Webucation

Infrastructures for Learning

2010-06-29T18:53:00.007+01:00

In the UK we have s
pent a lot of money over the years creating a high speed infrastructure for schools. Many schools have fast internet connections but I wonder just how many of them are working to establish what might be called an infrastructure for learning. What does this mean?....

There are probably many different models for communicating and collaborating with learners as well as a wide range of services that

can be used to support the learning process.

The VLE or Learning Platform is one such infrastructure built as they are from a number of different tools but if they are only used for providing another means of delivering work then I am pretty sure they will not be as effective as one might think.

There are other infrastructure models or additional tools than could be brought into the VLE to expand the options for engaging young people particularly where young people have access to a mobile device.

An example would be Calibre - an ebook management system which has its own server so you could use it to distribute coursework books (text books) in a completely new way. On mobile devices this works great with the Stanza e-book reader and is simple to set up.

There are also tools such as Jisko which is a private microblogging system similar to Twitter but which provides a means of using such tools in a controlled and safe way (internet safety is a high profile issue in the UK). Add to this the potential of mobile phones used as response devices using tools such as GiEFal which is a little away from an out of the box product but demonstrates a direction of travel for the use of mobile tools for learning.

We have a long way to go with really making effective use of ICT in learning and we need to move away from what devices we use or what bandwidth we have onto what learning infrastructures we need to create to make best use of them.

This said the critical thing with all of these infrastructures is that they need good and imaginative educators to make them really work. Setting the challenges for harnessing such opportunities for learning is the real challenge but at least these and other tools allows educators to explore ideas and perhaps transform the learning experience.

One Device or Two

2009-10-20T19:48:00.005+01:00

Is a device like an IPod Touch sufficient
as a 'use anytime' device?
Having worked with schools, learners and teachers for a number of years I am increasingly convinced that a single technology device is just not enough! Various surveys have been done about the use of technology by learners at home and at school as well as attitudes towards technology across the age range.

Some of the more recent research makes interesting reading such as the recent 2009 e-Maturity Study produced by some of the leading researchers in the UK.

What the research like this does not do is to study the actual use of technology by young people and teachers and what the minimum technology they would need to meet their immediate needs. Having observed a large number of lessons where ICT is used it is clear that many do not require the power provided in the majority of the hardware devices that are actually used. Teachers may use their devices to create materials for classroom use but during lessons the technology is mainly used for presentation purposes. Pupils use of technology varies depending on what they are doing but again in the majority of cases the devices are not used for creating content.

It may be that we are all waiting for the right technology to come along e.g suitable sized keyboard, long battery life (longer than a school day) high quality screen etc etc but in fact maybe all you need to be able to do is take notes, perhaps snap a picture and access information. The more heavy weight uses such as creating presentations, editing movies or creating publications need more processing power.

My contention is that we need a ' use anytime' device that is used mainly for the less sophisticated but important tasks such as the researching, note taking and watching with additional resources available 'when needed' to do the more demanding tasks.

Transformation in a Fixed World

2009-04-10T08:39:00.014+01:00

There is much discussion about Transforming Education but what does this mean and how can you transform something that in many countries is driven by achieving specific outcomes. We all know that we need our schools to deliver citizens ready for work in the 21st Century but what does that actually mean when the measures we have for success are largely the ones that we have used for hundreds of years.

If you spend any time trying to find a definition of 'Transformation' as it applies to education then you won't find anything definitive. there are lots of people and organisations that state they are engaged in transformational change but very little to describe what that fundamentally means. Let us look at what we know:

Young people now engage in a wide range of activities some of which were not available only a few years ago. Much of this activity is connected with communication, either through their mobile phone or via the various communities they join online.
There are some young people who have no interest in technology and although most will have a mobile phone they may well not take part in any online collaboration.
The curriculum in many schools remains as it was ten or more years ago. In the UK we are exploring new structures for learning through such things as diplomas which will require collaboration between institutions but the bulk of the curriculum is still focused on traditional models
Quite a lot of the technology kids will use outside school will not be allowed in many schools
Kids like to collaborate and be creative.
Technology will continue to develop and will do so based on what the market requires - much of the market are young people

So what are the implications?
The outcome of the above is that we are creating two worlds; one which is the formal world of school and the other is the personal space surrounding the learner. Of course there is already overlap between these two but the impact of technology is pushing the world of the personal
space further away from the formal world of school.
In my view transformation, in part, must be greater inclusion of the informal personal space within the formal education space. How you do that and to what extent is the real challenge.

2009-03-16T23:10:00.009Z

Professor Sugata Mitra is an advocate of allowing children to use their innate abilities to learn through the use of technology and learning in groups. He is currently Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, UK.

His now famous Hole in the Wall experiment was the inspiration for the Indian author Vikas Swarup to write his first novel which was then to become the movie Slumdog Millionaire!

The hole in the wall experiment involved placing a computer kiosk in the wall of an Indian slum in Dehli to observe how children would use it. The experiment was established to prove that children could learn how to use computers without any formal training. The experiment has since been repeated at many places in India, Cambodia, Africa and within the UK with amazing results.

The HIWEL (Hole In the Wall Education Ltd) team have undertaken both qualitative and quantitative analysis of the various experiments covering a range of measures such as Academic performance and Peer to Peer Learning Patterns.

What this might say about the education of children in developed countries is both interesting and challenging as Professor Mitra says that his findings are not restricted poor families in other countries but for any child which could be said to be 'remote'. He suggests that the word 'remote' could apply to children in rural locations or in cities anywhere in the world.

If children can work collaboratively to solve shared problems using technology to support their learning and they appear to do this more effectively than would otherwise be the case then why do we need teachers?

What Professor Mitra is saying does not actually remove teachers but it does change their role and it raises important questions about our approach to teaching and learning, particularly for very young children and opportunities they have for working with technology in groups.

Professor Mitra suggest that what we tend to find in the West is lots of children with computers of their own, working on their own and not in groups. Schools could well pick up some of his ideas and focus on creating opportunities for what he terms 'Minimal Invasive Education. He is also clear that working on their own is significantly less effective that working together.

Interesting to consider whether the collaboration always needs to be working together on the same machine rather than working in online communities.

Building Schools for the Future - the Prensky Way

2008-10-11T09:02:00.016+01:00

Marc Prensky has spoken to audiences around the world. He is passionate about giving kids the best possible chances in life and as an educator wants to see our approach to education change to better suit the needs of the 21st Century.

Marc was a keynote speaker at the Worcestershire Learning Technologies Conference in the UK and in this podcast I discuss with his views on building schools of the future.

As a passionate advocate for preparing learners for an ever changing world Marc challenges us all to consider how best we can prepare learners for the 21st Century. He is interested in the challenges we face as educators and how the education process needs to change to accommodate new technologies and the opportunities that they offer.

Almost unique to Marc's presentation technique is his effort to connect with learners in front of an audience of educators. A group of young people ranging from 11 to 17 joined Marc to answer some of his questions about their experience of school. Marc discussed with the group their thoughts about schooling, their use of technology and their hopes for the future. The students were well able to express their views and made it very clear that listening to young people is an essential activity for teachers and school leaders if they are to develop an education process that will meet the needs of every student.

In this Podcast Marc's views on learning and the opinions of the learners combine to give some valuable insights into how we need to rethink our learning spaces. The discussions also tell us that educators have a superb resource to draw on when thinking about the School of the Future - their students.

Call for Help from around the World!

2008-07-05T19:28:00.007+01:00

Most Blog posts do not get replies but in this case I would ask you to help me develop something that we can all then make use of. This blog has been about Learning Spaces and the sorts of learning experiences that I believe we should make available to 21st Century Learners.

There are a number of different spaces that we need. Spaces for thinking, for group work and for discussion etc and I am trying to collect together some ideas of what sorts of spaces they may be. Spaces for Working, for example, may be office based designs, library locations or virtual ones but what are the key characteristics of such spaces - what does the learner need to be able to do? What sorts of spaces do you have experience of that really work or what are the limitations of your current spaces that prevent them being really effective?

