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.)

TED - Can kids teach themselves?

Sugata Mitra's talk made at the Lift Conference held in Geneva in 2007 has just been posted on the TED site.

In his talk he poses the question 'Can kids teach themselves?'. He uses his 20 minutes to explain his view: In 1999, Sugata Mitra and his colleagues dug a hole in a wall bordering an urban slum in New Delhi, installed an Internet-connected PC, and left it there (with a hidden camera filming the area). What they saw was kids from the slum playing around with the computer and in the process learning how to use it and how to go online, and then teaching each other.

In the following years they replicated the experiment in other parts of India, urban and rural, with similar results, challenging some of the key assumptions of formal education. The "Hole in the Wall" project demonstrates that, even in the absence of any direct input from a teacher, an environment that stimulates curiosity can cause learning through self-instruction and peer-shared knowledge. Mitra, who's now a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University (UK), calls it "minimally invasive education."

The most interesting thing about what he reports is that children adopt peer learning styles automatically. And that the learning took place in groups ... that was an essential factor. He also comments that the children seemed to learn by watching rather than doing. I feel sure that our institutional, individualised education systems may have something to learn from this. Worth leaving it to the kids.

Have you ever had to teach a child how to use a mobile phone?

QCA Consult on GCSE ICT

The consultation by QCA on the ICT requirements for GCSE could have real implications back down through the key stages in English schools. This top down approach has the potential to change pedagogical styles and attitudes to a tool which is seen as a subject. (I actually feel the same about literacies in other curriculum areas)

The main thrust of the proposals which are up for comment is encapsulated in item 10:

GCSE specifications in ICT must require learners to demonstrate the ability to:

• think creatively, logically and critically
• independently select, use and integrate ICT tools to meet needs
• find, select and evaluate information for its relevance, value, accuracy and plausibility
• manipulate and process data and other information, model situations and explore ideas
• communicate data and information in a form fit for purpose and audience
• adopt safe, secure and responsible practice when using ICT
• develop appropriate and effective ICT-based solutions in a range of contexts
• work individually and collaboratively
• iteratively review, evaluate and, where appropriate, modify the effectiveness of their own and others' use of ICT.

This does seem good to me but I was looking for a relevance in other curriculum areas to be made more obvious. Maybe that will come. I just feel that ICT in the rest of the delivered and examined curriculum might take a back seat as teachers of other subjects don't see it as their concern. I suppose the answer is to leave it to the children/students ... they will sort it.

6-Year-Old Stares Down Bottomless Abyss Of Formal Schooling

John Connell's blog always provides me with amusement and insights ... now I am back (Have I been away? ... well 'Yes' ... France beckoned and the sun shone and the orienteering in the high pastures of the Aveyron was awesome).

He passes on a post he found David Gilmour's blog ... read the post from 'The Onion' here.

Of course, it doesn't have to be like this ...

'Age Banding' of children's books

I noticed yesterday that the Times ran an article in the 'Books' section called 'Many paths to the same end'. Alan Gardner postulates that' The imposition of such bands ignores how we laern to read.'

As a teacher who came through flash cards in tobacco tins, ITA, any number of reading schemes from 'Janet and John' past Ladybird, through 'Letterland' and beyond to 'Real books'. And I watched the cycle repeat with more modern books and more modern schemes.

Gardner comments on books that should just be read, not as books for children but just 'books' and he adds that 'To ghettoise books is to insult text and reader.'

This all leads to 'The Children's Writers and Illustrators Group Conference at Robinson College, Cambridge' where, on August 31st there will be a session to discus 'age banding'.

Watch this space for their view and consider whether or not it will change yours.

PS

This might help to explain it all...

Lookybook

My trawls today directed me towards Angela Maier's Blog and her report of a web site Lookybook. This site appears to have been around for a while now and I missed it first time round!!

This is what the site says about itself:

Picture books are for looking at. Lookybook allows you to look at picture books in their entirety—from cover to cover, at your own pace. We know that nothing will replace the magic of reading a book with your child at bedtime, but we aim to replace the overwhelming and frustrating process of finding the right books for parents and their kids.

Our mission is to create a comfortable place where a curious and devoted audience can search, view, talk about, and buy from a diverse and rapidly expanding collection of picture books. We intend to create the greatest opportunity for authors, illustrators and publishers to reach interested consumers and dramatically extend the life of their books.

Lookybook currently features over 300 titles and is growing daily.

On the site you can look at the book, embed it in a blog or web page or go to a shop and buy it.

I think this is a brilliant idea.

Some common sense ... perhaps

So, it transpires, that there are more Sats papers missing and now there is a big search on to try to find out where they are and just how many.

The question still needs to be answered about the viability of continuing with a system that few will now have any confidence in.

