NZME Education Central Issue 3 - August 2018

1An| NZME Thursday, 9 August 2018 custom publication

Issue 3 | Thursday, 9 August 2018 EducationCentral.co.nz/FutureFocus

Education Future Central Focus

Innovation and technology in education Devices and apps for teaching and learning

Global EdTech trends and how they’ll work in NZ

Informs. Inspires. Educates. | EducationCentral.co.nz/FutureFocus

An NZME custom publication | 2018

EducationCentral FutureFocus is a multi-platform guide for school leavers, parents, adult learners and influencers.

A New Zealand Herald publication, EC FutureFocus has a print run of 80,000 copies and is inserted into the Northern Advocate, Bay of Plenty Times, Daily Post, Hawkes Bay Today, Wanganui Chronicle as well as the NZ Herald, attracting a combined average issue readership of 525,000 Monday–Friday readers.

Issue 4: 20 September The early years y y y y

Creating innovative learning environments Technology in the early years Smooth transitions: kindy to primary to intermediate The importance of parent-teacher-student relationships

Issue 5: 25 October Secondary school and beyond y y y y

Final NCEA exams and careers guidance Transitioning to university or vocational training Vocational Pathways and Youth Guarantee programmes School-tertiary partnerships and industry training

Education Central FutureFocus Informs. Inspires. Educates.

Find out more charles.ogilvie-lee@nzme.co.nz

04 915 9794

@EdCentralNZ educationcentral.co.nz

/EdCentralNZ

Or contact your local NZME media specialist

Thursday, 9 August 2018 | 3

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Contents Editor’s note

4: Impact of the new digital curriculum yet to be felt

5: Kiwi innovators compete with the world’s best

6: AI the next shake-up in education

8: Opinion: Modern learning environments – are they all they’re cracked up to be?

10: The kids are all right... but are the parents?

11: Skool Loop app fills gap in market

14: Out with the old... changes in the past 20 years

16: A digital game changer for the trades

18:New curriculum a long time coming

19: Bringing 21st-century teaching and learning to schools with cloud

20: Why our education system needs to change

20: Supporting teens’ career choices

B

ritish educationalist Dylan Wiliam believes that the purpose of education “is to prepare students for a world we can’t envisage, so when they are stuck, they choose to think, instead of remember”.

After all, kids nowadays have – in the smart phone in their pockets – an endless supply of information at their fingertips.

Keep that in mind when you consider the wholesale changes our education system is undergoing – including a revamp of NCEA (which educationalist Karen Tui Boyes refers to inside as “Swiss cheese learning” – a system that leaves students with serious knowledge gaps) and the introduction this year of a digital curriculum.

While the latter has rolled out to senior college students, its impact will be better felt in the next few years as the initiative unfolds.

University of Canterbury Professor Tim Bell, a vocal proponent of the curriculum, tells EducationCentral that it will give students a vision, open up opportunities and drive diversity.

“At the moment if you ask teenage girls if computer science would be a great thing for their futures, most would say no. If they were exposed to it, their attitudes could change.”

The tertiary sector is also adapting to the ever-changing tech landscape; it’s a space the big tech companies are paying close attention to.

Technology writer Peter Griffin outlines inside how AI and personalised learning is making education more accessible and responsive to students’ needs, forcing change on a one-size-fits-all system that’s not suited to all learners.

Greg Fleming

Editor

Greg Fleming gregory.fleming@nzme.co.nz

Contributor

The next issue of EducationCentral FutureFocus will be published on 20 September.

Jude Barback 07 542 3013 judith.barback@nzme.co.nz

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Impact of the new digital curriculum yet to be felt

“Students will already have a level of knowledge; this curriculum helps to enhance and grow that knowledge.”

The newly introduced digital curriculum hasn’t been without controversy, with teachers’ unions unhappy about the rushed implementation and worried about upskilling their members. Greg Fleming asked the Ministry of Education’s Ellen MacGregor-Reid for answers to some common questions on the subject.

W

hile it has yet to make much of a splash, the new digital curriculum is here. It began in term 1 of this year for Years 11–13; NCEA Level 1 achievement standards in digital technologies will be available from 2018, while Levels 2 and 3 will be available from 2019.

Ministry of Education Deputy Secretary Early Learning and Student Achievement Ellen MacGregor-Reid says that digital technologies are going to continue to be an integral part of our society and economy in years to come.

We encourage parents and whānau to speak with their school or kura, or board of trustees about their plans on integrating the Digital Technologies l Hangarau Matihiko curriculum into their teaching and learning programmes.

Digital learning has been with us for a while now – why so late to introduce this?

A digitally fluent person can decide when and why to use specific digital technologies to achieve a specific task or solve problems. A digitally capable person can create their own digital technologies solutions.

Students will already have a level of knowledge; this curriculum helps to enhance and grow that knowledge.

The New Zealand Curriculum was last reviewed in 2007, and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa was developed in 2008. Since then, technology has changed immensely.

A decade ago the first iPhone had just been released – now most New Zealanders own smartphones. Self-driving cars, artificial intelligence and augmented reality have stopped being science fiction and started being our reality.

What will students experience that’s different from their current digital journey in education?

Digital Technologies l Hangarau Matihiko is about teaching our children how technology works, how to be creators of digital technologies, and how they can use that knowledge to solve problems.

Our children and young people won’t just be using devices like computers and smartphones.

The changed curriculum will mean that schools will be teaching our young people the computer science and design principles on which all digital technologies are built.

Will students be taught programming?

Yes, programming is part of the curriculum. Students start by learning to program simple instructions in-person (such as stepping out a set of actions on the floor) and as they move through the curriculum they’ll be able to perform increasingly complex tasks. Some students might develop software or program robots.

How can parents help/support their kids in this?

We’re asking parents to support their children to learn all that they can about Digital Technologies l Hangarau Matihiko… to help their children understand that technology gives them the tools, but they still need to know how to work together, communicate, lead, and plan in order to succeed.

What does being digitally fluent actually mean?

Some students might develop software or program robots.

Will all teachers be a part of this or just some?

Each school or kura will be able to develop their own local curriculum around the Digital Technologies l Hangarau Matihiko content to suit their own views and philosophies – that includes making decisions about the roles each of their teachers will play in teaching the new curriculum content.

Having said that, we expect that Digital Technologies l Hangarau Matihiko learning will be integrated with other learning areas of the curriculum – so students might learn about the principles of programming in the context of mathematics, science or music.

What about students from low decile/poorer communities – will they have to provide their own devices?

The new curriculum is about learning about how digital technologies work – in many cases, this will not even require a device.

Where a device is required, we expect that schools’ existing infrastructure will be sufficient.

We are developing support and resources to help teachers implement the content into their local curriculum.

A substantial investment of over $700 million has been invested into schools and kura to support digital infrastructure – get fibre to the school gate, upgrade schools’ networks and provide the managed network and uncapped data via the Network For Learning (N4L).

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Kiwi innovators

compete with the world’s best A rainwater management system has seen a team of young Kiwi innovators reach the semi-finals of a global tech innovation competition.

