Selfie number 6

In this series of short posts, I'm writing about my top ten selfies with people who have inspired me or have influenced my thinking. Previous selfie posts can also be viewed on this blog.

I met American teacher, artist and edupunk Amy Burvall last year. Our pathways crossed when we were attending different events in London and so we arranged met up for a few drinks. I was already familiar with Amy's work online, especially her excellent series of YouTube videos called History Teachers. If you haven't viewed them yet, you should do so - they are a must watch, even if you are not a teacher of history. Amy has taken popular songs, rewritten the lyrics about specific periods in European history, and has then created new music videos for educational purposes. Particular favourites of mine include the story of Martin Luther (to the tune of the Bangles' Manic Monday - in which she takes on three singing roles), Charlemagne ('Call Me' by Blondie), the classy Elizabeth I ('She's not there' by the Zombies) and the comical animated Henry VIII and his six wives (Money, Money, Money by Abba). The combined viewing figures for this collection of teaching videos is now in the millions. But History Teachers is just one of the many contributions Amy has made to digital learning in the past few years.

What inspires me most about Amy Burvall? She is quirky, unpredictable, creative, mischievous, and she is not afraid to take risks - all characteristics I recognise in myself. She is also a cancer survivor, which in itself should inspire all of us. She is tenacious and has boundless energy, and she never seems to stop. I believe this is because she has a burning desire is to help as many people to learn as she possibly can. She does this through her writing, videos, photography, artwork, live sketching (see Graffikon), keynote speeches and her very popular workshops on creativity, making and learning. Recently we collaborated for the first time on a project that is now known as #blimage which can be read about here (join in - it's fun!). I'm hoping that this is just the start of our collaboration, and that we will continue to bounce ideas off each other for some time to come. Watch this space!

Photo by Jeffrey Teruel


Selfie number 6 by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The #blideo list

Hot on the heels of the popular #blimage blog challenge Amy Burvall and I created (See here for almost 200 posts), where people send each other images and write learning related blogs about them, we now have #blideo (my idea but I think Alex Bellars should be credited with coining the phrase). This is a new challenge where people send each other short video clips and challenge each other to write learning related blogs. The trick is to then choose another short video clip, and pass it on to others as a challenge. In this way, we can encourage each other to blog to share our ideas and thoughts. It's video. It's a blog. What's not to love? It's a moving experience. The entire learning community benefits, people discover new sites, think more deeply about their professional practice, and (hopefully) creativity is unleashed. Below are some of the first #blideo blog challenge responses.

This will be a growing list, and as each post is published under the #blideo hashtag it will be added. If you notice one that's missing, do let me know. So go on, get blogging!

Sue Beckingham - Building confidence takes time: Learning from elks and Aesop's fables
Terese Bird - #blideo - Hang on a minute lads, I've got a great idea!
Amy Burvall - #lingerlust: A #blideo (meta) response

James Clay - #blideo - You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!
Pascale Colonna - #blideo challenge

Inge deWaard - Blogphilosophy - a #blideo and our learning frequency

Simon Ensor - Road rage

Sarah Honeychurch - wysiwyg
David Hopkins - Hang on a minute lads, I've got a great idea!

Whitney Kilgore - It's not about the destination so you better enjoy the journey

Teresa MacKinnon - #blideo challenge

Steve Wheeler - #blideo: Tipping the balance
Gabi Witthaus - Yes, technology can lead pedagogy

Photo by Ste Grifo on Wikimedia Commons


The #blideo list by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

#blideo - a new blogging challenge

As something that started out simply as a bit of fun between a few Twitter friends, the #blimage challenge has been a surprising success. For the many people who have participated to date, it has been an exercise in creative thinking, and an experience of extending social connections within their personal learning networks. Check out the #blimage hashtag and you'll see what I mean. The challenge was simple - you shared an image with a friend (or three) and challenged them to write a short, learning related blog about it. They then posted their contribution along with another image, and challenged a few more people within their social network. Blog + image became #blimage.

Those who have participated in #blimage have reported that their visitor traffic has increased, their writing has improved, and they have engaged in a little additional creativity. Essentially, they have become more enthused about the practice of sharing their ideas within their community. Some have returned to blogging after a long time away, and others have been encouraged to blog for the very first time. Interestingly, several have also told me that they have discovered new bloggers they never knew existed, and are enjoying reading their work. Clearly, this approach has many applications for schools, colleges and universities. Many of the blog posts from the challenge can be found here on the #blimage list.

