Islay ICT

Day 2 PIL Global Forum

2011-12-11T12:54:00.001Z

The day started even earlier than planned. That's why the agenda is written on to remind me.

During day 1 I had meet and spent some time with the group of teachers I was working with.

My group are from left to right are Alinazim from Azerbaijan, Tahmeena from Pakistan, Saba from UAE and Kara from Sweden (Below). Unfortunately Jenny from Bolivia (and her translator, Daniela) didn’t make it to Washington.

These were all amazing educators in their own right. They had already won the national and regional forum competitions for their Virtual Classroom Tours of there projects.

We are called SERC 7. The name is from our visit today on our Learning Excursion. We were group 7 heading to Smithsonian Environmental Research Centre – SERC.

First though the was a keynote from Microsoft’s VP for Education, Anthony Salcito. Ollie Bray has a great post on this and it was a very powerful mood setter for the event.

Off to buses with our groups. Once we had found them…

The Learning Excursions were a range of information gathering trips. Some groups went to the Zoo others went to the Gardens. We one of 8 groups that went to SERC.

SERC is about an hour outside Washington. In fact its in another state, Maryland. We had a stunning drive out of the city on a beautiful clear autumn day. Due to the time in travelling we had lunch on the buses.

At SERC we had a background talk on what the work i that's done. One thing that really caught my attention was the Distance learning programme.

SERC have a mobile video conference (VC) broadcast unit. This means they can broadcast to any internet connected classroom in the world. Having used VC extensively I know that is is a very powerful media. Much more powerful than TV or YouTube as the pupils involved can ask questions and interact. Something more schools could take advantage of.

We were give several options to go and look at; from building an Remotely Operated Vehicle to getting out in a canoe into the bay. The group decided we would split up and cover as many of the activities as possible.

I attended a topic called Environment Builders. This, it turned out, was looking at demonstrations and doing a few activities looking at how animals have an affect on the environment.

For example, we used the SERC (Soon to be) downloadable resources on jellyfish body design to conduct an experiment about the affect that different body types have on the water temperature layering.

Then a sampling exercise to look at how the Scientists estimate what the populations are in the bay. Using mixed beans and statistics

and a final exercise on the affect of different types of plants and animals have on the amount of light.

We I liked about these exercises was that none of them required high tech equipment or resources but demonstrated real effects and phenomena in very real and practical ways.

It was then a few minutes breathing space as the groups gathered and I could actually take in just how beautiful the environment was that day….

…but no time to dawdle, it was back on the coach to talk with our groups as we headed back into Washington. This was a slower run as we hit traffic. Therefore we were late for our next mentor session.

An Introduction to Coaching

Coaching and Mentoring is something we have been doing on Islay for several years. In fact only a few weeks before Mathew Boyle had done some work with our senior pupils on this.

To me this something that is a vital skill for all learners. A shared understanding of the language and process of learning and be able to have positive conversations about learning.

I was surprised at how many of these great educators had not done any courses on this or were even aware of it.

On the timetable it shows that we had sometime………. actually we had homework. We had to go to our team members and apply the skills we had jut been looking at.

The feedback from lots of the Mentors was that teams got a lot out of the coaching conversations. In fact they wish they had had the conversations right at the start of the event as they made them think. Some even restructured the talks they gave because of the Coaching conversations. That's the power of these.

In the evening I decided to go with the group of mentors for dinner at Old Ebbit’s Grill rather than go with the national groups for dinner. I wanted to get to know people outside the formal sessions. This is exactly what happened. About 14 of us had a fantastic meal and amazing conversations about all sorts of things.

This was also the first time I had the 2 bottles of Whisky with me to share. A Bottle of Bowmore 18 year cask strength and a 16 year old Jura, also cask strength. The idea was that they would go further.

Everyone was very impressed. In fact our waiter for the evening, Kevin, was allowed to taste them. He had the most amazing descriptions of them for the group. A natural born poet I feel.

Conversations continued back at the hotel in all sorts of ways and in all sorts of topics ……….

Day 1 PIL Global Forum

2011-12-04T15:55:00.001Z

I woke early and got out the hotel to take some pictures. I am so glad I did.

Having collaborated with others via Skydrive and OneNote and had several online presentations before hand I had some idea of the intensity and level of work expected, it was high, but when I looked at the first days agenda I did take a bit of a gulp.

Each of the streams were equally intense. This was no ‘jolly’.

The Institute Kick-Off was:

‘Dimensions of 21st Century Learning’.

This introduced ITL Research’s work. Over the week we would be looking at and using these dimension’s with our teams to develop an understanding of them and how they can be used to gain an understanding of these skills.

I should say here that I don’t believe that 21st Century skills are new. I think that the skills identified as 21st century have always been part of good education since the Platonic Academy. I think that it did loss its way into an industrial system and needs to be refocused with the use of technology to refocus it.

The first dimension looked at was Collaboration. This defined as below with each area having a Code:

working alone - 1
Working together -2
Shared responsibility - 3
Substantive Decisions made together - 4

This is a code to identify what's happening it is not a score. Though it can be very difficult not to apply a score to this. Sometimes though you don’t want collaboration within a particular learning sub topic. The dimensions are about a balance across a topic.

We were given some examples of class exercises and asked to code these. At first individually, then in pairs and lastly in tables. This proved to be a very ‘lively’ discussion. The debates and justification of choices were excellent. True professional dialogue.

We had to do the same exercise with our teams so it was important we these clear in our heads too. The discussions continued as we moved to session 2.

Theme: Shout and the learning activities

Shout is the environmental project which started last year. Mandeep Atwell told us about the background from last year and we were introduced this years theme Water. This is a theme that our groups will work around to produce a learning resource for.

Again lots of discussions in our teams about initial ideas. I saw my role to be a mentor not a leader of the group. I wanted the group to drive it themselves with some direction from me.

We spent a lot of time developing ideas and possibilities add in discussions on What is Collaboration and what could be done it was very active time.

Some of the team members wanted to given more information on what was being assessed and what was expected but the idea was to leave this as open as possible. It was safe to say that the desire of the planning group to make the teachers uncomfortable was achieved.

Living and learning in a Global Community - Will Richardson

Heads still spinning from the morning we went into hear Will Richardson add another bit of momentum to the spinning heads.

I have followed Will Richardson on Twitter for a long time now. So I was quite prepared for his ideas. What I wasn’t prepared for was the number of teachers who hadn’t heard these ideas before.

Below a TEDx Talk which gives a cut down version of the talk given.

The second big surprise was an example used during his talk. It was how his son was given an introductory talk on Scratch Programming by a 10 year old from Perth, Scotland. An image appeared on the screen and I see my old friend Neil Winton appear. I think I I may have even said an expletive (Oh FFS). You really can’t go anywhere.

Neil’s side of the story is at http://nwinton.wordpress.com/2007/10/30/that-scratch-is-spreading/

This again started lots of discussions on what education is and the role of the teacher in that.

With more learning excursion talks and getting the start of the process in place as well getting to know lots of new people. All of whom I could talked to and learned from all day. The day was full.

The evening also became spectacular. With a reception in the American History Museum.

An amazing event in an amazing building. We could wonder round and enjoy the place and the amazing company. Educators from Australia, Alaska, even Wales! (I have to acknowledge my fellow UK representatives of Gareth Ritter (Wales), Ollie Bray (Scotland via somewhere south), Tony McDaid (HT Calderglen High School), Ben Rowe (Saltash, Cornwall), Stuart Ball (UK PIL Microsoft & Wales) and Steve Beswick (MS Education Director UK). Without whom it would never have been half as enjoyable or as fun.

Pre work and travel

2011-11-23T22:15:00.001Z

A few weeks before travelling to Microsoft Partners In Learning Global Forum I had attended three livemeets. These set the scene for being a Mentor and also set some collaborative tasks to get the mentors working and talking together.

This proved to be rather difficult for me as these took place twice a day to cover the globe but on my local time they took place at 6am and 4pm. I couldn’t get access to the live meeting at school as the live login is blocked. I did make it home for one of the 4pm times but I had to attend (Is that the right word?) the 6am meets. Fortunately these did not involve me being on camera so I could be ‘relaxed’ about my image. The last one though took place after the clocks changed, and yes you guessed it, I arrived for the end of the meeting.

I enjoyed using OneNote 2010 hosted on Skydrive to collaborate with others and answer some questions. The really interesting part is OneNote web apps and live sharing on that.

Getting too and from Islay can be an adventure. Yes we are 2 hours on a ferry from the mainland and yes that ferry is over 2 hours drive from the nearest city (Glasgow) but by plane its less than 30 minutes to Glasgow. And that's what I did on the morning of Saturday 5th November.

A chilly but bright day and a stunning flight across from the west. I could see right up into the highlands with its high ground covered in fresh snow.

I still had another day to go before I headed south. Some last minute shopping like a new kilt pin to go with my new kilt.

I was fortunate in that while I was in Glasgow I had the oppertunity to attend a Teachmeet. This was teachmeet EPA (Enterprise Practitioners Association). This was a great event bringing a whole load of new people to TeachMeets and then to Twitter. Loads of great ideas as always at a TeachMeet.

I spent the night visiting my Father and set off to Glasgow airport on a very foggy Glasgow Airport. Several flights were already delayed. I was very nervous as I checked in. I needn’t have worried my Heathrow flight was on time as the aircraft was already on the ground.

So far I had been traveling on my own but I had planned to meet up with old friend Ollie Bray. Ollie was attending the Global Forum as a judge and was traveling to Heathrow from Edinburgh. I was also going to meet 3 other people traveling from the UK that I had never met before. I knew I was going to get on well with everyone when we arranged to meet in the bar. Though I must admit that myself and Ollie were sitting on one side of a wall while the others sat the other side of the same wall and it took a while to realise what was happening…….. it did set a tone.

If you want to get involved with the Partners In Learning UK go to http://uk.partnersinlearningnetwork.com

Partners In Learning Global Forum

2011-11-20T20:49:00.001Z

This is the first of a series of posts on the Microsoft Partners In Learning Global Forum.

Two weeks ago I was on a journey to Washington DC. I attended the Microsoft Partners In Learning (PIL) Global Forum as a Mentor.

The journey was more than geographical, it was very much based in Education.

So what is PIL?

PIL is to, “…. help educators and school leaders connect, collaborate, create, and share so that students can realise their greatest potential.”

I have been a member a member of the UK PIL for the last 5 years. Its been a good basis of info and resources as well being wider than the web site, its also a large number of fellow teachers who are active on Twitter.

As a Mentor I was working with a group of fellow teachers from all over the world. In my case they were from Azerbaijan, Sweden, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates and Bolivia.

They were all PIL winners in there own national groups and were all impressive in there own right. They were focused on the Global competition but my job was to get them to work together as a group to develop educational resources.

The journey of a mentor was in team Building, applying ITL’s Research, Coaching the team. I will be going deeper in to these over the next few posts.

I was so impressed with people and the processes. It matches very well with all the changes we have been doing in Islay over the last 5 years.

I did wonder why I had never put in a Virtual Classroom Tour (VCT). I always use the excuse of time but really that is an excuse. Of course there is what the pupils do…….. If I don’t try I won’t fail.

Well let me assure all Scots teachers. You will stand up well against the rest of the world. Lets do it!

PIL 2011

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Teachmeet Remote

2011-11-01T18:56:00.001Z

I really enjoyed TeachMeet West Argyll the other week. I was part of a mixed group of primary and secondary teachers in Islay High School watching in via Flashmeeting.

What made it particularly good for me was not just that the talks were excellent (Which they were) and about teaching and learning but that I was talking to colleagues about what was being said (as well as with various people from round the world in the FlashMeeting).

This has given me an idea for a long planned TeachMeet Remote.

Small groups gather in various places and link in to share together.

Each group will act as a round table and then feedback to the rest to the topics.

Topics could be collected centrally or each group could opt to raise a topic to introduce for discussion in the roundtables. One of the table could well be an online group of individuals.

What do you think?

TeachMeet at Scottish Learning Festival

2011-09-25T14:38:00.001Z

Last week was the Scottish Learning Festival (SLF). I wasn’t able to attend.

A major part of SLF is now TeachMeet. I think it one of the largest and highest profile TeachMeet kicking around.

