EduTech Brisbane 2013

I was very excited to attend EduTech 2013 in Brisbane.   With keynote speakers such as Dan Pink, Stephen Heppell, Salman Khan, Alan November and Gary Staeger - I was pretty ecstatic  to be attending!  Did I mention Ken Robinson as well?

Dan Pink had the opening keynote  Drive:  What the Science of motivation can teach us about high performance.  He was a charismatic and engaging speaker who had some significant messages about motivation.  

My Storify Collection of Tweets on Dan Pink's Keynote
LiveBinders Collection

Dan Pink spoke about the science of motivation and spoke about what does motivate people to go the extra step.   In deploying technology, it is important that we are able to understand this.  Our implicit knowledge of motivation is mechanical.  We understand and assume that when we reward we get more of the behaviour and that when we punish, we get less of the behaviour.

But, 50 years of research has shown that when you reward behaviour, you do get more......but only sometimes.  He spoke about a study in which an experiment was conducted with groups of people who completed sets of physical and cognitive challenges and that rewards were different for each of 3 groups.  There was  a huge reward, a medium sized reward and a small reward.

It revealed that once tasks called for rudimentary cognitive skills, a larger reward led to poorer performance.   Dan Pink then talked about his BIG IDEA 1 -  'IF THEN REWARDS' - which are great for simple and short term work but not for complex tasks.

A second experiment was then discussed and this was was with children.   The children were 4 year olds and were put into 3 groups.  All of the children liked drawing and were told to draw if they wanted to.   One group was given an expected reward, one was an unexpected reward group and the other was no reward.   It was found that 2 weeks later, that the reward group no longer expressed enthusiasm for drawing.

BIG IDEA 2: The problem with IF THEN rewards, there is a contingency and the problem is that people don't do their best work under control conditions.

Third experiment - two groups of Middle School Maths Teachers - 1 group's teacher was promised an extra $15000 if students's results improved.   The result in test scores showed no difference between the two groups.  Extra money did not lead to any transformation.

A further experiment.  10 Artists - they were engaged to create 10 commissioned pieces of art and 10 non-commissioned pieces of art.   Experts then critiqued them.  The non-commissioned art were judged to be superior.  The artists themselves also talked about the impact the constraints had one them in terms of the creation process.

Have a look at this fantastic video that shows the difference between commissioned and non-commissioned work in a Year 3 classroom:

In Summary:

• Money does matter but only when fairness is in play.  Pay people enough so that money is not an issue.

• Adding too many constraints to a piece of work restricts the creator

• 3 key motivators for enduring performance - autonomy, mastery, performance

• Management is designed to get compliance. Engagement is more important. Human beings don't engage by being managed or controlled.

• If you want engagement - aim for self direction.  Give more people more autonomy over their time, team, task and technique.

• Ask: Describe your best boss.  Issues often raised - autonomy and high standards

• Companies which give employees some time to work on products of their own choice - reap the rewards. 10% non-commissioned works.

• Give teachers one day: come up with one idea to make this school a better place. Students - same - one day to work on own choice.

• Look for ways to allow for non-commisioned works.

• Single biggest motivator - making progress in meaningful work. Progress depends on feedback. Feedback is essential for this.

• Replace formal performance reviews with self reviews for teachers

• How can we supplement formal assessment for kids - DIY report cards.

• Purpose - people need to know why. Try having 2 few conversations about how and 2 more about why

• Innovation Days – 10% of the total time.  Students must then teach a skill.

• Fed Ex Days - work must be shared with others.

Another blog on Dan Pink's Keynote.

This was followed by Salman Khan with Rethinking Education.   I really enjoyed his narrative about how The Khan Academy started.    Salman was basically recording his tutorial videos in a closet in his bedroom when he was called by Bill Gates to come and see him.  From there he was able to start employing people.  This was a powerful story about believing in yourself and believing in your mission.

• Be curious.

• Listen to yourself

• Humble is cool

• Good energy is infectious

• Find a way

Ewan McIntosh then followed.  Ewan is the founder of NoTosh.

He spoke about our love of stories and how this is one of the reasons we go to school.

Asked:  ‘what is more important than creativity and curiosity?

The Creative Industries – what is important?
Concept of googleable Versus Not Googleable questions.

The idea of problem finding as being more important than problem solving.

The idea of PURPOSE – Why are we learning this?

Let’s give the entire process of learning back to the children.

6 Pillars of Learning – Challenge, Collaborate, Responsibility, Real Thing, Respect, Choice

Designing curiosity into every lesson.

Blog 2 on Day 1's keynotes and workshops
Podcast