ICT in Schools

21st Century This, 21st Century That

2011-06-10T14:06:00.001+01:00

Are you getting a bit fed up with all this talk of 21st Century Learning, 21st Century Teaching, 21st Century Skills ....? I know I am! Quite often it just seems like people drop the term 21st Century into their articles, conversations, marketing materials just to make themselves look trendy but, quite often, I'm not sure they know what they are talking about!

What are these 21st Century skills, anyway? Often people cite skills such as creativity, collaboration, cooperation, communication, creativity, critical thinking, problem solving. Well, hang on a minute, all those skills were around in the last century, they are hardly new skills. So are we to assume that 21st Century skills are simply old skills repackaged or brought to the fore in the 21st Century?

Then what about 21st Century learning or C21st teaching, how do C21st skills impact upon them? Well, cooperation and collaboration were being used in schools in the last century only we called it something like groupwork or project work. Perhaps a difference was, though, that we were not necessarily learning together but working together for our own learning. Teachers were also teaching creativity in the last century, though with hindsight it could be argued that the coming of the National Curriculum killed off a great deal of creativity in schools. Teachers were also teaching problem solving and critical thinking back in the day.

There is, perhaps, a certain amount of arrogance in anyone assuming that the skills being taught, or needing to be taught, nowadays, will suit the whole 21st century. The world in 2050 will be different from the world today, that includes the world of education and work, we may well find other skills we need to teach in 2050 or, say, 2093 yet they are still in the 21st century.

We do live in a society and a world that is increasingly, though not exclusively, digital and technological. I have no qualms anout anyone saying that we need to learn how to live and work in such a world but let us not dress it up in pretentious jargon.

The world of education and learning is changing and needs to change more, I wholeheartedly support that but lets be open about this and not hide behind cliches and catchphrases, which might only serve to alienate others.

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/21st-century-this-21st-century-that/

The Key to Successful Elearning

2011-05-16T15:50:00.001+01:00

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption]

In the last few weeks I have been asked 3 times by different people what do I regard as the most important aspect of successful elearning. This is quite surprising as people dont talk to me that frequently about elearning, so maybe there's a bit of a trend or bandwagon developing somewhere. I'm sorry to say that in each of the 3 cases, I was unable to give a succinct, or glib, response (which is also somewhat unusual). In each case, I said I'd go away, think about it and get back to them later.

This post is a consequence of my thinking about it. I have thought about it and drawn from my own observations as to what makes a successful elearning session. It has not been easy to narrow it down to identifying just one aspect that seems to be key to good elearning. However, when I reflect back on those times when I feel I have observed the best examples of online learning, there does seem to be one point of commonality among them. So what I'd like to do is to take this and present it as my suggestion for a 'golden key to successful elearning.'

If you are a teacher or a designer of elearning courses, my golden rule for you is to ask yourself; "What am I asking the learners to do?"

There are so many elearning courses in which the learner merely sits in front of a computer screen reading text or listening to a teacher's voice.

Let me put this into perspective. If you were a school inspector or a head teacher observing an hour long lesson in which the class teacher stood at the front talking and writing on a board while all the learners do is sit, watch and maybe copy what is written on the board; you would probably mark down that lesson or that teacher as being poor.

So why is it that something that is not acceptable in a real classroom should somehow become acceptable online?

Quite simply, it isn't. Or, should I say, that I don't think it is for the best examples of elearning that I have observed have been when the teacher has required the learners to engage in some activity rather than being passive recipients.

I'm obviously looking at this from the perspective of a school teacher and we need to be aware that elearning is very much more in use within higher education and in industry training. What might work for school students might not necessarily work with Higher students or adults in industry. Nevertheless, if made relevant and appropriate to them, I feel that learners at all levels would become more engaged if involved in learning activities rather than passively sitting on their backsides.

Now, before online teachers and instructional designers start ganging up on me, I do have some sympathy with you. I am aware that many systems chosen to deliver elearning do not provide learners with the tools or facilities to become engaged in activities we'd like to use. I have also discovered when attending the Learning Technologies show in London that there can be a huge chasm between what is envisioned for elearning in the conference and what is being marketed as elearning in the sales exhibition. It is quite evident that what is being offered to us to support elearning seems light years away from what we want to deliver.

On the other hand, I have seen teachers use the tools that are available in new and imaginative ways to engage and present to their learners. So maybe, the first point is for teachersd and designers to use the tools, or get the learners to use the tools, which are available.

Surely, though, the time has come when we cannot allow a program to restrict and define the learning opportunities we offer to our learners. If a package cannot deliver the learning activities we want to offer, then we must consider rejecting that package and either look to other packages and systems or consider breaking away from proprietary delivery systems and make more use of individual specialised online tools which are better able to allow learners to participate in ways that promote active learning.

So, there you are, maybe I've ranted on a bit too much but I do believe that when delivering or designing elearning courses, it is really important to consider what you are asking the learner to do. Come to think of it, that is probably very important in all lesson planning, not just online.

E-learning, Why does it have such a Bad Name? (dougwoods.co.uk)
10 Tips for Effective eLearning (dougwoods.co.uk)
Free eLearning for charities (raceonline2012.wordpress.com)
Shift up a gear: work with me from September 2011! (dougbelshaw.com)
Using teaching as inquiry to guide an eLearning action plan (freetech4teachers.com)

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/the-key-to-successful-elearning/

Put your iPad on Your Desk

2011-05-09T07:56:00.001+01:00

I don't have an iPad

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption]

But I have seen people using them and the first thing that strikes me is just how awkward and cumbersome they seem to be.

I daresay that when people first used a mobile phone or a video camera, they may have felt that it was cumbersome but soon got used to it. The iPad is slightly different, though, because it seems cumbersome and awkward when you finish using it.

Just what do you do with it when you've finished using it? Yes, I know, some of you have probably not got to that stage as you've been using it constantly, like a junkie, since you first got it and others will respond that the time to finish using it is when the battery needs recharging!

Seriously, though, unlike the iPod Touch which you can switch off and slip back into your pocket, the iPad is not so easy. I have seen some slip it into their laptop bag or into a briefcase. I guess many at home or at work may just put it down on a table or desk. I have even seen some who carry it around in their hand or even hold it in place under their arm or elbow; which doesn't seem a very secure place to hold an expensive piece of technology.

Seeing this, my mind began to wander as to how the iPad might be used in schools. We couldn't expect schoolchildren to carry their iPad under their arm or walk around with them in their hand all day. I guess they might keep them in their school bag or a satchel ... (waits for fashion police to come and arrest him for suggesting people should go back to having satchels) ... or would a teacher simply say ' right, children,' (it's a primary school!) ' put your iPads on your desk and look at me.' ?

Put your iPad on your desk ...

now that seems to conjure up new possibilities. With just one iPad face up on a desk or table (I'm referring to desks in deference to present government thinking!), you can have 1, 2 or up to 4 pupils working together with the one device. This is something that perhaps was not so easy with desktop computers, laptops, netbooks or even the iPod Touch (owing to its smaller screen). We could now have a small number of pupils working cooperatively together via the single device, the iPad.

I wonder, could the iPad bring about a re-emergence of board games? I know, we've all seen Scrabble (r) and Monopoly (r) software but, let's be honest, they're not quite the same when you're playing by yourself or against the machine. Maybe, the format of the iPad could add an extra dimension to interactive boardgames?

May 2011 update,

I now do have an ipad!

and I'm fully prepared to admit that I may have been a bit wrong in my original assumptions of the device. I had considered it to be largely a 'consumer' product and, indeed, it could be used in that way. However, particularly with the arrival of the ipad2 (which I don't have), I feel the ipad can be seen much more as creative tool. I also feel that its role in schools could be greater than I had at first envisaged. Ironically, this seems to be particularly so in special education, a field I know very well!

I still feel it looks and feels cumbersome, though, which is why I have a case for mine.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/put-your-ipad-on-your-desk/

Five and a Half Reasons to Introduce ELearning into High Schools

2011-04-28T16:20:00.001+01:00

Five and a half reasons to introduce elearning into high schools.

Up to now, elearning has been the preserve of tertiary education (colleges, universities) and industry. I want to explore reasons why it could be useful in secondary education as well. I have called this post 51/2 reasons (5 and a half reasons, not five half-reasons) because I'm not fully convinced the final reason is a valid one.

Before I start, I feel a need to clarify what I mean by 'eLearning'. It has become clear to me that there is some confusion over the term as different people take it to mean or to include somewhat different things. My definition of elearning is largely learning that is done online. In this definition, I do not include using computers and software in a classroom as part of a lesson. To me that is what I have been doing and promoting for years; it is now the norm in teaching(*) whereas online learning is not, or not yet, part of the norm.

So, what are these 6 (or 5 and 1/2) reasons we should introduce elearning into high schools?

1. Teaching less popular subjects and/or additional subjects. Let's say you have a group of students who want to learn economics or parapsychology or African biology but you've not got a teacher or a classroom or a timetable slot to allow this, what can you do? The traditional answer would be that you don't offer those subjects and tell your students to pick another subject, which also risks potential students opting for another school which does offer those subjects. Elearning offers the opportunity to provide such courses in a number of possible ways, such as linking with another institution and sharing teaching resources online, buying-in courses provided by outside educational bodies or sharing a teacher from another institution. In this way, elearning can enable a school not only to offer a wider range of subjects but also to make the school more appealing for potential students.

2. Teaching difficult to reach students. There are a range of students who might be considered 'difficult to reach' and for whom elearning may hold some potential. Let's consider students who cannot physically attend school or who can do so only on a restricted basis, such as traveller children, sick or hospital students, young carers and excluded students. while these students remain on the attendance books of a school, the school has a responsibility for their education. Where such students acnnot attend school, then elearning has the potential to reach them and to provide them with a level of education despite their chosen or enforced circumstances.

3. Sharing teacher capacity. We know that teachers are expensive but also important. Yet schools cannot always ensure the availability of quality teachers able to provide teaching across all subject areas. Schools may experience either temporary or long-term teacher shortages. Elearning has the potential to mitigate this by allowing teachers to teach groups in different institutions. So a school with a teacher or teachers particularly skilled in teaching a particular area or subject, say advanced calculus, can offer the teaching services of a teacher to teach advanced calculus, online, to students at another school which does not have such a teacher. In return for part payment of the teacher time or for the the second school offering online teaching in another area or subject. Of course, this arrangement need not apply only to the sharing of a physical teacher but also to any range of teaching resources a school may have to offer online which another school may lack.

4. Alternative to Homework. I know this is a thorny issue but homework in its traditional sense is largely an out-dated concept which, even in its heyday, rarely reflected sound educational practice. Traditionally, homework, where the teacher remembered to set it, usually involved reading a passage from a book, writing an essay, doing textbook exercises, all of which usually reflected or repeated what had been taught in class and rarely provided the student with extra insight or learning. Elearning has the potential to offer students much more than this by becoming an extension to class teaching and an enhancement to student learning. The only caveat is, of course, that the student should have access to online resources out of school hours.

5. Timetable flexibility. Anyone who has ever had to face the task of timetabling or scheduling will know it can be a nightmare to match subjects, teachers, classrooms and groups of students together. By incorporating elearning options within subjects, a school may be afforded greater flexibility in its timetabling. A class does not always require a teacher to supervise or lead elearning, therefore one group of students studying a subject may do so online for a period while another group is led by a teacher.

6. Saving money. This is the half reason. I know some people in schools will jump at an opportunity to save money and I'd sympathise with them if I had responsibility for budget control. However, I'm not fully convinced that elearning will always be money saving. Sure, providing learning online can be cheaper than paying for a teacher but there is also a lot of finance and time that has to be supported in setting up online facilities, developing online resources and monitoring/maintaining systems and these should not be overlooked in a rush to engage in elearning. Nevertheless, in a long term, elearning may have the potential to save money and if anyone can achieve this and maintain a delivery of quality learning then I'd be more than happy to talk to them!

Bonus. Extra Support Learning. We all recognise that there are some students who have the potential to learn but who learn more slowly than their peers or who sometimes need materials presented in certain ways in order to better grasp their significance. Such groups of students may include those with special needs but not exclusively so; it could also include those with language barriers and those with attention difficulties. For such groups, elearning has the potential to offer extra learning opportunities in addition to their regular class-based sessions. Elearning also has the potential to offer resources in particular ways or formats (such as audio podcasts) for students who find it easier to learn in such ways. Even for your high-flying students, elearning has the potential to offer extra learning support in which to extend their thinking and knowledge within the subject.

I'm sure there may be many other reasons or benefits of elearning in secondary education, if you know of any, please add them as a comment.

10 Tips for Effective eLearning (dougwoods.co.uk)
E-learning, Why does it have such a Bad Name? (dougwoods.co.uk)
eLearning Startup Opportunities (elearningtech.blogspot.com)
Distance education and eLearning practices: In Turkey and Eastern countries (downes.ca)
What Makes eLearning Courses Different? (elearningcentralia.wordpress.com)
Survey Says: Students Satisfied with eLearning at Centralia College! (elearningcentralia.wordpress.com)
Agile eLearning - 27 Great Articles (downes.ca)

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/five-and-a-half-reasons-to-introduce-elearning-into-high-schools/

Live writer testing

2011-04-17T10:19:00.001+01:00

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/live-writer-testing/

Shiny things of little substance

2011-04-15T11:46:00.001+01:00

photo credit: SoloXis

I'm not a great fan of infographics. Sure, they can look good, they can display data in ways that may be more meaningful to many learners but, without giving access to the data behind them, they may be more trouble than they're worth. The simple fact that something looks good does not mean it is good.
I'm not a great fan of twitter newspapers, such as paper.li or flipboard for similar reasons. Sure, they look good but are they little more than eye-candy? They may have uses as aggregators of tweets or topics in my twitterstream but is presenting this in fancy ways any more effective than just presenting me with a list? Plus, I'm always a bit suspicious of the tweets these 'papers' miss out; why do they do that, who gives them rights to edit my twitterstream, why does Flipboard emphasise tweets with images, why does paper.li emphasise those tweets with links? Is it because such tweets make their end product look good?
The same, I have come to feel, may be true of eLearning. Just because a tool or a service looks good or has this tool and that tool, doesn't necessarily constitute good elearning. I sometimes feel it is ironic that most elearning platforms, Elluminate for example, provide more tools for teachers than for the learners. Just because a teacher is able to show fancy images, animations or video on a screen, it doesn't mean that session is going to be a good one. A good elearning session appears to be one in which there is interaction with the student (by which, I do not just mean answering multiple choice quizzes).
I am not yet a dinosaur, some may beg to differ, and I am certainly not against progress but simply tarting things up is not really the way forward. Making something look good is not the same as making it more useful. On the other hand, if something looks good and is more useful, then I'm all for it
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/shiny-things-of-little-substance/

Shiny things of little substance

2011-04-12T05:19:00.000+01:00

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/shiny-things-of-little-substance/

Shiny things of little substance

2011-04-12T05:17:00.001+01:00

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/shiny-things-of-little-substance/

10 Tips for Effective eLearning

2011-03-23T10:37:00.001Z

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="Image by alice_c via Flickr"][/caption]

Some of you will now that my current work has been involved in running synchronous elearning courses using Elluminate. This blog post is largely a reflection on that work so far and also my own experience of using Elluminate as an elearning tool.

I am attempting to draw up pointers or tips for users in how to deliver effective synchronous (live) elearning sessions for teaching and also for student revision. The tips presented here have been drawn from my observations of various people leading sessions and, as such, have been drawn upon different approaches or styles they've used. This post is very much a 'first draft' and I'd be grateful for any comments.

1) Teachers need a reliable internet connection with good bandwidth

Elluminate is intended to be used with even the poorest of dialup connections but this does not mean the experience will be equal to that delivered via a solid fast internet line. A poor connection can only acceptable, and sometimes unavoidable, at the client's end. For the teacher a fast and reliable connection is essential to maintain delivery.

The lack of a reliable connection can lead to participants being dropped from the session and needing to reconnect. This may be unavoidable for students on a poor connection but it is not acceptable from a client viewpoint if the teacher drops out of a session through a poor internet connection.

2) Teachers need the support of well-designed resources

Many sessions have been supported by teacher designed PowerPoint slides. These are generally well based in the subject matter and pedagogy but usually show poor design and do not 'engage' students.

Teachers will rarely have the time or resources to design, from scratch, effective materials to engage the students, while also respecting commercial copyrights. In order to do this, it could be advantageous for a professional designer to be engaged to work with teachers to create engaging materials.

However, pretty resources on their own do not engage the students; they need to be appropriate and used in effective ways. Presenting a large number of colourful resources can be just as disengaging as presenting a few poorly designed ones.

3) The secret to a successful online course is interaction

The most effective sessions appear to be ones where there is a degree of interaction or participation from the students. This interaction can be with the teacher, with the resources or with each other. Sessions where the student appears to be just a passive participant tend to be less successful.

However, it can be difficult to generate interaction if the session has only one or two participants. In such cases, the level of participation and interaction can be adversely affected by the personality of each student and also their confidence/experience of using the system.

Equally, a session with a large number of students can be made more difficult to manage if there is a lot of interaction.

In my experience, if there are more than a dozen participants, it is difficult for each one to feel engaged. Consequently there is usually a lot of people dropping out during a session where there are more than a dozen participants. An ideal number would seem to be between 3 and 6 to allow for participation and interaction between students.

4) A successful course is usually a well-planned one

Isn't this always the case? In a classroom, a successful lesson is usually one that has been well planned; the same appears to be true for online sessions. It is the session that is poorly planned and poorly supported by resources that appears to be the least successful.

However, of course, we all know that being flexible and being responsive to our students are also important to success. Following our plan rigidly during a lesson even when the students are not engaged, does not make for a successful lesson. In face-to-face sessions we can observe the students, their activity and responses. This is much more difficult online.

5) Intended outcomes need to be clear

Successful sessions almost always have intended outcomes; the most successful lessons are those where these outcomes are shared with students and have the agreement, or 'buy in', of the students.

In online sessions, it is useful for the teacher to tell the students what the intended outcomes for the session are, what activities are planned in order to achieve those outcomes and what 'behaviour' is required/expected from the student

6) Online learning is more than repeating previously learned material

Seems obvious really, but online sessions should not be just a repetition of subject matter previously covered in class. There may need to be some elements of revision but most successful online sessions allow students opportunities to investigate or explore materials in further depth or in new ways..

7) 'Something for nothing' is always good

We all like to think that we are getting 'something for nothing' no matter how big or how small. Sending students materials which they can use offline, is nearly always beneficial. Such materials might be sample questions, links to online activities, pdf texts etc.. There needs to be something extra that students gain from attending online sessions which could not be gained from face-to-face sessions.

8) Don't allow time for questions!

I know this sounds almost counter intuitive but it is perhaps good practice not to allow time for questions. We all know the scenario where the teacher tells the pupils that at the end of the lesson there'll be time for them to ask questions, that's if there's enough time of course! This usually gives the message to students that their questions are not really important and we can use them at the end to fill any remaining time, if the students can remember their question until the end and assuming they can withstand the peer pressure to stay quiet as everyone wants to finish early.

