ICT: A Whole New World

It is so unusual to find a young person who not only likes ICT lessons but will actually admit to it, that when I heard that Maddi fell into that category, I just had to ask her to write about it for me. Here’s what she says…


Maddi
Hi, I am Maddi, a Year 10 student from Australia. I am 15 and really enjoy ICT. I am currently considering a career requiring ICT skills. Apart from ICT, I enjoy sport, playing and listening to music, writing songs, drawing and dancing.

When I finish school I plan to study to be a journalist or magazine editor. My dream goal is to own my own magazine that supports my own charity – big goals I know but better a big goal than no goal! As I said I have a passion for ICT and this article explains why everyone should learn at least the basics of ICT.

The  internet, something one could have lived without many, many years ago but now one can really only just last a week without somehow using or coming into contact with it. I hear people say technology such as computers has destroyed society or is killing normal communication. But I consider these comments as naive sniggers, for I believe that anyone who has discovered the incredible uses for the internet would not say such a thing. The web is an extraordinary invention and has given me the chance to communicate with people and civilisations that pen and paper could never offer me.

Last year with video link up, I and three fellow class mates were able to give a presentation to thousands of teachers, students and educators who attended the Flat Classroom Conference in Qatar. This was an unreal experience and it was one of the first times I realised how phenomenal the internet is.

I was also a participant in a large international project which helped me learn that understanding the internet isn't just about learning what buttons to press or how to navigate through it. I learnt how to behave on the web, how to be safe, the manners and language that are appropriate and many other social and cultural aspects of the internet. On the internet you really have to watch what you say because something 'funny' you say could be offensive or misinterpreted by other people. To me, talking to someone face to face is a lot easier and quicker, but I find talking to people over the internet is an adventure in itself.  I think it is a great way for school students to make friends.

I guess there is more to ICT than just internet though. I would confidently say that I would use my laptop everyday to type up school work or edit photos. I think one of the reasons ICT is so appealing to me is because you can take something simple like a photo and transform it into something beautiful in seconds, and it is so easy and the programs available today open so many doors for your creative minds to step right into.

I would definitely encourage ICT as a compulsory subject up to at least year 9 because ICT is a subject just waiting to be truly discovered and explored. As I write this I know that the internet is continuing to grow in fabulous ways and I really want people my age to go and explore.

This is a slightly amended version of an article which first appeared in Computers in Classrooms, the free e-newsletter. The next issue is a games-based learning special, and we're running a prize draw to give away 2 marvellous prizes. More on that tomorrow.

Review of Marxio

Update: Marxio appears to be no longer available, and I am trying TimeLeft instead (see bottom of article for link). You may, of course, wish to read this review anyway for its erudition and general insightfulness :-)

If you're anything like me, time is always at a premium. But relying on the clock in the toolbar isn't always effective as a way of keeping you on track. There’s a pretty good timer from Marxio. I set it to remind me to take a break every 20 minutes. (I often ignore it, but that’s another matter.) Obviously, you could use it to set a time limit for reading, or writing, or anything else.

Timely reminders

As you can probably tell from the screenshot, there’s a wealth of options. And it’s free! Download it from the Marxio website, where you can see a list of features.

I quite like it, although I haven't used it for a while. I especially like the fact that you can configure your own settings, such as the text of the reminder and when it appears, and save them as a "schema". Why not give it a whirl?

This is a slightly amended version of an article that first appeared in Computers in Classrooms, the free newsletter about educational ICT.

What Are The Big Issues for Ed Tech Leaders?

I’ve done a quick analysis of the entries received so far to my Issues for Ed Tech Leadership survey, and here are the results.

Initial findings

As you can see, top of the list is a lack of perception by colleagues of ICT’s importance in the curriculum. So, after all these years, we don’t seem to have an unequivocally wonderful job of convincing others of how technology can be beneficial in the curriculum. It’s interesting to note that the solutions proposed to address this (not shown here) tend to be divided between those who think we should make more training available, and those who think it’s a leadership issue.

I have to say, I’m in the latter camp, and I am tempted to agree with UK ICT consultant Bill Gibbon when he says we should have compulsory courses like SLICT (Strategic Leadership in ICT) courses for senior leadership teams.

