ICT-Echo

What does it tell you when...

2011-12-19T17:47:00.000Z

... a school doesn't have a website?

I find myself using a variety of website to gain information and knowledge about the schools my students have been placed in for their school experiences.

I'll use Google to start, although I have other regular sites that I can go to first, to get an overview. The regular sites tend to appear at the top of the google list: LTScotland, HMIe, Wikipedia, RateMyTeacher, local government. From this list the most obvious omission is the school's website, but I'll return to this later.

LTScotland or Education Scotland host a site called Scottish Schools Online which is a searchable directory of all the schools in Scotland. It provides basic information: map, address, telephone, local authority, web address, email, SEED number, school type and school information links.

The school information links provide statistics and general information about the performance of the school and measures of socio-economic status. These include examination results, attendance & absence data, leavers destinations and free school meal percentages.

The HMIe website provides reports on the quality of schools against the evaluation framework known as How Good Is Our School (HIGIOS). I would be surprised if their were any schools in Scotland that did not have a published report dated within the last 7 years. But I'm not planning to search through the 2826 entries to see if any report exceed this date.

A Wikipedia entry is not always there for every school. It usually takes either a dedicated alumni or member of staff to muster the time and effort to submit an entry to this site.

The local government website vary in detail and quality. Over the years accessing the details about a school from these can be infuriating. Especially in local authorities where they have been in the process of rebuilding and merging schools. The details, especially contact details, are not always kept up to date. I have found myself on several occasions (eg Stirling High School) having to ask builder or local dog walkers for directions to where the new school is. Where these website can be useful is in accessing the start and end times to the various parts of the school day. These will either be on the webpage or can be found in a downloadable copy of the school handbook which is sometimes hosted on these sites.

You might think that RateMyTeacher is not a very useful site for gaining information about a school, but you'd be wrong. I'm not talking about or interested in the arbitrary scores allocated to teachers but to the fact that the list of teachers names is available online. Not all school websites include a staff list for a variety of different reasons and it's nice to know the name of the teacher that you're going to meet when you visit the school.

Lastly, I return to the ommission: a school website. Most schools have a website that list the basic information and conforms to a default standard. It may list staff and parental information and course choices and pupil activities and contact details and location. Some sophisticated sites are based around blogs or contain twitter feeds. Regardless of the quality or quantity or information on the website the majority of schools have one. It's the norm.

So what does it tell me about a school when they don't have one? To be honest it raises more questions than answers, the main one being why?

EduRoam

2011-10-28T21:54:00.000+01:00

I first encountered EduRoam on December 6th at Leeds Metropolitan University. I had just finished with a meeting and was sitting in the foyer when I thought I might be able to access their wifi to keep in touch with the chaos being caused by the weather back in Glasgow. I'd heard of EduRoam: allowing university academics and students access to the Internet using their login details at any participating institution across the globe.

So I pulled out my iPod Touch and searched for a wifi signal. On the list appeared EduRoam and I selected it. A login window appeared asking me for my University email address and details, which I duly submitted. A few seconds later I was accessing the internet: university email, facebook updates, twitter messages.

I had to wait several month for the University of Glasgow to implement (catchup) EduRoam across our campus. Previously if I wanted wifi access on campus I needed to access the flexaccess wifi (mis-named) and then login using the VPN settings. However on my iPod and iPad I struggled to either make or maintain a connection through the VPN. So when EduRoam appeared on the wifi settings I was over the moon. It made accessing the internet via wifi simple. Once set up, there's no further requirement to login each time you want to access the internet. Now when I walk up to the St Andrew's Building my iPod/iPad connects to EduRoam and starts to pick up my email. I can literarily be reading my emails as I open the front door.

Since the start of term I've been encouraging my first year B Eds to configure their smart phones to access EduRoam and to access their emails. I want them to use EduRoam to access the Internet and find answers to the questions that they have about their learning.

So imagine my disappointment when I was visiting the Jordanhill Campus of Strathclyde University for the TeachMeet event, to discover that they have only set up EduRoam on their main city centre campus. Fortunately one of the organisers of the event had anticipated my need for access to the Internet via the University network, so had arranged for guest logins to be made available. However, I was thwarted by the fact that the venue (Sir Henry Wood Lecture Theatre) did not have a wifi hotspot. :(

This minor setback aside I look forward to the day students and lecturers from HE and FE institutions can seamlessly go from one institution to another and have access to the wifi network and Internet. At present, according to the EduRoam access map there are 513 access points across the UK and according to Janet 15 institutions in Scotland allowing full access.

Roll on EduRoam...

Games Design Transition Project

2011-10-01T12:11:00.001+01:00

Second day and second seminar with Charlie Love, formally of the Consolarium.

Looking around the room I can see many faces that I recognise from my travels to computing departments around the country. All are here to hear about Charlie's experience with games design as a transition project in Kincorth learning community.

After the introduction and background he moved on to talk about, "Prototype, playtest, iterate". Which can provide pupils with a quick fun feedback on their work. He showed an example of the plants vs zombies game to illustrate the prototype, playtest, iterate methodology.

Next he spoke about the training of the teachers involved in the project. There were two twilight sessions with teachers to train them in using games creation software, Scratch. This was also seen as a way of developing a community of teachers to promote games based learning.

Charlie spoke about the use of Glow was vital to facilitate communication between the primary secondary sector. He also throughout the presentation mentioned and demonstrated how he and the Consolarium team had built resources to support teachers and pupil's learning about games based learning.

He also showed some examples of games created by pupils on the topic of drugs awareness. He talked about the evaluation of pupils involvement in the project and showed a quote:

It was really good and fun but it was complicated.

Charlie brought the presentation to a close by summarising the benefits of the project: smooth transition with shared experience of using ICT and Scratch. He also, in good programming/software development style, indicated the next steps in the development of the project.

A copy of his presentation can be found here...
http://public.iwork.com/document/?a=p14600755&d=Games_Design_Transition.key

My final thought after listening to Charlie speak was if games design is about the creation of a narrative and that has a similarity to traditional story writing: how do we support, encourage, develop and learn this new genre of story telling?

In learning to tell stories we draw upon our reading of stories so in learning to create games we need to draw upon our playing of games.

Blogging in the primary

2011-09-23T20:00:00.003+01:00

Day two of the Scottish Learning Festival 2011. I've managed to wander around the stands today, eventually bumping into a colleague from Crichton Campus, Graeme Pate and catching up with him.

First seminar was Brian McLaren, DHT at Clackmannan primary and two of his pupils describing their use of blogs. His glow blog can be found here.

Brian sums up his philosophy on learning:

Learning is a narrative with the pupil at the centre.

He then goes on to talk about how blogs can provide a window into the classroom. This is then exemplified by the primary one blog.

Then we were shown the primary six/seven blog, from 2010/11. He drew our attention to the embedded Voki, which was launched as he described how the pupils enjoyed creating these for various blog postings. Brian goes on to make the points that the involvement in using the technology will attract an audience.

Next he started talking about blogs being used to capture teacher's lesson evaluations. This he explains is seen as a much more effective mechanism of facilitating collection of evidence and evaluations. It sounds like the staff at Clackmannan Primary have been convinced of the merits of this way of working and are now fully engaged in use blogs in their professional working.

Another use is how the pupils are using glow blogs as a secure place for them to relate their learning journey. Cameron, a pupil, proceeded to show and tell us how he used the blog. They adapted and changed their headers to personalised their blog, using Graffiti Creator . They also learned to include hyperlinks to support the things they had written. Tags & Categories were also used to allow pupils and the teacher to filter and search for specific content. Finally he spoke about setting learning targets and evaluating & evidencing his learning. He finished by describing the positive impact of using blogs in the class.

Next up was another confident pupil called Lucy. She spoke about how she developed her awareness of target setting using the O&Es. She also showed her blog where she set and evaluated her learning.

The stage/podium was returned to Brian, who spoke about when children are given responsibility for their learning they might reasonably challenge the outcomes or target they have been set. He painted a vision of pupils selecting their own targets and expect the teacher to teach them. From what he described so far in his school this day may not be that far off.

Next was a bit of a technology list of interesting resources/websites/tools that were used in the creation of the blogs. These included Voki, Glogster Edu, Anymaking, Graffitimaker, Lego Minimizer, Prezi, Zooburst.

Next he explained that the school used 'Big buddies' to support and roll out peer support for other students. So when pupils want to try thing on their blog they have the support in place. And when Brian is stuck he goes to the Twitterverse.

Lastly, he makes the point that blogs are about reading as well as writing. That without an audience the blog is less effective.

Here is a copy of his Prezi presentation...

Games Design and Blogging

2011-09-22T22:48:00.000+01:00

The second seminar at the Scottish Learning Festival 2011 (#SLF11), which I attended saw Brian Clarke talking about using blogging to support games design.

He started by setting the scene in the primary he ended up working with. He also identified the technologies outcomes & experiences (O&E) that was the focus for the project. Net was a walk-through of some of the resources he and Charlie Love created for for the Consolorium on glow. This was followed by aspects of 'the games design process'.

The first aspect was games design artifacts specifically concept art. He identified the creation of characters both visually and in literature. This was connected to a O&E, which I failed to note.

Next was 'level design' and games narrative/plot (Lit 2-26a). This was followed by creating visual elements which was demonstrated with a short video of how to translate a plastersene model into a digital asset for the game.

Next was the creation of audio assets. Again accompanied with a video of using software like GarageBand.

Brian spoke about the process of 'building the game' and made the point that it connects with mathematics.

He talked about feedback issues that resulted in using blog posts for pupils to record their thoughts and the process they worked through. Then he talked about having a single blog for the project and that each group of pupils had a specific category that allowed their posting to be tagged to each group by filtering. It allows groups to be identified and their work to be listed individually.

Some comments were displayed and I'm sure there were teachers in the room getting annoyed at the poor spelling or use of abbreviations.

Some other schools interacted with pupils providing comments on each others work. He showed the statistics for the project blog: 29 posts 190 comments.

Towards the end of the presentation he demonstrated the Glow Consolarium and the programming environment called Scratch.

Tri-learning at Balfron High

2011-09-21T15:47:00.003+01:00

Day one of the Scottish Learning Festival 2011 and I've arrived in the afternoon after teaching in the University.

After meeting a few familiar faces on entering hall 4. I wandered over to the Shuna suite to hear about Tri-learning. It is simply put a triangular peer evaluation process, where 3 teachers take it in turn to observe each other teaching and focus on a singular issue to provide feedback and the focus for discussion. It is based on the idea of learning rounds which have see a certain amount of popularity in Scotland over the last few years.

First speaker was Frank Hotchkiss, formerly of Balfron High now a DHT at Irvine Royal Academy. He outlined the background and aims of the project. He then described how the process worked from the initial pilot to wider school involvement session.

He was followed by Kate Reid, a social subjects teacher at Balfron High School. She talked about the pilot study: the staff involved and the process of the study.

Next to speak was Douglas Scott another teacher from Balfron high school. He spoke about the process from a participants perspective. He identified the benefits of observing and being observed by other colleagues. In his case he was working in a trio with a PE teacher and a Music Teacher.

He then spoke about the discussion plenary session. How the trio debriefed each other in relation to the comment sheets.

The next speaker was Sheena Boyle, a English teacher in Balfron. She spoke about the next session where Balfron is now looking at pupil responsibility for learning as a focus for Tri-learning. A new proforma was created for gathering data. A further day of staff development and involvement with the senior pupil council was used in this session. She then moved on to the issues that emerged from the project overall. Time impact on teachers preparation and non-contact time. This connected to issues regarding class cover. The issue of teachers choosing other members of staff to observe and being observed was raised.

Finally the group took questions from the audience. Firstly they were asked about the merit of this form of CPD in relation to the traditional models of CPD. The second question related to possible resistance to change from staff. The third question asked about teacher choice in the direction of the project.

Whilst I found the seminar an engaging and thought provoking experience, I'm left wondering how this process can guarantee an equally valuable CPD experience for all parties involved. I'm also concerned with what I call the external stimulus (and Vygotsky called a More Knowledgable Other - MKO) that allows teachers to see better practice.

Defining ICT

2011-04-09T00:59:00.008+01:00

I'm trying to separate the aspects of ICT and the ideas & arguments surrounding them. I'm not sure how clearly I can explain my thinking about ICT but I'm going to try! I plan to write this and several following posts based on the ideas that I have about ICT. Here's my list of ideas...

ICT is more than a skills subject
De facto vs de jure ICT standards
Functions and facilities compared with useful purposes
A Study or Science?
ICT beyond the desktop

There are probably more ideas lurking in my brain, but these will do for a start.

PhD Workshop: Spreading Ideas without Selling Your Soul...

2011-03-25T22:28:00.004Z

Firstly, it has been over 6 months since I last posted a blog article and as I was involved in this workshop today I thought the least I should do is write about it on my blog. I can't claim that it's the most reflective piece of writing but I've tried to capture some of the ideas presented and bring together links to the topic, presenters and organisers on this page.

I was asked a few weeks ago if I would speak at a workshop for postgraduate students in the College of Social Sciences, here at the University of Glasgow. The full title of the workshop was: “Spreading Ideas without Selling Your Soul: How to Use the Web to Create Professional Networks, Market Yourself and Develop Your Employability While You Are Doing Your PhD”. It was arranged by two research students, Giuliana Tiripelli and Daniel Yue Li.

During the workshop I twittered about the ideas that were being presented by the various participants. I used the #csspgrworkshop tag to track my entries and these can bee seen in #csspgrworkshop - twazzup.

The first speaker was Dickon Copsey, who I didn't tweet about due in part to my lateness in arriving (he'd already started) and the walk from the St Andrew's building to the Adam Smith building leaving me breathless and perspiring. From my recollection Dickon was talking about basic issues relating to the use of the Internet to promote research student's identities. He spoke about creating web pages associated with the University to promote student's work. He also talked about Mahara and its use as a PDP portfolio. Click here for his example page.

The next speaker was Laura Tyler. She spoke about the different, popular tools that are available for research students. She identified some of the benefits and challenges in using Facebook, Twitter and blogging.

I was meant to be next, but I agreed to swap with Sarah Armstrong who spoke about the: Ethical considerations of doing and presenting research online. She addressed ethical issues relating to the internet: privacy, confidentiality, consent, dissemination, etc. She also showed the Social Science Research Network website and encouraged all to visit and use the site.

