iPod Blazer

Back from sunniest France now to catch a read of the M & S inspiration for their 'back-to-school' range a blazer with a special pocket for an iPod.

In typical form the NASUWT have come out in high dudgeon:

NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates dismissed the whole idea as 'an error of judgement' and entirely unnecessary.

'Teachers are already battling against the misuse of such technology in classrooms,' she said.

'Pupils nowadays come to school equipped with mobile phones, MP3 players, and portable games consoles when teachers would like them to just bring a pen.'

The gadgets not only distract the users and those around them, but thefts and breakages put extra burdens on staff, she added.

It will be interesting to see how inspirational teachers treat this ... as a threat or an opportunity. It will also be interesting to keep an eye on M & S's bottom line to see how sales go.

So how might schools survive?

Yesterday Will Richardson interviewed Clay Shirky author of 'Here Comes Everybody'. You can catch the UStream of the interview here:



and



One of the clear questions for me that Will asks is about the geographical nature of education and how technology has changed all of that and at the same time speeded up the process. On top of this Clay talks about organising without organisation ... students taking control of their learning, maybe as a subset of institutionalised learning. He goes on to say that he feels that schools as physical environments in which students from a locality study simply has to change.

Clay spends some time on the idea that we use much of our time learning time collaborating with questions and answers in a variety of groups and yet our assessment systems are based on individual abilities in contrived situations.

Clay comments that we want children/students to be able to figure out which tools they need to use in which situation. And these tools are changing tools. Much of what we want schools to do for out children can't be measured in our current ways.

Will asks Clay if students are just simply going to move out and do their own thing and as I have often said he makes the point that it is already beginning to happen.

Clay redefines the concept of 'digital divide' - he feels that it is not about access but about the socio/political imperative to use the technology to do things which you have not done before. This is a 'peer'/home/institution view idea and not to do with what kit/band width etc that is available.

Interestingly, on the day Apple launched its 3G iphone, Clay doesn't see that the phone is an ' ideal educational tool'. I think he might be missing something here ! Will seems to see that the phone might be a really useful tool but there are problems of 'bad behaviour' with the devices. My view here is that the publicity of the bad behaviour might be the thing that fuels it.

Unfortunately, for me, when asked the question about institutional change, he 'rights off' the early years saying that education there is not likely to change ... I do hope he is wrong ! There is reinforcement here for the idea that we need a system to evaluate collaborative work because it is this that will be really important.

When asked what would happen if there was no institutional education Clay feels that groups would organise themselves to provide it. If this would be the case it would be interesting to see whether it would be on a pre-existing model or if something new would arise ... Phoenix perhaps.

I may well have given my spin to what was said in the interview so it would be better to listen and see what you think.

Things I ought to have said

Friends, acquaintances, colleagues and some enemies are often telling me to get real. I feel passionately that the direction of education has taken a turn for the worse and that the socio-political invective that drives what happens is not good. In fact I feel that it is inherently bad. Bad for institutions but most of all bad for a generation growing up to things that we cannot yet imagine. Their jobs for life have not yet been conceived and their patterns of life have not been identified. We perpetuate what we perpetuate, with eyes down and a belief in the present and the past. But with a look at the future through past eyes.

John Connell in his blog today has expressed what I feel much more succinctly than I can and I yearn for the coming to pass Learning 2.0 so that we can step beyond it. Change by steady drip does not work ... we have been there and know that the 'old guard' keeps the status intact.

I do hope that this time next year we won't be revisiting this but will, in fact, have moved on.

The Wordle version of 'Harnessing Technology: Next Generation Learning 2008-14'

Brilliant idea from Ian Usher ... using Wordle as a way of 'understanding' the new Technology Strategy ... thanks Ian.

Enables you to pick out the key words ... am a bit worried about the prominence of the word 'will'.

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 !!

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

Bored with your search engine? Try searchcube!