A huge congratulations to the individuals who gave lots time and a huge effort to get everything in place…………..but……

As an online observer I had several problems:

- lack online participation

- Talk selection

- Ad breaks

Lack online participation

Over the last 18 months more and more teachmeets have been using ustream. This is a great broadcast service but is not very good with the back channel. Previously FlashMeeting was used. This was not as good for the broadcasting as you had limited numbers but the interaction was very good. During breakouts the online session could have one of the topics.

During the tmslf11 the broadcast was switched off during the roundtable discussions. I understand that the pressure is for the faces infront of you but please remember upto 100 people are following online.

Would it be possible to have the webcam feed both uStream and flashmeeting. Then those who want to just watch can do so and those who want t get more involved can also do so.

Talk selection

When was it decided to reduce the number of people who want to share down to the number of spaces that are available?

This means that those who are confident get there names down first and no one else gets a chance to even take a chance.

Yes this does mean that someone doesn’t get selected. I have been the victim of this many times but I think its important that someone who isn’t too sure about speaking can step up and we all get to hear something new.

Ad breaks

All the way through sponsors were mentioned. This, to me, is against the ethos of classroom practitioners sharing.

I won’t mention the one that has been talked about in Twitter with the sales person getting 2 mins.

I think large teachmeets need financial support. This has been talked about at length previously by lots of people.

Its how much positioning this support gets is very important. Personally they should have stuff about and logos online but not mentioned during the event.

I see a place for lots of teachmeets. Large like the tmslf11 but even more important are small, less structured, ones where topics are discussed over a beer. Its a full spectrum inbetween.

Teachmeets are an ethos not a fixed structure.

Something new

2011-01-17T00:44:00.004Z

An attempt at something new

vlog1 from Ian Stuart on Vimeo.

Would appreciate some constructive critism

New Image New Device

2010-06-28T18:04:00.001Z

I have been remiss with blog posts. I suspect I am addicted to twitter.My new school year resolution is make my Blog writing more regular.

We have been identifying a new device for the incoming S1. The reason this is required is that Samsung are no longer making the Q1 UMPC.

We tried several devices and types of device before settling on the Dell 2100 Netbook.

The reason we went for this was the robustness of this device as its specifically designed for the education market. We also went for the optional touch screen to keep the maximum usability for what we have already developed.

So the next question was which apps should we install in the image.

Here this list:

PS Heading Text indicates a folder setup in the Start Menu

File Viewers:

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Notepad ++

AbiWord

FTP Software:

Filezilla

Core FTP - glow

Google Software:

Google Earth

Google Sketch-Up with tutorials.

Picasa 3 with templates

Microsoft Software:

Office 2007 & OneNote

Auto Collage 2008

Multimedia Software:

CeltX

Clickview Player-win7 version downloaded.

DivX 7

Labtec Webcam - Driver we have works, but you must manually tell windows to install the driver from the:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Labtec\WebCamWebInstall\Drivers\x32 Folder.

Comic Life

Real Player Alternative

QuickTime - glow

Java - glow

Media Player Classic

Stop Motion Animator

VLC Media Player

Audacity incl. MP3 & ffmpeg.

Photo Story 3

Windows Movie Maker - Live movie maker.

Timershot-needed when we have SMA?

Kinovea

PhotoFiltre

Jet Audio Basic- version 8 and above ONLY

Digital Viewer for Digital Microscopes

Free Natural Reader/ Scottish Heather Voice - new version downloaded.

Microsoft Digital Literacy IT Course- most current.

Pencil

InkArt- replaced with art rage 2 starter edition - use "Loading" brush setting to adjust when the brush runs out of ink. (100% = takes ages to run out).

Utilities:

7-Zip

Auslogics Disk Defrag

Spybot S&D

Ccleaner Slim

Maths Software:

Officemath

Student Graphing Calculator

Music Software:

Listen Hear v4.0-cd rom

LMMS new version 4.6

MuseScore

Tablet PC Music Composition Tool - replaced by songsmith.

SongSmith

Simulation Software:

Phun-beta 5.28 downloaded.

Physics Illustrator for Tablet PC - use 2010 compiled version.

West Point Bridge Designer 2007 -downloaded.

Language Software:

Power Language French

Maths Software:

Tarsia 2.0

Geonext

Uncategorized Programs

(Not a start menu category name):

XMind

Hot Potatoes

Mozilla Firefox ( and extensions).

Flash Player - glow

Shockwave - glow

Image Resizer (Microsoft)

Taskbar Magnifier (Microsoft)-works and installs in 7.

Sophos Antivirus -if it cant be used on win7 we have an open source alternative ready to go.

Learning Essentials - still version 2 for office 2007.

Stitched Up -cd rom.

http://jmol.sourceforge.net/

What have we missed? What should we have added?

Technorati Tags: Islay,Dell,education scotland,Scottish Education,apps

TeachMeet hits its fourth birthday: Coming of Age

2010-05-24T16:26:00.001Z

TeachMeet is entering its fifth year and the unconference for teachers, by teachers has helped hundreds - maybe thousands, in fact - to try out something new, alter the way they already teach and learn, join a community of innovative educators or completely transform their way of working.
The hope was that the model would spread. It has, but as those who have created and helped pull TeachMeet together over the past four years, we want to see it spread further, deeper and with increasing quality of input from practitioners. This post outlines how we think we might manage this. This is the beginnings of a conversation with those who care about TeachMeet. Add your views in the form of any blog post or comment or tweet - tag it #tmfuture
What are the goals of TeachMeet?
TeachMeet was originally designed to:

Take thinking away from the formal, often commercialised conference floor, and provide a safe place for anyone to pitch their practice
Provide a forum for more teachers to talk about real learning happening in real places, than one-hour conference seminar slots allow
Showcase emerging practice that we could all aim to undertake; sales pitches not allowed
Be all about the Teach, with only a nod towards tech that paved the way for new practice.

Provoke new ways of sharing our stories: PowerPoint was banned. We wanted people to tell stories in ways that challenged them, and the audience

Empower the audience to critique, ask questions and probe, all online, through SMS or, later, Twitter.

Over the years, these 'rules' have altered, leading to some great innovations, others less so. The answer to "What is a TeachMeet?" has become a myriad of meanings, some pretty far off the original goals. We need to help and support people to organise, run and contribute to events that build on previous ones. We need to make TeachMeet as accessible to newbies as it was in 2005. We need TeachMeet to once more find its focus.
Supporting the "infectiousness" of TeachMeets

Organising TeachMeets should not be easy. Taking part in them should be. But more support is needed for organisers:

Sponsorship is hard if there's no bank account into which funds can be sent

Without sponsorship, any event over 30 people becomes tricky to organise while also giving people a special night of learning, the time, space and mood that gets people over their self-conscious selves
Paying for refreshments and venues is impossible if there's no organisation to pay them the precise sum.

The best TeachMeets provide social space, social activity, entertaining MCs, good refreshments, good online coverage and some form of online 'conclusion' - this needs coordinating by the organiser(s), but it's not a skill everyone will have the first time around.

We've got a superb opportunity to curate the best bits from all these TeachMeets that are happening weekly - this needs a degree of oversight.

A means to make TeachMeet more sustainable, easier to use for sponsors and organisers, and have the ability to do something spectacular
TeachMeet is owned by the community that shape it - but there needs to be a body to manage sponsorship and sponsors, and provide support for new organisers so that they maintain the TeachMeet goals. We assume that if someone is organising a 'TeachMeet' they would like to emulate the success of those popular early TeachMeets, and better-supported national conference ones (e.g. SLF and BETT).
What would support from the TeachMeet body look like?

Seeking of sponsorship all year round - including ways and means to get your message to as many teachers as possible
Brokerage of sponsorship - i.e. one place sponsors and those seeking sponsorship can come together, in a transparent manner
Recommendation of onsite support (good venues at discounted rates/free, A/V, event organisation [for bigger venues], catering etc)
Suggestions for various formats that have worked in the past
Mentoring from previous TeachMeet leaders including on-the-night help
Featuring of content and promotion of the event in a timely manner on an aggregated, higher profile TeachMeet site
A group calendar so that events can be seen by geography and date
Promotion of TeachMeet through international and national events, using contacts of existing TeachMeeters
In-event publicity (e.g. if you plan an event at a regional ICT day or national event, then we can help broker paper materials for insertion into packs etc)

But, above all, TeachMeet is reaching a point of saturation in the UK - things are going really well in terms of enthusing teachers about their own learning. We have a great opportunity to carry over a small proportion of the sponsorship and contributions towards creating a TeachMeet culture in countries where teacher professional development in this way is still blocked by barriers physical, financial or cultural. This is just one idea, harboured for a long time but unable to realise in the current setup.
This body can take the form of:

A Limited company (with a Director and shareholders)
A Charitable Limited Company, with a board of directors and voting rights for fellow 'shareholders' (we could work out some way of people being 'awarded' shares based on [non-financial] involvement?)
A Social Enterprise, perhaps formed as a Limited Company (see more information on what this means and how it might work (pdf))
A Charity (this feels like a lot more red tape to pull through and perhaps not entirely necessary)

As we take things forward we invite you to contribute your ideas and thoughts to make things work smoothly. We want you to comment, probe and make your own suggestions before the end of June, using the tag #tmfuture

Technorati Tags: teachmeet,tmfuture,education,education scotland

Top Ten Films

2010-01-05T21:02:00.002Z

Andy Wallis, of Islay High and Scottish Screen fame, has been encouraging me to list my top ten films of the decade.

I must admit I am not a huge fan of one thing over another. I tend to think these fav lists are really difficult. They tend to be transient and depend on mood.

I see it as something that guys to do which I don’t. The example from ‘High Fidelity’ by Nick Hornby. Of the constant making of the top 5’s

So I have struggled.

Struggled to get it down to 10 that is. An example is the remarkable project that was the Lord of The Rings Trilogy.

They were a great drama and stories, they were a remarkable body of work and were all released in the beginning of the decade. I would quite happily sit down and watch these and feel that they deserve a place in my favs but not 3 valuable places.

So here is a collection of some of my fav films of the decade Which ones I like more than others moves according to my mood and company……. in chronological order:

- The Constant Gardner

- Goodnight and good luck

- The Bourne Ultimatum

- Let the right one in

- The Dark Knight

I have a whole list of films which could be above, Touching the void for example but its ok because the list will change tomorrow

Technorati Tags: Film,2000's,andy wallis

Design in S1

2009-10-08T20:26:00.001Z

I am starting to look at Design with the S1’s.

This is always a difficult time as they are so enthusiastic to get into the workshop and ‘make stuff’. I think its vitally important that they spend time to reflect on the world around them and understand how those human made things came into being.

I have designed a couple of introductions to design that I will be reflecting on here.

This one is an exercise in not only working to a brief but also using the technology.

I have recorded a screen cast of the process they have gone through.

To see this in a lager size please have a look here S1_Keyfob

Technorati Tags: Islay,design,education,scotland,education scotland,sketchup,OneNote,Ink Art

Response for John Connell

2009-09-16T21:09:00.001Z

In John Connell’s Post for a workshop at the BBC, he has asked ……..

How did you get into blogging?

I was encouraged (Bullied?) by Andrew Brown (Then the Education Support Officer for ICT in Argyll & Bute) I was, and still am, of the opinion that blog is far too often a personal Soapbox. Saw much more educational use for Wiki’s. I set up an initial blog in June 2006 but moved to this one in the November.

What were (are?) the motivations?

Decided that I needed to record/broadcast what we were doing with our Schools of Ambition project.

How does your “private” blogging relate to your work?

Private blogging is now done exclusively via twitter. I have had the occasional personal post in the blog but generally I am reflecting on what I and the school are doing.

How do you achieve a balance of personal voice and authority

I am not sure I manage this or even if I want to. I am placing my voice and any authority I have is given from others. I think this community implied authority I consider far more real and important.

What can be achieved through blogging that can’t through ordinary news/reporting routes?

How could a tiny school 2 hours from the mainland have had voice through ‘ordinary news/reporting routes’. It didn’t. Even today we are ‘too far’ for even the educational press to realise where we are.

How do you follow other blogs and other forms of “public conversation”?

