Your Ethos Community Newsletter For March 2018

One for my Kiwi readers that showed up overnight.

Ethos Online Community Newsletter Your newsletter from the Ethos Online Community – March 2018

Kia ora, talofa lava, and greetings,

I am writing this newsletter from my sunny garden, with a little round belly very full of chocolate and other such treats. I hope everyone else has had an equally indulgent and lovely Easter.

As well as eating far too much sugar, we at Ethos have been doing a little reflection upon this newsletter. Ethos started the newsletter 9 years ago now and it has been a big part of the community, and we’ve had heaps of positive feedback about how valuable they are. We’ve noticed recently, however, more and more bounce backs from our newsletter distribution.

Nowadays everyone has so many newsletters to choose from, and so many emails to keep up with, and we don’t want to be part of the problem by clogging up people’s inboxes. So, we’ve decided it may be for the best to put a hold on the newsletter for now.

The community itself will not be changing at all, and will still be very much in existence as a place for conversations and for sharing ideas and resources. We love everyone’s contributions, it is honestly one of the most interesting projects to work on, being exposed to such knowledgeable content from you, the members, every month – so thank you all so much for your involvement and we encourage you to continue getting involved.

Please do let us know if you have any feedback, or thoughts, on this. We can always look at resuming the newsletter at a later date if people are interested.

We hope to keep seeing amazing things from all our members! Thank you all for helping make the Ethos online community what it is :-)

Welcome to new members – March

The Ethos Online Community now has 455  members. Hope you will all give a warm haere mai (welcome) to the new members to the community:

• Larbi Bayti is an EFL teacher all the way from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Larbi is particularly interested in how social media can assist EFL learning

• Joining us from Nova Scotia, Canada, we have Jean Guibault. Jean develops and hosts online content related to education and business training and is therefore looking to hear more, learn and exchange ideas

Know anyone who would like to join an international Online Community that’s all about learning – across all education sectors, business & ITOs: http://bit.ly/233qpfP? Please invite them :)

Member Blog Posts and discussions

In this newsletter, as always, we have some interesting posts. Please jump into the conversations and feel free to ask questions.

• Madeline Campbell discusses her journey from a teacher, who accessed professional learning from time to time – but rarely due to her somewhat remote setting, to a teacher who’s teaching spaces became sites of continuous professional learning and inquiry. Read about the little questions that sparked this transformation in Teaching IS Inquiry

• John S. Oliver takes some time to reflect upon the amazing, weird and wonderful world of nature. In this post he writes about the more puzzling aspects of the everyday world that surrounds us

• Gaining an MBA degree was once considered one of the highest business qualifications one could acquire. Recent stats have suggested that nowadays, only 7% of MBA students are qualified enough to get a decent job. In Why an MBA degree is still relevant today, Maisie Headey discusses why this may be the case. Maisie says the interest in MBAs is still present, and in fact this may be the issue. With a large number of MBA colleges forming over the years, industry simply can’t absorb all the graduates. Maisie also questions whether the quality of the MBA education has dropped, thanks to lack of experienced educators, infrastructure etc. So what will happen to this qualification? Do others question its relevance or have ideas on how this issue may be fixed?

• Smart phones and technology are ingrained in many young people’s lives now, and this means they are also becoming a part of teachers’ lives. A lot of schools are encouraging students to access their smartphones during class in order to research etc. However, does this pose a large distraction for students? Leigh Hynes discusses some techniques to get around this while also ensuring technology is used to the best of its ability to inform all students and allow for a better learning experience – take a look; What can secondary teachers do differently?

• See How Education Has Changed and Imagine What is Coming is a great little illustration that shows how the resources students have access to and the tools they use daily to learn have changed so much over the years. It also poses the question, what’s next?

• We live in pretty amazing times, with advanced technology, science, education etc. enabling people to change the world in drastic ways. The arrival of the internet and social media has also allowed people more awareness of others situations and issues. It seems more common for the people driving change to be of a young age. Adam Fletcher looks at some of the ways our young people are changing the world right now and then at the ways parents, teachers, business people, and adults, every day, can help ensure that young people are paving the road to the future with five easy steps

• The SAMR model for learning languages questions students’ abilities to effectively utilise technology in their education. Classrooms are becoming less teacher-led and Chitose Izuno argues that education needs to be structured in a way that maximises the benefits technology offers. Chitose looks at this with a particular focus on language learning. SAMR is a learning model teachers can use to effectively integrate technology in education. This model may help us to better navigate across technology enabled learning landscape. Head over to her blog post to find out about the 4 different levels of SAMR and how you can use it with your students

• Allanah King writes about the importance of finding the right tool for the job. With so many resources available to teachers now, it’s easy to get overwhelmed or to give up completely on finding the right fit. Is it a case of less is more? Or do we simply need to figure out the best form of research on these tools? The right tool for the job looks at the art of doing just that

• Ashwini Datt is still looking for educators that teach with technologies or are keen on adopting education technologies in the future. Ashwini is doing her doctoral research and is looking for some input from NZ academics. The research (University of Auckland Ethics approved #018812)  aims to identify the value of networks in developing higher educators’ capacity for teaching with technologies. More details can be found in the participant information sheet​. You can complete an anonymous questionnaire (10 mins of your time) and/or volunteer for a semi-structured interview that will last about an hour. Any outputs/publications – in addition to what will be available in the public domain ​- will be shared with all participants once published for wider dissemination.

