract DNA using a couple of methods, amplify it using PCR and primers that were specific to our lovely Knots, then run then DNA through a gel to get our results. Here's me looking all geeked up in the Farside Lab, part of the Alan Wilson Centre at Massey (I think the blue gloves will take off on the catwalk this winter).

An interesting thing about bird sex is that unlike humans, where the male is XY and the female XX, in birds the male is ZZ and the female ZW. Therefore, when doing electrophoresis the female gives two bands, at 400bp and 600bp, and the male a single band at 400bp. Here's a photo of my first gel, which shows a bit of messiness in the first column, beyond the ladder, but a clear male in the second column and some clear females out to the right. It works! Yay.

Fellowship Reflections (week 12)

2009-04-16T10:19:00.015+12:00

Yikes, my feathers are wearing out!

The birds have flown, so the feild work takes a pause for a bit. Now it's time to get into some lab work. My attention is being divided across three main areas: Genetic sexing, feather reflectance measurements and microscope work to examine feather wear. I will get into genetic sexing of red knots soon, they are monomorphic and we need to be able to determine sex from feather samples using PCR. Feather reflectance is a major part of our study, yet we have had all sorts of problems getting our incredibly expensive equipment to work effectively, that's frustrating! So, the most recent work has been on looking at feather wear. Birds moult and replace worn feathers and we are interested in how melanin investment affects the wear and reflectance of the feathers. You can see in this photo below, a relatively new feather and a worn feather.

The wear in this case maps the black outline of the feather - black has different proportions of melanins than the red coloured feather. Our job is to come up with a method that allows us to consistently score the degree of wear. We have spent some time looking at the feathers under 90x magnification, examining barbs and barbules and the wear. Here's some shots- up close and personal.Above you can see how the barbules have worn off the barbs. Zooming in (though admittedly on a different feather), these look a bit like this...

and zooming in again...

Who would have guessed there was so much to a feather? Looks aren't everything, are they? Yet for birds they are a lot - camouflage, quality signals, status signals and more. Hmmm...better leave it there, so I don't wear you out.

Royal Society Reflections (week 9)

2009-03-31T12:54:00.013+13:00

Where are they now?

Godwits in flight (photo by Craig)

So, last night, with a Southerly kicking in, Jesse Conklin (a researcher at Massey) reported the last likely departures from Foxton Estuary (bringing his 17 nights or so of migration watch to a close). The birds are all but gone, but prior to their departure Phil caught this photo of a Red Knot from Foxton that was well and truely ready to go - it's staggering to see the amount of fat stored on the breast, reserves for the huge flight ahead. How can it even get off the ground?

One fat Red Knot (photo by Phil Battley)

So, where are they now? Well, birds are heading north west from NZ towards their first stop-over, the staging grounds of the Yellow Sea. Here they will feed up for a few weeks before heading off again to the breeding grounds in Russia or Alaska. This photo below shows some of the tracked godwits and their movements around the Yellow Sea.

Yellow Sea - photo from USGS site

The shores of the Yellow Sea are critical refuelling sights for migrating birds, yet throughout East Asia and Australasia, 85 per cent of shorebird populations are declining, and 40 per cent of shorebirds inhabiting Oceania are classified as threatened or near threatened (read more here). One of the major reasons for decreasing populations may be due to the reduction of sites for birds due to land reclamation of intertidal flats. Loss of fields of mud seems to cause less concern globally than loss of some other habitats, yet these are vital for the survival of numerous species. Conservation efforts are underway. The Ramsar Convention makes efforts to recognise wetlands of international importance, acknowledging that migratory birds do not bother about the boundaries humans have drawn on our 2D world maps. As the convention says...Wetlands included in the list acquire a new status at the national level and are recognised by the international community for being significant not only for the country, or countries, in which they are located, but for humanity as a whole. New Zealand has 6 Ramsar's sites: Manawatu River Mouth & Estuary, Firth of Thames, Farewell Spit, Awarua Wetlands, Kopuatai Peat Dome and Whangamarino . Other groups raise awareness of the issues around land use and conservation of such important sites, for example see Birds Korea. I encourage anyone to find out more and support local initiatives for conservation of areas used by our shorebirds, such as The National Wetland Trust, Miranda Naturalists' Trust and D.O.C's Wetland work.

Fellowship Reflections (week 8)

2009-03-18T12:25:00.011+13:00

And they're off...