I have 5 pages of feeds from a wide range of inputs, i.e. blogs, bbc, and technorati tag words but a load come via recommends in twitter.

How does your blog connect to others in a “conversation”?

It has been the starting point for lots of conversations. Twitter is very conversational, Blog can have some feedback. The best example was the crowd sourced input to the discussion around the Education 2020 wiki This was much more than a conversation.

Are there other bloggers you follow especially, others you think are exemplars of the practice?

Less now than did at the beginning. At first I had ‘experts’ that I looked too. Now, I find the tag feeds much more important. Though a couple of people provide regular, thought provoking inputs to my thought processes. Taking John as a given. Don Ledingham, though he has gone quite.

How do you feel about “lighter” practices such as Tweeting, facebook status updates etc…?

These are vital sparks to deeper reflects on blog posts and crowd sourced wiki actions. They are like the ‘pub chats about big topics. They get your brain going but you have to remember this is out in the public domain

Call for collaborators

2009-09-13T20:48:00.001Z

A couple of years ago I got a very positive feedback on an animation that the the S1’s (12 year olds) at the time had produced using Google Sketchup. On a blog post by Ewan McIntosh, I made contact with Keith Hamon.

Keith is a wonderfully positive and enthusiastic leader. We talked via email about how we could work with some of the teachers in his part of the world. He identified Bob Meacham from the Banks Stephens Middle School in Forsyth, Georgia, USA.

Between us we developed a wiki based around pupils sharing information about local buildings.

The pupils would collect as much information about one local landmark and place it on the wiki for the other pupils to recreate in Sketchup. We would then have some video conferences. I even ‘taught’ the Banks Stephens class how to use Sketchup via VC.

I think its time to revisit this project.

I am looking for some classes/teachers from around the world who would be interested in developing a new project.

Leave a comment or add your name too the wiki http://international-sketchup.wikispaces.com/

Technorati Tags: islay, education scotland, sketchup

LeadMeet

2009-08-31T23:11:00.001Z

In July myself and Caroline (Commonly known as C in twitter) went through to Edinburgh. One reason to the visit was to attend the LeadMeet organised by Con Morris. leadMeet is a very interesting variation on the TeachMeet scenario.

The event was very well attended. With a good range of people who are passionate about education and professional development.

I managed to maintain an incredible record. Attended 6, put myself forward to speak at 5 and been selected by the random selector Zero. I have spoken twice at a TeachMeet. Once was virtually from my back bedroom and once was setup in Perth because I had travelled, with Andy Wallis, so far to attend.

Con suggested (awhile ago now) that I record my talk………… So its Con’s fault

More images from the event can be found here

Technorati Tags: Islay, teachmeet, leadmeet09, education, leadership

A broken habit

2009-08-30T18:29:00.001Z

Its been a long time since I got out of the habit of blogging. Twitter, the micro blogging service, as dominated my online activities recently.

Its not that things haven’t been going on. In fact its been extremely busy. I hope to do a catch up with some of the things over the next few weeks.

This past week has been the first full week in school. (after an extra day due to water supply problems) and therefore the issue of the UMPC’s to the incoming pupils. These are UMPC’s that are new to them.

On a Friday afternoon we are running How to session’s for all the incoming pupils. In our case that's 43.

The First session was issuing the UMPC’s, giving out login’s, and logging on……. and of course dealing with associated problems.

Last Friday was connecting to the internet and accessing email using Outlook 2007.

I have been using Community Clips to record instructional video’s. Basic ‘How to’s’ for the pupils to refer back too.

So why have I used Community Clips instead of Jing?

The main reason was that I wanted to add the video’s directly into OneNote.

OneNote embeds and plays WMV files directly within the application and Community Clips produces WMV files which I can edit in Movie Maker and place in the OneNote to create a NoteBook.

Jing produces FLV (and MPEG’s if you pay the subscription and I paid the subscription 2 days before discovering Community Clips) files which are much smaller. These can be hyperlinked and will play when clicked in a notebook and they open in the devices default player. I wanted to keep everything within OneNote and keep the work flow as simple as possible.

Technorati Tags: Islay, education Scotland, OneNote, Community Clips, Jing

The Future is Almost Here

2009-06-07T08:15:00.001Z

Maybe that’s a slight paradox, but the education2020 unconference is almost upon us. After months of discussions we are nearing the big day. Both Ian and myself have been overwhelmed by the response to the event (at least 40 people will be in attendance); we never thought it would attract so many dedicated people from around the UK and also the rest of the world – we thank you all very much for making such an effort to attend the event.

There is now detailed information about the structure of the unconference on the wiki and it will take the shape of a Knowledge Cafe format. It is worth highlighting that there will also be a Flash Meeting running alongside the event so if you are unable to make the actual event, your input would be invaluable via this avenue.

Pupils from the High School will be filming some of the event, mainly capturing short sound bites from those at the unconference relating to their vision of education in 2020 – so be prepared to give your response; there will be no opportunity to be a silent observer at this event!! These videos will be uploaded after the event.

I am sure that everyone will have a great time at the unconference and that it will not only spark some creative thinking regarding what education might look like in the future, but will also be an informal event where folk will experience a taste of Islay. Slàinte!

Recent sunset taken looking out from Bowmore

Big Adventures Small Technologies

2009-05-06T19:56:00.001Z

Islay High School has been developing some ‘interesting’ trips. Amongst the usual and wonderful, skiing, Outward Bound, Sports, etc. trips. We have been going for bigger adventures too. This has been developed by one of our Deputy Head Teachers, Stephen Harrison.

The first adventure (Trip is far too small a word these) was in 2003 to Costa Rica. No Blog though lots of memories for those involved.

Though this was the start of the adventure the start of the project was 2 years before that. That is when the pupils committed to going and to raising the funds to go and commit to the training regime.

The second adventure was in 2005 to Ecuador. They tried to Blog but hadn’t quite got the hang of it. Though the photos are wonderful.

The third adventure was to Malawi and this time the Blogging was better but still a bit stilted due to access issues. Though the response on the BBC Island Blogging site was tremendous.

This adventure takes a slightly different format as it is covering 2 countries, Palau and Borneo.

An earlier Blog post gives some of the detail but loads more to come. The pupils have setup a blog and will be starting to post to it soon.

That's the background. This is what I am looking for.

What technologies should they be taking?

I have spoken to one of our suppliers, Lanway, and asked about a small, robust UMPC or netbook. They are suggesting that they can borrow a solid state UMPC with built in Camera (Both Video and still) and takes a SIM card. Though I will have to check out if they can connect to the local network after reading this.

They will also be taking an Olympus SW790 (Thats the one that can be dropped and used in water upto 3m).

I am a little concerned about charging. I have been looking at solar chargers. Anyone know anything?

and lastly GPS tracking………. I am a complete novice at this and would welcome any help.

And the last catch all What would you take?

Looking forward to the responses.

Technorati Tags: Islay,Argyll,Palau,Borneo

Informal curriculum

2009-04-15T20:21:00.001Z

Over the last year we have been offering various informal courses. These courses have been things like Art and Crafts, Archaeology, film making, film appreciation, conversational Spanish, and many others. Wednesday and Friday afternoons are interesting times to visit the school. These changed several times over the year. This time has been created because of the efficiency of teaching to a particular stage rather than to an age. It also provided time when whole school events could be run without cutting into certificate classes.

The school has been reflecting on these afternoons and considering allowing some to run for 1 afternoon a week for the full year.

I have been thinking through a couple of things I might offer.

A computer graphics course:

Whole year

Introduce basic skills in photo editing, 3D graphics/CAD, animation, and a few other things. Then set portfolio piece as an outcome

Microsoft Digital Literacy course

Whole year

Introduce basic computer literacy's http://www.microsoft.com/education/msitacademy/benefits/digitalliteracy.mspx

Possible MS Academy courses as extensions http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/learning/academy/default.mspx

DIY Woodworking skills

Repeated 3 times throughout the year.

I miss teaching practical skills

E-Safety Course

Repeated 3 times throughout the year

Give CEOP training

All of these are thoughts at the moment and I am looking feedback on what your thoughts

Technorati Tags: islay, education, scottish, argyll & bute

New Developments – Take One

2009-02-26T22:10:00.001Z

Recently there has been a lot of excitement at Islay High School, and an air of anticipation, regarding the acquisition of some amazing video equipment. Over the past few months we have been working hard to secure funding for a long term film project which will involve pupils, staff, and members of the local community.

The main aim of this project is to produce mini documentaries regarding life on Islay, especially as seen through the eyes of the youth on the island, and through the medium of Gaelic. Pupils will be working on researching topics, will be involved in a lot of pre-production work, will be developing the necessary skills to use all the equipment involved (camera skills, audio, lighting, editing, sound, Celtx etc), and will be firmly working within the ideals of a Curriculum for Excellence. In the future podcasts / radio shows will also be produced, and it is envisaged that a multimedia website will be developed showcasing the work of the pupils. We are also looking into creating a permanent space to showcase the productions.

Our first project will be concerning the future of the Gaelic language on the island. The group believes that the language needs to look forward and we are looking to breakdown certain false stereotypes regarding not only the language, but also the image of islanders that is sometimes presented to others. If you have any thoughts about the future of the language (both positive and negative), we would love to hear them!

Updates will appear here as and when, and we will also include clips of work in progress.

Technorati Tags: Islay,film,education,Panasonic HMC151,media,Curriculum for Excellence,celtx

Regrets? I have few……….

2009-01-11T01:06:00.001Z

In 2006 I missed an opportunity. Its not often I look back and ‘I wish I had done that’ but this was definitely one of them.

I was in Glasgow to present at a Conference in Glasgow. Actually myself and Mark Adams from Microsoft were announcing our plans for ICT in Islay High School.

Andrew Brown said I should come through to Edinburgh some people were having a get together after eLive. This is my regret. I declined.

I decided that I should stay in my hotel room in Glasgow and stay focused.

If I had gone I would have been present at the very first TeachMeet and quote Andrew, “About a dozen people, some of whom I had met before, but a great opportunity. I came home on the train the next day very positive and enthusiastic about the future of developing community around the country/world in using technology in education.”

I could have gone and been prepared for the next day. Damn!

I have attended TeachMeet SETT 07, TeachMeet SLF 07 and TeachMeet North directly. Others I have attended virtually. I have even presented virtually.

This week see’s TeachMeet 09 BETT. and things are a little but different from the ‘dozen people’ who were at the first one.

With so far 126 people attending, plus 34 wanting to stand up to talk and 16 people willing to organise or help.

I shall be attending via the Flashmeeting but good luck and wishes to all who will be at the event. And if your going to BETT and not going……… well you may regret it.

Technorati Tags: education, teachmeet

Vision of Education in the year 2020?

2008-12-09T22:08:00.001Z

Last June we held an open day on the use of ICT in the school. This was successful in terms of what we got across if not in terms of actual numbers who visited the school. It was definitely quality over quantity.

We have been thinking about what we could do for next year. Add into that mix the desire to run an Islay TeachMeet. The TeachMeet idea was met with very loud enthusiasm when I suggested it at TeachMeet SLF08. Though I suspect that was more to do with the drink than it was an actual commitment to coming to Islay.

I have spent some personal reflection and lots of time chatting to Andy Wallis. We decided that if people were going to make the effort to come to Islay then we need to develop the TeachMeet model to something more.

We are both passionate about education. Education being delivered and accessed using the best and most appropriate tools that are available and not about the next , shiny new technology. I feel that sometimes we all get caught up in the ‘ooo look at the new toy, what can we do with it’ syndrome(I have to be particularly careful that I don’t do this.)

So the idea we had was an unconference to look at where we all like to see education going. In particular where we see it when this year intake formal education (Age 5 in Scotland) are able to choose to leave school (Age 16 in Scotland) in the year 2020.

We wanted the dialogue to be as wide spread as possible. So we have a wiki put in place. This wiki is not about the unconference. Its about education. The unconference is part of the discussion on education.

So what do you think education should look like in the year 2020? What do you see as the stepping stones to allow this vision to be realised? What do you think are the threats?

Don’t put these answers/visions/solution/arguments/proposals/anything else here. Put them onto the wiki at education2020.wikispaces.com.