There then followed a brief few minutes of discussion about the presentations so far.

The second session started with Muhammad Idrees Ahmad talking about expertise on the internet. As I was listening to him I was reminded of ideas in Cult of the Amateur and issues aroundcitizen journalism whilst he outlined his experience with his website Pulsemedia and the reason he engaged with blogging.

I was next to talk with a presentation entitled: Engaging with Web 2.0 to promote an Academic Identity. The full PowerPoint is on Slideshare.

The second slide starts with a photograph of myself and then is overlaid with various avatars, I've created. Unfortunately this animation is not reproduced in slideshare.

Academic identity and web2.0

View more presentations from mclaughlinkt

The last presenter was Matthew Waites talking about Managing public, professional and personal identities. He approached the issues from a very interesting perspective discussing, Habermas, Gramsci and Foucault and their perpective on identities.

We finally finished and adjourned to another room to enjoy some refreshments and some chat.

ICT Complexities

2010-09-13T23:28:00.006+01:00

Last week I was to give an interactive lecture and demonstration to the PGDE (Primary) cohort on interactive whiteboards (IWB). This involved me taking a Promethean activboard from an ICT lab to the allocated room which sat 100 students.

As an experienced ICT teacher I was aware of the complexities involved. I needed the IWB, a projector, a laptop and the associated cables. So 30 mins prior to the class I started the task of relocating the technology.

I got the board, the projector and the laptop into a lift to travel down two floors and the length of the building. I started setting up when I realised I needed a VGA splitter and an additional cable, so back up to the lab I went.

The laptop I had is a dual boot MacBook. So the day before I'd gone hunting for the installation discs. I could only find the PC version of the iwb software so that made the decision as to which operating system I would use.

I connected everything: laptop to the splitter, splitter to both of the projectors, board to the laptop and all parts to the power supply. The board beeped. The projectors lit up, but no signal was being received. I pressed some function keys in the hope that the signal would be refreshed. Next I restarted the laptop, looked away, and it restarted in Mac mode. The Mac desktop appeared on both screens. So I knew everything was connected correctly. So I restarted this time in PC mode but no signal was being received.

Now I was 15 mins into the class and still didn't have a working IWB. So I restarted into Mac mode and proceeded to give my presentation without it.

When I returned to my office I discussed my problem with my colleague. His suggestion was that the resolution on the PC needed to be reset to a lower setting. He was right. But why didn't I realise this?

In the heat of the class and with time running down I cut my losses and went with the simpler PowerPoint option. I could have spent longer setting up the equipment and get it working earlier. I could have asked the ICT technicians to set up the equipment. But I should have managed this myself: I'm an ICT teacher.

More importantly if I struggle with the technology how can we expect teachers with less experience in using ICT to cope?

When ICT complexity obstructs teaching it makes you question how effectively it can be embedded in the classroom.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Learning Styles Don't Exist

2010-09-12T00:18:00.004+01:00

Here's a really good video arguing against the concept of learning styles.

iPod to iPad

2010-09-05T01:10:00.000+01:00

This posting was created on my new iPad using BlogPress Lite for an iPod/iPhone.

I'm wondering if there's any point in using the app when I can access the webpage in Safari. The downside being that this is an iPhone app so I have to scale up the screen. There's also no facility to alter text style from within the app or to insert a link or. :-(

I can insert a photograph from the ones stored on my iPad.

Lastly to test the spoon my iPad I've tried to add a hyperlink to the word iPad.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad...

Looking to the Future - Beyond Current Horizons

2010-06-18T01:21:00.004+01:00

On Friday 11th June I attended the Looking to the Future conference at Heriot-Watt. The majority of the day was good: meeting former students and colleagues; attending workshops and listening to keynote speakers. However the really impressive part was a workshop hosted by Prof Keri Facer - Beyond Current Horizons.

The workshop explored some social and technological trends that may have implications for education. Participants engaged

in a ‘rapid scenarios’ activity to challenge their assumptions about future trajectories for education and technology and to explore the outer limits of possibilities.

It was a really engaging and stimulating workshop and one I have been relating to my colleagues (and anyone who will listen) since. She introduced some trend ideas:
Augmented digital reality
Polarisation of workforce or democratisation of creativity
Trust/Mistrust of Technological Systems
Gross Domestic Happiness vs Gross Domestic Product
Open/democratic vs Closed/managed Internet
Bio/Nano/Geno Prosthetic Cognitive Enhancements

So I thought I should find out more about the presenter and see if there was anything on the internet about the ideas from the workshop. I discovered a keynote she gave at the FutureEverything Conference 2010 which expanded on the issues she introduced in the workshop.

Keri Facer - Learning to live in interesting times from FutureEverything on Vimeo.

Lastly imagine what education and schooling would look like if intellectual ability could be genetically modified or knowledge could be gained from a Nano technology implant?

More information can be found at Beyond Current Horizons.

Computer Games in School List

2010-05-25T21:40:00.001+01:00

Here are some games development links:

Feel free to leave a comment describing how you use one of these environments in your school/class.

Mythologising Creativity

2010-05-08T00:45:00.004+01:00

I was recently reading David Warlick's blog posting - Is this Creativity and was indirectly inspired to write some of my thoughts about creativity, here they are...

I'm always concerned when I read about creativity in teaching. The use of the word "creativity" is often used inappropriately or in an ill-defined way. It's often used in the Arts to create a division with the Sciences. It is often mistaken for novelty. It is also believed to be innate.

Firstly I believe that creativity is the ability to form a thought in your head not an ability to communicate it. So I can imagine a beautiful sunset but I can't draw it or write a poem to communicate it. I separate the act of thinking from the artistry that you use to communicate the idea. When a teacher judges artistry instead of creativity (imagination) they tend to associate the artistic talent as an inborn trait. This adds to the mythologising of the concept of creativity.

The next issue is that we react to the novelty of an idea: we tend to categorise work as creative when it appear new to us or appeals to our aesthetic sensibility. Teachers praise novelty over creativity. When a pupil impresses us with an idea that we didn't expect we categorise them as creative. When they demonstrate artistry that is beyond the teachers ability we categorise them as creative.

Algodoo

2010-04-28T15:40:00.004+01:00

I was at the TeachMeet Student Edition Glasgow (#TMSEG10) last week at Strathclyde University and had planned to do a short demonstration on Algodoo.

What is Algodoo?
It's a clever piece of software (available for PC, Mac and Linux) that allows you to create two dimensional physics models that can then be animated (it's a 2D physics model sandbox).

It lets you model real world objects and see how forces such as gravity act upon them. Here's a short video that demonstrates the simple activities available with the software.

You can download a copy of the software from here.

The Future of ITE

2010-04-09T12:55:00.003+01:00

What's next for Initial Teacher Education in Scotland? This is the question being explored by Graham Donaldson in a Review of Teacher Education in Scotland (RTES). In an article recently in TES, Mr Donaldson poses the question, "How can we support our teachers and the wider education community to engage with confidence in this agenda (CfE), and with an unknowable future agenda?". He also outlines the process of the review and finishes by encouraging readers to engage via TESS forums and RTES Discussion Page (a feedback page is available but not a discussion page).

As an interested party (GTCS registered teacher, University Teacher in Faculty of Education, Tutor on both PG & BEd teacher education courses) there are numerous ideas and questions that come to mind.

Firstly, should the profession accept a government lead review which does not include an executive member of the GTCS? Whilst there are teachers on the Review Team there does not appear to be a representative of the GTCS. However in the report from the Council meeting, 20th January 2010 the Chief Executive in response to the RTES stated: "The Council would need to play a central role by offering advice and assistance throughout the process of the review."

Secondly, is there a place for Universities in the education of teachers? Prior to the Universities taking on teacher training in the 90's the responsibility lay with dedicated colleges of education. Are the demands being placed on faculties and schools of education in the universities undermining the quality of teacher education in Scotland?

Thirdly, there's a large number of approaches to teacher training in England. Would teacher education in Scotland benefit from adopting some of England's approaches? Would PGDE students be better prepared to teach if they were educated in schools full-time? The problem with this would be one of cost: you would have to salary the beginning teacher rather than the tuition fee cost of a student teacher.

Fourthly, should teaching in Scotland be a Masters Profession? This depends on how you define a Masters level qualification. Is it an academic qualification that is only based on reading and research or a postgraduate qualification that validates learning which is a balance between reading and practice.

Finally, if we keep debasing the knowledge and skills required to teach and elevate the knowledge of educational theories we will fail to educate teachers for the 21st Century.

Exploiting Probationary Teachers?

2010-04-01T13:01:00.004+01:00

Are local authorities in Scotland exploiting Probationary Teachers by arranging staff induction days prior to the individual's contract start date?

I came across this issue last year when I was talking to a student teacher, who indicated that she would be participating in two days induction training prior to the start of term. I asked if she was being payed for these two extra days, she was not. I asked where in her teaching contract it stated that she was required to work 2 additional days, no mention could be found.

Whilst I'm not arguing about the merit of these induction days, I can imagine them to be extremely useful, I am wondering why councils feel it's acceptable to invite beginning teachers on their probation to meeting prior to the start of their contract. I'm also curious as to why none of the teaching unions have raised or addressed the issue. I'm also surprised that the GTCS are promoting these days by posting the dates on their website.

Let's take two examples, starting with Renfrewshire Council. According to their website teachers return on Monday 16th August but on the GTCS website they will expect probationers to attend for two days on the 11th & 12th August. In East Lothian teachers also return on the 16th August, whilst the probationers are expected to start a week earlier on the 9th August and to work for three days.

Perhaps these probationers receive additional pay (not likely in these fiscally prudent times), or perhaps they receive commensurate holidays instead. I will be interested to hear from any interested parties (EIS, GTCS, Council Officers) on this issue.

IACSEE Journal

2010-03-30T15:33:00.004+01:00

I've recently been involved in assisting a colleague, Dr Cathy Fagan, with her work on the International Journal: Citizenship, Social & Economic Education. I thought I would write a short blog to highlight the e-journal she edits and the association she chairs www.IACSEE.org.

It's a very eclectic journal which is open to writers from schools, universities and other research backgrounds. The journal covers a variety of issues, such as:

- Curricular analysis of education programmes
- Cross-country comparisons of curricula and practice
- Analysis of economic education programmes in different countries
- Studies in political and economic socialisation
- Accounts and analyses of innovatory curriculum practice
- Studies in how children develop identity
- Analysis of learning about culture
- Studies in citizenship education
- Analysis of education-community-business partnership activities
- Studies in enterprise education
- Co-operative enterprise and community education
- Studies in financial education
- Values and ethical considerations in social and economic Education

The previous 23 issues are available online for free. They give an interesting view of citizenship, social and economics education across the globe over the last 14 years. I would encourage you to read and to write for this journal if you find one of the many issues of interest.

Acceptable ICT Standards

2010-03-23T18:04:00.004Z

If spelling and grammar are expected standards in literacy, what are the acceptable standards in ICT? There are numerous essay correction codes in teaching to indicate to a pupil where the spelling errors in their work are. But where are the codes to indicate errors in the use of ICT?

Having recently spent many hours marking essays, I'm very aware of the silly technical mistakes students make when word-processing their writing. I had one student write his whole essay in bold: forgetting to click bold to return to plain text. A more common mistake is the failure to consistently indicate a new paragraph: mixing indenting with a blank line or failing to use either. I also received an email asking for an extension but with no text in the subject field of the email. And don't get me started with people accidentally replying to all in their emails.

To be honest only the email examples are mistakes in relation to ICT standard, the others are typographic mistakes. But the point I'm trying to make is that knowing when to take a new paragraph does not educate pupils as to how to take a new paragraph when word-processing.

I have written about this topic before in the posting: Underlying ICT. If ICT is to be embedded into the curriculum then either the 'traditional' subject teachers need to learn the ICT standards or Computing/ICT teachers need to be given the time and classes to teach it to the pupils.

Cushion Computing

2010-03-13T23:35:00.003Z

I came across the term in the title whilst watching James Clay talk with Alan Graham. The blog posting with the video can be found here.

I attempted to search for the phrase Cushion Computing through google and yahoo; and on wikipedia and wiktionary. No result! I then tried to add an entry to wikipedia which then directed me to wiktionary. I entered a definition in wiktionary only to have it reviewed and deleted. :-(

So here's my definition:
Cushion Computing
noun
a situation where portable computers are used in a relaxed environment on a sofa or other cushioned furniture. An example of cushion computing is the use of laptops, netbooks, smartphones and tablet PCs in bedrooms and living rooms.

Public Sector Radical Thinking

2010-03-13T13:10:00.004Z

I was inspired to write the following after reading Don Ledingham's posting Campaign against budget cuts in Scottish education.

In the posting he raises the question about how we will afford education in the next 3 to 7 years. He indicates that radical thinking will be required by those involved in education to address the shortfalls in spending.

It is this concept of radical thinking that intrigued me enough to start writing a reply to Don's blog. I didn't post it there because it wasn't a direct response to his original post but rather a series of thoughts inspired by it. So here's my muddled thinking...

Can a concept like radical thinking work in a democratic domain? If you are in a position where you have to seek and gain the consent of a majority then simply conceiving of a radical plan is insufficient to ensuring it's implemented. You need to communicate and persuade the majority of your radical plan and then over time implement it.

Don manages through his TES column, blog, and various other web2.0 outlets to place his [occasionally radical :-) ] ideas into the public domain. I'm sure he also uses more traditional methods to communicate to parents, teachers and pupils. He uses these channels to transmit his ideas to those involved in education.

Then the concepts have to transition from the abstract to the actual. Similar to the process around CfE - from the what in documents to the how in schools and classes; and the with of teachers and pupils. The complexity of this process will take a long time, possibly a generation.

But radical ideas are not associated with long periods of time they are associated with moments - tipping points in time.

I wonder if the virtual world of the web has raised our expectations in relation to how quickly ideas will manifest themselves in the real world. Has the web2.0 generation shortened the timeline of expected implementation. Not only do we want ideas to happen in the now we want them to be free or at least inexpensive.

Do we expect more for less from the web2.0 world - because the income model doesn't ask us for money?

Is it simplistic to think that the radical idea is enough, when the reality require time, patience and money. Is it that the radical idea is merely an acorn? Does it take a lot of time and effort to make the oak grow?

