I Should Be Marking

No, not the wizard world’s version of the Trafford centre. During my disconcerting trawl through the K12 Online Conference (read down 2 posts) I came across a fantastic little online application.

Gliffy is a tool for drawing diagrams - UML, Flowcharts, DFDs, room plans - that kind of thing. The interface is really intuitive and you can do the usual online application things (share, collaborate, save online, etc.). This is especially useful for my Y12 Applied ICT students who are creating flowcharts and IFDs for Unit 2 (The Digital Economy).

This is example is a little on the ‘rough and ready’ side but literally took me 2 minutes to knock out.

Another interesting debate going on in the TES forums at the moment. Should we allow pupils to listen to music during ICT lessons, or lessons in ICT suites? And should it be pupils with headphones or one centralised (and controlled) source?

There are several different points of view, and some of those involved clearly have very strong opinions. I could bore you with them all, but if you’re interested you can follow the link.

I’ve tended to allow music during coursework lessons, sometimes through headphones from pupils’ own CDs or Pandora but usually from my own playlists. I’ve always found music to be helpful for me, particularly when it’s the same music, or type of music. Certain artists trigger memories, or states of mind. Listening to the the Beautiful South’s Best Of album takes me back to mid nineties playing games on an outdated 486, playing Metallica and/or Rage Against The Machine gets me straight into programming mode.

On the other hand I can see how music with lyrics can be a distraction, especially when pupils should be using the linguistic part of their brain to write. I have also seen pupils getting distracted by finding tracks to download or choosing what tracks get put into the communal playlist. I’ve had pupils shinge at me that they don’t like this ‘emo rubbish’ (at which point I usually turn it off and be done with it for the lesson - they soon get the point).

I’ve also found that sticking iTunes on to playing anything in the classical genre actually works quite well at keeping pupils quiet and on task. One person on the forum pointed out that the 1 quiet kid that finds it difficult to concentrate with music playing might end up suffering silently as a result. I must admit that is a reaonably scary thought, that my attempt to make the lessons more enjoyable and easier to get through (coursework is dull, I don’t care what you say) might have a detrimental effect on pupils.

I haven’t really come to a conclusion yet about whether I should or should not allow music to be played during lessons. It’s a complicated problem with both benefits and drawbacks. I suspect I’ll continue to play music, but that the discussion will make me a little more careful and aware of exactly what I’m playing, how loud, what type and what individual pupils think about it.

Bit of a weak way to end a post really, but ho-hum. It’s late and I’ve got to be back at work in the morning. Eurch, a week just isn’t long enough.

Apologies, it’s been a busy week with the end of half-term and a trip to see the family.

I’ve spent most of today and yesterday looking at the K12 Online Conference (http://k12onlineconference.org/), an online conference (surprisingly) which seems geared to introducing and discussing the possibilites available with Web 2.0. A conference at which blogs, podcasts and Wikis are considered ‘old hat’ is bound to be full of bleeding edge ideas and possibilities.

Many fellow edubloggers are already well aware of the conference, and some are involved (you can join Anne Davis and Ewan Mcintosh for a ‘fireside chat’ this Saturday afternoon [4pm UK]).

You might have expected something like this to leave us, that is practising (practicing?) teachers, full of enthusiasm and drive. Inspiration from the forward thinkers and early adopters. What I found is that I now feel more disillusioned and exhausted than ever. The sheer scale of the Internet is just too overwhelming. Imagine stepping into Douglas Adams’ Total Perspective Vortex and being shown your place in the Grand Scheme of Things - the range of tools and resources that are being developed, and added to on a daily basis. We already have Moodle, ELGG, Flickr, YouTube, Blogs, Podcasts, Wikis, Writely, Google Spreadsheets and Delicious to name but a few of the most successful examples. New tools and resources are being developed so often that it’s just too much, and I feel obliged to research and then use them all.

After a bit of reflection I’ve come to the obvious conclusion (the half-hour sitcom conclusion, if you will - obvious for an objective audience) - that of course I can’t use them all, I can’t even research them all. There just aren’t enough hours in the day, and I’m busy enough with the ‘real’ work of lesson plans, Schemes of Work, marking, filing, after-school clubs, etc. (oh, and did I mention my wife and children? and eating and sleeping?). What I need to do is find time to read through and pick on those items that interest me. I might miss some fantastic resource (”We don’t like their [the Beatles] sound and guitar music is on its way out.”), but the great ones will resurface in blogs and forums again and again. Think of it as a publisher’s slush pile, akin to the A&R guy touring pubs and clubs around the country. If I’m determined to catch them all then I’ll be burned out inside a year.