Also, please talk to your colleagues, pupils, parents, cleaners,etc about this. Get their ideas. Start the conversation. Most teachers haven’t considered this

Blog/twitter about it. I want it to be a place where everyone can make a voice heard.

Technorati Tags: Islay, education, scottish education, bowmore, distillery

Higher Education

2008-10-05T14:30:00.001Z

Last Tuesday I was lucky enough to host a visit to the school by Andrew McCreath. Andrew is the director of IT Services at Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Aberdeen.

RGU are under going a major review of provisions and services for the near future. It was suggested that he have a look at what we are doing and how that might have an influence on where Higher Education needs to look.

We had some very wide ranging and diverse chats about where education may go and technologies that can support this.

It was wonderful to talk to someone of influence in Higher Education and who is looking about at where they may go. Not looking to control and limit as seems to be the case in most IT support at the school level.

I had a fantastic time demonstrating our model of work using OneNote, Tablets, UMPC’s and Wireless Projectors

Technorati Tags: Islay, education scotland, RGU

Pro/Engineer Wildfire 4 Training

2008-09-13T08:45:00.001Z

On Monday Myself and my colleague, Sandy Smith, will be starting 2 days training on PTC’s Pro/Engineer Wildfire 4 CAD Application. We will be the first school in Scotland to trained to use this.

More example images here

The training is being delivered by the wonderfully enthusiastic John Forth.

This an incredibly powerful, professional level package. Its probably used most famously on the Discovery Channel TV Programme, ‘American Chopper’. This is where custom chopper manufacturer, OCC use it to visualise the custom chopper designs and produce the working drawings.

This is being delivered in an extremely interesting way. The software is free but only if the teacher goes through the training and achieves a good level of use. The effect of this is that the use of professional level applications is supported in school and a base of good skills is supported.

Technorati Tags: Islay, education, scottish education, PTC, Pro/engineer, CAD, Technology education

Islay Jazz Festival 2008

2008-09-12T17:32:00.001Z

This weekend is the Islay Jazz Festival. To get a feel watch the video below

Looking forward to a few concerts this weekend

Technorati Tags: Islay, Jazz

Using Wikispaces

2008-08-31T12:03:00.001Z

Over the last couple of years I have used Wikispaces and WetPaint to help crate and develop class resources with the classes.

This year I am going to use Wikispaces to develop and display resources from my Intermediate 2 Web Design Class.

This course was developed as part of the DIVA project by the SQA from The Adobe Curriculum

I have found that this a very useful way of making this practical course more real. The only way this can happen is if people come by look and provide feedback. I will be prompting you to go and look and comment on the classes work via this blog and via twitter

Technorati Tags: islay, argyll & bute, education, scottish education, education scotland, wikispaces, adobe, web design, high school

And …. I’m back………Just

2008-08-27T21:24:00.001Z

Well, that was the summer. I must say that it was the worse I have ever had. And I don’t just mean the weather.

I am not going to go into details but had a helicopter ride and 3 days in a High Dependency ward and that was the first Saturday of the summer holidays!

School

Been back at school just over a week. Its been busy getting the UMPC’s back out to the owners after a major update of software. A huge well done to Walter (ICT Technician) to get through all the UMPC’s on his own. I had planned to help him.

The really exciting day was this afternoon. I had all of our new intake to start the induction to the UMPC’s. I love they enthusiasm and desire to get their hands on the devices.

I will go through the software that was on the image another time but some really interesting plans on the horizon for this year.

Just watch this space.

New app: Photosynth

If you can’t see ‘Synth’ above then go to http://photosynth.net/

The Synth above was made on the 1st public day of Photosynth at the Pier of Port Charlotte. The village I live in at the moment.

Its an amazing way of taking loads of images and putting them together into a ‘3d’ place.

Technorati Tags: islay, argyll & bute, education, education scotland, UMPC, Photosynth

OneNote and Education : New OneNote resources for teachers - Come git' em' while they're hot!

2008-07-07T15:20:00.001Z

I am a huge fan of MS OneNote. So I am delighted that MS has released materials specifically aimed at Education.

OneNote and Education : New OneNote resources for teachers - Come git' em' while they're hot!

Looking forward to having a closer look over the next week. And I will give some feedback.

Also I am very excited at developing a Cross Continental collaboration project using OneNote

Technorati Tags: islay, scotland, education scotland, education, OneNote, microsoft

Review of the Year 2007-08

2008-06-27T13:41:00.003Z

Today is that last day of the school year. The video below is a montage of what the pupils have been doing.

They have been involved in a lot of amazing things.

I thought I should reflect on what has been a pretty amazing year all round.

Just over a year ago Islay High School hit a mile stone with the arrival of the first 100 Samsung Q1’s. life has been pretty hectic since then. Younger pupils had already been developing very good skills such as the one below and

Video: Islay House Square in Sketchup

senior pupils were taking off to have adventures in Malawi.

In school last June we were installing Panasonic wireless projectors with sound system and connection plates. Then the summer was spent doing loads of preparation.

September

We started to roll out the UMPC’s to the pupils. We had a few teething problems with some of the wireless coverage in some parts of the school but this was sorted. Though I know that we need to develop it further.

Also in September (Was it really that long ago) we had a camera team from the BBC come in at do a piece for the Politics Show Scotland.

I started the Scottish Qualification for Headship (SQH) with Strathclyde University. This year was perhaps not the best year to start this but I was assured that nobody got on the first time they applied so I thought I was safe. In the opening tutorial we were told that all our time would have to be dedicated to the SQH and it was extremely demanding………… Hmmm.

I attended the Scottish Learning Festival and attended Teachmeet. Both of these were good but Teachmeet works in so many ways as an opportunity to share and learn.

October

I was invited to speak at the HandHeld Learning conference.

I heard so many great and inspirational speakers that I felt quite over whelmed.

November

While this was all developing I was working with Keith Hamon and ‘Meach the Teach’ to develop a cross Atlantic class.

This is probably the thing which I feel I couldn’t develop as fully as I would have liked and I really regret this. The reasons are many fold but we got a couple of good sessions and I know that Mr Meacham has taken it on and developed great links with the American School in Valencia. I really do wish them good luck and maybe I can try and catch up with them, as they will be so far ahead of us, some time in the not too distant future.

In late November myself and Caroline, my wife, were invited to visit the International School of Monaco. How the invite came about was because one of the teachers at the school is from Islay. In fact the schools director is also from Islay. They had heard, through their on island contacts, about what were doing and were very interested. I think the links will continue to develop.

December

Islay high was selected to be part of the British Councils ‘Dreams + teams’ project to link young leaders and and sport. Islay was linked with the Islands of Palau in Micronesia. Added into this will a world Challenge adventure based on Borneo. The Pupils must plan and raise the money for this part of the trip. More info appeared in January too.

January

We started to experience our first digital distractions. I knew this was going to happen and we had the Assertive Discipline script in place and ready to go. This has reared its head several times throughout the year but not has much as I had predicted. Though I am certain that what we ‘catch’ is only a small part of what is doing on.

An Article appeared on the FutureLab site which gave a good write up of what had been happening so far.

Andy Wallis in the English subject area encourage some senior pupils to use a blog to put up some of the work they were working on. This was to encourage interaction from the big world about their writing.

I presented to the Scottish ICT Development Group (SICTDG- pronounced SICKDOG). They seemed to be blown away and I had lots of great feedback.

February

This month we are lucky enough to have a full week off. So how did myself and Andy spend it? We drove, at our own expense, to Perth to talk to other teachers about using technology in education. We attended Teachmeet North. I should point out that it was great fun and we got loads out of it.

It was also about this point that we started to experience some of our digital natives realising that school work is still school work no matter what the media used to deliver it. And they had to work for course work and exams.

March

As well being the ICT Coordinator I also have a classroom commitment and a dept to run. From Feb through march I was struggling to strike a balance. Add to this the failing of my first SQH assignment and the pressure was on. It really was a heads down time. I must confess when I look back now I am not sure how (if?) I survived. Some things did crash including the resubmission for the SQH.

April

With my head still spinning I reach the Easter Holidays.

We had a great time with a Consol Day. Had great fun and discovered that I am total crap at Guitar Hero.

At the end of the month I was invited, with one pupil, to a reception at the Scottish Parliament. It was a great experience and Aaron (the pupil) was an absolute star. He talk well and confidently to everyone he met.

May

I have been piloting and now running the SQA DIVA course ‘Fundamentals in Web Design’. This is a very popular and practical course. In Islay we count it as one of our Vocational Courses.

The course is design based with real world design issues. One pupil actually made it a very real design course by designing, creating and publishing a web site for the Islay Book Festival

I was also asked to speak at the prestigious Education 08 Conference in Westminster

June

2 thing both happened on the same day. Friday the 13th

We held an ICT Open Day to demonstrate what we have been developing over the last couple of years. I was so please that so many people traveled to Islay and they have written some wonderful things about the day. I was also disappointed that so few islanders came along. This is something I have to think about and see what I can do.

Maybe the second thing that happened that day will have an effect on turn out next time.

Islay became the LTS School of Ambition at the National Education Awards. This is a huge honour for everyone who has had anything to do with the changes that have been happening.

I haven’t done a great deal of reflection yet. I think I will take some time with that over the next few weeks.

What I do know is that we have done a lot this year and this is the start not the finish. We have the basis of something very good but now we need to embed it so that its the natural way of teaching and learning. We need to to think and reflect as a community about what works and even more importantly what doesn’t and needs changed. To quote Bill Gates on his last day “Success is a bad teacher”.

We need to remember one of our core values as a school is to have the confidence to fail. So long as we learn from that and move forward again.

Technorati Tags: islay, education scotland, education, school of ambition, scotland

The Vital Link

2008-06-25T20:36:00.001Z

Living on an Island has some wonderful advantages. Beautiful scenery, great community spirit, a lovely coastline in any direction but it has some serious issues too.

I ~~filled~~ put some fuel in my car this morning . At £1.42 per litre its amongst the most expensive in the UK. What's the reason for this? We have to bring it over from the mainland via the ferry.

This is a vital link for people, goods and businesses. This video report from the BBC takes a quick look at the some of the issues involved.

If you watch it you will see where I am building my house right at the end.

PS When is the BBC going to allow embedding?

Celtx Script Creator and Editor

2008-06-21T03:25:00.001Z

nwinton recently passed this onto Andy Wallis of our English subject area.

I have spent way too much time getting familiar with it and think its a great open source based script editor I just wish I had looked at the Blip TV video before I did that and I would have saved so much time.

Now, is it too late to get this added to the new image for the UMPC update………….

Technorati Tags: celtx, media, scripting

Islay Wins at the Scottish Education Awards

2008-06-15T17:59:00.001Z

On Friday, as well as the ICT Open Day (more about that later), it was the awards ceremony for the Scottish Education Awards.

The Category we were nominated for was The LTS Ambition Award.

To quote the web site.

This award is about taking on new challenges and generating an ethos of ambition, a “can do” attitude and a buzz and excitement in the life of the school. It is about instilling self belief in young people, extending their opportunities and transforming their life chances.

If you can respond positively to one or more of the following questions, we would welcome your nomination:

Have young people in your school, or a school that you know, achieved a success against the odds?
Have you seen significant improvements in attainment, or any area of achievement, in your school or a school that you know, because young people have been motivated to achieve more than before?
Is there a “can do” attitude in your school, or a school that you know, that encourages young people to believe in themselves and their potential?

We were all delight that the hard work that everyone has out in over the last 5 years as been recognised.

Now we need to plan the celebration with every member of our community.

PS This is the second year in a row that an Islay school has won an award. Bowmore Primary School’s Pre 5 Unit won the ICT Award last year. This quite a record.

Does ‘Less Paper’ mean Paperless?

2008-06-08T10:42:00.001Z

Islay High has been mentioned twice in this weeks Times Educational Supplement Scotland (TESS).

One was Vox Pop interview with a media studies teacher in the school, Gavin Ritchie. I suspect Gav will be getting teased mercilessly in the staff room tomorrow. Not because what he is reported saying but the image they used of him is awful!

One thing thing I will be asking him is whether he used the words ‘paperfree school’. We are most definitely not paperfree. Even the Guardian Education article was called “Is the paperfree school in sight?”

