Computers in Classrooms
ISSN 1470-5524
15 July 2009
Practical advice for colleagues who use, teach, lead or manage information and communication technology (ICT) in schools.
This newsletter is © 2009 Terry Freedman. Contributors own the copyright of their own articles.
Home Page: http://www.ictineducation.org Updated virtually daily.
Email: terry@ictineducation.org
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In this issue…
Using computers to raise standards in mathematics
The White Paper: your child, your schools, our future: building a 21st century school system
Information about this newsletter and its editor
Would you like to present at BETT 2010? If you have been engaged in innovative practice, or know of someone who has, there may be an opportunity to share what you've discovered.
Martin Jack, who is responsible for the seminar programme at BETT, emailed me to say:
"I realise that for you and many others of the TeachMeet community, much of the formal seminar programme at BETT does not meet your needs."
Martin went on to say that he recognised that not everyone could stay late on the Friday, but wanted to find a way of extending the opportunity for them to learn of innovative classroom practice going on. Consequently, he has extended the opportunity to submit a seminar proposal to everyone.
The application form is here:
http://www.bettshow.com/page.cfm/Action=Form/FormID=1/t=m
The cut-off date was, in fact, 29 June 2009, which I hadn’t realised. However, Martin has kindly offered to keep the door open to proposals received by the end of July. So get your skates on!
In a previous newsletter I used Wordle to 'analyse' the text. Today I received an email from Chris Bolton, who works in Lancashire, England, to say that his colleague, Jacqui Bannister, had used Wordle on the text of Chapter 3 of the Rose Review. That’s the one called 'Essentials for Learning and Life'.
Here is Jacqui’s Wordle, reproduced here with permission:
Graeme George, ICT Subject Leader at a school in Kent, England, was the lucky winner of our prize draw of three games creation programs. The programs were offered by The Games Creators, and I will be reviewing the games for the special games edition of this newsletter.
The games are: FPS Creator, 3D Games Creator and DarkBasic Professional. Graeme says:
"This is a great opportunity to show the pupils how games are made and encourage them to create their own."
Graeme hopes to provide some feedback about using these programs.If you have experience of using these or any other games-making programs, do share your experiences and views! (See below for schedule of Computers in Classrooms issues).
Stumped for how you might be able to contribute? Then have a read of this article:
31 Ways of making a contribution.
As you may have noticed, if you're a regular reader of this newsletter, I have fallen behind in my self-imposed schedule for future issues. This was because of workload. I still hope to publish the special issues mentioned below, but the deadlines have been extended. I do hope you will be able to send in a proposal for a contribution.
|
Month |
Focus |
Copy Deadline |
|
September |
Reviews |
3 September 2009 |
|
October |
Professional Development |
30 September 2009 |
|
November |
Digital Safety |
30 October 2009 |
|
December |
Reading |
15 November 2009 |
|
January |
Games & Mobile Learning |
20 December 2009 |
If you are thinking of contributing, but are not sure how, have a look at 31 Ways of Making a Contribution for some general ideas. Here are some more specific ideas:
|
Special Issue |
Ideas for Contributions |
|
Reviews |
If you’ve read a good ICT book, come across a good website, or used an interesting resource in your classroom, write a review of around 500 words. |
|
Professional Development |
As above, but in the context of professional development. Also, have you invented or discovered any great approaches to professional development? How about writing a review of a conference you’ve attended recently? |
|
Digital Safety |
Product reviews are welcome, as are reviews of useful guidance in this area, and your opinion of the issues involved. |
|
Reading |
Has technology sounded the death knell of reading, or given it a new lease of life? Your opinions are welcome! |
|
Games & Mobile Learning |
I know that in principle these two things are not linked, but often they are in practice, which is why I thought they could be included in the same issue. If you have been experimenting with games and/or handheld devices in your classroom or local schools, please share your findings! |
This newsletter is called 'Computers in Classrooms' for a reason: it's about using computers (and related technology), not just in ICT but in other subjects as well. So I was delighted to receive an invitation to the Cars Maths in Motion grand finale. Cars Maths in Motion is a program that has been designed to help youngsters develop their mathematics skills.