So let's start a new challenge.

This time it's not an image - more like a series of images. In fact it's a video. Let's call it #blideo. Yep, you know the rest. Same guidelines apply. You share a short video clip on your blog and challenge 3 people in your personal learning network to write learning related blog posts about it. When they post their response, they include another short video clip of their choice and challenge 3 other people within their network... and so on. Are you up for the challenge? Don't forget to tag your post with #blideo.

Here's a video clip to get you started...



Photo by Phil Roeder on Wikimedia Commons


#blideo - a new blogging challenge by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Over the handlebars #blimage

I vividly remember learning to ride a bicycle, even though I was quite young at the time. I remember Mum buying me some 'stabilisers', a small pair of extra wheels that were attached either side of my rear wheel to allow me to keep my balance. I rode around on these for quite a while before I eventually gained the confidence to ride without them. I wonder how much longer it took me to learn to ride because of those stabilisers?

To help my kids when they were learning to ride, I would run alongside them holding the frame, acting as their support until I thought they were ready to ride on their own without falling over. They learnt a lot quicker, partly because they were unaware when I had let go. When I was learning, my stabilisers were conscious scaffolding, and I knew when they were gone. It took me a lot longer to gain confidence and I tended to rely on those little wheels a lot more than I should have.

My kids on the other hand, gained confidence in riding because they assumed I was there supporting them, when in fact I had already let them go. Acquiring skills is like that. Students are often more capable than we think they are. Providing too much scaffolding can be counter productive, and learners can take a lot longer to gain their confidence. The quicker a learner becomes independent, the more confident they will become. Provide them too much support, or intervene too frequently, and they will take longer to discover their own balance.  
No amount of scaffolding or support could have prepared me for the incident that occurred when I was 18 years old. My mother had asked me to take a carton of fresh eggs to her friend, who lived a few streets away. I cycled over holding the eggs in my left hand while steering my bike with my right hand, which also controlled the front brakes.

As I approached the lady's house, a sudden gust of wind blew hard, and I veered into the kerb. Automatically, I grasped the front brakes with my right hand, and the bike stopped. I however, continued, over the handlebars, and both I and the egg carton went up in the air.

Oh the irony. My fall resulted in a fractured collar bone and I spent 24 hours in hospital while the doctors observed me for concussion. The eggs however, were unharmed. Make of that what you will, and then, if you are up for it, write a blog using this image for the #blimage challenge:

Photos by Darren Johnson (courtesy of David Hopkins) and Steve Wheeler


Over the handlebars by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England as a part of the #blimage challenge and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

A lot of balls

Three things.

Firstly, if you tried to pick these balls up, you might do yourself a mischief. They are heavy, because the sculpture is a whole load of tennis balls bonded together, and they are fixed to a solid wooden plinth. If they were individual tennis balls, you could pick them up more easily (a few at a time, like the tennis players do).

If they were separated they probably wouldn't look as impressive, because clearly, this structure is attractive, whereas a pile of tennis balls are... well, just a pile of tennis balls.

If you tried to bounce it, you wouldn't be successful. Individual balls have a certain freedom that this cube does not. They can be hit or thrown in any direction, and you can put a spin on them. These balls have been glued together, forced into a configuration. Personal learning is not something that should be ordered. Learning is always personal, and messy .... and occasionally chaotic. This cube of tennis balls represents anything but personalised learning.

Secondly, the balls are tethered to a surface. They aren't going anywhere soon. Immobility has been imposed upon them. This is important to maintain the integrity of this sculpture, but tethering is increasingly a problem in education. Tethered learning may be convenient for schools to manage, but it's not optimal. Having students sat in orderly rows or tiers (tears) may be easier for the lecturer or teacher to manage, but for the students it's not always a good scene.

I never liked having to sit at my desk and face the front for hours on end. I wanted to get up, get out, and explore. I still think more clearly and solve problems faster when I'm pacing around, wandering through libraries or moving across uncertain terrain (literally or metaphorically). I am not comfortable in meetings when I have to sit for long periods at a table.

Tethered devices are not much better. The desktop PC keeps you in one place, and limits your posture. Mobile devices allow learners to take their connection with them, discover for themselves, and to learn on the move. That is situated learning, where what is being learnt is in its context, and it's a lot more effective for many students.

