|
ISSN 1470-5524
Practical advice for colleagues who use, teach, lead or manage information and communication technology (ICT) in schools.
12 January 2010
For Subscriber
(If your name does not appear above, please update your profile by clicking on the 'change email address' link at the end of the newsletter.)
If you prefer, you can view this newsletter online:
|
If you're interested in making your ICT lessons more interesting, or helping someone else to do so, you could do a lot worse than buy this excellent how-to guide: 'Go on, bore 'em: how to make ICT lessons excruciatingly dull'
A real bargain at 4.99 GBP (or your currency's equivalent), this book looks at the ten main reasons why boring ICT lessons are boring. There is also a cheaper electronic version available, which means instant gratification! So what are you waiting for? You can read the full table of contents and an extract, and order the print or electronic version, from here:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/go-on-bore-em-how-to-make-ict-lessons-excruciatingly-dull/542015
This newsletter is sent to thousands of subscribers. If you would like to advertise here and/or on the ICT in Education website, please contact us for details of advertising and sponsorship.
|
|
Click the pic for more info
|
|
In this issue...
Editorial
This is a pre-BETT edition, so it’s shorter than usual. If you can’t get to BETT, I suggest you read the longish article about it anyway, because most of what I’ve said about preparing for and getting the most out of BETT will apply to other conferences too.
Please read the sponsored article: it has been placed by The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. They’re a good bunch, and produce some brilliant materials and videos, and excellent training, about e-safety.
Next issue, Neil Howie talks about a ghostly experience, and I’ll be reviewing the BETT show, amongst other things.
Enjoy!
Sponsored article from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre
Safer Internet Day – 9 February 2010
Safer Internet Day is a European-wide initiative and is the one day in the calendar that will give a focus to internet safety issues such as cyberbullying, dealing with upsetting and illegal content online, sexual abuse and grooming. There are a range activities taking place across the week (from Monday 8th – Friday 12th February) and across the continent to help protect young people online. You can get involved too.
As part of the public awareness coordination role on behalf of the UK, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre have launched a micro-site at www.thinkuknow.co.uk/saferinternetdayuk which has been designed to give schools, teachers, parents, youth workers and child protection specialists some ideas and suggestions about how to get involved. CEOP will also be launching new resources to teach online safety to 4-7 year old children. Schools in the London, Leeds and Reading areas can also register for a trained ‘Protect’ volunteer to come to their school and deliver Thinkuknow resources sessions to their students.
Registering on the site will also provide access to the various educational resources – like assembly programmes and primary and secondary aged resources – provided free by CEOP and other organisations. There is also an interactive map for organisations to report back on their activities which will be made available to media outlets to report on in the local communities.
CEOP are also launching a competition for young people called ‘Think before you post’. This competition involves asking young people from the UK to create a short film (between 1-3 minutes long) illustrating what this theme means to them and how they would explain this sentiment to their peers. Entrants can be from young people between the ages of 8-16 and can enter as an individual, small group of up to five young people or as a class entry. Once moderated, the films are then to be posted on the Thinkuknow YouTube channel.
If you are taking part in Safer Internet Day this year, you can download free online banners to go onto websites that say ‘We’re supporting Safer Internet Day 2010’ to raise awareness of the initiative and advertise your participation.
Special announcement: Free ebook coming!
On 16 January I will be giving a seminar about the 2nd edition of the Web 2.0 Projects book. Nearly 90 projects from real classrooms with real teachers and real students! I’ll be looking at what they saw as the benefits of introducing Web 2.0 applications into their classrooms, and the challenges. At the end of the seminar, I’ll be providing a URL from which attendees can download the ebook. It is currently in its first draft stage (it’s a rather large project).
If you can’t attend the BETT show, or that seminar, don’t worry: I’ll give you the heads-up as soon as the final version of the book is released.
Some stats:
Over 90 contributors.
Over 90 projects and websites.
Around 40 applications.
For each project there is a description of the project, the applications used, challenges faced and recommendations. Some projects also include student feedback and outcomes.
Contributors welcome!
If you fancy writing an article for this esteemed publication, please pitch me an idea. It must be related to educational technology in some way. No payment I’m afraid, but it will probably get seen by a lot of people.