Recommended videos

From the ever growing repository of videos (1,646 in total – thanks as always to John S Oliver for his awesome contributions), these are a just few of the highlights – there were plenty more this month, so make sure to check them out.

• TEDx Talk Tryon – Teaching took on a whole new meaning for this high school teacher turned biofuel eco-preneur, when her students became her teachers. She learned how to transform waste into biofuel while at the same time identifying the enormous waste of knowledge, creativity and expertise that too often happens in our classrooms – I love teaching so much…. I quit

• This talk (Creativity in the classroom) was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Catherine Thimmesh discusses why creativity is an essential tool for today’s students, and how teachers can easily encourage and foster the development of creative thinking skills. Along the way, she dispels some commonly held myths about what creativity is or is not, suggests some concrete prompts that can be used quickly in any classroom, and bemoans the fact that she still doesn’t have a jetpack!

• For the last 24 years, he has repeatedly asked students the same question, “What makes a good teacher great?” Azul Terronez is the author of the best-selling book “The art of Apprenticeship”, and has coached teachers and schools leaders around the world in Spain, Chile, Canada, India, United States and China. He is currently serving as a teacher coach at Shanghai American School. Watch this video to get some insight into his research

• By focusing tightly on instructional strategies and PD, educators at Cochrane Collegiate Academy saved their school from closure. In just three years, they have doubled student performance, and they continue to reach higher. How to engage underperforming students looks at their journey to success

• After 31 years as a prominent and well-respected Financial Times columnist, Lucy Kellaway has made the decision to leave – to be a maths teacher. There are many programmes encouraging fresh graduates to enter the teaching profession, but what about seasoned professionals? In her talk, Lucy will reframe the way we think about being an educator and why it’s more important than ever to be one now

• What are the 4 Cs? Learn how critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity are essential 21st-century skills for today’s students

What’s on?

The FLANZ Conference 2018: Inception to Infinity takes place at Massey University, Palmerston North on April 9th.  Please feel free to add events to share them, or just let me know and I’ll add them :-)

• Many thanks once again to John S Oliver, Madeline Campbell, Maisie Headey, Leigh Hynes, Chitose Izuno, Allanah King, Ashwini Dat and Adam Fletcher,

Nāku iti nei, faafetai lava, and warm regards

Charlotte

—

Charlotte Caines
Community Coordinator

Ethos Consultancy NZ Ltd

PO Box 90391, Victoria Street West,
Auckland 1142
Phone +64 (0)9 9738027 / +64 (0)9 5750206
Mobile +64 (0)21 2273777
Web site: http://www.ethosconsultancynz.com/
Blog: http://ictelt.blogspot.com/
Email addresses: info@ethosconsultancynz.com / hazelowendmc@gmail.com
Skype: hazelowendmc

Your Ethos Community Newsletter for February 2018

Another newsletter for my Kiwi readers to begin their week.

Ethos Online Community Newsletter Your newsletter from the Ethos Online Community – February 2018

Kia ora, talofa lava, and greetings,

We have had SO many great posts this month. Thank you guys for getting involved and sharing all your amazing opinions, experiences and resources. I won’t blather on for too long, so you have more time to scroll through all of Feb’s content.

We have a great story from Denise Arnolds this month about both taking time to help others, but also about the cost of success.

Success is obviously what we all aim for when working towards a goal. However, do we ever consider that with more success comes more boundaries? We are outputting more and therefore may need more resources / time / money etc. to sustain the success.

Denise encountered a situation where the success of her company at one stage was actually hindering its ability to get over the next hurdle. Take a read of Denise’s post to find out how she faced this challenge head on and actually used it as an opportunity to identify, and address, where her efforts should be focused.

Joanna Wheway also posts this month about another key to success – observation and learning from others’ mistakes. While it is easy to notice those who are achieving great things, and try and figure out why, we shouldn’t forget to take note of those not doing the best jobs.

It’s always interesting to note what behaviours and qualities the people around you possess that make you feel something negative. Have you ever had a boss who garnered little respect? Or who ignited anger in team members? Think about why this was and what you’d do differently in the same situation – and then do it!

It would be great to hear what other think of success and hurdles. What situations have you been through that have made you analyse success? Have you ever witnessed your own success as obstacle? Let us know!

Welcome to new members – February

The Ethos Online Community now has 453  members. Hope you will all give a warm haere mai (welcome) to the new members to the community:

• Howard Roberts, a freelance writer based in Stockton, CA, United States. Howard is hoping the community can help him learn new things – we hope so too :-)

• Larbi Bayti joins us from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where she is an EFL teacher, and is particularly interested in teaching EFL students through twitter.

