The New Mind Set and My First Adventure with Haiku Deck

Many have announced, demanded or even prayed for the immediate death of PowerPoint. I’m sure you have all, at some stage, endured PD where you sat wishing for the laptop or even the presenter to spontaneously combust. Earlier this evening on Twitter I came across the following modified version of a well known aphorism about teachers and computers.

“Any teacher who can be replaced by a pre-recorded PowerPoint presentation probably should be.”

Let me confess my sin, I have in the past been a regular user of PowerPoint … and for that I am now truly sorry! This week I found the ideal replacement; Haiku Deck has (for me at least) finished off PowerPoint once and for all. Unfortunately, for some of you, it is currently only available as an application for iPad.

Now, of course, the quote above opens up a whole can of educational worms. I’m certainly not entirely in favour of flipping the classroom as some would advocate. However, I do accept that the time for numerous changes in our schools has well and truly arrived. Until recently I was convinced that many of my colleagues lacked the necessary skill set to teach in 2012 and beyond. Now, I’ve accepted that in fact it is all about mind set; a refusal on the part of many to accept and embrace change. When school returns for 2013 I will be presenting a PD session that will be entitled The New Mind Set. I intend to use the opportunity to provoke those that I work with, who seem destined to be trapped forever in the halcyon days of PowerPoint (… though many still haven’t mastered that!) Too many teachers believe that because schools have a 1:1 laptop program that they are “progressive” or even “transformative.” Rubbish, just having the technology doesn’t guarantee anything. The first change has to be in the mind set of teachers.

And what, you rightly ask, does all this have to do with Haiku Deck? More than once in the past I have based presentations around huge, unwieldy PowerPoints with text laden slides. And then I’ve wondered why the audience has become disengaged. Well, as the philosopher Homer Simpson would say, “Doh!” Haiku Deck is elegant in both its ease of use and the final look of your “deck.” A range of themes are available and you have the choice of a number of slide layouts. But, and this is the best part, you can only enter two lines of text on a slide and once you’ve typed this in, Haiku Deck will provide you with a selection of Creative Commons images to use. No more searching for images yourself or investigating if they are subject to copyright. A completed “deck” can be shared via email, Facebook or Twitter; or embedded in a blog such as this. (And, although I refuse to do so on principle, you can export your “deck” to PowerPoint or Keynote where you can add video or transitions.) Haiku Deck’s own blog will give you a list of 23 ways to share your deck. Just go to blog.haikudeck.com  Below you can check out my “first adventure with Haiku Deck.” I would welcome your feedback upon any or all of the following:

Am I right when I speak of mind set? Have you found ways in your own school to transform teacher thinking? Are you prepared to give up PowerPoint? Are you going to start using Haiku Deck? Do you have suggestions for other ideas that I might include in this presentation?

Haiku Deck is the best application for creating presentations on iPad

6 thoughts on “The New Mind Set and My First Adventure with Haiku Deck

  1. Hi Simon,
    Great blog and I love the Haiku Deck tool. I definitely agree with the mindset, I often use Silvia Tolisano’s toolset-skillset-mindset blog post as a way to challenge people in their thinking. What could be added? How about challenging the pedagogy using a tool like SAMR? For example, are teachers asking students (and themselves as a teacher) to just enhance or truly transform their work with digital learning? You could also organize your challenges into three spaces – challenging the physical space, virtual space and prdagogical space. I’m looking forward to hearing how the PD goes next year.
    Lou

    • Hi Lou, and thanks for taking the time to reply. You are not the only one to suggest that I incorporate the SAMR model so I’m certainly going to do that. I love your suggestion, which I will immediately steal (lol), of dividing the challenges into 3 “spaces.” I’m not familiar at all with the Tolisano post that you mention but will certainly search fo and read it. Thanks again for the awesome suggestions … have a great Christmas break. Simon

  2. Great provoking images and questions posed Simon – Haiku Deck is a great free app that enables students to be curators of their own work. It is a new mind set for some teachers especially those who are not connected. For too long we have protected our students in closed communities the new frontier is to have students become curators taking their learning to new places and levels as we redefine teaching and learning while challenging our students. A PLN is essential but i have found that staff need to see a purpose for them to join twitter for example. Teachers becoming curators of their own content is also important to have a understanding of how our work can be redefined. To gain an understanding of how essential it is to connect and collaborate with others and share knowledge. Thus the new mind set is critical.

    I am about to deliver PD with a colleague to staff introducing staff to the SAMR model. As part of the PD all staff involved will make a blog. I will go through how to add some bells and whistles to the blog. Then staff will have a few tasks to complete making a post and then making a page to upload content they create during the session:
    * using PuppetPals to create a short animation and upload to the blog,
    * create Screen Chomp recording and embed into their blog,
    * use qrstuff to make a QR code, screen shot the code and upload to their blog.

    The next part of the PD I will talk about how i redefined a unit of work with year 7’s in History introducing staff to the ancient Greece party blog as an example. We have a couple of other examples using pin-interest, twitter, skype for example. Following this staff will work in faculty teams to work through the SAMR model for a unit of work they choose. Part of being a curator of knowledge also means having an understanding of copyright and online safety so these are messages we intend to embed into our PD too.

    Good luck with your PD your staff are lucky to have a leader who understands the new mind set, is collaborative, creates and puts it out there for the world to see 🙂

    In the end for me it comes back to Alvin Toffler’s comment:

    “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but the ones who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn”

    • Wow Clare … thanks for taking the time to leave such a detailed response. Thank you too for the positive reinforcement; always good to know that others think I’m heading in the right direction! I do have some familiarity with the SAMR model but will look into it further; although I can already see its relevance to what I’m trying to do. I’ve already made use in my own classroom of Screen Chomp and QR codes … don’t think I’ll have the opportunity to showcase these at the PD. In 2013 I will have the same Year 8 class for 2 or 3 subjects and am intending to “get all Learning Tech” with them. I’m also going to offer other staff a “constantly open door” to my classroom; in the hope that witnessing innovation will inspire more to come on board. Thanks again for your excellent suggestions. Simon

  3. Great paradigm shifting, Simon! It’s also inspiring sharing how other leaders are building learning communities within their schools and across districts/ digital landscapes.

    Have you seen the YouTube video with the musical stairs (http://youtu.be/2lXh2n0aPyw)? Your Challenge slide reminded me of this level of innovation; as with a mindshift, disruption or unlearning is also needed to *see* things differently before we truly transform our teaching, then, by leveraging to scale, education.
    Roll those sleeves!

    • Hello again Sam and thanks for taking the time to comment. I am certainly aware of the musical stairs video that you mention. I was thinking of using it along with perhaps some Ken Robinson and the “Three Little Pigs” advert which shows disruptive innovation and is favoured by Ian Jukes. (I’m hoping you know this one or if not here is the link
      I’ll certainly be “rolling those sleeves” for 2013, just hoping it’s not for a fist fight! Thanks again for your input.

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