BETT is for all in education

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I got into a debate yesterday on Twitter regarding the BETT_show hashtag being taken over by commercial companies and their noise. It was prompted by Tony Sheppard’s blogpost. Most of the comments were fairly negative towards the commercial sector.

I understand that educators want to share great ideas, good practice they have seen at the show. I also follow these tweets and find them valuable as I have to remain on my stand for most of its duration. One of the many valid comments was that many teachers will use Twitter for the first time and could potentially misunderstand what a great tool it is if they have to endure yet another tweet saying “Come to see X company on Y stand”. It is true that many commercial companies still do not understand Twitter and use it to bang out self-promoting information. There is no meaning dialogue with teachers. My newest colleague Lara Savory feels that these companies will end up doing more harm than good. So be it I, say I.

It was also suggested that many companies don’t get education. In reality, most commercial companies employ teachers to ensure their products have true educational value. They take this quite seriously. I would therefore like to stand up for the commercial companies and suggest perhaps teachers should take the time to understand their side. Surely BETT is a time for compromise between us.

It is a very difficult time for many commercial companies in the current economic climate. We have seen some disappear along the way. These companies range from the big boys: RM, Pearson, Capita, Microsoft to the smaller newer companies upstairs. If schools want to continue to see innovative products and have real choice, they should support the efforts of the commercial world. In addition to this, there are many of us on the ‘other side’ that work closely with schools and teachers. I include myself here but I also refer to the likes of Andrea Carr (Rising Stars), Chris Ratcliffe (Scholastic), Helen Daykin (I am Learning), Matt Pearson (Steljes) to name but a few. Many of us are school governors. Where we can we will also help support our Twitter PLN in whatever way we possible. Commercial people can ‘get’ education.

For commercial companies, the opportunity to get in front of teachers is becoming increasingly difficult as there are fewer LA advisory teams. And from the ones that still exist, the days of LA hosted ICT events are numbered. Teachers are also not allowed out of school as often as they used to be either to attend shows/conferences. For many BETT is their only opportunity to show their product/services in the year. However, BETT costs the commercial provider a PHENOMENAL amount of money; for the space in Olympia, to build the stand, cost of hotels for staff to attend. In fact everything is chargeable: internet connection, lights, seats, tables etc.  I believe it is more a trade show than a traditional educational conference. I would prefer if there was more honesty about this.  It is also one that we should be proud of. Over the last ten years, the number of international visitors has increased. We are world leaders in educational technology.

So I say to the teachers and education techies out there to cut some slack to the commercial companies at BETT. We have paid a lot for the right to be there. If we use the official #BETT_Show, perhaps be more patient with us. It is only once a year. Be discerning about the noise on #BETT_show hashtag. There could be some gems in there. And we are not all bad. I’ll be on the UniServity stand E125. Well, why not give myself a little plug ;)

Why a Technophobic teacher is an oxymoron.

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I have just read this TES article by Graham Brown-Martin. I couldn’t agree more. The schools that embrace this technology and allow students to use their managed wireless networks are really reaping the benefits. When budgets are stretched, it is strange that so many schools are not embracing the gadgets that are in students’ pockets or at their disposal. I know that it will take planning and there may be some hitches along the way but that is no reason not to try. And why don’t they speak to the schools that are having successes. They do exist. Schools who are interested should definitely check out http://www.unblockedu.com/

Students need to be taught appropriate use of ICT and banning mobiles is not going to do this.

I have met teachers who seem almost proud that they are technophobes. Why? It doesn’t make them a better teacher because they use tried and tested old fashioned methods. By steering away from technology they are not providing their students with the skills they will need post education. As you point out, they are not enabling and firing up the creativity that comes with technology.

I too did the same beauty parade of schools with my eldest with the same results. However some of these schools will spend money on devices such as iPods just to get round the ‘mobile’ issue. We should be showing children that their phones are able to be used in so many more ways than just texting and social networks. Then the real learning will take place and could mean schools have more money to spend on other things…

Text speak – just for the youth?

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R U going 2 b l8?

Children are often berated about using text speak in their everyday writing. It is not proper English. However, you have to agree the first sentence is grammatically correct. The reason they use it is because they realise it saves time writing. You have to wonder where they get it from…

Recently, I have become more aware about the over use of TLAs otherwise known as three letter acronyms. The education world is littered with them. My husband started his Primary Education degree this year. Originally he was appalled by the way the tutors spilled them, EAL, LAC, into their normal conversations without explanation. He really didn’t like them being used. It was all jargon for an elitist few to communicate with each other in his opinion. He found it alienating. However three months in and he is using the same acronyms with aplomb.

I also attended some Governor training last month with some parent governors. They admitted that they didn’t know what the Head teacher was talking about at their meetings because they spoke in acronyms. The SEF, ILPs, SRF, etc. but even the ones that we take for granted such as SEN, ICT were meaningless to them. It is easy to forget that unless you are in education we still need to explain what these stand for especially in the context of a governing body. Head teachers please note!