Perhaps this company ETS, with all of its inadequacies, have done my cause a favour. Just maybe we will now see some more radical rethinking. Today, previous Education Secretary Estelle Morris says in a BBC News item:

Ed Balls should not resign over the Sats problems - but he should use them as an opportunity to overhaul the testing system.

Hope he listens ...

Oh to have been in Boston now that summer is here

The Building Learning Communities Annual Conference in Boston is a bright star in the sky of educational conferences ... very little selling ( The conference design was superb. Following on the heels of NECC, the contrast is clear. Building Learning Communities keeps the scope of corporate sponsors, vendors, and salespeople to an appropriate place. )... lots of ideas from across the world and just full of wonderful, mind opening potential.

Unfortunately I was not there last week ... but a lot of my friends were and I hope to bring you some of their 'take-aways' at a later date.

The BLC Conference Ning has given me little of the meat of the conference so I have trawled the blogs to get my 'fix'. Reflections on Building Learning Communities 2008 is the blog of Richard Kassissieh is Director of Information Services at Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. and his reflections are well worth a read.

I want to pick up on just a couple of things he says ... firstly:

... Ewan McIntosh and John Davitt focused too much on currently existing technology applications and their effects on social dynamics and power. The dominant educational technology discourse has been enamored with these possibilities for a few years now. We are ready for a more detailed exploration of the intersection of new technologies with specific pedagogical strategies.

This is so right ! It is time to move on .. the examples of good practice must be there and, when we think about it, we all know of some. But they are still in tiny pockets and the institutions don't run on ideas in tiny pockets. We have our 'mavens' and we are now urgent to make global changes in the way people learn and develop as they grow in to their lives.

Secondly:

Small, passionate groups make things happen. And I remember one of Ewan's nuggets from last year: forget the pilot. Come up with a great idea and launch it well.

This is so right ! As I go from school to school and LA to LA the number of 'pilot' projects that people are involved in seems to grow and have a life of its own. Remember the song ...



Hold the light sabre in your hand and the force will be with you ... courage of conviction.

PS

From my feeds today the Next Generation Learning in Kent has a neat summary of Harnessing Technology:Next Generation Learning .

The bit that really interested me, in reference to BLC Conference was what was left over from last time:

Challenges remaining from the first e-Strategy

• Unreliable and unsustainable school infrastructure and technical support.


• Value for money and effective technology management not being achieved.


• Range of technology use in schools is fairly limited.


• Teachers rarely realise the full benefits of technology.


• Use of digital resources largely regarded as optional by teachers.


• Technology not used effectively to engage parents.


• Few schools making use of the extended learning opportunities offered by technology.


• Levels of technology access high among learners when out of school, but in formal education expectations not being met.


• Whizzy web 2.0 technologies common at home, but not in formal settings.

Podcasting in Surrey (without a fringe)

Sometimes people just make my day.

Yesterday I had wakened early (before 5.00) and had begun my drive down the M1 towards Surrey. My route was to take me on to the M25 and then around to J10 and off to Cobham. I gave myself 3 hours to do it ... it was not enough. I arrived on the M25parkway at just before 7.00 and then stopped and started my way around anti-clockwise ... even had time to count the number of jets I could see in the sky over Heathrow (7). I arrived at the 4S Training Centre in Cobham at 8.33 ... rushed in ... and was greeted by smiles and a really warm welcome. Just down the corridor, in the room we were to work in I met Tim Barette ... more smiles, warm handshake, and 'What can I get you to drink?' and 'Is there anything I can do to help?' and ' Will this be okay for you?' and 'Is there anything else you need?'

Sometimes people just make your day ... thanks Tim !!

Then the teachers came and we podcasted. We used Podium from Softease and it was easy to use and didn't get in the way of what we were trying to do and we recorded sounds and made podcasts and had fun and could see why we might want to do this with children in classrooms.

We took poems as a theme and the teachers read and developed lots of ideas and added backing tracks and 'stings' to their productions. We spoke of building a podcast as a 'design and build' exercise in D & T and commented that preparing the resources ( sound files mainly) was a pre-podcast job.

The scripting tool in the software excited interest and its potential was not lost on a group of primary teachers who could see the cross-curricula application of both the scripting and the podcasting.

The 'witches' from Shakespeare's Macbeth, concluded proceedings.

It was no big deal. Not once did any of the teachers ask how to do something. They listened, watched and then experimented ... brilliant !! I do hope that they enjoyed it as much as I did.

The podcasts they made can be listened to here (Remember it was a first try and was supposed to be fun)

A Sat too far ...

