OllieBray.com

Personal and Professional Review for 2009

It’s the time of year when I look back over my learning log to see what I’ve achieved during the last 12 months. As with most years I’ve probably achieved a bit more than most people, but a bit less than I should have. Overall though, despite a few ups downs down I think it’s been a pretty good year, not quite a vintage but a pretty good year all the same!

Here are a few aspects from the last year that really stuck out:

Work

I continued to work as Depute Head Teacher at Musselbugh Grammar School until 1st April 2009. Since then I’ve been seconded to Learning and Teaching Scotland as National Advisor for Emerging Technologies for Learning.  I started this role as part of the Glow Team but have since been transferred to the Consolarium project whilst maintaining a cross-organization portfolio for social media and advice on new technologies for teaching and learning.

I miss the buzz of the grammar school in particular working with the young people and the staff. I also miss being more distant from the East Lothian learning community. I don’t miss the Thursday morning senior leadership team meetings.

I am really enjoying my current remit in particular working with such a talented bunch of people. We work hard, spend a lot of time away from home, travel miles but have great fun. I am also enjoying being given the opportunity to contribute to policy advice and being consulted on a number of aspects of the Scottish Curriculum reform.

I’ve cut back on a lot of the external work over 2009 to concentrate on my new day job. But I did managed to deliver a couple of consultancy projects near the beginning of the year which have included:

• BBC New Lives New landscapes – was really pleased how these TV programmes turned out. I was the principal consultant and I think we managed to finally make ‘Industry Interesting’ again! I was particularly pleased with the Dundee programme that looks at the computer games industry.

• DoBe Teach IT – I was the main author on this resource contributing to the Google Earth, Best of the Web and Images section of the pack. I heard its now in over 500 schools across the UK which is something to be proud of.

• Microsoft InnoVids – After the Microsoft Summer School. I produced a few videos looking at the creative use of Microsoft Office in the classroom. A full range of the videos will be available at BETT 2010.

• CfE Social Subjects Textbooks – When I have had the chance I’ve been writing and editing resources for Hoddar Gibson (more on this in the new year) - the deadline is the 5th January!

Academic

I finished my Scottish Qualification for Headship in June and continue to do bits of work for the University of Edinburgh on the PGDE Geography Course including student observations.

It’s also been great to also be able to contribute to the BEd Primary Programme at Edinburgh University and work with PGDE Secondary Students at the University of Strathclyde.

Education Innovation

I’ve established some good relations with Microsoft over 2009 in particular the Innovative Teachers Network. I’ve visited Reading, Vienna and Brazil promoting the value of games based learning and other new technology in schools.

Since starting my secondment I have had an opportunity to engage with hundreds of teachers from around the UK and further afield. Specific highlights include:

• Computer Games in Schools: NAACE Strategic Conference.

• Personal Learning Networks: at the Scottish International Summer School on School Leadership.

• Accelerated Leadership - How do we develop motivated school leaders?: at the Scottish Learning Festival.

• Social Media in Schools: at the Handheld Learning Festival, London.

• Geography: Past, Present and Future Keynote Presentation: at the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers Annual Conference.

• Literacy, ICT and CfE: at Drummond Community High School.

• The use of Mobile Devices on Expeditions: at the Royal Geographical Society London.

• Curriculum for Excellence, Science, Change and New Technologies: at SSERC Conference.

• Using computer games as a context for learning and social interaction: at the K-12 Online Conference.

Professional Development

My main professional development comes from my personal learning network in particular twitter and my RSS Reader.

I have also been lucky enough to attend a number of conferences and Teachmeet events including Teachmeet BETT 2009, Teachmeet NE London and the Islay 2020 unconference in June.

I headed up the organization and chaired Teachmeet at the Scottish Learning Festival and I think that everybody that attended will agree that it was a lovely evening. I even achieved an ambition to my name on a BrainPop letter! which the BrainPop team later included as one of the highlights of their year.

