Hardware ?

Interactive Whiteboards

Is it true that 'ICT' and 'Interactive Whiteboard' have become synonymous? After a number of years of hype, a great deal of drilling, a lot of money for manufacturers and suppliers as well as for 'putter-uppers, a good deal of discovered asbestos, a mountain of resources and web sites and some excellent teaching (as well as some appalling stuff), we have reached the tipping point. There is no way back so what is forward?



Small is beautiful


Web 2.0 is coming!! Web 2.0 is coming !! ... and what will we run it on?

In his book 'The Tipping Point', Malcolm Gladwell explains quite clearly the mechanics of change that need to happen before something is adopted or goes 'viral'. I sense that there is a rise in the tide of accessible hardware and it is being pushed by a north wind. When will the surge happen? I suspect at BETT 2008 !

At the 'Handheld' Conference recently RM featured their new Asus Mini Book. Tim Pearson, RM's MD led with: My presentation was called 'Towards the perfect device' and in it I announced the introduction of our new small computer - the RM Asus miniBook. and I read today in PC Pro Magazine an upbeat review of the beast. Commercially called an 'Asus Eee PC 701', PC Pro have it down as A genuine step forward for the laptop, with unbelievable capabilities for the price, plus an ultra-low weight

It deals with the three '95s' ... 95% of the people, 95% of the things, 95% of the time!

A base selling price from RM of £169 (I am told it has been available for 10 days already)or on the open market for (currently) £180, this might have found its way into some Christmas Stockings, although I did hear that they were snapped up like 'hot cakes'.

It certainly will set the cat amongst the pigeons as its 900MHz Intel Celeron M and 512MB DDR2Ram with 4G solid-state flash disk and integrated graphics might be more than enough for most jobs. The OS is a custom version of a Xandros version of Linux and it cleverly comes with Internet, Work, Play, Settings and Favorite tabs ... each with its own set of apps. Open Office and Firefox 2 are preinstalled.

There are more goodies in the shape of an integrated webcam, SD card reader, 802.11bg wireless.

I think it might just catch on ... or it might provoke a move by competitors to begin to deliver ubiquitous, portable machines that pull everything from the web and don't cost the earth.

I also note from Andrew Brown's blog that they will be in lots of lovely colours!!

Also listen/watch the video from John Connell's site.

A machine/child could be just around the corner.

Did you read this:

I was alerted to a BBC report from England's Children's Minister Kevin Brennan where he says '...electronic toys, music players and phones often appear in schools as the new term begins. Children often bring the fascinating gadgets they were bought as Christmas presents into class, but these can cause disruption and hamper learning. Teachers can and will confiscate such items if they see them being used in lessons.'

The idea that some of the powerful tools that children now have access to at home are essentially disruptive and hamper learning almost says it all. It is no wonder that our young people feel that they 'dumb down' to go to school and that many of them feel that the tools that they have at their disposal do not actually meet their needs.

As part of the report the General secretary of teaching union the NASUWT Chris Keates said: "Every year some youngsters arrive back at school with MP3 players, mobile phones and electronic games. This can be a real headache for teachers when they are trying to get everyone settled down to start learning. Teachers would be grateful if pupils just brought a pen."

So as we move further and further into a technological age one of the 'influences' on educational policy sees the major tool for learning as a pen.

The report goes on '... Some schools have a "no gadget" policy where all non-educational equipment is banned ' . So who says what and what isn't educational then ? And who defines 'gadget'?

I feel so cross about the whole thing. We need a 21st Century education for our young people !!

Internet Access

The Guardian reports that the Government has a plan to give every child internet access at home.

In the report Jim Knight, the schools minister, said: he is in talks with companies such as Microsoft, BT, Sky, Virgin and RM to help close the widening achievement gap between pupils from the richest and poorest families...

In the interview Mr Knight says: .... that the government was putting pressure on IT firms to bring down the cost of equipment if internet connections are in effect made compulsory for nearly six million children.

