OllieBray.com

Reflections from Microsoft Pil Global Forum 5 of 5 - Building Networks [#pilgf #msftpil]

This is the last of my reflections on the recent Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum in Washington DC. I want to talk networks, because for me this is what Partners in Learning is and always has been about - it also might explain how I ended up being a judge at this years worldwide event. The post has actually turned out to be a bit of a trip down memory lane… 

I am proud to say that I must be one of the longest active members of the Partners in Learning Community - this is one of the main reason I am so passionate about supporting it. In fact I am so sad that I can actually remember roughly when I signed up back in December 2005 and a screenshot from the orginal community confirms this (gosh, I looked young then!).

 

At the time I had just come across the proposals for the School of the Future in Philadelphia - this led me to the original Innovative Teachers Network where I signed up for a regular eNewsletter. I even managed to find the first ever one of these that I recived in an old on-line in-box from early 2006.

Anyway it was either the Inoovative Teachers eNewsletter or the SQA monthly digest that led me to find out about a partnership between Microsoft and the SQA where they were giving out technology grants for teachers. I applied and received an award that used early tablet technology and other technologies to produce revision Podcasts for Geography (we called them GEOCASTS). I painfully drew many of the diagrams (badly) myself in an early version of PowerPoint and Paint.

above: another young version of me (Photo by: Caroline Roberson)

GEOCASTS were some of the first revision material for students on the web (and probably some of the first regular education podcasts) - available in .mp3 and .mv4 formats - it is funny to think that this type of approach for learning and revision is still only really just taking off in 2011 (think Kahn Academy!).

I’ve embedded a sample below (for 2005/2006 they were actually pretty good):

The GEOCAST project  did rather well as a concept and the atmosphere and oceanography materials were very popular in the USA. So popular, that I had to up my hosting arrangement with my Internet Service Provider and eventually when they became even more popular I gave them away to Do-Be ICT Training in Fife, Scotland to ship with their mp4 players and as a free download from their website.

Oh yes…. At one stage they were the 34^th most popular education download on iTunes (this was worldwide - there weren’t regional accounts in those days!). The project gave me the first of many opportunities to speak at the Scottish Learning Festival in 2006.

So why is this important - well this was the start of building my education network (remember, this was a long time before Twitter and Facebook) and Partners in Learning is at least partly really responsible for this.

Here is an abbreviated version of what happened next…

As part of my Original 2005/2006 Partners in Learning Project I met three people who continue to influence my practice (they also all came to watch my talk at the SLF06).

• Tom Jackson (Partners in Learning Manager for the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland);
• Walter Paterson (Former HMIe and now Independent Consultant - but my mentor on my original project); and
• David Noble (now Chartered Teacher (amongst other things) at Hillside School)

David Noble and I were into early social networking for teaching and supportive of each other’s practice. David started a regular Podcast and I had started a blog (funny to think it has been going in various forms since 2005). He was amongst the first of my audience and encouraged me to keep writing it. We continue to collaborate on-line and have worked together on a variety of projects over the years.

That evening of the SLF 2006 David and I want to the first Teachmeet (there had been a ScotEduBlogs meet up before this) that has been organised by Ewan Macintosh. This is where I met I number of other people who became a key part of my personal learning network. See if you can spot them in the photograph below but they include John Connell, Andrew Brown, John Johnston, Bob Hill and Neil Winton.

Photo: Ewan Macintosh

Earlier in the day Tom Jackson had given me his business card and I emailed him a few years later to tell him about a project I had been doing with Xboxes in the classroom. He introduced me to Stuart Ball and Stuart and I met at BETT 2009 - I agreed to submit a Virtual Classroom Tour about the project and went on to present the work in Reading, Vienna and Brazil throughout the year. Merlin John has got a good write up on my work here.

At the 2009 UK Event I met Mandeep Atwal (who now works for Taking IT Global).  I met Dan Roberts in Vienna and since then we have become great friends and I have had an oppertunity to visit Dan at Saltash.net. At the Brazil Event I met Mark Sparvell (who now works for Principles Australia). Mandeep and Mark went on to win first place in their respective categories at the Brazil event. I also met Tony McDaid Head Teacher from Calderglen High School at the Brazil Event as they had just become an Microsoft Innovative School. 