I have always had a high regard for Ken Boston, the head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, but it appears that someone has fed him the wrong information. How can he say categorically that ... the current position is that in Key Stage 2the marking is now 100% complete ... when it so obviously isn't? Newspapers and media agencies up and down England are find this out and today the BBC report yet again on the failure to get the thing sorted.

This all indicates a mess but what worries me even more is the reaction of head teachers up and down the country who have used it as a rallying cry for something I don't understand.

The children have put their heart and soul into this. That's what hurts. I've had to speak to the children this morning to tell them nothing has come back. said one headteacher in the BBC report.

Sats are not fit for purpose and educationalists have been saying this for long enough now for someone, surely, to listen. This latest problem is just that - a problem. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that we should have stopped testing children in this way some time ago and simply haven't.

The fact that heads, teachers, parents and the media have used it as a rallying cry for something or other is strange. None of this is going to materially damage children, teachers, schools or education as we know it ( pity in some ways really, it could have initiated a period of great change). The educational effect will be an absolute minimum and systems that have been developed just to satisfy the beast of Sats have, at best, had there time and effort misplaces and at worst could be accused of missing the point of education itself.

As I have said before, several times, time to stop this. Let's not get sidetracked by a company that has failed to deliver on its contract ( to collect, mark and return) let's concentrate on the real issue. Sats must go !

So where do we go from here?

There are many people contributing to the idea of the necessity to change the game and think what education should really be like in the 21st Century for 21st century learners. With the onset of Web 2.0 has come Learning 2.0 with a, sort of, implication that the next step might be something to do with advances in technology.

I am not so sure. I think social demography has a really important part to play in educating the next generation (and those that come after). We have, for a long period of time now relied on the institutional definition of education and have allowed schooling to be the function of it. This has lead to an over-reliance on the curriculum and its measures which has, in my opinion, led learning into a dark place.

There is need to change.

Charles Leadbeater has written, under the title of 'What Next? 21 Ideas for 21st Century Learning' produced for the Innovation Unit on the future of learning in England, about such things.

The thrust of his argument seems to be about personal responsibility in a group dynamic to make education authentic for learners. This is an all-inclusive view.

One of the 21 for me is the idea of 'third spaces'. Places in space and time between home and school that provide the personal bridge to make it all work. For some this 'space' will be in sport, for others art and music; some will need to be there alone and others in groups that will dynamically change. Technology could provide that space - but should it, will it ?

The report is more than worth a read for those who see and follow the need to change.

To Sat or not to Sat ... no question ...

There is no question here for me. Get rid of them and plough the money back into teaching and learning. Particularly learning. John Connell's post of yesterday and my response to it is all part of this agenda. We need to move on from this obsession with measuring what our learners do to supporting their interests and enthusiasms and, as professionals, channel their time and efforts . We are no longer 'training' pupils for jobs but should be providing them with the stepping stones towards a creative, adaptive adult life. And this does not demand to know what Sat level you are ... or for that matter what level you are in anything. Learning and understanding is surely not based on a level of anything.

Today the BBC report that Sats results expected to fall I am totally amazed that such an arbitrary scale can be deemed to rise and fall anyway. But this BBC comment is based on an organisational juggle. Am I bovvered? Not a bit.

It is all okay though because the MPs are going to 'grill' the exam chiefs. What an incredible smoke-screen. Have you heard the one about 'wood' and 'trees'?

There is a problem with the amount of money being spent on 'weighing' our children but this really is not a big issue. But the fact that it diverts attention away from looking forward to the challenges of 'learning 2.0' is a problem.

We must be planning to move the focus of education from pedagogy - in a blended way -towards andragogy and heutagogy. The ownership of the learning must be invested in the learners and it is their active participation in their own learning that education should seek. Selling them the idea that tests show what they can do and what they will be able to do is just not fair ... we need to move on.

John says that, at the moment he 'doesn't buy it', but he does comment that, the context within which education systems need to work is changed. He continues ... The key sets of stakeholders, the world over – governments, parents, business, the teaching profession, universities – remain obdurately tied to industrial-age education ... when we don't live in one any more. A read of The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman will indicate why a change of perspective is important.

SATs - time to call it a day !

On Sunday last I flippantly commented about 'not being bovvered' about the delay in the reporting of the KS2 and KS3 SATs results this year. Today I am commenting on the reported mistakes in the marking.

By the BBC's reported account it has failed to meet up to the standards set and many children/students/schools/parents are going to be supplied with the wrong results. Even if the results are correct, if some are wrong, who will believe the others. People will be prepared to believe the good but not the bad ... over inflation is just as much a problem here as under inflation.

Surely time to call it a day ... it does no good, it doesn't work, it costs lots of money, it diverts attention from real teaching to just focusing on testing and it upsets very many people.

Let's stop it once and for all ...