Are you fed up with just searching and looking or whatever it is you do to search the web for your answers. My friend Richard Cunningham has passed to me this gem of a creative way to search ... he explains -

... example of some of the things you can do with Sandy and thought it was very interesting, showing the possibilities of what can be achieved!
Its a search engine using Google AJAX search API's that previews the return search results in a cube using flex and the 3D engine Sandy!

I have no idea what he means but then I don't know how my computer works and I only put petrol in my car. What I do know is that this looks fun so go and have a look at searchcube.

dipity

Dipity is a lovely new little tool to share timelines. Well worth a look. You can view your timeline as a line, a flip book or a list ... it takes images as well as videos.

Onwards and upwards or just onwards ...?

Brian Smith emailed round the Naace advisory group earlier today after he had been experimenting with Twitter and had commented on all the new things he had discovered.

Looking down the email I came across the URL to a YouTube video that he posted in Feb 2008 about how culture fails to keep up with technology and how early adoption is pretty well always about replication. In terms of the video we have now, in some way, invented the 'rivets and welds' of Web 2.0 but in doing so have opened up a great number of other avenues as to what can now be done ... and this is beginning to stretch the rules that have always applied to publication.



Harry Lessig in his TED talk How creativity is being strangled by the law begins to address this issue. But it is a similar issue to the one concerning the job market for your people. In the next decade many will be doing jobs that don't exist yet ... we and they will need to adapt to the changes as they com along ... not simply try to replicate solutions as we always did.

Don't say I didn't tell you ... is it a book or is it a ???

Another bus has just come round the corner and it could be awesome if it arrives at the bus stop ...




It is the OLPC 2.0: A Striking eBook and a Step In the Right Direction read the blurb or be amazed and watch the video ...

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.

Top 100 Tools for Learning

The Centre for Learning and Perfomance Technologies has produced their Top 100 Tools for Learning Spring 2008 ...Final ranking as at 31 March 2008

The list is compiled from the contributions of 155 learning professionals (from both education and workplace learning) who shared their Top 10 Tools for Learning both for their own personal learning/ productivity and for creating learning solutions for others

And here they are ...

It is interesting that only one of the top 10 costs you real, actual money out of your bank account ... all of the ones 11 - 20 are also free !!

I found that I use 9 out of the top 10 and 7 out of the next 10 ... what about you ?

Emerging technologies for learning: volume 3 (2008)

From Becta: Emerging technologies for learning

... aims to help readers consider how emerging technologies may impact on education in the medium term. The publications are not intended to be a comprehensive review of educational technologies, but offer some highlights across the broad spectrum of developments and trends. It should open readers up to some of the possibilities that are developing and the potential for technology to transform our ways of working, learning and interacting over the next three to five years.'

Volume 3 contains some really 'up-to-the-minute' stuff so some good bedtime reading here ...

Growing up with Google - what it means to education (Diana Oblinger, EDUCAUSE)

Mobile, wireless, connected - information clouds and learning (Mark van't Hooft, Kent State University) -

Location-based and context-aware education - prospects and perils (Adam Greenfield, NYU)-

Emerging trends in serious games and virtual words (Sara de Freitas, SGI)

'If it quacks like a duck...' - developments in search technologies (Emma Tonkin, UKOLN)

Interactive displays and next generation interfaces (Michael Haller, Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences)

Tanya Byron goes world wide

I have been watching my Google Alerts over the last week since the Byron Review surfaced and have noticed that the ripples have spread wider and wider. Blogs obviously have their uses in disseminating information quickly and easily.

Today I picked up on a comment from Canada on 'globeadmail' with the heading... A British lesson that Canadians would do well to study

It highlights a quote from the Review that people are taking to heart ... 'Kids don't need protection, we need guidance.' The Government today bring out new proposals to attempt to ban sex offenders from using social networking sites by releasing their email addresses to the sites concerned. There must be something in the data protection act that prevents email addresses from being passed around from pillar to post ! And, anyway, what is to prevent anyone from just getting another and another and another email?

The issue here is another instance of social networking and the internet and websites in general all being 'mucked' in together under a 'fear' banner.

