Phill's Phollies

The various eclectic activities and interests of Phill Berrie.

Explaining the Identity Foreclosure of Tracy's Students
[info]phillberrie
Ed Foundations Post 2 Response 2

Responding to the post "Module C_Learning Theories (Cognitive, Humanist orientations)" by learningteacher (http://e-pedagogymatters.blogspot.com/2011/04/module-clearning-theories-cognitive.html)

Explaining the Identity Foreclosure of Tracy's Students

Thank you for the very comprehensive view of Tracy’s plight.

I have made Tracy the subject of both my own posts and feel her pain at not being allowed to be the teacher she wants to be. If you are interested in my posts on her problems and the comments made on them you can find them on my blog (aggregated listing in reverse date format at http://phillberrie.livejournal.com/tag/ed%20foundations).

The only thing that I can think to add to your post is my take on why her students do not appear to be interested in the broader educational experiences Tracy is offering them. I covered this in my own second post by viewing the three main participants in the student’s learning environment: Tracy, her students and the student’s parents as being situated on three successive levels of Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ (as cited in Churchill, 2011, pg 78).

I placed the students on the third level of the hierarchy as represented by the phrase ‘Love/belonging’. The students themselves are elevated above the ‘Safety’ level through the actions and affections of their parents. However, the way I see it is that, to keep this elevated position they are obliged to, consciously or unconsciously, obey the wishes of their parents, who seem to be very much focussed on their children achieving the ‘Safety’ level of the hierarchy with their fixation on competition and results.

This idea is my way of explaining the apparent ‘Identity Foreclosure’ (Marcia as cited in Krause, 2006, pg 113) that seems to be occurring in Tracy’s situation. I believe my approach has the benefit of explaining the motivation of the parents, but please note that it is the motivations we are talking about here not necessarily the actual ‘needs’ of the parents.

I hope this observation helps and feel free to post a response against my own post if you disagree.

Phill Berrie.

References

Churchill, R. et. al. 2011, Teaching: Making a Difference, 1st Edn, John Wiley & Sons, Australia.

Krause, K., Bochner, S., Duchesne, S., (2006) Educational Psychology for learning & teaching, South Melbourne, Vic, Thomson Learning Australia.

Where is the Teacher Discourse?
[info]phillberrie
 Ed Foundations Post 2 Response 1

Responding to the post “Education Foundations – Module B – Human Development” by DSheville (http://dsheville.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/education-foundations-module-b-human-development-2/)

Where is the Teacher Discourse?

Your comment, ‘Tracy also needs to remember that teaching is not a solo pursuit and should draw on the staff of the school for support and advice.’, made me wonder what position her peers within the school would be taking with respect to Tracy’s attempts to broaden the education of her students.

Tracy’s is a new school. Therefore, it is unlikely that a ‘way we do things around here’ mentality as mentioned in Churchill’s section on ‘Teacher Culture’ (Churchill, 2011, ppp 509-511) has had the time to established itself. It is also unlikely that she is the only teacher fresh from studies and therefore not the only one to understand the benefits of a broad experience base in the development of an adolescent’s personal identity (Identity vs Role Confusion: Erikson and others as cited in Krause et al., 2006, pp 108-113).

Aside: Yes, I’m afraid I have to disagree with your assessment that the students would learn better in a more familiar, ‘more relevant’, environment. In my opinion, the ‘disequilibrium’-’accommodation’ link in Piaget’s Learning Model leads to a far better cognitive development outcome than the ‘equilibrium’-‘assimilation’ link, which I see as just adding additional examples to known knowledge.

With regard to my original point, I am left wondering why Tracy hasn’t found support for her endeavours among her teaching peers. Her school being a private school might mean she doesn’t have access to the support infrastructure of the public school system, but that doesn’t explain why she hasn’t found like-minded people within the teaching staff.

In this artificial situation one can only conjecture as to this missing facet of the case study. Is the relationship with her peers in this situation an accidental or deliberate omission from the case study? If deliberate, is this supposed to indicate that Tracy is truly on her in her thinking and taking on a task doomed to fail with her cross curricular plans?

