With the launch of the iPad real soon now, a number of main-stream education suppliers are gearing up to provide educational resources for the new machine. Penguin, who now hold the rights to so many of the titles that saw the the boom time of CD ROM, are just one publisher re-purposing content for the iPad. Here’s a video of some of their titles being presented.

There are a number of things that perhaps are interesting in this presentation. Firstly, the applications clearly use some of the iPad features, such as shaking, or the GPS to compare the night sky with the DK resource. It would have been so easy to ignore aspects of the technology built into the iPad. Secondly, it’s interesting to note that education resources, particularly primary content resources, have been few and far between for Windows-based tablets. This might suggest that developers have only seen potential in the iPad’s technology that they have not seen in previous tablets. Thirdly, I wonder if the iPad will effectively slow or even challenge, the move to Web 2.0 and VLE technology in primary schools. One can see the scenario … schools used to buying bespoke software based resources such as CD ROM (indeed many are still buying in this format) might well stick with something familiar with enhanced features? Or is it too late?

(Does anyone know if there’s to be a “Grandma and Me” version?)

I had the privilege of facilitating on one of Becta’s Parental Engagement briefings this week for Primary schools. Despite being a long way from home, I’d volunteered to help with the Manchester briefing since I was in the area doing some work with schools. Held in the Manchester United conference facilities, I turned up early to have a look around. Now I’m not really a great football fan, but the opportunity arose so I thought, “why not take your afternoon off doing the stadium tour. At least you can say you’ve done it.” So that’s what I did.

I’m still unsure whether I really enjoyed the tour or not, but one thing that struck me was the distinct lack of cutting-edge technology, the only concession I could find was the iPod dock below the central plasma screen in the home dressing room (picture above). Who knows whether it’s used to play soothing or inspiring music to the team before battle commences, or it show clips of their opponent’s moves? Given the sparse nature of the display equipment I pondered what Alex Ferguson keeps on his iPod and might use this dock for. For example, does he prepare podcasts for the players to listen to on the coach? I’ll probably never know …

The highlight of the briefing was Professor Charles Deforges 20 minute talk on the impact on parental involvement on pupil achievement. He’s the statistican that produced the literature review of research back in 2003 for the DES that proves that affecting parenting is by far the most effective way of raising achievement and change the prospects of disadvantaged young people. He produced some stunning statistics. For example, students with good parenting skills and attitudes have a 26 percentile point advantage of getting five ‘c’ passes at GCSE. This was little to do with wealth or success of parents. Indeed, having both parents educated to degree level provides only three percentile points. As he pointed out, tackling poor-performing schools can only take you so far, to really affect social justice, giving parents parenting skills and strategies is the only way forward.

One of my tasks at the moment is working with the History of Advertising Trust (HAT) on their AD:Mission project. Following a successful grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, HAT appointed a part-time Learning and Access Development Co-ordinator whose role is to develop the educational remit for the charity and promote access to their resources. Jane is an experienced English and Media Studies teacher.

The major access issue for HAT is their location being based on the Raveningham estate on the Suffolk / Norfolk border so there is little real prospect of large groups of teachers flocking for courses or to access their collection on a regular basis. This of course is where the technology comes in. HAT have the biggest collection of UK advertising material in the world with over 6000 sq ft of dedicated space to material ranging from posters and newspaper to television advertisements.

The aim of AD:Mission is to create an online professional development space for teachers and educators. Their starting point is supporting the new 14-19 Creative and Media Diploma, but the courses will also provide appropriate CPD for teachers wishing to use advertising material in a range of subjects. The courses are being developed by classroom teachers around themes they wish to explore with their students. My role as consultant to the provide expertise in teacher professional development and the technology, in order that they produce a useful and worthwhile resource. Apart from three face-to-face meetings, most of their ‘learning’ will take place online modelling the way in which their eventual participants will interact with the course material.

