OllieBray.com

Reflections from Games Based Learning 2010 (#GBL10) – 6 of 10 Land of Me

One of the big things coming from the 2010 Games Based Learning Conference was the power of narrative and the importance of story telling in education. James Huggins, Managing Director from Made in Me did a fantastic presentation on his companies new creation ‘Land of Me’. I have to be honest I was completely blown away by the quality of the finished product but in particular the thought and detailed research that had gone into getting it just right.

The Land of Me is a new world of interactive games for children aged 2 and up. Each chapter has been designed to inspire creativity and playful learning but you’ll probably be having too much fun to notice!

It really is beautifully designed and the story chapters contain well developed characters such as Eric the Raccoon, Willow the Owl and Buddy Boo the Bear. The chapters are also full of mystery to allow lots of open ended direction and discussion between children, parents and teachers.

Each chapter also has a more clearly defined learning objective such as:

• Shape, Size & Colour
• The World Outside
• Making Things
• Rhythm and Dance
• Songs and Rhythms
• Story Time

The world is explored by a really cool interactive map and James and the team have plans to introduce more chapters, stories and adventures over time.

 

Watch James’s presentation from Games Based learning below – before you watch it I think it’s really important to emphasize that James doesn’t give a sales pitch. He just wonderfully describes why stories and open ended imagination are so important within a modern education system!

Reflections from Games Based Learning 2010 (#GBL10) – 4 of 10 Matt Mason: The Pirate Dilema

One of the highlights of the 2010 Games Based Learning Conference for me was Matt Mason. Matt is the author of the book “The Pirate Dilemma”.

The Pirate Dilemma is the first book in the history of the world to hit the number one spot on Amazon’s economics/free enterprise bestseller list, and the rap bestseller list, at the same time. It has since been published in ten countries and Matt was recently voted ‘Pirate of the Year’ by BusinessWeek.

Matt explained to the audience there are three rules of a really effective pirate:

1. Look for gaps outside the market;
2. Create a vehicle; and
3. Harness the power of the audience.

(there are also not a bad set of rules as a teacher trying to engage a reluctant class!)

I’m not going to say anything else – watch Matts presentation it’s fabulous!  You can also download a free electronic copy of his book from his website or you can choose to pay for it (its up to you!).

The Future of Publishing (watch all the way to the end...)

I liked this short YouTube clip from DK - make sure you watch it all the way to the end. It would be good to use in an assembly and reminds me of the original idea that I posted about a number of years ago...

Reflections from the 2010 #EducationShow (8 of 10) – Talking Tins and Sonic Phonics

This is the eighth in a series of ten posts about my recent visit to the 2010 Education Show in Birmingham. They document some of the products that I saw, liked and enjoyed from the exhibition.

Talking Tins are a great little device from ‘Talking Products’. They allow you to record and play back a voice message, music or sound effect. It is an incredibly simple idea that allows children (or adults) to instantaneously and spontaneously capture and record the spoken word in any language.

The other nice thing about talking tins is that you can record a message and then and then lock the tin so that the message stays on the tin until it becomes unlocked. For me that got me thinking about how it might be bale to use talking tins to create interactive mysteries in your classroom with different clues being recorded on different tins. Children have to collect all the clues before piecing together and solving the mystery.

Another use might be within geocaching – audio clues are left within the geocaches for the children to listen to and then piece together a puzzle or mystery. I think I might be asking Jen 'geocaching' Deyenberg for a wee bit of advice here...

For such a simple piece of technology they really do have a huge amount of potential.

Sonic Phonics were a new development from ‘Talking Products’. Now I don’t pretend to know a huge amount about this area of the curriculum or about teaching children to read.

But it struck me that Sonic Phonics could be really useful. The set contains 51 magnetic and electronic sound buttons that play individual letters and digraph sounds. I was also really impressed with simplicity of the accompanying software which allowed users to hear and reorder sounds but at the same time watch video clips of mouth movements.

Interesting stuff!