Know anyone who would like to join an international Online Community that’s all about learning – across all education sectors, business & ITOs: http://bit.ly/233qpfP? Please invite them :)

Member Blog Posts and discussions

In this newsletter, as always, we have some interesting posts. Please jump into the conversations and feel free to ask questions.

• Denise Arnold established The Cambodia Charitable Trust several years ago with the aim to break the poverty cycle through education. Through providing resources to enable a higher level of education, putting effort into closing education disparities between the sexes and ensuring education is more accessible, this is a goal that Denise has made true strides towards achieving. However, her success suddenly became an obstacle. She realised that one of the secondary schools, which was taking on the graduates of the primary schools the trust was supporting, was now overfull and having to turn students away. But with a little community spirit, generosity and determination, the community and the trust managed to come together to build more classrooms and provide further resources to ensure students have the choice of a secondary story. An inspirational story and a great example of good will overcoming obstacles. Read more in  Education in rural Cambodia – some of the challenges of success

• Media literacy looks at media education in New Zealand and people’s ability to critically analyse the media they consume. The advent of the Internet has necessitated a whole new take on media literacies and it’s a fascinating field. Research show that hile young people are now very confident at finding information, they lack the ability to be critical about its accuracy, authority and sourcing. This is a great post from Helen Martin, referencing the research of Alan Norman, along with his tips on what we can do to help our youth approach this differently. There’s also a very interesting example of website ownership which is bound to make you think.

• Monika Kern shares her experience using the collaborative online tool, Padlet. Padlet is essentially an online wall where users can post sticky notes. It is great for encouraging brainstorming sessions and the sharing of ideas and information. Check out Padlet Walls to learn more about the tool and Monika’s own experience and tips.

• Higher education is a privilege, however, it is one that comes at a cost. With university education now more expensive than it has ever been, as well as more common than it has ever been – it begs the questions, does it really give you and edge and is it worth the investment? The real costs of higher education from Maxine Wells delves into the burden that can come with a degree. She’s also included an infographic that looks at the journey of education prices and how today’s generation have it compared to previous generations.

• Adam Fletcher has very kindly put together an in depth guide on using reflection as a tool to encourage student voice. The process of looking back on an experience and deciphering the meaning of it can help students feel safe and grow the confidence they need to develop student voice. Seven Student Voice Reflection Activities outlines the activities Adam uses, the methods and context in which he does so and some tips to ensure their as effective as possible. Let us know how you get on with them

• This month we get another installment on Joanna Wheway’s journey as a new principal. Joanna speaks of how her experience as a teacher and an employee of the education system is shaping how she is trying to behave as a leader. In Time got away from me! Joanna reflects on witnessing educators behaving in a selfish manner to further their career rather than focusing on how they can aid the teachers and students. This is a good reminder that even negative encounters can act as a lesson and shape our behaviours.

• The negative effects of screens on young brains is a topic that has been up for discussion since technology became such an integral part of our lives. John Owen links us to an interesting article looking at the work of psychologist, Dr. Aric Sigman. Sigman believes that exposure to screens in young children can lead to a lack of empathy and that the longer we wait to give children screen time, the more intellectual advantage they will have. In Screens damage young brains, John notes the slightly sensationalist nature of the claims. Does this have an impact on the use of technology for learning? Does this actually support the concept of blended learning, where technology-based and traditional learning methods are pulled together within a syllabus? Do we need to help people understand the limitations of different forms of interaction – online, on the phone, face-to-face? It would be great to hear others thoughts.

• John S. Oliver reflects on the delicate balancing acts we must all battle regularly in order to achieve harmony in our lives. For example ensuring we are productive, yet also making it a priority to have down-time and look after ourselves. There are small challenges we face everyday and then bigger picture things that take more time and consideration. Read all of John’s deliberations here.

• Walter Ruhlman discusses his (by the sounds of it, frustrating) experience trying to get his university students to produce ePortfolios. Walter talks of their inability to correctly perform the task and, perhaps worse, to show any interest in understanding what is required. After putting in much time and effort, as well as discussing this issue with many other educators, Walter is still at a loss. He surmises the disinterest may be because the subject is not directly what they wish to study, but rather a prerequisite for the course. Does anyone have suggestions for Walter? How have others engaged students who seemed wholly uninterested?

Also recommended

As always you have contributed a superb variety of posts this month. Thank you. Here are some of the posts and topics that you may find of interest:

• Not wanting to be too depressing, but natural disasters can affect anyone, anywhere. It is a positive outcome of the earthquakes in Christchurch to see a practical guide being written that suggests how institutions can prepare for such disasters…before they happen. Sustainable programme design: A guide to help institutions prepare for natural disasters…in advance looks at the project that could help us be in the best way possible for a disaster.

