2.9.09

PLTS and Learning Platforms

Still searching for ways of measuring the impact on teaching and learning of using learning platforms. Our team has recently started to explore PLTS as a framework. It has 6 strands:

  • independent enquirers

  • creative thinkers

  • reflective learners

  • team workers

  • self-managers

  • effective participants

Some of these seem to naturally lend themselves toward a learning platform context. For example, team work becomes a broader and richer experience when it can mean working in teams across year groups in a school, across schools and even across the world. But these skills are very context dependant and assessing them appears to be notoriously difficult.

So our current thinking is that it can work two ways;

1. Learning platforms can be used (and we are working on good ways to this) to track changes in the PLTS of pupils, groups, classes, even of tasks themselves.

2. Changes in PLTS for learners can be used as indicators of the impact of a Learning Platform, if the necessary controls are in place (Baseline assessments, consistent monitoring etc)

What we do know definitely is that schools and teachers are looking for hard evidence of the improvements to learning that they can expect from their investment in learning platforms.

1.7.09

Reflections on Digital Literacy

Having just read an interesting book about using Web 2.0 in the classroom called 'Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms' by Will Richardson I have a few reflections as it raises some excellent points about the justification for using web 2.0 in the classroom. I recommend it as a good, quick read.

My fairly random ideas here are based on a reading of the 'Big Shifts' Richardson thinks are happening in education at the moment

1. 24/7 anywhere access to all knowledge. Knowing things no longer as important, no barriers to finding out knowledge when it is needed. Problem though that there is so much knowledge how do you filter it for relevance? How will you find what you need and how will you check its veracity? What will you do with the knowledge?
Skills needed: Evaluation, analysis, advanced web search
Government is going to make broadband an entitlement, bridging the digital divide, learners as digital natives (Prensky), home access program.

2. The Social Web. Everything is published for an audience. No editors to check truth and moderate content. How do you check if a page or video is suitable for you? What do you do if it isnt? How do you build productive networks of friends? How do you stay in control of what the web says about you?
Skills needed: eSafety

3. Teaching has become learning. 'Ideas are presented as the starting point for dialgoue, not the ending point' (Siemens 2002). Learners are becoming and encouraged to be active participators in the design of their own learning. Self-aware, self-motivated learners who know their preferred learning styles and who have independent as well as social learning skills. A shift from lecture to conversation.

4. The Need for Online Learning Spaces - where do we store the info that we have chosen that is relevant to us? Where do we put our contributions, podcasts, blogs, wikis. Where is our central stopping off point to all the services out there we want to use? We need our own online space. For that to be easy is the justification for the VLE or learning platform. Not a teaching platform. To be successful has to meet the learners need, be learner owned and orientated and to some extent policed and controlled. Otherwise they will not be developing the skills they need to be digital citizens.

5. Communication is still vitally important - but so is creativity. Writing is no longer the canonical way to express ideas. Video, audio, visual arts can be done to a high standard very easily and shared very easily therefore they become just as pervasive. Competence in these technologies will become just as important as being ale to write and an essential component of digital literacy along with eSafety.

6. But writing and literacy is still important. As it is the means of primary delivery on the web.

7. Formal Testing is out, demonstrating competence or skill is in. Evidenced by recent changes to KS4 curriculum and diplomas and teacher training and OT training etc.. Development of ePortfolios to bring together all the evidence to show competence.

8. Purpose. All a students work is part of the conversation. The purpose is not just to get a mark to pass the test, it is to add to a body of knowledge that is always developing. It is to be a part of the conversation not to have the final answer. Not to become finally qualified for anything but to be developing as a learner.

I think this is the only way we will prepare our current students for the world they will face. Future prediction is difficult but just looking at the ideas yesterday in the news something resonated with me. The story about teaching professionals having to do regular MOT's to prove their competence to teach. All professions will soon be like this. Unless this self-review and evaluation process becomes a natural feature of life it will increasingly cause a form of cognitive dissonance for people who believe they are being subjected to a barrage of imposed external assessment - a situation many teachers and students find themselves in at the moment.

18.6.09

Sustainable use of ict

An interesting thought from Professor Peter James head of SustelIT talking about environmental sustainability in ict.

'Using ICT is not value free. We can't do it without it changing us in some way'

I have heard the anecdotal stories about children under 14 switching lights on with their thumbs not fingers thanks to games controllers - but I was wondering what those changes were? And if any wider social trends could be graced to particular technologies?


Paying attention technologies

Steve Moss, very engaging.

