Procession Towards Learning Land

Overview

On November 30th 2009, the UK government announced that Devon would be in the next wave of Building Schools for the Future. This blog started out, therefore, as a place to record some personal experiences and thoughts as my school worked towards not just a new school building, but also a transformed learning and teaching experience. As a result of Michael Gove's decision in July 2010 to cancel the BSF programme however, this blog has become 'just' about my own experiences and thoughts about learning and teaching.

The regularity of posts is erratic, but then so is life.

Get Lost

I read this excellent article about MIT's famous Building 20 a few weeks ago. The thing that struck me most was the fact that the (bad) architecture of the building caused people to frequently get lost. This in turn led to people ending up in unexpected places, meeting unexpected people working on unconnected projects giving rise to unanticipated conversations and unforeseen collaborations. All of which led to progress.

So here's the thing: How do we capture the essence of that experience in learning? How do we replicate that in schools? For students and for staff. I don't have an answer at the moment, but it's a really interesting area for research, no?

To rote or not to rote. That might be the question. (But equally it might not).

I’ve liked David Hepworth’s writing for a long time. His blog is always an entertaining read, and whilst I don’t always agree with what he says, often as not I like how he says it. Today he threw out a post about the rote-learning argument. In a post titled ‘really useful things we learned without understanding’ he makes a list of, well, things he ‘learned’ by rote without understanding. You can see his list here.

Now I’d argue ‘remembered’ is more accurate than ‘learned’ in this context, but maybe I’m being pedantic. I’m also wondering to what extent the things he lists are genuinely useful? Doesn’t usefulness depend on context? And (leaving aside the alphapbet - which I’d argue no-one actually rote-learns without some understanding of why it’s important) isn’t it all largely subjective?

For example, why is knowing the words to ‘Jerusalem’ useful? So you can sing along at an English rugby match? Personally, having grown up in Scotland (and having zero interest in Rugby), I know none of the words to ‘Jerusalem’. Nor do I feel the need to. Its ‘usefulness’ in my own context is so negligible as to be non-existent. However on a related tangent, I was once able to recite ‘Scots’ Wha Hae’ from memory. I can’t say it was ever particularly useful apart from being my ‘turn’ at Halloween. And my life has never felt less rich for having replaced the imprint of those words with ones by Kevin Rowland or Vic Godard, both of whom have had immeasurably more influence on my life than Robert Burns.

What I do agree with Hepworth on is that education is a political football and that the arguments around it are “depressingly binary”. I’d argue however that the arguments only appear so binary because that’s the way the issues are reported. As a magazine/newspaper man he knows that binary stories sell. The reality is that if you were to talk to a lot of educational professionals they would acknowledge that the issues are seldom black and white, either/or but instead are more subtle and complex. But subtle and complex don’t make for great headlines. Nor does it help that the headline stories are often fueled by motives that are nothing to do with learning. Gove and cronies’ barely disguised idealistic assault on the public sector or self-promoting ‘edu-bloggers’ desperate to escape the classroom: take your pick.

Essentially what this boils down to for me is not so much the question of how you go about ‘learning’ or ‘remembering’ certain things, it’s about how those certain things (the canon of knowledge if you like) are decided on, and by whom. And I’d wager that the discussions (the arguments if you will) around that question would be a far more valuable learning experience than remembering the beginning of Macauley’s “Lays of Ancient Rome”.

But what about Flash?! Problem or opportunity?

So here's another key question I frequently get asked about iPads: Will it play my Flash files?

The answer is pretty unequivocal: No it won't. Often this means that teachers immediately dismiss the iPad as being of no use to them, and whilst I can understand that reaction I don't believe it's ultimately helpful. Here's why (cue drum roll for contentious statement): Flash is a dying technology. In fact it may already be dead. It is an ex-technology.

 

No, iPad does not support Flash. But then neither do Android devices. This means that for probably (at least) 80% of personal mobile devices, Flash isn't going to be accessible. Not now, and not in the future. So how does this affect teachers? If you regularly ask your students to use an online learning environment that uses Flash games then alternative services may need to be sought… The good news is that many educational businesses who have made use of Flash in the past have also recognised the need to change and are developing mobile solutions. IamLearning for example have been developing their iOS app for some time now, and it's getting bigger and better all the time. Ultimately I suspect the market will decide what services succeed or fail. Those who continue to flog the Flash horse will, I suspect, find themselves losing customers pretty rapidly as the use of personal mobile devices (Apple or Android) within schools grows.