 

Outdoor Education

Much of the first half of the year was spent trying (unsuccessfully) to get fit for my summer adventure to cycle the Great Divide from Banff, Canada to the Mexico Border. In the end I gave up training (it was taking far to long) and just flew out to Canada to start the ride.

After two weeks with Marco and Simon followed by posting most of my equipment back to the UK, deleting songs from my iPod and two further weeks riding alone I found myself (nearly 3000 miles from the start) at the Mexico border. I was looking a shadow of my former self, with no feeling in my right hand, slight concussion and huge smile on my face.

Cycling the Great Divide was without a doubt one of the hardest things I have physically ever done and a real highlight of the year.

Home

I continue to live in East Lothian and work across Scotland. Most weeks you can find me in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee on at least on day of the week. Work also increasingly takes me to London and other location all over the UK. I still enjoy regular trips to Weymouth and miss my friends and family back at home (even Yazz and Bertie).

You can find my pre-booked 2010 event list here – with lots of other events and conferences in the pipeline. Please get in touch if you want to meet up.


Volunteering

I continue as the chair of Volunteer Development East Lothian and we recently moved our offices out in Haddington to new premises in Musselburgh. I’ve been on sabbatical from the role for the last few months but I will be re-engaging with the organization from the new year (tomorrow actually!).

We have some exciting community and social enterprise projects up our sleeves for 2010 and I’m looking forward to being able to tell you more about them (particularly if you like cycling).

This was also my first year as a member of the SCSSA Advisory Group on School Leadership and member of the Media Literacy Scotland National Steering Group.

Looking forward

I already know that 2010 is going to be a very interesting and possibly a difficult year for me and is likely to involve change on a number of levels. Here are some of the things I am looking forward to:

• Re-engaging with the Volunteer Centre and taking on some new projects and initiatives.

• My new texbook will be published in June 2010. I’ll probably also start work on the CfE Level 4 edition - although I have another idea for a different side project that might end up occupying this time.

• I’m going to cycle between Lands End to John o' Groats. Not for charity – but in the words of late George Mallory, ‘because its there’.

• In June 2010 I will announce the team and dates for a return trip to Denali’s West Buttress that will depart in 2011 or 2012 depending on National Park permits and a few other details.

• In July I’m leading a group of young explorers to the Alaska Wilderness where we will trek and canoe the Noatak River from its Headwaters to the Bearing Sea.

• I’m going to start to make preparations for the end of my secondment from Learning and Teaching Scotland and for my return to school. I aim to apply for my first (well second actually...) headship during 2010.

• I’ve felt really fired up since the Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teachers Event in Brazil and as a result I’m going to work harder than ever before. 2010 will be the year I up my game and really fight for what I believe in to make sure that any children in my care get a modern education and not a re-invented one from the past 200 years.

• I’m going to attempt to find that work-life balance (OK you right… that’s not going to happen!)

•  I’m going to continue to expand my whiskey collection and share it with friends at regular intervals (yes, even Alan Parkinson).

• I’ll continue my quest for the perfect cup of coffee and hope to finally get round to helping my pal Michael roast some real beans early in the new year.

• Despite times of massive local, national and global change, I’ll remain optimistic about the future.

Anyway, if you’re a regular visitor to my little part of the Internet - Happy New Year and huge thank you to everyone how has helped, supported, worked and laughed with me through a good 2009.

Happy New Year

OB

K-12 On-Line Conference 2009: Computer Games in the Classroom

The 2009 K-12 Conference has been as successful as ever and now its my turn to contribute to this years programme. My presentation 'Using computer games to enhance learning and social interaction' goes live over on the K-12 site at 12.00h (GMT) today. This automated post provides a bit more background on the project that I describe and also gives a few more links.

Please feel free to leave any feedback below or over on the K-12 Conference Ning. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can although I’m out and about a lot at the moment so it might not be straight away.

Background and Introduction

The project was inspired by some early work carried out in Aberdeenshire by Learning and Teaching Scotland’s Consolarium.
 
