One of the biggest challenges in education today is how to empower everyone and give a voice to every learner, this means moving beyond listening to those who seek to be heard and finding ways to capture every voice in and out of the classroom. From collaborating on a document to using a learning response system to reflect on a unit of work, this session will look at not only how we can use various web 2.0 tools to capture the different voices in and out of the classroom, but also how these tools can be used to provoke and prompt further ongoing dialogue. Presenting our thoughts and reflections from a wide range of settings and scenarios, both Primary and Secondary, we hope that you leave this session armed with an array of tools and ideas that will help you go and listen to some of those lost and hidden voices today.

I am not sure of the exact moment of our meeting, but I know it was online. The Ed Tech Crew ran a Hangout at the end of last year focusing on the question: what advice would you give a new teacher just appointed as an ICT coordinator? I put down my thoughts in a post, Steve commented and wrote a response of his own. The rest is history.

Since then we have connected online - sometimes on Twitter, other times in the margins, sometimes even within blog posts themselves, via a few emails - growing the connection each step along the way. For example, Steve set me the 11 question blog challenge, which he had already taken the time to complete himself. I was lucky enough to meet Steve face-to-face when we both presented at Teachmeet at the Pub in February. What a enjoyed about connecting with Steve was that although we teach in different sectors on different sides of the track, we shared an undeniable passion - student learning and how technology can support this.

What is interesting about our bond is that we have only meet once in real life. The rest of our connections and conversations have been online. A passing comment here, an email there, collaborating via a Google Doc, building using OneNote. It has slowly all come together.

So our challenge to you is to reach out and connect, whether it is online or face to face. Contribute, collaborate and be open to new perspectives and be prepared to be inspired and grow as a learner.

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It is so easy to consider technology as the answer, that missing solution, that panacea that will somehow manage to solve all education's ills. However, there is no tool or technique that will magically solve all our problems for us. Instead, technology is a support, an addition, a supplement, something that helps us do what we do, but better. In regards to Ruben Puentedura's SAMR model, this change revolves around 'redefining' what we do. Providing a possibility for something that was often deemed impossible. Bill Ferriter suggests, "technology lowers barriers, making the kinds of higher order learning experiences that matter infinitely more doable."

Importantly, the changes brought about by technology are not about simply dispelling the past. For as Ferriter argues, many of those attributes that get lumped with the call for reform are things that highly effective teachers have been doing for years. Various higher order thinking skills, such as the engagement in collaborative dialogue, solving complex problems and manipulating multiple streams of information, are not new.

Take the act of publishing for example. For example, after consulting with a teacher from another state Cameron Paterson got his Year 9 History class to create picture books around the topic of World War 1 for a kindergarten. While Bianca Hewes used Blurb, a site that allows you to create both eBooks and physical books, to publish her student's stories for a wider audience. There is nothing new about composing texts for an audience. Technology though allows us to publish to a more authentic audience more easily.

Another particular area where technology allows for a change is in regards to capturing the different voices associated with learning. Whether it be communicating or collaborating, there are many different scenarios involving listening and responding to voices in and out of the classroom. Voices have always had a central role in the classroom for at its heart, learning is a social activity. However, instead of conversations being dictated by the few, technology democratises the whole process, it takes away some of the social pressures and tedious silences when no one is willing to respond. Technology makes it more doable.

We feel that there are three different categories when it comes to listening to voices in education:

• Students communicating and collaborating with each other
• Students and teachers in dialogue about learning
• Teachers connecting as a part of lifelong learners

As with any sort of arbitrary division there will always be examples which go across categories. However, splitting things in this way helps to highlight some different spaces and situations where voices can be heard and provides a foundation on which we can continue the conversation.

So to the big question, how are you listening to different voices in and out of the classroom? And what place does technology have with this?

In the past, conversation in the classroom was often driven by teachers as 'sage on the stage'. However, the place of the teacher in the 21st century is that of a 'guide on the side' or as Erica McWilliam puts it in her great paper (found here) on creativity "a meddler in the middle". This shift in role does however, sit uncomfortably with some teachers. With that being said, some of the most powerful learning in a classroom may not feature a word of the teacher and such learning is amazing to witness.

