OllieBray.com

1:1 Learning: Myth 4 – 1:1 is the best ratio for learning [only some of the time!]

This is part of a series of posts that document some of my personal thoughts on some of the myths surrounding 1:1 learning (one device per learner) and 1:1 deployments in schools and school systems.

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Myth 4 – 1:1 is the best ratio for learning

I can’t disagree that 1:1 isn’t a good ratio BUT sometimes other ratios are a lot more appropriate. Just because you have the capacity for 1:1 in your school doesn’t mean that it is the best ratio to use all of the time.

Indeed, when we look at learning from 3 years to 18 years a significant amount of thought needs to go into when you would like to achieve 1:1 (if you do at all). This is particularly the case when you don’t work within a 3 – 18 school. I know of a number of examples where 1:1 has been integrated successfully and purposefully in the upper primary (elementary) school yet when the children move to secondary (high) school this provision has not been continued and as a result has a regressive impact on learning.

So, what are the optimum ratios? In short, there is no easy answer to this. It really depends on what it is you are trying to achieve. But it is important to remember that sometimes 1:many (one device for many learners) is fine and that there is absolutely nothing wrong with a lecture style presentation.

Of course the advantage of learners having their own device in this type of environment means that they can provide feedback and ask questions during the presentation (sometime referred to back channeling). Devices can also be used to follow up links that the presenter has mentioned – these can be bookmarked for exploration at a later date or quickly shared with others across social networking spaces. One important consideration during this type of environment is that this type of interaction, although powerful, does not come naturally to young people – it is a skill that is required to be taught and practiced if it is going to have any real impact.

As well as 1:many, there are also lots of examples when 1:3/4/5 (one device for three, four or five learners) might be appropriate. These are all good ratios to support collaborative learning and group work. Tablet technology can have a real advantage here.

There is something about children working around a tablet device that seems to make it more collaborative – could it be that in physical collaborative learning scenarios the screen can actually act as a barrier to learning. Despite their cost the role of the Interactive Table should also not be underestimated in developing collaboration and problem solving skills.

Research from my genius of a friend Professor Sugata Mitra (University of Newcastle) and others has also proved time-and-time again that 1:2 (one device for two learners) is also another great ratio for learning (particularly for younger children). It’s small enough to allow opportunities for children to get time on the computer without arguing who should be in the driving seat BUT it also allows dialogue and conversation between children as they work to solve real world problems and consolidate their learning tasks.

Of course the nice thing about having 1:1 (one device for each learner) is that all of the above can be achieved but children can also work with their own device where appropriate. 

Photo: Fearghal Kelly

Now, in my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes that is often made in 1:1 deployments is that people aim for a 1:1 ratio and provide teacher professional development for learning and teaching at this ratio.

Of course (particularly for older children – but increasing younger ones as well) the real ratio that we should be aiming for is at least 2:1 (two devices for each learner). I see this more and more in the forward thinking progressive schools and systems that I have the pleasure to work in from time-to-time.

In this scenario, learners are supported by a main device (it could be a desktop, laptop, netbook, hybrid or tablet) and their handheld (normally their phone).

Many of the people reading this article will probably already work this way. For example, I’m writing this blog post on my Laptop (my choice is to use a keyboard for extended writing) but I’ve got an eye on twitter on my iPad that is next to me and 5 minutes ago I replied to a text message on my mobile phone.

Another recent example is from when I checked into a hotel for a conference in Stockholm last week.

The wifi voucher that I was given by the hotel receptionist allowed me to connect 5 personal devices to the hotel network.

Now, I only had 3 with me (laptop, tablet & phone) but that is not the point – the point is in the business word and increasingly in the education world we are required to be connected by a variety of devices most of the time, in order to do the tasks we are set (and set ourselves) to the maximum efficiency.

 

As you start to develop 1:1 learning scenarios in your school / system don’t forget to develop other scenarios in parallel that involve other ratios and other types of technology integration. 

 

1:1 Learning: Myth 3 – 1:1 Computing Improves Standards [complete nonsense!]

This is part of a series of posts that document some of my personal thoughts on some of the myths surrounding 1:1 learning (one device per learner) and 1:1 deployments in schools and school systems.

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Myth 3 – 1:1 Computing Improves Standards

Nonsense! Only good learning and teaching improves standards.

A poor teacher with great technology will still not deliver the results that our children deserve.

However, I truly believe that a good or excellent teacher, who is committed to professional learning and who is supported by great technology has the potential to transform lives. It is also important to remember that technology is only part of any model for educational transformation.

Now, there are lots of models of educational transformation available, they are all high level and they are all useful up to a point. Lets take the Intel model of education transformation as an example – as this is the one that I have been working with the most recently.

In this model for transformation to occur a number of things need to exist in equal parts.

