Monday 16 September 2019

'Learn Create Share' the old fashioned way, with a modern twist

The Manaiakalani Programme is extraordinary. It is accelerating student achievement wherever it is used, regardless of the context. It uses a common pedagogy regardless of age, stage, or subject matter: 'Learn Create Share'. Pedagogy is just a fancy way for saying 'the way that we cause learning'. The biggest challenge is to help everyone to understand what that means. Teachers may get that idea more easily than non teachers, and the best way to help is to show what it looks like.

You might argue that teachers have used 'Learn Create Share' throughout the development of education, but the differences now are :

  1.  We are consciously employing it, consistently employing it, and making it clear to learners that we are using it, and
  2. We are amplifying the benefits of the pedagogy using digital devices, and digital tools.

In doing so we have to be careful not to through the baby out with the bathwater. That is, we have to be careful that we don't throw away other tools that still work.

Over the past few weeks two classes of Year 10 social studies students under the guidance of Catherine, a teaching intern from NZGSE, and their class teacher Alby Wilson, have combined the best of the old and the new. They have been studying technological change through human history, and today it was my pleasure to open an 'exhibition' of their learning. They were looking at technologies from those early neolithic civilisations, alongside those of ancient Rome, and ancient Egypt.

Because the room they have been working in is due for demolition very soon (yay) they sought my permission to do some 'cave drawings' on some of the walls. The walls were first textured using glue and sand, and they students then created their 'cave art'. The created cardboard models, cooked food according to what historians believe were accurate recipes of the time, made life sized replicas of some equipment, and created costume that they thought was appropriate to the times. They looked at mummification as a process, both scientifically, and culturally.

The researched and they wrote (all digitally), and alongside that they created. Finally today they shared as we opened their exhibition, inviting whānau to come along and enjoy their work too.

'Learn, Create Share', the old fashioned way, but again 'amplified' through the use of digital technologies.

Now let the blogging begin as students reflect on their learning, and share those reflections with the real world, making their learning visible.

Here are some photos of their exhibition. Ka mau te wehi!!









5 comments:

  1. Robin,
    This is superb. I just love it when ancient wisdom combines with new technology. That's when really coo things happen!
    Thanks SO much for sharing this.
    Kia kaha!

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  2. Very much enjoyed having a look at the finished product = have seen bits being created, but really good to see it all. Also my classes that I have had in that room have now had their questions answered as to what is going on here - they also were impressed with what had been created and shared = while not actively taking that class they learned a bit too.

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  3. Kia ora Robin ... this is awesome! Couple of key points you have discussed
    1. consistency and coherence in terms of pedagogy
    2. hands-on learning
    3. affordances of the technology
    and as a result, you have engaged motivated learners. lLoking forward to the blogging!

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  4. Really cool Robin. Well done.

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  5. Hi Robin, thank you for sharing! What an awesome progression of ideas and to see the final presentations amazing! I can't wait to read some of the student blog post reflections!

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