Linda's Meta-learning Journal

7/8/2004

Why would I want a wiki on my mac?

Reading Andy's Blogue today he was talking to himself about the possible uses of a personal wiki on your own machine. Now whilst I love my blog and I do use it as a learning journal of sorts I also keep an Appleworks Learning Journal. This is because not everything I need to write in my Learning Journal is suitable for publication to the internet.
I find the Appleworks doc a bit of a pain and I have to make a big effort to use it. Often what I write in it gets lost or doesn't fit into neat categories- maybe I'm just too much of a global thinker to cope with a linear document. So the idea of a wiki, with all that easy linking just seemed very appealing. The only problem was that Andy had only found a windoze version.
Not to be defeated I decided to have a look for a mac friendly version. Took all of 5 mins to find Personal Wiki
It looks good fun but I am saving it till Report 5 is finished - Saturday maybe?

Posted at 11:03:27 pm by lmhartley
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7/7/2004

Stiching for Report 5

From My ILP

The "Stitching Together" in the form of a report.
I will then analyse and report on, what I have learned, why this learning is worthwhile in my context, what I do differently now or in the future as a result of these activities. I will show what difference my learning has made.
I will use these evaluations to make a PDP with SMART targets for the coming year.

Plan

1. Brief run through about pdps including 2 quotes. 250 words
2. Workplace learning theories, constructivist theory with quote, situated learning ditto, 300 words
3. Learning styles, general theories, Kolb, VAK, global/secquential etc. 200 words
4. Discuss and analyse personal themes with ref to reflections and specific literature. 300 words
5. Draw conclusions: bullet points 200 words
6. Set and justify new goals 100 words
7. SMART target PDP in a table 200 words.
Currently about 500 words in. Phew!!

Posted at 8:12:46 pm by lmhartley
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6/28/2004

Learning styles and all that stuff

So in order to get report 5 done I re-visit learning styles and somehow get distracted by personality types again:-)

I am still INFJof course But I found this gem of a quote

"Also, you could lose out if you don't act assertively and are reluctant to intrude on others with your ideas...as a result, you could keep many important things to yourself...you'll then feel that your ideas are underestimated or unappreciated...maybe you should develop political saavy or assertiveness to sell your ideals...finally, you should be forthright with criticism of others...you're always doing the "If you can't say some- thing nice...." stuff. After you hold it inside, you'll blow up eventually."

I'm still laughing! I've come so far and yet I still slip back to this! Luckily there are people in my life these days who remind me to let it out and I am trying to learn not to apologise afterwards as well.

Posted at 11:41:00 am by lmhartley
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6/27/2004

Reviewing progress on Report 5

OK so I have finished Learning Activities 1 and 2.

I have made a mind map and written a fictionalised reflection for the Team Teach course

I have made a slide show about our displays in school and another with audio commentary that shows the contrasts between the approach we take and that suggested by the course I attended.

I have written a first response reflection on the "Telling into Writing" project and a second, deeper one pulling out the themes for the future.
I am now trying to do the report to stitch it all together and I have hit yet another brick wall. It seems really hard to find any relevent literature and the stuff on the Ultraversity web site is close to totally useless, either not appropriate or broken links! Ok so I found two sites to quote (see my FURL in the side section for links) and with the one about PDPs that Sarah (thanks again!) found that makes the bare minimum of quotes for a pass. It's not like me but I may have to settle for that this time. Not much scope for synthesis in this module either. Ahgh I hope they re-write this one for Cohort 2. It has been a pain from start to finish, and I'm not there yet!

Posted at 6:00:39 pm by lmhartley
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6/26/2004

Hot seat with Nancy White

The hot place to be in Ultraversity at the moment is the Hotseat tool. It is interesting to see the tool come to life like this. Other Hotseats have been good but perhaps this one really gets to the nub of the degree in a way that others haven't.

The community itself is very quiet with hardly anyone on First Class this weekend. Now maybe like me they are trying to nail Report 5. (It keeps running off and trying to be about delightful learning, reflection, creative processes, anything and everything except the dreaded Personal Development Plan!) Or maybe they have lives - remember those?

Anyway it has been interesting to watch and take part in the hot seat discussions this week. There has certainly been some lively debate. One thing has been the bug which has allowed anonymous posting including this little gem

Ah well I thought it was funny but not everyone saw the humour in it, I just hope they 'preserve' it for posterity when they make the website. (Sorry couldn't resist it and it's not even my pun!)
On a more serious note the discussions have really shown what level of debate is possible amongst the community members. It seems a pity that it is so rarely achieved in FC. I wonder what we can do to take the lessons we are learning in the tool back into the main community? If this sort of discussion was happening in there a couple of times a month we'd all be happier and more energised.
Some people have said they felt an edge of hostility in some of the postings but I don't see it myself. Sadly as it's password protected I can't provide a link for our friends in NZ but you'll see it afterwards when they anonymise it all and make it into a website.

Posted at 11:46:08 pm by lmhartley
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6/24/2004

refs to lit

"To be playful and serious at the same time is possible, and it defines the ideal mental condition."

John Dewey, How We Think

And more up to date:

"Many teachers continue to equate playfulness with frivolity, then complain when students are quiet and un-responsive. They offer examinations and grades as the goal of the class, then are surprised when students are concerned more about what will be on the final exam than larger conceptual issues. Students remember more, think more, and understand more when they enjoy the process."

Alex Halavais

Posted at 6:26:36 pm by lmhartley
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Play and delight

I have had some more thoughts on this but still not very coherent.