Rather than setting time aside for questions, taking and inviting questions should be an integral part of the session. Students should feel free to ask questions or raise points as the session progresses. This leads to better interaction and engagement in the session.

9) Use the tools

I am sometimes heard to be critical of Elluminate, as also with other services, in that they provide more tools for the teacher than for the learner. It is more frustrating, though, when teachers don't make use of those tools available to them and resort to just basic text presentations on the whiteboard, which they then proceed to talk through. If you have ever suffered 'death by PowerPoint', I can assure you 'death by Elluminate Whiteboard' is worse. There are several tools available to the teacher, such as 'application sharing', 'breakout rooms', 'web tour' or multimedia sharing, get to know them and explore how each could be used in an online session.

10) Online teaching requires new skills

Online teaching requires new skills, not just in terms of handling technologies but also in terms of delivery. It is clear that a good classroom teacher does not necessarily make a good online teacher, so not every teacher will feel suited to it.

Delivering effective learning online requires practice, training and the development of a range of practical and interpersonal skills. An opportunity to teach online provides a professional teacher with an outlet to develop new skills and acquire new experiences which could hold them in good stead for the future.

This is not to say that a one-size fits all approach is required. Far from it, online learning can benefit from a range of teaching styles/approaches/resources just as face-to-face teaching does. It simply indicates that such styles/approaches/resources need to be different in many cases to fit an online scenario.

This final point is probably one which needs to be developed further. Having said that online teaching needs new skills, it is not yet easy to define those skills. Having said that online teaching may not suit all classroom teachers, there is an implication for 'blended' learning approaches. As I say, this post represents very much a 'first draft' and your comments are most welcome.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/10-tips-for-effective-elearning/

Are Books Under Threat?

2011-03-16T13:37:00.001Z

I was interested to read from the Naace Conference, via Twitter, that Ollie Bray posed this question; "Are books under threat?"

I was not at the conference but this question intrigued me, partly because it is something Ive wondered myself and also because I am working in part on an ebook project. The question is intriguing also because there is much debate and discussion around the country regarding the future of not just books but also libraries. This has been brought about mainly because of current public spending cutbacks and also, I guess, by the success over Christmas of the Kindle ebook reader.

So are books under threat? Well my initial thought is that yes they are under threat but no more so than records, CDs and the movies have faced in the past. It will be intriguing and important how publishers respond to the new technologies. There would seem to be two options, they could take a similar attitude to the music industry and fight against changes or they can follow the example of the movie industry and embrace (after some fighting) the new technologies.

Myself, I certainly hope book publishers embrace the new technologies and present books in new formats which will enable new functionality, new materials and new ideas to be presented to readers in new ways. Ebooks are (should be) more, much more than just a repackaging of text in a digital format. There is a great opportunity for multimedia, interactivity and collaboration to be incorporated into ebooks and it would be a crying shame for publishers to ignore this.

Equally, though, there is a risk that publishers in embracing digital technologies ignore or overlook the power of text. It could be all to easy to produce an ebook containing loads of multimedia animation, video and realistic images but with no or little text, beyond labelling diagrams. This would be a big mistake.

Text has the ability to convey not just words and labels but also imagery, feelings, viewpoints and discussions. Text is also easy to incorporate into discussion and collaboration; easier for example than drawings or video. To lose this ability would be very detrimental to an book whether in ebook or print format. Yet, there are many who regard the future of ebooks solely in terms of multimedia style materials.

So, to come back to the original question; are books under threat? My answer would be 'yes' but it is more of a challenge than a threat.

HarperCollins limits downloads on public library eBooks (slashgear.com)
From New Zealand, educational, interactive ebooks for kids (springwise.com)
Thank goodness for eBook Readers (openparachute.wordpress.com)
Kindle, Nook lending site, eBook Fling, goes live (news.cnet.com)
EU anger over ebook deal suggests hard times ahead for publishers (guardian.co.uk)
Got a new ereader? Some things you ought to know... (davidhewson.com)
Further thoughts on eBooks (philbradley.typepad.com)
The Death and Re-Birth of Book Publishing (revenews.com)
Do you prefer printed books? (elearningstuff.net)
Lending Books: Can eBooks Ever Match Paper? (speculist.com)
Top 50 eReader eBook Trends for 2010 " Kindle Review - Kindle 3 Review, Kindle vs Nook (ireaderreview.com)
What are Publishers trying - Sabotage? Suicide? De-Revolution? (ireaderreview.com)
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Ollie Bray - Computer Game Addiction and Young People (agamerseducation.wordpress.com)

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/are-books-under-threat/

Primary Schools better than Secondary at teaching ICT?

2011-02-27T15:10:00.001Z

This article, although describing the situation in Wales, was of great interest to me. It says that the quality of ICT teaching in Wales was improving, though it was still variable. What interested me most was the finding by the inspectors that Primary Schools did better in teaching ICT skills to their pupils than did Secondary Schools.

This backs up a feeling I had a few years ago that we may be heading for a bit of a crisis in Secondary Schools. At this level ICT teaching and practices have been in place for some time, almost certainly longer than in primary schools. However, input in terms of money and training had been most noticeable in recent years at the primary level and certainly an improvement in ICT teaching at primary level could be witnessed. This was brining newer practices and teaching techniques into ICT at the primary level whereas the secondary level was still using its established approaches.

So it comes as no surprise to me that the report should find that ICT teaching in primary schools has improved. Let us hope that we can now start to see some improvement at the secondary level.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/primary-schools-better-than-secondary-at-teaching-ict/

E-learning, Why does it have such a Bad Name?

2011-02-24T09:24:00.001Z

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Image by dougwoods via Flickr"][/caption]

E-learning is unpopular with learners, and not always popular with teachers, there can be little doubt about that but why should that be the case?

I have made quite a bold statement there and some of you may question it, that's great and please add your view or experience in the comments. Before you do though, I'd like you to consider this question;

If you had the choice between studying a subject being taught by a teacher in the classroom or online via the internet, which would you choose?

Almost without fail, most people would opt for the first option. Why would that be? Is it because that's what they're used to? Is it because they feel that offers a better educational experience? Is online education perceived as a second best option?

My own experiences as a learner of e-learning has not been very good; I found the e-learning course to be very didactic and geared more towards instruction or training rather than education or study. I know that I am not alone in this experience as I have come across many others who have had similar expeiences.

Most tools for elearning appear to have been developed first for the commercial sector and were employed by companies or global organisations to train their workforce. The requirement in such instances has been more for training, instruction or presentation. These tools have since been adopted to provide elearning experiences within the education sector but here the demand would be for education and learning. It seems that the tools have not been completely adaptable for these different approaches. The result is that students find online courses restrictive and teachers find themselves limited by the technology.

Of course, this shouldn't be the case, technology should be enhancing and enabling rather than limiting. If you were to attend a learning technologies conference, you would hear many presenters talk about new and exciting possibilities in using elearning, if you attend a learning technologies market place, however, you are likely to find that what is on offer is the same old tools. Nowhere has this been more evident to me than at the Learning technologies exhibition held in London, where there seems to be a very marked dichotomy between what is presented in conference and what is on sale in the exhibition space.

So, where are we going wrong, if we are? Is it that we are trying to take pre-packaged tools rather than design the learning experiences from scratch? Is it that we still design elearning from the point of view of a teacher or trainer rather than the learner? Is it, quite simply, that elearning is only an option when traditional teaching methods are not available? Or maybe the problem is that there's a darn cat sat on my computer? (see pic)

Quite honestly, I'd very much welcome any views or comments on this matter, either here in the comments or via twitter.

eLearning Startup Opportunities (elearningtech.blogspot.com)
Focus on the technology or not? (elearningstuff.net)
Mark Smithers: eLearning at Universities: A Quality Assurance Free Zone? " higher education management group (higheredcrm.wordpress.com)
Lectora Inspire eLearning Software Wins Bersin & Associates 2011 Learning Leaders Award for Product Innovation (prweb.com)
Traditional Learning without Frontiers! (elearningstuff.net)
E-Learning: The Product of a Risk Is a Lesson | American Libraries Magazine (americanlibrariesmagazine.org)
Collaborize Classroom - An Online Learning Platform (freetech4teachers.com)
Stories as instructional design technique for e-learning (sparkyourinterest.wordpress.com)

No sooner had I posted this article than I came across this post http://bit.ly/gVyusu which in part compares traditional learning in the HE sector with online learning. It presents a quite different point of view and is well worth reading.

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/e-learning-why-does-it-have-such-a-bad-name/

E-learning, Why does it have such a Bad Name?

2011-02-24T09:09:00.001Z

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Image by dougwoods via Flickr"][/caption]

E-learning is unpopular with learners, and not always popular with teachers, there can be little doubt about that but why should that be the case?

If you had the choice between studying a subject being taught by a teacher in the classroom or online via the internet, which would you choose?

Quite honestly, I'd very much welcome any views or comments on this matter, either here in the comments or via twitter.

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/e-learning-why-does-it-have-such-a-bad-name/

The Future of Teaching is Online

2011-02-08T10:47:00.001Z

I came across this article on the Mashable website which looked at the future of teaching. It is not often that you find an article about education on this site, so I was intrigued. The article is titled The Future of teaching, so I was doubly intrigued.

The article claims that research has shown that online teaching appears to be more effective than face-to-face teaching. My own experience of learning online would tend to disagree with that but let's hope that online tuition has improved, I'm sure it has, since my last experience of online learning.

The key message appears to be that online learning needs to be used in combination with other methods to be most effective. Well, I guess that is not a new or an earth shattering message.

However, I do feel that the article has a positive message for the future of education. It shows that online tuition can be effective and most certainly has a role to play in the future of education. For me., this is an important message as we move forward with Home Access. It not only tells us that online learning can be effective, it also emphasises that those learners without access are at a disadvantage.

Many of you will know that I have been involved in Becta's Home access programme. Articles like this only help reinforce my view that a successful implementation of home access is important for improving the learning outcomes for all learners.

The Future of Teaching is Online

2011-02-08T10:46:00.001Z

The key message appears to be that online learning needs to be used in combination with other methods to be most effective. Well, I guess that is not a new or an earth shattering message.

Retro Computing

2011-02-08T10:43:00.001Z

The key message appears to be that online learning needs to be used in combination with other methods to be most effective. Well, I guess that is not a new or an earth shattering message.

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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/the-future-of-teaching-is-online/

Retro Computing

2011-01-31T08:45:00.001Z

Image via Wikipedia

I have been using computers for most of my life yet I am still surprised at times by the concept of 'retro' computing. To me technology always still seems to be something new and I'm always on the look out for innovations and creative ideas. I guess this focusing on the new and the futuristic has blinded me to the history of computing and that may be why I'm surprised by the retro!

I am led to wonder though what the deal is with this 'retro' stuff. Is it simply a hankering for olden times when computing seemed simpler? Is it just a marketing ploy to try to make more money out of old ideas? Is it maybe a sign that we're running out of new ideas and so turn to the old? Or is my inner cynic right to think that it costs so much to develop new ideas that developers repackage old ones as a cheaper alternative? Well, I guess any one of those reasons could be right, at least in part, but does 'retro' serve any useful purpose?

In educational technology, we are not immune from the 'retro' movement. In the past, I have seen companies repackage old BBC Micro programs for the PC and I even had one company want to repackage my old 'Young Start" suite of programs. In the past, I've teased Terry Freedman about his use of the Livescribe pen which combines written notes with a laptop. I too have also been bitten by the retro bug and have been known to enthuse excitedly about the return of Bigtrak.

Even the ultra-trendy Mac computer is not immune to a bit of retro computing, it would seem. Announced at Macworld last year and with a new version for education announced this year, Papershow seems to bring to your mac a pen tool similar to Livescribe. Even Livescribe themselves have not been sitting still and have made available their newer Echo version of the livescribe pen.

The biggest and most pervasive example of retro computing is possibly the interactive whiteboard and projector.

The data projector really dates back to the slide projector or cine projector we used to have back in the early 1960s; it really is a dinosaur of technology and one that refuses to become extinct despite progress in display technology. It is, though, its partner, the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) to which I wish to turn in order to illustrate the possible usefulness of retro computing.

Why, though, do I class IWBs as 'retro' computing, after all we didn't have them back in the 1980s? Well, at a time when computing was moving schooling away from the teacher and the blackboard with its chalk and rubber (or the whiteboard and its marker pens), the interactive whiteboard took it right back there again. I don't want to dwell on the well worn arguments as to the usefulness or otherwise of IWBs, whether they are a good thing or a bad thing, or whether they took educational technology forwards or backwards.

I see IWBs as linking technology to existing practice. In other words, they took a technique or skill teachers were used to (writing and presenting on a board at the front of the class) and applied that to technology, or vice versa. Regardless of whether this is good practice or not, it brought technology to a wider range of teachers, many of whom will have since gone on to explore and use other technologies and other ways of using technology in education. This is an illustration of the power, or influence, of retro technology; it relates technology to existing practice and allows users to explore technology further and build upon their practice.

This is often far more effective than introducing something completely new to people and telling them they have to stop what they're doing or how they're doing it and do it a different way. By using technology that has a degree of familiarity, users are more accepting of it and perhaps more willing to explore new ways of using it; often leading themselves into changing the way in which they work.So while we may scoff or tease at things 'retro', let's not forget that they may be a path to newer things.
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1988: The Future Has Arrived! [Retro] (jalopnik.com)
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Retro-Futuristic Eco Design - 'Power Styling' Book Reveals Space-Age Concepts to Beautify the Grid (GALLERY) (trendhunter.com)
Outfitting 21st Century Classrooms with 21st Century Teachers (isteconnects.org)
Classic computers at retro festival (news.bbc.co.uk)
Retro/Oldschool Computer Tech Commercials (neatorama.com)
Technology Goes "Retro-Chic" with YUBZ (geardiary.com)
Vintage computers celebrated at Bletchley Park computer festival (news.bbc.co.uk)
Livescribe's Echo is a creative new take on the smartpen (venturebeat.com)
Vintage computers inspire next generation of scientists (news.bbc.co.uk)
The Need for a Common IWB Format (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
Retro Computer Ressurections - The Commodore 64 ss Back and Sexier Than Ever (VIDEO) (trendhunter.com)

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/retro-computing/

Thoughts back on BETT 2011

2011-01-28T19:50:00.003Z

I know, I know, I'm a bit late writing this but I wanted to let the dust settle and the heat to die down before putting my thoughts about this year's BETT show on paper (sic).

Owing to work commitments, I was only able to attend BETT on the first day this year. So what I have to say may not be fully representative of the show as a whole. My first impression of BETT is that there didn't seem to be as many people attending as in previous years, at least not on the day I was there. Mind you I seem to recall saying the same last year ... but then last year there was the snow to keep many people away. Perhaps people attending on other days may have had a different experience but I was certainly surprised by how thin the crowds were and how relatively easy it was to walk around the halls.

I have long had this theory that BETT shows come in cycles; one year there is a lot of innovation followed by a year of consolidation. Last year seemed, to me, to be a year of little innovation but a lot of consolidation. That is to say that last year there were few new products but many products that had been new the year before were now being shown as established products. So, if my theory were correct, this year should once more have been one of innovation; ... but no. I saw very little innovation at the show and quite a lot on consolidation again. Well, I guess that may well be due to the current economic climate and the uncertainty that clearly pervades the ICT in education arena.

Talking to people at the show, there was still a lot of fear and uncertainty regarding jobs and the future of ICT in schools, which is very sad because I recall the same being the case the previous year. Of course, with the closure of Becta and some commercial companies, there appears to be another round of redundancies about to hit. One thing that seemed very sad to me, and somewhat worrying, is that those people facing redundancy in this round do not appear, though this is a huge generalisation, to have learned from the previous round. That is to say, they still seem to feel that they can offer the same skills they always have and that someone will offer them a job. Well, maybe they will be lucky but the clearest message I can give anyone in educational ICT who faces redundancy is that their are many many people offering the same skills as you and many of those skills are not sought after at present; if you seek employment, please, please, please seek to equip yourself with new skills.

As many of you will know, I am quite active on Twitter. I first used twitter at BETT two years ago and there were only a few of us actively doing so. Then last year, twitter seemed to dominate the show with people tweeting each other what they'd discovered, their views on new (or old) products on show and, of course, the innovative teachmeet takeover, which was spread largely by twitter. This year, the twitter stream seemed quite quiet in comparison to last year, this was a surprise to me especially considering how many more people are now using twitter. There was, though, one quite clear big change in the twitter stream; there were more commercial companies using twitter to announce their products at BETT, to announce their demos, to call people to this stand or that stand. Maybe other twitterers, like me, got fed up with this.

So was BETT 2011 worth going to? Well, as I only had the time to attend for the first day it would be difficult for me to say one way or the other. As I had to travel home, I was unable to attend any of the events that surround BETT, such as the TED talks or the Teachmeet or MirandaMods and that I regretted. As last year, it does seem in many ways that these are the best bit of BETT. Yes, seeing any new and innovative products or services is good but sharing ideas and networking with fellows is far more important.

So, for me, I guess BETT was not the important event that it once used to be. For the days beforehand I had attended the Learning Without FRontiers Event and that was a far more significant event.
Related articles

BETT 2011 - a new dawn! (creativeict.typepad.com)
BETT 2011: Teachmeet Takeover (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
Teachmeet Takeover @ BETT 2011 (moodlea.blogspot.com)
BETT 2011 Review (mclear.co.uk)
TEDxOrenda 2011 @Bett (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
My personal BETT - Day 1 (ictineducation.org)
Another year, another BETT (ictineducation.org)

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/thoughts-back-on-bett-2011/

Thoughts back on BETT 2011

2011-01-28T19:50:00.001Z

I know, I know, I'm a bit late writing this but I wanted to let the dust settle and the heat to die down before putting my thoughts about this year's BETT show on paper (sic).

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/thoughts-back-on-bett-2011/

Going Back to the 19th Century ...

2011-01-21T12:33:00.001Z

Sometimes giving up and starting over again can be the best or only option but sometimes that simply is not an option.

At the 2011 Learning Without Frontiers conference, the delegates were exposed to the views of one presenter who quite openly seemed to advocate turning back the clock on education. Her argument was that if we regard the education at Eton College in the 19th Century as being the best, then we should seek to emulate that in the state sector for all pupils.

This sounds quite nonsensical to my mind. Who says that the education at Eton College in the 19th Century is the best? Is there anyone who seriously believes that 19th century education is appropriate for 21st century learners? Well, this particular presenter at LWF11 seemed to believe that.

Her argument was that all the technical innovation during the 20th century has had no improvement upon the education of pupils. Therefore we should turn back the clock and start again.

