Posts Tagged: ICT

Teaching — 2 Comments
12
Feb 12

Think Link 95%+

If you have been following the story of Triptioc’s ‘Think Link’ you will know that David Riley very quickly created the core concept and every since has been responding to feedback and ideas from staff and students every since, all in his time. And with each new revision I took it back to the classroom for testing. Colour, text font and size, to snap into place or not to snap into place, live editing and of cause Mollie’s recommendation to add a notes feature. Well, the perhaps the last challenge is whether or not to lock groups of hex’s in place for moving them. The final dilemma spun out of a challenging conversation with the veritable James Michie (@jamesmichie)and David Didau (@learningspy). These gentlemen always keeping me focused, keep me pushing forward. The question – whether or not connections should indeed be limited to a fixed number, further more why six or even eight for example.

There was more to this conversation than shared here, with James and David there always it, but it certainly raises a key point for Think Link. That said, to date I have only experienced one debate whether 6 connections was challenged. Indeed the debate that ensured, which of the seven items deserved greater importance, was in fact the highlight of the lesson. The ‘unplanned’ debate most probably and affirmed the students understanding more than the originally task. But I fully coincide to James excellent observation. So, to the latest update. Think Link with notes and editable colour.

Now just for one last chance use. Harry our 3 year old asked to help me with this post. I said he could in just a moment. He replied with

Do you know how to spell me name? H – A – R – R – Y.

Looks like we are off to test Think Link as a spelling tool?

Harry’s verdict – ‘It was great.’

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Popularity: 15% [?]

Experiments / Teaching — 3 Comments
9
Feb 12

Think Link 90%

STOP THE PRESS!

I was excited with David Riley took on the ‘Hex Learn’ project for a new Triptico app but really…. what he has created in ‘Think Link’ deserves your attention.

‘Think Link Plus’ – the first preview, received some really positive comments. Trusted, hugely experienced colleague and IT solutions company Director Mike McSharry (@mikemcsharry) described David’s work as ‘absolutely stunning.’ Now I am biased, but not only do they look good they have real educational impact. One or two complementary tweets fell past my eye-line as well… so thank you for that.

 

However, just hold on a minute, David spent most of his spare time working on the app for the past week and its almost done….

This morning I had a good look around the latest version, and posted a few suggestions back to David (@David_Triptico). I know its not finished, but Think Link is so good, that I am going to let my Year 7s loose on it this morning. To allow them to showcase their understanding of how campaign leaflets are constructed and how the different features of a leaflet are combined for impact. Here is their answer….. and you will notice the language elements and the visual elements clustered together. This activity was led by Mollie, you received suggestions from the class and managed the ThinkLink board.

 

Recent Updates

Colour, remove hex, print borderline (very useful) and user guide. In saying that, it is so easy to use, it doesn’t really need a user guide. It is definitely one of the products strengths.

The saved Triptico file records both the colour and the coordinates, very useful.

Known Bugs

When loading a saved page, the colours change. The students actually liked this bug!

Feedback

I know David plan’s to release Triptico into the wild pretty soon but just for the record here are the points / requests I shared with him.

Add a hex tile for the activity title.

You have a remove hex option. Can the hexs also be made editable once created?  That way you could correct typos, change the colour? This could open new learning opportunities in terms of grouping and re-grouping hex’s? (I know you can do this in the save file).

Student Feedback

This class loves being interviewed via @ipadio and the thought that their opinions count. And of course they do.

Students really liked it –

The first request was that when hexs ‘connected’ they actually connected. More imoprtantly that when two or more connected hex’s were moved, they ALL moved. Grace then astutely added, this would require you to be able to disconnect a hex as well.

Mollie asked for a hover feature. For example, if you are using terms, you could hover over a hex to reveal a definition. Interesting idea I thought. (This was also a later reflection from our Yr 11 interview with Cameron in a subsequent post.)

Shawn said that the colour “was important to his understanding and to understanding the importance of the connection.”

Olivia asked if we could upload a background image.

All this and more in the ipadio post. Lets hope we hear Davids response.

Please support the Triptico App.

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Popularity: 20% [?]

Leadership / Teaching — No Comments
8
Feb 12

(Un)Satisfactory Teaching or Inconsistent?

In the wake of the RSA report (Un)Satisfactory? Enhancing Life Chances by Improving ‘Satisfactory’ Schools Sir Michael Wilshaw, said he wants to send a message that “satisfactory” is now unsatisfactory and that more schools should be pushing for the higher rating of “good”.

In terms of school improvement, the report highlighted that:

  • Schools are more likely to be graded ‘satisfactory’ or ‘inadequate’ if they have previously been judged ‘satisfactory’ – hence suggesting a lower capacity to improve among these ‘longer term’ satisfactory schools.
  • Schools with high proportions of disadvantaged pupils are more likely to decline from ‘Outstanding’ and ‘Good’ grades, than are schools with advantaged pupil populations.
  • ‘Satisfactory’ schools with disadvantaged pupil populations are significantly less likely to improve at the next inspection than are those with advantaged populations.

