OllieBray.com

1:1 Learning: Myth One – ‘1:1 is new’ [is it really?]

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 One - ‘1:1 is new’

No its not! We have had 1:1 computing in schools for many years. Now it might have not been ubiquitous across the school but that is not really the point. 1:1 has been around for a long time - its just been confined to the domain of the computer lab or business education suite.

Unfortunately, during my work as Scotland’s National Adviser for Emerging Technologies I observed some of the worst pedagogy in schools in computer labs (don't forget its not just computing teachers who use labs). It great to see movements like Computing at School (CAS) challenge this and new pedagogy was one of their focuses at their recent conference in Edinburgh. 

Photo credit: Doug Belshaw (cc)

I think that one of the reasons that pedagogy is not always as good as it should be in computer labs is actually down to how labs are often designed.

Just think about standard computer lab design for a minute. Often the desks are around the sides of the room (to make it easier to get power and Ethernet connections to machines) which means that children spend most of their time with their back to each other and their teacher.

Modern and better thought out furniture is starting to change this and we can be a lot more creative with power and connectivity in new school build projects. But this means we need to build schools in different ways.

Photo: St Monica's Primary School,  NSW, Australia

We can even make some quick changes to ‘old style’ labs but putting a few mirrors behind the computer screens so that a teacher can still make eye contact with his students or by introducing ‘muster points’ in the classroom where students can meet away from the screen to discuss their learning with peers or with a teacher.

 Photo Credit: Stephen Heppell

Laptop and wireless technology is also having in impact on school design – although it is important to remember that wireless is still a challenge in many schools due to bandwidth issues.

However, even with the best furniture, agile spaces and high tech hardware learning is not always great in ICT suites.

One alarming trend that I have seen in recent years is that some teachers now constantly give children free time at the end of the lesson (or even during the lesson) to use the computers in anyway that they like.

Now I don’t have a problem with ‘free time’ or ‘golden time’ or any other classroom based reward system as long as it is well thought out. But I worry that with some teachers it has become an expectation of their classes and the reason why learners ask for this free time is because they a board and not stimulated with what they are being asked to do. My preference has always been to set ‘learning challenges’ when there are free gaps of time to fill, or to ensure that learners always know where they are going with their learning - both of these strategies remove the need for a random ‘free-for-all’.

As a teacher my best lessons are / were the ones when the class are still captivated with their learning when the bell goes because we have lost track of time. I’m never worried in these situations that we don’t have time to recap the lesson objectives as the students rush to get tidied up and get away to their next class. If the learning before the bell has been deep and purposeful then that is the most important thing to me.

Another criticism I sometimes have of 1:1 projects is that the rollout is often left to a computing or ICT teacher. Although there is nothing wrong with this we need to make sure that the right person in a school takes some responsibility and accountability for rollout.

One of the reasons that a computing or ICT teacher may not be the best person is because out of any teacher in their school a 1:1 project should benefit the computing teacher the the least. Why? because they already work in that environment and are unlikely to give up the powerful computers in their lab (why would you?) for less powerful handheld devices. In situations where school use their computing staff to roll out 1:1 deployments you are in danger of creating a very overpaid ICT technician and reinforcing an unnecessary stereotype of what a computing teacher actually does.

In my experience a matrix management approach to 1:1 rollout combined with good project management, involvement from school senior managers and senior students always has the most success (and ultimately impact).

In any 1:1 rollout it is important to make sure that computing and ICT teachers are part of the pedegogical solution as well as the technical solution. 

Social Media in Learning and Education (SMILE) - 4 of 6: Using social media for professional development (CPD)

 

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

As this part of the course has now finished (and we have gone into the community development phase) I am re-posting a version of the materials here so others can benefit from them.

This is part 4 of 6 - Using social media for professional development (CPD) 

Using social media for professional development (CPD): The Video

Social Media in Learning and Education (SMILE) - Video 4 of 6: Using social media for professional development from Ollie Bray on Vimeo.

 

Using social media for professional development (CPD): The Course Notes and Links 

 

1. Personal Learning Networks

Much like the term ‘Social Media’ there has been a lot written about the definition of ‘Personal Learning Networks’ over the years. Some of the pioneering research in this field has been completed by Dr Alec Couros, University of Regina, Canada.