In a recent blog post, I wrote about the development of the Digital Leader role at Ivanhoe. The difference with this role from other tech-inspired positions in schools is that student networking (both internal & external) is at the core. The Digital Leaders Network originally began in the UK but an Australian version has recently been established. The below links highlight the Ivanhoe journey as well as link to the Digital Leaders network in Australia and the UK. Click on the images below to read further.

In the past the dialogue that existed between a student and a teacher was either informal or inconsistent. It might have been a quick chat in the moment or a comment on an assignment or workbook. If you were lucky, your teacher may have had a conference with you about a particular piece of work. However, such situations are often time consuming and in an ever crowded curriculum, happen less and less. In all these scenarios, there is little time for students to actively ask questions and provide feedback, especially on the work that they may have received. Technology makes such a dialogue not only explicit, but more doable.

I recently have been introduced to the app Verso and have been blown away by the possibilities for capturing true student opinion, understanding and feedback.  The aim of Verso is to flip your thinking and through the personal contribution of your own knowledge you gain access to the online knowledge community that is generated.  Teachers create provocations to prompt discussion and these “flips” can take the shape of YouTube clips, web links & Google Drive files (For iPad users, you can also record video, audio and insert photos using your iPad).  The prompts are best helped when framed with a question or a task.  Students must submit their response before they can access everyone else’s opinions.  This really helps to gauge true understanding or opinion and reduce the “what do you think” syndrome that can happen in class discussions.  It really does provide an equal platform for all learners to have a say.  Once you are in the knowledge community, you can “like” other comments and write responses and comments.  Another difference that further enhances the capacity of Verso to gauge true thought is that each student is anonymous within the community.  In the teacher view, the teacher can view who wrote each post and who commented on what but for the students, this is hidden.  This then helps to reduce friends liking friend’s comments and helps to capture true public opinion.  The teacher can then group students in a number of ways to continue the discussion.  The teacher might group like-minded students to work on the development of a concept or group students with opposing opinions to provide a well-balanced thought pool for a further discussion.  Each comment can also be rated for its helpfulness and provide the teacher and learner with great fuel for digital commentary etiquette sessions and workshops on how to give rich feedback.  Verso is cross platform (gotta love device agnostic learning applications!!) and can work for all levels of school.

Over time, the notion of the teacher at the centre has progressively been replaced by the notion of the learner at the centre. What is interesting is where this leaves the role of the teacher. A term that is often bandied around online is 'lead learner'. This is a useful term as it is important to remember that the teacher is just as much a learner in the classroom as the students. At the heart of this learning is collaboration and communication, where teachers work with each other towards a greater good of the community. There are many applications and programs which support the critique, curation and connection of ideas and information. At the heart of it, being a connected educator is not only essential for gaining access to a wide range of solutions, but it is also useful for refining our pedagogical practise. For as Clive Thompson suggests, "It’s easy to win an argument inside your head. But when you face a real audience, you have to be truly convincing."

Sam Irwin and I were recently reminiscing about the demise of the 21st Century Learning Melton Network. After sharing a few stories about the halcyon days, Sam suggested that we should get the band back together. This is something that I had mooted last year, that we should maintain the group, but had never got around to doing.

I therefore decided to create a space on Google+ and send out invites to those I already in my contacts and scrounge through my emails for the other teachers who were in the network.  Clearly I could have created a Facebook group or a Ning, however personally I prefer the functionality of Google+, while my concern with using something like a Ning is that it is another place for people to have to go. I have found that most people are often already within the Google infrastructure, whether this be via Docs or Gmail, I therefore see it as a natural progression. In my message I suggested that it would be a place to share ideas and develop solutions to various problems. 


Over the next few days people came. Now they didn't come in droves, it was only one here, two there, but they did come. The big question is what next. To me, I think that probably needs to be something that the group decides, for now I am happy with the knowledge that I am not alone. It takes a village and a village takes more than one.

Although the conversation must physically end, we would like to think that it is only the beginning. We have created a couple of different spaces for you to continue the conversation after today:

Google+ Community (https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/112586283310657433864)
- This community is a space for learners to connect, share ideas, build collaboration and to continue the conversation.

Diigo Group (https://groups.diigo.com/group/listening-to-voices)
- Share your great resources here for all. Look forward to connecting.