I spent the past weekend up at Miranda, doing some mist-netting. We were targeting Godwits in particular, trying to get plumage samples, but had a good catch of Red Knots, so we took advantage of that as well. The evening’s catching was very successful, with 70 birds flying into the mist nets we had set up at two locations in the stilt ponds. I worked with a great team of keen birders, extracting the birds from the nets and processing them - carrying out measurements and putting on metal bands and alpha flags.

Miranda is a great spot, if you've never been there it is well worth it. This time of year there are thousands of birds including about 2,000 wrybills. They are such endearing birds, with spectacular aerial displays, see below.

Over the weekend I was based at the Miranda Shorebird Centre, a great little place with education programs and resources about the area. While staying at Miranda I was able to witness four Godwit departures. These were amazing to witness as the birds called to each other, flew up and formed the characteristic V-shaped flying pattern and headed north up the bay. To see them fading as small dots, then disappearing from the view through my scope was awe-inspiring. These tiny things won’t stop for about six days, until the reach the shores of the Yellow Sea, likely an inter-tidal flat of Korea. There they will feed up again before making the final flight to the breeding grounds of the Artic. It was a privilege to witness.

Fellowship Reflections (week 5)

2009-03-03T12:27:00.004+13:00

Broome - Pt 3: But wait, there's more!

While our focus in Broome was on shorebirds we couldn't help being captivated by the variety of other animals that were around the observatory or shores of Roebuck Bay. Wallabies were regularly seen around the camp. Mudskippers were engaging creatures which Phil and I spent a couple of ours observing & photographing one morning. Resident Green Tree frogs also came out each evening to keep us company during mealtimes. Of course, snakes were always an exciting find, especially the 2m+ black headed python we came across one eveing. Here's a few photos...

Similarly, the birds of the Australian Bush were spectacular. Here's some of the best pics from the trip (a few of the many hundreds I took!)...

Fellowship Reflections (week 5)

2009-03-03T11:00:00.013+13:00

Broome - Pt 2: The cannon netting experience

In Broome we were based at the Broome Bird Observatory and were part of a team that varied in size from 8 to 14 individuals. We had 4 days of cannon netting, the goal being to get breeding plumage from 20 Godwits, 20 Red Knots and 20 Great Knots. We would rise between 5.30 - 6.00am to go set the net just above the tide line, in the relative cool of the morning.Once set we would hide at a base camp or behind some camouflage to wait for the incoming tide to push the birds closer to the net.

When the numbers looked about right within the catching range then BANG, off went the cannons and we all raced to the net to make sure birds were out of the water, safe within the net and covered with shade clothe so we could transfer them to holding cages. The intensity of these moments is unrivalled. Chris, the leader was clear- don't use your initiative, just do what I say - his voice was the only voice we heard.

One of the research team, Massey vet Janelle Ward, was measuring stress levels of the birds and was collecting blood samples within the first 20 minutes of capture and again later after handling. I was able to assist intially with her extractions before moving into the plumage work with Phil.

It was hot intense stuff and the pressure was always on to process birds within a 4 hour timeframe. When the size of the catch on the second day was 180 birds, this meant everyone was physically pushed to be giving their most and by the end of that day the heat and pressure was taking its toll and concentrating on the simplest tasks took the most incredible effort. Still, it was amazing how we could bounce back after a cool beer at the end of the day.

Our temporary shelter for processing on the beach

This Godwit shows a flag DJA and lovely breeding plumage. Measurements were also taken on bill length, weight, wing length and so on, before birds were released back into the wild. It was always nice to see the birds fly off, usually without any problems, sometimes with a bit of a walk before taking off to the skies. In about 3 weeks or so these amazing birds will be winging there way north towards their breeding grounds.

Fellowship reflections (week 4)

2009-03-03T10:50:00.002+13:00

Broome - Part 1: The amazing Roebuck Bay

Broome is some 2 hours flight north of Perth and was the destination for our field work on shorebirds. Broome, or specifically Roebuck Bay, is one of the world's best shorebird spots. The bay lies in a corner of the Indian Ocean where the topography is such that the tides are the largest in Australia. On the lowest tides there is more than 150km of intertidal flats. Bodiversity of marine organisms is extremely high and it therefore very attractive to the many shorebirds that winter here from the tundras and taigas of Russia.

February is wet season in Broome, though the days were sunny and hot (37oC) and the only rain we experienced was a couple of brief overnight showers and one spectacular electrical storm. This was in stark contrast to the summer I returned home to - and the three days of rain! We went to the outdoor movies the night of the storm - check out the tree in this photo...

