The Becta fronted conference (held in Birmingham on 10/02/10) on ‘Empowering children and young people in a digital world:2010′ was a confident place to be. The speakers were eloquent, focused and current and the buzz around the 300 delegates was of positivity and a search for effective ways forward in safeguarding all people.
For me Oldham sticks in my memory as a place where some real concerted and coordinated thought has been given to the issues and the young people from the ‘Oldham Youth Council’ simply made me feel proud. Their charter, though not a new thing in itself in this world of charters and actions, was theirs and they owned it and they felt passionate about it. It can be access from the ‘charter’ tab here. The concept behind their thinking was of ‘rights’ not rules with a wonderful strap line of ‘Trust us, teach us, talk to us’.
We were told of the Becta revamp of their safeguarding site - it can be accessed here and of the Ofsted report ‘The safe use of new technologies’.
More information can be discovered about e-safety and safeguarding here.
Thursday 11 February 2010
From Bones to Smartphones
From the blog post: This graphic tries to illustrate how various technology layers have, over time*, allowed for the development of new information tools. The rate of tool development is growing exponentially, leaving many people and institutions confused, trying to catch-up, and wondering how to cope. Some organizations are making the most of these disruptive times, as are some individuals. Others are not and will soon become irrelevant. What will differentiate the winners from the losers?
Scroll down the page and click on the graphic to see it full size.
Scroll down the page and click on the graphic to see it full size.
Tuesday 9 February 2010
Interesting Ways To Use ...
Interesting Ways - Tom Barrett has been developing this series for some time. This is what he says about it: My Interesting Ways to Use series has been really successful. I measure their success in how useful they are to teachers and other educators in helping with professional development. I say “My” in the loosest sense of ownership really, as with all of the presentations they belong to us all. I just kickstart them and point them off in the right direction.
They have been a great example of crowdsourcing good quality classroom ideas and it has been great fun connecting with all of the people who have taken time to add an idea. It is remarkable what can be achieved and created together if you give people the right way to do it. Thanks for all the help so far.
It all began with One Idea, One Slide and One Image as a premise for the IWB presentation and that has always remained. I hope we can all continue to make create them – let me know if you have any other ideas for a presentation.
I wanted to keep the family together in one place and give you one page to see them all, as so many of you have requested. Don’t forget that if you want to contribute an idea just let me know and I will give you access to share your thoughts.
Tim Rylands did some work with 'Wordle' recently. Children produced 'Wordles of Character' and their work is celebrated here.
He continued this work and these wonderful pieces of children's expressive writing are celebrated here.
Monday 8 February 2010
And so on ...
A blended look at what's there - PhoneBook
Kiran Bir Sethi captured me with her passion and inspirational approach to teaching and learning ....... Absolutely wonderful stuff.
Bobby McFerrin - the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from the 2009 World Science Festival .
Its all about passion ...
My wife says that I am very passionate ... about children and teaching and learning.
So is Angela Maier
So is Angela Maier
Augmented reality
Already may applications of the iPhone have this functionality ... Here it is ... how would you use it?
... and if you want to drive a BMW Z4 rather like the 'James Bond' idea ... try here.
If you want to try out a science context using augmented reality look here.
... and if you want to drive a BMW Z4 rather like the 'James Bond' idea ... try here.
If you want to try out a science context using augmented reality look here.
Or to see some embryo curriculum contexts and have fun with them try here
Where do you stand?
WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. -
Ariana Leonard's high school students shuffled in their seats, eagerly awaiting a cue from their Spanish teacher that the assignment would begin.
"Take out your cell phones," she said in Spanish.
The teens pulled out an array of colorful flip phones, iPhones and SideKicks. They divided into groups and Leonard began sending them text messages in Spanish: Find something green. Go to the cafeteria. Take a picture with the school secretary.
Leonard's class at Wiregrass Ranch High School in Wesley Chapel, a middle-class Florida suburb about 30 miles north of Tampa, is one of a growing number around the country that are abandoning traditional policies of cell phone prohibition and incorporating them into class lessons. Spanish vocabulary becomes a digital scavenger hunt. Notes are copied with a cell phone camera. Text messages serve as homework reminders.
"I can use my cell phone for all these things, why can't I use it for learning purposes?'" Leonard said. "Giving them something, a mobile device, that they use every day for fun, giving them another avenue to learn outside of the classroom with that."
Much more attention has gone to the ways students might use phones to cheat or take inappropriate pictures. But as the technology becomes cheaper, more advanced and more ingrained in students' lives that mentality is changing.
"It really is taking advantage of the love affair that kids have with technology today," said Dan Domevech, executive director of the nonprofit American Association of School Administrators. "The kids are much more motivated to use their cell phone in an educational manner."
Today's phones are the equivalent of small computers — able to check e-mail, do Internet searches and record podcasts. Meanwhile, most school districts can't afford a computer for every student.