Having raised these issues and recognising the limits of my understanding I will now finish up with a provocation.

Which of the ‘nine’ (University of Canberra, 2011) is relevant here?

Phill Berrie.

References

Churchill, R. et al. 2011, Teaching: Making a Difference, 1st Edn, John Wiley & Sons, Australia.

Krause, K., Bochner, S., Duchesne, S., (2006) Educational Psychology for learning & teaching, South Melbourne, Vic, Thomson Learning Australia.

University of Canberra 2011, The Nine Provocations, Graduate Diploma in Education Wiki, Faculty of Education, University of Canberra, viewed 26 April 2011, http://ucangraddip.wikispaces.com/Provocations

Tracy: Aspiring to Self-actuality
[info]phillberrie
Ed Foundations Learning Journal Post #2

Previously I have posted on the case study of Tracy and how she didn’t fit in with the socio-economic orientation of her school. The changes to the case study, shown underlined below, have not changed my thoughts regarding Who Tracy is accountable to but they have added another of the Nine Provocations (University of Canberra 2011) to the mix, namely, ‘What will students want and need from her?’. I also now feel more confident in explaining why Tracy’s situation has come about and what Tracy might be able to do to change it.

Case Study: Tracy(3)

Tracy knew the first few years of her career would be busy and exhausting, however she never thought she’d be one of those statistics of early career attrition. For three years now Tracy has been working at a new outer suburban private school. The opportunity to be on the staff of a brand new school was extremely exciting, especially for a first job. She had great plans to develop rich learning tasks, and cultural clubs. However she is now becoming disillusioned as the school council appears solely focussed on the schools NAPLAN results, the MySchool website and the uniform. She has fought for three years now get support for cross-curricular learning programs and the students just don’t seem to want to take part in activities out of school hours that are not linked to their assignments. To make matters worse Tracy is finding the parents increasingly difficult to deal with, especially as they seem to support their own children at the expense of others and the school as a whole. Tracy is worried that the students are not being exposed to other experiences, and instead are generally being expected to study and focus on getting a good ATAR. A number of parents have asked for a weekly study guide and practice tests to assist their children's revision.
Roberts, 2011 underlining mine.

It seems particularly relevant to me to look at this situation through the prism of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs(as cited in Churchill, 2011, pg 78), as shown below. 
Created by FactoryJoe and Sourced from Wikimedia Commons
under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

The previously noted actions of the School Board and the newly added information regarding the request from parents for study guides and practice tests only confirms that education at this school is very much driven by the parents and their perceived needs for their children’s socio-economic future. The parent’s intentions for their children are obviously very much based on the ‘Safety’ layer of Maslow’s hierarchy and are to be achieved by ensuring that their children and school get good scores in their ATAR and NAPLAN respectively.

In conforming to their parent’s desires for academic success — as indicated by their indifference to extra-curricular activities not devoted to assignment work — the students are placing themselves firmly in the ‘Love/belonging’ layer of the hierarchy, as failure to do so would weaken their relationship with their parents.

And finally Tracy, in my opinion, is precariously looking down on this situation from the higher lever of ‘Esteem’, but is teetering on the brink because she is not getting the respect she needs.

I therefore have two alternative recommendations for Tracy, both of which recognise the fact that she is not likely to be able to change the socio-economic orientation of the school, at least not in the short term.

The first is to take the advice I suggested in my first post which was to recognise who she was accountable to in her current position and perhaps seek employment elsewhere if she cannot reconcile that fact with her career aspirations. This would prevent her own possible fall down the levels of Maslow's hierarchy by possibly giving up and accepting the situation.

My second recommendation is for Tracy to lead by example and aspire to the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy — ‘Self-actualisation’.

