Webucation

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.

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.

Addition: Dave Seddon was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) by the Queen in her 2013 Birthday Honours list for services to Education.

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.

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.

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.

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.