It is the 'made compulsory' bit that interests me. How so can access to the Internet be made compulsory ... the implication being in homes throughout the land? ( England that is !!) Interestingly it all seems to be about reporting rather than learning.

Web 2.0 in some Primary Schools

Some schools and teacher training establishment have taken on board the excitement and the potential that Web 2.0 offers:

I regularly run CPD sessions for schools/teachers often on 'teacher days' or for 'twilight' sessions and need to get teachers quickly into the contexts without any technological fiddles. Attention time is often at a premium and so I have taken to building blogs in which I have just placed the links that I want the teachers to view (as part of the session). All I need to do then is give them a single url and they can get started straight away, and, they can easily access the materials anywhere they wish, and, they can let their children have access to the url if they wish.

A very simple example of the materials for a teacher day involving science and term 1 can be found here

Newbridge Primary School offer a 'mash up' site that gives a flavour of what can be done.

The Porchester Junior School in Nottingham appears to have it all built in to their web site: RSS,audio announcements, a school wiki, blog comments, user poll, Typepad for article posting ...

Some of the things that Miles Berry says are very apt as far as education is concerned. You decide.



If you don't know it a really good read is the collaborative book edited by Terry Freedman entitled Web 2.0, Coming of Age:An introduction to the NEW worldwide web ... this link from Chris Smith's Shambles site.

Here Brian Kelly reports on Andy Powell's use of Facebook in the Primary School. Another example of a 'mash up'.

Sandaig Primary School is rife with the use of Web 2.0 applications.

The best blog I have seen for a specific curriculum context comes from Marin Country Day School ... just wonderful stuff !

Meanwhile, in New Zealand at Stratford Primary School they explored the good, the bad and the ....

So listen to Paul Harrington from Cefn Fforest Primary school in Wales and his use of Web 2.0 in the primary classroom.



You could go here and see the links that East Carmuirs Primary School in Falkirk have saved on del.icio.us or even read their blog.

In New South Wales, in Australia del.icio.us is widely used.

St Vincents Catholic Primary have a separate blog for each class which lays out clearly what the terms themes with objects etc and links for parents to use at home. Then there are weekly updates and reminders. The Foundation stage blog gives a good idea what its about. It's lively, informative and gives lots of websites for parents to share with the children related to this terms work. The link to each of the other class blogs is at the bottom of their class page.

Some schools are using applications such as Slide to show parents and friends photos of school visits ( after checking the school and LA policy on such things)

Teachers TV has run on blogging ... well worth a watch and a listen.

Scotland seems to be forging forward. Read and mark Ewan McIntosh's blog to keep up with things

And so on and on and on ... and just as an aside while you are making up your mind about which/what/when and where ...

My colleague Tricia and I have now cracked most of the problems that we had at first associating the University's VLE, Blackboard, with FaceBook... with the help of the University's e-Learning team and the guys who developed the widget/app ... CourseFeed. Already students on the PGCE course are signing up so that they can use the VLE from within their social networking set up.

This opens up a number of interesting questions about how people see their access to the materials that they want to use. One of the current questions that I get constantly asked by teachers, SM teams, and LAs is 'Will it work within our portal/VLE/LP etc ?' And I am thinking that this is probably the right question the wrong way round. How about 'Will your VLE/portal/LP work within my social network app?' . Because I want to start from where I am and not necessarily from where the institution is. I hadn't thought too much about this until recently but the stuff I have been doing in the last few days has caused me to think a good deal about it. Is it a matter of who leads who here? or 'what leads what' ... chicken and egg syndrome come to mind !

Which brings me to my 'new definition' of interoperability ... I want to be able ( and I want childeren/students to be able to) to choose where I start but also want to get to the same place whichever way it is. Is this a long step on, or as the FaceBook/Blackboard experience seems to suggest, something just around the corner?

Are you there yet ?

... and which do I use ...

After a year of blogging and reading many feeds concerning what others are doing and using. For me it comes down to:

Skype
Flickr
ZOHO
Google
Facebook
Blogger

My Web 2.0 Year 2007

Second Life

Blogger

Box

Del.icio.us

Diigo

Edublog

FaceBook


Feedblitz

Google

Ictopus

Joost

Lulu

Netvibes

Pbwiki

Scratch

Skype

Twitter

Wikispaces

Wikipedia

Wordpress

Yugma

ZOHO

Animoto

Slide

Slideshare

Flashmeeting

Ning

Sketchcast

Jing project

Trailfire

Toondoo

Voicethread

Voki

Bloglines

Adobe share

Flickr

Google Earth

Mashups

If you really want to see what others use then:
All Things Web 2.0

Listio

Worried about Web 2.0?

Whenever I talk to teachers or advisors about using Web 2.0 applications in curriculum contexts they invariably come up with worries about security. In a growingly litiginous society this is understandable but the worries should not provide barriers.

There are ways forward and I note that my good friend Peter Woodhead from Hong Kong offered a look at how they are making steps or even leaps forward ... 'To see how we are using Web 2.0 on our learning platform - which gives all students a safe place to create their digital identities - go to the ESF home page and sign in with the guest account details as given on the page explore the web 2.0 folder for goodies - nothing new but it's what we like doing and also see how I have used a freebie java script editor to embed an RSS feed from my Furl site onto the home page - something your kids could probably do easily' ...

The Byron Review

The Byron Review is an independent report into the risks posed by inappropriate web and game-based content for children and young people. It supported by the UK's Department for Children, Schools and Families. It is being headed up by Dr Tanya Byron and will finally report in March 2008. The responses on her Bebo site make interesting reading.

The review, commissioned by The Prime Minister will look into the risks to children from exposure to potentially harmful or inappropriate material on the Internet and in video games. I do hope that the trawl for information for the review will be a wide so that we get to know, on a world scale, what is happening rather than, as is usual, on a very anglo-centric one.

For me one of the main issues developing from early reports concerning the Review is the perception of 'danger'. It would be wonderful if , just for once, the immense power of the advances in technology and the ability for people all over the world to interact with each other on a social, political and even interest level could be seen as positive not negative.

The media/press do their best to hype up any issues associated with social networking that they can find. The public at large are being ill informed and ill served by being led down a path of doom and gloom with regard to what our young people see as a gigantic leap forward in their ability to free themselves from their geography and expand into a much wider world.

The safety of our young people has to be a prime concern but that is, as it always has been for me, one for education. In your kitchen, are there any knives? Or have you removed them or put bolts on the kitchen door so that children cannot get in to see/find/use them? We know that useful things may be potentially harmful but, in terms of a sort of 'cost/benefit' analysis we make an educated decision about them and move on.

There are key issues here with regard to curriculum in our schools and the necessary importance of personal safety education. (Isn't that one of the aspects of PSHE sessions?)

Dr Tanya Byron appears to me to be a sensible person who will report sensibly without hype. I just hope that the media manage to report her report in the same way.

Safeguarding our Children in a digital world

The Becta Conference held earlier this month in Birmingham brought to the fore some of the key concerns and the subsequent calls for action to protect young people growing up in a digital world. There was concern about digital awareness in a population driven by technology aired by a number of speakers. Jenny Simpson, Safeguarding Development Officer, Leicestershire CYPS, gave valuable tips on developing a Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCB) strategy taken from her own experience and she made clear points saying that:

'... in developing a co-ordinated response, it was important to recognise:
e-safety comes within the context of Every Child Matters
e-safety is part of the wider work of the LSCB
e-safety is not a technological issue
the importance of education, training and information

For me the key point here is the fact that this is not a technological issue. The safety of people in a digital world should not and must not depend on the producers of the technology. We do not hold television manufacturers responsible for the programmes we and our children watch. And you can't hold the BBC responsible for programmes watched by minors after the watershed.

It is down to education ... in our schools it is a PSHE issue and in our homes it is about knowledge and responsibility. Penny Patterson, ICT Inspector, London Grid for Learning (LGfL), London Borough of Havering made a very valuable point when she commented: children and young people should be encouraged to take responsibility for their own e-safety and those of their peers, and be given the skills so that they are better able to make the process ‘self policing’...