It is my thinking that instead of looking to use extra-curricular activities to forward her educational plans for her students she should instead begin to incorporate her ideas of social interaction, rich learning tasks and cross-curricular programs (i.e. Invoking Maslow’s aspects of Creativity, Problem Solving etc) into her daily lessons while at the same time still catering to the wishes of the parents for more traditional forms of education in the form of homework (i.e. the study guides and practice tests).

I feel this approach would have a number of educational benefits. It would allow Tracy to expose her students to a wider range of experiences while they are a captive audience at school, thereby obviating her obvious fears about their developing identities being subsumed by their parent’s socio-economic concerns (Identity vs Role Confusion: Erikson and others as cited in Krause et al., 2006, pp 108-113), while still reinforcing the basic information they might need for their subjects with the eager assistance of their parents at home.

This approach also has the added possibility that Tracy’s students, as they develop their sense of self, will begin to appreciate the added advantages of a broader more social pedagogy and perhaps change their attitude towards her extra-curricular cultural ideas thereby helping Tracy achieve the respect for her efforts she is currently lacking and allowing her to aspire to self-actualisation.

Finally, I would like to connect this case study with the second of the Nine Provocations I listed in my introduction: ‘What will students want and need from me?’ (University of Canberra 2011). I mention this in the more general form because I now believe that this provocation applies to all teachers. Having studied the philosophies, physiologies and psychologies that apply to education and learning during the course of this term I now feel that teachers are in the best position to decide what their students want and need to get the best outcomes from their schooling experience.

References:

Churchill, R. et. al. 2011, Teaching: Making a Difference, 1st Edn, John Wiley & Sons, Australia.

Krause, K., Bochner, S., Duchesne, S., (2006) Educational Psychology for learning & teaching, South Melbourne, Vic, Thomson Learning Australia.

Roberts, P. 2011, Module C: Learning Theory, Faculty of Education, University of Canberra, viewed 22nd April 2011, http://ucangraddip.wikispaces.com/Ed+Foundations+Module+C

University of Canberra 2011, The Nine Provocations, Graduate Diploma in Education Wiki, Faculty of Education, University of Canberra, viewed 22 April 2011, http://ucangraddip.wikispaces.com/Provocations

Why is Second Life Blocked at the University of Canberra?
[info]phillberrie
ELPC Research Journal Topic 2; Post 5



Transcript

“This is Phillberrie Oh reporting on the use of Second Life in the Australian Capital Territory.

“A joint paper given at last year’s Ascilite conference (Gregory et al., 2010) and the table shown on the AussieHigherEdVW Wiki (http://aussiehigheredvw.wikispaces.com/) — a Wiki devoted to the use of virtual worlds in higher education in Australia — both give a comprehensive rundown of the interest of Second Life to educators in Australia.

“It is depressing to see that the only active contributions to these efforts in the ACT are from the Australian Catholic University, who are participants in the ‘Australis 4 Learning’ region of Second Life (Australis4Learning) along with Curtin University and UNE (Note 1). This concern was compounded by a search on the term ‘Second Life’ on both the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) and the ACT Department of Education and Training (ACTDET) — the search resulted in no hits on either site.

“As of this post it can only be assumed that the government’s strict censorship policy as mentioned last post, which might at some time ban access to Second Life within Australia has made those public system educators closest to the government policy makers reticent in exploring the possibilities of virtual worlds like Second Life.

“And finally, in answer to the question: ‘Why is Second Life blocked at the University of Canberra?’. The answer is that it appears to be blocked only on the Student network. In fact, the University of Canberra’s Faculty of Information Sciences and Engineering actually runs a Graduate Certificate in Games Programming and Virtual Worlds (University of Canberra, 2011) with Second Life being mentioned as one of its exemplars.

“Clearly, there are still matters to investigate in this area. Stay tuned for an in depth critical analysis on the findings of this series of reports on the use of Second Life in the Australian education system.

“This has been Phillberrie Oh reporting for Enhanced Learning in a Professional Context 1. Thank you for listening.”

Notes

1. It was previously reported in error last post that the University of New England did not have an official presence in Second Life.