The idea behind the project is to use commercially available ‘off the shelf’ computer games that have been built for entertainment and then retrofitted for education. By their very definition commercially available games (due to their high production budgets) tend to be more engaging and cheaper than games that have been build solely for education. The challenge is finding the right games that are suitable for use in the classroom.

Another underlying principle of the project is that in order for quality learning to take place there must be a combination good pedagogy from the classroom teacher combined with activities that are either interesting or engaging. There is a distinct difference between what I mean by interest and engagement. Learning will quickly blossom if a child’s natural interest in a topic is combined with good teaching. Unfortunately many global education systems require children to have specific knowledge or specific skills that they find un-interesting. This is where teachers need to find engaging ways to deliver the content. Technology including computer games can provide this engagement.

For example the project described below has successfully used the game Guitar Hero as a stimulus to teach literacy, numeracy, art, physical exercise, science and lots of other curriculum areas.

This particular project was also designed to help children have a really positive end to primary school and a really positive start to secondary school during their time of transition. In Scotland (and in many other parts of the world) at transition the children move from having most of their teaching from a single teacher to a system of timetabling in the secondary school where they will be taught by perhaps 8 or 9 different teachers.  It is widely recognised that transition and movement between primary to secondary school can be problematic for many pupils and can lead to conflict. Appropriate computer games can provide the ideal medium to reduce conflict within schools at they are competitive but in a non-threatening environment.

Further information about the project is below:

Thinking out of the xBox (Using Guitar Hero in Schools)

Purpose

The purpose of the project was to improve the process of transition for pupils moving from primary (elementary) to secondary (high) school through the medium of a three stage innovative computer games based learning project.

Aims

The aims of the project were:

• To improve the process of student transition between primary to secondary school.
• To develop relationships between cluster staff, students and parents.
• To use Guitar Hero as a context for learning within the seven Musselburgh primary schools during the summer term.
• To hold an innovative transition morning at the secondary school based around the game Guitar Hero.
• To use the theme Guitar Hero as a stimulus for discussion when the children moved to the secondary school.
• To develop a different way of updating primary teachers on individual student progress after they moved to the secondary school.
• To prove that school and learning can be fun!

 
Structure of the project

The learning for the project was structured in three main stages:

Stage One – Guitar Hero is used as a context for learning in primary seven (P7).

This learning took place between the Easter holidays and the summer term 2008. Every primary school was given ownership of the project and a number of learning activities occurred. An example of the types of learning that took place are summarised below in this mind map from Stoneyhill Primary School. The mind map was created at the start of the project by the classroom teacher and their class.

As a result of this planning, a number of worthwhile activities took place across the cluster. Some of these activities can be viewed in picture gallery.

 
Stage Two - All of the Primary 7 children visit the secondary school for a transition day to participate in a number of Guitar Hero related activities.

The day was launched and concluded in the school assembly hall. During the day all of the children got to participate in three workshops using a ‘round robin’ rota system.

Workshop One - The Battle of the Bands in the School Hall (1)

There were 10 games consoles set up in the school hall. The children had to compete against someone who they had not met before. The collaboration during this activity was amazing. Senior students supervised the event so there was also an opportunity for new students to ask them questions about life at the school.

Workshop Two - The Guitar Hero Challenge

These workshops were facilitated by the school’s Guidance Staff. In Scotland secondary school guidance staff have the main pastoral / welfare responsibility for children.

The first task was to ask the question, ‘tell me and your class what you have been learning about during the Guitar Hero Project’. As each school took the project in its own direction, it was a chance for the class to communicate with each other about a common interest, swap ideas and learn about the learning in each others’ schools.

The second task was to allow 20 minutes for the whole group to be split into smaller groups of 4/5 people and to come up with a band name, logo and jingle. One of the S6 students commented, ‘I can’t believe it, they have just come up with that in 5 minutes.’

Logos and jingles had to represent the interests of the whole team (eg: it was work about themselves). The finished products were photographed and videoed and the results were shown at the end of the morning.