I have created a WIKI for collecting your suggestions or experiences and I would ask that you post them under the appropriate heading or even add another if I have missed some spaces. To go to the WIKI click the link below and for those of you who may not have used one simply

Add your ideas about - Spaces for Performance

Add your ideas about - Spaces for Physical Activity

Add your ideas about - Spaces for Social Interaction

Add your ideas about - Spaces for Thinking

Add your ideas about - Spaces for Working

Education kills creativity - discuss!

2008-06-30T20:38:00.010+01:00

Dr Ken Robinson is a leading force in the development of creativity and in this video he expounds on the issue of creativity and the education system and his view that the education system may well drive out the skills that we will come to depend on in the future. His wit and engaging approach is used with skill to draw you in while he weaves a compelling argument to challenge our current approach in formal education. He promotes his strongly held views that creativity needs to be nurtured and not undermined by the education system.

In a previous post on this blog I described the work of Daniel Pink and his arguments regarding the way our education system seems to give preference to developing left brain thinking! Dan Pink claimed that the more creative right sided thinking was being stifled in the traditional education system as it does not recognise, value or develop creativity. The argument is well known in education systems that seem to value measuring outcomes in terms of Maths and English SAT results or other forms of formal tests.

In the US, as in the UK, SATS scores and examination results are THE measure and all else seems to fade into insignificance. The name given to the US programme is 'No Child Left Behind', aiming to secure standards for all children by relentlessly focusing on standards of mathematics and literacy - many educators are concerned of what they claim is the bias toward SAT scores and not the equally important development of creativity. Maybe that is why some that I met in Boston in 2007 referred to this programme as 'No Child Left Alive'!

Comments from the Sharp End

2008-06-22T22:35:00.002+01:00

Dave Seddon is headteacher of Baxter College in the Kidderminster area of Worcestershire, UK. When he arrived at the school he faced a huge challenge with a school that was deemed to be failing, had falling student numbers and was in an ageing building that seemed well matched to the then aspiration of the school.

He has turned the school around in a remarkably short time and won the Public Servants of the Year Award in 2006 for his achievement. Dave has very strongly held views about the creation and sustainability of effective learning environments and he set these out in a Powerpoint presentation he made which is now posted on the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust website. The presentation makes clear Dave's' determination to make a difference to the lives of the young people in his care and shows just what an impact he and his new revitalised team has made.

The educational turnaround has been made of of many components, together combining to have a powerful effect on the school. Among the mix of issues was the nature of the building and his efforts to make changes to better reflect the atmosphere and culture to more closely fit with his own vision for the school.

I spoke to Dave about the work he has been doing and some of the challenges he faced and still faces and a podcast of part of our conversation is with this post.

Exploding some myths - Thomas Deacon Academy

2008-06-05T20:21:00.011+01:00

Thomas Deacon Academy in Peterborough UK was one of the buildings created to demonstrate an entirely new approach to the design of schools as part of the UK's Building Schools for the Future programme. The design, brainchild of the well known designer Norman Foster, is certainly nothing like any school I have been to before. The Foster and Partners business has been responsible for some of the most celebrated designs world wide.

The Academy is actually an amalgam of three previous schools to create a school of over 2000 students aged 11 to 18. I visited the school during a typical school day the fact that 2000 pupils were are work there was pretty difficult to believe as the place was not overcrowded, nor were corridors overflowing with the rush of bodies between lessons. First Myth exploded for me was that a school has to look like the schools we all attended.

As with any design there were issues that could have been addressed slightly differently e.g that classrooms were a little smaller than you night ideally want, but they were bright inviting places geared to focused work. Very few straight walls in the design which is often frowned on by teachers as not being suitable for standard classroom use - but these are not standard classrooms with fill glass walls on the interior making classroom activity visible to anyone passing. Two further myths exploded for me were that you have to have rectangular rooms and that working in classrooms that are open for all peer into.

Again this might put some people off claiming that students would be distracted by things going on outside the classroom. I was pretty impressed to see a group of students sitting chatting and laughing outside one of the classrooms sitting on a settee with students inside the room not taking a jot of notice - the novelty had obviously long worn off.

Another exploded myth is that they use thin client systems throughout the school, 1,100 terminals for a school population of 2,200 students! The technical team reported that they were reliable - suffered from some glitches as with any system and had been delivering everything that the students and teachers wanted. There are some fat clients for use with CAD/CAM or some other specific curriculum tasks but everything else is delivered through thin clients.

The concept of floors seems to vanish as although there are levels there are also structures that defy the normal idea of floors - the library is built above the dual lecture theatre but that is buried into the ground so the layout looks very different from what you would normally expect.

All in all the school opens a whole new set of ideas around the notion of what a school should look like - not surprisingly the students seem to love it.

The Library of the Future

2008-05-12T22:34:00.005+01:00

Libraries have been important places for the sharing of text based materials for centuries. There are many famous libraries across the world holding some of the most amazing resources. Trouble is that many of these resources were only available to researchers or academics until the arrival of digital technologies.

In schools the library has also seen changes with the arrival of digital resources with many more school libraries now equipped with computers so that users can carry out research using the web as well as other resources held by the library. In some schools this combination of technology and traditional printed material has been merged to create the Resource Centre or the Media Lab.

The change in use of school libraries has been interesting. Schools now tend not to spend money on expensive resources such as encyclopedia when they can access up to date and low cost resources that do the same job online. The non-fiction resource has become the internet which has allowed some schools to report that they have been able to expand their range of fiction materials and stimulate an increase in reading for pleasure.

So are libraries of the future only places where the balance between the non-fiction and fiction materials will shift further to become more and more digital? If this is the case why bother with a physical space? If it has social aspects (not something I tend to see in libraries) then is not the social networking provided by digital technologies far more powerful than could be achieved simply by meeting in a physical space called a library? Maybe libraries are gradually going to shrink to become the repository for the rare original artifact that you can go and visit....... We need to think more about the function and role of libraries in schools - what sots of things should be available in these places and just what will they mean to the generation that is growing up as avid web users and who often report that they feel agitated when not connected!

This video clip explores some interesting ideas about the potential of the lib. Interesting that the library of the future is a physical space and that there are actually books there - also interesting that it does not look like any library that I have visited..... yet!

Building Quality into School Design

2008-05-05T21:53:00.007+01:00

What do we mean by quality indicators when thinking about building a new school?

Do we ask about the quality of the school fabric? - what materials have been used etc or are we more concerned about the impact of the design on the people who work there? Designing a new school is fraught with difficulty - the people who work in our schools only encounter a few school buildings in their career and will not have considered or have been exposed to what might be possible. No wonder that they tend to design better versions of what they are used to. Learners are almost never consulted on what they would like to see in a school design and those that are often feel that their views are not really taken seriously. This is not true in all cases but I have come across very few examples of designs that have been influenced to any real degree by learners.

Very often when you ask what is required in a new school design teachers and other stakeholder don't really know or they simply point out the things that they don't like about their current school. This is hardly the basis for establishing the design for a school of the future.

BECTa, the UK government agency for ICT has come up with a novel way of stimulating discussion between students, teachers, governors and others about the role of ICT in a school of the future. BECTa developed a set of ICT Quality Indicators to complement the Design Quality Indicators (DQI's) that have been drawn up by the DCSF to encourage a better understanding of what we should strive for in the UK education system.

The statements in the ICT QI framework relate to one of three sections:

Impact: ICT can make a building a worthwhile place in which to work and learn. It can make an impact on learning and teaching.
Build Quality: ICT performance, scalability, environmental considerations, sustainability and adaptability.
Functionality: meeting the demands of any users and integrating different devices.

BECTa have developed an online tool called 'DesignMyICT' to help draw together the perspectives of various stakeholders and stimulate discussion about just what would need to be done so that a school could make the most of their available technology. The tool is free to use once you have registered and it is then possible to add stakeholders with differing perspectives, manage their interaction with the quality indicators and collect trends and accumulate profiles of opinion.

