Learning from #Learning2

Guest Post by Jason Graham

I chose Jason to be the final guest post in this series for a couple of reasons. First, I've been a follower of his on Twitter for a while and I'm always impressed with the quality of the tweets he sends. They are always insightful in some way and have helped me to continue my learning journey especially around the PYP. Which brings me to the second reason I selected him. Jason is a respected PYP workshop leader and I cannot overstate the excitement I experience when teaching in a PYP environment. Over the years I have taught in almost every environment such as PYP, UK National Curriculum and the IPC. But my support, still truly lies with the PYP as the quintessential learning environment.

This is another great post by Jason and you can catch up with him on Twitter or at his blog.

Thanks Jason!

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Awesome. That is the word that comes to mind when I reflect on Learning 2.0 Conference in Beijing last week. I’ve never been around so many educators that support each other. That cheer each other on. @B_Sheridan states it nicely in his blogpost on Learning2 ‘ I felt as if the conference had an aura more like a music festival than an educational conference. People were pumped to be there.’  That sums it up.

 I was  fortunate enough to be there for the pre conference. That    was an honour. So many great educators with ideas to change education for the better. On my team there was  Dave Caleb(@davecaleb), Jeff Dungan(@jdungan), Patrick McMahon, Justin Hardman(@jahardman), Doug Taylor(dtaylor2008) Zoe Page @pagezoe and Ben Sheridan @B_Sheridan. We created a trailer in the hopes to further EARCOS Action Research projects into an issue that we felt was at the crux of technology in education: How to reduce anxiety of ‘integrating technology. The ideas flowed one night at the ‘Gung Ho’ pizza place across from the conference hotel. The notes taken down on a napkin. Yes a napkin.  We talked about where we came from, we all started as beginners in technology and we are still learning. Everyone is at different places in their learning journey path with technology but we are all on the same path and that’s to improve teaching and learning. That’s the goal. We came up with this video trailer we hope will inspire others to take action.

One of the Learning2Leaders was Adrian Camm. He challenged my thinking of gaming in education. We didn’t just play video games, a misconception I had when I went into his session. It was also about games in general sense. We played strategic card games, games with dice and games with counters. Strategical thinking. I came away with lots of ideas for my class. If you’re interested check out his site Games in Education.  Another Learning2Leader I finally met in person was FlatClassroom Co Founder Julie Lindsay. It was great to meet face to face after so many skype sessions.

I was also honored to work on the Learning 2.0  marketing committee with @cdiller and @chamada. I learned alot from them and the others on the committee. It was a worth while experience watching everyone coordinate such a big event. The extraordinary work behind the scenes to pull this off. Western Academy of Beijing was a great place to hold this event. The school made an impression on me.
Finally, I presented on #hashtag learning communities on Twitter such as #pypchat. We got a synchronous #chat going so participants could experience what it is like being in one of these chats. It was fast and furious. I also asked Michelle Hiebert aka @mauimickey of #kinderchat to make a short trailer on the importance of a PLN and what #kinderchat meant to her. Her video clip was inspirational.

I hope to attend next year when Learning2.0 heads to United World College Southeast Asia in Singapore.

Thanks #learning2

Guest Post: Clive Dawes On Scratching That 7 Year Itch

I had the pleasure of meeting Clive at a conference some months ago. We had been been connected through Twitter but not in person. Clive's work on gamification and learning was and remains an eye-opening set of ideas and they have, even now, almost a year later, influenced my teaching for the better.

Seven Ways to Scratch The Seven Year Itch.

Here’s the thing. After Christmas this will be the longest I’ve ever stayed in a job in my life.

My first job, fresh faced out of teacher training lasted 6 years and 1 term. My second job, not so fresh faced, lasted 6 years and 1 term. Notice a pattern developing? My third job, which in truth was a mixture of different consultancies and freelance work lasted 6 years and 2 terms.

My current role is in an Asian International School as a technology leader/ specialist/ facilitator/ integrator. Whatever the contract or job description says it’s out of date before the ink is dry (or the modern day equivalent).