OpenEducation .net also picked up on the Review...
... this is a site dedicated to tracking the changes occurring in education today. In an era where it is possible to photoshop images, facebook people, and access an endless stream of knowledge by googling, the Internet Age offers both great promise and enormous challenges for educators. At OpenEducation.net, readers will be exposed to both an objective and subjective look at the many issues facing the profession today.

There is obviously an urgent need to educate now in a positive way. If we wait for projects and proposals and systems to be put into place it will take too long. A common-sense approach at a localised level would make sense here. The juggernaut of institutionalisation is not the only means to create change.

Dial 999 someone is watching me ( on my computer)

An article in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph states that Social Networking sites will have to advertise the 999 emergency services number according to new government guidelines. It is hoped that this will encourage children to call the police directly to report abuse.

I bet the police are really pleased about this ... I wonder if they were consulted?
The article also says:
Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, will publish the 73-page document on Friday, which also warns parents about anorexic websites which encourage teenage girls to compete to lose weight, and sites which promote self-harm and suicide.

Doesn't this make the third none/semi connected document from 'Government' sources on the subject of eSafety in a week ... no wonder parents are getting worried ... a bit of coordination would go a long way!

Watch out for Friday ...

Ofcom's Research into Social Networking

Tanya Byron last week Ofcom this week. Their report (in full here) today about the proliferation of social networking sites (read the BBC's interpretation here) and widespread access stresses the safety aspects over and above the positives concerning the building of wider networks and a new digital definition of 'friend'. Interestingly, the BBC report does not make any connection between what Ofcom says and what the Byron Review suggests.

So are you an alpha socialiser, an attention seeker, a follower, a fathful, a functional or a none user? You can see which social category of 'networker' you fit into here.

Today is the last day to have your say ...

... for submissions to the DCSF consultation document 'Home Access to Technology'.

This consultation seeks views on the proposed Home Access programme that aims to ensure that every family with 5-19 year old learners in England has access to learning where and when they need it through access to ICT resources and support at home.

The executive summary is worth a read.

One of the key aims of the proposals is that:
...This will allow all learners to engage with the curriculum beyond the school day and extend their learning into areas that match their interests, abilities and aspirations. Also learners will develop the skills they will need to pursue and drive their learning and participate fully in the digital world.

The major worry comes from sustainability and support.

Becta have said:
Becta is currently undertaking its third devices mini-competition on behalf of the Access to technology at home initiative. From the information provided by LAs about their requirements and initial feedback by suppliers, particularly at BETT, Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPCs) will feature quite strongly in the mini-competition.

To assist LAs and suppliers in this process Becta has produced a brief technical overview about the suitability of UMPCs as part of proposed solutions for Access to Technology at Home. This information is provided as a generic technical overview and is as far as is practicable independent of brand, instead focusing on key features; the benefits and the challenges that present themselves when considering large scale roll outs of such technologies.

This looks like a big opening for the Asus miniBook, Elonex ONE etc but what a weight of expectation will be places on LAs to administer.

The Functional Expectations of the programme are interesting:

Learning experience

Home Access users shall:

• be able to use solutions to access information on their personal learning goals and progress against them
• have access to a wide range of online learning resources
• have access to a wide range of tools that allow the creation and manipulation of multi-media texts
• be able to access multiple applications and services simultaneously
• have access to a range of collaborative tools and opportunities to share and work with others.

Users should feel ‘ownership’ of their personal educational experiences and the home access solution.

Home access should deliver benefits, especially to families and the community, beyond involvement in the formal educational experience.

Learning environment

Home Access users shall:

• have access to the online learning platform services used by the establishment(s) the learner attends
• be able to continue learning experiences begun in-school when out of school, and vice versa
• be entitled to a solution that protects the user from inappropriate contact and content and ensures data security and integrity regardless of location
• have access to solutions to recover data in event of failure or disaster and restore their ability to engage in their learning in a reasonable time frame.