• What is the difference between discussion forums, blogs and wikis. This post is a brief answer to that question. It is really worth looking at the examples of the wikis and blogs in education, and also watching the video about discussion forums as they might give you some ideas of how a learning experience could be extended or enhanced. Please also feel free to share your ideas in the comment box at the end of this post.

• Effective coaching questions looks at the particular characteristics of a ‘good’ coaching questions. A good coaching question has the power to support a coachee in a range of different ways. Well-framed questions can positively stimulate thought, motivate, inspire, and help your coachee recognise their own strengths such that they remain motivated, energised and focussed.

Recommended videos

From the ever growing repository of videos (1,628 in total – thanks as always to John S Oliver for his awesome contributions), these are a just few of the highlights – there were plenty more this month, so make sure to check them out.

• To conclude a week in which they focussed on resilience, a little over 400 students on the UniPrep programme rehearsed and performed (they were prepared and conducted by Igelese Ete) a cover of this inspiring and powerful song in under 4 hours (Identity: This is me cover by AUT STUDENTS) UniPrep is a five-week programme that supports students as they transition from high school to tertiary studies to realise and unleash their potential.

• Just three countries- the United States, Myanmar (formerly Burma), and Liberia, still resist the metric system. Ever wonder why? Watch Mr. Beat’s video to find out – Why Don’t the U.S., Myanmar, and Liberia Use the Metric System?

• John S. Oliver has shared a number of videos this month around the amazing story of Abby and Brittany Hensel. Abby and Brittany are currently in their last year of teachers college – and they’re conjoined twins. These videos look at how the students reacted to being exposed to this unusual situation, how the school prepared them, and how the twins tackle being two teachers in one body. There’s also a video looking at the challenges the women have faced through their unique situation and how they’ve still gone on to overcome these and become so well accomplished. Such an inspirational story; “WE GOT A JOB!” Abby and Britt, The Conjoined Teachers, Get Hired, Abby and Brittany Hensel: The Conjoined Teachers!, Abigail & Brittany Hensel – The Twins Who Share a Body – take a look.

What’s on?

Lots of other things happening (online courses, conferences and other opportunities) including the FLANZ Conference 2018: Inception to Infinity on April 9 at Massey University in Palmerston North, NZ. Please feel free to add events to share them, or just let me know and I’ll add them :-)

• Many thanks once again to John S Oliver, John Owen, Denise Arnold, Monika Kern, Maxine Wells, Adam Fletcher, Joanna Wheway, Helen Martin and Walter Ruhlman.

Nāku iti nei, faafetai lava, and warm regards

Charlotte

—

Charlotte Caines
Community Coordinator
Ethos Consultancy NZ Ltd

PO Box 90391, Victoria Street West,
Auckland 1142
Phone +64 (0)9 9738027 / +64 (0)9 5750206
Mobile +64 (0)21 2273777
Web site: http://www.ethosconsultancynz.com/
Blog: http://ictelt.blogspot.com/
Email addresses: info@ethosconsultancynz.com / hazelowendmc@gmail.com
Skype: hazelowendmc

Your Ethos Community Newsletter for January Inbox

And one for my Kiwi readers to end the day.

Ethos Online Community Newsletter Your newsletter from the Ethos Online Community – January 2018

Kia ora, talofa lava, and greetings,

And here we are again, sitting at the end of January, with another year ahead of us. We have survived the first few weeks of getting used to those early mornings again. We farewelled mid-day naps, constant snacking and mid-afternoon beers.

How has the return to work treated you? While it may never be easy to give up complete freedom, when you’re happy and engaged at work, it shouldn’t be too drastically traumatic. According to a study, blogged by Sarah Whiting, only 14% of Kiwis felt truly engaged by their jobs. This is a shocking and quite sad statistic. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel, with the blog also suggesting that if a little time and effort is sunk in to altering this then things can always change (and luckily she gives some suggestions on strategies to do this).

I guess this is something that travels in to education as well. How do we ensure students aren’t simply seeing formal learning as a chore that must be done, but are actually having fun, actively learning and thriving in the classroom? It’s also important to instill in children that they have the ability to do what they please with their life, which can also mean breaking the 9-5 work place mould.

This is something millennials seem to be trying to tackle, with the increase in things like remote work. Something that is well-aided by technology. However, it’s a mould that doesn’t seem to be able to truly change – with most people being confined by society’s model of what’s right. And in a lot of ways it’s just as well, because after all, how would we function without a majority workforce?

Simon Sinek notes that one of the issues with millennials is that they’ve been consistently told they can achieve whatever they want, to follow their dreams, but have never been informed of the hard work that must go in behind the scenes. But surely there is a middle ground? Surely we can have both work ethic and happiness?

What are your thoughts on this? How do you think people should approach work to make sure they are both secure and happy? And how do you think society can be flexible to ensure workers are happier, engaged and more productive? And how do we start to teach these values from a young age? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Know anyone who would like to join an international Online Community that’s all about learning – across all education sectors, business & ITOs: http://bit.ly/233qpfP? Please invite them :)

Member Blog Posts and discussions

In this newsletter, as always, we have some interesting posts. Please jump into the conversations and feel free to ask questions.