References and Links

ACTDET n.d., Australian Capital Territory Department of Education and Training, ACT DET, Canberra, last searched 18 April 2011, http://www.det.act.gov.au/

Aussie Higher Education Virtual Worlds Wiki Link: http://aussiehigheredvw.wikispaces.com/

Australis 4 Learning SLURL: secondlife://Australis%204%20Learning/237/168/21

DEERW n.d., Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, DEEWR, Canberra, last searched 18 April 2011, http://www.deewr.gov.au/

Gregory et al., (2011). “Australian higher education institutions transforming the future of teaching and learning through 3D virtual worlds”, Full paper: Gregory, Lee, Ellis, Gregory, Wood, Hillier, Campbell, Grenfell, Pace, Farley, Thomas, Cram, Sinnappan, Smith, Hay, Kennedy-Clark, Warren, Grant, Craven, Dreher, Matthews, Murdoch & McKeown, Proceedings Ascilite Sydney 2010, Sydney, viewed 18 April 2011 from www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/sydney10/procs/Gregory-full.pdf

University of Canberra. (2011). Course Outline for Graduate Certificate in Information Technology (840AA). Retrieved 18 April 2011 from http://www.canberra.edu.au/courses/index.cfm?action=detail&courseid=840AA

 

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Still in their first life
[info]phillberrie
ELPC Research Journal Topic 2; Post 4



 
 


Transcript

“This is Phillberrie Oh reporting on the use of Second Life in Secondary Education in Australia.

“In 2009 the Australian Federal Government promised to block all access to web sites selling video games not suitable for children over fifteen (SMH June 25 2009). Because of the R rating of some areas of Second Life this meant that it also was potentially going to be blocked within Australia.

“This has not happened.

“According to Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA 2009) this is because the government black list only applies to web sites and can only affect network traffic that use the ports and protocols of the world wide web. Immersive online environments like Second Life and World of Warcraft use their own client applications and don’t use the same communication protocols as web browsers so they have so far remained unaffected.

“Still, with this attitude being held by the government, it is hardly surprising that there is very little use of Second Life or similar technologies to be found in secondary education in Australia. The ‘Skoolaborate’ project (http://www.skoolaborate.com/) run out of the MLC School Sydney being the only readily discoverable exception and it is most likely using an application other than Second Life to ensure that it is a secure environment.

“Next: If Second Life is being used in other Australian universities, why is it blocked at the University of Canberra?

“This has been Phillberrie Oh reporting for Enhanced Learning in a Professional Context 1.”

References and Links

Moses, A. (2009, June 25). Web filters to censor video games, Sydney Morning Herald, Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/web-filters-to-censor-video-games-20090625-cxrx.html

Jacobs, C., (2009, June 29). Will Second Life be banned in Australia. Retrieved from Electronic Frontiers Australia website: http://www.efa.org.au/2009/06/29/will-second-life-be-banned-in-australia/

Skoolaborate URL: http://www.skoolaborate.com/

Note: Fake newspaper image courtesy of Christian Hirche through his fodey.com web site, http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp

Following in their footsteps
[info]phillberrie
ELPC Research Journal Topic 2; Post 3

Transcript

“This is Phillberrie Oh reporting again on the use of Second Life in Education in Australia.

“This post is based on a Youtube video clip (Gregory 2008) which details some of the uses of Second Life for education in far greater detail and with far greater skill than I am able. The video is four minutes long and is effectively a slide show showing the progression of the creator’s experience and growing skills in Second Life as well as a quick tour of the education sites they have discovered within that virtual world.


“Gregory also maintains her own web site called Virtual Classrooms (http://www.virtualclassrooms.info/index.htm). The following quote taken from that site clearly indicates her expertise in the area of learning in virtual environments.
 