Home Access users should:

• be able to experience high quality online learning experiences both in-school or college and out-of-school or college
• experience a familiar set of learning experiences over a reasonable length of time
• have a wide choice of home access solutions.

Learning support

School, college and other educational infrastructure shall be capable of supporting a variety of services to all home access users concurrently.

Educational establishments shall be supported, motivated, and measured against changing pedagogy to take advantage of home access.

Home Access users shall have access to formal user support (educational and technical) when needed and within a locally agreed time frame.

There is this bit tucked away at the bottom of the above section:
Educational establishments shall be supported, motivated, and measured against changing pedagogy to take advantage of home access. Notice the word 'measured' in there.

It is fairly obvious to me that there is going to have to be a real shake up in how children/parents/students/teachers access what they want where they want and on what their preferred tool is. Many will have mobile kit that they simply want to use to access a variety of networks. At the moment few schools encourage students to bring in their own equipment and many positively ban usage because (and I hope that this is the reason) their systems can't cope.

I sense exciting times ahead.

The Byron Review - everyone has their say

I am only picking up on the Internet safety issues here rather than muddy the waters with the rating for video games. There are many comments from the industry on the already well-publicised rating sysytem and whether a new one will have any more effect ...

There are so many views on Tanya Byron's Review ... You can read some of them here.

More here if you wish to get Keith Vaz's point of view.

The Times have their own viewpoint ... strange scare mongering...

An Irish point of view ... here

From the 'HandHeld' Learning Forum ... here

itsneak notes that there is a Government anomaly here

This is enough to be going on with .... What is your view?

PS
More Google Alerts on this by the hour but none appear to be any more than just reporting that the Review has happened.

Web 2.0 Technologies for Learning at Key Stages 3 & 4

Yesterday I spent my time in a policy workshop at the Learning Science Research Centre of Nottingham University discussing eSafety issues as part of a project on Web 2.0 Technologies for Learning at Key Stages 3 and 4.

The workshop was called not to establish a consensus about eSafety in the use of Web 2.0 technology but was to investigate differences of opinion on the subject through a process of structured debate:

The aim of the Delphi workshop is to get behind the rhetoric and assess how the benefits of learning through Web2.0 can be achieved while protecting children from the dangers of communicating online.

The Policy Delphi method is a structured group process to survey and
collect the opinions of experts on a complex problem. Rather than
striving for an early consensus, the emphasis is on identifying
differing opinions through a process of structured debate.

What was really interesting was the shared opinion that there was a fundemental education process which needed to be developed to support the work. It was heartening to listen to colleagues treading similar pathways towards similar goals, which, though difficult, they felt were worth making the journey for.

This was the first stage of the process.It ...

...will be followed by a second round, at a later date, using the same or different experts, to rate and extend the findings, define the positions, and explore whether
or not a consensus can be reached.

More details will certainly be published about this at a later date.

Al Upton

I don't know if you are aware of Al Upton ... Australian educators will be !
On the blogs comes the sad and crazy news and on his miniLegends blog that:

Order for Closure
This blog has been disabled in compliance with DECS wishes (Department of Education and Children’s Services - South Australia)

It seems that this blog in particular is being investigated regarding risk and management issues. What procedures should be taken for the use/non-use of blogs to enhance student learning will be considered.

Just how this fits in with Article 13 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child:

13. The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice. ... I am not sure !

Please go to the blog and read what has happened, and, if you wish, post a message of support.

PS

It is heartening to read in the comments on the blog that the parents of the miniLegends are now voicing their support for Al.

Schools and mobile phones

I am just reading a post on Will Richardson's blog about students in a school in midtown Manhattan and how they get round the school's ban on mobile phones:

...these kids don’t leave their cell phones at home. They are too important as a communications tool for safety’s sake and for social connections. Yet they can’t get these phones through the airport like scanners at the front of the building. So what do they do? Seems a little cottage industry as sprung up at the delis and bodegas around the school so that kids can check their phones in for the day at $3 a pop. They get a ticket, just like a coat check, on their way into school, and they pick it up on the way out.