Play doesn't have to be delightful. In fact children's play can be quiet cruel and painful.

This painful play can still be a learning experience.
So I am still struggling with the concept of 'delight' in this context.

Can creativity be taught?

See Blair's blog for more details
This may seem a million miles away fom what I should be working on for report 5 but I am starting to think that this is what I want to do in the longer term. To teach (or perhaps 'enable' is a better word) people to be creative and perhaps to do it using digital tools. This makes sense of my growing interest in blogging, web design etc. The only way I can cope with this module is to make it as real as possible and part of that reality is accepting that I do not want to stay doing this job forever.

Some one was telling me recently about being taught to be creative and what a painful experience that had been. It had involved letting go of many preconceptions about what the participants wanted to produce and accepting the limitations of the technology they were to use to produce their work. The implication was that these limitations actually forced them to learn to be creative. It reminded me of learning to write poetry and the demands that using a particular form such as the sonnet (or the hiaku) places on the writer.
Another incident also made me think more about this issue. I watched an adult 'playing' with technology to produce a piece of art and saw a very similar kind of intensity of concentration, frustration and pleasure to that displayed by the reception class.

Richard Millwood's The New Learning Landscape gives some interesting insights into why we all need to play. I saw this last week but he has added a lot more detail since then. In a comment on an earlier entry to my blog Richard says of play
"We need this because it allows mistakes to be made with delight, and sustains improvement / perfection of ideas."
I think this permission to make mistakes is key, at least in this culture. Not sure about in the US or even New Zealand.

Posted at 3:25:49 pm by lmhartley
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6/16/2004

For Gina

This is a flourless chocolate cake for Gina as she has to be wheat-free and is missing chocolate cake.

Chocolate and Almond Cake

(in imperial measures because I've had it for years)
1/4 lb of chocolate (Lindt or similar)
3onz butter
3onz castor sugar
3onz ground almonds
3 eggs
1tblsp rum or brandy
1 tblsp black coffee

Set oven to very low: Gas mark 1 290 F

Grease a 7 inch shallow sponge tin

Break the chocolate into small pieces put them into a bowl in the oven to melt with the rum and coffee.

Stir well and put in a saucepan with the butter sugar and ground almonds.

Stir over a very low heat until melted.

Leave to stand

Separate the eggs

Beat the whites until very stiff

Stir the beaten yolks into the choclate mixture

Fold in the egg whites

Pour gently into the tin

Place the tin on a metal baking sheet and put into the oven

Cook for 45 mins.

Leave in tin until cool

Turn cake out very carefully!!!! It is very fragile because of the lack of flour.
So there it is and very nice too I'm assured by the choloate eaters for whom I've made it. I am allergic to chocolate so I wouldn't know!
Amazing the uses to which you can put a blog!!

Posted at 8:51:56 pm by lmhartley
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6/15/2004

Reflection on positive handling

I am curled up in a ball on the floor banging hard with my fists. I know that if I get up I will hurt her really badly and I don't want that to happen. If I touch her I might not be able to stop until she is dead. My rage fills the whole world, everything has shrunk to this small area of floor that I can see my fist smashing into. Beside me I hear a voice. Someone is kneeling down next to me, not too close, but near enough for me to know they are there. From a long way off I hear
"Do you need some help there Mrs T?"
"Yes, please Mrs H."
There is someone kneeling on the other side of me too , and the classroom is empty now.
"Can you get up J or do you need some help?"
"I am going to kill her" I hear my voice. It sounds strange and distant, like it belongs to someone else.
There are firm hands on each of my elbows. Mrs T and Mrs H have moved really close to me now. It feels safe. Slowly I find myself moving onto my knees.
"Come on J you are doing really well. Up on to your feet next."
And so I am... not really sure how I got here. Now I am walking with Mrs H, she's put her arm round my shoulder and is holding my elbow. She's holding me close. I feel odd, numb now, nearly crying.
"Mrs B, J needs to stay here for a little while. I'll just be round the corner if you need me J."
Now I am in Mrs B's room on the big cushions. I feel sleepy and I have a dry mouth. I'm going to stay here till I feel better. My hands are sore.
Team Teach positive handling course

Posted at 7:21:55 pm by lmhartley
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More play

I spent part of today taking photographs of some children from yr5 dressed up as characters from Hansel and Gretel. I'd dearly love to post some of them here but images of other people's children are really not ok. I might see if I can by obscure their faces and post them. The photos really are delightful.
The interesting thing was that two of the children are quite tough nuts and consider themselves (at 10) too old for playing. However provide them with good costumes, the role play room and a story that they know really well and what happens? Instead of just taking a group photo of the 3 children I end up taking 10 shots of them as they act out the whole story which they do with great attention to detail and once again (like yesterday's reception children) total concentration. So what might have taken 10 minutes took 30 and 3 children and one TA had a 'delightful' time.
So what did I learn?

That 10 years old still need to play.
Well, put like that it seems obvious but easy to forget when they behave like teenagers most of the time.

That it might be worth taking small groups of them into the role play area next year when we re-do this block of work and build this play into it.
I talked this through with my yr5 teacher and she agreed that this would be a valuable addition to the project.

These insights have made me think about how I want to write about informal learning in Report 5. Tom's comment yesterday encouraged me as well. I think I want to write about the way that my play is important for my learning too. It is not just for children. I need to look at this more deeply, to start to formalise my ideas about learning through play and what that means for me as an adult. Not sure where this is going but it it at least going somewhere at last!! Time to look for some literature perhaps?

Posted at 6:20:37 pm by lmhartley
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