A key to the success of any CPD experience can only properly be measured by the impact it has on learners in classrooms. Indeed, the whole notion of CPD is to change teachers’ practice so that it has greater impact on learning. So it was I turned to the work of Thomas Guskey whose framework for evaluating teacher professional development is seminal. He propounds five levels by which professional development can be judged to be effective:

1. Participants’ reactions


2. Participants’ learning


3. Organisational support and change


4. Participants’ use of new knowledge and skills


5. Students’ learning outcomes

Importantly, Guskey advised that each level builds on the prior one, so that the early levels are critical to the achievement of the ultimate aim of CPD – an effect on students’ learning. This framework is extremely helpful in clarifying why it is so important to focus on the personal, intuitive and qualitative areas of teachers’ engagements with CPD, understanding how they experience and react to it.

For this project I began to wonder if Guskey’s framework could also provide a structure for developing a CPD experience for teachers. With this in mind I proposed that the online courses provided by HAT use these five levels to ensure that activities within Moodle take the teacher-learners through the hierarchy.

It’s early days yet, but the course developers first task is apply Guskey’s five level model to their course design.

Image credit: Jonny Hughes

… they can both be impersonated on social networking sites.

According to the Manchester United website:

The club wishes to make it clear that no Manchester United players maintain personal profiles on social networking websites.

Fans encountering any web pages purporting to be written by United players should treat them with extreme scepticism.

Any official news relating to Manchester United or its players will be communicated via ManUtd.com.

and teachers in various Local Authorities have also been told to close their social networking accounts. Manchester City have also advised their players against setting up social networking pages despite the club having its own twitter account and winning a Golden Twit last November.

The reasons for taking such actions are often similar, to protect both the organisation and the individual. Manchester United’s statement is aimed at warning fans about impersonation accounts (although Twitter has a verification scheme for celebrities) and teachers are not immune from the same problem (see third comment).

Image credit: Ian Muttoo

Last year I asked whether BETT was where it was truly at, this year my doubts were swept away, not by the hundreds and thousands of products on show, but by the slow but sure “takeover” of teachers and educators in the back channel and fringe. Like Diagon alley all sorts of exciting things were going on invisible to the Muggle world. BETT 2010 was noteworthy for the presence of practitioners who through their commitment and sheer persistence began to infiltrate the world’s largest (according to Dominic Savage of BESA speaking at the Minister’s Address on the Wednesday morning) exhibition for educational ICT. Last year, I said,

“The essence of good learning, and therefore teaching, is the engagement of students within a context they can relate with. BETT is about the old-model ‘commercial’ world of educational ICT, while perhaps the really interesting stuff is being done elsewhere, with tools that typically cost nothing and by engaging learners within their ‘environment’. There is no formal exhibition or display for this type of activity except distributed on the web of course. The prospect of a ‘free BETT’ meeting on the fringes is tantalising …”

this year, three free evening events took place. On Wednesday there was TEDxOrenda organised by Drew Buddle (there’s a great running blog post by Joanna Jacobs if you need to catch up with the event). On Thursday there was AmplifiED’10, which took a barcamp approach, and on Friday the TeachMeet itself, all attracting important sponsors, including Becta for the last. But most significant of all was TeachMeet Takeover in which standholders donated 30 minutes or less to allow teachers to ‘takeover’ their stand to share inspiration for free. At the same time, Theo Kuchel’s and Leon Cych’s, with support from Mirandanet, live-streamed debates and interviews were perhaps of more use and impact than the seminar programme.

So what might this tell us about the way in which BETT, or indeed future conferences and exhibitions might go? It’s still early days, and perhaps any sort of prediction would be foolish. But one thing’s for sure, things are changing, and they are changing for ever. A number of BETT bloggers have already alluded to the theme I adopted last year, Bill Lord for example states,

“The disappointments for me were the further evidence that there is a disconnect between the corporate sector and the educationalists they are trying to sell to. No-one would believe that we are about to enter into one of the toughest times budget wise for primary schools in many years.”