Design Ideas and Key Requirements

2008-02-25T23:05:00.006Z

There are loads of examples of innovative design on web site, in magazines and presentations - how did those come into being? In the majority of cases where good design can be identified the designers and architects have spent time working with the owners or users of a building to convert their vision into reality.

The fact that there are so many bad designs around would suggest that something has gone badly wrong in such cases. In the case of schools might this be because the users are used to their current buildings and can only envisage a better version or that the designers and architects are unable to convert the requirements into suitable designs? Not sure- but whatever the reason there is a desperate need to spend a long time thinking about alternatives and testing our existing thinking around school design before any real planning begins.

The fact that so many kids are not turned on to schools would suggest that what has become the 'standard' school designs are no longer fit for purpose. As an aid to thinking the issues through there is a useful resource at the School Design Research Studio by one Jeffery A. Lackney from the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has produced a paper entitled 33 Principles of Educational Design. The paper provides some real food for thought when considering the design of any new school.

If these principles should contribute to the creation of a vision for new accommodation or be a stimulus to thinking about what outcomes are required for any building programme then perhaps these slides illustrate the results of such thinking.

| View | Upload your own

The Power of Communities

2008-02-01T22:26:00.000Z

Students in the UK are tracked in their performance in English, Maths and Science from KS2 (age 11) through to KS4 (age 16).

The socio-ecomomic circumstances of each and every student is known based on a number of data indicators that provide an effectve tool to make accurate predictions of outcomes at KS4. This data is used by schools to target pupils whose prior attainment data indicates that they should be performing above their actual performance in an effort to ensure that they achieve their potential.

The graph above shows the outomes at the end of KS4 based on a large population of 14 to 19 year olds where it was possible to map individual data from KS2 to KS4 who were able to interact and collaborate online but where the degree of teacher interaction was very low. The graph shows the data divided into four quartiles based on their predicted outcomes and mapped to their level of activity online. The plot shows the difference in performance in the four quartiles for students who were active online and those that were not.

The outcomes are interesting as they indicate that for each group the students who were active online out-perform those that were not active. Further analysis also shows that these outcomes is nothing to do with the active uses being the more able students. Other analysis shows that the outcomes are not dependent on the level of teacher activity.

What would appear to be the case here is that allowing students to collaborate and communicate freely (subject to ensurance of adherance to an acceptable use policy) may well provide a dynamic that is difficult to create in any other way. The potential of online communities harnessed for the benefits of learning would seem to be of significant importance based on these findings.

While such analysis cannot demonstrate a causal relationship between online collaboration and outcomes it does show a strong correlation and one worthy of further investigation.

Do It Your Self School Design

2007-12-23T20:34:00.000Z

You don't need to leave it to expensive design companies to begin to visualise your school design ideas as now you can use Google Sketchup to explore the ideas for yourself - if you have the time that is!

With so many new school designs ending up with updated versions of what existed before maybe tools such as Sketchup provides an ideal opportunity for those involved to consider all sorts of alternative design ideas.

Google now hosts a School 2.0 Design collection of 3D models and there is an open invitation for designers to add their own designs. If this were to take off we could see a valuable resource of ideas to consider and modify to meet a range of different needs. The current set of 13 models have all been added by Fred Bartels whose other designs using Sketchup are fascinating to explore. The design he has come up with is wacky to say the least as the school is designed in the shape of a leaf. I would guess most architects would either throw their hands up in horror or rub them together thinking what they might charge for such a building. This said, the use of software like Sketchup makes it possible to explore ideas, discuss the use of space and how the association between different subjects may be incorporated into the designs.

The 13 models developed by Fred can be found a the The Google 3D Warehouse of School 2.0 Designs and the Sketchup software is free to download.

It would be good to think that students and their teachers might become involved in a dynamic dialogue about the school of the future - hopefully before the steamroller of a formal design activity involving the private sector begins.

Spaces for Teaching and Learning

2007-12-23T11:01:00.000Z

There are a number of fundamental questions that tax anyone trying to formulate the ideal learning space whether that be physical or virtual. The question takes us right back to fundamental issues around teaching and learning.

If we assume learning takes place all of the time and is as a result of learners of any age interacting with something, i.e. a book, a person, a web site etc then where does teaching come into play and where not? It is pretty evident that unmediated learning can be a risky thing e.g. do a search on Google for endangered Octopus (as you might doing research into endangered species) and you end up with a spoof site all about the North American Tree Octopus!

Put a large enough group of learners online and allow them to collaborate, challenge and correct each others understanding and you have a community dynamic where, for some learners, the interaction with more knowledgeable peers is actually more effective than the encounter with a teacher.

No doubt teachers are critical to the mediation role within the learning process and we often turn to teachers for specific training or the acquisition of knowledge but in the case of the standard classroom in schools the extent to which these hard pressed people can provide a personalised curriculum for all their students is a tall order.

What we would appear to need then is a mix of opportunities for learning. the teacher and the class, the collaborative community, the learning resources and the vision by leaders to recognise this mix and explore how best to establish the new ways of working that are required.

With the advent of learning platforms there is a risk that we will simply replicate the traditional classroom online without harnessing the potential of the collaborative extended community to best effect. We may concentrate on using such systems as they were originally designed to be used i.e as course delivery systems and yet we know that there is the potential for so much more. Comments from a researcher at Lancaster university suggested that schools may actually need more than one online learning environment as the key requirements for teaching and learning may actually be different.

Safe Spaces and Learning Places

2007-12-02T10:25:00.000Z

I have long thought that we need to develop a carefully crafted model for the learning environments of the future, particularly for students in the state school system attend compulsory education.

Research into the views of young people about their school experience reveal that many feel that it is not meeting all of their needs. If we are intent on delivering personalised learning then we need to listen to young people and build environments. Both physical and virtual, within which they can flourish.

Students also say that they want to be able to engage with other young people and in many cases the opportunities to do this are either difficult to arrange or are not sustained over long periods and are limited to specific projects.

The safe space of a learning platform or VLE, where learners are supported in their formal learning, combined with the more open global tools, where greater opportunities for social interaction become possible, must be our ultimate goal as educators. Our aim should be to ensure that we support learners effectively in their formal learning while allowing them to explore ideas and interests with each other. We also need to reach out to other learners world wide rather than requiring them to enter our closed managed online worlds which may well restrict the nature and extent of the discussion that can take place.

The diagram here shows how we could create much more stimulating online worlds. The use of RSS feeds are probably one of the most powerful ways of linking these external systems into the safer spaces without the need for complex API interfaces and authentication. Educators can ensure that their learners are aware of the risks associated with online system while harnessing them to serve the education process. A larger image is available here.

I would be interested to here how educators and/or learners use these different spaces and just what the impact of this approach might be.

21st Century Skills and Competencies

2007-11-25T10:01:00.000Z

The UK's Futurlab research team have come up with an analysis of what is needed to re-balance the UK schools curriculum into one which is better suited to the needs of the 21st Century and better meets the needs of young people. The report can be accessed here.

The fundamental questions the research explored were; What skills and competencies do young people need to service and flourish? and How do we prepare young people for life leisure and work today?

These questions are fundamental to creating a 21st Century curriculum that is fit for purpose for the future and the report recognises that the questions are being asked by almost anyone with an interest in education, As with almost any discussion about education and attempts to develop new structures and learning opportunities a significant concern that always creates tension is that of assessment. It states that it is this issue that creates the most polarised views. The tension between an "external/national" and a "personal/local" focus for assessment. Compliance with external measures are often placed as a higher priority and of greater importance than the more personal aspirations of young people who may wish to develop competencies and skills that are of more immediate importance to them. The tension is a real one as the national assessments are designed to provide young people with the evidence that can take them on to richer opportunities for learning and work while meeting the often more narrow personal need might limit opportunity in the future.