What utter nonsense! I can recall my days as a schoolboy back in the 1960s when we had very little in the way of what we now call educational technology. School broadcasts from the BBC on radio were still a novelty in my school. I can also recall when I was in my late twenties, learning about the work of Maurice and Katia Kraft. They were two intrepid volcanologists who seemed to get up to some, quite frankly, stupid things to get close and understand volcanic eruptions; often dressed in little more than what looked like tin foil. The point is that I learned about their work via a satellite television channel from Germany that was beamed into my house via cable. In my school days, we did not have satellite television, we had only 3 channels and we certainly could not watch TV from Germany. Imagine my surprise, only 3 or 4 years ago, to come across a group of 10 and 11 year olds who were studying the work of these two volcanologists. They weren't watching a TV programme from Germany, however, they were using computers to create essays about the Krafts, not any old laptop or desktop computer, mind you, they were using handheld computers and mobile devices to create their work.

So how on earth can anyone claim that educational technology has had no effect upon children's learning when there is clear evidence of the change and impact that it has had? Both myself and the group of primary age school kids had used technology to find out about the work of the Krafts but I had to wait until I was in my 20s to learn whereas the children learned about them when they were 11. I had to watch a passive TV programme, they used interactive and portable computing devices to create and share their learning. When I was 11, I would have had to rely upon the teacher telling me about volcanology or finding it in a text book!

No, it's quite a ridiculous thing to say that technology has had no impact upon pupils' learning. It is quite a ridiculous notion to say that 19th century education in Eton is something we should aspire to in the 21st century.

Quite frankly, for education, going back to the 19th century is not an option.
Related articles

Private school pupils vote for tradition and uniformity (independent.co.uk)
Steampunk and History (tor.com)

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/going-back-to-the-19th-century/

Going Back to the 19th Century ...

2011-01-21T12:26:00.001Z

Sometimes giving up and starting over again can be the best or only option but sometimes that simply is not an option.

Her argument was that all the technical innovation during the 20th century has had no improvement upon the education of pupils. Therefore we should turn back the clock and start again.

Quite frankly, going back to the 19th century is not an option.
Related articles

Private school pupils vote for tradition and uniformity (independent.co.uk)
Steampunk and History (tor.com)

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/going-back-to-the-19th-century/

Iris_Connect at Balby Carr

2010-11-29T11:22:00.001Z

The other day, I was invited up to Balby Car School for part of their Professional Learning Day. My interest was principally upon seeing how the school was using Iris_Connect, an innovative system for self-reflection, observation and professional development that the school had recently implemented.

Iris_Connect, for those of you not familiar with the system, is a service which supports teachers to implement reflective practice for the purpose of reviewing and improving their teaching. Using Iris, teachers can observe their own lessons or invite a colleague to observe a lesson and also add comments based upon the observation. This can be done in real time or by use of recordings. By being able to view recorded sessions, the system fress up schools from needing to arrange for observer(s) to be free at the same time as the teacher delivers the session. The flexibility of the Iris_Connect system is one of its benefits in schools along with potential cost savings.

At Balby Carr, the initiative was being led by Matthew and Lisa, two very enthusiatic teachers. They had been using the system for a while themselves and had clearly been seeing the benefits of it, they had also got a number of other staff to use the system, they too had very positive experiences of it. The Professional Learning Day was the opportunity for Matthew and Lisa to introduce the system to the wider staff and to allow them to have some experience of it. For the day, a few staff had pre-recorded lessons so that other staff could see how easy it was to observe and add comments about the lessons. The system itself is easy to use and staff were impressed that comments they made were timne-linked and so could be clearly asociated with specific points or incidencies within the lesson.

After some workgroup sessions, the staff were invited to submit their comments about Iris_Connect and how it might be used in the school. These comments were divided into 'hot' and 'not'. It was very refreshing to see that the overwhelming majority of comments were in the 'hot' category and nearly all the 'not' were not really negative points but were people expressing worries or anxieties, almost all of which could be easily addressed. So overall it was a very positive 'thumbs up' for the Iris_Connect system.

I stated earlier on that Iris_Connect can be used for self relection or observation by others. Matthew and Lisa, very rightly in my opinion, emphasised to staff that it is probably best to start with self-observation. This is important to my mind because Iris_Connect is primarily about reflective practice; the ability of teachers to observe their own lessons or their own practice, to observe and acknowledge what went right as well as anything that may have gone wrong, with a view to strengthening their skills and improving their teaching.

I think it is also important to start with self-observation because Iris_Connect is seen primarily as a tool for teachers to use. It is important, therefore, that teachers feel comfortable in using it, feel that they own whatever product or benefit that comes from using it and feel at liberty to use the system in support of their own professional development. It is also often true that when a person first starts to use a system such as Iris_Connect to observe their own practice, they are likely to be critical of their performance; this is human nature and it is usually things we may not like that we observe first, it is only when we become used to such a system that we can start to effectively use it to observe our positive practices.

In all, I had a great and positive day at Balby Carr and I am grateful to the staff at the school for allowing me to share in their professionalism.
Related articles

Reflecting on Reflection (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
Iris Connect - lesson observation with video (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
Reflective Practice and Teacher Development

If you would like to know more about Iris Connect, their website is www.irisconnect.co.uk

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/iris_connect-at-balby-carr/

Iris_Connect at Balby Carr

2010-11-29T11:20:00.001Z

In all, I had a great and positive day at Balby Carr and I am grateful to the staff at the school for allowing me to share in their professionalism.
Related articles

Reflecting on Reflection (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
Iris Connect - lesson observation with video (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
Reflective Practice and Teacher Development

If you would like to know more about Iris Connect, their website is www.irisconnect.co.uk

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/iris_connect-at-balby-carr/

OneNote : A Learners' Tool

2010-11-17T12:39:00.001Z

Image via Wikipedia

If your school or organisation has invested in Microsoft Office, especially the 2010 suite, the chances are you are not making full use of the programs. I would go further and say that there is probably one program that you have hardly looked at or used in class. You may be surprised to learn that I am not talking about either MS Access or Publisher. The program I am talking about is called OneNote.

OneNote is, essentially, a note taking program. As such, it is perfectly placed for the education sector and is potentially an important tool for learners. Thus, it would be a great shame, having invested time and money in the Microsoft Office Suite, for this program to be overlooked.

Using OneNote, each student can create a 'notebook' into which they can add sections and pages. On each page, the learner can write their notes. These notes can consist of;

Typed notes
Pasted text
Images
Audio notes
Video notes
Attached files

Furthermore, if the pasted text or image has been copied from a website, the URL of the page is also copied across. This is useful when it comes to revision as the learner can check back with the site for updates or further information, it is also useful for essay writing as the URL can be used in any reference section.

The ability to add audio and/or video notes is a very useful feature. It obviously has uses for SEN pupils who may lack the ability to type and also those learners for whom text or language may be a barrier.

The ability to integrate with Internet Explorer (a third-party addon is available for FireFox) means that information from websites can easily be copied and referenced.

Notes (pages, sections or whole notebooks) can be exported in a variety of formats, noteably Word and PDF formats. Sections or pages can also be exported in OneNotes own format, meaning that they could be created by students or by teachers and then made available to learners to share or add into their own notebooks. In this way, a teacher could create learning plans, guidelines or a page of resources for the learners to add and use in their own OneNote notebooks.

Each learner's OneNote notebook appears to be linked to their login or username. Hence, their own notebook can be immediately available when they login to the system from any computer. However, notebooks can be saved almost anywhere, such as on the web, on a SharePoint server or locally on 'My Computer'.

Although a user can create many notebooks, essentially they need only create one and add sections for each subject, topic or project area. If they do create additional notebooks, then these are usually appended to their main notebook and can be easily accessed and notes linked or cross-referenced.

It has long been recognised that note-taking is an important part of both learning and revision. It has only been quite recent that computer software has become readily available to aid learners in making notes. While there are now a number of applications on the market for making notes, the position of OneNote within the MS Office suite puts it in a good position, especially where an institution has already invested in the Microsoft product.

In use, I do find some aspects of OneNote to be a bit 'clunky' and it is to be hoped that updates toi the program will make it a bit more easy or 'fluid' in its use. It is, however, a program that has a lot of potential to support learners and I would recommend schools and organisations to investigate its use.

To help you get started in using or exploring OneNote, I have created a pdf document, which can be viewed or downloaded from here .
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/onenote-a-learners-tool/

Reflective Practice and Teacher Development

2010-11-09T16:35:00.001Z

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Sometimes it's best to see yourself through the eyes of others.

I have to admit that, as a teacher, I used to hate being observed. Which was strange because I could always be very critical of my own teaching and my own performance as viewed with hindsight by myself. Having someone else view my teaching was, however, more intimidating.

I think the point was that when someone else was observing me, I no longer felt in control of the situation. The lesson and its setting was often artificially contrived either to show off the best or to avoid the worst of my teaching. Even just having someone else in the room would have an effect upon the pupil behaviour. I think, though, the bottom line was that I rarely felt that the observer was there in a supportive role; they were usually there to catch me out or there to support their subject agenda.

I daresay that no everyone feels the same about being observed. There are certainly positive benefits to be gained from having someone observe your teaching. An independent eye may often pick up things you may not notice yourself, they may notice things you did not even feel were an issue. Even if the independent observer does notice the same things you have noticed yourself, having someone else notice them tends to give them more weight or significance. Having someone else notice things makes them more difficult to ignore or push to one side, as you might be tempted to do yourself.

Of course, any observer is there, hopefully, not just to notice the negative things but also to report to you on the positive aspects of your teaching. Positive things which, again, you yourself may not have noticed or thought worthy of note. Yet positive aspects are ones that you can contribute to the school and maybe help influence the teaching of colleagues.

Despite all the possible benefits of observation, it is still usually the case that the teacher does not feel in charge of the event. Could this be changed by the teacher inviting a colleague to observe a lesson? How many of us have done that? In such an arrangement, wouldn't the teacher be in a better position and the observer, having accepted the invitation, be in a supportive role rather than merely carrying out a duty? If the teacher not only invited a colleague to observe a lesson but also invited the observer to comment upon particular aspects of their teaching, wouldn't this be a more professional and beneficial use of lesson observation?

In a traditional observation arrangement, the observer observes a teacher and at a later time feeds back to that teacher. Couldn't we utilise technology in some way to enable the observer to feedback to the teacher in real time and perhaps suggest changes to try while a lesson is in progress? Sure, we would not want to disrupt the lesson more than necessary but what I have in mind is some form of audio feedback perhaps via an earpiece or maybe text feedback to a teacher's laptop. Similar, I guess to being a TV presenter?

While on the subject of a TV presenter, many of us do not like being in front of a video camera and we would certainly not regard ourselves as presenters. Nevertheless, videoing a session, instead of or in addition to physical observation, can also have great benefit in affecting teaching performance. A simple video camera stood in the corner of a room or maybe even in the hands of pupils, can provide a fascinating insight into one's teaching even without any added commentary or feedback. It can also be used to provide ongoing records of improvement or changes for the teacher and maybe even provide some evidence of the effectiveness, or otherwise, of such changes.

For me, the key in all of this is that the teacher should be in charge of all of it. It is used as part of their reflective practice and ongoing development more than as an intrusion imposed upon them.
Related articles

Iris Connect - lesson observation with video (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
Struggling teachers can improve by watching great teachers in action (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
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Schools that go it alone do best - report (guardian.co.uk)
IRIS Connect
How does IRIS Connect work

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/reflective-practice-and-teacher-development/

Reflective Practice and Teacher Development

2010-11-09T16:34:00.001Z

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Sometimes it's best to see yourself through the eyes of others.

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/reflective-practice-and-teacher-development/

Reflective Practice and Teacher Development

2010-11-09T14:04:00.001Z

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Sometimes it's best to see yourself through the eyes of others.

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/reflective-practice-and-teacher-development/

OneNote : A Learners' Tool

2010-11-08T16:08:00.001Z

Image via Wikipedia

Using OneNote, each student can create a 'notebook' into which they can add sections and pages. On each page, the learner can write their notes. These notes can consist of;

Typed notes
Pasted text
Images
Audio notes
Video notes
Attached files

The ability to integrate with Internet Explorer (a third-party addon is available for FireFox) means that information from websites can easily be copied and referenced.

To help you get started in using or exploring OneNote, I have created a pdf document, which can be viewed or downloaded from here .
Related articles

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/onenote-a-learners-tool/

Speak To Me (Speech Recognition and the Computer)

2010-10-25T12:18:00.001+01:00

Image via Wikipedia

talking to your computer may sound like a strange thing to do, though many of us at times may have resorted to swearing at the devices every now and again.

What I am talking about however is speech recognition. This involves getting the computer to recognise human speech and turn it into text on the screen or commands for the computer to perform.

You may have seen adverts for NaturallySpeaking on the TV or in the press and, like me, being intrigued. I will admit that I first tried speech recognition many years ago and found it to be, how shall I say, quite a pain. Back in those days the software and hardware were both quite crude and unreliable and, quite frankly, speech recognition simply did not work.

I've been tempted however to give speech recognition another go. I have always felt that there would be a place for speech recognition not just in business but also in education, particularly special education. So I wanted to see if the advances in hardware and software has helped to make speech recognition much more usable nowadays.

Let's start by saying that you still need patience, and a lot of patience, to set up speech recognition on your computer. Setting up NaturallySpeaking on my desktop computer took the best part of a whole day. This is because the software is always in the large takes a long time to simply install. Once you have installed it is a need to do some training, by which I mean, train your computer. Thankfully, however, there is no need to change your computer and the extent of a few years ago, NaturallySpeaking has a large vocabulary of words it already recognises.

This is a vast improvement over my experiences of a few years ago, though you still have to train it to recognise your accent and pronounciation.This is made a little easier in that it seems to be able to scan your documents and emails to learn common phrases you use.

So far, apart from the time spent installing the program, the biggest hurdle seems to be that over just a short time, the microphone, or the software, loses sensitivity. This means that, after an initially promising start, the software starts making mistakes or is constantly prompting you to 'say that again'. I don't know why this seems to happen but it really is a bit of a pain.
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Nuance Unveils Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 11, Simply Smarter Speech Recognition (eon.businesswire.com)
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A Primer for Setting Up Voice Recognition on Your Computer [UltraNewb] (lifehacker.com)
Windows 7's Accessibility Features Part III (lockergnome.com)

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/speak-to-me-speech-recognition-and-the-computer/

The Best and Most Rewarding Job?

2010-10-13T17:52:00.001+01:00

Image via Wikipedia

You'd think that working with children and young people, helping them learn, grow and develop would be one of the best and most rewarding of jobs. Yet often it isn't. Just ask any teacher about the stress, the long hours, the pressures of working in a school and you'll begin to wonder if there isn't someting wrong with our education system.

Dig a little deeper, though, and you'll uncover more of the story. Teachers will tell you that it isn't working with the pupils that's the problem; it's all the extra bits! By which they usually mean the paper work, the long hours spent in school and at home on preparation or marking. This has long been the case in education but has it got any worse over the years and what role does technology play in this?

I believe that technology is both an aid and a culprit when we look into teacher stress. Let me give you an example, take lesson planning; lesson planning takes time, it takes time to identify the aims, objectives and outcomes of a lesson, to identify and plan the use of resources, to set evaluation and success criteria, to identify differentiation etc.. Using a computer may make it easier to draw up lesson plans in a common format or template, printing a lesson plan may well be easier than writing it out by hand but does this mean it takes less time to create a lesson plan? Not really, it is the thinking and the planning that goes into a good lesson plan that takes time rather than the writing, so typing and printing saves only a small amount of time compared to writing by hand.

So why, then, do we expect teachers to write more detailed lesson plans? By using computers, we are often asking teachers to spend longer doing lesson plans than they used to. Ironic isn't it?

Some people, and I am not one of them, believe that the purpose of ICT in schools is to make admin tasks quicker and easier for teachers so that they can devote more time to teaching and learning. This may sound good but what is happening is that teachers are being asked to do more and more admin tasks that take them away from teaching and learning.

Few teachers come into the profession, if it can still be called a profession, to do paper work. Teachers are not office workers and should not be regarded as such. The professional teacher is concerned with pupil learning, getting the best out of their pupils. Professional teachers welcome technology into the classroom where it has a clear benefit for learning and that, I feel, should be the focus of using technology in schools.

I'm sure that if we focused our efforts in using technology in support of learning rather than emphasising its role in school administration, we could once again see a happy workforce of teachers and also see learners benefiting from working with happy school staff.
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Would More Time in the Classroom Help Our Education System? (triplepundit.com)
About My Job: The Teacher (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
What Teachers Learn (socyberty.com)
Pupils do better at school if teachers are not fixated on test results (guardian.co.uk)
Does skills-based learning face a lean future? (guardian.co.uk)
Young, gifted and likely to suffer for it (guardian.co.uk)

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/the-best-and-most-rewarding-job/

The Real Purpose of ICT in Schools

2010-10-11T15:23:00.001+01:00

I don't think anyone could deny that ICT or Educational Technology is a very versatile tool for schools.

If I were to ask you to list all the ways in which technology is used in your school, you'd come up with a list as long as your arm. Perhaps, I should rephrase that to read 'the ways in which technology could be used in your school' because I think it's almost certain that few of us use the technology to its full capability.

Among the uses that you might mention, could be;

Writing reports,
preparing lesson plans,
monitoring attendance,
collecting data on pupils,
measuring progress
assessing pupils' ability
writing letters to parents
creating policy documents, schemes of work etc.

all of which are very valid roles and tasks for the computer but they are not what the technology was originally put into schools for

When we first started putting computers into schools, we did not put them in to help teachers create reports and plans, we did not put them in to monitor and assess pupil progress, they were not even put in for teachers to use!

Computers were first put into schools to help pupils learn and, I would argue, this remains the prime reason for having computers in schools.

Yet, we seem to be in danger of forgetting this.

Too often, we see eduction technology discussed on an institutional level with its network infrastructures or as an administrative tool with its bloat of office software and services or as a 'teachers' tool with its aids for preparation, planning and lesson delivery. All of these have their place in schools but they do not always serve the prime role of schools, which is to educate pupils. Why is it that we feel it is right for every teacher in a school to have a laptop but not every pupil?

Even at times when we discuss how technology can help learning, it turns into a debate into how teachers can use the technology rather than the learners.

I hear people criticise schools because they have not used ICT to help save money. Yet saving money has never been the purpose behind putting ICT into schools. By all means criticise schools if they fail to utilise the technology for learning; that, learning, is the main purpose of a school. Criticise schools where money may not have been spent wsisely or correctly but please don't criticise schools for not using ICT to save money when that was never the purpose of it.

At this time, schools, like everyone else (perhaps more than anyone else), are feeling the brunt of government cutbacks in spending and there is obviously concern as to how money, what money there may be, can be spent wisely. At such times as this, I feel schools need to refocus their attention on their core business; which is the education of learners. No matter what economic climate we live in, people expect schools to provide learning and that will be the criterion by which schools will be judged rather than their ability to maintain overblown network and administrative infrastructures.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/the-real-purpose-of-ict-in-schools/

Getting Rid of the ICT Suite

2010-10-05T10:37:00.001+01:00

Image via Wikipedia

A couple of primary schools I've visited recently have both taken the decision to remove their ICT suites. This seems like a good idea, as you may know, I am not a great fan of the ICT suite (see this post). In the case of these two schools, though, the removal of the suites was not part of a planned process, they were removed out of necessity and in some haste; either because the school found itself short of classrooms or 'natural' damage (flood) meant the suite could no longer be used.

