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‘O my body, make of me always a man who questions’ – Frantz Fanon

Frantz Fanon is one of my favourite writers for a number of reasons but mostly because his work opened up to me a world of understanding I could only touch the edges of before. His quote, seemingly out of place in a blog about education technology and History teaching, sums up one of the things that I strive to do, even when I ask the questions myself. Who benefits from me asking? Do my students? Do I? Do the people I lead, the institution I work in or the various groups I might represent? It seems to me that two types of question that I can ask – authentic and disciplinary ones.

Questions can enable the person asking them to reach a position of understanding that was previously beyond their present understanding. This is what I would call an authentic question and the questions I am asked in my classes are a good example of this. Questions can also be used to ‘speak truth to power’ when the people asking the questions have no power at all and want to highlight the injustice of a particular situation (the Civil Rights Movement, a topic I am exploring with my Year 10, would be an example of this).

However, one of the most valuable things that I started to learn as a research student is that people sometimes ask questions they have already formed an opinion on, or have an answer for. In other words, some people ask questions not because they are interested in the truth, but they want to confirm their own version of the truth. These questions, can be used as a means of exerting power and influence, becoming tools to discipline people or ideas and excluding people by creating false boundaries and pushing people ‘beyond the pale’ of engagement. These types of questions are what I would call ‘disciplinary questions’ and I was very fortunate in my graduate studies to have supervisors who asked ‘authentic’ questions rather than the ‘disciplinary’ kind.  Why the talk of ‘authentic’ and disciplinary’ questions? Well, I was reminded of their power this week in very different ways.

The first event that reminded me about the power of questions was the work at Cramlington Learning Village. Cramlington is a hotbed of ideas, achievement and awards but they are not quick to judge the development of others, as they believe they are still developing. The key question they asked when re-examining their curriculum was, ‘what do you think it is important for young people to learn’? From this, they developed an impressive system to help students attain these skills. The school was already known for its innovative work but it asked the question to improve its own work, not to show how brilliant it was and how its methods were the only way for students to progress. Most impressive is its desire to share its understanding and where it thinks it needs to go next.

The second event that reminded me about the power of questions is the date for the first ‘official’ Apple Regional Training Centre event at Felsted on the 16^th September. What brought this into being was a genuine concern about whether the History and ICT conundrum had been solved (we were unhappy with what we did and wanted to provide something better for our students). We believe that in sharing our work with you, you can join us on our journey to create something unique for our learners and yours.

Authentic questions drive authentic learning and are interested in dialogue as this leads to an understanding that did not exist before. Disciplinary type questions are merely self-seeking attempts to create a veneer of respectability and even-handedness; it is not about dialogue, no matter what the questioner says. There have been elements within the educational technology landscape of late that have fallen into asking disciplinary questions. Fanon’s challenge to himself reminds others and me that only when you ask the right questions of yourself, can you really ask the right question of others.

Front image: emagic@Flickr

The end of term is almost upon me and the theoretical ‘free time’ I should gain by losing my examination classes has been filled with other important bits of school work. This is usually a critical time for me as I start to plan ahead in detail and the need for ‘thinking time’ as part of the process is vital. I was provided an opportunity to think very carefully about plans for the next year by attending the Apple Regional Training Centre (RTC) conference in Manchester last week.

This was my first RTC conference and it brought home how wide and diverse the RTC programme is for Apple covering schools, City Learning Centres (CLCs) and other educational organisations. The theme for the conference was mobility and we were taken through some astounding numbers in terms of mobile device adoption in relation to other kinds of technology. One thing was made clear in relation to the adoption of mobile technology; content, provided by the teacher/web/company, was a key driver for use. After the introductory sessions by Apple staffers, delegates and Apple Distinguished Educators took the floor. I was particularly drawn to what Gillian Penny, a Headteacher from a primary school in Scotland, had to say about ICT. She made it clear that the learning has to come first in the use of technology. Abdul Chohan, Director of IT at Essa Academy, echoed this but I fear the message may have been lost on the conference by the sheer scale of the project at his school. Essa made the news last year when it gave an iPod Touch to every student. Whilst the media focussed on this aspect and the cost, Abdul in his presentation touched upon the change of ethos that governed the use of the iPods; All Will Succeed. This belief has led the Academy to reshape its curriculum and its teaching methods and the interim results look impressive.

On the technical side of things, there were two highlights to the conference. The first was Steve Beard’s ‘Making an iPhone app’ session using Xcode and Freeway, which he did in about 10 minutes. The second was Chris Jinks’ talk about the deployment and configuration of devices using Snow Leopard Server and the free iPhone configuration utility which allows you to manage the use of the device (you can disable the camera or remove the ability to browse the web for example). My colleague, the Head of Classics felt this was a great feature and would help allay fears surrounding behaviour management issues.

I was also reintroduced to a technology I had first heard about in 2006 from Doug Belshaw. I have also been looking at it again in relation to discussions with folk on Ed Tech Round Up and Johannes Ahrenfelt (especially in relation to Augmented Reality). Richard Clark’s talk about the work at Leicester CLC and QR Codes has reinforced my desire to look at this technology again more seriously. He and his team have used QR codes in primary schools to embed links to video on worksheets to model the learning so the pupils could complete the tasks. The potential for this technology is huge and all I really need for this to be work within my classroom is an iPod Touch with a camera…

Overall, I found the conference to be an enjoyable experience – I learned some new things but the key aspect for me was speaking to other RTCs about what they are doing. It also left me with some questions about the emphasis placed on the technology and missing  the context that gives rise to the use of it in the first place. For example, Joe Moretti gave a workshop on Stanza and Calibre for producing Ebooks. It was useful to be reminded of the tool, but as a teacher, I was particularly interested in the way it was used to help literacy.  I could not get to grips with how the technology would allow me to do something beyond what I could replicate in the classroom with a computer or with a piece of paper. I suppose the reason why I was so concerned is because this is something I constantly struggle with/ask myself about; does the technology helping the learning process or not? Is there enough pedagogical thought behind it to make it a genuinely useful tool which allows you to do something more quickly or even beyond your current set of tools? I don’t think this is a particularly innovative thought; this is something I am asked by many people I meet and to be frank, this keeps me, and my work, honest.  Thanks to the Apple Education team and the Cornerhouse in Manchester for hosting us and for giving me the time and space to reflect. The next RTC conference is in November and I, alongside some of the other members of the mobile research team at Felsted, may present our project there.

The learning journey continues over the next month or two as I am heading to Cramlington Learning Village on the 25^th June for their conference on teaching and learning.  The following week sees me heading to the national Schools History Project conference in Leeds to present some work on technology and History teaching and chairing the TeachMeet session there. I’m really looking forward to the sessions on Change and Continuity by Christine Counsell, Diana Laffin’s presentation on A Level History teaching and Ian Luff’s workshop on active learning.  After the conference, I am going on a grand tour of Teaching and Learning. First on my list is  Neal Watkin‘s classes to see how John Hattie’s work on visible learning has affected the progress of students in the History classroom. I am then off to Essa Academy to learn about their framework for the use of technology and finally, I plan to see Dawn Hallybone’s school in action.  I am also hoping to teach some History lessons at the local primary school (Flitch Green, also an Apple RTC) in the last week of their term.  If you have any other ideas about what I should see, let me know. I will document each visit here on the blog.

Finally, a word about the mobile learning project. I’ve had a few requests for information about it and once we have ‘sharpened the saw’ on a few of the research issues, it will be publicised on the school website and on this blog. It is taking a little longer than expected but we want to make it as good as we can before the end of our term. I’m really excited by what the team here have come up with and we can’t wait to share it with you and our students.