System thinking and self-directed learning in a digital world with Dr. Michael J. Henderson

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Michael J. Henderson, a former electrical engineer turned educator whose lifelong fascination with technology began with a crystal radio set and evolved into a career spanning decades of innovation, education, and digital transformation. From early computing in the 1970s to current explorations with AI and data analytics in education, Michael shares how informal learning, hands-on experimentation, and technological curiosity have shaped his teaching and learning practices. Join us as we explore what it means to be ‘technologically agnostic,’ the role of AI in higher education, and the importance of developing system thinking and self-directed learning in a digital world.

Interviewer is: Dr Elham(Ellie) Manzari (She/her), Lecturer, Monash University
School of Curriculum, Teaching and Inclusive Education | Faculty of Education.

Transcript

Ellie Manzari: Hello and welcome to the Technology and Learning Podcast series. I'm Ellie, a member of AARE technology and learning Special interest group. Today, we're diving into an exciting topic at the intersection of innovation, education and digital transformation. Joining me today is Dr. Michael Henderson from Monash University. Michael, thank you for joining us.

Michael J. Henderson: You're welcome, Ellie. It's nice to be here. Thank you for the invitation.

Ellie Manzari: Let's start at the beginning. What first sparked your interest in technology? Was there a moment or experience early in life that set you on this path?

Michael J. Henderson: Yeah, it's funny since you gave me the draft questions. I went back and had a little bit more of a think, and I can remember as a child, that television sets were first being introduced into New Zealand. And not everyone had them. We didn't. It was before the landing on the moon. And I remember going past a friend's place. I lived on an Air Force base, and his father had built a television set. And I remember being so awestruck by that, and so amazed. But of course that was way beyond the capacity of a primary school child. A couple of years later, though, I'd moved to another town, or my father had, because he'd left the Air Force, and I remember looking in a neighbour's encyclopaedia set. She was a teacher. Primary school teacher, and there was a story about a crystal set. I just started jobs, primary school kid. I was delivering papers, actually. So I had a little bit of money, and I started to buy the components for a crystal set, and that kind of started it all. A little bit later, the telephone exchange was being replaced with an automatic exchange. And I got some telephones and some bits and pieces to start to build all of this. So it was a lot of it was about electronics and building stuff to communicate. And so my first teaching experience, was a couple of years later, as a high school student when I was teaching electronics. And I've kind of forgotten about all of that. So it was a complex path that led me to later on, wanting to become an electrical engineer, because I'd identified that as being the peak. So even shortly into high school years, I was already keen to go forward with that career.

Ellie Manzari: Yeah, it's always fascinating to hear about real experiences, especially those hands-on ones. They often shape the way we approach technology later in life. In a time when digital technologies evolve so rapidly, educators are often overwhelmed by sheer number of the tools available. How do you personally decide which tools or platform to explore or adopt in your teaching and research.

Michael J. Henderson: Yeah, I think that's a very good question. Because I've got this toolkit, if you like, that goes back a long time. And a lot of it's obsolete tools. But it's the blending or the understanding, or the principles, etc. So, for example, coding was something that came naturally to me early on, and becoming that type of engineer that I became. So. Technologies have always kind of attracted me. So I'm aware of what's going on. So I tend to keep my finger on the pulse. If I'm in a discussion, in a research discussion or a teaching discussion, and somebody mentions the technology. I'll take a note of that. And I'll then go and have a look.

Of course, there's some limitations with my approach, because I know from the the grassroots how things are built up, whereas I find that people who are younger and are new to grasping a technology at the higher end, will leap in and understand how to do things, whereas I have to build those steps over time. So it's a different approach. 

Ellie Manzari: So as I know, your work in recent years has extended into creating tools and support data informed teaching. One example is your use of Access and PowerQuery to track student engagement, particularly around LANTITE. Could you tell us more about how these tools function and how these tools have supported your teaching and student learning?

Michael J. Henderson: This actually extended for something I was doing when I was working in professional development space in a Tafe. I'd previously been using databases for most of my working career and a long time prior to education. And I had a particular application that was tracking professional development for teaching staff. And so I used Access as a tool at that time, because I needed something that would supersede or work better than what I could get through either, a learning management system in that context or an HR management system. Neither system seemed to be tracking it well. I found a similar problem when we were using LANTITE or trying to support LANTITE for initial teacher education students. The data that we needed came from multiple systems and multiple formats. So we needed a tool. And the particular tool that I had experience with, that I felt was most likely to do what we needed was Access. Part of my reasoning is, that when I look at data, I look at it from a kind of like 3 dimensions. I look at the need for information, which means we needed to be able to draw on multiple sources in the LANTITE space. I look for something that provides stable calculation. B ecause, although tools like Excel can do a lot of this, it's the idea of being able to do it repeatedly and reliably that access allows. And then presentation. So access, although it's quite dated, has the ability to create formatted screens that reliably present for example, a student view or something similar.

Now you also mentioned power query. The thing was when I started doing this with access. PowerQuery didn't yet exist. It was only when it later on became available. I was doing a research project, and somebody was using something called PowerBI that includes PowerQuery, and then PowerQuery became available in Excel. And I found that power query gives me an extra layer or ability to control data from multiple sources and to integrate them and provide repeatable processes. So, for example, I do an update of data once a week from 20 or 30 different sources of data. I'm able to do that these days, by using various PowerQuery tools, and it's a reliable way of using, Excel in order to allow us to have an a discussion with a student to look at trends, data to look at other things while we're drawing on data that comes from outside of the university, some data inside the university and from different formats. But there's always development needs or opportunities. And that's one of the things that it does tend to become an endless project.

Ellie Manzari: That Kind of data informed approach sounds incredibly empowering for both educators and students. Right?

Michael J. Henderson: Yeah, it certainly worked for us. The other aspect of this is about collaboration. Being able to have multiple users at a time, which is something that Access has been very important to us. And certainly we would be able to collaborate the way we're doing without having this data informed approach that we take.

Ellie Manzari: Now let's shift to something many of our listeners might relate to. If you had to give just one piece of advice to educators who feel overwhelmed by the constant pace of technological change. What would it be?

Michael J. Henderson: It can be overwhelming. Absolutely! And I think you need to take something that's relevant to you and useful to you, and that the hurdle is not too high. We talk about scaffolding as teachers all the time, and it's important that we apply that with ourselves. So, for example, teachers who work in humanities areas, we tend to touch on Excel. Now, tools like Excel are very powerful. But we usually end up only using them when we need to. And that's the most dangerous time. It's easy to make mistakes. So what I would suggest, if there's a tool that is of interest. That you subscribe to a newsletter or a podcast or a small Youtube video series. And you watch them once a week, no more, something like 10-15 min. You take notes and you try the things. You'll find how well your skills would develop over time. So small bites. But regular bites are very important here.

Ellie Manzari: That's incredibly encouraging. Michael, thank you so much for sharing your insight and experience with us today. From the crystal radius to AI enhanced education. Your journey remind us that technology is less about the tools and more about curiosity, learning, and purpose. So to our listeners, thank you for being with us on this episode. If you enjoyed the episode please share it with your colleagues, who are navigating the evolving landscape of digital education and stay tuned for our next episode. And bye for now Michael.

Michael J. Henderson: Thank you, Ellie, and bye everyone.