It just makes you want to cry ... when will educational institutions get the message?Just go to the blog and read the post ... then read the comments !

This should be compulsory reading for every headteacher, member of a SMT, teacher, school governor, member of parliament, minister of education, the building schools for the future team,ICT training course providers, Becta employee, parent etc etc.

Second Life - John Connell

Am currently listening to John Connell lecturing in Second Life on the Cisco News 'space' talking about Learning 2.0. There are people here from UK, France, Spain, Bulgaria and Australia (and I suspect other places too).

Once I had the sound sorted (and many people sprang to help me do that) the session was superb and I will go to John's blog tomorrow to pick up more.

Here are my garbled notes:

He has just said ... 'Knowledge is learning' ??

'What we teach is rarely what is learned'

The Web is the learning platform ... this underpins the concept of 'learning 2.0'

This is the key to it ... we have to move on ... all of us have to move on ... the longer we delay the more our young people will leave the intitutional system of education behind ... adapt or !!

Web 2.0 shifts the context of education

Questions (well, sort of):

How do we establish a system to trust the knowlege?

Wikipedia?

Concept of a global classroom ... GLOW ... web-based online platform ...working jointly across the world

The assessment tail is wagging the dog and we need to change this

There is much that I have not commented upon as I was involved in participating in the discussion ...

You can access John's slides from his blog. More than worth the effort.

PS
John has now put his summary of what he said on his blog ... here

If Stephen Fry says its okay , then ....

The Guardian Online on 11th February announced the RM MinBook ... hmmm ... wonder where they have been for the last three months ... I first blogger about it on 10th November 2007 (and I was late to the party). Having said that the article is right. The MiniBook ticks the right boxes and ought to make changes in teaching and learning across schools all over the world. Let's just hope that people are innovative enough to use the power that it has and not try to force 'it' into doing all of those things that they could do anyway. It is interesting to note in the article that it is Microsoft who tell us all we want a 'Windows' machine !

ICT Register Conference

Loughborough was the venue today at the ICT Register Conference - Making Connections

It was blasted off by a keynote sessions from Russell Prue, Award Winning ICT Evangelist, Author, Inventor & Entrepreneur and most ably followed up by Dr Baldev Singh, Imagine Education Director.

Russell's handouts can be found here.

John Sutton's presentation on podcasting can be found here.

Bits of my presentation (the videos etc) can be found here.

The Keynotes and Showcases focused on:
Creative use of new technologies and software tools
Creating new virtual and physical learning environments
National and international partnerships
Strengthening pedagogy through ICT
Web2.0 technologies

The web site for the event will soon be updated with the presentations. People attending were very open to the notion that we needed to move forward ( and quickly) to get the best from technology for the students/children in the system at this moment. Procrastination was NOT the order of the day. Inspired people ready to do inspirational things.

The Horizon Report 2008

I have now read my way through the Horizon Report and my first take was emailed to friends over the weekend. The Exec Summary will get you going and then it would be good to check out the section on 'social operating systems' ... there are some really key phrases in there that we should use when talking about web based apps.

There is a section here about Social Graphs ( a new one on me) :Thoughts on the Social Graph (Brad Fitzpatrick and David Recordon, August 17, 2007.)

This article discusses the need for a social graph that exists outside of systems like Facebook, so that applications can take advantage of the fact that you already know who your contacts are.

If you have time or the will ... this should get you thinking as it dwells on the very nature of Learning Platforms and begines to ask: Is a social Network a LP??

.... and from here ... read the bit about Collaborative Virtual Learning Environments.

The Capetown Open Education Declaration

Reading through my feeds yesterday I picked up on John Connell's post about The Capetown Open Education Declaration.

It begins:

Unlocking the promise of open educational resources
We are on the cusp of a global revolution in teaching and learning. Educators worldwide are developing a vast pool of educational resources on the Internet, open and free for all to use. These educators are creating a world where each and every person on earth can access and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge. They are also planting the seeds of a new pedagogy where educators and learners create, shape and evolve knowledge together, deepening their skills and understanding as they go.