Roebuck Bay holds maximum numbers of about 200,000 shorebirds (similar numbers to the whole of Victoria or Sth Australia). Some 20 species occur in internationally significant numbers. It was these birds that drew us to Broome. We were there to collect breeding plumage samples (breast and scapular feathers) before the birds headed north - these birds heading to Russia rather than Alaska. The three species we were working on specifically were Red Knot, Great Knot and Godwits. Here's a photo of one the final birds we released, a Great Knot...

Fellowship Reflections (week 3)

2009-02-16T10:43:00.007+13:00

A few fascinating facts about Godwits

The Godwits' breeding grounds are in Alaska
They migrate from their breeding grounds to other areas around the world, including Australia and New Zealand, after the breeding season
The migration from Alaska to New Zealand is non-stop, is about 11,500km and lasts approximately 8 days (See the famous story on E7 here).
Birds can double their mass before departure and have about 55% body fat
They burn their body fat during migration (they don’t eat during the migration south) and break down muscle proteins to supplement water loss through respiration
It is thought that birds can switch off part of their brain while flying, effectively having a partial-sleep while they fly.
Northward migration from New Zealand is via Korea or China, but these regions’ tidal flats are being seriously threatened through land reclamation

This week we tried to catch some birds again with mist nets at Foxton. It was my third night at it and previously we had caught only two terns and no godwits. The conditions were perfect, an overcast evening (making it nice and dark), relatively still and a super high tide set for 11.38pm - this was hopefully going to force the birds up towards our nets. Unfortunately, by 2am we had only caught one unbanded juvenile godwit. While I always enjoy the night’s activities the hit-and-miss nature of the mist netting at Foxton Estuary (putting up the nets in strategic positions and hoping the birds fly into them) is a strange beast – it comes with no guarantees. A further attempt on Friday led to a similar lack of captures. Patience and persistence are two virtues that biologists working in the field obviously need in great measure!

Phil doing measurements on a godwit

This Wednesday I head off the famous Broome Bird Observatory, Roebuck Bay in Broome, NW Australia. We will be part of a team of researchers working on shorebirds before the birds migrate north for the breeding season. Expect a lengthy blog post on my return!

Fellowship Reflections (week 2)

2009-02-04T11:11:00.005+13:00

So what are you actually doing this year?

I am getting asked this lots at the moment, so here's my attempt to summarise it as briefly as possible.

This year I will be working with Dr Phil Battley at Ecology Group at Massey, investigating aspects of plumage in migratory shorebirds, particularly Godwits. For birds plumages serve crucial physiological and social roles. In addition to enabling flight, feathers aid thermoregulation and act as an important signalling agent. The signal that a bird’s plumage provides can tell another bird about its sex, condition, social status or identity, but a problem with feathers is that they wear out, becoming degraded over time. This is particularly the case for birds that have long-haul migratory flights to their breeding grounds.

This year I will be working with Phil to investigate the role melanins play in plumages of migratory shorebirds. I will study how globally-migrating shorebirds cope with the limitations of their multi-purpose coat, by investigating the roles of melanin levels (which colour and strengthen feathers) and feather wear in shaping the visual signals of the breeding plumage. Here’s some of my first photos of these amazing birds.

This week I have had a couple of days out at Foxton Estuary carrying out core sampling of the inter-tidal flat, collecting samples of invertebrates that are possible parts of the Godwits diets. The work is part Jesse Conklin’s PhD research (the chemist in me always wants to write pHD!). Phil is Jesse's supervisor, hence my link. It’s great being out in the field, surrounded by amazing birds. I’m loving it.

Fellowship Reflections (week 1)

2009-01-28T21:58:00.013+13:00

So here we go, my Royal Society (RSNZ) Teacher Fellowship for 2009 has begun and I near the end of my first week. The year really kick started with the symposium in Wellington last Thursday. All fellows met for an overview of the scheme, to be given hot tips for a successful year and ways to to be effective presenters. One thing I latched on to was Rose Hipkins advice "Reading is work. Thinking is work". All too often our job as teachers revolves around doing and producing. Reading and reflecting are too often seen as indulgent activities, only suited for evenings and weekends - who reads educational literature during their non-contacts? Yet, it is so important to continually be informing and improving practice. It is one thing I will relish this year and with one book down in my first week, I have made a good start.

My first week at Massey is nearly down, based at Ecology Group I have spent the week getting familiar with my environment, reading The Shorebirds of Australia (in preparation for our forthcoming trip to Broome) and practicing my photography with a very nice Canon camera and 400x lens. I've always wanted to do bird photography and the local vet pond has provided me my first opportunities, some of the better shots can be seen on the slideshow below.

