Activity 4 - Communities of Professional Practice

I was asked to proved answers to any three of these provocations:

1. Who are the stakeholders of your professional community? In what ways do they influence your practice?
2. What are the current issues in your community? How would you or your community address them?
3. What is the purpose and function of your practice? In what ways do you cater for the community of your practice?
4. What are the core values that underpin your profession and how?
5. What is your specialist area of practice? How does your specialist area of practice relate to the broader professional context?
6. What are key theories that underpin your practice and how?
7. What are the challenges that you face in your practice?
8. What changes are occurring in the context of your profession? How would you address them?

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I have chosen the following to expand upon:

1. Who are the stakeholders of your professional community? In what ways do they influence your practice?
2. What is your specialist area of practice? How does your specialist area of practice relate to the broader professional context?
3. What changes are occurring in the context of your profession? How would you address them?

1) Who are the stakeholders of your professional community? In what ways do they influence your practice?

Within the college my department team which includes myself a FT specialist digital technology teacher and three other part time digital technology teachers who have other teaching commitments in Languages, Mathematics, Art and Technology. This provides a good cross-curricular perspective. My HoD is also network manager and in the Senior Leadership Team so I am lucky that he is a good Transformational leader who facilitates what we need.

The school is a decile 6 catholic state integrated Marist boys' school so other stakeholders include the students, parents, teachers, SLT, the principal and the Board of Trustees.

The school roll is currently 660 boys from Y7-14. The Ethnic composition is as stated in the previous ERO document (http://www.sbc.school.nz/2014_Mailout/SBC-ERO-15-01-2014.pdf):

• Māori - 15%
• NZ European / Pākehā  - 48%
• Pacific - 20%
• Asian - 13%
• Other ethnic groups - 4%

The Cardinal is the proprietor of the school. As a function of the school's special character my practice is influenced to support the ethos and charisms of the school through the Five Marist Pillars: 

1. Love of Work, 
2. Family Spirit, 
3. Simplicity, 
4. In the Way of Mary 
5.  Presence. This manifests through a Servant Leadership model. (Greenleaf, 1970). 

Within the digital technology realm of tertiary education I am grateful for the support of the NZ universities and Google through their involvement in Computer Science for High Schools (CS4HS). This has provided invaluable professional development in the new digital technology achievement standards, for example I am grateful to Prof Tim Bell of Canterbury, who wrote CS Unplugged (
http://csunplugged.org/) and the CS Field Guide (http://www.csfieldguide.org.nz/) and Elf Eldridge's Engineering Outreach (http://wgtnengroutreach.blogspot.co.nz/).

I am also influenced by the resources, advice and support of my peers, fellow teachers in The New Zealand Association for Computing, Digital and Information Technology Teachers (www.NZACDITT.org.nz) 

From further afield I am able to listen to the podcasts and follow the news from The Computer Science Teachers Association in the US (www.csta.acm.org) and Computing at Schools in the UK (http://community.computingatschool.org.uk/door)

2) What is your specialist area of practice? How does your specialist area of practice relate to the broader professional context?

I worked professionally as a web designer / graphics designer and editor and I thought I understood the IT industry, however, it wasn't until I retrained as a specialist ICT teacher that I properly learnt about spreadsheets, relational database management, programming and computer science. Since my involvement with CS4HS I have gained a deeper understanding of Computational Thinking (see CAS for a teachers' guide - http://community.computingatschool.org.uk/resources/2324 )

The broader professionnal context includes the issue that NZ needs to develop its information economy and this is hampered by falling numbers of students choosing Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects at university. Global initiatives in the USA, UK, Germany and Australia mirror those in NZ to promote CS and STEM. (see the Hour of Code at www.code.org) and to promote these to students of increasingly young ages.

In NZ we are lucky to have corporate involvement to rectify the issue through the Institute of IT Professionals (IITP) 'TechHub in Schools' programme (http://techhub.nz/ ) and the Institute of Professional Engineers NZ (IPENZ)  'Future in Tech' programme (http://www.futureintech.org.nz/)

Both of these programmes give students access to IT & Tech professionals' experience and expertise, enabling them to make informed career choices. I have accessed these to bring industry speakers in to the classroom so that students can gain authentic insight into the benefits and realities of IT & STEM careers, such as remuneration, international travel, challenge of upskilling, reward of doing valuable work

A picture from The Little Prince, which shows the difference between childlike perception and adult perspectives, e.g. adults see a hat, but the Little Prince sees a snake that has swallowed an elephant.

3) What changes are occurring in the context of your profession? How would you address them?

I am reminded of an expression, "Q) How do you eat an elephant? A) one bite at a time".

The biggest (seemingly insurmountable) change which is occurring is the implementation of the new digital technology achievement standards which has required teachers to upskill and school to totally rewrite the curriculum and assessments. I have addressed this challenge through a three phase development plan, upskilling in a new area each year:

1. web design with HTML 5, CSS 3, computer science (CS)
2. relational database management and Level 1 & 2 programming (Scratch, Python & Javascript)
3. Level 2 & 3 programming (Python), jQuery web development, mobile app development

I am currently learning basic electronics and Arduino (programming in BlocklyDuino & C) to allow students to combine hardware and software in robotics and the application of coding and programming. The only way to address them is with a growth mindset (Dweck, ) and patience.

From the quote above in reference to a CS context I would adapt to "Q) how does a Python eat an elephant? A) one byte at a time"

References:

https://www.greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/
SBC ERO Review, 2014 retrieved from http://www.sbc.school.nz/2014_Mailout/SBC-ERO-15-01-2014.pdf 
http://www.flyertalk.com/the-lobby/the-little-prince-beckons-at-le-grand-balcon