While I recognise the potential and intent of the declaration there are all sorts of questions that tumble into my mind as I read the rhetoric.

To begin with I am struggling with the definition of 'resources' and my mind flicks back to the English government's attempt to build a database to store the available resources during the 'eLC' bonanza. It was called 'Curriculum Online' and cost millions of pounds sterling but (as far as my knowledge and research tells me) did not reach the parts that it was supposed to reach in spite of considerable publicity. The Year One report in 2004 painted a sketchy picture from a sketchy survey but the conclusions were not optimistic that the money had been well spent. The final report was equally unenthusiastic about the use of the portal by 'ordinary teachers'.

With the coming of Learning Platforms and VLEs there are various groups who are valiantly trying to get content together and share it. One of the main groups to come forward in this regard is the National Digital Resource Bank ( pity it is national but it is a good start). NDRB works on the basis of a content sharing community, members can contribute in a variety of ways, the key ones being contributing content that they own and supporting the work of mapping and SCORMing harvested content.

This is what the Regional BroadBand Consortia have been trying to do with various amounts of success for some time now. It will be interesting to see how GLOW and Learning Northern Ireland deal with the matter of content and how their concept will fit with the Capetown Declaration.

But this is all about content and not resources ... or is it? As I have said I am confused by the definitions. It could easily be argued that many of the resources on Internet can be used in an educational context.

What I really want, and wanted to read, is about the making available of powerful, motivational tools to author and document the knowledge so that it becomes accessible to a wide variety of people in the widest possible way.

Looking down the list of organisation signatures leaves me with the feeling that there is one group missing ... the people who have, on the whole, got us this far, the software producers. What of them in this plan?

MyCBBC - an institutional social network

I am just not sure whether or not to laugh, cry or just wonder! I knew it was coming but reading through links in feeds yesterday alerted me to its imminence. Both the Mail and the Telegraph (and I suspect others) give warning of its approach and also hype up the anti by asking the questions 'should your money be spent on this?'.

The new social network site called MyCBBC will have a lower (?) age limit/range of six years. As far as my limited research goes I am led to believe that this is well catered for at the moment by Club Penguin.

So is this venture the institution of the BBC reaching out to a young audience in their space or is it an institution going out of its remit? Or... does the concept fulfill the idea of choice in all things?

From a user point of view, in the end, it won't matter. Children and their parents will have a look at both and will make up their minds what they want to do and which they want to use. I suspect it will not be an either or it will be a both and lots of others as well. Some will live on because their use will justify it, others will just drift slowly away ...a process of evolution. How many people already have 'lapsed' identities spread all over Bebo, MySpace, FaceBook etc. ? You stick with those that work for you and maybe dabble in some others. I really object to the idea that one size and site fits all ... to be honest, that is where I am currently having difiiculties with VLEs and LPs.

The BBC insists that the site is designed to encourage discussion of the Corporation’s shows and will help raise awareness among youngsters about the risks of using the Internet. ... it is being developed at a cost of £200,000 ( a mere drop in the ocean when you think of the money spent on BBC Jam) and will be available to some 1000 users from April. Is it a self fulfilled prophecy?

Let's just wait and see ...

Economist Debate

I have been following with much interest the Economist Debate which had the proposition 'Social networking technologies will bring large ( positive) changes to education methods, in and out of the classroom'. The pro view has been strongly put by Ewan McIntosh and the con by Michael Bugeja. The debate is now over with a resounding win for Ewan's pro stance of 62% to 38%. The wonder of the debate was the number of comments and participants from all over the world expressing views that gives me much optimism for the future for our young people. What needs to happen now is the debate and discussion needs to be turned into action and the education leaders in countries around the world need to be directed to the debate and they need to listen and do.

The time has come the walrus said to talk of many things - 'Alice in Wonderland' - Lewis Carroll

Procrastination is not an option ... the longer we wait for action the more our young learners will become disenfranchised by our institutional systems and the harder it will become to support and help them in their quest for a personalised education process.