 
Workshop Three – Peer Led Activity

Each practical set, for the following year, had an opportunity to participate in a different activity. All of the activities had a different theme related to rock music or to the game. The idea behind this was to make the most of the senior pupil expertise from the secondary school, but also to capitalise on the peer led experience. The senior students were briefed to speak to the young children about the sorts of things that they might be embarrassed to ask adults. Things like where the toilets were, how much money to bring to the school, if they would be allowed out at lunchtime or not, etc...

 
The peer led activities included:

• Guitar Hero Orienteering – using maps of the school to navigate around the school grounds to find the name of rock bands and answer the bonus Guitar Hero Questions.
• Deigning a CD Case – using Microsoft Publisher.
• Designing a guitar – using Photoshop
• Rock Drama – mime and improvisation to rock music in this workshop. It was great to see four different schools collaborating and working together in almost perfect sequence.
• Rock Dance – Led by S6 Student.
• Meet the Band – Working with an S6 band and learning how to play ‘Smoke on the Water’ on the guitar as well as getting a tour of the MGS recording studio.
• iTunes Challenge – A numeracy related quiz using Activote.

Displays - During the day there was also an opportunity for schools to display some of the Guitar Hero Work that they had produced over the last few months. It was all outstanding!


Stage Three – Guitar Hero in the Secondary School

The final part of the project took place between the start of term and the October break 2008. The children were tasked with designing Guitar Hero Postcards and then sending them back to their old primary school teacher. The postcards were produced in CDT and the content was written in English. 

Subject teachers were also tasked to use ‘Guitar Hero’ as a context for discussion with their new classes.
This simple activity not only put closure on the project but was also a very powerful learning experience. It also developed increased communication between the primary and secondary school.

The quality of writing on the postcards was also outstanding as the children were writing with a real purpose. This was able to be used by the high school staff to provide formative feedback to students.
 

Evolution of the Project

Local Scale

The evaluation of the 2008 Guitar Hero Transition project was so positive that East Lothian Council decided to copy the model and roll the project out across the education authority. During the summer term of 2009 all six clusters (that’s a total of 46 schools and over 70 xboxes in classes!) were involved in a new phase of the project based on the original Musselburgh model.

The Musselburgh Cluster staff were involved in training the new P7 teachers and working with each of the secondary schools to promote games based learning as a context for transition.

The project will continue in 2010 this time adding an international dimension to the work by networking xboxes. We hope this will provide an interesting way for children to learn about life in other countries, contribute to the breaking down of cultural difference and introduce an exciting way to learn about other topics such as time zones, location and place. Agian this new section of the project will have a strong literacy focus.

Wide Reach

The project blog have been successful that now other schools elsewhere in Scotland, UK and internationally have started to mirror the project and adapt it for local need. An additional project website was set up to support the larger 2009 project and web stats for both sites show that lesson material has been downloaded all over the UK and a number of other countries including the  USA, Australia, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong.

Awards and Recognition 

The project has won a number of awards including:

• Winner Microsoft UK Innovative Teacher Forum - Feb 2009
• 1st Place Microsoft European Innovative Teacher Forum (Innovation in the Community) - April 2009
• 2nd Plave Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teacher Forum (Innovation in the Community) - November 2009

If you have further information about the project then please get in touch.

Going off line…

I’m going off line for a few weeks – I know that some of you will think that this is same as having my right leg removed. But actually, in reality, it’s probably going to be harder for me!

Anyway...

As a brief explanation, I need to get on with a few things and it’s going to involve a bit of focus and there will be less time for blogging and twitter between now and the new year. I’m just apologizing in advance for stepping out of the conversation for a while.

You know that I love to be part of the conversation and I will be back soon.

Some key points:

• My next blog post will be my yearly round up (31st December 2009)

• I will also be presenting at the K-12 on-line conference at 12:00 PM (GMT)  Thursday, December 17 2009 and there will be an automated blog post appearing around that time.

• Also good luck if you get nominated for an EduBlog Award and I will be voting!

