Digital Literacies

iPads v. Own Devices

2011-08-05T07:54:00.000+03:00

Much has been written lately on thetopic of iPads in Primary schools as opposed to the use of owndevices. In this post I intend to set out my experiences related tothis conversation and the arguements which, from my perspective,inform the debate based on my school's circumstances. In the endhowever, I am not going to suggest which route is the "best."I'll simply outline what we did and leave your decisions to you.

Earlier this year my class was giventhe opportunity to carry out a pilot programme to begin institutingthe use of mobile devices to allow the children to experience thebenefits of a flat classroom. In other words, for them to experiencelearning outside the classroom which was not just a euphemism fordoing work "chained" to a desk outside the school (iebedroom, library, etc.).

Among the issues we dealt with in ourpreparations, was the issue of which devices we should have thechildren using. While cost was a factor in deciding which devices touse, it was not the most significant.

We had several options open to us. Thefirst was to lease a class set of netbooks, which was quickly discounted due to our dissatisfaction with our current units. The second was to use owndevices. The third, was to purchase and lease to parents a class setof iPad2s.

Our classroom demographics were the following: Fifteen children aged eleven. A slightly male bias ingender existed in the class. About 80% were EAL with good or verygood levels of reading, writing and comprehension in English. Allwere experienced Constructivist Inquiry learners. The soci-economicstatus of the class was Upper Middle Class or greater with the vastmajority of parents being graduates with professional degrees. Theclass were relatively versed in incorporating various forms oftechnology, from IWBs to various internet tools such as Google Docsand Dropbox as well as video and audio editing software, topersonalise their learning. All but 2 had some form of mobile devices. Two had Apple products, the rest had Nokia smartphones, Blackberries and personal netbooks.

Our decion making revolved aroundseveral issues. So, I'll examine the issues in ourcircumstances for each of the two remaining options. We looked at iPad2 as aserious possibility. First, some children (20%) already owned Appleproducts and could help those for whom the operating environment wasunfamiliar. Second, the support was such that if there was a seriousproblem we would have confidence the products would be supported.Third, portability and stress tolerance was important and we feltthat the iPads, based on our research with other schools, could standup to drama of a Primary school day. Fourth, screen size wasimportant. We already had experience of netbooks whose screens werefar too small in an effort to make them portable. Thus, iPads didprovide a larger area to read on. Fifth, the large number of applications was seen as an added feature.

On the other hand, having the childrenbring in their own devices, also had its benefits. First, the deviceswere already in the children's pockets and school bags, thus theparental concern of "will it be used outside school?" wasalready answered. Second, these were devices the parents and childrenhad already invested time in to investigate, learn and add apps whichpersonalised the device. Third, the devices had no learning curve forbasic functionality. Fourth, the concern over small screens wasdiscussed, but since the children were not spending a significantnumber of hours staring at the screens this was less of a concern.Moreover, most devices had a relatively simple text enlargementmethod. The children were asked if they felt the screens weredifficult to look at or navigate and they all said 'no, otherwise wewould not have bought ----." It is important to keep in my weran quite a pragmatic and agnostic programme. The children couldbring in any device they felt comfortable using. As a result we sawsome swapping one device for another from home until they had onethey felt satisfied their needs.

In the end we went with own devices.Surprisingly, we had few connectivity issues after the "getnetworked" day, where all the kids brought in their devices, theIT rep was there and within 30 minutes all the devices were onlineexcept two. Those two shared other devices with students.

The devices proved to be very littlehassle at my end because the owners were quite reliable in terms ofknowing how to use them. Moreover, in all cases, there was another learner in the class who had the same device and could lend support if needed. Hence we could get right to the learningengagement at hand.

The results from the children were thatit was very successful. I had no discipline problems, work got done(on time!) and the enthusiasm was strong and maintained throughout the month. Overall the project was deemed a success.

Have you had similar pilot projects? How did they turn out? What issues did you need to deal with? Did you go for own devices or tablets? I'd be very interested in your ideas and comments - thanks!

Egyptian Uprising - Part 2

2011-02-07T11:51:00.000+02:00

29.01.11Continued
This morning we completed the packing and I decided to go back to school to see what the situation is. The HT has told me the school is closed for three days. Sadly, the phones are out and so is the internet. I have not been forward looking enough to advise the children to be prepared for online lessons although they know to check the learning gateway every day (I was also told by the IT department at school a few days later, that parents were emailed with the request for students to log in to the learning gateway for instructions). The HT allowed us to use the landline to call relatives, embassies, etc. From there I returned home and we grabbed a taxi to begin moving. During the move, several teachers saw us with our bags and initially thought we were fleeing. They were even more amazed when we explained we were just moving. During the move, we noticed the petrol stations were closed and that the grocery stores were doing a booming business. I learned that the local police station had been attacked overnight and set alight and weapons stolen and that the largest local shopping mall, had been set alight, flooded and ransacked by looters. That mall was about 15 minutes drive from our location. We also learned that the curfew was in effect and that by 5pm everyone had to be off the streets.

As soon as we had finished the move, about three hours later, we made a mad dash to the local shop and the bank. The shop had of course, been cleared out but we managed to pick up a few things we needed. People were panic buying like I had never seen. In the end we hit about four shops and basically came away with some of what we needed except water and milk. As we walked to our new flat locals were shouting to us to hurry home.

Eventually, the banks were closed. We were in a better situation than many because we had withdrawn the maximum daily allowance as soon as we realised the situation was serious. Since there was very little warning, some colleagues were caught short and were concerned they would need to survive on the equivalent of $20 for an unknown period of time.

In no time at all the police had simply evaporated, banks had been closed, mobile phone access had been shut down or limited, a curfew imposed and panic buying was the norm. Where once one saw police on every corner or standing outside important locations, there were vacant chairs. They were replaced by the army but very few infantry, mainly armoured vehicles and vigilante groups made up of concerned home-owners and boabs (caretakers). Shopkeepers defied the curfew and took chairs out in front of their shops for the overnight job of deterring looters. Some were armed.

As soon as we got home after being urged on by locals we started unpacking and sorting out the few meagre groceries we were able to collect. By the time we were finished, it was well after 19:00 and several hours into the first curfew. We did what so many of our colleagues and neighbours did, and tuned in to BBC World Service and CNN. Sadly, these two pillars of news and information were often left wanting in terms of providing information we, as residents, needed to stay informed. While the government station frequently ran emergency hotline numbers for medical aid and the army we hoped that the two major news services would do the same but supplement that information with news and advice from the various embassies. In reality, there was very little of that and in fact several colleagues complained that the BBC and CNN gave absolutely no information for residents who were not residents of the UK or USA. Personally, I cannot confirm that, since I did not have the luxury of continuously watching the television, but I would agree that the coverage was limited in its usefulness to those on the ground beyond Tahrir Square.

Eventually, it came time to determine our shifts for the evening. It was suggested that since there were looters about, that we should barricade our doors and have a member of the family awake over night. I decided to do the night shift from 20:00 to 5:00, while my wife tried to sleep in what we decided would be the easiest room to defend. I was given various bits of advice on what "weapon" to have at hand so I felt fairly prepared.

By this time, we were already hearing semi-automatic weapon fire, some closer than others. Occasionally I would look through the patio doorway to witness what was happening. I saw the various owners, tenants and boabs encircling a fire and each was armed. The gun fire continued throughout the night in waves of severity. In some cases the shots were close enough I could tell from what direction they had come from. At about midnight I happened to be sitting in the living room trying to determine what we would do the next day when the floor of our ground floor flat began to vibrate and the cup on the side table near me began to shake as well. I got up and opened the door to see an Egyptian tank rolling from the far corner of our commons towards the corner closest to the main street. The dust it kicked up caused me to close the door again - and lock it. The tank was no doubt moving in to support a troop carrier at the T-junction nearby from where the last round of shots had been fired. The sounds of weapons fire became less frequent but still occurred a few times each hour lasting from a few seconds to 5 to 7 minutes.

That is how I passed the evening, until about 2:30 when another piece of equipment rolled down our street amid heavier than usual gunfire. There were a few cases of looters trying to get down the streets. They were always interrogated and in some cases turned back. Tanks and troop carriers made their way up and down our street a few more times over night.

Earlier in the evening, before my wife had turned in, I called a few colleagues to try and support them since I knew they were alone and may possibly be the only people left in their low-rise apartment blocks, since many Egyptians had already started fleeing along with some foreigners. I kept that up until my phone credit ran out. A few days later, since many of the shops had been cleared out I, along with many other foreigners and Egyptians, lost use of the mobile phones not because the phones had been shut down again, but because it was impossible to locate recharge cards. It appears that mobile recharge cards where not immune to the panic buying spree as some people had bought hundreds of dollars of cards at a go. Not only that, but some shops which did have recharge cards were profiteering, charging in some case 100% premiums over the face value of the cards.

Egyptian Uprising - My Experience (part 1)

2011-02-06T13:32:00.001+02:00

End of the day 290111 :
I am sitting here in our darkened living room at 21:33 on Saturday 29th January, wondering how I came to be in this situation and how things will turn out. Yesterday, the governement cut the mobile phones and early that day we realised that the internet was down. There was added uncertainty for us because the 29th was to be our moving date and we had originally told our ISP to transfer our line. So, just to clarify the situation I went into the school, a short walk away, to check. But, much to my disappointment, the internet was definately down. For several days before that, the network was running but people had been saying that, for example, Twitter was blocked. Despite that information, I was able to access Twitter via a third party application right up until yesterday. Yesterday, seems like a week ago but it's only been 24 hours.

When I got home, the first thing I said to my wife was to call or sms her mum because I we were systematically being locked out of our methods of communication and mobiles and sms would be the next to go out. Unfortunately, I was right. Shortly afterwards, the mobile network went down and stayed down until about 10:30 this morning when it crawled back into service without any sms capacity. One of the compounding problems we had was the lack of any other method of getting information. The TV in our flat was unable to get any channels because construction work to the bulding, I think, severed the cable. As a result we had gone 2+ months with no tv so the latest information came when I went in to school this morning. Our neighbours didn't speak English and they seemed to leave soon after things started going pear-shaped.

Anyway, back to yesterday. I had delivered the news to my wife and she had contacted her mum shortly before the phones went down. From then, it was as if we were in isolation. One or two people called us but that was it. They weren't able to tell us more than what we had already surmised. There was an uprising, it was out of control, don't take chances, wait for instructions from our school management. So, we continued our packing. It was surreal, it seemed like every other day. Aside from the rumors of looting at the local Carrefour, that was it. We heard no gun fire, saw no chaos, nothing.

One thing I did notice, was the absence of police as the day went on. We went in to the local market to get a few things and wandered off home. Oblivious that then next day we would be lucky to get basics and that we would be battling against time.

I cannot believe it was only yesterday, because so much has changed since then.

Egypt Uprising - Introduction

2011-02-05T09:57:00.002+02:00

On January 25th, there began protests in Egypt demanding the resignation of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak has led Egypt since the assassination of Anwar Sadat over 30 years ago. Over the next few weeks, I will retell, for my own reflection really, the events which occurred and how they affected the provision of education for the children in my class and how Web2.0 learning tools helped to deal with the situations which arose. To some extent, the story is still unfolding and may continue to do so for some time. While I hope that someone may find some kernels of information which they may find helpful, the main purpose is for my own reflection so I can more effectively deal with similar situations in the future.