First you need good policy (at national, local and school level) this is the bit that gives teachers and school leaders permission to transform education. A key failing of most education policy is that people don’t actually understand the policy or have time to read them. Good education policy must contain specific objectives as well as higher level strategic advice. In short, people need to know which way they are aiming!

Good policy also gives permission to develop the curriculum and assessment methodology. Again the two must match up. You can’t have high level policy that talks about preparing children for life in the 3^rd millennium and then develop a curriculum that re-invents something from the past and its only way of verifying children’s learning is by a hand written assessment when they are about to leave school – this just does not make sense.

Policy, curriculum and new assessment methodology must be based on sound academic and action research. But it must also be based on local need.

Evaluation must be on-going at a system, state and local level. Most of this type of resource should be put into evaluation at a local level – rather than a state or system level that it is at the moment. While comparing one country to another country through standard measures such as PISA might be important to politicians – what is actually going on in the classroom must remain the most important thing.

Technology integration should be seen at a number of levels but also people need to understand it can fulfill a variety of purposes. The following purposes are not inclusive but people need to understand that technology has a number of roles in educational transformation.

Firstly, the use of technology as a pedagogical methodology to support teaching and learning across the curriculum. Good technology integration is not just about up-grading computing labs. See my work on Exciting Learning.

Secondly, the use of technology to track learning, report to parents, improve the productivity & running of a school and to share data with others. Working at a conference with Michal Fullan recently I heard him say he thinks that school improvement can be sped up by at least 20% through good technology integration. I think he is right.

Thirdly, the use of technology to deliver appropriate rich digital content to learners. This content, where possible, should support local curriculum and national standards. Modern IT delivery systems should allow for personalization, guided learning and structured courses – all of which are appropriate at different times of a learners journey.

Fourthly, the use of technology to support assessment and evaluation (see above). Unfortunately, many technology solutions only cater for summative assessment. BUT, good technology integration can also be incredibly powerful in supporting formative assessment as well.

Lastly, the use of technology to support teacher professional development.

Teacher Professional Development (or Professional Learning) is another important aspect of educational transformation. In some systems technology integration (particularly around 1:1) have not been as successful as they could have been because of a lack of training for teachers (Thailand for example). Where others systems, such as Macedonia, built in robust training programs from the start.

It is also important to remember that professional learning doesn’t have to be face-to-face. Good professional development like any good learning needs to be blended and should include a combination of face-to-face, online, large group and personalized learning experiences. It is also important to remember that learning and teaching looks very different in a 1:1 environment than a traditional classroom environment. Educators need early support here to stop the technology becoming a distraction to rather than an improvement to learning.

In short, before any major investment in technology you need to be absolutely sure what it is you are trying to do. If your aim is to raise standards – what standards are you trying to raise and why? If improved use of technology the best way to do this do you have the policy, research, curriculum, assessment methodology and professional development in place to reach your objectives. If not your project is likely to fail.

Social Media and New Technology in Education from @SMWGlasgow [Video]

Social Media Week in Glasgow earlier in the month was all about reflecting on the global impact of social media and its role as a catalyst in driving cultural, political, economic and social change.

Of course I also believe that Social Media has a real place and evolving purpose in education. In particular how social media can be used to develop whole school communication, improve learning and teaching and enhance professional development.

Sponsored by Facebook I did some work recently for the EUN recently where we looked at the role of Social Media in Learning and Education (SMILE). One of the outputs of my work was a professional development eLearning course for European Teachers and Head Teachers on the use of Social Media in Schools.

More on SMILE later in the week but for now I wanted to share with you the talk that I was asked to give at Social Media Week Glasgow. It was called The New Learning Landscape: Social Media and New Technology in Education and was sponsored by Bloxx.

The main points that I covered were:

• Why use social media?
• Cultural Relevance
• Real Time Data
• Collaboration
• Communication
• Data Collection
• Audience
• Professional Development
• It’s not going away

The talk was written up by Delesia Watson and you can read what she thought over on the Glasgow Socila Media Week Blog.

The presentation was also filmed and live streamed, you can watch it here if your interested:

I’ve also add the presentation link to ‘OB TV’ which is an evolving archive of my various talks and presentations from around the web. Its part of the general tidy up to olliebray.com that is going on at the moment. 

Taking Risks with Leadership, Learning and Teaching (4 of 5): "The solution is in the problem"

This is the fourth in a series of articles about taking risks with Education Leadership, Learning and Teaching. The articles are based around a workshop that I have been doing with the same name for Scottish Local Authorities and the EIS.

I have never forgotten the story that Cliff Dennett told me a few years ago at the Scottish International Summer School for School Leadership.

“The solution is in the problem"

He illustrated it with this story that I have re-told hundreds of times over the last few years. The story goes like this...

• Two countries are at war but they have not engaged in conflict for many years.

• The two countries are separated by a range of mountains.

