It has been a long time … since I have been here and I wonder if that means that I have nothing to say or that the world in which I live is, at present, flat.

This is, in actual fact, not the case. Working this last week with PGCE students from University of Leicester has been a pleasure and an eye-opener. And I have loved it. The vibrancy that comes from interactions with students is both refreshing and an awakening.

The week began with an ICT Conference which I hosted … it was fronted by Oliver Quinlan sand was so ably supported by my good friends Simon Widdowson, John Sutton, Bill Lord, Josie Fraser, Nick Hutchinson and Jan Web … details are here.

And then two days of ‘Learning Outdoors’ … orienteering and musing in the rain.

Is this ground-breaking - well know it isn’t, it is the stuff that days are made of.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to present to a group of senior managers in North Wales on the subject of moving ideas forwards and I commented on the poor level of undergraduate student writing. I also said that I did not consider it their fault but felt that they had not been prepared for this stage of their education and that certainly A level did not do it.

Today I picked up an article in the Telegraph saying very similar things …

And again today there is a wonderful letter/article in the Guardian from Michael Rosen, obviously still in good form, must have too much time on his hands … Michael has much to say to Mr Gove about the politics of education.

It is important not to let go of these things … it is too easy to ague that nothing can be done … of course things can be done listen to  Sugata Mitra and Kiran Bir Sethi

Today two things related to the 3Rs have caught my eye. The first relates to grammar and a blog post by the indomitable Michael Rosen who argues: Sorry, there’s no such thing as ‘correct grammar’ . This is typical Rosen at his best making a plea for us to think differently about things that people, on the whole, think of as fixed.

The second thing was about Maths. Well … not about maths really I suspect, more about a narrow view of computation with a little bit of worldly applied computation thrown in. The BBC today report that: Poor numeracy ‘blights the economy and ruins lives’

I do confess to being really bothered about this and wonder what actually happens in schools that causes this phenomenon to exhibit itself. But I have a solution. Let the new charity launched to champion better maths skills develop a National Test for numeracy at two levels .. a purely computational juggling level and an ‘applied’ juggling level. These tests could be taken at any time by anyone and would become a National basic qualification. They would be online and ratified (in a way I am not sure of yet) and would simply be part of an ongoing set of things people do to prove they can rather like swimming certificates, driving tests or music grades. If people fail they simply go away, practice more and have another go.

It really is very, very simple.  Let’s do it!

Attribution: Image: ‘Not My Hat!‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996646802@N01/487367839

Raspberry Pi has now been released … ordering crashed the site … it is now time to see if the hype actually translates into some real innovative learning and creation.

Trended for a while on Twitter this morning

BBC report here.

Exciting times

Attribution: Image: ‘R-PI VESA mount‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/74742897@N00/6423319989

I am amazed and impresses that over 600 people applied to join the gtauk weekend this year and can believe the excitement that those 50 selected feel and the pain suffered by those excellent people who did not make it.

The wonderful thing is that creative thinking within education with technology is going from strength to strength and this is a sign of so much more to come.

I wish I were going (I did not apply - Easter is the time for orienteering big time)but I will be there in spirit and be hanging on to every tweet to make sure my mind, as my heart, will stay on top of the ideas.

Chapeau to those who succeeded … ‘next time’ to those who didn’t

This morning trawling through my Twitter and FaceBook streams I came across two things that interested and excited me so I decided to store them here in case I misplaced them in the future or needed to direct others towards them.

Firstly was a course from iTunes U that was based on the concept of ‘Creative Problem Solving’ particularly in an educational context.

Secondly there was a blog post from Michael Rosen investigating the ownership of literacy … this was wonderful to read.

It’s not April 1st is it ?

Today the BBC reported that ‘The government wants to launch a national reading competition in England to encourage a love of books and boost children’s literacy.’

Oh dear … talk about getting it wrong … The contest, for seven- to 12-year-olds, is likely to focus on who can read the most books.

Oh dear, dear … please tell me what this has to do with reading for enjoyment, love, excitement.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said the aim was “to give a competitive spur to reluctant readers”.

Oh dear, dear, dear …

The moment that reading gets competitive then I will know that I have taught in vain

Oh dear, dear, dear, dear … Oh dear …

Shall I offer my skills as a speed reading tutor ?

Have been listening/watching all morning to the live video stream from the Learning Without Frontiers 12 (#lwf12) Conference in London and feel immensely stimulated by what I am hearing.

I do so hope that Mr Gove is watching.

Sorry but I just can’t bring myself to write much about this. I am recording it here for posterity really. Just wanted to record the moment in England’s education history when satisfactory wasn’t … wasn’t satisfactory I mean.

This from the BBC Education News.

I had to go to the dictionary to be sure … and … satisfactory (adj): Fulfilling expectations or needs; acceptable, though not outstanding or perfect..

So I get it now all schools have to be outstanding and perfect … and, of course, above average.

…and now …

“requires improvement” … requires (vb): Need for a particular purpose; depend on for success or survival Improvement (n) The action of improving or being improved

Says it all really !

My Twitter friends … specifically in the is case @nightzookeeper … come up with information that I feel that I would never come across in any other way.

‘Sweden debuts first classroom-less school’

This is a great example of what I mean and is a wonderful example of the potential of creative thought applied outside the conventional ideas. Stephen Heppell also has much to say about ideas on leaning spaces and as we move into a more digitised world then there should be opportunities to take advantage of the flexibility that is allowed when learning takes place through digital media. The nature of the situation changes and so do the interactions demanded. Old style classrooms will not fulfill the potential and will continually prove to be a barrier to acceptance and progress.

Again, it is time to move on and, now at least, Sweden might just be ahead of the game.

Image attribution: capl@washjeff.edu