From the Technology of yesteryear

Michael Gove spoke to the Schools Network in Birmingham on 1st december 2011 at the first SSATs conference. He discussed his reforms in terms of school networks in general suggesting that autonomy drives improvement.  He then went on to talk about as he put it 'networks of a totally different kind' the digital network.  The full review is found on the DfE website. But what I liked in particular was a reference he made to a piece in the New Scientist below as it links nicely into the work my 1st years have been conducting over the last few weeks.

 "If you were trying to build an iPhone using equivalent components from the 1980s, asks the author, just how big would that phone be? Running through all the parts - from the antennas to the batteries to the GPS to the gyroscope to the accelerometer to the cameras to the mobile computing capability and more - New Scientist concludes you would need a truck to haul around an iPhone built of 1985 parts. We've gone from an 18-wheeler to a pocket in just 26 years."

Excellent observations but what is more warming, considering the cuts in technology & education that have been made over the short time this new government has been in power, are his closing comments.  He concludes;

The challenge for us is this: how we can harness the many exciting technological leaps that are constantly being made? We will be saying much more early in the new year. Make no mistake: this is a priority for me. I believe we need to take a serious, intelligent approach to educational technology if our children are not to be left behind. As John Chubb and Terry Moe put it in their excellent book on the subject, a genuine engagement with the wondrous world of technological innovation will see children's learning 'liberated from the dead hand of the past.' We owe it to pupils across the country to take this issue seriously. 

I guess only time will tell.

ipads in Education

Some kind person sent me this link so I though it only fair to share it again.  I have always thought long and hard when spending money on ICT gadgets, sometimes I have spent wisely and there times not so.  The ipad however is one the the former.  It is such a versatile tool and one that can be used individually, with a small group and now with the AV adapter on the ipad2 you can share apps with the whole class!

Slide to Learn - Educators Guide to the iPad, iPod and iPhone

The story so far for Year 1 Educational Studies

The new face of Glogster

It's time to introduce Glogster, the Web 2 application that is both creative and innovative, to my Ed Studies students.  There is no denying that it is a wonderful tool for collaborating and sharing information, yet again I'm inspired by the work of others as I check out what's new with the application.  This time I stumbled across this YouTube video of 4th grade children in Hosmer School in Water town, MA.

Every day is a school day

One of the best things about my job is that I never stop learning.  Today my 1st year Ed Studies group were playing with 2animate to create animations of their favourite catch phrase.  I asked them to put them on their blog and reflect on the process as normal.  One clever student has given me a really cool way to add the active animation directly to the blog as blogger doesn't support gifs, using a cool website called TinyPic.com to grab the embed code!

Et voila!

Shift Happens

I know that this is an 'old' clip but as I teach and learn about education and technology I feel that it still encapsulates some of the issues that education of today faces.  When I say 'old' 2008 is old in terms of technological advancements. Yet this clip is still pertinent and applicable to today's learners. I have seen this used in an innovative seminar about the way in which technology should be shaping education and today a student found it on YouTube for her Wiki piece on Education of the Future.

   

A first year group's reflections

Here you can see a bubbl.us activity being used to help 1st year students explore the concept of reflective learning. The students created this bubble collaboratively as they also got to grips with the tools that bubbl.us have in their free version of the app. They went on to produce their own bubble and embedded them on their own blogs. For some students this was a straightforward procedure, that was a mere progression from their activities on Facebook or their personal blogs, but for others there were a fair amount of concerns and anxieties to do with their perceived ICT skill set. Some of them don't realise just how skilled they are and that the skills they have are so easily transferable. My hopes are that this course helps to build their confidence as well as broaden their personal resources. Only time will tell!

A new year group

Welcome to blogging Year 1 Educational Studies

To most of the this first  year group it is their first taste of blogging.  Although some do have a blog or even a collcetion of them!  The favourite blog host seems to be tumblr and a nice collection of visually stimulating sites they have too! Tumblr seems to be the favourite host for blogs that display lots of images, although this may just be a coincidence.  It would be interesting to evaluate some of the free blog hosting sites to see which is best for the job.  A job for me when I get a spare moment or two, maybe...

