Nintendo DS - the research comes in ...

It seems that in Scotland the trials to test out the impact of the use of computer games on learning are bringing in positive results.

The Consolarium research on 'games based learning' is being widely reported.

This is what part of the report said:

Our results have shown that a small, cleverly designed handheld game can significantly enhance learner performance in mental maths as well as having a positive impact on other aspects of classroom life.

So, I hope, games loaded onto one of the many ultra-portable notebooks will soon have their regular place in schools and homes as personal educational tools.

The good, the bad and the ****

The title was just to catch attention ... I am reporting here on the excellent and the, frankly, stupid ...

The excellent first. I have been following the 'Cool Cat Blog' for some time now and am often amazed by the insightful nature of the comments there on students' work. A particular statement caught my eye today reported from the Horizon Project 2008:

"A teacher should, as Don Tapscott said, no longer be a transmitter of information, but a regulator of educational settings. Our teacher Mrs. Vicki could stand in from of the class room all day and lecture us on exactly what to do and how to do it. We would ace tests and learn a lot . . . for a while… However by next year about 65% of what we learned will be irrelevant due to technology changes and development. Instead, she gives us projects to complete that pose challenges to us that can repeat themselves. Such as giving us a project to make a video by using a program we are unfamiliar with. Though we may not ever make another video, it is inevitable that we face the challenge of having to use an unfamiliar program, ergo, we will be prepared to deal with this for the rest of our lives.

So in conclusion, the role of a teacher is now: to regulate the educational environment; to introduce students to the realm of ambiguities; and to no longer evaluate our overall knowledge, but our constructive, creative, and adaptive capabilities."

I just love the last paragraph. If this teacher has taught her students this then my optimism for the future is reset ! The idea of teachers introducing students to a realm of ambiguities is awesome and I want to hear more about it.

...... and now the frankly stupid .... and it has to STOP ...

Drew Burrett is a teacher and GLOW mentor from Argyll and Bute and his frustration boiled over:


Super School, Super Speed & Web(non)Sense

How Brilliant is Microsoft’s Worldwide Telescope?

I’d love to be able to answer that question, but unfortunately my home PC is under spec’ed to do it justice - graphics card not up to the job of rendering the terabytes of images.

Nor is my school machine - lovely MacPCBookWinProXP - able to do it justice, simply because Websense will not allow it access to the internet.

I was quite excited by the announcement of the release of Microsoft’s Worldwide Telescope, as I hoped it’d make for some interesting ‘find out for yourself’ collaborative Web 2.0 work for the kids as part of our up coming ‘Space’ topic.

Alas, Websense feels it is unsafe to allow such programs (and Google Earth, Stellarium etc) to be used in the education of children. This piece of software is slowly crushing my enthusiasm for incorporating ICT into my teaching.

[I had to laugh when I saw Websense’s corporate website - where they are selling themselves as ‘Integrated Security for the Web 2.0 world]

Andrew Brown made an interesting observation on his blog regarding filtering -

I wish there were some trust in the professionalism of teachers, rather than a blanket ban on everything until its proven to be’safe’. In the meantime, I’m thinking of abandoning any attempt at using ICT and going back to chalk.

capitalisation without the capital

When the group who formed ictopus were deciding on the name, the subject of whether or not it should begin with a capital letter came up ... in the ensuing discussion it was decided that 'no' ... ictopus would be ictopus. Which caused some confusion when writers began to use it at the beginning of a sentence. Which rule took precedence ... the non-capitalisation of a proper noun or the beginning of the sentence.

This came to mind when I was readin John Connell's blog today. This is what he said, quoting from the report indicated:

"I think in the future, capitalization will disappear,” said Professor Sterling, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley. In fact, he said, when his teenage son asked what the presence of the capital letter added to what the period at the end of the sentence signified, he had no answer.

From a report in the New York Times called, Informal Style of Electronic Messages Is Showing Up in Schoolwork. Richard Sterling, emeritus executive director of the National Writing Project in the USA says: “I think this is not a worrying issue at all.”

As he points out, when a teacher comes across the use of SMS shorthand, for instance, in a school assignment, it creates an opportunity to discuss the contextual use of different kinds of language.

The study itself is called Writing, Technology and Teens - from Pew Internet, and is actually an encouraging read. It suggests, for instance, that young people today are writing more than their parents did when they were children. It also indicates that most young people are very well aware of the difference between formal writing, for instance for a school assignment, and informal, or ’social’ writing. (the bold bits are mine not John's)

I found it a highly readable report.

