Section 7: Policy & role of ecology in sustaining innovation

CN012 is a co-educational secondary school in the New Territories of Hong Kong. This practice was first implemented in 2000.

There are 27 classes with a total of 996 students and 54 teachers in this school. Most of the students come from lower middle class families in the neighboring public housing. Two physics teachers, one laboratory technician and 35 Secondary 6 students were involved in this innovation. This practice was mainly implemented in Physics lessons. It addresses the importance of engaging students in designing some experiments that verify a mathematical model in scientific phenomena which is related to the curriculum content,

In this case, “Teachers told students that the five-year policy ‘Information Technology for Learning in a New Era Five Year Strategy’ boosted the implementation of IT in school and the use of IT in teaching and learning in this school. It was mentioned by the IT team that an additional teacher was granted to the school under the ICT scheme of the Quality Education Fund. This teacher took up part of the responsibility for managing the school network system and teaching teachers how to use some of the software. Furthermore, teachers also told students that the equipment for this project was also granted by the Quality Education fund.”

From the case, we can find during the last 10 years, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have provided a wealth of new technological opportunities, with the rapid deployment of the Internet. An ideal ICT policy should be sustainable at a national as well as at a school level. It should be cost-effective, cater to school goals, improve student achievement, enhance teacher quality and enable users to adapt to change.

While the government plays the most important role in the formulation of ICT policy, it decides how countries are able to take advantage of the technical opportunities available to them and exploit them for good. And investment is constrained to be the important factor to influence the development of ICT in education. Besides the investment, public concern also is another important factor.

1. how to combine the ICT resources and teaching methods

2. how to develop digital learning standards.

3. how related staff to support the work.

Moreover, it is also very important to balance the point between the demands of improving practice over time and pressing public concerns such as accountability and equity, between the cycle of change in technology and the cycle of change in schools, between the skills of tomorrow and the skills of today.

The picture below shows the ICT framework.

From the picture, we can clearly see that the education practice base on three basic resources, the software such as a management system, the hardware like labs with a lot of computers or multimedia equipment, and the last is the human resource, for example the teacher who had be trained or an experienced the principal. This is the inside circle which called execution circle, these three points are the basic force to promote the education practice improvement.

And outside circle I called it powerful circle, this means the three points have the strong power or ability to influence education practice improvement.

Investment is constrained to be the important factor to influence the development of ICT in education. There are three key themes which are used as rationales for investment in educational technology.

1. Technology as a tool for addressing challenges in teaching and learning. Teacher of nowadays teacher, technology provides a new approach to solve the teaching problem that makes the students more effective in study. And spend less money than usual.

2. Technology as a change agent. Regardless of what is going on today, a change agent has a vision of what could or should be and uses that as the governing sense of action. IT makes the future be a much better vision, without technology the change agent can lose their way.

3. Technology as a central force in economic competitiveness. With the new IT developing, new innovation will be bring out, like ipad, iphone, that will change all the worlds' economic, at the same time, IT in education also will be influenced. New competitiveness will be rounded by IT. IT will take the position of traditional equipment, to be the new, powerful competitiveness

All in all, an ideal ICT policy should balance improving teaching practice with pressing public concerns, in that way, the circle above will have a complete framework system. And with the all important factor, the education practice will reach to a new level.

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China vs. U.S. School context and Innovation

Here is a video about the difference in school context and innovation between China and America. By wcomparation,I think we can get a deeper understanding about the topic in this session.

By:Makino

session 6--School context and innovation

This session is about School context and innovation and can be divided into several parts: School background,School strategies,Principal leadership,School ICT infrastructure and Government and community support.