In the other article ‘Bin hard copies to save money’, Islay’s savings from being “paperless” was quoted.

While I appreciate the acknowledgment of the work that everyone is doing to make our ICT project sustainable, I think that the terms used do not help.

We are striving to use less paper but at no stage have I or any of the staff (At least not without sarcasm) used the these terms. Its is very clear that we are trying to shift from paper being used most of the time to using digitised material predominately. This is nothing like being “paperfree” or “paperless”.

These are distractions to what we are trying to do. Even the use of the technology is a distraction to the fundamental changes that the technology allows. They UMPC’s are conduits to the curriculum not a replacement to the curriculum.

During the approach to the exams a lot of pupils were asking for printed notes for revision. This I can understand. Nothing like spreading the paper out around you. The solution I recommended for English was that they make up their own study notes from the electronic notes. Use it as an exercise for study in itself. These were then printed out for the individuals involved but even then they still used the UMPC’s to search notes, watch scenes, listen to plays as well as have the study notes.

So, my question for you to answer is does the media fixation on the devices or idea of paperless help or hinder?

Technorati Tags: islay, education, education scotland, umpc, media, tes

Using Gaming technology to show Data

2008-06-05T22:26:00.000Z

Creating virtual databases

Imagine being able to ‘see’ data and see what has changed.

Technorati Tags: games, education scotland

Creativity

2008-06-02T22:37:00.001Z

I have been hugely impressed by Sir Ken Robinson since wondering (Full of ignorance about who he was) into his Keynote at SETT 2005.

It was inspirational and transformational. Moving me down a path of Design based teaching and work with the Lighthouse, Centre for Design and Architecture in Glasgow

Lots of us have seen his talk at TED. Thanks to John Connell's link to

Jim Henderson I have found another talk by Ken Robinson.

Technorati Tags: islay, education, Ken Robinson, Creativity

ICT Open Day

2008-05-30T06:24:00.001Z

2 Weeks today we are going to have an ICT open day.

This is being aimed at parents, and local businesses, but anyone interested in what we are doing is more than welcome.

A rough guide to the day is:

Starting at 11 am (though anyone arriving earlier simply comes to the school earlier and gets a head start) to allow people to get to Islay via various methods. (More on this later)

an Introduction

An opportunity to be shown a device being used in a class by your own pupil.

An opportunity to take part in several classes using a device.

Lunch

Q&A Though I am certain that this will be happening naturally throughout the day.

Wrap up officially about 2-30.

This allows people to catch either the 3-30pm plane or ferry

For those who are who are coming to visit us from off Island I would ask that they fill in this form. This is so we know who to expect as well to pick up from Ferries or Planes at which times.

We could also arrange for some accommodation, with staff from the school. So long as the numbers don't get too big.

So, please come along and get a first hand feeling for what is happening.

Those of you who blog, could I ask you to pass this information on. Thanks.

Technorati Tags: islay, argyll, education scotland, education, handheldlearning, mobile learning, 1to1

Brain Rules - An Advert?

2008-05-28T20:28:00.001Z

I picked up these resources from The Thinking Stick

I posted this slideshare very briefly the other day. I deleted it after some reflection as I thought it was too much of an Ad.

| View | Upload your own

Is it an ad?

This youtube video is 50 min presentation by John Medina which convinced me that it is an ad. But I think the product is worth it.

Technorati Tags: brianrules, education scotland

Windows 7 Multi-touch interface

2008-05-28T18:30:00.001Z

It was announced today that the next version of Windows, being windows 7 at the moment, is to have multi touch built into it

Video: Multi-Touch in Windows 7

Technorati Tags: islay, tablet pc, windows 7

Desktop Eee PC

2008-05-27T18:21:00.001Z

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/desktops/0,39029426,49297099,00.htm

A desktop version of the Eee PC. Even cheaper?

More on OneNote

2008-05-27T12:31:00.001Z

Another video on using OneNote

OneNote: the Mega-Tool for Learning

Technorati Tags: Islay, education scotland, education, OneNote, Microsoft

InkSeine

2008-05-27T09:56:00.001Z

I am big fan of MS OneNote. It is the application used most in IHS. It is used to replace Notebooks (known as Jotters in Scotland). I have just come across the the MS Research Roadshow site. This is giving info on lots of things like the worldwidetelescope, and Boku. Another new release from Microsoft Research is InkSeine.

I have been ~~playing~~ developing my skills with InkSeine. This is a research project for tablet PC's and UMPC's.

I have found the page control to be excellent and the search integration brilliant. but I don't think this will replace OneNote, even for quick notes but I think that the next version of OneNote will have lots of these features built into it.

If you want an intro to what OneNote can do then the video below is good.

OneNote for Office 2007

Technorati Tags: islay, education scotland, education, OneNote, InkSeine, microsoft, microsoft research, tablet, umpc, inking

Education 08

2008-05-22T21:28:00.001Z

Today I am in London. I was speaking at a Seminar at the Education '08 Conference.

The theme of this conference is 'Pathways to Personalisation'.

In the seminar on using UMPC's within education I was speaking with Jo Verrier, New Line Learning and Ian Stephenson, Q-Talk.

We are each using the Samsung Q1 in very different circumstances and ways.

What this presentation is covering.

The Place and circumstances

The questions we started with.

Out Strands for changing the school.

UMPC's being used in English and in Science

What we have put in place so far

These devices are not an end in themselves. They simply allow the pupils to connect to the resources they need.

Why we choose the Samsung Q1

The next developments

The feedback we got was excellent from both the seminars.

Technorati Tags: islay, education scotland, Samsung, UMPC, Origami, education 08, Govnet, Q1

Islay Book Festival, Iain Banks and DIVA

2008-05-16T18:52:00.001Z

Islay Book Festival will be running in early September. The among the Authors coming is Iain Banks.

The main reason I am blogging this though is that the site for the festival was produced by a pupil of IHS on the Fundamentals in Web Design Course. It is, in fact, his final exam piece.

This course was created using the ~~Macromedia~~ Adobe Course via the DIVA project.

Though it is under the banner of Computing and IT but it is a Design based course. With the pupils creating media and web sites for clients. They must interview them, produce a spec with them, give them a range of designs and then produce a final produce to that spec and to the satisfaction of the client.

I think more Design &Technology subject specialists and Art & Design subject specialists could be making much more use of this course. Another interesting characteristic of this course is that the pupils could sit the Adobe online exam and receive the SQA Qualification and the industry standard qualification at the same time.

Technorati Tags: islay, scottish education, education scotland, Adobe, DIVA, SQA, Iain Banks, Design

Death of Education, Birth of Learning?

2008-05-13T22:56:00.002Z

I just picked this up from the Thinking Stick. Its from the Pearson Foundation.

Technorati Tags: education scotland, learning, pearson foundation

Worldwide Telescope

2008-05-13T17:12:00.002Z

I have been playing about with the Worldwide Telescope. It having almost as much of a wow factor as Google Earth did when I first saw it.

With Interactive Guides to help you the ability to access information about what you are looking at directly on the screen I see this as being a wonderful tool for the classroom or for personal exploration.

I particularly loved the Panorama's from Mars. Such great detail.

Seeing Worldwide Telescope

Technorati Tags: worldwidetelescope, education scotland

PC World - Business Center: Microsoft to Limit Capabilities of Cheap Laptops

2008-05-11T12:13:00.001Z

PC World - Business Center: Microsoft to Limit Capabilities of Cheap Laptops

The part which really interested me is the price point of $16 for emerging markets. Now if they would do do the same for education. Would we would be ready to roll out 1to1? Wouldn't we?

Though I am still very committed too touch screen devices for the replacement of Jotters (Notebooks) because it allows pupils to hand write. This is very much a skill and personally think is far more useful than keyboard skills.

Technorati Tags: Islay, education scotland, handheld learning, 1to1

I think I may have found my next phone

2008-05-07T22:15:00.001Z

The HTC Diamond takes Windows Mobile to the next level | The Mobile Gadgeteer | ZDNet.com

Technorati Tags: HTC, Diamond, mobile

Islay Open Day

2008-05-06T21:51:00.001Z

This is just a prompt for those who thinking of attending the Islay Open Day on Friday 13th of June.

Please complete the form and see the info at the top right hand side of this page

A view of education

2008-04-30T23:37:00.001Z

From the Next web

Any comments?

Technorati Tags: education scotland, technology, microsoft

"What do Teachers Really Make?"

2008-04-29T21:02:00.001Z

Andy Wallis from IHS's English dept (He really needs to be more online)sent me this video.

What do you really make?

Technorati Tags: education, motivation

Lower cost 3D printing

2008-04-27T11:20:00.001Z

As a Design and Technology subject specialist I have been using 3D drawing packages for a number of years. I have been dreaming of purchasing a 3d Printer for the school. I have imagined a pupil designing a product from Initial ideas, developing it in a 3D environment and real models and then producing an accurate prototype.

Looks like this may be a step closer from The Desktop Factory.

Video: 3D Printing

Technorati Tags: education scotland, education, 3d printing, desktopfactory, CADCAM, CAM, CAD, Design

Open Day

2008-04-24T20:51:00.001Z

If you are planning to come to Islay for the Open Day on Friday the 13thJune please complete this form at Google Docs.

Technorati Tags: islay, education scotland, google sketchup, google docs

Parliamentary Reception

2008-04-24T20:31:00.001Z

On Wednesday 23rd Islay High was asked to man a 'pod' at a reception at the Scottish Parliament. The reception was organised by the Microsoft and the SQA to show examples of the range of things that are happening with ICT across Scotland and have been supported by Microsoft.

A Pod, it turns out, is a table with a display board in the main reception area of the Parliament

Examples from Dundee primary schools (whose very young pupils stole the evening) of introductory technologies, through to University of the West of Scotland and their IT Academy. As well as Stirling Uni's link with Falkirk FC to encourage educational access.

The pupil I had with me had me at the event, Aaron, was a star. Talking to one and all. From the MSP's, Cabinet Minister's, fellow pupils, company representatives. He took them all in his stride. Here he is chatting away with Jom Mather, MSP for Argyll & Bute and Cabinet Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism.

The feedback we got was very positive. With several people being absolutely stunned. Especially those from higher education and industry.

Technorati Tags: islay, education scotland, microsoft, argyll & bute

John Connell » Blog Archive » Teaching at a Crossroads

2008-04-16T10:54:00.001Z

John Connell » Blog Archive » Teaching at a Crossroads

Please go and read.

It is a wonderfully intelligent critique of where education is at the moment.

Design Education - Define Design

2008-04-15T17:55:00.001Z

A little while ago, ok, 18 months ago. I setup a wiki called Design-Ed.

This was inspired when I did some work in the summer of 2006. I was invited by The Lighthouse, Glasgow, to attend a seminar on design education in Jyväskulä, Finland.

The Design Seminar was organised by the Alvaa Aalto Foundation. It brought together a group 12 of people from all over the world spent a week talking, studying design education. We then produced a concept for travelling education exhibition to get young people to explore Architecture with all their senses.

We decided to try and keep working together using a smartgroup and when smartgroup died I setup a Wikispace but it soon dropped out of use.

I want to try again. Hopefully with more participants.

I would like to ask you, "What is your definition of Design?". I am looking for a short 'back of a T-Shirt' one.

You can leave your definition here in the comments or place it directly onto the wikispace here.

Lots of posts this week. Can you tell I am on holiday and avoiding writing an essay?

Technorati Tags: Islay, education scotland, education, design

A Curriculum for Excellence Draft Technologies

2008-04-14T09:34:00.001Z

Today the draft technologies Documents were published. http://www.curriculumforexcellencescotland.gov.uk/outcomes/technologies/index.asp

I would particularly interested in the views of anyone outside Scotland on these.

Technorati Tags: islay, education, scottish education, scotland

Melrose 125, Veteran 10's

2008-04-13T11:05:00.001Z

Cryptic title I know but this is a non school, non technology post.

The Melose 7's is the oldest Rugby 7's competition in the world. In fact this was the 125th Melrose 7's.

As part of the 125th celebration the Melrose club decided to expand the events. With a Youth Seven's and a Ladies Seven's. Islay Rugby Club were extremely honoured to be invited to send a team to the Veterans competition. Veterans are defined as over 35. Fortunately there was no upper age so we could get a team together.