Thirdly, this configuration of balls is not a network, it's a cube. If it were a network, the nodes would be more separated, but there would also be more connections. In its present configuration each ball can be connected to no more than 6 other balls. In a network, connections are virtually infinite.

The power of the network is in the exponential nature of the connections that can be made, and thence in the amplification power this affords. Learning networks find their power in the number of connections, as can be demonstrated by the way neurones within the human brain connect to each other. This cube of balls is absolutely the antithesis of a network, because connection is so limited.

The future of learning is where all learners are connected to as many other learners and teachers as possible, so that learning is mobile, personal, limitless and unconstrained by configuration. The future of learning is connected, social, mobile and personal.

Photo by Steve Wheeler


A lot of balls by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England as a part of the #blimage challenge and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

#blimage conscious

Several people on Twitter have asked recently for images they can use for the #blimage challenge. For the uninitiated, #blimage (blog-image) is a game we started to encourage learning professionals to blog. You are sent an image which you then have to write about, metaphorically or literally. At the end of your blog post you then challenge some of your friends with another image, of your own choice. And the challenge spreads... So far there have been over 150 blogposts from the education and learning/development community, in at least 5 different languages. Many of those posts are hosted on the #blimage list.

So here are several photos from my own collection (I'm sharing them under a Creative Commons licence - see details below) for you to choose from, so you can also take part in the #blimage challenge. Consider this your personal invitation. It doesn't matter whether you are a regular blogger, a novice who has never blogged before, or a lapsed blogger who used to be active. Have a go. You will learn a lot from it. I hope you have a lot of fun writing and posting your blog, and hope you and your colleagues and friends will participate in this creative way of encouraging the learning community to share and interact.

 
All photos by Steve Wheeler


#blimage conscious by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The #blimage list

The #blimage challenge was started as a bit of fun between Amy Burvall and I. We started it on July 18th and it has been growing steadily ever since with many of our friends and colleagues participating. The challenge is this: Send an image to friends in your personal learning network and ask them to write a learning related blog post about it. They then challenge their friends with an image of their choice. All the posts are labelled with the hashtag #blimage (blog-image) so they can be easily discovered and aggregated. Since the start of activities, the following posts and other artefacts related to #blimage have been posted. Several are destined to become classics of educational blogging.

This list of posts will grow, so if you know of any that are missing, please let me know via the comments box at the foot of this post. Also, if there are any *notable names* missing from this list, please challenge them to participate! Oh, and if you need an image, there's one here to get you started.

#blimage Resources

Amy Burvall's YouTube video explaining #blimage
Simon Ensor's #blimage Pinterest Board
Simon Ensor's #blimage Flipboard

The #blimage blog posts

Mags Amond – #blimage challenge accepted

Maha Bali – Rethinking puzzles: A post-modernist view
James Ballard – My #blimage challenge
Noami Barnes – Messiness of research
Wayne Barry – Learning in limbo
Sue Beckingham – Buck the status quo
Sue Beckingham – Learning anytime, anywhere, any social space
Sue Beckingham – Fortunate learning and learning fortunes
Alex Bellars – #blimage - let's go outside and play!
Jasper Bloemsma – #blimageNL (Dutch)
Florina Blokland – Wat te doen (Dutch)
Helen Blunden – I see desk people
Chris Boon – The #blimage challenge
Jaap Bosman – Black swans, gnomes and Charles Peirce
Karen Bowden – Where do you learn? The #blimage challenge
Jane Bozarth – The #Blimage Challenge
Mark Britz – Embraceable Me
Karin Brown – Brain etchings
Amy Burvall – Drawing on the Desk: Clues about Personalized and Visual Learning
Amy Burvall – Breaking bread with Steve Wheeler
Amy Burvall – #blimage 1 week anniversary

Rachel Challen – Not just a waiting room
Catherine Cronin – Alone and Together, Moving and Learning
Helen Crump – Literacy: Not a desk job but an identity job
Ada Czerwonogora – Un tiro en el blanco (Spanish)