Thursday was also a field day, checking out the southern side of the Foxton Estuary. We had tried mist netting for godwits, unsuccesfully, a couple of nights in the last fornight and the possibility of netting on the southern side needed exploring. It was a good feeling to be walking across the salt marshes and be thinking - This is my job for 2009 & I like the view from my office window!

Dr. Phil Battley (my mentor) & me

Out in field - Foxton Estuary

NZ study Challenges world on teaching

2009-01-13T11:41:00.004+13:00

John Hattie has just released a book Visible Learning and a brief summary was provided in The Sunday Star Times last week. The article, titled NZ study challenges world on teaching, doesn't really reveal anything particularly radical, but confirms the importance of effective feedback to help student learning. I absolutely agree, as I teacher I am well aware of the importance of providing feedback to help students in the next step of their learning, both written and oral feedback. I am also interested in exploring ways students generate their own internal feedback and seek feedback from their peers. Feedback doesn't just go from teacher to student, and of course teachers should always be looking for feedback from students as to what is working and not working in the classroom.

What does confuse me about Hattie's report is that class size is not particularly important in helping student learning. Class size is included with school type, homework and a student's diet and exercise as factors not significant in effecting student learning. However, following the paragraph to this effect a further paragraph states, "All of these things could help improve the quality of interaction in the classroom, but are not nearly as effective as strategies such as giving regular feedback and fostering an atmosphere of trust". To me it seems smaller class sizes would surely be significant in allowing time for more effective feedback to occur. It could also provide more opportunity for more teacher-student interactions to take place and this must be significant in developing the atmosphere of trust needed. Many secondary teachers have 5 classes. The quality of feedback teachers give to 5 classes of 30 has got to be less effective than the feedback offered to 5 classes of 20, within the same time frame. Furthermore, from work I did for my MEd I am aware class size can effect students willingness to seek help in class - both very small classes and large classes discourage student help seeking. Small classes, due to student being obvious or conspicuous and large sizes due to lack of availability of the teacher. These findings support a medium class size, my ideal would be about 20.

Given the repsonses to Hatties' article, I know I am not alone in finding his suggestions on class size surprising. I am also concerned about his push for performance pay. I have yet to read any research that shows performance pay improves student learning, though to be fair I haven't been active in searching for it. I can only imagine performance pay causing less collaborative school environments with far reaching effects.

With Education Minister, Anne Tolley latching on to Hatties' work, I hope she focusses on findings that help the profession, the teachers and importantly, the kids.

Science Essence Statements

2008-12-23T11:49:00.003+13:00

This an extended version of an earlier post, exploring the way we can communicate common written documents, like essence statements, more visually - using web2.0 tools such as animoto. This is a definite improvement and gives more of the idea I was trying to achieve. A little bit more of a play and I reckon I can nail it, but now, it's time for a bit of a holiday.

Is google making us stupid?

2008-12-21T15:51:00.011+13:00

I was at a dinner party the other night. Right, that in itself sparks some interest - teacher invited to dinner party, what's the likelihood of that? Anyway, in the course of events we were discussing the role of technology in enhancing teaching & learning when someone suggested I needed to read Nicholas Carr's article in Atlantic, "Is google making us stupid?", cuts through all the cliches, he said. This was left open enough for me to make my own mind about the content, but the inference was that the hype around use of technologies may come with unexpected negative consequences. (Actually, I happen to believe that unless technologies are used effectively to enhance learning then all we are doing is edu-tainment, but that's another story). So I got a hold of the article and had a read.

Carr raises some interesting points. I was particularly intrigued by the notion that technologies can affect not just what we think, but how we think - an historical example he uses is how our concept of the world changed through the widespread use of timekeeping instruments. This led people to ignoring their senses and deciding to follow time more - when to eat, work, sleep, rise and so on. People also began to think of our brains running like "clockwork". Carr follows this example by stating, the internet promises to have far-reaching effects on our cognition. I agree, this will be no doubt the case.