Ict is not suited to paying attention - rather collaboration and interactivity. Its about creativity not consumption. Online mentoring - dialogue. Making contributions freely.

Google assisted memory should be encouraged. I agree with this actually and i was talking to one of my old university tutors recently who confided that many university researchers are unofficially coming to rely on it also. Why is it a bad thing as long as you have the skills to evaluate the information you are receiving?

Bsf focus now. ICT as part of school building and remodelling. Not about stifling innovation, but can work with la's to promote it.

Need for well integrated systems in all areas of school life.

Bsf a once in a lifetime opportunity to be bold.


Key priorities for BECTA in coming year

From Stephen Crowne, Chief Exec

1. Home access program

2. SRF leading to ICT mark - new version for FE

3. Next Generation Learning Charter - increased uptake

4. Interoperability in system architecture - more of managed service approach

5. Common standards to support innovation

   

ICT in Education Conference

Some very interesting ideas coming through as the conference gets under way.

Maybe ICT will become Digital Life Skills.

Helping students become discriminating digital learners. Maybe focussed around learning platform agenda helping students use the technology that is literally in their hands.

Will post more later.

    

31.5.09

Ways to use Wordle

I think I have mentioned Wordle before?

If not then go try it out now as a way of visualising text it is an amazing tool. It is best used not explained I think!


Here is all the text of this blog as a Wordle...


Wordle: blendedlearner blog

Thanks to @tombarrett for ideas on how to use it in the classroom;
Check out this google docs presentation for lots of cool ways to use Wordle

29.5.09

New feature on YouTube

I didn't realise until today that it was possible to record directly from a webcam into YouTube. This is brilliant!
In the past I have used webcams to record stuff, in particular students playing music and composing songs but have then had the rigmarole of file uploading etc..
Doing the whole recording and uploading thing in one place makes much more sense.

Check it out.

28.4.09

Prezi

Death by PowerPoint is a sad and unnecessary thing. A wise person once said to me 'never use PowerPoint to deliver text to an audience'. I often wish I had heeded the advice.

If we must insist on still using these presentational tools they should at least have some visual interest and be an aid to free thinking.

This is where prezi comes in. It is like a cross between a mind mapping tool and PowerPoint. Have a look at my first brief attempt to get a feel of it;

http://prezi.com/39733/

Impressed?

I am , and so is everybody I present to using it. Perhaps it is just a tool to disguise a bad presentation. Noone will be interested in the message if the medium is so good looking. Or perhaps the message really IS the medium?

5.4.09

possibly the single most useful website ever for a teacher

Timed tasks - in a lesson - no argument - visible to all - free on the web.

Need I say more?

Check this out.

1.4.09

Picture Editing


Its always a bit of a drag. Having the picture in the right file format for the job at hand. Just needing to make a shape or a button for a project. And you never have the right software, or if you do you can't be bothered to use it (Photoshop anyone?).

So the online image editor came along and seems to have come of age with SUMOpaint, which as far as I can see is excellent. Main criteria for things like this with me are;
  1. How fast does it load?
  2. How easy is it to load and save files?
  3. How familiar is the UI?
SUMOpaint seems to tick the boxes for me. It also has the easiest registration mechanism for any website I have ever seen. Which is a good thing!

Have a go!

31.3.09

Online Mindmapping




What feautures should a mind mapping tool have? 
For complete creativity I'm not sure you can beat a whiteboard and pen, but to save your ideas, share them with others and collaborate across large distances I think there is a place for electroninc tools. So have a look at Mindmeister - I came across it recently. You can embed (see above) invite others to collaborate by email and save and export to a wide range of formats including pdf.

24.3.09

Wiki happiness

What is a wiki?

I have to confess I am often finding it hard to explain, and I have been developing one for use over the past week or so.

Often we seem to see wikis as blank pages ready to be filled with factual information as in wikipedia but how useful is that to a teacher or a pupil in school?

I have been thinking of it in terms of teachers collaborating on documents together. For instance if teachers are standardising their assessments in a secondary school department, it might be nice to discuss what we mean when we give a key stage 3 student a level 5. We might even want to link to an example of level 5 work. Others may want to refine the definition given. Hmm.

To do that it needs structure. Not that the structure has to stay fixed, it can be adaptable but it must have a starting point. So I have been creating skeletons of wikis for others to use. Assessment for staff - research based wikis for students with particular topics identified, links already made and so on.

I will have to wait for the feedback (I can't post a link as they are all behind passwords!)

