Janshs blog

replacing my road signs with flowers

2011-11-14T10:48:00.000-08:00

I started the day in an unusual way (for me) with a train journey to central London. Needless to say no seats available but I managed to read most of the article about the 'no excuses' approach to behaviour in the TES from 14th Nov 2011 by William Stewart (this was despite the fact it was so crowded on the train that I had to hold the paper right up to my face which caused difficulties because most things need to be read at arm's length nowadays ....).

I then went to day one of a two day conference/CPD on leadership challenges in schools (based largely on state maintained UK schools) facilitated by Prof John West-Burnham (JWB) (day 2 in January 2012).

Interesting stuff and I filled a small notebook with ideas from colleagues there from a range of other schools, and with ideas from the Prof himself. I hope that I do not misrepresent anyone (least of all the speaker) so I put in my usual disclaimer that this is just my 'take' on what was said.

One thing I learned was that there is a road in London where they took away all the road signs and reduced traffic jams and other incidents. I wonder how that contrasts (or otherwise) with the 'no excuses' approach? Well, in some ways it's the same thing because it's about what JWB referred to as 'consensual authoritarianism'. In my school we have the Golden Rule of respect for all - when we can be sure that this rule is the modus operandum of all members of the community all the time, and not just in the classroom - then I will know that our flowers are in bloom (SMSC).

I am sort of working backwards through my thoughts during the day. Oh, and also throwing some thoughts I have been having recently (probably mentioned elsewhere on this blog!) about management and leadership. I think I've written recently something I discussed with a colleague when she asked me what is the difference between management and leadership: for me the difference is that leaders are able (albeit with some difficulty at times) to 'let go': to delegate responsibility and not just tasks. The diagram below is just me thinking out loud - is it right, what do you think?

Referring back to a recent post, I was thinking again about parallel leadership as opposed to sequential leadership and School Improvement Processes as opposed to a School Improvement Plan (who can write plans when things around us change so rapidly? - any thoughts?).

Something that exercises a lot of thought amongst school leaders is how we will demonstrate and evidence leadership capacity for Ofsted? How can we ensure that every member of the school community (teachers, other staff, students, parents, governors) contributes to the leadership of learning, and to the school improvement process? Is everyone on the bus? Do we all know the destination? The route? Is it a bus or a tram - i.e. on rails.

Prof West-Burnham said (hope I've got this right), "Government hands over to professionals and then professionals hand over to the community." Is this actually part of social evolution? ("One voice can change a room, and if one voice can change a room, it can change a city, and if it can change a city, it can change a state, and if it can change a state, it can change a nation, and if it can change a nation, it can change the world. Your voice can change the world." Barack Obama)

What are the collective moral leadership responsibilities that we face as educators and education leaders? Please comment :-)

Building capability

2011-10-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

I recently went to a workshop on sustainable leadership run by Prof Brent Davies. I hope he will not mind my brief bit of thinking out loud which came out of my personal reflection following that day. I begin with a couple of points made by Prof Davies on the day, the following numbered points are my 'version'. Please remember that I have used his ideas here but have not necessarily repeated verbatim.

“A strategically focused school is one that is educationally effective in the short-term but has a clear framework and processes to translate core moral purpose and vision into excellent educational provision that is challenging and sustainable in the medium- to long-term.”

Rationale: enduring success; 85% of strategic plans fail because things change before you get there; we need to move away from sequential leadership towards parallel leadership. We need to get all members of the school community thinking strategically (note: thinking not necessarily writing-it-down).

Some key ideas for moving from Good to Outstanding …….

1. Identify where intervention is needed then outline clearly why, what, where, with whom and why --- consistency across classrooms, consistency in middle leaders’ approaches. How do we discourage compartmentalised thinking and encourage whole school perspectives?

2. Building capacity … letting go: delegating responsibility not tasks. Sustainability is “the ability of individuals and schools to continue to improve to meet new challenges and complexity in a way that does not damage individuals or the wider community but builds capacity and capability for the benefit of all.”

3. Reflecting on the organisation: should we set reading activities for leaders between meetings and should all teams be having one meeting per term which is purely reflective/strategic? Consider structure of meetings … model what we want

4. Develop a culture of engagement in strategic discussion/debate. We should be using invitational language when we speak to staff, students, parents, governors, community – ‘join us on the learning journey’
5. School Improvement Process (not necessarily Plan) – this needs to be strongly tied to Performance Management and CPD (Davies' example: ask each team to produce 1 side of A4 ‘where are we now’ and 1 side ‘where should we be in 3 to 5 years time’ – this is a process not an action plan, to get people thinking strategically). If you asked any member of staff, “what are you doing this week and/or next week to contribute to the SIP?” would you get consistent answers?

6. Think carefully about recruitment and development of leaders at all levels. What demonstrates the potential for leadership? Some ideas from Davies included: ability to reflect on yourself, passion, courage – see it = do something about it, confidence and credibility, see the big picture, mastering the basics of their role quickly and look for more, don’t look the other way or walk past incidents, initiative and self-motivation, intellectual curiosity, resilience and empathy.

Thinking out loud

2011-10-21T06:54:00.000-07:00

As usual, something sparks my day dreaming about education and here we go again.....

This time it was Steve Joyce on Undercover Boss USA ----

Well I work in an organisation of only about 1000 or so people and everyone knows me so I could not go 'undercover' but I wonder how I would fare as any one of the following (even for an hour let alone a day):

- receptionist
- student services
- exams analysis officer
- PA
- site staff
- finance
- school business manager
- catering
- or even ..... a classroom teacher with a full teaching load!

Makes you think doesn't it? I have got to my job through a teaching route and nowadays I dabble with all of the above through liaising, line management etc. BUT could I do the job?

Of course there are some things here that I just don't have the knowledge or skills for and because there is only one person doing some of them I would slow them down and hinder them so much that even shadowing for a day is not practical.

So how could I pay forward some of the great contributions that they make? Do they know they are valued?

Food for thought again .....

(PS thanks to the colleague who gave me a great card today that reminded me yet again that we are never alone when we work as a real team.)

Performance management and all that

2011-10-16T03:32:00.000-07:00

I have done a lot of thinking about perfomance reviews in schools over the years. In my last post, I considered some ideas about leadership, tasks and responsibility. Constantly reflecting on conversations with friends and colleagues (and, yes there is an overlap in those groups), I have had three discussions in the last few days:

do leaders become anxious when their view of the world is disturbed?
does this apply to leaders at all levels?
does performance review only take account of objectives related to tasks and outcomes rather than processes, values and aims?

As usual, there are more questions than answers!

I saw this on Twitter today from Prof. Wiliam @dylanwiliam Good teachers benefit students years after they stopped teaching them, so value added can't identify good teachers: bit.ly/nM3G3v

If everything we do in schools is geared to students, I would suggest that we need to ensure that teacher 'performance' is measured not by output/outcomes (or, at least, not solely - we do still operate in a certain culture of course); there must be 'soft' measures - such as how a teacher affects the emotional maturity of the students in her/his care. And how do you measure that? Here is another spot from Twitter today:

from @combi31 Facilitative Leadership - The"Easy Way" is.gd/yltHfv #learning #coaching #Leadership

So, if all teachers are leaders of learning then we need to move towards being facilitative leaders of learning, able to cope with perturbations in our perceptions of the world and to proactively use them to move forward with our students.

A brilliant example at my school's weekly staff briefing this week when a colleague reminded us all about the lollipop idea to avoid hands up in class - that was at morning break, by the end of the day there was a buzz of conversation about it! That reminded me that we mustn't ever rest on 'what we always did' .... because then we might 'get what we always got'.

Comments welcome as always please.

so what is leadership?

2011-10-06T14:35:00.000-07:00

I had a great chat with a colleague today about what we mean by the term leadership. Well, lots of erudite writing exists about transactional, transformational, buffered, distributed leadership ..... and much much more. She asked me what I see is the key aspects of leadership and I trotted out some of the usual trite stuff about shared vision and so on. I also remembered something a colleague once said to me about delegating responsibility rather than just delegating tasks. Does that make you a leader ... or the person to whom you are delegating? Does helping to build leadership in others make you a leader?

I started to wonder if we need a new word. So much has been written about the differences between management and leadership. Are we entering a phase where we need to acknowledge that there are overlaps and ermm outerlaps?

Later in the day, she asked me if I had planned my career and I had to admit that I had not. I talked her through my life story (well she did ask) and was struck by her response: "so you've never said no to an opportunity?" I admitted there was one major opportunity I had turned down but broadly agreed with her assessment.

I believe that I've been lucky, blessed even.

Is leadership 'letting go' of management? I think it is certainly letting go of micro-management. Leadership from within a team is an interesting concept that is currently exercising my sociological imagination.

My colleague came up with the idea of chats recorded on video and saved on our VLE. Perhaps we should start some panel chats .... has anyone done this? I'd love to hear about it ...

this also appears on reflog

PD evolution - it's a matrix!

2011-09-11T04:15:00.000-07:00

In house Professional Development for teachers and other professionals working in schools.

This year, small project groups are forming at my school, they will focus on:

effective classrooms (including links with attendance)
effective leadership and teams
innovative use of technology
career development - personal professional development

Each week, as we have done for some years, there will be a one hour session presented by or facilitated by a Leading Practitioner (teaching and non-teaching). This year these will be in a sort of carousel so that participants can choose to follow one strand, or select across strands. there will be Between Session Activities such as reading, blogging, trialling ideas. Each 'strand' will include a mid-term and final review and will also link to the choice of activities provided at whole staff meetings and whole staff PD.

If they choose to apply, both participants and Leading Practitioners may gain qualifications from the College of Teachers.

What else should we consider? Comments please :-)

Public Critique

2011-08-11T04:22:00.000-07:00

I really liked this short video clip from John Seely Brown (courtesy Steve Wheeler via Twitter @timbuckteeth John Seely-Brown: Tinkering as a mode of knowledge production http://bit.ly/oJl8er )

It obviously has applications for all kinds of education but it started me (yet again, sorry) thinking about teachers' professional development. Next year, at my school, we will be employing four strands for the in-house programme (effective leadership, effective classrooms, innovation and technology, career development) but they will be arranged so that anyone who wants to mainly follow one strand but dip into others will still be able to. Each strand will be led by two or three leading practitioners and everyone involved will be eligible for accreditation. We will be using our VLE to record group developments.

So how does this link with John Seely Brown's talk? I was really struck by the notion of public critique. In my last post I mentioned how lucky I am to be able to observe many teachers in many areas of the curriculum and to share these ideas. Surely, we can take this a step further by sharing our critiques on the VLE so that, having developed trust within a small group, we can begin to share these ideas together.

I would hope that the trust will build to be whole school and then phew! who knows?

Lucky

2011-07-10T05:03:00.000-07:00

Just a short reflection today.

I have just been thinking about how lucky I am. In my role as a deputy head (vice principal) I get to see so many different lessons, interact with such a wide range of staff and students, and also to have some idea about governance. This means that I see different curriculum ideas, learning styles, approaches to teaching and I can pass these on and share with others. Then, with my work with the Open University I can interact with professionals from a wide range of educational organisations. Then there is Twitter! and all the blogs from educators! Oh and friends, and collegaues at the Open University too.

The outcome that I am hoping for, and which I sometimes achieve, is to be able to link others with people and ideas that might enable them to extend their ideas even further. Then they share back again and .... round we go.

I have mentioned this before: when I was younger I wanted to be an engineer and build bridges. I still love bridges, and sometimes I get to build them!

How do you share ideas?

Team building

2011-06-02T01:20:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year when I am thinking almost all the time about what the school's in house CPD programme should look like for the next academic year. And what do those letters stand for?

C - continuing, collaborative, career
P - professional, pedagogical
D - development .... 0r should it be L for Learning as @wjputt said recently on Twitter

I was having a chat with a Hayley Allan (who does a lot of work on reflective practice with a range of professionals http://educatingtrainers.blogspot.com/) and we got on to the topic of team building projects and whether these can ever really work. Now this sparked an interest for me because I was planning to have a face to face and an online module on that very theme next year. But Hayley made me think when she said "what we need is to train individuals to be capable of being part of any team". That's not verbatim so I hope I've got it about right, Hayley.

So I'd be grateful for any comments or thoughts about this, please. Should we work with a team to help them develop and understand comeplemntary skills and aptitudes or with the team 'leader' to help her/him do that? or both? or should we work with everyone to explain and develop how important it is to work as part of a team (often times) and how to do that?

lesson starters etc for non-specialists, cover or supply

2011-04-21T09:37:00.000-07:00

Lesson starters and fillers for non-specialist, cover and supply lessons

Rationale

You have been left with a class and the work for them to do is lost or has not arrived yet. It is not your subject area or perhaps you are a cover supervisor. You know that these first few minutes are when the behaviour might deteriorate into something that is hard to put right. Now what?

If you can have a few ideas up your sleeve to give you breathing space it really does help so you need some things that will work in any subject area. The ideas that follow are aimed at the 11 to 16 age range but might easily be adapted. Some things will work better with older or younger students and may depend on how well you know the students. The ideas have been gleaned from many sources, some lost in the mists of time so please forgive any unintentional plagiarism.

Resources to have in your bag of tricks

• A set of thirty mini-whiteboards with dry markers and dusters

• Spare pens and pencil – it is worth expressing disappointment about lack of equipment but probably not worth holding up the whole lesson

• A few colouring pens and pencils

• Glue, sticky tape, scissors (get a few left hand ones too), some rulers, erasers and so on

• Some prepared worksheets/jigsaws,/card loops that will work in many situations (see step four below)

• Some simple puzzles – ones from Christmas crackers are great and can double up as little prizes for good work

• Plain, lined, squared and coloured paper and card, also scrap paper

• A set of large sugar paper shapes such as speech bubbles, think bubbles, hand prints, foot prints

• Blu tack

• Your name and your basic expectations clearly written on a piece of sugar paper

• Playing card – not whole sets

• Ping pong balls

First steps

Some of these will depend on what you have been told or already know about the school rules, mores and ethos:

• Have your name clearly written on a piece of sugar paper that you blu tack up in a clearly visible place – a few simple rules of your classroom are a good idea as well

• If possible, put some puzzles or quiz sheets out on the desks before students arrive

• Always try to greet them at the door and ask them to stand and get equipment out until you ask them to sit

• Once sitting, ask them to start the puzzle whilst you do the register

• Now write homework in their planners if appropriate – check this again at the end of the lesson

Step two

You have given yourself that breathing space and established some ground rules without actually saying too much at all. If you need to, you can pause the lesson at any time and point to your rules saying something like remember. Better still, you can quietly go over to a student and quietly ask them to look at the rules, checking that they understand.

