New Chinese mini laptop

My Twitter feeds give me details of yet another new mini ... this time the HiVision miniNote Laptop.

This one appears to be selling for $98 which by my conversion by Google: 98 U.S. dollars = 54.9142665 British pounds ... under £55 !!

Child Safety on the Internet

Today the UK Government announce a new attempt to make the Internet safer for young people to use.

The BBC report:
Social networking websites and major technology companies are joining the government in an organisation designed to improve children's safety online.
The UK Council for Child Internet Safety is to be launched by Schools Secretary Ed Balls and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

This follows Tanya Byron's review on Digital Safety and hopefully will help to secure better, safer use for all.

It will be good if this goes wider but I just wonder what effect a UK Government initiative will have on a system which is, after all, called the World Wide Web

Marc Prensky in Middlesbrough

Marc's keynote at the Middlesbrough ICT Conference at the famous Riverside Stadium today struck so many chords they resonated all over the building. Teachers listened to an impassioned invective to act now rather than later in embracing all that is good in technological development. Marc urged the group to take risks and do it with passion. To embrace change and make change work.

In the opening of his Keynote Marc may have announced the end of such 'stand up and lecture' sessions (at least for him). He explained how he had been challenged about not moving onwards in terms of still being out there at the front talking 'at' rather than opening a dialogue 'with' his audience. He tried to involve the teachers in taking sides to some of his questions but it was hard work. The practitioners in the audience were in 'conference' mode and their expectation was that they would sit and listen ... not participate. It was their expectation. The question is ... 'How do we change the expectation?' ... and is this how it is in classrooms ?... Do students/children get what they expect? Are they learning in a way they recognise and are they comfortable with it? I think the answer is a resounding 'NO'. We can change expectation ... we can do things differently but if we do we must make sure that differently = better.

Earlier this week I did a very enjoyable and similar keynote for a group of Headteacher with a similar result. The body language of the audience was excellent as a reflection of the things I was saying and the 'post keynote' comments were enlightened and positive. Expectation delivered and received. But Marc made me think.

If we are saying 'shift happens' and change is getting to be exponential then why are we presenting in the same way as we did (okay we have projectors now) fifty years or more ago. How can we get messages ove more effectively? Or is this the best way? It is the comfort range of the audience and does give new ideas and provoke thought. But is this good enough?

Marc will have made some think about the appropriateness of style and the divergence from the one size fits all scenario and his hope was, I believe, that these thoughts should be taken back and embedded into classroom practice.

I hope in the next few days to have a link here to the presentation so you can read for yourself what he said.

Its almost here .... K12 ...

The K12 Conference is almost on us ... it is inspirational, exciting and a place to be. It is virtual and in your time . Just don't miss it!!

This is what they say about themselves:

The K-12 Online Conference invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. The 2008 conference theme is “Amplifying Possibilities”. This year’s conference begins with a pre-conference keynote the week of October 13, 2008. The following two weeks, October 20-24 and October 27-31, forty presentations will be posted online to the conference blog (this website) for participants to download and view. Live Events in the form of three “Fireside Chats” and a culminating “When Night Falls” event will be announced. Everyone is encouraged to participate in both live events during the conference as well as asynchronous conversations.

Things to like and dislike ...

First the 'like' ...

Some 15 odd years ago, when holidaying in the Lake District, we bought a book called 'Rocky Rambler'. The idea of the book was to put navigation in the hands of the young walker and it showed the terrain and the key points from a child's perspective. Using the book children would lead adults around adventurous walks. (A new website is about to be launched based on the book ... exciting!)

Reported in the Times yesterday a continuation of the highly successful idea 'We are what we do' ... this time its 'Teach your Granny to text'.


This idea has a similar theme ... what happens if you ask children and then follow up what they say. Could children really have a guiding part in making the world they are going to live in better?


The whole idea is just wonderful and is the result of a project that could be fabulously extended particularly as the book to go with the idea will be published on October 2nd and will be given to every school in England by the Dcsf(sorry rest of the UK ... you miss out again ... but it will be on sale ... the first print run of 100,000 has already been pre-sold ... possibly to the Dcsf?)

There are some wonderful ideas in the book as well as 'teaching granny to text': 'Walk you dad' is an awesome concept and there is an excellent message to be found in 'Stand up and be counted'.

What with this following in the wake of the 'Real Meals' initiative for Y7 it looks like someone somewhere is giving something some thought ! Hope its joined up!

...and now the dislike ...

News from Manchester (with little detail yet) tells me that Mr Brown will: continue the fightback with the promise of free nursery places for every two-year-old. But I understand that it will take 10 years to implement this and that, at current rates, it will cost £1 billion/year. I have no information as to whether this is a UK or an 'English' thing ... I suspect the latter. I am just concerned that the institutionalisation seems to get younger and younger. And, if it is going to take 10 years to put in place isn't that at least two elections? This, of course come on the back of the information that many child minders are giving up because of the increased interference and bureaucracy conjured up by the implementation of the EYFS agenda. It all might be a difficult circle to square.