Aaron Davis – Building on the past
J.P. Davies – If you like school ... you'll love work
Maren Deepwell – Fictional learning places #blimage
Adrienne de Kock – Airports, legal papers, cultures and arts (Dutch)
HJ DeWaard – Stories and spaces within a #blimage challenge
Phil Denman – Everything is Not Awesome
@debsnet – Viva la boredom?
@debsnet – Spider-web connectivity: Technology for networked learning
Juan Domingo – Las dos caras de la #blimage! (Spanish)
Juan Domingo – #blimage-2 Cuando learning y aprender, no siempre es lo mismo! (Spanish)
Karin Donkers – Rood de kleur van... (Dutch)
Stephen Downes – The #blimage challenge spreads
Frans Droog – Een uitdaging! (Dutch)
Frans Droog – De #blimageNL lijst (Dutch)
Frans Droog – De coach en zijn pupil #blimageNL (Dutch)
Frans Droog – Smoezenbingo (Dutch)
Frans Droog – Wanting to know about black swans #blimage #blimageNL
Robert Drummond – #blimage Seating
Karen DW – #blimage Blank pages

Matt Estermann – A part of a greater holonomy
Terry Elliott – #blimage: A game, an image of learning, a challenge
Simon Ensor – Let them eat (binned) cake
Simon Ensor –  Puzzling memory loss
Simon Ensor – A bridge too low
Simon Ensor – Nature, nurture, network

Jan Fasen – Een stuur met teveel toeters en bellen #blimageNL (Dutch)
Bex Ferriday – #blimage No.1: Apt considering the weather we've been having
Bex Ferriday – Just when you thought it was safe...
Simon Finch – Human Writes
Sharon Flynn – Summer Holidays
Terry Freedman – A message for posterity
Terry Freedman – The writing machine (patent pending)

Tim Geers - #blimageNL (Dutch)
Taruna Goel – Learning is A-Mazing!
Kate Graham – Learning the rules #blimage
Neena Grosvenor – My first #blimage

Enoch Hale – Chalkboard
Enoch Hale – Spelunking education
Enoch Hale – #blimage challenge - Bow tie as content
Jane Hart – The joy of learning #blimage
Martin Hawksey – Forking #blimage and sharing a bit of #vidage
Katherine Haxton – Can’t see the wood for the trees!
Christa Hazell – #blimage
Josie Holford – The efflorescence of learning
Joise Holford –  Crikey! It's #blimage
Sarah Honeychurch – A puzzle
Sarah Honeychurch – Learning technology cats
David Hopkins – Surfer Dude vs. Shark!
David Hopkins – Desks of Doom
David Hopkins – Square peg, round hole
David Hopkins – Life's a beach
Denise Hudson-Lawson – The #blimage list: playing catch-up

Andrew Jacobs – Organic Growth
Sandra Jantjes – Kuikentje (Dutch)
Charles Jennings – The #blimage challenge
Kathrine Jensen – Perspectives and movements in learning landscapes #blimage
Phil Jewitt – Judging books by covers
Rachel Jones – #blimage challenge

Helen Kara – Data
Helen Kara – Positive disruption practice
David Kelly – Learning Fortunes
Whitney Kilgore – The Web: Network, dreamcatcher, patterns #blimage
Martin King – #blimage 'Back to the Future' The network is out of the bottle again
Erwin Klaasse – #rozeistochmooeir (Dutch)
Theo Kuchel – Established 1658
Caroline Kuhn – Learning in the wild and open, like skywhales - #blimage

Simon Lancaster – #blimage challenge
Alan Levine – I'm just jealous #blimage is a thing
Mary Loftus – Getting bogged #blimage
Claire Lotriet – Darth Vader, flow and learning
Stephanie Loomis – You can go your own way, but...

Teresa MacKinnon – Of eggs and baskets #blimage
Colin Madland – The #blimage challenge
Juf Malka – Waar mijn hart sneller van gaat kloppen in de klas #blimageNL (Dutch)
Hayley Maisey – Pencil shavings, bruised fingertips and four holed buttons
Connie Malamed – Fortune Cookies For eLearning Designers
Richard Martin – Palimpsest
Sheila MacNeill – What Sheila's seen this week #blimage
Juf Margot – Niet overlaten aan halfdronken docenten en toevallig luisterende barmannen (Dutch)
Jeff Merrell – Space to make ideas your own
Ajo Monzó – #blimage (català) Les dues cares del viure a la ciutat invisible (Catalan)

Chrissie Nerantzi – #blimage response and new visual triggers
Nine Lanterns – My #blimage challenge - Learning trees

Pam O'Brien – Take joy in learning #blimage
Rachel Orr – #blimage FlOORed! Educational patience, self-control and perseverance