See the list of top blog services

Click here for the full review

Steve Jobs

As I am still smarting from buying an ipad just as the ipad 2 is announced, Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being.  The founder and innovative force behind apple died very recently and one begs to wonder what impact his death will have on Apples technological stampede.  In August this year Steve Jobs resigned from his role as CEO of Apple, although this was not the first time he had done so.  Incredibly in his early 20s Steve founded what is now the multibillion dollar company Apple. In 1985 Steve reigned from Apple to form a new company, neither company thrived as well as hoped leaving the market open for Microsoft’s Bill Gates to take a foothold in the Ed Tech market.  By 1996 Steve jobs is back at the helm of Apple and the company begins to flourish yet again, with such wonders as the iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone and the iPad.  What is next I wonder? See the timeline of the man that changed the face of technology.  

To the new term...

In honour of the start of term I have created a new wall display to brighten up the ICT suite.  I decided to explore a topical subject again this year in the shape of "Internet Safety". We can't get enough of it, we can't say it in enough ways and we can't stress enough the importance of it.  But are we all preaching for the same reasons?  Well yes we all want children and young or vulnerable people to be safe and secure when they use the web.  But to what end.  As innovative teachers we would like to see good, effective, safe and varied use of the wonders of the web.  This means to me that we need to educate our users, young and old to spot the dangers, avoid the pitfalls and recognise the rubbish. That is as apposed to just blocking it and banning it! It you hear of something good but you are unsure, try it, test it then get the LA to do the same.  Don't give up, there are some wonderful Web 2.0 application out there just screaming to be used by our creative innovative pupils!

There is an amazing range of material to be found on the web that explores Internet safety in many different ways, including lots of interactive, fun games and activities.  A list of my favourite sites can be found on my delicious account under peacehome/e-safety

Check out the finished product! Notice the game on the top of the table and the touch of Welsh on the cupboard door, not to mention the worksheets!

Where do the years go?

My daughter is 21 in August and she has just completed her degree at Bath Spa University.  As we wait patiently for her results to be published I reflect on years gone by.  So much has changed in 21 years not only in my life as a mother and educator, but especially in the world of technology.  As I gather memories for a project for her birthday I notice change in the storage of memories, from large photo albums that rarely get opened, to videos that can no longer be played (broken player in the loft!) and music on large plastic looking discs of all things (also in the loft, nothing to play them on).  Now all my favourite memories are on my smart phone, and the things that I haven’t room for are stored on websites for instant access.  But strangely today I’m collecting material for a paper based project.  I was recently impressed by a first year student’s work on visual communication.  She created a scrap book made from paper bags!  A very inspiring project that also contained a step by step video guide to creating your own scrap book of memories.  Although I’m probably better suited to a PowerPoint or Prezi – provisionality rules – I asked my student for help in creating one for my daughter and I hope that she appreciates the little step back in time J
 A little wordle about my girl!

Gaming in Secondary Education

What is new with Glogster and Eduglogster

Just taking a look at what is new in Glogster and Eduglogster today and I am rapt  when I see a Glog in the Best Glogs section called Catastrophe in Japan.  It is exactly what you might imagine if you have used Glogster, a multimedia interactive poster full of information about the disaster.  This powerful Eduglogster has be created to educate those safely far away and share the images of the horrendous disaster that has devastated the east coast of Oshika Peninsula, Tōhoku.  With more catastrophic repercussions pending, who knows what the images may look like in the future?

If you would like to fundraise for this incredible cause Oxfam has some useful guidance to help you organise it.

ICT in the Outdoor Environment

This week’s sessions for the PGCE primary students is designed to inspire cross curricular use of ICT and to encourage the use of the outdoor space available in school. We often see the outdoor classroom talked about in the early years classes; it is encouraged by all. But sad to say it is much more difficult for junior teachers to integrate it into their daily routines, mainly due to the pupil staff ratio. That said there are many wonderful opportunities for Outdoor Environment to be utilised across the whole primary school.

I set challenges across a range of subject areas; maths trails collecting digital evidence, adventure story writing using mobile technology, archaeological digs combining history and ICT, weather station and weather data from a local airport with suggestions of a weather broadcast of some sort using Skype and scientific enquiry using a selection of hand held microscopes that can be used to explore the natural environment without disturbing it. All in all the sessions seem to be going well, the students came up with some excellent ideas that will be developed upun in the next session. So watch this space.

I would love to start a tweet with the #tag #smupgce11 to get students resonses about the session ideas they took part in.

Also to check out http://www.delicious.com/peacehome/ICT_outdoors my bookmarks for the session

What we did learn though, is that it is not always a good thing to buy the cheapest product, for example the metal detectors used for the archaeological digs were really children’s toys and not very robust.  So it is worthwhile researching for a good product so that your children will not be disappointed and can really learn from the experiences you provide.

FOSS for the classroom or just for fun!