First blog from iPod

2010-03-06T19:24:00.001Z

I downloaded the light version of blogpress to try blogging from my iPod touch. Not sure if I can enter HTML or links.

I can however insert photos from my photo album.

Twitter Away My Blog

2010-01-23T20:25:00.015Z

It's been nearly two months since my last post, so I thought it best to write something before the first month of this new year/decade had past.

Part of the reason for not writing so many blog posts has been that I've been busy at work. But the other main reason is that I've been posting on Twitter and FaceBook instead. I find that there is less impetus to write a lengthy blog when I have posted lots of small, incremental tweets (micro-blogs) on a topic or idea. Instead of responding to an idea with a considered and researched blog response, I resort to a short response via Twitter.

Another reason for not posting blogs is that I received a iPod Touch for my birthday, during the Christmas break. I now find myself twittering and going online whilst in front of the TV (when it's boring), thanks to the WiFi connection. Making it easier to tweet than blog.

I've also been exploring the use of Twitter within the work that I do at the University. Over the last couple of weeks I've been attending lectures for the B Ed1 class and tweeting during the presentations. If you are interested in the feed I used the tags: #LHOL and #EVS3. I believe tweeting during a lecture in response to what I'm hearing makes the experience significantly more interactive.

As the lecturer is talking and showing their slides I will have my laptop running TweetDeck and Safari. This allows me to search for additional information as the lecture unfolds. I try where possible to post key quotes and comments. I also like to include links to wikipedia on the subtopics or key words and phrases that are used during the talk. I have also posted links to Twazzup on the class Moodle sites to allow the students to revisit the lecture via my tweets. Here are the links to the Twazzup feeds for both classes: Learning How Others Learn and Educational Values for Self, School & Society.

The main reason for using Twazzup to show the feed rather than Twitter search is that Twazzup extracts the web links and creates Most Popular Links feed from them.

The disappointing element of this recent flurry of tweets is the apparent lack of student responses to my tweets. In a class of over 220 first year students none appear to be using twitter in relation to my posts. Perhaps the Netizens/Digital Natives aren't as keen on web 2.0 as the evangelists would have us believe ;-D

In order to keep blogging I think I will need to install as App on my iPod to allow me to at least start a blog posting when an idea occurs to me. Although I have taken a liking to the work of David Noble & John Johnston with their EduTalk project and may well start to use ipadio to create audio blogs instead. Watch this space: listen for the sound.

Student's Moving Image Education

2009-11-30T21:41:00.005Z

This will be a simple straight forward posting. It has been months since I last posted to my blog, so before two months pass here's one to break the silence.

I was recently working with two BEd3 ICT classes on factual filming. They choose a topic split it into four sub-topics, write a script and create the film. One class chose Children's Authors the other chose Glasgow. In the end I created DVDs which combined each classes work into a finished product. I also uploaded each groups work onto YouTube.

Children's Authors

Glasgow

Feel free to comment here or on YouTube. I'm sure the students would welcome the feedback.

To CANVAS Opinion

2009-09-07T11:29:00.002+01:00

At a recent meeting of SICTDG I listened to, discussed about and watched a new project called CANVAS - presented by Derek Robertson.

Simply put it's a 3D world based on Second Life which allows pupils to display and discuss art work.

At first I wasn't overly impressed, but as I listened to Derek I realised it was a work in progress. I started to note ideas that I thought would make it even more interesting. Here they are (in no particular order)...

1. The Art Schools of Scotland should have presences in CANVAS. This could be display spaces and avatars, possibly for recruitment and promotion. They might wish to provide guest tutors to provide feedback to pupils.

2. Interaction should result in a changed environment or added features. Perhaps a rating system to allow pupils to accrue credit. Perhaps like ebay where sellers and buyers can comment and rate the transactions.

3. Tagging would allow participants a method to search on paintings. One gallery could allow users to generate the selection of artwork based on a search.

4. Allow pupils to add hotspots to paintings, similar to flickr.

5. Transform the 2D paintings into 3D artifacts in CANVAS. Allow the artist to select zones in their painting and then assign perspective and focal points to transform the image into a 3D image.

6. A photo shop that allows users to transfer paintings back to real objects. Similar idea to Photobox. Putting paintings onto t-shirts, mugs, etc.

7. Allow pupils to record audio commentary of their own work and then synchronize the audio with the avatar in a similar style to Vokis.

8. Allow Wii interaction to control avatars.

9. Transform 2D artwork into landscape art like Tony Hart did in Vision On, so it can be viewed from above.

10. Allow 3D art (sculpture, ceramics, etc) to be included in the gallery.

11. An Easter Egg game component perhaps based on the film To Catch a Thief. ;-)

As you can see I did end up being excited by the concept of CANVAS. If you have any additional ideas you can post them as a comment.

iPhoto Uploaders

2009-09-01T18:13:00.014+01:00

How do you upload pictures from iPhoto to Flickr and Facebook?

For Flickr I had been using Flickr Uploadr which worked fine as long as I did not try to use the newer versions. It's a stand alone app which allows your to drag your pics from iPhoto and send them as a batch job to Flickr. Still better than a web interface upload.

I then discovered FFXporter: a Free Flickr eXporter. It's a small and simple application that adds a tab to the Export... dialogue box. It allows you to create new photosets or add pictures to already existing sets. You can also set access rights and the size of the image, but I haven't had call to use these.

The next uploader is for FaceBook. I've been scanning old photographs from my student days and of various St Luke's senior school dances and wanted to add them easily to Facebook. This uploader has the simple title of Facebook Exporter for iPhoto. In the same way as the Flickr uploader it adds a tab to the Export... option. It allows you to create new albums add descriptions and tag the photo with your friends list.

A Measure of Importance

2009-08-08T13:55:00.002+01:00

Here's another posting inspired by David Muir...

I was reading an article about the demise of Personal Computer World - RIP Personal Computer World by Guy Kewney. He raises the interesting question,

"...the “golden age” of PCW was between 1981 and 1991, and during that time, the monthly magazine was at the centre of what went on in Britain — and Australia, strangely! — but well, what exactly did go on, and what is left of that heritage today? In other words, what happened to all the great names of the 80s?"

His article in part deals with the focus on the hardware that appeared on the front cover of the magazine. He mentions Sir Clive Sinclair and dismisses him because the Sinclair brand is no longer a part of the British IT/Computer industry. In contrast he then mentions the success of Sophie Wilson and her ARM chip. As the ARM chips are still an important and integral part of computer (mobile) technology.

For me the measure of importance is not whether the technology is still around but the impact the technology and brands had on individuals. How many people are now employed in the IT/Computing industry because they were bought a home computer during the 80's. Without the Sinclair, Commodore, BBC, Atari and Apple computers we wouldn't have the technological world we live in now.

It's not the longevity of the brand or technology that's important it's the impact the brand or technology has on our lives.

Technorati Tags: Personal Computer World, Guy Kewney, David Muir

Shift Spreading Happens

2009-07-27T20:28:00.008+01:00

Did you know?

Shift Happens has been posted on YouTube 433 times.
It has been viewed over 10 million times.
Returns 1,850,000 search results on google and 42,300,000 on Yahoo.
ICT-Echo returns 1,220,000 search results on google and 1,120,000 on Yahoo.
Shift Happens has been shown to every teacher in Scotland at least once! Maybe not.

I recently watched an updated version: Shift Happens 3.0. It was yet again being promoted by an "ICT Consultant" as "a very powerful video...it really does make you think differently about how we approach education and how we prepare our students for the future." Whilst I believe there is a case for thinking differently about how young people are educated, "Shift Happens" is not a good example of the argument for a shift in thinking. If you are bombarded by the statistics whilst watching the visuals and moving to the beat of the accompanying soundtrack you will be easily fooled into thinking the "facts" presented are true or accurate or relevant.

How much of this video is true?
Convoluted Statistics

25% of India’s population 1,147million = 287million < US population 306million
Can you compare these countries so simply?
GDP per capita USA vs India = $46,859 vs $2,762
Can you compare US statistics with UK statistics?
I'm 39 and have had 10 jobs: Baby sitting, Shelf Stacker, Software developer, Programmer, Documentation analyst, Maths Teacher, Computing Teacher, University Teacher, SQA Marker, Exam Setter. Makes me wonder what counts as a job! But seriously this would be a more powerful statistic if it was compared to a different epoch.
There’s a reason why Bermuda is ranked #1 from broadband penetration and the USA is 19th - size of country and population.
Questions were asked of friends and family and ultimately an encyclopedia or trip to the library to read a book before google.
The Internet was created in 1969 are they really saying that it reached 50 million users by 1973? According to ARPANET News in March '73; number of ARPANET users was estimated at 2,000.
According to Kathryn Ann Lindskoog in her book Creative Writing: "...in 1611, English had grown to almost 150,000 words". Depending on your source it is estimated that there are between 500,000 and 1 million English words in use.
Next, “The amount of new technical information is doubling every two years” like so much that has gone before, where's the source? This is followed be the conclusion that, “For students starting a four-year technical or college degree, this means that… half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study”. Since when has the creation of new knowledge meant that older knowledge becomes untrue or outdated. It just means there's more to learn.
Don't confuse "computational capability" with intelligence.

So what does it all mean?
Question everything, check the "facts" when you don't have a reliable source and in the word’s of Public Enemy, “Don’t Believe the Hype…”

Stop spreading this shift!

Technorati Tags: Shift Happens, Technology, Teaching, Education,Web 2.0, Future, Video

Twitter in Education

2009-07-01T00:29:00.005+01:00

I recently read David Muir's posting: CPD, Staffrooms and Twitter and was prompted to respond as follows.

When twitter is used sophisticatedly it becomes an excellent tool for knowledge management. When multiple participants hashtag an event they capture knowledge that can be accessed directly at a later date.

Twitter/blogs/social networks/web 2.0 tools, etc support learning communities. They facilitate the transformation of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge.

This, for me, is why twitter-like-tools should be viewed as part of a modern teachers way of working.

We should be countering the bad press! Arguing for these tools and this new vision rather than running silently scared.

We should be discussing the knowledge in a tweet not worrying about the method of communication.

Any thoughts from the blogosphere?

An Issue of Privacy

2009-06-18T14:23:00.003+01:00

I recently posted a short video onto Youtube- Samba Demonstration. It show a collection of PGDE students playing drums to a samba beat, outside the faculty building. What has this to do with privacy?

I received an email this morning from YouTube indicating that an anonymous individual has flagged the video for "violating privacy". I have not named any of the individuals on the video. The performance was in a public place and as you can hear was very loud. So how have I violated an individual's privacy?

I had viewed this interesting video - "You Can't Picture This" on YouTube. John Toner of the National Union of Journalists states:

"If you're on public land, filming in a public space, there is no law to prevent you either taking still pictures or moving images."

The UK Film Council states:

"You do not need to ask passers-by for permission to feature their faces in a film. Under UK law, the copyright of film shot in a public place resides with the filmmaker."

So the question that this raises is have I violated the privacy of those on the video?

World Domination?

2009-05-30T21:28:00.001+01:00

View Paisley College - Computer Science Alumni 91/92 in a larger map

The map above is the distribution of fellow students who studied Computer Science at Paisley College graduating in 1991 or 1992.

A Year On: Are there teaching jobs out there?

2009-05-29T22:48:00.000+01:00

This time last year I posted the question Are there teaching jobs out there? I used the Times Educational Supplement jobs site to gather raw statistics for teaching positions across Scotland.

I searched for specific secondary subject jobs that were not promoted. These were all the newly advertised jobs in Scotland on TES. I have laid them out along side last years numbers

TES Vacancies - 29/5/9

Subject	Jobs 08	Jobs 09
Art	5	14
Biology	3	8
Business Std	3	7
Chemistry	5	3
Computing	0	2
English	21	25
Geography	7	8
History	2	5
Maths	14	19
Modern Lang	1	17
Modern Std		5
Physics	5	11
Religious Ed	4	4
Totals	70	128

Comparing the totals we see an 83% increase in class teaching jobs during this week from 2008 to 2009. I'm not claiming that this indicates anything other than more jobs were advertised in TES during this one week from last year to this. But it should be thought of as a positive indicator to probationary/starting teachers that there are more jobs on offer at this time of year than last. The number of probationary teachers in the secondary sector is approximately 1300: so approximately 1 in 10 of probationers might get a permanent job. Obviously this is unlikely as there will be other teachers on temporary contracts looking for permanent contracts so the figure is bound to drop.

Technorati Tags: Times Educational Supplement Scotland, Teaching jobs, Probation Teacher Scotland

Who are these ScotEduBloggers?

2009-05-21T00:52:00.003+01:00

I was wandering around the blogosphere and returned to ScotEduBlog. The page that struck me as interesting was the Statistics page. The second graph show that the least number of blog post happen in July! I think we all could have guessed that.

But I had to laugh when I looked at the Posts per Authority graph and pointed to the biggest bar for East Lothian; the number of posts disappear off the graph. The teachers/edubloggers in that authority outstrip all other authorities in Scotland!

The last graph is the number of blogs registered per authority. The lead authority is Argyle & Bute with 98 blogs. I then wondered what the average posting was but maybe that's a graph that can be included for next time. The average posting per blog for A&B is 2,263/98= 23. The same stat for East Lothian is 6,456/72=89.6

Now I began to wonder why these authorities lead the way in the edu-blogosphere? I think I know the answer!

In East Lothian you had Ewan McIntosh and Don Ledingham leading and promoting the use of blogs within that authority. In Argyle & Bute there was Andrew Brown and Ian Stuart. I'm sure there are others that I'm not name-checking but these are some of the key players who are blogging and have encouraged blogging within these authorities.

The last three questions I have are:
1 Why is blogging not happening, to a greater extent, across all authorities?
2 Is it the lack of blog evangelists or authorities limiting access to Web 2.0 in there schools?
3 Is it the lack of awareness of the ScotEduBlog facility across Scotland?

Technorati Tags: ScotEduBlog, edu.blogs.com, EduBuzz, whereisab, IslayICT.

School Bullies or Violent Society?

2009-05-16T12:30:00.002+01:00

Do our schools have lots of bullies and victims or are there segments of society who advocate violence as a resolution to conflict?