"Because there's so much in the media about banning cell phones and how negative phones can be, a lot of people just haven't considered there could be positive, educative ways to use cell phones," said Liz Kolb, author of "From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning."
Even districts with tough anti-use policies acknowledge they will eventually need to change.
"We can't get away from it," said Bill Husfelt, superintendent of Bay County District Schools, a Florida Panhandle district of 27,000 students where cell phones aren't allowed in school, period. "But we've got to do a lot more work in trying to figure out how to stop the bad things from happening."
Seventy-one percent of teens had a cell phone by early 2008, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. That percentage remains relatively steady regardles of race, income or other demographic factors. Meanwhile, many schools are low-tech compared with homes outfitted with home networks, wireless Internet and a smartphone for every family member.
Most schools still have prohibitive policies curtailing cell phone use — often with good reason. At Husfelt's district, seven students were recently arrested after they got into a fight on campus that he says was instigated through text messages.
In other parts of the country, teens have been arrested for "sexting" — sending indecent photographs taken and sent through their cell phones. Students also use the devices to cheat: In one poll, more than 35 percent of teens admitted cheating with a cell phone.
But phones are so common now that seizing them is huge hassle for teachers.
"It's just a conflict taking them up and having to deal with them," Husfelt said. "It's too disruptive."
Teachers who have incorporated cell phones into their classes say that most students abide by the rules. They note that cheating and bullying exist with or without the phones, and that once they are allowed, the inclination to use them for bad behavior dissipates.
"Kids cheat with pen and paper. They pass notes," said Kipp Rogers, principal of Passage Middle School in Newport News, Va., "You don't ban paper."
Rogers started using cell phones as an instructional tool a couple of years ago, when he was teaching a math class and was short one calculator for a test. He let the student use his phone instead. Twelve classes, including math, science and English, now use them. Students do research through the text message and Internet browser on some phones. Teachers blog. Students use the camera function to snap pictures for photo stories and assignments.
Classes often work in groups in case some students don't have phones.
In Pulaski, Wis., about 130 miles north of Milwaukee, Spanish teacher Katie Titler has used cell phones for students to dial and record themselves speaking for tests.
"Specifically for foreign language, it's a great way to both formally and informally assess speaking, which is really hard to do on a regular basis because of class sizes and time," Titler said.
Jimbo Lamb, a math teacher at Annville-Cleona School District in south-central Pennsylvania, has students use their phones to answer questions set up through a polling Web site. Instantly, he's able to tell how many students understood the lesson.
"This is technology that helps us be more productive," he said.
Ariana Leonard's high school students shuffled in their seats, eagerly awaiting a cue from their Spanish teacher that the assignment would begin.
"Take out your cell phones," she said in Spanish.
The teens pulled out an array of colorful flip phones, iPhones and SideKicks. They divided into groups and Leonard began sending them text messages in Spanish: Find something green. Go to the cafeteria. Take a picture with the school secretary.
Leonard's class at Wiregrass Ranch High School in Wesley Chapel, a middle-class Florida suburb about 30 miles north of Tampa, is one of a growing number around the country that are abandoning traditional policies of cell phone prohibition and incorporating them into class lessons. Spanish vocabulary becomes a digital scavenger hunt. Notes are copied with a cell phone camera. Text messages serve as homework reminders.
"I can use my cell phone for all these things, why can't I use it for learning purposes?'" Leonard said. "Giving them something, a mobile device, that they use every day for fun, giving them another avenue to learn outside of the classroom with that."
Much more attention has gone to the ways students might use phones to cheat or take inappropriate pictures. But as the technology becomes cheaper, more advanced and more ingrained in students' lives that mentality is changing.
"It really is taking advantage of the love affair that kids have with technology today," said Dan Domevech, executive director of the nonprofit American Association of School Administrators. "The kids are much more motivated to use their cell phone in an educational manner."
Today's phones are the equivalent of small computers — able to check e-mail, do Internet searches and record podcasts. Meanwhile, most school districts can't afford a computer for every student.
"Because there's so much in the media about banning cell phones and how negative phones can be, a lot of people just haven't considered there could be positive, educative ways to use cell phones," said Liz Kolb, author of "From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning."
Even districts with tough anti-use policies acknowledge they will eventually need to change.
"We can't get away from it," said Bill Husfelt, superintendent of Bay County District Schools, a Florida Panhandle district of 27,000 students where cell phones aren't allowed in school, period. "But we've got to do a lot more work in trying to figure out how to stop the bad things from happening."
Seventy-one percent of teens had a cell phone by early 2008, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. That percentage remains relatively steady regardles of race, income or other demographic factors. Meanwhile, many schools are low-tech compared with homes outfitted with home networks, wireless Internet and a smartphone for every family member.
Most schools still have prohibitive policies curtailing cell phone use — often with good reason. At Husfelt's district, seven students were recently arrested after they got into a fight on campus that he says was instigated through text messages.