I love my job. But, at the end of this term I will have been here for 6 years and 1 term. This is causing me to think and question a lot of things. If you add up all the 6 years above you will realise that I am not in the first flush of youth. In fact, given the vagaries of health, I am a lot nearer the end of my working life than the beginning. I’m not quite sure how this happened. It sort of crept up on me!

So, why do I love my job? Well, it’s changed a lot over the 6 years. I now spend a lot less time with the students. More time is spent supporting teachers and lots of time on administration and management of technologies: supervising mobile devices, implementing and promoting our virtual learning environment, and more recently, working on the technology plan for a new campus we are building. An important aspect of my role is to dilute the huge array of new technologies, sites, apps, games and the like to parcel into manageable quantities to offer to teachers to use to enhance learning.

I still come to school every day thinking and hoping I can make a difference to improve student learning.

But here’s a secret for you. It gets harder every year. And there are times when I wonder if I’m as motivated as I used to be and maybe consider moving on to start the next 6 years and 1 term cycle.

So, I’ve begun to look more closely at how I can continue to motivate and challenge myself to continue the (in my opinion!) high standards of my previous years.

I have devised a list of seven pearls of wisdom to help sustain me and ensure I remain focussed and motivated. A word of warning. I am no lifestyle coach or guru and I have never lit a scented candle in my life, so the following is likely to be highly practical and without hyperbole.

1. Switch Off. I’m not talking about a complete period of disconnection (dana boyd), or even a weekend without e-mail. I’m connected 24/7. If I ever add an “out of office” auto reply to Outlook, please shoot me. When I get home from work I usually log on after dinner and connect with both social and work circles. But for one or two evenings a week, give it a miss. Do something different. If you don’t answer that mail after 8.00pm one night so what. Everyone else uses “out of office” so don’t stress about it!

2. Remove the Twitter Spam. OK, we all know Twitter is great for sharing conversations, discoveries and the like. It also gives you the opportunity to receive a link, an app or an idea and then pass it on to your staff as your own! But as time progresses, new follows can clog your space, making it difficult to focus on what is really useful. Get rid of the spam. It’s easy to do. Anybody who tweets too much, constantly spouts about their education philosophy, or generally just makes you feel bad or inadequate, ditch them.

And if anybody you follow ever re-tweets themselves, ditch ‘em. Goodness knows what that person is like in real life. Sure, you may miss the occasional nugget, but you’re better off without the Twitter Spam. Try it. I’ve missed nobody I’ve unfollowed and it gives me a good feeling to know I don’t have to put up with their 50 or so tweets a day.

3. Identify and work with the innovators. Every school has a range of early adopters and innovators. Identify them and work with them, encouraging them to push the boundaries and adapt their pedagogies. Push them towards appropriate professional development opportunities, get them to present at conferences and share their work with their own colleagues who may not be quite so far along their technology journeys. Through them, your work becomes more sustainable and allows your influence to spread more widely.

4. Don’t bang your head against a brick wall. Accept that there are some things you cannot change. There will always be colleagues and managers obsessed with snapshot standardised test results, homework, handwriting and the like, who educate as though time has stood still for the last 15 years. Whilst converting one of these into an enlightened 21st Century educator may be one of your greatest achievements we all know it’s not likely to happen and the time you need to spend on the task can be better spent working with more open teachers who are able to positively support learning with a greater number of students.

5. Treat your school leaders carefully. Your school leaders need to support your innovation. If they don’t then your job is a lot harder, but not impossible. If they don’t support you then they must get out of your way and allow you to get on with your job. If they’re obstructive, bombard them with your successes and encourage your colleagues to do the same. And if you need to, skirt around them!

6. Parents. Engaging parents is an important part of any educator’s task. It’s even more important in a technology context as parents often need help and support tackling issues in the home. Opening a channel of conversation can be an invaluable source of information and perspective for all parties. If, as a teacher you don’t know what it’s like to have two teenage kids in the house constantly engaging with social media and online games, then talking to somebody who does can be very helpful. Talking to parents, through the use of Parent Technology Meetings also helps to raise the profile of technology within the school. Never a bad thing!