Whilst the students are engaged with the starter activity, read the work set or (if there is none) ascertain what they did last time and what they usually write on and if they know where texts or other resources are kept. Only ask one or two students quietly. Get them to give things out if appropriate. If necessary send a student with a note to the appropriate person to get work. Never leave the class.

Step Three

This may be based on what you know they did last time or on the work set. It is important that you ‘own’ the lesson and the classroom and do not make it seem as though you are just passing on a message or child minding.

Ask the students to draw a mind map or do just three to five bullet points about the topic they are on. This gives you an opportunity to gauge the level and so on. Set a very short time scale – say three minutes, or five at the most, working in silence. Now ask them to share this with the person next to them in a voice so quiet that no one else can hear. Next ask each pair to share with another pair. Now ask for just three or four people to feedback to the class. Add any knowledge that you may happen to have of the subject matter in at this stage. This will also enable you to make up a lesson objective and title that they should copy down, and any key words that they should copy and try to explain in their own word – think bubbles are good for this.

Step Four

Help! You still do not have any work set! Here are a few ideas that will each last ten or fifteen minutes (you could mix them up within the lesson and set up a carousel of activities):

• Drawing a storyboard is good for almost every subject from Maths to Science to History to English and more .... ask students to draw no less than six and no more than ten pictures in a cartoon strip – stick men are fine – to sum up what they know about a topic and that would explain it to someone else

• Give out speech bubbles or think bubbles and ask them to work in pairs to tackle a problem solution or to summarise just one key word or aspect of the topic; try to give each pair a different one and remind them only the person they are working with should be able to hear what they are saying. Stick them up on the board and get everyone to walk around and look at each other’s.

• Have some prepared ‘jigsaws’ in envelopes on a variety of subjects, for example Maths number patterns or shape patterns, poems, spelling or vocabulary lists in English or another language, key words in different subjects, lists of Kings and Queens or Capital Cities. Students have to put the jigsaws together and then copy out and add their own annotations.

• Have some A5 word searches with clues rather than just words to find – e.g. ‘what is the Capital of France?’, ‘who was Henry VIIIth’s first wife?’, ‘what is a square number between 40 and 50?’

• Have some general knowledge quiz sheets and scrap paper for answers

• Have some card lops in envelopes – a set of say en cards that have to be put in order to form a complete loop, e.g. ‘Henry married Catherine, Catherine was divorced, Henry married Anne...’ or ‘1/2 = 0.5, 0.5 x ½ = ¼, ¼ = 0.25 ...’ They can then copy them out and annotate.

It’s a double lesson and they need a breather

It can be a good idea to break for five minutes but only if you are sure you can get them re-focused. Don’t let anyone leave the room or play with their phone or just have a chat though. This has to be directed time off! Here are a few of ideas:

• Give out about a dozen playing cards each and see who can build the tallest tower

• Not for the faint hearted – give out a ping pong ball between who and see who can get longest rally patting with hands

• Who can balance the most ping pong balls on the back of one hand? Does team work help?

• Give out prepared jigsaws or card loops (see step four above)

Finishing off

Remember to leave plenty of time for checking homework has been written down correctly and always try to relate the end of the lesson back to the learning objective. Here are a few ideas for that:

• Play hang man on the board or in pairs with the key words

• Play twenty questions re the key words – you write a word up that the main player cannot see and then s/he can ask the class yes/no questions (also works for things like prime numbers, multiples and so on)

• Get everyone to go back to their mind map or first few bullet points and try to improve it- ask just a few to feed back to class

• Give out think bubbles and ask pairs to come up with a summary of the lesson – leave it for the usual class teacher

• Play ‘make me say’ – you have a word or number in your head and they have to try to make you say it b giving you prompts

• You, or a volunteer, sits in the ‘hot seat’ and answers questions about the lesson

vision activity for CPD

2011-02-20T04:13:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking a lot about communicating a shared vision - and also ensuring that ths is not a one way process. I'd be grateful for comments on this CPD idea: first few minutes, work alone and circle the ten things most important in the wordcloud (see below). Then in small groups, dicuss your reasons and come up with a collaborative version on a new copy. Finally feedback to whole group ..

and what words have I left out that should be in it?

Thanks for any help.

more CPD ideas

2011-02-08T13:18:00.000-08:00

At our Heads of Department meeting today I asked how we could improve the in house CPD prgramme - the following came up either at or just after the meeting ... please comment
The main point on the school overall SEF that is on my own performance management (hey, I can use this as evidence for that as well) is developing effective classrooms through CPD. Was very grateful for ideas during and after the meeting today - will also get some feedback from the pastoral meeting that was taking place at the same time.

I am wondering if the draft revised CPD timetable could be revised yet again with something like the following:-

1. A subject based conference - probably would have to be just one hour but that might work if we go straight into groups. This would most probably have to be on one of the Thursday sessions (i.e. not a twilight CPD, see below for ideas about that). We could open up to all our partner schools. I don't think there would be much funding for this one - maybe everyone could bring a plate of food! I would suggest that for this we just host it in each department and see who turns up and play it by ear? Any other ideas?
2. Use the twilight CPD session to run workshops which staff sign up for before the event.

Suggestions: Philosphy for Children, Behaviour, Interactive whiteboard for beginners and advanced, Community Cohesion , Using Fronter, Restorative Justice , Teaching Outside Your Subject Area, Using publisher and excel, I would provide simple refreshents for this one from the CPD budget.

3. Leadership Conference for middle and senior leaders, including aspiring leaders and open to partner schools as for number 1 above
Suggestions:

Workshops – delegates select from: working with partners in Higher Education; maximising student potential; the importance of CPD; other?

Please, please comment .........

Threshold concepts and CPD

2011-02-06T07:46:00.000-08:00

I am still thinking about what encourages engagement in CPD and wanted to thank @JaneDavis13 for a mention of threshold concepts on Twitter. I'd be grateful for any comments on the following.

If, as Meyer and Land (2003) suggest, there are particular ‘threshold concepts’ that enable students to make a leap in their understanding, then I posit that there may be similar moments within a teacher’s professional development. Such moments are likely to be transformative, irreversible, integrative, bounded and troublesome (ibid: 4,5). Extending these ideas to engagement with CPD:

• Transformative – passing across this threshold may involve a ‘significant shift in perception’ and this may ‘involve a performative element’(op cit). In terms of CPD, perhaps we need to try something out, or at least hear first hand recommendations, before we believe it might be likely to help.

• Irreversible – is this what makes it difficult for those teachers who do constantly reflect upon their practice and its development to understand why others do not appreciate this?

• Integrative – in my view, the aspect of making connections between different contexts is one of the key components in successfully assimilating CPD experiences.

• Bounded – I think that in secondary schools and higher education, this may be more of an issue than in the primary phase. We may hear teachers say things like, ‘that would not work in my curriculum area’.

• Troublesome – again, the idea that new knowledge may come from a context which has hitherto not been experienced may go some way to explaining reluctance to engage.

more on CPD essentials

2011-01-19T13:49:00.000-08:00

Thanks to coments on last post. I am still trying to put something together. More comments very welcome!

Rationale

• There should be personalisation for teachers as well as for students.

• There should be a seamless progression from Beginning Teacher (PGCE/GTP) to Head teacher.

• All teachers should be exemplar learners.

• Accreditation should be awarded which is transferable to other institutions.

• CPD should be linked to performance management and drive school improvement.

• Interest in research evidence and participation should be encouraged.

• Collaboration between colleagues and networking/partnership between schools and institutions should be encouraged.

Methods

1. Weekly generic sessions are run (many by members of school staff) from which teachers and other staff may select which to attend, referenced to performance management and the school improvement plan.

2. Meetings should also contribute to professional development through sharing good practice and dissemination of ideas.

3. External CPD is bid for and must be related to performance management and improvement plans.

4. Personal one to one coaching is developed through group training sessions and diaries/blogs.

5. Whole staff days and half days are run, many with bought in speakers.

6. Online interaction is encouraged (originally via a wiki, now through the school’s learning platform).

7. Partnerships with other schools enables conferences and cross pollination of ideas and practice.

8. The school provides small bursaries for MA, sports coaching or NVQ qualifications.

Accreditation

1. Chartered London Status.

2. Courses accredited by the College of Teachers (affiliated to the Institute of Education): Reflective Practice in Education and Personalised Learning Exchange. (Certificate of Educational Studies or Diploma of Educational Studies). Qualifications are open to all staff and governors, not just teaching staff. Cost borne by the school.

ICT and eLearning

• This is an area for development although the school demonstrates leading practice in the use of the learning platform compared to other secondary schools within the Local Authority.

• A discussion forum for staff has been started on the school’s learning platform.

The key to CPD in schools

2011-01-18T11:59:00.001-08:00

I am trying to put together a very brief "this is what professional development for teachers in schools should look like" document.

This is my starter, please comment:

• There should be personalisation for teachers as well as for students.

• There should be a seamless progression from Beginning Teacher (PGCE/GTP) to Head teacher.

• All teachers should be exemplar learners.

• Accreditation should be awarded which is transferable to other institutions.

• CPD should be linked to performance management and drives school improvement.

• Interest in research evidence and participation should be encouraged.

teaching and research

2010-11-30T11:54:00.000-08:00

looks like would be worth a read- http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/13562510020029590 courtesy of one of my students (thanks)

more thoughts on teacher PD - what's the next step?

2010-11-30T09:36:00.000-08:00

Just saw this on Twitter:

@rliberni RT @MZimmer557: Nice!- Have PD like a conference. Offer sessions and allow teachers to attend what meets their needs #edchat

It's got me thinking yet again about teacher PD and trying to avoid a one size fits all approach.

I think we do quite well, see earlier posts re acreditation, coaching, weekly generic sessions run in-house - mainly by our own staff, but with some external sessions as well.

I have tried to get a weekly 'this worked for me' session going too but no luck with that as yet. Maybe I could use the forum facility on our VLE for this and have a weekly edchat type thing there.

Now I do like the idea of choice of sessions though and I am going to think how we can organise that. Thanks for that @rliberni and @MZimmer557

comments welcome

developing online practice as teachers

2010-11-14T01:49:00.000-08:00

I was at an Open University staff development day yesterday and helped to run two workshops on the topic of developing online practice. My aim for these sessions, with two different groups of people, and each lasting only an hour, was to have some brief mention of the tools available now but more time on the pedagogical issues which surround the changing face of our work with students. The participants varied both in terms of the subject/faculty they teach and also in terms of the level (openings to PhD). Many of them are also undertaking further post-graduate study themselves and this brought another dimension to our discussions. I was struck that we need to continue this debate and that the medium we were discussing might well afford the means to do so.

I started with an image (with due thanks and attribution to @republicofmath from Twitter):

the difference between wondering how and wondering what ...

I proposed the following suggestions:

In any context, pedagogy should be embodied in the environment
Web 2.0 is more about creating content than consuming it

We discussed briefly the concerns we had regarding web 1.0, in terms of teachers - was the information the students accessed valid? How would we ensure critically evaluative skills from students? We then moved on to consider the tensions with web 2.0 - co-construction of knowledge versus plagiarism, our self perception as teachers versus guides towards creative learning. I used video recording to enable me to enhance the notes that I made and also to promote discussion about the possibilities within teaching.

Across the two groups of people, several common themes emerged:

we need to be wary of a tool without a purpose
does the use of moodle forums promote academic rigour (especially if students are more used to participating in different ways via social networking)?
Might rules about re-tweets actually enhance our explanations of proper attribution?
how can forum participation be used for assessment purposes - and should it?
Elluminate - is it more suited to some subject matter than others?
what about equality of access?
harassment issues, managing mischievous threads that could snowball quickly whilst the moderator is not there
developing as writers, getting peer feedback
peer review versus crowd review
developing an argument
workload for students and teachers
more study skills packages
the use of the media for staff development

There was much sharing of good practice:

setting guidelines and boundaries within welcome letter
giving generic feedback on the forum and personal feedback via assignments
ensuring that any perceived authority or validity which is promoted by having a record through written or audio/video podcasts is openly acknowledged
getting students to summarise threads
sending reports of online interactions to staff tutors to help build up a bank of evidence
being aware of ethical considerations

We just began on the debate about creativity and whether this is truly possible for undergraduates. We began to consider the role of collaborative assignments through blogs and wikis and how this could lead to an artifact of benefit not just to the participants but to a wider audience.

During the morning sessions we had, in different groups considered many other issues surrounding teaching and learning - especially in a distance learning situation where there is some online interaction and some face to face meeting time. The module on which I tutor involves students aged from early 20s to 60s and most are teachers or trainers. I often ask why they want to do MA study and other people do not. So far I have never come up with a definitive answer! But something said yesterday by a colleague was that 'learning should be troublesome'. In other words, learning is a perturbation - and I think that this may be taking us towards an idea of why some people do and some people do not. The same colleague mentioned the 'choreography' of the tutor - in both face to face and online contexts. None of this should be underestimated, nor the trepidation with which some students face these interactions - and how we can help by using avatars and audio podcasts and so on. As another colleague pointed out, only ten per cent of communication is via words - consider body language, facial expressions, gestures, even pheromones - though it's difficult to engineer that last!

I would love to continue the debate - perhaps here on this blog or through other ideas. If you were there, I have deliberately not named anyone but feel free to name yourself in a comment. Whether you were there or not, I would welcome further thoughts.

Oh just adding this: I forgot one brilliant suggestion that we do a Twitter backchannel next time so that others can follow and join in the discussion.