Alternatively are there segments of society that are claiming to be bullied as an excuse for their own or their child's behaviours?

Technorati Tags: Education, Bullying, Violence.

Can we Learn Best by Doing?

2009-05-16T12:26:00.002+01:00

"Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand."Chinese or Native American proverb.
"I see and I forget, I hear and I remember, I do and I understand." - Confucius

I have been hunting for these proverb for a while now.

Do we intuitively agree with these quotes or is there a truth in these words?

You Have to Laugh

2009-05-13T15:51:00.004+01:00

Here's a sentence from an assignment I have just finished marking.

The newer term ASN encompasses any child who needs additional support to fully access the curriculum, whether this be permanent (eg a child who is deaf) or temporary (a child who's parent has recently died).

My response was: Death is permanent, mourning is temporary.

Breaking Curriculum Barriers

2009-05-10T00:37:00.004+01:00

I was reading Mr W's latest blog posting - The English Classroom And CfE - and I was struck by a thought.

Do teachers know what's taught in other subject areas? Have they ever read any other subject arrangement documents published by SQA or any other qualification authority?

I'm qualified to teach Mathematics and Computing, so I've read the SQA arrangements for both those subjects. As a visiting tutor for the B Ed course I've looked at some of the 5-14 guidelines. As a SQA unit writer and member of the computing review steering group I looked at some Int 1 & 2 course arrangements for Chemistry, Physics & Biology. Finally as Admissions Officer on the PGDE(S) course I've read the Business Management and Administration Higher/Int2 arrangements.

So having read Mr W's blog I plan to read the Standard Grade, Higher and 5-14 arrangements/guidelines. Why?

Because if a curriculum for excellence is about breaking down the barriers between subjects and de-cluttering the curriculum then I want to know what's going on in other classrooms and in other subjects, so I can contribute to learning and teaching.

Computers enter learning 'core'

2009-04-30T23:45:00.006+01:00

Computer technology is to move centre stage alongside English, maths and personal skills in an overhaul of England's primary school curriculum.

BBC website - Computers enter learning 'core'

It strikes me having read the new CfE Technology outcomes that this is not the position of computers in the Scottish Curriculum.

Why is Scotland heading down the road of abandoning the study of computers?

Here's the rational from Standard Grade Computing Studies:

A rationale for the study of computing includes the following perspectives:
• many young people have an interest in the ways in which computers operate, how hardware and software interact and the various applications of computers
• young people should have an understanding of the nature and social purpose of computers
• the study of computers and their uses can be a means of translating educational aims concerning the skills of problem solving into a practical reality to which young people can relate
• the study of computing can contribute usefully to the general cognitive development of young people and enhance their self-esteem
• knowledge of computers and their uses gives advantages for future employment and life-long learning

Aren't these good enough reasons for ensuring young people learn how the computers and technology they use work. It occurs to me that children will learn about the planets in the solar system and the layers of the earth but will not learn about the parts of a computer and how they work.

Where's My Head At?

2009-04-28T23:55:00.003+01:00

So many things interest me that I find my mind skipping from one topic to another. I'm reminded of the TED talk I watched recently where Clifford Stoll bounced around the stage touching on various topics and weaving them together into some form of a whole: 18 minutes with an agile mind.

Today for example I've spent nearly 4 hours in meetings discussing issues relating to the new B Ed1 course. This was followed by various accidental meetings with colleagues in offices and corridors on various topics. Leading me back to my office... I don't know why I did it but after looking on the internet for a few minutes I went to Dr Margery McMahon (Head of Educational Studies Department) to "borrow" a copy of her latest book : Putting Together Professional Portfolios (Sage Publishing).

This ties in with the topic my colleague Stephen Boyle is researching: investigating how to using Mahara as an E-Portfolio.

I then decided to blog about it but only got to the end of the last paragraph before I stopped and moved onto something else... I return to it now on Saturday 25th April.

I've just posted a selection of old draft postings that have been siting in the list for up-to a year. I can't claim that they are to a standard which I normally prefer, but I was getting annoyed that I hadn't returned to them to finish them off. So I spent a few minutes on each and have posted them onto my blog.

A lot of motivational gurus and Head-teachers would ask the question "Where do you want to be in X years time?" There's this belief in the motivational world that you should identify your targets or ambitions and picture yourself succeeding. If you want to win the race you have to visualize it! So with that in mind I sat down at my computer last thing on Friday and constructed a to-do list as a set of tasks in Entourage for the next two months. Hopefully this will focus my mind onto specific tasks, here's hoping.

So apart from marking and assessing numerous students over the next few months I hope to do the following:
Research and explore the use of Scratch Programming Language.
Research and explore the use of Alice Programming Language.
Create and distribute some Powerpoint video Podcasts based on lecture I have given.
Work on refining and delivering some CSI workshops.

It's now Tuesday and I'm just getting around to posting this!

Intelligent Collegiality?

2009-04-25T18:35:00.000+01:00

Collegial intelligence concerns the capacity for staff to work together, in particular to improve
their practice in the classroom... Underpinning collegial intelligence is an understanding that, whilst individuals can make a
difference, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole when staff work together to improve
and develop one another's practice.

Barbara MacGilchrist - Leading the Intelligent School

I wonder if blogging is an aspect of collegial intelligence?
I wonder how Glow will support collegial intelligence, implicitly or explicitly?

Operational Question for CfE

2009-04-25T18:18:00.000+01:00

Question: Should all year groups experience CfE next year or should it take 6 years to filter through?

If this years 1st year don't get CfE but will be ready for 2nd year CfE then this years 1st year will equal next years 1st year. Therefore there is no difference between this years 1st year and next.

Computing & ICT Plateau

2009-04-06T00:30:00.004+01:00

Where have all the Computing and ICT teaching jobs gone?

I recently received a request for a reference for a former student who is looking to gain a job abroad teaching ICT/Computing after completing his induction year here in Scotland. I know from traveling the highways and byways for tutor visits that there are more and more schools and local authorities making computing teachers surplus. I looked on the TES Jobs website to see if there were any ICT/Computing vacancies in Scotland.

Here's what I discovered when I searched on Sunday 5th April 2009:
There were 85 ICT Classroom teaching jobs in the UK.
None for Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland; All in England.
Place = Vacancies
North West = 19
South East = 19
London = 15
East Midlands = 12
Eastern = 5
West Midlands = 5
Yorkshire & Humber = 4
South West = 4
North East = 2

There were 14 ICT Head of department jobs across all of England and none in either Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Now you might expect at least 7 Class teaching jobs on a proportional basis, but it could be that there are no jobs in Scotland at this present moment.

Perhaps Scotland has reached a plateau in regard it's need for ICT teachers. Perhaps we are seeing decisions on a day to day basis in schools and local authorities that are reducing the need for ICT/Computing teachers. Perhaps initiatives like ACfE and Glow are transforming the use of ICT by other teachers and we are seeing it permeate the curriculum.

I think I will investigate this issue further!

Re-Imagining the University Tutorial

2009-03-31T23:54:00.006+01:00

The vast majority of classrooms in the St Andrew's Building here at the University of Glasgow are traditional in design. They all have a focal point where writing can be displayed. They also now have another focal point for displaying projected images from a ceiling mounted projector that is attached to a internet connected PC. There are desks and chairs and some other basic furniture. Basically it's not that much different in design and layout from a traditional school classroom.

So the clue is in the title - What should the tutorial room look like for the students of the 21st Century?

Issues to consider:
1 Should there be an alternative focal point in the room?
2 Do students require writing/reading surfaces both horizontal and vertical?
3 Should the Tutor be replaced by a holographic AI version?
4 How much ICT should there be and how should it be supported?

Technorati Tags: Education, Glasgow University, Classroom of Tomorrow.

War on Work: Mike Rowe

2009-03-21T17:17:00.001Z

I enjoy watching TED talks during my lunch, especially when restricted to my desk due to work commitments. I've watched and posted numerous TED talks over the last 12 months or so and this is the latest. Presented by Mike Rowe, the host of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel. He talks about his personal realization that society has waged war on the world of work. His talk is humorous, intelligent and inspiring. He challenges several commonly held notions of work: people with dirty jobs hate their jobs, follow your passion, safety first.

Watch and Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: TED, Mike Rowe, War on Work.

Network Failure During a Crit

2009-03-02T20:16:00.006Z

The tannoy informs the school that there are problems with the registration software on the school network. The tannoy hopes it will be fixed soon. The student carries on bravely.

She has a tutor at the back of the room scribbling, reading and glancing up from time to time. Her computer is still working and the Powerpoint is still running so the lesson continues. And according to her plan she won't need the computers for at least 30 minutes. Can the tannoy fix the network in that time?

Slide after slide after question after explanation passes the time. The PowerPoint ends and the worksheet begins. The tannoy re-introduces himself to the school.

"All users must logout. There has been a major network failure within the school."

She was planning to get the pupils onto the computers to check their worksheet answers. She had told the pupils this was her plan at the beginning of the lesson. She needs a backup plan!

She disappears into the cupboard that doubles as a work-base. On her return she carries a bundle of school made booklets. In them are the answer to the worksheet the pupils have been working on. She quickly spreads them around the class and instructs the pupils to correct their partners work using the answers on page 11.

She finishes the lesson with a flourish of questions and a homework task for Thursday.

The tutor resolves to write a blog about the event and here it is.

I've been visiting students across the land for the last 8 years and the most distracting event that's ever happened during a "crit" visit was a fire alarm. That resulted in me re-visiting the student a week later.

The network failing is like the gas being switched off prior to a Chemistry lesson or a Home Economics class. It is the equivalent of the calculators being removed from the maths class in the middle of a lesson or the literary works disappearing from the English department.

How often does the network fail in your school? More often than the gas supply being turned off?

As we move more towards the use off ICT technology in all subjects and at all levels with the adoption of Glow, how often will the lesson fail or the learning activity flounder when the technology struggles to cope?

How to Create a Digital Human in 18 Minutes

2009-02-23T22:49:00.008Z

Here's a fascinating talk on the technology behind The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Seminar Season

2009-02-22T19:20:00.012Z

Over the last month or so I've been making a point to attend seminars within the faculty and beyond. The seminars tend to be talks given by visiting academics on a topic they are expert in or carrying out research into.

I thought the least I could do would be to give a brief write up of each.

Education and the Culture of Openness: New Architectures of Collaboration

Professor Michael A. Peters from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was first on the list with an exciting and engaging look at the concept of Openness. His hour long talk covered numerous sub-topics:

1. Defining a ‘Culture of Openness’
2. Technopolitical economy of openness
- Politics of Openness
- Technologies of Openness
- Economics of Openness
3. Open Cultures/Open Education
4. New Architectures of Collaboration
5. Towards an Ontology of Openness

He then spent thirty minutes answering questions and giving deeper explanations on various issues relating to his talk.

I found this seminar fascinating and intellectually challenging. I was particularly interested in the relation of the culture of openness to technology as demonstrated in web 2.0 ideas and to the idea/term commons-based peer production initiated by Yochai Benkler.

Accessibility - Attitude of mind or Adaptive Computing?

Presented by Alan Crombie, Open University & NHS Scotland

He spoke about and discussed numerous issues relating to the use of computers and associated adaptive technology. This was an interactive seminar with questions and responses coming from all who attended. Alan identified and demonstrated various input and output solutions for students who struggle to use computers because of their disability or learning difficulty.

Useful Sharing

Sally Fincher, University of Kent
This seminar was part of the CSI (Computing Science Inside) Project run by Dr Quintin Cutts.

Sally spoke briefly for 15 minutes to introduce some of the ideas behind her project Disciplinary Commons. She stated that she felt that concepts like case-studies and reports about "best practice" failed to accurately capture or communicate the work of teachers or lecturers. She related the experience of lecturers who start teaching a new course and find that it's difficult to gain help from other new lecturers because of the different natures of various subject disciplines. Teaching first year Programming is completely different from teaching first year Chemistry.

She described how the project allowed 17 lecturers of computer programming to come together to share and discuss issues relating to their teaching of the subject. This is similar in nature to the school experience my students participate in, on the PGDE(S) Computing course.

We then participated in a workshop activity that involved using declarative statement diagram to structure our thoughts about teaching and learning. We then paired up and provided a narrative for each diagram to allow the partner to understand our thinking. This activity was used to demonstrate the need for structure and narrative in capturing what a teacher thinks in relation to the work that they do. Simply put you need to be able to ask someone about the experience to understand it for yourself.

Next week I have two more seminar scheduled, so more postings to follow.

Octet vs Byte

2009-02-14T12:51:00.008Z

Everyday is a school day!

I just came across the term octet whilst looking at wikipedia. In my 27 years of playing and studying computing I can't recall this word.

An Octet is a grouping of eight bits, which I have always referred to as a byte. But as I read the wiki page I understood the difference between a byte and an octet. Byte size has varied over time and computer systems were as octect has always been eight bits in size. However byte is now synonymous with an octect.

Here are some alternate storage measurement terms made up by Computing Scientists of old(taken from wikipedia):

All of these are strictly jargon, and not very common.
1 bit: sniff
2 bits: lick, crumb, quad, quarter, tayste, tydbit
4 bits: nibble, nybble
5 bits: nickel, nyckle
10 bits: deckle, dyme bag
16 bits: plate, playte, chomp, chawmp (on a 32-bit machine)
18 bits: chomp, chawmp (on a 36-bit machine)
32 bits: dinner, dynner, gawble (on a 286 ryan m-bit machine)
48 bits: gobble, gawble (under circumstances that remain obscure)

I wonder what 64 bits would be? A banquet!?!

Underlying ICT

2009-02-08T16:41:00.006Z

One of the issues that seems all to often forgotten about ICT is the underlying issue of learning to use it wisely. There is often an assumption by those wishing to promote it's use that learning ICT is as easy as sitting at a PC without any external influences or directions: that the computer does all the teaching.

Whilst many pieces of software comes with very effective online help and there are numerous sources of help on sites like youtube they tend to fixate on the functionality of the software tool. The very rarely deal with the qualitative or aesthetic use. The help facility will take you step by step through using a function but won't deal with justified use. An example I see all to often is the stretching of graphics like a photograph. You can see examples of these stuck to ICT classroom walls; where the photo of a child has been indiscriminately stretched to fill the width of a page. The child's body is now two times wider than it is tall! Technically they have demonstrated an ability to insert a graphic, position it, and resize it. But they have been unguided in their aesthetic judgement. Neither the computer nor the software will offer them guidance regarding the quality of their work.