Skype an Author

2011-01-24T18:36:00.000+02:00

Recently, our Year 4 and Year 6 students had the opportunity to have a live discussion about being an author with Barbara Mahler, author of "Hole in the Sky". It was very successful but I thought it would be a good idea to provide some suggestions for teachers who might be interested in doing a Skype conference themselves.

There are several sources where a person can find an author, some of whom are willing to Skype with classes, such as the Skype an Author Network and authors abroad. Otherwise, you can try contatcting the author directly. Sadly, there do not seem to be many similar services or facilities for experts in other fields such as Mathematics, Science or History, etc. Perhaps you know of some good resource banks of contact details for experts in these fields. If you do, please provide them in the comments.

The first stage in having a Skype conference is preparation and planning. I cannot stress enough that the time taken to plan out what will happen and running tests will pay benefits when the event occurs. Even after your planning and preparations are complete though, always keep in mind that sometimes, circumstances may conspire against you and cause difficulties over which you have little or no control. It is for those occasions, a Plan B or even a Plan C are always a good idea. In our circumstances, on the "wrong" side of the Digital Divide, we have to take in to account various possibilities which may or may not affect other teachers, who are in similar circumstances, as they hold Skype conferences. Among the obstacles we needed to consider were intermittant power outages, connection failures, surges of shared bandwidth use by the senior school, time zone differences, traffic, etc.

Here are the stages I worked through to get prepared for the Skype conference along with any links which you may find helpful. You may need to consider taking more, or fewer steps depending on your specific circumstances circumstances:

Finding the author. There are, as I mentioned a few resources to help you find authors willing to have a Skype conference. However, keep in mind that authors will have their own schedules to keep. Therefore, plan your Skype call well in advance and have a few backup days in the event the author is unavailable, falls ill or the connection or electricity get cut before or during the call.
Decide on details with the author or their representative such as: decide on appropriate times and dates, costs and make sure the author knows the audience they will be talking to, determine how the author wants to be addressed by the children, how long the author wants to speak to the children before taking questions, specific topics or issues the author may need to know about that the children are particularly interested in, how long the session will be (20 to 30 minute sessions are typical in my experience), etc.
Test call. I always make a test call at roughly the same time and day as the planned conference from the same location I will be using. Take note of connection fades and the habits of other parts of the school who may be using your connection at the same time. Confirm with your IT department that you plan to use Skype and when, so they can take appropriate action. Confirm the time in the remote location.
Organise. Make sure the children are aware of your expectations. Have the teachers organise their children into 2 groups, those asking questions and those who are not. Have the questions prewritten by the children and rehearsed and, if necessary, have the children in an appropriate order. Children asking questions should be sitting near the microphone. In our experience, we have been lucky because the laptop microphone and camera have been sufficient for the job. Ask teachers to rehearse the questions with their children and remember that there will be a delay between when the children speak and when the author hears them, so they need to be patient and speak clearly. In our latest conference the children asking questions sat to one side of the main group, then sat in a chair, asked their question, had a brief discussion if they wanted, and rejoined the main group.
Setup your meeting space. I set up a chair on top of a desk then blu-tacked the laptop to the seat after I had them each in the correct positions and also blu-tacked the chair to the table. Ideally, I try to get the camera positioned so that I can have both the child asking the question and the children in the audience in the same picture. The children then sit with the rest of the audience after they have asked their question(s).
Test all the cables and other tools. Check that Skype is working and make sure it is started in advance of the meeting. Obviously, you will need to have the author's Skype name before this! Check that all the cables are connected, such as the projector cable, Smartboard USB cable, speaker jack, and any other equipment you may be using.

That is about it. The list really does look quite intimidating but in practice it isn't. As with all things, you get better with practice. I started by simply Skyping other classes and sharing work samples, etc. You might find that is a good starting point to get your feet wet.

Have you found some exciting experts which have had a conference with your class? Do you have a good resource for finding Skyping Mathematicians, Scientists, Historians and others? Have you tried Skyping for the first time recently? How did it go? Do you have any tips for other teachers which I have missed? Please leave your comments!

Photo Credit: "Red telephone box in Bamburgh" by David Gruar CC

Google search results based on reading level

2011-01-06T11:49:00.001+02:00

Not too long ago, I noticed that Google had made it possible to organise search results according to reading level. In the screencast below, I show you how to do a search using the reading level options. However, I have not located anything indicating how the levels are determined exactly.

I hope you find the demo helpful.

Unable to display content. Adobe Flash is required.

Using Jing for screencasting

2010-12-30T12:38:00.001+02:00

Last week, I introduced you to Jing for screen captures. A screen capture is essentially taking a snapshot of whatever is on your screen. In this post, I am going to explain how to use Jing for screencasting.

Screencasting is taking a brief video of whatever is on your screen and recording your voice if you choose, rather than a static picture. If you also have Camtasia installed, you can use that to edit the screencast with more features, or use it to create longer screencasts as well as other types of video.

In this post, I am going to assume you do not have Camtasia installed.

To begin with, we need to download Jing. To find out how to download and install Jing, look back at last week's post about using Jing for screen captures.

Once Jing is installed and we have the yellow sun on the edge of our screen, we can begin using it for the screencast. Before you do that, it is always a good idea to run through a basic checklist first:

check your microphone and speakers (preferably, use a headset with a microphone)
rehearse (this may include a script or it may not, but always know what you want to say before hand)
preload any webpages or software before the recording
anticipate background noise levels - move to a new location if necessary
the pause button is your friend, but don't abuse it (using pause too often can make the audio and video seem choppy)
Keep it simple with a good pace (you only have 5 minutes, make them count!)
avoid the "ums" and "ahhs"!
Make sure you have a free account at Screencast.com to house your videos for sharing.

Starting your screencast:

Hover over the sun icon and wait for the three options to appear.
Select the crosshairs.
Select the region of your screen to record by clicking, dragging and clicking again.
Select "Capture Video" from the resulting menu bar.
Jing will give you a 5 second grace period (which cannot be changed) and a confirmation message that the microphone is on before you begin.
During recording, you will see a small toolbar below the recording window with 5 buttons (stop, pause, mic on/off, restart recording, cancel) as well as a progress bar.
When finished your recording, click stop (orange square on black button).
Jing will ask you to provide a file name, and provide a new toolbar below the video window with 5 new buttons (share - send to screencast.com, save to computer, edit with Camtasia, cancel and customize). Enter the file name and decide how to deal with the video. I will assume you decide to share.
In the free account, screencasts are only in SWF format. Other formats are available in the pro version.
Click the share button.
As long as you have a screencast.com account already, the upload will begin. A progress window will show you how things are going.
Jing automatically places a link on your clipboard for pasting.
Congratulations!

Don't be put off by the number of steps. It takes less time than making the video itself in most cases.

I have used Jing for screencasting for quite a while for creating videos for every group of people in my school. It is great for demonstrating software, network navigation, lesson content, etc. It is an excellent tool for supporting learning. I highly recommend it.
Good luck!

Using Jing for Screen Captures and Screencasting

2010-12-23T16:52:00.044+02:00

Recently I was asked how I create screen shots with arrows and short captions for assisting my learners either in learning how to use new websites or identifying steps to be taken during an engagement.

Over the past several years I have used a wide variety of tools to help visually explain or identify key areas of a message I was trying to get across. I’ve basically settled on two tools, both by the same company but used, in my circumstances, for two different purposes.

In this post, I’ll be introducing you to a downloadable tool called “Jing” which is from Techsmith in the US. I don’t usually recommend downloadable tools because of the growing number of online options available for most jobs. However, Jing and its big brother Camtasia are, for my purposes, the best possible solutions to my screen capture and screencasting needs.

Briefly, Jing is a screen capture (takes a snapshot of whatever is on your screen) and a screencasting (creates a 5min maximum video of whatever is on your screen) tool from Techsmith. It is free (but you can buy the pro version for about $15.00/yr), and it allows you to store your video and images at Techsmith’s online storage facility called Screencast.com(free account or pro available).

I absolutely love this tool (it's one of the first 5 things I recommend downloading for every new system) because it's easy to download and install, a breeze to access (as you’ll see) and allows direct uploading of captures/screencasts to your online Screencast.com account. It also provides options for including captions, arrows and creating screencasts.

This is where you can find it: Jing from Techsmith

Here is an example of a screenshot I took a while back using Jing:

As you can see, screenshots with captions can really help explain a procedure or series of steps much better than simple text.

Here is the procedure to install and start using Jing:
1.    Go to the Techsmith Jing website.

2.    Click download:

3.    On the next page, decide between the download for Windows or the download for Mac.

4.    Afterwards, this window will open:

5. Find and click on the "jing_setup.exe" file you have just downloaded and follow the installation instructions.

6. Once Jing is installed. You will see a little yellow sun appear somewhere on the border of your screen, which will look similar to this:

7. To use Jing for a screen capture, hover over the sun for a second and then select the crosshairs (see the image above). Then select your region to capture by dragging your mouse to enlarge the rectangular capture area.

8. As soon as you let your finger off the mouse, the area you have selected is captured and comes up in an editing window, like this:

9.    You can then use the tools along the left of the window to annotate your pictures with arrows, text, boxes, etc.

10.    Now, all that remains to be done is to decide what to do with the capture. You can,
share it through Screencast.com, save it to your computer, edit it with Snagit or Camtasia if you have either one installed or delete the capture.

11.    If you decide to share it, the link is instantly available on your clipboard to paste wherever you need it.

I have been using Jing for screen captures and screencasts for sometime and I really like it. It’s a straight forward, no nonsense capture tool that gets the job done quickly and efficiently. I have used Jing’s screen capture facility to give instructions on using new or unfamiliar websites to learners and highlight important locations on Google Earth or important words, phrases, sentences or other text features before, during or after F2F sessions with my learners. My kids and I appreciate how easy it is to use, and my kids appreciate the added clarity it brings to instructions and engagements.

In my next post, I’ll demonstrate using Jing as a screencasting tool for brief 5 minute video masterpieces :)

Good Luck!

Yahoo! to focus on core business (Updated)

2010-12-17T12:24:00.005+02:00

"Broken Pencil" photo © Michael Jastremski
for openphoto.net CC:Attribution-ShareAlike

~~It looks as though Yahoo! has decided to shutter Delicious, the social bookmarking site. The date of closure has not been mentioned so far but this is connected to the cutting of 600 jobs recently.~~
UPDATE:
According to the website Edudemic.com, which has posted comments from the Yahoo! website, Yahoo! has now clarified the situation, pointing out that they intend to sell Delicious rather than close it. You can read the full statement here.

Obviously, I am not alone when I say I am ~~very disappointed~~ relieved by this news. I have been with Delicious since March 2006 and have thousands of bookmarks for my network, other colleagues, personal interest and so on. Over the last year I have done workshops, and other PD meetings on using social bookmarking sites and Delicious in particular.

Nevertheless, this does bring up the sensitive issue of exactly how much we can trust online services which are free? (Despite the clarification by Yahoo! This point is still an issue, as it is with any other free service on the web.)