There are some really amazing free applications around at the moment that are just perfect for the classroom; especially the ever financially stretch primary environment.  So for this week’s PGCE session I am compiling a list of my favourites for my impressive specialists to try out and hopefully add to.  I love the little talking avatar that you can create in Voki and the best thing about this sort of web 2 tool, is that they are so easy to embed in your other applications.  You can embed your Glog in your Blog, or your Voki on your facebook page and you can embed them all on your wiki.  So the range and scope of audience is wonderful, although it does obviously mean that there are lots of safety issues to consider it doesn't mean that they should be avoided, just used purposefully and cautiously to keep your children safe and engaged in the ever evolving world of the web.

The Games Day

Well the Gaming week with my 2nd Year Ed Studies students was quite a success according to the response at the end of the module.  I was a little nervous on Monday to say the very least.  Not having a clue about gaming myself was the main worry.  I am always telling students that you don't need to know everything about the technology you are using, you just need to have clear learning objectives and identify skill development possibilities.  I took myself at my world and embarked on two hour sessions of gaming with each group.  They had a range of devices to explore, from sport on the xbox kinect to brain training on the nintendo DS and as they played they had a list of specific aspects to focus on, whilst enjoying the gaming of course.  As the week progressed I introduced new rules and realigned the focus, I could see what was working and what wasn't.  I realised that I needed to give much more input if I wanted them to think out of the box, so to speak.  Initially they were thinking of how they could just included playing the game in the class as a tool for learning per say.  They had difficulty in thinking of just using snippets or adapting the games use in order to fit it into a curriculum area.  At first I felt that I was forcing my own ideas on them and possibly stifling theirs.  However the follow-up session where they planned a whole lesson from the gaming day idea proved me wrong.  There were some fabulous ideas were the games were used as a stimulus for exciting cross curricular activities.  This is just the beginning.  Each group created a wallwisher as they played take a look at their games day comments!

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/gamesstationday

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/es2d2011

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/es2e2011

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/es2b2011

Debate Concludes

Wow what a week this has been. The gaming debate is now over for year 2 educational studies.  Each of the groups worked well to establish their points in a formal debate structure.   It was much easier for some teams than others as unfortunately there were the usual absences leaving some teams rather depleted in numbers.  However, in most cases, this did not affect the success of the debate.  Overall the case for establishing games in education won the most points, the judges’ comments concluded that, in general, arguments were structured, speakers were well informed and often referred to appropriate research to back up their proposals and observations.  To summarise, the research used suggests that there is still a way to go before there is any conclusive evidence either way to support or exclude the use of gaming in education.  But for me the most interesting aspect of the whole week was the adaptation of the formal debate with the use of technology.  One group in particular utilised the Internet to build their counter arguments and to make notes as their opponents spoke.  This was the most detailed and intense (not aggressive) debating group, with each side utilising all the resources available to them.  For example in one instance the pro-gaming team used BECTA to support their argument discussing measures that were in place to ensure that games were safe for use in the classroom, however the “against” team sought material to suggest that BECTA were no longer a credible source as the new government had instigated their demise in May 2010 (more is the pity I know, but the fact remains). It was the process that I loved however, the fact that I was witnessing the technology revolution; arguments can be challenged on the spot, live research streamed! Just wish I had captured it on camera too.  Look out Question Time! 

The Games Debate

This is week three of the games in education module and the debating is well underway.  I'm not intending to comment specifically just yet as there are still two groups to go.  However, I just want to say that it is going really well...I hope that I have not jinxed it now though!  It has been really fascinating to listen to the constructive arguments that each group has presented and the analysis of the debate given by the judges has been quite interesting too.  I think that they are all developing informed opinions of the pros and cons of utilising 21st century resources in formal education situations.   I look forward to writing my full evaluation later on in the week.

An undate!

I had a mild panic last night.  I have started reading the bible; 5 minutes a day, 5 days a week.  And as you might follow I have been doing so on my Kindle.  Well last night I duly turned on my e-reader and clicked on the link that would open the Bible.  However I must have clicked something other than open, as to my horror it deleted the link!  It was gone in a flash from my home page and therefore from my Kindle.  I was too tired to check out any form of retrieval last night even though it does have Wi-Fi and 3G, so in theory it should have been a synch.  This afternoon when I finally had a moment to myself I thought I would investigate.  It took 2 minutes to power up my laptop and open the Internet browser.  I turned on the Kindle at the same time - wow so I can multi task, and I was drinking coffee at the same time too! I selected my Kindle downloads and clicked send to my Kindle using Wi-Fi and as fast as I could glance from one screen to the other, there it was and what's more it even remembered what page I was on!  So I need to retract all the bad things I said to my beloved Kindle in the thick of night, something about REAL books!

