Engageme

This and other questions such as “Does this count towards anything?” are no doubt all too familiar to any practitioner working with youth.  I think these are very smart and prudent queries and ones which we all find ourselves asking as our lives become increasingly busy and complex.

Unless we can identify the worth of a task in relation to our responsibilities and/ or goals… Then why do it?

The question has been asked: “Did the students visit the wiki voluntarily between the weekly classes, or did you have to provide some sort of “motivation”?

A great question and hopefully one any teacher would contemplate before designing a learning tool or task! What motivation is there, or could there be, for students to do this??

For the Byron Community Campus (BCC) blog, primarily used as a tool for students to engage in public debate, there was a very obvious motivating factor.  It counted towards meeting the performance criteria for units in which they were enrolled. 

However for using this, and also the Get Skilled blog, the motivators were not so concrete…. moving more towards the abstract… A mirror of the journey the adolescent brain is embarking on itself.

Growth towards metacognition.

The motivation came from us – together as teachers and students - understanding the blogging platform as a useful metacognitive tool – to assist us in monitoring and regulating not only our thinking, but also our behavioural processes.

Online blogging provided an immediacy and answerability quite powerful, yet comfortable for the young people.  (I do think this had a lot to do with most of the students’ regular use of MySpace  – their commenting and blogging through this platform).

However, given what is researched and understood about brain development and the other changes taking place in the young adolescent, it has been shown that teachers can improve student learning by doing the following things:

1. Present limited amounts of new information, to accommodate the short-term memory.

2. Provide opportunities for students to process and reinforce the new information and to connect the new information with previous learning. (Encourage students to talk with their classmates about the new information; have them debate or write about it; create small group discussions.)

3. Provide lessons that are varied, with lots of involvement and hands-on activities. Brain stimulus and pathways are created and made stronger and with less resistance if they are reinforced with a variety of stimuli. (Create projects; use art, music, and visual resources; bring guest visitors into the classroom.)

4. Provide lessons and activities that require problem solving and critical thinking. Brain growth is enhanced and strengthened through practice and exercise.

(Taken from Brain Development in Young Adolescents -Good News for Middle School Teachers)

Blogs do all of this – so clearly there’s more than one motivating factor!

[ image : wikipedia ]

Blogging can be a precarious business.

Firstly - how to determine who on earth you are blogging to /for ?
Secondly - who’s linking to you and who is also worth commenting on ?
Thirdly - should you be saying this ? what risks are there in saying anything at all ?

Al Upton is experiencing a huge body of support with his recent order for closure for his blog which involved open education or open web publishing with his students in primary school. If you peruse the comments and link back to the owners you’ll find countless references to open web publishing and networked learning.

Web 2.0 provides us all the opportunity to become authors, critics, creators and networked learners for free and with ease….however, at what cost does our desire to engage with others come at ?

Here’s a list of blogging gone global.

Here’s some light reading on the topic from an awareness perspective.

Here’s an opportunity to have your say on what we should be considering as educators when it comes to blogging - Symposium of Reason : Blogging In The 21st Century.

For some things, they say the first time is always the best, and in many ways I’d say that about my first experience with wikis and blogs… all the way back in 2006 when I enjoyed my first LearnScope project.

I was coordinating a Get Skilled group of youth at risk, and I knew that my opportunities to connect with them face-to-face were going to be limited to one morning a week.

Given that success with this kind of group (I feel) is directly proportionate to the quantity and quality of Engagement with them, I thought that these new technologies would allow me to virtually facilitate this in my physical absence.

I thought right!

The Get Skilled wiki was a great place to: give an overview of the course; make Student Assessment Guides available; regularly post current and important information; provide contact details for key staff; and link to podcasts.

All the students joined this wik and used it. 6 of 10 of them went on to make their own – using them as online journals and repositories for work, and for fun/ personal interest!

Importantly, we used a blog to weekly give and receive feedback on the course and most interestingly…. Provide running commentary and reflection on behaviour issues.

I found this very helpful – as did they. And a group comment at the end of the course was that even though they only saw me once a week – the young people felt connected and able to reach me all the time.

We felt Engaged with each other and…

Something I’ve only just realized (through this blogging process right now!) is that its 3 of these students that I still communicate with online.  Through MySpace and email mostly… there’s a baby on the way… a new traineeship… and a move to the big smoke…

We’re still Engaged…

I intend to use this as a model for 2 significant youth projects I hope to be coordinating throughout this year – and one that I hope to ‘sister’ with interstate.

I’ll keep you posted!