Copyright ... time to re-evaluate

Copyright laws/rules were set for printed materials and have evolved or have been morphed to include electronic sources since music and photo and video became available. The laws and rules do not seem to fit today's publishing methodology and need a complete rethink. Copyright is too complex for mortals and creative commons has helped but ...

My feeds (apophenia :: making connections where none previously existed )today took me towards a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video. This is well worth keeping as a reference guide to common sense and careful thought on the subject.

Is the study of such things soon to be part of the new e-curriculum we have yet to write ?

Harnessing Technology: Next Generation Learning 2008-14

On 3rd July at the ICT in Education Conference in Birmingham Jim Knight - you can read exactly what he said here - ( on behalf of the DCSF, DIUS and Becta ) announced Harnessing Technology: Next Generation Learning 2008-14.

This update has the potential to ensure ensure that requirements of today's learners are met. The Government says technology in learning is no longer optional.

This document came out of a Becta stable and is promoted by the Government of the UK but as far as I can see it only applies to England, as Scotland - their early Years Strategy here - has its own and Northern Ireland's is up for review as the EmPowering Schools Strategy was dated to 2008. The Welsh Assembly produced their document Transforming Schools with ICT:The Report to the Welsh Assembly Government of the Schools ICT Strategy Working Group back in April.

I feel sure someone will tell me quickly if I am wrong about this as I am just not sure how this works as the UK Government and Becta who both have responsibilities across all of the countries that from the UK. (Haven't they?)This is, of course, a concern to those of us who work across a number of countries.

On the whole the revised strategy is just that - revised - to meet the changes that have happened since the last version. And it leaves openings for continued revision, though I must say, I am mildly perturbed by the 2008 - 2014 tag. 6 years ... it is a brave person who will predict that far ahead in ICT never mind anything else (see my last post concerning the search for the Higgs boson).

For me one of the highlights is the section on Priorities in managing the change: equity, quality and efficiency. The five priorities listed here:
• Learner entitlement
• Family and informal learning
• Professional tools for teaching
• Mobilising leadership
• Fit-for-purpose sustainable technology.

... address some of the key 'back-at-the-ranch' questions. Of particular interest to me is that of 'personal ownership' and integration and I feel that item 87 will present many challenges and opportunities:

87. This means that increasingly leaders will need to ensure effective
management of a ‘mixed economy’ of publicly funded and personally owned
technologies, and ensure that no learner or family is disadvantaged due to
lack of access to technology. This raises significant issues, including those
relating to licensing and liabilities, data protection, and health and safety.
Becta and its partners will provide advice and guidance on each of these
areas. Industry partners including internet service providers, hardware
and educational service providers, will be fully involved.

To conclude - this strategy has been conceived and developed over time by people who have a group, vast working knowledge of the current state of the ICT game. But, it is institutional and organisational. Clay Shirky has much to say on such things in his book 'Here Comes Everybody'.

SATs results delayed ( Who cares?)

I was driving home from Essex last evening and tuned in to the BBC radio 4 PM slot to pick up the headlines. Top report of the day was that the SATs results for 1 Million pupils would be delayed by one week !!

I had to pull over into a layby as I was laughing so much at the report and the response from the Department. Just WHO CARES ... the Department and the BBC made me feel that a national catastrophy was at hand and that we must all come out fighting (or digging for victory or something). They didn't manage to tie it in with the 'global credit crunch' but I did get the idea that if they could have they would have.

Not withstanding the amazing cost of the five-year contract to ETS and the 'softer' costs to schools, parent, teachers and children and the fact that we are the only country that perpetuates this 'test it, test it, test it' regime are 'WE BOVVERED'?

Well I fancy NO, is the real answer. If the results are delayed a week or a month - so what. What are the real implications of the calamity? For the children absolutely nothing, nil, zilch ... and it is them we do it all for, isn't it?

Okay, I concede that some children/students may have been built up for their results coming in (possibly based on a reward system !).

The Department seems to be bothered about the damage it has done to the credibility of the exam system. The company has ' learned lessons'. What have the rest of us learned ... and are we BOVVERED !!

Podcasting in Wickford, Essex

4th July found me making the drive round the M25 (it was totally clear!!) to Essex to support my colleague Philippa for two sessions of podcasting with Softease's Podium.

We had two splendid sessions made the more inspiring by 'frontman' Alan Drew, Curriculum Development Advisor, ICT, for Essex County Council who had put real time and effort into his opener about the nature of podcasting. This presentation really set the scene for the 'hands on session' to follow and also showed how Essex are using their 'e-folio' portal to support and enhance teaching and learning. Alan explained that the materials he had used and much, much more on podcasting was available through the portal and cemented, for the teachers, the importance of building up their familiarity with it.