I wrote about the event here:
http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/article_1544.php
I will be reviewing the software and, hopefully, publishing more about the program, including youngsters' views, in the games issue of Computers in Classrooms. But in the meantime here is a more-or-less exclusive preview of an interview I recorded with Izzy, the girl who has designed the game's racetrack circuit for the past three years. (I say 'more-or-less' because the link has not been publicised at all, but there is of course a possibility that someone has come across it.)
In case your ISP blocks graphics and embedded videos, here is the link to it on the internet: http://blip.tv/file/2321303
For the benefit of non-Brits, a White Paper is basically a document which sets out the Government's ideas for a new piece of legislation. The term 'ICT' means information and communications technology, or what is known in some parts of the USA as 'educational technology'.
I've read through this in order to see what its implications are for those of us who use or teach ICT. There is a mixture of new things and old news. Here is a summary, with some comments:
1. ICT is not so much put on the map as confirmed as being on the map. According to the White Paper, the new Pupil Guarantee will ensure that:
"the curriculum is tailored to every child’s needs so that, from September 2011, every primary pupil receives the support they need to secure good literacy, numeracy and ICT skills, ..."
2. Buildings and ICT:
"Every pupil should have access to modern, high quality information technology, equipment and other facilities. The Government invests very significant sums in capital funding for school buildings and facilities.”
3. The role of ICT in administration and communication:
"Information and communication technologies (ICT), and online systems and resources in schools, will provide greater flexibility for learners at school and at home. They will also help school leaders, teachers, support staff, other professionals, parents and pupils to communicate and share information and resources, and to find out about local and national services and support available to pupils and parents."
"Parents will get regular, up-to-date online reporting of their child’s learning, behaviour and progress and they will have more opportunity to influence the running of the school."
"The new Parent Guarantee will also ensure: ... parents have information on their child’s behaviour, attendance, SEN, progress and attainment online in secondary schools by 2010 and in primary schools by 2012..."
None of this is new, so far, just a restatement of what has already been laid down, eg in Harnessing Technology.
4. Professional development
There have been some changes here. In particular, the National Strategies will cease to be funded after 2011. Thus the White Paper has a few things to say about professional development:
"We will explore how to make the Department’s (ie the Department for Children, Schools and Families) digital and web offer more effective in allowing schools to draw down existing professional development materials, and to support school-to-school networking."
"As we move to our new model of how improvement support is delivered to schools, we will not renew the current, central contract for the National Strategies when it comes to an end in 2011. We will delegate the funding for the Primary and Secondary National Strategies to schools, and expect them, with their SIPs, to use it to continue their investment in improving their literacy, numeracy and other core business."
I think it will be important for ICT advisors and subject leaders of ICT to keep their eyes peeled for any announcements about new funding arrangements. You will want to know how much, if anything, gets delegated to schools, and whether or not it is ring-fenced for ICT.
"The quality of a school system cannot exceed the quality of its workforce. We will continue to invest heavily in seeking to recruit the most capable graduates as teachers, to provide initial training of the highest quality and professional development throughout a teacher’s career."
If I am to be honest, two things worry me about this, worthy as this pronouncement is. Firstly, most of the 'official' professional development training courses I have attended have been pretty dire. They have mainly consisted of being bombarded with bullet points; even when time has been allocated for table discussions and other activities, the overwhelming sense has been one of being lectured at.
Now, I will accept that there is a place for such training. After all, what is the point of spending hours in discussion when a lecture will give you all the information you need in an hour? But there is also a need for discussion, mulling things over, trying things out and then discussing the outcomes.
So will the 'highest quality' of CPD include opportunities that teachers make for themselves: Teachmeets, Mirandamods, and online communities such as Twitter? This is important in the light of the proposed teaching licence, and the Masters in Learning and Teaching course -- many Masters courses now are student-centred rather than lecturer- or subject-centred, and take into account past work experience and self-made opportunities for learning and practice.