In 2006 I left the geography classroom for senior management - but I kept blogging and Walter and David (and lots of others continued to stick with me on my virtual journey). I gave a talk to the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers in 2006 where I mentioned Blogging and Geocasts and as result a ‘young bright eyed and bushy tailed’ David Rogers (now head of geography and multi-award winning teacher) started a blog - apparently that is why it is ‘all my fault!’

I introduced David to the Innovative Teachers Network via my own blog after the Brazil Worldwide Event. David then entered the 2010 competition with his VCT on social networking and pirates and made it to Berlin for the European final.

At some point a joined Twitter (actually it was June 2007) and twitter has done a great job of linking and aggregating all of the various education networks together. Which is why when I was asked to judge at the Worldwide Event in Washington this year I was delighted to meet both Lee Kolbert (@TeachaKidd) and Angela Maiers (@angelamaiers) both of who I had been following on Twitter for some time.

Of course the wordwide event was also great for meeting other inspirational teachers. Including the UKs very own Gareth Ritter (@ritzertech) but also teachers from other parts of the world such as Johnny Kissko (@johnnyeducation) and Chris Clay from Botany Downs Secondary College in New Zealand).

Gareth’s project is worth a look at if you have not seen it already:

Mark, Mandeep and Tony (remember then from above) were also at the Worldwide Event. Mark was judging and Mandeep presenting on Taking IT Global. Tony has taken his school from strength to strength and has become a mentor school within the Innovative School Programme (teamed up with Dan Roberts and Saltash.net). Hopefully you are now starting to see how everything is so joined up...

To carry on with this connectedness Walter Patterson (my original Partners in Learning mentor from 2005) and I found ourselves judging the UK Partners in Learning Awards at the end of November!

I’m sure there are lots of other people that I have met along the way as a result of Partners in Learning. Including Stuart Ball, Kristen Weatherby, Dave Garland and Alessio Bernardelli.

I’m also sure I have got a lot more people to meet! Hopefully the new Partners in Learning Network (which allows multi-sign on via a number of IDs) will  help facilitate this.

If you are not a member of the Microsoft Partners in Learning Community already, why don’t you sign up to the new 'beta' community, it’s free and didn’t do me any harm!

 

 

 

Reflections from Microsoft Pil Global Forum 4 of 5 - ITL Research [#pilgf #msftpil]

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Download the Innovative Teaching and Learning (ITL) Research Report with White Paper from Michael Fullan here.

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With the other judges at the Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum in Washington DC we were given an special briefing from Dr Maria Langworthy on the latest developments of the Innovative Teaching and Learning (ITL) Research. I’ve been following the developments in this area with great interest since the Education World Leaders Forum in London at the start of the 2011. 

Any action researcher or school leader should consider signing up to the ITL newsletter to keep up-to-date with developments in this area. Schools should also consider using the free Partners in Learning Research Tool to help you kick-start your discussions about teaching and learning within your school. Let me emphasize that you don’t have to agree with the research, the research methodology or the terminology that is used in ITL but there is nothing wrong with using as many sources as possible to challenge your thinking.

Maria’s first slide certainly made me think…

 “In a new world of work unemployment is high, yet skilled and talented people are in short supply”. - The Economist (September 2011).

 

For me this comes back to the point that I made on Monday related to Anthony Salcito’s keynote presentation. As well as creating jobs and employment opportunities within the UK we also need to make sure that young people are leaving school able to go out and find (and do) the jobs that exist globally. In many cases this doesn’t mean that they have to leave the UK - or even their local community. In a recent radio interview in Australia (which is worth 20 mins of your time) Professor Stephen Heppell illustrates this point by explaining that in the UK 7 million people currently work abroad… but they live in the UK on a full time basis. We need to make sure that young people have the digital skills, agility and resilience to work in a variety of 21^st century work scenarios.

The Innovative Teaching and Learning (ITL) Research Project is a large scale and very expensive piece of research. Seven countries are part of the initial research (England, Mexico, Senegal, Australia, Russia, Finland and Indonesia). The research partners for England is The Schools Network (formally the SSTA).

As you might expect one of the findings of the ITL research is that if students are given an opportunity to learning 21^st Century Skills then they can. There is also a direct correlation between innovative teaching practice and the development of 21^st century skills. However, what is very interesting from the research is that really good examples of this seem to be quite rare.

