FutureMakers Update, 23 March, 2024

An item for my Kiwi readers – which seems to have showed up a couple of days early my time (even a day early their time – I think).

FutureMakers Newsletter 22 March, 2024 If you’ve received this newsletter from a friend or colleague, why not subscribe yourself to receive future copies direct to your inbox.  Kia ora koutou This has been an exciting week for me, with the launch of the new FutureMakers website, and the principals’ retreat in Hanmer. There’s a bit about that in this week’s newsletter plus a number of other articles and links that I’ve been reading and thinking about  – including a great report on the use of AI in NZ schools.Ngā mihi In this newsletter… New look website Principals’ retreat in Hanmer Inspiring the Future Metaphors for Change AI Literacy as a Graduation Requirement NZ Report: AI in Education Guiding your AI journey: Essential Resources PISA2022: Assessing Student Performance New Look Website After several months of design and development the new look FutureMakers website is now live! Besides a new look and feel which works seamlessly on PC or mobile device, the real difference has been made in the back end which now enables all of the valuable resources that have been accumulating over the years to be more easily displayed and discovered as you explore the different dimensions of the site. All of these resources are now organised using a common classification framework, and so appear as links on all relevant pages. This includes all of the blog posts (since 2003) and thought pieces. Check it out for yourself! A big shout out to Hannah and Thomas at Schickedanz Design for the work on this. Principals’ Retreat in Hanmer I’ve just completed a fabulous two-days facilitating a retreat for principals in Hanmer Springs with Maurie Abraham from HowMightWeLead. The group consisted of primary and secondary principals from all parts of New Zealand – and Rarotonga! Our focus was was around the three-fold theme of “refresh, reconnect and re-focus” – with a huge amount of sharing of ideas and expertise about the leadership required in schools into the future. The group now begins a period of 20 weeks of coaching and mentoring before coming together again for a day at the end of the programme. Inspiring the Future If you haven’t seen this it’s worth a look – Inspiring the Future is an initiative of the Tertiary Education Commission, Careers NZ and the NZ Government. The project connects young people with volunteer role models in their communities to learn about different jobs and why people love doing them, as well as their pathway and challenges they faced along the way. Seems straightforward to participate – Schools sign up through this website and log in through their Education Sector Logon account, enter the details of their event and send invitations to the role models they’ve selected. Metaphors for Change During my recent trip to Utah I had the privilege of visiting Timpanogos High School in the Alpine School District. I was impressed with a lot of what they were doing there, particularly their emphasis on Deep Learning and the 6C’s – and how they’ve woven all of this into Utah’s portrait of a graduate.  So I was curious to read this article on Metaphors for Change by Laurie Gagnon from the Aurora Institute which tells the story of change at Timpanogos through the metaphors that have helped them along the way. AI Literacy as a graduation requirement Almost every educator I encounter at present is asking about what their response to AI should be. Tom Vander Ark and Mason Paschia from Getting Smart have written this great piece suggesting AI Literacy should be a graduation requirement and civic imperative. In an article packed with useful links to supporting ideas and resoruces, the authors argue there is still time to ensure that all of your students graduate with an understanding of how AI works, why it is important and how to best use it. NZ Report: AI in Education For anyone interested in the state of use of AI in New Zealand education, in particular generative AI technologies, this report AI in Education 2023 is worthwhile reading. In March 2023, Brendon Shaw and Tim Gander from AcademyX set out to learn more about how schools integrated AI tools to support teaching and learning. They formed an open community of practice that met every fortnight online and several times face-to-face. The community membership ranged from 4-50 members at different times and directed the themes they would focus on for the research. The emerging themes were understanding how generative AI could impact equitable outcomes for Māori, inclusive learning and effective pedagogy. From there, they collaboratively built a survey and shared this with a range of educators in Aotearoa. Summary of Findings: The data has highlighted the pressing need for comprehensive guidelines supporting teachers to safely and confidently integrate generative AI into their classrooms. Many educators expressed concerns about the lack of professional development opportunities to enhance their AI literacy skills. A notable finding was the uncertainty among teachers regarding whether students or whānau were using generative AI tools, indicating a critical need for open and transparent conversations about AI ethics and usage. The report discusses AI’s potential to contribute to equitable outcomes for Māori students. This could be accomplished through the creation of culturally located content using AI. However, guidelines, professional learning, and clear policies are essential to support educators in avoiding cultural appropriation and bias when using generative AI.  Educators believe that generative AI can reduce administrative tasks, enabling more face-to-face contact, building connections between students and teachers. Teachers also thought creating engaging content and supporting individualised learning plans with generative AI was a high possibility. This could enhance pedagogy and inclusivity in education. Guiding Your AI Journey: Essential Resources If you’re looking for an authorative list of research and resources to do with AI this is for you! Plublished by JISC in the UK, Guiding Your AI Journey is a collection of resources to help educators with their efforts to work with AI. There resources have been pulled together in a more structured way to support different stages of AI maturity in order to to develop a dynamic web based easy-to-use toolkit that grows with your needs. A good place to go to find a range of great resources in one place. PISA 2022: Assessing Student Performance The PISA scores are referred to in so many circumstances, often superficially, and often to support political arguments for where our focus should be. In fact, there’s a lot in these reports that is useful if read thoroughly and understood in their entirety. If reading isn’t your thing then the video below might just be what you’re looking for… Listen to Andreas Schleicher answering key questions from the PISA 2022 assessment: 1. Which students excelled academically in the PISA 2022 assessment? 2. What is the influence of digital devices in schools? 3. How significant is financial investment to educational outcomes? 4. What are some key insights from the COVID-19 pandemic? But wait, there’s more… At FutureMakers we use a range of forums to curate good ideas and resources. Check out the following… Derek’s Blog – regular posts available on the FutureMakers website Previous newsletters – access all of the previous editions of the FutureMakers newsletter from this one place Resilient Schools Online Community – brought to you in partnership with Transcend My slideshows from recent presentations curated on SlideShare Hybrid Learning – a collection of resources on the FutureMakers website Learner Agency – another collection of resources on the FutureMakers website If you’ve enjoyed reading this newsletter please feel free to forward it to others to read, or better yet, ask them to become a FutureMakers subscriber so they will receive their own updates delivered to their mailbox. Subscribe to The FutureMakers Newsletter I’m always interested to hear your feedback or ideas about what you’d like to see included in future newsletters – please use the link below to email me with your suggestions. Email Derek

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