Mag-Net Online Association of STEM Educators Inc.
Annual General Meeting
14 October 2017
Annual Reports
President’s address:
Gary Bass
Secretary’s Report:
Dr. Robert Roe
Treasurer’s Report:
John Widmer
Vice President’s
report: David Lu
Committee member:
Roland Gesthuizen
President’s address:
Gary Bass
Welcome to the 2017 Mag-Net AGM. In my first year as
President I have been active
In a few conferences locally and interstate. In June we had
a ‘soft’ launch of the Mag-
Net T-shirt on Show here. The idea is that when
representing Mag-Net in a semi-official capacity people will find it easier to
take a photo of the t-shirt with you in it, rather than managing the ritual of
business cards. So, when people try
to remember what is this business card? And who is this Mag-Net bunch? They can
look at the photo and there it all is.
So, we’ve attended quite a few conferences.
Farthest away was Robert. His presentation in Oxford.
So, Mag-Net is now on the international scene. On the national scene
there was a CONASTA presence, in Canberra and
Hobart, where John, Roland and myself each ran workshops.
And, raised the idea of our version of STEM. It is interesting to contrast our
understanding of STEM with those other versions we found around the place. None
of which seem to agree. But it is a rich field and a good topic of discussion.
You can guarantee that in any conversation you have with anyone, you will find
aspects about STEM on which you can agree or disagree.
Roland and I went to The Astronomy conference in Canberra.
And met up with Leonie McGlashan and Paula Floyd who are
active in the parallel operation of STEM Australia
<https://www.facebook.com/groups/1466726270300197/1553573488282141/>.
When Leonie and Paula were at Keysborough Secondary College
they were the initiators of STEM Australia. STEM Australia is on Facebook. It
isn’t linked to Mag-
Net at all. But Roland and I are members. I would recommend
that you have a look at it. Especially if you have some resources that you want
to share with other people. It is an easy conduit in which to connect with over
nine hundred members. In just over a year STEM Australia has about nine hundred
subscribers. So, in terms of the online presence, it’s a convenient avenue. It
doesn’t create a job for anyone around the table here. There is about ten admin
moderators who keep an eye on what is going on.
Of late there has been discussion about people going into
these forums as self-promoters. So, they have got something to sell. Usually a
product. ‘Buy my worksheets, notes, or buy my time. I am available. I can come
to you and give you the good word.’ I’ve taken a particularly
dim view of that form of self-promotion.
Though, if people want to recommend someone else. That’s
probably what STEM
Australia’s purview is.
In terms of getting involved and promoting STEM. You may say, ‘Hey, this
is good. I think it is worth knowing about. This is my recommendation.’ Rather
than blatant self-promotion which is usually very positive, and not critical at
all.
So, I’ve had a conversation with a couple of people about
this along the lines. ‘Well, we would like to be fellow travellers in this but
we are not going into uncritical promotion. Some of the Science Centres have
also succumbed to this form of promotion. Recently, at the Victorian Space
Science Education Centre
< https://www.vssec.vic.edu.au/ > Roland and myself were on
a panel talking about
STEM. Quite a few people were able to attend. John, David
and Robert came along.
They had a tour of the place. But the conversation we had
with Michael Pakakis, the
Director was quite robust. We pointed out to him some of
the deficiencies in the place. He said he would look into these and address
them. And he is well aware of these issues. He is happy to have that
conversation. He actually welcomes critical comment.
I think that Mag-Net may have a role to play in this place
- providing critical comment if you like. It seems that part of our role is to
observe, to weigh up and to offer comment in a constructive way. So that these
places can improve their performance. There educational performance, because,
when looking around there seems to be self-interest. Commercial interest. But
not the educational interest. The public interest. Mag-Net is not a public
institution. Mag-net doesn’t have
a special interest or investment in these educational institutions. So,
our niche may be offering critical commentary that seems to be emerging over the
past year.
As President, the last two months, probably, I’ve been a
little bit quieter online than usual. That’s because my employment situation
changed dramatically. I am now on-going, full time. So, the hour or so I used to
spend most days doing stuff online has now completely disappeared. I understand
how difficult it is to keep up with things without being online. So, some sort
of summary digest may be appropriate for people who are not able to check the
face book feeds every day. How do they get back into the conversation once
you’ve looked the other way for a couple of weeks? Like assessments are coming
up in the next couple of months. It
is going to go very quiet across the board. How do they get back on board and
feel welcome? So, that’s the online provider/consumer dilemma which in my case
is still unfolding. I have seen it from both sides. As a provider of information
and now as a consumer of it. You don’t want to jump in with a comment if it has
already been talked about a week ago. So, that’s why it’s always difficult to
know what is going on.
Secretary’s Report:
Dr. Robert Roe
Thank you Gary. Thank you for your work in this financial
year, 2016/17. In your role as President you represent all of us at the various
meetings/conferences that you attend. Where ever you are and whatever you say.