Creative thinking

Drifting through my feeds this morning I came across an interestingly fresh idea for a dictionary (thanks to Changing the Game for the heads up on this).

The site is Wordia

This is what they say about themselves:

We’re a team of language enthusiasts and general word nuts who have joined forces to create a new kind of dictionary - a democratic ‘visual dictionary’. A place where anyone with a video, webcam or mobile phone can define the words that matter to them in their life.

We believe that everyone wants to express themselves more clearly, whether to win debates, spark conversations or simply to make people laugh with a well-chosen word.

Over the years we’ve tried many ways to improve our grasp of the English language. We’ve listened, jotted and scribbled down words that have excited, confused and challenged us. wordia.com is our way of improving our own vocabulary and in the process, discovering what words mean to other people. Like most people, we’re interested in what other think and feel.

PS

Thinking about the comment from John up in Scotland I recalled that I had recently read in the Dcsf magazine for Primary Teachers (the September edition does not seem to have been uploaded as I write this)the views of Dr Tanya Byron (post her report - Safer Children in a Digital World). She comments that: We need to ease the pressure on young children and create an environment where they can come at things in their own time.

She also echos my comment back to John about managing the risks of environments online being very similar to managing those of crossing roads!

A new year begins ... there will be changes

Today a group of 121 primary PGCE students assembled in the Fraser Noble Hall of Leicester University to begin their year long journey towards becoming teachers. It is a real hope that they keep their enthusiasm and excitement about working with children intact as they tread the pathway through the maze of documentation that will come their way. I do hope that they won't get sidetracked by strategies and schemes but will keep their eyes firmly focused on the job of making sure that the children they interact with have a good experience that will carry them forward.

About School by R Nukerji

He always wanted to say things. But no one understood.
He always wanted to explain things. But no one cared.
So he drew.

Sometimes he would just draw and it wasn't anything. He
wanted to carve it in stone or write it in the sky.
He would lie out on the grass and look up in the sky and it would
be only him and the sky and the things inside that needed
saying.

And it was after that, that he drew the picture. It was a beautiful
picture. He kept it under the pillow and would let no one
see it.
And he would look at it every night and think about it. And when
it was dark, and his eyes were closed, he could still see it.
And it was all of him. And he loved it.

When he started school he brought it with him. Not to show
anyone, but just to have it with him like a friend.

It was funny about school.
He sat in a square, brown desk like all the other square, brown
desks and he thought it should be red.
And his room was a square, brown room. Like all the other
rooms.
And it was tight and close. And stiff.

He hated to hold the pencil and the chalk, with his arm stiff
and his feet flat on the floor, with the teacher watching
and watching.
And then he had to write numbers. And they weren't anything.
They were worse than the letters that could be something if you
put them together.
And the numbers were tight and square and he hated the
whole thing.

The teacher came and spoke to him. She told him to wear a tie
like all the other boys. He said he didn't like them and she
said it didn't matter.

And after that they drew. And he drew all yellow and it was the way
he felt about morning. And it was beautiful.

The teacher came and smiled at him. "What's this?" she said.
"Why couldn't you draw something like Ken's drawing?" Isn't
that beautiful?"
It was all questions.

After that his mother brought him a tie and he always drew
airplanes and rocket ships like everyone else.
And he threw the old picture away.
And when he lay out alone looking at the sky, it was big and
blue and of everything, but he wasn't anymore.

It had stopped pushing. It was crushed. Stiff.
Like everything else.

Million Futures

Futurelab's Beyond Current Horizons site is a challenging place to spend time ...

It looks at the future of education, beyond 2025. The aim is to help our education system prepare for and respond to the challenges it faces as society and technology rapidly evolve. What skills will children need for work? How might parenting and the family change? What impact will new technologies have on learning?

Many of the features are stimulating and developmental ... currently ...if you were looking for a real context for writing that fits into a citizenship agenda, or if you just wanted to see if your speculations matched any others, then you would need to look no further than Million Futures. Go on ... fly a plane!

The day that made the world (make sense)

I wonder if you remember key events in your life's history by noting where you were at the time or what music you were listening to or who you were with?

I can remember the Cuban Missile crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, the death of Churchill in 1965, the first moon landing in 1969. It is interesting that when it comes to the 70s, 80s and 90s I am a bit stuck !

But I just wonder if, in the medium and long term future, people will be saying 'I can remember where I was on 10th September 2008 when they first tested the Large Hadron Collider' ... because that was the day they made the world(make sense).

The end is nigh ... I mean SATs

My friend Tricia points out to me that on the Andrew Marr show (you can listen to the interview on BBC iplayer if you are quick) on BBC this morning Ed Balls seemed to hint that the end of Sats may be nigh. Marr asked directly if 2009 would be the last year for Sats and Ed Balls answered that the present system was not set in stone ... a hint maybe but a positive hint. This was also reported on the BBC web site.

