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Each week I post a photograph of something that I have seen, like or has just made me laugh.
At a recent visit to the Nursery Department at St. Georges School for Girls, Edinburgh I loved getting to see the Archimedes 'thinking' bathtub.
Children can often be seen sat in this empty bath and…well… thinking!
Wonderful playful (and thinking) learning with purpose. I hope to get to sit in it if I am invited back.
Each week I post a photograph of something that I have seen, like or has just made me laugh.
Recently down in Rotherham I was impressed with the approach taken by this local group to teach Internet Safety and Responsible Use.
They go into a school or youth group and re-create a teenagers bedroom and then get you to imagine what personal information the room gives away if it was being viewed through a web camera.
Huge potential to develop this idea more and get young people thinking about important issues.
Each week I post a photograph of something that I have seen, like or has just made me laugh.
Like many Scottish teachers I hope that the Donaldson Review of Teacher Education in Scotland improves the quality of amount of ICT input in Scotland’s Teacher Training Institutes.
I spotted this machine in the corridors of Moray House this week… I was going to see if it still worked but it only took an ‘old style’ 50 pence!
IDEO's Future of the Book video shows three different possible concepts for near-future books.
I like the look of the third version the best.
The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.
On another note James Clay’s ‘The iPad, the future of reading’ video from The Future of Technology in Education Conference (#FOTE10) is worth a quick look.
Michael Russell, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning has just announced a radical overhaul of support for the education system in Scotland.
Here is a copy of the news release from the Scottish Government website:
A new Scottish Education Quality and Improvement Agency will increase and improve the coordination of support available to schools Education Secretary Michael Russell said today.
The agency will initially bring together HMIe and LTS and improve the efficiency of the national bodies supporting education. It will be responsible for driving forward innovation in education by promoting best practice and providing support, resources and feedback based on inspections.
Education Secretary Michael Russell said:
"We have strong national bodies, delivering the support and resources that teachers and pupils need. I want those bodies to be even better.
Scotland's education inspectors - HMIe - are one of the great strengths of our education system. While Learning and Teaching Scotland provide important support, practical materials and guidance to schools. They are two sides of the same coin: one supporting improvement, the other inspecting standards.
The introduction of the new curriculum makes now the right time to bring these two halves together. An entirely new body - the Scottish Education Quality and Improvement Agency - will be created bringing the work of HMIE and LTS together in one place.
If there are other functions - including those held by my own department - that can be better delivered by this new body, I will not hesitate to make further changes. Though clearly, the independence of the inspection system will continue under the new Agency.
It will be charged with leading the drive to complete the implementation of the new curriculum, improving our school education and encouraging innovation in our classrooms. It will do this with less bureaucracy, less red tape and with more resources freed to go to the frontline. That's why we will initially bring these two bodies into a new organisation - together to make Scottish education better."
The Education Quality and Improvement Agency will be an Executive Agency, which will initially bring together the work of both HMIE and LTS into a single Agency.
Detail on the scope, functions and structure of the new agency will be determined between now and the end of December.
It will be take effect on July 1, 2011.
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In this brief clip from the BBC's "Bang Goes the Theory," Dr Yan narrates a timelapse of food rotting over several days. I agree with the guys at Boing Boing in that,
'My favorite part is the exclamation of genuine delight when the maggots decamp from the minced beef and head for the fruit'.
Now a question, at what level within the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence would it be appropriate to use this video?
I love animation as a collaborative and creative activity to do with children and young people.
I also admit to being a bit of a Star Wars fan and that’s why I love this Paper Animation of the Original Star Wars Trilogy – I think its absolute genius!
I’m looking forward to seeing my old friend Andy Black at the Growing Greener Futures Conference next week and tonight I noticed that he had posted this excellent YouTube video up on his blog (Andy’s Black Hole). The video is about the future of display technology.
It is a concept video from Tat (The Astonishing Tribe) which looks at the future screen technology. It reminds me a little bit of Microsoft’s Vision of the Future Video that Ray Flemming showed at #FOTE10.
What do you think and more importantly how could some of these concepts be used to enhance school design?
We are doing some work with 3D printers at the moment and I think they have huge potential in schools.
This is something different though… a foam printer – I have no idea why it might be useful but I thought it was pretty cool.
My two great education passions are learning through technology and learning through the outdoors. Not everyone will agree but I think the two have great parallels.
That was why when Martin Waller asked me if I would do the keynote presentation at the 2010 Growing Greener Futures Conference I jumped at the chance.
You can read my thoughts on the use of new technologies and outdoor learning from our Learning and Teaching Scotland Outdoor Learning Conferences that took place earlier this year.
The Growing Greener Futures conference is hosted by Holy Trinity Rosehill Primary School and supported by Creativity, Culture & Education, will be a major gathering event for educators interested in developing creative learning approaches through the great outdoors and digital technologies.
"The conference will explore outdoor learning through the themes of gardening, conservation, cooking, sustainability and digital technologies. Delegates will have the opportunity to experience keynote presentations from nationally recognised experts in the field as well as participate in hands-on and thought-provoking workshops throughout the day.
This is not only an excellent opportunity to attend an outdoor learning themed conference but also network with other professionals about creating and shaping an outdoor curriculum of excellence".
I love the fact that this event is being hosted at a school and Martin really has managed to gather a range of excellent speakers to run workshops and seminars.
The philosophy of the conference really fits in with some of the work that we have been doing up in Scotland over the last 12 months surrounding outdoor learning.
Martin tells me there are still a few places available – find out more here.
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