Postscript - if you don’t have time to read the whole report, I came across a reasonable summary here.

This all seems to fit in very well with the 'draft experiences and outcomes' for the Literacy and English section of Curriculum for Excellence ... doing it the Scottish way. It is a long, long way from the literacy framework in England.

Scotland's 4 Ds

Dumfries (and Galloway), Dundee, (West)Dumbarton (well nearly) and Dingwall ... a Scottish tour !

Monday with over 100 teachers in Dumfries. Their first day back after the Easter holidays but what enthusiasm. We explored the changing definitions of text in educational contexts and looked at the wider picture illustrated by Article 13 of the UN Charter for children. This led us to look at the way Textease Studio CT handles multimodality, in particular the power of adding sound to text in a variety of ways. Keeping reading records as 'live' sound recordings was the innovation here as many teachers had not imagined that they had the technology to do this simply and quickly. Tuesday in Dundee with 60 or so enthusiasts in a fantastically impressive hall with a huge presentation screen. Again we looked at the way Curriculum for Excellence had a clear focus towards the future and how the definitions of text opened up opportunities to look at multimodality, blogging and social networking.



One of the many things that struck me in both of these sessions was the absence of men. Out of about 160 odd teachers who turned out for the sessions I think I counted 4 men. Come on guys where are you?

It hasn't all been ICT and work. Just north of Dumfries, up a narrow valley, if you know where to look, are some fabulous sculptures ... just sitting in the environment.



In West Dumbarton teachers gave up a half day of their holiday to come and work with me (WOW!) and we talked much about creativity and listened to part of Sir Ken Robinson's presentation at TED ... we talked about 'white space' in teaching and learning ... the necessary gap between doing one thing and then doing another so that each experience has time to root and grow before you dash on to another. And we spoke of the idea that boredom might well be a catalyst for creativity (interesting idea). These teachers were also taken by the idea of having a dynamic reading record which was multimodal ... containing a visual record of the book or story read, a sound file of the experience and perhaps text to review the book. We also spoke of the possibility of children listening to their own reading in this way and taking some level of responsibility for their own improvement and progress.We also experimented with making videos of signing to go along with words and picture for those who had hearing impairments.



We also took a brief look at the latest output from Curriculum for Excellence - The Technologies. An early view suggests to me that this is a sensible document which will give professionals breadth and scope for creativity as well as ongoing development. It will, however, need supported interpretation to assist teachers with the development of their curriculum and classroom context.

All set up now for the last of the '4 Ds of Scotland', two sessions tomorrow with SMTs from the Highlands and Island. The session is being held in Strathpeffer where I have learned that the Kaiser Chiefs will be performing in May !! Perhaps they could see me as a 'warm up act'!

A super session with two different groups of SMTs in the fashionable Spa town of Strathpeffer ... we were not overwhelmed by groupies rushing in to buy their tickets for the Kaiser Chief concert but I was amazed at the distances some people had travelled to get to the sessions. Two teachers had driven down from Thurso ... well over two hours away ....

Alan Stewart ( many thanks Alan) documented the sessions on the fly using a very nifty piece of Web 2.0 technology called Drop.io ... a simple private exchange which enables you to create simple private exchange points called "drops." The service has no email signup and no "accounts." Each drop is private, and only as accessible as you choose to deliberately make it. Create multiple drops, add any type of media, and share or subscribe as you want. To make a drop just click the big red button that says 'drop it'. If you haven't experimented with this yet it really is well worth the effort.

PS

Alan Stewart reports on his blog what I said and did ...

Dr Kawashima rules okay

Last week Derek Robinson, from LTS, did an excellent job in saying on a variety of interviews on television what was really happening in a project he is involved with in Scotland at the Consolarium .He explained the use of games and games machines having value in educational contexts but the protagonists, on the whole, just didn't get it. You can read more about this on Ewan's blog here.

Well a week has passed and Derek has had time to think back on the impact of what he was saying. You can read this better from his blog than me reiterating it.

But a number of things come out of this for me, the main one being his assertion 'good teachers will use good resources'. Of course they will and many good teachers will take a variety of resources and make them good and useful by the power and excitement of their teaching. It is the teacher that 'does the stuff' ... the resources help and support.

As I have just commented on Derek's blog:

I am totally sure that you are right... I am just curious what the definition of real impact will be and hope that it will not just be a measure of improved performance. I don't believe in the quick fix ... I think that things happen in learning over a much greater time scale than we imagine ... the impact may be years ahead and will not be down to one idea or thing or lesson or experience.