In both cases, and I'm sure in many others, the school had to look to alternatives to deliver its ICT provision. In both these cases (as, I'm sure, in others), the school opted for a banks of laptops and netbooks. Interestingly, both schools have procured two banks of laptops and netbooks with portable charging trolleys to replace one ICT suite. This has had the immediate benefit that two classes can make use of technology at the same time instead on just the one at a time that could use the old suite.

However, it has been the netbooks that have caused problems. I am not certain but I very strongly suspect that the schools purchased the netbooks because they appeared to be a cheaper version of the laptops. Big Mistake! I have nothing against netbooks but I do firmly believe that they are not laptop replacements. To use netbooks effectively requires careful planning and changes to the ways in which ICT is used.

Superficially, a netbook looks like a slimmed down laptop but it is not. Currently, a netbook has less memory and storage than a laptop, it has less power (and lower battery consumption) and lacks an optical (CD or DVD) drive. It relies far more than a laptop upon a wireless connection to access resources and services on a network (LAN or Internet), hence the term 'net'book. If you wish to make effective use of netbooks, then you need first to ensure your wireless infrastructure is suitable for the job.

I accept that a netbook is more easily portable than a laptop and that its smaller size and lower weight may make it more suitable for younger learners. However, it would be quite wrong to see a netbook as being a laptop for younger pupils. A netbook is an item of educational technology in its own right and can be suitable for learners of any age or stage of education, it is probably better to regard it as a more portable and, certainly, a more 'personal' device.

So what can we learn from the experiences seen in these two schools?

First of all, replacing an ICT suite (or any major change in ICT provision) needs to be carefully planned and prepared,

Secondly, netbooks are not straightforward replacements for desktop or laptop devices

Thirdly, netbooks are not suitable only for infant or younger learners

Fourthly, adopting and using netbooks requires a full rethink and planning in how ICT is used in a school

and Fifthly, if you want to use netbooks or laptops, first ensure your wireless provision is adequate

Let me also add another question; should the school be continuing to provide this kit or should it be enabling the pupils to provide and use their own kit?
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/getting-rid-of-the-ict-suite/

Technology Not Doing What it Should be Doing?

2010-10-05T08:18:00.001+01:00

I had a laugh yesterday, I shouldn't have done because the guy was quite serious but ...

What caused me to laugh was a post on a forum about ICT in schools and why some teachers weren't using it. The comment was made that sometimes technology doesn't do what it is supposed to do and this led to some teachers not using it.

It was that bit about technology not doing what it is supposed to do, that made me laugh. I know what he means, I know exactly what he means but it does make it sound like the technology is being a naughty child. It does raise questions about peoples' understanding and their relationship with technology. The technology does what it does; that may not be what you want it to do or what you expect it to do but it is, unless it is broken, what you are telling it to do!

I recall my early days in school, then if a teacher was faced with someone who didn't do what they were supposed to do, the teacher had two options; they could stand them in the corner and ignore them, or they could give detention after school and make them do it properly.

In the case of technology, it seems in some classes, the same two options still apply!
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/technology-not-doing-what-it-should-be-doing/

Three Sides of E-Safety

2010-10-01T16:44:00.001+01:00

Image via Wikipedia

There is a lot of talk and discussion regarding e-safety, and rightly so. It is, however, an area that is more complex than you might imagine. There are many sides to the debate and your approach to it would, I guess, vary according to your role or position within education. To my mind, e-safety is about three things in particular;

1. protecting the user

2. protecting data

3. protecting the system

Protecting the user. I think many of us would say that this would be the most important of the 3 items on the list, especially where the user is a child. To my mind, though, e-safety is not just about protecting the child; e-safety is about safe and effective use by all users. While I can accept that technical methods, such as monitoring and filtering, may have a role to play in this, I am not convinced that the right approach is to rely upon technological devices to ensure safety. It does seem to me that e-safety for the user lies more in understanding the issues involved and adopting practices to avoid or prevent such issues. It is primarily an education issue rather than a technical one. We always have to remember that each user does not have access to technology in school but also in the home and in the workplace after school; safe practice taught in school can be carried across into home, work and mobile environments. The danger is that in school we could rely too heavily upon technical defences which are not present elsewhere and, thereby, ironically put vulnerable users at greater risk.

Protecting the data. School systems, nowadays, contain a lot of data regarding learners (and staff) much of which could be regarded as 'sensitive'. This data can be important to each school and needs to be kept secure from prying eyes and unauthorised manipulation or corruption. As the data is stored electronically, there is a legal requirment to conform to data protection legislation.I'm sure we would all object if the data were to be lost, stolen or misused in any way, we therefore accept the need for security in this area. There should be no reason, however, for the security measures implemented in this area to inhibit the normal educational use of the technologies.

Protecting the system. The cynic inside me says that all too often this aspect of e-safety tends to dominate all others. Pupils and users are often prevented from using computers in various ways not because of their own safety but because of the need to protect the network. I once saw an article on a company website that claimed it had installed a network in a school with sufficient protection to guard against malicious pupils or enthusiastic teachers; the sad thing is, they were not joking!

Of course there needs to be protection for the system against viruses, trojans and other malware but this shouldn't mean preventing the user from accessing websites and services for educational uses. I also think we should question whether sites or services should be blocked 'en masse' where only a portion of their content could be regarded as 'undesireable'.

Basically, all-in-all, it comes down to a question of for whom and for what purpose is the technology to be used. Is it to be used for education, in which case the educational needs of the learners and staff should take priority? If it is not being used for education, ... well, then I think it would have a hard job justifying its existence in a scho0l. For each of us involved in ICT, the challenge of e-safety is to enable the effective use of technology for the benefit of education while maintaining and respecting the security of the systems we use. Let me rephrase that, the challenge for each of us in a school is to enable the effective use of technology for education while respecting the security of the systems we use; I do not believe e-safety is the sole preserve of the ICT department or the network team.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/three-sides-of-e-safety/

Three Sides of E-Safety

2010-09-30T09:07:00.001+01:00

Image via Wikipedia

1. protecting the user

2. protecting data

3. protecting the syatem

Own Your Space - Internet Safety and Security eBook from Microsoft (olliebray.typepad.com)
Do we do, or do we don't? (digital-teacher.co.uk)

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/three-sides-of-e-safety/

Three Sides of E-Safety

2010-09-30T09:06:00.001+01:00

Image via Wikipedia

1. protecting the user

2. protecting data

3. protecting the syatem

Own Your Space - Internet Safety and Security eBook from Microsoft (olliebray.typepad.com)
Do we do, or do we don't? (digital-teacher.co.uk)

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/three-sides-of-e-safety/

Let's Take the Children out of E-Safety

2010-09-23T15:56:00.001+01:00

The other day, I was talking to a friend and fellow teacher about e-safety. Which I guess may make us a bit 'sad' in that we cannot find anything other than education and tech to talk about in our spare time!

Anyway, in this conversation I recall saying that we didn't have e-safety in my day. That not only made me sound like an old man but it also made me think what we used to have when I was a pupil. The nearest thing I could think of was Road Safety.

At that point, something suddenly clicked in my head, thankfully it wasn't too serious do I didn't have to see a doctor. It's important to teach road safety so that children know how to avoid having accidents in the road. However, the effects of being run down by a vehicle on the road are much the same, serious injury or death, whether you are an adult or a child. Even adults have to observe road safety if they want to stay alive.

Surely the same applies to e-safety? The adverse effects of internet use can affect adults as well as children, so surely any e-safety policy and practices in a school should apply to adults just as much as to children? Surely, too, e-safety doesn't only apply while in school, it must be true when working on computers from home or when mobile? So why is it that we consider e-safety to be something we just teach children?

Now, you may say, that adults have free will or freedom of choice and can choose to ignore e-safety advice if they wish. Well, that might be true but surely if they are going to choose to ignore it, they still need to know or be aware of the potential dangers?
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/lets-take-the-children-out-of-e-safety/

Why Open Source Will Fail Schools

2010-09-23T08:14:00.001+01:00

Image by Extra Ketchup via Flickr

Why Open Source will fail schools; I know that's a silly thing to say but, hopefully, some of you will have been drawn here by the title.

It cannot have escaped your notice that we are in a recession and that finances are tight. It cannot also have escaped your notice that supporters of Open Source software have been shouting loudly that Open Source software can save schools money. Strictly speaking, I guess that should be that Free or Free and Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) can help save schools money.

They're right, of course, using free Open Source software in place of commercial software can save schools money.

Which brings me back to the title of this post. I believe that Open Source software will fail schools if the only reason for deploying it or using it is that it saves money. The purpose of a school is not to save money, the purpose of a school is not to waste money, schools should spend money wisely and account for all expenditure; but even that is not the purpose of a school. The primary purpose of a school is to educate its pupils.

What schools need are the resources to enable it to fulfill its primary purpose. In terms of ICT or technology, that means that schools need the hardware, software and services that are best suited to enable it to deliver effective education to its pupils.

Just because a product is 'free' does not mean it is the best product for the job: just because something costs money (a lot of money) does not mean it is the best product for the job. Schools need to be able to judge for themselves which product best fits their need and how much weight to give to different criteria, including cost, when making their choice. In order to do this, I believe that Open Source software should be presented alongside commercial software on an equal basis and on a 'level playing field', (something which has rarely happened in the past), so that schools can be better placed to make their choice.

It is my firm belief that at times Open Source software is the better choice; even maybe the only choice. Equally, there are times when a commercial package is the best choice. In the current financial situation I believe the onus is upon suppliers of commercial software to offer their products to schools in the spirit of 'education' rather than in the spirit of profiteering.

I believe that Open Source providers have an advantage in that their products can sometimes be tailored more to fit the particular needs of a school and that sometimes developers may be willing to develop new material specifically for schools; this, too would present a challenge to commercial software providers whose 'bottom line' is their profits. It is a concern, though, that these advantages of Open Source are not being presented at the forefront but that its supporters are apparently not looking further than the potential financial savings.

So, having drawn some of you to this post by the outrageous headline, what conclusions can be reached at the end? I believe the following conclusions are valid;

Schools should keep in mind, as a priority, that their primary purpose is to educate and that services and resources should be best employed which support that purpose
Open Source and commercial products or services should be presented on an equal basis, with all costs, advantages and disadvantages presented openly to schools
That all suppliers and schools should be prepared to work cooperatively to deploy and develop services that are in the schools' interests
That all suppliers should be prepared to offer their products or services in support of education rather than with a view to 'making a quick profit'.

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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/why-open-source-will-fail-schools/

Thoughts on Game Based Learning

2010-09-20T09:50:00.001+01:00

There was a lot to inspire at the 2010 Game Based Learning Conference, it was a shame it was only 2 days as I would have loved to have heard more from many of the presenters.

GBL

I take the view that games have always had a place in learning, so why not computer games? I guess too many people, when they think of a computer game, think of the violent war-like games that proliferate. However, as this conference showed, there is a far wider range of computer game available, many of which are suitable for education. For me, though, the bottom line comes down to having trust and faith in the teacher, can we simply not trust the teacher not to include an 'unsuitable' game in their teaching?

The term 'game' covers a wide multitude of genres from simple noughts and crosses type games (tic-tac-toe) through to complex simulations. There is clearly a wide variety of games which can be considered for their educational use. A further point that came across in the conference is that we should not just consider 'educational' games or games written especially for the educational market; commercial games too must be considered. The commercial game often has power to engage users in exciting storylines and game play that draws the learner in.

However, we should always remember that engagement is not the same as learning. A pupils may be engaged in a game or activity but they may not necessarily be learning from it. Engagement is, however, often a pre-requisite or pre-cursor to learning and anything such as computer games that bring about engagement should be welcomed. I feel the work of Dawn Hallybone and Derek Robertson demonstrate quite clearly how games can be used to generate learning and how that learning is taken away from the computer screen and into the classroom or other learning environments.

I was intrigued by the presentation by Massimilliano Andreoletti in which he showed the different way in which young learners and adults engage in game play. The young learners adopted a more collaborative and participatory style while the adults adopted a more autonomous and individualistic style. This was intriguing and could have implications for web2.0 learning in general and , perhaps, shows the discrepancy between adult and young person learning. It is unclear, though, whether this is a difference between the generations or a maturational factor. However, it would seem to suggest that success for young learners comes about more through collaboration and sharing than through competition.

Overall, I found all the presenters at the conference had something significant to say or offer to the delegates, true, some presenters were better at presenting than others. I wouldn't like to pick out one presenter more than others but as well as those I have already mentioned, I must make mention of Gill Penny who demonstrated the work her pupils had been doing, Tim Rylands for his usual excellence in engaging the audience, Ollie Bray, Derek Robertson and all from the Consolarium team for demonsdtrating how Scotland is leading the field in this area, and Jesse Schell for his uplifting closing speech.

What I find most interesting is the way the iPod Touch has become a gaming device. This little device is already a fantastic tool for handheld learning but now it has a wide number of game apps. Sure, not all will be suitable for educational use but that is equally true for all other devices. Where I think the iPod touch scores well is that apps generally are reasonably priced, however, where it falls down is that there is no preview or try before you buy facility on iTunes store unless you are fortunate enough to be able to download a free version then upgrade to a paid version.

For me, the Nintendo DS remains a disappointment. Even with its enlarged screen and new stylus, it still looks very plasticky, the graphics to my mind are generally unappealing and the price of games is ridiculous!

I do use a Wii at home, which also has poor graphics but is sold on its motion sensor and, let's be honest, is good fun. I would not recommend accessing the internet on it though.

What I'd really love to see, though, would be a games console with a handheld device so that you can play a game at home, then continue it on your handheld.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/thoughts-on-game-based-learning/

iPods, iPads and SEN Learners

2010-09-14T13:30:00.001+01:00

Some of you will know that I used to be an SEN teacher and I still maintain an interest in using ICT to teach Special Needs learners. My attention was, therefore, drawn to a website that claimed to have information on using ipod touches and ipads with SEN learners. The work was based over in the United States, so one problem I anticipated might be that some of the apps they employed could not be available here in the UK, also, where the apps were being charged for, there would need to be some small conversion in currency necessary.

What I hadn't expected was that there would be some technical problems viewing the information! On the website there are links to 3 presentations on the use of the devices in Special Education settings, unfortunately it was not possible to download the presentations and viewing them seemed slow. So what I eventually decided to do was to view each slide and take a screen capture of it and then place it in a PowerPoint presentation; at the same time I'd update the prices and availability in for the UK. I know, I know, it was all rather crude but it did seem to me that the presentations had some very useful information which would be well worth sharing. I also would like to congratulate the authors in their work identifying the various apps available.

What has surprised me, though, and with some annoyance are the charges being made for these apps. There seem to be only a few free apps in the selection and some seem to cost a small fortune. I am not against people earning a living but on the other hand we are talking about the needs of some of our most vulnerable members of society, surely they are entitled to free apps as much as mainstream learners? Anyway, I'll leave you to make your own decisions on that matter.

I have managed to update the first presentation here

and the second one is here

The third part is here

What I like about these presentations is that they clearly show that handheld devices can be of use in Special Education and for special needs pupils in mainstream establishments. Obviously, not all the apps in these presentations will be appropriate for each pupil or even each establishment but these presentations do give some justification for special educators to consider using these devices with their pupils.

I've only been able to download and test a few of the apps; the free ones, of course. They seem to work as well as you'd expect them to. I have only been able to use them on an ipod touch (3rd gen) and I would suspect that for some learners the small size of the device and the close proximity of the icons in some apps might be a problem. I do not have a ipad but the larger form factor might make this more suitable for many special needs learners. However, one thing that does strike me about the ipad is that it looks awkward or cumbersome to carry and use and this might be a problem in some circumstances. Nevertheless, either device could be held in the hand, placed on a desk or attached to a chair or wheelchair; making them quite versatile.

If you use any of the apps here or use the ipod touch or ipad in any way with special needs learners, please contact me; I would be really grateful to hear about your work and pass it on to others.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/ipods-ipads-and-sen-learners/

iPods, iPads and SEN Learners

2010-09-14T13:22:00.001+01:00

I have managed to update the first presentation here

and the second one is here

The third part is here
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/ipods-ipads-and-sen-learners/

iPods, iPads and SEN Learners

2010-09-14T09:40:00.001+01:00

I have managed to update the first presentation here

and the second one is here

The third part will appear shortly.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/ipods-ipads-and-sen-learners/

iPods, iPads and SEN Learners

2010-09-14T09:39:00.001+01:00

I have managed to update the first presentation here

and the second one is here

The third part will appear shortly.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/ipods-ipads-and-sen-learners/

iPods, iPads and SEN Learners

2010-09-14T09:38:00.001+01:00

I have managed to update the first presentation here

and the second one is here

The third part will appear shortly.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/ipods-ipads-and-sen-learners/

iPods, iPads and SEN Learners

2010-09-14T09:36:00.001+01:00

I have managed to update the first presentation here

and the second one is here

The third part will appear shortly.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/ipods-ipads-and-sen-learners/

Thinking of Buying a new Smartphone

2010-09-13T15:17:00.003+01:00

Image via CrunchBase

I'm thinking of buying a new smartphone. The one I have at the moment runs Windows Mobile 6 and I think I've suffered enough.

What smartphone should I go for, though? I very much like the clean lines of the iPhone and I've been seduced into Apple products by my ipod Touch 3rd Gen and my Macbook, do I really need an iphone and an ipod touch, though? Then there's the range of Android phones, particularly at the moment, those made by HTC or there's the prospect of the new Windows Phone 7 (or whatever they call it). Or there's always the Blackberry range but these, I am led to believe, are really just for email and not the browsing and app playing that I really enjoy.

Apple's image has been tarnished by the iphone 4 fiasco, which is perhaps why the Android operating system is gaining ground. The trouble is with Android, it seems thefre are just too many versions of it floating around in the market; 1.6,2.1, and 2.2. Naturally, if I'm buying a new phone I want one with the latest version ... but the adverts don't always tell you what version each device is running or whether it will be/can be updated. Add to that, the fact that phone companies here in the UK tend to add on their own features or branding, which I sometimes don't want and which, I've found, often prevents updating; witness the recent problems with Vodafone and O2 in updating the HTC Desire.

Another problem with buying smartphones, or any mobile phone for that matter, is that the manufacturers seem to be constantly bringing out new versions and new features. Do we really need a new model to be released every two months or so? One thing you can almost be sure about with Apple is that your phone is only likely to look out of date once during a year. That of course depends upon when you buy your Apple phone, it could be 12, 11, 6 or 1 month before the new one comes out but with other manufacturers your phone is likely to have been surpassed 3 or 4 times over by the end of a year.

So there's Apple and there's Android to choose from. Then, soon to be arriving, there could be Windows Phone 7. I've seen sneak previews of this on video and, not that I can see much, it seems good; certainly better than windows mobile 6. So should I wait for Windows Phone 7 devices to become available? Well, I've used Windows Mobile 6 for long enough and, as I've already said, I think I've suffered enough.

