With the exam crush looming ever closer (especially for my lovely IB class) and the need to consolidate learning that has taken place over the last year/two years, I often neglect the fact that I also need to reflect and learn about my subject. Two upcoming events this year should help me stay on the path of classroom refinement/enlightenment…

Next month Doug Belshaw and I are going to give an address and two workshops on History and ICT to Turkish History educators as part of the European Association of History Educators (EUROCLIO) which is funded by the Netherlands Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The way how History is taught in Turkey is being rethought and there is a desire to incorporate/develop more innovative methods;  our role is to suggest how this can be done using examples of work in the UK. Doug and I will stress in our presentation that ICT is more than an ‘add water and stir’ approach and that it should support the work in the classroom rather than become the determining factor. This may seem pretty obvious but I sometimes lose sight when I come across a new/exciting tool and articipating in the conference reminds me to keep asking questions about what I do in the classroom and what direction my school is heading in.

The second event is the TeachMeet Doug and I are organising at the Schools History Project (SHP) conference in July (we are also presenting a workshop at the main event). This conference is THE conference for History educators and sessions are always informative with ideas that you can take away and use on the first day back in school. If you haven’t come across a TeachMeet before, it is a fantastic way to share teaching ideas through volunteers giving two or seven minute presentations in an informal and supportive atmosphere. This video made by BrainPop UK for another TeachMeet will help:

My experience of the TeachMeet at BETT was fantastic and I found out some really useful tips that were too ’small’ for a seminar but very practical which stimulated much discussion at dinner and this is what we hope to achieve with the SHP version. We are currently looking for volunteers for the SHP TeachMeet so if you are intending to go and want to share your ideas and get involved in the conversation about teaching and learning in History, please get in contact via the TeachMeet page or Twitter (me or Doug Belshaw). Details on the conference can also be found on the schoolhistory.co.uk site. The outcomes of both of these events will now doubt appear on these pages and I look forward to creating exciting (or crazy depending on which student you ask) activities for my students as a result of the conversations!

After all the hype/hope/dismay, the iPad is here and it has led some to ask whether it will revolutionise education. Personally, I think this is the wrong question to ask as it supposes that a technical solution can solve what is essentially a human centric question. To put it more bluntly, the iPad it is merely a tool and it is (echoing something Chris Harte from Cramlington Learning Village said on Twitter) only as good as the tool using it (although I might have to revisit this idea once we have Matrix style loading programs)!

That said, I think the iPad offers some tantalising possibilities for teaching and learning. You now have a device with ‘instant on’ that is portable, has a larger screen than an iPod Touch for viewing information but physically much smaller than a desktop computer used to create content or capture data. Without much thought, I could see the Geography/PE/History department taking this tool outside the classroom as a support to learning on the environment/field/site visit. The lack of a camera does not worry me as I always think a dedicated camera is much better for any shots (and these can easily be transferred to the iPad if needed). I’m sure that over the next few months, we will see examples far more developed than the brief reactions I can give.

From another point of view, it may prove to be revolutionary. For educational publishers, the ability to view media rich content (video, presentation and audio explanations) and electronic learning resources (thinking skills diagrams/drag and drop exercises) as well as the ability to update and add new textbook information at a minimum cost are now possible. Doug Belshaw and I have been working with a very large publisher talking about these kinds of issues in terms of resources for the classroom. I am sure that our next discussion will be pretty interesting…

I think that the iPad will offer something different to the classroom as a learning space and I am looking forward to exploring how it will enhance historical understanding in my lessons. I will have to wait a bit longer before I can be ‘Morpheus’ to my History students…

Image: cattius.photos@Flickr

I am very pleased to announce that my school has now become an Apple Regional Training Centre (RTC). Basically, this means that we will offer free training (to any school) using Apple tools to help enhance teaching and learning but with a slight twist…our RTC will focus on History as a specialism and will specifically look at how technology can support historical understanding of change/continuity, causation and other historical concepts using tools like BeeDocs Timeline 3D (as used in the example here and explained in more detail here). Of course, we will offer training covering all subjects and general creativity in the classroom but I am particularly pleased as it will allow me to share my love for the subject (and all things Apple). The second exciting aspect for us as an RTC is exploring how mobile technology can be used in the classroom to enhance learning and assessment.  I hope to showcase some of the work at the Schools History Project conference this July but will blog about/discuss what the school plans to do over the next few months. Get in contact if you would like to come to a free session!

Image: kyz@Flickr

One of the things I have made a commitment to do this year (apart from improving my terrible cello playing and becoming fitter) is to read a lot more outside my subject area. History and technology books normally make up my Amazon orders and I felt that it needed to change.  As a result, I have created a poster in my classroom explaining that I intend to read 24 different books over the next 12 months (and not directly related to History). Why have I put the poster in the classroom? There are two reasons. The first is to help me keep on track; I know of no better group of people willing to keep someone else on task (!) so they will be my conscience throughout the year. The second reason is pedagogical as I wanted to demonstrate or model publicly that reading is a fun, challenging and legitimate activity.

