On the 22nd November 2007 I attended a seminar called “Secondary Curriculum – Evolution and Innovation”. What Web 2.0 projects are you running? Please take 5 minutes to complete our survey.
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| Cathode Ray definition |
Last week I attended a Westminster Media Forum event on the future of Children’s TV programming in the UK. Whilst I have not had enough time to cogitate fully on the information received, I thought I’d report on it anyway because there is a consultation in progress, the deadline for which is the 20th of December.
What's going on provides an interesting example of one of the manifestations of the "long tail" phenomenon.
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UPDATED In this extended edition we have news and views from around the world, and contributions from Peggy George, Fiona Aubrey-Smith and Dai Barnes. |
| Natalie Shukla |
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The December edition is nearly out, and includes reports on the new secondary curriculum in England, the Children's Plan, news from Zambia and the USA, and contributions from Dai Barnes, Fiona Aubrey-Smith and Peggy George. This should be out next Tuesday (I am just waiting for permission to quote someone in one of the articles), but in the meantime click on the title to see the full table of contents.
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| Do ALL jobs require IT skills? |
“Not having IT skills will soon be as serious as not being able to read.”
Lord Mitchell was speaking specifically about the UK context, but what he said has been said by others, from other countries.
But are these people correct?
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| Shouting your own praises? |
So, whilst the idea is superficially beguiling, it really has very little substance in my opinion.
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So what can we learn from Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of General Electric? Although schools and GE are very different types of institution, you may be surprised to discover that school leaders could benefit from adopting some of Welch's strategies.
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Sorry about the appalling grammar of the title, which was heavily influenced by a blues song called "Use what you got".
Anyway the point is, if you are keen to encourage colleagues to use ICT in their lessons, you don't necessarily have to obtain new stuff. What you already have in school may be sufficient.
In this article, I look at how Excel (or any other spreadsheet) might be used to help explore the idea of iteration.
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In my book "Go On, Bore 'Em: How to make ICT lessons excruciatingly dull", I looked at the ten most common sources of the problem. In this series of podcasts, Elaine (my wife) and I discuss my motivation for writing the book, and try to dig a little deeper into its underlying philosophy.
In this third episode in the series, we explore the third chapter, called "Where are we going?". Basically, the lesson will be more interesting and effective if the students (and the teacher) have a clear idea of what it's all leading up to.
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I run a small consultancy business. By "small", I mean that there is only myself going out and doing the work. That means that sometimes I need to partner up with others, join a consortium, or get myself on a larger company's database.
I recently applied to be placed on the books of a large company, and I learnt a lot about what not to do.
If you are trying to get educational ICT embedded in the curriculum, what you need to do is forge partnerships, because teamwork, in the usual sense of the term, is irrelevant here. (I explain why in another article).
Here is how not to do it.
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If part of your role is to get others to use educational technology in the curriculum, then what you need to do is forge partnerships and not, as is commonly surmised, focus on teamwork.
The differences between the two need to be understood if you are to stand a reasonable chance of being successful in effecting large-scale change.
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Digital cameras have been with us now for a decade. But three things have changed in that time.What Web 2.0 projects are you running? Please take 5 minutes to complete our survey.
In my book "Go On, Bore 'Em: How to make ICT lessons excruciatingly dull", I looked at the ten most common sources of the problem.What Web 2.0 projects are you running? Please take 5 minutes to complete our survey.
Amazon has recently announced the electronic book reader called Kindle. I read the announcement a day after I had met with a client who had one of the new ultramobile PCs, which actually costs less than the Kindle. What Web 2.0 projects are you running? Please take 5 minutes to complete our survey.
A few days ago I posted a message in Twitter to the effect that anyone who quotes a statistic like "The number of geniuses in China outnumbers the total population of our own country" does not understand the nature of genius. I believe that genius has much in common with creativity, about which the psychologist Abraham Maslow had particular views. He also had views about human needs.