10.3.09

Webquests for Science

Webquests are a really good idea. Sometimes it can be a bit of a kop out to say to a class. 'Use the internet to research...' whatever. A webquest is more directed yet still encourages independent learning and evaluation of sources and all the good things about general research tasks. It is also easier to set up assessment criteria.

There are a few good ones on the ideasaboutscience.com website that address one of the more difficult to teach aspects of the GCSE Science courses. It would not take long to make your own however. If you are using a learning platform you could put it on your classes homepage and have some resources in Word format for example for the students to write in their findings. You could then ask them to submit this to you for marking through the learning platform where the assessment criteria are available for them to look and give them the opportunity to ask questions to you through a forum set up for this purpose.

It would be quick to set up. Even quicker if you used content material someone else had produced!

4.3.09

embedit.in

If you want to put a document such as a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file OR a website snapshot into another webpage, you will probably need some kind of widget to help. Enter embedit.in. Check this out - it is an A Level Physics revision website I might want to point my students to...









The only problem I have found so far is that it is not compatible with mac iWork files, but that only applies to macheads...




24.2.09

Challenge Machine

If you have not come across it, the challenge machine is a web based way of easily creating quizes that can be done online. You can challenge classes or friends or anyone and you can rack up points scores. Here is a simple example...










23.2.09

Change Management

Having spoken to a Headteacher about the challenges of embedding learning platform use in a high school I feel I have more clarity about the scale of the issue.

It is massive. Schools and in particular high schools are large organisations - pushing through change is difficult because of the inertia such behemoths possess. Management books speak of the different types of people that have to be dealt with to effectively manage change and give advice on changing the culture of an organisation. In schools however the people you as a leader are trying to change are effectivly the gate keepers and the sales people who will promote the change to the 'customers' or 'pupils' as we may still affectionately call them.

School leaders are rightly protective of their staff and students, consious of change fatigue and work-life balance and may balance the potential benefits of a dramatic change in classroom practice with the possible consequences to morale of divisions in the staffroom.

To look toward the future and make brave decisions requires school leaders who have a clear vision of the benefts learning platforms can make to their learners.

19.2.09

WYSINAWYG

Go on, guess what it means?

Ive been realising something over the last few days as I have used a variety of online tools claiming WYSIWYG functionality. (I will spare their blushes). I have encountered the following;

  • mysterious duplicate snippets of code appearing in widgets on websites
  • undisplayable images creating blank spaces on the screen and masking other content
  • pages veering out of printable area in browsers
  • random colour changing
Browser and plugin differences obviously are partly to blame but one does get the feeling sometimes that the editors were designed for the web as it was about 5 years ago. They just can't handle the volume of linking and embedded code that is the norm these days. Arcane, forgotten early html formatting rules still apply in some of them that dissapeared thankfully with Frontpage.

I don't know.

'What you see is not always what you get'

16.2.09

5 Learning Platform Quick Wins

What are the easiest ways to make a beneficial difference to a school using a learning platform?

Top five suggestions (in no particular order) that require little or no additional work....(IMHO)

1. Communicating with staff by email, IM, online notice boards, cover lists, school calendars etc - no more pigeon holes or students carrying notes round the school.

2. File storage - cloud computing - no more memory sticks left at home (or school), easy access to school documentation.

3. Communication with students and between students - e.g. electronic submission of work,class blogs, forums, wiki's, even chat and IM as well as good old email.

4. School 'portal' - a common homepage for all members of school community accessible from inside or outside school

5. Celebrating success - publishing examples of student achievement electronically.

All of these can be done without having to generate any new content or even having to digitize things that are not already in an electronic format.

What do you reckon?

12.2.09

Picture log in to the Learning Gateway

Many children (and adults) waste lots of time trying to remember passwords for all the websites they sign up for. An alternative that can be useful is picture based log in. Have a look at this screencast to see how it could work;

10.2.09

21st Century Learning

I am exited about 21st century learning. I am not sure I understand it properly yet but am trying to get my head around it. The problem is, I have been brought up and trained as a teacher using a very different model of curriculum and I am having trouble letting go. Having been bound by perceived QCA dictats and inflexible, results based planning for so long - I think I am starting to breathe fresh air.

I think there are opportunities for learning platforms to do what the name would suggest and support the delivery of 21st century curriculum. Providing tools that facilitate personalised learning and put students and the creativity they desire at the heart of their learning. I am hopeful that learning platforms can be a tool that will motivate learners and give them access to knowledge whilst also giving them a means to learn.