I will be regularly checking my work emails if you need to get in touch.

See you in the new year when the normal service will be resumed.

OB

iPhone Apps for Education - comprehensive list

I’ve written before about the potential of the iPhone and other mobile devices in schools and learning. With the amount of Apps in the Apple Apps Store growing quickly by the days – it is sometimes difficult to catch up with which Apps are useful for education.

I recently came across this comprehensive list of useful educational iPhone and iPod Touch APPs on the ICT@C online blog.

I’ve embedded the document below:
ICTAC MEMO iPhone Apps for Education

A Romance Flowchart: When Is It Inappropriate to Use Your iPhone?

This made me laugh tonight – thanks to @innovativeteach for pointing it out to me.

The diagram below originally appeared over on Gizmodo.

Video: a night in the alps

Michael Rissi’s wonderful timelapse video of the night skies over the Swiss Alps.

Rissi says in the comments on his video “Most locations are only reachable on foot, some need alpine hikes of 3-5 hours. I spent several weekends in cottages of the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC), where I shot these clips.”

(from: www.magictimelapse.ch via the Pesda Press Blog).

Timelapse movie: The Alps -- part II (night) from Michael Rissi on Vimeo.

UK Microsoft Innovative Teachers Forum and Conference 2009

Yesterday along with Con Morris (National CPD Team) and Joe Wilson  (SQA) I traveled down to Birmingham for the Microsoft UK Innovative Teachers Forum and Conference.

This is the first time that Partners in Learning have run a conference like this as part of the UK forum and it was a really good event. It was also free for anyone to attend and a great day of quality professional development with a bunch of very enthusiastic teachers.

The event was opened by Steve Bewsick, Microsoft UK. I met Steve last year in Reading and it was nice to meet him again and listen to him open the conference.

The morning keynote was given by John Davitt who did a really great job of getting the day off to a positive start. I’ve seen John present before and really enjoy his style and humor. Amongst other things he demonstrated the Learning Score and of course his Learning Event Generator (LEG) and the iPhone version the Random Activity Generator (RAG).

If you have not seen or heard of the LEG or the RAG before have a read of this post from Stuart Ball and if you want to find out more about John here is a really nice article about some of his work that was published recently over on Merlin John’s site as part of the Innovators series.

After the keynote I had a chance to look around some of the Innovative Teacher projects that were on display. All of the work was very impressive and it was nice to chat to such dedicated and enthusiastic teachers who were all very obviously passionate about learning.

I had a second dose of John Davitt for my morning workshop where we were challenged to complete one of the random activities generated from the LEG. My group had to produce ‘knitting as a role play’.  We had great fun collaborating, gathering props, filming our role play and of course learning how to knit (thank goodness for YouTube!)

After lunch I went to a workshop that was run by Shirelands Learning. Shirelands are doing some interesting work with their first year curriculum (it is now completely thematic). They have also invested heavily in technology. Some of the students from Shirelands showed us some of the work that they have been doing using Microsoft Surface and also Little Big Planet for the PS3.

I particularly liked one of the ideas for Little Big Planet – where Shirlands have re-created their school in Little Big Planet. First year students play to the game to get to know their new school and to learning about their new surroundings. We have a number of Little Big Planet projects starting from the Consolarium in the new year and this might be one of the ideas that we follow up on.

The final part of the day was the UK Innovative Teacher Awards. All of the projects were great but the four projects that will be representing the UK in Berlin will be:

• Dave Rogers (Priory School Specialist Sports College) Pirates and social networking
• Simon Horleston (Howe Dell Primary School) EcoVids    
• Amy Lewis (saltash.net community school) Heroes    
• Jan Webb (Weston Village Primary School) A classroom without walls    

I was particularly delighted to see my good friend David Rogers pick up an award – which was very well deserved. I was also really pleased to see Dave Garland from Saltash.net get a special achievement award for all of the hard work that he has done to promote ICT in Schools.

So, overall a great event and one that I hope to have an opportunity to attend in the future…