The report cites a number of projects that provide variations to the more traditional programme or that attempt to blend learning experiences to retain the motivation and engagement of young people but concludes that more research is needed before a way forward can be defined and agreed by all those involved - including the learners.

Quiet Learners and Online Spaces

2007-11-19T20:07:00.000Z

Users of online learning environments have often referred to students that take little part in online discussions or class online activity as 'Lurkers'.

This term is said by some to originate from work done by the Open University but probably was already in use in the early days of chat rooms. It refers to online users that will often read material posted by other students and teachers but who will not take part themselves.

Research undertaken by a Research Fellow at Lancaster University into learner dynamic in a local project would suggest that while lurkers may well exist collaborative communities can provide a real outlet for learners who regard themselves as 'shy or quiet' individuals and who you might expect to fall into the lurker category.

In the local research, which was focused on the 14 to 19 age group in a number of UK schools, it was found that the opportunities provided by online collaborative spaces is actually having an impact on these ‘quiet’ learners. The report stated that;

"There appears to be a particular emphasis of certain impacts on ‘quiet’ boys (even though there were fewer of these that self-reported as being ‘quiet’), but the impacts on both groups were potentially important. It should also be noted that ‘quiet’ is likely to encompass at least three different groups of learners: those who are naturally reticent in terms of offering their ideas in classrooms; those who find difficulty for emotional or social reasons with engaging in a classroom learning environment; and those who do not want to be seen by others as being engaged or interested in the topic or lesson."

(Report Soon to be made available online - this citation to be updated on publication)

Many learning environments that are solely concerned with course delivery or assessment may well be missing a trick as the true potential appears to come from extending the routes by which learners can engage with the learning process even where the actual engagement is more about meeting their personal needs or providing an outlet for social interaction.

If we are determined to provide learner access to online learning then it must go well beyond access to content, their coursework or communication between teachers and their class group. The greater the opportunity to collaborate and communicate the greater the opportunity for quiet learners to find their voice.

An Interview with Alan November

2007-11-02T08:17:00.000Z

Alan November is well known in countries around the world for his work on Information Literacy. His book 'Empowering Students with Technology' is an essential read for anyone trying to harness the use of the net to support learning.

Alan has also been in a position to visit a number of the most innovative schools in the US and elsewhere and in his usual candid way is well able to set out his opinions about everything from e-safety to school and curriculum design.

After the BLCO7 conference in Boston this year I asked Alan to take part in a discussion about the future of learning via Skype.

We discussed a number of issues as always Alan brings his experience to bear on the issues and provides insightful comments on the challenges that are ahead.

WebQuests Revisited

2007-11-01T20:13:00.000Z

WebQuest UK was produced by the Worcestershire Learning Technologies team in 2001 following a visit to Quebec in 2000 with a group of secondary teachers looking at the way in which ICT was being used for learning.

Among the 'gems' you find on such trips was WebQuests which had been developed by Bernie Dodge as San Diego State university as a means of harnessing the then emerging use of the net in classrooms throughout the USA. The concept was soon to go way beyond this initial aspiration to create a tool for higher order thinking that challenges learners to investigate an issue or area of learning by exploring the web. The Webquest format has not changed much in the various countries that now use them but sadly in the UK this approach to learning is still not extensively used.

As we move into the worlds of social networks and learning platforms or VLE's the need to provide new structures for learning materials and for scaffolding the learning experience become ever more important and that must be a key skill of the educator.

Creating young people with the skills they will need in the web wide world is a major challenge and WebQuests provide a model for allowing kids out onto the net (rather in closed spaces) but with the structure they need to make their research productive and efficient.

Bernie spoke to an interviewer on the US web station KidCast in June this year during which he considers the future of WebQuests. He evidently has the same enthusiasm for his creation as he did way back when WebQuests were first thought of.

Leading Academics discuss education

2007-10-17T20:10:00.000+01:00

Professors Graham Whitehead and Kevin Warwick came together to speak to around sixty teenagers at Worcester Rugby Club in the UK on various aspects of Information and Communications Technology.

Graham is a Futurologist who worked for British Telecom for over 34 years has extensive experience of digital and communication technology. He is a visiting professor to Salford University and a number of others and won the Queen's Award for Technology for the trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific submarine
cable system.

Kevin is Professor of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, England, where he carries out research in artificial intelligence, control, robotics and biomedical engineering. On Monday 24th August 1998, Professor Kevin Warwick underwent an operation to surgically implant a silicon chip transponder in his forearm to become the worlds first Cyborg. His research explores the possibilities arising from linking humans with machines. In more recent famous experiments he has controlled a robot hand direct from his nervous system and actually directly wired his nervous system to that of his partner just to see what that might feel like.

Both Kevin and Graham are passionate about what they do and are also passionate about education and how the current system limits or constrains the potential of young people. This podcast is a discussion between Graham, Kevin and myself about their views on education and how the system needs to change to ensure that young people can flourish.

Does Web 2.0 mean Learning 2.0?

2007-10-08T20:00:00.000+01:00

The development of tools for social interaction and which foster collaboration and membership of online communities has exploded in recent years. Myspace, Flickr, Bebo etc are all sites which draw people in, share their identities and interests and then share in all sorts of ways (some not quite legal).

There are tensions in the educational world regarding such technologies. Leading advocates like Steven Downes would claim that Web 2.0 will provide massive opportunities for learning but absolutely not in the traditional school or even a school at all. Others say it is the way forward and it has a significant contribution to make to, what you might call, more formal education.

The term Learning 2.0 was coined (I guess) by those advocates of Web 2 technologies to claim the educational ground and to promote their vision of the way the future of learning should go. Learning 2.0 is really what Wikipedia would refer to as e-learning 2.0 i.e. the second generation of e-learning tools based around collaborative tools such as wikis and blogs etc.

Most innovations in learning and which have an ICT component have come and gone - remember the CD ROM? We have been through a whole raft of software and hardware systems which we have put into schools. In most cases the ones that stick are those that seem best to fit the traditional mode of teaching and learning e.g. Learning Platforms as course delivery systems or whiteboards which look a lot more interesting that black ones but still hang on a wall at one end of a room and have everyone looking at it!

The same fate may lie in wait for Web 2.0 and e-learning 2.0 if we try to fit it into the standard school setting other than to be used by a few interested people with a passion for exploring at the edges of what we still refer to as schooling.

Alan November was asked a question about the relationship between web 2 and learning 2 at a recent conference - although the audio is poor his comments are pretty realistic.

A Sense of Community - Real or Virtual?

2007-10-06T12:12:00.000+01:00

What constitutes a community? Are online communities real communities? Are online communities important for education?

Users of YouTube think they are a community........

Research about communities is extensive - do a search on Google Scholar and you get 9 million hits, try Learning Community and you get 1.8 million with the top hits leading to some of the leading thinkers in this area. From my reading around this I was attracted to the definitions of 'community' presented by Kowch and Schwier (1997) where they describe four different types of community, each with distinguishing features and which meet the needs of different groups of participant. Reil and Polin (2004) explore the notion of online communities and identify three different types. Task based communities tend to be where groups of people are working on a common task or problem. Practice based communities often share goals or expertise and knowledge based communities are often people who come together with diverse expertise and can establish new areas of knowledge.

This all sounds grand but I wonder just how the notion of community sits within our education system. We don't assess group contribution or how well students share expertise or work together to create new knowledge - at least that is the case in many school I visit. We only seem interested in assessing the individual or what contribution they make to the 'community' (usually through social good works). Seems to me that we have much to do to explore online educational communities and harness them for learning.

The question remains - is the YouTube Community a real community?

UK National Curriculum - is it 21 Century proof?

2007-10-02T23:13:00.000+01:00

The UK National Curriculum has changed a number of times since its development in 1998. It was an attempt to ensure that there was an entitlement to learning for all pupils in UK schools and to ensure that the state could test children to see just what they had learnt.