Also some reading:
Mitzmacher, J. (2010) Transparency as Pedagogy, A Floor but no ceiling? http://www.mjgds.org/mitzmacher/?p=135

Truss, D, (2007) Pair-a-dime for Your Thoughts http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/statement-of-educational-philosophy/

Wheeler, S.(2010) Communities, spaces and pedagogies for the digital age http://www.slideshare.net/timbuckteeth/communities-spaces-and-pedagogies-for-the-digital-age#

phronesis

2010-11-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

was reminded about phronetic research today - something I haven't thought about for a while

I wrote this some time back - any comments gratefully received

Flyvbjerg (2001) takes a articular view of the role of the social sciences in being able to generate theory. He asserts that there is little point in trying to generate empirical theories, such as in the natural sciences, since the very matter being subjected to investigation cannot be suitable for that approach. He bases his work on the Aristotelian division of knowledge into episteme (scientific, know why, irrefutable), techne (craft, know how) and phronesis (ethics, values, variable, context dependent). If we are investigating what is basically a value-laden human phenomenon, Flyvbjerg suggests that we should take a phronetic approach to our methodology. In such methodology, he suggests we ask the following questions (2001: 60):
1. Where are we going?
2. Is this desirable?
3. What should be done?
4. Who gains and who loses; by which mechanisms of power?

As he states, this means that there is an implicit investigation of values but he denies that this lays the approach open to criticisms of relativism since (ibid: 132) a “focus on relations of values and power” leads to interest from others than the researcher. These others will evaluate the research themselves so the phronetic researcher must deliberately assimilate the context and learn from it – without ‘going native’.

Henstrand (2006: 16) actually embraces the idea of ‘going native’, stating that “proponents of ethnomethodology” actively encourage the researcher to become involved with the group being studied in order to “understand the contextual meanings and avoid distorting the vision of the world” – here she cites Adler and Adler (1987: 32); “going native is the solution rather than the problem”.

On the topic of the richness of data and how this can lead, if not to a simple theory, then certainly to a clearer understanding of the situation, Flyvbjerg (ibid: 133) says that phronetic researchers must begin by asking “little questions” and, with patience and attention to detail, focus on Geertz’s (1973) “thick description”. Flyvbjerg would probably agree with Wright Mills: the problem with Grand Theories is that they are too general to ever be empirically observable.

teachers' self perceptions

2010-10-24T04:09:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been giving some thought to the tensions between teachers' self perceptions and their role in knowledge creation. I am starting to plan a workshop session on developing online pedagogy and it has thrown up all sorts of ideas and thoughts for me. If you can help me with any of this, I'd be very grateful indeed.

Surely, any pedagogy should be embodied in the environment? So if we are talking about traditional, face to face classrooms, or 'online tutorials', virtual lecture halls, whatever, we should be considering and planning for how we can encourage intellectual development? Here's an example:

I have popped into some Year 7 RE classes recently where 11 year olds are grappling with the difference between truth and knowledge. They refer back to the world that they live in - the world of social networking, mobile access to information, multimedia ..... and they test the veracity of that world.

In my other life, as an MA tutor on an education module, my last face to face tutorial really only needed me to ask the questions and step back.... with some guiding 'linkages' provided between the group discussions when drawing back together - just like managing a thread on a moodle forum then? Is this life imitating art?

I think it is fairly commonly accepted that web 2.0 is more about content creation than consumption. Does that mean that 21st century educators should be more focused on providing learning activities that encourage creativity, alongside critical evaluative skills - is that so very different from what we have always done? At various stages of my career I have worked with learners from ages 3 to 70 years old. The first few years and everything over about 25 seem very geared towards creation of ideas and co-construction of knowledge - something perhaps gets lost in the middle? How much of secondary or undergraduate work truly embraces these ideas? Sorry, lots of rhetorical questions here.

Of course, there are tensions: individual work versus possible plagiarism, for example. The tension that I am more interested in, though, is that between our self-perception as teachers, that view that our students must trust us to know the answers, with an emerging realisation that everyone is a beginner all the time (who said that? I am guessing Martin Weller?).

If we refer back to Perry’s (1970) ‘positions’ of intellectual development: absolutism, relativism, commitment, we might take the view that until learners (at any level) are at the stage of relativism, that is, that they are able to perceive a world in which the teacher does not know everything, they can never make the jump to becoming independent learners. I think that we need to consider how to move learners towards commitment, to guide them to be able to develop their own intellectual identities and accept that this may vary and change over time and with new information. And we also need to consider ourselves as learners in this domain.

Please help with any ideas on this!

This is a good read, in my opinion, Mitzmacher, J. (2010) Transparency as Pedagogy, A Floor but no ceiling? http://www.mjgds.org/mitzmacher/?p=135

podcast survey responses

2010-08-29T03:33:00.000-07:00

results to survey here http://www.zoomerang.com/Shared/SharedResultsPasswordPage.aspx?ID=L24HZKVUBPMS

CPD - continuing, collaborative or both?

2010-08-22T04:58:00.000-07:00

I recently had quite a long chat on Twitter with @ToughLoveForX (Michael Josefowic from Brooklyn) about CPD. It started with a look at what the 'C' stood for. In the UK, CPD is in fairly common usage for school teachers. In other education sectors, it may be referred to as just PD (professional development). So what does the 'C' stand for? Officially it s 'continuing' as it is about how teachers continue to develop professionally and personally throughout their career. It can be through school based activities, work shadowing, peer observation, coaching/mentoring, externally provided courses, study. I firmly believe that leading PD enables the leader to learn as much as those on the 'receiving end'.

At my school, we run an in-house course accredited by the College of Teachers (www.collegeofteachers.ac.uk) and I am hoping to introduce an accredited coaching scheme this coming academic year. Teachers can also go on external courses but the budget for these is limited. We also have some teachers and other staff who offer their expertise on a CPD directory (for example, drop in my lesson to see how I use multimedia, talk to the bursar about arranging trips) and have a VLE with resource sharing pages and space for staff to post their professional reflections. CPD leaders can use their experiences towards accreditation as well. Newly Qualified Teachers carry out action research which aids school policy development.

Next year, I would like to add podcasting and open up to other schools, around the world if possible, through holiday schools.Michael suggested the 'C' might stand for collaborative - this because he hadn't come across the acronym used in this way before. The more I think about it, the more I like it. How can I get more collaborative activities off the ground?

Michael pointed out some very important factors - teachers need to select what they want to do for CPD, there should be little financial constraint for individual teachers, and sharing of good practice between more experienced and less experienced staff benefits both. I heartily agree.

What do others think?

why blog?

2010-08-22T04:50:00.000-07:00

For my current study course (OU H800 module) I am thinking about why blogging had become so important to me. Here are my first thoughts.

I regard posting to a blog as mainly a learning tool, although it is also a means of communication with other students and members of my professional learning network. I also want to develop further the idea of using blogs to stimulate and perpetuate scholarly debate, particularly on the topic of the deeper aspect of whether or not online pedagogy is in some way fundamentally different from our current views of pedagogy.

I started keeping a blog as part of my study for another Open University module (H809) and quickly found it a useful means of keeping track of my learning journal. It was useful in that I could access it from anywhere with internet access, add to it, edit and customise with RSS feeds of other useful sources. This meant that I could keep up to date with current thinking in my areas of interest. The habit of writing is one with which I still struggle, so posting to a blog helps me to crystallise ideas whilst possibly receiving critical evaluation from others, in comments. As a learner, using a blog has probably defined, more than any other web 2.0 technology, the means not just to consume but also to contribute to knowledge generation.

Through comments on the blog, or in discussions about blogging, I have also been able to find out about other means of contributing, such as the Open University’s Knowledge Network, Open Learn, editing Wikipedia or micro-blogging (for example, Twitter).

As a teacher, again, encouraging regular writing is a key issue for me. The MA module on which I currently tutor is intended as an introduction to post-graduate study. Most students find it quite difficult to get into the habit of drafting and re-drafting following feedback from tutor or peers; they can also be understandably nervous about writing in the course forum. By posting to a blog and then leaving a link, they can find the process a little easier to deal with and thus gain confidence. Most of my students are age thirty or over, some being up to sixty, and are therefore not really in the category of the ‘net generation’. Nonetheless, they do tend to be people who take ownership of their own learning and professional development – most doing it for the sake of learning and not for promotion – and this may well indicate that there is a learning ‘type’ rather than being age related, which can include use of education 2.0. A comment from @johngordon1 on Twitter sums this up for me (in less than 140 characters!) “this justifies my point on why "curiosity" is critical trait in teachers. The internal motivator far more effective than merit pay”

Another key issue for me is the ability to be able to read the thoughts of academics quickly rather than waiting for published work. This accessibility means that I can read short pieces of writing as soon as they are in the public domain. Micro-blogging (such as Twitter) also enables a discourse to develop. Of course, this idea of scholarly debate stepping outside of the peer reviewed journal system has all sorts of other issues alongside accessibility. Fisher (2010) posits the questions which sum this up:
Do we write to be read or do we write to be published?
Do we write to make a difference or do we write to secure a job?

Having had a foot in both secondary and higher education camps, I do feel that it is fairly common for school teachers to eschew research and academic writing because they do not feel it is relevant, because journal subscriptions are expensive, because they do not have time. At the same time, I firmly believe that engaging in discourse about pedagogy is essential for continuing professional development Perhaps blogging is a means to bring these debates into a wider arena.

I would be grateful for anyone else's experiences of blogging?

more musings on live and learn

2010-08-09T05:22:00.000-07:00

Following directly on from the last post.

‘Learning’ is itself a term which is hard to define. It differs from person to person, and according to context – as well as from paradigm to paradigm! I wonder if the ‘act’ of learning changes a person, or does a person or group of people create some form of alchemy which ‘creates’ learning. Perhaps these are not opposite ends of a spectrum but are a complex web of activity. Maybe learning is something that changes what went before, usually enabling a person to do or to understand something which they had not previously been able to. If the learner is to have ownership of learning, they must have the critical awareness, a degree of discernment as to what is appropriate to which context. True learning might only occur when we stop just being consumers and start to contribute to the body of knowledge.

Alongside all of this is the need to develop learning about learning: to develop a discourse amongst educators.

live and learn

2010-08-06T00:50:00.000-07:00

Have been chatting to a friend about what makes/allows some people to learn and move forward. These are my further musings on this topic.

When you learn something new, perhaps you always have to let go of something else. Perhaps, like me, you sometimes get the feeling that your brain is 'full' - you cannot learn any more. Then you do.

Some days, I just learn one small thing - like recently someone told me the meaning of a Blue Moon (two full moons in a calendar month apparently). Other times, I learn about something bigger - such as how to use an editing tool. Then again, sometimes I try to understand some educational theory or other.

Did my brain always have to release something? Well, not consciously perhaps, But when I learned about a Blue Moon, I had to get rid of the idea that it was 'just a saying'. When I learn something practical, I have to lose the idea that 'I can't do this'! As for more abstract theories, I generally have to either reject an earlier theory or try to assimilate/merge the new one with existing ideas that I have.

How might this apply to CPD for teachers? (The theme of my summer holiday thinking, it appears!)Are some of us better able to 'let go' and try new ideas? Or can people acquire that attribute? Does the letting go take some emotional effort - in fact, I wonder if it might even lead to a certain kind of grief/bereavement.

OK then, if you are a CPD leader, and if it is true that learning requires letting go, and that some bereavement occurs, how do you attempt to guide people through that process? More musing to follow.....

CPD and coaching ideas

2010-07-28T02:00:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Mike for comment on last post. The thing that he wrote which really stirred my thinking was: people like to talk rather than listen. I certainly use that approach with younger students, and with my MA students in fact - so why don't I approach CPD in the same way?

I am beginning to think that themed coaching sessions alongside the generic workshops might be the way forward. I have a few themes in my head (classroom management, new to senior leadership, new to middle leadership, developing your practice as a middle leader, how to be an NQT mentor,developing as a form tutor,developing how you work with support staff, developing as a member of support staff, developing e-learning, how to do lesson observation - the first that spring to mind). I also need to ask what people need/want.

Anyone who undertakes to be a coach could automatically get their College of Teachers accreditation if they write it up (blog/log + essay/presentation at end). It would be great to have some of them video record a few sessions too, as podcasts for future coaches to learn from. Maybe the College of Teachers would like to put them on their website as well.

I'll have to think about some training for the coaches as well. Might be able to buy something in for that.

I am also thinking that this could link nicely to the performance management meetings with people discussing what coaching they might need or like. Maybe someone could do a case study about it - this might be a great thing for the NQTs' action research project this year.

Bursting with ideas now. Please let me know if you've done something like this already and how it has worked.

Creativity in CPD

2010-07-27T00:24:00.000-07:00

Being away from work for a few days can be good time to reflect and consider what could be done better next time. In the last few weeks of the summer term, I am bogged down with timetable issues and raising my head to think about the issues of improving teacher education for practising teachers and also improving communication channels has had to wait until I am a little more relaxed.

I have already designed the basic structure for next year’s in house CPD programme. Having paid attention to comments from staff, I have reduced the length of twilight sessions and thus been able to create more of them. I have tried to fit in all the generic topics requested, including more time for people to work together in teams that go across subject barriers and also more time to work in departments (outside of ‘meeting’ time) on developing resources and other curriculum design issues.
The programme still leads to the College of Teachers Certificate/Diploma of Educational Studies (COES/DOES) and at least one teacher will be working on some research for them next year. The blog undertaken by one student support assistant shows an excellent example of someone evaluating her own development. http://splatshs.wetpaint.com/page/Ana%27s+COES+blog http://www.collegeofteachers.ac.uk/

Yet I still have some niggling doubts. Is there enough differentiation? Do I make good use of Open Educational Resources? Aren’t ‘meetings’ also CPD - and if not, why not? How do I measure the impact?

Heads of department have asked for performance management procedures to be slightly different in September so that the review meeting not only discusses which in-house and externally provided CPD the teacher intends to undertake but also which peers they intend to observe and why. We will try to resurrect the CPD directory via the school VLE (where staff offer various skills to share with others). This summer I’ll try to put all the resources and teacher/associate staff reflections from the wikis on to the VLE as well. Hopefully, we can produce our own journal in school of all the reflections.

What next? I asked for ideas on Twitter and also searched a few other tweets. Here is a selection of ideas:-

@NSRiazat Wikis and Learning http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2010/07/wikis-and-learning-60-resources.html

@hullteacher CPD works in association with time to implement. If not then CPD is ineffective cos people forget.

@Janshs @ianaddison @primarypete_ ha! that gives me an idea too ... I could put RSS of various resources sites on to our school

@thegreatgar the prob with cpd is that it is often arranged for you rather than occurring at the optimum time for learning

@thegreatgar this year we gave staff much more time for themselves rather than meetings etc, seems to be working (mostly individual)

@primarypete_ changing way I use Delicious. Out with google reader of new links. In with big network of educator users to search: http://bit.ly/b0aTbe

@janwebb21 RT @colport: I am liking this style of wiki - http://orbs.com/ #edtech #ukedchat > looks really cool judging from the video trailer!