Dr Couros argues that most typical teacher networks are one way and that teachers are delivered information on professional development and professional learning. He also talks about the rise of the ‘networked teacher’ where due to the increase in social media tools available for teachers professional learning and professional learning becomes two-way, driven by dialogue and as a result more open and reflective.

The key thing to remember about any Personal Learning Network is that they are, by definition, personal and depend on the interests and willingness of the individual to engage. When considering the use of social media to develop Personal Learning networks it may be useful to break them down into three component parts.

The first of these is face-to-face, even in the Internet age and with the rise of social media you can’t actually beat sitting down and talking to someone. Trusted professional feedback is also often born as a result of trusted relationships between colleagues.

The second component is one of closed digital communities. These are digital closed communities of practice where people may not know each other but they are connected through interest (examples might include TES Forums, Microsoft Partners in Learning Network and the discussion forums for the SMILE eLearning Lab).

The last components are digital open communities that are often un-moderated and are built around tools that have not been designed for education but have been adopted by educators. Examples of these tools include Blogs, Social Bookmarking and Open Content Repositories.

Some of these tools are services will now be discussed and exemplified below.

 

2. On-line Communities

On-line communities normally require registration and have been designed for a specific purpose to link people together via interest or for a specific project. The best on-line communities are ones that are allowed to grow organically over time because the users suggest new ideas or topics of discussion to keep the community vibrant and up-to-date.

Examples of on-line communities include:

• Microsoft Partners in Learning Network - a community for teachers and school leaders interested in using technology in education.

• Times Educational Supplement Subject Forums - a place where subject teachers discuss issues, up-load and share resources.

• Promethean Planet - a place to share and discuss Interactive Whiteboard Resources.

• EUN Community - a hub for European Union led projects as well as providing a facility for users to create their own communities of practice.

 

3. Using RSS

Reading about other peoples work and their reflections on classroom practice can be hugely valuable to your own professional development. Globally thousands of people are blogging about what is going on in their classrooms every day. The trick is trying to keep track of the blogs that interest you and to be automatically up-dated if someone posts something new or interesting.

Blogs produce an RSS feed (to find out what this is watch this CommonCraft video) but all you really need to know if that this means you can aggregate content from a variety of blogs into one place using an RSS Reader, such as Google Reader.

You will need a Google Account (which is free) to start using Google Reader. This CommonCraft video on Google Reader will tell you everything that you need to know about using this service. By using an RSS reader you can easily follow hundreds of blogs from educators around the world but only have to visit one website (your personal Google Reader page) to check for up-dates.

 

4. Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking is when you save the URL of a website that you like to another website rather than to your favourites on your web browser.  One advantage is that you can see if anyone else who is using the service has also save the website that you have just saved. This is useful because users who have saved the same website as you will have often also save other websites that you will be interested in.

This makes Social Bookmarking another great way to collaborate with people globally, to swap ideas and useful websites that you have found to help aid school improvement.

This CommonCraft video will tell you everything that you need to know about Social Bookmarking using a service called Delicious (although it is worth noting that Delicious has changed since this video was made).

 

5. Searching the Future Web

Google Alerts are a way of telling Google a key word of phrase and then if that word of phrase is published on the Internet and is picked up by the GoogleBot you are sent an email link to where the article has been published. You can also create an RSS feed for alert terms (see RSS above). The use of Alerts is an important 3^rd Millennium research skill and are  already used widely in higher education.

As well as setting up alerts for professional interests eg: “formative assessment,” “outdoor learning,” and “international school links”. It is also useful for schools to have a Google Alert set up around their own school name.

Used in this way Alerts can be used as an early warning system if someone writes about or mentions your school online. Importantly, it’s also a really good way to track wider student achievements. For example, many children take part in activities outside of the school and some of these activities are really impressive. These achievements are often written about in the local media and normally the child’s school is mentioned. As most papers are digitized, Google Alerts gives you an opportunity to receive this information as it is published. This is often before you have a chance to read a paper copy of the local news.

 

6. Micro Networks

Micro networks such as Twitter are a great way to receive short and concise advice, recommendations and resources from educators around the world. This article from Tony Parkin provides a good oversight of how you can find educators to follow on Twitter.

Hash (#) tags are also used within the Twitter community to bind conversation together. Most conferences now have a Twitter Tag and you can you services like Twazzup.com to search for a #tag and then aggregate all of the tweets and images shared on Twitter from the event. 

