ICT in Education

I’ve rather neglected this blog for some time now. Well I’m back now and determined to keep it going this time. Only time will tell if I succeed…

So, what have I been doing since the last post?

• Went to the Naace conference in Torquay in March
• centralised VLE training for primary schools
• individual primary school training on VLEs
• secondary school training on VLEs
• Cars Maths in Motion competition again (with Dr Challoner’s Grammar through to the national final next week! )

As you can see I have been doing a lot of VLE training! There’s plenty more to come over the next year as we continue this, hopefully delivering training to all our schools in that time.

Yesterday I went to Microsoft in Reading for an RM’s LA Partnership Day. It was useful as I haven’t been to one of these for a couple of years (due to RM always announcing the dates with too little notice, though they are finally learning…) We had a chance to hear about changes and improvements to the rm.com website, see the new i-nfer plan assessment package (though we weren’t really the right audience, this should be assessment and primary strategy consultants who are shown this), learn more about the new RM WindowBox. Then in the afternoon there were breakout sessions where I chose to hear about CC4 and Kaleidos (I was hoping to see content rather than just the Learning Platform itself – ho hum). Plus at lunchtime there was an exhibition where I got to see the new 8.9″ screen version of the Asus EeePC ( RM Asus miniBook) and the HP miniNote PC. Hopefully I’ll be getting both of these on a trial in the near future.

So there we have it, a potted catch-up of the last 7 months.

Tags: Asus Eee PC, blog, Cars Maths in Motion, Jaguar Cars Maths in Motion Challenge, Naace, RM Asus miniBook, VLE

A sunny start to the final full day of the conference!

A History of the Future
The final keynote of the conference was from Ian Neild, BT.

Ian gave a very interesting and entertaining talk on how technology has changed life over the last century.

There is too much to note here on what he said – I’m hoping that his presentation will be made available

Amongst the many interesting slides I saw in the presentation, here are two pictures that stuck in my mind:

1. A Barbie USB drive – pull off head and plug into a computer.
   
2. A nano guitar – size of blood cell & with 6 “pluckable” strings!
   

OK, this isn’t really a good summary of the keynote. It was very entertaining though and just what was needed on a Thursday morning!

Using Moodle as a Core Component of a Local Authority Learning Platform
This themed session was from my colleague Ian Usher, E-Learning Co-ordinator, School Improvement Service, Buckinghamshire CC. Well, I had to go and support Ian, didn’t I?!!

Ian did spend a lot of time talking about Open Source Software and justifying why we use it (Moodle). Unfortunately this meant that only a short time was spent looking at what Buckinghamshire schools had done. Ian only had time to show some examples of uses of forums and we didn’t get a chance to see some of the Moodle courses that schools have made. This was a shame as some of this is good stuff.

It was interesting to see who turned up to watch this (approx 60 in all) including Robin Hall from Becta and someone from RM. It was also interesting to see members of the audience jump in to defend the use of forums by pupils when someone asked what value was added when pupils commented on another pupil’s musical composition and couldn’t they just type the word “sh*t” in there. The value in this case is two-fold. Firstly the pupil was sharing music that he had created at home – not in school – and through this he has been put onto the Able, Gifted & Talented register. Secondly all pupils had the opportunity to give feedback to this pupil if they wished, something that they would not all be able to do in school due to time constraints. Teachers can then help them develop their constructive criticism and evaluation of work from this.

Extending the Primary School through Learning Platforms
This themed session was from Miles Berry, Headmaster, Alton Convent Prep.

Miles is an advocate of open source software and the Moodle VLE.

Miles talked about the work he had done with Moodle at his previous school, St Ives. There was some good use of:

• forums to discuss homework and support each other.
• video capture of work going on at the Interactive Whiteboard to view from home and support homework.
• flash and java activities on the VLE.

The issue of work-life balance was raised by two attendees. This is a good question and needs careful consideration. Although some teacher input is required it doesn’t mean teachers have to work all the time. Leaving it to pupils to support each other and to intervene only when needed is much better, not just for the teacher but for pupils. This allows them to learn how to support and collaborate with each other, plus consolidates the learning for a pupil when explaining it to another pupil.