Google Chrome

Well, Google have launched their search engine to rival IE and FireFox ... Google Chrome... on my machine it is quick, intuitive clean in design and does some nice things in a simple way.

The bit I like best is that you just type straight into the address line and the search is done for you. I also like the 'thumb-nails' of the most visited sites and the timed full search history.There are probably loads of things that I have not looked at yet but I will carry on using it for a while to see how it compares.

But I didn't read what I was signing up to ... did you?

It appears that you might just want to take a peek at the end user bit. Gizmodo points out item 11.1 :

You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. And it does go on !

Interesting ... does it mean what I think it means?

We are 16 going on 17 ...

Following up on the ENGLISH Governments announcements to almost everyone the BBC today reported on the fact that students starting their secondary education this week will be required to continue their compulsory education until they are 17.

In New Zealand the leaving age is 16 and if you have good reason it can be 15. Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have not changed.

In Denmark education is compulsory for children from the 1 August of the calendar year in which the child attains the age of 7 years until the 31 July after the child has received regular education for a period of nine years. Compulsory education ends, however, at the latest on 31 July of the year of the child's seventeenth birthday...

In Norway children are required to attend school for 10 years commencing the calendar year they reach the age of 6.

Wikipedia has a section on this which appears to suggest that 15 is the earliest and 18 is the latest ... so I guess, as usual England sits in the middle.

Surely the important thing is not how long students are in compulsory ( though why it has to be compulsory I am not sure) educationbut how relevant to them and their.

In February of this year Greg Whitby wrote about 'Relevancy or retention?' with regard to students in New South Wales, Australia. This post is well worth a read in this connection.

I just wonder what the students starting school this week think (or what their parents think) of this. And ... it does occur to me that 2013 could be two elections away !

Now its writing and arithmetic ...

Today the BBC report that:

Struggling pupils are to get one-to-one help with the Three Rs under a trio of government-backed programmes beginning or being extended this term.
Two new schemes, Every Child a Writer and Every Child Counts, are being piloted in England and will be rolled out nationally by 2011.

This on the back of the: successful (?) reading scheme, Every Child a Reader, is being rolled out to 30,000 of the worst-performing pupils.

I just wonder how it feels to be a 'worst-performing pupil' and how the arbitrary set standards have become so important that they have taken over from the idea of education in childhood which embraces excitement and enthusiasm for knowledge and understanding.

I watched a video presentation of this news earlier today and was taken by a young boy writing on paper with a pencil ... this is the way that the press conceptualises writing and indicates a perceptual backwater. On the whole today when people write on paper with an instrument it is for their own purpose. When they write for others they do what I am doing now. They compose on screen and check and edit and amend as they go along. What concept of writing will our young people have if schools perpetuate the pencil and paper approach?

This is the bit I like:Typically about five or six children aged seven and eight in a school would receive intensive support of about 10 hours over 10 weeks - probably outside the school day.

I bet the children will be pleased!

It is rather like seeing families out for a ride on their bikes ... children togged up with their helmets and parents riding along without. One idea for one set and another idea for another.

Mr Balls says that by taking these steps of providing individual help for the poorest performers we will ... have a massive impact on the standard of education in this country and make us a world leader.

I think not ... it is not usually the middle to lower end performers that make a country into world class ... if this were so why are we not ploughing all of the money to be spent on 2012 into this strata ? Were we not recently told that athletes who were going to get medals were to get the money ... not the 'all-so-rans'?

It is also interesting to review these ideas against the increase in University entrance and the news that students graduating from 'lesser' universities (and having a debt of £20,000) would have been better off not going as they often end up in jobs/careers not requiring high academic qualifications. ( This does not, of course, take into account that many of them have had a superb 3 years away from home growing up.)

The greatest, and perhaps the last, experiment in particle physics

On Wednesday 10th September the Large Hadron Collider gets switched on and one of the greatest physics experiments of all time begins. What the outcome of this will be depends on where you stand (or if any of us are still around to stand).

In wonderful English 'gung-honess' the BBC will be there to see the beginning ... the end will have to wait!

You can pick up the BBC's coverage of the events here

'May the force be with them!'

Was this really necessary?

Today in England (I always knew that I wanted to be Celtic)the new welfare guidelines including 69 "learning goals" for the under-fives have come into force.

Was it really necessary?

In an educational world where leading countries begin to formalise learning at 7 years why does England feel that it is necessary to stipulate 69 things that the very young.

Reported on the BBC Education site:

In Scotland, what and how children learn in pre-school nurseries is set out in the Curriculum for Excellence which is currently being rolled out. It does not apply to childminders.

In Wales, a new Scandinavian-style Learn through Play nursery and infant curriculum is being introduced for three to seven-year-olsd, which moves away from the more formal classroom based lessons.

It is worth reading this alongside the post about the decline in the number of registered childminders and the comments of some of our leading children's authors.