One might say that the present government is counting on it. Just see my last post, item C, in which I quote, “Our vision for school improvement support is one where schools … have free access to high-quality CPD and training products, through the internet …”

Image credit: Danny Nicholson

Update:

It’s also perhaps interesting to note that the offers to TeachMeet Takeover were almost exclusively from commercial enterprises. Tom’s interesting reflections on the concept and learning points for next year spurred me to think that there are non-commercial standholders at BETT who should be supporting them, for example Becta and The National College to name just two.

Tags: bett2010, teachmeet, tmbett2010

Back on the 4th December the DCSF published its timetable for school improvement. Lots of the announcements were already known, 1-to-1 tuition, the School Record Card, but what perhaps did not make the press was the demise of LA advice and support services and their replacement by a “market place” of accredited providers. These changes are covered in Chapter 3 of the document, Your child, your schools, our future: building a 21st century schools system - Timetable for action. Here’s a quick synopsis:

A) Role of LA changed; devolution of ’school improvement resources currently held centrally’ to schools; co-ordination through ‘Govt Regional Offices’:

3.4 The role of DCSF in school improvement will be focused on building capacity to enable local authorities and others to discharge their school improvement responsibilities effectively. This will be within a framework of support that schools, SIPs and local authorities themselves can draw on. To enable this, we will devolve to schools most of the school improvement resources currently held centrally, and many of our field forces, grants, and subject support programmes will be decommissioned to fund self-improvement. Those that remain will be co-ordinated closely and we will explore the idea of using Government Offices to provide a focus for this work in each region and to provide a two-way flow of information between local authorities and the DCSF.

B) National College to deliver SIP programme not Strategies, Licence to Practice introduced; all SIPs to be re-accredited:

3.23 The current activities undertaken by the National Strategies will be maintained up to March 2011, when their contract ends. The National College will take responsibility for delivery of the SIP programme from April 2011, although it will undertake development work in the transition period, learning from the experience of the National Strategies in running the programme.

C) School identifies priorities; ‘use their resources to actively seek out and draw on any support, expertise and professional development they need’ (note the list of where this might come from):

3.29 Once schools have identified their priorities, they need to set out their plans to secure the improvements required. They will need to use their resources to actively seek out and draw on any support, expertise and professional development they need, sharing their own good practice, and supporting their partners where they can. Our vision for school improvement support is one where schools:

• look in-house, so that good practice that is already within the school can be shared and applied consistently;


• draw on school-to-school support, with local authorities facilitating partnerships to spread expertise between schools;


• have free access to high-quality CPD and training products, through the internet; and


• can draw support from a varied, innovative, and competitive market of providers, which schools pay for from their delegated school improvement budgets.

D) It is the schools that commission from a ‘diverse market place’ of providers; there will be ‘central QA’:

3.32 Rather than the DCSF commissioning support which is then provided to schools, resources will be delegated to individual schools for them to use to commission the specific support they need, to meet their individual challenges. We will support schools to do so, by establishing a “market place” that:

• identifies a diverse market of school improvement services and suppliers; and


• includes central quality assurance, so that schools can feel confident in the services they commissioning.

E) These providers will be provide a range of products and services; focus on ‘engagement by a range of providers’; establishment of a ’single portal with a common Directory’:

3.33 Across the range of curriculum support and development, and school improvement activities, the DCSF will invite providers to identify products and services to meet schools’ needs and secure coverage of gaps in the market. The focus will be on developing arrangements that facilitate engagement by a range of providers, and allow schools to commission support with ease, by establishing user-friendly ‘commissioning’ arrangements, including using a single portal to access a common support Directory. This will be accompanied by guidance and good practice training for all users.

F) QA scheme will accredit providers at different levels; SIPS ‘trained to help schools operate these new arrangements’:

3.34 We will also develop arrangements to quality assure these providers, with different levels of accreditation from a light touch ‘health check’ to be a member of the market, to a more rigorous process to identify, for schools, those providers who have a proven record of securing strong improvement. In developing the role of the SIP, we will ensure that they are trained to help schools to operate within these new arrangements, helping to identify and broker the support that schools require.