We group first analyzed the example from the SITES-ME. We forcused on the ES001: Cooperrative Project Using Telecommunication Tools to Study the Climate and Weather. Four schools participated in this innovative co-operative project. Every weekday, pupils from different schools had to share introduce meteorological data in the Internet to them with the partner schools. Then they finally carried out comparative research projects on weather variables. This project had various objectives, from conceptual learning, mastery of use of different measurement tools, handling and making sense of data to facilitation of cooperative learning with virtual cooperative groups. Teachers provided suggestions and guidance for students learning, whereas students working in groups made the final decisions of what they wanted to learn and how they were going to do. The school background of this case is a strong educational vision and experience in Innovation and ICT use. This is also a case with strategies in establishing new teams for implementation, with visionary leader, with mobile computing capability and student access beyond class contact and general government policy support appeared to be relatively emergent in terms of teachers' and students' roles.

Besides, we have done some reach about the School context and innovation of mainland China and found that most school backgrounds of the schools in mainland China are council schools and alignment with government education policy. The schools forcus more on exam scores than ICT or innovation and have a traditional pedagogical practices. Though some of the principals agree with the innovation in education, they pay more attention to that if the students can pass the Matriculation Exam. This schools do have the ICT infrastructure but the use of ICT in education is just a face job and teachers care more about publishing papers rather than using ICT in teaching. Also, the government has the policy to support the innovation in school. However, as the college entrance examination system in mainland is not change, principals and teachers still prefer the traditional pedagogy.

Here is a web side about characteristics of the Higher Education in Mainland China: http://international.vlex.com/vid/characteristics-education-mainland-taiwan-228050335

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session 5--Curriculum innovative practices

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have affected our lives for over half a century. Yet, the school’s curriculum especially in mainland China is still perceived as traditional in its structure and implementation. Attempts to assimilate ICT into schools’ curricula are frequently supported by policymakers. However, significant change in content, teaching and learning processes and assessment methods can actually be detected mainly in focal innovative initiatives within schools. Data SITES-M2 analyzes case studies of innovative IT-supported pedagogical practices from several schools in HongKong. The analysis refers to conditions required for fostering ICT implementation in the curriculum, with regards to new demands for teaching and learning. This suggests analysis of ICT-related curricular issues in separate subject areas, as well as in integrated subject domains. Further, our group discuss desired changes in existing curricula, which may lead to innovative ICT implementation within schools.

A school curriculum is intended to provide students with the knowledge and skills required to lead successful lives. To keep the pace with the social improvement, I think the taught curriculum needs to be reconsidered and redesigned. After search for some information, I found that the use of the word "innovation" in discussions about the school curriculum and classroom teaching practice has become widespread. What is a curriculum for at this time? It is comprises a challenging selection of subjects that help our students understand the world. It highlights skills necessary for learning throughout life, as well as for work, and for our development and well-being.

Besides the examples in SITES-M2, we also found there are already some shifts underway in current educational thinking and policymaking which will contribute to innovations in the curriculum and teaching practice. Here is an example about the introduction of the new National Curriculum for secondary schools, it has brought school leaders and classroom teachers more opportunities to design a curriculum that is televant and appropriate to the needs of the students in their care.In addition, the Innovational Curriculum has indicated a heightened need for cross-curricular connections in order for students to make links across subjects and apply knowledge and skills learnt from one area in another. It has also put more emphasis on finding constructive ways of accommodating all of the subject areas in the limited time available. In other words, the Innovational Curriculum today is seeking innovative solutions to persisting curricularand classroom challenges.

Here is the web site that I found some examples and policy.http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Pedagogy-and-assessment/Pedagogical-leadership/Leading-Curriculum-Innovation

By:Makino

Session 5--Case from M2 (CN010)

Background：

This case describes a series of lessons that aimed at helping a class of P.6 students to learn about punctuation marks in Chinese Language. In this practice, the teachers made use of self-developed software and a series of software developed by The University of Hong Kong to help students to learn Chinese punctuation. While the students played the role of active learners in the learning process, the ICT acted as tools for demonstration, drill and practice.

Goals：

1.Help students to understand the usage of punctuation at the sentence level.
2.Help students to understand the usage of punctuation to increase the cohesion of the passage.
3.Help students to apply their understanding of punctuation into their spoken Chinese.
4.Help students to understand the notion that with the use of ICT, they can undergo self-learning and make good uses of resources.