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team of New Zealand students reached the semi-finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup recently, among some of the best and brightest young tech innovators in the world vying for more than US$725,000 in cash and prizes and an opportunity for a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Winning ANZ Imagine Cup team, Sentinel, were among the six finalists in the Big Data category for their rainwater management system. The three students from University of Canterbury and University of Auckland created a device that monitors tank water levels and automatically reorders water from local tank-refilling companies to ensure that rural homes, farms and holiday homes never run dry. Team members Sam Yoon, Zac Lochhead and Zach Preston hope to encourage more sustainable water habits.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our Kiwi finalists, who are not only punching above their weight on the world stage but have created some game-changing solutions that will solve Out of 40,000 real-world problems,” says Chris Dick, Head of Marketing for Microsoft New student competitors Zealand. “I’m sure we haven’t seen who registered across the last of these talented young the world, the 2018 developers.”

The Microsoft Imagine Cup Imagine Cup came down sees tens of thousands of aspiring to 49 teams competing student developers from across in the World Finals. the globe teaming up to create imaginative real-world applications.

Now in its 16th year, the competition

“I couldn’t be prouder of our Kiwi finalists, who are not only punching above their weight on the world stage but have created some game-changing solutions that will solve real-world problems.” has run annually since 2003. This year’s top inventions included a smart baby-cry translator and software to help people with hearing difficulties focus on a specific speaker in a noisy room.

This year three Kiwi teams made the global finals, with Team Sentinel and Auckland teams Hypebeat and UniRide defeating contenders from across New Zealand and Australia to reach the final tournament in Seattle. They competed against 49 teams from 33 countries, including ultimate winners smartARM from Canada, who created a robotic hand that learns to recognise objects and use the appropriate grip to pick them up.

Hypebeat, an Auckland-based team consisting of Matt Bastion, Benjamin Sweney and Rivindu Weerasekera. placed second at the ANZ finals with its platform that helps emerging musicians get discovered by acting like a virtual manager. Musicians and their managers can analyse the key drivers behind different artists’ success with an app that uses machine learning to generate a personalised playbook of recommended actions and advice for each musician.

UniRide trio Andrew Hu, Sukhans Asrani and Winston Zhao created a carpooling app for university students that pairs students with compatible schedules.

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AI is expected to bring the convenience of digital assistants to the learning environment.

AI the next shake-up in education When you talk to people in the tech sector about the areas of opportunity on their radar, one sector features prominently – education.

By Peter Griffin.

T

echnology isn’t seen as a panacea for the education sector’s problems. The disconnect between the needs of employers and the type of graduates universities are producing won’t be solved through technology, nor will the numerous pressures on lecturers or the shaky finances of some of our tertiary institutions.

But technology does promise to make education more accessible and effective. Why should Amazon or Facebook know more about what motivates you, and deliver you more effective tools, than the people and institutions who are trying to prepare you for a productive life and career?

The tech touted to shake up tertiary education five years ago was the MOOC (massive open online course), which promised to open up free online courses to anyone, anywhere. It did just that – Stanford University alone has enrolled 10 million students from around the world in its online courses on everything from philosophy to engineering. The University of Auckland and Victoria University are among those offering MOOCs here.

Many in tertiary education saw the arrival of MOOCs as either undermining existing university courses by reducing valuable interaction between students and teachers, or as a potential cash cow for underfunded universities.

MOOCs turned out to be neither. Their innovative use of technology has lifted the game of institutions, transforming course materials, online platforms and assessment processes. The data yielded from interactive online platforms has informed course design and assessment.

But while they have allowed institutions to reach international students and grown their global brand awareness, they have been no silver bullet for reducing institutions’ costs or increasing revenue.

A similar mix of trepidation and hype greets the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to the education

sector. Using machine learning and with access to increasing amounts of data generated by students’ digital activity, a new suite of algorithms promises to offer educational insights at a personal level that could improve outcomes for teachers, students and institutions alike.

Sarah’s ‘personalised learning’

They call it ‘personalised learning’ and for Sarah, a typical first year Bachelor of Commerce undergraduate student at university it could, in the near future, look something like this: instead of having to turn up to the usual lectures and complete course assignments by pre-assigned due dates, Sarah’s content, timing and intensity of course work is tailored to her individual needs, based on her survey results and monitoring of studying habits.

Sarah skips the lectures entirely in favour of online videos and online peer group discussion. Her learning app has detected that she is struggling to complete a module on accounting, so it prompts her to message her tutor and fellow students for additional help.

Instead of arbitrary test dates, she chooses when to complete them. Sarah pays a lower tuition fee than some of her fellow students, because she has opted for online coaching and digital learning materials only.

Aspects of this are already done at tertiary level, but the mix of processes, platforms and methodologies underpinning it all are not yet standardised for best results. That’s why the tech sector is taking a keen interest, with the likes of Microsoft developing personalised learning tools.

well suited to the realities of the market, rather than up-end tertiary education completely.

At a more functional level, AI is expected to bring the convenience of digital assistants to the learning environment. AUT students in 2016 developed NINA, a chatbot that works with Facebook’s Messenger service to offer access to many of their university’s own services. With NINA, you could renew a library book, enroll in a course or order lunch through the chatbot, Amy, an AI maths tutor, rather than navigating numerous websites and loglearns your skill level in systems. and gives feedback Others are applying on mistakes. the digital assistant to learning itself. Jaipuna, a New Zealand-based tutoring business, has created Amy, an AI maths tutor for high school students. Amy learns your skill level and gives feedback on mistakes to make learning maths easier.

It is too much to expect the AI-driven benefits we enjoy in our everyday lives to bypass the education sector. The challenge ahead is to do so in a way that brings the best out of teachers and students alike and gives our tertiary institutions a renewed sense of relevance and responsiveness.

A data-driven approach

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have poured hundreds of millions of dollars via their charitable foundation into developing the Personalised Learning Platform, to pursue that ‘student-of-one’ pathway allowing technology and algorithms to, as Zuckerberg puts it, “customise instruction to meet the student’s individual needs and interests”.

It isn’t a Facebook project, but it draws from the social media giant’s modus operandi of figuring out what makes us tick and delivering content and interactions tailored to our needs, which Facebook’s algorithms understand better than we do ourselves.

An increasingly data driven approach to personalised learning is a chilling prospect for many in the education sector. But as with the arrival of the MOOC, AI could improve on a one-size-fits-all system increasingly less

What is AI? AI (artificial intelligence) is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems.

These processes include learning (the acquisition of information and rules for using the information), reasoning (using the rules to reach approximate or definite conclusions) and self-correction.

Particular applications of AI include expert systems, speech recognition and machine vision.

Ngahuia Kopa Graduate Tauira (student) He Korowai Ākonga Bachelor of Education Level 7 (Primary Teaching)

Ngahuia Kopa is taking what she learned at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and putting it into practice, and the beneficiaries will be the tamariki who come under her care.

Ngahuia graduated from the He Korowai Ākonga – Bachelor of Education (Primary Teaching) degree programme two years ago and is teaching at Te Wharekura o Ngā Purapura o Te Aroha in Te Awamutu.

The way the degree is taught, and the supportive environment at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, had provided a blueprint for her own practice as a teacher.

“Our responsibility is not only to create a supportive environment but to build and shape our tamariki and build stronger communities, and that’s what our kaiako did for us,” she says.

She felt welcome and comfortable at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa before she had even enrolled.

“On my first initial interview I was sold straight away. I already felt instantly that I was home and I knew I was going to have an amazing journey. You feel the whānau environment as if you were their own,” she says. And it’s an environment that’s welcoming to all.

