Professor Matt Bower

Questions:
Very generally speaking, the more capable ECR researches will already have academic positions but are struggling to compete for research funding for projects. The ECR Discovery grants seem designed for those ECR researchers without jobs and be less useful for the “best and brightest” for whom the ARC are trying to cater.

For an ECR researcher who already has a teaching-research position what will be the benefit of funding for their position?

The proposal discusses the possibility of being able to pick up teaching throughout the course ofw the grant – What sort of flexibility will be afforded to ECRs on how they appropriate funds?

What will count for institutional support?

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DECRA – discovery ecr award
200 scholarships up to $110k for salary plus costs .
Research offices to negotiate with recipients on how money is spent.
Cross- scheme conditions to be released (when?)
Institutional support – are the right facilities / mentoring available?
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VideoNet

The next big thing will be the VideoNet.

VideoNet (definition): The VideoNet is the creation of an online video archive of what has happened anywhere at any time using an interconnected archive of video recordings.

The VideoNet is Closed Circuit TV on a global scale. The Internet has connected the world’s conceptual knowledge, and the VideoNet will connect what is happening in the World.  It will enable us to tune into any point in history at any time.

THE Virtual World

THE Virtual World will be an accurate virtual world reproduction of our Earth. At the moment there are various virtual world systems (Second Life, Reaction Grid) that are creating fantastic 3D worlds with only quasi similarity to our own. THE Virtual World will allow us to teleport into any position on the Earth and Experience what it is like to be there. Just as there were initially many search engines, only one virtual world will end up being THE Virtual World (presumably the most lifelike, fully featured and easy to use), and everyone will go there because everyone else is there (much like the Facebook phenomenon).

Of course, after the Virtual World has been reproduced, we will have THE Virtual Solar System, THE Virtual Galaxy…

THE Augmented World – Blending of the VideoNet and THE Virtual World to form

Video processing technology will soon reach a point where given any two cameras and their precise positions it will be possible to replicate the real world as a virtual world in real time. This sort of technology has already been developed and used to some extent in the making of the movie Avatar (for instance).

At the same time, Augmented Reality technology enables digital representations of objects to be integrated into video recordings in real time. That means that it will be possible for people to enter into (an) THE Augmented World from wherever they happen to be located. For instance:

• You want to see what variety of biscuits are available at your local supermarket – just enter THE Augmented World and as long as they have appropriate video capture technology (connected to the VideoNet) then it will be possible to see what biscuits are available (either through the VideoNet or through it’s reproduction in THE Virtual World). Further, if you would like to ask questions to staff, as long as you have video capture technology in your lounge room (say) and there are supermarket attendees wearing digital glasses that are connected to a machine logged into THE Virtual World, not only will you be able to walk up to them and ask them questions, but they will be able to see you in the supermarket and respond as though you were there.
• You are a student who wants to attend a class across the other side of town (or planet). Assuming the classroom is being captured on video by the VideoNet and in turn piped to THE Virtual World, you can login and attend the class. Further, as long as you have video capture technology in your study (say) and the teacher and students are wearing digital glasses that are also logged into that class, then they can see and interact with you as though you were there.

THE VideoNet, THE Virtual World and THE Augmented World are the next big things

There are many ways that tablet, screen writing and screen capture technology can be used in lectures. For instance it is possible to write on lecture slides, using the ink facility in PowerPoint (or a tool like PDF annotate). The files can then be saved and distributed after the lecture. Then recording using tools like Camtasia provide students with an indication of how the lecture transpired.

Students can also use the approach to create study notes, or even send mathematical notes to teachers for feedback? The use of multiple desktop sharing tool like SynchronEyes, (or Dyna or Classroom Presenter or Starboard) to see students’ work in the lecture and anonymously upload that to the screen allows students’ screen writing to be shared for a more interactive learning experience.

For an iPad you can get a pogo stylus and use IannotatePDF or Infonetpresent or GoodReader. (Eprojector for your iphone allows you to use your iphone as a remote control for your powerpoint presentations.)

What Bill Barton (Professor of Mathematics at the University of Aukland) wants for our mathematics students students:

• A grasp of the field and an appreciation of its power and its applicability
• Some technical skills and familiarity with content
• Experience of working mathematics (including with technology)
• Rational thinking (of a special kind)
• Perseverance (of a special kind, driven by confidence that rational thinking will work, and that I can learn any mathematics that  need
• A desire to bring mathematics to bear and to critique it.

Bill talks about the best way to make someone addicted is to give them infrequent unpredictable rewards (like pokies!)

We know that being talked at is not the best way to learn so why do we do it?

We need to make students responsible for their learning – sometimes students don’t take responsibility for their learning and we respond by babying them. Instead we could hand out the unit outline and say “you need to know all of this but I wont have time to teach it all so you will need to learn the other parts yourself”.

Why do academics write text books – there are hundreds out there?!? Instead we should be writing about ways of bringing the subject to life through teaching.

Bill recommends high levels of personal contact, authentic mathematical problems, a high dose of challenge, and collaborative approaches.

Bill recommends that we see University curriculum design as adventure tourism – treat it as something students are doing to be excited, explore and see what they like.

Some good resources for 21st Century teacher professional development, courtesy of Ken Kay:

• Autor, David H., Frank Levy, and Richard J. Murnane. “The Skill Content of Recent Technological  Change: An Empirical Exploration.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, no. 118 (2003): 1279-1334.
• Bransford, John, Ann Brown, and Rodney Cocking. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. National Academies Press, 2000.
• Darling-Hammond, Linda. Powerful Teacher Education: Lessons from Exemplary Programs. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, 2006.
• Duncan, Arne. “Teacher preparation: Reforming the uncertain profession.” New York: Remarks presented at Teachers College, Columbia University, October 22, 2009.
• Levine, Arthur. Educating School Teachers. Washington, D.C.: Education Schools Project, 2006.
• McTighe, Jay, and Grant Wiggins. Understanding by Design, 2nd Ed. ASCD, 2005.
• Miller, M. Teaching for a New World: Preparing High School Educators to Deliver College- and Career-Ready Instruction. Policy Brief, Washington, D.C.: Alliance for Excellent Education, 2009.
• Partnership for 21st Century Skills. 21st Century Skills, Education & Competitiveness.
  Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2008.

• Kerry-Lee recommends the book Student Success in College – Creating Conditions that Matter (Kuh et al)
• To achieve conditions that matter often takes ten years
• Policy context includes:
  • Social, economic, moral imperative to educate our population
  • Widening participation agenda
  • Student-demand-driven funding system
  • Higher education in TAFE, pathways
  • Demonstrable standards and evidence of quality (student retention, progression, success)
• Ken Robertson – creativity in education author (eg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY)
• Report: The first year experience in Australian Universities: Findings from 1994 -2009

A provocative array of criticisms:

• IT faces squeeze in high school syllabus (31/8/2010)
• New curriculum slammed by studies board (13/9/2010)
• Shattering fallout for students in NSW (13/9/2010)

I cannot agree more.

This document provides the outline for a postgraduate research conference. A great idea and Macquarie should have one (that runs nationally).

nswier-student-conference-flyer-2010

I met with Keepad, Plumpton, DET and ACARA last week to discuss the possibility of an ARC Linkage grant. I would envisage the title would be something like:

Instant feedback, performance analysis, personalised curriculum – designing for optimised student learning outcomes using technology enhanced teaching and professional development communities.