Curriculum：

The innovation involved about 4 lessons; the following were the activity flow of these less

Lesson	The teaching activity	Use of ICT
1.	l  Pretest l  Teacher presented information about Chinese punctuation with the self-developed PowerPoint presentation.	Teacher’s Presentation Tool
2	l  Teacher presented information about Chinese punctuation with the self-developed PowerPoint presentation	Teacher’s Presentation Tool
3	l  Teacher presented information about Chinese punctuation with the self-developed PowerPoint	Teacher’s Presentation Tool
4	l  Students work with the software developed by the University of Hong Kong on their own l  Post-test	Student’s Drill and Practice Tool

Other Innovation in Curriculum：

1.School-based Curriculum:
The school started to develop its school-based curriculum in 1985-86. The first subject which had its school-based curriculum was Computer, with its first developed teaching package “How to apply geometry”.

2.Project-based Learning:
Project-based Learning has been conducted in CN010 before the implementation of ICT education in Hong Kong (1997). However, with the implementation of ICT, the nature of the project work in CN010 has changed. The students are now working on some more ill-structured, open-ended and cross curricular questions. They make use of ICT tool in searching information and compiling of their reports.

3.On-line Discussion Forum:
In the on-line discussion forum, the teachers would put some newspaper articles on the intranet of the school and invite students to comment on it. The students can either put their reflections online or e-mail them to their teachers.
Issues：
This practice can transfer to another school in two sense. Firstly, the other schools can adopt the ways of ICT being used in the practice: teachers’ presentation tool and students’ drill and practice tool. The kind of transfer can be easily done in Hong Kong, as most of the schools has its computer laboratory. Besides, there is a “Hong Kong Education City” website offered by the Hong Kong government, in which the teachers can download and share their ICT teaching materials here. However, if the other school would like to fully adopt the innovation, that is, they would like to develop their own teaching materials. Apart from the time and effort they have to pay, they should at least possess what teacher A mentioned: (1)teachers who were capable in using ICT, (2)teachers who were competent in pedagogy & (3)enough ICT resources in schools.
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Session 4--Student Behaviour & Wellbeing Role Play

Session 4--The Role of Student Responsibility in the college

Recent scholarship has emphasized the importance of student effort and involvement in their academic and co-curricular activities as the decisive elements in promoting positive college outcomes. As colleges have struggled to extend opportunities, an accompanying expectation for students to assume responsibility for their own education often has been lacking. Institutions must work to create a climate in which all students feel welcome and able to fully participate. It is equally important to nurture an ethic that demands student commitment and promotes student responsibility. Students can contribute to their own learning and to the development of a campus climate in which all can grow and learn.

WHAT IS STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY?

Colleges are learning communities, and individuals accepted into these communities have the privileges and responsibilities of membership. If we are to communicate our expectations, we must offer a set of standards and examples that moves our discussion from generality to practice.

Such as the proposition that all learning and development requires an investment of time and effort by the student. At the heart of the practice is a set of scales which defines the dimensions of student responsibility. These scales are quality of effort scales in that they assess the degree to which students are extending themselves in their college activities. The domains include the use of classrooms, libraries, residence halls, student unions, athletic facilities, laboratories, and studios and galleries. The social dimension is reflected in scales that tap contacts with faculty, informal student friendships, clubs and organizations, and student conversations. This gives us a map of the terrain of student responsibility and suggests concrete activities that contribute directly to student growth and learning.

WHY IS STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY IMPORTANT?

First, student responsibility is the key to all development and learning. Research has demonstrated that college outcomes are tied to the effort that students put into their work and the degree to which they are involved with their studies and campus life. Second, irresponsible students diminish our collective academic life. Within an individual classroom, the behavior of even a few highly irresponsible students or, worse, a large number of passive, disaffected students can drag a class down to its lowest common denominator. For an institution, the erosion of an academic ethos can lead to a culture that is stagnant, divisive, and anti-intellectual.