She says the degree offers valuable insight into Te Ao Māori, which is useful for all teachers.

“Even though you’re under a mainstream framework, the kaiako are able to balance it with a Māori world view. So even if you are predominantly mainstream, you still have a good foundation in Te Ao Māori. The degree is quite flexible.”

But it was the unquestioning support of her kaiako which left the biggest impression on Ngahuia.

“Our kaiako understood and could see when we were having difficulties and were able to pull us aside and make sure we were okay. Even with things outside the degree, because life goes on and you have your tests. They can just pull you back in and remind you why you’re doing what you’re doing and how far you’ve come, it’s just awesome.”

However, all students face challenges along the way and Ngahuia encourages them to maintain their commitment. “For anyone interested in pursuing a career in teaching and wanting to do the degree with Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, be true and stay real to the reason why you want to teach. Don’t get put off by all the paperwork and assessments. Make sure you have an amazing support team at home, because as a student things get tight and we need as much support as we possibly can.”

Te Wānanga o Aotearoa provided much of that support, she says.

“Te Wānanga o Aotearoa is an amazing place that feels like home.

It’s like another whānau.”

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Opinion:

Modern learning environments – are they all they’re cracked up to be?

King’s School headmaster Tony Sissons says flexible learning spaces should allow students to break out of their classroom and work both individually and in groups, but not at the expense of their relationships with their classroom teachers.

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s Auckland’s King’s School approaches its centenary, the opening of one of its most important buildings in its long history, is one that has been a personal highlight for me through my 25 years of headship. The new Centennial Building, in the centre of the school, will play an important role in providing students with an edge in meeting their needs for the next century.

It is a world-class facility and we should pay tribute, not only to the Board’s vision and tenacity when faced with the realities of the poor state of the Hanna Block, but also to the generosity and commitment shown by our community and donors in making it a reality.

This new building, now linking the Lighthouse, Kerridge and Harrison Blocks in a way that was not previously possible, has provided us with an additional 5,000 square metres of large, light-filled classrooms, music studios and discussion areas.

However, despite the benefit these generous spaces provide us, the Board remains firm that the school will not increase its current roll, maintaining its staff: student ratio of 1:11.

I admire the words of Professor Bryan Lawson (Professor Emeritus of Architecture, University of Sheffield, UK) and his view of the importance of getting a building right in a school: “Of all the projects an architect can be asked to design, none can be more interesting and challenging than a school – in which the most important of all human activities, the education and development of our children, takes place. That activity is simultaneously purposive, planned and controlled, and yet also subtle, delicate and easily disturbed.

“We know precisely what we want to achieve in a school and yet we are clearly uncertain as to how it should be realized. Critically, the success of education depends so much on the quality of the student/teacher relationships. This then requires an architect who is sensitive to human relationships and aware of how to promote and foster them through the built environment.”

There were many planning discussions with the Board and Warren and Mahoney, our architects, to ensure that this relationship-building was paramount in our brief and we are delighted in the way in which the architects embraced this. What we now have are spaces that encourage collaboration with others, while at the same time, allow for more intimate spaces for individual and reflective learning.

I am concerned with the current trend in the State system of the so-called open plan ‘modern learning environments’ being implemented, with some 50 to 100 children to a room.

The Ministry of Education has already spent hundreds of millions in its shift towards these modern learning environments (MLEs) or now recently referred to as, Simply changing the flexible learning spaces. Open shape of buildings plan classrooms have been pursued through the Canterbury alone will not lead to schools rebuild programmes better education. because it is thought they allow teachers greater flexibility than single-cell classrooms. However, the Ministry’s own research makes clear simply changing the shape of buildings alone will not lead to better education.

Ministry Deputy Secretary, Katrina Casey says 21st-century learning is about more than just knocking down walls. Although flexible spaces can sometimes facilitate more student-led learning than traditional classrooms.

“It is not the space that determines purposeful and focused relationships between teachers and their students. Strong relationships with students are the core of good teaching.”

Research tells us that young children need to have the feeling of safety and belonging that a small class size and one single teacher can provide. Yes, we need to create flexible spaces to allow our students to break out of their classroom and work both individually and in groups, but not at the expense of their relationship with their classroom teacher. I want my teachers to really know the boys in their care.

Recently I was shocked by a response from one of the young boys I was interviewing to gain entrance A modern learning environment (MLE) is a classroom to King’s. I asked him what I thought was an easy that is not set up in the traditional way, with a teacher in front question to settle his nerves: “Who is your teacher?” of rows of pupils.

Far from being an easy question, the boy was visibly confused and unsure how to answer. The reality is he An innovative learning environment (ILE) is a didn’t know who his teacher was, as he came from collaborative, flexible classroom that can evolve as needed an environment at his primary school where there and covers teaching style, technology, lighting and colour. were several teachers in the room.

I strongly believe that boys need to have a close A flexible learning environment (FLE) refers to the relationship with their teachers in order to effectively physical classroom design, encompassing light and colour, learn. That is why we keep our staff: student ratio at furniture, and how pupils and teachers are able to move the lowest in the country and how we ensure no boy between spaces. “falls through the net”, as many parents from State schools report to me is happening.

Working in large, open plan classrooms, teachers work The new Centennial Building allows a flow now from together and students work with the teachers who best suit the individual classrooms into open flexible spaces, their learning styles. which can be used by boys and staff from across the school. It is quite frankly, the best of both worlds.

Breaking down the jargon

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The kids are all right...

With last year’s introduction of a digital technologies curriculum, many parents rejoiced at the bold move to prepare their children for the digital future. However, some were no doubt thinking, “How the heck am I going to help the kids with their homework now?” By Raewyn Court.

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he new digital technologies curriculum is already available and will be mandatory for all schools in 2020 but Fee Webby, General Manager of The Mind Lab by Unitec, says it’s too early to tell if kids are enjoying and coping with computational thinking, because most teachers haven’t implemented it yet.

The Mind Lab was set up by Frances Valintine in 2014 for the purpose of engaging children in creative technologies to teach them skills in problem solving, collaborating and sharing. Realising that teachers needed to be upskilled and empowered to pass new knowledge on to children, Valintine then implemented, in partnership with Unitec, postgraduate programmes for teachers.

“The Digital and Collaborative Learning postgrad programme covers the specifics of computational thinking,” says Webby, “but more importantly it provides opportunities for teachers to experience tools and activities that address the ‘designing and developing digital outcomes’ aspect of the new curriculum.”

The digital technologies curriculum needs to be integrated into everyday teaching and Webby says teachers are currently in the process of figuring out how to build it into their lesson plans.

“Some teachers will be very confident but most don’t feel confident enough to implement the new curriculum

on their own. Some will have no understanding and will be quite worried about it.”

The Mind Lab has created their ‘Digital Passport’ to focus specifically on the new digital curriculum, helping teachers confidently embrace and implement the curriculum by giving them ideas for fun and hands-on activities to deliver in the classroom. More than 6,000 teachers have signed up in the past three months.

Parents’ views towards the new curriculum are on a continuum, says Webby.

“Some parents don’t know much and some are very informed, with parents who work in digital backgrounds generally being more familiar with their children’s digital homework. At the moment, not many parents have a good understanding of it and that’s not the fault of the parents or the schools. Schools do their best to help parents understand, but most parents believe kids are learning the same information that they learnt at school.”