Could it be, perhaps, that there is insufficient research into the benefits of ICT? Well, a sizeable minority apparently thinks so, but I agree with ICT consultant Doug Woods’ view:

Actually NO there is plenty of evidence and research into benefits but it is generally not readily available to edtech leaders in school. We need a central resource to collate this research findings, even where contradictory, and make them easily available.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given that most of the respondents hail from the UK, where Becta and the QDCA have been given notice to close down, a lack of impartial big picture guidance is the second-most frequently cited issue facing ICT leaders. I think a lot of people will agree with ICT Co-ordinator Steff Rooney that the Becta self-review framework can (should?) be used to highlight weaknesses in a school’s ICT provision. Let’s hope it’s eventually mothballed rather than disposed of altogether.

This is literally just a quick snapshot. I’ll spend more time on it over the summer break. That gives you time to complete the Issues for Ed Tech Leadership survey if you haven’t already done so Open-mouthed -- it should take you only a few minutes.

How To Start Blogging

Get writing!You know when a theme is developing in your life when the same sort of thing keeps cropping up. Well, I don’t know if twice in succession qualifies, but I’m going to go with it anyway. Yesterday I was catching up on my podcasts, and listened to a Grammar Girl episode entitled “How to get started blogging”. Then today I ran my blogarizer spreadsheet and was directed to an article entitled “10 must-use tips for beginning bloggers”. OK, enough already: I can take a hint.

Both articles are pretty good, in a general sense. Mignon Fogarty, the “Grammar Girl”, deals with knowing your audience, finding good, and reliable, information, and how to build your audience. Melissa Tamura, author of the 10 tips post, also talks about knowing your audience and, in essence, how to grow it.

I’d like to come at this from a different angle or, to be more precise, to emphasise different aspects of blogging. Here goes:

  1. Start blogging. That’s right, just start. Stop navel-gazing, second-guessing the universe and playing “what-if?” games. Just start. Creating a new blog in something like Blogger takes all of five minutes. In fact, the most difficult part is thinking of a witty and memorable name.
  2. Definitely define your audience, but start with yourself. What I mean by that is, write the kind of articles that you would find most interesting/enjoyable/useful to read. Then your blog will probably go one of two ways: either extremely eclectic, which stands a good chance of attracting a wide variety of people, or extremely focussed. Those two are not mutually exclusive, by the way. I think that latter possibility warrants a bullet point of its own…
  3. Be extremely focussed. I mean extremely focussed. From time to time I receive comments from people along the lines of they have nothing unique to blog about. That’s plain wrong, because everyone is unique in some way. For example, you might be the only art teacher in your town who takes their class on a virtual art gallery tour every week. How does that work? How does a virtual gallery visit stack up against a real life one? I don’t know from first-hand experience what the answers to these questions are. But you do.
  4. Put your audience first. I think if you’re going to write for an audience, you should at least try to make reading your work a pleasant experience. This is all highly personal and subjective, of course, but for me the two things I really can’t abide is swearing or implied swearing, and writing which is about as interesting as the list of ingredients on a packet of cornflakes. There’s no need for the former, and you can improve on the latter by analysing what it is you like about the writing of the blogs, magazines, newspapers, authors you read on a regular basis.

But the most important one of these, if you’ve decided or almost decided to start your own blog is the first one: just do it!

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Mission Statement

I don’t have too much time for mission statements. To be honest, I regard them as being unnecessary. Actually, I’d go further: if an organisation is so hung up on its image that it wastes time and resources on thrashing out a mission statement, what does that tell you about its priorities? More to the point, why should any organisation even need a mission statement? Its mission statement should be implicit in the way it goes about its business.

How about this as an example. A couple of months ago my computer started playing up. Unfortunately, it started to get really bad about two days after the year’s money-back guarantee had run out. Fortunately, there was a free maintenance package thrown in, which meant that for two years I could get it repaired free of charge, on a return to base basis. Not ideal, but still, better than nothing. So I decided to avail myself of this service, and the retailer I purchased the computer from arranged for a courier company to pick it up the next day. The following conversation ensued when the courier arrived:

Me: Ah, I think there’s going to be a problem because --

Courier: Look, mate, I’m not here to repair it, I’m just the courier. Just give me the computer.

Me: Well, what I was about to say, was that I don’t think it’s going to fit into that container you’ve brought.

Courier: OK I’ll be off then.

Me: Wait a minute, let me just measure it. Come in for a cup of tea while I do that.

Courier: I don’t want a cup of tea, I’ve got to get on.

Me: Well let me just measure the container you’ve brought.

Courier: I ain’t got time for that. Phone the company.

Me: Can’t you just hang on for two minutes? I need this computer for my work.

Courier (driving off): That ain’t my problem, mate.