Christopher Pappas – Just use your blimagination
Tracy Parish – Learning While Wandering
Sukhvinder Pabial – Time for a fresh perspective?
Michelle Parry-Slater – Is the Learning Landscape Desserted?
Brayley Pearce – apple for teacher
Stephen Powell – In response to Chrissie's 3 plus one #blimage challenge

Clark Quinn – A Nurturing Culture

George Roberts – Getting away with it
Ann-Louise Robertson – The #blimage challenge
David Rogers – Bridging the chasm - collaboration in schools with real people #blimage
Angela Rees – #blimage
Damian Rentoule – A wooden brain
Michele Ricci – #blimageIT challenge (Italian)
Laura Ritchie – Reflections: My learning wall 
Dan Ryder – #blimage The fine line between painful tradition and transformational vintage

Roberto Schonocchini – Una sfida educativa a colpi di immagini (Italian)
Sylvia Schouwenaars – De fotograaf (Dutch)
Tim Scott – Learning enjoyment
Nick Shackleton-Jones – Picture this
Kay Sidebottom – Jumping on the #blimage band-wagon
Sandra Sinfield – It's only a puzzle... it's a system
Jeroen Smits Geen – #icebucket, wel de #blimage challenge (Dutch)
Susan Spekschoor – Home is where I am with my family #blimage (Dutch)
Andrea Stringer – See think wonder
John Stoszkowski – No such thing as a stupid idea

Wendy Taleo – Lest we forget, it started with a tweet #blimage
Donald H Taylor – Memory is more than Ebbinghaus
Sharon Tipton – #blimage challenge! Game on!
Sharon Tipton – Why is learning so complicated?

Jannie van Maldegen – Rups (Dutch)
Judith van Hooijdonk – De bloemen van Zuyd (Dutch)
Tessa van Zadelhoff – Over oude busjes en het verbreden van je horizon (Dutch)
Sandra Verburggen – Rups wordt vlinder, het onderwijs (Dutch)

Simon Warren – Going against the groove with a groovy beat - a #blimage story
Hartger Wassink – Een leeg schoolplein #blimageNL (Dutch)
Susan Watson – #blimage: A game, an image of learning, a challenge
Britt Watwood – #blimage challenge - the rock arch
Britt Watwood – A dam #blimage challenge
Britt Watwood – A layered blimage challenge
Sheridan Webb – Under constant surveillance
Steve Wheeler – Blimey, it's #blimage!
Steve Wheeler – Piece by piece
Steve Wheeler – Off the rails?
Steve Wheeler – Playing chess with the enemy
Steve Wheeler – A lot of balls
Steve Wheeler – Over the handlebars
Phil Willcox – Work in progress
Karin Winters – #blimage: Van de rups en de vlinder (Dutch)
Anna Wood – The colours of active learning
Kandy Woodfield – Persistence and learning #blimage

Photograph by Steve Wheeler



The #blimage list by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The #blimage challenge spreads

It is barely a week since the fabulous Amy Burvall and I started the #blimage challenge, and we are both just a little breathless as we watch how rapidly it is catching on. The challenge was just a little fun between the two of us at first. We didn't plan for it to become a global movement, but that seems to be the way #blimage is heading. In just 6 days, almost 100 edubloggers have taken up the challenge, and have then paid it forward to their colleagues and friends. There is now a Dutch language version called #blimageNL and a Spanish version (#blimageES set up by Juan Domingo) and other language versions will also follow. Who will be the first to set up a Japanese version #blimageJP or a German version #blimageDE or a French version #blimageFR?

We anticipate that #blimage will grow even wider in its influence, because it has an appeal for everyone who is thinking about education and learning. Ultimately, it's great to see how people are enjoying blogging about education, sharing their ideas, having fun with images, discussing their interpretations and generally connecting with each other in new ways. It has spread across all sectors of professional practice, from primary, secondary and tertiary education, into the workplace learning sector.

Here's the video Amy created to explain the #blimage challenge:



As Amy says, #blimage 'makes your brain dance with metaphorical thinking', it compels you to think more creatively, and I might add, it gets you involved in dialogue and connections with your personal learning network. Some educators are now blogging for the first time. Others have returned to sharing their ideas after a time away from blogging. Still others (like me) have discovered new and fascinating education blogs for the first time. The #blimage challenge exposes new ideas, new resources, and new people you really should get to know. It's about learning through storytelling, and this is lucidly explained by H J deWaard in an insightful post entitled Stories and Spaces within a #blimage Challenge. I would argue that this is learning technology at its very best.

