8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning

Tell a story. Make a plan. Think and do. Draw it. Take it outside. Try a new way. Watch first, then do. Share it with others

Humans have a fantastic lack of perspective. We keep trying to solve our own problems, ourselves, without stepping back and looking for help from further afield. Sometimes this comes out as a “not invented here” syndrome. Other-times in niche specialisms that lose sight of the broader cross-discipline knowledge.

This morning I got (yet another) reminder of the huge value of stepping back, and looking further afield. The diagram, below, is part of a pedagogical framework that attempts to model Aboriginal learning processes in Australia. Have a look at the 8ways wiki – it is ripe with ideas that can help enliven teaching even in the most western / urban classroom!

If you DO end up using these ideas, please respect their ethos and give something back to the 8ways wiki … or post a response to my blog and I will collate them!

Heard of the Learning Score? You will soon!

One of our pet projects going on in the labs is “Learning Score” – a lateral (and we hope creative) way to plan lessons.
We were in the middle of a fairly low key user-trial, but it got “leaked” last week, and all of a sudden we are popping up on tweets and blogs all over. It is great fun, because already we have been sent some amazing feedback, and ideas for future directions.
Stephen Heppell (www.heppell.net) took time out to help us spread the word:

Jon Davitt mentioned us during his keynote at the Apple Education Leadership event.
Doug Belshaw and a couple of other bloggers picked up on the trial version, and started sending us some great feedback, as well as posting this lovely intro:


Thanks, all, for the amazing feedback. As well as all the related tweets:
http://twitter.com/#search?q=%22learning%20score%22

If you want to try it out for yourself, grab a trial version today.

Top tips for teachers …

I am enjoying #movemeon. Both the book (available for free here), and the idea.

Doug Belshaw asked teachers all over the world to tweet their hints, tips and ideas for improving their lessons, and has pulled them all together into this delightful guide.

The power of “lots of” small ideas!