The games were being played over 2 days, Thursday and Friday. I think this was to allow recovery times between the 20 min games but actually it meant a lot of ~~partying and socialising~~ serious talk about rugby.

We were travelling in the knowledge that we were in the same group as Melrose and Roma of Italy. Both teams had former international players. Melrose had Doddie Weir, Craig Chalmers and Greame Shiel in the team playing in Islay's opening game.

Islay competed well but finished the game behind by 51 points.

The next game was against the Italian team, Roma. The Italian's were a big fast team but the game was played in a great spirit. The only problem was me getting hit in a great tackle by Stephano. This tackle stretched my Cruciate Ligament and I ended up being stretchered off.

Fortunately I was taken great care of by a knee surgeon who was watching the game. It was the end of my competition. But the upside was that I had to sit still and everyone brought me what I wanted.

We had a great night in the Melrose club house. Spending time with the other teams from Kansas City, Caymen Islands, Ayr, Ulster, Palmer (US), Edinburgh, Ledbury, and many others.

The Friday we were drawn against Ayr and Ledbury. Both Teams played the game in great spirit. Islay managed a great win against Ledbury.

From Melrose 08

This only left the Friday night which was the Post Vets celebration and pre seven's warm up. Again another great atmosphere.

A huge thank you to Dougie of The Melrose Club. He was our link man and went above and beyond his duty. It'll be great to see him over again for the Beach Rugby.

Technorati Tags: islay, rugby, melrose, sevens

Islay Open Day 2

2008-04-09T08:11:00.001Z

Further to my earlier post about the possibility of an Open Day for Islay High.

We now have a date for this. It is Friday the 13th of June. I hope that it will be lucky for all of us.

As I said in the previous post this is aimed at the the local community (mainly the Parents and Businesses) but this does not mean its exclusively for them and I would encourage as many 'mainlanders' to make the journey to come and see what we are doing.

For those who maybe interested Islay Rugby Club will be holding the annual beach rugby competition on Saturday the 14th. Official Website for the Beach rugby is at http://islaybeachrugby.com/

Technorati Tags: islay High, islay, education scotland, beach rugby, rugby

Consol Championship

2008-04-04T14:33:00.001Z

Its the last day before the Easter holiday's.

We have had an inter house competitions.

We have had volleyball and consol games.

Some people have been very into the games but particularly Mr Wallis of our English Dept.

What has been interesting is that we got most, 3/4's, of the participants in the consol championship have been girls.

Another huge mention for Russell (A pupils with severe Autism) who got the highest score in the Wii Bowling at 195.

Technorati Tags: Islay, Islay High, education scotland, Wii, consols, games, consolarium

Islay Open Day?

2008-03-04T20:59:00.004Z

We have been thinking about having an open day to show what we are doing here in Islay High School. mainly for the ICT but also for the Vocational Courses and our subject/timetable changes.

Locally we have a bit of interest but what I need to know is a the numbers who would be interested in coming from the mainland in Mid June.

The sort of thing we are thinking about is:

Off islanders arrive either by Ferry (See Travel Details Below) or by Plane.

Several demonstrations/workshops on what is being done within the school.

Bowmore Distillery (About 200m from the school) would let us use the visitors suite for refreshments and maybe a teachmeet?

People can leave in the evening or stay overnight for a quiet time bird watching {cough}

Travel

Ferry by Calmac

2hrs 15mins

Kennacraig is just over 2hrs drive from Glasgow

First Ferry is at 7am then the next is at 9-45am

Costs: approx £15 per person £80 for a car. Though we would pick people up.

Flights by BA

From Glasgow 8-30am

35 mins (Depends on wind direction, I have been on a flight of 15 mins)

For those who may want to stay and enjoy the social aspect we have a range of accomodation. From mats in the gym to some very nice hotels.

So how many would be interested in principal?

Technorati Tags: Islay, education scotland, schools of Ambition, teachmeet

Worldwide Telescope

2008-02-29T18:43:00.001Z

I have just watched this video on the wonderful TED

Its for the worldwide telescope project looks like a really interesting way for presenting the Universe to pupils.

Technorati Tags: islay, wwtelescope, education scotland, education, ted, microsoft

TrueTube

2008-02-29T12:52:00.001Z

Has anyone come across Truetube?

According to the background info its for young adults

From its background info:

Truetube provides a safe, pre-moderated platform for 12-25 year olds to use the internet and advances in streaming video technology, to encourage them to think, discuss and engage with moral and ethical issues that matter for this generation, inspiring them to become involved in changing the world that we all inhabit for the better

What do you think?

Technorati Tags: truetube, islay, video, education scotland

Interesting perspective..........

2008-02-26T00:30:00.001Z

Should we even bother asking teachers? by ZDNet's Christopher Dawson -- I posted the first part of my evaluation of an Apple MacBook for an educational deployment Wednesday morning (MacBooks - to deploy or not to deploy, part 1). While of course sparking the usual Mac vs. PC talk, one reader made an interesting point: Are teachers asked what they think of their desk? The kids’ [...]

Its an interesting point of view.

What do you think?

Technorati Tags: education, islay

TeachMeet North

2008-02-19T20:05:00.001Z

I am sitting at TeachMeet North in Perth's Dewers Ice Rink.

About 30 people have turned up to share and listen to each other. with another load

Neil, very kindly, got me to present first.

My talk was about what we are doing at Islay.... surprise, surprise.... in particular the use UMPC's and OneNote.

It was a bit of a gabble but what is to be expected if you only have 7 mins

Technorati Tags: Islay, perth, education scotland, OneNote, Schools of Ambition

Perfect fit

2008-02-06T19:58:00.001Z

I love this concept http://www.red-dot.sg/concept/porfolio/06/13pw/R094MM.htm

SickDog

2008-01-26T14:34:00.001Z

No, not a talk to the Dog Protection League or the RSPCA but group called the Scottish Information Communication Technology Development Group - SICTDG but gets prounced as the title.

The group had been meeting at Stirling University to look at some of the future technologies and there possible uses in education.

Andrew Brown invited me come along and tell the group about we are doing at Islay High School.

I was quite nervous about this as this group know their stuff.

Here is my presentation but Slideshare doesn't like Inking.

| View | Upload your own

The feed back I got was extremely positive.

After this I was planning to fly back to Islay on the Friday morning but, as it was it was burns' night, it became 'the best laid plans of mice and men'. The weather was against me and I eventually got home on the evening flight but even that was an interesting flight with the plane coming in sideways and landing on one wheel. An extremely impressive bit to flying.

Technorati Tags: islay, sictdg, education scotland, scotland, slideshare

Ten Predictions for eLearning 2008 : eLearning Technology

2008-01-25T11:50:00.000Z

Ten Predictions for eLearning 2008 : eLearning Technology

This links in with the New Year, New Oppertunities Post I made.
Do you agree?
I will hold my opinion for the moment and return to this later

Blank Page and the Mystery Box

2008-01-13T16:41:00.001Z

I would like to thank Keith Hamon and the feed from his class which brought my attention to the video below.

I am huge fan of TED but I seem to have missed this talk. This is great, inspiring talk from JJ Abrams. It fits wonderfully with the New Blog from some of the Pupils studying English in Islay High.

Technorati Tags: islay, education scotland, education, ted, jjabrams

New Year, New Opportunities?

2008-01-13T15:46:00.001Z

From a closed forum I contribute to, I Asked the following question.

With the start of 2008 What do you see as the important challenges/changes for the coming year?

I suppose I should answer my own question: I see (Gazing into my Crystal Ball); Changes:

- Most schools having a virtual display board; be that a Blog, a wiki, Glow, media sharing site (a safe one of course)

- E-twinning - loads more schools using the easy links made possible with ICT to communicate with other pupils else where in the country or the world using Skype, Glow (with Maratech), Flash Meeting, Yugami, or any other VC app that appears.

- Unfortunately I also see the continued, unquestioning, distribution of IWB's. I say unfortunately because I just don't get them. They are useful in some classrooms and at some ages ( Watch the video, its great. Though I should confess its from one of our feeder primary schools pre 5 units) but why is it best to follow the old models of teachers standing at the front and 'chalking and talking'?

- a few will move further down the 1-to-1 route. Primary schools using the Linux based machines like the minibook. Secondary schools developing the use of Write On technologies like UMPC's or Tablets.

Challenges:

- getting more teachers reflecting on where technologies can be a positive advantage within their teaching and not 'another thing to learn'

- making it sustainable. Realising that a lot of money could switched from the Photocopying technologies to Information Technologies.

Technorati Tags: islay, education scotland, communication, glowscotland

Borneo / Palau Trip

2008-01-10T15:30:00.001Z

Further to my earlier post about a proposed trip here are the official details from the teachers involved. We are also planning a blog by te pupils about this too.

In the summer of 2009, a group of Islay High pupils are aiming to be involved in a twin centre expedition which will take in the rainforest and mountains of Borneo along with a sports link up on the island of Palau, part of the Federated states of Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean.

The whole trip should last four weeks with the first three taking place in Borneo and the last week in Palau.

The aim is for the group, around 20 pupils and 2 staff, to fly from Glasgow to Manila, Philippines, then onto Borneo for the three weeks before heading back to Manila and moving onto the Palau section. The Borneo trip will involve the pupils organising the whole expedition to include travel plans, route work, accommodation, food and activities. There will also be tied in some form of community project with a local school.

The Palau stage is linked to the British Youth Sports Trust’s Dreams and Teams project. This involves a partnership between Islay and Palau High schools where there is a sharing of cultures and the nature of both communities. Our pupils are hoping to organise a three day summer sports festival in Palau – taking some of our own local and national sporting sub-cultures and incorporating them with indigenous Micronesian activities to allow an unforgettable sports experience to occur for children of both countries to share in.

All of this involves a lot of pre planning and organisation – particularly financing the trip. Therefore fundraising activities will be undertaken throughout the next year and a half and all Islay pupils are encouraged to earn fifty per cent of the costs through part time jobs or project work which will keep the costs to their parents down to a minimal, if anything at all.

A lifetime opportunity for these pupils is ready to be entered.

Stephen Harrison

Depute Head Teacher

Kevin Park

Principal Teacher PE

Islay High School

[Blank Page]

2008-01-09T22:10:00.001Z

I would like to introduce a new Blog from 4 Islay High School Higher English pupils working through a unit focusing on Creative Writing.

Please drop by and join in.

Technorati Tags: islay, education scotland, english, creative writing

FutureLab Article

2008-01-09T19:47:00.001Z

A big thank you to Merlin John for writing this article for FutureLab and this article for yesterday's Guardian Link Magazine.

Technorati Tags: islay, education scotland, guardian, futurelab

» What would my ideal education ultraportable look like? | Education IT | ZDNet.com

2008-01-04T17:47:00.001Z

So what would it look like?

From the article:

Make it bigger. Not by much, but I’d love to see a laptop in this market that is big enough to be usable by high schoolers, but small enough to be lugged around by elementary kids. Even a jump to an 8.5″ widescreen would make a big difference. This would be just enough to uncramp the keyboard a bit for larger hands, while keeping it very accessible (and personal, as Intel notes) for small children.
Make it thinner. It doesn’t have to be Eee thin; durability should be the primary concern. However, to maintain maximum portability with the larger footprint, especially for little kids, shaving off even a quarter inch would be signficant.
An 8GB solid state drive would reduce dependence on network connectivity and allow more flexibility in terms of software.
Make it convertible to a tablet/ebook. The ebook mode is a particularly cool feature on the XO and adding touch/stylus input would ease notetaking and reduce reliance on a tight keyboard.
Ensure that students can collaborate, even in the absence of a wireless access point (as with the XO’s mesh networking), but focus on 802.11a/b/g connectivity.
Give it a speed boost. This doesn’t need to be drastic as these aren’t meant to be speed demons. However, kids start multitasking very quickly, so even a bump in RAM could make the difference between acceptable and sluggish performance.
Avoid the integrated camera/webcam. Sorry, but this has the makings of a disaster. There are simply too many potential problems with kids (young and old), the Internet, and unsupervised webcams. This isn’t on the current Classmate and I hope it stays off. A webcam could easily be plugged in via the USB ports under adult supervision if needed.
Include handicapped accessibility software such as screen readers, screen zoom, speech to text, etc.
Keep the handle, but lose the flap. The current Classmate (like the XO), integrates a handle for easy carrying. It works perfectly for little folks. However, the flap that holds the laptop closed is a thick piece of vinyl that only gets in the way. I’m definitely thinking magnetic closures.
Offer plenty of operating systems choices: Intel is currently offering Windows, Mandriva, and Metasys and is working with Canonical to develop OS images. Adding support to roll these out as wireless thin clients and to more easily install non-certified operating systems would provide maximum flexibility to schools adopting the machines. Did someone say wireless Edubuntu?
Keep it cheap. $200 is a magic number. I know we’re a ways from hitting this pricepoint with the specifications above, but Moore’s Law is our friend. It’s just a matter of time.