• How happy are we in our jobs? Well, not very according to a recent survey from Gallup. The research found that of the adults who worked full time for an employer, on average, only 15% felt engaged (in terms of being highly involved and enthusiastic) in what they do. NZ/Aus came in just below this average with 14% engagement. Luckily, the report looks to try to solve the issue, not just identify it. However, it does mean a whole lot of commitment to change from all parties. One of the suggestions is a move towards a workforce that focuses on people rather than systems and allows people to identify and work to their own strengths. To read the report and give your input, take a look at this post: Untapped potential. Thanks to Sarah Whiting for finding this research.

• John Owen looks at a TED talk from the talented Amanda Palmer. Amanda discusses the possibility of surviving as an artist in the online environment. The answer, she believes, is making music freely available and simply asking their fans to pay. Is this something you would participate in as a consumer? Watch the video and see what you think – The art of asking.

• Humans and machines are often compared. Is this the correct way of looking at things or should we be trying our best to merge the two to ensure we take advantage of both skill sets? Nigel Bailey links us to an article that supposes technology should simply be an extension on the human brain and can, in fact, make it more powerful than ever. Our brains extended looks at how educators should be integrating technology into the curriculum to help this power become a reality.

• Towards a multiversity: A keynote session with Professor Paul Bacsich from the late, and much missed, Ed Flagg, who looked at a keynote speech from Professor Paul Bacsich at the 2012 Distance Education Association New Zealand (DAENZ) conference in Wellington. Professor Bacsich, from the University of Canterbury, provided a grand overview of the state of eLearning on a global perspective, providing a brief critique and some suggestions about how to move beyond the current landscape: the ‘Multiversity’.

Also recommended

As always you have contributed a superb variety of posts this month. Thank you. Here are some of the posts and topics that you may find of interest:

• Have you noticed how, when you articulate things – either in a verbal or written form – it feels clearer in your head? Sometimes you may write or say something that you weren’t expecting. There is also evidence from psychology and neuroscience that talking through traumatic experiences, issues, and challenges, shifts it from the amygdala to the frontal lobe; in other words from the instinctual part of your brain to the processing part of your brain – which is on of the reasons that coaching can be so powerful. However, if, for whatever reason, you aren’t working with a coach, you may be interested in self authoring. Find out more in this blog.

• Promoting the rights of youth – The Freechild Project is now Freechild Institute. In order to accurately reflect its broad commitment to educating youth and adults, Freechild Project leaders have decided to rename the organization. Starting in January 2018, the organization will now be referred to as Freechild Institute. In 2001, Freechild founder Adam Fletcher was supporting a group of youth in Olympia, Washington, who were organizing to promote youth rights. Citing educator A.S. Neill’s question, “How will free children fit into an unfree society?,” the group suggested Fletcher call his emerging project “freechild.” Since then, Freechild has become an international phenomenon, acting as a free database for youth changing the world. Providing more than two dozen free publications and hundreds of teaching tools online, Fletcher has provided training and workshops and keynote speeches on behalf of Freechild.

• E-Learning can be a daunting subject, with many different micro areas. Hazel addresses some of the common questions that arise with some helpful resources and blogs. Take a look:  Answers to tough questions about eLearning.

• Great story here (Māori and Pasifika achievement at secondary school) that was shared earlier this month on Radio NZ National, highlighting the absolute importance of learning being culturally grounded. The story focuses on how an Auckland secondary school has made dramatic improvements in the achievement rates of its Maori and Pacific students. With Brian Evans – Principal of Kelston Boys High School in West Auckland, which has seen a marked improvement in the NCEA pass rates for its Maori and Pacific students, who make up three quarters of the school roll.

Recommended videos

From the ever growing repository of videos (1,607 in total – thanks as always to John S Oliver for his awesome contributions), these are a just few of the highlights – there were plenty more this month, so make sure to check them out.

• Goofy – Teachers are people too – a good, silly watch for those days when you feel that students may forget.

• Can you solve the dark coin riddle? – Lisa Winer – a little riddle to keep the brain ticking.

• Higher education is expensive, so people want to get the best deal— a high quality college education at a low cost. This is similar in the way which many for-profit colleges and universities advertise themselves. Many students soon found that the cost of upward mobility through certain for-profit institutions wasn’t the answer for them. These schools saw a huge jump in enrollment during the 2000s. Fueled by a struggling economy and the expansion of federal financial aid for college, many students saw the advertisements of for-profit schools as attainable and affordable. But almost two decade later, there are new regulations to reign in the predatory schools profiting off student debt. And today, over a dozen for-profit colleges in the US (ITT Tech, Corinthian Colleges, Sanford Brown, and others) have closed their doors for good. Explore more in The battle over for-profit colleges, explained.