Miles had done a lot of data analysis to back up the work he had been doing. One example he showed was that using the VLE seemed to improve SATs scores by 2-3 % although this is not statistically significant.

Miles mentioned Elgg and the work he began on this. He said that this brought home-based learning back into the classroom through pupils’ use of the blogging facilities. Miles said that, in a sense it’s “a digital show and tell”.

An interesting and passionate presentation.

Online Social Networking and Teacher CPD
The themed session was from Mark Berthelemy, Learning Solutions Architect, Capita Learning and Development.

This was about Mark’s own CPD and how he uses Web 2.0 tools to enable it.Mark has a learning network – Ian Usher, Miles Berry, Stephen Downes etc – whose blogs, newsletters etc inform him about what he needs to know. Broadcasting your knowledge, thoughts and reflections extends your reach to inform others.

Blogdigger – gives you a personalised RSS feed on what others are blogging. Mark uses Google Reader to put together the RSS feeds he reads.

So should others in an organisation begin blogging to allow them to share their thoughts and experiences and learn from others? The answer is probably yes and there would no doubt be benefits. However there are also issues:

• Managing time so that blogging is just not another job to do.
• Some may not have sufficient ICT literacy to do this
• Some will not want to blog – especially those just ‘coasting’ in their jobs and only doing the minimum to get by and draw their paycheck.

All of Mark’s bookmarks from the presentation are on Diigo under the naace2007 tag.

Mark said that it would be great if the chief executive of a company, LA etc were to start blogging. That’d certainly be interesting to see in Buckinghamshire! Maybe we should get the County ICT Adviser and other ICT Consultants to join me in blogging first…!

A useful and thought provoking session.

The final afternoon
The presentational side of the Naace Conference 2007 drew to an end with two sessions.

The first of these sessions was Expert Panel: Meeting the Challenge. There were summaries of the three theme strands: Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment, ICT CPD and Learning Platforms and Web 2.0 from various members from backgrounds including HMI, Ofsted, QCA, National Strategy and the Naace Executive. There followed an unexciting question and answer session.

The second session was Becta: Responding to the Challenge, chaired by Stephen Crowne, Chief Executive, Becta. Another enthralling question and answer session. Yawn.

Maybe this is why less than half the conference bothered to turn up?!

The Naace Conference 2007 ended with Closing Remarks from Terry Freedman, Chair of Naace Executive Committee.

Was the Naace Conference 2007 any good?
On the whole I would say it was. Yes, there were a few duff sessions and some of the organisation left something to be desired (for example, no coffee on the Wednesday morning). However, most of the sessions were interesting and thought provoking and I found it beneficial. Time now for me to reflect on the Learning Platforms and Web 2.0 stuff I’ve seen and think about how I can do my bit in Buckinghamshire to move this forward.

Tags: Barbie, Becta, blog, Blogdigger, Buckinghamshire, Diigo, Elgg, Google Reader, Ian Neild, Ian Usher, Learning Platform, Mark Bethelemy, Miles Berry, Moodle, Naace, naace2007, nano guitar, Open Source, RSS, Social Networking, Stephen Downes, Terry Freedman, Web 2.0

A sunny start to the day was followed by a downpour on the way to the Riviera Centre. With a sopping umbrella and drenched trousers I sat down ready for the first session.

Are VLEs up to the Job of 21st Century Learning?
The lead presentation was from Professor Steven Molyneaux, Director of The Learning Lab.

This was an interesting and at times challenging keynote. At least that’s what I think. My colleague Ian Usher seems to disagree though!

Some of the things Steven said:

• Predicting The Future – the point is not to predict the future but to prepare for it and to shape it. I guess so.
• The pace of change is accelerating. There will be more change in the next 20 years than in the last 100 years. Unless we all blow ourselves up, of course. Or get bogged down in government red tape.
• Web content doubles approximately every 30 days.
• Internet usage is increasing at the rate of about 200 new users per minute – 105 million users a year.
• Web 2.0 is about The Social Web – “Web 2.0 is much more about a change in people and society than technology.”

I’m not sure where these figures come from – I’ll have to assume they are correct for now.