Third, the habits of responsible civic and personal life are sharpened and refined in college. Will employers, international economic competitors, or future history itself be tolerant of students who fail to develop sufficient self-control and initiative to study for tests or participate in academic life? Finally, if colleges are to reclaim the public trust, they must learn not to make promises that cannot be kept. Colleges have responsibilities to students and society. Yet, colleges are not solely responsible for the outcomes of their students. A clear acknowledgment of the mutual obligations of all members of the academic community is a prerequisite to restoring the academy's balance and clarity of purpose.

WHAT ARE THE FOUNDATIONS OF STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY?

Some professors have offered explicit theories about how colleges can promote student learning and growth. Despite different uses of terms, these approaches have much in common. First, each theorist recognizes that the student's background plays a role in shaping college outcomes. This role is largely indirect and is moderated by the college environment and a student's interactions with faculty and peers. Second, each theorist sees the campus environment exerting an enabling effect on college outcomes. Last, all emphasize the importance of a partnership between the college and the student. Colleges alone cannot "produce" student learning. Colleges provide opportunities for interaction and involvement and establish a climate conducive to responsible participation. Each approach reflects the centrality of what we call student responsibility.

Structural features that tend to isolate students and promote an ethos of anonymity produce poor college outcomes. College climates characterized by a strong sense of direction and which build student involvement tend to promote favorable outcomes by promoting student-faculty and student-peer relations, as well as establishing an expectation that students will behave responsibly. Finally, the decisive single factor in affecting college outcomes is the degree to which students are integrated into the life of the campus, interact with faculty and peers, and are involved in their studies.

HOW CAN WE ENCOURAGE RESPONSIBLE STUDENT BEHAVIOR?

Institutional policies and practices must be oriented toward developing a climate in which students' responsibility and active participation in their own colleges are promoted. Policies that stress the importance of student achievement and in-class and co-curricular challenge and support are essential for student growth. The institutional culture clearly must convey the institution's purpose in an unambiguous manner, and the ethos of the campus must be one in which students believe they are members of a larger community. As student culture serves as a filter for students entering college, care must be taken to ensure that students who are prepared inadequately understand the nature of college life and what is expected to attain satisfactory academic and developmental gains.

Small-scale, human environments must be built in which students and faculty collectively can engage in the process of teaching and learning. As learning is the process through which development occurs, it is crucial for students to be actively engaged in the classroom. Course activities are the vehicle through which students may become more fully engaged with academic material. The literature clearly indicates that the quality of effort that a student expends in interactions with peers and faculty is the single most important determinate in college outcomes.

Here I think is a good web which is about Student Role: www.gwu.edu/~eriche.

Makino

The Change of Students' Role

http://muse.tau.ac.il/publications/84.pdf

The paper analyse the data collected in ten schools in Israel which have ICT in unique ways and have succeeded in devising innovative classroom pedagogies and changes in teachers and students role and out comes. Table 1 presents a summary of the innovation domains and levels in the innovation analysis schema.

As we can see, most of the innovative practices cause a significant change in student role, who became Website constructors, teachers' assistants in ICT-related matters, or ICT projects managers. The students worked in teams to solve real problems and to accomplish projects.

Powerful new capabilities of computers make it possible to access, represent, process, and communicate information in new ways (Kozma, 1991, 1994). These capabilities make it possible to search and organize information, analyze data, represent ideas, simulate complex systems, and communicate with others in ways that were not practical or even possible previously. They also enable new ways of teaching and learning—new activities, new products, and new types of learning (Kozma & Schank, 1998).