The data is even more interesting when you consider that many of the Microsoft Innovative Schools participated in this research. This means that even our most innovative schools don't seem to be demonstating innovative practice. So the question is why is this the case? 

Again this is partly covered in the research paper and the findings included: 

• Innovative teaching happens more in environments where teachers collaborate.

• Collaboration relies on a supportive culture, alignment of incentives, and times built into teachers’ schedules during which collaboration can take place.

• Innovative teaching happens more in environments where teachers have access to strong programs of professional development

• Innovative teaching that leverages ICT happens more where students have access in their classrooms.

• Where access was lacking, this issue served as a strong deterrent to ICT integration into teaching and learning. 

• Innovative teaching happens more in schools with a school-wide culture that supports innovation.

• Reports from all countries recognize school leadership as a key factor for implementing school-level innovation.

• Opt-in models—the ability for teachers to choose to begin to explore innovative practices when they are ready—were common among schools with supportive cultures.

 

The findings on barriers to ICT integration are also interesting and I would be quite keen to see a more detailed break down of country-by-country results in this area.

The main barriers are shown in the graphic below:

As you might expect access to devices is one of the key barriers to technology integration. With lack of preparation time and lack of professional development being the other significant barriers.

Although I don’t disagree, I am sceptical of the access to devices result.

For me it is often about ‘attitudes’ rather than ‘access’. Far to often in my experience teachers use ‘equipment’ as an excuse for not changing their practice and then when the equipment arrives (normally at great expense) the results are not transformational. At the same time I walk though schools in Scotland most weeks and look into computer labs where young people are sat in the middle of the room (no-where near computers) writing or taking notes from the board. In the UK we need to challenge how we distribute our school resources more to make sure that we get good value for money.

Many schools in the UK are also flooded with devices - its just that children are not allowed to get them out of their pockets or they are not allowed to join them to school wireless networks. We are working to challenge this in Scotland as part of our emerging work around our Emerging National ICT Strategy. 

The data collected on what makes effective CPD is also interesting and backs up everything that Con Morris and the rest of our National CPD Team have been saying for a long time now. That the most effective form of CPD is watching or working with another teacher (this can obviously be digital or face-to-face) and the least effective form of CPD is listening to a lecture (a traditional didactic conference).

There were two other clear themes emerging from the research for me. The first is what we expect young people to do with ICT. Globally many ICT activities in schools seem to be around low order skills rather than high order skills.

My own work on using digital technology to improve higher order skills demonstrates that this doesn’t need to be the case but we do need to do things differently.

The second thing that really stood out for me from the research is that in the same way that in Scotland the difference between ‘classroom’ to ‘classroom’ is far greater than the overall difference between ‘school’ to ‘school’. The ITL research shows us that globally we seem to have a lot of Innovative teachers but very few innovative schools. However to drive system wide change we need innovation to occur on a school wide level.

In summary - the ITL 2011 Research Report with accompanying White paper from Michael Fullan is worth a read. But the really exciting part of the research is what will come next as the next phase to examine from a strong research base how can school systems raise the achievement bar and narrow the attainment gap by making significant improvements to learning and teaching. This phase of the project will be called LEAP21 and start in early 2012 - I would love to be part of the leadership development part of this BTW!

Images: ITL Research 

Reflections from Microsoft Pil Global Forum 3 of 5 - Big Ideas for Education [#pilgf #msftpil]

On the final day of the Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum in Washington the keynote was done as a panel session. There was an opportunity to hear from Kapil Wadhera, General Manager, Education Market Platforms Group at Intel and also six educators who shared some of the work they have been doing.

I wasn’t expecting to hear anything new from Kapil Wadhera as I have been doing some work with Intel recently around their Intel Teach Program, including attending an Intel Teach Course in Poland during the summer holidays. However I liked how Wadhera used Intel’s five part Education Transformation Model of Policy, Research & Evaluation, ICT, CPD and Curriculum & Assessment and linked this to contextual examples.

For example, Wadhera’s argued that in Portugal since the introduction of the National 1:1 programme for primary age children, combined with national leadership, teacher CPD and changes to curriculum & assessment that there had been an increase of 20 points on PISA scores since 2006 in reading, maths and science.

He also linked this to economic growth. Again the Portuguese model is clever as the Intel Classmate PC's were manufactured in country. This led to 350 direct new jobs, 1500 secondary new jobs, over 2B Euro in increased economic activity.