“The 10-week, hands-on programme immerses learners in digital and creative technologies that will soon shape our world.”

Webby believes learning about new technologies can be fun when grandparents and grandkids work together.

“Grandparents have depth and knowledge of life and they can ask kids questions to make them want to find out more about technology.”

“There are lots of tools that can help children, parents and grandparents work together on projects such as moviemaking or presentations. Children can make a collaborative mind map with their families using tools like Coggle and Mindomo. Collaborative learning experiences are constructivist – they help build your understanding of something together.”

New technologies need not be scary

“Learning about technology is like improving in any other skill – confidence is gained by using it.”

She believes parents shouldn’t worry about their confidence or capability to learn the new curriculum, as they can still help their children without knowing too much about it.

“The main focus should be on mindset. Parents can help by having a growth mindset and encouraging their kids to try. They also need to show they’re not scared of new technology and are willing to explore and embrace it with their children.”

To ease the pressure on working parents, grandparents can also get involved in helping with homework, but are they likely to be even more daunted by digital technologies than parents? Webby says grandparents can help by showing an interest in what their grandkids are learning at school.

“Kids like to show things to their grandparents and teach them new digital skills, and kids can be empowered by showing their grandparents information they don’t know.”

Webby notes there is no reason for grandparents not to upskill in digital technologies, because age isn’t a factor.

“Learning about technology is like improving in any other skill – confidence is gained by using it. The important thing is for people to use technology for things that interest them and enrich what they already value in life rather than be an additional task that they’re not engaged with.

“Grandparents can sign up for the Digital Passport, and for Tech Toolbox, which is our answer for all adults determined not to get left behind in an increasingly techenabled world.

Mindset the key

Given the level of expertise in digital technologies a child will have attained by secondary school, Webby says it will be difficult for families to help with the technical side of homework but she stresses that again, it’s not about the technology but the mindset.

“Parents can provide valuable feedback on analysis, usability and design from a customer perspective, and this will help students create digital products that are user-friendly and helpful. Students are creating 3D virtual games for VR headsets that are technically beyond most parents and grandparents, but families can assist by testing the games and giving feedback.”

Webby says a common problem with homework is that adults want to do all the work when their child gets stuck.

“Parents need to encourage kids to be resilient by letting them make mistakes. Ask questions instead of giving answers. And remember that there is more to education than just good grades.”

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Skool Loop app fills gap in market After yet another paper school notice came home crumpled and covered in squashed banana, Sharlene Barnes decided there must be a better way to simplify communication between herself and her children’s school community.

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ack in the 2000s, when her children were in primary school, Kaikoura-based Sharlene Barnes realised that relying on her children to relay messages was perhaps not the best means of communication, and saw a gap in the market for a communication portal that integrated all facets of parent-teacher school administration.

It wasn’t until her son introduced her to smartphone apps in 2012 that Sharlene envisaged the Skool Loop app.

“I realised that this was the technology I had been looking for to make my idea come to life,” says Sharlene, “I sketched how I wanted the app to look on paper, took it to app developers until I found someone who believed in my concept and helped create the Skool Loop app.”

The idea was straightforward – integrate wasteful paper notices, newsletters, permission slips, school calendars, and time-consuming phone call communication for absentee recording, reminders, and emergency notifications into an app.

The result was the Skool Loop app – the parentteacher communication app that is now being used

Skool Loop at a glance: • Content managers populate all school calendars – no extra work for the school.

• Integrates with the school’s Google Calendar or takes content from a weekly newsletter.

• Supported and funded totally free by a small amount of local and regional advertising.

• Sales team sources approved ad content for the school.

• Promotional material is provided – easy for schools to promote their school calendar app.

• User statistics are provided each term.

by more than 600 schools in New Zealand, with more signing up each week.

The app has six core functions; absentee reporting, instant alerts, school contacts, synchronised school calendar, school notices, newsletters, and e-permission slip signing. It's also been used in emergency situations to quickly alert parents to a crisis or event, such as power outages or weatherrelated incidents.

Absentee reporting used to be a matter of school office staff spending an hour each morning calling parents to confirm whether their child was supposed to be at school or not. Now parents can now report child absentees with a tap of the screen.

“I recognised that schools are often underresourced and stretched on time and I didn’t want to add any time-consuming tasks or additional cost to schools, so the app is free to use,” says Sharlene.

In the day and age of the smartphone, schools are increasingly turning to app-based solutions for communicating with their parent community.

Skool Loop joins a growing group of school-parent communication apps, including MySchool Apps, School-links and Flexibuzz ( formally Tiqbiz).

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12 | Thursday, 9 August 2018

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Size matters – choosing the right

size screen for teaching and learning

What’s the point of fancy classroom technology if students can’t see it clearly? Research shows that over half students in a typical classroom can’t read all the content presented to them on the screen at the front of the class.

T

oday’s classrooms typically include television screens and projector imaging but little consideration is often given to whether students can clearly see the material being presented to them.

In many classrooms the presented image is either too low so those students not in the front row struggle to see the lower third of the content. Or the image itself is too small for a good proportion of the students to read clearly.

Recent research in the United States conducted

by Radius Research shows 58% of students in an average classroom cannot fully read content on a 70” flat panel television.

Purchasing decisions for school use are often based on personal television viewing experiences at home – a common mistake.

Content being viewed at home is video based with minimal text to read; this is considered passive viewing.

By contrast, in the classroom the bulk of the content presented is text based, meaning a bigger image is required for all students to see the content clearly.

The 4/6/8 rule

The 4/6/8 rule is used by audio-visual professionals to determine the correct size display for the intended space. How the rule works is: y For analytical viewing the farthest viewing distance should be no more than 4x the height of the image y For basic viewing (this covers the typical content shown in a classroom) the farthest viewing distance should be no more than 6x the height of the image y For passive viewing (video content) the farthest viewing distance should be no more than 8x the height of the image Schools need to take this into consideration when choosing the screen size for various learning environments. With technology an important part of teaching in today’s classrooms, it’s a decision schools need to get right.

Recent research in the United States conducted by Radius Research shows 58% of students in an average classroom cannot fully read content on a 70” flat panel television.

EducationCentral.co.nz/FutureFocus

Thursday, 9 August 2018 | 13

With Epson, 100% of your class can focus on your lessons.

ON A 70” DISPLAY ONLY 42% SEE IT ALL – GO BIG WITH EPSON When you are looking to inspire the next generation, ensure you engage your audience right to the back of the room. When considering which presentation technology to choose, research confirms that audiences are missing out when viewing content on a 70-inch flat panel TV versus a 100-inch projector screen*.

You put too much hard work in to your lessons to fall down in the last mile.

Influence starts with you and ends with a screen size that matters.

For more information visit: www.epson.co.nz/thelastmile *Leading 70-inch class 4k resolution flat panel in a 22’ (width) by 27’ (depth) classroom-style arrangement. When asked to copy down six short items of information from slides being displayed, 58% of students ages 12-22 copied at least one item incorrectly. Based on an independent, quantitative study conducted by Radius Research in multiple U.S. markets.

14 | Thursday, 9 August 2018

EducationCentral.co.nz/FutureFocus

Out with the old...

Diana Clement explores the changes in education over the past 20-odd years and the dramatic effects of those changes for both students and teachers.