7. Find a new passion. Take something you love in a technology context and go with it. Develop some lesson resources and teach them yourself or encourage other teachers to use them. In the past for me it’s been Scratch, then photography, then games design. The next thing. Who knows?

 But that’s part of the fun of this job.

Guest Post: Sheli Blackburn on The Digital Leader Network

@Sheli Blackburn is a tireless educator who is responsible along with @Chris Mayoh and others for running the Digital Leader Network. Like TechKids, the programme I run, Digital Leaders is a huge opportunity for children of primary school age, who have an enthusiasm about using technology, to learn, hands on, the skills of using their knowledge to support their learning, other students, teachers and their schools. It is an ideal way for children who have a tech skill, interest or ability to meet and work with other students who share their enthusiasm and to provide positive encouragement for other children with similar abilities and the recognition that those abilities are both valid and valuable - which, sadly, is too often overlooked, under appreciated and under utilised. It is the TechKids' privelage, here in Brunei, to be the only South East Asian member of the  DL Network.

The digital leader network

The digital leader network collaborative blog has grown in a very short time and has proved to be a good place for teachers and digital leaders to showcase their great work in school. That is the whole purpose of the blog- to showcase, support and inspire others so that they may too employ digital leaders in their schools. Although my initial ideas about the network were very grand (linking schools across the UK and beyond) the blog is a solid start to spreading the benefits of having digital leaders.

I attended the Naace third Millenium hothouse in July this year, hoping to network and extend my ICT knowledge, skills and understanding. I was asked to provide a 'workshop' on the digital leader network and was delighted to be given the opportunity to spread the word again. The reason for this? In my view digital leaders are the best free resource in schools - a resource that could potentially have a huge impact on ICT development. I am passionate about this; passionate about creating sustainable solutions for keeping up with developments in an ever-changing area of education.

The workshop proved to be popular and became fully booked, leaving Nick Jackson (whose digital leaders recently led a teachtheteachers meet) without a place. This turned out well for me as it was a great way to get him up front and sharing his expertise. When I realised that Chris Mayoh was attending the workshop, I decided it would be silly preaching to an expert, so asked him to come and share his wisdom too. It proved to be a good idea as it not only gave a change of pace, but we were able to show how digital leaders are being employed in both primary and secondary. We each brought different experiences to the session and of course a change of pace is always good. You can view my prezi here, watch @ChrisMayoh's digital leader interviews here and @largerama's prezi and one of his films here. Of course these do not capture the discussions that went on, but they paint a picture of the work that is going on in our schools.

Before the session I had the idea to ask others to leave a pledge on the digital leader linoit. This would give some indication of the impact of the workshop. Incidentally, at the end of the session I asked how many teachers already had digital leaders in their schools. Two hands went up. The response to 'Who will employ digital leaders now?' was quite overwhelming. I am not surprised though. I think between us we showed the impact of a free resource available in all schools.   

Please add your pledges!

My pledge is to try and emulate Chris Mayoh's success in Bradford, in Norfolk. I would also like to host a digital leader 'kids meet' (this should have happened last year) and hopefully get our children to the Bett Show. This can only happen with support from others - and once again my twitter PLN come up trumps with their enthusiasm and drive to make this work. Yes there are a few 'negative disruptors' out there (see a great post by Jill Duman), but they are a very small minority and are easy to ignore. Nobody in this project has claimed to be the owner, initiator or leader. It will be a successful project because of its collaborative nature and because it is a good idea!

If you are interested in learning more about the digital leader network, come and join in #DLchat on a Thursday night at 9 during term time. You will meet inspirational tweeters who have been there right at the start of this project: @ICTevangelist @ChrisMayoh and @MrsMeeks64. You will also come across hard working tweeters who have given up a lot of time and put a lot of energy into this project - @aknill @largerama @traceyab1 @gr8ICT @ashmrkenyon @mbrayford @mikeyjohncarr amongst many others.