Reflections from the 2010 #EducationShow (6 of 10) - Raintree Graphic Novels

This is the sixth in a series of ten posts about my recent visit to the 2010 Education Show in Birmingham. They document some of the products that I saw, liked and enjoyed from the exhibition.

I’ve already written about Classical Comics earlier in my review of the 2010 Education Show. I was also really impressed with some of the graphic novels and comics that were on display from Raintree (formally Heinemann Library).

Initially, I started looking at some of the books because they included some of the classic cartoon characters from DC comics such as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. These sort of playful adventure stories with well developed characters have go so much potential in encouraging young people to read and to help them engage with text.

Of course if you take a developed character like Batman and combine this will a well written adventure narrative such as the texts that Raintree have produced along with DC Comics you have the first stages in developing a really interesting progressive reading strategy and linking it to other aspects of media and moving image education.

Let me try and explain my thinking here in a little more detail. The Raintree Batman books are aimed at readers between the ages of 8 – 13 years (some of the books have more complicated narrative than others).

But Batman is a highly developed comic book character which can really allow the reader to progress and explore his stories in any number of directions using a variety of tests and media that is available on the commercial market as the reader outgrows the Raintree series.

There are 1000s of people that read batman stories in comic books and graphic novels every week around the globe and many of these people are adults. Some of the more recent Batman Graphic Novels including the Dark Knight Returns (that I put into the library at Musslebugh Grammar School) has a highly complex narrative and complicated plot and was mainly signed out by 15 – 18 year olds. How’s that for progressive reading programme that follows the same character!

It is also worth mentioning that characters such as Batman and Superman currently have a real cultural significance for children due to the recent Hollywood  feature films of both of the superheros (with more sequels on the way). This provides another great opportunity for teachers to use current and relevant text that children have already been exposed to via the media. Even if children have not seen (or are old enough to have seen the film) they are likely to have played the computer games that always accompany new movies.

Raintree didn’t just have superhero graphic novels on display. They also have some really other interesting graphic novel texts to support other areas of the curriculum. These included ‘Graphic Expeditions’ to support the teaching of geography and place. These would be ideal and a great resource for schools to help embrace the cross-curricular philosophy of Curriculum for Excellence. I liked the look of the ones called ‘Rescue in Antarctica,’ and ‘Getting to the bottom of Global Warming.’ There are also graphic novel tests to support history, English and science.

I loved the idea of the Graphic Science Texts because they combined the idea of using superheroes (Max Axiom) and superpowers to introduce children to more complicated scientific concepts. 

For example a superpower might be to be able to travel at the speed of sound and ride a sound wave – providing a great concept to introduce children into the science of sound. Or the ability to shrink to the size of and ant – providing a great context for learning about eco-systems, the food chain and mini-beasts!

The science graphic novels really reminded me of the Engineering Superpowers Project at the University of Strathclyde that I wrote about a back in May 2008.

Wonderful stuff!

Further Information: For more information on the use of Graphic Novels in Education see my article on Merlin John On-line.

The Scottish Action Plan for Child Internet Safety and Responsible Use

I did a keynote presentation at the Holyrood Internet Safety Conference today in Edinburgh. One of the purposes of the conference was to inform delegates about the about the work of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS). The development of UKCCIS was one of the recommendations of the 2008 Byron Review.

The first UK Child Internet Safety Strategy was launched in December 2009 and Scotland also has a specific action plan to help address some of the issues Child Internet Safety and Responsible use in Scotland. Overall, I feel the Scottish Action plan is quite good.

On of its strength is the fact that the words ‘responsible use’ follow and reference to ‘child internet safety’. As I have said time and time again we are only going keep our children safe on line through education and by teaching them to use the Internet responsibly.

The article in Fridays (5th March) Times Education Supplement Scotland has produced an interesting debate around web filtering in schools (which I may come back to and make some personal comments on in a separate post). But one other part of the article talks in more detail about the Scottish Action Plan with the sub-heading "Action plan for e-learning leavs some holes in the road to excellence".

The article suggests that the Scottish Action Plan fails to address tow key points flagged up by the recent English 'Safe Use of New Technologies' report by Ofsted.

