Dorothy Coe at St Peter's Primary, Galashiels has a blog where educational topics are sometimes considered. Ednam Primary have started a blog, one linked to the main website for regular news and another for children's activities.
They are at an early stage, but are now up and running, and looking like there is a lot of potential for future development.
18th August Liz Marroni writes ..
Beginning of term looming :-(
I would like to set up a system whereby a group of SBC teachers can collectively create and edit a new online document which will ultimately be of benefit to many other local area teachers. Have started an experiment with a few of the Masterclassers using a wikispace.
Any info from others who have already done this would be welcomed. John Connell: The Blog
John Connell's thoughts on ICT, Education and more......
Liz Marroni's notes from E Live 2006
Alan November at eLive:
A bit late with this, given that the seasoned bloggers had done it all by the time Alan November had finished his presentation !
Edinburgh E-Live Tuesday 23rd May – Keynote:- Alan November
Alan November’s session reminded participants of the contrast which many would agree exists between pupils’ use of ICT at home, and their use, (or what they are ‘allowed to do’) with ICT in school. He suggested ways of capitalising on their natural enthusiasm for collaboration, and socialising.
Pupils generally have more access and more diversity in their home use of ICT. Pupils will flock to be involved in activities which many schools (and LA’s) have to actively discourage – such as using MSN, My Space, Chat. Many pupils have their own web space, because they want their ‘stuff’ on the web. They communicate globally and share information with others. Communication and sharing with others are the two most important aspects for young people, and collaboration is a key skill in the 21st century environment. Teachers need to be able to give pupils the learning environment and analytical tools to work effectively.
As teachers we should consider ‘who owns/manages the learning ?’ It should be the pupils. We should not persist in a Victorian type culture. There are new tools available, and youngsters generally learn faster than us . The role of the teacher must also move towards:-
Being a role model for using new tools
Being a diagnostician
Being aware of learning styles
Being able to personalise instruction.
The single most important skills for pupils to gain are :- being self-directed and self-motivated. We must move our attitudes away from ‘a dependency culture’.
A fundamental change in the culture of learning involves changes in ‘time’ ‘space’ and ‘relationships’. Schools can be designed with different learning spaces. (glass soundproof walls !!). This may not sit comfortably with parental expectations. One UK LA has started producing videos and DVD’s of pupils to show parents what, and how their children are learning at school.
Raise pupils critical skills re- the internet.
Pupils need to know more about the internet – the way search engines work, and how to use internet tools to increase their awareness and critical analysis of what they find.
Don’t let them just ‘go’ onto the net (where, as Alan November says, they are being manipulated – citing Google as an example). Teachers should choose specific sites and ‘designs’ different types of assignments – which move away from casual acceptance, copying and plagiarism towards a greater critical analysis of sources.
For any kind of school work, there are search engines dedicated to ‘school’ and academic’ activities. For example:- www.ask.com; www.answers.com . For younger pupils http://vivisimo.com and www.tekmom.com both have a table of contents, which encourages further relevant exploration.
Teach them to ‘decode’ the internet and find out who ‘owns’ sites. www.whois.com
Teach the syntax and grammar of the net .
For example :- “worldwar2”host:ac.jp Us the ‘host’ command to find out about another country’s perspective of their ‘history’ in comparison to the UK perspective of that same history. Pupils need to be aware of other cultures’ perspectives if they are going to be successful global communicators and prepare even simple PowerPoints to show to an audience from another culture.
Teach them how to trace the ‘history’ of changes on a website using www.archive.com (go to The ‘Way Back’ Machine) and make comparisons between a site as it was 6 years ago and the same site as it looks now. (Lots more about this is on www.novemberlearning.com )
Teach how to find the links coming in to a site. For eg link:http://www.martinlutherking.com
Use the web as a real audience. www.fanfiction.com Children can publish heir own story (with a pseudonym). They get more reviews from more readers than they would from their teacher or class. They can go back at a later date and re-edit and re-publish, and frequently do so, in their own time.
Teachers can create situations where learning continues beyond, class, term, year, boundaries www.visitmyclass.com Pupils may still be reflecting on pieces of written work much later, because they are still getting reviews about them. Set up blogs and RSS feeds. www.bloglines.com
Teachers need to :- change and raise expectations.
expand the boundaries of learning – time, space, 24/7
expand choices of what to do with technology and where to publish
expand our understanding as teachers of what our pupils do on the web
prepare pupils for ‘lifelong learning’ by using ‘content’ as an excuse to teach writing, critical thinking and analysis
teach ethics, skills of managing the content of their own website
Dorothy Coe at St Peter's Primary, Galashiels has a blog where educational topics are sometimes considered.