The NC was criticised on a number of fronts but in particular that the extent of its content restricted flexibility and prevented innovation. This may or may not have been true but it is clear that the curriculum content contained within the NC did need to shrink to allow greater curriculum flexibility and to allow greater personalisation. The new curriculum seeks to achieve three key outcomes:

successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve
confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives
responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society.

Some of the language does reflect the nature of learning in the 21st Century but time will tell whether it actually is fit for purpose and will meet the needs of youngsters in UK schools. The new curriculum does offer much greater opportunities for flexibility and while there are statutory tests at the end of KS2 (11 year olds), KS3 (14 year olds) and KS4 (16 year olds) the way in which the statutory curriculum is delivered can vary from the very formal to an almost total project based model. The joint NCSL (National College for School Leadership) and QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority) project 'Developing a 21st century curriculum' explored some of the ways in which the curriculum could be developed demonstrating that creative educators can innovative while still delivering to national standards.

The ICT curriculum aims to secure Capability, make effective use of communication and collaboration, explore ideas and manipulate information, explore the impact of technology and develop critical evaluation. One would hope that these skills and aptitudes are also developed and utilised throughout the curriculum as in an ideal world we would not need an ICT subject as such but would develop the competencies through everything learners and teachers do.

Key factors in the design of 21 Century Learning

2007-09-30T13:38:00.000+01:00

In the UK some local authorities are working flat out to come up with designs for schools that will stand the test of time for the next thirty years. The UK government's Building Schools for the Future programme set out in 2003 with the grand vision to replace the secondary school stock throughout England over a fifteen year period.

Similar programmes are underway in other countries. Ask different people what the key characteristics of such schools will be and there are as many views as there are learners that will attend these schools.

It is clear that a single characteristic or feature is unlikely to dominate but there might well be a small number of vital ones - use the poll below to choose the three that appear to be the most important to you.

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Curriculum 2.0 - the challenge for the future

2007-09-27T15:38:00.000+01:00

What society wants from the education system is changing all the time although for many it still appears to provide more or less the same diet as we have seen for the past hundred years or so.

We are in a connected world and there are resources for learning in all sorts of formats along with the opportunity to communicate and collaborate with individuals and groups from around the world. Never before has there been something that had such an impact on the education process as has the advance in technology and the internet. We need to think carefully about how the use of technology will affect the design and delivery of the curriculum in our schools.

The question is how much will the curriculum be allowed to change? How much can we accommodate these new ways or working and how ready are our pedagogues to accomodate the use of technology to allow the changes to take root?

Some would suggest that nothing much will change. The subjects we are used to have been around for ages. Others argue that young people now have more choice than they have ever had and that the social networks and other communities online will be the future for formal education.

Most probably we will end up somewhere between the two extremes. We will probably have schools for a long time to come, they will have teachers (but perhaps fewer specialists), we will have more adults working with kids (teaching assistants and mentors from outside the school etc), we will have online spaces (but these may be simply extensions of a particular classroom and not dynamic communities). We are already seeing a mix of provision with some internships or work placements as part of the learner's programme and we are seeing ideas for building the curriculum to deliver the standards that seem to be a political imperative and yet have been formed into a more project based structures.

The nature of educational change is that it is normally a slow process. That said the rapid development of alternatives as technological provides interesting and attractive alternatives will result in huge pressure to speed the change process. We await with interest the results.

How do I Learn - Learning styles or preferences?

2007-09-21T23:42:00.001+01:00

Tailoring the education system to individuals does tend to make us think about learning styles even though there are huge arguments about just what these are, how they can be assessed and what the outcome of assessment can be used for to shape the learning experience in our schools.

Personality profiling is also thought by some to be the key to understanding individual needs or to help individuals understand more about the way they learn.

There are a number of profiling tools that have been developed for exploring the various characteristics of individuals and how these may inform the sort of learning experience they need. The debate will go on about their value and use in terms of the learning process. What is clear is that their use does raise the profile of the different ways people interact or will respond to differing learning situations. They are useful to the teacher in that they help to build a profile of the learner and flag up difference that need to be catered for. They are useful to the learner in that they encourage learners to reflect on the way in which they go about learning.

Among the raft of online assessments are YourPreferences, which is based on the work of Carl Jung on Personality profiling, VARK, which has been developed by Neil Fleming and is about the way individuals like to access information and finally the ubiquitous Multiple intelligences theory developed by Howard Gardener. You can try these tools out and see what it tells you about yourself or your students.

Personalised Curriculum - models for delivery

2007-09-19T23:20:00.000+01:00

Establishing a vision for the school of the future is challenging educators around the world. The critical mix of curriculum, technology and accommodation supported by various knowledgeable adults is stretching the minds of educators, architects and designers and governments around the world appear to be searching for the elusive mix.

Maybe there isn't a mix as such and different 'mixes' will be needed for different types of learners - true personalisation.

The Big Picture Company is an organisation aiming to fundamentally change the nature of learning. The Met School (mentioned elsewhere in this blog) is a Big Picture school and has got about as close as you can get to a personalised curriculum. The adage 'One Student at a Time' is taken very very seriously.

The photograph below shows the timetable - not a list of subject sessions one after the other but a series of advisory sessions to support learners with their personalised programmes. Subject knowledge does feature in the study programmes but they are shaped to apply to the particular requirements. Where a number of students are following programmes that require the same knowledge base then they are taught as a group.

Self study is a key component as is reporting their progress to their peers and adult observers in the advisory sessions. These presentations, far from being easy, are demanding and do put the student under pressure.

The MET is one of the Big Picture Company schools and they have achieved retention rates that are the envy of the state. The students I met were self confident, articulate and had a world view that was very impressive. If this is personalised learning then the Big Picture Schools have the sort of ideas and experience that it would be worth any budding 21st Century schools to hear about.

YouTube for Documents - Scribd

2007-09-16T09:39:00.000+01:00

The description of Scribd as the YouTube for documents is about right. Many of us will be used to sites such as FanFiction but Scribd aims to create the world's largest open library of documents.

It was launched in 2006 and now has around 140,000 documents in its database. A browse of the groups contained within Scribd shows the extent of the collections with some very interesting vintage print adverts, material on Wen 2.0 and even some open text books. Trouble is that, as you might guess the adult section contains the most resources , some 17,000 making it a difficult resource to see used in schools.

Scribd has some materials from NASA and from Project Guttenburg plus a number of books that are still covered by copyright so its not exactly an example of acceptable practive when trying to convey to young people the need to respect the ownership of written work.

Perhaps the idea is a good one but it is not something that I could see being used in classrooms.

Where do Students Obtain their Support for Coursework?

2007-09-13T23:33:00.000+01:00

Ask a student where they get most of the support for their school coursework and you might expect them to say their teachers.

489 students responded to a poll in our online learner community and they produced some interesting results.

Q. Where do you get most of your information to support your coursework?

School Intranet 1.23% (6 votes)
The Internet (Via Google etc) 51.12% (250 votes)
Teachers during lessons 37.83% (185 votes)
Online Learning Space 2.86% (14 votes)
Other Students 6.95% (34 votes)
Total number of votes: 489

The results pose some interesting questions. Should we be pleased that so many are using the web or should we be concerned that so many are turning to the web rather than their teachers? There are a number of possible reactions to this sort of information. Firstly are we actually preparing learners for the effective use of the web or do they simply decide that they can find most things they need from this source?

How many courses in schools actually teach the efficient use of the web and effective searching and citation. Many teachers say that a large number of students tend to produce the same sort of information when using the web for coursework and in some cases the teachers can actually tell which web sites students have used. Is this a good or bad thing? Are there skills that learners need to be taught and are our teachers knowledgable to teach those skills?

Loads of questions but very few answers. We are only beginning to unpick the implications of all this for education and the approriate curriculum for the 21 century learner - interesting to speculate where it is all going.

Rethinking Learning Spaces - Head teachers perspectives

2007-09-11T08:15:00.000+01:00

Schools have not changed much in their appearance for a hundred years or more.