Another thing I don't like about the Apple phones is the use of a new micro-sim card. I'm quite happy with my Sim card; it's probably the one part of my phone that gives me the least problems. Why should I have to change to a new format sim card? That just seems like a way of trapping me in to one manufacturer's range.

Then there's the thing that really gets me. That's the tariffs. The only reason I have kept on with my current phone for the past year and a bit is that they allow me a no contract monthly tariff that gives me a really good deal on calls, texts and data. I'm talking a couple of thousand texts a month and unlimited data; while still giving me change from £20 each month. It seems, though that if I get a new phone I will probably have to have a new tariff and one that will probably cost me more than £20 a month (even if I pay for the phone outright) and almost certainly not give me the unlimited data I wish.

So Android, Apple or another or ... heaven forbid ... should I struggle with my old phone for a while longer?

I want to throw in another thought, though. With the advent of smartphones, do we really have to have new operating systems? Is it not possible to have the same operating system on my smartphone as I have on my laptop, my netbook, my desktop and, perhaps, my television?
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/thinking-of-buying-a-new-smartphone/

Thinking of Buying a new Smartphone

2010-09-13T15:17:00.001+01:00

Image via CrunchBase

I'm thinking of buying a new smartphone. The one I have at the moment runs Windows Mobile 6 and I think I've suffered enough. What smartphone should I go for, though? I very much like the clean lines of the iPhone and I've been seduced into Apple products by my ipod Touch 3rd Gen and my Macbook, do I really need an iphone and an ipod touch, though? Then there's the range of Android phones, particularly at the moment, those made by HTC or there's the prospect of the new Windows Phone 7 (or whatever they call it). Or there's always the Blackberry range but these, I am led to believe, are really just for email and not the browsing and app playing that I really enjoy.

So Android, Apple or another or ... heaven forbid ... should I struggle with my old phone for a while longer?

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/thinking-of-buying-a-new-smartphone/

iPods, iPads and SEN Learners

2010-09-13T13:18:00.001+01:00

I have managed to update the first presentation here
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/ipods-ipads-and-sen-learners/

Paper.Li

2010-09-01T10:08:00.000+01:00

I first mentioned Paper.li in an earlier post http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/four-twitter-services-you-may-not-have-seen/ where it was one of a few new twitter services I was trying out. Since that time, Paper.li has grown and developed further. However, as from today I have decided to stop tweeting about new editions of my paper.li newspaper.

Essentially, paper.li is an online newspaper created from twitter tweets. You can select to create a daily paper from tweets by the people you follow, by a twitter list or by a hashtag. Each day a 'newspaper' will be created based upon the criteria you have chosen. Please note, though, that you do not have any control of the content other than initially choosing the criteria nor can you select the time or frequency of publication. These are two factors which I felt were a limitation on the service.

The tweets selected will appear in a daily website 'newspaper' which looks very good. Indeed it is the look of the resulting page that first attracts users. In appearance it appears much more interesting than similar services such as twitter times. The newspaper will contain articles, adverts, videos and images, the amount and content of which will depend upon the number of your followers or twitters using a given hashtag.

It is important to note, though, that the articles are not written by the people who tweet them, they are often written by someone else but are associated with the people who tweeted about them or linked to them in a tweet. This has caused some confusion with people emailing or messaging me to say that they did not write the article that was associated with them.

Initially I created just one newspaper based upon the tweets of the people I follow. This was very useful and created a very interesting newspaper, mainly because I follow quite a number of people and so the content changed regularly. I also created a newspaper based upon one of my created lists, this too was interesting but as the list had fewer people it had less content each day. More recently I created a few newspapers based upon hashtags, generally these have been less successful and the amount of content has varied depending upon the popularity of the various hashtags.

What, you might ask, were the reasons for creating these 'newspapers'? Firstly, I wanted to see if they were of any use and, yes, I was seduced by the look of them. Secondly, I felt that they would be useful to catch up on tweets I may have missed during the day. Thirdly, I wanted to see if there could be any educational use for them.

My reason for creating newspapers based upon hashtags is that, initially, I thought these could be the most interesting and the more useful in education. My first hashtag newspaper was created to follow the #ukedchat discussions on a Thursday evening. I felt that this would be a useful way to present all the tweets that happen in what is often a very rushed hour of discussion and exchange of tweets. I realised that the paper would come out each day but that only the Thursday or Friday editions would reflect the week's discussion hour. However, it was not as good as I had hoped. Although many people were taking part in the ukedchat discussions, they were only picked up by paper.li if they had links to websites, videos or photos; general tweets using the #ukedchat hashtag were usually overlooked.

I wanted to try to create a paper.li newspaper which might be of use in a classroom, for this I created a 'newspaper' based on the #flood hashtag. This was at the time of the Pakistan floods, though it would also pick up other floods if the #flood hashtag was used. I felt that this was a worldwide event which would be worthy of use in a classroom on geography or current affairs and might be a way of introducing twitter into lessons.

Fairly recently, Paper.li introduced the facility to automatically tweet when new editions of your newspapers were made available. I took advantage of this and used it to tweet whenever a new edition of each newspaper became available. The effect of this was in part to publicise further the tool being offered by paper.li and I am aware that many people signed up for the service as a result of my autotweets. It also led to an increase in the number of people following me. However, it also meant that my twitter stream became populated with more autotweets; something which annoys many people.

I am still using the paper.li service but I have decided to switch off, for now, the autotweets. There are a number of limitations in the service which make me question its current usefulness, though I do accept that it is still in alpha stage so may address these issues later on its development. Firstly, I became frustrated that some newspapers contained far more content than others, I guess this is understandable but regrettable, it might be overcome, though, if the user could select the frequency of each publication; say, daily, weekly or monthly so that only those with a lot of regular content could be published daily but others could accumulate content for weekly or monthly publication.

I have already mentioned that, apart from selecting the criteria for the content, the user has no control over what appears in their 'newspaper'. This was a concern for me, especially on the very few occasions when I found disagreeable content being presented or adverts for something I don't like being displayed. It would be nice if the user had the option to remove any content they did not like before publication.

However, this really raises the question, who is each newspaper for? Who is/are the target audience? is it the creator, is it the followers of the creator or is it someone else? I think you can make a case for each but without the creator having some control over content and publication schedule, it is difficult to use it effectively with users other than the creator themselves.

Another feature I would very much like to see is the ability to archive issues. At the present each new issue replaces previous issues, so links only direct the user to the current issue and previous issues are lost. This is a shame as I feel that an archive of past issues could be of great use, particularly in an educational setting.

So in conclusion I would say that the paper.li service is a very interesting one and one which has lots of potential. It is still in alpha stage of development and really needs to add new features to increase its usefulness. I know that part of the idea is that it is an automated service but I really would like to see greater control of content by the users. I'd also like to be able to determine the frequency of publication and have the ability to archive issues. If these features could be introduced, I'd recommend anyone to have a look at the service and explore its potential further.

My newspapers are still online, changed daily and available for anyone to see, even though I have turned off the autotweet function.

http://paper.li/deerwood

http://paper.li/deerwood/edtech

http://paper.li/#ukedchat

http://paper.li/#flood
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/paper-li/

Paper.Li

2010-09-01T10:06:00.000+01:00

My newspapers are still online, changed daily and available for anyone to see, even though I have turned off the autotweet function.

http://paper.li/deerwood

http://paper.li/deerwood/edtech

http://paper.li/#ukedchat

http://paper.li/#flood
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/paper-li/

What is Home Access (part 2)

2010-08-19T12:25:00.001+01:00

In my previous post, I outlined the UK Government's Home Access scheme and how it sought to provide disadvantaged learners with kit and connectivity to enable them to access online resources from home. In this second part, I want to take a brief look at the implications for schools of the Home Access programme.

Unlike the earlier Computers for Pupils (CfP) scheme, schools are not directly involved in purchasing and issuing kit to their learners. In the Home Access scheme, learner's families or, in some cases, the learner themselves will apply for the Home Access grant and then purchase the kit directly from approved suppliers. So this removes the heavy burden which many schools reported during the previous scheme. Nevertheless, there are implications upon schools of the Home Access programme, even though they may not be as directly involved as before.

First of all, Home Access may well be targeted at Key Stage 2 pupils as well as Key Stage 3; this will bring in Junior age learners in primary and middle schools, unlike the CfP scheme which targeted secondary pupils. So the first implication here is that a far greater number of schools are likely to be affected by the Home access initiative than was the case under the previous scheme, but affected in what ways?

Despite the burden which many secondary schools reported as a result of being involved in CfP, one beneficial outcome which was reported by many is that they felt they gained a greater understanding of their pupils' home circumstances. This came about as a result of having to survey their pupils to determine which were eligible to receive the kit; many schools felt that this had given them an insight into the home circumstances of those pupils and how this could impact upon their performance in school. Primary schools tend to be smaller than secondaries and have a closer link to homes and families already, so they may feel that such a survey is not necessary, however, a survey often reveals some surprises and this was certainly the case in CfP where more learners than anticipated already had internet access.

There is likely to be a wealth of marketing materials produced by the suppliers of kit for Home Access, however, it is well known that to be fully successful the initiative will need to have the support and backing at Local Authority and school level. Local Authorities and schools are likely to be called upon to provide support and impetus for the programme ; this may involve a simple marketing or 'heads up' approach to highlight the existence or benefits of the programme to eligible families, it could also mean holding support events to publicise the programme or train the recipients.

With more of its learners having the ability to access online resources from home, each school willneed to ensure that the learners are able to access relevant resources, particularly on its VLE or learning platform. For schools, this means making sure that its learning platform is in place and fully working, it is being used and that all learners have access. Beyond that, it could mean ensuring that the families of learners have access to a school's VLE because Home access is not just about the learner, it is also about the rest of the family and siblings. When the learner is at school, the kit should remain at home for use by other family members to access online resources including the school's VLE to check on their child's performance or attendance and to communicate with the school.

With Home access in place, teaching staff at the school can have more confidence in setting homework tasks requiring the use of ICT. It goes beyond just homework, however, in that all work can include an element of ICT and that all work can be carried out by the learner even when they are not at or cannot attend school. So pupils in hospital, pupils physically excluded and pupils travelling from location to location can all be expected to continue their learning using ICT and Home Access.

One benefit reported by a number of secondary schools in the CfP scheme is that parents often became more and better engaged as a result of receiving the kit. For some parents, it may be difficult to contact the school or be contacted by the school in person or by telephone because of their working hours or other commitments. However, the ability to send and receive emails directly with the school provides a more flexible and workable means of contacting the school, similarly messaging and notices placed on a school's VLE can mean that important information can be exchanged better.

Similarly, many schools reported that parents felt more inclined to co-operate and engage with the school as a result of having received the kit and connectivity. By being offered the kit, these parents felt that they and their children were being 'valued' by the school, accordingly, the parents were more willing with the school in return. Consequently, it could be expected that some schools found better engagement with traditionally hard-to-reach families.

It is important, of course, that these kit and connectivity is not simply doled out to recipients without some training and agreement on its use. Although the parents and learners will sign an agreement on usage of the kit and there will be some e-safety training available, the most effective means is often for schools to provide such training for parents and learners especially when it comes to accessing the school's learning platform or using ICT to complete course work or homework. So forward-thinking schools will clearly want to be planning and preparing such events.

Of course, one additional factor here is also the teachers' own confidence and skills in using ICT. Clearly, these are important and are most certainly higher than they were even a few years ago. A teacher who did not use ICT in their lessons or subject area would today be very rare or, possibly teaching an unusual subject. Nevertheless, with the pupils making more demands upon ICT in their learning, there will be a need for all staff to have training and opportunities to increase and improve their ICT skills and to be given both time and opportunity to explore new ways of using ICT in learning.

So, in summary, schools can expect to;

seek greater understanding of the home circumstances of their learners,
provide support and promotion of Home Access for all learners,
provide training for all learners and families in safe use of ICT,
ensure their learning platforms are robust and effectively used,
provide training and opportunities for staff devlopment of ICT.

in return, schools can expect;

greater awareness of learners' home circumstances as they affect learning,
more use of ICT among learners,
better learning from their learners,
greater parental engagement,
better use of ICT to support learning

Update August 2010

Well, the new government has announced the closure of the Home Access programme, so much of what I have written above is now of little more than historical interest. I guess some may feel that the digital divide may widen again as a result of the closure of the scheme, only time will tell if that does happen. One positive point to emerge from the CfP programme, though, is that the digital divide appears to be not as wide as we had originally thought, at least not in terms of provision of computers and access among the most disadvantaged learners. However, of course, what is emerging more clearly is that the 'digital divide' is much more about usage and skills rather than just physical kit.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/what-is-home-access-part-2/

Education Just Cannot Win

2010-08-19T12:15:00.000+01:00

Image via Wikipedia

Today is one of those days when, it seems, Education just cannot win. It's the day when, in England, students receive the results of their A level examinations.

The significance of these results is that any student wishing to progress on to Higher Education will do so based upon the grades achieved in these examinations. So not getting the grades needed in these examinations, could mean that the student misses out on their chosen place at university.

Of course, teachers also get nervous at this time, hoping that their students have done well and achieved the grades they needed (or better). Schools, too, hope that the results of their students are good; good grades achieved by pupils makes it easier to attract new students to the school.

What often happens, though, is that if the grades achieved by students across the country are good, then people, well some people, well, actually, some newspapers and the people who read them, will say that the examinations are too easy. It seems strange that, in some people's eyes, good grades don't seem to be an indication of the quality and quantity of teaching and learning going on in schools; it only seems to be taken as an indication of a 'dumbing down' of the examination system.

Of course, if the grades across the country are poor, then the same newspapers and their readers start to claim that it is a reflection of poor teaching.

So, you see, whichever way it goes, today is a day education just cannot win. At least not in the eyes of the media. Behind the stories, though, are young adults whose futures could be, in part, determined by the outcomes of today; many of them will be successful and many will not. Let us hope that today is a day for celebrating for most students, their families, teachers and schools.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/education-just-cannot-win/

World Book Web and Virtual Libraries

2010-08-06T14:07:00.001+01:00

Image by Ant McNeill via Flickr

I wrote an earlier post looking rather superficially at the differences between old fashioned textbooks and modern digital media in education. This post builds on a bit further from that original post.

If we accept that textbooks had certain advantages over modern digital media, could those advantages be harnessed further by turning textbooks into digital media in the form of, I guess, e-textbooks? Up to fairly recently, I'd say there hasn't really been a suitable format for ebooks; - reading a book, or ebook, on a laptop or desktop computer really hasn't proved a worthwhile experience for many of us. Perhaps now, though, we are seeing the emergence of new devices, such as ebook readers and the iPad, which make reading ebooks much more enjoyable and versatile. Perhaps now is a time to look again at the potential of etextbooks.

The biggest advantage of a textbook is that it usually contains much more information or detail about a topic than could be found on the world wide web or an interactive DVD. So if that information could be made available in digital format, then it could be easily referenced, searched, tagged and utilised by learners.

Imagine also if all the quotations, references and citations that exist in textbooks were automatically hyperlinked to their source, then there would be a lot more information that could be easily found by learners.

Let us also think of the possibilities of web 3.0, the semantic web, for etextbooks. Each time a learner reads an etextbook or links to part of a book in an essay, they are presented with possible further text books to extend their study or maybe they can be given other authors with a complementary or alternative viewpoint.

Imagine if every text book that ever gets written has to not only go into the library of congress or the British Library but also has to have a digital version made available, pretty soon the amount of information available to learners would dwarf the amount currently available on the web. Not only would the amount of information be increased but the quality of it should be improved. Sure, learners would still need to be taught how to access it and how to use it properly but the benefits to learning could be enormous.

It could well be the case that such a ginormous (is that a word?) amount of information would be too much for a school or for younger learners. Yet, what is to stop a school setting up a subset of that information, a subset that it feels will be of value to its learners? Couldn't a school setup a 'virtual' library of ebooks that pupils can use in their learning and also for their entertainment. Such a 'library' could be setup on the school servers and the ebooks made available to download onto computers (either school based ones or the pupils' own) for use in school and also for use at home.

Now the possibilities of such a venture fills me with excitement at the benefits it could bring, which is such a great change after the depression I felt when I first watched the Twitter discussion on textbooks. The biggest 'buzz' is that most of this is already possible and is forward looking rather than backward looking, that so seems to dog edtech currently.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/world-book-web-and-virtual-libraries/

Flipping Textbooks

2010-08-06T13:17:00.001+01:00

Image by Amin Tabrizi via Flickr

The other day, I got quite depressed by watching a discussion on Twitter about textbooks. Not, you will notice, ebooks or even etextbooks but good old fashioned hardbacked or paperbacked textbooks; the sort we used to use when I was at school (and I'm talking about as a pupil not as a teacher). Does education find it really hard to let go of the past or does it just go around in cycles?

Even though I didn't agree with almost anything I saw on that discussion, it did make me think about textbooks and the relative advantages and disadvantages of them.

Information

There is usually much more information in a textbook than on, say, a website. This is a big advantage in favour of textbooks. At one time it was claimed that CD roms would replace textbooks, but CDs and even DVDs just never seemed to hold as much information upon a topic as did the average textbook. Sure, the CD or DVD had the advantage that it could contain animation, video, photographs and interactive quizzes, all of which might be more difficult, if not impossible, in a textbook but in terms of actual amount of information, the textbook wins.

A disadvantage of the textbook is that it could soon go out of date or become inaccurate as things changed, whereas a website could be easily changed to keep it up to date and relevant.

Relevance and Appropriateness

One of the good things about textbooks is that you could have a textbook written on a subject for young pupils, have another textbook written on the same subject for older pupils and others written for adult learners. You rarely seem to find this, though, for websites or CD roms, though there are some for young pupils, most websites appear to be aimed at an almost 'ageless' audience. You used also to get textbooks that progressed in series with the learners; so you'd have book 1, book 2, or book 3 or beginner, intermediate, advanced … you rarely seem to get such progression in digital media.

Critical Thinking

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage of a textbook is that a class or school often only use one, so it had only one source of information which was also presented in only one way. By using the web, a school could have access to several different sources which could present different viewpoints on the same topic. The web could therefore better allow for the development of critical thinking in the learner whereas in the days of textbooks, the learner just assumed the textbook was correct and presented the only view. However, this critical thinking could only go so far because websites and other digital media rarely present as much information, upon which to be critical, as textbooks.

Engaging

This is a tricky one as I'm sure we can all think back to any textbooks we used to learn in school and I daresay 'engaging' is not a term we would immediately apply to them. TV looks much more engaging, CDroms look much more engaging, the web looks much more engaging, .. at least they did when they first came out, do these media still look as engaging as they once did?

So it seems that textbooks had some advantages over modern digital media but also some drawbacks. So should they be used or barred in 21st century learning?
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Let's Say No to Inappropriate Use of Technology

2010-08-03T09:03:00.001+01:00

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Let's say 'no' to inappropriate use of technology in education.