These being:

• In schools where e-safety was outstanding, “all the staff, including members of the wider workforce, shared responsibility for it”;

•  “Pupils in the schools that had “managed” systems had better knowledge and understanding of how to stay safe than those in schools with “locked down” systems. Pupils were more vulnerable overall when schools used locked down systems.”

To be honest – I think it’s really unfair to suggest that the Scottish Action Plan for Child internet Safety and Responsible Use did not take into account the ‘best practice’ findings of Ofsted.

You only have to look as far as the publication date of documents to realize that they were both published on the same day (2010 Safer Internet day - 10th February). Unfortunately, the article reads like the group responsible for putting together the Scottish Action plan ignored Ofsted advice – when of course it just wasn’t available at the time.

However, it might also be worth pointing out WHY it does not say in the Scottish Action Plan for Child Internet Safety and Responsible Use that ’e-safety is the responsibility of all’.

The answer to this is simple ‘e-safety’ is not mentioned at all in the Scottish Action Plan. I brought this point up at the conference today and asked if anyone could actually tell me what e-safety was? because I’m struggling with a definition? However, I am confident I know what responsible Internet use is and exactly the sorts of messages that we should be reinforcing to young people both inside and outside Scottish schools.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I believe that Internet Safety and Responsible Use IS the responsibility of all staff. Which is why I was even more annoyed later on in Friday's TESS article when it read,

“The Scottish Government’s action plan does not address this. Nor does it mention one other vital issue. From September 2011, e-safety will become a formal part of the curriculum for all school-age learners in England and Wales. But not in Scotland”

Again, there is a very obvious reason for this. Internet Safety and Responsible Use are part of the Experiences and Outcomes of a Curriculum for Excellence which schools are currently expected to implement from August 2010.

The experiences and outcomes where this is specifically mentioned include:

Technologies Level 1 – 2

“By considering ways to protect technological devices, I can act safely and responsibly when selecting and using different technologies to communicate and collaborate”.

Technologies Level 3

“I am developing my knowledge and use of safe and acceptable conduct as I use different technologies to interact and share experiences, ideas and information with others”.

I would also argue that Internet Safety and Responsible Use embedded within the following outcome:

Health and Wellbeing Early – Level 4

“I am learning to assess and manage risk, to protect myself and others, and to reduce the potential for harm when possible”.

As you will know if you are Scottish teacher or have at least read and understood a Curriuclum for Excellence. Health and Wellbeing is the Responsibility of all professionals.

It is also important to remember that when we talk about Child Internet Safety and Responsible Use we are not just referring to online grooming and the protection of children from sexual abuse.

We are also, very importantly, referring to the education of children and young people to help them become more digitally literate. Once again, this falls under the responsibility of all professionals within CfE and it is particularly well illustrated in the following outcome:

Literacy Level 3

“To help me develop an informed view, I am exploring the techniques used to influence my opinion. I can recognise persuasion and assess the reliability of information and credibility and value of my resources”

Furthermore, all Scottish teachers also have a commitment to the protecting of children as part of the Standard for Registration of the GTCS.

Referred to in the GTCS Standard for Full Registration under:

3.1 Professional values and personal commitment

“Registered teachers show in their day-to-day practice a commitment to social justice, inclusion and caring for and protecting children”.

I would argue that any teacher wishing to fulfill this part of the standard must understand that ‘protecting children’ includes ‘off-line’ and ‘on-line’. Particularly considering that many young people do not see a difference in the two areas, partly because they are always connected.

This was highlighted in the Child Exploitation On-line Protection (CEOP) Agencies 2008 – 2009 Strategic Overview:

“[young people] do not differentiate between online and offline”

So, what is my point? Well, I’m just trying to get across that Internet Safety and Responsible Use is the responsibility of all education professionals. This is not specifically mentioned in the action, because it is not an action – it should already be happeneing and Scottish schools should already be planning for this from August 2010.