I think that statement, “That ain’t my problem, mate”, sounded like the company’s mission statement. Was I right?

Well, I phoned the company up right away, having to use an 0845 number which, here in the UK, is charged for at a premium rate. I was then subjected to 12 minutes of awful music, and advertisements. When I finally managed to speak to someone, she said she’d try and arrange collection for the following afternoon.

“I’ll let you know if that’s not possible”, she said.

“No, could you let me know either way, please?”

“OK”.

When, by 4 pm, I had heard nothing, I phoned the company again, and spent 8 minutes listening to “music” and advertisements. The girl I finally managed to speak to was not the same one as I’d spoken to in the morning. There was no record of my phone call, and no collection booked in. She assured me that she would call me to let me know what was happening. (Incidentally, that was 2 months ago. I am still waiting.)

I phoned the company I bought the computer from to see if they could help, and they told me they would phone the courier company. Fifteen minutes later, she phoned back to say that she hadn’t managed to speak to anyone yet, because she’d been listening to music and advertisements, but would try again.

A few minutes later she phoned me back, and told me that she’d spoken to her manager, and he decided I’d been treated so badly that I could bring the computer in and obtain a full refund. (What do you think that retailer’s mission statement is?) I did so, and immediately purchased a new one, of a different manufacturer.

There have been several outcomes of this episode:

  • That was the first time I had any dealings with that courier company. It will be the last.
  • So committed am I to that last statement that, having found out that the manufacturer of my original computer uses that courier exclusively, I have decided to never buy that make again, so I never have to deal with that courier company again.
  • I got a new computer out of it.

Just to finish the story, the following morning (not afternoon, as requested) there was a ring at the door. A (different) courier had come to collect my computer.

If you think about the behaviour of the courier company, what conclusion could you draw other than that the leadership must be at best incompetent, and at worst actively contemptuous of its customers? Because this is my contention: that the service an organisation provides –- whether it’s a corner store, a department store, a government department or an ICT department in a school – is a direct reflection on the quality and priorities of its leadership. How else could an organisation provide such appalling service, at various levels?

The story also illustrates another point which for some reason is often not as obvious to service providers as it should be: everyone in the organisation is a representative of the organisation. They may not think of themselves in that way, but the bottom line is that if they upset enough people to the extent that the organisation has to reduce its operations or even fold altogether, their jobs could be on the line.

But in that case, all I have to say is: it ain’t my problem, mate.

E Is For Everything -- But Why?

Is the 'E' necessary?There is an unfortunate tendency for e-learning evangelists to try and come up with as many e-words as possible when promoting the benefits of e-learning. Why?

I suppose the idea is to generate excitement, and to energise one’s colleagues. But to my mind, this is mere gimmickry.

I’ve seen it done with the 'C' in ICT as well. That stands for 'communication' or 'communications', but I’ve known people to embellish and complement it with 'collaborate', 'co-operation' and the like.

(Curiously, I have never seen it done with 'd', as in 'digital', or any other letter.)

If that is all there was to it, this tendency would be merely annoying. However, I believe it has a subtle -- but real – derogatory effect, in two ways.

Firstly, just as it is often the case that a piece of writing is diminished in direct proportion to the number of adjectives used, so is the authority of a discipline lessened as more and more attributes are generated for it. It seems to denote a certain lack of confidence: you don't see geography teachers babbling on about how good, great or gritty their subject is; you don't hear historians trying to convince people that their area of study brings happiness, or that it reduces harm or hubris.

To quote from Hamlet, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks".

Secondly, and worse, it can actually do some positive harm. As long as the myth is propagated that e-learning is different to learning, or that an e-portfolio is fundamentally different to a portfolio, some teachers and their principals will quite happily continue as if the e-revolution has nothing to do with them. Worse, concerns over e-safety could easily mask the fact that all teachers should feel responsible for children’s safety, and that there is not a subset of safety that can be delegated to the ICT staff.

As far as I am concerned, the sooner we drop the 'e' from everything, the better.

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An earlier version of this article first appeared on 29 July 2009.

Upcoming Article on Mission Statements

I have a thing about mission statements: basically, I think they're a waste of time, effort and resources. But there's always an implied mission statement, which is always a reflection on leadership in my opinion.

An article will be appearing about this tomorrow morning at 8 am, but if you want to read it now, you can, at the Technology and Learning Blog, where there's a slightly different version of it.

If you're an ICT or Ed Tech Leader, do take a few minutes (literally, just around five minutes) to complete a survey on what issues ICT leaders face today. The initial results will be published soon. Thanks.