I'd like you to read that again;

Let's say 'no' to inappropriate use of technology in education.

The chances are that you may be misinterpreting what I am saying here. You quite possibly think I'm saying that we should stop using technology inappropriately and you quite probably think that's a good idea.

That, however, is not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that we should say 'no' to the idea or the concept of inappropriate use of technology in education. As a passionate supporter, proponent and advocate of educational technology, I urge us all to reject any notion of technology being used in support of education as being, in any way, inappropriate.

I have long held the belief that technology can have positive benefits in the education of all learners and I know I'm not alone in that belief. I also know, however, that not every educational professional shares that belief as firmly as I do, in my many years of working in the field I have come across people who have been sceptical or dubious over the role of educational technology. Over the years, these people have become fewer and fewer in number and prominence as the value and proof of the benefits of edtech have become evident.

So why do I feel a need to write this article now? Well it would seem that recent developments, at least here in the UK, have given the edtech sceptics new heart and new initiative to question or attack the use of technology in education. It is in response to this that I feel the need to affirm support for technology in education.

The argument that it is not always appropriate to use technology, is not a new one. I first encountered it in the late 1980s and 1990s and it did originate from people who were reluctant or sceptical about using technology in class. Originally some teachers were saying they didn't use technology because they did not have access to it, this was quite true particularly in the early days when a school would have just the one or a few computers whose use had to be timetabled. However, as devices became more numerous and more readily available, this argument became less valid and the reluctant users or sceptics turned to a new argument; that they hadn't received any (or adequate) training. This, sadly, was also often true and it is well known, on reflection, that devices were put into schools without any training and, where training was provided, it was often just the basic operating instruction. However, as many ICT coordinators and CPD providers will attest, when training is offered, it is rarely the sceptic or reluctant user that attends.

To be fair, though, not all staff who started off as reluctant users have remained that way. Many professionals took advantage of the increased availability of edtech and whatever training has been offered to support it and have brought the benefits of it into their teaching. In the 1990s and beyond, however, there remained a small and dwindling number of staff who remained sceptical and their last argument was that they felt it wasn't always appropriate to use technology.

Taking the side against the argument that we shouldn't use technology inappropriately, is not an easy one. At first sight their argument seems sensible as anything 'inappropriate' should be avoided, shouldn't it? In practice, however, the argument is not against 'inappropriateness' but against 'technology'. This is the first reason why I feel all supporters of educational technology should reject the concept of 'inappropriate use of technology'; accepting or supporting this concept gives vailidity to an argument that, at first, appears reasonable but ,beneath the surface, is not based on reason but on other factors such as fear of, opposition to or lack of confidence in using educational technology.

You will notice that the concept refers to 'technology' as if technology were just one thing or one tool. In reality we know that technology is not just one tool, it is a whole range of tools and resources, each having many different uses and ways of using them. To say that there are times when it is inappropriate to use technology, in such a blanket or all-encompassing, way is to deny learners the use of these tools, the different ways of using them and the learning opportunities they afford. There is no way that I can accept this as a correct approach to education.

It may be my experience in special education that leads me to view technology tools as valuable resources that can be tailored and used to fit the needs and requirements of individual learners. I am sure, though, that colleagues in mainstream education have also considered technology as important for certain learners more than for others and that technology can be used to aid differentiation in the classroom. I also feel that many learners with special needs can be aided into inclusion by the use of technology and that technology can be used to enable access to learning resources that might otherwise be unavailable to them. To deny the use of technology, through some concept of it being inappropriate, could serve as an additional and unwanted barrier to both the learning and the inclusion of pupils with special needs.

There are many camps, theories and approaches to education and it would be true to say that there is not a 'one size fits all' approach to education. Educational technology is a very versatile set of tools and resources which can be adopted or adapted to fit almost any educational approach. It is almost inconceivable to consider an approach that did not utilise education technology in some form. Unless, that is, one is considering a pre-1960s approach. Now that might be fine in an historical context or simulation but I don't think any school inspector, head teacher, parent or pupil would consider a class of pupils using ink and paper to copy a teacher's notes on a chalk board to be an effective form of education in the 21st century. Okay, so that might be an extreme example but I do believe, in many cases, if you scratch the surface of an edtech sceptic, you will find an outdated approach to education.

When faced with the concept of inappropriate use of technology, many colleagues capitulate in the face of what seems a reasonable argument. In the past I have challenged colleagues and sceptics to give me examples of times when it would be inappropriate to use technology. They have cited P.E., R.E., meetings, swimming, driving, flying, mountaineering and playing football, (as well as certain 'adult' activities that I won't mention here), as examples of times when it would be inappropriate to use technology. In each case I have been able to show, to my satisfaction, ways in which technology tools can be both appropriate and beneficial. The only one I hadn't been able to argue against had been 'flying', where I believed, like many others, that the use of electrical instruments could interfere with sensitive instruments necessary for safe flight but it now seems as if airlines or aircraft manufacturers have found ways around this. As for the case of technology not being appropriate for football, just consider England's last match in the 2010 world cup and tell me that technology might not have changed the match by clearly showing that England's second goal was good, though I accept that substituting Peter Crouch for Wayne Rooney might have also helped change the outcome of the match!

So, to conclude, why do I believe that we should say no to inappropriate use of technology?

It is not the reasonable argument it first seems
It gives validity to those staff who are reluctant or opposed to using technology
By using the blanket term 'technology', it fails to acknowledge the wide range of tools that constitute 'technology' and the numerous uses for each tool
It fails to take cognisance of the needs of individual learners, including those with special needs
It may be linked to outdated approaches to education.
Its proponents have yet to give a clear and unequivocal instance of where the use of technology would be inappropriate.

I have to admit, I have pondered hard about whether to publish this article or not. I do not like being negative or critical about my professional colleagues, whom I hold in the highest regard. Indeed I am not really critical of colleagues, it is more the views some of them express or support which I fell critical of.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/lets-say-no-to-inappropriate-use-of-technology/

What Matters Most in Educational Technology

2010-07-29T08:49:00.001+01:00

Image by Nick J Adams via Flickr

What Matters Most in Educational Technology

What matters most in educational technology is not so much how you, the teacher, use technology but how you, as a teacher, enable and allow your learners to use technology.

Discuss
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Looking Back at School ICT

2010-07-28T11:08:00.001+01:00

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Hindsight is a tremendous thing but memories do tend to get clouded over time.

By the early to mid 1980s, UK schools had created a 'de facto' standard in the early 1980s with the BBC Micro (yes I know some schools had RM machines and a few had Spectrums but the BBC was far and away the norm). A terrific amount of software had been created for this machine, often these were created by teachers in the 'spare' time and, while they may not have been the best programming, they were often routed in educational practice.

By the late 1980s these machines were starting to look dated and many of us were crying out for newer machines so that we could continue to push and develop educational ICT. By the end of the 1980s, schools were faced with two choices; either the Acorn Archimedes machines or early PCs. Whereas in the early 1980s, the wise choice was clear to all, the decision between Archimedes and PC machines was less clear. Neither had good graphics capability and neither had a wealth of educational software to support them to the same extent that the BBC micro had.

The result was that schools and authorities were split almost 50/50 in their decisions over whether to use Archimedes computers or PCs. Many BBC software titles were reproduced for the Archimedes but not enough. Transfer of skills from the BBC to the Archimedes or the PC was not easy for teachers. Consequently, educational ICT went through a slump into the late 1990s.

Eventually, the decision had to be taken by central government as to which hardware route to take for the future. Their decision was to go for the PC route. Regardless of the merits of this decision, it did mean that once more the UK education systems had a common standard by which to work. The problem was, that the PC had very little educational software to support it and the first titles were generally American imports, which masqueraded under the title of "edutainment" and were generally thin on entertainment and even thinner on education. However, with a common platform, the English educational software industry was able to rebuild itself and by the early years of the 21st century, UK educational software led the world once more.

Let's not get jingoistic about it though, schools are not about boosting national pride but about educating learners. It was the commonality of platform that enabled this to happen via ICT at this time.

The PC has become the 'de facto' standard in schools ICT but this could well change with innovation from other IT manufacturers and suppliers. In the future we could have a mixture of platforms in schools once more. We need to take care, however, that this does not lead once more into a decline as it did in the 1990s. To my mind, the way forward is to agree interoperability standards so that schools, learners and other users can take advantage of and use educational resources no matter what machines they use. The other key change that is occurring is that computing is becoming less centralised and less reliant upon large desktop or laptop machines and is becoming more accessible on portable and personal devices, any developments in educational computing needs to take advantage of these changes.

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/looking-back-at-school-ict/

Looking Back at School ICT

2010-07-28T11:07:00.001+01:00

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Hindsight is a tremendous thing but memories do tend to get clouded over time.

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/looking-back-at-school-ict/

Do Learners want Teachers?

2010-07-28T08:35:00.001+01:00

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Do Learners want Teachers?

It seems a strange question, doesn't it, but do learners want teachers?

Over recent years there has been a shift in emphasis away from teaching and teachers toward learning and learners. This has been to such an extent that even a major quango spent thousands changing one of its departments from Teaching and Learning to Learning and Teaching.

I will say, though, that I think the change in emphasis is justified; learning is more important than teaching.

A teacher in a school can teach and teach as much as they can but if the people they are teaching do not learn, then the teacher has been wasting time; the role of the teacher is to enable and ensure that learning takes place. Of course, any and every teacher knows this and also knows different strategies and approaches to facilitate learning. At the end of the day, a school is judged on how/what the learners have learnt (or parts of what they have learned) rather than on what teaching took place.

Increasingly, we hear people say that the learner is responsible for their learning and that the role of the teacher is to guide the learner through their learning. The teacher standing in front of the class is something that is frowned upon nowadays, rather the teacher should be at the side of the learner to give support and direction; this is the 'sage on the stage' versus 'the guide at the side' argument.

While we can accept that the role of the teacher is changing, that learning is now seen as more important than teaching and that the learner now has responsibility for their learning, does this mean that teaching or the teacher are no longer valued?

I think not. It still seems that people want teaching and value good teachers. Let us consider an example; if you wanted to learn something completely new and, all things, such as price, being equal which approach might you choose? You could choose to learn from an online course, from text books or attend classes led by a teacher/tutor/facilitator.

Most people would appear to opt for an approach that involves a teacher over a completely self-learning approach. Even if the approach had just one session with a teacher, it would appear to be preferred over an approach that has no teaching element. It would seem, therefore, that learners do value being taught or, at least, having some teaching input.

Consider the training courses you have been on, though, and ask yourself what have been the most valuable parts of those courses. The chances are that you will say the most valuable parts have been those times when you have been allowed to trial, play, or explore for yourself. These have probably been the times when you have been able to learn what you have wanted to learn or to learn what appears most relevant to you or your work.

Other valuable parts may have occurred when you found yourself 'lost' or had made a mistake and called upon the teacher to help you fix the situation and to avoid it happening again.

How many of us, also, have been on a course that we initially thought would be a 'waste of time' only to have new light or new possibilities created because of the enthusiasm, passion or skill of the teacher?

So the value of having a teacher would appear to lie in having an expert on hand, in having someone to at least introduce an area of learning to us and in having someone open our eyes to new possibilities. So while it may be clear that the nature of teaching and the role of the teacher may be changing, it is also clear that teaching and good teachers are also highly valued.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/do-learners-want-teachers/

The end of laptops in schools?

2010-07-27T15:49:00.003+01:00

  This is an interesting article, seems that a high school in the US has stopped issuing new laptops to it students. The reason appears to be that they found the laptops too expensive and difficult to maintain. Why I find this interesting is that this is largely what I have been saying for a few years now. The computing power per dollar/pound/euro (delete as applicable) in a desktop is a lot greater than in a laptop. While working on a Becta project looking at the Total Cost of Ownership in schools, it became clear that laptops were proving more expensive than desktops. The usable life of a laptop was also considerably less; whereas a desktop would last between 3 to 5 years and could be upgraded, the life of a laptop was around 2 to 3 years and it was difficult to upgrade. Don't get me started on the topic of tablet PCs, I have long been a fan of these but the premium in price simply is not worth paying.   Technorati Tags: educational technology,laptop,TCO,Total Cost of Ownership

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/the-end-of-laptops-in-schools-2/

The end of laptops in schools?

2010-07-27T15:49:00.001+01:00

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2010-07-27T11:03:00.001+01:00

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ICT in Education and Five Stages of Grief

2010-07-22T16:24:00.001+01:00

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Those of us involved in counselling or in change management will be familiar with the five stages of grief. These constitute the Kubler-Ross theory or model of change and adjustment. It is not uncommon to see people go through these stages as part of the grieving process following the death of another person. It is also recognised that people involved in organisations or companies can go through a similar process when the company is changed following, say, a takeover or a closure.

The five stages of the Kubler-Ross model are;

Denial, Anger, Bargaining (or negotiation), Despair (or Depression), and Acceptance

I bring this up here because it appears to me that many people and organisations involved in education technology, or ICT, in the UK have recently been going (or are still going) through this process.

This has been brought about, I feel certain, by the recent government announcement of the closure of Becta, the early termination of BSF programmes and a lack of clear government policy toward the use of technology in education. This has led to many people being made redundant or, at the least, uncertain about their future, it has also led to many groups, schools and professionals feeling uncertain about their position and the continuing role of ICT in schools.

It is hardly surprising that many individuals will have been experiencing these stages of grief, or change, what may be less clear is how organisations may also be experiencing these stages as they try to reposition themselves for the future.

I shall not here go through a description of each of the stages but I feel it has been understandable how some people have at first expressed some disbelief at the decisions that have been made by the new government and also some anger. I feel the protests seen outside parliament on July 19th were conceived out of both disbelief and anger. Other groups have tried to approach the government minister to try to bargain or negotiate on their position, with very little success it would appear. Perhaps now we are at the stage of despair moving into acceptance.

It is important that we all, individuals and organisations, come to the point of acceptance, for it is only when we reach that point that we can start to move forward again.

Moving forward is what we really need to be doing at this time. It seems to ne that the new government has given us two issues to tackle;

Firstly, ICT in education is not important

and,

Secondly that central government shall have no role to play in the decision making as to how schools use ICT, such decisions shall be made by schools themselves, parents their communities and 'big' society.

It is my belief that the first issue is NOT the one we should be addressing. The message that ICT is not important has been put across as a result of decisions to axe BSF (Building Schools for the Future), the lack of any 'policy' toward education technology (either before or since the election) and a rather ill-informed speech on education given by a minister. At worst this is just an inference of the government's failure to understand the role and importance of ICT. People failing to understand the significance of ICT in education is something we have probably all had to face for years from colleagues and sceptics, while it is disappointing that the government has appeared to side with the sceptics, our task here is simply to continue with vigour the training and promoting of ICT that we have all been doing for so long.

It is the second issue that we need to address with more urgency and import. This government is set upon a course of reducing or removing the role of central government in many aspects of our lives and giving power to a more local level. In the case of education, this appears to be to schools and parents. For those of us in ICT and education ,this would appear to mean that instead of dealing, as had previously been the case, with central government via its agency, Becta, we shall have to deal with schools more directly. It may also mean that schools, who may previously have relied upon Becta or their Local Authority for support and guidance may have to become more self-reliant or rely upon each other.

I feel that there is a future need for structures or mechanisms of support and guidance to be put in place for schools in terms of ICT progression. Such structures would not just be for schools but also for parents, communities, education suppliers and individuals. I do not believe that they need to be rigid structures but flexible structures that can be utilised to meet the needs of schools etc. as and when required. I do not believe, therefore, that we need a new body to replace Becta, which may always have been too far distant from schools, but for new organisations or groups and new ways of working to be brought into play.

I do believe at the present that the organisation, NAACE, could be in the best position to start fulfilling some of those roles. Its membership not only includes local authority advisors but also independent ICT consultants, schools and teachers, it also has links within the industry and suppliers. There is certainly the knowledge and skills within the organisation to take on new roles if its constitution, budgets and membership decisions allow.

So we need not despair about the future, we should accept the situation and begin to build for the future.
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Retro Computing

2010-07-19T08:37:00.001+01:00

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6 Ways ICT Can Improve Education

2010-07-18T13:35:00.001+01:00

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It seems to me that there are 6 ways in which we can use ICT to improve education. I make no claims for the originality of these ways, indeed the first 3 have come from a forum discussion with Peter Twining on the Vital website (you may need a login to see the Vital page).

These 6 areas are;

Support - Using ICT to allow us to do things more effectively or efficiently but without changing the fundamental curriculum or pedagogic approach
Extend - Using ICT to present things in new ways or using ICT to access resources which would otherwise be difficult to access
Transform - allowing us to do new or different things that would not be possible without the technology and thereby changing the curriculum or pedagogy
Engagement - involving learners in activities through the motivational influence of technology or the functional use of technology (e.g. access from home as well as school) or social engagement (e.g. with fellow learners or between families and school)
Inclusion - using ICT to overcome learner disabilities or disadvantages
Improvement - saving time, being able to enrich a learning experience or using ICT to make a learning outcome possible which might not otherwise have been possible.

I claim no great originality in any of these but it does suggest to me that we might have the basis of a framework or matrix by which staff or institutions can record their use of ICT and the impact it has.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/6-ways-ict-can-improve-education/

ICT : Education on the Cheap

2010-07-16T11:45:00.001+01:00

I first wrote this back in March 2010 in response to a question from Prof. Stephen Heppell regarding using ICT to reduce costs. Stephen posed this question way before the present government's 'policy' toward ICT in schools. Did he have some insight into the government's intended approach? or was he simply using foresight to anticipate the current situation? My inclination would be toward the latter.

In any case, Stephen's question remains very poignant today and is perhaps one we should re-address, which is why I have republished this article today.

A few weeks ago I took part in an online discussion led by Stephen Heppell on the Vital website. Stephen Heppell is a very highkly regarded figure in the world of education and if you ever have a chance to listen to him speak or present, then I'd certainly suggest you do so. He is a speaker who inspires and provokes thought.

In the online discussion, Stephen asked why was it that ICT had not reduced the costs of education? Apart from Health and Education, ICT had been deployed and used to reduce the overhead costs or running costs of their users. I cannot speak for Health but I can for Education and I felt at first that this was an unfair question. After all, we started introducing technology into the classroom we did so not to reduce costs but to expand and improve the resources and experiences offered to learners. So to criticise us for not using ICT to reduce costs when that had never been our aim, did seem unfair.

Was it unfair, though?

A few days after the online discussion, I received in my inbox an email linking to this article about ICT for students with disabilities in developing countries . In this article it suggests that students need ICT partly because it is cheaper than training and paying for a teacher. The inference being that ICT is a cheaper resource than a teacher and one which, possibly, better addresses the need of the students.

This would be quite a contentious argument here in the UK. How many people, schools or local authorities would welcome replacing teachers with computers, even if it reduces the bill?

Putting the issues of developing countries aside (and I don't like writing that), what about using ICT to reduce education costs in this country (England)? Well, okay, we're not talking about using technology to replace teachers, there is no evidence of that happening and i don't think there would be any appetite for that. Though, interestingly, there has been some evidence of lessons being taken by assistants rather than teachers.