The Futurlab publication 'Re thinking learning spaces' provides a useful tool to explore the issues surrounding changing the nature of the formal school experience in terms of the accommodation needed along with the training of staff and the structure of the curriculum.

I have used the materials in a number of situations to engender a debate about creating fit for purpose in the 21st Century. The sessions have ranged from groups of headteachers through to newly qualified teachers and they each bring a new perspective in the issues surrounding school design.

More work needs to be done and the next group will involve learners - a critical perspective in any rethinking of formal schooling. The issues faced by headteachers are many and varied but key in UK schools, and I guess all other schools world wide, is to ensure that the standards are maintained against whatever measures exist in the particular country or state. At the same time everyone recognises that the needs of young people are changing and that traditional curriculum may not fit the bill.

In my work with headteachers they were asked to work in groups to discuss a series of What if.... statements such as; What if school was optional or What if classrooms had more adults present. They were asked to indicate which of these were achievable with little or no change to accommodation, training or curriculum, which required changes to one or more and which they felt had little to do with the formal school system.

The results (results in SVG format and as pdf file) were very interesting and demonstrated that much can be achieved if only there is the will to do it - one of the most critical issues is staff development as much of what is desired depends on changing the ways we work. The comments arising from discussions were also collated and summerised.

Interesting that in some other research that has been done the amounts of funding allocated to training staff are a tiny percentage of the overall budgets in the majority of schools!

There must be more to life than Google!

2007-09-09T20:32:00.000+01:00

Google may be the search engine of choice even though Google track your moves, your interest and even may well manipulate what you access - after all it is a commercial service.

One thing that Google does not do is allow you to visualise the web, your searches or, as far as I know, use other inputs than text.

Kids tend to use Google as a first choice for any information and yet there are other search engines out there that are providing some interesting alternatives.

Retrivr is a search engine looks for graphics that contain structures that you create on a small graphics area to the left of the screen. Input a simple shape in a particular colour and the search will return images from Flickr that have similar colours and shapes - useful for stimulating composition ideas. One to watch for future developments.

LivePlasma does a similar thing for music and film (or nearly) enter an artists name or the name of an actor and a set of dynamic links appear mapping out the interconnections between the searched for artist.

A number of search engines convert their results into a dynamic map of linked keywords. Quintura provides a map and the search results side by side. One I particularly like actually gives you rewards and more functions the better use you make of the search engine. Ujiko rewards your searching with points. With every 10 points, you move to the next level. They say that 'Your search engine is mutating, new buttons appear giving you access to advanced features (search video, images, news, encyclopedia, advanced filters, animated skins, web archive, traffic details...)'

Grokker provides yet another view of the web, again using a map of sites to zoom into or switch to a list view. Grokker also allows you to export your searches or share them with friends. Kartoo also provides a map of linked sites with its own characteristic way of showing linkages.

Perhaps encouraging learners to use alternative search strategies and engines they will acquire more general 21st century skills rather than simply trusting everything to Google.

Left and Right Brain? - A myth or reality

2007-09-02T11:12:00.000+01:00

Daniel Pink's book makes claims about right and left hemispheres of the brain that are challenged by scientists doing the fundamental research about brain function. In his book 'The Brain's Behind It', Alistair Smith refers to a number of myths and fallacies that are often claimed about the brain and learning. He claims that one fallacy is the statement that the left brain is logical and the right brain creative! His book seeks to bring to the fore the most recent research knowledge about the brain and learning and weaves its way though the complexity of the findings.

This would seem to undermine Dan Pink's analysis of the changing nature of the aptitudes we need to develop as an improvement or promotion of more right brain thinking. To be fair Dan Pink does make it clear that both hemispheres of the brain as still important and the aptitudes associated with the left hemisphere are still vitally important, just that we need to recognise the importance of those attributes that are often cited as right brain ones.

Alistair Smith does confirm that the left and right hemispheres contain areas which perform specific functions and they differ in the way they process information, For example, the right deals with more global 'big picture' interpretations while the left deals with more local (detailed) ones. Alistair uses this example to demonstrate that the two work in concert and produce an integrated information processing system with each half making its contribution to the overall interpretation of a particular experience.

Dan Pink's arguments can be presented without the left/ right brain issue getting in the way as what he is pointing out is a need for particular competencies requiring more attention. Certainly there is a shift toward curriculum models that provide for a wider range of assessment types than we have been used to through SAT's so the debate. Alistair points out that educators and scientists are asking different questions. Therefore it seems sensible to assume that any curriculum that is developed or teaching approach that is adopted can only really be informed by drawing on the analysis and research undertaken by both to inform future approaches.

The New Literacy - 21st Century skill

2007-09-02T11:02:00.000+01:00

Many educators are concerned about the way in which students seem to accept the results thrown up by Google as the ultimate truth and there are major efforts in the UK to raise the level of web literacy for students and educators alike.

Understanding what you are looking at, knowing its origin and whether the content is valid is a 21st century skill for learners of any age. We have never been in the quite the position of having to validate the sources of information they way we do now.

Many of us are used to paper based publications which have ISBN numbers, known publishers and which are subject to peer review or scrutiny by peers prior to piublication and we are often told something about the author. This is not the case for the web and search engines like Google. A colleague of mine created a situation in a school which was filmed for Teacher's TV - a UK service sharing practice and ideas within the teaching profession.

This film says it all. If the film does not run or you have difficulties you can access it here.

There are a number of Information Literacy resources available on the web and it is vital that we make kids safe, not by blocking access to things or preventing them using the web, but by providing them with the information literacy skills that they will need for the future.

A Whole New Mind - Left or Right?

2007-08-25T09:52:00.000+01:00

Dan Pink's book is referred to as 'a seminal' work by a number of critics. For me is was really encouraging to find that there are those that not only think the way Dan does but also are able to put it so well into words.

The book seeks to explore the notion that the left dominant thinking that has taken the west through the industrial and information age are now found wanting. He shares his thoughts with the reader and challenges our thinking not only with evidence but with actual things to do!

Dan suggests that "left brain" dominance is giving way to a new world in which "right brain" qualities -inventiveness, empathy, and meaning will predominate. He also argues that we in the west need to be prepared for this change as the impact of automation, outsourcing and abundance mean that western rich nations will need to be much more creative to maintain their position in the world. He identifies six important aptitudes which he feels we need to develop further and these form the framework for successful and fulfilling lives.

The implications of all this spill over into the education system, dominated as it is by "left brain" assessment. Educators are struggling with this issue but against a sea of targets, SAT's and other left brain measures of our children. The thinking in the book will resonate with many educators.

Alan November captured discussions with Dan Pink were he expands on his thinking as it relates to schools, their design and the education system. Alan's discussions are part of the November Learning Podcast series and are available by subscribing through iTunes.

Opening Minds - UK exploration of the 21st Century Curriculum

2007-08-22T22:44:00.000+01:00

Curriculum change is something that education has been dealing with for hundreds of years and the history of education is littered with theories, ideas, claims and even legislation.

Talking to educators during a recent visit to the USA and discussing the failure of the UK education system to remain meaningful to a growing number of learners would suggest that change is in the air across the western world. What was regarded as the skills and aptitudes needed for the industrial age and more recently the information age seem to be under detailed scrutiny in a number of countries.

In the UK the debate has been accelerating in pace for some time, with efforts to develop a more personalised approach to learning and the consequences that result from tailoring the curriculum to more individual need.

The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce) Opening Minds initiative set out to encourage the introduction of systemic change within the UK national curriculum and proposed a new competence-based curriculum. It seeks to re balance the information based national curriculum and draw in those competencies that are necessary for the 21st Century. The competencies are:

Competences for Learning
Competences for Citizenship
Competences for Relating to People
Competences for Managing Situations
Competences for Managing Information

The initiative is being taken up by a growing number of schools in the UK - keeping one eye on the pressure on them to maintain their examination status in league tables but recognising the need for changes which meet the needs of the learners in their care.