• And staying on that topic…. While the cost of college education in the US has reached record highs, Germany has abandoned tuition fees altogether for German and international students alike. BBC’s Franz Strasser looks at the increasing number of Americans who are taking advantage and saving tens of thousands of dollars to get their degrees.

• Thomas Sowell is an American economist, turned social theorist, political philosopher, and author. He is currently Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. In this segment he explains how geography influences culture. Full video from May, 1998, quoted under fair use.

• In 1998, 42% of Iceland’s 15 and 16 year-olds reported that they had got drunk in the past 30 days. By 2016, though, this figure had fallen to just 5% and drug use and smoking had also sharply declined. The action plan that led to this dramatic success is sometimes called “the Icelandic Model” – and strikingly, it does not focus on tighter policing or awareness campaigns to warn children off bad habits. Instead, top researchers collaborate closely with communities on initiatives like parental pledges and night-time patrols after dark, while the government invests in recreational facilities. But is being a teenager in Iceland still fun? Let’s find out; How Iceland saved its teenagers

Resources

• Would you like to know how to create an interactive diagram in Google Slides? Well you’re in luck. Richard Byrne (Free Technology for Teachers) shared this ‘how to’ resource, which you may find useful. Richard writes: “Google Slides has a lot of capabilities that often go overlooked. One of those capabilities is the option to link slides so that viewers don’t have to necessarily see them in a chronological sequence. By linking slides you can create an interactive diagram in Google Slides. In this video I demonstrate how to create an interactive diagram in Google Slides”.

What’s on?

Lots of other things happening (online courses, conferences and other opportunities) including next year’s SoTEL Symposium 2018 taking place in Auckland on February 15.

Please feel free to add events to share them, or just let me know and I’ll add them :-)

• Many thanks once again to John S Oliver, Sarah Whiting, John Owen, Nigel Bailey and (retrospectively) Ed Flagg.

Nāku iti nei, faafetai lava, and warm regards

Charlotte

—

Charlotte Caines
Community Coordinator
Ethos Consultancy NZ Ltd

PO Box 90391, Victoria Street West,
Auckland 1142
Phone +64 (0)9 9738027 / +64 (0)9 5750206
Mobile +64 (0)21 2273777
Web site: http://www.ethosconsultancynz.com/
Blog: http://ictelt.blogspot.com/
Email addresses: info@ethosconsultancynz.com / hazelowendmc@gmail.com
Skype: hazelowendmc

OpenCon18 K-12 Athabasca – a Virtual & Free Teacher PD Opportunity

On a slower holiday Monday.

OpenCon18 K-12 Athabasca

A virtual, free K-12 Open Educational Resources Teacher PD Offering

January 25, 2018

10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. MST

Theme: “Building the K-12 OER Teacher Network”

Follow on Twitter: #K-12OC2018

Open Education Resource (OER) Novice or Champion – You are invited to attend the Open Con18 K-12 Athabasca – a virtual and free conference exploring Open Educational Resources for K-12.

As a satellite offering of the OpenCon17 held in Berlin, the OpenCon18 will mark a first for educators, within Alberta and beyond. Presentations will range from OER fundamentals to the current K-12 OER landscape – see the schedule for details.

Ending our virtual offering will be a unique dialogue – the “Berlin Remix”. A panel discussion has been organized so that the Open Con18 K-12 Athabasca discussants (and attendees – asked upon registration) to view in advance a 20 minute video clip. This recording was part of the Berlin OpenCon17 conference where an international panel explored the broad topic of Inclusive Education and how OER responds to diversity and inclusion needs within education.

For our panel, the discussants will address this Berlin discussion and will “remix” two questions of OER curriculum creation. Within an OER curricular resource, how can educators consider: Who is missing?and Whose knowledge is reliable?

OER holds opportunity for rethinking how resources are accessed and used by K-12 educators. Come and join the “Berlin Remix” Panel Discussion – and one, some or all of the offerings! We hope to nurture a K-12 OER teacher network – and this virtual conference marks the first step of this journey.

 

Note:

Registration is suggested but not required. Please let colleagues know about this opportunity. The K-12 OC will be recorded and archived on the BOLT Multi-author Blog.

http://bolt.athabascau.ca/index.php/oer-teacher-network/satellite-opencon-2017-building-the-k-12-oer-teacher-network/

K-12 Open Conference – Building the K-12 OER Teacher … bolt.athabascau.ca A Virtual, Free K-12 Open Educational Resources Teacher PD Offering Date: January 25, 2018 Event URL: https://athabascau.adobeconnect.com/k12oc Hashtag for conference …

 

Constance Blomgren PhD

Assistant Professor

Centre for Distance Education

Athabasca University

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Your Ethos Community Newsletter for December

One for my Kiwi readers.

Ethos Online Community Newsletter Your newsletter from the Ethos Online Community – December 2017

Kia ora, talofa lava, and greetings,

This month I will keep this part of your newsletter short and sweet because, as we’ve got into the habit of doing, the final letter of the year will give a retrospective on some of the amazing things you’ve all contributed to the community this year.