There have been calls for schools to 'invest' more in open source solutions; that is to say free or 'libre' open source solutions. There is strong evidence that such solutions can reduce costs, particularly on licensing. However I don't think we should select our software or solutions solely on the grounds of being 'free'; I'd much prefer to have all such solutions presented alongside proprietary solutions and be allowed to select the best for the purpose. After all, we are judged by our results not by our cost cutting.

Could schools use ICT to cut down on costs for activities not at the 'chalkface'? I'm thinking here of administration work. Do we need to employ so many people in administrative work for schools or could much of that work be farmed out to outside contractors or could processes be automated using technology? Of course, some of you will laugh when you read 'so many people in administration', when many schools have to get by with someone, just one, person coming in part time to do the administrative work. Nevertheless, this area is one that could be ripe for cost reduction, principally if the admin burden on schools were to be reduced.

I feel sure that schools could find ways in which ICT could be utilised to cut costs but, in doing so, would it adversely affect the bottom line - pupil learning?
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/ict-education-on-the-cheap-2/

Steve Wheeler Presents ...

2010-07-15T16:54:00.001+01:00

I have to say that I do enjoy Steve Wheeler's presentations and the one I saw, albeit via a scratchy videolink, the other day was one of the more intriguing. Some of you may know Steve as @timbuckteeth on twitter, if you don't already follow him, then I strongly suggest you do.

Why do I like his presentations? Well first of all, he has a string visual style in his PowerPoints slides and also a sense of humour that appeals to me. A visual style and a sense of humour both go a long way to creating a good presentation and they are certainly elements I wish I had in my own presentations. Another reason, I like his presentations is that he makes you think and generally takes you deeper into the subject of his presentation; that is to say deeper than you might otherwise have gone! A third reason I like his presentations is that he shares them via slideshare.net. All credit to him for sharing and not keeping his work hidden away like so many other (mind you those others may well be embarrassed by their presntations)

Okay, so what is it about Steve's latest presentation that makes me want to include it on my own blog? Well, first of all, it is about web 3.0, which I've also known as the semantic web. But Steve goes beyond just web 3.0 and gives us an insight into what he feels could be coming on the horizon. All of which has potential for the future of education and learning. It is sadly ironic that this presentation should be shown at a time when schools in the UK seem to be going backwards somewhat, owing to the current government's education 'policy'. Nevertheless, it is refreshing to see that some of us still have a forward looking frame of mind. I know Steve is in the HE sector and perhaps doesn't feel the effects in quite the same way that we are in schools. Moreover, as you can see from his presentations, he raises some questions whether ICT or tech in schools will remain the same as it has done up to now; so perhaps this is a time to shift the direction of educational technology?

I'll try to embed Steve's presentation at the end of this post so you can all view it and see what you think. I have to say that a year or two ago, I tried to interest a creator of VLE's to take an interest in web 3.0 and they all but laughed at me. I hope they're watching now and perhaps they'll think differently.
Web 3.0: The way forward?
View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/steve-wheeler-presents/

Cutting ICT Costs

2010-07-12T17:56:00.001+01:00

Quite understandably at this present time, there appear to be plenty of thought and initiatives going around as to how to reduce the cost of ICT provision in schools.

I am not surprised by this but I am concerned by it.

I am concerned that it is the perceived need to cut costs that is driving current thinking and, to my mind, this can be a dangerous route to take. Education is not a business, it is not an industry; for us, the bottom line is not our profit or our costs. A school will not be judged or praised on its ability to cut its costs, it will be judged and praised (or criticised) on the performance and attainment of its learners.

There is a very careful path that needs to be trod between cutting costs and maintaining/improving the performance of learners in a school.

It seems to my mind that rather than setting out simply to cut costs, schools need first to establish control of their costs. For this, I would recommend schools look at Becta's investment planner tool, which I believe is still available online. This tool is not a full TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) tool but it was derived from Becta's original TCO model. The original TCO tool was more encompassing in seeking to identify costs more accurately and relate them to usage and performance. There is not time or space to detail TCO fully in this article but I would be more than happy to talk to any school wishing to explore a fuller TCO in order to better understand and control its ICT costs.

With the improved knowledge and understanding that TCO brings, a school can identify which costs it can control and any that it cannot. The school is then better positioned not only to identify cost-savings but also to anticipate the effects of such measures. A classic example of cost saving comes from a school believing, rightly so, that it can reduce its costs by cutting back on printing, particularly inks and paper costs. While a school can make savings in this area, a full TCO generally reveals that this is only a very small cost and any reduction is almost insignificant.

Not only can current costs be revealed by TCO but a school will be better placed to explore potential costs/savings for future provision, even to the point of being able to compare different options for continuing or replacing software, hardware and services.

While it has to be acknowledged that there is pressure upon schools and headteachers to reduce costs, particularly of their ICT, I would maintain that it is important first for schools to resist the temptation to make cost cuts without first gaining a better understanding and control that could be brought about by TCO.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/cutting-ict-costs-and-the-need-for-tco/

Cutting ICT Costs and the Need for TCO

2010-07-12T17:21:00.001+01:00

Quite understandably at this present time, there appear to be plenty of thought and initiatives going around as to how to reduce the cost of ICT provision in schools.

I am not surprised by this but I am concerned by it.

There is a very careful path that needs to be trod between cutting costs and maintaining/improving the performance of learners in a school.

An unpopular blog post - 7 ways to cut ICT costs (mclear.co.uk)
The Big Issues for ICT Leaders (ictineducation.org)
Free Software for ICT teaching (edugeek.net)

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/cutting-ict-costs-and-the-need-for-tco/

Cheating and Collaboration

2010-07-12T09:05:00.001+01:00

Image via Wikipedia

The other day, I took part in the #ukedchat discussion on Twitter. A couple of days later I was quite flattered to read that one of my tweets in that discussion had been awarded tweet of the week (I didn't know there was such and award). The tweet that was nominated went along the lines of ...

The first thing we need to get across is that collaboration is not the same as cheating

What I'd like to do in this short post is to explain what I meant and why I tweeted it.

Those of us educated in the 50s, 60s, and on toward the turn of the century will be familiar with the notion that trying to copy what someone else has written in an exam and then passing that off as your own work, is cheating. Quite rightly so. Two, or more, people in an exam exchanging their answers with each other is also cheating. Neither of these scenarios, however, describe collaboration.

Collaboration in learning is not new; many of us will have worked with others in school on projects, topics or even in team sports. A fairly recent innovation, though, is the ability to use education technology to support collaboration. Whereas, previously, a computer or software might have been used by a single person at a time, it is now possible for several people to be using a program or a service at the same time and to share their work with each other. We are not talking about one person telling another person the answer; we are talking about people sharing insights, sharing findings, sharing experiences and working together toward finding an answer, and not necessarily the same answer.

In the eyes of some teachers, some assessors and certainly some examination bodies, this is akin to cheating. They are wrong, it is not cheating; it is people working together to help find answers, solve problems and develop team or inter-personal skills.

Moreover, the collaboration that can be facilitated via educational technology is not restricted to in class or even in school use. Technology enables learners to work with learners in other institutions across the world. This enables cross-cultural or multi-cultural solutions to be explored. There may, however, be some institutions and some professionals who feel threatened by this. Even if they may have set the original task or question for the learner, it is as if they, the institution or professional, are no longer in charge of the learning that takes place and are unable to predict the outcomes.

So the use of collaborative technology might be regarded as an affront on traditional teaching methods, and consequently viewed with suspicion and labelled as 'cheating'. But, surely not? Haven't good teachers always encouraged elements of working together in ways I mentioned before? Of course they have, it is just that times have changed and approaches to education have changed but, maybe, some of these changes have yet to be widely accepted. Which is why I say that we still need to get across the point that collaboration is not cheating.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/cheating-and-collaboration/

Education Technology; Teaching Tool or Learning Tool?

2010-07-09T17:42:00.001+01:00

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday, I read this great short blog post from @kylepace entitled Good Vs Great Teachers. In the article, Kyle criticises another author who appeared to believe that educational technology was a waste of time because it would never replace good teachers. All in all I would agree very much with Kyle's response, which is basically that good teachers embrace the technology and what it offers, to become Great teachers.

I posted a tweet on Twitter, inviting my followers to take a look at the article but I also posed the question, does the article still look upon education technology as a teaching tool rather than a learning tool? The purpose of this post on my blog is to attempt to explain what I meant by that.

We've had computers in schools for around 30 years now. I'm still surprised when I encounter a colleague who still questions whether we should have computers in schools. I remind them just how long they have been around in education and, if I'm feeling particularly narked, I ask what my colleague has been doing all this time? (I wonder why I have no friends!)

As I say, we've had computers for around 30 years and, in that time, the nature of the technology and its uses have changed considerably. No longer is a computer a device which only one, or possibly two, people could use at a time when sat at a monitor screen. Nowadays, we can project computer images to large groups and classes via interactive whiteboards. The computer in the classroom is no longer the sole preserve of the teacher, who says who can use it and when. Now each pupil can have their own computer, on a desk, on their lap or in their pocket.

Originally, pupils could engage in the learning software that their teacher presented to them. Nowadays, pupils can locate their own resources and share them with peers. They can use computers to collaborate on projects and other learning work. They can create their own materials and display or broadcast them to an audience. Their audience, or their peer group, is no longer confined to the members of their own school, year or class group, that audience is now to be found beyond school or even national boundaries.

What is echoing in my mind, are the words I first heard from John Davitt, "we need to move learners from being passive consumers of technology into becoming creative users of that technology" . I feel that this shift has been happening over the years and needs to continue to progress. The technology is no longer just a tool for the teacher, it is no a tool for the learner.

I sometimes find myself saying to teachers, particularly those who have some reticence or lack confidence in using ICT, that it does not matter so much how you use technology, what matters most is how you allow and enable your learners to use technology.

So, for me, educational technology is a tool more for the learner than the teacher. That is not to deny the role that technology has in supporting the teacher in their work and in their approaches to learning but that it is the use of technology by the learner that is key to the future of education.

For me, a good teacher is one who uses technology in their work ( see my article elsewhere on good teachers and technology), a great teacher is one who extends that to encourage, support and develop their learners' use of technology in their learning.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/education-technology-teaching-tool-or-learning-tool/

When I Met the Old Teachers

2010-07-09T14:52:00.001+01:00

The other day, I met with a group of senior teachers; not 'senior' in terms of their position but 'senior' in terms of their age and length of service. Amongst other topics, we discussed educational technology, ICT and various approaches to teaching or learning. It was an interesting group within which to discuss technology because this group had been in the profession from the very onset of educational technology, some of them could recall their teaching days before technology, and all could talk about the changing technology they had seen.

I was pleasantly surprised that there were only two members who admitted to not making much use of technology in their current teaching. Both of them felt that they 'should' be using technology more. A third member added that it was not simply a case of using technology more but, for them, it was a case of using technology more effectively. There were nods and murmurs of agreement from several others regarding this latter point. There was one 'wag' who chimed in that we needn't worry about using technology as the new government would ensure that pretty soon there'd be no technology in the classroom.

To try to deflect the discussion away from politics, I asked the group whether all their teaching was done in classrooms. This question seemed at first to draw some puzzled looks, until one teacher, who taught science and PE, stated that part of his teaching was done in a gym or a field. It transpired that none of the group had been involved in team teaching, only one had experience of open-plan schools (and not a positive experience, it seemed) and none had experience of working with pupils in 'learning spaces'. So it seemed that almost all their teaching had been in a traditional classroom, unless, as one chimed in, you count 'taking assembly' or 'residential visits'; it was felt by a few, though, that such activities were not really 'teaching'.

I wasn't sure what sort of response I'd get when I asked about Virtual Learning Environments and whether any had used one of these. I was pleasantly surprised though when the immediate response was 'oh, you mean Learning Platform. Yes we have one of those.' It turned out that almost all the group were aware of Learning Platforms and were making some use of them. In fact the group seemed quite knowledgable regarding which learning platform their school or Local Authority was using; Fronter, Frog, It's Learning, Uniservity and Merlin, though those using Merlin were not quite sure it was a learning platform in the same way as others were describing theirs. One member said that her school 'had a Moodle' but wasn't sure whether that was a learning platform as such. Another asked whether Education City and Espresso, things she used to use at her former primary school, could be counted as learning platforms?

Okay, so the group wasn't always clear about what constituted a VLE, or Learning Platform, but their responses didn't quite reflect the 'doom and gloom' often expressed regarding learning platforms, the way in which they have been implemented, their cost and the limited use being made of them. When the discussion turned to how they used learning platforms, there was a wide response. Almost all said they do, or had, used them for storing lesson plans, worksheets and tests. One member talked about creating geography materials as a follow up to lessons, which pupils could access from home. I asked if anyone had any online courses for pupils to follow, to which only the person whose school used Moodle responded that she had worked with another staff member to create a course.

Finally, as the group wasn't just there to discuss technology, we talked about other types of technology being used by the group. All now used a laptop computer whereas some had previously used only a desktop and all seemed to feel that this was an improvement. All were using Windows ® based machines and none had used Apple or Linux based computers. All had used a whiteboard and data projector, all bar two, who had just a plain whiteboard, used interactive whiteboards (which seemed to be used mostly to display an image from the projector and were placed at the front of the classroom)

Each member of the group had a mobile phone, which they mostly used to make voice calls, though a few also used txt. None had used their mobile phone to take pictures or video, most said they did not think their phone had that facility. Although most said that their pupils had and knew how to use a mobile phone, none allowed mobile phones to be used in a lesson and most said their school either barred or had some system for collecting mobile phones centrally during the school day. The 'only acceptable' use of mobile phones which this group would countenance would be in emergency cases or, possibly just possibly, on a field trip to maintain contact. The group felt there was no place at all for handheld or games consoles in education!

The group also discussed many other aspects of education, including school buildings and design. All were aware of BSF and two said that their schools were included in a future wave of BSF. None were aware of the Primary Capital Programme. All seemed to believe that the purpose of BSF was to replace dilapidated school buildings; something which they felt was of 'high' priority. None seemed aware of the significant ICT role in BSF.

Of course, this group met before the recent announcements from the government regarding the cessation of the BSF programme; which only makes the point I made in another post, that working with what you've already got is paramount.

One thing that did clearly emerge from the discussion with the senior teachers is the belief that things in education go round in circles, or cycles. Some felt that the call for 'personalised learning' was just the return of 'child-centred teaching' in a slightly different guise. Others expressed bemusement at the way 'topic webs' seemed to have gained in favour in recent years. So I guess none would be surprised at the demise of ICT from the spotlight.

It was clear, though, that all of them were using ICT; even the couple who felt they weren't, seemed to accept that they 'should' be. I feel none of them would welcome a return to teaching without the support of technology. That last statement, though, is possibly indicative of the way in which this group, and many other teachers, view both technology and teaching. Technology is all too often viewed as a tool or a support. Teaching is too often planned as something to be 'delivered' from the front of a class. Technology is rarely seen as a tool to access learning, unless the teacher says so.

For those members of the profession who have been teaching for many, say 20 or 30, years, to be told that the methods and approaches you use are no longer appropriate can be very annoying. Yet, as I have written elsewhere, that is the essence of learning transformation. Being aware of and using modern technology is not enough; this is something that was made clear to me from the discussions within the group of senior teachers.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/when-i-met-the-old-teachers/

Keeping ICT Moving Forward

2010-07-07T20:37:00.001+01:00

It was @DobeLou who tweeted one Sunday morning 'Forward not backward in ICT' with a link to her article by the same title. http://bit.ly/90AaWg . It is a phrase that echoes my own sentiments and, I feel certain, the sentiments of many others involved in ICT or Educational Technology in England.

You will notice that I say, England, in the previous paragraph, I do so without any intentional slight to colleagues in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland; I'm simply not sure what the situation is in those areas, with their different funding and organisational arrangements. I daresay, there are concerns there too but, initially anyway, the cuts seem to have hit English education hardest.

Currently, there is an atmosphere akin to despair mixed with confusion. Having pressed forward for many years in developing ICT and the use of technology in education, the country seems to be plunged suddenly backward by decisions (some might add indecisions) and actions taken by the new government.

Initially, it was claimed that the actions were taken owing to the financial situation left by the previous government. However, it soon became evident that the actions were based on other reasons. Money previously earmarked for school ICT was diverted to other areas, not quite sure how that 'saved' money, and it became clear that the new government had no policy position regarding supporting education with technology.

There are, however, hundreds of us at all levels of the profession who know and believe in the power and place of education technology. It is down to us to continue to press and support the work of ICT in education, to continue to demonstrate its effectiveness and to continue to explore new potential that it opens up.

I recall the very early days of educational computing, when no one believed in the place of computers in the classroom save for a few 'pioneers' and forward thinking 'whizzkids'. It was a time when those of us who were 'early' adopters of the idea, would meet with fellow enthusiasts to share and discuss what we felt would be a revolution in education, (we were careful not to use such terms though). Perhaps now is the time to return to such an approach and the building blocks are already there via the Teachmeet movement, so long as we can get out of the 'echo chamber' and get our message across to a wider audience.

There are many aspects of educational technology nowadays that are different from those days in the 1980s when enthusiasts were meeting to share and to discuss ways forward. The biggest difference is that we now have a body of evidence on both good and poor practice in the use of educational technology. This has been built up over the intervening years and we can now use this evidence to justify our use of educational technology.

A problem remains, however, that all this evidence has never been fully collected and collated. Much of it exists in musty archives or in the minds and personal records of individuals. It would seem that now is the perfect time to attempt to draw this evidence together and to create a solid foundation of evidence upon which to base future development of educational technology.

To my mind, it would not matter that some of this evidence could support one particular approach to educational technology while other pieces of evidence could be used to support a different approach. Educational technology can be both versatile and embracing; it can be used in support of a range of pedagogies. It is not necessary for us to have a common vision, just a common desire to make best use of the technologies.

It is my firm belief that a future education system without the use of educational technology would be both poor and wrong. The only people to suffer in such a system would be the learners and the only people to benefit would be … well, really, I don't think anyone would benefit!
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picture Some rights reserved by whileseated

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/keeping-ict-moving-forward/

Keeping ICT Moving Forward

2010-07-07T09:47:00.001+01:00

picture Some rights reserved by whileseated

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/keeping-ict-moving-forward/

Keeping ICT Moving Forward

2010-07-07T09:22:00.001+01:00

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/keeping-ict-moving-forward/

Lesson Plans or Learning Plans?

2010-07-02T09:44:00.001+01:00

Image via Wikipedia

In a previous post I mentioned the opportunity I had to observe a group of teachers doing team planning. As well as the observations I noted in that post, there was a further observation that I want to talk about in this post. It appeared to me that most of the teachers taking part in the team planning exercise were essentially still creating what I'd regard as an old style lesson plan. That is to say, it was to be a lesson that was to be delivered by the teacher and the planning focused more on what the teacher was going to do or what the teacher was going to get the pupils to do and what resources would be needed. The lesson, while not always a straightforward 'sage on the stage' approach, was certainly one that emphasised teacher direction or teacher facilitation, focused more on the teaching rather than the learning or the learner.

This type of planning was very familiar and would have been easily recognisable to a teacher 10, 20, even 30 years ago, it was only the resources available which were different; the approaches were much the same. This led me to wonder how might we change lesson planning to be more reflective of modern learning approaches?

It seems to me that the plan could be less about the structure of the lesson and more about the learning. I know they are called 'lesson' plans and in the past they have tended to describe the content of the lesson. Nowadays, though learning doesn't just take place in the lesson; it can extend into the home and via out of school activities. There are also a wide range of informal learning opportunities which a learner can bring to contribute to their learning. So there is no need now for our planning to be restricted to a traditional lesson structure.

I know some people will argue, quite correctly, that we have always given homework to learners, where appropriate, to supplement their learning in school. However, the concept of 'homework' is quite dated now. It would be wrong, perhaps, to continue to think in terms of schoolwork and homework. It would be better to think simply in terms of 'learning' and what formal learning that takes place at home is an integral part of the 'school' work that takes place also in school.

So instead of presenting the learners with schoolwork in a lesson and then giving them homework to be done afterwards at home, a teacher would present learners with, say, an area or topic for study. A lesson or a series of lessons would be made available for the learners to study this in school, supported by the teacher, a range of resources and the face to face guidance of the teacher. In addition to these school sessions, a learner would be required to continue or extend their studies outside lessons, bringing in any experiences, resources available to them together with outcomes from any informal learning they may feel is relevant.

So Learning Plans would contain more than just plans for a lesson, they would seek to set out a number and range of ways in which learners could explore a subject area. Each of these ways would be designed to ensure the learner encounters particular objectives. Each of the ways could incorporate a different learning style, so as to appeal to different learners. There could even be discussion between teacher and learner as to what particular types of activities they would like the chance to explore.

In a way, I guess you could see a learning plan a bit like a treasure map but with different routes to the treasure, or maybe even several different treasure locations.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/lesson-plans-or-learning-plans/

Lesson Plans or Learning Plans?

2010-07-02T09:42:00.001+01:00

Image via Wikipedia

In a way, I guess you could see a learning plan a bit like a treasure map but with different routes to the treasure, or maybe even several different treasure locations.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/lesson-plans-or-learning-plans/

Lesson Plans or Learning Plans?

2010-07-02T09:40:00.001+01:00

Image via Wikipedia

In a previous post I mentioned the opportunity I had to observe a group of teachers doing team planning. As well as the observations I noted in that post, there was a further observation that I want to talk about in this post. It appeared to me that most of the teachers taking part in the team planning exercise were essentially still creating what I'd regard as an old style lesson plan. That is to say, it was to be a lesson that was to be delivered by the teacher and the planning focussed more on what the teacher was going to do or what the teacher was going to get the pupils to do and what resources would be needed. The lesson, while not always a straightforward 'sage on the stage' approach, was certainly one that emphasised teacher direction or teacher facilitation, focused more on the teaching rather than the learning or the learner.

In a way, I guess you could see a learning plan a bit like a treasure map but with different routes to the treasure, or maybe even several different treasure locations.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/lesson-plans-or-learning-plans/

If you had to cook dinner for someone tonight, what would you make?

2010-07-02T08:10:00.001+01:00

I'd probably make them ill, knowing my cooking

Ask me anything you like. So long as it's something I might know the answer to

Web Apps for Education (in a Time of Financial Constraint)

2010-06-29T11:58:00.001+01:00

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Web Apps for Education (in a Time of Financial Constraint)

There always has, or should have, been a desire among schools to get value for money from their ICT purchases. I guess this is even more important nowadays in a climate of financial constraint. There has always been the desire though to balance financial commitment with getting the best for the learners. The best has not always proven to be the most expensive, or perhaps I should say that the most expensive services on offer have not always been the best.

We work in the world of education and I'm sure we would all appreciate suppliers offering their products and services, recognising this. Schools are not generally industries or services that utilise software and hardware to make money or to enable them to run more efficiently. Schools use software and ICT services to enable learning to take place. Whilst we do not object to people and companies making money, if they are offering their products within the education market, I think it only reasonable that we expect them to offer them in the spirit of education and not simply for the purpose of making a quick buck.

Recent years have witnessed the increase in services and products offered via the web. Not all of these have been aimed at schools but many are certainly useful for schools to use. Many of these products are free or have a free service, often with restrictions. Schools have certainly been looking at these and many are making use of them; that is where they are not blocked by overzealous filtering.

Where increasing bandwidth and download speeds are available, these web applications are proving very useful. Though, where connectivity remains poor the use of web tools can be problematic especially for large files such as video or music.

One major problem with web based applications has been that you cannot always rely upon them remaining available. There have been numerous instances of useful applications appearing but later being withdrawn and, more commonly, of applications starting out as 'free' but later becoming a paid-for or subscription service. An application may be withdrawn if development funding is insufficient, if development work proves too difficult or if it fails to attract sufficient users. In some cases, a company developing and offering a free service might be bought up by another company, which no longer wishes to offer the free service. Even where a service develops from a free one to a paid one, there is often, though not always, a basic free service which users may be able to continue using.

Users of free web-based services should always be aware of the possibility of the service changing in its nature and should ensure that critical work is not vulnerable to loss or future charges. Of course, there is always the possibility that the usefulness of the free service is clearly demonstrated to the school and that you may wish to take full advantage of the service by moving to the paid for service at a later date. In this way, the web based services might be seen as a form of 'shareware' in which you are allowed a free trial before parting with any money. In this way, web based apps may have an economic advantage for schools compared to commercial software packages.

Another aspect of web based applications is that they are usually available to users from any location. Pupils can use the application in school and continue their work at home. This is useful for a teacher setting course work in that they know the pupils each have equality of access to the same tools, provided they have a computer and connectivity at home. Web based applications are usually device independent, some will also work on handheld devices, so a teacher need not be concerned if a pupil has a Mac or even a Linux device at home or school rather than a PC.

Not only is location independence significant for work between school and home, it can also be significant globally in that pupils from across the world can work on the same web based application. This can lead to work being shared with other users around the world and be used to support collaborative projects across cultures and time barriers.

This collaborative aspect is an important one for it demonstrates that even in times of financial constraint, we are still able to extend education across new boundaries by using educational technology.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/web-apps-for-education-in-a-time-of-financial-constraint/

Web Apps for Education (in a Time of Financial Constraint)

2010-06-29T11:57:00.000+01:00

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Web Apps for Education (in a Time of Financial Constraint)

Cloud thinking (digital-teacher.co.uk)
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/web-apps-for-education-in-a-time-of-financial-constraint/

#c4ed NEETs

2010-06-29T08:22:00.001+01:00

4WDfoundation's Naomi Jane and Livity's Sam Conniff presenting about NEETs based upon their own lifestories. Using one's own lifestory seems to be the key to their approach to education. They talk about peer-to-peer story telling as a powerful way of learning.

They feel business and industry are not engaged in the education of NEETs and they need to be.

NEET seems to be a dangerous term as it classifies people as 'not' something.

Recognise that learning also takes place in informal learning situations and leads to an informal 'economy'. 'Live' is a project being run for young people, classified as NEET, which gives them the chance to work in real-life situations.

Education seems to condition pupils to consume learning for short term gains, such as passing exams, whereas informal learning can lead to long term skills for living. Young people are more engaged in learning when engaged in creative activities. They see creativity as important as maths. I cannot argue on the importance of creativity but surely its effectiveness depends upon the personality and learning style of the learner ?

Managing anger is a difficult issue, for which they have devised a 'social chameleonism' approach to show young people how to act in different situations.

NEETs experience high stress situation which can create barriers between them and educational experiences, this then affects other factors such as self value and attitude to life/death. Call for focus on 'trauma management' to provide tool for young people to support themselves through traumatic experiences.

Entrepreneurial spirit to provide skills for planning, financial responsibility etc. £45k to keep a young person in detention but a new business takes £25k to start up. So it is cheaper for a young person to set up as an entrepreneur rather than allow them to fall into the criminal detention system.

Becoming an entrepreneur 'can' break the cycle of NEETs becoming young criminals and also gives them some degree of control of their lives.

Livity have devised a 'purpose curve' to create the impetus to push NEETs forward in a positive direction.

It seems to me that Livity have so many great approaches to working with their audience but that must also surely make it very difficult for them to market their services compared to one clear defined product/service. On the other hand, it is clear the NEET population is a very varied group with a wide range of issues and they benefit from having specialised approaches.

It is refreshing to hear that they believe in the unlimited positive potential in their clients, this is often in contrast to the young person's view of themselves. Maybe for many of them, this could be the first time they have worked with anyone who feels they, the young person, is valued and has great potential.

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/c4ed-neets/

10 Lists a Teacher Should Write Before Retiring

2010-06-26T08:52:00.001+01:00

Image by Rex Pe via Flickr

For many of us, teaching is one of the best jobs in the world. You get to work with people, young people often, and you see them grow, develop and learn. It is a very rewarding experience to feel that you had some part to play in that growth and learning.

Although it is one of the best jobs in the world, it is also one of the most demanding. The role makes demands upon you personally, intellectually and physically, it makes demands upon your time and the time of those around you, such as your partner and family. Over time, those demands can build up and, sadly, many good and great teachers feel the need to move on or leave the profession.

Looking back on a teaching career can be full of regrets and joys, hopefully more joys than regrets. Yet how often do we teachers as individuals recognise and acknowledge the best times in our teaching careers? Perhaps we keep memories of such times to ourselves or perhaps we just forget them or perhaps there are just so many that we feel we cannot remember them all. So why not create a list, apparently teachers are supposed to be good at lists, of the best times in a teaching career?

I present here a suggestion of 10 lists a teacher might like to create;

10 pupils I most enjoyed teaching. We all know that some learners stand out from others and it's not always the brightest or ablest that we most enjoy, sometimes it can be those learners who give us the most challenge whom we enjoy teaching the most.
10 things pupils taught me. Experience soon shows us that teaching is not a one way process, sometimes the learners show us things we didn't know.
The most memorable school events. Teaching is not just about what goes on in the classroom, there are many other activities and events in which we get involved as teachers, from trips out, to school assemblies. Some are more memorable than others.
Best colleagues I worked with. Teaching is often about working well with colleagues as well as working with learners. Some of those colleagues can be inspiring and others are a source of help and support.
The topics/subjects I most enjoyed teaching. Some of the teaching we do, we may consider to be a drudge but, equally, or maybe even moreso, there are usually some topics or subjects that stand out for us and which we really enjoy teaching.
10 things I'd change for the better in schools. Oh yes, we all know about the grumps and the moans in the staffroom, how we'd like to change this or that but are there any changes that you'd really like to make that would makes schools better?
The best, or funniest, comments I ever heard from parents. Whether verbal or written, it is always great to receive praise or positive comments from parents, or sometimes even a thank you is nice.
The best jokes I ever learned from pupils. Keep them clean! We all know that some pupils are simply great for coming up with the latest jokes that you then go and retell in the staffroom.
10 things I wish I had done but didn't. Ah regrets, I've had a few ....
10 things I'll miss about teaching. You may think there is nothing you'd miss from teaching but think again and I bet you'll find them...

There you go.

You will notice that my title says lists to write 'before retiring', you may think that you're nowhere near to retiring or leaving the profession. I'd still say there is some value in creating these lists; they may help focus upon the good and positive side of the job, which are easy to forget on a Sunday afternoon when you're planning and preparing next week's lessons.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/10-lists-a-teacher-should-write-before-retiring/

#c4ed Swedish Free Schools

2010-06-25T11:42:00.001+01:00

I see Anders Hultin is due to speak at the c4education conference about the Swedish Free School system. Talk about being topical, timely and controversial. I must remember to keep quiet during this presentation!!!

The introduction says the Swedish system is 10 years ahead of ours ... that's debatable

Introduced in 1992 in Sweden, Free School legislation, meant that anyone could apply to set up a Free school provided they met certain qualifications, including a building and had market research. They are not allowed to charge a top up free and no selection process, first come first served. Came about as part of an election manifesto pledge. They were surprised by the number of applications.

Since 1992 there has been an increase from less than 10 free schools to over 1000. Nowadays, most pupils attend a free school.

Allmost 3/4 of schools are owned by profit making organisations and not by charities. Four companies seem to dominate the market. Free schools struggled at first but grew by forming alliances of free schools and joining others. Success is determined by independence from bureaucracy and politicians. The involvement of profit making organisations created a drive for expansion and investment. The large number of Free Schools now provides a wide variety of choice for parents and pupils.Each school has a low entrance barrier; no pupil can be turned away once granted a place.

There has been an increase in pupil satisfaction at attending school. Pupils in Free Schools perform better by 10% than equivalent in state schools.

Free schools get less money than state schools. I wonder if this is behind the current government thinking!

Impact in UK could be the same as in Sweden, potential 6000 new Free Schools in the UK. Leading to a migration of about 50000 pupils from state schools to Free Schools. This could also be challenging for Private schools and maybe these will be among the first to create free schools.

Anders believes the Free School movement will be a success in the UK, there is popular support (?), independent schools are struggling and the government has set up a good application system.

He also questions if Parent's groups could run schools along business models, which is the approach adopted in UK. Can Government afford the capital expenditure as profit making organisations are not allowed to invest?

Can Free Schools survive where there is no need for more school places, as is case in UK. Does the Gov have a will to introduce innovation and new techniques or advances. Anders questions current government's philosophy of education.

It seems that Anders is raising as many negative as positive points about the scheme in England. Basically, in Sweden it has worked but that, on its own, does not mean it will work in UK. There are significant differences between the two models, Swedish and English, which raise questions and could impact upon success.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/c4ed-swedish-free-schools/

Do we Still Need to Explain Why Teachers Should use Educational Technology?

2010-06-25T11:34:00.001+01:00

There was a post on the inaugural #ukedchat twitter debate posted by @JamesClay which read

"Before you answer how, you need to really answer and explain the why you should be using tech in education."

Unfortunately, I was travelling home on a rather crowded train and was unable to fully follow the online debate but this post caught my attention and made me think;

"Do we really need to explain to teachers why they should be using technology in their lessons?"

I go into schools often and also meet other teachers on training sessions. I often meet teachers who do not use technology or who use it only a little. It is clear, though, that each of them know that they could and should be using technology or using it more. Quite often, these teachers will express their worries that they're not using ICT and that they sometimes feel their class are missing out compared to pupils in a different class.

In reality, the 'why' teachers use educational technology is well established and accepted, even among those teachers who rarely or reluctantly use it. I don't feel it would be very productive to continue 'banging on' about why teachers should use technology in their lessons; this message has already been received.

What may be lacking in some teachers is the knowledge of 'what' technology to use or 'how' it can be used. This may often be accompanied by a low level of confidence in using the technology and possibly poor experiences of trying to use it in the past. Where this is the case, we need to be able to provide training to enable the teachers to explore technology and to 'play' with it in order to develop their confidence and allow them to identify for themselves the ways in which they might use it in their teaching.

In terms of the 'what' to use, it may often be the case that teachers have had exposure to only a limited range of technology. This is sometimes the case where the technology is situated in a special room, such as a computer suite, and can only be accessed if 'booked' or scheduled on a timetable. This can be further compounded if the technology is seen as being the 'property' or domain of a particular person or department within the school.

I mentioned, in a previous paragraph, the need for training, for me, the word 'training' is not the best word to use. What we are talking about here is more professional skills development and peer collaboration. At least that is the way I try to approach teacher 'training' sessions. Training seems to imply that there is something you lack and, until you get it, you are not a full professional. This seems to be an almost negative and demoralising, maybe even patronising, approach which doesn't really convey a positive, supportive and professional approach.

In my many years of working with teachers, I have consistently found that if you give them a piece of kit, or anything, and ask them how it could be used in a lesson, they will come up with 101 suggestions, most of which you will never even have thought of before. Let us not forget that these are teachers; they are intelligent people with lively curious minds who genuinely want to give the best for their learners.

Okay, so we have established that we no longer need to explain to teachers why they should be using technology in their lessons, it is the 'what' and the 'how' that needs to be tackled. I have also suggested that, in my opinion, changing our approach to training would be beneficial. The question still remains, though, as to 'How can we get more teachers to use technology effectively in their teaching?' which was the question posed at the beginning of the #ukedchat twitter debate.

a transcript of the #ukedchat twitter debate can be downloaded here
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/do-we-still-need-to-explain-why-teachers-should-use-educational-technology/

Do we Still Need to Explain Why Teachers Should use Educational Technology?

2010-06-25T11:31:00.001+01:00

There was a post on the inaugural #ukedchat twitter debate posted by @JamesClay which read

"Before you answer how, you need to really answer and explain the why you should be using tech in education."

Unfortunately, I was travelling home on a rather crowded train and was unable to fully follow the online debate but this post caught my attention and made me think;

"Do we really need to explain to teachers why they should be using technology in their lessons?"

View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/do-we-still-need-to-explain-why-teachers-should-use-educational-technology/

BETT 2010

2010-06-25T10:28:00.001+01:00

Image by stevebeard73 via Flickr

Tomorrow, all being well, I shall be travelling to London for the annual BETT exhibition at Olympia. This show is a 'must' event for people involved in ICT and education

I have attended most of the BETT shows ever since they started way back in the days of the BBC micro. I have generally found the show seems to vary each year. For me it seems that every other year the show is a good one with lots of innovation on display. Other years you tend to find just consolidation or new products. Note that a new product does not always = innovation.

Last year was an interesting show for me as I spent it meeting people and attending seminars rather more than visiting the stands. I wonder therefore if I missed anything but there did not seem to be any great innovations apart from touch sensitive desks.

Talking of touch sensitive desks, such as Microsoft surface, I wonder what had happened to them? Not much has been heard of them after BETT, did they due a death, were they simply too expensive, too impractical or has someone realised that we tend not to use desks so much in modern classrooms?

Anyway, this year's show promises much. We have already had , about time, Becta's announcement of the Home Access programme and I wonder whether the suppliers may be displaying their wares at the show. No doubt the Becta stand will be busy with people enquiring about the scheme. What, however, interests me more about this year's show are the free evening events. I shall be attending the TEDx event on Wednesday evening but sadly I'll miss the friday teachmeet. The Thursday event I may or may not be able to attend depending upon train times.

Anyway, I shall no doubt be tweeting about the show while I'm there and hopefully meeting people.

June 2010 update

Well, what a different half a year makes! Six months later and the whole ICT in education world seems to have been turned upon its head. The new government has clearly indicated its dislike of ICT because of its costs and has accordingly slashed school's ICT budgets and disbanded the national organisation, Becta, in charge of ICT in schools. Although Becta is not due to close until March 2011, there must be some doubt as to whether they will have a stand at the next BETT show. Indeed, the impact of the government's decisions are being felt right across the board and it is now questionable how many people, companies and organisations will be exhibiting at next BETT. I guess at this stage we shall just have to wait and see.
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View this post on my blog: http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/bett-2010/