6.2.09

Snow and opportunities for learning platforms




As I opened the curtains this morning and the new day greeted me with usual blizzard I had a thought. As school leaders struggle with their responsibilities on days like this - health and safety of their students in school against missed learning opportunities. What if they didnt have to oppose one another?

What if schools could say: the school buildings are closed today - learning will be happening solely in the learning platform?

It is possible I think. School communities would have to be in the habit of regular electronic communication. LP use would have to be embedded. All (or at least most) classes would have to be using the LP regularly. But it would remove some of the pressure schools are under in these exceptional weather circumstances we find ourselves in.

5.2.09

Learning platforms and speed

Further to the comments I have made before about the 'click and wait' syndrome when people are using the web to present something to me is another consideration;

What effect do webpage load times have on usage of learning platforms?

I ask because of a blog I read about some research google have done that says that for every half a second on the load time for their search results they get a 20% drop in traffic.

Wow. Most learning platforms in use are much slower than google. Maybe one of the ways to increase adoption in classroom is to ensure speed performance is a high priority when evaluating learning platforms?

3.2.09

Content is King?

Is it really? That was the moniker of web 1.0 Without killer content websites died away, they were used as sources of factual info as much as anything else. While that is still true to an extent, the advent of web 2.0 has meant interactivity above all. Want people want to do is communicate and collaborate.

Of course that fits right into the educational agenda. The internet is not a textbook. It is not reliably edited, nor is it tailored for a particular course, nor is it ever exactly at the right level. Stuff isnt always easy to find. What the internet can do really well is to facilitate meaningful communication. Look at Facebook - all the people we keep in touch with more than we used to. In a learning context the power of this is in the connections that can be made. The germs of ideas that can be nourished.

Think of teachers moderating forums on a topic after directing students to evaluate a range of web sources. Think of mobile learning; podcast mashups put together on a whim after a topic for fun by a student that becomes a vital part of GCSE revision.

Content is filtered (obviously), communication rules.

29.1.09

Problems with video editing

Was trying to help a school get some footage from a camcorder onto a Windows PC in a file format that MS Moviemaker can understand. This was not as easy as I first anticipated due the film being supplied to me on a small DVD-R. One of those ones that are about 2.5 inches across that I havn't seen used in anger for about 3 years.

Problem number 1: how to read the DVD. My laptop wont take those small disks. Found an old USB DVD writer from the dim and distant (6 years ago - before they were commonly put in desktops and laptops). Success. Footage on hard disk.

Problem number 2: ripping the DVD. Now, I am not into this really so I fell back on VLC an excellent piece of software that can norammly reencode stuff into the format I would like. Would it have it? Nope. It would read the difficult VOB files from the DVD ok and convert them into what it said were mpeg2 or wmv files - Moviemaker was resolute in its refusal to play them however. After about 2 hours of headscratching and web research I came accross Quick Media Converter for Windows. Drag and drop - all kinds of conversion. Easy peasy. Thought I had it cracked.

Problem 3: getting a headache now. Video footage not in sync all the way through with audio. Fooled me for a while until a teacher complained because it starts out ok but then goes off. Back to the web for research and found that this commonly happens using a particular encoder of video. No solution.

The Upshot: I've spent too long on this already really and am out of ideas. Have to apologise/wildly justify myself to the teacher concerned. Suggest throwing money at the problem etc etc. Still got a headache.

Any ideas?

24.1.09

Another labour saving web clipper


Grabbing screenshot images is a common task - resizing them and saving them and publishing them can all be chores. Again, one for the macheads but looks like a little tool called Skitch may be able to help. It is very powerful, is a free signup and comes with online storage and sharing spaces so is all web 2.0 and all that. Check out the thumbnail below. It can integrate with iSight too.

Skitch
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

It is made by the same people who produced the excellent Comic Life, Plasq. I can see lots of times when this would be useful for integrating web clips into a learning platform. Perhaps you just want a thumbnail of what a website looks like to use as a link instead of text? Skitch could do it for you. There are many possibilities.

21.1.09

BETT Finds

Was at BETT last Friday. Trends seem to be for web based graphic, audio and video editing- a couple of finds;

Creaza - does a few things, making cartoons, simple video editing etc. Some online stoorage. Says it will integrate with learning platforms in the near future. Worth a look. I'm still thinking about how to actually use it in the classroom.

Truetube - Does your school block youtube? Truetube may be an answer. Upload and edit video online. Moderated content, all of educational value. Website not working well as of 20/1/09 but looked good in demo at the show. I think it was a BETT category winner. WEBSITE NOW FINE 27/1/09

Any other good stuff??