Carr earlier uses examples of his own internet use to suggest some of the negative consequences of the internet on how we think and this is one of two major issues I have with the article, the second issue arises towards the end of the article and perhaps provides a nasty underlying problem with how Carr perceives education. I will discuss each of these in turn,

1. Carr bemoans that fact that he struggles to carry out deep reading anymore, that a decade or so of surfing the web means his ability to concentrate has diminished. Carr supports his own and other anecdotal evidence with research from scholars at University College London (why did he need the word scholars?). This research was based on a 5 year study which examined computer logs and it showed that people visiting sites exhibited a form of skimming activity, typically reading no more than a page or two of an article before bouncing off to another site. Sometimes they would save a long article, but there's no evidence they actually read it. They conclude - it is clear users are not reading online in the traditional sense. OK, nothing surprising there. But then comes this huge jump - It seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense. Hello? Sorry, where did that leap come from. If you were to look at my on-line use you would most certainly find a distinct lack of deep reading, mostly because I hate reading long sets of text off a screen. I use the internet to browse and search for articles which I actually usually print and do then set down and read. Just because there was no evidence that the articles downloaded weren't read, there was equally no evidence that they were. This is shonky stuff. Likewise, Carr's classic use of confusing correlation with cause. I use the internet, I don't deep read so much anymore, therefore the internet must have caused me to not deep read. Any researcher would tear that to shreads. There could be so many other factors that have influenced this, work changes, lifestyle, kids?, stress, getting older - who knows.

2. Here's my second major issue with the article - Carr states, I come from a tradition of Western Culture, in which the ideal (my ideal) was the complex, dense and "cathedral-like" structure of the highly educated and articulate personality - a man or woman who carried inside themselves a personally constructed and unique version of the entire heritage of the west. Yikes, OK no wonder Carr is afraid of how the internet is affecting peoples thinking. Am I stretching it too much to suggest that it threatens the elite system of education we have had for decades that relies upon the success of few, at the expense of many? (I suggest that's what he means by cathedral, with the spire getting narrower at the top!). Does the internet all of a sudden make information accessible, when in the past it was only handed down by the more learned? Does thinking now require more emphasis on how we access information, evaluate it, synthesis, analyse and apply it - rather than memorise and regurgitate it? For those of you who have seen Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk, he says that one of the major problems with our education system is that it has been set up to essentially provide a pathway for people to go to university, as if this was the exclusive divine passage. The challenge is of course to be thinking of an education system that moves beyond this paradigm and celebrates other aspects of human endeavour and creativity.

Carr's article is not all bad, I do think it raises some interesting points. However, I think to fear that the internet in some way makes us less able to deep read, spreads us pancake thin and makes us stupid in the process, is simply just that, stupid.

(Maniakalani also comments on Carr's article).

Photo credit aims

My twitter story

2008-12-12T12:06:00.008+13:00

I think it's time to tell my Twitter story, because I need to make my peace with it. Thing is, when I first heard of twitter at ULearn'07 I thought now there's a big fat waste of time. In fact, a year later at ULearn'08 I thought exactly the same thing. Then, final day, final workshop I'm sitting next to @janenicholls when she tells me she couldn't live without her twitter network. Strong statement. I think, maybe there's more to this than "I just ate the yummiest chicken tikka masala at Mr. India". So, she hooks me up and says I should get into a group. Hmmm, how do I do that? In walks ICT guru, cyber-sage @suzievesper who says, just follow a whole bunch of people and comment on their blogs. Then, to help out she puts out a plug to her twitter network saying Hey, follow @craigsteed and Yippee, some of you did - that was encouraging! OK, so from slow and humble beginnings, gradually around me develops this amazing network of educators. I now love twitter - it's not just another social network, but it's more my Personal Learning Network. That's what I love about it, thinking & learning with others. One recent example of this was when @snbeach asked four important questions about education, threw out to her network and gathered the responses to post on her blog.

This story I know is not just mine, it is mirrored on a recent post by @klandmiles and I imagine the story is similar for many of you. Criticism of Twitter has been levelled at the type of tweets that occur, that they can be inconsequential or that in situations like conferences, tweets can spiral into negative commentary, the tone of which can be influenced by intial tweets and a subsequent flow of imitative tweets - a phenomena Derek Wenmoth describes in his blog post titled Digital Lemmings. OK, agreed but like Derek I also have found my involvement with twitter on the whole to be a highly positive and valuable experience. Also, let's be realistic, we don't operate in an emotional vacuum and for me some of the more personal tweets are actually just as important as the learning tweets as they allow me to get to know some of my network. I honestly know only 4 or 5 people personally in my twitter network, so these tweets allow me to get to know my network a little better, and that's important too - it allows me to connect at emotional level with this very important bunch of educators.

So thanks twitter - I misjudged you - accept my apologies.