E

ducation is changing faster than most parents realise.

While schools field complaints about teachers not ‘teaching’, the reality is that it’s those parents whose children are lined up behind desks for old-style chalk-and-talk education who should be complaining.

The irony is that schools where the teachers are apparently letting the students drive their own learning and collaborate on tasks in groups instead of individually are probably doing a better job than traditional competitors.

The research behind teaching is forging ahead in leaps and bounds. At the same time, schools are grappling with shifting to the idea that students come to learn, rather than to be taught.

‘Old-school’ concepts changing

Several educational concepts have changed since parents were at school.

The first is agency, with the idea here being that the teacher is no longer the font of all knowledge. Teachers need to step back and pass the responsibility for learning to the students for the latter to take responsibility for their education.

“We should be seeing teaching that tries to get students to think more deeply about what it is they are learning,” says AUT’s Dr Leon Benade.

The second is collaboration. Long gone in many schools are the 35 desks facing forward. Instead students should be collaborating and working together as they will in the real world.

Then there is personalised learning, which is closely related to agency. It is here that instead of teaching from page four of the book on a set day, the lessons are personalised and tailored for individual students’ learning styles.

“We expect to see teachers doing a lot less talking from the front and creating opportunities for a lot more student-driven activity,” says Benade.

Following personalised learning is project-based learning.

Teenagers are learning not just knowledge, but also skills as they carry out hands-on collaborative projects. This moves away from the idea that we’re at school just to learn knowledge. In science, this real-world learning might be testing water from local beaches, rather than working in a lab.

The last concept to have changed over the years is curricular integration. This is the idea that learning spans subjects. Admittedly, says Benade, it’s easier to relate

Romeo and Juliet than trigonometry to real life. But instead of traipsing around from maths to geography to drama to English, an integrated curriculum is divided into themes that can be learned across the subjects, connecting up the important learning.

Benade, a former deputy principal turned academic, says that thanks to technology in particular the new teaching methods are finding their way into older teachers’ practices.

Some schools do far better than others at moving with the

“We expect to see teachers doing a lot less talking from the front and creating opportunities for a lot more student-driven activity.” times, however, he says.

De-institutionalising teaching

Core Education’s Carolyn English says that secondary schools are looking to de-institutionalise their teaching. Schools are finding many different ways to do this, such as 90-minute classes, rather than 60-minute, so that students’ learning can be deeper, more project-based and integrated across multiple subjects, rather than working in silos.

Old-style buildings with lines of desks encourage certain modes of behaviour, says English. Benade agrees, saying the heart of more modern and progressive schools is the innovative learning environment (ILE), which often involves large classrooms with breakout areas and a variety of furniture designed to encourage collaboration. The new open designs encourage realworld behaviour and personalised learning, not just taking notes to pass tests.

However, not all schools want to change. Boys’ schools, says English, find it more difficult to modernise teaching than girls’ or co-ed schools because of the way they often market themselves.

“Girls’ schools talk about preparing the girls for the future,” she says. “The boys’ schools have this tradition of standing

on the shoulders of giants. They can’t just toss out [the old teaching methods].”

Many schools were held back from implementing new teaching methods encouraged by The New Zealand Curriculum thanks to the National Standards implemented by the previous government.

National Standards have gone, but some say the NCEA exam system could be holding back innovative teaching, and therefore learning. By Year 10, says Benade, many students are starting to collect NCEA credits, which can lead teachers to revert to traditional models simply to get them through.

English adds that many schools have misinterpreted NCEA because they are in a competitive environment that pits one school against the next, with parents judging them on test results.

“This has driven the Year 9 and 10 curriculum and destroyed the Years 11, 12 and 13 curriculum with a programme that is designed around credits,” she says.

Benade adds: “There are some traditional teachers, notably in secondary, who do elevate content learning above all else, and see the content as a requirement in order to gain credits.”

Changes having dramatic effects

Yet 21st-century learning methods can have dramatic effects on educational outcomes.

English cites the example of Hutt Valley High School, where some maths teachers and top students were against a move from testing to assessment of projects for NCEA credits. Yet a trial resulted in excellence ratings rising by 12 per cent and merit ratings by 10 per cent, says principal Ross Sinclair.

“The new course has produced lots of debate and we have had reactions passionately grateful for the changes and passionately opposed. As the course has bedded in, the passions have subsided,” says Sinclair.

“Early results are amazing, but they reflect the keen students who are charging ahead and exploiting the opportunity to control their course decisions.

“That is not every student in the course and so the data masks the reality for those for whom the year is a challenge, just as in the past they would have found the traditional course a challenge.”

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The future of health in New Zealand is challenging: we have an ageing population, healthcare inequities and complex needs. The health sector needs new approaches to encourage wellbeing and resilience; tackle obesity and chronic disease; support quality of life through a long lifespan; ensure equal access to well-managed health services; manage health information; and support health and wellbeing through rigorous research.

The Bachelor of Health gives students an understanding of health services, policy and strategy, the social aspects of health and how health issues affect populations in New Zealand and beyond.

Students can choose to focus on areas such as health informatics, health promotion, health psychology, health software development and population health and policy. The programme allows students to hone their interests and take advantage of other courses offered at Victoria University such as Computer Science, Education, Psychology and Public Policy.

She says, “I was attracted to the Bachelor of Health because it embodies a holistic approach to health. Studying these health courses opens up the conversation beyond just the functioning of our bodies and biological processes to the importance of mental health and wellbeing, the inclusion of non-Western knowledge such as that of Māori, Pasifika and Asian ideologies, the introduction to philosophical ideas around health and wellbeing and much more.”

Emoana is also motivated by becoming an advocate and facilitator of change.

“My health studies are giving me a better understanding of the world and helping shape my own development as a person. I have learnt more about where I come from, what I want to advocate for, the people I want to be advocating for and what I want to be working towards.”

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“I’ve made a new crew here at Victoria University,” says Orban Waitaiki-Messenger. “We’re all doing the same degree and we help each other out with our assignments and study—it’s really motivating.”

Orban Waitaiki-Messenger (pictured below, centre) Student, Bachelor of Health and recipient of a Bachelor of Health scholarship

This pan-university degree is attracting a diverse range of students who are looking for a qualification that fits their values and their desire to improve lives.

One such student is Emoana Consedine (pictured left), who is in her second year at Victoria University studying a conjoint Bachelor of Health in Health Promotion and a Bachelor or Arts in Education and Pacific Studies.

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16 | Thursday, 9 August 2018

EducationCentral.co.nz/FutureFocus

A digital game

changer for the trades “Recent research

by BERL has confirmed that over a lifetime of work the apprentice earns as much as the university graduate, so both career paths are equally rewarding.”

myBCITO, a revolutionary digital platform for the construction industry, is promoting construction careers and helping school leavers to become workready. Raewyn Court explains.

T

he construction industry is booming and needs around 30,000 qualified people in the next five years to meet demand. However, fewer than 1,500 school leavers are currently moving into BCITO apprenticeships each year.

“Right now, we simply don’t have enough skilled people to build our houses and other infrastructure at the pace required to meet our needs,” says BCITO’s chief executive, Warwick Quinn.

BCITO, New Zealand’s building and construction industry training organisation, is meeting the challenge of the ballooning demand head-on by launching a new digital platform, ‘myBCITO’.