"... transform the culture of professional development in teaching through the development of the Masters in Teaching and Learning, with the expectation that in time, all teachers will achieve a practice-based Masters qualification;
"... introduce a renewable licence to teach, so that all teachers need to keep their practice up to date in order to renew their licence, and continue to develop professionally, alongside a new entitlement to continuous professional development;..."
"We want to build on the best elements of the existing registration arrangements but place more emphasis on a teacher’s recent record of professional practice and professional development. For this reason we will make provisions for the General Teaching Council for England to take this forward. We will introduce a new licence to teach, linked to entitlements to professional development and training, and look to establish new and stronger expectations for the development of support staff."
It worries me that the General Teaching Council has been charged with taking this forward, given the fact that as far as I know the only time that Web 2.0 applications come to its attention is when a teacher has been accused of misusing Facebook or Twitter. As a community we need to make sure that there is plenty of publicity for all the good practice that is going on in these sorts of areas.
If you have been using Facebook, Twitter or any other Web 2.0 application for professional development purposes, why not write about it for the professional development issue of Computers in Classrooms?
In the meantime, to read the White Paper, or a summary of it, go here: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/21stcenturyschoolssystem/
The document referred to is Crown copyright. Items reproduced with permission (PSI Licence C2008000032).
I've been looking at the statistics for the ICT in Education website, and what I find quite astonishing is the fact that some articles which are a few years old have been viewed loads of times over the past few months. Now, admittedly, they are well-written, incisive, moving, exciting and so on ;-), but apart from all that I can't really understand why they are so popular; or, to be more precise, why now?
To show you what I mean, here are the viewing statistics for the ten most-viewed articles from May to mid-July 2009, along with the dates on which they were first published. Note that the stats refer to the number of views between 1st May 2009 and 14 July 2009, and not since the date on which the articles were first published.
|
Article |
Published |
URL |
Views |
Rank order |
|
Announcement: Briefing on ICT in the Rose Review of the Primary Curriculum |
2009-05-04 |
http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/article_1510.php |
5172 |
1 |
|
"Blogs, wikis and podcasts? What if we're all wrong?" |
2006-03-03 |
3473 |
2 |
|
|
A visit to John Hanson Community School |
2006-12-06 |
3285 |
3 |
|
|
ICT in the Rose Review of the Primary Curriculum: Wordle and PDF Version |
11-May-09 |
http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/article_1514.php |
1031 |
4 |
|
The consultant's tale |
2007-06-19 |
http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/article_1076.php |
913 |
5 |
|
Five reasons to use Wordle in education |
06-May-09 |
http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/article_1511.php |
871 |
6 |
|
"All change in England and Wales: the new secondary curriculum, and its implications for ICT" |
2007-12-20 |
http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/article_1210.php |
743 |
7 |
|
Rate my teacher |
19-Dec-05 |
609 |
8 |
|
|
What makes a good teacher as far as technology is concerned? |
2009-07-09 |
http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/article_1546.php |
569 |
9 |
|
The Tech Force |
2009-06-22 |
http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/article_1541.php |
530 |
10 |
I think three important lessons can be learnt from this:
Firstly, it reinforces the idea that once you've published something on the internet, it may be read even years later.
Secondly, because of that, 'hits' recorded immediately after an article has been published is a pretty meaningless statistic in some respects.
Thirdly, just because articles are not commented upon, doesn't mean to say they are not influential in some way. So, if you blog but don't feel that you have much of a readership, don't be too disheartened.
Get yourself a statistics program such as Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics) or StatCounter (http://www.statcounter.com) and study the trends over a period of time. (Please note: I haven’t used these programs myself, but several people have told me that they like them.)
We all know that a picture paints a thousand words, so how about comics and cartoons? That and other issues will be discussed in the next issue of Computers in Classrooms, due out in September.
To contribute, please get in touch: terry@ictineducation.org, with the subject header “Contribute” (or just click on the link). We are also always interested in hearing young people’s views, so if you have a pupil, son or daughter who would like to write an article or a review, please start a conversation with us about it!
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