Sue Gregory is a long term adult educator and Lecturer in ICT (Information Communication Technolgy) in the School of Education, Research Fellow with the DEHub research institute as well as NSW SiMERR-ICT Representative at the University of New England, Armidale, Australia. She is Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Virtual Worlds Working Group and project leader of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council funded project. She is responsible for training pre-service and postgraduate education students on how to incorporate technology into their teaching. Since 2007 Sue has been researching Second Life with her students with respect to the various learning opportunities that virtual worlds provide and has been involved in many projects on the efficacy of virtual worlds. 

“Strangely, despite this expertise on campus, it seems that the University of New England itself doesn’t have a presence in Second Life.

“In the next post we will look to see if there is any evidence of the use of Second Life in Australian high schools and colleges.”

“This has been Phillberrie Oh reporting for Enhanced Learning in a Professional Context 1.”

References and Links

Gregory (2008), Second Life with Jass Easterman - SL Intro [Video file] Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/user/JassEasterman#p/u/13/hfBsqCqGcro

Virtual Classrooms URL: http://www.virtualclassrooms.info/index.htm

Southern Cross University and Second Life
[info]phillberrie
ELPC Research Journal Topic 2; Post 2


Transcript

“Welcome to the second post on the uses of Second Life in the Australian Education System. The emblem you can see is that of the Southern Cross University. SCU is based in Adelaide in the real world, but it is rapidly developing a presence in the virtual world of Second Life.

“What you are seeing now is the University Plaza of their existing Second Life Island. It mirrors in miniature the functionality, if not the form, of their real world campus and not only acts as a virtual form of promotion for the university but has also been used to good effect in its operation.

“Last year the Plaza was used as the meeting point for a virtual world conference stream that ran in parallel with the real world streams of the Elluminate Live! conference (“eFestival” 2010). The focus of Elluminate Live! was on the use of ICT technologies to promote better teaching. Information on the festival and its Second Life component can be found in the links for this post.

“In finishing this door stop visit I would just like to add that Southern Cross University must see some virtue in the use of Second Life because their plans have now gone beyond a simple island in that virtual world. They have now purchased from the creators of Second Life, Linden Research, (Linden Research) an entire region in which to develop the university’s virtual presence.

“Now, whereas this may not be a huge cost financially (Linden Labs Pricing), it is a huge commitment with regard to the time and effort required to develop a worthy site. In these days, the risk of detracting from the University’s public image by doing a poor job is something that certainly needs to be considered as the popularity and utility of Second Life continues to grow.

“Stay tuned for more examples of the use of Second Life in the Australian Education system.

“This has been Phillberrie Oh reporting for Enhanced Learning in a Professional Context 1.”

References and Links:

Southern Cross University SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Southern%20Cross%20University/183/128/25

eFestival (October - November 2010), Teaching and Learning Matters Newsletter. Retrieved from http://www.scu.edu.au/teachinglearning/download.php?doc_id=8975&site_id=81&file_ext=.pdf

Linden Research Inc 2011, San Francisco, viewed 17 April 2011, http://lindenlab.com/

Linden Labs Pricing n.d., Linden Research Inc, San Francisco, viewed 17 April 2011, http://secondlife.com/land/privatepricing.php

Does the Australian Education System have a second life?
[info]phillberrie
 ELPC Research Journal Topic 2; Post 1



Transcript

Tap, tap. “Is this thing on?” Rustling sounds.

“Hello. This is Phillberrie Oh reporting to you from Help Island in Second Life.

“Before we start I must apologise for the lack of video for this post… There has been a technical hitch which will hopefully be fixed for the next posting.

“This series of posts is in response to a recent article on the ABC’s Future Tense radio program about ‘Project Avalon’. Project Avalon is a European education initiative for the use of virtual worlds in distance education. The project has just finished a two-year study in Second Life looking at the benefits of the immersive experience of such virtual environments for providing enhanced educational experiences for geographically scattered students.

“For those of you who already have an avatar in Second Life you can experience the results of their activities by using the SLurl for the Avalon Learning Island listed at the bottom of the transcript for this report. And, if you who don’t know what a SLurl is, it is a Second Life URL which will automatically open the Second Life Viewer if it is installed on your computer and take you to a specific location in that virtual world. Don’t worry if you don’t have Second Life, there is also a normal web site URL listed that links to the project’s normal web site.