But it is not just in the education world that suffers from this either. I received an email from one of our Partners recently that read:

“Other LARs are selling academic but only because distributors aren’t enforcing the AER status of the VAR. We then have the EdLars, which can sell the larger school, campus agreements and the new full EES contract.”

I had to write back for clarification which was duly given with many apologies.

Maybe we should not discourage the use of text speak but ensure we are educating our children about when it is appropriate to use. Maybe we should take a leaf out of our own book.

Digital Native myth exploded for good?

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I recently read an excellent piece on the digital native by Gerald Haigh on Merlin John’s site Agent for Change. The digital native argument has been going on for some time and there are various blogs that have covered this Doug Holton,  Doug Belshaw and Andy Black to name just a few.

My own opinion is that the digital native argument was always overrated. It is more complicated than just a generation thing and I think any teacher who has worked with children in a classroom can vouch for that. There is much more going on. Access to devices is something that is key to skill levels. An adult/child brought up with many different devices will find it easier to switch skills than one that isn’t, regardless of age.

There is a perception that certain devices are intuitive. I think the term ‘more intuitive’ is perhaps more relevant. Apple intrinsically believes that their devices be it the Mac or the iPhone are user-friendly and in the main they are right but only to a point. For example, to a PC user what does Finder really mean? And for a Mac user, why can’t you drag and drop pictures into a template. Things are intuitive if you have experience of them; again this is not age-related.

One of the people in education whose work has caught my attention is Sugata Mitra. His experiments with SOLEs – self organised learning environments- I find extremely interesting. He has found that if you put children in groups of 3 or 4 they will work together to understand how to use the technology, learn and teach together as well as sharing ideas. His experiments have only been done with children at the moment but would SOLEs work in the same way with different generations? Do we organise ourselves differently as we get older and would our approach to technology be different? Wouldn’t it be great to run a complimentary experiment like this along with the other one? Now I would love to see those results!

5 Minute Management Course

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Ok so it is not IT related or educational but it is a bit of Friday fun and it was sent to me by a colleague.

Lesson 1

A priest offered a Nun a lift…
She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg.

The priest nearly had an accident.
After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg…..
The nun said, ‘Father, remember Psalm 129?’
The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again.   The nun once again said, ‘Father, remember Psalm 129?’
The priest apologized ‘Sorry sister but the flesh is weak.’
Arriving at the convent, the nun sighed heavily and went on her way.
On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129.  It said, ‘Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory.’ 

Moral of the story:  
If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity. 

Lesson 2 :  

A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp.
They rub it and a Genie comes out.  The Genie says, ‘I’ll give each of you just one wish.’
‘Me first! Me first!’ says the admin clerk.  ’I want to be in the Bahamas , driving a speedboat, without a care in the world..’  Poof! She’s gone.
‘Me next! Me next!’ says the sales rep. ‘I want to be in  Hawaii  , relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas, and the love of my life.’  Poof! He’s gone.
‘OK, you’re up,’ the Genie says to the manager.  The manager says, ‘I want those two back in the office after lunch.’ 

Moral of the story:  
Always let your boss have the first say. 

Lesson 3  

An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing.
A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, ‘Can I also sit like you and do nothing?’  The eagle answered: ‘Sure, why not.’
So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it. 

Moral of the story: 
To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up. 

Lesson 4  

A turkey was chatting with a bull  ’I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree’ sighed the turkey, ‘but I haven’t got the energy.’
‘Well, why don’t you nibble on some of my droppings?’ replied the bull.  It’s full of nutrients.’
The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree.
The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch..
Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree.
He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree. 

Moral of the story:  
Bull **** might get you to the top, but it won’t keep you there…  

Lesson 5

A little bird was flying south for the winter.  It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field.
While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him.
As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was..
The dung was actually thawing him out!
He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy.  A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. ..
Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him. 

Moral of the story:  
(1) Not everyone who craps on you is your enemy. 
(2) Not everyone who gets you out of crap is your friend.
(3) And when you’re in deep ***, it’s best to keep your mouth shut!      

THUS ENDS THE 5-MINUTE MANAGEMENT COURSE.

BmobLe 2011

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Learning through mobile technology is not a new concept. But as yet has not been taken up by huge numbers of schools. Mobile technology means more than smartphones. It includes iPads, iPods, netbooks, e-readers, nintendo ds’s, GPS devices.  The Curriculum ICT team at Bradford teamed up with its City Learning Centres and embraced mobile learning head on with their bMobLe project (short for Bradford mobile learning).

