My 1st year Educational Studies group have been looking at education and technology, past present and future. When I say past , it is a fairly resent past in terms of education, 10 years, but the shift in technology has been quite an eye opener for us. Their research has just demonstrated, yet again, the vast range of provision across the nation. In fact some groups took a boarder view, looking at the spread of technology across the globe. This is a link from one of the wikis.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7110000/newsid_7117000/7117011.stm

Kids in the African country of Nigeria are testing cheap laptops, specially designed so they can be used in poor nations. They cost less than £100.

Each group have created a wiki where they have highlighted the key points from a given perspective. There are some really thought provoking issues on their wikis. Take a look and leave your comments, I’m sure they would be glad to see their wikis are being read.

edstudies.wetpaint.com
slateandchalk.wetpaint.com
wikigeeks5.wetpaint.com
wenglish-ed.wetpaint.com
futurama-education.wetpaint.com

On a similar thread this weeks chat from ITTE is the history of educational ICT and how there is a need to preserve some of our good practices and valuable literature; a job that Becta once did so well. I enjoyed this email below the most;

“Isn’t anyone looking at the history of educational ICT as an area for academic study? We all tend to be so future-oriented that we sit far too light to some of this stuff. There is more to it than a bunch of boring old farts sitting around saying “I remember when we used to write programs on punched cards...” As Larry Cuban so dramatically illustrated, perhaps there are some lessons to be learned. I have a hard time trying to persuade undergraduates (who did KS1 SATs) that education existed before the National Curriculum, and some of it at least was pretty good.

Follow me!

It has been a quiet week so far, but the week is young. My bloggers are more confident and keen to explore what Blogger has to offer. It is amazing to see how creative the students’ blog are, I hope that this creativity will expand to their journals too! So far we have been exploring the ‘Follow this Blog’ function which is great; it allows a group of people to share their blogs which will work well in the primary classroom. I would like to ask each of my ‘followers’ to send me an idea for using Blogs in the classroom. At least this will test to see if anyone is actually reading my blog!

Bubbl.us

OSS for Reflective Practice!

On the right tracks

I attended an interesting conference today, organised by Wise Kids and WISP (Wales Internet Safety Partnership). I was inspired, entertained and reassured throughout. The two keynote speakers that made the biggest impression on me, were John Davitt and DK from MediaSnackers. John Davitt helped us to explore how we might break free from desks and screens and share the learning recipe in new and dramatic ways. We were engaged in an innovative workshop that got us out of our chairs, telling stories, generating and publishing a variety of creations in a number of formats – with various degrees of success. Each task was randomly generated by Davitt’s Learning Event Generators, our group had the joy of explaining ‘What Bannockburn means, as a blues song’, I only wish that I had access to the mp3 for my blog! DK on the other hand gave us a social media masterclass, here we had insights into why and how young people are using digital technologies and online platforms. One of the best things I took away from the whole conference is that I’m on the right tracks with my own teaching. They even used some of the same resources as I do! I just hope that I have some of the flair that they have and that I can captivate and educate an audience with the same zeal.

Media Snackers

How NOT to use PowerPoint!

Death by PowerPoint

As a member of the ITTE mailing list I happened upon a discussion about the pros and cons of using PowerPoint for teaching and learning. I was very interested by the discussion, as it is a topic that I feel quite passionate about, especially in primary education. I see my students using PowerPoint (PPT) regularly in their lessons with varying degrees of success. Some students seem to assume that the magic of the PPT will some how impart great knowledge upon the children with whom they are sharing it, with very little intervention from them. Most of us will admit that we have been put to sleep by a lengthy PPT, and will also admit we have used a PPT as a crutch to support a difficult or dry topic. But is it really magic?

An extract from Edward Tufte’s essay on PowerPoint
“In corporate and government bureaucracies, the standard method for making a presentation is to talk about a list of points organized onto slides projected up on the wall. For many years, overhead projectors lit up transparencies, and slide projectors showed high-resolution 35mm slides. Now "slideware" computer programs for presentations are nearly everywhere. Early in the 21st century, several hundred million copies of Microsoft PowerPoint were turning out trillions of slides each year. Alas, slideware often reduces the analytical quality of presentations. In particular, the popular PowerPoint templates (ready-made designs) usually weaken verbal and spatial reasoning, and almost always corrupt statistical analysis. What is the problem with PowerPoint? And how can we improve our presentations?”

Here is another link that is worth a look. It will make you think the next time you sit down to either create a PPT or watch someone else's!

Death by PowerPoint

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: tips

Where are we now?

Well a new year and 10 months since my last blog! I feel like I'm in a confessional! I meant to blog regularly, honest I did, but time just seems to run away with me. I really hoped that this blog would help keep me organised. I saw it as a way of keeping all my inspiration in one place. I was amazed at first how addictive it was; I felt the need to blog. But, a little like fitness classes, you know you will benefit from it, and you know you will enjoy it, but the longer you are way from it the guiltier you feel and the less inclined you are to go back! Well less of the pontificating here I am and what do I want to share? Or why did I stop in the first place.

The first thing that hindered the success of my blogging was the lack of readers. It was very much like a personal diary, which I must say has its bonuses, but then it might as well be just that, if no one else is interested. So how do I rekindle my interest and have the courage to entice readers again? Write something interesting or informative, I guess that would be a good place to start...tomorrow?