We already have weekly 1 hour sessions as part of directed time (though staff do no have to attend all of them). Up until now I have designed these around a series of workshops around particular topics of interest to different people. Next year, I have built in more ‘team’ time. My biggest concern is how to evaluate whether or not teachers are actually learning anything. The COES shows that some are – but that is voluntary. Are the rest accomplishing anything by attending? In one large session, I noticed at least one teacher off task and doing something on a computer that was probably work related but was nothing to do with the topic in hand. How do I engage at least most of the staff?

Perhaps the way forwards is to have ‘double’ sessions some weeks – there might be the usual generic sessions and also some sessions where ‘coaches’ are available for certain issues. Of course, staff can always just work on their own – how do I encourage them to evaluate?#

How do other schools approach this – please share or comment if you can. Thank you.

Personalised learning, various literacies and how teachers actually fit into al this

2010-06-29T10:26:00.000-07:00

Please note that this is my take on two presentations – I hope that I have not misrepresented anything said by the people that I mention.

I have decided that I do not find the word ‘literacy’ useful other than in its original sense of being able to read and write. It seems that now we must be media literate, digital literate, academically literate – if we are to function as teachers of 21st century learners. Is that all true? Is it sometimes true? Is some of it true, some of the time? As with anything in life, do we not need to select and return to the menu again at a later date with a different set of ‘hungers’ to satisfy? Chatting with another delegate at a conference today I was struck very forcibly by this point. (I will not name her here unless she wants me to!)

Steve Wheeler’s keynote speech gave me further thoughts about this idea because, as he said (hope I’ve understood this properly), personalised learning is about acknowledging that we each get something different from a stimulus – and I think that could be a digitally produced stimulus or anything else: a picture, music, a book, something on the internet, a video, a football match, a game. George Dafoulas put it this way: “Each member tailors its individual learning space”
Steve quoted David Warlick: “For the first time we are preparing students for a future we cannot clearly describe.”

And how, as teachers do we accomplish that?

The diagram below is from Steve’s presentation which he has kindly posted on http://www.slideshare.net/timbuckteeth/digital-tribes-and-the-social-web

I like this very much because it sums up, for me, the fact that every learner does indeed design her/his own learning environment and I think we can take this further to consider how we support less experienced learners to structure, and adapt, this for themselves – by modelling, by demonstrating, by collaborating in its construction with them. Steve also quoted Don Tapscott: “It's not what you know that counts anymore. It's what you can learn.” So, as teachers, perhaps it’s not what you know anymore, it’s how you become an exemplar learner and support others in that process.

I teach in both a secondary school (UK – ages 11-18) and have some influence on policy there, and for the Open University education programme (all ages mostly 22 and up). I am wondering how we make students’ learning experience truly ‘web 2.0’ (or even ‘web 3.0’) and I think that it is about working with their online and other digital engagement – not trying to learn everything before they do, because that would be nigh on impossible – not just trying to cut and paste our existing or previous practice into a 21st century world. I am struggling with just how to do that. Maybe it is about that old ‘Sherpa’ versus ‘petrol pump attendant’ analogy of teaching, except that Sherpa image still implies that teacher knows best. How can teachers retain their credibility whilst working with students to solve problems? Anyone help me with this one?

Note: Steve Wheeler and George Dafoulas were both speaking at the Annual Learning and Teaching Conference at Middlesex University 29th June 2010

A bleak view?

2010-06-13T07:36:00.000-07:00

Activity 1b Week 17 H800
Digital Diploma Mills David Noble (1998) First Monday

Noble paints a somewhat bleak picture of educational technology in Higher Education – seeing it as a vehicle for the commercialisation of academic and scholarly activity and as a cost saving measure on the part of university administrators.

He does raise some issues that I have some sympathy with. For example, do we tend to rush into the use of technological innovations in order to be seen as forward thinking or to meet customer demand? There are some inherent dangers here such as effectively making a rod for our own backs if we cannot keep up with the supply. Similarly, there are issues concerned with, for example, developing the next cohort of teachers since many institutions find that research activities are more lucrative than curriculum based training. And, of course, the whole problem in the UK of student grants being replaced with loans has likely led to a reversal in the trend which saw more higher education students coming from a working class background (Thomson, xxxx). It is also certainly true, in my experience both as a teacher and learner at higher education level that students value face to face opportunities. However, my son dropped out of a traditional university after two years due largely to a lack of tutorial support – one of the things that the Open University in the UK gets highest ratings for year after year in student surveys.

Where I start to diverge from Noble’s thinking is in the construction of scholarly debate and sharing of practice. He asks, quite rightly, if the pedagogical claims made for technology enhanced education will stand up under scrutiny. He also points out the very real issues of time and workload for lecturers and other academics. However, I cannot help but wonder if his concerns about loss of ownership of materials are such a big issue – maybe I would feel differently had it happened to me. As a teacher i both secondary and higher education, I have always viewed the free sharing of resources and materials, and collaborative production of these, as a major means of ensuring best practice. I do think that some research and collaborative work on the nature of online pedagogy is needed.

It has to be considered that Noble was writing before the explosion of web 2.0 and associated concepts such as social networking and networked professional learning communities. These provide such a wealth of opportunities for self directed and institutionally led professional development that I tend to think that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. In the area of scholarly debate, they can open up a whole new means to encourage those educators who might never have taken part in journal based discussion.

Digital Pointers - response to Tom Whitby's blog post

2010-05-29T08:35:00.001-07:00

http://tomwhitby.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/digital-pointers/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

This is such an interesting post from Tom Whitby - and some thought provoking comments also. As I have multiple roles in my life as an educator I find that one of the main issues is trying to understand *why* some people (and I am sure this doesn't apply only to teachers) are more open to change than others. I also don't think that this reticence applies only to the use of technology.

As a deputy head teacher in the UK, I lead the in-house PD programme and I also happen to teach on a Masters in Education programme with the Open University. The most often cited reason for not joining in with voluntary PD is lack of time and yet the Masters students (almost all practising teachers) say that they do the course to improve their understanding of learning and learners and to improve their practice. This last year, I was able to get our school programme accredited through the College of Teachers and yet still only about 10 out of 60 teachers have found time to do the course.

I am also studying again myself - an MA in online and distance education - fascinating if sometimes difficult stuff.

Colleagues and I have set up a small group to investigate the special case of online pedagogy (or should it be andragogy - or even idagogy?). It's going to be interesting to see where this goes.

A final thought is something that a few school colleagues have tried to develop this year - an Innovations Group. Next year we are going to try to extend this to a few other schools. I will also be resurrecting our school PD directory where teachers can volunteer for peers to observe them - for example creatively using technology.

It's frustrating but exciting ..... not sure about the age thing. I've seen a few summers now but still like to try things out. There maybe some correlation but I don't think that's the real problem. I think it's more the old adage of if you want something doing, ask a busy person.

How can you measure the success of technology in education?

2010-05-23T03:58:00.000-07:00

This is a piece of writing for my study course (H800, week 11 activity 1) but I would be grateful for any comments on the ideas within it. These are my personal views.

The online debate in the Economist (2007) considered the proposition “This house believes that the continuing introduction of new technologies and new media adds little to the quality of most education”. This debate, apart from being asynchronous due to its online context, was a traditionally styled debate with proposer, opponent, comments and questions from the floor, and so on. There were some fascinating projects discussed, revealing the engaging use to which new technologies and media can be put in educational settings. Some statistics were quoted which really did not reveal any grand truths – because, of course, they were measuring something different from what was being investigated; I shall return to that issue presently.

The big question, in my view, is something that Sir John Daniel (the proposer) refers to in his opening remarks: “we usually focus on improving existing teaching systems whereas technology is better used to create new learning systems.” He continues this theme in his rebuttal remarks when he points out that Robert Kozma (the opponent) also sees this as a a key issue. Daniel writes, “most uses of new technologies have been conducted within the traditional educational paradigm." He highlights the fact that Kozma’s opening statement concluded with the question “What if advanced technologies were used to ignite a major transformation of the educational system?” In terms of my own development, and choices made by teachers, this is a very important consideration. The problem is that, realistically, the choices are not made by teachers in classrooms but by administrations systems and even by central government.

The first guest commentator in the debate, Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, hits the nail on the head when she points out that “As we move into the 21st century, the nature of learning has to change to promote critical thinking and problem solving and to encourage applications of knowledge to new situations.” This relates rather strongly to a recent (2009) BBC video made by Lord Puttnam “We are the people we’ve been waiting for” (based on a traditional story by the Hopi Elders, Native Americans). The message here is that today’s young people (at least in the affluent West) have at their fingertips great resources of knowledge and global networks and also face great problems concerned with economic, social and natural issues. They need to be provided not only with the tools to be adaptable, creative and resourceful, but also an education geared at developing the skills to use those tools. A recent inspirational talk was given to teachers at the Creative Transitions conference (2010) by Kieran Osbourne in which he pointed out that if we are to produce creative individuals who will fulfil this role which history has allotted them, we need to have creative institutions (schools and universities as well as businesses).

The third guest commentator in the Economist debate was Don Knezek. He highlights my concern at the start of this discussion - that what is being measured does not reveal much about what is being investigated. For Knezek, the following are the key metrics:·

Learning outcomes geared to a “digital, global and media rich information society”;·
Development of a “deeply engaging” educational environment; and·
A means of rewarding a variety of successes.

The comments from the floor include concerns about filtering and blocking systems in schools, universities and businesses, banning of the use of mobile phones, skype and other similar technology due to restrictive practice. As one such commentator (ptdrumm) writes, “There’s no use of the most modern 21st century digital stuff if the teachers are still in the 19th.” (sic)

The open universities (such as the UK’s Open University) are also considered in the debate as to whether or not their blend of people and technology really does lead to quality as well as quantity. In Daniel’s concluding remarks he points out that for too long the educational and academic world has defined quality “by those you exclude”. This is true right through the educational system, certainly in the UK where secondary age students are judged not on what they have achieved but how – so that vocational qualifications are still seen as inferior to more traditional ones or else we have the idea that we will merge the two (14-19 diplomas) and so lose the quality of both: Knezek’s variety of successes.

Returning briefly to Daniel’s opening remarks: he points out that some countries dream of universal secondary educational access whilst others worry about boys dropping out of school. This, too, links to Knezek’s points, in this case that we do need to consider engagement and not fall back on our tried and tested approaches – because they have not been tried and tested in the new context in which we find ourselves as educators today.

When considering what has this activity has taught me about my own practice, I need to refer again to two of the roles that I have as an educator, which are closely tied together and which I hope complement one another. As a Professional Development leader in a secondary school and as a tutor on the Open University’s MA in education, I believe that it is my duty to try to keep abreast of educational debate, including that related to new technology. That is why I undertook to study the ‘H’ series of courses in the first place. I do not mean that I attempt to learn about every new technology and pass this information on to others but I do try to disseminate ideas, concepts, resources and sources of information. Encouraging colleagues to become more reflective, more receptive, more risk-taking (my new Three R’s!) is my major passion. Two years ago, a colleague was kind enough to refer to me in her retirement speech as “the most innovative teacher I have ever worked with” – the problem is that in the ensuing two years there has been so much more innovation! I doubt that without my engagement with colleagues at the Open University, staff development events and the ‘H’ modules I would have made as much progress.

References

The debate overview can be found at The Economist website.

Puttnam's (2009) video can be seen here

Kieran Osbourne spoke ate the Creative Transitions Conference at Shirley High School Performing Arts College on 18/5/10

CPD planning - help please

2010-05-18T12:50:00.001-07:00

wondering about use of Open Education Resources (OER) for the following planned teacher PD sessions at my school next year - BUT where are the resources please - any help?

MiLes = middle leaders, differentiated sessions

chi prot, internet, hw, behaviour, rewards

induction and pastoral system at SHS inc NQTs/BTs and mentors

SEN and ICT

Igroup, Public Service, EPQ, enrichment, WRL, health & nutrition

NQTs mentors and MiLes - making presentations

rewards and behaviour

SEN and ICT

Igroup, Public Service, EPQ, enrichment, WRL, health & nutrition

1) trips and budgets (MiLes)2) effective classrooms

1) IWB training 2) memory training

curriculum development and AfL

NQTs mentors and MiLes - consistency across school

SEN and ICT

Igroup, Public Service, EPQ, enrichment, WRL, health & nutrition

portfolios inc CLT/COES

behaviour managment - 1.5 hours

AfL, access inclusion, diferentiation

being an outstanding form tutor

dealing with parents, carers and outside agencies

SEN and ICT

Igroup, Public Service, EPQ, enrichment, WRL, health & nutrition

curriculum development and AfL

multimediain the classroom

behavour management

community cohesion

NQTs mentors and MiLes - leadership

SEN and ICT

Igroup, Public Service, EPQ, enrichment, WRL, health & nutrition

numeracy across the curriculum

listening skills

curriculum development and AfL

SEN and ICT

Igroup, Public Service, EPQ, enrichment, WRL, health & nutrition

Innovations Goup presentation

NQTs mentors and MiLes - monitoring, evaluation, action planning

re-purposing OER

2010-05-16T09:19:00.000-07:00

This was my little attempt at editing: from the Open University's Open Learn resource (H800 weel 10 activity 8)

Teaching for good behaviour

Introduction

We need to move away from a focus on 'what the teacher does' to 'what learning and progress (L&P) is being made'. Of course, the teacher has a good deal of control over this L&P and understanding this will enable us to ensure good behaviour through engagement with learning. In the 21st century, knowledge development may come via many sources and the teacher needs to know how to utilise these so that teachinng is not so much a 'stand and deliver' activity as a collaborative exercise. This unit considers the format of lessons, how lessons are delivered, how to present lesson content in an interesting and creative way, and the development of "engaging lessons".

I chose this topic as I am currently engaged with trying to change the focus of lesson observations in the school where I am a deputy head and CPD leader. I can see that this idea of repurposing will be very interesting.