Now its up to the Lead Teachers and ASTs who attended to run with the ideas ... they know why they should, they know how they can and they have the means to move podcasting forward in their schools.

I wait with bated breath ...

On 3rd July at the Improving Today, Excelling Tomorrow conference being staged in Birmingham by ICT for Education magazine , Jim Knight will let us all know what the Government is thinking of next with regard to its ICT Strategy for education.

I am told, via Merlin John's blog that the presentation will: ... focus on "driving up standards in the use of ICT, learning lessons from past mistakes and identifying excellent practice to help schools further embed technology into the way they work".

Excited ... you bet ... can't wait to see whether we are going to open up and move on or .....

PS

2nd July ... can't find any mention of what was said if anything ...sorry ... if you find anything please let me know

PPS

3 rd July ... Still can't find any find out what Jim said ...

Defining the edublogger

What is the definition of an edublogger?

An international all-day "meetup" of educational bloggers and those using collaborative technologies will take place on Saturday, June 28th, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio just before the start of NECC. All are invited--whether you yourself blog, are just an educational blog reader, or even just want to hang out with an interesting group of people. The event is free, and you can indicate that you are coming (and see who else will be there) here at the Edubloggercon wiki. This event is based on the idea of an "unconference", and is being organized by the participants in real time here on the wiki. It's maybe better referred to as a "collaborative conference." Through the generosity of ISTE, we have access all that day to rooms at the Convention Center and there will be free wi-fi: beyond that is up to you. So come and help us plan a fun and stimulating experience. It should be great!

Minds meeting minds ... it will be great to trawl the participant's' blogs for outcomes and patch those in to the editorial statement of Annika Small (ex Futurelab CE) where she asks: 'What have you changed your mind about and why?'

You can get a flavour of the event by watching the video. Ewan was there !!

No 'ifs' .. but some 'buts'

Ray Tolley happened upon the poem below on a NZ site ... it was in the appendix to Andy Walker's investigation into personalised learning experiences for students and opens up a whole set of contradictions for me.

The Things We Steal From Children

By Dr John Edwards

If I am always the one to think of where to go next.
If where we go is always the decision of the curriculum or my curiosity and not theirs,
If motivation is mine,
If I always decide on the topic to be studied, the title of the story, the problem to be worked on,
If I am always the one who has reviewed their work and decided what they need,
How will they ever know how to begin?

If I am the one who is always monitoring progress.
If I set the pace of all working discussions,
If I always look ahead, foresee problems and endeavour to eliminate them,
If I swoop in and save them from cognitive conflict,
If I never allow them to feel and use the energy from confusion and frustration,
If things are always broken into short working periods,
If myself and others are allowed to break into their concentration,
If bells and I are always in control of the pace and flow of work,
How will they learn to continue their own work?

If all the marking and editing is done by me,
If the selection of which work is to be published or evaluated is made by me,
If what is valued and valuable is always decided by external sources or by me,
If there is no forum to discuss what delights them in their task, what is working,
what is not working, what they plan to do about it,
If they have not learned a language of self-assessment,
If ways of communicating their work are always controlled by me,
If our assessments are mainly summative rather then formative,
If they do not plan their way forward to further action,
How will they find ownership, direction and delight in what they do?

If I speak of individuals but present learning as if they are all the same,
If I am never seen to reflect and reflection time is never provided,
If we never speak together about reflection and thinking and never develop a vocabulary for such discussion,
If we do not take opportunities to think about our thinking,
If I constantly set them exercises that do not intellectually challenge them,
If I set up learning environments that interfere with them learning from their own actions,
If I give them recipes to follow,
If I only expect the one right conclusion,
If I signify that there are always right and wrong answers,
If I never let them persevere with something
really difficult which they cannot master,
If I make all work serious work and discourage playfulness,
If there is no time to explore,
If I lock them into adult time constraints too early,
How will they get to know themselves as a thinker?

If they never get to help anyone else,
If we force them to always work and play with children of the same age,
If I do not teach them the skills of working co-operatively,
If collaboration can be seen as cheating,
If all classroom activities are based on competitiveness,
If everything is seen to be for marks,
How will they learn to work with others?

For if they…
have never experienced being challenged in a safe environment,
have had all of their creative thoughts explained away,
are unaware what catches their interest and how then to have confidence in that interest,
have never followed something they are passionate about to a satisfying conclusion,
have not clarified the way they sabotage their own learning,
are afraid to seek help and do not know who or how to ask,
have not experienced overcoming their own inertia,
are paralysed by the need to know everything before writing or acting,
have never got bogged down,
have never failed,
have always played it safe,
how will they ever know who they are?

World Web 2.0 Educational Projects

Terry Freedman has collated a number of educational projects that use Web 2.0 technologies and has produced a booklet outlining these. It can be downloaded freely from here.