Other micro networks that are worth exploring for professional development purposes include Slideshare and SlideBoom. These are on-line communities where people share presentation slides and they are very popular with educators.

  

7. The Importance of Recommendation

As the above notes demonstrate there are an awful lot of professional development opportunities that are available on the web and many of these are linked to social media services.

However, just like any social service recommendations about a product are important. This is similar to recommending a product or a seller after you have bought somthing on Amazon - but within this context we are recommending professional development opportunities to others.

CPD Scotland is National Resource that has been developed by Education Scotland. One of its services is CPD Find, this is a national directory of paid for and free CPD opportunities. What is interesting about it is that it is not just a catalogue of courses because some of the courses have been endorsed by peers and you can see what other people think of the course content, delivery and value for money.

Including a system for open peer feedback and recommendations should be an important consideration for anyone who is interested in developing their own CPD portal. It also encourages teacher who attend the courses to become more reflective.

 

8. Research

Research into the use of social media for CPD is limited because the tools and service evolve so quickly. However, this report produced by The Pearson Centre for Policy and Learning and NoTosh Ltd in 2011 titled ‘Tweeting for Teachers,’ provides a number of useful case study examples of how social media can support teacher professional development.

 

Links for you to explore and reflect on:

On-line Communities:

• Microsoft Partners in Learning Network - www.pil-network.com

• Times Educational Supplement Subject Forums - www.tes.co.uk/forums

• Promethean Planet - http://community.prometheanplanet.com

• EUN Community - http://community.eun.org

 

Social Media Tools and Services:

• RSS - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS

• RSS in Plain English (CommonCraft) - http://goo.gl/v3IE

• Google Reader - www.reader.google.com

• Google Reader in Plain English (CommonCraft Video) - http://goo.gl/2Ia3

• Delicious - www.delicious.com

• Delicious in Plane English (CommonCraft Video) - http://goo.gl/IzBo5

• Google Alerts - www.google.com/alerts

• Twitter - www.twitter.com

• Twitter in Plain English (CommonCraft Video) - http://goo.gl/jD6i2

• Twitter Search in Plain English - http://goo.gl/MGQaK

• Twazzup - www.twazzup.com

• Slideshare - www.slideshare.com

• Slideboom - www.slideboom.com

• CPD Find - http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/cpdfind

  

Research and Articles:

• Who to follow on Twitter (Tony Parkin) - http://goo.gl/78mUs

• Tweeting for Teachers: how can social media support teacher professional development - http://goo.gl/Dxeis

 

Social Media in Learning and Education (SMILE) - 3 of 6: Using social media for learning and teaching - pedagogical principles

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

As this part of the course has now finished (and we have gone into the community development phase) I am re-posting a version of the materials here so others can benefit from them.

This is part 3 of 6 - Using social media for learning and teaching - pedagogical principles

 

Using social media for learning and teaching - pedagogical principles: The Video

Social Media in Learning and Education (SMILE) - Video 3 of 6 - Using social media for learning and teaching - pedagogical princ from Ollie Bray on Vimeo.

 

Using social media for learning and teaching - pedagogical principles: The Course Notes and Links

In unit one of the SMILE Course we discussed some common characteristics of social media. These characteristics included:

• Social Media challenges traditional models
• Social Media allows people to communicate
• Social Media allows people to collaborate
• Social Media gives people an audience
• Social Media services often remove hierarchy and are built from the bottom up
• Social Media is open and transparent

It is important to remember these characteristics, as they are also common characteristics associated with education reform.

Many countries globally are trying to create classrooms that challenge traditional models and reverse the hierarchy, allow young people to communicate and collaborate, that provide authentic audience for children’s work and exist within systems that are both open and transparent.

This means that by embracing the use of social media tools for learning and teaching we can start to build a culture that may help contribute to the reform of our school systems.

This post looks as some examples of how social media has been used successfully to enhance learning and teaching.

 

1. Cultural Relevance

Young people are engaged when they are learning about things or with things that they can relate too or that are relevant to them. Social media is highly cultural relevant at the moment for young people (from Facebook to the Xbox Live) and harnessing these tools for education can develop powerful contexts for learning.