I had bookmarked the report for later reading when a RT (Retweet) over the weekend provided a link to an RSA podcast of Sir Michael Wilshaw discussing school improvement with Professor Becky Francis, RSA director of education.

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I was pleased to hear that Professor Becky Francis recognised that there is in fact good practice in ‘satisfactory’ schools, its just that it is ‘inconsistent.’ Also that it is important to incentivise the best teachers to teach in satisfactory schools (what that looks like we were not told) and promote professional learning groups, structure school to school support rather than underlining the draconian extrinsic motivation ‘pay’ argument. Which we know does not work for long enough.

For more RSA content subscribe to the RSA lectures here RSA Audio iTunes Podcast iTunes | RSA Audio RSS Feed RSS and there are some cracking CPD to listen to.

Interesting enough, there is already conversation between online colleagues on how schools will tackle this particularly vibrant debate. All this in a week where the #AskGove hashtag was used to engage teachers and open up the debate of the Parliamentary Select Committee. Now also available on Youtube. What Bond villain would you be?

http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/education-committee/news/secretary-of-state-ev-session/

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Popularity: 8% [?]

ICT — No Comments
21
Dec 11

ICT Expert Review Panel

Dr Tom Crick is Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at CMU, he is also Leader of @CASWales and I am sure, has one or two other computer science veins of interest as well. What is really refreshing and most engaging, is that Dr Crick (can I go with Tom from here on in, or do I persist with formality) is curating conversation across education phases whilst working himself at the endstop of computer science education himself.

Having reported on the Expert panel report on the National Curriculum review we started a brief Twitter exchange which I intended to contribute to the dialogue only to be beaten to the punch by Nick Jackson (@largerama), an online colleague whom I hold in high esteem. Not only is her a ‘proper’ ICT teacher he is suscinct in his opinion, matter of fact even, he holds action over words. If you are an ICT teacher, NQT to AST, curriculum observer, please do contribute your thoughts, here is my two cents.

As we discussed Tom, and somewhat similar to Nicks points of a tick box ‘fudge job’ I am unsure how the panel review recommendations will mature into policy. Somewhat underwhelmed by tone, encouraged by the comment. ICT is outdated, technology enhanced learning is still, quite similar just good learning. ICT could be replaces with another term, when it should quietly simple be removed. ICT / technology enhanced learning IS learning, or tools for learning or part of the teaching methodologies at hand. Use ICT / technology where it enhances learning, this is not a curriculum audit or overview, its a teaching overview. Not forgetting that technology IS NOT a pre-requisitie for outstanding teaching and learning. In 2014 – ICT will be a skill not Subject – its barely a subject now. The best ICT teachers currently are those that teach young people, not content, seeking out inspiring learning opportunities (see Nick above) repackaged as ICT. In 2014 lets hope all teachers repackage ICT within their teaching. With that lofty aspiration, just that, an aspiration, there needs to be a digital outlet as well as computing, that is most certainly NOT ICT, and not ‘tick box fudged’ cross curricular audit exercise and at the forefront of digital learning. Digital learning that is rigorous, creative and challenging; animation, graphic design, audio engineering, video and after effective, modelling, CAD, that compliments programming. Now this might surprise you, but I also feel there is an employment benefit to being able to use Office software effectively. It is just that it is not part of a digital curriculum, but an employment curriculum. The commentary is encouraging, however this insistence with the term ICT is almost as annoying as educations insistence with the term 21st century learners. Both are 10 years out of date and offer little defintion.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Teaching — 2 Comments
31
May 11

Effective Teaching

Ways to spend your Pupil Premium (plus a great open source infographic programme!)

 

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The Sutton Trust, in conjunction with CEM at The University of Durham, has just released a report, “Toolkit of Strategies to Improve Learning” which summarises the ways in which schools might select to spend their Pupil Premium, weighing up potential gains (in terms of months) against estimated cost.

I really recommend going to The Sutton Trust website and reading their own synopsis of the report and, at the same time taking the opportunity to check out everything they are involved with to reduce social barriers to learning. The report itself is a fascinating read, providing as it does, a summary of the research evidence on improving learning  and attainment to help schools make informed choices about how to support their pupils who are eligible for the additional funding that comes with the Pupil Premium.

The infographics at the top and the bottom of this post are my very first attempts to visualise the data on pages 5-7 in the report. The graphic at the top shows the relative cost to gain (in months) for the interventions they looked at. The graphic below is a simmary of the highest impact interventions (aside from the cost).

I’ve just discovered NumberPicture which is a bit like wordle for data. It is a very exciting discovery for a non-coder like me and something I could see learners getting really engaged with.

 

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from full-on learning: http://www.fullonlearning.com/ways-to-spend-your-pupil-premium-plus-a-great

Popularity: 8% [?]

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