How can we all be above the median?

Schools in the UK have become so used to accepting targets from government that now they are accepting their responsibility to do the impossible.

We all know that to Ofsted ‘satisfactory’ is no longer ‘satisfactory’. However I have realised that the latest government floor standards have a huge flaw. The DfE say that a school would be seen as “underperforming” if its Key Stage 2 results are below the average percentage of pupils at the end of KS2 making expected progress in English or Maths. This average is calculated by the median. The problem is that the median is the numerical value separating the higher half of the population from the lower half.

In this case every year 50% of schools will be “underperforming”. This is the definition of the median. If every school got above 90% then still 50% would be below the median, and therefore failing.

If you want to force every school to be an academy then why not call half the schools “underperforming” and they’ll be in the hands of private companies in no time.

http://www.education.gov.uk/performancetables/primary_10/p4.shtml

Little Printer from Berg

Berg have announced their Little Printer. This small wireless device prints the daily news, recipes and puzzles. On the day where Apple have democratised text books, it’s nice to see paper still having a place in our lives.

Whiteboards where you want them – idea paint

The other hidden wonder at Bett 2012 was idea paint from Muraspec. Any wall or surface can be painted to become a dry wipe board. The question is where we should paint it first. This is all part of my thinking about the post Smartboard world we are moving to.

Paint your own circuits

There were a few finds at Bett 2012 that were hiding away among all the fancy equipment that costs so much. The first was from Bare Conductive (http://www.bareconductive.com/). It is a conductive paint that can be used to create lines and images linked to circuits and then programmed using an Arduino interface.

Dylan Wiliam – Stop People Doing Good Things

This video from Dylan Wiliam at the School’s Network Annual Conference 2011. There are so many things that he says about improving learning and criticising assessment systems that it’s hard to know where to start. Just watch it, one day I might summarise what he says.

iBooks Author, Hypercard for the 21st Century?

Apple announced iBooks author today, http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/. It is essentially a version of Apple’s Keynote software but it allows anyone to create iBooks with hyperlinks and embedded media.

One of Apple’s strengths in education in the 90′s was the product Hypercard and later Hyperstudio. It was software that allowed children to create multimedia experiences as a project based approach to learning. It represented the kind of constructivist classrooms that brought the Mac into the heart of US education. Hernandez Ramos in 2005 (If not here where?) found a link between teachers with constructivist beliefs and effectively using technology in the classroom.

Let’s hope iBook Author enables teachers (with Macs) to create project based learnng opportunities. (What makes a good project?)

And now we know the future – Bett 2012

I heard Michael Gove speak at Bett today. I was disappointed that he listed technology in learning as:
Distributing knowledge
Augmenting learning through games Sensitive assessment.

No mention of social interaction, personal fabrication or creative expression.

As for the curriculum. Every secondary school who have taught web design with PowerPoint or retaught what they think primaries don’t cover; they are to blame for what Gove describes as, “harmful, boring and irrelevant”. People seem upset as though this wasn’t a fair description.

The real challenge is finding the teachers to teach the good stuff. Gove recognised the challenge was training but he didn’t offer any solutions.

Bring Your Own Device…and do what?

This recent article in the TES (http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6162155) is a typical argument for schools to let children bring their own devices to school (BYOD). It is cost saving when resources are scarce and it connects education with the rest of the children’s lives.

This view stems from Stephen Heppell’s observation that schools used to stop biro pens at one time. This argument positions schools as Luddites who block and wreck new advances. Teachers are painted as 1950′s disciplinarians unaware of the changing tide. It does not recognise that bringing certain things into school causes challenges.

Ewan Mcintosh suggests (http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2012/01/collaboration-7-implementing-the-wrong-…) that all we need is a “superb media literacy solution”. The hope would be that teenagers would no longer share pornography by Bluetooth and they wouldn’t message (maliciously or not) during lessons.

My greatest difficulty with the BYOD argument is what will the children do with them?

In the TES article above Graham Brown Martin lists the technology sold this year that could be brought to school. This Christmas there was an iPod Touch, a Sony Xperia Play (Android), a net book (Windows Starter Edition) and a laptop given in our family. Add this to the Wii, PS3, desktop and portable macs, and Nintendo DSis already owned. Which device would these children bring to school?