My point? Have a look for resources and fresh ideas. Have a look for practical ideas for implementation. Don’t kill yourself trying to find (and then use) all of them. And when it becomes a chore, perhaps it’s time to stop and take stock at everything you’ve achieved so far.

“hi! I’m emma! I’m in year seven at school and are doing this in I.T. but I don’t really want to. It’s better just to mess about on the internet like my friend says she gets to in her lessons. This is my first ever blog and I only think I’ll do it again if I have to, unless it’s for a certain reason. In I.T we are also doing a presentation which everyone can already do. I suppose it does help you learn a bit though which is good for the teachers.”

So far I’ve had a few small-scale attempts at getting students and pupils to blog. We’ve tried using the Moodle blogging facility (no comments, blocked to The World through the login system, difficult to ‘manage’ effectively), I’ve had a brief fling with Nucleus and now I’ve plumped for B2Evolution. I’ll talk more about why another time.

Anyway, I have some Lower Sixth uploading work so they can compare against each other but that’s going pretty slowly and trying to enthuse that apathetic bunch is going to take some time methinks.

On the other hand I have a lovely group of Year 7 pupils and today we spent some time looking at blogs, discussing what we liked and didn’t and then we had a brief go at writing blogs ourselves (well, themselves. Obviously I’m already an expert :-D). I told them I would show the blog off to colleagues around the country, nay even the world (OK, so I got a little carried away - but I want them to be enthused!) . So if you find time then have a wander over, and please leave some comments for them - I know they’d get a kick out of it.

http://tinyurl.com/ydgxx2

A conversation on the TES Forums got me annoyed today. It seems pupils have been bringing Flash games into school on their USB pens, much to the annoyance of some staff. Suggestions to combat the problem include disabling access to USB ports except through teachers or techies.

I may be in the minority, but why not allow the students at least a small amount of trust? We regularly use online Flash games, tutorials, videos, etc. - often in multiple suites simultaneously, and with no particular networking issues. If pupils want to bring Flash games in on USB drives then why not let them? They should never be left unsupervised for any length of time anyway (lest the great keyboard swapping epic should begin - “this one’s got a leg broken at the back”, “that one’s nicer”, etc.) so unless it’s something particularly inappropriate (a Flash remake of Leisure Suit Larry?) or being used during lessons then where is the harm? (And stopping pupils abusing the computers during lessons is basic classroom management).
At my school we positively encourage students to bring in USB pens, we even sell them in the school library. Pupils can bring work home to continue working on it, collect resources for lessons, share resources - all the things we want them to do, surely! A few do bring games on (nothing installable as they wouldn’t have admin access to the machines anyway) and I don’t mind KS4 pupils bringing some music to listen to during lessons.

Because of the Group Policies on the Windows machines the pupils need to create a shortcut in their home directory to the E: drive which teaches them something about the way the filesystems work - and how to create shortcuts. On the Macs they’re just plain accessible.

On that note the Macs are currently not locked down any more than they would be for a home user. Pupils would need the admin password to install software but otherwise they can do what they like - change backgrounds, screensavers, set up expose and the dashboard, install widgets, change the screen resolution, even change the speech settings if they really want to. They might spend a few minutes fiddling while I deal with the occasional technical problem or once they’ve completed a certain amount of work but that means that

1. They get to see more about how to ‘use’ the computer
2. They get to personalise their own workspace
3. They’re using the computer when otherwise they might be distracting themselves and others
4. If they do mess up the resolution or some other important setting then they suffer (and learn a lesson in how to fix it), but the next person to log on gets their own profile
5. If someone decides to abuse the trust I put in them they can spend the lesson drawing what they would have done on the computers and can make up the work for homework/during detention

If pupils want to make use of USB drives to improve their understanding and motivation when it comes to ICT then I see no reason to stop them. Any half decent network manager can lock down the install privileges and any blatant disregard can be dealt with on an individual basis.

For example we recently found out that pupils had been using the websites atunnel.com and ctunnel.com to bypass our content filtering system. It was a simple, and apparently enjoyable, job for the techies to block the sites and look through the logs, making a note of any mischevious pupils. Those in question now have the pleasure of using the BBC and Wikipedia websites only until Christmas. There’s no need to punish the rest of the pupils and news rapidly spread about the consequences of mistreating the school facilities.