Using Animoto to explore curriculum ideas

2008-12-04T15:51:00.006+13:00

Following on the idea of using stories to explore kids ideas of values, I've been thinking about use of web2.0 tools to communicate other parts of the NZ Curriculum. Early on this year our Science department rewrote its essence statement. I've picked up on a small number of ideas from that to trial with an animoto slideshow. The trial you see below is not perfect, but the idea is there to be picked up on and perfected. How awesome would it be to create these (using animoto, moviemaker and so on) with a department? How great is it to use images of kids from school to say, this is what science is about for us. How much more powerful would it be when ERO visit and ask to see our essence statement in our scheme and we say check this out, this is what we think science is about. Like I say, this is just a kernel of an idea, but the potential extends beyond this...what you see here is an early attempt, its missing some of the slides I'd added to animoto, 30 seconds is way too short, watch this space for improvements...

Charter for Compassion

2008-11-25T18:59:00.004+13:00

I can't help but be taken by 2008 TED Prize winner Karen Armstrong's desire to get people of all faiths together to write the charter for compassion. Presently, religious fundamentalism can been seen to dominate the world's perceptions of religion and additionally create deep divides between differing faiths. The charter for compassion aims to show that all faith's share in the 'Golden Rule' in one form or another, that of showing compassion for others. We can all contribute our thoughts on this principle here. There is more to bind faiths together than to force them apart.

On watching the video I am also moved by the power of story telling. From an educational perspective the potential power of students we teach gathering the thoughts of others (students on values, community on issues close to their heart and so on) and sharing them as a collection of stories is a powerful way to communicate. I'd love to know if anyone has done anything of this sort and would like to share their experiences...

Reflections from Australia - Part 3 (QLD Schools)

2008-11-18T21:23:00.009+13:00

This final entry deals with some highlights from schools in Queensland – to actually do a comparison of the assessment systems between NSW and QLD would require some pages. I can’t being to compare the highly prescribed ‘dot points’ and high stakes HSC external examinations of NSW with the flexible internally assessed system in QLD (but with the unique Core Skills Tests in Year 12 to moderate against). Both systems are so fundamentally different that creating a national qualification system (as is being talked about) would require the worlds greatest diplomats to manage and organise, good luck I say!

The schools I visited were largely in the Brisbane area. My first Queensland school was Cleveland District State High School, about 1 hour 15 minutes east of Brisbane by train. The reason for visiting the school was because my school has had music exchanges with Cleveland and they are similar schools in make-up. Cleveland is a co-educational state high school with a roll of about 1200 students. The day was structured with 8 periods, each of 35 minutes, though most ran as double periods. Of interest was the fact that seniors, Year 11 & 12, attended school on Tuesday – Friday for extended days (8.30 – 3.25) and did not attend school at all on a Monday. An interesting class I observed was the schools SRT class (Science Research & Technology). In these classes students were in a purpose built lab with 15 computers and desks for working in. Students were working on finding out about certain aspects of science – the first class using lego to find out about gears and the relationships between gears. The second class were doing extended projects – all self-generated and well resourced. These ranged from making different types of coloured fireworks, experimenting with mouse memory, exploring rocket trajectory, crystal formation, plane flight and so on.

John Paul College is a large co-educational private school about 20 minutes from the centre of Brisbane. It has a large campus which hosts three schools – primary (1000 students), middle school (800) and secondary (750). The growth in the school is occurring with an approach toward students being sent to private primary schools. All students are required to lease a laptop from Grade 4 (our Year 5). Students bring laptops to class and spend a large amount of time using them. The schools are also set up with permanently mounted data projectors and staff members each have their own laptop/tablet for use in class. All classes I observed involved students working independently on research or tasks using the internet and laptops in class. Courses were organised on-line on a ‘workspace’ where students and staff could access material from anywhere.

The senior school (Grades 10-12) had very modern and well maintained facilities and was undergoing a Consultation Process for the next 10 year upgrade. I also observed the school assembly in which an amazing array of top awards (state and national) were given out for academic, sporting and cultural achievements. The school had a relaxed but focussed feel – students were easy to engage with and very polite (behaviour management is not a term necessary at the college). It was a real insight to see inside a private school and to see what difference the privilege of money can buy (but see earlier blog post). Interestingly, State Academies are attracting top students away from private schools so the school has gone and introduced the International Baccalaureate to try and compete in this respect.