Now obviously the experiences and outcomes of a Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) are open to interpretation. This is one of the challenges of having an ‘experience based’ curriculum.

BUT, that is why exemplification of CfE with regard to ‘effective’ practice for the raising awareness and the teaching about child Internet safety and responsible use IS mentioned as an action point within the Scottish Action Plan.

Finally, as I have already mentioned above, the article in the TESS also criticizes the fact that the Scottish Action Plan does not include a recommendation that schools provide “managed ICT systems”?

I think that many local authorities would argue that their ICT infrastructure is managed. To be honest it is still very unclear from the Ofsted Report what exactly a ‘managed system' is. Particularly, as the Ofsted report is very quick to point out that a ‘managed’ system still does block websites and filter the Internet.

There is, however, still a wider discussion to have about the interesting differences between the level of access to some web tools within different parts and within different schools in Scotland. For me, this is the real and a very important discussion that we still need to have. I have actually already asked this question back in November 2009.

As always, this is just personal opinion and I would welcome any comments regarding my observations on the above?

Reflections from the 2010 #EducationShow (3 of 10) – Classical Comics

This is the third in a series of ten posts about my recent visit to the 2010 Education Show in Birmingham. They document some of the products that I saw, liked and enjoyed from the exhibition.

Regular readers will know that I am a huge fan of the use of comics and graphic novels in the classroom. Not only do they support detailed narrative and immersive story telling but I also believe that they are really motivating for reluctant readers. Allowing some children to engage with text that otherwise may not always be accessible.

I really love the work that comes from Classical Comics and I have written in depth about them before here, here and here! It was really nice to meet Clive Bryant (Chairman of Classical Comics) for the first time at the Education Show – we have exchanged lots of emails over the years and Clive was always a great support of my work with Graphic Novels at Musselburgh Grammar School.

I got to see a preview of Classical Comics new product at the Education Show which is their first interactive graphic novel or motion comic. The first title to be produced is Macbeth - they have also had a nice write up recently in the Guardian.

The software allows the teacher to play an animated version of the comic on a screen or through a projector. What a really liked about it was the way that you could quickly interchange between the three different types of text that all Classical Comics are available in.

The three versions are:

• Original text version: Ideal for purists, students and readers who will appreciate the unaltered text.

• Plain text: The full text made more accessible by the translation into modern English.

• Quick text: The full play in comic book form, translated into modern English and with less dialogue for a faster paced read.

You can see an interactive demo of the macbeth motion comic here.

I’m really looking forward to seeing a more developed version of this product later in the year and I hope that I can also see it in action in a few schools.

Really interesting stuff – nice work Classical Comics!

Further Information: For more information on the use of Graphic Novels in Education see my article on Merlin John On-line.

Education Resources to help teach the 2010 Winter Olympics (3of10): Torch Relay Interactive Map

Another hidden gem of the main Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic website is the Olympic Torch Relay Interactive Map.

Not only is this a fantastic resource to follow the build up to the Olympics with obviously links to geography and map work. But with a bit creative thought its possible to use the site to introduce a number of numeracy activities including direction, distance, speed and units of measurement.

There is also the possibility to challenge children to plan alternative routes because of a flash flood or other natural disaster. In fact the Olympic Torch has already be diverted once due to a polar bear (what a great context for learning and ‘real’ problem solving activity that could be!).

The other great thing about the map is that is every day new news stories about the local area are added and photographs are up-loaded. The map provides a great opportunity to link together the diversity of people and landscape within this massive and wonderful country.

The pictures also provide a great context for creative writing and children could easily imagine what it would be like to have torch being carried through their local area. What would it feel like, sound like and smell like?

Alternatively children could imagine they were one of the relay runners:

• How would they feel after many days of carrying the Olympic flame? 

• How did they feel about and cope with the weather? (the conditions at the time could easily be researched)

• Did they feel proud to be representing their country in this great event?

• Were they worried that they might let their team mates down?

The possibilities really are endless.

Of course, not only does the map provide a good opportunity to learn about Canada. But also the idea of the Olympic relay can be taken to any country.

