"Traditional vs Transformational" - Master Class #3 (#eFellows14)

I was looking forward to catching up with everyone again for this Masterclass... and when we got a tweet from +Karen Melhuish Spencer that said: "Plotting some #eFellow #Wellington goodness for this week... ;)" I just knew that we would have an incredible time.

Together again [at last] at the CORE Education office in Thornden, we started with Louise discussing the analysis process of our inquiries.

With this visual Louise demonstrated that we need to trust our gut feeling, but that we also have to follow this up with careful interpretation of our data.







Our accommodation on the Kapiti Coast was a slice of heaven . Quiet, with just the sound of the ocean that can be heard at times, it was the perfect venue to work on sorting and analysing the data we've had collected for our inquiries.  Discussions also kept coming back to our uLearn14 presentations in the research strand.  

On Thursday morning, after Louise did a bit of revision with us about the process of organising our data, we continued to work on sorting our data.  This whole process has became clearer in my mind.

Afterwards, we went to lunch where we were so relaxed and social, that John had to put on a timer, which only gave us a couple of minutes to be finished and back in the van to be on time for our visit to Amesbury Primary School, where I've also had the opportunity to meet Matt, one of my 'Tweeps'

This school visit was quite interesting and raised as many questions as answers for us, while challenging us at the same time.

Discussing the themes that emerged from our visit back at CORE's office, we did realise that we have become more critical as we now know, how to dig a bit deeper and to look past the surface.  We were also reminded by Karen that we have to be prepared to be provoked by things that we see or read or even by people we talk/listen to.

We've also discussed how we could contribute to Connected Educator month by sharing our journeys.

As we noticed people arriving, we realised that it was time for the potluck dinner.  It was great to meet Nathaniel, another 'Tweep'

Although it was hard to end our conversations at times, eFellows do have time to relax and have a bit of fun, as this photo shows on how +Anne-Louise and I were photo bombed by +Tim, +Ben and +Rowan, while posing for a photo with CORE's stunning +Karen. What an amazing end to the day!

On our last day we woke up to a grey and rainy Kapiti Coast. 

At the CORE office +Chrissie Butler talked to us about Universal Design for Learning. I have heard about this before, but never actually got myself as far as looking into it.   

Chrissie used these images to illustrate that we have to rethink our approach to inclusivity as UDL is, after all, a framework that addresses learner diversity.

 

Universal Design for Learning:

Know the learners. Identify and remove barriers to learning. Provide multiple learning pathways. Offer a range of universal tools and supports to everyone at the outset. (Butler, 2014)

Further reading can be found on Chrissie's 'Passonable' blog

After lunch and a mind-boggling three days, we were really tired.  Louise did a great job in keeping us on track, while pulling together her last key message about analysing our data.

And then we were on our way home.

On my way to board the plane, I look out of the window to see the sun set on yet another fabulous eFellow14 Masterclass

See you all at uLearn14...

~ "Transformational leaders don't start by denying the world around them. Instead, they describe a future they'd like to create instead." - Seth Godin ~