For teachers who have made their own learning resources using Flash the solution is a little more difficult. Put simply, if those teachers want students to access learning resources made in Flash, then they will need to convert the Flash files to HTML5. As always, where some people see a problem others see an opportunity. In this case several software developers have spotted a market opening and are keen to exploit it. There are therefore any number of online services or applications that can be installed on a laptop/desktop that will convert Flash files to HTML5. Some are free, others cost money. A very quick search for some options brings up these possibilities:

Google Swiffy - https://www.google.com/doubleclick/studio/swiffy/ You can upload a Flash (SWF) file (up to 1MB) direct to this web service for conversion, or you can download an Extension for the Flash software which will allow you to export your Flash project to HTML5. 

Adobe toolkit for Flash CS6 and above http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/flash/flash-to-html5.edu.html

HTML5 Movie Maker http://www.html5-movie-maker.com/ is an application to install on your Mac or Windows PC that will convert your Flash files to HTML5. Costs $50 for a single user license, or there is an institution license for $100. 

ThunderSoft Flash to HTML5 Convertor http://thundersoft-flash-to-html5-converter.en.softonic.com/ is a Windows application that will convert your Flash files to HTML5.

I've not personally tried any of these solutions so don't know what the pros and cons might be. If you have some experience please leave a comment!

And speaking of opportunities, for me this whole question is actually one that's about not standing still. Is it an opportunity to revisit existing resources and make them even better? Is it an opportunity to refresh projects and schemes of learning that rely on those resources? Is this an opportunity to develop my teaching in new and exciting ways?

The train now standing at Platform 1...

I had another exciting conversation with our Subject Leader for Mathematics today. She has been trialling an iPad since the start of January and has, with the help of her daughter and some Year 11 students, downloaded several Apps that have been useful. One App that I spotted on her home screen today was The Trainline. We agreed about how invaluable an App it is for booking train tickets, but we also started talking about how that App might be used for learning. The key starting point would be a question like 'Can I get to Brighton by 7pm today by train? If so, how cheaply can I do that?' Just by that simple question and the use of that App (a free App, not even designed for education!) students would be exploring the 24 hour clock, making financial calculations and considering other connected questions. Questions like "if my first train arrives in London Paddington and the Brighton train leaves from Victoria, how long will it take me to travel between stations?" That question might then entail doing research on the TfL website, or in a Tube App. That in itself might be interesting for students who may never have been to London. You could extend the lesson by asking other questions: "what's the earliest time I could arrive in Brighton by train if cost was no issue?"; "What is the cheapest way of getting to Brighton from Tiverton by train in one day?" and "How much longer would my journey take if I wanted the cheapest option? Would the difference in cost be worth it?" What a great lesson/mini-project!

Will it be filtered on the iPad?

One question that often crops up with staff new to iPads and who are contemplating trying them in their lessons is whether students will be able to access content that is inappropriate. There are two strands in the answer to this. The first is the practical implementation of filtering within the school. Does the filtering that applies to other devices such as desktop computers and laptops apply to the iPads? Yes, absolutely it does, as the short video below shows.

 

That kind of technological barrier can be implemented by the school in a range of ways, from the relatively simple use of the global filters in place at the Internet Service Provider (in our case South West Grid for Learning) or in a more complex way through things like the Litespeed device management system. What those systems cannot do of course is teach young people about responsible use of technologies. Nor can they enter into potential valuable and informative discussions about why filtering should be in place at all…

This is why the second strand in the approach to this is the most important one. It is the role of the teacher/adult in the modelling of good practice/behaviour. It is the role of the teacher/adult in scaffolding an approach to the use of technology that establishes and embeds acceptable behaviours. 

Young people are adept at getting around any barriers that are placed in their way. They will know ways to circumvent filters and proxy servers. They will probably also find ways of getting around device management systems. And when ('if' really doesn't come into it!) they do, what do we have to fall back on? A blanket refusal to use technologies for learning or a trust that all of us as teachers and adults have sufficiently prepared those young people to behave responsibly?

iPad in Maths and Art lessons

I had a couple of really interesting conversations this week with staff about iPad use in their classrooms. The first instance was a Maths lesson where only the teacher had an iPad. The key facilitator in this situation was the connection of the iPad to the Apple TV and a screen (in this case a projector and an IWB). 

Crucially the teacher said that just this simple 'de-coupling' from the board changed her physical movement in and around the room. It altered the dynamic from static to fluid and enabled increased levels of interaction with students and their work. I have said in the past that I think the technology is very strong on the publication/sharing elements of the creative/learning process, and this was borne out by the teacher's evidence: simply being able to easily project an image of a student's work on the main screen allowed everyone to input into the learning activity. Specific points of learning were suddenly very easy to share with the whole cohort.

Maths is an interesting subject in that paper and pencil is still a very valuable technology for making and showing calculation. The personal mobile device may struggle to replace that simple technology, yet I can see huge potential for the use of a 'writing' style     note-taking app and a stylus. Imagine those physical workings being produced by a student in an app, then sending those 'pages' to a teacher for marking. The teacher could then annotate those pages electronically and re-distribute. All of which is possible with pencil and paper of course. But what wouldn't be possible would be the ability to easily share any of those pages with a whole class. Or a whole year group. Or the wider learning community outside of the classroom and outside of the school… That's the bit that the technology is really good at.

The other example was a Year 9 Art lesson taught with a class set of iPads. In this instance the technology was being used by each student as a device through which to explore their personal response to the theme of 'surface'. Each student was able to take ownership of their own research and to find source material relevant to their personal area of interest within the theme. The teacher still had physical resources available for the lesson, but the use of technology had still freed up some of her time and energy.

Interestingly the teacher found that the level of engagement with their physical work was much better when using the iPad. No longer were there complaints about 'not being able to draw' or questions like 'what am I meant to be doing again?' being asked. What this increased level of engagement and ownership enabled was the development of individual learning relationships between teacher and students. The teacher found that suddenly she had much more capacity to engage in positive one-to-one conversations regarding that individual's course options for KS4 and about the specifics of their learning needs.  

Both of these examples illustrate what I think is absolutely at the crux of the debate about the use of personal mobile devices in the classroom: the technology is an enabler for improved teaching and learning; it frees the teacher and accelerates rates of progression amongst the learners. Naturally some hard data would be needed to back up that anecdotal evidence, but nevertheless it's a fascinating foundation from which to build.

iOS vs Android in education

I spent most of my weekend mulling over the whole Android vs iOS battle in terms of personal mobile devices in education. I will admit straight off that I come at it from something of a partisan position having been emotionally invested in my Apple products for many years. As a designer rather than a data geek this is perhaps understandable (as this excellent and perceptive piece explains, albeit from the Steve Jobs era). Nevertheless I have attempted to remain as objective as possible.

From an educational point of view there are obviously pros and cons on both sides. The most obvious pro on the Google side is device price. It is widely acknowledged however that Google are prepared to take a hit on every device sold at the moment. They do this in order to grow market share and also to generate income through their App store sales and through advertising on their web services. Will device prices always reflect this? Who can say…

Both devices can be managed by an MDM solution. Solutions vary according to the device, but price will be very much the same. Both devices can mirror their screens to a TV or projector, although the Google system is not yet available in the UK and pricing is unclear. The Apple solution via Apple TV is established and proven (though admitedly with some glitches along the way). 

From a device perspective the Nexus 7 has a smaller screen footprint than even the iPad Mini. As a content consumption device I'm not sure this is a significant factor. However from a content creation perspective I think it starts to have an impact. For that reason I also think the regular sized iPad is a better suited device to education than the iPad Mini. But that's clearly a discussion to be had.

On the App store front, Google does not yet appear to have a Volume Purchasing Programme for Apps. Apple's VPP is not perfect, but does exist and is immeasurably better to how it was even a year ago. The potential cost savings for 'whole school' App purchases will probably never be huge, but could be significant. e.g. To provide a year group of 280 students with an app like QuickOfficePro would cost £4118 on the Google App Store and £1957 using the Apple VPP. Multiply that over even just a few App and over a number of years (each new year of intake would need the App purchased) and perhaps it is more of a significant cost factor?

The Apple App Store is also more established and more geared towards education than the Google App Store. Google's will inevitably grow and develop, but then so will Apple's.

The Apple ecosystem for education is established and already relatively mature. iBooks and iTunes U are significant factors in this and whilst their potential is currently under-used in the UK Secondary Sector it is nevertheless huge. The key driver as I see it is that the Apple education ecosystem is designed to encourage teachers to create and deliver bespoke learning content to their students in a way that is fully integrated. And much as I love my Chrome browser, I'm not really seeing this envisioned in the Google alternative. However this clearly has knock-on implications for other ICT provision within a school, particularly with respect to staff provision. 