How does it all link in with the study to date on learning design and sharing resources? Well, at my school, we have weekly Continuing Professional Development (CPD) sessions that staff (teaching and support, governors) can use towards a qualification accredited by the College of Teachers (Certificate of Educational Studies). This has gone well and this year we had three longer sessions which were 'differentiated' for middle leaders and others. This has go me thinking about my plans for next year and I want most of the sessions next time around to be differentiated - I would also like to get staff working together in a collaborative way on their own CPD so I think that online resources and structured activities might well be the way forward.

I like the idea of being able to use OER, re-purposed for specific contexts. Hey why reinvent the wheel right?

The Memory of Social Networks

2010-05-10T13:30:00.001-07:00

This is all a bit nebulous still - any comments gratefully received.

Social Networks, bridging and stigmergy: The Memory of Social Networks

I have just been watching a great TEDTalk: Nicholas Christakis on “The hidden influence of social networks” http://bit.ly/d2USZw via @Aaron_Eyler on Twitter. It made me think back to a recent posting about bridging individuals: “Who’s the vital link in your social network?” http://is.gd/bYMXs via @GuyKawasaki also on Twitter. Both of these took me back to an idea that I came across when I first became interested (OK hooked on) Twitter - Mark Elliott’s concept of stigmergic collaboration. Oh and I also watched the DVD of the film Avatar this weekend.

Recently, I was chatting with my sister-in-law. Now my brother is a great guy but, hey, she’s been married to him for almost forty five years! That’s a long time in anyone’s estimation, I would say. Anyway, it also means that this poor lady has had to put up with me for all that time (since, yes, he is my older brother). We were chatting about how we wondered if people nowadays expect more, maybe even too much, from life than we were given to understand was likely when we were young. This might sound just like two grumpy (ahem) mature women and what is the link with this blog post? Dear reader, please bear with me as I try to put my thoughts together on this one.

Christakis mentions that way that we sometimes catch a stranger’s eye – maybe on public transport. Have you ever thought that you have been able to ‘make’ someone look at you in that situation? He relates this to ripples in the social network, and even to the social memories within our networks. I was trying to get my high school class (actually religious studies class but we look at a range of ideas) to think about this today: what is a ‘community’? Can we ‘make’ things happen – think about flash mobs for example. Does this fit with Elliott’s concept that we lay a trail (stigmergy) through our social network – and perhaps these synapses are in some way genetically coded (as Christakis suggests) and so that vast neural connection in the film Avatar is not so far-fetched?

But who are the key players in these social networks? Researchers at the University of Southern California http://is.gd/bYMXs have indicated that it is the bridging or connecting individuals that have the most influence – be it in terms of health or more social factors.

So, time for me to go back to my chat with my sister-in-law. I am thinking that these networks - social, physiological, genetic, neural, interspecies even – must be three dimensional ... maybe even four dimensional since time is also involved. What we expect from life used, perhaps, to be affected by a more limited network or community. Now that many of us are connected in more global terms, this may affect our life expectations as well as what we can donate to the group consciousness. But this is not as sinister as the Borg collective. To me, it is about embracing a collaborative way of sharing ideas, being comfortable with partial theories, not trying too hard to make sense of it all.

This video maybe links some of these ideas – even though it’s an ad:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PnWFlzF3dE

And finally, an image from Avatar – if you haven’t seen it, it won’t mean that much,

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100127190510/jamescameronsavatar/images/b/b6/Saving_grace.jpg

Learning Model

2010-04-09T01:42:00.000-07:00

Using the Hybrid Learning Model was an interesting exercise and one which might be good for a school based Continuing Professional Development session. I decided to try it out for a fairly standard Maths GCSE lesson (ie not one trying out any specially exciting methods, just a basic 'this is how you do it, now you try and I'll help, let's check and discuss, now you try to put the method into your own words so you remember it') - 50 minutes.

I can see why some of the learning events had a fairly big overlap in terms of the roles because before I flipped over and checked the role descriptions on the back of the cards I had already placed some events alongside each other - honestly, no cheating! This did make me wonder, though, if the learning events could be further refined. Then I thought about the fact that they are to be used for all kinds of learning situations where some of the events would not be appropriate at all. Now the grid, once again, seems to indicate a linear sequence and I suppose that is true since lessons happen in real time. However, I noticed that the instructions (quite rightly) place metalearning at the centre of the other learning events so I have tried to include that as kind of mini-plenary sessions throughout my 'lesson' structure. For grid please see below.

Activity/task/objective	Learning event	Teacher’s role	Learner’s role	Resources	Tools/tech	comments
Introduce angle sum of triangle	Receives	Describes Explains Presents Interprets	Observes Reacts Interprets Questions	Could be teacher talk or video	IWB	6 minutes
Class discussion	Meta-learning	Questions Refines Reviews	Interprets Reflects Reviews	Could use card to manipulate or could act out	Might use video recording at this stage	learning journals 4 minutes
Students try some problem solving	Debates & Experiments	Questions reacts Coaches Monitors	Reacts Describes Interprets Applies Explores	Paper and pencil!		In pairs, teacher helping target students, 10 minutes
Review progress	Meta-learning	Questions Refines Reviews	Interprets Reflects Reviews		Might use video recording at this stage	learning journals 5 – 10 minutes
More problem solving	Explores, Creates and Practice	Coaches Responds Represent Resolves	Applies Explores Explains	Paper and pencil!	Might use video recording at this stage	10 – 15 minutes
Final discussion, putting it into own words	Meta-learning	Questions Refines Reviews	Interprets Reflects Reviews	Probably use a mind map of some sort, record on wiki or VLE	Might use video recording at this stage	learning journals 10 minutes

Mapping tools and activities to pedagogy

2010-04-08T12:22:00.000-07:00

I'm not very comfortable at all with the idea of learning experiences being on some sort of positive/negative polarity - maybe, though, we need to think more of it as a 'sliding scale'?

Looking at it that way, I thought I'd just take the example of a blog:

· A blog as a reflective diary

· A blog as a collective resource for collating references within a student group

A blog can obviously be used just as an individual repository - 'thinking out loud' but this can be criticised as narcissistic and so those of us who post on blogs often crave comments/followers. This then makes it more of a social learning experience but I suggest that it slides back and forth along this particular axis.

In terms of the passive/active axis, using other people's blogs can obviously be quite a passive way of assimilating information, like 'lurking' on forums. On the other hand, if we comment and contribute our own ideas or sources/links, it becomes active!

Perhaps the one I find most difficult is the information/experience axis. Is posting on a blog a way of learning by doing? Once again, I return to the idea that it depends and it is the interaction that is fundamental (links back to Beetham's chapter as well).

So, that's my halfpence worth .... :)

Learning Design and me!

2010-04-08T06:13:00.000-07:00

My notes on reading Helen Beetham’s An approach to learning activity design

I found this activity for my study course useful for two reasons. First of all, it took me a step closer to understanding the difference between learning design (the process) and Learning Design (LD) (the paradigm). Secondly, it enabled me to reflect on why I have become a little ‘stuck’ recently. The course does encourage us to consider alternative ways that it could be presented so I hope that my comments here about how I have found certain aspects difficult are not seen as negative but simply as reflections of how my personal learning style has affected my access to the material.

Beetham refers to different approaches to how people learn: associative, constructive and situative. She points out that, whichever standpoint we choose, the learner is the central factor since it is the learner’s interaction with the concepts, activities, tasks, and other people involved (peers and ‘teachers’) which is most likely to determine the learning outcome.

As Beetham points out (page 26), “Design for learning should therefore focus primarily on the activities undertaken by learners, and only secondarily on (for example) the tools or materials that support them.” In my view, this is an important consideration. However, I do believe that some materials are more likely than others to engage a wide range of learners and those of us designing courses or even short series of lessons (in a formal or informal context) should take this into account. If we are working one to one with a learner, it can be fairly easy and quick to determine the appropriate materials and tools. As soon as we move to just one extra learner, the range becomes harder to determine and manage – a point about teaching/teacher resources to which Beetham returns more than once.

She goes on to point out (page 27) that learning depends on the “capability” and “current level of expertise” of the learner. If it is true that transference of skills (“integration across activities” as Beetham describes it, loc. cit.) is paramount for deep learning, then I suggest that it is vital to build into any learning activity design varied opportunities to assess that learning.

Beetham outlines some important factors (pp. 27, 28): authenticity, formality and structure, retention/reproduction versus reflection/internalization (sic), the role of other people, locus of control. I agree with her that the designers of learning activities are likely to have their own approaches within these areas. For example, as a learner I respond better to opportunities to sample from various materials, to develop my own structure based on what I see as the desired outcomes, to reflect and internalise ideas and then an opportunity to apply them. However, as Beetham also points out (pp. 27 and 32), our learning preferences change over time and according to the learning experiences we have had in that time.

I find it very difficult to relate to learning processes as part of a linear or Cartesian ordinal continuum. As Beetham writes (page 29), “...a learning activity – or interaction – emerges as the learner engages ...”. To me, this indicates much more of a spiral or looped process. This leads me on to a Beetham’s discussion of the use of digital technology in learning activity design. If it is true that “simulation and virtual environments are used to foster exploration rather than a linear progression through materials...” (pp 30, 31), then this, taken with my stated preferences above, explains why I have sometimes felt frustrated by the approach in my current study module which guides me through one task after another before allowing me to go back and forth sifting those that I will find appropriate to my learning. The resulting dialogue between peers becomes more a comparison of ‘answers’ than a discussion. Of course, as Beetham points out again, the fact that there is only one tutor to twenty or so students and that the course itself is designed for several tutor groups means that my personal preference would be difficult to plan for. However, I do feel that it might be possible to provide a ‘menu’ of activities at the side of the website so that, having gone through the guided process, I could go back and forth – the forums do provide this in part by reproducing the tasks. Addressing these issues might go some way to relieving “feelings of alienation and frustration – and issues around time management” (page 32) which I have certainly experienced whilst doing a course that it is designed primarily for practitioners with very busy work lives. Learners are “actors, not factors, in the learning situation” (loc.cit.).

Things I liked the look of this week

2010-04-05T04:35:00.000-07:00

@simfin A video my students will show at #pelc10: http://bit.ly/btVf3H (via @timbuckteeth)(wld like to include in my session too @simfin) about 1 hour ago via Seesmic
@Aaron_Eyler Commented: What does learning look like? (Flat Classroomskitchen gardenLearningskype) http://bit.ly/cWCxMR about 2 hours ago via twitterfeed
@web20classroom 10 Ideas for Innovative Math Instructionn http://bit.ly/dBB8jEabout 3 hours ago
@web20classroom Little Known Ways to Integrate Technology in Project Based Learning http://is.gd/bfeMp
@dughall Spot on! RT @Smichael920: We are not building robots: http://wp.me/pvUIF-3m short post on class size
@cristinacost RT @etutoria: Informal learning and why the training model does not work: http://bit.ly/bVdXEF by @GrahamAttwell
@dpeter The Center for Inspired Teaching http://is.gd/bes3g
@russeltarr Time Magazine: The 50 Best Inventions of 2009: http://tinyurl.com/y8gty23
@timbuckteeth Does the blogosphere matter? http://bit.ly/cbUsey
@davidwees Working on a set of tutorials for teachers interested in using video in their classes. Need feedback. #edchat http://bit.ly/azLLTj
@davidwees "Assign purposeful, appropriate to age & level, homework that can be done independently." Marzano & Pickering, 2007 http://bit.ly/9ZhvMF
@timbuckteeth Twitter is more about connections than content: http://bit.ly/b4yFjg Thanks for all the great comments so far
@dpeter How do we shift to a MORE learner-centered classroom? (@msmithpds live at http://ustre.am/fczj )
@kylepace @web20classroom talking about "real-time 24/7 PD to change your teaching".
@dpeter These are good ideas presented by an excellent teacher (@msmithpds live at http://ustre.am/fczj )
@dajbelshaw Cool. A free 'on this day in History' iPhone app (http://j.mp/bzUckd) #historyteacher @nickdennis @russeltarr @davestacey @4goggas
@chris_1974 I have GOT to try this! RT @dughall Clever trick if you're ever doing symmetry: http://bit.ly/9f4SkS
@johnccarver RT @RickWarren: The fact that someone LOVES TO LEAD never impresses me. I want to know, Do you love THE PEOPLE you lead?
@hickstro Notes from @lisadawley Evolution of Teacher Education in a Digital Learning Era: http://bit.ly/cPEoLk
@timbuckteeth Simulated environments for learning: http://bit.ly/9wdJDS
@Grade1 http://twitpic.com/1c1bst - Who needs reading buddies when you can have writing buddies? A shared writing experience
@Darcy1968 'What teachers make' video - how does it make you feel? http://is.gd/b76ZU
@terryfreedman Encouraging Digital Access to Culture: well worth readingThis looks like an interesting document. I'... http://bit.ly/bGB2fr
@johnccarver Great article http://bit.ly/cMGObu Discussion on designing assessments for learning. #comdest @pammoran @colonelb @canyondave
@jamesclay Blog post: e-Learning Stuff Podcast #040: The VLE Lives http://bit.ly/azNgnG

Learning Design First Thoughts

2010-03-28T09:24:00.001-07:00

(H800 week 8 activity 1)

H800 week 8 activity 1

As an associate lecturer, the course design has been done for me. However, I do interpret the course content and attempt to construct learning activities which will enable a range of students to access the ideas and concepts in the course. I do this in three ways:

· By constructing activities for face to face tutorials. These can be whole group, small group, paired or individual activities.

· By constructing activities for students to complete online. These mainly ask students to read papers/chapters or carry out online searches or small observation activities, to report back and to comment on other students’ contributions.

· By giving individual guidance to each student on which aspects of the course they need to develop a better understanding of.

Getting new ideas and accessing resources and support is done in several ways:

· Tutor forum discussions

· Through resources on the Tutorhome website

· Associate Lecturer development days and meetings

· Social networking such as twitter

· Through membership of the Higher Education Academy

· Through various journals

· Through my own study

New technologies are always going to have some effect on teaching and learning and how we construct activities and courses. When I first started as high school teacher, pocket calculators were not used at all. We became reliant on them to such an extent that GCSE Maths exams now have a calculator and a non-calculator paper. Several other subjects are moving towards online assessment in high school. In ten years will we be having the same reliance on other handheld technology?