PS

Ewan McIntosh the 'pro' speaker has added a comment to his own blog which has caused me some disquiet. I have complete belief in the proposition of the debate and recognise the strength of his argument but fall short of agreeing with him about the voting. I do actually think that in this sort of online environment that there will be a 'swing' towards a 'pro' vote for any discussion based on the forward thinkingness of any online ideas ( sorry just can't think of a better word than ideas at the moment). The people who engage in these debates and those who watch from the sidelines are, I feel, at this time, going to be those that are media/network and (obviously) online savvy. They have found their way to an online debate and are involved in it. People who perhaps would be interested in the debate but do not regularly engage in online interactions are (!!) just not represented and I have the feeling that they would be veering towards the 'con' camp.

This is no way detracts from the power and strength of the argument and the quality of the posts in discussion. Just let's not get too hooked up on the votes cast.

Frontline - Growing Up Online

Since 1983, FRONTLINE has served as American public television's flagship public affairs series. Hailed upon its debut on PBS as "the last best hope for broadcast documentaries," FRONTLINE's stature over 25 seasons is reaffirmed each week through incisive documentaries covering the scope and complexity of the human experience

This is the US version of Panorama and it is interesting to watch their take on the whole idea of 'Growing up Online'

I would be very interested get other people's views on this.

Music, me and the power of blog feeds

Trying to get my head together this morning to begin real work I am sitting here browsing my 'feeds' as you do when your brain really won't focus and you sense that the longest and darkest days of the year are past - even if it was only yesterday - forever the optimist !!

I turn my attention to Scotedublog and look for something quirky to catch my attention and gather in my brain and the name of 'Simone White' lights up my eyes. My sort of music. Obviously John Connell's as well.



In the past my feeds (and if you have read my blog for a long while you will have listened to this) have lead me to Oh Laura and more recently to Tasmin Little.

Would I have got to them without my 'feeds'?

The Transparent Canoe

I have just had a virtual discussion with Tricia about the use of the phrase 'The technology should be transparent' and she pointed me in this direction.

The transparent canoe is a wonderful vehicle, it can't be seen yet it is a reliable form of transport.

The technology we use in our lives and in our opportunities to teach should be just like this ... available but not intrusive ... it should allow us to work/play/function efficiently.

Oh for a transparent education system!

(Thanks to Pete Yeomans for the original viewpoint)

FaceBook (again)

A BBC report into data protection indicates that the Information Commissioner's Office is investigating the fact that it is difficult to clear all the data from FaceBook accounts and that deactivation is just that and this does not remove the data from FaceBook's servers.

The report says: "Users who wish to completely delete their information must, according to the automated response from Facebook's Customer Service, “log in and delete all profile content". and it goes on to say : "An individual who has deactivated their account might not find themselves motivated enough to delete information that's about them maybe on their wall or other people's site."

This needs to be read with the post below about FaceBook.

Is this paranoia? Is it a 'witch hunt' against something that has gone viral and is 'anti-establishment'? The social networks we have are in infancy and what is there today will undoubtedly not be there wearing the same clothes in the future and so it is right to worry about the ownership of the data.

At a seminar session at BETT last week I asked an assembled group of BETT visitors, mainly teachers, how many of them had opened up their FaceBook page (if they had one) or created one and had shown the students how to make the page as safe as possible. Out of the 80 or so listening to me ONE person said that they had done that.We need to teach people how to be safe. We do it for Road Safety. We spend a fortune on drugs awareness. We have not yet got to grips with personal safety in social networks ... and we need to now .

I have said these things before and feel the need to say them again !

FaceBook

An extremely interesting article in the Guardian re FaceBook which I just draw your attention to and make no comment on ... though I expect many people will !

This, I notice, was followed up by Ben Williamson on the Flux Blog (FutureLab).

Josie Frazer on her Blog 'SocialTech' puts forward an almost balanced view.

Interesting times !