In this series I should like to explore what the educational ICT leader can learn from Maslow and others when it comes to performing the educational technology leader's role, especially that of encouraging other teachers to incorporate the use of educational technology into their curricula.
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I recently gave a talk at the Westminster e-Forum on behalf of Naace. Here is the text of that presentation, which had to last no longer than four minutes. The audience was composed of Members of Parliament, journalists, and high-ranking representatives of skills organisations, companies and educational bodies.
The sub-text of the brief I was given was, no doubt, that schools should be doing more to encourage young people to take up careers in the IT industry (possibly via a university computer programming course of some description).
I have issues about that. For example, is it schools' job to do what the IT industry itself seems to find difficult to do, ie make IT-related jobs seem exciting and non-"nerdy" (especially to girls)? As often is the case, schools were taken to task by some of the speakers for the fact that ICT lessons are boring -- as proven by the fact that one of the speaker's daughter says so.
Actually, many ICT lessons are boring, but I like to feel that my own evidence for saying that (inspections, school visits, and general reading and discussion) is rather more robust. As I said in a comment from the floor at the end of one of the sessions, the phenomenon is well-established enough for me to feel moved to write a book about it (see the article about that).
More importantly, any subject can be taught in a boring way. The challenge is to identify good practice and then find ways of disseminating it.
But there is another issue. According to the Leitch Report,
"Today, over 70 per cent of our 2020 workforce have already completed their compulsory education."
That being the case, isn't it a bit late to be focusing on schools?
Anyway, read on to find out what I actually said, which had to take no longer than 4 minutes. I did it too :-)
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Sorry about the appalling grammar of the title, which was heavily influenced by a blues song called "Use what you got". Anyway the point is, if you are keen to encourage colleagues to use educational technology in their lessons, you don't necessarily have to obtain new stuff. What you already have in school may be sufficient.
In this article, I look at how Excel (or any other spreadsheet) might be used to help explore the idea of iteration.
What Web 2.0 projects are you running? Please take 5 minutes to complete our survey.
Excel
In this series I am looking at a number of poor business practices I have come across, and drawing lessons from them which may be applied to the "business" of evangelising about the educational benefits of educational technology or, as we call it in England and other parts of Europe, ICT (Information and Communications Technology). Is it legitimate to draw such comparisons? I think so, for the following reason. As an ICT evangelist, your role involves convincing others to buy what you have to offer. That may in the form of using services or equipment you provide, or giving you further funding, or in some other form entirely, but ultimately yours is a selling role.
In this article I consider the importance of flexibility, and of not having rules just for their own sake.
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In this series of podcasts, Elaine (my wife) and I discuss my motivation for writing the book, and try to dig a little deeper into its underlying philosophy.
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| A teenager |
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This half-term's issue contains a great line-up of useful articles: |
| Opposites attract |
As I said in the first article in the series (which contains much more background information), his books are concerned with the study of how to be "one up" on other people. Although they are written very much tongue-in-cheek, they are clearly based on real-life observation. I first came across them 40 years ago, and have read and re-read them over the years for their humour. However, I find myself more and more discovering that a number of aspects of modern life may be found in these books, despite the elapsing of half a century, a fact which I believe puts them on a par with other classics such as Parkinson's Law and The Peter Principle.
Today, I look at the law of opposites.
His books are concerned with the study of how to be "one up" on other people. Although they are written very much tongue-in-cheek, they are clearly based on real-life observation. I first came across them 40 years ago, and have read and re-read them over the years for their humour. However, I find myself more and more discovering that a number of aspects of modern life may be found in these books, despite the elapsing of half a century, a fact which I believe puts them on a par with other classics such as Parkinson's Law and The Peter Principle.
So, with no further ado, let's see what Potter has to offer the educational ICT (Information & Communications Technology) subject leader in a school, Local Authority or School District.
In this series I shall be looking at a number of poor business practices I have come across, and drawing lessons from them which may be applied to the "business" of evangelising about the educational benefits of educational technology or, as we call it in England and other parts of Europe, ICT (Information and Communications Technology). Is it legitimate to draw such comparisons? I think so, for the following reason. As an ICT evangelist, your role involves convincing others to buy what you have to offer. That may in the form of using services or equipment you provide, or giving you further funding, or in some other form entirely, but ultimately yours is a selling role.