Then when it comes to school what kind of learning experiences will the teacher orchestrate for the children who have brought their own devices? They can access the, “gateway to all human knowledge” on most of these machines; but how will we provide concrete maths experiences, social interaction or creative expression.

If everyone has an iPad then we might have a chance but someone is using their mum’s old Blackberry 9360 which isn’t so well equipped. Someone just got an Xbox 360 and this is a bit harder to set up. We could use Facebook but the Sony K770i has a tiny screen. The 3D DSi does great animation but only 3 children have them. In principle it sounds great but in practice it might be tricky.

I suspect the plan makes sense if you think ICT in learning is finding things out on the Internet or playing games. In fact the teachers who are so roundly condemned see learning as something a bit bigger than that.

Alternatively these people may have very self motivated and privileged children who could cope in this environment of multiple devices and little teacher interaction. Sadly the children I work with don’t have all of these opportunities and can’t all bring in a device. I think we need a plan for them.

Mr Gove, ICT can be computer science and liberal arts

We welcome the government’s new emphasis on developing computer science in schools. We have tried to promote this in our school through Logo and Scratch programming. We are currently investigating Kodu, Kidsruby and Arduino to develop this learning further. However we don’t just cover these areas for the children’s IT skills but also to develop their Personal Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS). We believe there is great value in the problem solving, project based and intrinsically rewarding aspects of programming.

It is my concern that the government’s discussion around computer science and maths is presenting a binary distinction between computer science and other ICT. I agree that the soulless coverage of Microsoft Office doesn’t develop computer science, PLTS or a great deal of creativity; but this has more to do with the quality of the teaching and learning experiences with ICT (and possibly a lot to do with staff expertise). When Steve Jobs talked about technology married with the liberal arts he was capturing the aspect of how ICT can lead to a kind of expression and creativity which is more than just the technology. Too many educators and discussions around ‘digital natives‘ have focused on the idea that as long as children use technology then it is having an impact but it is about being productive with technology that really makes a difference.

While focusing on maths and computer science Michael Gove is missing the fact that many in Silicon Valley have degrees in arts and humanities. Many developers I know have started with their creative purpose and taught themselves the programming skills they need to produce their creations.

Steve Jobs and Liberal Arts

http://www.andreweinspruch.com/steve-jobs-long-time-liberal-arts-focus

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/06/141115121/steve-jobs-computer-science-is-a-liberal-art

Arduino Starter Kits

http://www.robotbits.co.uk/arduino/arduino-explorer-kit/prod_45.html

http://www.oomlout.co.uk/arduino-getting-started-c-65_66.html

http://proto-pic.co.uk/proto-pic-starter-kit-for-arduino-uno/

Digital Pens – should you or shouldn’t you?

Yesterday’s Sunday Times had an article predicting the end of the textbook because now reading and writing can be done on digital devices. The main drivers for this change are the great cost saving but also, they argue, because students are much happeier to use something if it is digital.

If this arguement is true then availabilitu of e-pens or digital pens may be useful classroom resource. Typically these pens have relied on certain kinds of paper to write on that helps the pen index the notes. This is how LiveScribe works, http://www.livescribe.com/uk/. 

The other option is Logipen, http://www.logipen.com/, which records the pens movements to a receiver which can then be uploaded to a computer later. The advantage is that there is no paper which must be continually bought and it also uses standard pen refills.

The benefits seem to be:

1. Portability – It is easier to bring a pen to the classroom and record notes and diagrams for uploading later.

2. Cost – At £99 per pen it is cheaper to buy enough for a class, although there still needs to be good access to computers to enable work to be uploaded.

3. Creativity – A pen allows students to express themselves in images as well as text.

4. Motivation – As I said earlier there is still a degree of motivation that comes from using digital devices. This is always shortlived, as with Interactive Whiteboards, and in the end the benefits and purposes must be sufficient to continue after this initial novelty has worn off.

One question would be whether many of these benfits could be achieved through providing each student with an iPad or anotehr tablet – at less than £350, with little setup and multi functions this may be a better investment.

I think in the first instance I would buy a small number for some staff or a small group of students and let them experiement with them. I would also want to see how effective the handwriting recognition is. These students will enjoy the benefits and you can see if they are a worthwhile investment.