For this matter neither will the teacher (on most occasions) nor the curricular arrangements. All ICT curricular arrangements fixate on feature, function and operation. Even curricular course like Digital Cre8or from the BCS fail to address the aesthetic. So teachers will follow the lead of the curriculum and fail to apply, encourage or teach pupils to apply qualitative judgement in their use of the software functions.

A contrasting parallel can be seen in the development of internet safety courses. Other curricular courses fixate on the features and uses of the internet but fail to address safe use. We now, apparently, require additional courses and guidance to allow our young people to use the net safely. So the software doesn't work in providing online help for safety it only deal with function.

Learning to use iMovie does not make you a great film maker.
Learning to use Word does not make you a great publisher.
Learning to use Excel does not make you a great statistician.
Learning to use PowerPoint does not make you a great presenter.
Learning to press a button on a digital camera does not make you a great photographer.

Simply put: learning to use the functions of a piece of software (ICT) does not make you a good user of that software tool. We need to look beyond functional use and ask the question "How do I use ICT well?"

TED Talk - David Perry

2008-11-24T22:00:00.009Z

I've been viewing various talks posted on TED.com. This is one I watched today, was posted last month and recorded in February 2006. It's from David Perry and he talks about the development of computer games through the ages. There are several imaginative and ingenious short video that he showed during his presentation and for anyone in the computing community who are in their late 30's like myself will undoubtedly bring a feeling of nostalgia.

However it's not the nostalgia for ZX Spectrum computer games that grabbed my attention, it was his comments before and after one video As Real As Your Life by Michael Highland. Going beyond Audio and Video to talk about computer games in relation to Emotion, Purpose, Meaning, Understanding and Feeling. The idea that playing a computer game can have emotional resonance in the way literature, film and music has.

I wonder if Curriculum for Excellence goes far enough?

Here's the video from TED...

Technorati Tags: TED, David Perry, Michael Highland, Computer Games, Curriculum for Excellence

CPD Cuts and Innovative Alternatives

2008-11-22T16:32:00.010Z

I read the article, today, on the front page of the TES Scotland - CPD budgets slashed. The article indicates that South Lanarkshire have "frozen its CPD budget" and other local authorities may follow suit. The article also quotes an EIS spokesperson who states that this action goes against the "spirit" of the teachers' agreement (McCrone).

It occurs to me that this action by an employer is more than a breach of the spirit of the agreement and in a significant way is a breach of contract. As the 35 hour CPD is part of the teachers contract and the various local authorities identify teacher development needs as part of a review and development cycle to refuse to fund the CPD or at least offer alternative pathways as a replacement must been seen as breach of contract.

As someone who has over the years delivered In-Service CPD courses, I'm obviously concerned at this decision. The loss of income to the university is an issue that recurs. However there should also be an opportunity for the faculty to look to developing alternate methods of delivery for teacher CPD.

At present there are numerous podcasts on iTunes U which have been created by Universities across the world and are free to all to download and listen to. This might be one way of addressing teachers CPD.

Another facility might be a site like MindBites.Com. This site describes itself as a "video instructional marketplace and publishing platform". It allows you to upload, share and earn money from the videos you create to teach an idea or topic.

I'm reminded of an article I wrote recently entitles MUPPLE, which describes the mash-up of web sites I use as part of my Personalised Learning Environment. Perhaps some thought could be given to the web sites that potentially could mash together to replace the traditional CPD course.

So sites like Google Books and Google Scholar could deal with the written aspect. Then sites like MindBites, YouTube, TeacherTube and iTunes U would provide the audio and/or video aspects.

You then want to bring these sites together in a more needs focussed way. So ideas like Moodle, BlackBoard or specifically for Scottish Teachers - Glow, might provide the structure or container for the CPD.

But in the end for CPD to cost nothing it has to be provided free. How many Local Authorities are willing to pay their development officers to create teacher CPD resources that would then be free to all teachers in Scotland or across the world?

The Last Year of BEd2 Animation

2008-11-09T19:31:00.003Z

An integral theme of the ICT classes in the BEd(Hons) course has been digital video and moving image education. We have tried to demonstrate to students the potential for using digital video in the classroom, especially with the advent of a Curriculum for Excellence. This year the B Ed2 classes have been working on stop-frame animation and the result of their work has been posted onto Youtube. You can find this years and last years work under Bed2Animation.

The new BEd degree however will focus more on academic studies rather than on classroom, pedagogical, curriculum practice. This will result in this work either being lost or left till the last 2 years of the degree.

Jelly Baby Land: Attack of the Moggysaur

Pat & Jill & the Monster

Karbon

The Snake and the Hoover

SLF Bag - Day 2

2008-09-30T00:05:00.002+01:00

This blog posting will be based on the content of my Scottish Learning Festival '08 bag collected on Thursday 25th September.

Firstly is a copy of the book "The BBC National Short Story Award 2008" which I think was thrust into my hand by someone on the Literature in Learning - Scottish Book Trust stand.

A Flyer from RFL Communications. I stopped at this stand because they had several wireless devices - Pocket PCs, notebooks and Laptops - connected via SynchronEyes. This allows the teacher to display and control the wireless devices. So a pupil could have work on their laptop which can be pulled up on the data projector to show the rest of the class. I have seen this style of software before on network computers - Apple Remote Desktop and Intel LAN Desk Manager.

A set of seven CDROMs for Interactive Whiteboards from Daydream Education. Which I then discovered was seven copies of the same disc inside different packaging and that they were not Mac compatible so I moved on to the next thing in my pile of goodies.

Another CDROM this time from SMART Learning - with a Mac icon on it - called ICT series free demo. The demo is a set of shockwave files which allow various interactive game activities to be explored. On the whole the demo resources were of a very high standard and I was impressed.

Next in the pile were two brochures from Dell. I stopped by their stall to see the Latitude XT Tablet PC. The salesman assured me it was the best of it's type, as Dell had learned lessons from other manufacturers and the touch sensitive screen was outstanding. I have a Dell Axim X30 which I love for it's portability and especially for the hand-writing recognition. So the idea of a bigger laptop sized version is very appealing. But the bit I can't justify is the price. A faster, larger, wider laptop, the Latitude E5500, comes in at £425 ex VAT; were as the XT is priced at £1,129. So the touchscreen allows for a 260% price increase. I think I'll wait for the price to drop next year!

Ordnance Survey stand is next with Mapping News and GIS for Schools magazines, which can be downloaded from their website.

I picked up the next brochure when I passed the Gymkids stand. My eye was caught when I saw what looked like Paperboy, the arcade game, being displayed on a LCD screen. I was amused at the sight of a young pupil sitting on a yellow exercise bike controlling the cyclist on the screen - the cyberbike.

Stop-frame animation I Can Animate from Kudlian Soft was next in the pile of flyers. We use this software with the B Ed 2s in the ICT module. Examples of last years short films can be seen on youtube.com.

From animation to music next is a booklet from Gigajam, detailing software for "musical instrument tuition through e-learning".

Next Is a flyer from BrightRED Publishing, who are producing new revision material. I spoke to a man on the stand who indicated they would hope to find a place in the market alongside Leckie & Leckie and Hodder Gibson.

The last A4 booklet out of the bag was from ClickView. I was curious to know what clickview was: the product, service or whatever. After talking to the salesman I left with a poorer view than before I started. Basically the company provide digital video storage and delivery network system for schools. They will sell you the hardware to digitise and store video on a school network. They also sell the software to help manage and edit the digital video. They have a patented technique called predictive file transfer which transmits video over a LAN in chapters to ensure optimisation of the network. Unfortunately the salesman claimed that this technique meant that the network did not use any bandwidth, which I ignored as simply untrue. Later I read their flyer and realised he meant that he meant internet bandwidth. An interesting aspect was the idea of ClickView Exchange which allows schools using the software to share video. However rather than using peer-to-peer file sharing like torrents it uses a client-server sharing which seems wasteful.

Small Flyers

A little booklet from RadioWaves titled: "Deliver Curiculum for Excellence with podcasting, video, blogging & mobiles - Transform learning". They are a company and website who provide facilities and training to schools and teachers to use blogging, video and podcasting in the classroom.

The next flyer was handed to me by a nice man on the Teachers2Parents stand. I spent several minutes talking to him about the service they provide schools. Basically they provide unlimited text messaging between schools and parents for a fixed annual fee. I wondered if text messaging would be a more reliable method for schools communicating with parents. The letter home can always be thrown away so the text message cuts out the middle-man.

Homecoming Scotland 2009 is a 10 month long celebration of Scottish achievements and culture.

Lastly, The National Education Network, booklet informs me of the free internet teaching resources that have been produced by the members of the National Education Network.

And so I have reached the bottom of my bag for day two.

Technorati Tags: SLF08, Scottish Learning Festival 08/span>

Paul Newman: 1925-2008

2008-09-27T18:35:00.004+01:00

Paul Newman died of cancer aged 83 at his home in Westport, Connecticut on Friday 26th September.

Learning With & By Not To & For

2008-09-25T16:42:00.011+01:00

Keynote Speech by Charles Leadbeater at the Scottish Learning Festival '08 on Thursday 25th September.

The title on the presentation was "21 Ideas for 21st Century Learning". I did not keep a running total of the ideas or slides, but he did end the presentation with 11 ideas listed.

Personal Budget for families at risk
Emotional Resilience for all Y7 pupils
Break up big schools- max school size (300-500)
National Peer learning programme
Scrap Summer Holidays
Capabilities Curriculum for Y7-Y9
The Personal Challenge
The Community based Teacher
Individual Budgets & Programmes for NEETs
Schools as Productive Enterprises
School of Everything for Schools

Technorati Tags: SLF08, Scottish Learning Festival 08, Charles LeadBeater

MUPPLE

2008-09-23T23:58:00.000+01:00

Mash-UP Personal Learning Environments = MUPPLE
This appeals to me on several levels - the name, the concept, the PLE idea.

This article and idea has made me start thinking about control in the the learning environment. I use Moodle, an example of a VLE, and have control over it's structure and the resources it displays. Where as the concept of a PLE puts control in the hands of the learner.

So the tools I mash-up to create my PLE are Google, Safari, Spotlight, Apple Dictionary App, Entourage, Preview/Acrobat, Word/Excel/PP. I'm sure there are more but these are the ones that are most obvious...

PDP Whirlpool

2008-09-13T17:30:00.001+01:00

As is the way with all things ICT, I tend to get sucked into topics, that I had previously little interest in and no opinion of. So it is with Personal Development Planning (PDP) for students at the University. It was low on my radar as I have had little to do with it, other than sharing an office with a colleague who does have an interest and is planning to do research on it.

My understanding was that the University is planning to implement PDPs for all students over the coming year. Originally, it was rumoured, to be opting for MyStuff - an e-portfolio system developed by the Open University which is designed to work with Moodle. In the end the Uni has opted for Mahara.

The issues that arise for me are twofold: why are PDPs important for students and is Mahara a useful tool for implementing PDPs.

In researching the merits of PDPs I discovered numerous University web pages across the land introducing and explaining PDPs. One such page was MyPDP - The University of Dundee policy. It covers the following sections: Introduction, Definitions and Principles, Factors influencing PDP policy at Dundee, Proposed University Policy, Main outcomes and performance indicators (PIs), Funding for proposed developments, Conclusion and References. It is an excellent starting point in understanding PDPs in relation to University students. Another good site which helped in clarifying the issue was The Higher Education Academy.

As I was reading these pages I was reminded of a scheme used in Scottish Secondary Schools called the National Record of Achievement. Where students kept a record, in a fake leather folder, of their exam certificates and other personal achievements. The Evaluation of the NRA in Scotland gives an interesting perspective of a similar issue to the PDPs in Higher Education.

I also logged onto the University's Mahara trial site.

Now it could be that it's not been fully implemented or installed but I was really disappointed with Mahara. Firstly I think it's trying to hard to be too many things for too many people, as illustrated by this quote on the home page; "...open source e-portfolio, weblog, resume builder and social networking system..."

Secondly, I found it difficult to use. In comparison with social networking sites like Bebo or Facebook it lacks the user control and structure. It was difficult to navigate between sections as illustrated on the users section, when I was inviting users to be my friends. There were 93 users, with 10 summary profiles displayed per page. It lets you navigate to the first and last page; the next and previous pages and when you on page 4 it lets you jump to page 3 and page 5 (which is no different from the next/previous option). Now this isn't a major issue when dealing with 93 users but if all students across the University are enrolled you could be clicking forever to navigate to a friend. This navigation problem is compounded when you invite a user to be a friend. Once the invite has been sent you're returned to page 1! Imagine you were on page 50, you'd have another 50 clicks to return to the page you were last on.

You can create multiple views allowing you to show different information to alternate groups of friends. You can embed blog postings and sections from your resumé. You can embed youtube videos (although 250 by 250 squares the image). However when I tried to embed a RSS/Atom feed the link was deemed invalid.

I'm sure overtime Mahara will continue to develop and become a more impressive piece of software, time will tell.

Technorati Tags: Mahara, Personal Development Planning, MyStuff, Moodle

Linear vs Hierarchical Computer Education

2008-08-15T23:23:00.007+01:00

It occurs to me that a lot of learning focusses on the physical manipulation of real world objects. Simple objects where there is a direct relation between form and function. Books, pencils, paper, tables, chairs, chalk boards are some of the universal objects; whilst test tubes, hammers, violins more subject specific objects. Each object listed has a singular function and is simple in nature (not Complex). None of the objects requires Power in the form of electricity. They have all been used in the curriculum for several generation so require little imagination in relation to their use in a class. Very few objects combine to form a more complex object (no Abstraction).

It occurs to me that there is a move away from complex subjects that require layers of abstraction by those creating curricula and those studying. The complex subjects - sciences, are loosing out to the arts in a basic popularity contest with pupils and teachers. Subjects where the body of knowledge is flat and linear are being taken by pupils wishing to gain the required grades to enter university. See the article on the BBC - Watchdog debates exam difficulty which illustrates this point.