In other parts of the country, teens have been arrested for "sexting" — sending indecent photographs taken and sent through their cell phones. Students also use the devices to cheat: In one poll, more than 35 percent of teens admitted cheating with a cell phone.
But phones are so common now that seizing them is huge hassle for teachers.
"It's just a conflict taking them up and having to deal with them," Husfelt said. "It's too disruptive."
Teachers who have incorporated cell phones into their classes say that most students abide by the rules. They note that cheating and bullying exist with or without the phones, and that once they are allowed, the inclination to use them for bad behavior dissipates.
"Kids cheat with pen and paper. They pass notes," said Kipp Rogers, principal of Passage Middle School in Newport News, Va., "You don't ban paper."
Rogers started using cell phones as an instructional tool a couple of years ago, when he was teaching a math class and was short one calculator for a test. He let the student use his phone instead. Twelve classes, including math, science and English, now use them. Students do research through the text message and Internet browser on some phones. Teachers blog. Students use the camera function to snap pictures for photo stories and assignments.
Classes often work in groups in case some students don't have phones.
In Pulaski, Wis., about 130 miles north of Milwaukee, Spanish teacher Katie Titler has used cell phones for students to dial and record themselves speaking for tests.
"Specifically for foreign language, it's a great way to both formally and informally assess speaking, which is really hard to do on a regular basis because of class sizes and time," Titler said.
Jimbo Lamb, a math teacher at Annville-Cleona School District in south-central Pennsylvania, has students use their phones to answer questions set up through a polling Web site. Instantly, he's able to tell how many students understood the lesson.
"This is technology that helps us be more productive," he said.
Exciting isn't it
No teacher left behind ...
Every teacher matters ...
Some other ideas/things/tools/games you might not have come across:
Flockdraw
My artistic attempt ... here
This is what they say about themselves:
When you start development on a project, all you have are a few ideas and a long road ahead. As time progresses, you get to watch the concept become reality. Little steps contribute to the bigger picture.
Through the course of development, you hit roadblocks and stumble. Unseen problems become evident. You must adapt.
But you don't give up. You innovate. You conquer. You continue forward and exceed your own expectations.
We've put a lot of love into this, and we're proud to release it to the world.
We hope you enjoy it. This one's for you.
BBC Pinball - PINBALL is here to help you kick start new ideas, to get your thoughts flowing freely, and to develop your creative talents. Bounce your ideas around by using these fun and simple tools, and who knows what ideas might pop up.
Hong Kong with super technology
OOo4KIds
The idea is to provide a 7-12 years software, based on OpenOffice.org source code, say, extremely simplified.
The BBC have produced a new, exciting History site for Primary History
It includes sections on Ancient Greeks, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Children in Victorian Britain and Children of World War 2
Wordsift
This is what the developers say about it:
WordSift was created to help teachers manage the demands of vocabulary and academic language in their text materials. We especially hope that this tool is helpful in supporting English Language Learners. We want WordSift to be a useful tool, but we also want it to be fun and visually pleasing. We would be happy if you think of it playfully - as a toy in a linguistic playground that is available to instantly capture and display the vocabulary structure of texts, and to help create an opportunity to talk and explore the richness and wonders of language!
WordSift helps anyone easily sift through texts -- just cut and paste any text into WordSift and you can engage in a verbal quick-capture! The program helps to quickly identify important words that appear in the text. This function is widely available in various Tag Cloud programs on the web, but we have added the ability to mark and sort different lists of words important to educators. We have also integrated it with a few other functions, such as visualization of word thesaurus relationships (incorporating the amazing Visual Thesaurus® that we highly recommend in its own right) and Google® searches of images and videos. With just a click on any word in the Tag Cloud, the program displays instances of sentences in which that word is used in the text.
Rockford continues to Rock !
New Read Along Section on the Rockford's Rock Opera website. So you can now, literally, Read Along with the whole story!
The Big Picture
Deep Zoom ... it will blow you away HardRock Cafe zoom
What fun with evolution ... Devolve me
Build Yourself Wild
What is it that you haven't found yet ... click here if you dare ... it will/might/should/has the potential to ... change your life
Every teacher matters ...
Some other ideas/things/tools/games you might not have come across:
Flockdraw
My artistic attempt ... here
This is what they say about themselves:
When you start development on a project, all you have are a few ideas and a long road ahead. As time progresses, you get to watch the concept become reality. Little steps contribute to the bigger picture.
Through the course of development, you hit roadblocks and stumble. Unseen problems become evident. You must adapt.
But you don't give up. You innovate. You conquer. You continue forward and exceed your own expectations.
We've put a lot of love into this, and we're proud to release it to the world.
We hope you enjoy it. This one's for you.
BBC Pinball - PINBALL is here to help you kick start new ideas, to get your thoughts flowing freely, and to develop your creative talents. Bounce your ideas around by using these fun and simple tools, and who knows what ideas might pop up.