Why not have your classes plan their own torch relay of a country of their choosing. They have to research the country, the famous land marks and the route runners will take. They could plot their proposed routes on a Google My Map or a Google Earth Tour.

What other ideas do you have for using the Olympic map?

Literacy, ICT and a Curriculum for Excellence

My first school engagement event of 2010 was back in Edinburgh City where I was asked to speak to the staff at Portobello High School about ICT, CfE and Literacy. I’ve always had strong links with Portobello as it was the school that I did my very first teaching placement when I was training to be a teacher.

The presentation was based on the one that I did at Drumond Community High School back in October.

I updated the talk to included a few extra slide and points that I thought I was important. These points included references to the eduTalk365 project (drip feed CPD at its best), the value of using real-time data to engage students (including @ukwarcabinet and Classpress.net) the importance of useing modern reserch techniques (eg: Google Alerts) to help children find information that has not yet been published.

The slides that I used from the presentation are embedded below:

Literacy, ICT and the Curriculum for Excellence - January 2010 (updated)

View more presentations from Ollie Bray.

Notes from the presentation and key points

It is important to remember that literacy (along with numeracy, health and wellbeing) are the responsibility for all within A Curriculum for Excellence. Further clarification and a definition is given in the Literacy and English Principles and Practice Cover Paper (2009).

"All practitioners in each sector, in each department and in all settings have a responsibility to develop, reinforce and extend the skills which are set out in the literacy experiences and outcomes.

Literacy is the set of skills which allows an individual to engage fully in society and in learning, through the different forms of language which society values and finds useful"

(Literacy and English Principles and Practice 2009)

In order to allow these things to happen literacy has had to be re-defined for the 21st Century. The forms of language which society has valued and finds useful has changed through time.

Reflective and difficult questions for practitioners:

• Do 13 year old girls find Shakespeare useful?
• Do 11 year old boys find the works of Robert Burns useful?
• Do we value the work of Shakespeare and Robert Burns in our schools? – of course we do they are part of our heritage.
• Is sending a text message useful?
• Do we value the ability to send a text message?
• What makes a good text message?
• How do you pronounce a text message?
• Are comic useful?
• Should we value the use of comics in class?
• Are comics valuable for the Scottish economy?
• Is a comic without the words still literacy?

Definition of text:

"A text is the medium through which ideas, experiences, opinions and information can be communicated".

    (Literacy and English Principles and Practice 2009)

The definition of text refers to a wide variety of media that we use to communicate – it does not just mean books. Importantly listening and talking are included as forms of essential literacy.

Examples of text include:

• novels, short stories, plays, poems
• reference texts
• the spoken word
• charts, maps, graphs and timetables
• advertisements and promotional leaflets
• comics, newspapers and magazines
• CVs, letters and emails
• films, games and TV programmes
• labels, signs and posters
• recipes, manuals and instructions
• reports and reviews
• text messages, blogs and social networking sites
• web pages, catalogues and directories

When considering the above texts it may be useful to consider the distribution of skills that are required to survive in a 21st Century world. Which of the above example of text should all children come into contact with? Are any of the examples more important than others? How does financial and consumer literacy relate to the above list?


Understanding our students

As well as understanding what we mean by literacy it is also important to understand how young people and children have may be changing.

Recent research information commissioned by Channel 4 indicates that many young people today are very much digital. You can find out more information about this report here.

For schools I think that we need to ask ourselves three important questions:

• Do we know what skills the children in our care have?
• Do we know what access our students have to technology at home?
• Can we use a combination of the above to stretch, push and engage young people?

Without the above information how can we ever set appropriate and challenging assessment and home learning activities?


Engaging our students

I believe that in order for learning to take place we need to have good pedagogy and also interest or engagement from our students. I think that there is a difference between interest and engagement.

A teacher who is teaching a child who has a natural interest in a subject or who see’s the point of it (eg: it will help them get a job) is likely to find it easier to help that child learn compared to student who has no interest or does not see the point.

Unfortunately not all topics are interesting and not all children see the point of all talks. That’s where tasks need to be engaging in order to create powerful learning environments.