In this article I consider the importance of venue, and cite the case of a venue provider who recent got it spectacularly wrong.
This article is available only to subscribers to the Practical ICT eJournal.
Find out about a prize draw, how to find out about the next edition of Coming of Age, a social networking survey and more.What Web 2.0 projects are you running? Please take 5 minutes to complete our survey.
This Special Edition of Practical ICT is based on the Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education) report called “The Annual Report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills 2006-07, published on 17 October 2007.
Cilla discusses her recent experiences at an exhibition, and the effect they had on her willingness to engage with the companies concerned.What Web 2.0 projects are you running? Please take 5 minutes to complete our survey.
The latest issue of Computers in Classrooms is now available and contains articles on the following subjects:
To access it online you will need your user ID and password, as this newsletter is for subscribers only. Not a subscriber? It's free, and you can sign up here.
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To keep up-to-date with the progress on Coming of Age, subscribe to the Coming of Age e-bulletin. It's the first place to turn to for breaking news about the book -- and to be first in line to download it when the finished version comes out.
In fact, if you're quick off the mark, you can even contribute to it. Are you running a Web 2.0 project? If so, why not submit it as an example? Complete the survey form, which will take literally just 3 or 4 minutes. You'll find it here.
To enjoy a really good magazine-style read, subscribe to Computers in Classrooms. The next issue features articles by Paul Hopkins, Paul Harrington, Cilla Pickering and me.
If you're in a leadership or management role in terms of educational technology, subscribe to the Practical ICT eJournal. It costs £21.15 (approx. $40), for which you get a very practical journal at least 6 times a year, plus access to hundreds of articles, with a focus on techniques for improving the service you offer and making yourself more promotable.
You can subscribe to any of these by filling out a very short form here, and, in the case of the eJournal, making a payment. Once you've subscribed to any one of them, you can subscribe to the others by logging in at the members' page and then clicking on their name in a drop-down list, ie you don't have to fill in the form again.
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What can a story about a traditional Persian folk hero teach us about management? In this article, I look at the Mullah's experiment with improving his donkey's running costs, and the lessons we can learn from it.What Web 2.0 projects are you running? Please take 5 minutes to complete our survey.
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In this article we look at:
Why audience matters.
Who is the right audience? (And how to reach it.)
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regret not asking to be paid on a commission basis!) and guidance documents for two other Local Authorities, but in the meantime you may wish to:
Back soon!
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After much deliberation, we’ve launched a new e-journal called Practical ICT (for Leaders and Managers of Educational Technology). We were discussing this, and sounding out potential contributors, over a year ago. And now, with an author-friendly contract approved by the UK’s Society of Authors, we are ready to roll.What Web 2.0 projects are you running? Please take 5 minutes to complete our survey.
In this latest edition we cover:
So you thought MySpace was the only place to go for social networking and music? What Web 2.0 projects are you running? Please take 5 minutes to complete our survey.
Many teachers come bounding back from the long summer break full of energy and enthusiasm, and if you're starting in a new job altogether there is the additional wish to create a good first impression.
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| Lisa Parisi |
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| Alex Savage |
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| I hope the information I provide is better than this! |
In this article I look at the how Web 2.0 applications can contribute to one’s professional development. The issues I address include:
A busman's holiday
I’m on holiday. A busman’s holiday, to be exact. Doing plenty of writing, exploring, catching up. Read on for information about some things I’ve been doing and articles coming up, and an article I wrote about identity theft, but not as we usually understand it…
I’m not sure if the term “busman’s holiday” is known outside the UK, so here is a quick explanation. It means doing the same thing on holiday as you do in everyday life, like a bus driver going on a motoring holiday, according to Nigel Rees in “A Word in Your Shell Like”.