In an effort to help those of us who are looking for ~~alternative sites~~ a secondary site to ~~move to~~ use here is an incomplete list of possible options to help you get started in absolutely no order of preference.

Good luck, and remember to add me to your new network!

As mentioned, I have been with Delicious for years. But I've learned my lesson from the rumour mill! That is, have a backup! I'm going to stick with Delicious for the time being and add a backup service and to see how events unfold. Let's face it, moving the resources is not difficult, but I'm glad I don't need to do it!

Good luck!

Implementing a class Wiki

2010-11-17T07:54:00.001+02:00

Over the past few years we have had a class blog to record our reflections on our lrearning and as a tool to build our learning community. Last academic year, we began also using a wiki to further support the learning community we were builing by providing a living central location where pupils add to, improve, share and extend ideas and learning with others in the class in a way that pupils own what is happening with their learning journey. This year, the class and I decided to extend how we used the wiki. In previous verions, the wiki was reserved for eportfolios but its ability to be used as a learning centre was not well applied. In other words, the wiki as a learning resource was underutilised. That meant that we could include areas where the students could more freely share and extend their learning independently. So, this year we added several pages such as a page to collect weblinks and other resources as pupils investigated; a hall of fame for pupils who are elected by the rest of the class as demonstrating Learner Profile characteristics; eportfolios; and a glossaries page where students can add and edit entries as needed; as well as other pages. Our wiki continues to grow as a learner's resource.

At the end of the year I plan to have the class assess how well we used it, how helpful it was and what we need to do for next year to improve it's usefulness. I am particularly interested in witnessing how the ideas of children, who are not interested in IT, change (if they do) and why.
Please visit our class Wiki and give us some hints on what we can do to improve!

Photo Credit: Horia Varlan

Edublogger Awards 2010 Nominations

2010-11-17T06:19:00.000+02:00

It was announced just recently that the 2010 Edublogs Awards are on their way! Nominations have already opened so, here is my list of educational blogs which I think deserve a "two-thumbs up."

Best individual blog: "Always Learning" by Kim Corfino
Best individual tweeter: "Web20Classroom" by Steven Anderson
Best class blog: "MrGoerend.com" by Mr. Goerend & his class
Best resource sharing blog: "Technology for Teachers" by Richard Byrne
Best teacher blog: "Technology for Teachers" by Richard Byrne
Best elearning / corporate education blog: "Learn Central" by Steve Hargadon
Best educational use of a social networking: "Learn Central" by Steve Hargadon
Lifetime achievement: "Learn Central" by Steve Hargadon

Have a look at these websites as well:
Year6L Wiki: http://year-6-with-mr-lowe.wikispaces.com
and http://year6l.blogspot.com

Good luck to all the nominees!

Looking to Skype with authors

2010-11-10T16:49:00.000+02:00

Our English Coordinator is desperately trying to find some authors who would be willing to take part in a Skype conference with KS2 pupils in January during our Book week celebrations. The conference only needs to be sometime in January.

If you are an author of children's books, or you have contacts in the children's book publishing industry and know someone who can help us, please contact me through the comments.

Many thanks,
W

The Global Education Conference

2010-11-06T19:16:00.000+02:00

The IB Libraries

2010-11-06T18:52:00.000+02:00

At the end of the last academic year I decided to create a shared resource called the IB Libraries for my primary school.

The resource is a central resource bank which is housed at Wikispaces. It is organised to hold the planning documents for each Inquiry Unit in each term and the resources which will be used for that term's units.

In the planning section of each page, I created a table with the headings "Central Idea" etc. and linked those details to a file sharing service. In this case I used box.net but there are many other services which could also do the job. I chose this method, because the file can, if you have a box account, be edited. Even if you don't have an account, a copy of the plan can be downloaded regardless of where you access the site from.

The rest of the page is used to organise the resources the teaching team thinks will be appropriate for that unit. In my case I organised our page into audio, video, Powerpoint, etc.

There are several benefits to using this method. First, I felt it would be more collaborative and help to create a sharing environment among the team. It also helped to identify expertise in certain areas of a unit.

Second, Wikis are very easy to work with especially the ones at Wikispaces. The editor is very simple but powerful and teachers generally have no trouble learning how to do some basic page editing and how to upload/download resources in a relatively short space of time.

Thirdly, the libraries helped to identify areas where we were resource rich and resource poor. This then helped the team, rather than individual teachers set about filling the resource need together. Furthermore, it helps to keep resources organised so that we did not have to deal with large numbers of attachments, writing down website addresses and duplication of work.

Fourthly, the libraries are a living document which change as the needs of the unit and the team teaching it changes. teachers can add to, or remove materials as and when necessary.

Fifthly, the libraries are accessible to teachers anytime anywhere there is an internet connection. So, anytime they want or need to see the resources or the planning documents, they can, without having to somehow gain access to the school network.

Finally, the fact the resources were all housed by third parties means that the drain on our already overburdened IT Department would be negligible. We need a stable and relatively fast connection to the internet, but we don't need storage space on the school system, nor do we need the IT personnel to correct issues related to the libraries on our system.

If you are thinking of setting up a similar libraries resource wiki, I would like to hear about it. What issues are you trying to overcome? Are there benefits in your circumstances which I haven't mentioned? Let me know in the comments.

How do we assess creativity? The views of Sir Ken

2010-11-05T08:43:00.000+02:00

Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky

2010-11-05T08:26:00.001+02:00

Year 3 Create Tutorial Videos

2010-10-15T18:19:00.000+03:00

Blog Tutorial from langwitches on Vimeo.

The Importance of Sharing

2010-10-15T12:13:00.002+03:00

RSA and Ken Robinson

2010-10-15T11:25:00.002+03:00

Reform Symposium 2010 [Part 2]

2010-10-02T16:07:00.001+03:00

Steve Hargadon [Part 2 - Reform Symposium]

This has meant then that with the increase in participation, large numbers of people now take part in the online world who would not be participating before because of the barriers which were in place.
Steve then referred back to the concept of the need for a new story and that the "high stakes testing" as he called it, of the factory model, is no longer viable. Thus, as a result of all this,people are looking for a new story of education where different pedagogical beliefs have a role to play.

Steven then went on to consider the concept behind Creative Commons where he pointed out that we want to share and contribute and how this form of "copyright" is relatively new but shows the willingness of people to participate and contribute, which is related to what he called Volunteerism 2.0.

Three major themes appeared in the presentation:

First, "How we Find, Create and Consume Information"

Essentially this is the concept of "openness" and he used MIT as an example and explained that the value was not in the knowledge, athough I would argue perhaps, since MIT is considering a costing structure, that this could be a price tag for "shared" knowledge.

Second - "How we get things done"
It was argued that the internet was allowing for "participation reinvented" and was allowing for a "return to participation" of the era before television and the pre-consumer, pre-factory model. He argued that "participation environments allow conversations" around topics of shared interest and he used the examples of Flickr and YouTube and why they were so successful. The argument was that their success has come from their ability to respond to what their users need and asked for. Flickr started life differently from what it is now and the change was a result of grassroots pressure to provide other services. Another example he used Linux which is a "user generated operating system" which runs Google servers. This discussion led into the concept of Volunteerism 2.0. It is clear to me however, that while there clearly are pockets of volunteerism in non-western states, I feel the value of volunteering is cultural because there are many states around the world which do not place as high a value on volunteerism as in western states. For example, in Eastern Europe where the concept of "volunteer" organisations is, to many, an alien concept. Nevertheless, the internet facilitates new ways of participation.

This means that, the new story must be one which describes education and accommodates a wider range of pedagogical perspectives which demonstrates that the "High Stakes" testing story, as Steve called it, is no longer a valid one from this perspective. Hence, in his opinion the new sstory was the story of the tension between "Freedom" and "Structure" which he illustrated on a continuum.

He argued that the internet is releasing latent energy in the area of content and knowledge but that currently, we are very much at the "Structure" end of the continuum to the right. He believes that the education system needs to move more to the left to be more participative because in the current environment it does not release the human capacity which is needed. Hence, from this perspective the belief that education needs to be moving toward the left of the continuum, where students are expected to take responsibility for their learning.

Another way we get things done, is "organising without organisations". Steve used the example of the Tehran protests and that when the Iranian government wanted to stop the demonstrations they stopped the social media such as Twitter. But I would also add that, like any tool, it depends on how it is used, I would point to the problem of Flash Mobs where sms and social networking tools are used to "spontaneously" create a mob at any given time or place. On the other hand, Social Media is very important for linking support groups to individuals suffering disease and illness. This let Steve into a discussion of the long tail where things which have low demand below which it is profitable to supply in stores, etc. However, he pointed out that the long tail is where the most interesting things are happening, including in education.

Third, the Internet has also affected "how we connect with others". Steve pointed out that the fact of the matter is taht real-time collaboration is here now and that tools which facilitate that connectivity such as Skype are ubiquitous. Another tool which he discussed was Social Networking, specifically blogs which were first to allow someone to be involved in a conversation, but it has its problems in the sense of it being date ordered and can be negatively affected by comments. The next entry were Wikis which are not date ordered, and allowed for a more personal organisation. Steve pointed out that it took him a year before he felt comfortable using wikis, but from my perspective, resources such as Wikispaces, have made Wikis much easier to use and organise for your own needs so I don't really think the suggestion that they are difficult to understand can be applied much now. The next stage was with the entry of Social Networking which opened the door of participation easily because they collected together multiple web 2.0 tools in one location thus making much easier for the average person to take part in the conversation.

At the time of Steve's presentation, Facebook had 500,000,000 members which made it the 3rd largest country behind China and India respectively. Thus, Social Networking is applicable to professional development because it allows and facilitates peer to peer practice sharing.

Steve started his conclusion with these questions:

How well are we preparing students for this world?
How well prepared are we for these changes?
Are we still in School 1.0?
How do we get to school 2.0?

So, how do we move from School 1.0 to School 2.0? Here are Steve's suggestions:

Be a learner; Learn about web 2.0 & manage change
Keep your perspective
Join an educational Social Network
Take part in the conversation
Collaborate in the discussion in moving to school 2.0
Be brave - embrace the change

Next week, I'll be looking at Edmodo, Twiducate, Schoology and Edu2.0 comparing their relative pros and cons and discussing why, given our particular circumstances, I chose the one I did.

Reform Symposium 2010

2010-08-27T08:00:00.001+03:00

Reform Symposium 2010- Steve Hargadon - reflections on the Keynote address

[PART 1]
[PART 2 ~~next week~~ 1st October]

Recently, I had the opportunity to take in part of the very successful two-day Reform Symposium 2010.

However, like many, life got in the way and conspired with global time zones to make it impossible to take part in more sessions than I would have liked. It was a great professional development experience though, which I look forward to taking part in again in 2011.

The organisers have provided the sessions as downloadable links, which was especially convenient for me since my wife and I spend much of our "downtime" in areas of the world with very limited (dial-up) or non-existent internet connectivity for long periods of time.

As a result, I was able to download some of the sessions I had wanted to attend but couldn't and watched the presentations as we travelled (yay Nokia E72!).

In this post, I am going to summarise and reflect on the issues of particular interest to me, given my context, in Steve Hargadon's keynote address which he presented at the Reform Symposium 2010 on 30th July which he called "School 2.0: How the world is changing dramatically and how that will impact education." Steve is an excellent presenter so his was the first session I downloaded.

