Around the World in Nearly 80 Days

1. Around the World in Nearly 80 Days • Talofa lava, Kia Ora and greetings from Aotearoa New Zealand • I am Sonya and I am a primary School Teacher from Auckland New Zealand. I am an elearning lead teacher and todays session is about my travel experience I had when I made face to face connection with educators in their environments. @vanschaijik 1

2. The journey I have recently returned from an amazing journey. The New Zealand government awarded me a New Zealand Teachers Sabbatical –TeachNZ award that helped me visit educators around the world and this is my journey. When I arrived back in Auckland I shared my journey at The Reform Symposium Online Global Conference 2013. RSCON4 -which is an online conference where presenters are selected by invite only and I was one of 100 global educators selected. @vanschaijik 2

3. Overview of the journey These are the projects, places and educators I visited and because of time I will be briefly speaking on each one. I will continue to add to my blog as I finalise the rest of my information. At the end of these slides I have links that will take you to more information on each of these projects. @vanschaijik 3

4. The first place I stopped at on my journey was Hawaii where I attended the Flat Classroom Conference with Julie Lyndsay and and Vickie Davis. The flat classroom project was hosted by Punahou School where Barack Obama attended. We had 40 teachers, 200 students representing 9 countries all working together in teams. The top right group was the team I was placed into. Before the conference I had never met any of these educators before even in an online situation. We called ourselves Heart2Heart and Face2Face. From the 4x you will meet Ryan again and I talk with Anita on twitter and with Hui Mei and Brian on Google+. We created a Glocalisation project that together we had to come up with, pitch with the students who attended alongside their teachers and the students gave us feedback. We then had to create a video, upload it to the cloud and embed it back to the shared wiki. The winning teams had their project shared on the final day and we were the teachers’ winning team. We learnt from experience about collaboration making connections and creating. The Flat Classroom Conference @vanschaijik 4

5. My next stop was Denmark where through Newmarket School Connections, I was able to visit the new school in Billunds near Legoland. The school was into its second day when I arrived and everyone was kind enough to let me visit and see a brand new environment. Lene was the Danish part of the team to ensure that the children learnt Danish as well as English. She was also acting head teacher. On their site you will find that they follow the International Baccalaureate Programmes, framed by the Danish learning traditions and with the Values of creativity from the Lego Group. These values are collaboration, problem solving and learning through play are embedded in their learning philosophy. But they stressed that they were not a LEGO school. Billunds School - Denmark @vanschaijik 5

6. Whist in Denmark, I met up with Lene who is a school designer and she shared with me her work with Hellerup School amongst several of the leading Danish schools that she has worked with in School design. Lene has even shared some of her knowledge with our school as we are currently undergoing a build. Roskilde and School Designer- Denmark @vanschaijik 6

7. My next stop was Finland, where through following and having met Pasi Sahlberg, I was determined to visit. I observed who Pasi spoke with on twitter and I made connections with Timo who agreed to look after me for the day if I made the3 hour train journey North to Jyvaskula, Unknown to me I later found out that Jyvaskula is the centre of Finnish education. My first sight seeing day there was a wet day so I visited the local library and met the Director of libraries for the region. Her name was Seija Laitnen- Kuismashe informed me that there were 14 branches of library in the area with 3 mobile library units. The libraries in the region serviced 80% of residents. Each resident took out an average of 18 books per year and visited their local library 10 time. She also explained that their website was visited 20x per annum per head of population. From data gathered people who used library Internet services also had Internet at home. People who did not have Internet at home did not necessarily use the Internet at the library.  The libraries experience 2,000 visits per day. Jyvaskula Central Library- Finland @vanschaijik 7