Just a little ditty

As I got ready for church this morning I debated whether or not to take my own Bible with me.  I am new to this church and I had noticed that lots of the congregation had their own Bibles and made notes in the margins.  My copy is on my Kindle so I wondered if it would be appropriate to take such technology in to God’s house.  I decided that I wouldn’t.

As I sat in church listening intently to the sermon our pastor was delivering, quite animatedly I might add.  I glanced around at the congregation, when a young woman at the front caught my eye.  There she was with her ipad on her knee, tapping away at the screen, glancing up at the pastor as she typed.  She was either typing notes in her margins or sending emails, either way technology infiltrates every avenue of our lives so we had better embrace it!  Maybe I’ll take my Kindle next week!

The Imagine Project

I was reading about the Imagine Project (2010) as part of my ongoing research into Games in Education.   The project, was a 2 year initiative funded by the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme researching the use of digital games for learning, also known as Games-Based Learning GBL.

The main target audience for the project was policy makers: people working at key levels of national ministries responsible for school education, adult and lifelong learning, vocational training (employment), skills agendas, regional and local education authorities and other bodies responsible for strategic developments concerned including those agencies which promote ICT in schools.

IMAGINE (Increasing Mainstreaming of Games In Learning Policies) aims to show conclusively that games can succeed because they use sound pedagogical approaches in the development of valuable skills such as:

• strategic thinking
• planning; communication
•  application of numbers
•  negotiating skills
•  group decision-making
• data-handling
• eye-hand coordination

As the project only ended at the end of last year it will take some time before the recommendations filter into policy makers guide books, and yet more time before they have any impression on the majority of education establishments across Europe.  I for one will be keeping a look out.  My gaming module will be its own little research project and I am looking forward (albeit nervously) to the heated debate this week with the question of “Should video games have a place in education?”  Watch this space!

Games in Education

I have just started the games module with my 2^nd year educational studies groups.  It seems to be going really well, although it is fair to say that some are enjoying it more than others!  The first session was spent discussing what games meant to us as adults and how we saw the relevance of games in our lives.  Whether we enjoy video games, what attributes good game should have, what sort of games we play, who we like to play games with.  The students then created a PowerPoint to depict a moral dilemma, with choices throughout to engage and include the audience.  This interactivity was an aspect that the students had identified as an important feature of a game.  Last week the students were asked to play and evaluate, a selection of Channel 4 educational games designed for 14-18 year olds.  The topics the games covered were varied and, in some cases, according to their evaluations, tenuous.  After, what for some became a frustrating, thirty minutes, each students was asked to complete a written evaluation which was added to their groups gaming wiki.  Here is the selection of on-line video games that I chose (with the help of my 15 year old son) for exploration.

1. http://www.1066game.com
2. http://www.thecurfewgame.com
3. http://www.privatesgame.com
4. http://www.bowstreetrunner.com
5. http://www.trafalgarorigins.com

2011 wow where did the time go?

The new year and well, what's new about it?  Once again I'm off to BETT to find out what the world of technology has to offer the education sector.  I'm looking forward to the trip as I am taking quite a large group of students this time. I just hope that they get something out of it.  I'm so enthusiastic that I worry their expectations will higher than the event can satisfy.  I don't know why that should be the case, as I can always find something new and inspiring! 

Oh and incidentally, about Christmas, what technology did santa bring you?  Well I had an Amazon Kindle!  Not that I had asked for one, but by wonderful chance some kind soul (paying attention to my needs) decided that it would be the prefect gift for me.  I have to admit that it is something that I have never considered.  My students provide me with enough on-line material to read so I had avoided even researching it.  What a surprise when I opened it though!  For a start it doesn't even look like a screen, which a guess is the main selling point, it looks like one of the sample phones on display in Car Phone Warehouse!  It is so simple and effective to use.  Downloading books & PDFs couldn't be easier.  This week I wrote my notes on games in education ready for my lecture, saved it as a PDF and sent it to my Kindle...and there in seconds it appeared.  So along with my favourite  authors, I can read my own ramblings freely without carrying heavy books and scraps of paper!  Where will it end?

I'm looking forward to this new module on Games in Education.  It is a revelation for me as I'm not a gamer, but I have been interested in the impact gaming can have on learning for some time now.  You never know I might become a convert!