17.1.09

Preventing presentation probelms


I have been frustrated recently when I have seen a number of presentations given about software. The products themselves have been fine but there have been many situations where the presenter has been talking..

"and all you need to do to publish this blog post is.....--- click, wait, nothing happens---- it will just be a second, I think the internet is slow today ---wait longer, awkward silence----- ..just a moment, perhaps if I try it again --audience shuffles and whispers to one another-----...."

Do you recognize that? From a teaching point of view it is exceptionally disengaging. We stop caring about what it is we are learning and our mind is wandering.

So I was considering how I could prevent such scenarios in my own practice where inevitably there is the same element of showing people how to use an online service (or even just a piece of software) How can I guarantee that all link will work and all clicks be responsive?

So I was browsing Janes E-Learning Pick of the Day and one of the tools she found is called Screentoaster. No software to install, just login to the website and record whatever is happening on your screen. Brilliant! You can publish on the web or save the file - which I think is better for me, then I can incorporate it into presentations.

No more awkward silences? Well not from rotating hourglasses anyway.

15.1.09

BBC report on OFSTED's view of Learning Platforms

The BBC are covering an OFSTED report about learning platforms that highlights that while increasing numbers of schools are using learning platforms, hardly anyone is getting the most out of them.

Some of the problems identified are familiar: It is only enthusiastic teachers within schools who are using them effectively, meaning that curriculum coverage can be patchy. They can be used as dumping grounds for rarely used files.

There is some highlighting of positives. An important one is access to learning for the disadvataged in some way; excluded etc. This principle extends though. The agenda for the future should be learning that can happen any time of day for any learner in any place not just in the 5 hours in school lessons per day. How can this be delivered? Learning platfroms can form part of the answer. Personalised learning, again learning platfroms have much to add.

Of course getting teachers and schools to extract the most from learning platforms rather than just seeing them as something to be bought in and box ticked is a challenge but I think it is possible for the culture to change. Especially when new, exiting things become possible only when learning platforms are used effectively.

13.1.09

Challenge Machine

The challenge machine is an easy way to create a quiz online that you can share with others. When you log in you can rack up points for yourself and so on. It is very good. Lots of potential for students to challenge each other and teachers to set challenges for classes. It is also wider than that though and the challenges are published to all users. Uses could be to ask opinion, conduct surveys, I don't know.

My first simple challenge in below - have a go...



View Forces Quiz on The Challenge Machine.

12.1.09

Carbon cost of Googling revealed

Probably best not to read this BBC news article in our line of work...

11.1.09

How to organise research from multiple sources?

So a portion of my days at the moment is spent doing research. New software, web services, becta documents. Some of it is online, some in digital documents and some on actual physical paper would you believe. Now the thing is, how do you put all of this together? How do you store it? How do you look at it all whether you are at home or at the office or out on the road? How do you search for that bit of information you know you read but can't remember whether it was on the web or on a bit of paper?

Well, I'm not sure. Suffering from partial information overload I was looking around for some on or offline solution. Came across Notebook (yes I am a Mac user don't hold it against me) which I have rejected before but didnt remember why until I looked at it again. The thing is I like it, but it doesnt do the whole sharing info thing very well. You are pretty much locked to the machine you are using. Ho hum. 

Perused some lifehacker articles for inspiration and found Evernote. Looks like a winner. Things I like so far;
  • Free (limited but adequate usage)
  • Cloud computing - all accessible via web interface as well as on software on pc, mac etc
  • use web/iSight to add notes with text recognition (pretty good btw although didnt get my wifes scrawls about curtain material - she does work for the nhs though...)
  • to do list incorporated
  • can add stuff by email
Will  see how it goes. Check it out.

7.1.09

j2e

One of the first projects I am working on is to help schools use a web application called j2e.
Having had a play around with it and spoken to one of the designers I have to say I am amazed. It is a fancy online DTP type thing designed for use by children in its simplest form. Not unlike google docs in the concept of online storage of files... but these words don't do it justice. THe ability of multiple users to collaborate on documents, to export documents, to include dynamic content. Have a play around if you are in any way interested...

Here is an overview video: A brief overview
I cant wait to see it in action in the classroom.

6.1.09

Change of circumstances

Coming out of teaching in a large comprehensive secondary school to working for the LEA is involving a change of mindset and culture. I knew it would, but it is of course difficult to anticipate what it will be like before it happens.

My job is now as Teacher Advisor for Learning Platforms and as I get my head around that and build on my experience in using learning platforms in my own practice I hope this blog will to some extent chart my thinking.

Here goes...