Digital Tech-knowlogy

The last post I write began with those immortal words “Well it’s been a while since I wrote”.  Nice to see hstory about to repeat itself.  Hard to believe that 3 months has gone (to the day!) since as coming here.  Now that things are easing a bit  and I find myself in the process of creating eudcational opportunites for students again it is relevant to timely to try and put down some markers on progress and goals.

One of the things I find quite challenging as a technology and ICT teacher is really assessing how many, what I would consider, interesting learning opportunites through technology are being created in my school.  This is perhaps a fault of the system that I work in as much my own lack of having sufficient conversations with people and getting invites.  That aside I would like to try and make it more of a goal to get into the planning stage with colleaues more often.  It would be beneficial if things like timetabling could be a bit more flexible to support this.

As far as my own development is coming along I think one of he problems I have been working faced recently is the question of on which platform to build.  I am a big fan of google sites although it needs one or two minor things changing to be really usable.  For example, I wish the default page setting was set so that the pages you create automatically go into the navigation panel instead of having to do that manually everytime.  Also the levels of access rights are all or nothing.  Why can’t there be an intermediate level where people can leave comments but cannot edit the site?  The final thing is that it would be great if there were more mechanisms or gadgets for safe embedding of content.  I get the kids to do a lot of site building through google sites and t’s worked out reasonably well.

However, for my own publishing I have to say that I think I’m a wetpaint fan.  Like all software it has it’s limitations but I really like the flexibility with which it will mash up content from elsewhere.

I have noticed ls that as I have been in the information gathering phase that my ideas about what to publish and how have got more flexible by using tools such as youtube playlists and custom players, RSS and internal site tools that wetpaint provide.  With te help of page templates I think this is one of the easiest access pont to get poeple publishing and the ease with which content can be included means that RSS feeds and video instantly seem worthwhile things to be using.  I find people really start to see how this stuff comes together whe they can begin to build a mental picture for themselves about the physicality of where the information is and how it is being displayed.

I have completed  powerpoint to accompany some training ideas that I want to go over with colleagues.  When I look at it I am in some ways a bit disappointed that it goes over familiar ground i.e. collaborative environments, google docs, sharing, wikis, delicious, youtube etc.  However, that is also because these things do seems to have established themselves, at least to my way of thinking, as more or less essential tools in the 21st Century teaching box.

My training approach this time is based around the roles/behaviours that are generic parts of teaching and try to show how those roles change in the light of 21st Century technology.  Essentially I want to focus on the 3 activities of collector, categoriser and publisher which I think all teachers have always done.  I hoping putting things into these contexts might provide a useful way in for people in seeing relevancy

I will embed the slide-show a later date.

Well it was a bit of rambling old post and I still haven’t touched on assessment which has been bugging me for a while but I will save that for another time.  Hopefully not three months hence!

It’s been a while since I posted as we’ve come to the end of a busy term. One of the things that has led to the term being perhaps busier than usual is the advent of our phased introduction to 1-2-1 computing in one year group.

As we have moved towards this I have been starting to get my head round the relationship between what I see as the essential 3 elements in this educational trend. I present these now in no particular order.

Firstly there is the pedagogical change that 21st century learning, as it has come to be known, requires. The ability of teachers to perhaps let go of the reigns to a greater extent, and allow students the opportunities to evidence their understanding using multi media. This leg of the tripod is the one that I am beginning to see as the one that as teachers we need to come back to time and time again. Revisiting what our expectations are of students and of ourselves in the classroom and not reverting to type is an ongoing challenge. We all play to our strengths and settle into patterns so how do we prevent these natural human tendencies from getting in the way of the personalised learning that we see as desirable in our students? It is also my experience that there is a bit of mental block on this with teachers who are not natural technophiles. They see 21st century learning as equivalent to and requiring of a significant up-skilling on their behalf and are therefore threatened and guarded to some degree.  The time issue is always the first thing to arise.   Whilst I believe totally in the ongoing progression of teachers’ digital literacy capability, it is not necessarily the case that the teacher themselves needs to have all the technical skills to enable more constructivist models of learning to develop.  Actually what it requires is an awareness of what the students might be capable of, coupled with an open-minded and risk taking approach that can see value in the variety of responses that might be produced by students if given the opportunity.  Whilst I don’t necessarily have much faith in show and tell CPD sessions, they can serve to at least raise this awareness amongst colleagues.