Steve began the presentation by discussing John Taylor Gatto, the New York State Teacher of the Year from 1989 to 1991, and author of the book "Dumbing Us Down." Steve read a short snippet from Gatto's retirement announcement and went on to highlight the fact that Gatto's message, that the factory model of education is not working, is now considered pretty much mainstream in the Ed Tech world.

Steve couched much of his discussion in terms of "stories" and that although the factory model "story" is understood by many to not work any longer, there is some question as to what the new story should be. Steve argued, quite correctly, that the new story of education needs to be an all encompasing one with, in fact, many different stories connected together. I would suggest calling it an "anthology of education stories."

The presenter then raised the point that the internet is now a very powerful tool which allows a multitude of participation types like never before, while being essentially beyond bricks and mortar school rooms. Steve presented two views of the revolution which is occuring.

The first of the two viewpoints was called the "Orderly View" and the second was the "Realistic View". The "Orderly View" shows "The Three Eras of Education" as being 3 distinct stages: "Apprenticeship", "Universal Schooling" and "Lifelong Learning". In the final era, students and parents take responsibility for learning and the content

What is is that makes people do this stuff (Free & Open Source) for free?

Steve went on to consider the idea of open source software and briefly discussed Linux and Apache programs which are very popular open source programs created as a result of volunteer effort. This led him into discussion of the topic of Volunteerism 2.0.

While he was discussing the MIT open educational resources service he suggested that one of the reasons institutions like MIT would provide educational resources for free is that the value is no longer in the knowledge per se. I think I would have to disagree with that. I believe the value is still in the knowledge, the difference I feel, is no longer in the need to have an "all knowing" expert who appears to own the knowledge be an the sole distributor of it. I would like to believe also, that it is an increasing sense of community responsibility on the part of large institutions who are making an attempt to be seen to be working towards the reduction of the digital divide in such places as Africa. It is easy for us sometimes to forget that by far the majority of the population of the planet do not enjoy persistent, reliable, ubiquitous connectivity to the Internet to the extent that we do in Western Europe and North America and parts of Asia and that much of the world's population relies heavily on mobile phones for their connectivity.

In keeping with the topic of Volunteerism 2.0 Steve also discussed the situation where Clay Shirky was being interviewed by a member of the television media who asked where people get all this time to volunteer for in such things as open source programs. Shirky's response, according to Steve, was that the time spent watching television is declining simply because television does not engage us enough. As a result, there is an increasing amount of "cognitive surplus" which people use on things that do engage them.

Photo Credit: burakg via Stockvault

[Part 2 next week]

My PLE (Revisited)

2010-08-18T14:53:00.025+03:00

It's about that time of year again where I take an inventory of my current Personal & Professional Learning Environments (PLE), in other words the tools I use to further my learning, either formal or informal.
Since I successfully completed my M.Ed., the environment will be somewhat different than what it was while I was studying. The point of this excercise is to reflect on what has changed in my PLE and why as well as any overall impressions.

Below, you will find a graphic representation of the PLE I used about a year ago (click the image to make it larger).

Now, contrast that PLE with the one I am currently using:

While many of the tools remain, there have been some changes. For example, it looks as though, on balance, there has been a shift towards websites which I consider authorieties in the field of education and Professional Development. Content creation sites such as wikispaces still appear in the latest version. It seems also that the shift to mobile technologies is well on its way as I find myself increasingly doing work on my phone. Web 2.0 technologies are also well represented, but less than originally? I think the big difference in this assessment is the increase in mlearning, professional development and possibly a rationalisation of Web 2.0 technologies.

Why do I think these changes have happened? The first thing that struck me was, what appeared to be the decline in the number of Web 2.0 technologies or was it merely rationalisation? Not all tools which I've dropped are Web 2.0, or there was duplication of tools. For example, Freemind, a mind mapping program which is a download, has essentially been overtaken by Bubbl.us which is online and a Web 2.0 technology. There has definately been an increase in mobile computing because of the fact I am more often not able to access a desktop or laptop computer. My smartphone is, where I need it, when I need it. There has also been an increase in access to professional development sites such as The Educator's PLN (NING) because I am attempting to keep pace with pedagogical ideas and the EdTech community as my community of practice. Finally, although I have dropped some tools, I think really it was a rationalisation of tools which essentially did the same, or nearly the same, job.

Another tool conspicuous by its absence is Evernote. I have found that I am increasingly using the Active Notes tool on my NOKIA. So, no need to use Evernote which I would have to download and install (if they have a S60 version - I don't know, I didn't bother to check). Moreover, I found that I used Evernote on my PC as a clipping service. But I also had Wired Marker for that and Jing for screen captures, so Evernote, for me, was redundant.

The next one 'out' was "Drop.io". This was a move to efficiency really. I was till using Box.net and found that they were essentially duplicated tools, so I stayed with Box.net - still a Web 2.0 tool!

The second area of change was the increased use of mobile technologies. This change has occurred rather quickly as I am increasingly using the tools on my smartphone to get everday in-class tasks done such as evidence collecting and scheduling. Nevertheless, the move is still limited as a result of the wifi access limitations within school and the limitations on mobile use.

And that is my review of my PLE. What does your PLE look like? Are you using tools which I don't? If so, how do they help you? Have you ditched any tools recently?

Photo Credit: "Keyboard" by Alireza-Ghabraei via Stockvault.net

Using Audacity for pupil radio dramas with sound effects

2010-08-06T08:00:00.009+03:00

Creating a radio drama using sound effects, Audacity and pupil scripts.

One of the favourite activities this year was script writing for an authentic audience. This year we decided to try our hand at creating short radio dramas.

I introduced the class to some classic (edited) radio dramas such as Superman and Sam Spade. They loved them!

We discussed in our groups what the purpose of the scripts were in our context, how they were related (connections)to our English and Inquiry topics, what we liked about the dramas we heard, what made them interesting, who would be the audience in the 1940's & 50's as well as what other events were part of the context at the time. The groups then fed back their ideas to the class and we recorded them on the Smartboard.

We then broke up into our teams for a brainstorming session on what the plot, characters, etc. would be for our own dramas. Once the draft copies were ready, the groups had to work out if they needed any sound effects and if so what characteristics they needed to have.

For example, one group needed someone walking. But, on careful consideration, they realised they needed a woman slowly walking in high heels. Unfortunately, we couldn't locate a pre-recorded sound effect on the internet which met our needs, so the group located a willling teacher and recorded her as she walked down the hall. They then saved the recording and we imported it to Audacity, where the children worked out where the sound effect had to begin and end.

For some groups, who needed several sound effects, the task was more onerous and included such clips as explosions, helicopters, children playing and someone with hiccups.

After a few practices and editing, the actual first recordings were made. Different groups approached the challenge differentlyand were given enough flexibility to solve issues with lateral thinking so they all learned how to record or find a sound effect and import it into Audacity. Then, using the time shifting tool they decided where the effect would go then they edited it for fade in, fade out etc. I ~~will~~ have placed a link to one of the typical draft versions which the creators would love to have comments about. ~~when I return from vacation.~~ Here is the first 30 seconds or so but it should be enough to get the gist! :)

We enjoyed using the site SoundBible for our clips.
Photo of microphone by SimonDeanMedia

Digital Literacies in top 100 Technology Blogs for Teachers!

2010-08-05T22:44:00.005+03:00

A little while ago, I was very excited to discover that this blog had been placed in the top 100 technology blogs dedicated to teachers. Considering the illustrious members on the list I am really pleased that this blog has been helpful to others! See for yourself at Online Degrees

Thanks Alexis!

2010-08-01T20:08:00.001+03:00

QR codes revisited...

2010-07-30T08:00:00.000+03:00

Not too long ago I posted the start of a Augmented Reality (AR) exploration using Quick Response Codes (QR). One of several questions I had was what, if any, practical use they were in an elementary school setting where the use of mobile learning tools such as mobile phones is strictly controlled (essentially blocked). Moreover, there has been very little uptake of mobile technologies by the school other than netbooks which the school is in the process of phasing in.
Currently, there are no plans to make the school a "1:1" school.

A second concern I had, was what were the limitations of the technology, given our circumstances and the access issues experienced by the majority of our learners. Broadband internet speeds are quite slow and connections are unreliable.

The first step would be to encourage the school management to allow, at least temporarily, the use of camera equipped mobiles as long as the parents signed agreements for loss or damage and that the parents provided permission for the children, with my help, to install software on their phone (the QR Reader) or the parents agreed to do it themselves.

Another step, which had to be taken is to determine exactly how the QR codes could expand our learning options and make our lives more collaborative. This step should be taken before approaching the management so that there are some concrete examples of possible benefits.
QR codes are part of a wider area of technology known as Augmented Reality (AR). To learn more about the field of AR go here and here.

The training of the children should be relatively straight forward. Have the children start up the QR code reader on their phone and then point the phone's camera at the QR code displayed on the Smartboard or wherever is convenient. Sort out possible problems such as fingers in front of the camera or technical issues. Have children tell everyone what was in the code.

The first way we used a QR code in a practical way was placing a QR code on our classroom door which contained a simple introduction to the class. Therefore, any parents who were able could use their camera and get basic details about our class such as our class website address and class email address.

Another use for QR codes from our perspective is for distributing website addresses during lessons and for pupils to include beside their class pictures outside our classroom which takes visitors either directly to their class blog or eportfolio, flikr stream, etc. Another use we were able to develop was as a link to a parent RSVP form on Google Docs.

How have you used QR codes or AR in general? Let me know in the comments.

2010-07-28T10:43:00.001+03:00

"Tigger"

2010-07-27T23:00:00.005+03:00

Tigger before his illness

On the 13th of July, our much loved cat "Tigger" died after a brief but severe illness. He was about 10 months old. I say "about" because he was a stray we found when he was about two weeks old. When we found him his eyes were open but he could could not yet walk. After my wife and I determined that his mother had disappeared we fed him with specially made kitten food made from a recipe my wife had developed on her family's farm.

Tigger was a very active, playful, friendly and otherwise great cat whom we will miss very much and I am very sorry I had such a short time with him.

Sir Ken more thoughts from a visionary

2010-06-02T20:35:00.002+03:00

Those who know me will also know that I am big supporter of Ken Robinson, among others. So, have a watch of this video which is a follow-up of his previous one where he discusses the idea that schools kill creativity. Let me know what you think in the comments!

What in the world are QR codes??

2010-04-24T10:00:00.002+03:00

Recently during a webinar, I discovered not only what QR codes are but how to use them which also gave me the opportunity to begin considering how they can be used in education with my class and how I can spred this resource to my colleagues.

To begin with, QR codes are Quick Response codes which are a visual representation of digital information. Here is an example of what a QR code looks like:

Increasingly, we can see these symbols popping up but how can we use them?

First, in order to use the code, we need to install a QR code reader onto our mobile phone. Now, before you panic, I was able to load the reader into my camera in less than two minutes. The readers work with any mobile phone with a camera. Moreover, there are tons of readers available and most, if not all, are free!

So, we need to begin by downloading the reader which we can do by finding our phone and the readers avaible for it here:

When you arrive on the landing site, simply find your phone's manufacturer down the right side of the page.

