Future Learning Blog

Some excellent news which was recently in The Gisborne Herald... The Mind Lab by Unitec in Gisborne has been successful in applying for the Curious Minds funding from MBIE - The Lab was awarded $26,000 to engage more young people in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The funding will be used to create and support Te Wānanga Whakawhānui at The Mind Lab, young people between the ages of 7-18 will be able to apply to be a part of the academy which will be developing the bright young minds in Tairāwhiti.  When learners are part of the academy they will attend afterschool and weekend workshops at The Mind Lab for a gold coin koha - usually these workshops range between $130-$150 for 5-6 sessions, this cost has been subsidised by the funding.  The workshops will be in computer coding, electronics with Arduino, web-design, app development, 3D printing and design.   The Mind Lab already has financial subsidies from The Eastland Community Trust and ...

Graduates of our March 2015 intake Last week was a special week for The Mind Lab by Unitec in Gisborne, not only did we discover that we had been successful in our application for funding from the MBIE to support further equitable access to The Mind Lab , but we also had the chance to celebrate the success of our first 32 graduates on our local Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice of Digital and Collaborative learning . This cohort was an extremely courageous group of early adopters and innovators who dove headfirst into the unknown, these were the first teachers in Gisborne to gain this achievement and they have paved the way for many educators to follow in their footsteps.  They made many sacrifices along the way to gaining the qualification, and in order for them to do this they had tremendous support from whanau and loved ones, as well as their schools and students.  I know all of them stepped out of their comfort zones to make a difference to the learne...

Image from  Geof Wilson This  is a recent opinion piece that I wrote in the Gisborne Herald, although some of the points are 'sensationalised' I am aiming to mobilise community support to consider how important education is and how everyone should be involved in reimagining this in Gisborne.  The children we have here are amazing, we only have to help them prove it.

Several years ago I adopted a flipped approach to learning in PE as we were short on devices and technology in our classroom, we were known as a 1:1 iPad school, one iPad in one school!  As a class we were aiming to move to a more digital environment but didn’t have the equipment, so the obvious choice was to move to a flipped model.  I was happy to find out that most (65 out of 70) students had access to computers and the internet at home.  Special arrangements were made for the learners who did not have access like loan devices, and access to school devices during and after school. Several years on and educators are still talking about flipping the classroom and it was our topic at The Mind Lab this week, there was some great discussion around the concept and different ways it could be implemented effectively - so I thought I would re-visit again.  The idea behind a flipped model of education is that much of the content is covered outside of the classroom thr...

Here is an interview from Radio New Zealand National where I had the opportunity to talk about how The Mind Lab by Unitec can be the catalyst in transformational change in our district.  The Eastland Community Trust and Activate Tairawhiti have been instrumental in allowing amazing opportunities for all of our learners, students and teachers through access to emerging technologies and hands-on learning experiences. From RNZ national... "Tablets, smart phones, applications, animation and building games like Minecraft are ubiquitous in households..... but how do teachers get to grips with emerging technologies and ensure they are used to enhance learning in the classroom? The Mind Lab by Unitec is running post-graduate courses for teachers to learn to make the most of the digital age through learning opportunities in Auckland, Gisborne, Wellington and Christchurch. Tim Gander is the Centre Director for the Gisborne Lab."

Here is a recent piece I wrote for PENZ about innovation in physical education, but it could be adapted to any subject area, AR is an area which can be applied in an interdisciplinary way.  These ideas are inspired by some of the areas we work on at The Mind Lab by Unitec . My son with an Augmented Reality book. 'When a woman becomes pregnant her breasts augment, they increase in value, and usually size, due to the impending birth and need for sustenance for the new born child. Therefore when something is augmented it has a useful function added to it, and in the instance of augmented reality we are attempting to add value to real life.  I was wondering if this was an inappropriate way to introduce augmented reality, but since we are all PE/Health educators I feel we have a good understanding of the scientific uses of the human body in describing something! Augmented reality (AR) along with virtual reality (VR) are two rapidly evolving disruptive technologies that have ...

Last year I spent plenty of time thinking and reflecting about my own practice as a classroom teacher - I developed a need to question everything I was doing - you could attribute this to the action research process, but also the necessity to understand why I was even in a classroom with other humans trying to teach them - whatever that entails, I was challenging myself with questions around what learning, knowledge or even teaching was - and why were we spending so much time doing whatever we were doing for around 8000 hours ? I had started thinking about this again as I watched an EdTalk that had just been released that was filmed during the whirlwind which was ULearn 2014.  The talk was about the learner agency work I had been focussed on, this again rekindled my ideas around the term and questioned my understanding of agency, and how I was supporting the concept in my teaching.  I feel I need to revisit this again after watching myself talk so enthusiastically abou...