This brings me to the second point which is the technology itself.  On this, I ask myself whether it will be the 1-2-1 connectivity that will allow for the pedagogy to change and whether these constructivist approaches could work without the technology in place . Taken to the extreme – yes, you could have constructivist methods without computers and the internet, in a library situation for example, but really it is because we have this access and this connectivity and this vast “library” that these pedagogical methods are being considered.  Therefore, although there is an argument for preparing staff through CPD before the onset of 1-2-1 connectivity, there is only so much that can be achieved without the technology in place to show how lessons might change.

Lastly, we have the curriculum. This for me is the biggest problem at the moment. We have teachers who are wanting to engage students in more connected learning opportunities hamstrung by the rigidity of exam driven course. I think we have to move towards a more flexible modular approach to education whereby units of enquiry are developed that allow students to customise their learning in a similar way to the way they might do at an American University.  The question then becomes what global set of standards and protocols for assessment can be applied to these courses to ensure rigour and value?

So in about a week we get the technology.  I’m hoping (and planning for of course!) that the teachers see the opportunities that this presents to them and that they, along with the students and parents will push for the curriculum change we need.

We are about to take the leap and delve into the 1-2-1 issue with a phased introduction through one year group. Preparing an school for this change is actually quite intimidating even though the scope of the introduction is limited. We will no doubt face all the problems we have thought would happen and dozens more that we didn’t. That aside though I wanted to talk here about the effects of 1-2-1 on teaching and learning and perhaps suggest how the change to it might be phrased to those sceptics who don’t quite get it. This post really comes from a conversation with a colleague about a presentation we had recently had that showed us 1-2-1 in action at another school. When I asked my colleague what he thought of the presentation he suggested that actually 1-2-1 was just about good teaching. I didn’t quite get his meaning at first and was a little surprised by what he said, believing him to be more of a technology advocate than his comment sounded. On reflection though I think from one perspective he is right. Good teaching should be about providing multiple opportunities for students to access material. Differentiation, learning style etc. should all be catered for under the catch all of “good teaching” and this is actually a very challenging thing to do through the mediums of separate books, DVD’s, videos. handout etc. I think this is where 1-2-1 supported by a good on-line learning platform might be sold to teachers who are yet to see the benefits. My current school is a comprehensive 1200 student international school who’s curriculum, unfortunately, is still driven through exams and in particular the GCSE. If we accept that teachers working in this situation will still have to ensure that students access a certain body of knowledge (the curriculum issue will have to be saved for later posts) then the advantages of 1-2-1 supported by on-line learning become apparent. This perspective suggests that in using the learning platform and the connectivity to the multimedia resources on it through a 1-2-1 model simply serves to reinforce those ideas of “good teaching” but with a clear productivity gain. The teacher collects, organises, authors and publishes differentiated resources that are the basis of this good teaching. What shifts is the access the students have to these resources and the effect that has on their learning. The accessibility is the key. Of course this has an effect on classroom practice and management to some extent but I think the essence of good teaching in the sense that my colleague was talking about doesn’t change. Teachers are still there to guide and direct students in their learning, but it is the on-line materials and the students individual progress through them that learning comes from rather than through the bottleneck of the teacher.

I realise that to anyone reading this who is cognisant of the changes in education afoot through technology will be probably have not even got to this point due to the obvious nature of what has been stated. However, I would hope that anyone who is sceptical might be able to use what is offered here to reflect on the benefits going digital might bring them.

I was just about to embed Wes Fryer’s podcast RSS feed for CPD into my blog page when I stopped for a moment to think about whether this might be fundamentally contrary to some aspect of blog culture.  How do I know if shamelessly grabbing someone else’s hard work and publishing it again was allowable? Being new to this it occurred to me that I had waded in here and assumed to behave in my own way – but was that “the right way”.

Dutifully I googled that term “blogging etiquette” and found the PC Advisor Top 10 Do’s and Dont’s of Blogging.  Whilst reading through them I was impressed by some of the clear values and personal qualities that were expressed through them – although tongue in cheek presented as the gospel…