Ednam Primary have started a blog, one linked to the main website for regular news and another for children's activities.
They are at an early stage, but are now up and running, and looking like there is a lot of potential for future development.
18th August Liz Marroni writes ..
Beginning of term looming :-(
I would like to set up a system whereby a group of SBC teachers can collectively create and edit a new online document which will ultimately be of benefit to many other local area teachers. Have started an experiment with a few of the Masterclassers using a wikispace.
Any info from others who have already done this would be welcomed.
John Connell: The Blog
John Connell's thoughts on ICT, Education and more......
Liz Marroni's notes from E Live 2006
Alan November at eLive:
A bit late with this, given that the seasoned bloggers had done it all by the time Alan November had finished his presentation !
Edinburgh E-Live Tuesday 23rd May – Keynote:- Alan November
Alan November’s session reminded participants of the contrast which many would agree exists between pupils’ use of ICT at home, and their use, (or what they are ‘allowed to do’) with ICT in school. He suggested ways of capitalising on their natural enthusiasm for collaboration, and socialising.
Pupils generally have more access and more diversity in their home use of ICT. Pupils will flock to be involved in activities which many schools (and LA’s) have to actively discourage – such as using MSN, My Space, Chat. Many pupils have their own web space, because they want their ‘stuff’ on the web. They communicate globally and share information with others. Communication and sharing with others are the two most important aspects for young people, and collaboration is a key skill in the 21st century environment. Teachers need to be able to give pupils the learning environment and analytical tools to work effectively.
As teachers we should consider ‘who owns/manages the learning ?’ It should be the pupils. We should not persist in a Victorian type culture. There are new tools available, and youngsters generally learn faster than us . The role of the teacher must also move towards:-
Being a role model for using new tools
Being a diagnostician
Being aware of learning styles
Being able to personalise instruction.
The single most important skills for pupils to gain are :- being self-directed and self-motivated. We must move our attitudes away from ‘a dependency culture’.
A fundamental change in the culture of learning involves changes in ‘time’ ‘space’ and ‘relationships’. Schools can be designed with different learning spaces. (glass soundproof walls !!). This may not sit comfortably with parental expectations. One UK LA has started producing videos and DVD’s of pupils to show parents what, and how their children are learning at school.
Raise pupils critical skills re- the internet.
Pupils need to know more about the internet – the way search engines work, and how to use internet tools to increase their awareness and critical analysis of what they find.
Don’t let them just ‘go’ onto the net (where, as Alan November says, they are being manipulated – citing Google as an example). Teachers should choose specific sites and ‘designs’ different types of assignments – which move away from casual acceptance, copying and plagiarism towards a greater critical analysis of sources.
For any kind of school work, there are search engines dedicated to ‘school’ and academic’ activities. For example:- www.ask.com; www.answers.com . For younger pupils http://vivisimo.com and www.tekmom.com both have a table of contents, which encourages further relevant exploration.
Teach them to ‘decode’ the internet and find out who ‘owns’ sites. www.whois.com
Teach the syntax and grammar of the net .
For example :- “worldwar2”host:ac.jp Us the ‘host’ command to find out about another country’s perspective of their ‘history’ in comparison to the UK perspective of that same history. Pupils need to be aware of other cultures’ perspectives if they are going to be successful global communicators and prepare even simple PowerPoints to show to an audience from another culture.
Teach them how to trace the ‘history’ of changes on a website using www.archive.com (go to The ‘Way Back’ Machine) and make comparisons between a site as it was 6 years ago and the same site as it looks now. (Lots more about this is on www.novemberlearning.com )
Teach how to find the links coming in to a site. For eg link:http://www.martinlutherking.com
Use the web as a real audience.
www.fanfiction.com Children can publish heir own story (with a pseudonym). They get more reviews from more readers than they would from their teacher or class. They can go back at a later date and re-edit and re-publish, and frequently do so, in their own time.
Teachers can create situations where learning continues beyond, class, term, year, boundaries
www.visitmyclass.com Pupils may still be reflecting on pieces of written work much later, because they are still getting reviews about them. Set up blogs and RSS feeds. www.bloglines.com
Teachers need to :- change and raise expectations.
expand the boundaries of learning – time, space, 24/7
expand choices of what to do with technology and where to publish
expand our understanding as teachers of what our pupils do on the web
prepare pupils for ‘lifelong learning’ by using ‘content’ as an excuse to teach writing, critical thinking and analysis
teach ethics, skills of managing the content of their own website
More information at :-www.novemberlearning.com