I had the pleasure on 16th June 2011 of attending the bMobLe conference, now in its third year, which had the theme of Creating Creativity. There was plenty to inspire from geocaching outside with James Langley (@lordlangley73) to iPods in the classroom with the wonderfully entertaining Thomas, Sam and Lewis from Worthinghead Primary School. Creativity was there in abundance with superb presentations from Dan Roberts (@chickensaltash) on using web 2.0 tools, David Mitchell (@deputymitchell) and John Sutton  @HGJohn) discussing blogging,  Dawn Hallybone (@dawnhallybone)on games based learning, David Rogers (@davidErogers) on Mission:Explore and various members of the Curriculum ICT team Paul Scott (@pederosa), Vicki Cox (@vickit23) , Tim Bleazard (@idletim), Robert Bashforth(@rbashforth) and Steve Dale (@stevedale).

Key note speakers were Andy Hutt (@andyhutt) and Dwayne Saxton. Andy is an ex-secondary English teacher who now works with schools and educational providers to support a creative, efficient and effective use of ICT. He spoke about creativity being open for all with technology. We can all be artist, photographer, composer, film-maker. He showed an inspirational film that makes you think about how simply changing the words can really make a different to the impact of the message. You can see it here.

Dwayne is Principal at Appleton Academy in South Bradford. It is an all through school 3-19. This school uses multiple types of devices and see IT as a tool that has to be ubiquitous. Their IT solution delivers creativity and working in many different ways. Important in an all through school.

Theirs is an open mobile phone policy with the ability for the children to access the wireless network. How refreshing to hear! Dwayne felt that it is about managing the opportunity and developing self management by the pupils.

But as with all these things the basics should not be forgotten and I went to a great session by Mark Ellis. His message was simple but important. Make sure the infrastructure and wireless network is designed to support what is trying to be achieved. Who is going to manage it and the devices?  Have you got a scalable solution? Two other issues were also raised. Sustainability is something that needs to be considered by schools. And the importance of training should not be understated. Paul Scott said that 25% of the school spend on mobile devices should be spent on training.

The one thing that stood out from all of these presentations was not how great the gadgets are but the impact that they were having on learning. Changing the educational paradigm around mobile technology is not going to be easy. But learning from the success of Bradford could make it less difficult.

Case studies from the project can be found on their website here

 

Mobile learning engages!

LOB11- RFID

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I have a confession. RFID tags meant the annoying shoplifter deterrents on clothes or Oyster cards before #lob11. I remember hearing John Davitt talking about using them in education at the Norfolk Conference in 2010. At the time I found it difficult to see the connection but realised there must be more to them than I realised. At #lob11 we were set a task via clues to find a hidden treasure box, well a small Tupperware box. Several grown adults enthusiastically dug the sand with children’s beach spades to find the treasure. The box contained a question and a small tortoise to which a RFID tag had been stuck to. The first revelation for me was the tag was a sticker and not hard plastic. We then took the object and put it across the tag reader attached to a laptop. The tag automatically skyped our ‘expert’ in the sunny UK via John’s beach wireless. She then answered our question. The second revelation was that it is not necessarily the tag that has the wow factor but the applications that come with the tag.

Some of the applications with the RFID tags that we used in Ireland excite me. They are the wheel link application where you visit a different web link each time the reader with the same tag until you come back to the first link; the email application where an email address is pre- entered, great for use in special schools; the skype application, souvenir application which points to a collection of pictures, web browser application and the video application which lets you add Youtube videos as different links on your video wheel.

I have since done more research about the technology and RFID is used for everything from tracking cows and pets to triggering equipment down oil wells. According to the online journal devoted to the technology, www.rfidjournal.com , “The applications of RFID are limited only by people’s imagination.” The next big thing with RFID technology is the mobile wallet. It really is something to keep an eye on.

The potential opportunities are many...

LOB11 – Leave no trace

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A year ago the first Learning on the Beach unconference organised by John Davitt was held. A chance to bridge outdoor learning with technology was too appealing and exciting. Unfortunately for me it was during term time and I was unable to attend. This year it was during half term so I was delighted to go. The original idea for this year’s event was to “explore some of the core issues that underpin active learning approaches formative feedback in an outdoor desk-free setting and enquire what it really means to “leave no trace””

After an evening which consisted of the history of Ireland as a song, salt marsh formation as a tragedy and the others did tide action as a rap, (a @johndavitt special from his Learning Generator) we set out the next day and met with Sean Carolan, a local man turned conservationist. Here we walked across the salt plains and Sean explained to us how the dunes and plains were formed. This local expertise brought to life the process and its importance to this region. It seemed important that we should share this new knowledge. We used our mobile devices in a variety of ways: photographing, videoing, noting. There are different Web 2.0 applications such as Google maps that this information can be attached to. The idea of ‘leave no trace’ suddenly became slightly ridiculous as to not leave a trace of the expertise and knowledge gained for future visitors and learners around the world would be a tragedy. Ah suddenly John’s Learning Generator makes sense now….

 

John setting up the mobile wifi at the beach