1. Thou shall not confuse thy opinion with gospel truth. There is a strong temptation, particularly when discussing contentious issues, to claim unimpeachable authority on the subject at hand. Yes, everybody is entitled to express personal opinions, but by treating your blog or wiki like a panel rather than a pulpit, the dialogue will more likely be divine.     HUMILITY
2. Thou shall not invoke personal attacks. One of the magical powers blogs and wikis seem to possess is the capability of turning otherwise sensible people into bickering schoolchildren. Unless the discussion subject is “Say something insulting about somebody who holds a different opinion than you,” leave the personal invective out. Rule of thumb: Argue with the post, not the poster.     CHALLENGE THE ARGUMENT OR IDEA NOT THE PERSON
3. Thou shall stick to the subject at hand. Blogs in particular can get tangential in a hurry. To some, that’s part of the charm – you start with an idea and end up somewhere completely different. That’s all well and good, but let tangents arise organically within the context of the discussion. If you’ve got something wildly off topic to say, start a new thread or keep it to yourself until it becomes relevant. FOCUS & RELEVANCE
4. Thou shall cite thy references. As we all know, people can come up with statistics to prove anything; 40 percent of all people know that. So, set yourself apart from the herd by showing where you get your facts. You’ll look knowledgeable, honest, and trustworthy. What’s not to like about that?      RESEARCH YOUR OPINION TO VERIFY
5. Thou shall punctuate and capitalise. We’re not saying you should write every post with one eye on The Chicago Manual of Style, but writing several paragraphs as one gigantic, all-lowercase, run-on sentence is a definite no-no. As is writing in ALL CAPS, WHICH IS LIKE SHOUTING! Punctuation is your friend, so use it.     DEVELOP GOOD LITERACY
6. Thou shall own up to thy mistakes. Despite online chest-puffing to the contrary, nobody’s perfect. You are going to make mistakes. You are going to be wrong about things. Instead of being defensive and denying it, just admit your blunder and move on. If you have the urge to browbeat somebody about making a mistake, refer to the second commandment.     SELF-HONESTY
7. Thou shall not use aliases or sock puppets. If you have to invent a separate identity in order to create the illusion of agreement, then perhaps your point isn’t as good as you think it is. Although it’s tempting to play games with the pseudo-anonymity the internet provides, it’s far better to stick with one identity.     ANYONE MENTION ‘HONESTY’ YET?
8. Thou shall not feed the trolls. When people spew insults, pick fights, or take contrarian positions just for the sake of being contrary, ignore them. Insulting online miscreants or engaging them in arguments accomplishes nothing, it just further pollutes the pages with pointless back-and-forth.     RESILIENCE
   
9. Thou shall resize thy images. Remember, not everybody has screamingly fast broadband connections like you, and not everybody has the patience to wait for that huge picture of your pet iguana to download. Plus, margin-breaking pictures are just plain annoying.     DIGITAL LITERACY SKILLS
10. Thou shall respect the old adage: What happens on the wiki stays on the wiki. It’s wonderful how blogs and wikis can provide you with new knowledge, insight, and perspective, and you should certainly carry what you learn with you when you leave your computer. But all the bickering, arguing, correcting, and other antics it took to get there? Leave those behind. There is no need to bring your wiki-capades home with you.     IDENTITY AND SELF AWARENESS

This speaks for itself – it’s got to be worth discussing these with all stakeholders in an educational organisation.  This has given me the structure and content for a presentation to parents which I hope to post up here later.

and…

seeing as there’s nothing in the ‘don’t” that mention what got me to find them in the first place, I’m going to get over myself and ’share’ – that is what it’s all about afterall.

I am listening to Stephen Heppel’s keynote speech for the Learning K12 conference.  He has been going through a brief history of using technologies in learning.  It is often said that the use of technologies in the classroom changes the role of the teacher but the nature of this change is often not clearly articulated.  I was therefore particularly interested in an expression that Stephen came up with during his speech which helps, I think, define the nature of this change.  If we are trying to move students towards more inquiry based learning approaches where students are asked to construct their understanding, do teachers become redundant?

For those that may feel that the role of the teacher somehow diminishes due to technology based learning Stephen’s speech may be encouraging.  He mentions that teachers are “catalysts for learning” and that their function is to PROVOKE learning rather than PROVIDE learning.  I thought this was a very useful construction to take forward when discussing the nature of pedagogical change with colleagues.  The question then becomes, by what mechanisms do teachers scaffold these provocations?

One of the other interesting points he goes on to talk about is the connection between the current financial crisis and  what this reflects in the changing nature of education.  He talks about the demise of the “they” and the birth of the “we”.  How this affects the design of school and curriculum, even the very idea of school and curriculum are under threat in this new world that the global financial crisis has painfully shown us we live in.  The idea of global connectivity is as real for education as it is for finance.  He suggests that if new models of learning is not embraced then education itself will collapse in the same way the financial systems have.  This might be the death of education, but it is the birth of learning!

Internet safety is a thread I want to pick up again as I came across new resources that I feel can help address these complex issues.  I have recently discovered www.videojug.com which is a nice little ‘How to..’ video site.  It has a tongue in cheek style that helps to convey the messages it delivers in an accessible way.  On the subject of internet safety I was investigating social networks and the advice of experts on this quite contentious type of Internet site.  I found this video which goes through a number of important questions that parents might ask.

