Integrating Games-based Learning: A Conversation with Tim Rylands

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.