If you’d like to contribute an article about the BETT show, let me know. Perhaps I could write one for you in return.
If any of you are attending the Educon conference in the USA, I’d be interested in an article about that too. Terry Freedman Online
This is rather unlike me, but I have created something for which I am now seeking a reason to use! I’ve started a Ning community at http://terryfreedman.ning.com and am interested in hearing your views about what I could use it for.
For example, I could use it simply as an eportfolio in which to collate all my stuff – videos, articles, photos etc. Or I could use it as a means of sharing details of projects I’m working on and getting community feedback. What do you think?
On the subject of social networks, I’ve (hopefully temporarily) closed a couple of communities I set up because I found that keeping up with the spammers was too time-consuming.
The BETT Show
- 9 reasons to attend.
- 4 arguments to put to your boss as to why you should be allowed to attend.
- 3 other kinds of colleagues who should attend.
- 13 things to do in advance.
- 16 ways to get the most out of the show.
- 7 ways to follow up afterwards (once you’ve recovered!).
This week sees the annual, and ever-expanding, BETT Show in London. It has been going for more than 20 years, and shows no signs of being irrelevant in the near future. So what exactly is BETT, and should you go?
BETT is a huge exhibition, with seminars and presentations playing a supporting role. That is the theory, anyway. In practice, it would be very easy indeed to visit BETT and see almost nothing of the exhibition stands. All it requires is attendance at two or three seminars, a couple of snack breaks, and a meeting or two, and the time has gone. For that very reason, I tend to visit on at least two of the four days. It’s exhausting, but it’s the only way I can get to see things!
Unlike the case with a normal conference, especially one that is residential, people don’t so much visit one event, BETT, for several days, but several events, BETT, each lasting for one day. It therefore lacks the sense of cohesion of a conference, even a huge one such as the National Educational Computing Conference in the USA.
On the other hand, comparing these single days with other one-day events would also be misleading. A one day conference usually caters for a relatively small number of people (perhaps 100 or so at the most), and has a restricted number of alternative options – if any.
Is any of this relevant? I think it is, because if you have never been before the vastness of it could come as a shock. Planning is, I think, essential, even if it’s a fairly loose plan like “Morning: seminar; afternoon: exhibition”. I’ll be covering that side of things in a moment.
Furthermore, the nature of BETT does, as far as I am concerned, provide justification for asking for two or more days out of school (or wherever you happen to work).
Why attend?
There are at least 9 good reasons to attend, these being to:
- See what’s new or coming soon.
- See products demonstrated.
- Attend training sessions, eg on how use a particular aspect of a program.
- Attend a seminar, eg on personalised learning, given by experts in their fields.
- Arrange one-on-one meetings with (potential) suppliers.
- Have opportunities for networking.
- Pick up the latest Government or other official publications>
- Pick up new ideas, using the overview of what’s on to help you decide what to visit.
Incidentally, you may wish to check out the three ‘unconference’ events taking place from 6pm on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. These are Tedx, Amplified and Teachmeet respectively. The first two have been organised by ICT veteran Drew Buddie, whilst Teachmeet has been organised by Tom Barrett. Ian Usher has written about these and other aspects of BETT so you might like to check that out (after you’ve finished reading this, of course :-p!)
- Become (re-)energised and stimulated from the “buzz”.
Good reasons to attend: the ones to put to senior management
All of the reasons to attend given in so far are valid, but they are personal, in a sense. That is to say, it is not obvious from looking at the list how your school will benefit from your attendance at BETT. So here are 4 suggested arguments in your favour:
- Best value. If you are considering major new purchases, such as Learning Platforms or interactive whiteboards, you really ought to look at all the options available.
- Show prices. Exhibitors at BETT often have special show prices, which are lower than their usual rates. It may be worth attending the show to take advantage of such discounts.
- Professional development. By attending seminars and talking to people on the stands, you will find out ways of improving what you do, which can only benefit the workplace.
- News update. If you decide to attend on the first day, you will be first in line to hear whatever new initiative or (with luck) new funding the Education Secretary has up his sleeve, which will put you in a prime position to advise the school in a hot-off-the-press way. I hope to be publishing an article about his talk.