I’m not going to talk about all six of the educators who got up and talked about the work they have been doing - all of the projects were impressive in their own way but some not replicable within a UK / Scottish Context.

I do however want to mention Diana Laufenberg’s (@dlaufenberg) presentation on ‘Experiencing and communicating the power of democracy in action’ because this is such a simple but powerful idea that could be replicated in most parts of the world.

Basically in Diana’s school district at election time they shut the school and turn it into a polling booth. For most students this means ‘a day off’ for Diana’s students this means ‘opportunity’!

The whole day become a live assignment where the young people go out into the community and live report the election day. They interview voters, interview poll workers, find out what its like to stand in the queue waiting to vote, find out what types of people vote and when.

They live tweet, record video, produce audioboos, make podcasts and discuss their findings face-to-face and over SMS. Most importantly it exposes young people to the voting process, helps them understand it and gets them excited about democracy so that when they are old enough to vote… they will!

I was in complete agreement with Diana when she talks about why the project worked so well. Basically it has all the components of good learning and teaching. It allows the student voice to co-construct learning activities by taking part in authentic experiences and sharing their stories with real audience.

The idea has been so successful that Diana has set up a website to help people who might want to replicate the project and to also share their own voter stories at http://votervoice.wordpress.com/.

If your inteested in some of Diana Laufenberg’s other work you might also like her TEDx Talk:

 

Reflections from Microsoft Pil Global Forum 2 of 5 - Big History [#pilgf #msftpil]

When I heard that the second Keynote Presentation at the 2011 Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum in Washington was going to be on History, as a geography teacher (due to our on-going rivalry!) I considered an extra hour in bed.

However, partly by coincidence (but mainly due to jet lag!) I had been up for hours so joined the 700+ other delegates for Dr David Christian’s presentation - I was so glad that I did.

David was talking about ‘Big History’ and a project that he is involved in with the Gates Foundation to create a free, on-line, global big history course for secondary school (high school) students.  I was quite captivated by his presentation and the examples that he gave.

I could explain the background to Big History but this YouTube Video that David has had made explains it a lot better than I could and in a really fun way.

What I like about David’s ideas the most is that in his own learning journey he has started to challenge what knowledge is important to teach. Like many teachers he started out teaching ‘depth’ but realised in the end that ‘breadth’ was just as important. Big History also challenges subject silos. In encourages people to take a more integrated look at science and humanities and realise that both have common ground and many parts of both curriculums are not very far apart.

I liked David’s examples of why it is important to stand back and look at things differently. Maybe without realising it his ‘Big History’ example is actually a good metaphor for what we need to be doing to reimagine teaching, learning and schools. It is certainly a great metaphor to encourage people to think differently.

He gave an example of astronauts on the Spaceship Discovery looking at the Earth and how the view of the big picture changed their language from talking about ‘my home’ and ‘my country’ to ‘our home’ and ‘our world’.

In another example he used the town of Chamonix in the French Alps and although he didn’t mention the mico-brewery (MBC) he did demonstrate the importance of looking at things from different perspectives and from different angles. He used two photographs of the Chamonix valley to illustrate this - again there is an obvious analogy here with education. We must always encourage people to look at things differently as educators where possible we should try to look at things through the eyes of a child (and if we can’t do this we need to ask).

Another example was around complexity. He illustrated beautifully that complexity exists on a number of different scales. He used two similar looking pictures to illustrate this. One turned out to be the brain tissue of a cat, while the other was a super computer simulation of a cluster of galaxies.

In the final example that I’ll mention here David illustrated actually how unimportant we are in the grand scheme of things. The picture of the Earth (its in the “what’s this” box) from Saturn shows just how small we are in comparison to the rest of the solar system, galaxy and universe.

The ‘Big History’ Course timeline, where the formation of the universe is broken down into 13 years illustrates nicely how humans have only been  around for 53 minutes and in space for 1 second. It really is all quite mind blowing!

Of course David talked a lot about history, evolution and key events as well!

But he can do a lot better job than me of explain this and I would recommend that you watch his 2011 TED Talk on Big History - the graphics are as amazing as David’s excellent story telling skills.