Hong Kong with super technology
OOo4KIds
The idea is to provide a 7-12 years software, based on OpenOffice.org source code, say, extremely simplified.
The BBC have produced a new, exciting History site for Primary History
It includes sections on Ancient Greeks, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Children in Victorian Britain and Children of World War 2
Wordsift
This is what the developers say about it:
WordSift was created to help teachers manage the demands of vocabulary and academic language in their text materials. We especially hope that this tool is helpful in supporting English Language Learners. We want WordSift to be a useful tool, but we also want it to be fun and visually pleasing. We would be happy if you think of it playfully - as a toy in a linguistic playground that is available to instantly capture and display the vocabulary structure of texts, and to help create an opportunity to talk and explore the richness and wonders of language!
WordSift helps anyone easily sift through texts -- just cut and paste any text into WordSift and you can engage in a verbal quick-capture! The program helps to quickly identify important words that appear in the text. This function is widely available in various Tag Cloud programs on the web, but we have added the ability to mark and sort different lists of words important to educators. We have also integrated it with a few other functions, such as visualization of word thesaurus relationships (incorporating the amazing Visual Thesaurus® that we highly recommend in its own right) and Google® searches of images and videos. With just a click on any word in the Tag Cloud, the program displays instances of sentences in which that word is used in the text.
Rockford continues to Rock !
New Read Along Section on the Rockford's Rock Opera website. So you can now, literally, Read Along with the whole story!
The Big Picture
Deep Zoom ... it will blow you away HardRock Cafe zoom
What fun with evolution ... Devolve me
Build Yourself Wild
What is it that you haven't found yet ... click here if you dare ... it will/might/should/has the potential to ... change your life
Choosing
When you decide to paint a room (incidentally ... I have never, ever done that) you get a set of charts and try to choose the colour you want. You choose from the vast array before you and eventually decide ... but you do have a vast array to choose from.
In making the decisions about using the technologies to enhance teaching and learning what does your personal 'chooser chart' look like?
For example ... you all know about Google don't you ...
How do you know what you don't don't and how do you find out?
What does your personal learning network look like and how do you grow it?
Are you tethered by your geography?
Hard questions ...
Collaborative Learning Networks
From the Clever Sheet via Twitter (my thanks for this)
While each of us has an individualized way of interacting with co-learning colleagues, Dave Cormier's recent post and intermittent tweets have led me to regard the term Personal Learning Network as slightly 'oxymoronic'. My contributions to a group experience might be qualified as 'personal', but I would never use the word as an adjective to describe a team, a committee, or a class to which I belong. Maybe it's time to reconsider the use of the term PLN?
Personalized Learning & Participation
Each person's learning network is certainly unique. The tools we use to interact with our networks are chosen to suit our personal tastes, and the types of information we share among our colleagues varies widely; but the name we've come to accept for this inter-connected learning: Personal Learning Network, implies individual ownership and control.
Whether or not you subscribe to the theory of Connectivism, you likely realize that our networks are chaotic and self-organizing all at the same time.
A Collaborative Learning Network
The value in any learning network comes from the contributions of many individuals. No one member has ownership of the group, or of the work that's been collaboratively developed. Additionally, it's clear that if any one person fails to add value, then the net results are less striking.
Some key questions ...
Do you have a Personal Learning Network?
Do you have a Collaborative Learning Network? or
Do you have something different?
Are your children/students building PLNs and CLNs?
Are you helping them to do this?
How is the technology you have or will have this expanding this horizon?
Are your pupils tethered by their geography ?... their world will flatten and flatten
What do they know that you don't and how is your vision taking this into consideration?
Who are the teachers and who are the learners?
Is it always one or the other and how do the spaces created take this into account?
Is your school a building or a community?
How far does the community family extend its support?
And what tools do other educators use?
In making the decisions about using the technologies to enhance teaching and learning what does your personal 'chooser chart' look like?
For example ... you all know about Google don't you ...
How do you know what you don't don't and how do you find out?
What does your personal learning network look like and how do you grow it?
Are you tethered by your geography?
Hard questions ...
Collaborative Learning Networks
From the Clever Sheet via Twitter (my thanks for this)
While each of us has an individualized way of interacting with co-learning colleagues, Dave Cormier's recent post and intermittent tweets have led me to regard the term Personal Learning Network as slightly 'oxymoronic'. My contributions to a group experience might be qualified as 'personal', but I would never use the word as an adjective to describe a team, a committee, or a class to which I belong. Maybe it's time to reconsider the use of the term PLN?
Personalized Learning & Participation
Each person's learning network is certainly unique. The tools we use to interact with our networks are chosen to suit our personal tastes, and the types of information we share among our colleagues varies widely; but the name we've come to accept for this inter-connected learning: Personal Learning Network, implies individual ownership and control.