You can bolster your case by ensuring, as far as possible, that any potential inconvenience to others is minimised, eg by attending on a day or days when you have fewer teaching commitments, if possible.
One is a lonely number
If you work in an ICT team, there’s a good case for the school allowing others in your team to attend:
Other teachers. The more who go, the more scope you have for dividing BETT between you. For example, one could look at Learning Platforms, whilst another looks at software. Similarly, more seminars can be covered between you.
It may be better for the school if different people attended on different days. However, an advantage of everyone going on the same day is that people tend to talk on the way home about what they have learnt. In other words, they usually end up doing more work than they might otherwise have done – that should please the Headteacher or Principal!
Technicians and other support staff. If you are to have a shared vision for educational ICT in your school, it is essential for support staff to be included in professional development opportunities, especially BETT.
Take the earlier example, ie let’s assume that you are in the market for a Learning Platform. Technical staff can ask the sorts of questions that affect the underlying robustness of the hardware. For example, is it easy to create resources, is it easy to back them up? What about the transition from your current VLE (if you have one) to the new Learning Platform? Is it easy to give different people different levels of access?
Similarly, classroom assistants can ask the sort of practical questions that you may not think of. For example, is it easy to change the cartridges in this new printer – especially when there is a class full of kids milling around?
Senior teachers. Again, taking the example of looking for a new Learning Platform, they can ask questions which concern them, such as “How easy is it to get reports on individual students’ progress across a range of subjects?”
Preparing for BETT
Here are 13 things to do before you go to BETT.
Although I've written the following with BETT in mind, most of the points will apply to getting ready to go to any conference.
- Register online at http://www.bettshow.com. Doing so will save you time because there are two entrances: one for ticket-holders and one for non-ticket-holders. The latter line moves much more slowly than the former.
- While you’re on the site, pre-book seminar sessions (where you can). This will cost a bit of money, but will help you avoid disappointment.
- If you are coming from abroad, go to the International Visitors section of the website in order to find out which exhibitors there are active in your own country, so you can follow up afterwards.
- Also, try out the planning tool. It’s quite impressive: you tick a number of boxes to say which areas you are interested in, and then it gives you a PDF file containing a floor plan, a list of stands you should visit, and a list of seminars. The only thing is, it does not seem to list the stands in a very efficient order. Therefore…
- … Plan the most efficient route around the show. The aim is to minimise the amount of unnecessary traipsing around you have to do.
- Print (or buy) a set of business cards. These are essential for entering competitions and, more importantly, for having information sent to you after the show. Also, of course, for exchanging details with any new acquaintanceships you make at the show. You can create a simple business card in Word (or similar), and you can buy perforated business card printer paper at a very reasonable price.
- Buy a small stapler. This is useful for stapling your business cards to various forms on stands, such as the ones they provide for entering competitions. For some reason, exhibitors never seem to have a stapler themselves. Completing the same contact information over and over again is tedious and time-consuming.
- Prepare lists of questions to ask the suppliers of particular products, if you are looking to purchase something. Different members of your team may have different questions, as suggested earlier.
- With your team, decide on who is going to do what (if others are going as well). It is a good idea to avoid the temptation to fill every waking moment. I have found that you need to allow for serendipity, especially as some exhibitors are not listed until the last minute. I have also found that every so often you need to find a place to have coffee, think about what you have seen, plan ahead, and get rid of any unwanted paper you may have acquired on your travels.
- Organise cover lessons if necessary.
- If technicians will be attending as well, try and select a day when the school’s computer facilities tend not to be in high demand, just in case something goes wrong.
- Prepare a list of phone numbers that the school secretary or someone else can contact for help if something dreadful happens.
- On the way to the show, buy a bottle of water, because show prices tend to be higher than outside.
At the show
Here are 16 suggestions for getting the most out of the experience.
- Wear shoes with cushioned soles: the floor is concrete and therefore very tiring to walk on for a whole day.
- Put your phone on vibrate if you can: in my experience, you can't hear your phone ringing above the noise.