The next step is to select your model in the chart and read across the table to find the correct available software.

After you have done that, simply download the software from the link, for example, my model is from HTC so I was shown a choice of four different readers and I clicked on the one of my choice:

The download takes a few seconds onto my laptop.

I made sure that the ".cab" file was saved on my desktop and then using bluetooth, I downloaded the file to my mobile. I opened the file and installed and I was done!

Now, to test that the program was working correctly, I went to this site and created a test QR code which was done in a few seconds and was very easy.

As this is so new to me, I am still looking in to the educational aspects, but some immediate ideas come to mind such as assignments, notices, contact details, etc. can all be transwerred using this method. I am really excited about this tool and I look forward to being able to record here some success stories on its use!

Sir Ken Robinson - Do Schools Kill Creativity?

2010-04-16T13:00:00.000+03:00

Although this video has been around for a while, I wanted to put it up here because I find myself watching it over and over because it is so insightful and provocative. Even if you have seen it before, it's always worth another viewing because I often take away something new afterwards.

Sir Ken Robinson from SMoK on Vimeo.

Two Important Questions

2010-04-09T19:50:00.001+03:00

I ws introduced to this video during a webinar recently and although it's brief, I found it encouraging.

Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

Delicious as a Professional Resource Sharing Tool

2010-04-03T21:43:00.016+03:00

Delicious is a social bookmarking site which has been around for a long time. You can find more detailed information about the history of Delicious here(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delicious_(website))

I started using Delicious as an online bookmarking site about four years ago, which is a donkey’s age in computer terms. I don’t even remember what computer I was using 4 years ago! Over that time, I’ve collected about 4800 bookmarks, 2000 tags and shared them with family, friends and colleagues.

In this post, I’m going to tell you how I use Delicious to share resources among my teaching colleagues on Twitter, Delicious, email as well as here on Digital Literacies. However, keep in mind, that I am not an expert, so for more detailed descriptions on how to do various indepth tasks, you need to check out the Delicious online help files here: http://delicious.com/help

Getting Started:

As I mentioned earlier, I have been using Delicious for quite a while, so the sign up process is different from what it was. Nevertheless, it is still quite straightforward.

Briefly, here is what the buttons do on the landing page:

1. This tab is open by default to show the reader the latest webpages being bookmarked by Delicious account holders.

2. Popular Bookmarks: pretty self explanatory really...

3. Explore tags: which is where you can see what pages are popular within certain tags.

4. Search Delicious: again pretty self explanatory.

5. Hide Intro: minimises the big blue welcome bar.

6. Join Now!: This is where you need to go if you want to actually use Delicious to save and share your bookmarks.

7. Sign In: once you have an account, you will use this button and enter your Yahoo! ID and password.

Once you have joined Delicious, you can start using it to save the treasures you find around the web, bookmark and tag them for easy retrieval and sharing.

Once you have your new account, it is a good idea to install the Delicious browser buttons which will look like this on FF3.5:

The button on the left takes you to your Delicious page which will show your bookmarks. The middle button will open a sidebar in your browser where you can search your own bookmarks and go directly to a site you saved earlier. The button on the right is grey when you are at a page which has not been saved. It will turn blue when you already have the page saved in Delicious.

Saving a Webpage:

I’m now going to review the process of saving a bookmark and sharing it with a colleague:

1. Make sure you have signed in to Delicious and that you have installed the browser toolbar buttons referred to above. Suggestion – import your browser bookmarks to Delicious as well.

2. Once we are at a site we like, we naturally want to bookmark it. So, find the little grey tag symbol referred to above (the one on the right) in your browser toolbar and click on it.

3. If you haven’t signed in to Delicious, you will see this window:

4. If you have signed in, then you will see this window:

Before continuing, let’s briefly look at the different parts of the “Save a Bookmark” window. In the top right corner, you will see your username. Immediately below that, is the box which, if you don’t want to share the bookmark, will need to be selected. Selecting the box does not mean that others will not see it. But, you must send them the bookmark using the “Send” tab at the bottom of the window (which I’ll discuss later).

Down the left side of the window you will notice 6 headings (URL, TITLE, NOTES, TAGS, SEND and MESSAGE):

URL: This will show the address of your bookmark in full.

TITLE: The title of the website and the page you are bookmarking.

NOTES: In this section you can leave brief notes about the page, but remember that the notes will be visible on your public page if you choose to share the bookmark.

TAGS: Clicking inside the TAGS textbox will produce lists of both “Recommended” and “Popular” tags in the “Tags” tab at the bottom of the window. Individual tags can then be selected by clicking on them. Other tags can be added simply by typing the tag in the textbox. Remember to leave a space between tags.

SEND: Clicking in the “Send” textbox will activate the “Send” tab at the bottom of the window. Here, all your Delicious network members will be listed. Simply click on a network member to send the bookmark to. This area will also give you the options of emailing the link directly to another person (even if they are not on Delicious) and to send a tweet about the bookmark on Twitter. If you do send the bookmark as a tweet, make sure that a brief message about the link is included in the message box. Reminder: If you choose to keep your bookmark PUBLIC, your network will be provided with your bookmark automatically.

MESSAGE: As indicated above you can include a short message with your link when sending to a member of your Delicious network or for Twitter.

Finally, click “Save” and the window will close. Your bookmark is now saved.

Sharing

Saving a great educational resource for later use is fine, but what makes Delicious indispensible from my perspective is the ability to access your bookmarks from any networked computer and the ability of your PLN (Professional Learning Network) to be included in each other's discoveries which could be the seed of professional growth. Here is a little graphic I’ve put together to illustrate this simple but important concept:

Basically, what I am trying to show here is the fact that my Public Bookmarks, represented by the centre circle, are shared with My Delicious Network and vice versa. I have not included a bidirectional arrow to indicate the one way sharing relationship with my email contacts through the Delicious interface. Furthermore, through the “Send” tab I can share my bookmarks, however, the relationship from my Twitter followers is not reciprocal within Delicious. I have, therefore not included a bidirectional arrow. This however belies the reality that there is a significant flow of knowledge opportunities from Twitter and email which can be included in Delicious.

Finding Colleagues to Share With

To turn Delicious into an even more useful site than simply storing links is the ability to share. However, we cannot do that really effectively until we have a network to share our (and our colleagues) discoveries. So, the next stage is to set up a network on Delicious, so the “Send” tab in our “Save a Bookmark” window becomes more useful.

I began by sending out an email to all my colleagues asking them if they were on Delicious, and if so, could they add me to their network. So, we simply traded Delicious usernames, visited the other’s Delicious page and clicked “Add User to My Network” which appears in the top right of the screen.

Further down the right side of the screen on your homepage, will be a list of the members of your network.

On several occasions while visiting a blog or other website, the author has made their Delicious credentials available. To add them to your network, it is usually simply a matter of clicking on their username and their Delicious public bookmarks page will appear. Look to the top right of the page and, as long as you are already signed in on Delicious, find the “Add to My Network” link and click!

The Benefits of Sharing

The benefits of sharing on Delicious are quite obvious. Including colleagues whose judgement you trust and who could be, or are, in your PLN helps to support professional development through discovery of new ideas, theories and opportunities as well as tools which we would not have discovered on our own, or which question or support our pedagogical beliefs. By including colleagues whose opinions you trust, you can be assured that links and resources which are shared have high educational value to you personally and reduces the time spent sifting through resources which may have little relevance for your particular situation.

Which resource sharing tools do you use? Do you use more than one? How have you found tools such as Delicious and Plurk useful?

Free Graphic Organiser for Writing To Explain

2010-03-22T10:00:00.002+02:00

Recently we had a workshop where we were given a few moments to draft a graphic organiser for our class on the topic we are currently covering. In my case the topic is Writing to Explain. So, here is a copy of the graphic organiser I created (made readable) for you to use. Please, use as needed with attribution.
If you would like a copy, simply click the image.

Using Audacity for podcasts and other forms of digital storytelling

2010-02-22T06:00:00.000+02:00

Audacity is a free, open source audio recording programme which is the standard among educators I know for almost all of their digital storytelling tasks from Podcasts to Reader's Theatre.

It is very straighforward to use and is cross platform (meaning it can be used on various versions of Windows as well as Macs). You can get more information about the program at Wikipedia.

You can download the Beta version here: Audacity Beta version 1.3.11 (recommended for Vista and W7)

My purpose in this post is not to sing the praises of Audacity as such (I think it does a great job at selling itself!), but to describe how we use the program in our class for recording various student activities.

Getting Started:
The first step to begin working with Audicity is to download it. You can do that from the link provided above.
Once you have gone to the download page, download the basic Windows installer (since I have a Vista machine, I downloaded the Beta) you then need to consider what jobs you will use Audacity for. For example, if you will be using it to work with .wma files, you will need to also download the “FFmpeg import/export library” which is found on the Download Page for Audacity in the “Plugins and Libraries” section. Also, if you plan on exporting your files as MP3s, you will need to download and install the “LAME MP3 encoder.” Be advised, that I did not implement the LAME encoder because I prefer the WMA format for my particular circumstances.
Once you have downloaded the basic Audacity programme and the plugin(s) you need to install them. Begin by installing the basic programme then the plugins. I restarted my system after the basic installation and before I installed the plugins. I would highly recommend the Audacity online Help section for detailed instructions.
After all the installations were complete, I did a brief sound check to determine the recording levels were correct and that the programme correctly exported and saved the test files.
Using Audacity for podcasts is extremely easy. In fact, in our class, the children are responsible for the entire job of creating one. However, to get to that point we have carried out several activities which helped them to understand the needs of their audience as well as organising their ideas in a clear logical format. For a good example of how to get organised for a podcast see this fantastic blog (http://mscofino.edublogs.org/2009/03/11/podcasting-power/).
To begin with, I carried out a brief introduction to the reasons why we record things, what are podcasts, and why would people probably find them useful using TPS (Think, Peer, Share). I then went on to introduce the programme and allowed the class to explore the programme with a partner. During the introduction, I demonstrated what my voice looked like in the Audacity work area. We then experimented with other people’s voices and noted the variations and similarities.
Frome there, we practiced recording our own voices and those of our partners as well as saving them both as Audacity project files and as WMA files on our desktops. As a class, we then looked at and experimented with playing with the files, by cutting, copying, pasting, cropping tracks, using various filters, fading in, fading out, increase/decrease volume and various sound effects.
Eventually, we moved on to considering our audience’s needs in future podcasts. So, we looked at (listened to) some old time radio plays. The process, briefly, went like this: I found a dramatic piece of radio theatre and transcribed the script, not more than 1 or 2 minutes in total. I then saved the audio file and the script. During the lesson, when we were discussing the audience’s needs, I read, in as monotone manner as possible, the script segment while showing the Audacity recording window on the smart board. We then compared my reading to the actual radio play and discussed in detail what made the play so entertaining. Among the ideas were comments such as volume, pitch, speed and how the actors made their voices sound choked with emotion. Generally, the class came away with the idea that the actors had “a presence” which made the event standout in some way. They also pointed out how the use of sound effects, like people running, doors opening and closing and keys jingling, added realism and helped to create an atmosphere.
In most cases each podcast is the result of about three lessons of planning, collaborating, rehearsing and retakes. Because Audacity has been so easy to use the children find it no problem at all to stop, listen and re-record or do simple editing until they are satisfied with the finished product. Thus the class has become, increasingly, content creators with a growing level of confidence with each finished product.
Are you creating podcasts with your class? We would love to hear them! Tell us all about them in the comments.