The web-based, mobile-friendly platform directly engages with teachers and students, who can register to join for free at any time in a very simple online sign-up process with minimal clicks.

BCITO provides hands-on ‘BConstructive’ programmes that lead to qualifications in building, construction, and allied trades skills (BCATS). Quinn says the innovative, practical and multi-disciplinary programmes provide students with the skills and knowledge to springboard into any career in the construction industry.

Asking the right questions leads to innovative learning Education consultant Jacque Allen from Cognition Education explains how flexible learning spaces and digital technologies enhance learning and teaching.

What would you say to an educator or parent who is uncertain about flexible learning environments?

Most parents are surprised that so much existing teaching and learning will remain, as the school is usually looking into best practice before a new space is created. I advise parents to check online research and ask, “What will change and what will stay the same?”

All state schools are self-governing across New Zealand. All have unique ways to engage students and deliver The New Zealand Curriculum, so ask the school how the space is going to enhance learning opportunities. Ask lots of questions: where the opportunities are for self-directed learning; how social learning will be promoted; how the space will be used; and which teachers will be the best fit for their child’s learning needs.

How do flexible learning spaces and digital technologies complement each other?

A learning environment for a student includes: the space you physically walk into; the virtual space you interact with; the opportunities for connections and collaboration; and, more importantly, the relationships students build and foster with peers, teachers, whānau and the wider community. With a focus on creating flexible learning spaces, digital technologies provide new ways of learning and teaching.

Flexible learning spaces and digital technologies are only two aspects of innovative learning. It is important we see how these two aspects can fit into the bigger picture and how they can give learners a sense of influence over their education.

All aspects of Cognition Education’s innovative learning framework complement each other so we can have the best impact on learners.

What makes Cognition Education’s innovative learning framework so unique?

We provide a way for leaders, teachers, and boards of trustees to discuss the new ways of learning and teaching within innovative learning environments.

The framework provides clear guidelines around the effects of changes in physical environments or new pedagogy. It was developed from research around the five identified dimensions: curriculum redesign and implementation; collaborative practice; learner agency and authentic learning; learning with digital technologies; and flexible learning spaces.

The framework is simple in form but powerful in the connections it makes for leaders and teachers embarking on a change management process.

Cognition Education is a leading provider of education consultancy and professional learning. Our team of Ministry of Education accredited consultants deliver services in a wide range of areas to help schools throughout New Zealand grow and achieve more for their students.

www.cognitioneducation.com Source image: Ellerslie School

Thursday, 9 August 2018 | 17

EducationCentral.co.nz/FutureFocus

“They also develop literacy, numeracy and communication skills and have close links with NCEA and the technology curriculum.”

Students can go on to apprenticeships in trades, such as carpentry, brick and blocklaying, painting and decorating, flooring, joinery, plumbing and gasfitting, frame and truss, and aluminium joinery. The programmes also provide a base for related areas of the construction industry, such as architecture, quantity surveying and estimating.

Quinn says BCITO wants to interact earlier with teachers and students to encourage school leavers to see a career in the trades as a good and aspirational career choice.

“We want New Zealanders to see a career in the trades as something to aspire to, not fall into.”

He notes that becoming a qualified tradesperson is only the start of a career in construction and that too many view it based on what they see on site – typically the trades.

“The trades are a great option as you can specialise and own your own business, but there are management and professional careers available that are just as important.”

Quinn says it’s the best time ever for a young person to learn a trade.

“The opportunity to earn while you learn and have the first two years of eligible programmes free of fees makes an apprenticeship an excellent choice for school leavers.”

And the financial benefits might come as a surprise to some, he says.

“Recent research by BERL has confirmed that over a lifetime of work the apprentice earns as much as the university graduate, so both career paths are equally rewarding.”

The reasons for the small number of school leavers going into apprenticeships are quite complex, says Quinn.

“A lot of it has to do with what we as influencers of the young – family, friends, teachers, career advisers

– have on their thinking. There is an intergenerational prejudice that says a trades-based qualification is an inferior second choice to a university degree – but that’s a myth. We’re trying to change that perception so that a career in the trades is seen as an aspirational choice for a young person to set themselves up to be financially stable and have good career prospects, just like going to university.”

Quinn believes myBCITO will play a big part in the organisation’s aim of adding 2,000 apprentices a year to the current number.

“At present, there are over 10,000 school kids undertaking BCATS, and we don’t know who they are, what they do when they leave school, and whether they’re interested in a career in construction.

By having a one-on-one relationship with them and nurturing and supporting their progression through school, we can provide a clear line of sight into construction and assist in smoothing the pathway into the world of work.”

“This will be where apprentices can access digital learning resources, upload content and examples of their work, connect with their employer [trainer] and their BCITO mentor myBCITO is [training adviser] to share milestones, information and knowledge throughout available now for their apprenticeship,” says Quinn. students and career “The big impact here is that we’ll be moving from paper-based resources seekers at and processes into the digital www.mybcito.nz. environment that millennials have Teachers can register at grown up with.”

Quinn says myBCITO is a www.bcito.org.nz/ revolution in digital engagement for the mybcito. construction industry.

“It will dramatically change how we engage with people who are thinking about joining the industry, particularly school leavers.

It will also redefine how individuals within industry communicate with us and plan their learning online.”

Three-stage platform

The three-stage myBCITO platform helps students develop a digital CV where they can gain badges and recognition for skills obtained and showcase the construction-related projects they were involved in. This helps to match them with employers and the particular trade they may be interested in.

The first stage is an introduction to the platform and provides a home base for learners and teachers to keep in touch with BCITO on an individual level.

The second ‘starter’ stage of myBCITO is for post-school career seekers and offers a facility for students and labourers to connect with companies seeking apprentices.

The third stage is an ‘apprentice portal’ for signed-up apprentices and the employers who train them, which is currently being built and is predicted to go live towards the end of 2018.

BCITO’s six reasons to do an apprenticeship 1. Turn your job into a professional career.

2. Build your career directly from school.

3. Earn while you learn.

4. Expert training advisers will keep you on track.

5. Gain a professional qualification without sitting in a classroom.

6. Fees-free for two years of your apprenticeship.

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Healthy Me, Healthy Blood Develop student’s knowledge about how to keep their body (and their blood) healthy by making healthy choices.

Level 3 –4 resources are designed to meet Health & Physical Education, and Science achievement objectives from The New Zealand Curriculum.

Level 5: Science, Social Studies and English • Focuses on the circulatory system, the blood donation process in relation to this, and the different perscectives people have about blood donation.

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18 | Thursday, 9 August 2018

EducationCentral.co.nz/FutureFocus

New curriculum

a long time coming U

niversity of Canterbury computer science professor Tim Bell was so concerned about the lack of guidance around the integration of digital technologies in schools. that he developed his own teaching resources. These included the award-winning CS Unplugged project, which is used in schools around the world, and the CS Field Guide designed for New Zealand high schools.

Bell says the newly introduced Strengthening Digital Technologies l Hangarau Matihiko curriculum means kids will better understand the digital world they work in, rather than just being passive users of technology.

“In the digital world there are so many issues – privacy, artificial intelligence, the changing nature of employment. We want to give kids the tools to grapple with those ideas.

“It will make them not just better technologists but better citizens,” says Bell.

Year 10 objective

The objective is that by the end of Year 10, as they head into NCEA, all learners should be able to use and create digital technologies to solve problems and take advantage of opportunities.