• The reason that there has been no conflict for years is because a radar dish is placed on top of one of the mountains. It allows both sides to monitor each other.

• But there is a problem. The mountains are high and in the winter time the snow falls on the radar disk making it heavier. When the snow becomes really heavy the pole snaps.

• When the pole snaps communication goes down, neither country feel safe which leads to anxiety and war has the potential to break out.

 

So, how do you solve the problem?

There are obviously lots of answers and over time people have suggested a variety of solutions, such as:

1) Heat the satellite dish - the problem is this isn’t very sustainable.

2) Adjust the angle of the dish - the problem is this isn’t very adaptable.

3) Clear the snow - the problem is this is a quick fit not a solution to the problem.

4) Declare peace - a solution but one that will take time (a bit like a curriculum reform!).

The interesting thing of course that many of the most common solutions offered are actually quite complicated. They involve things like a new power supply, logistics, lots of people, diplomacy and international politics.

The key is to remember “the solution is in the problem”:

"The satellite pole snaps because of the weight of the snow. The snow is caused by the change of temperature. The problem is the drop in temperature".

If "the solution is in the problem," how can the decrease in temperature be part of the solution?

 

The solution - fill the satellite pole with water.

As the temperature drops the water freezes and the pole gets stronger. As the temperature increases the snow melts (removing the problem) and the water un-freezes. 

I have no idea is this is a true story but I like the simplicity of the idea and have always belived that we can learn a lot from stories.

Now, although I agree with “The solution is in the problem” statement. I think the biggest challenge that we face in education is that we often don’t actually realize what the real problem is and therefore it is very difficult to find the solution.

Curriculum reform is quite a good example of this. People assume the problem is the actual ‘curriculum reform’ or ‘resourcing’ or ‘professional development’ or ‘the children they teach’.

But actually it is not. Most curriculum reforms fail not because of the policy, the funding, the CPD or the children. They fail because of the inability of adults to get on with one another, work together and because many education leaders try to control rather than empower their school community.

So, if the problem is people then the solution also has to be people - perhaps people need to change or at least realize that things are only going to get more challenging in UK education and society.

I think we really need to start working better together and fast!

In the next post in this serise I'll pick up on some further consideration for risk taking in education.

Technologies for Learning Strategy - Literature Reviews

Now the Scottish election is over its full steam ahead with the work on the Scottish Government Technologies for Learning Strategy. Along with Glow Futures and commitment to the Interconnect 2.0 the development and publication of the Technologies for Learning Stratgey is a commitment in the SNP manifesto.

As part of this work last week we published some of the literature reviews that were competed to inform the reserch phase of the strategy.

They are:

• Scottish Education Autorities ICT Policies - Roddy Stewart
• The Impact of Technology on Learning and Teaching - Bob Hill
• Technologies for Career Long CPD - David Noble

You can download and comment on all three documents over on the Strategy Project Blog.

Culture, Careers, Credibility and CfE: Why Internet Safety and Responsible Use is Everyone’s Responsibility (#ISRU11)

 
All of the keynote presentations from last weeks LTS / Scottish Government Internet Safety and Responsible Use Conference are now up on-line over on the conference website.

These presentations include:

• Adam Ingram, MSP (Minister for Children and Families) - Ministerial Address

• Helen King (Head of Education at CEOP) - Protecting young people on-line

• Josie Fraser (Leicester City Council) - Digital Identity and Young People (this is a must watch presentation)

My own presentation was titled Culture, Careers, Credibility and CfE: Why Internet Safety and Responsible Use is Everyone’s Responsibility. I've embedded it below for interest and as always would welcome any feedback.

Ollie Bray Keynote from ISRU Conference2 on Vimeo.

Further workshop presentations and other links will be added to the conference website over the next week.

 

Technologies for Learning - Introduction

 

I’ve pretty much spent most of the last six years of my life thinking about Technologies for Learning. I’ve seen with my own eyes what a difference the appropriate use of technology can make in our classrooms. But the thing that frustrates me the most is that it seems to me that in the majority of our UK schools the use of technology still has tremendous untapped potential. 

I finally got round to jotting down some of my thoughts and feeling on this at the weekend. They are currently all sitting as six unfinished blog posts on my laptop. I’m writing this post to introduce them and to publically commit to finishing them. 

I’ll talk about some emerging issues, professional development, leadership, digital entitlement, provision of hardware and learning spaces. I’ll be writing in a UK context rather than just a Scottish one.  As always my thoughts and writing are my own and I apologies in advance if I offend anyone!