So, first, as a bit or relaxation, I wrote an article about identity theft, but in a different sense to the usual. That’s here:
http://terryfreedman.blogspot.com/2007/08/identity-theft.html
Then I wrote an article about professional development, which I shall post here shortly, followed by an exploration of Voicethread, Animato, and Flickr (again). All that is in an article too, which will be published here shortly. Both of those articles are from the forthcoming second edition of “Coming of Age: An Introduction to the New Worldwide Web”.
I also took part in a Flashmeeting meeting, which Paul Harrington has reported on. It was stupendous, and Paul is writing a practical article for this website about its usefulness in education. And a teacher called Lisa Parisi is working on an article for me about the practical things to take into account when running in-service courses for co-workers.
And I’ve been researching for an article I’ve been commissioned to write about Web 2.0 for the Times Educational Supplement. I’ll let you know when that appears. I’m doing it on digital photography, so if you have any great tips, websites or applications, let me know (credit given if used, of course)!
I have found time to relax too, as you can see from my latest pictures.
And now I am going off to relax a bit more — with a podcast!
A blogroll is a list of blogs that one is reading, or at least that one subscribes to, and which one recommends to others. This article is a quick how-to guide on how to set one up.
When Twitter first appeared on the scene, I thought it sounded like a complete waste of time.Thought for the day:
Whatever happens in a lesson, it is the teacher’s responsibility to do something about it.
Not strictly ed tech, but has a bearing on it because, apart from anything else, a poorly-managed lesson involving technology has health and safety implications.
So, is there anything a teacher cannot be held responsible for?
If you're responsible for the quality of the teaching and use of educational technology in your school, or if you work for an external body charged with a remit to evaluate quality, how should you go about it?
In the last Educational Technology Leader's Briefing we considered the role of lesson observation, and answered the question: how long should you observe a lesson for? In this one, we look at the all-important question of what you should actually look for -- we consider 15 aspects -- and what criteria you should use.
This article is available only to subscribers to Leading and Managing Educational Technology.
In this briefing we consider the role of lesson observation, and answer the question: how long should you observe a lesson for? We consider 10 factors.
This article is available only to subscribers to Leading and Managing Educational Technology. |
| Grace Peters |
However, I like to keep an open mind, and in this article I look at the case for students doing this so-called "back-channelling", in the form of an interview. So, what is back-channelling, and how useful might it be in the classroom? Elaine and Terry Freedman talk to Grace Peters, a Grade 12 student in Canada, about her experiences.
My main motivation in writing these vignettes is that I keep meeting depressed people: people who are in such a dire situation that they have started to believe that they will never be able to change it. So what I should like to do is provide very brief case studies comprising the before and after, but not the during: my aim is to uplift, rather than instruct, in these stories. That's why I aim to publish them on a Friday: so you can go home full of hope rather than despondency! This week: the myth of leadership 
You might wonder what qualifies me to write about cultural change in an organisation. Well, I’ve done it several times, and I thought I’d set myself the challenge of trying to describe some of the success stories I’ve enjoyed in 250 words or fewer.
If you're fortunate enough to have secured funding to make a large purchase, such as a new school network, or a Learning Platform, how should you go about it?
When you're spending money, there are some things you really must do. You need to adopt a business-like approach that is transparent and which maximises the likelihood of the purchase helping you achieve your goals. This is good practice that applies to any purchase, but even more so as the amount of money involved increases.
Here are 10 key elements of good practice.
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As the waves swished across the sand, a gentle breeze swayed my hammock. Somewhere in the lazy distance a seagull ...
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On the face of it, there was nothing in her address to suggest a role for the ICT leader, manager or teacher in a school. However, in this briefing we consider a number of ways in which this new strategy is relevant to educational technology in the classroom, based on the UK Government's research findings. There may also be increased funding opportunities available.
This briefing covers:
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I am, as usual, pushed for time, but I wanted to let you have information about a range of issues. This is a bit of a pot pourri, I'm afraid, but I hope you find it interesting.
The topics covered are:
