OllieBray.com

Rising Stars Essentials: ICT [Book Review for Merlin John Online]

"Practical, professional problem solving for primary teachers" is how Rising Stars Essentials: ICT, written by Ian Addison and published by Rising Stars in association with the Guardian Teachers Network, describes itself. And it lives up to the promise.

As well as Ian's writing, the paperback publication also contains contributions from a number of well-known UK bloggers and tweeters involved in ICT in education, including Tom Barrett, Miles Berry, David Rogers, Mark Warner and Julian Wood.

Read my full review over on Merlin John Online and leave any comments about the over there as well!

Social Media in Education [Free eBook] - supported by #Bloxx

So much is written in the press about the negative use of technology (in particular social media) and young people. Yet technology and social media has become such an integrated and important part of our lives. We see ‘tweets’ on the television, read facts on Facebook and gather information on Google+.

In the past 24 months social media has toppled governments, helped us rescue flood victims and delivered us both localised and international news in almost real-time.

Social media is both powerful and purposeful yet its full potential is still to be realised in education. How can it be used to transform our classrooms in the same ways that it has transformed many other aspects of our lives?

As you might know I've been doing a lot of work on this recently (partly linked to the SMILE project) and now in partnership with my friends at Bloxx we have turned lots of these blog ramblings into one easy reference guide / eBook.

It is free and you can request a download from here.

Exploring People and Society (Level 4) - Now Available

If you have ever been involved in writing books you will know that it is always nice to get your hands on the final product. In the week our family of books to support CfE Level 3 and Level 4 in Social Subjects became complete with the arrival of Hodder Gibson Exploring People and Society CfE Level 4 written by Gemma Ritchie.

I had the job of writing the thematic chapter at the end of the book which is on fast-food! and the final editing of the series. You can see all six books in our award winning set here. 

Dynamic Learning (inclusing the excellent lesson planning tool) is also now available for the Level 3 serise. 

 

 

Exploring People and the Past (Level 4) - Now Available

If you have ever been involved in writing books you will know that it is always nice to get your hands on the final product.

There was a definite history theme in the air yesterday as not only did we announce Scotland participation in the Big History Project but I also got my hands on the new Hodder Gibson Exploring People and the Past CfE Level 4 Social Subjects Textbook  written by Ed Offer.

I had the job of writing the thematic chapter at the end of the book and editing the series. The People and Place textbook was published earlier in the year and the People and Society textbook will be available soon.

Exploring People and Place (Level 4) - Now Available

I find writing education textbooks hard - but I do enjoy the challenge.

Today, I finally got my hands on a hard copy of my latest book Exploring People and Place (Level 4). It is the follow up to the Level 3 book that we published this time last year. Both books have been designed and written to support the learners understand the experiences and outcomes of Scotland new curriculum.

The main sections are:

• Coasts
• Tsunamis
• Water (including a good section on the bottled water industry)
• Food and Agriculture (A nice picture of some cooked guinea pigs on page 32)
• More about Scotland (follow up from Level 3 book)
• Weather
• Globalization (including mobile phone in Ghana, Film Crews in Dominica and laptops in Portugal)
• Climate Change

Take a ‘look inside’ on Amazon if your interested.

Interesting Infographics (part 2) 3 of 5 - "Open Source Textbooks"

This is part of a series of posts showcasing some interesting infographics that are available on the web. For more information on infographics have a look here and for some of the problems with using infographics graphics have a look here.

Part Two of this series mostly focuses on Infographics that illustrate the US Education System - but I think there is valuable learning and questions they raise about the UK Education System as well.

Today's infographic is on "Open Source Books" (original source)

Open Textbooks is a new paradigm that is beginning to emerge and is becomeing increasing popular in the US (particularly Califonia I think?). It gives the option for students to print books on demand or download free digital copies at the fraction of the cost of a normal textbook price. As you can imagine there is some oposition - but it is an interenting model. 

