What is the #edchatNZ online course?

In collaboration with Jane Gilbert at AUT, we have carefully put together an online course that will​ develop your capacity to understand education futures in deeper, more complex ways, whilst taking on a more active, informed role in experimenting with future focussed change.

Who is this course for?

  • This course is perfect for anyone and everyone who is interested in the future of education. This includes teachers, senior leaders, boards of trustees and parents. 
  • We offer a free, open, online version of this course once a year. You can subscribe below if you wish to be kept up to date about future offerings. 
  • We are also able to facilitate this online course privately for whole schools, teams or organisations who wish to engage with challenging their practice to become more future focussed. Get in touch if you are interested. 

What will I learn?

​You can’t think outside the box until you know what the box is. We will start by defining the box, and then move on to thinking outside it. This means that in the first three weeks of this course, we will dig into the history of education so that we can better understand why things might need to be drastically different. From weeks four to seven we will make sense of just how the world is changing. We will look at technology, knowledge, climate change and futures literature to inform our thinking of just how and why schools might need to be radically different in the future. From week eight onwards, we will reimagine school, and start to experiment together using a range of interesting strategies. Finally, week eleven draws to a close with a last reflection to make sure we capture, and make sense of the enormous journey that we have been on together. 

​The course is made up of the following:
  • Section one (weeks 1 - 3): Understanding why education is the way it is, so that we can think outside the square.
    You can’t think outside the box until you know what the box is. Participants explored the history of education so that they can better understand why things might need to be drastically different.​
  • Section two (weeks 4 - 7): The shifting foundations of education.
    Participants made sense of a changing world including, technology, knowledge, climate change and futures literature. This helped them understand why schools might need to be radically different.​
  • Section three (weeks 8 - 11): (Re)imagining education.
    Participants reimagined school, and started to experiment using a range of interesting strategies to catalyse future focussed change. ​
Goals of this course:
  • Develop your ability to challenge your own thinking and assumptions
  • Interpret the shifting foundations of education and school
  • Discuss, debate and experiment with education futures in more sophisticated ways 
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Learning Objectives: 
  • Evaluate schools using a range of contrasting paradigms in order to consider schooling more objectively
  • Explore and make sense of global trends and how they may impact education and schooling
  • Experiment with rethinking and reconceptualising the schooling experience

Badges

There are four digital badges to claim towards the completion of this course. The first three are earned for completing each of the three major sections of this course:
  • Section one (weeks 1 - 3): Understanding why education is the way it is, so that we can think outside the square.
    You can’t think outside the box until you know what the box is. Participants explored the history of education so that they can better understand why things might need to be drastically different.​
  • Section two (weeks 4 - 7): The shifting foundations of education.
    Participants made sense of a changing world including, technology, knowledge, climate change and futures literature. This helped them understand why schools might need to be radically different.​
  • Section three (weeks 8 - 11): (Re)imagining education.
    Participants reimagined school, and started to experiment using a range of interesting strategies to catalyse future focussed change. ​
  • The final badge is awarded for overall completion of the course. In order to gain this badge, participants will need to have completed each section of the course, as well as submitted a portfolio that shows their thinking throughout the course. 
​
The course has been designed in sections as some individuals may wish to only complete a particular section of the course, as it applies to their context or current learning needs. 

We hope this MOOC will...

  • Creates a space for more in depth discussions about critical ideas and issues in education and its future - aka. for ideas that 140 Twitter characters just can't handle.
  • Provide a range of professional readings, videos, live webinars and more from across the education landscape, carefully curated by a collaboration of academics and practitioners .
  • Provide a space for academic and practitioner expertise to build on each other.
  • Provide a more formal means of professional development for the #edchatNZ and other Twitter communities that includes recognition from an established academic provider for their ongoing commitment to professional development (MOOC will be produced in partnership with AUT).
  • Contain entirely Creative Commons or free access content so that resources and ideas can be shared with colleagues, parents and friends so that participants can share freely and involve others as they feel the need .
  • Support participants to bring their school or community on the future focussed journey.
  • All content to be Creative Commons so that participants can share as they feel the need.
  • Present content and learning tasks in a UDL format: in other words, all ideas and tasks to be presented in a combination of modes.