Most children find technology engaging and that is one of the reasons it is so valuable in the classroom.

All registered Scottish teachers should be able to use technology in innovative ways

‘Registered teachers skillfully adopt and deploy a wide variety of innovative resources, including ICT and, where appropriate, the outdoor environment’

(GTCS Standard for Full Registration)

Possible ways to use technology to engage our students

• Use their tools (eg: social networking spaces and computer games in the classroom)

• Offer choice of output (written, typed, poster, presentation, video, podcast etc…) the input (thiking, planning, note-taking, drafting, re-drafting, collaboration etc…) remains the same and the most important bit.

• Provide real audience for students work (Wikipedia, blogs with comments, school radio podcast, school TV station on YouTube etc…)

• Real-time news, events and global happenings are empowering for students (look at @ukwarcabinet and Classpress.net as example sof this)

• Be creative with on-line technology tools eg: Comic Brush, Pixton, Go Animate (This recent list of other free tools for teachers might be useful)

Digital Literacy

All teachers now have a responsibility for digital literacy. Most importantly:

‘To help me develop an informed view, I am exploring the techniques used to influence my opinion. I can recognise persuasion and assess the reliability of information and credibility and value of my resources.’

            (Literacy Level 3)

Golden rules for digital literacy:

1. Intenet Safety and Responsible Use – more information here

2. Don’t ban Wikipedia – teach them to use it - more information here

3. The Internet is only any good if you can find what your looking for, think about:

• Google Advanced Search
• Quintura Visual Search
• Google News Search

4. Make sure that students have up-to-date reserch skills and understand things like Google Alerts.

Final thoughts

Books are not going away. They are a form of text but the nature of text is changing (see above).

We need new models of CPD to engage with a Curriculum for Excellence. If your interested in this have a look at my Drip Feed Vs Sheep Dip CPD post here. A great example of Drip Feed CPD is the EduTalk365 Project - 5 minutes of quality input a day, every day for a year.

The future of professional development is on-line, have a look at:

• CPD Find
• Curriculum for Excellence
• Consolarium: Games Based and Innovation in Education
• LTScotland on iTunesU (the ‘U’ is for University)
• Bill Boyd: the literacy advisor

Feedback

I would welcome any feedback or comments on the above. Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions (details top right) or leave a comment below.

Wikipedia, schools and the BBC - a response to tonight’s BBC Scotland Radio Broadcast

My thoughts on Wikipedia and its use in schools has been getting some in interesting press just recently. My original thoughts were posted here after the Handheld Learning Conference in London.
This article together with my presentation at the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers Annual Conference in October resulted in a nice piece in the Times Educational Supplement Scotland. I made some comments about the TESS piece just so I could clarify a couple of points. Overall I was very happy with it and I did say the things that were highlighted.

The TESS article was then used by Cara Sulieman to write a piece for Deadline Scotland. Unfortunately, I felt this piece missed the point. I’ve contacted Deadline and explained to them that I would be willing to do an extended interview – but they haven’t got back to me yet!

Anyway, I had just got back home tonight when I picked up a ‘tweet’ that said they were talking about me on BBC Radio Scotland. I tuned in but missed all but the last minute or so. I’ve now had a chance to re-listen to the piece on iPlayer.

The BBC didn’t mention me by name – but I’m well known enough for people to join up the dots. I think it’s a real shame and unprofesional of the BBC that they didn’t contact me for my opinion because actually they have completely missed the point in what I consider to be a poor piece of journalism. You can listen to it here and tell me what you think

I have written a rough transcript from the programme below. It may be slightly inaccurate as I just typed it as I was listening. I have also then inserted my own comments.

Anyway, it went something like this:


BBC: "Depute Head teacher from Musselburgh says that pupils should be encouraged to use the on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia despite its inaccuracies".

OB Comment: That is actually not quite what I said. You can read the extended piece here.

The BBC Introduce Oliver Kamm (Times columnist) who recently defined Wikipedia as 'vain, glorious amateurism'. They ask him what he thinks is wrong with Wikipedia.