I was lucky enough to get a drink with David in the bar during one of the nights of the conference and he really is a fascinating man. The Big History Project is definitely one to follow with interest and I hope that we can bring it to the UK sooner rather than later. For more information see www.bighistoryproject.com

Camp Scotland @ Calderglen High School - Free CPD for Scottish Teachers [msftpil]

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Odette Frazer (DHT at Calderglen High School) has asked me to help promote this event and as I am in favour of Free CPD for Scottish Teachers I am absolutely delighted to share the details below with you. I was also lucky enough to attend the first Partners in Learning Summer Camp in Reading back in 2009 and as a result know the power of these collaborative learning experiences. Finally, I love the idea that the application form is only 140 characters long!

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Camp Scotland 

After the great success of the last three Microsoft Partners in Learning Teacher Camps, we are taking the concept on the road (to Scotland) – this is an open invitation to all Teachers in Scotland. So if you want to spend time with other innovative educators, then this is an ideal event for you.

Camp Scotland takes place at Calderglen High School, starting 10:00am on Thursday 26th and finishing 4:00pm Friday 27th January 2012.

What will I be doing at  Camp Scotland?

We will give you training in using free Microsoft software to create teaching and learning resources for the classroom. You will have time to design, create and evaluate those resources and collaborate with others. You will also get the chance to speak to experts at Microsoft about our technology. In addition you will also be learning how to deliver the same training to colleagues in your own schools. These resources will take the form of screen capture videos, which we call Innovids. You can see examples of these on the Partners in Learning YouTube Channel – www.youtube.com/innovativeteach

 

How do I apply?

We don’t want videos or lengthy biographies from you, to apply for this free event, just email three tweet-esque type statements (140 characters or less) to ofrazer [at] calderglen.s-lanark.sch.uk  before the closing date  Friday 16^th December. These statements should be ideas of how you would, or are using Microsoft technologies to support learning across the curriculum. For example:-

• using conditional formatting in Excel to help visual learners in numeracy
• using PowerPoint to create animated flicker books
• using the Songsmith to create mobile ringtones

Also include details of your school, subject expertise and pupil age range in your application. We will select 25 applicants with the most intriguing and innovative ideas, who will be notified on Friday 13^th January.

I am not an ICT teacher is it worth me applying?

Yes, most definitely, we are looking for classroom innovators in learning, rather than techie whizz kids. This event is targeted at those Teachers in Scotland interested in teaching and learning, and how technology can support that, rather than the technology itself. This event is for teachers in Primary, Secondary and Special school settings.

What will I need to bring?

We expect you to bring some of the tools you are using already:

• a headset with a microphone or Headphones and a Microphone
• a laptop running Windows Vista or Windows 7,
• Office 2007 or 2010 (not essential)
• You need to have installed and have working , Community Clips  -Freely available at http://www.officelabs.com/projects/communityclips/Pages/Default.aspx
• We will send you a list of tools to download and install when we confirm your attendance.

What will I be expected to do?

We hope that you will create two innovid resources. We will collect those resources and post them to our YouTube Channel and GLOW.

In return, we will offer you support if you wish to recreate this course in your school and you will receive a certificate welcoming you as a Partners in Learning Teacher, along with more ideas about how to enhance pupil’s learning through the use of technology.

We are looking forward to receiving your applications.

 

Reflections from Microsoft Pil Global Forum 1 of 5 - Anthony Salcito Keynote [#pilgf #msftpil]

There is no doubt that Anthony Salcito (Vice-President Microsoft Worldwide Education) can deliver an inspiring corporate keynote. In my opinion he is one of the best people occupying this space at the moment. He is able to get a near perfect blend of inspiring vision, corporate messages and product launch into a seamless and well-polished presentation. If this wasn’t enough he also showed me how to use the lift in the hotel which had been confusing me for several minutes before he came along (the floor buttons were on the outside!).

Anyway, Salcito did the opening keynote at the Partners in Learning Worldwide Forum in Washington and I want to pick up on some of the points that he mentioned and link them to the current UK / Scotland context.

Early in presentation Salcito show a couple of classic pictures of the ‘old’ classroom and the ‘new’ classroom. I’ve used similar illustrations in the past the and the point is that firstly, many classrooms and much classroom practice have not changed for over 100 years and secondly, that there is no point in flooding a classroom with technology if you are just going enslave the technology (and the children) to the same traditional methodologies.

I belive that technology has the potential to transform learning and teaching in the same way that it has already transformed how we work, play, socialise and shop - but we still have a long way to go.

A common question that I get at this stage is, ‘does it actually matter?’ if we don’t transform learning, teaching and schools. The simple response to this is that in the past, ‘no it didn’t matter’. The reason for this was regardless of who you were taught by, how we assessed you, what exam results you left school or college with - in the UK you could always pretty much be guaranteed getting a job.

This is why some countries have very traditional education systems, get very good results (because they assess children to their own standards) and have very high employment and GDP. They won’t change their education systems (yet) because from an economic point of view there is no real need to (from a boredom point of view there probably is!) - the problem is that these systems are often not sustainable.

Unfortunately in the UK I belive we have become quite entranced in traditional methodology and the prospects of getting a job for young people are increasingly difficult. Youth unemployment is currently as an all time high and although there are jobs globally I believe that we are currently not doing a very good job of preparing our young people to take the opportunities that exist.

Salcito picked up on this point in his keynote, where he touched on his six global education trends that he has noticed from his work with Governments and Ministrys.

The trends are: 

• A general recognition that there needs to be more innovative practice in the classroom and that classrooms / learning spaces need to change.
• That one of the goals for education has to be relevant employability skills and workforce readiness.
• Doing more with less is a reality and this means doing things differently.
• There is a real urgency to drive change (probably linked to future economic reality).
• Curriculums must become more personalised.
• A realisation that we are currently in a digital content revolution.

The question of course is how is technology making a difference and I liked the slide that Salcito used to illustrate this. It shows quite nicely where we have come from in the UK and most importantly where we need to go. From the traditional, through the automated age to an age of transformation.

 

It is the access age that interests me. I believe that in UK we will move to ubiquitous 1:1 (one computer per child) learning environments within the next 5 - 10 years. Why? Well, regardless of whether I think it is a good idea or not (and I do BTW) pretty much every other country in the world is already considering this paradigm shift. Which means that politically the UK will probably be pressured into doing it. Some countries such as Portugal, Turkey and Venezuela are already amongst the first early adopters.

The prospect of 1:1 actually scares me a lot as I also think in the UK we have thousands of teachers who are not ready for this. I can back up this statement with my own work where I have seen schools that have been transformed with 1:1 and schools that have moved backwards are regressed because of the same initiatives. Good pedegogical practice and classroom action reaserch is the key here.

This is why Salcitos model of education change is so important. If we move to 1:1 environments there is a danger of slipping back to or never breaking away from the ‘Automation Age’ where we carry out traditional learning activities using digital technology (eBooks and poor use of Interactive Whiteboards are a good example of this).

I think what we actually need to do is ignore the ‘Access Age’ (it will happen by itself - with a little bit of prodding) and concentrate on the ‘Holistic Transformation’ Stage. This is the age of data driven personalisation, learning analytics, seamless collaboration, rich meta-tagged content, stage-not-age assessment and technology enhanced reflective practice. It is these components within the holistic transformation stage that will make 1:1 transformational within a learning context and make the ‘Access Age’ relevant rather than regressive.

The last part of Salcito's model is also interesting. But to sum it up for me the future is about true personalisation of learning and technology such as constant connectivity, natural language translation, changes in user interface will help us achieve this.

There are lots of things that schools / governments should consider when it comes to personalisation. These include:

Competency Based Schedule - this is stage-not-age. Something we are not very good at in the UK as we tend to get differentiation confused with personalisation. The key here is to allow children to develop socially with their peers but allow them to progress their academic and vocational interests with their equals (a school orchestra is a good example of where this already happens).

Dynamic Content Store - making sure that all learners have access to good learning materials. The challenge here with the explosion of digital content is to make sure that we give young people the skills to navigate, find and evaluate content that is suitable for them.

Flexible Subject Choice - young people should not be deprived of taking a structured learning course just because there is no teacher in the school to deliver the course material to the student. On-line learning can help us here - but structures on-line learning is actually very hard so we need to make sure that young people are equipped to learning on line as part of their broad general education.

Re-thinking traditional classrooms - different people learn different things in different ways. Learning space design needs to be flexible, agile and constantly surprising. It should include on-line as well as physical places. Learning should not (and never actually has been) confined to school buildings.