8. Timo took me to visit his sons elementary school and what I noticed the most was how independent the children were. They all rode, walked or bused to school generally unsupervised. I also was able to meet Aki Puustinen a secondary school principal of Muurame Senior High and what I noticed about his school was the learning spaces for teachers. They all shared the same space. Eg: all desks for teachers were in the same room Aki shared how all teachers learning is transparent. There was a round room for discussion. In addition I learnt about the way they were using technology in a 1:1 way. They were focussed on student leadership and taking ownership of learning for both teachers and students. Aki also highlighted entrepreneurship at his school and the environment. Afterwards I spent some time with Timo at his school and my learning there was Wilma the Finnish Student Management system that the schools use in the region for home school communication and other interesting learning. I also found out how much our European colleagues use facebook to communicate with each other in the same way that we use twitter. Jyvaskula the Education Centre- Finland @vanschaijik 8

9. I stopped in Austria for a rest and then carried on. My next stop was visiting Beat in Switzerland who is the Researcher behind the Goldau project. I met Beat through my New Media Consortium Membership. This is the site that researches and publishes future forecasts trends in education. Beat and I spent time sharing their journey. Beat organised for his assistant Rosemary to take me to visit the schools involved in the Goldau. I was interested in how they trialed iphones with a class of 10 year old students. The students were allowed to use the phone and internet services at no charge and to take home their smartphones after school. In this project the students had anytime and anywhere access to an internet connected computing device which can be used for reading, writing, calculating, drawing, taking photos, listening or recording audio and communicating. Pupils created their own rules for cell phones, and they created their usage system. The adults involved have carried on with this idea of pupils creating their own rules. The Goldau School Project- Switzerland @vanschaijik 9

10. The next day, I travelled by train for over 2 hours to meet Rosemary, who took me to visit the training centre for teachers. We then drove and visited the schools involved in the project. I met Christof who was trying innovating seating arrangement to see the effects. Christof’s class also have 1:1 devices. In the afternoon I was taken to meet Nadia a young teacher taking over an experienced 1:1 class. The children came in comfortable with the technology and I was fascinating to observe how the tool was part of the learning. Then I met Christian Neff who was the teacher in the original Goldau iPhone project and he shared his learning journey with me. We spoke about learning, teachers professional learning and how to shift attitude. He is currently principal of Arth Goldau. He asked me many questions about our system so I put him in contact with my principal to further the discussion, they use google translate to talk. One important theme coming through both Beat and Christian is with a project in schools, who is studying the teacher. The Goldau School Project- Switzerland @vanschaijik 10

11. I was so excited. I visited Delhi. Through Chiew from RSCON I manged to get Suneetas attention on facebook. Suneeta is the paerson behind Granny Cloud Project. Sunneta said that she could put me in contact with someone in Delhi who might be able to help me visit the Hole in the Wall project. Via google, I got a hold of Dr Ritu Dangwal, who not only said she would help, but said she would take me if I had a car. Fortunately I access to a car and driver so I picked Ritu up and together we visited one of the first cells from the Hole in the Wall Project. For a short while I watched the children come up and use the computers. Not only did I visit but I was able to meet 3x of the original children who had stood on bricks to reach the keyboards. One is now a shop owner, Reubina is now a second year teacher in training and is aiming to be a computer teacher and Jenama who is training to be a lawyer. The young people enthusiastically shared how the project changed their lives and their thinking. A young fellow came up and used the computer and I found out that he comes every morning to talk to his grandfather in a different city. His grandfather also visits a cell to talk with his grandson. The Hole in the Wall- India @vanschaijik 11

12. In the afternoon Ritu and I travelled across Delhi to the Slideshare Headquarters. I had arranged to meet Amit Ranjan on of the founders of Slideshare. Slideshare has just been bought out by Linkedin and has been rated in the top 10 social media tools. I looked for Amit on twitter and was able to contact him via Linkedin. It was interesting to visit the office and see how similar it is to what I know of google. Amit and Dikshar his assistant spent time with Ritu and myself and shared their beginnings and their journey. They asked me several questions on how I used slideshare and I shared with them my #TeachMeetNZ project that happens each term in New Zealand. I shared how I encouraged the use of slideshare to help teachers share their learning. Amit was interested in hearing about the work that Ritu does as part of the Hole in the Wall Project. I Slideshare @vanschaijik 12