The final point unites these two issues in relation to Computing. When a student teacher starts teaching Computing they have little opportunity of experiencing (as a pupil) innovative ICT teaching methods either from computing or other subject teachers. So it is more challenging for them to model good practice and integrate ICT into their teaching. They also struggle to engage with the abstract/hierarchical nature of the computing curriculum, finding it easier and more attractive to engage with the more linear ICT curriculum.

Technorati Tags: Computer Education, Teacher Training

Summer Return

2008-08-12T15:15:00.004+01:00

I have been back at work for a week now, having spent 3 weeks in Mar De Cristal in Spain.

View Larger Map

I thought I would check Vienna, my RSS blog newsreader to discover I have 715 unread postings from 25 blogs. Hopefully some of them will be interesting...

How to Measure Effort in the Probation Year?

2008-07-02T16:55:00.003+01:00

It was suggested recently that a probationary teacher (NQT) could also complete a Masters qualification - 60 credits of study whilst gaining standard for full registration. The mathematician in me wondered how this could be measured to gauge workload.

Lets start with time.

The teaching year (in Scotland) is 39 weeks at 35 hours per week, which equates to 1365 hours. The 60 credits of study are equal to 600 hours of notional effort. This study time equates to 17.1 working weeks. So in total, to study for a masters and work full-time as a teacher would require a notional time 1965 hours or 56.1 working weeks.

Try measuring it in words.

How many words does a probationary teacher need to read in the execution of their job? Lets assume they read every page handed to them during the year. We have school/dept policy manuals. Several local authority policies. Perhaps a set of new textbooks and teachers guide. How could we count the number of words read?

Starting this task by taking one of the latest LTScotland documents:Curriculum for Excellence - Building the Curriculum 3. It's a 57 page document with 18,988 words. Next consider the Learning & Teaching Policy from Bearsden Academy which is 22 page in length and over 5000 words (inaccurate count dues to some word having rogue spaces) in content. Finally a SQA arrangements document for Higher Computing runs to 80 pages and 21,790 words. So after considering three basic documents we have a total just under 46,000 words.

Now I'll admit this isn't the most scientific method, but it gives a basic measure of the number of words read based on a combination of a national policy, a school policy and an examination document. It also gives an average of over 15,000 words per document. So if a probationary teacher has to read 20 new documents during their year we are talking about reading close to 300,000 words.

This is only words read. How many words are written?

I suppose the most obvious form of written communication is the report card (pupil profile). A primary teacher would maybe write two reports a year for approximately 30 pupils averaging 250 words per report. So that gives a grand total of 15,000 written words a year. A secondary teacher might report once a year for each year group. So taking 25 as the average class size and five year groups, they see 125 pupils. Assuming the same number of words per pupil as primary the total is 31,250.

There could be other forms of written communication a teacher needs to produce: worksheets, pupil notes, presentations, emails, memos, etc. Not forgetting any written comment on pupil's jotters or papers.

Technorati Tags: Probation Teaching, TeacherTraining, TeacherEducation

Are there teaching jobs out there?

2008-06-07T16:20:00.002+01:00

Over the last couple of years many students have been voicing their concerns regarding the likelihood of gaining full-time employment after they have completed their probation year. I also recently received a query about job prospects from a concerned applicant who has not been interviewed yet.

So I visited the Times Educational Supplement jobs site. Now this isn't the most scientific form of data collection but it gives a reasonable picture. I searched for specific secondary subject jobs that were not promoted. These were all the newly advertised jobs in Scotland on TES.

TES Vacancies - 30/5/8

Subject	Jobs	Percentage
Art	5	7%
Biology	3	4%
Business Std	3	4%
Chemistry	5	7%
Computing	0	0%
English	21	30%
Geography	7	10%
History	2	3%
Maths	14	20%
Modern Lang	1	1%
Modern Std		0%
Physics	5	7%
Religious Ed	4	6%
Totals	70	100%

I suspect this is a topic I will return to from time to time...

Technorati Tags: Times Educational Supplement Scotland, Teaching jobs

Art Exhibition: West Coasters

2008-05-30T19:03:00.013+01:00

I spent this holiday weekend staying in the beautiful village of Plockton. The weekend was multi-purposed: a holiday away from the stresses and strains; a visit to the location of my brothers forth coming wedding and support for my sister and future sister-in-laws art exhibition.

The exhibition was titled West Coasters and included works by Mary Redmond, Julie McLaughlin (my little sister) - back row, Carolyn MacDonald and Sarah Mackenzie (brother's fiance) - front row.

The art was a mixture of drawings and paintings (in a variety of media) and photographs.

The exhibition ran from the 26th to the 31st May 2008 in the Plockton village hall.

Technorati Tags: Plockton, WestCoasters

On The Road Again...

2008-05-12T19:32:00.006+01:00

I'm back on the road again with 18 visits over 8 days. Eleven this week and seven next week: ten Computing and 8 Maths students. I've been trying to decide which song provides the best soundtrack to my Tutor Visits: Canned Heat or Willie Nelson.

On The Road Again

Canned Heat

Willie Nelson

Alternate suggestions for the Tutor "Crit" Visit soundtrack can be added to as a comment.

Technorati Tags: Teachereducation

Email adventures

2008-05-11T18:22:00.011+01:00

I recently upgraded to Office 2008 on the Mac in my office, with mixed results.

Firstly, I also have a Dell Axim X30 PocketPC, which I synchronise with Entourage, or at least I did until Entourage 08 was installed. Admittedly, Entourage is not completely at fault, the blame is shared with PocketMac software that I use to synchronise between the Mac and the PocketPC. According to their webpage, they have been aggressively testing the update. Unfortunately they still haven't released the fix!

Secondly, I was persuaded by the department IT Technician to move from the Novell Netmail (IMAP) account to an Exchange server account. Whilst I'm aware of all the really clever facilities Exchange offers, these are slightly limited because I access it through Entourage rather than Outlook. However that's not fair on Entourage as it could be argued that Entourage offers facilities that aren't implemented on Exchange.

The first fix for the synchronise problem was to set Entourage to link to iCal and the Address Book on the mac and then use PocketMac to sync with those applications as an interim stage. The solution I'm using is to use Entourage04 on my mac at home to sync with the Entourage and the Exchange account - result!

I am however considering another solution which involves setting up my PocketPC to synchronise directly with the exchange server. This would avoid using the Mac as the go-between for Exchange. The question now revolves around the question of whether the University will allow me to access the Exchange Server from my PocketPC. Stay tuned.

Imagine: Glow Succeeds

2008-05-03T17:33:00.002+01:00

Date: September 2012

Glow is an undeniable success. Over the last four years we have seen teacher use rise from 25% to 83%. Content has effectively doubled year on year with a total of 113 Terabytes of data being stored on the Glow intranet.

The most important statistic isn't the throughput, storage capacity or teacher usage: it's the increase in attainment! In 2007-08 the percentage of pupils leaving school with 3 or more Highers was 32%. In 2011-12 that figure has risen to 58%.

Many education experts attribute this dramatic improvement to the support Glow provides pupils and teachers with learning and teaching. The OECD are quoted as saying: "Scotland has always had the potential to achieve these remarkable targets it just needed the investment in and vision to adopt intranet technology like Glow."

Recently appointed Chief Executive of LTScotland, Ewan McIntosh "Scotland is leading the way in its innovative use of Glow to develop and support intelligent collegiality across it's schools. The result is teachers and pupils working together for greater achievement and attainment in a prosperous dynamic Scotland."

So what does the future hold for Glow and Scottish Education?

Technorati Tags: GlowScotland

50% of GSA Students are Dyslexic

2008-03-14T18:53:00.021Z

I heard this claim recently, which then reminded me of a story I was told about a trend with Glasgow School of Art (GSA) students claiming to be and being assessed as dyslexic. Why the sudden increase in dyslexic art students? According to the story if you are assessed as dyslexic you're entitled to additional support, often in the form of a laptop computer. So the story goes that creative art students are faking their dyslexia to gain a laptop from their college/school/university.

Now I thought there must be some statistics on the web to support or dispute this story and claim.

Firstly I discovered a document on the QAA website, The Glasgow School of Art Enhancement-led institutional review which stated "Almost 17 per cent of students at GSA have declared a disability, by far the most common being dyslexia." So in 2005 less than 17% of students at the GSA were dyslexic. The number of students with dyslexia would have to triple in three years to reach the 50% mark. More recently (May 2007) on the GSA news page the Director Seona Reid wrote: "Last year, for example, GSA had 19% disabled students, over 90% of whom were dyslexic... This works out to be 17.1% of the GSA with disability in 2007.

The next interesting website I discovered was the Disabled Students' Allowances page on www.direct.gov.uk. The first line of text states: "Disabled Students' Allowances provide extra financial help if you have a disability or a specific learning difficulty like dyslexia". So I'm wondering if there's a link between students claiming to be dyslexic and the DSA funding.

This lead me to the Scottish Government website and specifically, Students in receipt of Disabled Students' Allowance from SAAS, 2001-02 to 2006-07 Disability type & total amount paid. In the year 2001-02 the number of dyslexic students in receipt of DSA funding was 1015 and they received a total of £2.24 million. By 2006-07 the number of dyslexic students had more than doubled to 2090 and the total funding received was £3.87 million.

What has caused this increase in the dyslexia figures? Is it that HE Institutions are getting better at diagnosing/recognising students with dyslexia? Is it that HEIs are seeing the widening participation agenda attracting more dyslexic students? Is it that students are faking dyslexia to supplement their student income?

Another web page on the government website - Students in higher education in Scotland by receipt of Disabled Student Allowance ( DSA) and disability type: 2005-06 provides some interesting data. The student population of HEI in 2005-06 was 215,630. Of this figure 12,845 had declared disabilities and 5,485 had dyslexia. As a percentage 6% of the student population have a declared disability. Dyslexic students make up 2.5% of the total population and 42.7% of the disabled population.

The last piece of investigation was to look at applications for the PGDE(S) course. So far we have received 630 applications, of these 40 have indicated a disability and 22 have indicated dyslexia. Proportionally speaking 6.3% of applicants have a disability, which matches the result in the previous paragraph. Of the total number of applicants 3.4% are dyslexic and of the number of disabled applicants 55% are dyslexic.

Finally if we look at the applicants for Art & Design. Total number of applicants was 147; with disability 19; with dyslexia 16. So 11% of Art & Design applicants have dyslexia, according to these figures this means Art and Design students are more than 3 times more likely to be dyslexic than the population as a whole.

If I apply the last conclusion to the idea that 10% of the population has some form of dyslexia then approximately 30% of an Art School Population should be dyslexic. Which is higher than the 17% indicated earlier and lower than the original claim of 50%.

Professor Paul Black at the University of Glasgow

2008-03-12T15:30:00.012Z

Louise Hayward, of the Faculty of Education at the University of Glasgow, introduced Professor Paul Black for his seminar: A Theory for Formative Assessment.

The summary introduction, sent via email, for the talk stated:

Despite, or because of, the successful influence of formative assessment on the work of teachers, some authors have been critical of its lack of a theoretical basis, whilst others have tried to formulate a theory for it. Clearly, there are some aspects of formative practices which raise problematic issues: for example, are there unifying principles which could link the various formative practices, or how precisely does formative assessment fit in with, or not fit in with, broader theories of pedagogy? Furthermore, if there were a clearer theoretical basis, would it indicate new lines of investigation, or new developments of practice?

Professor Black started by outlining some basic concepts of formative assessment: sources of evidence, a definition, list of activities. He then displayed a diagram of Teaching/Learning Interactions. During the presentation he used numerous scripted dialogues between teacher and learner(s) to illustrate various examples of questioning and formative assessment.

During the talk he made several interesting references:
R. Fisher - Teaching Children to Learn
Models of learning- Philippe Perrenoud (Google Translation)
Self regulated Learning -J A Greene & R Azvedo 2007

There were numerous formative assessment issues and ideas covered by Professor Black's talk. With Assessment is for Learning having major influence in and on contemporary Scottish schools this was an extremely valuable talk.

Looks like I have some more homework... :)

Global Citizenship Education - Book Launch

2008-03-08T15:31:00.012Z

Monday evening in the St Andrew's Building at the University of Glasgow saw the launch of a new book Global Citizenship Education: Philosophy, Theory and Pedagogy. The event was lead by two of the editors, Harry Blee and Alan Britton and by the principal of the University, Sir Muir Russell. The audience consisted of members of the education faculty, wider university staff, NGO workers and other interested parties.

After an introduction from the Principal both editors said a few words about the book and Alan Britton spoke on behalf of the third editor Michael A. Peters. The editors then took several questions from the audience with the answers coming from both the editors and some of the chapter authors who were also present.

I managed a brief read of the book, I scanned the contents and the introduction, but I hope to find some time in the next few months to read a few of the eye-catching chapters.

My congratulations go to Alan, Harry and Michael for an impressive publication.

A copy of the book can also be purchased on Amazon.co.uk.

Leadership: The Element of Sacrifice

2008-02-20T15:59:00.004Z

I recently read the posting: Elements of Leadership which was from an article in TESS. It illustrated and identified various elements of leadership: status, ownership, power, money, fear, respect. Whilst not an exhaustive list it made me wonder if leadership is a uniform concept. Can elements of leadership like these be identified in all fields of endeavor?

Is leadership in business the same as leadership in a charity? Is leadership in a school the same as leadership in the army?

I'm reminded of dramatic scene (I can't recall if it was a movie or a TV programme) where a soldier is being told he won't get promotion until he realises he has to make difficult decisions that will result in some of his fellow soldiers being killed. This is an example of leadership by "sacrifice". It is when the death of an individual is a sacrifice we make for the greater good or survival of the majority.

You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs: you can't please all the people all the time.

I think this is a lesson a lot of managers in education fail to realise. They try to find a solution to a problem that everyone will be happy with. Sometimes another parties solution will not be the best solution for all parties and that point a sacrifice has to be made.

I promise to blog some more...

2008-02-18T21:02:00.003Z

It's been over two months since I last posted and I can't for the life of me think of a reason why. So I will try to post on a more regular basis.

Teacher Education

2007-12-11T22:49:00.000Z

What does a teacher need to know to be a teacher?
What should Initial Teacher Education (ITE) courses look like in the 21st century?
Is there one best model for teacher education?
Is school experience an important element of an ITE degree?
What should the balance of skills to knowledge be in an ITE degree?
Will altering ITE, alter teachers in the future?