Social media is also highly relevant across society in the UK in 2011 eight out of the ten most popular search terms were directly linked to a social website. Facebook was the most popular search term in the UK.

 

2. Real-time Data

As all experienced educators know one ingredient of a successful lesson is to try to use up-to-date, real and authentic data rather than contrived data that young people can not relate to. Twitter is a good social media service to help with this because you can ask your twitter followers to provide you with data that can then be used within the lesson.

One example of this is the Twitter snow lesson where a teachers twitter network was asked where they lived and if it was snowing. The tweets were plotted on to a Google Map and then the map imported into Google Earth where the real-time satellite imagery could be overlaid onto the map. The pattern that emerged provided an excellent context for discussing the weather, weather patters and weather systems.

Another example of how Twitter has been used in Maths can be found here (http://goo.gl/tAAWp).

As well as collecting data from twitter followers there are a number of twitter accounts that regularly provide information that can be used in classes. One example of this is the UK War Cabinet from the UK National Archives. By visiting or following this twitter account you can watch the events of WWII unfold 70 years to the day through the original Cabinet Papers. It is a good example of how comparative real-time data can also be engaging for children and young people. Another great live example is Titanic in Real Time which documenting the journey of the Titanic from its launch to fate exactly100 years to the day.

3. Collaboration

Social media tools can also be used to encourage collaboration. Google Apps for Education and Google Plus provide some great (and free) collaboration tools to assist with learning and teaching.

Google Docs (which is part of the Google Apps for Education suite) provide actual real-time collaboration for students and staff working on word-processing documents, spreadsheets and presentations. You can have up to 50 people collaborating in real time within a document.

Well-managed collaboration on student projects normally results in an improved output and increased student pride. Meaningful collaboration is also a vital skill within enterprise education.

Google Plus can equip classrooms with a free ten-seat videoconference solution to allow face-to-face collaboration across geography, time zones and classrooms. Along with other services such as Skype in the Classroom social media video conferencing provide a great opportunity to beam in experts into your classroom.

4. Audience

Social media can also be used to provide authentic audience for children’s work. A good place to start might be the production of a Wikipedia Page for your school or an article for something in your local area.

Writing, re-writing or editing an article about your school in Wikipedia can easily be the output of a well researched cross-curricular project and at the same time it is likely to improve the image / marketing of your school (Wikipedia is very popular in Google rankings).

This type of task is also hugely empowering for students. How often do they normally get to publish to the largest encyclopaedia in the world?

Classroom blogs or blogs used as ePortfolio can also be used to generate audience for young peoples work. Leamore Primary School in Walsall, UK is a great example of this. Each class has their own class blog and each pupil has their own blog which is used as an ePortfolio of their best work and reflections on learning. The ePortfolio Blogs are password protected for safety reasons but parents have access to the password so they can see what their children have been learning about.

Another way to provide audience for students work is through sites like YouTube - effectively creating a school television station. A good example of this is the Drummond Community High School, Edinburgh, UK Animation Club.

 

5. Data Collection

Social media can also be used to collect information and date from students and other key stakeholders. Tools like Survey Monkey and Facebook Polls provide a great easy to use platform for this.

 

6. Research

Research into the use of social media in schools is difficult because things change so quickly before any meaningful longitudinal research can be done.

However, one piece of research from Professor Stephen Heppell (University of Bournemouth, UK) and Carole Chapman supported by the Nominet Trust and called Cloud Learn (www.cloudlearn.net) is worth investigating.

The Phase One Report that was published in January 2012 shares examples of how Social Media Tools such as Facebook, mobile phones, YouTube and Twitter are all being effectively used in schools.

 

Links for you to explore and reflect on -

 

Social media services that can be use for learning and teaching:

• Google Apps for Education - http://goo.gl/sSMNQ

• Google Docs - http://goo.gl/B1eIW

• Google Plus - http://www.google.com/+/learnmore

• Microsoft Office 365 for Education - http://goo.gl/AQmvf

• Skype in the Classroom - http://education.skype.com

• SurveyMonkey - http://www.surveymonkey.com

• Facebook Polls - www.facebook.com/OpinionPolls

 

Examples of interesting practice from schools:

• Twitter Weather Lesson - http://goo.gl/rwISq

• Twitter Maths Lesson - http://goo.gl/tAAWp

• Twitter UK War Cabinet Page - https://twitter.com/ukwarcabinet

• Twitter Titanic Page - https://twitter.com/titanicrealtime

• Leamore Primary School - http://leamoreblogs.net

• Dummond Community High School Animation Club - http://goo.gl/s5hKq

 

Research:

• Cloud Learn Research - www.cloudlearn.net

 

 

 

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 

Mobile Technology Statistics 2011 [Video]

Here is a nice little video from Stocktown Productions titled Mobile Technology 2011. The version of the video embedded below is the ‘clean version’ there is another version with a few swear words in it.