As part of the challenge, I have asked students to recommend books to me. I am sure I will get a few English class texts in there and I am mentally prepared for the Twilight series (I enjoyed the first film so the books can’t be that bad, right?) but the great thing is that it will create a conversation based on books outside the normal teaching and learning situation. Sure, they may ask me for my opinion on a character or theme they are writing an essay on due in the next day but then the students are engaging in a discussion with someone not teaching the text. I’ll also be able to discuss what I found difficult, what I really enjoyed and how it allowed me to understand something I did not before I read it.

Ultimately, I hope the challenge will demonstrate that learning happens all the time, even to teachers. I also hope that as the year goes on and the grid of books I have read fills up (alongside my scientific five star rating system), some of the students will engage in the reading process. I may have had enough of Bella and Edward by then but if it takes someone away from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare/Gossip Girl DVDs for a few moments every day, it would certainly be worth it.

Image: JerOmm.nz @Flickr

iPod Touch – 2010 style

After talking and thinking about how I would use mobile devices in the History classroom with a variety of people on Twitter and at Ed Tech Round Up, I decided to look at a few applications that may help me achieve my objectives. I always have in mind a number of questions when looking at technology/applications and the most important is whether I can do the same job without it (it keeps my inner geek instinct to use new tools without thinking about how useful they are in check).

One of the apps that has some impressive possibilities is Big Nerd Ranch’s eClicker and eClicker Host for the iPod Touch/iPhone. Louise Duncan plans on using it with her iPods (I recommend reading her blog if you are interested in using the iPod Touch in your classroom) and I can see why. Apart from its apparent ease of use and visual feedback is how it fits into Dylan Wiliam’s 2007 paper on good assessment in the classroom (thanks to Neal Watkin for passing this one to me). Essentially, Wiliam thinks good questions with multiple answers (without designating one correct answer) relays how much students understand and allows the teacher to adjust their teaching accordingly. For example, I may set a question on Women in Nazi Germany with five possible answers and the students have a minute to answer. All the choices may be correct but at different levels of the GCSE markscheme. So if the minimum target grade of the class is a ‘B’ but half give answers akin to a ‘C’ or ‘D’ grade I can then discuss this with the class and tease out the misunderstanding. It also allows the results of the sessions to be emailed for further analysis so decisions about the process in the classroom can be made.

Of course, this can be done using cards or mini-boards and the teacher checking visually and adjustments made during the lesson. What is really interesting is how the technology allows you to aggregate the information from the students in email form to be studied closely when more time is available for reflection, leading to a more thoughtful calibration of the teaching/learning process. Ideally, combining both the app and the cards/mini-boards would be a great way to check understanding in the classroom. I hope to explore the technological side of this in more detail over the coming year as well as looking at other ways to integrate mobile technologies into the classroom.

Image by nickhumphries @ Flickr

What I look like when homework is not handed in. Apparently.

I have been thinking about using mobile devices in the classroom for a long time. Doug Belshaw and I used them to great success with Twitter and presented our findings at the National Schools History Project conference in 2008. The students found it very useful in terms of revision or asking questions quickly (I hasten to add this was sanctioned by the Headmistress at my previous school and at no time did I see the students’ ‘phone numbers). Twitter then removed its free text message service and the project had to dropped. I’ve gone on to use mobile devices in many ways, drawing on the work of many other educators but have still felt that I was not really tackling the issues within my classroom.

For me, they revolve around two key areas:

1) Organisation – how can I help my students become more organised in terms of accessing work set, completing it and reviewing their progress?  If possible, I want to link into the work on Assessing Pupil Progress mentioned in the last issue of Teaching History.

2) Collaboration – how can I get the students to work with each other inside and outside the classroom to create a piece of historical work that would remove the constraints we face in terms of time and location? Mobile technology, especially with the use of GPS data tagged to photos or uploading videos creates all kinds of interesting activities for field trips for example.

You will notice that History as such is not really mentioned and that is simply because that is my job not the role of the technology. I may be overstating the obvious here but sometimes, just sometimes, technology is viewed as the panacea to the problem in front of us. The two issues identified above are not really major problems in that they can be overcome using traditional methods (review sheets with target grades on, sharing pictures of visits once we get back to the classroom or my transformation into Megatron* wrecking havoc on pupils who dare to hand homework in late because they forgot it was set). However, I would like to try and claim back some of the time spent becoming the leader of the Decepticons and being the teacher who is able to create engaging activities.

In terms of what devices/technologies we will use, I’m pretty sure we will cover the iPhone/iPod Touch/Blackberry as the main devices (as this is what many of the students already have) but basically any device that has unlimited data connections. Moodle and a few other tools will be used too but that will require some work with the ICT dept. If anyone has any other ideas about how to promote learning using mobile devices, I’ll be glad to hear from you. My students will be glad too; as Optimus Prime says, ‘Megatron must be stopped’.

*One of the many nicknames I have acquired and the students share with me. I like to think it has something to do with my geekiness…

Megatron image from mdverde@ Flickr

It’s one of the questions that comes up a lot on our E-Safety work to Parents / Carers and professionals, ’How do you set controls and ensure safety’? So to have this new resource with practical tips, tricks and Q & A’s is incredibly helpful.

This UK site, www.askaboutgames.com really is a must have resource for professionals, parents/carers and players too. It’s got great advice on playing both on and offline games sensibly and is relevant for all ages and stages. There are downloadable pdfs of information sheets and I you can order hard copies of the credit card sized information booklets if you contact them or CEOP direct.

I had previously asked members of my Higher class to tell me the make and model of their mobile phone.  I checked these on the manufacturer web sites to get information on screen resolution and was surprised to discover that 240 pixels wide by 320 pixels high appears to be something of an industry standard.  

I used a simple graphics package to create a series of white rectangles 240 pixels wide by 320 high and pasted in images I had scanned from an old Higher Physics past paper.  I used the graphics threshold levels to remove any residual greyness from the scans before inserting the text of each question around them.  Simple questions required two images each (one for the question and a second for the answer) while longer questions with multiple statements or diagrams required three or even four image files to complete.

I created seven multiple choice questions over a double period, creating text only questions would be much quicker than tweaking graphics.  I uploaded the image files to my phone in jpg format.  The results were encouraging, with both the text and images displayed clearly.  My only concern was that the order of the files had reversed when transferred to the phone by bluetooth.  On trying again, it seems that the problem is that the Apple iSync application transfers multiple files starting with the highest file name, while the phone stores files in the order of receipt.  This is an issue requiring a workaround before distributing quizzes to a class.

Here is a question from the set I made. I’ve left them at full size (240 x 320 pixels)

One area we cover on our Internet Safety and Responsible Use training is downloading music. We recommend the Pro-music / Childnet leaflet that can be donloaded here.

This website www.pro-music.org is a must for all wanting to find out more, it’s suitable for young people, parents and all professionals. It could also be used as a context for learning.

 It’s a global resource that covers all the news and views, do’s and don’t about using the internet legitmately to access music. Why not put it on your favourites page?

I would see this featuring as a key part of a program of Internet Safety in schools and it could also be considered in curriculum areas such as Expressive Arts, Technologies, Health and Wellbeing..I would also add Literacy in there as you could be looking at skills for critical thinking and searching the ownership / validity of text

Why not try it and let us know how you get on? You could show pupils during a lesson and discuss favourite sites, what music is most downloaded? You could use this as a way to begin to introduce issues of copyright. It’s got a great page that explodes myths which again can be great discussion tools.

Once the subject of copyright is introduced you could also use some of the teaching resources highlighted here by the World Internet Property Organisation.

Please feel free to add comments or more ideas, I’m sure there are plenty!

28th May 2009

The Highland E-Safety Group have spent the Easter hols reflecting on the recent training that has been provided in Highland.

As well as the half-day ‘Internet Safety and Responsible Use’ courses there have been a number of bespoke sessions delivered for a range of professionals and parents. This has included sessions for the following groups:

• Youth Workers / Intensive Support Unit Staff
• Foster Carer Link Workers
• Children’s Residential Home Staff
• Highland Youth Voice Xec Committee
• Youth Work Development Staff
• Health Promoting Schools Officers
• Support for Learning Staff
• Library Service Officers

The above bespoke sessions can last from 1 – 2 hours and comprise of the key issues for children and young people using different ways of communication, gaming, cyberbullying and the internet. These sessions also include what resources and local support is available. These will continue throughout the year on request from individuals.

The multi-agency half-day ‘Internet Safety and Responsible Use Sessions’ have been delivered by CEOP Ambassadors and use the CEOP introductory materials and the Thinkuknow education materials, they are designed for staff working predominantly in school settings who wil be taking E-Safety delivery forward. In addition to the CEOP materials (which have to be used for participants to become registered TUK trainers) the training covers the local perspective, cyberbullying, support for staff, the way our schools are using blogs and wikis and most importantly how to create the right conditions to use the approved resources with young people.

We believe it’s vital to look at the wider context and see how the TUK and Childnet resources can be used across the curriculum and through the training aim to ensure that participants can do this confidently.

Our evaluations of the half day training have been overwhelmingly positive, however it seems that there are still questions to be asked and issues explored, a half-day is just not long enough. To this end our next planned session on the 24th April will include an opportunity throughout the lunch and afterwards for participants to delve into the resources (laptops with internet access provided) and work in small groups to assess how they would use them and what else they need to do to create the right conditions (with the support of other professionals) to take it forward in their school communities.

Myself , Robert Quigley (our newest CEOP Ambassador!) and Jim Henderson have agreed to create a new training event on the 28th May 2009, which will be a full day to ensure that participants can do all of the above and walk away with the tools, skills and confidence to drive the Highland E-Safety Strategy forward. Depending on the outcome of course this full day approach will become the standard framework for all future ‘Internet Safety and Responsible Use’ training in Highland.

For more information about our courses please do get in touch.