In July 2007 the national awarding body QCA made the announced of changes to the formal secondary curriculum to reduce the prescription that existed previously to allow teachers and schools the freedom to innovate. Opening Minds, changes to the statutory curriculum and other programmes for curriculum innovation are clear indicators that we are in a continually changing curriculum landscape - exciting times.

Learner Expectations and Learning Spaces

2007-08-19T10:47:00.000+01:00

This e-book explores Learning Spaces from the perspective of effective learning and how learner expectations may influence their development.

It also covers the roll of learning technologies in bringing together different groups of people and specialisms all of whom can impact on the learner and the learning that takes place. While the e-book looks at learning spaces other than Primary and high schools a lot of the basic ideas apply and the discussion surrounding the desire to create more flexible spaces, both the physical and virtual ones, is of real value.

There is useful debate about formal and informal physical spaces and the importance of striking the correct balance to create the 'correct' environments for learning. The book opens up the debate about the role of technology as part of the mix and suggests that while learners are have more access to technology and they are comfortable using it many are still not proficient. This presents real issues for those schools and other educational organisations that see e-learning as a key component of personalisation.

The many VLE type products out there may provide alternative routes but the assumption that students can use them straight off and value the experience is open to question. The book also explores the issues surrounding the notion of community and identifies some of the ways in which a well designed virtual learning space can contribute to the development of an effective learning environment. The full e-book (173kb) can be accessed on the main site which also contains a number of case studies and the book broken down by chapters.

Thinking Together - Mindmaps and Brainstorms

2007-08-18T08:47:00.000+01:00

Tony Buzan is probably one of the best known proponents of Mind mapping as a means to aid thinking by using a diagram to represent words and ideas.

The development of computers allowed the Mind mapping idea to become extremely flexible and Tony Buzan developed his own software to allow maps to be created and stored.

Now the web host a number of mapping tools that not only allow you to create and even illustrate mind maps but to share them with a wider community of users . Most of the online mind mapping tools are free to use but additional features can be accessed at an additional cost.

Probably one of the best around is MindMeister which is simple to use and has a large number of maps created by other users to browse. Another is Mindomo, which also has a library of maps to access but is a little more powerful. Yet another is Bubble.us with similar features but has a relatively limited tool set.

If thinking is a human trait, and we often think through things with other people, then using this sort of online tool provides new opportunities.

ThinkQuest - Podcast with Lee Stone

2007-08-15T14:54:00.000+01:00

Until 2006 the UK never had an entry into the International ThinkQuest Competition. Thinkquest is a competition but one that is almost unique in the world. Students are asked to create web sites covering topics that interest them.

They work in teams, sometimes from across the world and collaborate to create these sites drawing on any expertise they can locate. The sites are totally student created with an adult to act as mentor or guide.

I promoted ThinkQuest to an online community within an e-learning project known as the Virtual Workspace not knowing how students would react. Two teams appeared out of the ether with students drawing in potential team members from within the 18 thousand or so learners within the community. Lee's team had a number of challenges to overcome in the six month journey for the project. They completed the work and ended up publishing a site on Nanotechnology which is now in the competition library. The team that put the project together were from totally different schools. They never met until they went on a trip to London paid for by Oracle, sponsors of the ThinkQuest competition.

On the coach journey back they began planning their 2007 entry which won the 14 to 19 category in the UK version of the ThinkQuest competition having chosen the topic - Water.

The potential of online communities and that of project based learning really came home to me as a result of this work but don't listen to me listen to Lee on the ThinkQuest Podcast.

Learner's Charter - aspiring to personalisation

2007-08-13T23:50:00.000+01:00

Futurelab's Learners Charter is contained within the report on 'Personalisation and digital technologies' published in 2005. It sets out an asiration for creating a personalised learning environment.

Although contained within a report on digital technolgies the charter does not mention technology specifically but describes what a learner should expect from the education system that is fit for purpose in the 21st Century.

I have been promoting the charter within my local area and the feedback from schools and others involved in education would suggest that it does encapsulate what we are striving to achieve.

The full report is available on the Futurelab web site and the Charter as a PDF file is available here.

Bob Pearlman - BLC07

2007-08-13T09:50:00.000+01:00

I attended a workshop run by Bob Pearlman at the BLC07 Conference in Boston during July and what he had to say still resonates with me weeks later as I write this entry.

Bob posed two questions for the session:

What kind of learning and teaching is appropriate for students of the 21st Century?

What kind of learning environments and facilities will support and enhance the education of today’s and tomorrow’s students?

Bob is clear on the key requirements of a 21st Century curriclum and describes the characteristics of such a curriculum in numerous publications - the most useful for me was the one entitled 'Educational Leadership' on the ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) website. ASCD is a community from across the world exploring all aspects of the education process. Bob's article can be found here.

Much of what he says is familiar to educators in the UK as we attempt to define personalised learning but in Bob's case he has practical experience of schools where this has been done. His presentation from the BLC07 conference can be found here.

Bob emailed me on 13th August 07 to discuss some aspects of design and provided an additional useful input to the discussion which is an interview he did and which is posted on the DesignShare web site. It provides a very useful context for discussions with designers and others on thinking through what school design needs to achieve.

Sorrel Foundation - Joined up design for schools

2007-08-10T10:34:00.000+01:00

Joinedupdesignforschools

This book, produced as the result of a series of projects run with young people in 60 schools, is a really fascinating journey through a design process.

Youngsters working with designers and as designers were able to influence the designs of everything from the appearance of learning spaces to the design of school uniforms.

The experience (thats what the book feels like) of accompanying their journey makes great reading and is great for anyone who wants to rethink the spaces we teach our kids in.

The Sorrel Foundation Site
http://www.thesorrellfoundation.com/v&a.html

The Innovations Unit - useful additional information
http://www.innovation-unit.co.uk/projects/third-party-projects/joinedupdesignforschools.html

The V&A Web Report
http://www.vam.ac.uk/school_stdnts/schools_teach/programmes/previous_events/joinedup/index.html

School design to help kids interact

2007-07-31T23:37:00.000+01:00

Article in the above e-paper

By KENDRA LUECKERT
July 27, 2007 2:00 a.m. CST
Columbia- Columbia Public Schools’ newest elementary school will likely have classrooms clustered in pods off the center of the building. The concept is meant to foster more collaboration and interaction between students and teachers of the same grade level.

“I love the idea of pods,” said Eric Wilson, a parent and member of the elementary construction steering committee. “As I think about my children, they learn in a more interactive environment, and that’s just wonderful.” Wilson was among those who visited two Kansas City-area elementary schools last Friday. One of those schools uses the pod concept.

Among the committee’s design ideas were:

• The incorporation of “Discovery Areas” in the center of each five-classroom pod. These areas could be used for project-based activities.
• A slanted roof that would blend in with the surrounding neighborhoods.
• Separate driveways for buses and cars, with each drop-off point leading into the same lobby area.
• The gymnasium, cafeteria and media center should be large enough that the community can use the areas as well.
• An abundance of natural light and bright colors.
“I think (bright color) just helps stimulate learning, and it’ll bring a lot of life to the environment, making learning more enjoyable for children,” Elaine Hassemer, principal of Paxton Keeley Elementary School, said after the meeting.

Jack Jensen, assistant superintendent of elementary education, said although the district has historically modeled new schools off the school last built — in this case, Paxton Keeley — the new school will be an original design.

This article reminds me of the Pods idea given as a design idea in the UK Futurelab publication 'Re-thinking Learning Spaces' published in late 2006.

Designing Virtual Communities for Learning

2007-07-30T22:50:00.000+01:00

This book was a real eye opener. Thorough in its analysis of the various characteristics of a learning community it goes on to explore the various elements drawing on expertise from across the USA and from Canada and the UK.

Written from a distinctly academic perspective the book is still a very good read and the various authors bring their own perspective which help to build a very clear model for online learning.