If your interested in Open Source Books then WikiBooks is not a bad place to start.

Thanks to Tony Shin for sending me the link.

Is a broken down car parked?

I’ve just finished reading “Why do I need a teacher when I’ve got Google?” by Ian Gilbert. I’ve been a big fan of Ian’s work and writing for a while. To me he has mastered the mix of common since, intelligence and humor and uses stories really well to explain his thinking and education arguments.

There is lots to talk about from the book and I would definitely recommend reading it to anyone who is interested in the idea of learning schools rather than teaching schools.

Ian is also a real advocate for getting children to think deeply and develop higher order thinking skills. One techniques that I absolutely loved from his books was the concept of ‘Thunks’.

“ ‘Thunks’ are deceptively tricky little questions that ‘make your brain go ouch!’ “

 

Ian's examples of ‘Thunks’ include:

• ‘Is a broken down car parked?’
• ‘If you read a newspaper in the newsagents without paying for it, is it stealing?’
• ‘Do all polo’s taste the same?’
• ‘Can you be proud of someone you have never met?’
• ‘Is a hole a thing?’

Loads more examples of 'thunks' on the Independent Thinking website and at www.thunks.co.uk and to see Ian talking about them in a lot better detail than I ever could have a look at his TEDx Dubai talk (embedded below).

Mike Matas: A next-generation digital book

I enjoyed this TED Video of Mike Matas talking about a next generation digital book for the iPad. Worth 4 minutes of your life if your interneted in that sort of thing. Looks like from the end of the video the company Mike is working for (Push Pop Press) are developing an SDK to make it easier produce very media rich content.

The Golden Spruce: A true story of myth, madness and greed

 

I first heard about the story of the Golden Spruce from Jowi Taylor. Jowi is a radio broadcaster for Canada’s CBC Radio but he is famous for the creation of the "Six-String Nation Guitar" called Voyageur. I heard Jowi tell the remarkable story of Voyageur when I was over in Toronto at the Quest Conference last year.

Voyageur the guitar made from 63 pieces of Canadian history and heritage representing many different cultures, communities and characters from all across the country. At the time I was transfixed listening to Jowi tell the story of how he had sourced all of the pieces over a two year period and the individual significance and uniqueness of each one.

I was particularly interested in the front of the guitar that had come from Kiidk'yaas, also known as the Golden Spruce. The Golden Spruce was a Sitka Spruce tree, that grew on the banks of the Yakoun River in Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), British Columbia. The interesting thing about it is that It had a rare genetic mutation causing its needles to be golden in colour. The tree was sacred to the people of Haida Gwaii and globally a very unique tree.

On January 22, 1997, a 48-year-old logging engineer named Grant Hadwin surreptitiously felled the tree as a political statement against industrial logging companies. He was later arrested, but disappeared on his way to trial (he was  kayaking there).

I’ve just finished reading John Vaillants book ‘The Golden Spruce: A true story of myth, madness and greed’ which tell the story of Hadwin how he loved the forest, made his living from it and then become increasing concerned as the world that he loved became overlogged. The book goes on to tell the story of the sadness which pushed Hadwin to such a desperate act of destruction - a bizarre environmental protest which can easily act as a metaphor for the challenges the world faces today.

Also just like any interesting story there is a twist.

Hadwin, who disappeared under suspicious circumstances (he was sea kayaking to his trial) remains missing to this day.

Anyway, an interesting read if you get the chance and the story of the six string nation guitar is pretty interesting as well.

Exploring People and Place Textbook wins SAGT Award

The new series of social subjects textbooks that I edited for Hoddar Gibson to support the Curriculum for Excellence at Level 3 seem to have been fairly well received by Scottish teachers.

I contributed to all three books on the thematic learning chapter and authored the Exploring People and Place Book. Its nice to see the finished product and it was even nicer to pick up an award for the book at the recent Scottish Association of Geography Teachers Annual Conference.

Thank you judges.