I agreed with a lot of what the “expert” suggested.  However, at the end he suggested that parents create a fake profile and try to become online friends with their children as a mechanism for keeping a track of their activity online.  I find the ethics of this quite confusing.  Whilst I can understand that parents need to have a connection with what their child is doing online, is it really right that they lie to their children in order to do that?  Surely any kind of deliberate misrepresentation is fundamentally wrong.  I think it would put parents in a very tricky position with their children if they were ever found out.  I’d love to hear comments on this dilemma.

I want to include a strand on this blog that helps students, parents and teachers understand some of the potential dangers of Internet activity, but without being alarmist.  These dangers are multi-layered and often the concerns that parents have are the big media scare stories – stalking, abduction and sex predators.  Whilst these are understandable, perhaps it ismore useful to be aware of issues between children that can take on a new dimension through the internet such as cyber bullying.  I hope to build on this theme a bit later.  Anyway, what promted me to post was that I was looking at this video on the digiteen site published there by a group of students working on cyber safety.

It is this kind of issue that scares parents, and I think it is useful in showing how innocent use of chat rooms can be exploited by people with malicious intent.  This is the reason I choose to publish it here, so that it can be used as a jump off point for discussion.  I welcome any comments.

As children grow older they become more “Netwise” and they are more careful of their identities and particularly their personal information.   When we deal with Net education we have to ensure that it is aimed at an appropriate level and deals with concerns relevant to the students we are working with.  This sounds obvious and indeed it is, but it may not be that easy because of the potential identity split that might exist between a child’s online identity and their “real world” identity.  The girl portrayed in this video is a 10 year old.  I teach students 11 and up.  I am wondering about the cut off age level of such a video.

I have just returned from the Learning 2.008 conference in Shanghai.  If anyone gets a chance to go to these conferences I would urge them to, as I have found both I have been to exceptionally stimulating.

This year’s got off to a good start with my first session with David Jakes.  His presentation on Visual Literacy was eye opening in terms of the way that he used visual imagery to communicate messages. His essential premise began that as human beings we are hard wired for visual messages (broadband for the eyes vs dial up for the ears).  More on his ideas can be found here.

I have a presentation to do this week on an action learning project I have been working on with some colleagues.  The approach I saw demonstrated not only by David but also by Kim Cofino at the same conference inspired me to move away from what Jamie Mackenzie would definitely describe as Powerpointless to a more visually stimulating and hopefully engaging style of p[resentaiton.

It’s funny in a way to me in that I have always had a negative reaction to Powerpoint as a piece of software.  Something in me resented it every time I came to use it (which wasn’t that often thankfully).  Now however, I feel that I can approach the software with a fundamentally different perspective of how it should be used.

What i wonder now is when will I and more importantly the audience tire of this new type if visual engagement and ask for more.  What will our presentations have to become to fundamentally engage and audience?  Perhaps it goes back to fundamentally the person presenting and their command of what they want to say and how they want to say it?

It begs the question that as teachers what do we expect of our students in this area?  We might sit and criticise their presentations but coud we do any better?  What is our level of literacy?

21st Century Education and the use of the Internet as a medium for communication and a mechanism to support student learning is a complex issue.  All teachers to one extent or another are dealing with these complexities, either by trying to engage with it and develop new pedagogical practice, or simply by dealing with a changing student population for whom a significant part of their lives might be spent in online communities.

Parents are also having to deal with how to manage an entity that can seem to steal their children away into another realm of existence that they don’t fully understand.  It is somewhat ironic that the Internet was invented by adults and has now been invaded by teenagers.  The Internet for the adolescents of this today can consume a far greater part of them than a lot of older people may feel comfortable with.  Kids can lead a significant part of their lives online, to the extent that they have alternative personalities.  Some kids will say that their only true identity is their online one.  Parents constantly question how much is enough?

I have recently watched the a Frontline program from PBS that explored some of what parents, teachers and students face in the Internet age.  I would advise any educator or parent to have a look at this as I felt it sums up usefully the main arguments in the debate.

One thing I found encouraging was that there was definite message that whilst we need to engage students in conversations about net safety and netiquette there was a significant sense of common sense amongst the teenagers interviewed about what was good practice.  It seemed to suggest that the culture of teenagers themselves instinctively seeks to protect itself online.  Reassuringly, they understand the obvious do’s and dont’s.

Digital Citizenship has yet to become a really formal part of our curriculum.  e generally have a culture of trust amongst our students but I also fel that this can lead to complacency.  Every one of us needs address our own literacy skills so that we can work in an informed way with the students.

It is my intention that through this blog I get to clarrify my own values on this and that by doing this help all stakeholders.

21st Century Educational Tools are all around us.  We now have to play catch-up!