Acknowledgement must also be given to @ICTmagic and @eslweb who often help out with archiving, @PrimaryEdTech for his overseas input, @JenniH68 for her hard work with edmodo and @kristianstill, @MrStucke and @bobharrisonnet for their continued support and inspiration.  Thanks also to @janwebb21 for giving us the opportunity to spread the word further.

Please add your pledge!

ICT Policy

After a year's hiatus, I thought it would be a good idea to provide something to share with others.

Some of the time over the last year was taken up in settling in to my new post. Some of that "settling in" involved investigating and creating the school's ICT Policy which was completed about three months ago and accepted by the HT.

So, for those of you who are looking for a template or even a example of an ICT policy for their Primary school, please feel free to use, edit, share and review the policy below. Obviously, since the policy is quite specific to our school, I need to point out a few key things:
1. This was the first policy I have written which has been so extensive. As such, you will need to edit the policy for your own needs,
2. Some parts have been removed where it mentions specific individuals so you can also edit those areas for your needs.
3. The policy is licensed under the Creative Commons license.
4. On mobile browsers, you may not see the embedded document. So please follow this link.
I hope you find it useful.

iPads v. Own Devices

Much has been written lately on the topic of iPads in Primary schools as opposed to the use of own devices. In this post I intend to set out my experiences related to this conversation and the arguements which, from my perspective, inform the debate based on my school's circumstances. In the end however, 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 given the opportunity to carry out a pilot programme to begin instituting the use of mobile devices to allow the children to experience the benefits of a flat classroom. In other words, for them to experience learning outside the classroom which was not just a euphemism for doing work "chained" to a desk outside the school (ie bedroom, library, etc.).

Among the issues we dealt with in our preparations, was the issue of which devices we should have the children using. While cost was a factor in deciding which devices to use, it was not the most significant.

We had several options open to us. The first 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 own devices. The third, was to purchase and lease to parents a class set of iPad2s.

Our classroom demographics were the following: Fifteen children aged eleven. A slightly male bias in gender existed in the class. About 80% were EAL with good or very good levels of reading, writing and comprehension in English. All were experienced Constructivist Inquiry learners. The soci-economic status of the class was Upper Middle Class or greater with the vast majority of parents being graduates with professional degrees. The class were relatively versed in incorporating various forms of technology, from IWBs to various internet tools such as Google Docs and Dropbox as well as video and audio editing software, to personalise 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 around several issues. So, I'll examine the issues in our circumstances for each of the two remaining options. We looked at iPad2 as a serious possibility. First, some children (20%) already owned Apple products and could help those for whom the operating environment was unfamiliar. Second, the support was such that if there was a serious problem we would have confidence the products would be supported. Third, portability and stress tolerance was important and we felt that the iPads, based on our research with other schools, could stand up to drama of a Primary school day. Fourth, screen size was important. We already had experience of netbooks whose screens were far too small in an effort to make them portable. Thus, iPads did provide a larger area to read on. Fifth, the large number of applications was seen as an added feature.

On the other hand, having the children bring in their own devices, also had its benefits. First, the devices were already in the children's pockets and school bags, thus the parental concern of "will it be used outside school?" was already answered. Second, these were devices the parents and children had already invested time in to investigate, learn and add apps which personalised the device. Third, the devices had no learning curve for basic functionality. Fourth, the concern over small screens was discussed, but since the children were not spending a significant number of hours staring at the screens this was less of a concern. Moreover, most devices had a relatively simple text enlargement method. The children were asked if they felt the screens were difficult to look at or navigate and they all said 'no, otherwise we would not have bought ----." It is important to keep in my we ran quite a pragmatic and agnostic programme. The children could bring in any device they felt comfortable using. As a result we saw some swapping one device for another from home until they had one they felt satisfied their needs.

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

The devices proved to be very little hassle at my end because the owners were quite reliable in terms of knowing 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 learning engagement at hand.

The results from the children were that it 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

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)

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.