Also on this download page is the highly acclaimed 'Coming of Age V1' ... more than well worth a read.

This is what Terry says about the Web 2.0 Projects booklet:

The purpose of this booklet is to give you some practical ideas about the kinds of things you can do with Web 2.0 technology. Please note: this was not intended to be a compilation of projects using cutting edge applications. I simply invited teachers to share what they have been doing.
In many cases the projects were in their infancy. Also, almost all projects will need following up in some way. For example, what were the longer term benefits, or what exactly was meant by “amazing results”?
All the descriptions have been provided by the teachers themselves. I received quite a few submissions, via an online survey, but only a relative handful have been included here, for a variety of reasons:

•Some people asked for their projects not to be made public. I have respected that wish.
•Some projects were not viewable by the public. I have actually included some of these where the description was detailed enough to give the reader an idea of what was going on; otherwise, I couldn’t see the point.
•I have not used submissions where there were very few details and no website to check out.
•I have omitted repeated descriptions of similar projects, but have included the URLs referred to.

As you will see, I have arranged the projects according to the age range they address. However, I do think it may be worth your while looking through all of them. I, for example, found several ideas for podcasting in primary (elementary) schools from the projects listed in the higher age groups.
I hope you find the booklet useful, and I should be extremely grateful for any feedback you would like to give me.

Thank you.

Terry Freedman

Words of visdom from NZ

Reading my feed of the Flux blog took me to an account of how schools in New Zealand are managed and governed and how autonomous their set up seems to be.

And just for those reading who think I should have written 'wisdom' in the title and made a mistake I decided to use my new word 'visdom'. This is a 'mash-up' word implying wisdom and vision together ... perhaps it will make a dictionary somewhere !

The huge quotation that I bring here is this:

When the elephant gets on the trampoline, everybody else has to jump at the same rhythm ... so don't let the elephant get on !! (the last bit is mine)

I wonder what, if anything, our primary schools heading for their version of BSF can make of this?

Podium Podcasting in Newham

A totally awesome day with about 40 or so ICT co-ordinators in Newham at the ITASS powerhouse - the Credon Centre - who arrived to experiment with the curriculum implications behind podcasting. They were very receptive to the ideas that underpinned the ICT and could focus on the classroom contexts while still maintaining a personal, watching brief on the kit they needed to get it all sort out.

I was first up and began with the Ninja Podcasting video followed by the wonderful Common Craft explanation of podcasting:



Then I did my bit with Podium ending up with the participation slot for the witches from Macbeth!!

I was followed by an extremely well planned an executed session by Ken Maslin of ITASS and Emma Parker, Primary Strategy Literacy Consultant who explained case study projects that they had been involved in using podcasting. They introduced us to various versions of 'The Nig Nang Nong' and how explained how motivating the whole thing about recording was for the children.

These were my favourites:





After a superb lunch Pippa Dorma, LGfl Consultant, explained the LGfL approach to podcasting and got the assembled mob to do clever things with Audacity.

A brilliant day with enthusiastic teachers ... lucky children !!

Words, words, words ...

Words just excite me. In text or in speech the way that words shape thoughts and actions have always been a joy. Calligrams, words which explain themselves by their shape, size, colour and juxtaposition have certainly inspired many poets and the idea of creating shapes and patterns with words really does appeal.

I have just come across a Web 2.0 app that takes this to a creative place that I feel is stimulating and different. It is Wordle.

This is what they say about themselves:

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Formal .V. Informal education

One of the feeds that I read avidly because it is always thought provoking and at the cutting edge of creative educational thought is the feed to Flux - the blog of FutureLab.

In continuation of the theme of what makes education education Emma Agusita writes:

There are a number of central characteristics evident in informal education practices which reveal a persuasion for socially just’ and holistic approaches:
Relinquishing control of the learning process
redefining the value of what constitutes learning
encouraging self-awareness & reflection
facilitating critical skills, freethinking & experimentation
engaging though innovation and equal access & participation

All of these factors are exciting but, at this time, the one of these that really interests me is the 'relinquishing of control' ... I am anxious that childhood should not be wasted on conventional, institutional education but should, by design not chance, be focused where the child is. By gradual progression and sympathetic mentoring learners should develop their own sense of learning and then 'buy' at the intitutions the learning that is for them.

Institutional education is still in its infancy and has not yet grasped the concept of being a 'service industry'. It fails to inform its buyers of the products it has in a way that makes them accessible. By attempting to be fair and equable it has developed a grand 'several sizes fits all' approach which is not personalisation.

We have exciting ways to go yet.

Does it all add up?

I have just finished reading the Review of Mathematics Teaching in Early Years Settings and Primary Schools by Sir Peter Williams and am left wondering if it all adds up.