13. From India I travelled to to China to meet Song Jiao. Jiao worked at Newmarket School last year as a Mandarin Language Assistant through the Confucius Programme at Auckland University. We are involve with the Mandarin Language Programme because we are future proofing our students. We know that Mandarin is an important language. I was able to visit Jia Tong University and meet one of her professors, Professor Lee. Jiao showed me around her university and the dorm where she lives as a student. It was great to visit the university that I have heard so much about. Newmarket School have had three Mandarin Language Assistants through our school. Jiao is particularly important to me because I was her host mother last year during her stay in New Zealand. At the dorm, I was able to connect again with Jiao’s frioends who visited her while she was living with me and it was a great experience to meet our Mandarin Language Assistant in her home land. Confucius Mandarin Language Programme -China @vanschaijik 13

14. Part of the reason that I chose to visit India, China, Japan and Korea was that at Newmarket School we have just over 76% of our children with connections to these countries. Jia took me on a rush hour on a train road. We visited Shanghai central city during a busy time. I stayed in an apartment block with her for the week I was there so was able to experience life as my children would have experienced. She fed me typical Chinese meals and then some as she wanted me to experience everything. She took me to visit Xitong Ancient city so that I could see China as it used to be with traditional skills still being used for daily living. I was immersed in language, food and culture for the week I was there. Jiao organised for me to visit with Mengmeng and her husband. Mengmeng was our MLA the previous year. I had such a good time. I was interested to see the apartment living and gave me an appreciation of why our families choose apartments in New Zealand because in China, blocks of appartments are like communities. Each block has a central community area. Each block has ease to transportation systems and shops. Each block is self contained and has a feeling of security and safety. Confucius Mandarin Language Programme -China @vanschaijik 14

15. My friend Hanna Fale joined me in Japan. Hanna and I are both efellows from 2011. Together we went and visited Aikos’ nursery school. Aiko was a Japanese Language Assistant that I hosted from a previous school. The ages of the children in her nursery school are from babies until 7 years old. What struck me was the way shoes are stored. It was nice to visit a local school and hear the children speaking and learning in Japanese. Hanna is an early childhood teacher with an interest in babies learning and she particularly enjoyed the visit. The children sand for us and some of them practiced some basic English greetings because they learn English for about an hour a week. After our visit Aiko had organised for us to have a tour guide and one of her friends picked us up and took us around Osaka where we visited an old Japanese village. We experienced a Japanese lunch and then she took us to her house in the outskirts where we were able to see rice being harvested. It was Nursery School in Japan @vanschaijik 15

16. The following day, Hanna and I travelled across by train to Kansai where we met Ryan at his school Kansai University Elementary School. We were privileged to meet his principal Mr Tanaka. Ryan I had met via the Flat Classroom Project in Hawaii. I noticed again that teachers did not have their own personal space. The teachers shared a work space and again this was a teachers space I saw throughout Europe and Asia. The school had a student leadership programme. It was interesting to see the children serving lunch just like it said in the School Journal, lunch in a Japanese School. The children broadcast school messages daily across a television system. Again we were inerested in the space that has been set aside for the shoes. Children had inside and outside shoes. Ryan showed us around their school and in his school the children learnt in Japanese. They had COWS and a wifi system that was beginning to be used for learning. Elementary School in Japan @vanschaijik 16

17. From Japan I flew to Korea and stayed with Hanna in Bundang, Seoul. I attended the Google Apps Boot Camp and learnt about the Google certification courses for teachers. Hanna joined me for the Google Summit that was held in Seoul International School. We met up with Nick who is one of our twitter buddies. We were part of an international mix of educators who had flown in from different parts of Asia and USA for the summit. I now committed to gaining my Google Apps for Educator certificate. Google Apps for Education Summit –Korea @vanschaijik 17

