With the coming of the Asus and RM MiniBook - and the smart phone - (the first of the many I fancy)the way is now being opened up to hardware that pulls what it wants from the best of connectivity anywhere and at anytime. In viewing these tools think about how you would load your traditional 'software'.
There has been an interesting debate/discussion recently on the Naace forum concerning the future of educational software in the follow up to Elcs and the usefulness of COL.
There is a concern that schools (and COL) assume that: OWNERSHIP of a software licence equalled USE and therefore BENEFIT. It doesn’t! So schools have loads of software that doesn’t get used – hardly sound investment. (thanks to Jonathan Wells for this thought)
So what now ?
As you look around the show here take a look at the media that the software applications or content gets 'delivered' to you on... and give the future a thought, its closer than you think.
The coming range of software applications will be sitting there online waiting for you in a true Web 2.0 fashion. You will pull them and pull on them when you want their functionality ... software like this from Softease:
This is a straight quote from the website of The National Council of the Teachers of English based in Urbana, Illinois, USA ... picked from the blog of Will Richardson the writer of Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts. Will has written extensively about the 'read/write web'.
Adopted by the NCTE Executive Committee February 15, 2008
Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities and social trajectories of individuals and groups. Twenty-first century readers and writers need to:
• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology • Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally • Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes • Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information • Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts • Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments
Will the New Framework for Literacy in England and the collected guidance on literacy in other countries manage to reflect this quickly enough to fit our young people for their demanding futures in a digital world? Or will the learners simply plot their own pathways through the institutional maze?
This has a direct link into Ewan's post today about 'The outcomes for Literacy in Scotland'. He picks out all of the best bits ... thanks goodness there are some really good bits ... and the definition of what makes a 'text' is little short of wonderful to my way of thinking to my way of thinking. Might have to buy a kilt soon !
I have long ( and often hard) struggled to come to terms with the institutional nature of our education systems and establishment. One particular theme always come back to me and that is that of 'learner reponsibility' (never mind learner voice for the moment.) I have always opted for change by revolution or productive cataclysm ... think of Noah and the Flood ... sort of what I had in mind for education. A world sized skip so that we could begin again.
David Warlick comments to a post on Will Richardson's blog: 'that the best thing we could teach kids today is how to teach themselves ... in a response to David's:
Our kids’ futures will require them to be:
Networked–They’ll need an “outboard brain.”
More collaborative–They are going to need to work closely with people to co-create information.
More globally aware–Those collaborators may be anywhere in the world.
Less dependent on paper–Right now, we are still paper training our kids.
More active–In just about every sense of the word. Physically. Socially. Politically.
Fluent in creating and consuming hypertext–Basic reading and writing skills will not suffice.
More connected–To their communities, to their environments, to the world.
Editors of information–Something we should have been teaching them all along but is even more important now.
The comments to this post (What Do We Know About Our Kids’ Futures? Really.) are well worth spending time on.
They are worth a read in themselves to focus the mind but some in particular stick out to coincide with previous comments:
Young people over the age of 16 may devise their own curriculum by accessing courses available at their own school, other schools, further education and higher education institiutions learning and on-line learning environments.
Schools can use voluntary mentors who - following appropriate disclosure - can support the independent learning of students
All learners will have their own personal computer with wifi capacity which they can use at home and at school to access their learning.
It seems to me that we have reached a sort of Tipping Point and that the way forward is to take a gigantic leap not based on all of our previous knowledge and experience but based on a leap of faith. We have too much information to compute quickly enough to make the radical changes that our young people need as they grow up in the digital world. (read about thin slicing)We are held back by our own fears ... it is time to grasp the light sabre in our hands and ...
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!!
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.
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
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.
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?