You are now speaking for Mag-Net. As you know I went to Oxford, in July. I
attended a conference at which I discussed my research. At the same time I took
on the challenge of representing Mag-Net internationally. I joined the trend and
sent photos of the various places I visited proudly wearing my Mag-Net t-shirt.
I did cause a bit of a reaction at the conference. As the participants were
certainly not expecting the Mag-Net t-shirt to appear. Laughter.
What I was talking about
was my attempt to reposition the voice of teachers in education
conversations. As you may realise most of the discussion of STEM here in
Australia, has been conducted by people who are not necessarily classroom
teachers. People such as the chief scientist. Various federal and state
ministers. They have come from various sectors of business and industry. Or from
universities or the higher education sector. And when the views or perspectives
of teachers are sought they are usually conveyed by someone speaking on their
behalf.
My specific interest is in how to improve the contribution
of the voice of teachers in
That dialogue.
There is a lot we have to say but in general people speak for us. That’s
Why I think it is appropriate for Gary as President of
Mag-Net at conferences
To inject an authentic voice of the teacher into the
discussion. It means that the
voice of a practicing teacher or someone who has experienced what it is to be a
teacher is able to engage in the public discourse on STEM education.
I think the same can be said of Roland. Even though Roland
is now working at Monash University it doesn’t mean the voice of the teacher is
diminished or extinguished, allowing the voice of the academic to take over.
People like Roland are teacher educators. While they are educators of teachers
they can also inform the academics of what the day-to-day life is like for
teachers in schools. And, when they are visiting schools they can discuss with
their preservice teachers how to use their classroom experience to gain an
understanding of the day-to-day life of teachers/students in schools. Which
means that teacher educators like Roland are able to contribute to the discourse
on STEM education.
I believe that Aaron also has a role to play in informing
others on the possibilities of applied learning in STEM disciplines.
Aaron has a technology education space which people can visit.
Aaron can speak from his experience what he feels is the right way or
more appropriate way of thinking about makerspaces/tech centres, etc. That is
Aaron provides the voice of the practicing teacher which others need to hear.
This is not the voice of others representing classroom teachers. I believe that
Aaron is well versed in pointing out what it is that needs to be done if you
want to develop appropriate engineering focussed applied learning courses for
school aged students.
We all have a role to play in raising the profile of
classroom teachers. Karen, in her work with primary and secondary students and
teacher professional development is able to discuss learning from both sides of
the pedagogical divide. Again, Karen has a perspective that should inform
discussions of STEM education.
John has been doing that for some time. I think what John
has to contribute is his personal/professional experience/perspective in the use
of the Arduino board as a means of engaging students/teachers in a range of STEM
focussed applied learning projects. John can talk from experience and authority
on how the digital technology works or doesn’t work. Where to get the materials
and how to import them. So, John is engaged in a new dialogue with teachers at
conferences and with teacher educators like Prof. Russell Tytler and Dr. Peta
White.
David has a role to play as a conduit at the school level,
in trying to get students involved in science activities other than those
of the ‘curriculum’. So,
David is engaged in another discourse.
The annual Space Camp provides an opportunity for David to talk about
astronomy with students and parents. I believe that this is our strength. The
ability to engage people in conversations involving STEM disciplines and
activities across a multitude of interests and perspectives. We all have a track
record in this regard. We all bring something different/unique to these
conversations.
I think we have improved our knowledge and skills in
developing
Mag-Net’s online presence.
Roland has helped our understanding of online meetings via Hangouts. He
has helped organize the sessions: keeping time; turn taking; suggesting possible
discussion topics. We are in the early stages of experiencing and getting used
to this technology. We are developing a sense of what it means to engage in a
distributed conversation. We are still discovering and refining the protocols
for a successful meeting using Hangouts.
We should think about inviting others to join our online
meetings. I enjoyed the session when Leonie McGlashan joined us from Canberra.
Roland: It actually shows that we are not just stuck in the
physics/makerspace area. Leonie
has a background in microbiology, biology and ecology. Offering a
different perspective from which to explore STEM.
This is pretty exciting. And it’s a bit of breadth in our group. We have
a Mag-Nificant network here. And as Gary described it
we have got some friends that are in line with us and are sharing their
stuff.
Robert: I haven’t been as active as I wanted to be this
year. I was distracted by some other projects. I am working on my next series of
‘Musings’. Namely: What is STEM? In
my previous posts I was looking at the bigger picture. Now I am looking at STEM
and School Education. I am currently drafting my musings, which John is keen to
host on the Mag-Net website. I am rethinking the layout/content to make it more
accessible for teachers. I am thinking of reviewing my past posts and rewriting
it as an article. This could be submitted for publication. At this stage my
contribution is for publication on our website. I think it is useful to have a
record, not of us, necessarily. But, what is happening in STEM, as I see it
unfolding in Australia.
So, that there is something that can be referenced if need
be. That concludes my report for this year.
Treasurer’s Report:
John Widmer
We don’t have a membership fee. I have been trying a new
model which I trialled at the CONASTA conference. I actually give people stuff.