Playful Learning - learning should be fun and fun things can be hard as well. We have a lot to learn from the world of games and play to make learning more engaging, real and relevant.

 

Technology obviously plays a part in all of the above but we also can not forget that true personalisation of learning comes from a teacher knowing an individual child well. Even though I am convinced that the role of the teacher will continue to evolve over then next 20+ years as they become learning guides, critical learning friends and learning coaches. We must never forget that personal touch and bond that all the best teachers have between their students.  

Thanks for making me think Anthony…

 

(You might also be interested in this Merlin John Interview with Anthony Salcito that was also captured at the World Forum)

 

Lord David Puttnam of Queensgate - Keynote Speech at The Schools Network

I heard Lord Puttnam speak at the Guardian Innovation Conference a couple of weeks ago. At the time I didn’t get a chance to make many notes (I was finishing my own presentation!) but I have just watched /listened to his keynote speech at the Schools Network Conference from last week.

As always Lord Puttnam raises some important points, is challenging of our current education system and the direction that we seem to be moving in. If you have a chance his speech is worth a listen and also his responses to the lively question and answer session after his talk.

You can watch Lord Puttnam’s presentation on The Schools Network Website.

 

Some key points from Puttnams speech were:

• Thoughts on China including how learning from the past is the key to not making the same mistakes in the future (particularly around internal conflict).

• A recent OEDC report suggests that if the UK could equal the education performance of Finland. Then in one generation it could becomes £4500 billon richer.

• The importance of voice recognition technology in the future and how this links to education. David, also mentions the pedagogical significance of this in the classroom. 

• The importance of coding and how this is a fundamental skill needed to understand ICT in the modern age. Computer science is an essential skill in the 21^st century. If we ignore this opportunity then the only certainly is that we won’t be able to compete in a global market.

• If all we do with technology is use it to do the digital versions of the same things than it is unlikely that we will get transformational change.

• No education system can be better than the quality of the teachers that it employs.

• Teacher training is a continuous process. 

• We must find a better and more consistent ways to engage with parents.

• A world-class education system and only a world-class education system can deliver a world-class health service.

• Lets stop putting things in the ‘too difficult’ draw.

• We need to stop squabbling and start digging ourselves out of the mess we have got ourselves in - education is the key to this.

 

Alan Novembers speech is also worth a watch.

Google Maps for Android help map the indoors [Idea]

I was really interested to read about the latest Google Map Android developments last week. Basically they have made it very easy to create indoor maps within Google Maps. You simply up-load your floor plan and then locate the floor plan within the Google Maps Satellite imagery.

It is surprising easy to do as long as you have a good floor plan! I’m sure it won’t be long until you can also add directions within this feature. That of course leads to all sorts of possibilities to help search for things around buildings and to help you get to places within large open spaces. This of course includes schools and learning spaces.

Possibilities include:

• Mapping the inside of your school - scope for transition activities, new students or visitors to the school (eg: to attend sport fixture)
• Parents night app - to help parents find there way around
• Your school timetable as a map (linked to the calendar functionality and other features of your device)

More about indoor maps in this YouTube Video below or visit the Google Floor Plans Page:

Now if your really interested in what can be done with Maps then you need to make sure that you watch this 8min TED Talk (February 2010) from Blaise Aguera y Arcas on Microsoft augmented-reality maps. The second half still blows my mind!

 

Google Model Your Town in 3D [great school project / competition opportunity]

This would be a great and real project to do with a class of young people (any anyone who was interested) between now and the end of February 2012.

The Google Model Your Town Competition is about geo-modeling – making photo-textured models of real-life buildings that appear in Google Earth. It is open to people all over the world - last year the winner was from Lima, Peru.

Making 3D models is easy using Google SketchUp or Google Building Maker and you can find out more about creating 3D models by looking a Google’s Your World in 3D Pages.

More information about the completion in the YouTube Video below:

Image: Lighthouse on the Isle of May, Firth of Forth, Scotland (a nice sea kayak trip - but not on a day like today!)

Reflections from Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum in Washington DC [#pilgf #msftpil]

It has been a whirlwind few months of travel, work and projects and I’m conscious that I need to catch up on writing this website and sharing my learning reflections. It has just been really busy!