18. While in Korea I took the opportunity to visit Hannah in her nursery school and observe her working with her babies. I was able to spend time at Eton House in Korea and meet the families. Hannah showed me photos of her classroom before she took it over and added her touch. Hannah is influenced by the work of Emilio Reggio and this is highlighted in the way she works with the children. Again I was interested in the shoe space and the space for teachers to work together. Eton House–Korea @vanschaijik 18

19. In the afternoon, I visited Ben who showed me around his school, Korea International School. His school has a 1:1 programme for Grade 5 & 6 like our late primary school. We watched what they were doing. I saw the fishbowl class where the teachers and students come to learn. Learning is transparent. The children are also learning mandarin. Ben spoke about his vision for his school and how they were using google apps in a collaborative way. Teachers were encouraged to learn a tool and to be creative with the tool. He also stressed that teachers needed to be able to create technically what they ask students to create. For example if teachers asked students to create a video and upload it to a blog, then this was something they should be able to do too. In Ben’s school there was a feeling of systems. The central management system was strongly supported by key people. The teachers and students were supported by a hidden and seen infrastructure. For example the WIFI and technical people weer visible and part of the system. There was a place for teachers and students to come for support with their learning inquiries. In this school there was a feeling of no walls even though there were some spaces with walls, teachers had been inventive and had removed the physicalness of wall. Korea International School @vanschaijik 19

20. From Korea I returned home for afew days rest before heading down to Ulearn with Reubina and Natasha. Both Reubina and I had our presentations accepted. I supported Reubina with her inquiry while I was away and the three of us met regularly on Google + hangouts to discuss and plan her presentation. Myself I presented my work on TeachMeetNZ which is a national project I run each term and have teachers from around New Zealand share their learning. This is part of my inquiry into pedagogy and how I work collaboratively with educators from all around New Zealand. During our session we had approximately 20 educators face to face but virtually we had over 80 real time views over the live stream. This tie I had a definite shift in thinking as I encouraged the teachers to reflect on the process of presenting this way and write a blog post. In addition teachers receive a digital badge for their portfolio as evidence of sharing. Home with F2F and virtual sharing at #ulearn13 @vanschaijik 20

21. The highlight for me at Ulearn was meeting Mark Pesche who has influenced me greatly as an e-learning educator with his topic of Hyperconnectivity. This is about focusing on the space between the nodes or about focusing on relationships. For example what this presentation is about. My second highlight was attending Ulearn with other teachers from Newmarket school. I take this quick chance to say thank you to the BOT for supporting us. This is the first school I have been at where I have not had to fund my own way and registration at Ulearn. So thanks Newmarket BOT. #ulearn13 Hyperconnectivity @vanschaijik 21

22. What resource or tools did you use? I applied for and won a New Zealand Ministry of Education TeachNZ sabatical which paid my salary. The overseas jouney, I planned and paid for myself. My communication devices were provided by my school and there is no way I could have survived without them. The journey allowed me to see how important it is for our children to know how to use te tools. @vanschaijik 22

23. Implementing the sabatical. I preplanned my contacts using my connections on twitter and Facebook. I kept a journal on blogger an used instagram and viddy for imaghes and video. I also microblogged on twitter. @vanschaijik 23

24. What message would you like to convey to your colleagues? Just do it. Exhaustion and personal safety provided me an opportunity to get out of my comfort zone. Huge thank you to the educators who took me into their domains and were willing to share. Can’t do anything innovating without the technology and the thinking. @vanschaijik 24

25. I have been right around the world and at Newmarket we are doing preety good by world standard. I appreciate the tools I have been provided, the PD I am given and the environment I work in. Our teachers are open to working together and our children are provided with creating tools, a strong WIFI system and teachers who are learning about pedagogy. Huge thank you to the educators who took me into their domains and were willing to share. Massive thanks to Dr Wendy Kofoed who encouraged me to have a go and supported me on my journey by keeping up with me via the technology Can’t do anything innovating without the technology and the thinking. @vanschaijik 25

26. Please share some useful links. www.ulimasao.blogspot.com www.instagram.com/vanschaijik www.twitter.com/vanschaijik http://bit.ly/17uSGNc @vanschaijik 26