While a number of the examples are drawn from specific projects they seem to link together well to describe the e-learning landscape as we now know it. One of the reassuring things about reading was the number of times I recognised the particular activity or behaviours and felt that it was almost mapping out my own experiences.

One thing in particular was the reference to ThinkQuest which we have been promoting in my area for years only to secure a submission in 2006 as a result of collaboration between students online.

Mabry Middle School

2007-07-29T08:30:00.000+01:00

The story of Mabry Middle school and Dr Tim Tyson is a fascinating one. He spoke at the recent PLC07 conference in Boston MA and showed some of the short films his students made.

Pupils were invited to make films when Dr Tyson saw just how powerful the use of new technology was in egaging young minds. He expected a few pupils to turn up to his first invitation but the room was filled by a much larger number of potential film makers.

The Maybry Film Festival is now an annual event and the films are quite amazing, limited to two minutes, the students have to focus on the message and the audience. They have to research and plan, master the digital media they are working with and work in teams. The results are truely amazing.

The idea is simple but the power of this as a learning experience is obvious.

The films for this year can be seen on the Mabry site here. Or click the picture to see the winning films.

BLC07 - Alan November Boston USA

2007-07-21T15:06:00.000+01:00

The Building Learning Communities conference run by Alan November and the November Learning Team was my educational highlight of the year (probably the last few years).

Alan brought together a number of the best thinkers from around the world to share their thoughts with us on issues ranging from student voice, through school design to the best uses of educational technology.

It is the only conference I can remember were I actually cried twice (that is quite something for a bloke to admit but its true) The first tear jerker was the speech given by Tim Tyson from Maybry Middle school and the second was a session run by three students working with Marco Torres. These sessions changed my thinking and made me realise we still have a huge challenge ahead of us regarding the effectiveness of our education system and how best to make it relevent for all young people.

The conference was aso unusual in that there was a real sense of community - a clear sense of oneness with no boundaries between presentors and delegates. There are loads of photos of friends at BLC07 on Flickr (the one here was uploaded to Flickrby Edublogger on 19 Jul 07, 5.47AM PDT. edu.blogs.com/edublogs/blc07/index.html).

There is lots of information, presentations and podcasts avaiable on Alan's site.

Imagine, Program, Share - Scratch from MIT

2007-07-21T09:06:00.000+01:00

Scratch could be regarded as an interesting extension and development of Logo, the programming language developed at MIT by Seymour Papert. The Scratch language feels really familair to those that remember or still use logo but with really interesting additions.

You can create animated sequences and then post them to the Scratch online community to be dowloaded, modified and republished. I managed to produce a rather feeble attempt can be found here.

Since the launch of the Scratch online community in May 07 over 18000 animations have been posted to the scratch web site.

It is free and can be downloaded here.

Alan November interviewed Mitch Resnick from the MIT Media Lab for the BLC07 conference in Boston in July 07 and the interview here is from Alan's website.

Papert Best WIshes

2007-07-19T23:40:00.000+01:00

Papert Best Wishes
Originally uploaded by daveworcs

Seymour Papert, developer of the Logo programming language, was hit by a motorcycle in Hanoi close to the hotel he was staying in.

The accident left Semour critically ill and he was tranferred to a hospital in Maine, USA. This image was taken at the MIT Media Lab during a visit during the BLC07 Conference last month.

The poster says 'Get Well Seymour' and the coloured stickers are names of individual colleagues at the Media Lab.

What if....Rethinking Learning Spaces

2007-07-19T09:57:00.000+01:00

This 'booklet' provides a number of tools to challenge current thinking about education and the locations where learning takes place.

Written as a series of scenarios ie what if statements, it explores a number of issues such as what sort of education system we need for the 21st Century, how does technology contribute to the personalisation of learning and what alternatives are there to the traditional school design that would create the learning spaces of the future.

The booklet was used with a number of new headteachers in Worcestershire to help shape some visions for the future and the results were factinating.

The activity and the results can be found at the site below.

http://www.content.networcs.net/wyreforest/default.htm

Met Photos

2007-07-17T23:01:00.000+01:00

Sequence of images from The Met School in Providence, Rhode Island, USA

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Interesting School

2007-07-17T22:18:00.000+01:00

The MET School Providence, Rhode Island USA

The Met School is a very different school from those that many of us are used to. It began its work in 1996 as a new school aiming for a teacher pupil ratio of around 1 to 1. It aims to provide a very personalised curriculum with each student having an individual learning plan built as a result of detailed discussions between students and building learning programmes based on the interests of the students themselves. The school set out from the outset to create an environment which was based on small groupings of students where they are well known and their learning needs understood. The school currently has 750 students but these are distributed between three different school buildings each with its own principal and with learners between 14 and 18 years of age. The idea of the three building model being to create smaller schools within the overall campus. The school curriculum sets out to build the individual learning plan by discussing with students their needs and developing a work plan which the students put together themselves. Each student works with a member of the MET staff to plan and construct their learning plan and that person is responsible for making sure that the students get the support they need so that they can follow their individual programme. The key role of the advisor is not to teach the students (although they may actually do some teaching on specific subjects for those students that have certain requirements. Other teachers or experts are brought in to the school as required and the MET has links with specialists in various companies, colleges and the local University. The MET does not deliver set lessons on Maths or English etc, in fact there are not 'subjects' as such but does have five learning goals it uses as the basis for the curriculum.

These are:

Quantitative Reasoning - How do I work things out? measuring and mathematics skills
Social Reasoning - the views of others and how to work within teams. Examples from History.
Empirical reasoning - How do I prove something? Analytical processes and scientific method
Communications - How do I take in and express information? Literacy and languages, public speaking and information technology.
Personal Qualities - What do I bring to this process? Time management, academic enquiry and empathy.

Each learning plan is constructed around these requirements linked to the specific interests of the student. As an example someone interested in music will develop a programme around their specific interests eg performance - aspects of mathematics, english and other subject elements will then be planned into the learning plan and then the students will agree the work they will do through a series of project proposals containing the detail of the programme based on the research they have done. The result is a learning programme which interests the students and yet meets the requirements of the school and those of the local US state. Our Form Periods in the UK are called an Advisory at the MET. It is the 'home-base' for groups of fifteen students lead by the adviser, who guides each student's learning throughout the four years of high school. Students at the school said that this meant that over the four years they got to know each other very well and as a result they develop a strong set of relationships and work as a team. Staff and students are all on first name terms and as far as the students all of the adults int he school are a resource to help them with their learning, including the office staff, cleaners, mentors. Other students are also regarded as an important source o support. Each student is assessed through a process known as Exhibitions. This is a process where students are required to present their learning to other students, their adviser and other advisory staff within the school. Each Exhibition is a one hour presentation by the student of their work and the process that have undertaken to complete it. The students said this was really challenging as other students knew when they were not performing as they should and this often resulted in additional work being done to ensure that they caught up with what was required. All of the students we met said that they really felt that they were understood by their advisors and that they were part of a team. They loved going to the school and that the work they did was the best they could produce - not only because the school demanded it but they were working on what they were interested in and what would be of use to them in the future. Further information about The MET School can be found here. Particularly interesting information about The MET can be found under 'The Education' heading as that explains the way in which the school sets out to support their students.

School Designed for Learning

2007-07-10T23:08:00.000+01:00

An interesting video with the sorts of views expressed by students we would all like to hear. Some say the curriculum is rather traditional.

Youtube movie

Drawing Together - Digrams on the Web

2007-07-10T13:41:00.000+01:00

Gliffy is an online tool for creating drawings. You can then invite others to work with you on deisgns.

The online application is free to use for a limited number of diagrams but for most casual users this would be ok.

There are a number of different shape libraries including flowchart sybmols, room layouts and computer interface design. Users can make their own as well.

Once created the drawing can be shared with other collaborators or published to a Blog or Web site using a simple script. Fles can also be saved for off line use as jpg, svg or png files.

Access Gliffy at http://www.gliffy.com/