Rant over

While there are lots of educational blogs out there, there are relatively few that offer, suggest or discuss practical ideas in straightforward terms.

As I’ve been looking around for ideas I’m finding myself wading through complex pedagogical terms and principles - all very good and undoubtedly important - but I really wanted to see some practical ideas. As such I’ve added a new category (called ‘Practical Ideas’ surprisingly enough) for any posts that do just that. If you thnk they’re still too ‘wordy’ or you have any other ideas you’d like to suggest then please add a comment or send me an email (see the ‘Contact’ page on the right).

In my quest to find new ideas for how to use blogs, and other technological ideas, to aid education I’ve been looking at an awful lot of blogs recently.

One in particular is Max’s Dog-Blog - a blog written from the point of view of a bloggers, erm, dog. I’m sure there must be parts of the Enlgish curriculum that could make use of blogging as a fictional character (I’m not suggesting the dog is fictional, but you see what I mean).

Now all I need to do is find someone in the English department who is prepared to work with me and set up a CMS.

I’m currently working with a GNVQ group (the last cohort to go through the qualification) and we’re covering Unit 5 which is an exam based unit about Informaiton Sources. Pupils need to learn how business communicate internally, externally, what departments there are and so on.

They’re a difficult group (picked from the lower end of the ability range) and they bring a lot of baggage to the lesson with them. I won’t go into details here in case anyone comes across this blog who knows me/them, but they can certainly make life difficult.

We had been discussing the different sections and making written notes (comprehension style) with the odd exercise thrown in for good measure (proof reading, etc.). It wasn’t particularly stimulating and, after a few weeks of this routine the class was getting restless - which is not good with a class like this.

Seeing as how I’ve recently taken over a suite of Macs (a mix of Intel iMacs, G4 eMacs and G3 iMacs) and a set of 3 DV cameras I thought it might be worth doing something a little more creative. We played around a little with Comic Life and then decided to let loose with any choice of media - podcasts, videos, animations, whatever the pupils decided would be fun. They were also given a choice of who to work with - individually, pairs, small groups…

So now we have 3 groups - 1 making a corporate advert (”Hi, I’m Troy McLure - you might remember me form such videos as…), 1 making a sit-com style sketch and 1 making a stop-motion/claymation animation. The results should be interesting as they’re getting the minimum input from me - but what was a sullen, unruly and apathetic bunch of pupils has suddenly turned into a highly motivated and energetic class. And I haven’t had so much fun in ages

More to follow…

History Matters is trying to host the biggest blog in history. On October 17th (’an ordinary’ weekday of no particular significance - although my daughter, who will be two that day, would beg to differ) you’re asked to log on and blog about what history means to you. For more info go to historymatters.org.uk.

No, I’m not suggesting blogging to aid alliteration skills

I recently came across a blog article by Whelkstall that really struck a chord. The gist was that ICT should be used to help students succeed in general and not just for ICT’s sake. I don’t doubt that that’s true for ICT, as computers are merely tools. A blog is used to communicate ideas, a spreadsheet to perform calculations, a database to store and sort data, etc. The contrived projects we create for pupils are necessary to provide a framework within which to learn the necessary skills, but why not use a real situation?

The example provided was for an A-level ICT student to create a Flash animation about a particular artist which would also work towards his/her Art A-level.

Currently we run the Edexcel GCSE in ICT and for that we have to cover 4 coursework projects. Currently we create an interactive PowerPoint presentation (a crap project, but easy to get them into the writing and evidencing routine), relational database, spreadsheet and then a CD label and cover. Pupils choose their own topics but inevitably most end up creating an interactive travel brochure or shop catalogue, video rental or match booking system, pizza shop ordering system or hairdresser appointment calculator and a music or game CD cover.

Why not tie it in with their other work? Complete their spreadsheet task in conjunction with their maths work or help make a teacher’s mark book, make a database that ties in with geography fieldwork, make an interactive PowerPoint to help pupils choose which musical instruments to go for. The possibilities are, as they say, endless.

Of course this was the stuff they tried to drum into us during the PGCE but all we really got was the odd mention and no realistic possibility to throw our weight around during placements or even the NQT year. Only now, having had all those ideas shoved out of the way for the best part of 2 years am I in a position to actually do something about it. Hopefully now I can make the ICT projects more relevant, more interesting, and useful to subjects outside of my own.