Constructivism Workshop Notes and Reflections

2010-02-09T08:00:00.003+02:00

This is a reflection on the Primary Years Program (PYP) workshop which took place at our school and my participation in it. Throughout, because these are my notes and reflections, the thoughts which have been written here may not necessarily reflect the views of the IBO or my employer.

The workshop began with the presenters pointing out the fact that the PYP does not throw out all the hard work and effort teachers have put in to their career and in developing their teaching practice. Furthermore, they pointed out that every unit has a central idea which can also be seen as "The Big Idea". They also recalled the fact that learning does not take place in a vacuum, it relies on our prior knowledge the children's prior knowledge, our environment, circumstances, etc. The workshop was essentially carried out as a model PYP lesson by the individuals who were leading it.

By the end of the two days of meetings it was clear that the content in our curriculum is not going to change but how we deliver it. For every activity - we had to question how we could use the activity or the ideas being presented in our own particular circumstances. Clearly, not all activities would work for all situations and they would not necessarily be used in the same way by all teachers. It was expected that a teacher would implement whatever ideas they could in an effective way too meet the needs of their class.

One of the initial activities we took part in was when we were given some chart paper. At the top of each sheet was written a comment, for example one of the comments was, "What are you proud of?" The idea, was that there were several pieces of chart paper around the room and we had to take a few minutes to write what we felt on each piece of paper. When we analyzed our particular sheet, "what are you proud of?" we found that family was very important to the vast majority of people who wrote comments and it was clear to us that that tends to affect our values and our commitments both in and outside of school. In all there were about six sheets and each group had to reflect on the responses that were written on each sheet. We then had to determine how we would use this activity in our class. I have decided that this activity would be good for assessing the prior knowledge of my students and for assessment either at the beginning or at the end of a unit. This activity was intended to activate prior knowledge about a particular topic.

The next activity we did was one which allowed us to create different pairs of partners with the same general group of people. We started with a clock face on which the numbers 12, 3, 6 and 9 were written in the usual places. We were then asked by the workshop leaders to find individuals in the class who would be prepared to be our 12 o'clock, three o'clock, six o'clock and nine o'clock appointments. I could see that this particular activity or strategy was excellent for a think, pair, share situation and for regrouping and feedback. I think it also provides a relatively good level of ownership for the participants.

We then went on to discuss central agreements. Personally, I would have put the central agreements activity at the beginning of the session as the very first activity. In this activity we were given strips of chart paper approximately 15 cm wide by 60 cm long and a small piece of paper which indicated the word that he would need to define. In our case, the word was "Appreciate" and we came up with the statement that says "we will understand that by listening to others we can respond enthusiastically and passionately to everyone's contributions." We (all the groups) then collected the essential agreement sheets together and placed them on a single Board which then created a list of positive statements which together described the behavior and the environment that a teacher would be expecting to see in the classroom.

Another activity which we took part in was called the "Domino Chain". A volunteer begins by going to one end of the class holding their hands up to the side and declaring "My name is X, and I like..." each raised arm represents one thing that the individual likes, for example football, and movies. Whoever else in the group liked movies had to run out to the volunteer and interlock arms. The second person would repeat the phrase again adding in their own hobbies. So, the first person in the chain has to identify two hobbies but all the other participants only had to identify one.

As we are a candidate school for PYP and there are still a lot of questions in our minds about how the PYP operates, I would argue that we are improving how well we deliver the PYP. There are still many questions to be answered. It came across to me that no one is really "an expert" in the PYP because of its flexible, ever-changing character. While there are people who tend to be more experienced in dealing with the PYP, one of the ideas I've come away with is that very few people, if any, can really identify themselves as "experts."

Given this, during the workshop we were asked to create a "Confidence Continuum" where at one end of the continuum people would identify themselves as the king of or queen of PYP while at the other end participants would identify themselves, and this is where the jokes broke out, as peasants, serfs, etc. The idea was for individuals to self assess how much they knew (or how comfortable they felt) about the PYP. This however, raised questions because for example, it was mentioned that since we are so new to the PYP, we would have to know more about the PYP to determine how much we actually know about it relative what there was to know and how comfortable we felt. Most of the participants placed their Post-it notes in the middle or to the right of the midway point of the continuum. This activity, it was pointed out, needs to be revisited over time to monitor and assess how children are feeling about a particular topic. I thought this activity was ideal for self and peer assessment and for monitoring progress and possibly prior knowledge.

One of the provocations in the workshop was the question; "Is using questioning in PYP important?" Obviously, the answer was "yes" because it promotes thinking; curiosity; it helps to demonstrate understanding; and that we need to be careful that the questions emphasize "what" or "how." As the discussions took place, we were asked to record what could be considered "A Burning Question." This was another excellent opportunity to collect information on the level of understanding of the participants and also to help identify where we are in terms of our progress.

In the second session, the plans were adjusted to reflect the results of the previous session's formative assessment.

Learners Constructing Meaning

In the Learners Constructing Meaning graphic organizer the intent was for us to identify "What do we want to learn", "How best will we learn" and "How will we know what we've learned" all the while keeping learners and their construction of meaning at the center of what we do which is a constructivist philosophy. Upon reflection, various ideas were contributed for the three questions in the graphic organizer. For example, for the question "How best will we learn?" Ideas such as investing in partnerships with parents; provide a multitude of first-time experiences; communication; collaboration; by doing things; through Brain Friendly Learning; through positive praise; respecting the ideas and opinions of others; learning through peers and to play; having ownership by being involved in their learning and finally assessment for learning and monitoring progression, were among the ideas offered.

The second question which was asked in the graphic organizer was "How will we know what we've learned?" The groups came up with these various responses: self-evaluation; through helping others; to knowing their targets; metacognitive practices; transference to everyday life; assessment and self-evaluation.

Finally, the third question in our graphic organizer was "What do we want to learn?" For this, there are also various responses such as how to multitask; 21st-century skills; how to make connections; citizenship how to be a lifelong learner; how to extend our understanding and how to be a valued member of society.

Later on in the workshop we were asked "How do you feel the workshop will meet your expectations?" One of the responses that was given was that, "It will be successful if I feel that I have been given model activities to support the PYP philosophy and a model of what an effective lesson would look like. It should also demonstrate how I can more accurately differentiate between often overlapping Key Concepts. The PYP is a concept driven curriculum. Thus, identifying the key concepts correctly is extremely important.

It was pointed out that the learner profile characteristics need to be integrated into authentic activities in the classroom. For example, one might say, referring back to the Domino Chain activity, that "Jack was a risk taker today for volunteering to be first." The teacher can then write the pupil's name on a Post-it note and place the Post-it note underneath one of the Learner Profile characteristics that they have identified the pupil as meeting. We need to remember that displaying the profile is not enough. We need to explain explicitly what characteristics look like, sound like, and must explicitly be identified when they occur.

We then went on to consider the topic of Concepts.

During this conversation it was suggested that knowledge needs to be transdisciplinary, there needs to be scope and sequence, and there needs to be commonality among all the concepts. Skills are also a key factor and teachers are required to provide opportunities for students to improve their skills in areas such as self-management. All the skills in the PYP cover all the curriculum aspects, thus providing the same skills set over different environments.
We then went on to consider attitudes and action.
Attitudes are interpreted and modeled by the teacher to increase the awareness of children over the day and children can create their own values. In terms of actions these can be either individual or through groups, they can be grand or basic. We need to remember though that actions should not be mimicked but that naturally.

Essentially the philosophy that we were being asked to accept is that everything is PYP time. The workshop moved on to discuss the movement from thematic units to a unit of inquiry. In thematic units a topic may be say, dinosaurs. In that unit you may incorporate aspects of the theme and mathematics language however in an inquiry the topic of dinosaurs has expanded and broadened to the topic of extinction with a guiding questions such as widely species become extinct on the other hand in a thematic unit on dinosaurs in a math lesson you may measure dinosaurs sort of dinosaurs count dinosaurs but in any PYP inquiry we are using skills to look into a concept and therefore make connections. The workshop made an attempt to differentiate and highlight the importance between enduring knowledge and superficial knowledge. Here is an example of the diagram that was given to us:

In the process of our discussions we also came across a graphic organizer referred to as the Frayer model. I have included my sketch of the model below:

The next activity we are asked to work on enfolds us being shown six transdisciplinary themes and given the central ideas. We had to select the correct central idea for the transdisciplinary theme we had to keep in mind also that no single central idea will answer all the descriptors. Today's session with wound up with the latest version of the U2 video did you know? And a reading by a one of the workshop leaders of the seven blind mice the intent was to show the value of the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Section 2:

The session was started by having us organized into content regrouping. I was given a small crumpled piece of paper on which was written "causation" which meant that I was sitting in the key concepts group. Before the session actually began the responses from the exit survey from the previous section were reviewed. There were a lot of responses and it was generally felt that people understood themes and concepts that are at the end of the day. One of the questions was how can we more effectively integrate specialist subjects another point that seem to come across in the responses was that we can see the big picture and we appreciate the practical activities. It was pointed out that exit cards are important to collect feedback and for self-assessment some of the participants in the workshop identified that they had moved along the understanding continuum. The next activity of the Willis and the Quakers read in this activity, we had to review a section of the booklet "making the PYP happen". We had to select from our homework which was issued the day before a phrase that we felt was particularly important. We all started by standing up with our booklets in front of us and it won our turn came we rent the phrase or passage which we felt was particularly meaningful to us. If anyone else in the group agreed with what we had read they could either read it out again or they could simply sit down. This was an excellent way of monitoring who agreed with what passages and a good it was also a good way of summarizing the key points of the work which had been issued. We then moved on to an artifacts activity where each of us at the table in groups of three or four had an artifact which we are asked to bring with us. We were not permitted to discuss our artifact with anyone in the group before hand and when the time came we were allowed to put the artifacts on the table in front of us. The person with the artifact to begin with, was silent and the rest of the members of the group had to look at the artifact very carefully and try to determine what that said about the person who had presented it. In our group we had a stone sculpture and 80 small child's toy and electronic device and a stuffed animal. Once each of the artifacts had been discussed by the other members of the group the owners of the artifacts would one at a time discuss why they had brought that particular artifact and what it means to them for example, the person who had brought the electronic device pointed out the fact that it helped them stay in contact with family and friends, and allowed them to collect information when they needed and it had been instrumental in their postgraduate studies as well as being a gift from a family member. The artifact activity launched our thinking about inquiry asking questions which prompted new questions and encouraged us to find out more in this particular case we found that it would be useful tool use this sort of activity to start a unit about culture and as the artifacts were brought in they could be used to create an in class displaying or museum.

One of the questions we had to address in the learners constructing meaning graphic organizer was "how fast will we learn?" In an attempt to help us understand this perspective we were shown a series of pictures called "Laura and the Walch" in this particular set of images a little girl possibly in kindergarten was shown a set of pictures of watches shoes and shown no watch on the researchers rest which she could look at and listen to. In the images that followed Laura is seen putting her ear to the pictures of the watches that resembled the researchers watch in an effort to see if they will also made a ticking sound. And it's inquiry is not always asking questions and it is not always clearly are perfectly articulated.