Before I introduce … over the next couple of weeks… blogs I have used with young people in courses – with very different degrees of success, I’d like to address the topic of blog etiquette.  

Blog etiquette is well-explored in EngageMe’s section on blogging which includes a great  collection of resources well worth checking out …

On etiquette specifically… it states that blogging often ‘involves interacting with ever changing rules or guidelines ie. the most important aspects of one community may differ from that of another over time and context… Blogging etiquette is often a reactive situation where learning about how to interact in virtual spaces becomes apparent only upon trial and error and differs from etiquette whilst meeting in a social or physical situation’. 

Trial and error – where GREAT learning happens!  This is why I think blogs are a fantastic tool to use with young people, because there’s plenty of room for trial and error. 

With mechanics … grammar and spelling… write - post – read – find error – re-open – edit – post again – read – approve – walk away.   

With content… post – read – laugh at swear words – approve – walk away – return to a week later – ‘omg I cant believe I said that’ – won’t do that again – try to write a better blog next week! 

I recall feeling alarmed when a couple of my students used language that certainly wouldn’t be appropriate in a classroom.  Seeing it on screen in a public domain was a bit frightening but the social constructivist (biggest) part of me took over … this was going to be a great way for young people to discover principles and concepts for themselves. 

And in fact the conversations and reflections generated around the whole process were priceless… 

This blog was accessed by the local community newspaper – to contribute to the editorial section.  Importantly, it formed part of the students’ English and Humanities studies – writing an opinionative piece… participating in a local community etc. 

Over a 3 week period I noticed a dramatic difference in the spelling, grammar, content and overall maturity of posts contributed.  And… learning around audience and etiquette. 

You might note that in the August 2^nd blog, 2 posts were removed by their authors – a bit of self-reflection and awareness around context, audience and language choice. 

August 9 saw a student choose to use symbols in an expletive (f*cked), after seeing it spelt live and deeming it  too (f*cking) ‘crass’!

A week later and the length, structure and content of posts had improved dramatically. Fantastic stuff – definitely a worthwhile exercise in terms of reflection on skills and knowledge development. 

The blog I’ll demonstrate next week, was used for an entirely different purpose.  However the one shown this week – whilst only ‘live and active’ for a short period – definitely prompted valuable learning for young people – through their engagement in social activity and conversation!    

How many times has someone said to you ‘Make sure you check out this resource…’ or… ‘There’s this great website that has so much great stuff!’?  

How many times have you later been disappointed when its not all its cracked up to be?? 

This isn’t one of those times… I’ll be really surprised if anyone thinks that Reach Out doesn’t offer at least 5 really valuable ideas or resources for immediate use in any program or course that targets youth and youth at risk. 

Reach Out is a service that helps young people not only get through tough times but also pro-actively seek better ways of organizing their lives and relationships. It provides information and support on a range of issues including depression, sexuality and drug and alcohol abuse – through fact sheets and easy-to-use search functions. 

Great quizzes are regularly uploaded, along the great ‘features’ menu at the top. 

Importantly, there is a range of ‘built in’ electronic tools, which makes it a kind of one-stop shop for different modes and means of engagement.  For example, there are: journal; book-marking and forum features, and even a mood-tracker that allows young people to gauge their emotional status and sense of self-efficacy from day to day or week to week. 

(There are plenty of General ED units that these features would nicely support… for eg. Personal Goal Setting and Education Planning etc). 

Reach Out Central is a very cool online game designed to help young people improve and learn skills for life. The audio and graphics are awesome and there’s hidden inventory everywhere – so its like a treasure-hunt of sorts! 

For teaching professionals and practitioners, there is Reach Out Pro which includes regularly up-dated resources, tools, case studies and newsletters with tips to engage young people in interesting and relevant programs.  There are plenty of instantly downloadable worksheets that are curriculum-mapped and accompanied by teacher notes. 

For those outside firewalls, check out the YouTube multimedia introduction; for those within … Follow the steps to join…

Finally, anyone who works with young people and youth at risk knows that roles and indeed responsibilities extend beyond the ‘teacher-learner-subject matter’ paradigm and take in many aspects of physical, mental and emotional health – so the ability to locate an abundance of help and support services is also particularly handy.

So… I know I said I’d be showing you a couple of blogs… but after re-visiting this site in my favourites - its just too good to make you wait for!    

Thank you EngageMe for inviting me to be a Guest Blogger.   

I’ve always enjoyed working with youth and youth at risk and believe that emerging communication technologies unlock an excess of opportunity to engage these learners in particular.  Having said that, I will join the ranks in questioning the term ‘Generation Y’.…  I think the characteristics commonly attributed to it apply to most if not all of us … and that together we’re a part of the Net Generation.