» What would my ideal education ultraportable look like? | Education IT | ZDNet.com

Technorati Tags: islay, umpc, 1to1, handheldlearning, education scotland, education

Digital Distraction

2008-01-02T21:09:00.001Z

Just before the holiday's (Happy New Year!) started we had been looking at some of our little angels who were getting distracted.

Of course this has happened with Jotters (Notebooks) for years, you know those little animations in the corners but with access to UMPC's and wireless network access the opportunities are vastly increased.

We have been looking at several solutions to this. The simplest is to get the pupils close over the devices and with the wireless projectors we can move around the pupils and watch what is happening. If teachers think an individual has been distracted we can check the activities of the individuals at that time. Several have been identified and had consequences to their actions.

I knew their was security applications to check what everyone is doing but I feel this removes part of the point of personal responsibility and I don't want to be Big Brother. But........ I also have a professional responsibly to make sure that pupils are learning in my class.

So what is the solution?

I have been looking at SynchronEyes from Smart Technologies supplied in the UK by Steljes.

Does anyone have experience of using this or any other product?

Technorati Tags: islay, education scotland, digital distractions, steljes, synchroneyes, smart tech

Positive Feedback for the OLPC

2007-12-20T17:01:00.001Z

I have long been following the OLPC programme. I see many parallels between the OLPC vision and my own for IHS. So it was interesting to read this article and the bbc artilcle, particularly the digital distraction part.

I particularly love the Audio Slideshow

What do others think in light of the Asus Eee (In Scotland the 'Wee') PC and the Samsung Q1?

Where does this leave education in the west? Are about to be leapfrogged as we have been with Mobile phone use?

Technorati Tags: olpc, education scotland, umpc, q1, eee pc, handheldlearning

Palau - Borneo

2007-12-18T21:48:00.001Z

Islay High has been working with with World Challenge for a number of years.

In the capable hands of Deputy Head Teacher (DHT) pupils have gained amazing experiences in Costa Rica, Ecuador (Pics and Blog) and Malawi (Blog).

Next summer expedition is slightly different. Its going to be a 2 centre adventure. First is the the island state of Palau. The second is Borneo.

The 20 pupils who will go this adventure will have to plan, fund raise, negotiate, develop team work, and so much more. The experiences they will gain will stay with them the rest of their lives.

I have asked for them to Blog not just the trip itself but also the training and development of team before the trip.

They will post as soon as we have the blog setup.

Technorati Tags: islay, education, education scotland, adventure, scotland, argyll, Palau, borneo, world challenge

Learn2Learn

2007-12-12T22:35:00.001Z

Last Friday. myself and my colleague, Sandy Smith, were at a training course, Learn2Learn, run by Alastair Smith and Mark Lovatt.

They were demonstrating the Learn2Learn approach they have been using at the Cramlington Community High school in Northumberland.

Our reason for looking at this programme is the next part of our school development.

So far we have developed the curriculum with the introduction of Vocational Education, removal of the Age and Stage restrictions and the introduction of Project Afternoons.

We have developed the leadership of staff and Pupils

We have developed the use of ICT. (See the rest of the Blog)

We are now a Stage 3 Excellence as a Health Promoting School.

We feel that we are ready to introduce the basis for true independent learners and actively teach our first years, from next year, how to learn for themselves.

It sounds so obvious but this not done at the moment.

I have some personal reflections about this topic.

When I started at University I was 26. I had trained as an electronics technician, helped run a volunteer workshops on Iona, worked has a service engineer and ended up a service director but nothing had prepared me for University. I didn't understand the processes and systems. I didn't know the language being used and felt too insecure to ask. I didn't know how I learned and didn't know how to reflect on my learning to allow me to understand.

The result, as you can imagine, was that I barely cleared the hoops I was being asked to jump through.

The second example is a recent one, the Handheld Learning Conference. I didn't understand the process. From my paper, which I took to be a proposal of what I was wanting to talk about, to my presentation itself which was too much of a 'pitch' and not enough information. I didn't know the 'Rules' and the way things work.

Getting to understand the rules of academic writing is something I am fighting with at the moment.

So giving pupils the tools of learning is not only required but essential if we expect them to grow and thrive on a world in which the only constant is change.

One of the reason for using the Alite programme is that they have developed a load of software tools and and profiling apps. Therefore we can use the ICT infrastructure as tools to work with the pupils.

We are going to commit to this fully as we see it as the solid foundation for future develop. That means 3 periods per week.

Do you think this will take away from the subjects? Does anyone have any experience of this, or other programmes?

Technorati Tags: islay, education, scottish education, Alite, learn2learn

Different world - Same issues

2007-11-30T13:41:00.001Z

The view from the primary school windows of the International School of Monaco (ISM)

I am blogging from ISM. And yes, it is as glamorous as it sounds.

I am here for 3 days in the school. They have very kindly brought myself and my wife over. The purpose of the visit is to consult on the introduction of effective ICT.

Several questions had to be asked about 'effective ICT' before coming out. Effective for whom? Methodologies of Learning & Teaching? The ethos and values of the curriculum.

I am going to start with the curriculum. I was not familiar with the International Baccalaureate curriculum but my research has shown a great similarity in ethos with the Curruculum for Excellence (ACfE) being developed in Scotland. The desire to develop a values based ethos driven curriculum is vital in any system. If its driven purely on an exam based outcome then it will produce highly 'qualified' individuals with no ability to change/adapt or to work with others. The IBO has reflective learners as one of its core values.

The school itself is in an office block. The early years is on one floor in one part of the building. The Primary and middle school are in another floor of the same building. The high school in another part of the block entered by another door. The lunch room is entered directly from the street and is basically a shop front.

Every teaching area has Promethean boards but the classes are so small that the teachers struggle to get these used let alone used effectively. Promethean are coming in during January to deliver initial training.

On the first afternoon I gave a talk to all staff who were available and interested. I had about 15. I had hoped to skype with Meach in Georgia but usual thing happened. Its was against the ICT rules to use skype. They were willing to try and change it though but we didn't have time.

I spent the rest of my time speaking to staff about the use of technology in classes and to get an idea of where they stood.

I must say I am impressed by the level of commitment and desire to be open to these ideas. They had fears, which is a good thing, but were prepared to listen and ask wonderful questions.

The staff now need to reflect on where this can be used within their subject area but then that's the same for every teacher in the world, isn't it?

Technorati Tags: islay, education, scottish education, monaco, ism

"Its really cool to talk across an ocean"

2007-11-23T22:02:00.001Z

The Monroe Islay connection has been developing. Last Friday I spent 45 mins delivering a class on how to use Google Sketchup. We had some connection problems but we got their in the end.

I have recently found an online video of our first session. Its great to see what they saw, at least a little.

Technorati Tags: islay, Monroe county, sketchup, skype, education, vc

SQH Leadership

2007-11-21T22:34:00.001Z

I have been working towards the first Unit if my Scottish Qualification for Headship (SQH) or the Post Graduate Diploma in School Leadership & Management, to give it its full title.

The first unit has been looking at the role of a head teacher and what the Standard of Headship is, as defined by the GTC, then checking where I am in relation to that standard. The Assessment is in the form of a 5000 word essay defining the context, Leadership, change,The Standard and the comparing myself to the standard via 360 feedback from colleagues and self reflection.

I am looking for your help.

Can you, no matter what your role in education (and we ALL have a role in education), answer some questions.

1. What do you see as the role of a Head Teacher/Principal?

2. Define the word 'Leadership'.

So not much ;-)

Time for schools to teach computing, not just train users | Technology | Guardian Unlimited

2007-11-07T23:19:00.001Z

What do you think?

I will hold onto my opinion for the moment

Time for schools to teach computing, not just train users | Technology | Guardian Unlimited

EdTechRoundUp

2007-11-06T20:49:00.001Z

I have just come across a Wiki called edtechroundup which is setup around the idea of people in education giving real examples of where it is being used.

It has regular online meetings, though I have still to attend one.

I have always been much more interested in Wiki's than Blogs (Haven't I Andrew?). I like the collaborative aspect and I see a much more positively productive outcome. (He say's while on his own ~~soapbox~~ blog)

Technorati Tags: islay, education, scottish education, collaboration, edtechroundup

Monroe Islay connection

2007-11-03T23:50:00.001Z

On Friday afternoon we had the start of a new Sketchup project. The idea is that each group will become the eyes and ears for the other group. On Islay we will be looking at the 'Round Church' in Bowmore. They will take pics, video and scan in plans for the other school to draw in Google Sketchup. The project is specified in a Google doc here.

Myself and 'Meach the Teach' setup a Skype chat between 2 classes. I have 7 pupils from S3 (All Male unfortunately), Banks - Stephens Middle School have 12 in their group.

A huge thank you Keith Hamon on Monroe County School District for his simple comment on Ewan McIntosh's Blog which has started this whole thing.

Technorati Tags: islay, scottish education, monroe county, sketchup, google sketchup, history

Hand Held Learning 2007

2007-11-01T20:48:00.001Z

I would like to point people to the HHL07 Blip.tv site

Technorati Tags: Islay, HHL07, blip tv

OneNote by Jing

2007-10-30T22:00:00.001Z

Thank you to Andrew Brown for pointing me to Jing.

I used this to create a quick screencast of the basic use of OneNote.

Update: The screencast embed is proving to be uncooperative so I have replaced it with a link

http://www.screencast.com/t/ear1ho8W9Be

Technorati Tags: Islay, argyll, OneNote, Scottish education, Jing

What the Wiki!

2007-10-24T22:39:00.001Z

Over the last 3 weeks I have been helping develop the beginnings of a Wiki based around the use of the Samsung Q1 UMPC in Education. This is growing quickly but it need more people involved even if its to ask about what different people are doing with the technology.

http://jamessamsung.wikispaces.com/

Technorati Tags: islay, education, samsung, UMPC, Q1, wiki

Sorry I have been quiet but........

2007-10-22T18:38:00.001Z

its not because I have been on holiday (which I have been), its not because I have been chilling at home (which I have been). I really should blame Graham Martin-Brown from handheld Learning .

Why is it his fault? Well one of the last actions of the conference was an excellent prize draw. Lots of great prizes were given out to those people who stayed to 5pm on a Friday. The prizes went from Apple Ipods, Samsung Q1Ultra and camera's were amongst the prizes but the best was the Nintendo Wii sport, which I won. Digital Katie immediately started sending hate texts which should have been in green text colour.

I have never been particularly interested in console's or computer games. The occasional game of solitaire or Hexic Deluxe but I have never considered buying a games console.

But myself and Caroline, my wife, are hooked. We have been playing everyday. We have been testing our fitness, Caroline's Wii age is ~~Granny level~~ older than me (She made me change that), I am below my actually age. In fact we are so hooked that we have ordered another controller.

I had been considering giving this to the school but.............. NO WAY! They might be able to borrow it but only if I get the first go on the big screen in the Gym.

I now believe that Derek Robertson does have the best job in the world! http://ltsblogs.org.uk/consolarium/

Technorati Tags: islay, wii, scottish education, consolarium, lts, handheldlearning, hhl07

Revolution? Reformation

2007-10-17T14:41:00.001Z

I have come to the conclusion that we are in the middle of a Revolution. This is not a surprise or even a radical statement, lots of people think that but I am thinking of a particular type of revolution. A Reformation.

The Reformation was thought to have started with Martin Luther's 95 Thesis. In a very simplistic way it was the removal of knowledge/power from the existing holders and freeing it to the people who had the skills to access it. Bibles printed so that it could be read by those who could read.