Gadgets and Gizmos

I wrote last week about the idea of teaching children/students how to get the best out of their gadgets and gizmos rather than banning their use.

Trawling my feeds today to try to keep up I came across this on Danny Nicholson's 'Whiteboard Blog':

Students today can’t prepare bark to calculate their problems. They depend on their slates which are more expensive. What will they do when their slate is dropped and it breaks? They will be unable to write!”
Teachers Conference, 1703

Students today depend upon paper too much. They don’t know how to write on slate without chalk dust all over themselves. They can’t clean a slate properly. What will they do when they run out of paper?”
Principal’s Association, 1815

Students today depend too much upon ink. They don’t know how to use a pen knife to sharpen a pencil. Pen and ink will never replace the pencil.”
National Association of Teachers, 1907

Students today depend upon store-bought ink. They don’t know how to make their own. When they run out of ink they will be unable to write words of ciphers until their next trip to the settlement. This is a sad commentary on modern education.”
The Rural American Teacher, 1929

Students today depend upon these expensive fountain pens. They can no longer write with a straight pen and nib (not to mention sharpening their own quills). We parents must not allow them to wallow in such luxury to the detriment of learning how to cope in the real business world, which is not so extravagant.”
PTA Gazette, 1941

Ball point pens will be the ruin of education in our country. Students use these devices and then throw them away. The American virtues of thrift and frugality are being discarded. Business and banks will never allow such expensive luxuries.”
Federal Teacher, 1950

For proper attributation, these quotes are apparently from David Thornburg’s book Edutrends 2010: Restructuring, Technology and the Future of Education (1992).

Anyone want to write one for the 'gap years' and 2007 please ?

Panorama - One click from danger

I missed the programme last evening but, thanks to BBCi, I am watching it now, as I type this post. I have been a bit disenfranchised of late with this flagship of the BBC since the 'WIFI' programme that caused so much fuss so I am hoping for more facts and less 'TV'.

The programme is still scaremongering and any parent watching it would be forgiven if they immediately dashed up the stairs and dragged any computers that were there from the bedrooms - but does give some really good advice, if you can see through the hype. It is quite clear that what is needed is a concerted education programme in our schools. We should just get on with some positive education, showing young people how to stay safe. We spend a fortune on road safety, drug awareness, anti-smoking, safe sex education etc. - this is the 21 Century safety campaign we need to get on with it not leave it up to peer 'hearsay'. If we do this we will be seen to be letting down our young people.

Our children are intelligent and media savvy we need to discover what they know and don't know so we can help them to get the safe best out of their social networking.

The problem is that our teachers probably are not up to speed on the technology and so there is a blanket 'WOW DANGER', we don't want to go there.

So a real education programme, quickly, for the teachers first. Young people need practical help on how to protect themselves online ... we must do it now before this hype gets in the way of all of the good that can be done.

If you missed the programme there are still five days left to download it to BBCi.

Emily Sanderson - a girl in 120,000

Sharing Good Practice is the printable but also online magazine of ictopus(ICT online primary user support)a support service for primary education.

This week the whole of the magazine is devoted to the celebration of how online connectivity is changing children's lives. Written by Robert Hart, Director of Research at Intuitive Media Research Services it give a research based indication of the enormous potential opened up to young people by carefully constructed, protected social networks.

An interesting statistic from the research shows how little of Emily's time is spent 'connected' at school. It also shows that she has all of the equipment necessary to connect wherever she is. ( except at school of course because children are told not to bring their 'gadgets' with them into the school environment)

My question is just how does this post fit in with the previous one ?

If you are not an ictopus member, just sign up. It is free!

PS
Geoff Dellow in a post to the ictopus site wonders:
Is this not about an organisation that has provided the facility for children to communicate with each other but not with adults. This worries me - yes with each other but surely far more important with adults as well - or is the great monster pedphilia lurking. Surely children need contact with more adults not less. Schools are already a very artificial enviroment with few adults.

PPS

If you go to the ictopus SGP blog site you can read Robert Hart's response to Geoff.