NOTE: for the record - I enjoy Oliver Kamm's articles on the Times on-line (although he would probably argue that the on-line version is not as good as the printed version :-)) . But I think he was misinformed and badly briefed by the BBC.

Carrying on:

Kamm: "What’s so wrong with it is not so much the balance between accurate articles and articles that are self- promoting rubbish. Wikipedia makes no distinction between someone who has knowledge and are competent to comment or if you are just someone off the street".

OB Comment: This gets us back to age old debate of knowledge, what is knowledge and who has the expertise to write articles? The person ‘off the street’ might actually write a really good Wikipedia article – particularly if it was about their street. You see Wikipedia caters for niche markets as well as the big issues and articles. That is one of the reasons why it is so big.

Kamm: "The problem is that knowledge is democratic in the sense that no one has the last word. But its not democratic in the sense that anyone can join in".

OB Comment: Depends of your definition of knowledge. Why can’t anyone join in? The more people that join in, the larger the debate we have and the more conversation we share with each other, the more we contribute to the growth and understanding of knowledge.

Kamm: "Wikipedia doesn’t encourage people with real competence to express their expertise".

OB Comment: Yes it does Wikipedia encourages anyone to comment – even people with errrmmm….’knowledge?’

Kamm: "It’s [Wikipedia] certainly fresh in the sense that it doesn’t distinguish between total rubbish and genuine expertise. But that doesn’t contribute to the sum of knowledge".

OB Comment: Do the disclaimers that are littered all over Wikipedia not contribute to this?

Surely it flags up when something might be ‘rubbish’ with text boxes saying things like "The factual accuracy is disputed' - 'This article contradicts another article' - 'This article contradicts itself' - 'This article reads like an advertisement' -'This article needs additional citation for verification"

Anyway, if you find something that is not actuate in your opinion, why don’t you have a look at the discussion tab, collaborate with the on-line community and then edit the article?

Kamm: "If the teacher, the Deputy Head Master (that’s me by the way!) who is encouraging his pupils to look at Wikipedia is unconcerned about that distinction then I’m slightly worried about it".

OB Comment: Really sorry you were poorly briefed by the BBC about my original article. My point is that because children use Wikipedia and because we can’t make it go away, WE SHOULD be teaching them to use it responsibly, rather than giving no guidance at all on its use. If we give no guidance at all they are likely to believe anything that they read. I actually think we probably agree on this point?

Kamm: "There is no equivalent on-line resource to my knowledge that is as reliable as your standard printed encyclopedia. There used to be a great printed encyclopedia by Columbia. Proper scholarly works written for a non specialist audience such as school pupils are the right way to imbibe and encourage knowledge".

OB Comment: Yes there is? If you really want  ‘scholarly works’ what about an on-line version of a traditional encyclopedia? For example Britannica on-line? Surely on-line is better than printed because it is kept more current and up to date?

Kamm: "What I would like educators to do is to encourage school pupils and students at university to approach critically the resources that they use and to be aware that only things that can be properly checked and researched are reliable knowledge. Wikipedia doesn’t discriminate between different types of user and that’s what worries me".

OB Comments: I completely disagree. Wikipedia can be properly checked and researched but it doesn’t mean that it is reliable, refuting the point about reliability being guaranteed through the checking of sources.  I do of course agree  that we need to teach school children to critically approach sources – that’s why I wrote the article on Wikipedia in the first place. We need to teach learners to use Wikipedia properly and to do their best to verify all the sources that they use.

I actually like the fact that anyone can edit Wikipedia and I’ve already acknowledged that this brings associated difficulties. I like the fact that knowledge doesn’t have to be elitist.

The interview went on a bit longer. But I think I’ll leave it at that.

I wonder if the BBC will get in touch now and ask me for my opinion? They presented a rather one-sided, biased argument that if it was a Wikipedia article would be unlikely to come up to standard and would be flagged as a concern…

By the way Oliver and I have already made our peace over on his blog.