So if we are are freeing knowledge from the high priests of knowledge, much to their annoyance and fear, then what would our 95 thesis of today be?

1. All have the right to connectivity with equality?????

Technorati Tags: Islay, reformation, education

Just do it

2007-10-17T13:53:00.001Z

Its been a very busy term. I am only just beginning to realise how stressed I have been (Sorry to those around me). Since getting back home on Saturday morning from the HHL Conference I have done a lot of sleeping. Its the mid term holiday here in Scotland this week. Myself and Caroline decided not go anywhere but stay at home and enjoy where we live. I am starting to feel like my old self again. I am now starting to reflect on what we are doing in Islay High.

I am not sure if its because we have been working towards this for a, relatively, long time but I am constantly surprised by the reaction of people who hear what we are doing. Even people who have been involved in technology in Education are surprised. In fact as I talked to all the amazing people at the conference. I felt like I was telling them something they already know and I would pull back. Preaching to the converted I suppose. Its only during the conversation that I would expand on what we are doing and they would be visibly surprised and I would then be surprised by that reaction. The question I now have is why are they surprised?

The evidence which I have heard and read both at the conference and long before that has shown that use of technology in education is a very positive thing. In fact technology has always been adopted into education, so long as its appropriate. After all pencil and paper is just another technology. My S1 learn a definition of technology as being 'Anything made by humans to solve a problem'.

I see what we are doing has a 'normal' next step in the use of technology. Pupils moving from paper technology to electronic technology. Pupils accessing the materials they need to achieve what they need to achieve while being guided/mentored by peers or staff. I still think think that use of the appropriate 'tool' is a vital part of learning. One of the most important tools is the human relationships.

One question that everyone asks is,'How do you get teachers onside?'. This is the point in which I am most proud of our little school. Never has anyone said what we are doing is the wrong thing. They have questioned, quite rightly, aspects or processes but never the why. The staff in Islay have taken on the task of rethinking the way they teach and the way technology impacts on that and then simply gotten on with it. Admittedly they knew it was coming and could not ignore it but have turned up for voluntary 'drop in' training sessions and asked about How can I use it.

I suppose the point I am trying to make here is that technology has already moved and continues to move on at a huge pace. Teachers know it. Parents know it. Now the whole community needs to move on.

To quote my own paper to the HHL Conference,'Just do it!'

Technorati Tags: Islay, hhl07, education, scottish education

Hand Held Learning 07

2007-10-15T01:00:00.001Z

Its been a busy week.

I was in Bristol last weekend becoming the proud God Parent to Ewan.

I was then in London from Wednesday to friday at the Hand Held Learning Conf.

This is the largest Hand held Learning/Mobile education Conference in the world.

I am not particularly experienced in how conferences work and get a bit confused between a Plenary and Keynotes, workshops and breakouts. Also I have never written a paper to speak a conference before.

Mine was ......... "short and to the point", Graham Brown-Martin, Organiser. When I read the rest (Large PDF Download) I could see what he meant.

I was the last speaker. My topic was, 'Drop the Pilot'. To see and hear it go here. I was not particularly happy with my presentation. I was thrown by a technical hitch at the beginning and felt I never really got into the talk.

The conference was excellent. I met so many people who were passionate about putting learning technology into the hands of the learners. I heard about the growing amount of evidence that what we are doing on Islay is the right thing. I had loads of verbal feedback and some amazing chats with so many inspirational people.

On the Thursday I was also very kindly invited to the Final awards of the Channel Network Awards at the London Hilton. Lanway, our supplier, had been nominated for their work with us. We didn't win but the scale of the event was enough to make me realise that the work we are doing is catching attention in various industries.

Technorati Tags: hhl07, islay, education, scottish education

Teething Problems

2007-10-01T21:09:00.001Z

Its been a busy couple of weeks. I have mopped up the last of the pupils who were off and needed training.

I have spent my own subjects periods getting S1 and S2 up to speed with using the technology (More about this later). I have been going round individual faculties talking bout best ways of using the UMPC's and identifying any problems.

Something which has come up was that we didn't have enough Access Points in one part of the school.

This meant that when Maths, English and History classes were all signing onto the network, the network in that part of the school ground to a halt. It also caused some of the UMPC's to fail to complete their login scripts. Causing one of our network drives not to show. Three extra access points later and things have calmed down, but we are still occasionally getting a lost network drive.

I have identified Network Drive Manager as a possible solution to lost network drives.

Does anyone have anyone have another solution? Preferably free

Technorati Tags: islay, education, scottish education

Teachmeet 07

2007-09-23T19:03:00.001Z

Exciting/Frustration is my personal description of teachmeet.

First of all Teachmeet is an unconference, this time it was a fringe event of the SLF. That means its an open forum for people to share their ideas (7 min max). All of which were very exciting.

Now to explain the frustration part.

The first teachmeet was in Edinburgh as a fringe event to eLive. I was able to go as I was speaking in Glasgow the next day and I decided that I had better have a clear head.

The second one was at last year SETT (Old name for SLF) I said I wanted to speak and was quite excited about talking but their simply wasn't time.

The third one was at this years eLive conference. I was all ready to go and my authority was prepared to pay for the travel but then lots of things came up at school and I decided not go.

I was so keen to talk this year that I had my name up as soon as the wiki was setup.

It was obviously not meant to be.......

Ewan produced a totally fair and random fruit machine to select the speakers........ the Bu*****!

It is obviously not meant to be as my name, along with several others, didn't come up.

Having said that, it really was an excellent event. I was particularly impress with Andy Black and his energetic presentation. It was wonderful to meet Krysia at last. She has a much fuller description of the evening.

Maybe the frustration comes from missing out on the food, company and drinks later on. I wasn't feeling great and ended up at the doctor's on the Thursday afternoon with a sinuses infection.

So maybe I will get some time sometime to present. I just hope I have something worth talking about.

Technorati Tags: teachmeet07, islay, scottish education

Google Sketchup Seminar

2007-09-23T13:45:00.001Z

As I said in my last entry I was expecting small numbers for my seminar at the Scottish Learning Festival and I planned to turn this an advantage.

I hope I managed this. Certainly the small numbers seemed very positive at the end. I said I would place some useful links for Sketchup for the small band of 10 who came and were made to work.

Useful links:

Sketchup Home - http://www.sketchup.com/

Sketchup Download - http://sketchup.google.com/gsu6/download.html

Sketchup Blog - http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/

Video Tutorials - http://sketchup.google.com/vtutorials.html

Self Paced tutorials - http://sketchup.google.com/sptutorials.html

Education offers from Google - http://www.sketchup.com/?section=education

3D Warehouse to download pre made models - http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/

Google Earth home - http://earth.google.com/

I hope those who were at the session found it useful.

Those who asked about the project with Monroe County Ga. I will ask Keith Hamon if he minds if we publish the details here.

Here is the published doc

Technorati Tags: islay, slf, scottish education, google sketchup, sketchup

SLF

2007-09-19T03:59:00.001Z

I am sitting in the tower that is the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Glasgow. It took a wee while to get here.

The small plane had to circle for quite a while ( the normally takes 30mins it over an hour) before getting into Glasgow Airport because another plane had got 'stuck' on the grass.

The reason I am here is that I am speaking at the Scottish Learning Festival. I got my list of participants on Friday for the 2 talks. As I suspected previously, being on at the same time a Stephen Heppell has had an effect on the numbers.

I have decided that I will turn the small numbers to my advantage. I plan to drag them from the the very back row and bring them in close. I will gave a background to the Google Sketchup project we did this year and show some work and how we approached it.

Then I would like to have a discussion with them to where they could see it being used. I hope that this will turn the disadvantage of have 10 people into an advantage of getting them involved and not just watching.

The second talk is at 9-30am on Thursday. I am delivering this one with the head teacher, Dr E Cunningham has very healthy numbers. I have spent today recording some of the other people who have been involved with our School of Ambition project.

Technorati Tags: slf, education, scottish education, islay

BBC - The politics Show II

2007-09-16T14:04:00.001Z

As I said on Thursday, the BBC were over filming on Friday for today's Politics Show.

I am just home from lunch with my in-laws (They are visiting from Newcastle and I couldn't change nor want too change the arrangements)

Several people have stopped me and said the 5 min piece came across very well.

It should be available on the Politics Show (Scotland) web site later today but I would be very interested in opinions (Negative as well as positive) or questions raised by the piece.

PS Just had this written article sent to me.

Technorati Tags: BBC, Islay, education, scottish education, UMPC, mobile learning, argyll

Ups and Downs

2007-09-13T20:48:00.001Z

Prompted by Andrew Brown, I have decided to say what I am doing at ~~SETT~~ SLF.

Well I am speaking twice his year.

The first talk I suspect will be one of the quietest of the Wednesday. Its not because it will be boring (Honest!) but because its on at the same time as Stephen Heppell's keynote. I am so disappointed with missing him and wonder what people will choose my talk over Stephen Heppell. We shall see.

The second talk is early (9-30) on the Thursday I am speaking with Dr Elizabeth Cunningham(The Headie) abut what we have been doing as School of Ambition.

Apart from the official stuff I am going to go into the wild with Channel 4 and , of course, teachmeet07. This year I am determined to speak rather than just drink and shout abuse as I did last year.

I will be making merry later on with other teachmeeters. Just wish me luck to make it to early semniar on the Thursday.

BBC- The Politics Show

2007-09-13T15:24:00.001Z

Tomorrow we are being filmed for 'The Politics Show' (Scottish Version).

They are coming over to look at the ICT and the use of it as well as the other changes we have introduced in the school over the last few years.

I will come back and give more details after the event.

Technorati Tags: islay, education, scottish education, argyll, bbc

Chaos Theory II

2007-09-11T22:00:00.001Z

Its been a busy week. We have been rolling out the UMPC's to all the pupils. A small number of 3rd years have still to get them but I have been trying avoid Certificated classes and when I am free they aren't. When they are free I am teaching. (I have a full timetable myself this year).

Therefore I had a delegation stop me in the corridor at lunchtime today, voicing their concern. They were desperate to get going with the UMPC's. The place I was going at lunchtime was the school library to run a drop in surgery on any problems or questions the pupils may have. I had 35 turn up. 4 had a problem the rest had questions.

I am planning to run these sessions on a Tuesday and a Thursday and I am sure the numbers will ease off, I hope.

I have also had one example of the opposite from a pupil who has said to me, "I am bored with this".

I am glad that the group were putting pressure on me to get them out and I am delighted that such a large number want to learn more in their own time . It showed that the pupils, on the whole, want them and can see a point. Now I just need to make sure that the point they see is an educational one. I will leave you to come back with a definition of 'Educational use'

Technorati Tags: Islay, argyll, education, scottish education, UMPC, mobile learning, handheldlearning

teaching Scout | pushing boundaries

2007-09-06T21:22:00.001Z

I have been following Krysia and Stuart Meldrum's ~~probationer~~ NQT Blogs.

They are both reflective and keen to learn. On 'Teaching Scout' she is asking for advice.

Does anyone have any pearls of wisdom? I would be interested in them as well.

Maybe the walk will be less lonely

teaching Scout | pushing boundaries

Technorati Tags: education, scottish education, teaching, scotland, islay

Recognition

2007-09-04T18:37:00.001Z

Some funny, (though I am not sure about how Dr Elizabeth Cunningham (Head Teacher) feel about being drawn as Grounds Keeper Willie),

from the suppliers press.

Some amazing from the last 24hrs of the Blog on Google Analytics

The reaction of the pupils has been hugely positive from those who have theirs so far and hugely jealous from those (The Majority) who have still to get theirs.

I will take another week to get them all out and then the real evaluation will begin.

Technorati Tags: UMPC, Islay, education, Q1, Scotland, Argyll, Scottish education

Starting to Roll out UMPC's

2007-09-03T17:21:00.001Z

Period 5 today we starting rolling out the UMPC's to the 6th year pupils.

I have spent the last few weeks delivering training in their use with all year groups and developing an Acceptable Use Policy in conjunction with the pupils.

S5 tomorrow......

Technorati Tags: Islay, UMPC, handheldlearning, education, samsung, scottish education, school of ambition