Anyway, I haven’t forgotten about my promise of notes on digital skills and Higher Order Thinking and I’ll get round to this before Christmas. But I wanted to first reflect on the Microsoft Global Partners in Learning Forum that I attended in Washington DC at the start of November.

I attended as a Judge and here are my initial reflections that I have already posted over on the UK Teachers Partners in Learning Blog.

 

The text below is a cross-post...

I’ve been involved with and a member of the Microsoft Partners in Learning Community since 2006. I became more heavily involved in 2009 as UK, European and Worldwide award winner for my use of computer games to enhance learning activities and to develop social interaction.

Since 2009 I have continued to support the programme in a number of ways and this has included being a judge for the UK forum and also in Berlin for the 2010 European forum. I was honoured to be asked to be a judge for the 2011 Worldwide forum this year in Washington DC.

Being a judge is hard. Not only because of the accountability and responsibility that the role brings but also because of the cross sector and cross culture of projects that have to be evaluated. Being a judge is however a complete privilege and you get to meet and talk to some of the most innovative teachers in the world. Many of these teachers are working in very difficult circumstances to deliver the best possible outcomes for children and young people.

This year I judged projects from USA, Brazil, Nigeria, Germany, Ecuador, New Zealand, Canada and Chile. In there own way they were all outstanding often providing solutions to enhance learning where there were particular issues and local circumstances.

With over 180 projects to judge there were 40+ judges at the Worldwide Event and I am sure co-ordinating such a bunch of opinionated people is not an easy task. But Deirdre Butler (Ireland), Kirsten Panton (Denmark) and Jacques Denies (Belgium) did a great job of keeping us all in line as well as sharing valuable expertise from their own personal experiences as educators and past judges.

Before the judging started we had two days of training to make sure that everyone understood the process and that we shared a common language. I was also delighted that this year the judging criteria was more linked to the emerging Innovative Teaching and Learning Research that has been conducted by Maria Langworthy and her team and funded by Partners in Learning.

As a judge you work with two other judges from other parts of the world. For the Washington event I was teamed up with Philip Walker (Australia) and also Gabi Barna (Romania) both who have an amazing track record of transforming classrooms and contributing to system wide change.

The judging process is as follows. First of all you look at the submitted Virtual Classroom Tours (VCT) for each of the participants. This helps you get an overview of the project. Next you discuss the VCTs with your judging team, share your thoughts and your questions about the impact of the work and the teacher. Then individually to visit each of your projects and there is a chance for the teacher to give you a pitch and for you to ask questions on impact, assessment, collaboration, etc. You discuss your interviews with your judges team and then individually fill in your score cards. Each score card has a very robust rubric associated with it. The results are then cross checked and moderated by the senior judges is necessary.

Although all of the projects we judged were very good. I was lucky enough to judge two of the first place winners.

Chris Clay (New Zealand) received first place in the extending learning across the classroom category for his project “Linking Educational Accomplishments to Real-World Needs”. Chris created an online community that connects more than 140 teachers and students across New Zealand to tackle real-world biological challenges. Utilizing technology, students develop collaboration, critical-thinking, problem-solving, communication and digital literacy skills, as well as a love for learning.

A team from the United States made up of Doug Bergman, Johnny Kissko, Louis Zulli, Donna Thomas and Margaret Noble recived first place in the collaboration category for their project “When Fish Fly”.Their students worked together across time-zones and state boarders to integrate computer science, fine arts, business and economics. Student design teams developed a dynamic motion-based game simulation for Kinect for Xbox 360 that replicates the sights, sounds, history and “sense of place” of Pike Place Fish Co. in Seattle.

A complete list of all of the 2011 winners can be found on this Microsoft Press Release. Including our winner from the UK (Wales) Gareth Ritter who is doing some amazing work with technology and music.

As well a judging I had the opportunity to attend the keynote presentations from Anthony Salcito (Vice President for Microsoft Education) and also David Christian. Davids work with Microsoft and the Gates Foundation on ‘Big History’ is defiantly going to be worth watching over the next 12 months (I'll come back to this as a sepertae post).

Overall a stunning event and huge thank you to my traveling companions Ian Stuart (Islay High School), Tony McDaid (Calderglen High School), Ben Rowe (Saltash.net), Gareth Ritter and Jen Blum (our two UK European Award winners) and finally Stuart Ball and Steve Beswick (from Microsoft). Thank you!

Most photos: Ian Stewart