Newsletter #1 Classroom Agility
ACCelerating future EDucation online
BELIEFS
Why beliefs are important?
In our context, we try to understand the challenges of the digital transformation of the school curricula and its implementation in the classroom and the multiple assumptions, doubts, constrains that may generate at different levels. The classical image is an elephant entering a small shop.
The critical thinking approach to these beliefs is extremely important to design a series of actions to face the challenge. We have prototyped a series of beliefs that project partners answered and at the same time, they have created theirs.
The first Zoom/Miro board meeting was a systemic approach to the tools, content and challenges we are facing. A profound immersion the "What" to move in the next meetings to
"So What" and "Now What". Actions come after. Let's give a look at some exercises and their purpose.
How do you feel in this project?
The metaphor is the project is a ship ready to departure to discover new worlds. The sailors' position represents the emotions, feeling of the partners. By identifying themselves with a number and explaining "the why" is the first approach to understand how they feel.
We practice "active listen" and the exchange of feeling draws the systemic emotional map of the project. Some people feel like if they are number 8 calling for adventure, others like 5 needing a hand to be really on board while others 1 and 2 run fast to catch up the boat supported by 17. Some embrace number 12 acknowledging there is a load of work to be done at the personal and institutional level and the ones in number 11 see room for creativity. At the end a very fruitful conversation to clarify aspects of the project and get everybody in the same storm and the same boat.
Working agreements
Working agreement are guidelines that define how groups want to work together, and what they want in the working environment and from each other to feel safe and free to learn, explore and discover. Highly important in the Sprint tasks.
Our values are important because they help us to grow and develop. ... The decisions we make are a reflection of our values and beliefs, and they are always directed towards a specific purpose. That purpose is the satisfaction of our individual or collective (organizational) needs.
By asking them "what you do not like that happens/behaviours in a virtual workshop"? You set the working agreements of the virtual session. The same technique is applied to any part of the project.
In today's pandemic world teachers had to jump into the "virtual ZOOM/Adobe connect, G-suite, Microsoft Teams, Mural, Miro, Blackboard and Trello. Adjusting to this has caused enormous emotional stress and made visible the technological gap. To master new tools in a short period of time became an issue, therefore working agreements are needed and they have to be fine-tuned all the time.
The customer is always right
The customer is always right" is a motto or slogan which exhorts service staff to give a high priority to customer satisfaction. It was popularised by pioneering and successful retailers such as Harry Gordon Selfridge, John Wanamaker and Marshall Field.
The teacher is no longer the teacher, the teacher is the customer. As customer knows what she wants and she has her requirements. She knows the content program, she knows what the students have to learn, for how long she can teach the subject and what kind of exam to pass.
The students are no longer the students, they become Product Owners, Scrum Masters, Developer teams. I agree we can enable the students to rename these positions, but the customer is the customer.
In the inspirational Quote Factory, we tested for the first time three main things:
1.Who you are, what the goal is and you got some customer requirements.
2.It states what is your responsibility for additional needs
3.It defines the number of quotes needed
4. Establishes a time box
All these are elements of the Agile that contribute to the definition of done.
In a comparative way, the teacher in the role of the customer explains the lesson and what she wants. She delivers a series of requirements and defines a time box. The next step is to enter in a dialogue with the students in different roles to support the co-creation of the knowledge through a series of artefacts and ceremonies.
What really happens in the real world of corporations between customers and teams in many cases the requirements are not fulfilled. Then the product is not valid.
The requirement in this exercise to return to the main room has two important components;
1.To pay attention to the requirement rarely happens because you are fully focused on creating the 20 quotes because you think this is the task, so you don't return to talk to the customer. Imagine a student developing a work without asking the teachers.
2.You are in a ZOOM session and you have to leave the room but no one has explained to you how to do that, very often happens, so you do not leave and above all, you do not ask how to do it. In a face to face classroom, this is not happening, but now we operate hybrid and that requires you know all about the tool you use.
The extra requirements were:
1.To put a photo of the person who said the quote
2.To put the name of the person who said the quote
3.To put all texts in capital
Some teachers ideas about how to use this exercise at school
Alberto the Spanish ICT teacher partner pointed out that exercise is good for the students to understand database requirements. Marina the Spanish teacher sees possibilities to apply this to some lessons English lessons. We came out with the idea to combine Agile and LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® frameworks.
Agile provides de requirements of the story tale scenario and it's built and explained with LEGO®.
A very engaging way to implement Agility.
Facing Challenges in online teaching
After one year of pandemic and compulsory online teaching we know that some problems are:
- Isolation. Learning from home can be lonely. ...
- Lack of motivation in online learners. ...
- Technical difficulties with online teaching tools. ...
- Time-consuming resources. ...
- Setting and forgetting of online learning activities. ...
- Need help with distance teaching?
We wanted to hear from first hand what challenges the partners are facing to identify some possible Agile and other framework solutions.
SUM UP the first round of exercises
WHAT COMES NEXT
We are entering in what the project defines as IO2
Task 2: Training Module Design -SPRINT AGILE CONCEPT
The individual modules will be designed and a set of written overarching learning objectives will be developed and each will be divided into content subsets, each with its own set of
learning objectives.
Task 3: Training Review
The training curriculum will be examined in its entirety to examine if the learning objectives have been constructed for all of the modules.
Task 4: Certification design. SUPER TRENDY NOW!!
ACCelerating future EDucation online - in the time of Virus 2020-1-RO01-KA201-080165
Website http://accedproject.org (5 Sprints DONE, 5 on Progress)
Project Coordinator: Centrul European pentru Integrare Socioprofesionala ACTA,
Partners:
TARTU ULIKOOL EstoniaEuropean Education & Learning Institute Greece
IES La Puebla Spain
Istituto Magistrale Statale "C.Lorenzini" Italy
colegiul national emanuil gojdu Romania
Stichting for Education on Agility Liberating Structures Netherlands
The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the National Agency and Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.