The final school I visited was Holland Park, a state high school of about 520 students. A particular highlight was the time I spent with the literacy co-ordinator of the school. The school has received numerous awards for the literacy programme they run. Students spend 35 minutes (1 period) out of each of the 3 core subjects (Science, Maths and English) at Year 8 and 9 to improve their literacy skills and work through a series of literacy booklets. The students are ability grouped to give them access to different materials. The literacy program had shown students reading ages increase 2-3 years each year for some of the lower groups and students all improving above their yearly increment by being involved in the programme. The program had 3 foci: Tools of the Trade (decoding and grammar), Reading for Meaning and Critical Understanding.

The Fellowship offered me opportunities to enjoy times in schools and it was a privilege to visit. It also offered me a fantastic opportunity to have time away with my family, which we all relished.

Reflections from Australia - Part 2 (NSW Schools)

2008-11-17T21:25:00.008+13:00

As I mention on my earlier blog-post, I recently had the opportunity to visit schools in Australia as part of a Woolf Fisher Fellowship. The focus of this posting is to mention some the highlights of visits to three NSW schools.

The first school I visited was Caringbah High School, a State Selective High School. There are about 8 selective high schools in Sydney, these are schools which have academic entry criteria good academic success. Selective schools provide an academic state education and are very popular. Students get selected to attend before Year 7 via the Selective High School Test in Year 6. One of the special programmes that ran out of Caringbah was a NASA supported space education programmes which had a Martian exploration context - looking for life on Mars. This has involved microbiology – looking at what is needed for life, mechatronics fun with a local university – remote controlling rovers, and use of the IMAX cinema to view Space exploration images on the BIG screen. The programme has also been extended into the local primary school with Year 5 & 6 kids visiting to have a similar course, this time supported by the Year 8 students at Caringbah. The programme appealed to me because of the way education became more seamless and links were made between the high school and both the university and local primary. I am sure all parties benefitted from the interactions and I feel all too often educational institutions work in isolation from one another when such links may prove very fruitful.

My next visit was Strathfield Girls, a successful state school with ESL students making up around 80% of the population. One special class I visited was a Year 10 ESL targeted class. This was team taught by a Science teacher and the ESL teacher. The teacher set up the practical work and the ESL teacher taught in the class with specially prepared resources. What amazed me was the ESL teacher was also a trained Science teacher. She was therefore able to create high quality resources with relevant science content and contexts and which specially targeted improving the language skills of ESL students. This team-teaching approach with ESOL students is a model I would love to see around any school I taught at.

Georges River College - Oatley Senior Campus is a senior college – Years 11 and 12. Senior colleges, like Selectives, arose from State attempts to stem the flow of students to private schools. The College formed about 4 years ago by drawing the year 11 and 12 students from three local schools. These schools have now become year 7-10 Junior Campuses. They are all Georges River College (GRC) but have different sites. School periods at GRC-Oatley Campus are 75 minutes long (this was common across Australian Schools), four of these on the average day split with 2 main breaks, each 30 minutes long. The campus was the site of an old teachers college and the school had a relaxed but mature feel about it (not dissimilar to a university). Students took responsibility for their attendance with the use of swipe cards - now there's an interesting idea!

One of the things I particularly liked about Georges River was their promotion of “The Oatley Way”. When I think of my own school, do we have a “Freyberg Way” and if we do, is it they way that we should be celebrating? I think articulating a school way could be a great way to highlight some of the values the school is focusing and promoting within the school community.

Next post...Queensland Schools.

Reflections from Australia - Part 1

2008-11-12T21:00:00.004+13:00

I recently had the opportunity, as part of Woolf Fisher Fellowship, to visit Australia and look at the educations systems in two States. I visited schools in Sydney to explore the NSW system and similarly Brisbane to get a sense of the QLD system. The majority of schools I visited were state schools, though I did visit John Paul College, a privately funded school in Brisbane. The contrasts between state and private were obvious, not in the quality and enthusiasm of the teachers, nor noticeably in the nature and attitude of the students, but in the infrastructure and resources. John Paul had wireless internet throughout the school, all teachers had an IWB, their own laptop provided by the school, permanently mounted data projectors, class printers and every student has a leased laptop. The nature and type of lessons that could be supported through the available technology was markedly different from other schools. Linked with the observation is the alarming fact that some 35% or so of Australian students attend private schools. Furthermore, while private schools have typically been secondary there is now a significant growth in private primary education. For example, John Paul College had about 1000 students at its primary campus with approximately 700 in the middle school and slightly less again in the senior school. The growth in private education stemmed somewhat from under-resourcing in the public system over the last couple of decades. My concern is that this movement towards a private system could become a reality for New Zealand. With National due to form a government any day now I have fears that the funding required to allow state schools to meet the needs of 21^stC learners may be a distant hope, though I would dearly love to believe they will make good of their promise that they will "Future proof schools with better ICT facilities and integrated ICT access within the teaching spaces throughout schools" - I just have my doubts. Lack of decent funding to state schools, coupled with John Key's recent promises of increased funding for private schools, serves only to widen the gap between state and private schools. Contrary to Key's beliefs, extra funding to private schools does not provide more access to other less well-off kiwi families, it just means the ‘haves’ become ‘have-more’s. NZ Governments need to seriously consider their investment into state education to ensure all students have free education that meets their needs and caters for diverse learners. This will need to involve funding in infrastructure and resources – such as broadband with decent bandwidth, computers for students and teachers (and not just a lease scheme, but properly funded), along with creative vocational programmes that are not confined to school timetables, but are appropriately funded to allow students relevant educational pathways. Without this NZ risks following the same path as Australia, which only left States scrambling to find ways to address the issue through the creation of selective schools and academies. In my mind these seemed only to add another tier to the school ‘class’ system [though there were some great things going on too, that's for my next blog post]. It is a right of all citizens to have a first class public education system and this is necessary for the future of the country. The sooner governments begin to recognise this the better. We watch and wait for action...

