Wednesday 20 December 2006

When do changes stop being Pilots?

When I talk to people about our project they usually say "So, is this a pilot?" My answer is the same, "No its not a pilot, its a change to a way of working."
As Nicholas Negroponte says at TED, we have moved past pilots. So when does a pilot shift to being a change?
I feel that we have reached a pivot point and we are ready to shift our perspective from paper with some electronic based material to electronic based material with some paper.
The plans we are putting place are all their to support education and the curriculum. Nothing is particularly new or radical.Its using it as the main delivery medium.
As I usually say say at the end of my entries...... so what do you think?
I really mean this. Please come back with comments, criticisms, observations, points, questions
thanks
Ian

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Sunday 17 December 2006

The International views

I have been looking at resources and reports from around the world of schools using Tablet PC's or UMPC's.

A simple Google search produced so many reports that it has taken me a while to sift through them.

I am going to attempt to summerise the some of the ones which stood out to me.

The Vermont Slate

This is a small Vermont boarding school which is using Tablet PC's extensively. Mark Payton has been Blogging on the project since March '05.

I have found the questions, thoughts and solutions here to mirror my own and have even pre warned me about problems that I hadn't considered.

Eschool News

I have found this to be a bit of a Mine. Lots of digging produces some Diamonds, like Ray Kurzweil's interview

Tablet PC's in Singapore Schools

This is a full evaluation of tablet PC's in 2 Singapore schools.

Toshiba

Its no wonder that one of the big names in Tablet PC's has its say too

Do you have any more?

Monday 11 December 2006

Conference XP

As Andrew Brown as said Collaboration is a vital component to a curriculum for excellence.
I think this is where the Apps that come with IWB's have had the biggest advantage. They have been exciting and active. Where presentations from PowerPoint have been scripted and lifeless. In the Campus Technology online Mag they talk about breathing the life back into Classroom Presentations. Its an excellent article.
The Client we have been assessing the use of is Conference XP. Though I am really excited by the whole Glow shared whteboard space.
The concept of everyone in a classroom having access to the same space at the same time is very exciting one and one of the main reasons for this project...... but not the only one.
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IC3 Getting the foundations right

IC3 is Certiport's Computing Fundimentals certification. Its run in scotland by prodigy

The parts which attracted me to this assessment and certification system are the Benchmarking and Mentoring systems.

These allow us to see what each individual can already do (Benchmark) and then supports the indivuals to work on the skills they are weakest at. Therefore we won't have pupils who have missed out of the basic skills and at the same time we won't have pupils bored and unchallenged for S1 and 2.

Any two of these units would give the pupils a PC Passport at Int. 2

To see a video of how this works have a look here.

The basic standard have 3 Modules covering Internet and Computing, hence the name.

The 3 are:

IC³ 2005 Standard (Complete Objectives)


IC³ — Computing Fundamentals

Computer Hardware

Computer Software

Using an Operating System


IC³ — Key Applications

Common Program Functions

Word Processing Functions

Spreadsheet Functions

Presentation Software


IC³ — Living Online


Networks and the Internet

Electronic Mail

Using the Internet

The Impact of Computing and the Internet on Society


As I say in all my blogs.........What do you think?

I really am very interested in what you think and in particular any issues you think we have missed.


Thursday 7 December 2006

No IWB's here

Several people have come back to me and asked where I get my confidence that IWB's are not the future of education.

One place is Djanogly City Academy, Nottingham.

I first became aware of the school in a Teacher TV programme called 'ICT: A vision of the future'. I have since been in touch with Sanjesh Sarma (from the video) and spoken to him about the use of Tablet PC's and wireless networks. I would dearly love to go down and visit the school but I haven't done so yet.

I wouldn't say that seeing the approach that Djangoly use changed my mind but it did affirm what I was thinking


Video: Future School uk

What do you think?