 

We’d  like to say a massive thank you to you all. Your participation in the Ethos Online Community is greatly appreciated and it makes the community what it is: a place where people come together to share and discuss the things happening in learning, education, training and the wider world. We love seeing the amazing ideas, blogs, videos, discussions and welcoming new members – and we can’t wait to work with you again in 2018.

Meri Kirihimete, Manuia le Kerisimasi, happy holidays to you all!!

Welcome to new members – December  2017

The Ethos Online Community now has 451 members. Hope you will all give a warm haere mai (welcome) to December’s new members to the community:

• Auckland based higher educator and researcher, Ashwini Datt. Ashwini’s interests are in learning design, elearning capacity development, online teaching & learning and networking. Ashwini has already posted around research participation, make sure to check it out and see if you can help

• With many roles and talents under her belt, Tutor / Lecturer / Programme Developer / Learning Designer, we welcome Nomes Lorimer, also from Auckland

Know anyone who would like to join an international Online Community that’s all about learning – across all education sectors, business & ITOs: http://bit.ly/233qpfP? Please invite them :)

This Month

As always you have contributed a superb variety of posts this month. Thank you. Here are some of the posts and topics that you may find of interest:

• Is the force with you? Star Wars is one of the biggest movie franchises to ever exist, with devoted fans all over the world. With the movie leaking out in to our everyday lives through merchandise, media and general hype, it’s inevitable that it’s messaging will have at least some impact. Luckily, John S. Oliver, has found a number of resources that delve in to the worldview, or theology and doctrines, that are suggested by dialogue, the key moments in the movies, and the repeated themes. Take a look:  Star Wars has Theology, Doctrines and an Online Temple of Jedi Order

• Do you have 15 minutes to contribute towards the to the growing information on contemporary elearning professional development approaches? Your help would be much appreciated in aiding Ashwini Datt complete her doctorate research. You can find out more about the research and take the quick survey here: Research participation – networking to build capacity for teaching with technologies

• Te Tiriti O Waitangi: Settlement process resource links to a great resource by Mark Derby, which “provides an accessible introduction to the Treaty settlement process. The content covers events from 1840, when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, through to the present day”.

The year that was

Given that this will be the last newsletter of 2017 we thought we’d take the opportunity to reflect upon some highlights. However, narrowing these down from all the amazing posts has been difficult. We’ve limited ourselves to one post per month that has inspired us!

• January – Building an in-depth understanding of one’s own skillset is imperative in enabling suitable opportunities and aiding in personal and professional growth.  Researcher and Educator, L. Dee Fink, has developed a 6-aspect taxonomy of teaching designed to maximise this understand and therefore also maximise learning in the classroom. In The six dimensions of your development, the late (and much missed) Edward Flagg talked about his professional experience using the framework. The post explained how the theory works and how it fits into a work environment

• February – In Feb,  Nicholas J Major  posted an interesting blog that slotted nicely into the mentoring information we’ve had filtering through over the last year. Nick simply asks, what’s in a question? Here Nick asks how effective the questions commonly used during mentoring sessions actually are. Particularly the often used ‘why’ question. Nicholas states that a number of sources he has recently encountered suggest that ‘why’, ‘who’, ‘when’ and ‘how’ questions are information seeking questions, whereas ‘what’ questions are wisdom accessing questions. The difference being that the former questions tend to elicit responses grounded in the past, whereas the latter can produce deeper insights that help understand what is important to the other person or help them move forward to accomplish their goals. Nick gives some great examples of particularly evocative questions and research that’s gone into the subject

• March – MORE Evidence that Teachers Change Lives is a heart-warming post from John S. Oliver. This post looks at one student-teacher’s journey to discovering just how much impact a teacher can have on a student’s life. It’s reassuring to hear stories like this and be reminded of the true importance of education

• April – In Aspirational v Real Values,  Paul Keown addressed an often unrecognised gap – that which exists between aspirational values and real values. The dilemma arises in people claiming their aspirational values (the way we believe others should think and behave) are in fact their ‘core values’, those that they actually display in their behaviour. This is something that appears in education in many forms, one being the values that are taught in the classroom and by parents, and another being through the vision statement of schools. The gap between those values that authority figures commonly claim students should hold close versus what they’re behaviour actually shows is clear in a study outlined in this post. The study showed that while 96% of parents state it is of utmost importance to raise ethical, caring children, 80% of the youths surveyed reported that their parents “are more concerned about achievement or happiness than caring for others.” This disparity appears yet again when we analyse some of the past activity in New Zealand such as the multiple incidents of young male high-school students making crude comments focused on taking advantage of inebriated young women. In these cases the schools have come out stating that the values displayed by these students vary hugely from the school’s own. So what’s going wrong? Is this due to the school not instilling the values effectively in their students? Or is there too strong of an influence coming from outside sources that display opposing values such as the media and porn? What do you think a school’s role is when it comes to values? This post really made me think and I feel it’s something that is always important to be aware of, and to be consistently analysing