They will be equipped to apply their understanding of digital technologies to all aspects of their lives and careers, whatever path they follow.

That’s similar to Year 10 mathematics, where kids are expected to know the basic principles and can use it as a tool.

Studying digital technologies through to Year 13 should prepare learners if they want to go on to the specialised study they will need for a career in the industry.

There is national interest in boosting understanding of digital technology. New Zealand doesn’t want to import all its technology; it wants the ability to create its own.

The challenge until now has been to get the workforce without having to do most of the recruiting offshore.

Bell says the bursting of the dotcom bubble at the turn of the century put a lot of students off the idea of IT as a career, not just here but overseas. For a

decade the number of students doing computer science at university declined, although it has since turned around.

“It’s still like that. Demand has outstripped the supply of people who have bothered to do IT,” Bell says.

“The real point is a lot of kids miss out on a career who probably would have loved it, so companies outsource overseas to get stuff done.”

Among those who missed out were women and Māori and Pasifika, who are underrepresented in the industry but who would be at least as good as the people who did get the swipe cards.

“As a university lecturer, students say to me: ‘Why didn’t people tell me how cool this is? I pushed it out during high school’.”

New curriculum provides vision

“The curriculum can give kids a vision. At the moment if you ask a teenage girl if computer science would be a great thing for their future, most would say no. If they were exposed to it, their attitude could change.

“As a university lecturer, students say to me: ‘Why didn’t people tell me how cool this is? I pushed it out during high school’.”

There is a huge variety of jobs in IT that match a wide variety of skills. Some jobs come down to listening to people and understanding their problems. For others it’s troubleshooting in the code or the systems.

In some places the change has been pitched as teaching all children to code, but Bell says the New Zealand approach isn’t just about people who write

The way technology is taught in New Zealand is changing, with most schools welcoming the new digital technologies curriculum. But some say it has been a long time coming. By Adam Gifford. programs for computers; it’s often about the thought process involved.

“You can use games and break down processes in ways that lead to computations. In particular for junior classrooms, it need not even involve devices.

“Most schools balance in the middle. There are lots of ways to teach the concepts without a device but in the end if kids want to write software, it is good to do it on the device.”

Bell says getting to this Technology stage has taken years, with is already New industry bodies putting a lot of effort into trying Zealand’s third largest to communicate to the export sector, but it’s Ministry of Education what mostly hidden – people the real issues were.

Changes overseas don’t see a tanker of have also helped, such software heading as the call in 2012 from UK Education Secretary Michael down the road.

Gove for coding to be taught to five-year-olds and Australia’s introduction of a computing curriculum.

Bell says the biggest challenge is getting the teachers up to speed, with Core Education running a readiness programme on behalf of the Ministry and plenty of professional development funding available.

“People say ‘kids know all about technology,’ but they don’t,” he says.

University of Canterbury computer science professor Tim Bell says the new curriculum will help kids to understand the digitsal world they work in.

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Bringing 21st-century teaching and learning to schools with cloud Warwick Beban says moving to a full cloud model means schools can fully deliver and benefit from 21st-century teaching and learning, allowing staff and students to access school resources anywhere and at any time.

T

he classroom has come a long way since teachers relied on chalkboards and students were putting pen to paper. These days it’s all about interactive learning, digitally enabled classrooms, BYOD and the daily use of applications such as Gmail, Microsoft Office 365 and Dropbox.

While these core teaching and learning technologies continue to enter our classrooms, when they don’t operate cohesively they become impractical and start to impact negatively on a school’s overall productivity and efficiency levels.

Teachers cannot teach what they do not know and cannot effectively engage students without the right tools and resources.

2020 cloud goal for NZ schools

The Ministry of Education recognised such a challenge in 2016 and subsequently launched the Schools’ Cloud Transformation Project, which aims to have all schools in New Zealand moved to the cloud by 2020.

While many schools are already using the cloud for common email and file sharing applications, a majority still retain a large portion of their physical servers on school grounds. This means students and teachers can only access resources if they’re physically at school and plugged in to the network.

Moving to a full cloud model means schools can fully deliver and benefit from 21st-century teaching and learning, allowing staff and students to access school resources anywhere and at any time. For instance, if a student for some reason is unable to attend class, they could have immediate access to notes from the classroom. Meanwhile, teachers will have the flexibility to prepare and finalise teaching notes without having to be physically present at school.

The cloud also paves the way for improved collaboration as it allows everyone to securely access their files and applications at the same time inside and outside the classroom.

The first If a student transfers schools, his/her student record can be 25 participating transferred simultaneously, which was previously a manual process. schools in the More importantly, a cloud transformation will enable Government’s Schools’ any school to more strictly adhere to national privacy and Cloud Transformation security guidelines, with improved identity and access management by the hosting provider and better organisation Project each saved more of data.

Massive savings

than $1 million on their ICT costs over three years.

Cloud transformation offers schools the opportunity to move ICT spend from the server room back into the classroom and make significant cost savings – which is a key benefit, particularly as school budgets continue to tighten.

Budgeting becomes easier as the costs of cloud services remain stable year-on-year. It’s also a chance for schools to move from multiple ICT suppliers to just one that can provide a suite of cloud-based solutions, including print, mobility and display – and just one monthly subscription bill.

There are clearly profound benefits of schools moving to a full cloud operating model. The next question is whether schools are willing to make that shift and give both teachers and students the ability to take full advantage of new technologies in the classroom.

Source: educationcentral.co.nz

Warwick Beban is Country Manager New Zealand of CSG.

20 | Thursday, 9 August 2018

Why our education

system needs to change

EducationCentral.co.nz/FutureFocus

The world is changing and our education system needs to evolve with it.

By Karen Tui Boyes.

O

ur current education system was established to create employees from the manufacturing model of the 19th and 20th centuries, but the 21st century requires a rethink of this.

Much of what is taught in our current education system is either not relevant to students’ lives today, or can be googled. Being able to memorise the formula for working out the circumference of a circle has little value for most professions and if required can be googled. Thinking must therefore become the centre of our curriculum – not memorisation of information to be forgotten the day after the test.

Focusing more on the soft skills

Traditionally the ‘soft skills’ have been mostly avoided in schools because they are harder to measure. These soft skills include persistence, flexibility in thinking, the ability to listen with understanding and empathy, metacognition, resilience, creativity, communicating with clarity, selfmanagement, and being open to continual learning.

Tony Ryan, author of The Next Generation, makes a strong case for developing empathy in young people. He argues that when artificial intelligence robots become more commonplace, the need to explore and deepen our empathetic connection with others as well as refine our social capacity and respect for different cultures and beliefs will be paramount to the human experience.

Our education system needs to change because whilst the system still holds an unofficial pass rate of 50 per cent the need for accuracy in the 21st century

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EducationCentral.co.nz/FutureFocus

is much higher than this. What accuracy rate do you want your hairdresser, builder, mechanic, doctor or pilot working on? This new age sees the need for higher precision than that which is generally accepted by our school system.

After travelling to and presenting in schools on five continents, I see a huge trend towards personalised learning and ensuring students are prepared for the future world. Khan Lab School works on the bold premise that students work towards mastery, not test scores. Students stay on the same content until they demonstrate mastery in relevant real world contexts rather than working in three-week content blocks.