The statistics mentioned in the video are:

• Since 2008 mobile data traffic has ballooned by 3000% - It is expected to grown 40 fold in the next 5 years.
• 90% of the worlds population has access to a mobile network.
• 2/3 of Americans get news on a mobile.
• Reading from the mobile web is now more popular than reading books + magazines + newspapers.
• Say goodbye to digital cameras and video cameras. 76% of pictures are taken on mobile phones.
• Over 100 million YouTube Videos are played on mobile devices every day.
• A mobile phone isn’t just used to make phone calls.
• In just two years mobile ready sites have grown from 150, 000 to 3 million - that’s 2000%.
• 10.9 billion Apps downloaded in 2010. Estimated to grow to 76.9 billion in 2014.
• Consumers spent $6.2 on apps last year this is predicted to rise to $35 billion by 2014.
• In 2013 more people will use phones than PC to surf the web.
• By 2014 over half a billion people will use mobile money transfer services.
• Mobile Add revenue hit $3.5 billion in 2010 and it is estimated to hit $24 billion by 2015.

 

(just wish the video contained a link back to the sources of the statistics?)

 

What is PISA is all about? [animation]

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a worldwide evaluation of 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance, performed first in 2000 and repeated every three years. It is coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with a view to improving educational policies and outcomes.

PISA is useful as a comparison between countries but it is certainly not without its flaws - I also think that some countries are overly concerned about their performance internationally rather than trying to tackle their local issues first?

This animation from OECD explains what PISA is all about - it has certainly improved my understanding of it.

Prof Stephen Heppell and Carole Chapman give some useful thought on PISA over on Heppell.net. The page also include a set of really useful links.

 

 

 

Innovative Teaching and Learning (ITL) Research Project and Self Evaluation Tools #msftpil

I’ve met Dr Maria Langworthy (Langworthy Research) a few times and heard her speak on a number of occasions about the work she is doing with Microsoft Partners in Learning about how teaching and learning is changing.

One of the interesting things about her latest piece of work is that along with her team at Langworthy Research they have developed some tools to help individual schools measure effective change.

Here is a nice summary video of Dr Lanworthy’s research so far and as normal I find myself agreeing with most of what Maria says - although I still have problmes with the word 'innovative'.

In summary the main points are:

• Innovative teaching practices are the key to developing children.

• Innovative teaching practices must be supported by the leadership and culture of the school.

• Ultimately education policy at a Government level must also be aligned to support change at a local level [I think she also applies encouraging risk taking here].

• Innovative teaching practices do not just include the use of technology [good teachers use good tools].

• Innovative teaching practices are fundamental shifts in pedagogy from traditional methods to teaching in the 20^th Century to more individual student centred teaching practices that develop modern skills such as problem solving, collaboration and knowledge building.

• Innovative teaching practices also include extending the learning beyond the classroom and making learning real and relevant.

• Technology can support pedagogical shifts.

• Teacher collaboration is one of the most significant factors in determining the level of innovative teaching within a school.

• Recognition and incentives from school leaders and governments [and the endorsement of risk taking?] for the recognition associated with innovative teaching are critical for changing the culture of a school [or country?].

• Action research is one of the most powerful types of Professional development for teachers.

 

Free Research Tool for Schools

The Partners in Learning School Research Tool looks like it is also worth checking out as well. Anyone tried it with their school yet?

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).

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.

Born to Learn [video]

Your brain is the planet’s most powerful learning machine. But our current systems of education aren’t doing enough to unlock our true potential. This is what Born to Learn is all about.

Born to learn is a fun, thought-provoking series of animations that illustrate ground-breaking new discoveries about how humans learn.

Here is the first one (and I like it!):

Born to Learn from Born to Learn on Vimeo.