And yes, the Apple solution is locked-down and proprietary but there are pros and cons to this in itself - perhaps allied into the previously mentioned 'data' vs 'design' approach. As a designer (and as a teacher) I just want to get some great work done with a minimum of fuss. Apple's ecosystem allows me to do that. Having said that, I don't have enough experience using Google services as an alternative. If someone can paint me a compelling picture, I'll certainly have a look.

However… and here is the big 'but'... whilst I feel there is a compelling case to be made for iOS over Android, I do have to wonder if State funded schools in the UK can actually afford to invest in the entire Apple education ecosystem. In other words, is the solution that best delivers on the teaching and learning front one that is simply priced beyond our reach?

Getting up to Lightspeed

We had a brief, but very informative meeting about Lightspeed Systems’ Filtering, Management and Collaboration tools yesterday. At first glance it looks like an effective solution that covers a lot of the bases in terms of eSafety and in providing a unified platform through which to effectively manage learning and teaching. 

One the potential concerns we have identified about moving forward with a 1:1 programme is about staff engagement, and specifically in terms of allowing staff to effectively manage their own teaching environment. Personally I am a big advocate of successful learning happening when the teacher cedes ‘control’ in the classroom to the learners. I’m aware however that this is something that comes largely with experience and the levels of confidence that experience instills. So the key question is how to allow staff to experiment with giving students more control and responsibility for their learning yet retain a degree of authority; how to embrace the freedoms a personal technology like the iPad offers, yet still have a safety net of control to fall back on if needed. The Lightspeed system appears to offer this, and we’re looking forward to trying it in the coming weeks.

Similarly I can see advantages of the Lightspeed solution with regards parental engagement. I can see how the ability to personalise a profile on an iPad might assuage some parent’s concerns. The built-in filtering of adult and innappropriate content would, I imagine, be a strong selling point. And if for example a parent wanted to limit their child’s access to Facebook via the iPad to a designated period of time during an evening, that could be easily done. That kind of granular control could be very important.

The downside appears to be that the supervision of the device might detract from the sense of personal ownership. So for example it would be impossible to plug the iPad into a PC or Mac and sync with iTunes. In previous years I think this would have been a deal breaker, but as we move more and more towards a Cloud based experience it feels increasingly less so. An individual would still be able to download Apps, music, video and other content from the iTunes Store for example, and all of that content would still be available to them on all of their devices regardless of having a cabled sync connection or not. Photos too could be synced via Photostream or Dropbox. I admit when I stop and think about it, I now very rarely bother to physically connect my iOS devices to my Mac. Almost everything is done wirelessly and/or through the Cloud.

The integration of the My Big Campus service looks strong too. It reminds me a bit of the StudyWiz approach, with their eLocker system. The provision of a Cloud based storage solution for student and staff data is a compelling one of course, given the need to work from home and other locations outside of the physical school campus. Of course services like Dropbox and Google Drive would provide this service, but the management aspects of the Lightspeed system and its integration with SIMS and Active Directory authentication would seem to be a big plus. It’s certainly an area that needs further exploration...

iPad 1:1 trial continues. Plus Dropbox and Google Chrome tutorials

Our iPad 1:1 trial project continues to proceed, supported by various after-school training sessions. It’s become obvious after the first few sessions that any formal planning of those sessions is largely redundant. The intuitive nature of the device seems to lend itself to comfortable experimentation, and much of the training sessions are now becoming more focused on ‘this is what I found’ and ‘can anyone help me with this’ rather than formal ‘teaching’ sessions. I find that really encouraging.

There are definitely still some key Apps and services that I feel people ought to be using though. Dropbox and Google are just two. So here’s a couple of videos showing how to set up and use Dropbox and why Google Chrome is just the best thing.

 

 

 

I've nothing against Computer Science, but...

I’ve got nothing against Computer Science. Some of my best friends are Computer Scientists. And as it goes, I think it’s good and right that Computer Science should be ‘allowed’ by that nice Mr Gove to count as one of the sciences in his EBacc.

But assuming the EBacc is here to stay, then personally I’m still holding out for the inclusion of bicycle maintenance. Or failing that, something that acknowledges the value of creative media.

I’m not holding my breath.