Just to take some of the key points from a political standpoint:

There should be a maths specialist in every primary school in 10 years

Isn't that potentially two General Elections away? Never mind the advances in technology over that period that might/could/ought to change the shape of education, who is to say that the next Government will be of like mind? Would that we could effectively predict what skills and competences our young people will need by then. I don't suspect that it may not depend on their ability to ..play with shapes, time, capacity and numbers

The training of the maths specialists will start in 2009 so by 2019 the school down the road will have a maths specialist and two whole generations of children will have come and gone from that school without the benefit of this 'expert' help to do things that could easily (in authentic terms) be questioned as worthwhile or even necessary.

I have been unable to find out the actual figures for the training of ALL teachers in support of the old numeracy strategy and that, together with the training of co-ordinators working on the 'new framework' does add up to an awful lot of maths training over the last few years.

The review says:

All children should be competent in basic maths by the age of seven

Just about the same moment as our Continental neighbours are beginning the formal education of their young people. And what does this competence mean?

I do agree with the idea that we need to remove the negativity towards the subject. This is largely generated by a starved media who will latch onto what they consider to be a good story rather than bother to investigate the truth.

Even then I am just not sure about the context and content of the teaching. Teachers are only just beginning to get to grips with the New Framework for Maths (did you notice when it changed from numeracy to maths?). I just wonder how teachers will respond to this, some will obviously see the implications as a potential career move.

If this is the report on Maths then I wonder what Jim Rose will say in his Primary Review that moves things forward. And how does all this sit alongside the thoughts and ideas coming from FutureLab about re-imagining learning spaces and what effect will it have on the Primary phase of BSF?

Podcasting at Killhope

Yesterday was spent in the far west of County Durham, so close to Cumbria that it didn't matter, at Killhope Mining Museum. We, that is Shelley Dendy and myself, numerous members of ITSS, at least eight teachers and about 36 children plus the centre staff were there to podcast. Authentically podcast.

The theme had been set by Paul Hodgkinson and was based on the life of a 'washer boy' in the lead mine in Victorian times ... read the challenge here:Podcasting%20Challenge.pdf

What a tremendously exciting day ... more details later but you can listen to the podcasts of the day here.

JKR speaks at Harvard

I have to confess to not being a Harry Potter fan. It isn't that I don't think that the stories would be good it is just that, on the whole, I don't actually read much fiction, and, if I were to start I am not sure I would begin there.

However, I picked up from my one of my feeds (Open Education) that J K Rowling had delivered the Commencement Address, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.

The video of her speech can be found here.

The writer of Open Education clearly makes a plea for people in such a powerful position to remember that it is the students' day and that they are there to enhance it and make sure that it is totally memorable for them and for their assembled family members. This is what was said:

Delivering a memorable graduation speech is one of education’s most difficult challenges. Somehow the orator must deliver some words of inspiration that add to the festiveness of the occasion all the while recognizing that the ceremony is about the graduates and not the speaker.

All too often, the presenter instead interferes with the ceremony, serving as a distraction to all present. Under the worst of conditions, the graduation speaker manages to actually subtract from a day devoted to the achievements of those who have completed their college studies. In fact, the tales of such negative moments are legendary.

On the other hand, a properly created and delivered speech serves as the perfect supplement for the special day. Similar to a burst of bright sunshine, a well crafted speech adds a scintillating glow to the events taking place.

Delivering such a memorable talk at Harvard University just might be the most challenging of all. Like the World Series, the speaker is on an especially distinctive stage with a multitude of observers examining every word.

For me the speech was a masterpiece beginning with disarming the audience and then opening a discussion on how failure has the potential to set people free from constraints. She argued that rock bottom could be seen as a firm foundation and that it could be built upon. She went on to talk of empathy and commented that ... well, no ... please read for yourself ... here it is far better in her words.

I was reminded, towards the end of her speech, as she said:

... written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people’s lives simply by existing.

... of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle that suggests, if you want to extrapolate the idea, that every time we look at something, or think of something, or do something we affect it. We change it.

So let's look closely at how young people learn ... so we can better understand it and help to change it ... for their futures.

Neural pathways or grey matter ?

Sitting at breakfast, as you do, Kay and I got to talking about someone we knew who had written a book but neither of us could 'get to' the name. Our usual ploy at this point is to start at the beginning of the alphabet and work through saying the letters out loud and hoping for interventions that would reveal what we are thinking about. Several times through proved unsuccessful but then, out of the blue sky came to answer... just like that ... as if doors had been opened by the power of the brain to open them. This was interesting in itself but the next bit got me really thinking. The person we were searching for had a co-author and before I could ask Kay had said the name. It was as if her brain had its own personal tag cloud that finding one of the tags led to all the associated tags.