Here are just a small selection of #blimage posts:

Space to make ideas your own by Jeff Merrell
Organic Growth by Andrew Jacobs
The #blimage challenge by Jane Bozarth
Fortunate Learning and Learning Fortunes by Sue Beckingham
Desks of Doom by David Hopkins
Taking up the #blimage challenge by Ignatia de Waard
Not just a waiting room by Rachel Challen
Human Writes by Simon Finch
It's only a jigsaw puzzle by Sandra Sinfield
Playing chess with the enemy by Steve Wheeler
Learning while wandering by Tracy Parish
The #blimage challenge by Charles Jennings
Learning in limbo by Wayne Barry
Time for a fresh perspective by Sukh Pabial
The colours of active learning by Anna Wood
Breaking bread with Steve Wheeler by Amy Burvall
The joy of learning #blimage by Jane Hart
The Web: Network, dreamcatcher, patterns by Whitney Kilgore
The #blimage challenge by Sheila MacNeill

You can see the diverse range of topics these bloggers have written about, inspired by the images they were sent. I'm looking forward now to seeing what the #blimage challenge will unearth next. Do visit the collection of #blimage posts and artefacts that are being collected on a Pinterest Board and a Flipboard, both set up by the marvellous Simon Ensor.  So please do take up the #blimage challenge yourself - and use the image above to inspire your next blog post. You never know where it might lead you!

Photo by Steve Wheeler


The #blimage challenge spreads by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Blimey, it's #blimage!

I'm always looking for new ideas to promote blogging for teachers. For me and countless others, blogging is a very important part of professional practice, and I have written extensively about its benefits for teachers in articles such as 7 reasons teachers should blog and The truth about blogging.

In conversations recently with members of my PLN including Amy Burvall (USA @amyburvall) and Simon Ensor (France @sensor63) another method began to emerge. It's a challenge/game that Amy called #blimage - a confection of Blog-Image. (Yes, we are now in the age of blim!) You send an image or photograph to a colleague with the challenge that they have to write a learning related blog post based on it. Just make sure the images aren't too rude. The permutations are blimmin' endless.

My first challenge came from Amy and my response was published under the title of 'Off the rails'. It made me think hard, because I incorporated the 3 images she sent me into one blog post. Following on from that, Simon sent me another #blimage challenge, which became the post 'Piece by piece.' Subsequently, other bloggers took up the same challenge, and Simon set up a Pinterest board to capture their efforts and aggregate them in one place. The discussion on the blogs and on Twitter is just beginning around these efforts. It's a very creative way to encourage teachers to think about their practice, and get them blogging about these thoughts. So, if you're up to the challenge, and you're at a loose end, let me start you off.

The challenge is this: Use the image above (or another of your own choice), incorporate it into your blog, and write a post about learning based on it. It's OK - the photo is mine and it's licensed under Creative Commons so you can use it with attribution. See what you can make of it! (Then pass an image of your choice on to someone else so they can do their own #blimage challenge).

Photo by Steve Wheeler


Blimey, it's #blimage! by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Piece by piece

I'm continuing the challenge that was featured in my last post Off the Rails. The #blimage challenge is where people send me an image/photograph and I have to write a (reasonably intelligent) learning related blog post about it. This image was sent to me by Simon Ensor, (his blog Touches of Sense is well worth reading by the way) and here is my response:

The is a photo of jigsaw puzzle pieces, which brings three things to mind about education that are key to our understanding of good pedagogy. Firstly, all learning has the characteristics of an incomplete jigsaw. You don't really know exactly how you're going to get to the end (if there ever is an 'end'), or how long it will take, but you do have a an image on the front of the box that contains the pieces, as a reference point to what it should look like when completed. The box top image is a little like a curriculum map in education, where the subjects or the schemes of work are described, and teachers are expected to use it as guidelines to deliver content and facilitate experiences that help the students to achieve their learning outcomes. Testing is then applied to measure whether the students have indeed reached the ideal standard. This ultimately represents a product based approach to education.