In the next activity called "heads together" or "butts up", as seen in the image below, we had to define what we felt inquiry was. The members of the group would each write their own idea of what inquiry was in their particular section of the paper. The group would then discuss and place in the middle of the sheet a definition of inquiry that pulled together all of the participants ideas in a summary statement.

Later on in the workshop we did another activity with buttons be or given aid fairly large collection of buttons of different sizes and shapes designs and an instruction sheet which said sort the buttons according to color. As we had a large group participating in the workshop some groups have different sets of instructions and indeed at least one group had no instructions this was an activity intended to demonstrate the differences between structured inquiry which was ours because the instructions were very clear and precise to guided inquiry which was a questions such as how can you sort the buttons? Open inquiry which was what can you do with buttons? And finally free inquiry which where no instructions and all. In our group, we had to sort the buttons according to color. Initially, we didn't see the instruction sheet so we started randomly organizing them as best we soffit. After a few moments it was indicated to us that we had a question sheet in front of us which was very embarrassing! We sort of the buttons according to color as requested in instructions but we also then subdivided the buttons according to shade so therefore darker buttons where at one end of a subgroup and wider buttons were at the other end of a subgroup. In the group that had no instructions it was quite interesting to see how many very quickly lost focus and in fact at least one of the members decided to do what was necessary for their own learning and did a separate task which was unrelated. At the conclusion of the activity we also noted that the groups that were assigned to observe us in some cases ended up being participants rather than observers. We were reminded that when you observe you must be silent because when you interact you are no longer an observer. Therefore groups which were based on types of instructions tended to indicate not only the degree of teacher involvement, but the degree of initiative required by pupils for example the group with no instructions required very high pupil initiative. We were then provided with the diagram below which helped us to see the connections between structured guided open and free inquiry and the resulting levels of teacher involvement and pupil initiative.

We then moved on to the concept of central ideas and determined that central ideas generally have one sentence, they express an enduring understand; they must link to the transdisciplinary theme and the lines of inquiry; they are intended to challenge and extend pupils prior knowledge and finally that the central idea must be applicable anywhere and be without value statements to demonstrate this week started with a sentence all Tolerance change into beautiful butterflies we discounted the statement for a variety of reasons one being that it is a value statement and that essentially the only word that we could keep was change even extended that sentence so that it read all living things and go through a process of change we identified this as a more workable central idea once the central ideas identified I can change it later for the next year we were reminded that we need to make sure that we always use part seven of the PYP planner to record our reflections but that we should do it immediately as soon as we discover a problem or an issue so that the next person teaching the unit is aware of what changes need to be made so the first step is to create a central idea and then to decide on the key concepts which are the teacher questions and they need to be relevant to the summative assessment and likewise the summative assessment needs to be relevant to the teacher questions.

This has been mine personal reflection on the workshop that I participated in with callings. It is meant mainly as a record for myself as to what took place the activities which I found most useful for my class and ideas on learning and understanding and constructing meaning which I can implement in my class and think about in terms of how these concepts change or support my personal philosophy of teaching and learning.

Backchannelling and Year 6

2010-02-02T08:00:00.000+02:00

In this post, I will be discussing a website called Today’s Meet (http://todaysmeet.com). First, I’ll discuss “Backchannelling” and how our class used Today’s Meet and how it can help with teaching and learning. You may also find the blogpost helpful at Langwitches.
Let’s get started:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmarks/ / CC BY 2.0

What is Backchannelling?
Backchannelling is a method of collaborative learning and reflection using a chat facility which is carried on during a presentation, lecture or class to support the learning of the members of the audience by linking the knowledge of others to the topic or issues of the presentation.

Here are several good chat tools which you can try out to see which is appropriate for your context, such as:

• Present.ly (http://presentlyapp.com/)
• Edmodo (http://www.edmodo.com/)
• Todaysmeet (http://todaysmeet.com/)
• Chatzy (http://www.chatzy.com/)
• Google Wave (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Wave)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/justin/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

My purpose here is not to rate the chat tools per se, although I mention Today’s Meet and Google Wave, but to reflect upon how the tools were used and how they benefited learning in our context.

We used Today’s Meet for our first full on backchannelling activity which was integrated into our Inquiry topic of the Global Marketplace. To begin, I introduced the lesson by reviewing the Learning Objectives of the lesson, as well as activating Prior Knowledge about the topic we were looking at and the relevant vocabulary as well as connecting it to previous lessons.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/frankieroberto/ / CC BY 2.0
We then moved into the main part of the lesson which involved media presentations an, discussions and practical activities.

One of the practical activities was having children present what their Jigsaw groups had learned about the topic. As the children presented, the rest of the class particiapted through Today's Meet by highlighting key words, facts they had which supported the speaker or contradicted them and questions which we had the opportunity to answer together at the end of each presentation. Through creative use of the desktop, we were able to show both the backchannelling conversations and any multimedia presentations by the groups.

While the use of Backchannelling was not perfect, mainly due to minor inappropriate use of the system, it was in general a success. The children demonstrated an improving ability to multitask while they actively participated in the lesson through listening and connecting understanding of details, facts and knowledge with others and expanding the learning of the audience beyond the presentation.

Have you used backchannelling in your class? Which platform have you used? What difficulties have you overcome? What advice would you offer to teachers starting out in this area?

The Education Timeline...

2010-01-26T08:00:00.000+02:00

My Current Personal Learning Environment (PLE)

2010-01-19T07:00:00.004+02:00

Recently on Twitter, there was a brief sharing of which tools constituted our PLNs. I thought it would be a good idea to supplement that with a view of my PLE so that this time next year I can see how my use of Web2.0 tools for teaching and learning has changed.

So, here it is on the left. To get a better view of it, just double click the image.

A significant number of the tools I use are Web2.0 technologies. One major tool which which would have been conspicuous by its absence is Twitter.

I've included Twitter in this mind map even though I have not been using it long enough to have developed a strong PLN. Thus, I have tended to "lurk" most of the time but even now, I have noticed a change in my use of it. Over the last month or so my experience has been a more interactive and collaborative one. Nevertheless, I won't say I'll permanently add Twitter to my PLE until I manage to grow my PLN on it.

Using Slideshare in a Blended Learning Environment

2010-01-12T16:00:00.000+02:00

One of the challenges of creating and maintaining a blended learning environment is finding a way to actually share the content I have created with the pupils. While this use to be a challenge, over the last few years the ability to embed content, which is housed at other websites, in our LMS has meant that the variety of resources I am able to provide to the students and that the students can share with us is staggering.

Web2.0 tools often have the ability to share content and allow content creators to distribute their materials and assist in the learning of others . While there are thousands of sites which allow embedding of content my focus in this post is on a service called “Slideshare.com” and how we use it in our blended environment with a group of 10 to 11 year olds.

Like Youtube, Slideshare allows the account holder to upload Powerpoint slide presentations to their servers. The presentations then become searchable on the site and the account holder has the options of determining various settings which decide how the presentation will be shared and the information available as well as the licenses to be applied.

So, this is how we use it:

Any time the children, either individually or in a group, create a .ppt, or .pptx file they upload the file to the class account. Usually together, but sometimes on my own, the settings for how the presentation will be shared are set. The file is then loaded to our class account. Unfortunately, Slideshare does not deal well with animations, so before uploading to the website we usually need to adapt the presentation by deleting any animation effects.

From there, we embed the presentation in our EDU20 Resources area, or add the presentation to a specific lesson, blog, forum discussion, etc. But, as mentioned in an earlier post, Prezi.com also allows embedding.

The ability to embed the presentation files, and Prezis in EDU20 is fantastic for several reasons, such as the fact that the children only need their EDU20 login details. Furthermore, it allows all children the opportunity to share, discuss and improve on the content we create together or individually. It also provides supporting material which children can access independently or as a class we can access together over Vyew.com(see more on this website in an upcoming post). Children do, independently review presentations and Prezis to review topics they are interested in and to revise a topic we’ve covered. Interestingly, the children also discuss the presentations independently with other friends over Skype!

One of the other benefits of housing presentations in Slideshare, could be the ability to share the content with other classes in the school, but since most other classes are not at this point yet, it will, I hope, serve as encouragement, when they discover a bank of content tailored to the curriculum available to them.

Do you use Slideshare for class content? How do you make use of the embedding feature with your class? Do you use a different presentation sharing tool? Let me know in the comments!

Class blog - a tool for reflection

2010-01-05T11:00:00.001+02:00

Over the last two years my class of Year 6 students (aged 10 and 11) have had the opportunity to regularly participate in creating content for our class blog.

I would like to reflect on the “whys” and “hows” of the class blog and where we are with it now.
Part of my teaching philosophy is the belief that children need the opportunity to reflect, create, self assess and take part in authentic experiences which they can use to construct their understanding of the world around them.

Moreover, I think it is important to allow the children to have the opportunity to create “for the real world” and have the opportunity to display, justify and critique their work to a wider audience than simply the class or even the year group. In fact, last year, when I began structuring the blogging experience, the class was becoming very excited. One of the boys pointed out something quite interesting, the fact that now, his older brother who was away at another high school, could now read about what he had been doing.

As noted earlier, there had been detailed discussions with the school’s principal and we were given the green light to create, along a carefully delineated path which I had mapped out, our Blended Teaching and Learning Environment (BTLE).

As a class we had to determine how we would contribute to our blog, how we would maintain control and address privacy issues while still allowing the children to analyse, create and evaluate in our learning community. We initially housed our blog at Wordpress.com and then set to work setting up the blog.

For security reasons, it was decided that I would be the person to post messages for the time being although the content would be contributed by the children. Furthermore, as a temporary measure, it was decided that comments would not be allowed. It was not ideal, but I also knew that the roadmap ahead promised far more opportunities in the future, and this was a small step toward that.

The class and I then set out our ideas of how to organise our content and who would write it. We eventually decided that a weekly rota would be created so that everyone in the class had an opportunity to contribute reflective content about what they had done.

In the end, the first year of our blog was very successful, with over 5000 visits in an academic year. As we moved along, we fine tuned how we ran it but essentially, I continued to be the sole person responsible for placing content on the site after the children had discussed, drafted and written the material.

This year we have moved our blog to Blogger.com mainly because of the improved ability to use widgets. As a result, we have added items like a customised layout, Shelfari, and other widgets which we actively use in our lessons. Another change we have carried out this year is the allowing of comments. While the comments are always moderated by myself, it has now opened the door to far better reflection and discussion both outside of class and inside. Now, postings which get comments are topics of discussion in lessons as well, and the children are reading and writing as a fun activity which helps to increase interest and passion! The last change to our class blog policy has been to allow all the children in class to be contributors to the blog. They can edit their own posts as well as comment on others, but I still control the content to maintain security.

The class blog is just one aspect of the children’s PLE. Nevertheless, it has made a huge difference in they way they approach their lessons. They are increasingly recognising that we are creating a Community of Learners where their work is authentic, reflective and which they have ownership over.

Do you have a class blog? How do you arrange contributions to it? Which widgets do you use and why? How has a class blog helped your students? Share some of your insights with us in the comments!