Now I appreciate that if I was a brain specialist or even a psychologist or had studied psychology or something I would have been aware of this and would not have been surprised ... but I was ... and I got to thinking and banging on about how we revere 'knowing' above understanding.

Trawling, mentally, through the TV programmes to substantiate my point I found that there were a large number of them, at a variety of levels that venerate 'knowing' ... Mastermind, The Weakest link, University Challenge, Question of Sport etc .

We then got to arguing about the change in focus in schools from 'knowing' to 'applying' ... and I was reminded of the discussion on a forum recently about a content .V. skill based curriculum and the idea of what the 'skills' would be proved to be a stopping point.

Heavy for breakfast ... a bit like an intellectual fry-up ... but the continuation was along the lines of - in society are the people at the top there because at some moment or other in their lives they spent doing the 'knowing' bit before they got to the 'applying' bit or were they just fortunate in not having to put any effort into knowing ... they just 'know'.

My son's girlfriend is sitting her university exams at the moment ... she says it is all about knowing.

So should there be lots more effort put into knowing just so that we know in case we need to?

Now, is this progressive or retrogressive thinking - am I ahead of the next wave of developments or so far behind that it isn't worth the thought?

Rant over ... hope you get the idea !

Playing has stalled ... the long school year should end

Okay this is not what the report said. It actually said:

Long school holidays should be abolished to prevent children falling behind in class, a report has said. The Institute for Public Policy Research said studies suggested pupils lose some of their reading abilities because the summer break is too long.

My take on this is that the Institute might well have missed the point of being a child ... it is not to progress on the contuinued institutional step ladder of inferred educational achievement but rather to enjoy living, to play in the buttercups and to run with friends in the open air. Reading is wonderful and if schools can create in the children the excitement and joy that comes from its mastery what better time than during the 'long summer holidays' to curl up in a private spot and to experience the wonder that is reading.

The report goes on:

If we are serious about continuing to improve outcomes for all children, we need long-term reform that better gears our school system around the needs of children and young people.

'Improve outcomes for all children' ... Wainwright, the celebrated fell walker and writer, often said (and I paraphrase here), 'When climbing a fell, always take time to pause and look back the way you have come. The eyes will be delighted.' It looks to me that the report writers have failed to do that ... in their urgency to get to the top and to move ' outcomes' forwards they have forgotten the purpose of the climb!

Language maketh man ...

I do apologise to William of Wykeham (1324 - 1404)and the Motto of Winchester College and New College, Oxford for usurping the motto but it just seemed right or this two part post.

I have recently taken delivery of a cre8txt keyboard being promoted by that exceptional man Russell Prue as I am very interested in the speed that some young people seem to be able to communicate with their mobile phones and felt that such a device could well be one way into reluctant writers.

I have only just begun to get to grips with the USB device and find, at present, that the cable to the laptop rather gets in the way of the small light keypad. I have spoken to Russell about this and await the bluetooth or wireless versions which I understand are 'on the drawing board'.

The functionality is just as it says on the web site and it performs well with the predictive text writer. I miss the auto predictive text that my mobile gives me but this could just be that I am not used to the way the software works yet.

The idea is right and it will develop ... but will it catch on. It would be wonderful if I could use my mobile phone as the keypad to synch with my laptop/desktop and a piece of software that converted my txt to 'real'.

This fits in really well with a report out from Professor David Crystal, honorary professor of linguistics at Bangor University, where he states of texting that: ... such condensed messages enhance and enrich language skills.

He goes on the say: ... texting had had a bad press, and it was merely another way to use language ... The panic about texting and its effects on language is totally misplaced. It adds a new dimension, enriches language, gives you a new option. Any reading and writing was good for literacy ...

PS

Following my feeds led me to this in the Christian Science Monitor ...( thanks to Will Richardson for the link)... the title should be enough to get you reading - Turn teen texting toward better writing. Teachers who co-opt Web tools for class have the best of both worlds.

And secondly ... while driving home from Swindon last evening across the wonderful Cotswolds listening to Radio 4 news I chanced on an article about simplifying spelling. The argument was that the way we spell may words is just fairly ridiculous and we should simplify the whole thing ... language evolves like this and it would not be a problem to begin to remove the redundant 'silent consonants'.

The debate has been going on for a while now ... the BBC running it just last year. What makes it current is that I understand the Germany has already been through this and so has Spain and the BBC PM programme chose to report on it ...it is possible to read what the BBC PM listeners thought of the idea here.

I never thought that the way we spell many common words was sensible and it seems that there is just the possibility that a combination of txting and simplifying may stir up the evolution. I wonder when the tipping point will be reached?

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.