• May – There are two sides to every story. It’s a cliche, but cliches arise for a reason. How often do you make an assumption or judgement without talking to everyone involved, having every piece of information needed to form a fair and fully rounded opinion? How often do we only see the world around us and not look for a narrative that lies outside of the one we experience everyday? The danger of a single story touches upon how impressionable we are to the stories we hear, and why it is therefore so important to expose ourselves to as many differing stories as possible. The number of perspectives we interact with directly affect our understanding of the world and interactions with others. This post has a wonderful Ted Talk from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explaining the danger of a single story. Thank you for this post, Sarah Whiting. This video really made me question how I form opinions, and how quickly judgements are made – something we should all try and be as mindful as possible about

• June – Identity from Monika Kern looked at just that – what defines us as individuals? Is it nature or nurture? Does it change over time? And, more specifically, how do culture and ethnicity play a part? This is particularly relevant within education. In New Zealand, there is an issue around the lower achievement rates of Māori and Pacific Island students. How do the cultural identities and stereotypes of educators influence how they help these students achieve their goals? There is also the issue of how we actually define a cultural identity – is this where you grew up, your ancestry, the passport you hold etc.? Culture plays such an important in our lives and in education and is definitely something we need to continue to explore and always be aware of

• July – Ask, don’t tell looks at the importance of allowing students to take initiative. Teachers can often overlook the importance of giving students guidance and support to reach a decision themselves, and garner important skills in the process, rather than telling them the correct thing to do. Giving students responsibility to make their own decisions and have input is key in developing learner agency and fostering an inquiry disposition in students. Jan-Marie Kellow gives us some great examples and resources of how teachers can aid this process, as well as some insightful reasoning as to why it is so vital

• August – Increasing student agency for students with special education needs looked at how to increase the initiative of students with learning difficulties. Student agency generally looks to involve the student more and make the activity about them rather than about the teacher, resource or outside influence. It gives students ownership and allows them to intervene in their own learning experience. However, this takes on a unique challenge for Lorraine Vickery, who is working with students with a range of special education needs. Lorraine states it can be as complicated as students being able to determine their own learning program, to making the subject accessible enough that students feel that they can take charge or as simple as students being able to self-start on their own learning. Lorraine pondered upon how she can help her students achieve agency and what the next steps may be

• September – Joanna Wheway took us along with her on her journey to starting in her first role as principal at a new school this year. We’ve heard about Joanna’s transition in to a new school and all the admin-invoked stress that comes with this. We’ve also followed Joanna as she moved into the harder hitting stuff with her staff. Joanna cleverly decided to spend the first few weeks of her new appointment focusing on the basic areas which teachers are less passionate about. She used this non-conflicting time to build trust and relationships with her staff. And then, the time came to start focusing on the actual teaching and learning aspect of the school – the emotive stuff. Joanna was looking at changing habits in her teachers which have been firmly engraved over the last three years. This was made even more difficult given the fact that they have received positive feedback from previous leaders. Joanna’s main challenge was implementing assessment in a school that had none. Joanna talked of a conflicted teaching staff and the need for her to continuously re-evaluate and take gentle steps towards her goal. Fortunately, in her follow up post it sounds like a breakthrough has been made and things are moving in the right direction. Go to Joanna’s profile to follow all the great posts on her journey as an educator

• October – Investigating my values and how they influence my work from Rick Whalley looked at the process of aligning personal values with that of your work. This process aims to help you ‘find yourself in your work.’ The process saw Rick identifying the values that were most important to him and then cross referencing them to the values his education organisation associates with. There was then a hard process of elimination to really get down to the values that were most important to Rick. In his post Rick talked us through this process, his values and also how this then went on to influence Rick’s work and have a bigger impact

• November – Adam Fletcher introduced a conceptualization of cascading leadership among students. Cascading leadership is the experience of having students facilitate other students in a sequenced way according to their skills, knowledge, and experience. It is different from traditional leadership, which is generally having students command other students according to their interest and ability. In this post, Adam explained the idea and the effects it can have, particularly in promoting student voice

What’s on?

Lots of other things happening (online courses, conferences and other opportunities). Including the INTCESS 2018- 5th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES taking place on February 5th, 2018.

Please feel free to add events to share them, or just let me know and I’ll add them :-)

Nāku iti nei, faafetai lava, and warm regards
Hazel, Charlotte, and the Ethos team,

—

Charlotte Caines
Community Coordinator
Ethos Consultancy NZ Ltd

PO Box 90391, Victoria Street West,
Auckland 1142
Phone +64 (0)9 9738027 / +64 (0)9 5750206
Mobile +64 (0)21 2273777
Web site: http://www.ethosconsultancynz.com/
Blog: http://ictelt.blogspot.com/
Email addresses: info@ethosconsultancynz.com / hazelowendmc@gmail.com
Skype: hazelowendmc