For instance, if young people are commonly described as having: shortened attention spans; an iterest and proficiency in new media and technology; a liking for popular culture; a disdain or cynicism towards advertising; tendendencies to be curious, reliant, contrarian, smart, focused, adaptable and globally-oriented; and opinionated when it comes to music, fashion and technology … then how many of these would we use to describe ourselves?  Exactly!

Sharing just one of these attributes with a young person, or another characteristic such as loving pizza without cheese, means we – you or I - are able to provide that young person with a sense of belonging through that shared ‘something’.  If engagement is is measured by a sense of belonging, then more communication platforms, tools and strategies means more opportunities to belong to something… somewhere … with someone.

How mobile and internet technologies fit in here, is that an ability to identify these connections or shared attributes is vastly magnified through online spaces and electronic tools.  More tools means more building and more room for all of us to take account of different language preferences, means and modes of self expression and ways of organising thoughts and ideas.   Looking at a profile or blog space created by any person, or listening to a podcast or ring tone they’ve chosen to use, will tell us an awful lot about them.

The tools we are currently using and exploring – particularly those with conversational and collaborative capabilities are perfect for use with young people.  They provide micro and macro communities for them to belong to and trust that they are as powerful within these co-created ‘bottom-up’ environments as what we are.  Micro communities for example, through ‘one-to-one’, SMS, MMS or email use with individuals or small groups of students… and macro ‘one-to-many, or many-to-many’ communities through blogs and wikis or MySpace networks. 

Importantly, we are all empowered through sharing and interacting… creating information and meaning rather than passively sitting at the bottom of hierachical models of communication or information ‘giving’ structures.  The classroom belongs to learners as much as it does to educators and old power paradigms are no longer relevant.  I think teachers or educators who work successfully with youth and youth at risk, understand this – and more importantly embrace it.  Engagement with young learners through a shared quest to ‘learn to learn’ together is a great place to be.

A discussion paper titled: “Its Crunch time – Raising youth engagement and attainment” – released by the Australian Industry Group and the Dusseldorp Skills Forum (DSF) –  states that personal experience, perhaps more than formal learning, is the principle source of authenticity for young people and the thing that can be trusted the most……and that personal identity through work, education and social participation remains central.  This is where young peoples’ use of the internet and web-based social platforms provides us with opportunities to be more active and free, in meaningful ways, in their communities and in their classrooms.

I’ve found that young people are able to express themselves earnestly and honestly in blog forums - whether through their own journalling in MySpace blogs, or purpose-built blogs for use in the classroom.

Next week, I’ll demonstrate two blogs I’ve used with groups of young students – both with very different degrees of success.In the meantime, check out the Dusseldorp Skills Forum (DSF)  - an independent, not-for-profit body that works with communities, industry, government and non-government organizations to generate ideas, research, tools and information, and build networks of common interest. It is a must-see for anyone working with youth and youth at risk, and its impossible to get past the Online Self-Assessment Tool for program management!

This year the EngageMe blog will be led by TAFE NSW teachers with special insight, knowledge and experience in using technology to engage learners.
Each term we will be inviting a new Guest Blogger to lead the blog.

I am happy to announce that our Guest Blogger for Term 1 2008 is Regan Harding from North Coast Institute of TAFE!

Regan is a teacher of youth based programs at North Coast Institute who is currently acting in the role of Youth Project Officer/ V Tracks Program Coordinator at Ballina Campus.

An enthusiastic user of wikis, blogs and other web 2.0 technologies, Regan was a popular presenter at last year’s Connecting Access Conference.

Please join in and comment on Regan’s posts or register and post your own blog entries. You may want to ask a question, give an opinion or share something that has helped you to engage your learners.

Welcome Regan! We looking forward to a lively and thought provoking EngageMe blog in Term 1!

A wiki is a collection of web pages that can be visited and edited by anyone. Wikis are a great way for groups of people to collaborate online.

Do you have an idea for a collaborative project to take place in the EngageMe wiki?

The type of wiki platform that we install will depend on the sort of project/s you want to run.

Your collaborative project could be something informal such as sharing links, resources or ideas. Or you may like to think about applying for funds for a more formal project from the Australian Flexible Learning Framework or Reframing the Future, for example.

Let us know your ideas by commenting on this post!

| View | Upload your own

This is a fantastic slideshow by Leonard Low which shows us how far we have come since our 2005 moblogging project (see the link in the side bar). This is a great resource for teachers wanting to understand how to use mobile phones as a source of learning rather than disruption!