“Australia is a large country and ever since the days of the School of the Air it has relied heavily on technology for distance education. Now, with the government’s National Broadband Network underway and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations’ ‘Digital Education Revolution’ initiative the infrastructure for advanced digital teaching strategies such as those used in Project Avalon will soon be available to most Australians.

“So, does the Australian Education System have a Second Life presence? Please stay tuned for the next post on this subject, where hopefully, I will be able to bring you live video of my findings from within Second Life.

“This has been Phillberrie Oh reporting for Enhanced Learning in a Professional Context 1.”

References

‘The Avalon Project’, Future Tense, radio program audio and transcript, Radio National, 31 March 2011, last accessed 8 April 2011, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/futuretense/stories/2011/3172682.htm Interview with Luisa Panichi.

Avalon Learning SLurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/11/194/59

‘Avalon Learning’ n.d. Ning Community, viewed 8 April 2011, http://www.avalonlearning.eu/

‘School of the Air’ n.d, http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/schoolofair/ viewed 8 April 2011

‘Digital Education Revolution’ n.d., http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/DigitalEducationRevolution/Pages/default.aspx viewed 8 April 2011

Who'd work in a High School?
[info]phillberrie
STS Reflective Journal Post #4

Who'd work in a High School?

After two stimulating days of observation at a college and hearing the many horror stories of classroom management issues in the high schools I find myself asking this question.

I want to help students who are interested in my subjects learn and prepare them for possible careers in that area. I do not want to spend most of my time doing classroom management and providing what is effectively day care.

Now, I know from what my teenage daughters tell me that high schools can't be as bad as I'm hearing, but I have heard few positive experiences from any of my fellow students doing years 7-10, and even the practicing teachers at yesterday's panel didn't really relieve my mind with regard to this concern.

Phill Berrie.

P.S. No academic references here. This is just me just reflecting on observations days both personally experienced and related and probably showing that I'm just getting old.

Science Fiction and Politics and Pedagogy - Disadvantages of Podcasts
[info]phillberrie
 ELPC Journal Topic #1 Post #5

Introduction:

In this post I will investigate some disadvantages, as I see them, of audio podcasts as tools for educators. Please note that these are my observations only and are not supported by the literature, as I have had difficulty finding specific references in the available time.

Disadvantages:

  • The inherently ad hoc and less intrusive nature of sound recording potentially makes for both a more honest and less polished performance on the part of the participants. Some of this can be fixed in post production, but you can’t add something that wasn’t there in the first place. This puts the onus on the person directing the recording to ensure that all necessary elements are covered within a suitable time frame as participants are not going to be able to do a number of ‘takes’ with the same spontaneity.
  • While excellent for discussions and interviews, sound only recording has limitations as to the types of information that can be communicated. In many cases audio-only podcasts are being replaced with their video equivalents to address this limitation (i.e. See the number of Vodcasts in the iTunes U store). This brings a whole new set of production values into play and increases the number of people needed to create the content and possibly making it unviable option for educators without suitable support infrastructure.
  • Despite their earbud-attachment to their MP3 players, I think that younger students — who are more used to visual stimuli through media like television and the world wide web — may not be as receptive to the purely audio-only content of a standard podcast. This would mean audio-only podcasts may only be useful for older students and not secondary school students.
Conclusion:

To finish up this investigation and to bring the discussion back to the original ‘Science Fiction and Politics’ podcast I would just like to add that I think the necessity for Doctor Brown to host his podcasts on his own website is both a pity and a potential waste.

By doing so, the podcasts lose some of the authority that their being hosted by Emory university would bring to them. Also, it means the availability of the material is limited to the length of time Dr. Brown is willing and able to pay the fees to his website host.

Hosting by an institution such as a university would not only hopefully provide longer term access but also the potential archiving of the material for use by future generations where their exploration of contemporary politics would make them even more valuable than they are already.
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