Self- learner, team member, and knowledge manager are the three new roles for students and were often associated with project-based or inquiry learning. Students are capable to use the resources and on-line learning to learn by themselves without the teachers. They can learn whenever and wherever. It make the study to be active and initiative. With the help of ICT, students are divided into several groups ti communicate both in the classroom and after classes. Students just have to work collaboratively to move the work forward.The members have also to be active to finish the group work. The action they did just interact each others in the group. What's more, with the help of ICT, students are exposed to the knowledge by the global internet. They no longer waiting for the teachers to teach them the knowledge in class time, but manage and pick up the one they need whenever they want by reading reports, research studies, newspapers, or multimedia presentations that solve a real world problem, address a scientific question, or express personal feelings.

All in all, students are changed into a more active and initiative role comparing to the traditional education. They are possible to get access to the knowledge in various approaches and manage it under their own willings. Learning is now becoming a innovative work that full of creativities and no more a simple accpetence of knowledge.

References:

Kozma, R. (1991). Learning with media. Review of Educational Research, 61(2), 179-212.

Kozma, R., & Schank, P. (1998). Connecting with the twenty- first century: Technology in support of educational reform. In C. Dede (Ed.), Technology and learning. Washington, DC: American Society for Curriculum Development.
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Session 2 Activity----How Can Success In Innovation

Educational Innovation is to achieve certain goals of education and innovation in the field of education activities. Educational innovation contains the education system, educational structures, educational concepts, educational methods, educational tools, curriculum materials and educational time and space, involving almost all aspects of the field of education. With the development of human society, education has continuously engaged in innovation activities, such as the establishing of schools, textbooks appear, multi-media use, they are all part of the successful educational innovation. For several reasons, the education innovation often will meet some problems

Our discussion is around the problems based on the article which raised by Joyce Wycoff—“The Big Ten Innovation Killers and How to Keep Your Innovation System Alive and Well”. Though the article we summarize the several ways to address the problem about pedagogical practice.

1. What is culture, culture is a driving force to any organization. Without culture an organization just likes a sailing without direction, neither as education innovation. When an education institution does not know which culture it has, Innovation will never be happened in such education institutions. They will develop slow, even stop. Only if the culture will be established with clear direction.
2. Equipment is also a big factor about successful innovation, good innovation without hardware support is just useless. So the government and the leader of the school should put more money on the basic equipment, that with these equipment, innovation class can be come true.
3. Company should have a good Innovative leader, so as education organization. If the principle makes an innovation strategy, that the pedagogical innovation will be boost. If the principle is conservative, so he is the Stumbling block of innovation.
4. Teacher is the soul of the education, if the teacher does not know how to innovation, his class seems so boring that no students will like it. To address this situation the teacher should be trained with innovation course, such as ITE.
5. To have an idea management system that students and teacher can communication online or make course more simple. For example, once teacher want to have a task out of the classroom, he can use the management system to give suggests and guide the students to finish the task.

Overall, there also many other measures to make the innovation successful, but the important thing is the new innovation is whether suitable for the current education.
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Session 1 Activity----Identify one example from your group of an educational ICT-innovation and it's impact on practice

I think the use of multimedia in today's class is a kind of educational ICT-innovation. As developing student understanding through aligning media to intended learning outcomes, it can effectively capture the learners' attention, especially the younger ones, acting as a springboard for deeper learning as it prompts the learner to think outside the box, beyond a traditional textbook. It makes learning fun for all. It also encourages learners' interaction and fosters collaborative learning among students. Education changes from a two dimensional spoonfeeding transmission to a three dimensional dynamic process. When teachers teach lower primary students English grammar, they use an interactive CD with visuals to help them see how one word has multiple grammatical usage depending on where it appears in a sentence. The use of this medium excited the students and increased class participation as the teacher separate them into teams in the form of a competition. The students learn much quicker in a relaxed fun setting and the grammar concepts sunk in better as they see the variation of how one word can be used in different ways.

In conclusion, in the traditional way, the teacher is the leader.The students just listen to the teachers, take notes and answer questions. With the help of educational ICT-innovation such as computer and multimedia, the teacher is more like a superviser. The students have more chances to learn by themselves, search the internet for information and talk and share the ideas together. The students become the core of the class.

BY:Makino