Whether or not you subscribe to the theory of Connectivism, you likely realize that our networks are chaotic and self-organizing all at the same time.
A Collaborative Learning Network
The value in any learning network comes from the contributions of many individuals. No one member has ownership of the group, or of the work that's been collaboratively developed. Additionally, it's clear that if any one person fails to add value, then the net results are less striking.
Some key questions ...
Do you have a Personal Learning Network?
Do you have a Collaborative Learning Network? or
Do you have something different?
Are your children/students building PLNs and CLNs?
Are you helping them to do this?
How is the technology you have or will have this expanding this horizon?
Are your pupils tethered by their geography ?... their world will flatten and flatten
What do they know that you don't and how is your vision taking this into consideration?
Who are the teachers and who are the learners?
Is it always one or the other and how do the spaces created take this into account?
Is your school a building or a community?
How far does the community family extend its support?
And what tools do other educators use?
Anything can happen ... and it probably will
Ken Robinson in his wonderful TED presentation on the nature of Creativity delivered firstly in Monterey in 2006 (and elsewhere since) makes a clear statement about education for creativity. He also says that we can't predict what the future holds ... just think about the last year in the world economy?
We are the ones we've been waiting for ...
We Are The People Weve Been Waiting For is a full-length feature film on education which was inspired and guided by Oscar-winning producer Lord Puttnam.
The film is supported by various sponsors including independent education foundation, Edge. The film follows the experiences of five Swindon-based teenagers. What unfolds during the course of the film is a very inconvenient truth about education.
It concludes that, while there are signs of spring, a transformation of the education system is vital if the UK is to continue to compete effectively in an era of globalization the world has changed enormously but our education system has not kept pace. We need to recognise that there are many paths to success for young people and provide the right support and opportunities for them to develop their individual talents.
PS
There is a web site for the film where comments can be left and more details can be found. Visit it here.
A free copy of the full length film was available in the Guardian on Saturday 28th November 2009
This is not a 2 minute or a 7 minute fix … you need to listen/watch it all … Here are a few of the things that caught my attention as I listened for the first time:
‘I want to do amazing things with my life’
Does school help you find your passion?
I’d like to be … flexible … happy
What if you have no goal … what if your prospects have been closed down?
People are different - education has insisted that they are the same
She has grown into herself … a fantastic young lady
I’d like to be … like … a lucky one
We need people who can question … schools have ‘over-served’ them
We programme children to be compliant We are not tapping into creativity we are producing little foot-soldiers
The preoccupation with reading and writing masks so many other things
Why have so many ’successful’ people failed in school?
They focus on what you can’t do not on what you can Policy makers focus on the curriculum and assessment
We use education as a way of disqualifying children
Education is about drawing out of children what is in them
Mental truancy … there - but not there
Anyone who doesn’t think that education is about the economy is not thinking
There is no long term strategy for education in the UK Education is being used as a political football
It is not a question of doing what we have always done but better … we need to do something radically different
There are people doing fantastic work … we need to share it We need to re-address basics … productivity needs to be tied to creativity
You are special High quality education …. designing new systems without building a legacy system first
Creative and proactive thinkers
Paint your picture … its yours
Masters and mistresses of practicalities
The debate about the curriculum is locked into either practical or academic
The connect between school and the ‘real world’ …
We need to revisit what school education is about
All the high performing systems recognise that they have to invest in teachers
There is no school on earth that is better than the teachers
Shouldn’t we be allowing students the luxury of learning from their mistakes
We can be more efficient by using technology
Technology can never replace the teacher but it can empower
We provide the student with the opportunities to learn in their way
Technology can provide the core to move away from
The curriculum will become student-centric … it will be mass-customised
It may be too late for today’s students but not so for their children
I want to make my family proud and I want to be proud of myself
… following something that will make him happy
We owe it to ourselves to plan for change .. to plan for transformation
If we don’t act then the world’s problems will exceed our capacity to deal with them
So what happens now?
The progression from Web 1.0 through Web 2.0 and onwards through Web 3.0 is exponential. From docs to blogs, pods, wikis and beyond, children, students and learners of all types are using the growing power at their fingertips to develop their ideas in exciting, stimulating and creative ways.
They are collaborating, creating, digesting, reworking, demanding, focusing, inventing and re-inventing!
They use their own internet connected devices and want to use them everywhere ... quite rightly and institutions need to consider how they can help and facilitate this.
The 'read/write' aspects that excited us with passion last year have sprinted forward giving new meanings to both parts… read and write.
Each day we find institutions besieged by the advances made, which they seemingly have little or no control over and today‘s person wants control! What price is a three to five year development plan when change is so fast?
How do we match this in a world where earthquakes and the global 'crunch' have the capacity to change peoples' lives forever? How do we manage all of the information we now have? What effect does it have on us and ours? Who are the owners? Who are the buyers and who the sellers?