Secondly, the means by which an individual successfully completes a jigsaw can be almost infinite. There are methods that people adhere to. Many people start a jigsaw off by finding and assembling all the edges. Others are more prescriptive in their approach to a jigsaw puzzle, preferring to gather together all the colours or shapes that match, and then assembling the jigsaw on the basis of similarity and pattern. Still others adopt a more random approach. Who is to say which method is a) more effective and b) more enjoyable? Whatever methods are employed, it is likely that each of us would complete a jigsaw in a different sequence, which of course is also true for most learning processes. Individuality is a key component of all learning.  Wouldn't it be sad (and very boring) if each of us had to complete a jigsaw in the same sequence, piece by piece? This is a very idiosyncractic approach to education, where the student is central to the process, and where the teacher acts as one resource amongst many.

Thirdly and finally, we could accept that the image above is quite an eye catching image in its own right. Abstractly, it has a beauty and a form that derives entirely from its incompleteness. The discussion then can turn to the question of whether all jigsaw puzzles should be completed. Ostensibly this is the intention of the jigsaw manufacturer. But should it always be the intention of the person who builds the jigsaw? What if the jigsaw is more aesthetically pleasing when only partially complete, or not complete at all? What about the value of missing pieces? Do they not also add some appeal? What about the beauty that is inherent in the chaos and uncertainty of the jigsaw? Isn't the process by which you put together the pieces more enjoyable than the ultimate satisfaction of completing the puzzle? And... what would happen if we threw away the box cover image and there were no guidelines as to what the jigsaw should look like? These questions are reminiscent of a postmodern perspective on education - where learning is random and chaotic, has multiple layers and diverse possibilities, and where the rules might just as easily be thrown out of the window. Ultimately, we know that not everything that is taught is learnt, and not everything that is learnt is taught.

I'm sure there are many other messages that could emerge from the image above, but I'm going to stop at this point to give someone else (perhaps even Simon himself?) a chance to interpret it in a pedagogical context. So what are your ideas? (And what image will you send me that will present a challenge for me to interpret?)

Photo by Simon Ensor


Piece by piece by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Off the rails?

It so happens that my friend, colleague and fellow Edupunk from two oceans away has set me a little challenge. Amy Burvall has sent me three images, and my task is to create a learning related blog post using one of them. She calls it the #blimage challenge. I'm not one to shy away from any challenge, so I hereby present a post that incorporates all three images.

The state education system can easily be compared to a railway network. Trains arrive and depart from designated stations, passengers embark and disembark, and somehow, the train delivers everyone to their destinations. There is no deviation from the track (unless there is a disaster and there is a derailment - trains run on the rails), and generally there is a prescribed timetable that dictates the schedule of arrivals and departures of all trains in the network. This is a great metaphor for school systems, which generally operate on the same principles. There is a timetable that all school lessons and schemes of work run to. A bell divides activities, and everything is scheduled for a specific part of the school calendar. This is the easiest and most cost effective way to manage the delivery of a curriculum, but is it the most helpful for learners? It doesn't suit all students, just as a railway timetable doesn't suit all travellers. But we comply with them, because there is no alternative. Or is there?

Some prefer to travel in a taxi, or even by using their own personal transport. This transport will depart at the time the traveller decides and hopefully get them to their destination. This is a metaphor for personalised learning, with the personal learning environment supporting an individual's learning. There is plenty of opportunity to deviate from prescribed educational processes, which leads to endless possibilities for personal research and digressions into uncharted territory. Furthermore, unlike traditional formalised education, the personal learner determines his or her own destination. To learn at this level of individualisation, the learner requires several things. Firstly, they need a set of tools they can use to access knowledge, and to communicate with others. In other words, they need technologies that are networked. They need to be able to connect with experts, peers and content.

One of my tasks as an academic working in the field of teacher education over the last few years, has been to develop and promote this kind of alternative, off the rails education. Now and then I deviate into some alternative practices, which have been documented on this blog and elsewhere. Things can happen that are not planned, or may not appear to have a clear purpose. You might say these are 'strainge sessions' (I love the alternative spelling) in the sense that they don't comply with conventional educational practice. In one of my recent sessions I asked my students to use their cameras to create a 'story without words'. They not only had to create the videos or image sets, but determine what exactly the learning outcomes were. It goes without saying that each decided their own learning outcomes, and each got something different from their participation. Each had to solve their own idiosyncratic problems, and each had to think critically and creatively to successfully complete their task (the success criteria were also decided by them). Some teachers might consider this to be completely off the rails. For me it's a necessary, creative approach to support and promote personalised and critical learning.

How's that Amy? Anyone else want to set me an image/blog challenge?

All images by Amy Burvall


Off the rails? by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.