Some questions Steven raised:

• Education – are we automating or innovating? Steven says we are still automating (an existing process).
  To some extent I agree with this. Some ICT work could be done just as well away from the computer.
• VLEs re-publish existing content in electronic format. We don’t innovate with web 2.0 e.g. forums, blogs, wikis etc.
  I partially agree with this. Some content on VLEs could simply be printed and given to pupils in paper format. However, some schools are being innovative and are using forums, blogs and wikis. More work needs to be done in this area to ensure all schools using VLEs make the most of them by using these tools.
  
• VLEs first designed in 1994 – for adults by adults. We need to redefine what a VLE is for today’s learners. I need to ponder some more on this one. True, VLEs don’t look like My Space or Flickr and are more formal-looking environments. However, would making a VLE that looked like My Space or Flickr encourage pupils to use it or to turn them away from it? One of the attractions of My Space is that it doesn’t look like ‘school stuff’. If ‘school stuff’ started looking like this, would pupils be put off it because it would no longer be ‘cool’.

Certainly something for me to think about – is the Moodle VLE we use really suitable? Or maybe a better question is whether it is the most suitable design for a VLE in the long term as undoubtedly it is suitable for its purpose at the moment.

Becta Vision for Learning Platforms
This themed session was from Robin Ball, Manager Learning Services and Andy Tyerman, Assistant Director Content, Becta.

An uninspiring session (for me at least). After some quotes from the Gilbert Review it seemed to me to be typical Becta waffle and I didn’t really hear anything new. I did switch off during the session so may have missed something useful, although I doubt it. In my opinion the Learning Platform Services Framework is a 20th century solution for 21st century schools.

The only interesting thing to come out of this session was a video on “Web 2.0 in 5 minutes”:

Web 2.0 Technologies in the Classroom
This themed session was from Steve Beard, School Improvement Consultant (ICT), Shropshire County Council.

The session was billed as “demonstrating practical uses of Web 2.0 technologies in Shropshire Schools.”

Some information:

• The Shropshire ICT Team has a blog, now others in the LA have started blogs.
• A teacher is using a blog and pupils are commenting on it.
• Lots of pupils’ blogs were shown (but were unreadable from the back of the room).
• Blogs hosted by eThink.
• Blah blah blah about blogs – yes, let’s move on.
• Flickr used to show pupils’ work.
• Google Docs & Spreadsheets and del.icio.us were also used and some podcasting was done.

This was an uninspiring presentation, not helped by the fact that the presenter ‘winged it’. I hoped to be shown a web 2.0 technology that I hadn’t seen. Sadly nothing new was shown and little practical use of web 2.0 technologies was discussed.

Conference Exhibition
In the afternoon the exhibition from Naace sponsors and ICT companies took place. I finally got my hands on a copy of Podium, podcasting software from Softease. I had seen this at BETT and it looked very interesting and easy to use for primary pupils. Now I can have a play with it myself. Following this I had a useful conversation, along with Mike Woods, with Atomwide who provide broadband, email, web hosting and Moodle to Buckinghamshire schools. It looks like we’ll be getting a podcasting server for schools to use, which will be great if Podium is as good as I hope it is. and I collected a Lumens DC160 Digital Visualiser on loan from Matrix Display.

Tags: Atomwide, Becta, exhibition, Gilbert Review, Ian Usher, Learning Platform Services Framework, Moodle, Naace, naace2007, podcasting, Podium, Softease, Steven Molyneaux, The Learning Lab, visualiser, VLE, Web 2.0

After a 4 1/2 hour journey I arrived in rainy Torquay (“The English Riviera” or, as some locals more appropriately call it, “The English River Area”), venue for the second year running of the Naace Conference. Having enjoyed last year’s conference I have been looking forward to this one. So will it live up to expectations…?

After settling into the hotel (The Livermead House) and having a very pleasant meal, it was off to the Riviera Centre for the initial keynote speeches of the conference.

ICT Challenges and Expectations
This was the opening address from Jim Knight, Minister of State for Schools and 14 – 19 Learners. The session was a videoconference, as Jim was clearly too busy to leave London and travel to Torquay to be with us in person.