If they turned up to our workshop they got a little handout. A show bag of bits
and pieces. As Karen knows I am incredibly wealthy. And, I am in the process of
helping people out. This has been really good as a couple of teachers have come
online who otherwise wouldn’t have access. The extraordinary thing is how cheap
some of these new technologies are.
Vice President’s report: David Lu
This year everybody seems to be involved in some sort of
STEM activity. I have been helping
teachers and students use electronic products like the Arduino in classrooms. At
least I am trying to do so. Once again I went to the Space Camp, which was
pretty good. Except I still have to
learn how to work the telescopes. So they can work better. But, that’s okay.
There were no battery problems this year!
Interestingly, all we had was cloud problems. That was the
biggest problem. There was no real way to avoid the clouds. I guess it was the
date we chose. Can’t do much about the weather. That’s about it really.
Committee member:
Roland Gesthuizen
I’ll stick to the more recent stuff. Gary’s done a good job
filling in the back story. I have a love of sun dials. My students printed the
sun dial. You have to think about
this. The digital sun dial. They can only be 3D printed. It shows the time in
the shadows in the digital. If you look at the pattern on the screen. The
sequence of dots from the shadow you can read the time in digital. So, it’s a
real mathematical quirk of something digital on an analogue sun dial. I’m
thinking about Monash having a two metre version outside the Education faculty.
That will keep everybody guessing. Oh. Yes.
You have to remember to switch to the southern hemisphere! Gary: Mojoptix
< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrsje5It_UU> made a northern one.
And he mentions vegemite in his video!
Roland: Laughter. I had a bit of fun – if I can show you
this here on my screen. Now this was the ‘Plain of Jars’ in Laos.
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4557769.htm>. You
can’t go walking around this archaeological dig because there is unexploded
ordinance. So Monash is using
drones to actually do the archaeology and the mapping. As well as marking
out the safe routes.
I took my students as a class to the 3D virtualisation
environment we have at Monash.
For this lecture the students were wearing 3D Google
cardboard glasses, so they could see what I was broadcasting.
I had a 3D camera which was broadcasting my lecture. I was standing
inside a 3D virtualisation environment. I’m teaching in a virtual classroom in
3D from inside a virtualisation environment. This session was recorded. For
students to avoid vomiting it is recommended that from time to time they take
off their google goggles; Shake their head and then they can continue their
virtual reality experience. So, they are wearing VR goggles. I’m in the VR. I’m
inside, not as an avatar; I’m physically there inside a 3D virtualisation room.
The room itself is using … polarisation technology. The camera I have has a
polarisation filter. So, each screen on the camera actually captures images from
different angles.
It’s a 360 degree room. I was puzzled.
How can you have 360 degrees if you are rotating? Because when you rotate
90degrees. It’s kind of like the room itself. One view is rotated maybe
by 5 degrees. So, you have a left and right view if you are standing
anywhere in the room … wearing polarising goggles.
And for my participants wearing google cardboard glasses they were
watching a youtube video in another room. And they were able to join in.
I soon discovered that audio is a problem. Because, we
don’t virtualise the audio.
You can’t turn the audio by 9 degrees. Or 5 degrees. … We
had to think ahead. Because there is a four minute lag. We decided to go for
high quality resolution. Which meant
we cached more. It also meant we had to anticipate when questions were coming
up, that were asked four minutes ago. So, I had to anticipate things on the chat
room. I was living in two time zones. But, it was a good experiment. I enjoyed
it. We found that students asked all sorts of interesting questions because of
the nature of the virtual reality experiment. So, we had a lot of fun doing the
3D virtualisation lecture. We did the 3D lecture because we wanted to try out
the virtual reality experience with students. We think that no other teacher
educators have used VR in this way.
We don’t think anyone has actually broadcast live a VR Lecture in which students
are able to take part interactively. We think that it’s really remarkable that
no one has actually pieced both things together: the live VR lecture and
participation by people wearing google glasses. We are going to publish this VR
experiment as a paper. The contention is that these virtualisation environments
are more than just having fancy board meetings. Or looking at your supermarket
in 3D.
I’m still puzzled as to where it would fit into a school
environment with kids. I think a lot of it is fairly trivial. Google cardboard
is still a virtual expedition. It’s kind of challenging. What are we going to be
doing when kids are authors of these virtual reality learning experiences?
This is the ‘Around Me’ virtualisation app
<http://www.aroundmeapp.com> which is loading on my phone.
This is something
Gary and I have been experimenting with. I went on a scout
bushwalk and we made some virtual 360 tours. Gary also showed me a camera called
Insta360 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrOmKKSRu8c>.
Now, there is some excitement at Monash for this camera. We
are looking at getting some of these cameras for doing some of the capturing.
Instead of me stitching images together to create the scene. The Insta360
records the scene.
Gary: It records a movie of things. So, it’s very, very
clever. A huge amount of processing power. It is rubberised. So it will bounce.
It has a little place to put a string on it. So, you can actually hold it from
the roof. Swing it around. And, it is made for moving around. Outdoors where
people aren’t that careful. All this technology it’s still a work in progress.