… So what happens now … let‘s explore the opportunities and take the risk of finding out
'The future is already here - its just not evenly distributed' William Gibson
We have seen it coming, we have used many elements of it and we all call it different things.
Is it ‘social software’? Is it Web2.0? Is it ‘New Generation’? The title matters not, but the operation is the difference between ‘push’ and ‘pull’. In our own social and professional lives as mainly digital immigrants (see the work of Marc Prensky) we have begun to embrace a new form of ‘living’. We have returned to older ways of finding out; we ask to know. But our asking is wider and involves interaction and debate. We have begun to embrace the technology to help us with this but its exponential change leaves us gasping at what we can now do and who we can talk to and, best of all, what we can say.
There is real power here for our own professional development that we have only just begun to tap into. We need to make a personal move from ‘immigrant’ to ‘native’. The latest generation of social software is evolving. That is part of its power and its excitement. In our schools we are dealing with digital natives (although, in his latest writing Marc is himself re-phrasing this).
This is their world and they have never known one that is different. If we do not make use of the power of their native technology in our work with them as educators then there is a high chance that they will want to bypass our system. The very essence of schooling as we know it is at stake here. Up until now the questions and the answers have been applied to older students working in our secondary schools but now the message is coming down the age range. Older brother and sisters have younger brothers and sisters who want to know.
They watch their older siblings deal with ‘MySpace’, ‘Facebook’ and ‘Bebo’; they use ‘Flickr’, ‘del.ic.ious’ and ‘Diigo’; the write on ‘Zoho’; they communicate on ‘Skype','Twitter' and ‘MSN’; and they ‘Google’ everything from calculations to maps and beyond.
They already know how to do it and they bring their skills and knowledge with them to the school education party.
What, if anything at all, are schools doing about making the best, most efficient use of this power to enhance teaching and learning? What are the strengths that we can latch on to and work with? Where are the weaknesses and the problems? Where will we find best practice? Have a quick glimpse into the future before you start ... we all could do with 2020 vision.
Written in 2003 in the time of 'Web 1.0' does it excite or ...?
The age group is falling and falling for the use of social software and we must all be aware and beware of that. It is our job to educate and support our young people in the educational and social use of the tools that they have available ... the distinction between the two aspects is, after all, our not theirs.
They are collaborating, creating, digesting, reworking, demanding, focusing, inventing and re-inventing!
They use their own internet connected devices and want to use them everywhere ... quite rightly and institutions need to consider how they can help and facilitate this.
The 'read/write' aspects that excited us with passion last year have sprinted forward giving new meanings to both parts… read and write.
Each day we find institutions besieged by the advances made, which they seemingly have little or no control over and today‘s person wants control! What price is a three to five year development plan when change is so fast?
How do we match this in a world where earthquakes and the global 'crunch' have the capacity to change peoples' lives forever? How do we manage all of the information we now have? What effect does it have on us and ours? Who are the owners? Who are the buyers and who the sellers?
… So what happens now … let‘s explore the opportunities and take the risk of finding out
'The future is already here - its just not evenly distributed' William Gibson
We have seen it coming, we have used many elements of it and we all call it different things.
Is it ‘social software’? Is it Web2.0? Is it ‘New Generation’? The title matters not, but the operation is the difference between ‘push’ and ‘pull’. In our own social and professional lives as mainly digital immigrants (see the work of Marc Prensky) we have begun to embrace a new form of ‘living’. We have returned to older ways of finding out; we ask to know. But our asking is wider and involves interaction and debate. We have begun to embrace the technology to help us with this but its exponential change leaves us gasping at what we can now do and who we can talk to and, best of all, what we can say.
There is real power here for our own professional development that we have only just begun to tap into. We need to make a personal move from ‘immigrant’ to ‘native’. The latest generation of social software is evolving. That is part of its power and its excitement. In our schools we are dealing with digital natives (although, in his latest writing Marc is himself re-phrasing this).
This is their world and they have never known one that is different. If we do not make use of the power of their native technology in our work with them as educators then there is a high chance that they will want to bypass our system. The very essence of schooling as we know it is at stake here. Up until now the questions and the answers have been applied to older students working in our secondary schools but now the message is coming down the age range. Older brother and sisters have younger brothers and sisters who want to know.
They watch their older siblings deal with ‘MySpace’, ‘Facebook’ and ‘Bebo’; they use ‘Flickr’, ‘del.ic.ious’ and ‘Diigo’; the write on ‘Zoho’; they communicate on ‘Skype','Twitter' and ‘MSN’; and they ‘Google’ everything from calculations to maps and beyond.
They already know how to do it and they bring their skills and knowledge with them to the school education party.
What, if anything at all, are schools doing about making the best, most efficient use of this power to enhance teaching and learning? What are the strengths that we can latch on to and work with? Where are the weaknesses and the problems? Where will we find best practice? Have a quick glimpse into the future before you start ... we all could do with 2020 vision.