G) LAs to be commissioner for its underperforming schools, and broker and facilitator for others; LA will, ‘not provide support directly’:

3.64 The local authority will be a commissioner for their underperforming schools, and a broker and a facilitator of School Improvement services to ensure that appropriate support is available for schools, but will not provide support directly, other than through the SIP. Consultancy currently operated by the local authority will be radically reduced and refocused on coordinating and commissioning support for underperforming schools which do not demonstrate a capacity to improve on their own.

H) Primary schools to need more support in change that perhaps others; LA and SIPs to ‘provide key commissioning support roles’:

3.65 We recognise that primary schools in particular may have more limited experience and expertise in commissioning services. It will therefore be important to ensure that they are supported in this role. We expect the local authority and SIPs to provide key commissioning support roles, particularly for underperforming schools causing concern.

Our current trials with Priority Learning Local Authorities are exploring how the new approach to school improvement can work,

how local authorities can lead system change, and how effective practice can be shared widely. This will include developing

regional school improvement hubs, linking local authorities, and providing regional training and professional development.”

So my take on this is that LAs role will be taken to a core. One might argue that consultants presently employed in support roles in LAs and funded by the Strategies may be recruited by the new accredited and commercial providers. However, given the economic climate it is very likely that the devolved money will be less that it is at present, and, given these providers will be competing for commissions, not only with themselves, but with other forms of support such as school-to-school, partnerships between schools etc.. I can see the workforce of consultants being reduced, and those employed, working over much larger regions than present LAs. It might be that these commercial providers adopt an ‘freelance’ approach given the diverse nature of this market, and the degree of specialism these people might need. Finally, I’m a bit cynical about some LAs not attempting to still provide the support by setting up business units and trying to get accredited, or having a close relationship with a provider to which they have redeployed staff, after all what does, “will not provide support directly” actually mean, and only if SIPs are forbidden from selling or recommended support services, can a competitive “market place” have a chance of success. Certainly it will take years to establish a culture in which school recognise they have choice and exercise it freely in some areas of the country.

The Conservatives have not pronounced on how they view schools being supported, but given they have already made pronouncements that would make schools more competitive with each other, if anything they will go further in creating a market place for support.

Image credit: Matthew Burpee

Tags: education, support, localauthority, consultant, consultancy

A recent survey by the National Literacy Trust found students that blogged and maintaining profiles on Facebook and other social networking sites were more likely to enjoy writing and believe they were good at it. The online survey involved 3,001 pupils aged 9-16 from England and Scotland.

The survey reports that 79% of young people write regularly and that technology-based formats were the most used. For example, 82% of young people wrote text messages at least once a month, 73% wrote instant messages, and 63% wrote on a social networking site. Of non-technology based writing, 77% wrote notes or answers in class or for homework at least once a month followed by 52% writing notes to other people. 56% had a profile on a social networking site while 24% had their own blog. 57% of those who blogged said they generally enjoyed writing compared with 40% who did not. Those who had a blog or profile on a social networking site also appeared to be more confident in their writing ability: 61% of bloggers and 56% of social networkers claimed to be good or very good at writing, compared to 47% who had neither. They also held more positive attitudes towards writing and computer use, and viewed writers more favourably with nearly 60%  believing that computers allow them to be more creative, concentrate more and encourage them to write more often.

Apparently, such web activity was also credited with encouraging children to engage with more traditional forms of writing. Those who were active online were “significantly more likely” to write short stories, letters, song lyrics and diaries than those who had no online presence, the study found.

Given the present Home Access initiative, it’s perhaps interesting to note that students who receive free school meals in this study were not more or less likely to enjoy writing or to write regularly. There was no relationship between socio-economic background and enjoyment of writing, writing behaviour, linking writing to success, views of writers, computer use, or attitudes towards computers. However, pupils who did not receive free school meals rated themselves as better writers than pupils who receive them. The lack of confidence in writing among these pupils is also reflected in their attitudes towards writing, with more free school meal pupils than non-free school meal pupils agreeing with the statement that they have trouble deciding what to write.

The report concludes that, “it is paramount that the school curriculum reflects and utilises writing forms that young people enjoy and engage with in order to demonstrate that writing is more than a compulsory task: it is an essential life skill.”