Animation in Teacher Education

2007-12-11T22:24:00.000Z

Last week saw the end of a block of classes with my 2nd year B Ed(Hons) students. We had spent the last three weeks creating and editing simple stop-frame animation. This has now been uploaded to youtube.com in the BEd2Animation account.

There are fifteen short videos from several classes. They were created using Kudlian software - I Can Animate and the titles and sound was added using iMovie HD 6.

The aim of the topic is to illustrate how moving image education and specifically stop-frame animation can be used in a primary classroom. Students quickly realise that they engage in high quality creative discussion and develop team work skills whilst working on the task. They also realise that the software is relatively simple to use and helps them create a simple piece of animation.

Further information can be found at:
Animation for Education

Here's just one example of my classes work:

How many ideas are contained in this short video?

Risk Taking in Education

2007-11-26T10:13:00.000Z

What is risk taking, especially in relation to education? Ask this question of a group of teachers and you will get a varied response. No one teacher has the answer and no one answer is correct. And that is the problem!

The word risk conjures different meanings and conotations for different people.

The website dictionary.com states: risk - exposure to the chance of injury or loss; a hazard or dangerous chance: "It's not worth the risk."

Whilst Wikipedia states: Risk is a concept that denotes a potential negative impact to an asset or some characteristic of value that may arise from some present process or future event.

These two definitions of risk are negative in nature, so why the attraction to using it in education and in reference to teachers. This third website gives an alternative interpretation of the word risk when used in the phrase risk taking.

The National Central Regional Education Laboratory states: Risk taking is the willingness to make mistakes, advocate unconventional or unpopular positions, or tackle extremely challenging problems without obvious solutions, such that one's personal growth, integrity, or accomplishments are enhanced.

Do teachers and educators exist in a culture that accepts mistakes and unpopular positions for the sake of enhanced personal growth? This attitude stems from the phrase: learning from your mistakes. This phrase give little credit for the questions answered correctly or the actions done well, it fixates on the errors. It's like a teacher asking what happened to the 1% when the pupil has just gained 99% in a test.

Thankfully, however risk taking is being abandoned for a more acceptable term: creativity.

One a Week

2007-10-06T15:54:00.000+01:00

I posted my first message - ...I think you're crazy just like me on the 30th September 2006. Since then I have posted 52 times which averages at one per week.

I intend to continue blogging on issues raised by other educational bloggers and topic that interest me. It's just a matter of finding the time to do justice to the ideas of others and myself.

I thought I would revisit aharef to see how my blog has grown since last year.

Here's to another year of blogging!

Glow Commentary

2007-09-26T16:04:00.000+01:00

I recently read both the article, Digital network must be a glowing success, from Tom Conlon and a response - Glowing Criticism -from Andrew Brown.

I found myself agreeing and disagreeing with both Tom and Andrew.

Firstly as far as public debate on the merit of a system like Glow, there has been very little. Andrew acknowledges this with his comments ...there has of course been huge discussion about Glow - it took place in Glow during the trials. As only three out of thirty two local authorities have been trialing Glow this could not be classed as public discussions.

A search on Google for Glow SSDN results in a mixture of GlowScotland links and blog links. When I narrowed the search further using the scholar option in Google there are only two relevant links.

Whilst few teachers have actually had hands on experience of Glow, prior to the Scottish Learning Festival 2007, the philosophy of Glow, the social network, communicating and sharing ideas aspect has been delivered via other means. You just have to look at ScotEduBlogs, John@Sandaig, Ewan, East Lothian, CompEdNet to see how Scottish Education is engaging with the ideas of social networks.

However Tom then proceeded to unfairly characterize Scottish Education bloggers as uncritical technophiles with distorted worldviews. Andrew defends them by describing how some have been involved in feeding back suggestions to refine and improve Glow. Tom also unfairly lumps bloggers in with the digital evangelist who over the last few decades have argued for increasing expenditure on IT systems in education with little return in relation to attainment (Cuban 2001); which explains the operating systems reference.

The next section from Tom's article that indicated a weakness in his argument toward Social Software was: Schools have a responsibility to develop strong relationships, based on presence and proximity. If I assume Tom is using presence and proximity in the sense of the physical world then I would argue he doesn't understand these two concepts in relation to the online world as evidenced in young peoples use of Bebo, Myspace, Facebook, etc. They have an online presence in these social websites; a presence that their friends and associates can see, judge and comment on. They have proximity with the links they make and the groups they join. An education system that doesn't adapt to these new examples of presence and proximity will surely fail to help young people develop strong relationships. Further to this I would argue that it is the Scottish Education Bloggers who are at the forefront of exploring these types of changes.

Finally, unlike Tom I'm not sure Glow needs to be a success. I'm fairly certain it will fail in the eyes of teachers, pupils, parents and educationalists that expect it to be perfect. I think it's a step in the right direction and I'll be happy to see Glow develop through multiple versions in the way software tends to do.

Technorati Tags: TES, Glow, SSDN, McLaughlinKT, ict-echo

Scottish Learning Festival 2007 - CPD Accreditation

2007-09-24T17:23:00.000+01:00

The last seminar I attended on the first day was given by Rosa Murray of the GTC. The title of the seminar was - Developing Leadership through Continuing Professional Development and the Professional Standards. The focus however was on the GTCs scheme for Professional Recognition of CPD (past and present).

The presenter outlined the GTCs desire to recognize the work of teachers in relation to the standards at various stages of a teachers career. The basic idea is that throughout a teachers career they develop their professional knowledge by their involvement in school development plans. They may read policies and textbooks, they may implement policies and ideas, they may evaluate and refine the school development. The teacher can keep a record of the work they've been involved in and the GTC will give them official credit in their CPD record.

The hypothetical questions that I asked of the presenter were: In the future will the GTC expect all teachers to seek professional accreditation of their CPD throughout their career? Would it be a case of professional misconduct if a teacher claimed GTC recognition on a job application which they did not have? Both questions were answered very well by the presenter.

I think this is an area for further development by the GTC and Local Education Authorities.

Technorati Tags: GTCS, CPD, ScotLearnFest07, SLF, McLaughlinKT, ict-echo

Scottish Learning Festival 2007 - SOLAR Seminar

2007-09-24T16:25:00.000+01:00

After lunch on Wednesday, I searched for the Morar conference room, to attend the SOLAR project from the SQA. The project is aimed at Further Education to automate the delivery of moderated online assessment.

The seminar was a hands-on event where participants could log-on to the SOLAR system to see it's potential. The system revolves around a set of moderated questions which have metadata attached. This metadata allows the system to apply a set of rules and parameters to generate summative assessment instruments automatically. This will allow the system to generate different but equally challenging instruments of assessment. This allows exams/tests to be taken at anytime or anyplace as the exam paper is effectively different each time.

The challenge for this system to work is two fold. Firstly how to ensure the metadata is consistent and accurate? How do you ensure that the writers of the questions accurately and consistently attach the metadata? If you allow the writer to define their own metadata then this will lead to inconsistencies. If you have a standardized set of metadata then it may not apply to future questions accurately. This issue also applies to the large number of questions in the bank without any metadata.

The second issue is in relation to the continued population of the question bank. The theory is that lecturers will continue to populate the bank with new questions, as they will want to ask their own style of questions over time. This theory may last until there's a critical mass of questions at which point the desire to write new questions will wane. Why would I want to write another question when there are several thousand in the bank?

I enjoyed this seminar it gave me a lot to think about.

Technorati Tags: SOLARProject, SQA, ScotLearnFest07, SLF, McLaughlinKT, ict-echo

Scottish Learning Festival 2007 - Keynote 1

2007-09-24T14:28:00.000+01:00

I arrived at the SECC at 9.45am, giving me an hour to wander the hall before the first keynote speaker Michael Fullan. I have to admit the title of his speech - Turnaround Schools, Turnaround Systems - only mildly interested me. However as I had spent 2 weeks on holiday in Toronto I was curious to hear more about the Toronto and Ontario education system. You can view the video of his speech - Turnaround Schools, Turnaround Systems.

Six Secrets of Change

Love your employees as much as your customers
Connect Peers with Purpose
Capacity Building Trumps Judgementalism
Learning is the work
• Professional Learning instead of Development
• Energize the group
Transparency Rules
• Secrecy in the classroom.
• Focus on trends rather than events.
• Compare against external standards.
Systems learn
• Continuity of good learning
• Our school vs my class

The Ontario Strategy

Guiding Coalition
Peace & stability/distractors
The litracy numerary Secretariat
Negotiating aspirational targets
Building Capacity
Enhanced & Targeted resources
The evolution of positive pressure
Connecting the dots with Key Complementary Components

Technorati Tags: MichaelFullan, ScotLearnFest07, SLF, McLaughlinKT, ict-echo

Computing Scotland

2007-09-05T00:24:00.000+01:00

I discovered a new website Computing Scotland which is aimed at raising awareness of the computing industry, careers and courses from a Scottish perspective. It is linked with Computing Science Inside via Quintin Cutts who manages and works on both projects.

There are some interesting links and articles relating to Computing issues on the site. It is also designed as a portal for the study of computing related courses in Scotland's Universities (except Paisley). It provides a course comparison feature for those making a choice of computing degree in Scotland. There is also a forum to allow discussion with others about various computing issues.

It looks like the website has made a good start, it will be interesting to see how the content develops and how active the community of users will be in contributing and promoting the site. I recommend it to all computing teachers in Scotland (that includes my student teachers) and to pupils who are selecting a course for UCAS.

Now Public - Crowd Powered News

2007-08-28T17:08:00.000+01:00

I received an email from David L Jennings asking me if he could use one of my photographs from flickr in an article he had written on a site called NowPublic.

NowPublic is a crowd powered news media website. The website states:

NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world. You can even get paid for your newsworthy contributions.

On Wikipedia it's described as:

...a user-generated social news website.

NowPublic allows users can upload video, text, photograph and audio to capture and tell a news story. These media resources can be shared by all members and in some cases sold to news outlets in a similar way to Scoopt as mentioned by Ewan in his posting: Sold! My first Live Web bucks.

Once I had read the article: "Not Your Grandparent's Vacation - Niagara Falls" I happily agreed to the photo being used.

South Park Avatars

2007-08-27T22:09:00.000+01:00

I mentioned to a my cousin,s 13 year old son that I had a Simpsons Avatar and he directed me to the South Park version.

Addicted to Blogging

2007-08-27T21:49:00.000+01:00

55%

I spotted this on Godon's and Ewan's blogs, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Glow on Wikipedia

2007-08-23T19:08:00.000+01:00

I typed "Glow" into the wikipedia search facility to see:

At present there isn't an entry for Glow (SSDN) but the top topic is Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling

The first question that springs to mind is: Did LTScotland change the name from SSDN to Glow as a tribute to the Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling?

The second question is why hasn't anyone at LTS or Glow created an entry in wikipedia for Glow?

Learning Styles Serendipity

2007-08-16T15:22:00.001+01:00

I've never been truly comfortable with preferred Learning Styles - Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic (VAK for short).

I came across these on an in-service day about 8 years ago, where some of my colleagues were preaching about these new concepts and how they would potentially help improve boys learning. When we returned to the department to discuss these concepts and to look for ways to make our pupils learning more VAK oriented, I argued that we used all our senses at different times to explain concept to our pupils. Sometimes we chanted a fact to make it memorable (auditory); sometimes we used diagrams to show relationships between hardware/software (visual); other-times we got the pupils to use the facilities on the computer to understand the concept.

I hear lots of my students talking about VAK and I always challenge them to give me an accurate definition of each category. In variably they give examples rather than a definition. I then ask where the VAK theory comes from, the answer is usually a conversation or class.

A couple of years ago I came across a report Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning. A systematic and critical review by Frank Coffield et al (2004, Learning and Skills Research Centre), which raised serious issues and questions about the validity of the learning styles model or theories.

I also found a web page closer to home - Learning Styles (notes) by Steve Draper at Glasgow University.

Finally, coming up to date and to the serendipitous reason I wrote this posting. I came across a posting by Charles Nelson's on his Explorations in Learning blog titled: Learning Styles is Nonsense. His posting was inspired by an article in the Sunday Telegraph, which reports that Baroness Greenfield thinks that learning styles is "nonsense" from a neuroscience point of view.

I think teachers and educationalists, like the VAK theory because it's simple to understand and appeals to their intuitive nature. Basically it feels right when we think about how we learn and teach.

Up Above My Head I Hear Music in the Air...

2007-07-21T02:12:00.000+01:00

Does anyone read this blog with their browser?

The reason I ask is that I deliberately embedded an mp3 file to play when the Digital Evangelists post was being read. I was trying to combine a piece of music that would accompany the post. However if you're all reading this blog via an RSS Reader I'm not sure you'll hear the full page.

Simpsonize Me Avatar

2007-07-20T02:02:00.000+01:00

To coincide with the release of the Simpsons Movie I discovered the SimpsonizeMe website.

The SimpsonizeMe web site let you uplaod a face picture and then uses it as the basis of your Simpsons character. Once the automatic conversion from the jpg has happened you can alter and edit the various setting like the WeeMee or Voki avatars.

You can also create an avatar from scratch on the Simpsons Movie website. These can be downloaded as a jpg or AIM buddy, or icon.

I did however have some registration problems on the SimpsonizeMe website. This, I think, was partly due to the popularity of the site and also, I suspect, because I used an email with a .co.uk extension.

Digital Evangelists

2007-07-14T22:30:00.000+01:00

I came across this term digital evangelist whilst viewing a programme on Teachers TV: Inspirations - Blogosphere. The commentator, Steve O'Hear, is described in the synopsis as "...one of Britain's digital evangelists...".

I used google and wikipedia to try to gain a definition. Google gave me various blogs with digital evangelist in the title or written by people claiming to be digital evangelists. Wikipedia had nothing which matched the phrase exactly but did lead me to: technology evangelist.

I decided to try Technorati. It presented a list of 18 post for "digital evangelist" many of which linked to the Digital Evangelist who describes his blog as:

Views on living at the Bleeding Edge of technology. The journey from consultant to opinion former by a inflated ego. Why does mobile technology mater and how can it make life easier?