Written in 2003 in the time of 'Web 1.0' does it excite or ...?
The age group is falling and falling for the use of social software and we must all be aware and beware of that. It is our job to educate and support our young people in the educational and social use of the tools that they have available ... the distinction between the two aspects is, after all, our not theirs.
Beyond Engagement
This is worth a read: Beyond Engagement studied the use of ICT to enhance and transform learning at KS2 in literacy, mathematics and science:
This report summarises the findings of a smallscale investigation focusing on the extent to which ICT is being used in primary schools to enhance or transform learning in literacy, mathematics and science. 21 schools were visited for a day by a DCSF School Standards Adviser. The schools were nominated by their local authorities as having at least good practice in the use of ICT and some were judged to be amongst the most effective schools in the local authority.
Recommendations:
1. To further the development of the ICT primary schools will benefit from focusing on:
issues of teaching and learning and not simply on the technology of the ICT application itself;
the potential of the ICT activities to move beyond pupil engagement to supporting enhanced and deeper learning in core and foundation subjects;
providing on-going CPD and support for staff in terms of collaborative working and sharing of effective practice.
2. Pupils’ experiences of ICT could be extended to support deeper and enhanced learning in mathematics – rather than, for example, just isolated practice/revision programs or teacher led demonstrations – by sharing more innovative pedagogical approaches of using ICT in the subject.
3. Schools should continue to build connections between the use pupils make of ICT at home to the approaches used within school. In relation to the further development of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), schools need further guidance on how these can best be developed to enhance pupils’ learning.
4. There is a continuing need for support for the leadership of ICT in primary schools. This support needs to encompass senior leadership as well as leadership at subject leader or co-ordinator level.
5. Providing an adequate level of dedicated technical support for ICT is a key priority. As more flexible hardware solutions are implemented, the requirement for expert support to maintain the ICT infrastructure In primary schools will become even more critical.
6. Schools could usefully develop their processes for monitoring pupils’ ICT capability through the key stage so that they can: * identify aspects requiring further development and next steps for pupils; * identify potential gaps in the scheme of work; * be clear about the ICT that pupils should be able to apply in other subjects at each stage of the year; * provide meaningful transition data for secondary transfer or change of primary school to support continuity and progression.
The recommendations are interesting:
Point 1 Bullet 1 is significant as it seems to be commenting on the integration of ICT into context rather than the teaching of the 'nuts and bolts' ... excellent!!
The idea from Point 1 Bullet 2 that ICT is an empowering tool that can have really far reaching implications in all subjects beyond the usual ideas of motivation and enjoyment is excellent and needs to be reiterated into the strategies!
This is exemplifies in Point 2. Point 3 comments that schools should continue to build connections ... rather many should actually begin this process and not see it as a voluntary add on.
Point 5 emphasises the fact that this level of use of technology can only be successful if the right technical support is available to make it function and to develop. All too often the technical support is curtailing the development of creative use of ICT rather than supporting it. The expert support must be sympathetic to the aims of the use!
** Thanks to Anthony Evans, Redbridge Primary ICT Consultant, for pointing me in this direction.
This report summarises the findings of a smallscale investigation focusing on the extent to which ICT is being used in primary schools to enhance or transform learning in literacy, mathematics and science. 21 schools were visited for a day by a DCSF School Standards Adviser. The schools were nominated by their local authorities as having at least good practice in the use of ICT and some were judged to be amongst the most effective schools in the local authority.
Recommendations:
1. To further the development of the ICT primary schools will benefit from focusing on:
issues of teaching and learning and not simply on the technology of the ICT application itself;
the potential of the ICT activities to move beyond pupil engagement to supporting enhanced and deeper learning in core and foundation subjects;
providing on-going CPD and support for staff in terms of collaborative working and sharing of effective practice.
2. Pupils’ experiences of ICT could be extended to support deeper and enhanced learning in mathematics – rather than, for example, just isolated practice/revision programs or teacher led demonstrations – by sharing more innovative pedagogical approaches of using ICT in the subject.
3. Schools should continue to build connections between the use pupils make of ICT at home to the approaches used within school. In relation to the further development of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), schools need further guidance on how these can best be developed to enhance pupils’ learning.
4. There is a continuing need for support for the leadership of ICT in primary schools. This support needs to encompass senior leadership as well as leadership at subject leader or co-ordinator level.
5. Providing an adequate level of dedicated technical support for ICT is a key priority. As more flexible hardware solutions are implemented, the requirement for expert support to maintain the ICT infrastructure In primary schools will become even more critical.
6. Schools could usefully develop their processes for monitoring pupils’ ICT capability through the key stage so that they can: * identify aspects requiring further development and next steps for pupils; * identify potential gaps in the scheme of work; * be clear about the ICT that pupils should be able to apply in other subjects at each stage of the year; * provide meaningful transition data for secondary transfer or change of primary school to support continuity and progression.