Photo Credit: Maria Reyes-McDavis

Grades - good or evil?

2009-12-30T09:17:00.000+02:00

Recently, I had the chance to drop by an education blog where the topic of discussion was whether grades can ever be good or, at least, what was our perspective on grades.

To be honest, I went into a bit of a tie-raid about grades and rubrics but in the end, I think I summed it up retty well. I will admit to having trouble with the blog's comment window in that it didn't seem to want me to use paragraphs but, meh!

Not wanting my well-earned high blood pressure to go to waste, I decided to repost the comment here. Of course, please feel free to comment and give me your perspective...

"Well, this is certainly going to be an interesting discussion!

I believe, that the only useful assessment is formative assessment by teachers during a unit of work, and indeed, diagnostic formative assessment before a unit. In our school, we are in the process of eliminating grades.

This does not mean that parents and children have not been conditioned to feel a need to determine a child's position vis-à-vis their classmates. At least, that is their view of it. Grades, whether we like it or not, determine a "pecking" order in the class which some need to see because it gives them comfort.

In my mind, the reality is such that, no two teachers, despite hours of moderation, will assign grades which mean the same thing across the board and across all classes and units of work. We are human after all, and as a result, variation is bound to exist. One problem is, that parents and those who seek "objective" results, fail to see the degree of subjectivity involved when any grade is assigned.

Therefore, for a whole host of reasons our school has moved to using rubrics which clearly define what is required in any particular piece of work. Each column clearly identifies what the pupils have done correctly and what they need to improve on. Contrary to what many may expect, the rubrics have absolutely no numerical or letter grades attached to them. One of the other benefits of having rubrics is that it gives the teacher the opportunity to clearly define, throughout the task, with the children - either individually or in small groups - the exact requirements of the task. The rubric, then becomes a roadmap for the children to help them remember and identify what they have to do to self-assess and metacognitively determine their progress toward the stated learning objective and success criteria.

So, my feeling on grading is that, the belief that grades indicate an unequivocal statement of a child's progress is deeply flawed because of the huge numbers of variables which can tend to influence the result and those who seek specific grades often do not recognise the variables involved or underestimate their importance.

Thankfully, some people I deal with tend to be more concerned with knowing what their child can and can not do and want to know how to help them meet those challenges rather than being overly concerned with numerical labels and where their child is in a class.

Finally, we need to keep in mind the fact that context plays a huge role in the importance of grades to students and their parents. When I use the rubrics, there is no need for grades because the student knows how they are doing and so do I because they have been formatively assessed throughout the task.

A Powerpoint Alternative - Prezi

2009-12-21T18:00:00.000+02:00

I have to admit that over the years, I have used a lot of powerpoint presentations or variations of them. However, over the last year or so I found myself wondering what alternatives to powerpoint were there? I'm not talking about programs which essentially show slides but with a slightly different user interface, but something really "different" which not only presented the information in new ways but allowed for more creativity, was relatively easy for 10 and 11 year olds to learn and did a better job at showing connections between ideas.

Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of uses for a good powerpoint presentation and there are hundreds of websites which give pointers on how to create the "ultimate presentation." What I wanted, was a format which was somehow less linear.

That is, a format which allowed the audience to participate by seeing the big picture and its component parts and more easily discuss each of the factors involved. Luckily, I discovered Prezi which does just that.

Prezi is a non-linear presentation tool which allows you to start at the top of a concept (a top-down perspective) and allows the audience to see all the component parts of the concept or topic. The presenter or the audience can then explore randomly, or along a fixed path, and identify and discuss the various components.

This tool has been very helpful and I've created several. The children who have had the opportunity to try it out have found it has a bit of a learning curve, so I've always guided them through their first two or three (as I do with all the tools I introduce). Once they get the hang of it, and lose the Powerpoint linear model way of thinking, they love it.

It has been a great help with children who have difficulty sorting concepts into individual ideas or identifying connections. In other words, it is a great help for children who have trouble seeing the forest for the trees or who have Inquiry topics which have several different important aspects contributing to a main idea.

For example, a Prezi was done on global warming. Some of the contributing factors were collected together in seperate frames but still clearly visible within a whole concept, thus showing its connection to other factors of global warming.

As I suggested above, Prezi has been very helpful in showing connections between concepts or ideas which Powerpoint simply cannot, in a fluid random access sense. Hence, the children, while still enjoying Powperpoint because it is one of their "comfort zone technologies" have increasingly started turning to Prezis for their project ideas and class discussions.

The facts:

Who used it?: Year 6 (aged 10-11 years old)
Where can I find it?: www.prezi.com
Cost: Free (but with limits - no education package that I'm aware of)
What is it?: Alternative Presentation Tool
Why would I use it?: When concepts have several connected ideas that need a "top-down" view which does not come across well in Powerpoint.

How do you use Prezis? Perhaps you've found an even better tool for presentations. If so, please let me know in the comments!

Our Teaching and Learning Environment (TLE)

2009-12-19T23:39:00.000+02:00

Early last academic year, I approached our school’s Principal and discussed with him at length how I could extend our learning environment beyond the walls of the school. It was, and remains, one of my core beliefs that as a 21st Century Educator, I need to help children see that learning does not only occur in a classroom setting. And, as such, I felt the need to open up access by the children to a learning environment that they had more control over which they could more actively and meaningfully contribute to. It would be a community where their ideas were shared with their classmates and they could collaborate, extend, inquire and build on their passion to investigate and explore regardless of their physical location or time of day.

Given the fact that we are in a primary school, and the children are 10 or 11 years old I recognised and, identified my perceptions about the alternatives open to me. I support wholeheartedly the views of commentators such as Martin Weller (2008) who tend to support the idea that PLEs and VLEs are actually part of a continuum of environments. Thus, our learning environment would be called (as Martin Weller points out) a Teacher learner environment (TLE). But I call ours a Blended Teaching and Learning Environment(BTLE). According to Weller, a TLE can be seen as a step, moving along the continuum towards a full-fledged PLE.

These are a few of the reasons I felt it was necessary to implement the BTLE in our school’s particular circumstances:
1. A BTLE would be preferable to an ad hoc solution because of the security concerns of parents and teachers. Given the varying degrees of IT experience the children possessed, it was felt that a BTLE would be the safest option and a would provide a good grounding for later.
2. A BTLE would likely provide a more efficient means for parents to monitor their children's progress versus a system which would be less centralized and would potentially require a large number of logins and passwords. Although use of OpenID is becoming quite widespread, I felt that it was still too limited to give us access to tools we may need to use.
3. The BTLE would allow teachers to more easily assess student progress rather than having to monitor multiple websites which may be difficult to obtain data from.
4. The BTLE would allow a more structured environment for the children where standards for content and etiquette could be carried over from the classroom.

On the other hand, there were several concerns which had to be either addressed or at least kept in mind:
• Human and hardware resources needs. The demands on our already over extended IT department had to be limited as far as possible. Moreover, the hardware currently in use in the school was considered at a point where upgrades were essential even without any additional demands of implementing a BTLE.
• Parental reluctance in terms of the cultural belief that if “it” wasn’t happening in a classroom and out of a textbook then, whatever one called it, it would not be education. In other words, there was a (in some cases strongly held) reluctance on the part of parents to deviate from a system of teaching which did not mirror their own past experiences.
• Security. Whatever environment I created, it had to be straightforward to administer and keep secure. Moreover, it needed to be seen to be secure where children were free to interact with their colleagues in a safe, educationally appropriate and meaningful environment.

So, with those perspectives firmly in place, I set about creating my game plan. I determined the needs of the children in terms of IT experience and attitudes towards technology. Then I began creating a road map of what I hoped to achieve at various "checkpoints" by the end of the academic year.

Over the year our class “tested” four possible learning environments and reflected on how they fit. It was clear from the outset that no “off the rack” environment would be perfect but given the cost and resources constraints we were under we had to be more creative. What we, as a class, needed to work out was which one was the most accessible and appropriate for our learning.

In the end, we ended up creating our BTLE, which consists of:
• EDU20.org – one of the two main facets of the TLE. It took me quite a while, but I eventually set up the class and the school environments, loaded all the student accounts, uploaded resources, created resources and lessons, which in some cases included recordings, video demonstrations, screen demonstrations and of course assessment strategies using rubrics for assignments and then linking the resources to the lessons.

Other facets of the BTLE are:
• Class Blog
• Vyew.com
• Shelfari
• Bubbl.us
• Google Wave
• Wikispaces
• Voicethread

While there are a number of logins to recall and passwords for students to remember, “experience is a great teacher” and there have been relatively few password or login problems.

So, in the end, we never really created a VLE/LMS but a BTLE in which we have a completely online (does not use any extra school hardware beyond a network connection) Moodle-type of environment which is complemented by a class blog and a few external websites. We have, over the last year and half, also developed the practice of adding and removing bits from our BTLE as we need them. So, a month from now, who knows, the list may look completely different.

Some of the many benefits of having created the BTLE is student online access to relevant assessment and standards of content, authentic reflection opportunities, collaboration, rethinking and changing ideas, investigation, inquiring, discovery and digital storytelling to name a few. In other words, 21st Century skills.

Have you created a VLE, LMS, or BTLE? Perhaps you have a hardware strapped school as well. How have you implemented your learning environment? Tell me about it in the comments!

Works Cited
Weller, Martin. The Ed Techie. March 6, 2008. http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good_reason/2008/03/a-ple---vle-con.html (accessed 18 December, 2009).

Professional Reflections

2009-12-14T15:26:00.000+02:00

Welcome to my professional reflections page.

In this context, professional reflections means that I take the opportunity, as often as possible to review what actions I've taken to implement IT in the classroom in a meaningful and authentic way. Reflecting also means, identifying which things have been implemented but need improving and how or why they need that improvement. Not everything works the first time around, but I also believe that few things worth doing come easily. Finally, I see reflecting as looking back and making connections not only with what I already know, but what I have discovered. I also make a conscious effort to use those connections to guide my "road ahead".

It is my very strong belief that we, as elementary/primary school teachers should not be implementing technology for technology's sake, nor should we see technology as simply "a tool". I believe, that both of these positions sells the profound implications of today's technology, to the educational welfare and future of our children, short. It does our children a disservice by belittling the importance of read/write/web (RRW) technology to little more than that of an overhead projector or, on the other hand, a silver bullet which will cure all ills. Both are, in my opinion, a falsehood.

I will however, use the word "tool" in the sense of a telescope, microscope or other instrument which is a bridge to greater understanding, collaboration, sharing and creating.

I believe that the RRW is an incredible tool which opens up a vast amount of opportunity to allow students to actively create, remix and share their knowledge and understanding with others. I further believe that Constructivist theories and Connectivism and the RRW go hand in hand and allow children the opportunity to inquire and investigate like never before.

Hopefully, over time,as I fill more of this space, you will find a resource, or an idea which you find helpful. If so, please feel free to add a comment!

Shadow Puppet Workshop

2009-11-11T14:39:00.000+02:00

Hi Everyone!

There will be a special shadow puppet workshop on Monday 16th, November. More details will be in a letter going home with children tomorrow.

Take Care,
Mr.L

2009-10-23T11:19:00.001+03:00