- As soon as you have passed through the entrance, find somewhere to sit, and look through the bag you will have been given. Get rid of any unwanted paper, and then look to see if there are any last-minute exhibitor entries, in case there are one or two that you ought to visit. Then get your bearings.
- Aim to visit the most important exhibitors on your list first, in case you get waylaid or get too tired to continue.
- If you attend BETT on the Wednesday, ie on the first day of the show, it may be worth finding the Department for Children, Schools and Families ( DCSF) stand soon after the opening of the show. As a rule, the show is officially opened by a Government minister, who may announce new funding or a new development. The DCSF stand may have an area where you can listen to the announcement live (the hall in which the announcement is made is usually difficult to get into without an official invitation).
- Do not collect loads of information: it weighs a ton after a while. That’s where your business cards come in: give them to exhibitors you are interested in, and ask them to send you stuff after the show.
- Don’t collect loads of information on behalf of other teachers. I did that for years and as far as I know not one person did anything different as a result. In fact, it was probably counter-productive because it conveys the impression that you are just a glorified mailman.
- If you get thirsty, look out for free water which may be provided by some stands.
- When you strike up a conversation with someone, or meet up with colleagues, always ask: what have you see today that has excited you? And then follow up on their suggestions.
- At some point in the day, forget your careful planning and wander around. You will be surprised at what you come across that hasn’t been listed in any brochure. For example, good prices on some items, new publications, and companies you have never heard of.
- Head on over to the Times Education Supplement stand, to pick up a free copy of the periodical.
- Pick up free copies of other educational technology magazines – but bear in mind that some are little more than collections of advertisements.
- As well as the usual sorts of freebies like mugs and sets of pens, mouse mats and notepads, there are often more useful ones. For example, one year the QDCA was giving away miniature versions of the ICT Programme of Study, which you could keep on you for quick reference. Some stands may have useful documentation on data sticks.
- If you are staying to the bitter end, and you have deposited a coat in the cloakroom, collect it about an hour before the end of the show, to avoid a long wait. That means around 5pm Wednesday to Friday, and 3pm on the Saturday.
The next two points are especially relevant if you are attending for more than one day, or have team members attending on different days to yourself.
- Find out what others thought about products and events seen at the show. Use the tags BETT2010 and #bett2010.
- Check the ICT in Education website for news and reviews about the show.
After the show
There is always a danger that no matter how good an event is, it will turn out to have very little impact in the longer term, as you forget what you saw and more pressing concerns vie for your attention. Here are 7 suggestions for preventing that from happening.
- Arrange a team meeting for as soon as possible after the show. Have each team member say what three things most excited them, and three new ideas they picked up, plus what needs to change in your current practice. OK, “three” is an arbitrary and artificial number, but you get the idea.
- Draw up an action plan for following up. That may take the form of arranging visits to other schools, or demonstrations from suppliers, or introducing some new ideas into your lesson plans.
- Arrange a meeting with the Headteacher or other senior manager as soon as possible after your team meeting. The aim is to discuss with them what you learnt at the show that may impact what you are doing, or the school’s plans. If you discover that you are ahead of the game and don’t need to change anything at all for the time being, that is in itself an outcome that needs to be conveyed to your boss.
Make sure that you are well-prepared for the meeting, especially if you will be suggesting changes in what the school does, or you wish to ask for extra funding.
Also take into consideration whether your boss is a shoot-the-messenger type, if you need to report back on a new – and unwelcome – Government direction.
- Give feedback to the rest of the staff on any key messages you picked up from the show. This is as much for diplomatic reasons as anything else: for some reason, there are people who believe that spending 12 hours travelling and walking around all day along with thousands of other people is the equivalent of a day off.
- Allow at least a week after the show to hear from any suppliers to whom you gave your business card.
And again:
- Find out what others thought about products and events seen at the show. Use the tags BETT2010 and #bett2010.
- Check the ICT in Education website for news and reviews about the show.
Conclusion
The BETT show is a great opportunity to bring yourself up to date on new developments, try out products, carry out research and meet new and established professional acquaintances. But as ever, good planning is essential to ensure that you get the most out of it.
|
). Seriously, though, it all helps, and I wouldn't bother to suggest using this service if I hadn't found it to be good.