The recommendations are interesting:
Point 1 Bullet 1 is significant as it seems to be commenting on the integration of ICT into context rather than the teaching of the 'nuts and bolts' ... excellent!!
The idea from Point 1 Bullet 2 that ICT is an empowering tool that can have really far reaching implications in all subjects beyond the usual ideas of motivation and enjoyment is excellent and needs to be reiterated into the strategies!
This is exemplifies in Point 2. Point 3 comments that schools should continue to build connections ... rather many should actually begin this process and not see it as a voluntary add on.
Point 5 emphasises the fact that this level of use of technology can only be successful if the right technical support is available to make it function and to develop. All too often the technical support is curtailing the development of creative use of ICT rather than supporting it. The expert support must be sympathetic to the aims of the use!
** Thanks to Anthony Evans, Redbridge Primary ICT Consultant, for pointing me in this direction.
How is the reading going?
Now I know of, and have read, the Williams Report on Maths,the Rose Review and theCambridge Review ... so what happens when, in the not to distant future, there is a general election? (check out the odds here)
Any views or ideas on this would be appreciated ... check out the Conservative Party, Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats policy documents for enlightenment.
Cast some light on things for me ....
"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things ..." and I hope that you had your say so let's hear it for ICT as it enters the 'core' .
PS
Any views or ideas on this would be appreciated ... check out the Conservative Party, Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats policy documents for enlightenment.
Cast some light on things for me ....
"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things ..." and I hope that you had your say so let's hear it for ICT as it enters the 'core' .
... and, of course ... The New Primary Curriculum - England
Today I noticed on the National Curriculum site that there was reference toThe New Primary Curriculum (it didn’t say for England but I guessed that it was as I was on the NC site!) So I took a look …. and , well, there it was - online for all to see. And it does look clean and sharp (the site) and makes good use of a variety of display technologies.
This is what they say about the new curriculum: A school’s curriculum should help its children become the very best they can be. Following an independent review, a new curriculum has been developed to prepare our children for the opportunities and challenges of life in the 21st century. The primary curriculum has been redesigned. The new curriculum includes: curriculum aims; essentials for learning and life; six areas of learning; religious education. The curriculum introduces a statutory requirement for languages at key stage 2 and meets statutory requirements for inclusion (Including all learners) and health and safety. The new curriculum becomes statutory in 2011.
Many schools have already started down this pathway, changing their way of working to encompass the six areas of learning as laid out by Jim Rose. From my ICT perspective I am interested in how schools will view ’ICT capability‘ and its subset ‘ICT across the curriculum‘ and how the ‘essentials for learning and life’ perhaps umbrella the ‘areas of learning’.
Early days for me yet on coming to terms with what I hope will be a big step forward in opening up primary education to more creative thinking and really creative teaching.
PS
Every year the The New Media CoNsorTiuM and the eduCause Learning initiative produce a qualitative research report that identifies and itemises the emerging technologies that are, in their researched view, likely to have a considerable impact on teaching and learning or creative enquiry within the next five years. The Horizon Report for 2010 is now available. Though largely US based the report is indicative of the exponential rise of technologies and their potential influence on the way we leach and learn.
There are listed six technologies to watch. On the near horizon that is with one year we will expect to see the rise of mobile computing and also that ofopen content. The second horizon adoption front, set at two to three years will see the establishment of electronic books and the use of simple augmented reality. The third, far term horizon, set at four to five years, will see the development of gesture -based computing and visual data analysis.
The report contains details of the implications of each of these technologies and the way that they have the potential to advance and effect teaching and learning opportunities.
I am interested in referring back to last year’s Horizon Report and assume that the second and far horizons indicated there are still on everyone’s radar. That is ‘geo everything‘, ‘the personal web‘ in the second adoption horizon and ’semantic awareness applications‘ and ‘smart objects’ in the far horizon. The near horizon technologies from 2009 of ‘mobiles‘ and ‘cloud computing‘ are now with us and do have an overlap with this current year.
If you care to delve back as far as the report for 2008 you will find such things as: ‘grassroots video’, collaborative web’, ‘mobile broadband’, ‘ collective intelligence’ and ’social operating systems’. It is not difficult to put names to each of these - things that we now take almost for granted.
So what of 2011?
Preamble
Welcome to this session which will explore some ideas behind the creative use of technology in teaching and learning with reference to where we are now and where we might be going.
We will talk about many things including a wide range of tools I have come across and have used but mainly we will talk about the changing world of learning and that collaboration is king but creativity is the essence.
Jean Piaget had a view on education and creativity.
I hope this blog will provoke you to add your views and ideas so that others can share.
The posts will provide links to things that I say and some that I don't have time for ... please use the poll to let me know what you think.
This blog is at http://www.wiltsict2010.blogspot.com
Thanks
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