These few quotations might help to illustrate the point[1]:

“Students today depend too much on hand-held calculators.” (Anonymous, 1985)

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

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

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

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

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

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

[1] Teaching with Contests.com

things I marked as favourites this week

2010-03-26T10:19:00.000-07:00

@chickensaltash The magic of memory - http://bit.ly/98IYxV
@chickensaltash Do your students like to Brainpopop http://bit.ly/czsj9h
@web20classroom Another awesome list of Must Watch Educational Videos on YouTube http://ow.ly/1qK1v
@timbuckteeth Learning styles and technology: http://bit.ly/ahi4DC
@CafeRico I rated a YouTube video (5 out of 5 stars) -- Nature by Numbers http://youtu.be/kkGeOWYOFoA?a
@aforgrave "Should I buy an iPad?" decision-making flowchart. http://bit.ly/cl1SjO Humorous, but lacking requisite decision branch pertaining to bacon.
@catspyjamasnz "Education is about developing human beings, [which] isn't mechanical or linear.It's organic and dynamic." K. Robinson. Discuss
@NMHS_Principal New online social network aims to encourage effective teaching http://bit.ly/9NziLK
@be_b Report on digital inclusion -analysis of social disadvantage and the Information Society. Oxford Internet Institute Insihttp://bit.ly/dzyVXa
@timbuckteeth Educause 100 Ways to Teach with Twitter: http://bit.ly/bOusxA
@malcolmbellamy Short but brilliant Ken Robinson video: my latest blog post http://bit.ly/5SDX56
@dughall Enjoyed reading @IaninSheffield 's thoughts on what learning looks like http://bit.ly/3P8Vwc
@marynabadenhors Interactive Maths sites, e.g. for Smartboard or IWB http://www.theteachersguide.com/InteractiveSitesMathSmartBoard.htm
@hopkinsdavid Royalty free sound effects http://soungle.com/ /via @bubbabrain
@Larryferlazzo updated: What Do You Do To Keep Students (& You!) Focused Near The End Of The School Year? http://tinyurl.com/dyv4oa
@GCSEPod Celebrate science every week http://budurl.com/yh7g GCSEPod Science http://gcsepod.co.uk/subjects/#
@Mike_Bostock One day, all lessons will be managed this way. An inspiring view over the horizon from John Davitt - Learning Score www.bit.ly/explainscore
@russeltarr Witchcraft Trial - Updated Activity Worksheet: http://tinyurl.com/yzjr7fk
@hrheingold Approaching 8000 views for 40 minute video on 21st Century Literacies, also book precursor: http://blip.tv/file/2373937
@chickensaltash Out of Africa Series: Learning - http://bit.ly/beIXrM Is learning different in Nigeria compared to the UK?
@chickensaltash Out of Africa Series: Celebrating Success - http://bit.ly/bTomni
@chickensaltash Who would have thought that Microsoft Word could be so powerful? http://bit.ly/ab751B
@eduinnovation I Teach Because I Can't Do Anything Else: My new post & tribute to educators! Enjoy & Share! http://wp.me/pBrsB-co
@russeltarr Highcharts: add interactive charts to your website (e.g. column, bar, pie, scatter charts...): http://tinyurl.com/ya7ntne

things I've read lately

2010-03-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

Ouch! Looks like three weeks since I last posted! Been busy marking and trying to squeeze in some study myself - oh and life!

Got a good idea from @ToughLoveforX on Twitter today. Suggestion of posting or printing out selected tweets to get more staff interested. So I thought I'd take the last 20 things I've marked as favourites. Here they are (let me know which ones are useful):

@peterrowlett My report to Mathematics Today April 2010. The title, we now know, is erroneous ;) http://bit.ly/9v96Vd 12 minutes ago via web
@drmmtatom RT @JeffAbel: What does a leader look like? (Video) http://post.ly/U8kP #fhuedu610 about 19 hours ago via Echofon Retweeted by you
@mmorley Mini Math Movies that can be downloaded into SMART notebk .. excellent resource: http://tinyurl.com/ycv2v22 about 20 hours ago via web
@tombarrett Sumdog - cool free #maths #games designed to improve #numeracy http://bit.ly/9ahSPf (via @Bligoben) 4:47 AM Mar 20th via bit.ly
@russeltarr Pretentious Academic Sentence Generator (for people who confuse big words with big ideas...): http://tinyurl.com/ye7tmjo 2:04 PM Mar 17th via API
@jonathanmoss Created new Prezi on Next Generation Learning http://bit.ly/b41x7U 11:21 AM Mar 17th via TweetDeck
@jennyluca A teacher from my school wrote a guest post on my blog. If you can, give her some encouragement. http://twurl.nl/qst4lh Thanks. 2:01 PM Mar 16th via Seesmic
@intrepidteacher This site is AWESEOME!!!! Could be cool for students to create soundtracks for mood and tone! http://bit.ly/aDrahJ 11:51 AM Mar 16th via Seesmic
@melaniemcbride What is WoW in schools? A video intro http://bit.ly/cqbEdo by the *students* :) 11:30 AM Mar 16th via Power Twitter
@maanow RT loves the underlying maths in Alice in Wonderland http://cot.ag/bSouSU /via @kinsey76 more math in wonderland here http://cot.ag/b7x453 11:27 AM Mar 16th via CoTweet
@Aaron_Eyler Blogged: Patience and Passion http://bit.ly/9fCsAN 10:31 AM Mar 16th via twitterfeed
@dpeter 21st Century Learning Standards http://post.ly/T2eg 3:22 PM Mar 15th via Posterous
@russeltarr "Real Life Twitter": A funny video to show how NOT to use Twitter...!: http://tinyurl.com/mss7sr 11:32 PM Mar 14th via API
@hopkinsdavid What happens when Youtube shuts down for the night. http://bit.ly/8ZFUFi /via @scubadog 11:03 PM Mar 14th via Tweetie
@hopkinsdavid If you haven't seen this and been awestruck I want to know why http://bit.ly/bfrhBl /via @scubadog Very good 1:32 PM Mar 14th via Tweetie
@deangroom http://tinyurl.com/yljcjlm What does MySchool do for non-academic kids? /via @TonySearl excellent piece #det 1:26 PM Mar 14th via Tweetie
@chickensaltash Could Vital help teachers transform lessons & inspire learning? http://bit.ly/950u1z #edchat #teaching 12:00 PM Mar 14th via TweetDeck
@JKWleadership RT @douglasbrent: Centered leaders never fight the unnecessary battle and never duck the necessary one. #BeOriginal 3:10 PM Mar 13th via HootSuite
@DeputyMitchell Anyone applying or thinking of applying for the 'Accelerating to Headship' by the NCSL? 11:31 AM Mar 13th via TweetDeck
@HelpingYouHelpY Can you honestly say to yourself that you gave it your all. If so then you are a winner and will succeed soon Try http://bit.ly/9oVtQU 10:55 AM Mar 13th via SocialOomph

I'll try doing this every so often and add to our staff bulletin too....

What do you think? Would be good to hear how others in have used Twitter for teacher Professional Development....

learning theories - is apprenticeship still valid?

2010-02-28T08:29:00.000-08:00

H800 week 4 activity 2 situated cognition

http://www.jstor.org.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/stable/1176008?cookieSet=1

The authors are mainly concerned with learning design in schools but I am aware that these ideas might transcend that particular situation. In particular, they are interested in how school students become enculturated into a community of practice in an authentic way. “School activity too often tends to be hybrid, implicitly framed by one culture, but explicitly attributed to another. ... What students do tends to be ersatz activity.” (page 34) “Authentic activity ... is important for learners, because it is the only way they gain access to the standpoint that enables practitioners to act meaningfully and purposefully.” (page 36) Brown et al. put forward the suggestion (page 32) that "activity and situations are integral to cognition and learning”. I like the comparison with learning language and vocabulary. They point out that vocabulary is best learned in context. Ambiguity, polysemy, nuance and metaphor, these are all words which Brown et al. use in terms of language acquisition and I rather like the sense that they can be applied to all learning (ibid: 32 -33). The authors also point out that no tool is any use unless we become accustomed to using it. Of course, as they write, many tools can be used ‘creatively’ and not necessarily in line with specified rules – or differently in different contexts. In terms of considering collaborative learning, collective problem solving and multiple roles (page 40), this article could have been written much more recently.

Is the concept of apprenticeship still valid in a modern economy? They introduce the term cognitive apprenticeship and it would seem to me that learning and education may well become the economy of the 21^st century.

I'll try to find something to back that last point up - anyone got anything?

Vicarious learning?

2010-02-21T06:14:00.000-08:00

H800 week 3 activity 5

Havinge read the extract from Cox (2006), ‘Vicarious learning, case-based teaching and educational ICT’, the following is my response:-

AM/PM/mutable identity – vs – PATSy

The potential for this system is far beyond what is described in this article. The collaborative (PM) aspects of learning fit very well with the idea that explaining ideas to others enables us to learn more. (page 3) “Participating in a TDD[1] exercise is a useful way of learning to reflect upon and express one’s understanding of concepts in a domain, ie. a means of developing ‘epistemic fluency’ (Morrison & Collins, 1995).”

The idea that this type of learning is vicarious in nature is a interesting one: one might suppose that all social learning has a vicarious aspect and that if we believe that participative learning can be more beneficial for many learners than a ‘petrol pump attendant’ approach (sorry can’t remember where that analogy comes from – anyone help me out?) then all learning should be social. Changing the position of the subject from learner to teacher, and back again, by explaining ideas to another person might involve mutable identity.

[1] TDD = task directed discussion

The mutability of online persona

2010-02-21T05:02:00.001-08:00

Sems like Sunday is becoming my study day. I've just been reading Deceit, desire and control: the identities of learners and teachers in cyberspace by Siân Bayne from her book Education in Cyberspace (Land and Bayne, 2005) for my OU course H800 (week 3 activiy 3).

We were asked to address specfic questions in response to the article and here is my output:-

Are your views similar?	I like the sort of post-modern idea (Haraway) that “ a cyborg world might be about lived social and bodily realities in which people are not afraid of their joint kinship with animals and machines, not afraid of permanently partial identities and contradictory standpoints.” (Haraway 1991: 154)
Do you feel uneasy around the uncertainties in relation to how you project your own identity online, or interpret that of others?	I only feel uneasy in that I imagine that I am actually projecting the same me as in any other environment – I would have to ask someone who knows in both contexts if that is true – this makes m slightly uneasy in that I am allowing people who I may never actually meet to ‘know’ me.
By contrast, have you found it liberating to experiment with your own identity online?	I find it’s useful to be able to reflect before writing something in a way that you cannot do when you have a face to face conversation. Elluminate, however, removes that facility to some extent. Of course you can always choose not to speak in f2f but as a tutor you might find that more difficult. *
Have your own reactions to ‘the mutable subject online’ changed with experience in using online interaction?	I like the ideas of mutability – I think that all relationships mutate don’t they?
Do you now feel differently about your own identity relationships – when participating in online forums, for example?	I suppose in fact I may have become less reticent – does this signal ‘danger’ as some of Bayne’s participants suggest?
Why do you think Bayne found differences between students and their teachers?	Power relationships! Mortals and gods ....?!
Can you draw upon the activity theory model to help interpret these differences?	It’s the rules of engagement and the way that a teacher may feel s/he must uphold these, this and the division of labour, these act upon the community which in turn affects how each of the subjects reacts to the instruments in use and produces different objects/outcomes.
Would the different subject positions of teachers in the learning activity system help to explain their reactions and feelings of control, for example?
Does a teacher’s position in authority within the community mean that they feel more confidently able to exert a particular ‘teacherly’ persona using online contributions?	See* above. Authority will always tend to enhance confidence – but personality plays a part as well – that’s a chicken and egg argument though because personality may lead (to some extent) to people becoming teachers.

on the topic of reflective practice

2010-02-16T08:20:00.001-08:00

Developing Reflective Practice in Young Students would love some comments on this one please

by the way

2010-02-16T05:14:00.000-08:00

relating to last two posts this video

more on technology to transform learning

2010-02-16T03:01:00.000-08:00

Following on from yesterday's post and also related to some study for my course (OU H800, week 2 activities 3-10), I was directed by a fellow student (thanks Sian) to the one laptop per child campaign.

http://www.ted.com/talks/nicholas_negroponte_on_one_laptop_per_child.html

Nicholas Negroponte on TED Talks 2006 ( a bit less than 20 minutes)

He has spoken again on TED a few times since. In this talk he outlines the one laptop per child campaign.

What I found most interesting is the notion of learning which appears to be espoused via this campaign. Are we to assume that given the learning materials, anyone can learn? Perhaps the campaign will eventually be underpinned by a curricular framework (thinking about the audio case studies in Canada[1] and South Africa[2], this was a problem for them)?

I am left musing about a rather chicken and egg paradox. Does technology support learning as part of a well thought out curricular plan, as an add-on to that plan, or does it lead the learning?

I started to wonder about the High School in which I work. As Deputy Head, I spend a lot of time trying to help teachers develop ways of engaging students more (to lead, as Negroponte points out, to less truancy, poor behaviour etc.). I do believe that, for the moment at least, technology can engage a wide range of learners. Suppose I persuaded my Head teacher and Governing Body that we should give every student a laptop/i-phone or whatever? Many of our students already have these things at home but aren’t encouraged to bring them to school. Many cannot afford them. Would this be an egalitarian initiative? What about the potential for loss, breakage, stealing – I don’t think stealing would be an issue if everyone had them.

More importantly, would such a move open up learning in ways that I cannot yet imagine?

I discourage rhetorical questions in writing as a rule, however ...

[1] JOURNAL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION REVUE DE L’EDUCATION A DISTANCE SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2006

VOL. 21, No 1,75-88 The First Wave: The Beginnings of Radio In Canadian Distance Education George H. Buck

[2] Distance Education Vol 27, No. 1, May 2006, pp. 63–86 Using Interactive Radio to Enhance Classroom Learning and Reach Schools, Classrooms, Teachers And Learners Charles Potter* and Gordon Naidoo University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

ed tech transforming teaching?

2010-02-15T10:14:00.000-08:00

Just saw this on Twitter: from @endaguinan RT @gsiemens 'I've not found a SINGLE school that shows ANY evidence of using tech to transform teaching and learning' http://bit.ly/8ZkHuI

It's an interesting post - take a look

I think it depends what you call 'transformation'. Has ed tech transformed 'enjoyment' of learning? My (purely anecdotal) evidence would be that it has. Has it made it faster or easier to access information? Again, I'd suggest that it has. I started teaching High School Maths at a time when pocket calculators were not even used in class (we had slide rules and log tables). Now I am producing audio podcasts for my students to listen to and help them with their revision.