Demo Utter for my blog

2008-11-05T22:28:00.002+13:00

Hi just trying to post an utter to my blog so that I can check on the cross-posting.

Mobile post sent by steedy using Utterli. Replies. mp3

Mole Day Celebrations

2008-11-03T22:00:00.001+13:00

This was part of the famous mole day celebrations in my Year 13 Chemistry class at school. Mole Day of course arises from Avagadros number 6x10^23 and is from 6am - 6pm on the 23rd of October. The celebration consists of horrendously bad jokes told by Malcolm the mole (who yes, is a hedgehog hand puppet, but try find a mole hand puppet!). Here's an example... Q: What was Avagadros favourite dip? A: Guacamole (ha ha ha he he!!!). The special mole day cake is shared after we sing Happy Mole Day. Oh the celebrations of Chemistry. Anyway, check it all out on this video...

Elections and the web

2008-10-31T19:43:00.001+13:00

I am enjoying watching the way election candidates in both America and here at home are utilising the internet as part of their campaign strategies. Locally I have been invited to be a friend of Helen Clark's on facebook and receive regular updates on what she's up to. I've also taken to reading David Farrar's kiwiblog which provides some interesting commentary, despite my different political position to Farrar himself. Also, the website pundit has added an extra level of interest with its online election quiz, if you haven't taken it already check it out at their website, it makes for an interesting exercise. Likewise their poll watch on their homepage provides combinations of poll results which may provide a more accurate picture of the state of the nations thinking than some of the small sampled poll results we are hearing about. National radios media watch program this morning (Nov 2) gave a great coverage of some of this and is worth listening to when the get the podcast up online. With respect to the American campaign I was impressed with the Alt-Country band Wilco's desire for change. They have emailed all their fans allowing a free download to their new song provided people commit to voting in the election. This was part of their email, check the link for more details...

Speaking of "I Shall be Released", the version recorded this summer with the Fleet Foxes is still available for download at the cost of a mere pledge to vote in the US elections next Tuesday (4 Nov.). We should add that if you are not a US citizen or for other reasons ineligible to vote, we'll settle for a good deed of your choosing (how about, for instance, giving someone who CAN vote a reminder phone call or a ride to the polls?). Click here for the download and more info.

Carrying on with NZ's campaign, I have enjoyed the NZCTU's You Tube clips, obviously wearing their political affiliations on their sleeve these clips deal savagely to right wing policies, but all with good humour (although I suppose that depends on your political position). Check out part 1 here...

A new direction...

2008-10-12T08:54:00.000+13:00

So here we go, time to take a totally new direction with this blog. I have been blogging all these great gigs for a while now but time to shift this little blog into something more. Having just returned from ULearn08 I am inspired to particularly work on developing my network of educators, both here and abroad. It seems to me social networking of this sort is one of the keys to the future of education and is one of the best examples of social constructivism I can think of. We all love the rhetoric around social constructivism, but really as teachers, how often do we model it and participate in it - to be honest transmission is all to easily the default position. Anyway, off we go into a new direction.

My particular highlight of ULearn was Suzie Vesper's preconference workshop on blogs and wikis. Not only did we learn tricks to smart-up our blogs using things like slideshows from Flikr , like this little one I made here at The Botanic Gardens in ChCh...

But also did nifty remote audio clips using Utterli. She has a link to her wiki which is filled with great ideas.