Category Archives: Learning Power

PhD studentship at OU to study EnquiryBlogger

Posted on May 14, 2013 by | Leave a comment

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PhD Studentship, Open University UK (2013-16): This PhD project builds on validated pedagogical models for learner-driven enquiry, scaffolded by blogging software and associated learning analytics, to create a reflective, social, learning journal. The research will start by analysing the data already gathered from prior research in schools, design new contexts for studying this phenomenon, and refine the analytics. Experience in qualitative and quantitative data analysis required, programming not required but an advantage.

Funding consists of stipend £40,770 (£13,590/year) plus fee bursary

Please contact Simon Buckingham Shum and Rebecca Ferguson at the OU to discuss this informally before applying.

Learn more about EnquiryBlogger…

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Posted in Authentic Enquiry, Learning Power, Software

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Modelling Learning Dynamics

Posted on April 25, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Shaofu Huang presented his doctoral research at a seminar of the Centre for Systems Learning and Leadership on Wednesday 24th April. This is an exciting application of complexity theory and systems modelling in the social sciences and demonstrates that for teachers, engaging students in deep learning is complex and unpredictable – more like a design challenge than a script to be followed.

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Posted in Authentic Enquiry, Collaborative Learning, Community, Complexity, Learning Power, Pedagogy, Uncategorized

Parent Yarns—Learning Together: parent engagement in Australian schools

Posted on December 7, 2012 by | 1 Comment

During 2012, Australia’s largest children’s’ charity—The Smith Family—organised a series of parent/school engagement activities in Northern Territory schools that aimed to skill parents to confidently communicate with each other and collaborate with school staff to resolve student issues. Known as Parent Yarns—Learning Together, these sessions were facilitated by ViTaL partners, Julianne Willis and Marilynn Willis, who introduced the concept of ‘effective lifelong learning’ in considering how parents can best support their children to succeed at school.  The Smith Family’s vision is to support communities in   improving life outcomes for disadvantaged Australian children, with a particular focus on the challenges of working in Northern Territory schools where over 40 per cent of students are Indigenous.

Seminar with Tess McPeake from the Smith Family on 20th December at 1630 in the Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol.

Parents Yarns – December 20th 1630

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Posted in Community, Events, Learning Power, Projects

Ngambara Fimityatit: Learning Together in Daly River

Posted on October 20, 2012 by | Leave a comment


These murals of a Barramundi and a Brolga have been painted by the community in Daly River, Northern Territory, Australia, to remind everyone about how the community and the children in St Francis Xavier Catholic School are learning and achieving together.  The project, led by Miriam Rose Bauman and Julianne Willis, draws everyone in the school community together to engage in learning and change.  The vision of the project is summed up in the title Ngamara Fimityatit – which means

When we learn together, sharing + living the same language for learning, we will be empowered to create a new story for our future…

It’s about bringing together local traditional knowledge systems with 21century ideas about learning, in order to empower and engage a new generation. For more details of the project you can read the latest update about how  the whole community is engaged in a process of merging two streams into a third way.  Watch the video below made by the students in the school to show how we learn together in Daly River….Animal Powers…..

Ngambara Fimityatit October 2012

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Posted in Authentic Enquiry, Coaching for Learning, Collaborative Learning, Community, Complexity, Culture, Language for Learning, Leadership, Learning Power, organisational learning, Pedagogy

EnquiryBlogger: blogging for Learning Power & Authentic Enquiry

Posted on June 20, 2012 by | Leave a comment

We just gave this talk on EnquiryBlogger at the annual Open U.’s CALRG 2012 conference.

enquiryblogger-analytics-calrg2012

Further reading:

Ferguson, R., Buckingham Shum, S. and Deakin Crick, R. (2011). EnquiryBlogger: using widgets to support awareness and reflection in a PLE Setting. 1st Workshop on Awareness and Reflection in Personal Learning Environments. PLE Conference 2011, 11-13 July, Southampton, UK. Eprint: http://oro.open.ac.uk/30598

Ferguson, R. and Buckingham Shum, S. (2012). Social Learning Analytics: Five Approaches. Proc. 2nd Int. Conf. Learning Analytics & Knowledge, (29 Apr-2 May, Vancouver, BC). ACM Press: New York. Eprint: http://oro.open.ac.uk/32910

Buckingham Shum, S. and Deakin Crick, R. (2012). Learning Dispositions and Transferable Competencies: Pedagogy, Modelling and Learning Analytics. Proc. 2nd Int. Conf. Learning Analytics & Knowledge. (29 Apr-2 May, 2012, Vancouver, BC). ACM Press: New York. Eprint: http://oro.open.ac.uk/32823

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Posted in Authentic Enquiry, Learning Power, Software, Uncategorized