In the speech he commented on the postcode lottery of education and that, for example, there were 25 percentage points between 5 A* – C GCSEs in Bristol & Buckinghamshire (Buckinghamshire being the higher, of course – let’s hope that the county council remember this fact during the School Improvement Service Review!)

He stated that it is “…essential we use technology in schools because it makes a difference not because we can” and went on to talk about personalised learning. He spoke about technology reaching out to parents (but what about those who can’t afford the technology?) and commented that VLEs save teachers time – half an hour a day (but how exactly? How was this measured?) He also went on to say that an ICT diploma (one of the first five diplomas) would be available from next September and that Universal home access was being looked at – this was announced at BETT.

Then came the questions and Jim’s answers:

• How will teachers be supported in costs of home Broadband? Basically none! A tax break would have been nice, especially when there’s bound to be some support for the less well off for universal home access.
  
• KS3 on-screen tests? Says not abandoned! Tell that to some schools who have already deleted the test!!
• Message to LAs about reduction of ICT support? Basically down to SIPs!
• ICT funding and schools not spending it? Guidance from Becta issued for schools to follow.

In all I felt the speech was uninspiring and the answers to questions and his delivery gave me the impression that Jim Knight isn’t fully clued up in what’s going on now or in the future in education!

IT Culture is Changing Children’s Brains
This was the first keynote from Dr Martin Westwell, Deputy Director, Institute for the Future of the Mind, Oxford University.

This was a very interesting presentation, if a little high-brow at times. Basically Martin said that today’s pupils think and learn in a different way to those in the past due to IT and the multimedia world they live in.

There was just too much talked about to note it all down and record it here. However, here’s a few things I picked up from it:

• A study of 48 undergraduates. Two groups, A & B. One group played the standard violent version of Doom (with weapons) whilst the other group played a non-violent version (without weapons). $100 at stake for each group to be the best. Afterwards in a game of Prisoner’s Dilemma those playing the violent game were 7 times more likely to exploit than those that played the non-violent game.
• Compare Medal of Honor to Tetris – games which demand high capacity for attention, develop attentional capacity (!)
• Brain Gym – no scientific basis that this makes any difference! VAK was also rubbished.
• A talking story for Year 2 children with “Read to me” and “Let me play” modes. Those who chose “Let me play” mode had worse recall of story.
• Deep brain stimulation – can control Parkinson’s Disease (a video of this was shown and it works!)

An excellent keynote and just what was needed after Jim Knight.

Making Space for Learning – Creating Physical and Virtual Environments in Schools of the Future
This was the evening keynote from Steve Moss, Strategic Director – ICT. Steve talked about BSF and the money for this:

£45,000,000,000 over 15 years
£4,500,000,000 for ICT

He talked about how the integration of physical & virtual spaces makes a 21st century learning environment and Learning Platforms were mentioned several times.

An interesting thought – in the future could a student be ‘present’ in school without attending? Could logging onto the Learning Platform from home and doing work count? A change in the law would be needed, not to mention a change in attitude. How would this work for some children when their parent(s) are at work during the day?

Steve felt that many VLEs today are not actually VLEs but VTEs – Virtual Teaching Environments – as they just replicate electronically what is already done in class (worksheets etc). To some extent I agree although schools who use forums, wikis, blogs etc are moving beyond this and are beginning to change the ‘T’ back into an ‘L’.

Wolverhampton’s ‘Virtual Workspace‘ VLE was shown. Basically Steve showed forum discussions – a student-mentor discussion and then a pupil-pupil discussion with their comments on a student’s poem. This is already happening in Bucks schools on Moodle.

Lots of nice pictures of innovative environments in schools were shown. The key message to me was that virtual spaces e.g. learning platforms should be considered as well as physical spaces.

Apart from the ministerial address it was a good start to the Naace Conference 2007.

Tags: Becta, Brain Gym, brains, broadband, BSF, conference, ICT funding, Jim Knight, KS2 on-screen tests, Learning Platform, Livermead House, Martin Westwell, Medal of Honor, Moodle, Naace, naace2007, Prisoners Dilemma, Tetris, Torquay, VAK, VLE