More to follow…

Reflections from LTS Internet Safety and Responsible Use Conference – [#ISRU11]

On Wednesday in partnership with the Scottish Government Learning and Teaching Scotland ran a Conference on Internet Safety and Responsible Use. Over 150 delegates including early years practitioners, primary teachers, secondary teachers, school leaders, QIOs, community education, the police and representatives from national bodies all assembled at Stirling Management Centre for what can only be described as an outstanding conference. Or as Simon Finch from the National Education Network put it, “If Carlsberg did esafety conferences…”

We were lucky enough to have Adam Ingram, MSP the Scottish Minister for Children and Families open the conference. He also took the opportunity to launch the second year of the Scottish Governments Action Plan on Child Internet Safety and Responsible Use. Just like last year I was delighted that the Scottish Action plan (unlike some areas of the UK) has responsible use in the title.

Keynote presentations were then provided by Helen King, Head of Education at CEOP and Josie Fraser, Leicester City Council. Helen’s presentation touched on sexting and she took an opportunity to show the new CEOP sexting film that was launched on Safer Internet Day 2011.

Josie focused on Digital Identity and Young People. One of her quotes really sticks in my head, ‘If your not managing your own digital identity on-line someone else is doing it for you’. She is of course absolutely right.

Delegates also had an opportunity to attend a variety of workshops. You can see the full list that was on offer here.

I was lucky enough to attend Simon Finch's workshop on Safeguarding for All that had a particular emphasis on some of the Internet Safety and Responsible Use Issues for children with additional support needs. In the afternoon I attended Penny Patterson’s Presentation on Internet Safety and Responsible Use Issues for Early Years and Childminders.

I hope to find time to write more about my learning from the conference over the next week. The good news is that all of the keynotes were recorded and we also managed to get video footage of most of the workshops as well. Presenters slides are available over on the conference website and we are working hard in the background to get the video material up-loaded.

Photo: SimFin

One additional resource that we had at the conference was Graham Ogilvie – Graham captured the conference in cartoons. 20 of the key messages are currently being drawn up and will be available to anyone who wishes to use these outstanding illustrations to deliver their own professional development opportunities.

From a personal point of view I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone that was involved in Wednesdays event. I’ve been pushing this agenda for a long time now and although we continue to take small steps I remain positive about future work. 

Scotland’s Digital Future: A Strategy for Scotland [document]

Scotland’s Digital Future: A Strategy for Scotland was launched on March 3^rd by Fiona Hyslop, MSP, Minister for Culture and External Affairs.

It is good to see that the Scottish Government Technologies for Learning Strategy (one of my current streams of work) getting a mention on page 25 and also a commitment from the Government in one of the action points that the future Technologies for Learning Strategy will align with the aspirations of Scotland’s Digital Future.

Also good to see a commitment that the delivery of schools broadband infrastructure will be considered at the same time as the wider public sector. Schools often are treated as ‘stand alone’ and separate and it is so important that if we really want to drive financial efficiencies with broadband infrastructure that they are considered an important part of the wider public sector.

Overall I think this is a fairly pleasing document although it’s disappointing to see that schools and education are not mentioned in the ‘digital economy’ section of the report? If Scotland is serious about a future digital economy then we need to home grow our future digital talent and this needs to start with early education.

You can download Scotland’s Digital Future: A Strategy for Scotland from the Scottish Government website.

Scottish Government Technologies for Learning Strategy Literature Review Research [#TforL]

This piece is cross-posted on the Scottish Government Technologies for Learning Strategy Website.

We see a review of literature as a vital part of the work we are doing to develop the technologies for learning strategy. I wrote about the possible themes for the literature review on the 23rd of Novermber. Thank you for all your feedback by blog comments and email.

Of course, the problem with any literature review is that is only as good as the literature that you review in the first place. There is so much good stuff out there it is often impossible to track it all down.

That is where we are going to need your help. We don’t want to miss anything out and we have a tiny budget to carry out this aspect of the work. The only way forward is to crowd source some of the literature and then find someone nice to help us review it…

What is the point of doing this?

Simple really, if your reading this blog post you will probably already believe that ICT in Education and Technologies for learning are important. The problem is it might not be the readers of this blog post that we have to convince? We need literature, reports and observations that can tell us how we know technologies for learning is important? What the impact of technology initiatives has been (successes and failures)? What works well and what does not work at all?

How will we do this?

Although we still need to finalize the themes for the literature review. My initial list seems to be a reasonably good start. I’ve taken the advice from the blog comments and emails and simplified it slightly to now just include:

• What benefits can technology bring to Learning and Teaching?
• How might technology support effective professional development?
• How might technology release efficiencies?
• What are the differences and similarities in Scotland’s technological learning landscape?

I need some help now collecting sources. These could be research papers, project reports, blog posts anything that really demonstrates impact in technologies for learning.

Add your 2pence worth to this Google Doc:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AswTGaqwJd-zdE43WEEyUHRzWXd0a3JXUjlyd2hnMVE&hl=en&authkey=CJq7pJgJ

Feel free to edit and the improve the document) or leave a comment below... (or even better a comment over here).