“The purpose of education is to prepare students for a world we can’t envisage, so when they are stuck, they choose to think, instead of remember.”

Our current NCEA system is a classic example of what Sal Khan calls “Swiss cheese learning.” If a Year 11 student passes with an average of 75 per cent at Level 1 (Merit) we celebrate their success.

The challenge is the 25 per cent they don’t know.

Each year the curriculum builds on the knowledge from the previous years. Now a student enters Year 12 with one quarter of the foundational knowledge missing. This missing lack of foundation compounds as the student progresses through the system.

Hence our students may experience failure and a loss of self-confidence in their own abilities. There are too many holes in the cheese to continue learning.

Individuality lacking

To pass the current system means being able to hand in assignments and pass exams which show little room for individuality. Furthermore, passing prescribed tests does not guarantee students have practical application in the world or workforce.

There are currently 150 schools in the USA which have negotiated to provide portfolios of evidence to top universities and employers, rather than a GPA: Grade Point Average which does not guarantee the skills required for success later on in life. Projectbased learning is becoming more commonplace in schools as it provides a platform for students to demonstrate the knowledge and skills they are learning alongside the future skills.

To create a progressive and future-focused education system I believe it needs to be centred around the life skills required to be a contributing citizen of the world, have a focus on thinking, and practical applications of knowledge and understanding. This will require a rethink of everything we know and understand about schools.

Business consultant Peter Drucker says, “One does not begin with answers. One begins by asking questions.”

Here are some of my questions. Why is school 9am–3pm? Why do we split learning into subjects?

What is the role of a teacher? How might the learning journey be personalised? How could the evidence of understanding be shown? In what ways might we show progress of understandings? How might we teach and reinforce the future skills?

Our students today deserve an education that will be an integral part of the potentially challenging lifelong learning journey of living in the 21st century and beyond. We are not there yet! If we are bold enough to do things differently it is possible.

Karen Tui Boyes is the founder and head facilitator of Spectrum Education.

What the experts say...

Dr Bena Kallick, co-founder of the Institute for Habits of Mind and EduPlanet21, talks about the world being VUCA: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and full of Ambiguity. Change is happening fast and our students are growing up in a world where jobs are not certain or guaranteed.

Carl Frey, co-director of the Oxford Martin Programme and economics associate of Nuffield College, both University of Oxford, suggests that up to 60 per cent of the jobs of the future have not been developed yet and that 40 per cent of the five-year-old students in schools today will need to be self-employed to have any form of income.

Dylan Wiliam, British educationalist and Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment, states: “The purpose of education is to prepare students for a world we can’t envisage, so when they are stuck, they choose to think, instead of remember.”

22 | Thursday, 9 August 2018

EducationCentral.co.nz/FutureFocus

Supporting teens’ career choices

Deciding on a career can be bewildering these days for teens – and confusing for parents wanting to help them. By Raewyn Court.

F

or decades it was relatively easy to choose a career – girls tended to become teachers, nurses or secretaries, and boys became doctors, lawyers or took up a trade.

However, with the vast array of choices now available in a rapidly changing world of work, and the changes in perceptions and expectations of gender roles, this is no longer the case.

Caroline Sandford, career specialist at Love Your Career, sees a lot of young adults, many still at school. She says it’s usually a parent who has made the appointment, at a loss for knowing how to support their son or daughter at a very important decision-making time.

“Confusion, frustration and angst are present in both parents and their teen in how to make good decisions that will be sustainable yet enjoyable.”

On the upside, she has come to trust that most parents want the best for their young adult and are open to understanding their role in the process.

Sandford says there are a variety of ways parents can support teens in future career decision-making, starting with keeping up with what is happening in the changing world of work.

“Never before has a generation had to adapt so fast. Industries, jobs and skills are disappearing, new ones are being created and, as a parent, you need to stay current with what’s happening out there.”

Don’t panic over their choices

Supporting your teen is important even if their career choice is not what you had in mind for them, says Sandford.

“If your 17-year-old wants to join the Army, for example, ask questions about what they know and attend the recruitment with them to ensure they have

the right information to make the decision.”

She says it’s important to understand that the choice your teen makes now is not for life.

“The new world of work means the old ideas of ‘a job for life’ and ‘continually changing jobs looks bad’ are no longer valid. Your teen may have five significant careers and 17 job changes over their lifetime!”

And Sandford notes that if your teen really can’t decide what to do, a gap year can be a perfect solution. It allows them to mature, become exposed to the world of work, travel and develop skills rather than go down a road that is not right for them.

Be guided by their interests

Parents can make the mistake of encouraging teens to keep options open by taking a broad range of subjects rather than focusing on a particular interest.

Sandford says parents can also tend to put value on certain subjects, like science and maths, and not on others like classics and art.

“But if your teen doesn’t enjoy a subject and doesn’t do well in it, continuing to study it could mean they end up hating school, feeling like a failure and having a decreased sense of self-worth.

“This is not what a parent wants for their teen.

Notice where their spark and energy is drawn from and foster that.”

Encourage, don’t criticise

It’s easy to fall into a critical parenting role when raising teens, says Sandford, “complaining that they haven’t tidied their room or finished their homework, yet this is the very time when confidence and selfbelief are often lacking in teens. It’s important to focus and comment on what they do well as this will have a positive impact on their self-belief.”

Career specalist Caroline Sandford can be contacted on caroline@ loveyourcareer. co.nz.

Another time to keep your opinions to yourself is in having negative views on particular jobs.

“What might be a nightmare of a job for you might be a perfect match for your teen,” says Sandford.

“Ask open questions to learn what your teen really understands about certain roles, and what they still need to find out.”

“The new world of work means the old ideas of ‘a job for life’ and ‘continually changing jobs looks bad’ are no longer valid.”

Encourage work experience

Sandford is often surprised by the scarcity of realworld learning teens are exposed to these days.

“Organise work experience in the field they’re interested in – the more they see and are exposed to, the more they will understand if it’s right for them or not.”

She notes that part-time work is the perfect opportunity to build confidence and competence in the world of work.

“Skills such as discipline, communication, customer service and good timekeeping are just a few positive by-products. Oh, and getting paid!”

An NZME custom publication | 2018

HealthCentral FutureFocus: a new quarterly guide for health-conscious kiwis An NZME publication, HealthCentral FutureFocus has a print run of 80,000 copies and is inserted into the New Zealand Herald, Northern Advocate, Bay of Plenty Times, Daily Post, Hawkes Bay Today, Wanganui Chronicle as well as the NZ Herald, attracting a combined average issue readership of 525,000 Monday–Friday readers.

Issue 1: 22 November Managing health y Beyond the prostate: We acknowledge Movember and focus on men’s health issues y Coping with the Big C: How to get through cancer and support affected loved ones y Manage my Health: How this tech health and patient portal system works for users y Diabetes management: Jumpstart, the national diabetes health and lifestyle programme y Mind games: How to avoid dementia by keeping healthy and stimulating the mind y Summer health: How to be as healthy as possible during the summer season y The hole in the sky: Get the low-down on UV and staying sunsmart y Fussy eaters and bad sleepers: How to get kids eating veges and into good routines y What’s the alternative? Tasty substitutes for foods that aren’t good for us

FutureFocus

Informs. Inspires. Educates.

Find out more fiona.reid@nzme.co.nz

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