The sixth post on the list was to EWE's blog to the article Truemours and Kuy Kawasaki, which describes Guy Kawasaki as a digital evangelist amongst other things. I recognised Mr Kawasaki from a Veotag: Next Generation Insights (Young Adult Panel), which I found or was directed to from someone's blog last year (I wish I could remember where in the blogosphere I saw it referenced).

This brought me back to wikipedia for the term Apple Evangelist.

So what is a digital evangelist? I think it's someone who believes in the worth of a digital/technological product or idea and is willing to promote, preach or encourage others to share their belief.

Planning and Creativity

2007-07-14T09:30:00.000+01:00

I came across this section of text in Ewan McIntosh's Edublog:
Planning out all the steps in advance means risking a loss of creative spark that creates the next achievement, that unturns a stone you hadn't noticed before.

I'm reminded of one of Alan Perlis' epigrams in programming"
It goes against the grain of modern education to teach children to program. What fun is there in making plans, acquiring discipline in organizing thoughts, devoting attention to detail and learning to be self-critical?

The idea that planning diminishes creativity is a strange way to view both planning and creativity. Surely a plan is a result of creativity. Surely creativity is about ideas and a plan can show or represent those ideas. In the same way that a sketch or drawing can show the ideas & creativity of an artist but the painting is the end result (see pictures).

I wish teachers and schools could create plans that were meaningful. That actually communicated ideas and actions effectively. If only they could plan simple ideas simply I would be happy.

What Teachers Make?

2007-07-13T19:33:00.000+01:00

I came across this poetry recital/performance by Taylor Mali as it was linked to the last blog entry Death by PowerPoint on YouTube.

What Teachers Make?

Death by PowerPoint

2007-07-13T19:19:00.000+01:00

I saw this link on Ewan Mcintosh's EduBlogs site included in his posting On the leading edge: some ideas on managing huge technological change in education.

How NOT To Use Powerpoint By Comedian Don McMillan

I've been making very similar points (more lecture less stand-up comedy) in various PGDE(Secondary & Primary), B Ed classes and CPD sessions for the last 6 years.

GTC Scotland Register Revision

2007-07-07T18:50:00.000+01:00

I was visiting the GTCS website recently when I spotted the Search the Register of Teachers facility.

I entered my own details into the search facility first. Then I spent a while trying family names to see if they were on the register. Then I tried former colleagues to see where they were teaching in Scotland. Finally I tried some of my former student computing teachers.

All of this searching leads to a disconcerting realisation: the GTCS database (register) is grossly inaccurate and out of date. There are colleagues who are registered as working in councils and school that they haven't been at for several years. But the really disconcerting issue was that a few of my students withdrew from the probation through illness or alternate career choices and their details are still on the register.

I invsestigated further in the GTCS website and discovered that the council has a new policy on Governing Registration with GTC Scotland. Basically they will remove individuals from the register if their addresses are not up-to-date.

It looks like the GTCS is placing the onus on teachers to ensure that the Register is accurate and up-to-date. It seems strange however that they issue these revisions on their website on the 28th June 2007 with a consultation date of 17 August 2007.

Avatar Fun

2007-06-27T10:17:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Andrew Brown for leaving the link to Voki in the comment for my WeeMee posting.

I spent all of half an hour researching (playing) with the facilities on Voki. I recorded my voice and selected a picture of the faculty to make it more specific to myself. However for those who know me in the real world, I know I don't look that thin. LOL

I have copied the code into this posting to see if it will share my Voki Avatar.

Get a Voki now!

My WeeMee

2007-06-26T14:31:00.000+01:00

I decided to explore WeeWorld after seeing my FriendsReunited avatar. You can see my attempt at creating my WeeMee avatar using WeeWorld. For those who don't know me you can compare it to the picture in my profile on the right of the page. For those who do know me: do you think it's a fair/accurate representation of me?

I was thinking this might make a nice starter activity for the B Ed1 students when they start in October. Get them to make up there own WeeMee avatars and include them in their Moodle profile.

Software Upgrades for Computing Departments

2007-06-15T23:11:00.000+01:00

What is the true cost of upgrading software in schools? This question came to mind after reading several threads on CompEdNet about moving from one version of a piece of software to the next or what effect will moving to the latest operating system have?

The rate of change in software has been a constant in computing departments throughout the land over the 21 years computing has been a subject. From RM380z to BBCs to Acorns to Apple Macs to PCs changing hardware and software has been a serious issue. Every few years a new operating system appears usually followed by an update to the application software that runs on it. And every few years computing teachers have to revamp their teaching materials to reflect the new look of the screens and the positioning of menus, icons, toolbars, etc. You just have to switch to the latest version of Internet Explorer to see these differences and to appreciate how disconcerting a change to software can be for the user.

Changing software and hardware is a costly business. You have to remember that not all schools have updated the operating system on all their computers, usually because the computer would need additional memory which is too expensive. If you factor in the hardware purchase and then the cost of updating software you still haven't calculated the cost in teachers time to make the other changes required.

Firstly you won't be able to use the old sets of notes or worksheets so those have to be thrown out. You now need to spend time updating the notes so that they match the look and accurately instruct a pupil in how to use the software. You also need to ensure that the teachers in the department have time to work through the notes to familiarise themselves with the new notes and software. Once the notes are finished being written you need to photocopy them in sufficient quantities to be used by the pupils.

Secondly if you use software in your teaching - PowerPoint, Word, AppleWorks, etc - you may need to update and save your files to the latest format of the software. You will also need to check to see if the files you created in a previous version look and perform the same on the new software.

It appears that a significant cost of upgrading software is in the time spent by teachers adapting to the new software. So it makes me wonder if there are local authority, or school or computing department policies and procedures which guide or support staff through this type of costly, complex change. To be honest I've never come across a policy of this type. If you know of one please let me know in the comments.

Some up and coming software upgrade issues for Computing departments might be AppleWorks and Visual Basic 6.

AppleWorks 6
This software was last updated to version 6.2.9 on a Mac and 6.2.2 on a PC back in January 2004. There was an official announcement back in 2005 from Steve Jobs indicating that AppleWorks would be replaced by iWork (Keynote and Pages).

Further to this there is a high likelihood that with the release of Vista and OS X (Leopard), AppleWorks will stop working completely, if it hasn't already.

So where does that leave the schools, teachers and departments still using this software to teach general purpose packages?

Well they could move to MS Office, which will cost in software licenses, teacher time and revamping of worksheets. But if they are on iMacs they still need to find a database. They might try switch to some Open Source freeware like OpenOffice, but they still need to find teaching materials. Lastly, they could avoid upgrading to the latest version of the OS.

Visual Basic 6
This programming IDE was released in January 1999 and is now 8.5 years old. If you follow the Life Cycle link you will see the cutoff dates when Microsoft will stop supporting this piece of software.

Over it's life cycle VB6 has become a popular programming language in many schools. Many teaching resources have been produced at school and national level, making it attractive to use to teach programming.

Again with the advent of Vista and the Microsoft Non-support date of March 2008, where does that leave computing departments still using VB6?

The question arises as to how computing departments manage this change. Do we have the time and money needed to manage these changes effectively or do we "make do and mend"? Perhaps greater thought is needed on this issue.

Digital Divide

2007-06-12T20:25:00.000+01:00

This topic is covered in Information Systems (Int2) course. This is an interesting article on the BBC news website - Digital divide 'is still there'

I started looking for a graphic/photo for this blog article and I came across another interesting article - WebSiteOptimization.com

I ended up selecting a graphic from multimap...

For the 30-something Computer Geeks

2007-06-01T22:41:00.000+01:00

I was listening to Radio Scotland on Thursday 31 May to the programme Poacher Turned Gamekeeper. This was a half hour interview with Robert Schifreen the former hacker who's legal case brought about the introduction of the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

Click here to listen again to this very interesting programme.

I'm sure all those computing teachers in their late 30s will remember the exploits of Robert Schifreen. For all those more youthful computer teachers/geeks enjoy the tales of 80's hacking.

Travelling Tales

2007-05-20T23:46:00.000+01:00

This week and next sees me on the road travelling around and about Glasgow to visit student teachers.

The week started with four visits to seven 2nd year students who are doing a teaching placement in Nursery schools. I found my way to the first nursery easily as I had visited before. However the journey, for the afternoon visit to Lamlash was not without incident.

I recently acquired a Tom Tom satellite navigation system especially for finding my way to schools and nurseries when doing student visits. My clever plan came unstuck as I arrived at Lamlash to find the windows boarded-up. You see, I had looked up the post code for the nursery to give me the location and unbeknown to myself and those at Google maps and those at the yellow pages the nice Glasgow City Council had built a new primary and nursery about 200 yards southeast. Fortunately the new school stuck out like a sore thumb as I adopted the search and rescue technique of travelling in a spiral out from the crash site (old nursery location).

To top this I have to describe my adventure getting to Royston Nursery. Again the postcode was used but the nursery hadn't been moved it just wasn't at the location the satnav guided me to. I asked a nice lady on the street and she directed me to a life long learning centre 500 yards away from where I needed to be. I drove around the area until I found Royston Primary School and then decided to phone the nursery to check that the were not part of the primary school or using a cloaking device to render themselves invisible. I phoned the nursery, explained who I was and then got directions to the nursery. Before I could thank the voice on the other end of the phone my mobile battery failed and the call ended abruptly.

Thursday was my first day of visits to the secondary students. I had cleverly planned to visit three students in one day. This takes precision, timing and a certain amount of luck. All three of which seemed to be lacking.

I planned to get to Lanark Grammar for 9.00am travelling from Chapelhall. This would have been a straightforward journey if it hadn't been for the councils desire to close Lanark high street for road works. I didn't know this and neither did TomTom. I followed the diversion sign till I hit a tail back and the satnav indicated I should turn right, so I did. This resulted in me driving down several dead-ends and a Tesco car park before rejoining the traffic queue. I arrived at the school several minutes later than I planned, but in time to see the student lesson.

I saw the student teach, gave feedback and then spoke to the Principal Teacher. This took a little longer than anticipated and resulted in me leaving Lanark at about 11:30am.

As I was leaving Lanark my car reminded me that I was apparently on an empty tank of petrol. I didn't have time to stop for petrol, I had thirty nine minutes to travel 32 miles to Lourdes Secondary.
It took me forty-nine minutes to get to the next school. For those of you with a mathematical mind that’s an average speed of 39mph. I got there ten minutes late for the start of the lesson.

Again I saw the student teach, provided feedback and spoke to the PT before heading back onto the road.

I left Lourdes Secondary to find a petrol station and to head towards Holyrood Secondary on the Southside of Glasgow. I new there was a Tesco petrol station at the new Pollock shopping complex. So I headed along Corkerhill Road, which seven days earlier had been the scene of a fatal shooting. So the police pulled me in to enquire if I had been a potential witness. I assured the detective that I was elsewhere and continued on my way.

I managed to re-fuel and get to Holyrood in plenty of time for the last visit of the day which went very much like the previous two visits.

My final journey saw me leave Holyrood Secondary to journey through Rutherglen onto the M74 up the M73 and onto the A8 at Baillieston. This was managed safely until I was nearing Chapelhall. As I was driving under the Eurocentral flyover a lovely red transit van (who said they had to be white) decided to join me in the fast lane specifically in the space I occupied. I intelligently applied my brakes and sounded my horn. I hit the horn in the middle of my steering wheel so hard that it re-adjusted the wheel position. This type of near-death experience in the past would have resulted in me having an adrenaline rush, however as it has happened several times in the last few years I now drive expecting other drivers to try to kill me.

I now expect drivers to change lanes at the most dangerous moments be that travelling at 70 mph along the M8 or as I travel around a roundabout alongside them. I now expect on-coming drivers to run red lights and to swerve onto my side of the road to be at least a car's breadth away from the parked car on their side.

Next week sees me travel from home to Johnstone to Saltcoats and back on Monday. On Wednesday I travel to Coatbridge to Giffnock and Thursday sees me in Dumbarton to deliver an in-service course. I can only hope that it will be a less eventful group of journeys than this week.

GTCS Annual Lecture - Christopher Brookmyre

2007-05-17T20:28:00.000+01:00

Let me start by saying: I'm not normally drawn to either the subject matter or the speaker at the GTCS Annual Lectures. This year however was different, in that the lecture was being given by Christopher Brookmyre.

He avoided the lecture format and title given, opting instead to read a passage from his last novel, A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil. The scene he read was the primary school assembly where the Head Teacher was trying to use fear, intimidation and violence to discover who had burnt down the junior wing of the school. I'm not sure if the GTCS officials got what they expected but the audience listened and laughed with pleasure as Christopher brought the characters to life. According to the GTCS website it was "...one of the most hotly anticipated lectures in years."

Hopefully next years lecture will be from Billy Connolly...

Teachers Being Cyber-Bullied

2007-04-10T19:07:00.000+01:00

This topic has arisen at several teaching conferences over the last week. At the ATL conference several speakers called for additional protections and restrictions in an attempt to eliminate cyber-bullying of teaching staff by pupils - Cyber bullying threat to teachers

The Education Secretary, Alan Johnson supported the teaching unions attempts to prevent cyber bullying of teachers. He also urged websites to tackle the issue from their end. Websites urged to act on bullies

Whilst I understand this is an issue for teachers in this context, surely it's an issue for all members of society. I would hate to think that teachers needed special legislation or powers to protect them from cyber-bullying any more than another group of individuals. Protect everyone from cyber-bullying.

The Stresses of Teaching

2007-04-10T19:05:00.000+01:00

I read this article on the BBC website - Stressed teachers 'taking drugs'. Whilst it raises an important issue I'm left wondering how many teachers actually suffer from a "mental health problem". If there were 3 teachers in a staffroom, would one of them really be suffering from a mental health issue?

In the article a teacher describes letting the children out of the class, locking the door and then crying. This raises the issue of whether this person is fit to do the job or whether the job is too demanding. If we accept that standing in front of a class and educating children is the main aspect of the job and an individual finds this excessively stressful. That individual can either reduce/manage the stress by modifying their response to the stressful situation (relaxation techniques) or find an alternative job that does not stress or depress them, as one teacher in the article did.

This is an issue that occasionally arises with student teachers. They find organising and managing a class extremely stressful, especially if it's a "crit" lesson. These students either manage the anxiety by realising they confident and competent teachers or they withdraw from the course, realising a 40 year career in teaching is not for them. The later scenario very rarely happens.