The full report is available as a pdf.

Image credit: James Emery

Tags: blogging, socialnetworking, writing, survey, literacy

You might have picked up on yesterday’s Radio 4 Today programme a short piece on how the Danish government are running a pilot in which students taking final year exams in secondary schools will not only be allowed to use laptops, but have full access to the internet. There is only one simple rule, you cannot communicate with anyone outside the exam room, but otherwise no website is banned or filtered, not even Facebook. It’s interesting to note that while the UK has spent so much money on technology in schools, we still require students to write their answers on paper. In Denmark, students have been allowed to use computers in exam rooms for over ten years, and use of the internet is seen at the latest extension of this. I’m sure in the UK, despite advances, there would still be a ‘hue and cry’ probably led by the tabloid press into the very notion of computer use let alone internet access in the exam room. The nation’s lack of trust in its education system (if it’s easier to access, standards are lower) and mis-trust of technology (if it reduces the barrier of ‘hard graft’ and enables higher order skills) manifests itself in the notion of students ‘cheating’ when using technology for learning or study. In Denmark, their prepareness to take the risk of cheating is tempered by a fundamental belief in the integrity of their students. As one teacher put it, “the main precaution is that we trust them“, which is backed up by the comment of one 18 year old student, “It’s possible to cheat but I think we have so much respect and self discipline, so we won’t do it.” A notion also held by their Minister for Education, Bertel Haarder, who believes, “The internet is indispensible, including in the exam situation. I’m sure that is would be a matter of very few years when most European countries will be on the same line.” The challenge remains the culture in which such ideas do not seem out of place.

Image Credit: Jon Nicholls

Tags: exam, internet, danisheducation, educationculture

In his latest post, Ewan takes the cudgel to Local Authorities that have banned social networking citing a call by Carol Rozwell, a Gartner vice president, at their recent symposium for corporates to loosen up on social networks in the workplace. In it he feels embarrassed that most education authorities continue to be “ignorant of the possibilities” despite both the example and innovation of groundbreaking work he was a part of. I feel for him, like many innovations in education, putting change at the forefront of education practice has always been difficult and is the scourge of our profession.

Carol Rozwell’s premise, that, “humans are social creatures and that there’s more to employee relations than a paycheck for work performed“, is not a new one, and can be more easily applied to education. After all, few learners have the incentive of payment for learning let alone in compulsory education systems. Together with such incentives as deferred gratification, the joy of learning, and success, social interaction is not only a basic motivating factor to learn (and I could argue that these incentives are but sub-sets of this), but also the way in which humans have always learnt. As Miles recently pointed out, “the most highly valued learning still occurs as social experiences“. So I simply ask the question whether or not there is a real choice with regard to our use of technology in schools? Shouldn’t we be developing a social learning strategy?

Take for example the use of Learning Platforms and VLEs. Some might argue that these are best used as delivery systems for content, knowledge and even the expertise of the teacher. But evidence is already emerging that where these systems support learning effectively is when they are used in a social learning context. Indeed, this can bring about rapid changes in the culture of learning in the institution that we begin to talk about the ‘transformation’ word.

Image credit: Jay Cross from Ross Dawson

Tags: sociallearning

Girl helps a friend to log on to the wi-fi, Northern Uruguay

Uruguay is the first significant country to provide a laptop for every pupil attending a state school. While Niue, led the way back in August 2008, Uruguay is the first country with a significant population to provide such a programme. Part of the One Laptop Per Child scheme, the laptops have cost approximately £159 each including maintenance, training for teachers and internet connection. This represents less than 5% of the country’s education budget.

Issues with staff remain the same worldwide however, as one headteacher reported:

“We have a lady who’s been teaching for 30 years and when they gave us the computers and the training, she asked for leave because she didn’t want to have anything to do with the programme. Later she changed her mind and now computers have changed the way she teaches.”

The use of the laptops is at the discretion of the teacher and it seems some teachers are not including computer use in their lesson plans. The full story is on the BBC News website.

Image credit: Lightripper

Tags: olpc, uruguay, laptop