I totally agree here that it is up to everyone to invest time and effort into teaching and learning the necessary skills and techniques that living in a digital age necessitates. After all, we are all familiar with 'road safety' issues and this education has formed a part of the curriculum in schools for decades. Time to move forward. Road saftey is still important as is drug awareness, sex education and 'not going with strangers'. The e-safety agenda is another in the line of responsibilities we have towards our young people. To help them we may need some help ourselves.

Stephen Carrick-Davies, Chief Executive of Childnet International, spoke of the pressures on parents and their plight in trying to keep their children safe on the internet, when many are intimidated by their own lack of knowledge. He commented: Some parents feel intimidated by the internet and unable to help their children because of their own lack of internet knowledge. We need to continue to inform and develop adult confidence and competence so that our young people can feel supported not only at school but at home as well.
This is not an issue which will go away and so all of us must engage in it - collective responsibility must be the theme.

What does Web 2.0 mean to you ?

There is a tremendous debate about whether it exists at all or if it is just a figment of imagination and I expect that a large part of the audience at this presentation will have their own views and their own personal definitions.

A sensible, starter version of the variety of basic applications can be found on the Softease site.

But if this is you ... have you tried your ideas on teachers who are not as knowledgeable as you? How can they see through their own practice that there is power to be had and why are they so frightened?

You might like to read here:

RUWeb 2.0 ?

... or more importantly ... 'are your children/students?'


'The future is already here - its just not evenly distributed'
William Gibson

We have seen it coming, we have used many elements of it and we all call it different things. Is it ‘social software’? Is it Web2.0? Is it ‘New Generation’? The title matters not, but the operation is the difference between ‘push’ and ‘pull’.

In our own social and professional lives as mainly digital immigrants (see the work of Marc Prensky) we have begun to embrace a new form of ‘living’. We have returned to older ways of finding out; we ask to know. But our asking is wider and involves interaction and debate. We have begun to embrace the technology to help us with this but its exponential change leaves us gasping at what we can now do and who we can talk to and, best of all, what we can say.
There is real power here for our own professional development that we have only just begun to tap into. We need to make a personal move from ‘immigrant’ to ‘native’.

The latest generation of social software is evolving. That is part of its power and its excitement.

In our schools we are dealing with digital natives. This is their world and they have never known one that is different. If we do not make use of the power of their native technology in our work with them as educators then there is a high chance that they will want to bypass our system. The very essence of schooling as we know it is at stake here.

Up until now the questions and the answers have been applied to older students working in our secondary schools but now the message is coming down the age range. Older brother and sisters have younger brothers and sisters who want to know. They watch their older siblings deal with ‘MySpace’, ‘Facebook’ and ‘Bebo’; they use ‘Flickr’, ‘del.ic.ious’ and ‘Diigo’; the write on ‘Zoho’; they communicate on ‘Skype’ and ‘MSN’; and they ‘Google’ everything from calculations to maps and beyond.

They already know how to do it and they bring their skills and knowledge with them to the school education party.

What, if anything at all, are schools doing about making the best, most efficient use of this power to enhance teaching and learning? What are the strengths that we can latch on to and work with? Where are the weaknesses and the problems? Where will we find best practice?

Have a quick glimpse into the future before you start ... we all could do with 2020 vision. Written in 2003 in the time of 'Web 1.0' does excite or ...?


The age group is falling and falling for the use of social software and we must all be aware and beware of that. It is our job to educate and support our young people in the educational and social use of the tools that they have available ... the distinction between the tweo aspects is, after all, our not theirs.

Below is something to watch and listen to so that the focus shifts ... what we want to do here is to move with our young people ... to change practice where appropriate, both theirs and ours.

Hello and Welcome

My name is Doug Dickinson and I will be leading you through some of the things I feel are important about technological developments in education as we go into a 21st century .

I hope you enjoy the session!