BUT has my school embraced ed tech in such a way that it has 'transformed teaching and learning'? I suppose a lot of still teach in a fairly didactic manner - with occasional attempts at discursiveness, participation and collaboration.

Where I think (hope) that ed tech will start to transform teaching and learning is through things like blogging and micro-blogging to help educators share ideas. Perhaps that is the first stage of the metamorphosis?

I'd love some feedback on this one .....

John Seely Brown 'We participate therefore we are'?

2010-02-14T07:54:00.000-08:00

H800 Week 2 Activity 1

John Seely Brown 2007 (first eight minutes of talk)

Click here to view the webcast:

Your work so far on H800 includes some individual reading and viewing/listening. Does Brown’s argument imply that this is less valuable than your group work?

I’m not sure that Brown’s use of the phrase ‘study group’ refers only to collaborative study. I think that what he is getting at is the idea that we constantly internalise ideas/facts/skills and build them into our own ‘knowledge framework’. We do this by sharing with people who we meet socially (and this interaction could be online as well as face to face) as well as with people with whom we have a more formal learning or teaching contract. Brown is suggesting that social interaction, symbolic interaction and use of back channels are at least as valuable as reading/viewing as a solitary exercise. In my view, this is because we tend to talk about, or write about, what we have read or seen. In most areas of life this is a conversation or a report. If we are deliberately studying or teaching then it may take other forms.

What are the implications of his argument for your own use of technology – in your own learning and teaching?

I suppose I still do a fair bit of ‘stand and deliver’ style teaching in my High School and even the work that I do with MA students tends to be very ‘guided’ although relying more on discussion (online and face to face). However, I am beginning to make much more use of small group and paired work in all of these situations and trying to help students and colleagues be more reflective in their work – I see this as a way of helping them to crystallise their ideas – to build their framework, if you like – and to then share with others.

In terms of my own learning, I do find the ‘scripted’ collaborative exercises quite difficult (I’ve blogged in the past about the difficulties with asynchronous collaboration) but find that the less formal collaboration via social networking and forum exchanges very valuable.

What are your reactions to Brown’s style of presentation? What are its strengths and weaknesses...? Is it paradoxical that you are invited to listen to one person talking about, among other things, the importance of study groups?

In this first few minutes of Brown’s talk, it is very much a ‘stand and deliver’ mode but he is asking some though provoking questions within that and coming up with ideas that I would want to develop for myself (Cartesian view of knowledge transfer, socially constructed/participative view of learning, Schon – back channels). Some Open University staff development conferences that I have attended have made very good use of panels as a means of presentation of ideas. I suppose when I teach (either at High School level or post-graduate level) I expect to be ‘interrupted’ and questioned at any time. I do feel that it is a good form of discipline to be able to listen to someone all the way through a lecture or other form of presentation and to make notes which will lead to a dialogue later on – even if in the form of a short piece of reflective writing like this one – to be shared with and commented upon by others.

I'd appreciate any comments about the value of group study versus individual study. Is there really any such thing as individual learning? Are we back to Huxley's Noble Savage... ?

reflecting on my role as teacher/learner

2010-02-10T13:08:00.000-08:00

H800 activities 8, 9 and 10

The first of the tables above is related to my first experience of formal study after leaving school. The second table relates to more recent informal study

Using the above two tables, I am reflecting on the following key questions:

How have your practices as a learner (and/or as a supporter of learning) changed over time, particularly in terms of your use of various digital technologies and resources?

What is your experience of informal learning?

Can you derive any useful lessons from your personal experiences about the impact of technologies upon teaching and learning practices?

The most obvious difference is the type of technology available since my first experiences were pre pocket calculators or video! On the other hand, I seem to still like portable devices (books, log tables, mobile phones) just as much as I did then and I also appear to like activities which either involve me talking or writing - oh dear, perhaps more than listening or reading? Oops

For me, informal learning is often based on something that I have heard being talked about by friends, family or colleagues or seen other people using. This seems quite interesting to me as it indicates, perhaps, that I like to know that others have a positive experience before I have a try myself?

So, as a teacher, then, I think I might assume that a lot of people prefer talking to listening? Does this mean that an opportunity to be slightly narcisstic - what we often term 'personal reflection' - is a really useful means of getting students to develop metacognitively? I also need to remember that I might not be the only person who likes a little justification in terms of hearing 'this worked for me' - and this might well impinge on work that I do for professional development with colleagues as well as the work that I do with groups of teachers with whom I work on the MA in education programme.

the net generation?

2010-02-07T07:01:00.000-08:00

H800 activities 5 and 6 based on an interview with Gregor Kennedy and a webcast from Ian Rowlands

In his introduction, John Pettit of the Open University outlines the background to Kennedy's research. Can 'generation Y' students multitask more efficiently, generate as well as consume net content more effectively? If so, what are the implications for generation X teachers?

The pilot and full research took place in 2006. The pilot involved around 2000 questionnaires of students and the full study involved three more universities with diverse profiles, including some distance learning. The full study used questionnaires, interviews (including phone interviews) and focus groups - where the dynamic can affect results, as Kennedy points out.

The students were the youngest in the university and staff were also included in interviews. The topics covered access to, use of, skills with, preferences for eLearning technologies.

The basic outcome is that Generation Y is no more homogeneous than any other. It did appear that most students coming to university were users of the internet for information finding and messaging. Other uses were much more variable. So the implications for teachers/lecturers/learning activity design is that access and previous use cannot be assumed. Just like any other approach, it is the critical use of information that needs to be taught.

This would seem to be backed up in the webcast by Dr Ian Rowlands (2008) - the written introduction to which includes this 'summary' of the report:

"although young people demonstrate an apparent ease and familiarity with computers, they rely heavily on search engines, view rather than read and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to assess the information that they find on the web"

Dr Rowlands also indicates that it is unsurprising that younger people have different brain activity when engaging in ICT activities. They would probably have different brain patterns anyway. As he points out, we could only make a truly valid generational comparison via a time machine. Perhaps a digitally naive Noble Savage might also do the trick - but that would depend on the experiences that s/he had encountered anyway.

Perhaps there are too many variables - Rowlands refers to gender, culture, and so on. He mentions professionals, recently retired professionals, academics. He also talks about perceptions and qualitative responses. When I got my Nintendo Brain Trainer Christmas 2009, my brain age was recorded as 34 (19 years less than my chronological age) and now I've got it down to 20! But the 'tests' are related to things I'm good at such as mental calculation so ...

In my view, the differences are about the development of critical thought through any kind of information gathering (including reading, watching, listening) - we are back to metacognition rather than data gathering, processing rather than data storage. These differences are not generational. They are about access to and engagement with education - a particular type of education. They may be about personality and personal/socio-cultural background.

Incidentally, I gave up watching the webcast half way through and read the transcript - it was just too tiring and too slow! Reading is my quick way of accessing information - what I've been brought up to? My impatient personality? My age? Oh dear, here we go again...

and how does it relate to Michael Wesch's video?

I'd welcome some comments on this one.

References/links
Gregor Kennedy:

Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 2008, 24(1), 108-122 First year students’ experiences with technology: Are they really digital natives? Gregor E. Kennedy, Terry S. Judd, Anna Churchward, Kathleen Gray

Ian Rowlands

do we underestimate the long term effects of technology?

2010-02-06T12:35:00.000-08:00

H800 Activity 3

“THE FIRST Law of Technology says we invariably overestimate the short-term impact of new technologies while underestimating their longer-term effects.” (Naughton, 2008[1])

Perhaps the concept of ‘overestimation’ here is more closely linked to a sort of mass hysteria which can develop about new technology – will it undermine society? Might it even destroy the world (Terminator or Artificial Intelligence style)?

When I consider how social and family units have changed over the course of my lifetime, it can be seen that technology has enabled that change, helped us to cope with possible estrangement caused by it, and even started to bring us together again.

For example, my brother emigrated to Canada from the UK in 1973. Would this have been considered a sensible option 100 years earlier? Perhaps in those days he would have been seen as an intrepid explorer (and therefore almost certainly from a well to do family) or would he have been a convict (and therefore almost certainly from a poor background)?

As it was, in those early years after he left we were lucky to get a telephone conversation that wasn’t interrupted – and it certainly cost the earth. So we relied on a different technology – the mail! Nowadays we can contact each other by skype, by e-mail, via social networking, by mobile phone as well as by old fashioned telephone.

More than that: my extended family around the world stays in touch. My professional and learning network has grown through social networking.

But, do we underestimate the longer term effects? I think this is harder to answer. Perhaps what Naughton was driving at was the notion that we simply do not always have the imagination or the courage to grab new technology with both hands and really use it to its full potential.

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”

Andre Gide

[1] The Observer: Business & Media: Media: THE NETWORKER: Thanks, Gutenberg - but we're too pressed for time to read

Access U.K. & Ireland Newspapers

English Español WelshThe Observer: Business & Media: Media: THE NETWORKER:

Thanks, Gutenberg - but we're too pressed for time to read

Observer, The (London, England) - Sunday, January 27, 2008

Author: JOHN NAUGHTON

starting to think about learningdesign

2010-02-06T07:48:00.000-08:00

Activity Two – my first reactions to H800

The title of the module is: Technology-enhanced learning: practices and debates. Both practice and debate about learning are areas that interest me. The introduction to the module raised several questions which resonated with me:

1. How do people learn?

2. How does technology affect the way people learn and the outcomes they achieve?

3. What is academia for in the new technological world?

4. What is the balance between reading and writing/responding – how much of this is actual learning (building knowledge)?

5. What are the respective benefits of individual study and group interaction, and how do students feel about different methods of interaction?

6. What is a ‘successful learning experience’ – good grades, passing? acquiring knowledge, for example, or is it for you a means of interpreting ‘reality’?

7. What is learning design?

· What made the online learning material a success?

· Could you capture that and use it in another context?

· Could you tell someone else how to do it?

Here are my initial reactions to these questions – please bear in mind I’ll probably develop more ideas about these .... !

1. Of course, there are very many answers to this question. As a teacher, I believe that it is my responsibility to provide as many different approaches to learning as possible.

2. Of course that links directly to the second question. As teachers we have embraced new technology for centuries, always exploring means to enhance the learning experience. When I first started as a Maths teacher in the late 1970s, pocket calculators were not commonplace in the classroom. Since then we have seen an amazing development of computers, from the old BBC machines, to PCs to laptops to ... well I could go on. Mobile devices will probably be the next big thing.

3. Referring back to Activity One, the potential of mobile learning may well affect what schools and universities are actually for. If we move away from what has been called the ‘stand and deliver’ approach to teaching, then we may also move away from synchronous experiences. Does this mean that the days of timetabled classes are numbered? Perhaps we will be thinking more of sessions where students can tap into learning materials and resources – resources which include the teacher – with guidance rather than conventional teaching? This is all probably absolutely Utopian ....

4. So what is the balance of activities which actually leads to learning? This is what I posted on the private wiki for my Year 11 High School students (aged about 15):

Being a reflective learner means taking something that you already know really well such as how to read, or doing basic Maths, or something about how cars work, or your favourite music or artist. You then use that existing knowledge and apply it in new situations, usually to solve a problem. In so doing, you actually develop new knowledge and it is better than just being told or taught something by someone else because you will remember it so much better. Of course, at school, college or university, and even when training for a new job, you usually have to have someone to guide you. If you take the time to sit and reflect afterwards, write it down in a Learning Journal or mind map, or whatever suits you, you will find that you do something called internalising the knowledge - remember when I talked about metacognitive skills?

If you practice this now, I am absolutely certain that you will find it easier to do every time you have to learn something new. To start with you will just be being descriptive, then as you develop your skills, you will find that you are thinking about thinking (metacognition) and you have become real students.

In other words, I believe that learning, building knowledge, is more than just acquiring information; it is about reflecting on and using earlier knowledge and becoming not just real students but real learners.

5. Collaborative activities do probably lead to another weapon in the learning armoury. I am also of the opinion that responding to peers’ writing can lead to further learning. This is not always easy to do. We are busy, we do not wish to be too controversial, we lack confidence, we do not have the relevant personal experiences. This is an aspect of learning that I wuld like to explore further.

6. Successful means many things to many people of course. If we undertake a course, we probably want to achieve a ‘pass’ and maybe better than that. Surely, though, adult learners do not undertake courses unless they want to actually learn something. Perhaps this also ties in with Activity One, where I wrote about my school staff being encouraged to participate in Professional Development when they get some accreditation for it?

7. Learning design seems a fascinating area. As a mentor for other tutors on distance learning courses, this will be an area that I hope will lead me to better practice. I have already found that studying H809 and H808 has improved my practice in designing online activities, at least in terms of increased interaction amongst students.

Further reading

Tara Brabazon (2008, p.50). Her article is a critical review of Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody,

new study course (H800 activity one)

2010-01-31T07:34:00.000-08:00

H800 Activity One – a bit about me

Having just started a new study course (Open University module H800) the first task is to say something unusual about my professional practice. This is quite difficult because, of course, who is to say that what I think is unusual will be the same in the perceptions of others? Instead then, I shall say something about what I think is one of the most of important aspects of my practice – and I am sure that this will be the same for many others – that is, building a true learning community amongst educators.

I will be able to sit back with a sigh of satisfaction in the school staff room on the day when most of what I hear in conversation is about what the teachers have learned recently. Of course I know that teachers are busy and that it is a physically and emotionally demanding job. I’ve been doing it for over three decades. What I have found recently is that teachers, like many others I suppose, want some recognition for their learning. The Professional Development programme in our school has started to flourish since staff can obtain a recognised qualification for participating. This is leading to much more sharing of innovative ideas and a more open atmosphere in terms of being leading learners who are developing ways of building knowledge rather than being imparters of information.

My second task for this first activity is to describe a learning technology that I find useful and enjoyable. I am going to mention something that I am only just starting to experiment with: podcasting. My last course (module H808) encouraged us to make an audio podcast and just yesterday I was involved in a workshop looking at ways f using a variety of podcasts. I find them very useful for my own learning (for example, TED talks and Open University teaching podcasts) and over the coming months I would like to experiment with using them for both my High School students and my MA distance learning students. Perhaps the potential of podcasts for mobile learning is one of the most exciting developments.

exams, qualifications, learning styles, Ofsted school inspections

2010-01-23T11:40:00.000-08:00

A celebration speech by Sir John Rowling

2010-01-05T10:58:00.000-08:00

This afternoon, our whole staff CPD session was taken in its entirety by Sir John Rowling. He spoke for an hour with no notes other than the prompts on his slides.

I am going to attempt to give a flavour of some of the points he made which resonated with me - I won't try to reproduce either his humour or his style - both of which were (in my view) brilliant. Sir John, if you read this, I hope I've got your points down correctly - please forgive me if I've put too much of my own twist on them. For other readers please remember this is my take on the talk and not a transcript.

He started by saying that he hoped everyone would get at least one idea from his talk. I am going to ask those staff who can to contribute the one idea they got and which they will work on or develop.

He had done his homework and congratulated us on our results last year. Whilst not denigrating percentage scores or value added calculations, Sir John pointed out that what we had actually done was to make a difference to individual young people and to their life chances. He commented that it is hard to measure how happy children are or how well prepared they are for life but that you cannot overrate these aspects of education, all the same. Sir John touched on the personal pride that it is possible to get from teaching - we don't want to be average teachers, we want to be good teachers, even excellent teachers, if we can. He reminded us of Emlyn Hughes, the footballer, who said he was not the best footballer of his generation but that he was perhaps one of the hardest working, the most dedicated.

One comment that Sir John made which struck home with me was this: we are not after pleasing people, we are after making a difference.

He congratulated our staff on our determination and our togetherness - and I would like to add how delighted I was that so many non-teaching staff were there - emphasising that comment, I feel.

He pointed out that young people know if teachers don't like them. Why do teachers not like some students - because they are challenging, don't do as they are told, mess around. What can we do about that - it's a good question isn't it?

He congratulated us on beating 75 other schools to win an award last year and commented on how great we must have felt on results day last August and on the first day back in September. It made me think about the fact that my husband asked me this year why, after over 30 years, do I still get strung out before a results day? Because I want to have done well, I want my students to have done me proud - I want to have done right by them.

He pointed out that young people (the vast majority) cannot achieve high standards without good teachers and also the responsibility we have if they do not achieve what they should. Sir John is not afraid to call a spade a spade.

He quoted a story about a salesman who was not meeting targets. When questioned by the boss, the man said, well you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. The boss replied it was not his job to make them drink, it was his job to make them thirsty. I though about the book Blink by Malcom Galdwell with a story of a car salesman who always exceeded everyone else's sales. When asked how he managed it, he replied he had only three rules: take care of the customer, take care of the customer, take care of the customer. As Sir John said, we are not there to make the students work, we are there to make them want to.

How do we know if we are still on the up, maintaining the status quo, or declining? It will not be easy to maintain our good results this year. We have to focus on asking ourselves the right questions. Referring to Collins' book Good to Great, Sir John said that sustaining high performance is about understanding how greatness can be lost. In our case in schools, it is about teaching, leadership and excellent standards. What we need, he said, are:

good data - make sure the data you give in is accurate, predictions should be within plus/minus 10%

focused leadership

Head of Department empowerment and accountability

strategic intervention

student engagement

How pleased I was to note that my senior colleague collects and uses excellent data, that we are running an ongoing CPD programme for middle leaders and ongoing CPD for effective learning strategies, with an Innovations Group run by five highly committed teachers who are sharing their ideas.

Sir John says that was is needed is specific diagnostic and therapeutic teaching, checked regularly by testing. You need personalised/focused strategies, especially for revision sessions. Test to make sure they've learned what you wanted them to learn. Do you agree with this?

We are successful because we understand why we do the specific things we do and under what conditions they would no longer work - says Sir John. He says we need specialists in postiveness, faith and desire for greatness.

Sir John asked have we got all the right people in the right places? Wrong people see themselves as having jobs, right people see themselves as having responsibilities. How important are job descriptions? What is important is focus, dedication, a sense of responsibility. It's not about league tables. It is about children, their families and celebration.

In response to some questions, Sir John made a couple of very tangible suggestions - don't offer blanket revision classes, offer tailor made sessions for just a few invited students. Don't try to target every student every lesson, try a few at a time. Consider special lessons from 5-6pm or 6-7pm with only 4 students in each. Pay them £1 a session if they come to all eight on offer.

My colleague then thanked Sir John and said that the magic of Sir John's ideas is that they are tried and tested and based on sharing good practice.

I would welcome comments from colleagues in my school and elsewhere. Have you tried any of Sir John's ideas - did they work? Do you agree that by improving results we improve young people's life chances?

Oh, and my one idea? Well two actually: remind the students that I like them and try tailor made revision sessions for small groups this year.

Glogster

2010-01-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

Been experimenting with a poster maker called Glogster - here's a little experimental one - anyone else used it?

I can see it might be a good way to get students to do homeworks calling for summaries or maybe if multimedia is required. Would there be any drawbaks with younger high school students that anyone can think of?

Would love some comments on this one.

podcast review - activity for H808

2009-12-23T09:27:00.001-08:00

Review of Caroline's Podcast about online collaboration but with a slightly different slant - some thoughts on improving online collaboration.

http://leung.podbean.com/mf/web/k9bf4i/CarolineLeungH808podcastonimprovingonlinecollaboration.mp3

· Sound quality – could it be improved?

I had no difficulties with the sound quality. When I compared with my own, Caroline has managed to avoid too much ‘hiss’ on sibilants – very nice quality I thought.

· Broadcast quality – is the podcast well-constructed and intelligible?

Very good. Caroline had obviously planned this carefully, including reference to some wider reading. It flowed very well and was easy and pleasant to listen to.

· Suitability – does it meet the needs of the intended audience?

Yes, the fact that Caroline was basing part of the podcast on an activity which we had all undertaken meant that any H808 student or tutor would find this a suitable topic. In addition, others would be equally likely to find the topic matter of interest.

· Length – is it of an appropriate length for the subject and the intended audience, or too long or too short?

Just right, I felt.

· Interest – does it engage the listener?

Caroline has a very pleasant voice which maintained interest.

· Academic quality – is it based on research and argument, or on opinion?

Caroline was using both her own experience as a student and as a lecturer as data so it could be termed anecdotal research. She made it clear that the podcast contained her own opinions and justified these with reference to well known and accredited authors.

· Suggestions for improvement – if it was possible to improve it, how could it be altered to better suit the needs of the audience?

This is a general comment and not really related to Caroline’s podcast at all: I felt that if each podcast on the course wiki had been accompanied with a short paragraph and perhaps a picture of the speaker, this would make it ‘feel’ a little more like the ones which we are asked to listen to as part of the course – such as the introductory podcasts.

· Suggestions for use – if were to be part of an information source for practitioners, what brief notes would you put on the site to place the podcast in context?

I thought that this would make a great rationale for the collaborative aspect of H808 and could be used (with Caroline’s permission of course) for future course descriptors.

Uses of blogs in education - activity for course H808

2009-12-23T07:57:00.000-08:00

Educational blogs

1. Sharing resources or teaching and learning materials

Blogs are used by educators at all levels as a means of sharing resources or teaching ideas – a kind of extended staff or senior common room where conversation can take place about new ideas, ‘what went well’, or learning styles.

Blogs are basically one way communications – unless they are designed with the aim of attracting comments from others. They can be publicised, for example through social networking sites, and they can be designed with key words which will make them more likely to be found in internet searches.

Dan Roberts’ blog http://chickensaltash.edublogs.org/ is an excellent example of sharing ideas and innovations globally.

2. Informal publication of educational research

Even for academics who have a good record of publication in books and peer reviewed journals, blogs provide a means of getting their research published very easily and with a wide audience. For those who have yet to build a publication record, or who do not wish to do so in the traditional way, blogs provide an ideal platform.

There are possible concerns about intellectual ownership. However, I would suggest that plagiarism can take place in any format. It could be argues that it might be harder to detect in an online setting. Similarly, like any other critique, the research credentials of the author would need to be checked.

A good example is the blog by Mark Elliott which links to his doctoral thesis on stigmergic collaboration. http://mark-elliott.net/blog/?p=55

3. Informal publication of personal views and opinions

Like any diarist, going back to Samuel Pepys, the blogger is one who wants to share her/his opinions with a wider audience. The huge advantage of blogs is that followers can get e-mail alerts when a new post is made and thereby keep up to date with the diarist’s latest thoughts. As for both of the earlier two categories, the diary format can be designed to encourage comments, or not, as desired.

The blog as publication method means that costs or rejections are things of the past. However, it is important to take all that one reads with extra care since there are no quality assurance measures in place apart from the software owner’s rights in terms of unsuitable material.

There are very many that I would have liked to use in the category. I have decided to use Steve Wheeler’s since I find some resonance with many of his views. http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/

4. Personal study or learning logs

This is certainly how I began my use of blogs and I would recommend it to any student for several reasons. It is a simple way of practising writing with an opportunity for informal peer review. I believe that writing is one of the hardest skills for students at any level to develop; this is particularly true of academic writing. Secondly, a blog can be accessed from anywhere in the world, eliminating the need for notebooks or even laptop computers. A final bonus for me has been the chance to crystallise my thoughts and use the feedback and comments to help improve my critical thinking skills.

I have also used blogs as a means of encouraging discussion between students both at High School and post-graduate level. I am convinced (via my own anecdotal evidence over several years) that students who get into good habits of learning logs (paper based or online) develop higher order skills like metacognition and go on to achieve better results.

A good example is Alice Kerly’s blog http://allies-in-elearning.blogspot.com/ . Alice is a fellow H808 student.

General issues with blogs

Blogs are relatively easy to set up and there are quite a few free websites where the necessary software can be downloaded and customised. Ethical and internet safety are the two main areas of concern with using blogs. This is particularly the case where teachers set them up for young students to use. However, they can be made private access only and, of course, normal safeguarding measures should always be followed, as should any ethical standards, such as permission to cite from a blog. It can be very time consuming to maintain blogs, although they tend not to need as much housekeeping as, say, a wiki.

using wikis for reflective practice

2009-12-23T04:35:00.000-08:00

In this podcast for the Open University course H808 'The eLearning Professional', I will talk about how we used wiki technology in my school in an effort to encourage reflective practice amongst school teachers.

I refer to an article in Education Today Vol 59 no. 3 pp 25-28 by me and also to our oublic wiki www.splatshs.wetpaint.com The original wiki which I talk about in the podcast was a private wiki for school staff only.

I would welcome comments on the SPLAT wiki or on the podcast.

podcast for H808

2009-12-22T14:36:00.000-08:00

first try at a podcast

phew this took ages - hope it works

What inspires us to learn?

2009-12-22T09:15:00.000-08:00

I have just been reading this great blog post from Andrew Green-Howard aka @charlie1312 and it really made me think about why I love to learn. I have commented on the blog but I think I'll re-state that comment here (with improved spelling):

We had a public speaking competition at school recently where a 13 year old beat all comers up to age 19 with his talk about why our students in the west don’t want to come to school, and – exactly as you have written – in other countries they walk miles for the privilege. What’s the solution? How do we make learning seem to be the privilege?

Last evening my mother-in-law (an ex primary teacher, UK) asked what or who had inspired me to go so far with my education and why I still feel the need to keep studying well into my cough cough -ties. I gave it just a little thought and then said, ‘my parents’. Dad was a scholarship grammar school boy from the East End of London who took me to the library every Saturday that I can remember. We didn’t have lots of possessions but boy were there a lot of books in our house – mostly from the library. Mum left school at 14 to help look after all the younger siblings but never failed to praise and support me – even when I didn’t do so well. Neither was there when I graduated with my EdD but both my big brothers were – one flying several thousands of miles for the weekend!

Recently I interviewed a year 12 boy to join our school. He had come from Poland. His father asked me why, in the UK, education is only prized for the job it can get you and not for its own sake. I couldn’t answer him and felt sad.

What’s the solution – I just don’t know – but as long as lots of keep looking we’re sure to find it some day.

I've been thinking some more and I am wondering why it is that I just love to learn. When did that happen? Well it certainly wasn't upper most in my mind during late teens and early twenties, if I am honest - umm parties were more interesting generally. Yet even then it was true that I didn't study with career development in mind, I did it because it seemed that was what I was meant to do. In other words, I was fulfilling an expectation. At first that expectation was probably based on my parents' expectations for me - later it became internalised.

Something I've been asked a few times is whether or not I have gained qualifications in order to get promotion - well I don't suppose they've hindered me but, again, no this was not the prime reason.

I think somewhere along the line learning became a passion. Maybe it was teaching others that gave me that passion to learn. Maybe it's a chicken and egg kind of thing.

Any comments gratefully accepted.

What have I learned in 2009?

2009-12-14T11:36:00.000-08:00

At the risk of starting a bit like A Tale of Two Cities: It’s been a long year and yet it’s passed very quickly.

Just as a reminder I have very diverse roles in life (it keeps me young thinking, I hope): I am a Deputy Head Teacher in a comprehensive school in an outer London borough (this includes a role as Professional Development manager), I teach on the Masters and EdD programme for the Open University, I study with the Open University for my second MA, I have a family to look after and some writing/research to do.

In January 2009, I was looking forward to enhancing my knowledge of e-Learning with an Open University course H809. Little did I realise that this would lead to blogging and Twittering like – especially as I had only an inkling of what these even were! I had been dabbling with wikis for High School students and teachers for some time but these took off in a big way and I even ended up having a short article published in Education Today about using wiki technology to assist reflective practice for school teachers. I ran a workshop about this at the EdD residential weekend in July and have just been asked to run a workshop on the same topic at a conference at the Institute of Education next February.

I have gone on to study another Open University course which looks predominantly at the use of ePortfolios for teachers at all levels. This has been a challenging course, not least because of the online collaboration we were asked to so. It has helped me to restructure my own Masters level online forum and has led to greater participation levels on that.

That’s mainly about my study opportunities.

I have learned some other truths this year. I’ll call them truths although we all know that truth is elusive and possibly a personal perspective on reality. I have struggled with why some people feel they have little left to learn and with my role in that. On the positive side, I have been thrilled with the people (aged between 11 and 80 approximately) who have taken on new ideas and even run with sharing these with others – especially some of my younger colleagues at school.

I have learned the joy of achievement – even at my age.

At home, I have learned that one’s family do best when not nagged or goaded – actually I’ve learned that before and will probably learn it again.

It’s been a good year.

What have you learned?