Personal Learning Networks

A couple of recent posts by Miguel Guhlin -- see Vastness of You - Plurk Me No More and To PLN or Not -- and a comment on the latter by Paula Nagle, made me think about personal learning networks, or PLNs.

What IS a PLN?

A PLN can be great for supportClearly, it’s the group of people with whom one interacts, online in the first instance. I have to say I have a bit of an objection to the term, because it gives the impression of being rather self-centred, as though everyone in your learning network is there to help you learn. Help you learn. What about them?

We learn most when we’re discussing or teaching, and although that’s what goes on in PLNs, it’s not exactly explicit from the name. Perhaps Personal Interaction Network (PIN) would be better (which would no doubt lead some people to talk about their PIN numbers…).

Can your PLN be too large ?

I wonder if this term, “too large”, has any real meaning in an asynchronous world? I can put out a message on Twitter this morning, and have a response from someone over the other side of the world this evening. In that sense, is there such a thing as “too big”?

Can anyone join?

What is the qualification for becoming a member of someone’s PLN? For me, it’s having something useful and relevant to say. I don’t care if someone has been blogging for only five minutes: if their first few blog posts are interesting, I’ll follow them. I find it embarrassing, though obviously flattering, when people follow me by saying they really look forward to reading even more wisdom, or who, when I follow them in Twitter, express the hope that I’ll find it worth my while. We should try to get away from this sort of hero worship: it’s not healthy. It’s not even accurate: someone who has been active in the “edublogosphere” for five minutes can be just as “wise” as someone who has been here for years. Perhaps even more so, because they come to it all with fresh eyes. In fact, a member of your PLN could be the guy who runs the café down the road!

What other value of PLNs are there, apart from learning?

As Paula has pointed out (see post and comment referred to earlier), it’s wonderful when people in your PLN make themselves known to you – and vice versa – at conferences. A PLN can also be a great source of support, especially when the trolls are having a feeding frenzy.

So what are your thoughts on PLNs?

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The Big Issues for ICT Leaders Forthcoming Initial Results Announcement

This is just a quick heads-up to say that in the next day or so I aim to publish a snapshot of the results so far of a survey I set up about a week ago. If you haven't already done so, take the survey now -- it takes only about 5 minutes.

Read the original article about it if you missed it: The Big Issues for ICT Leaders

If Your ICT Provision Were a Restaurant...


Presentation is important tooA lot of restaurants provide free 'extras' that help to make the experience enjoyable. So, as an interesting little exercise, if you're an ICT co-ordinator or ICT subject leader, what do you do to make people's experience of ICT more pleasant?

The kind of things restaurants do, depending on the type of cuisine, and the individuality of the owner, include:

  • Placing fresh iced water on the table without your having to ask for it.
  • Placing bread on the table.
  • Placing bread sticks on the table.
  • Putting a plate of olives on the table.
  • Supplying you with 'bottomless' coffee.
  • Supplying you with 'bottomless' fresh orange juice.
  • Giving you a square of chocolate when the bill is presented (as a sweetener?).
  • Giving you a complementary drink along with your bill.
  • Opening the door for you as you leave.
  • Shaking hands with you as you leave.
  • Presenting ladies with a rose.

What do all of these have in common?

  • They are 'extras'. One could argue that good food and service are to be expected and therefore, in a sense, need not be commented upon. However, extras are, by definition, things you were not expecting, and therefore nice to receive.
  • They do not involve huge effort or cost on the part of staff.
  • They are the kinds of thing that are most likely to generate word-of-mouth recommendations.

So, if you were to adopt this philosophy, what kind of 'extras' might you provide to other teachers wanting to make use of the educational technology facilities? Remember, this could be quite important in encouraging reluctant teachers to use the technology in the future. Here are a few of my suggestions.My philosophy is that someone ought to be able to use the facilities from scratch, and walk out with a print-out of their work five minutes later. Therefore, these first suggestions are all geared towards that (although that is not the only consideration).

  • There should be guest log-ins available, with the details on a card that is attached to the computer or laptop.
  • Printing should be easy: no need to have to think about which printer to use, for instance, unless the choice is blindingly simple, eg between monochrome and colour.
  • Instructions should be available -- on the walls, on the desks, perhaps even on the computer itself.
  • Assistance should be available if needed, perhaps from a classroom assistant or a technician.

I also believe that your working environment should be pleasant and welcoming, so I should recommend one or more of the following:

  • Get rid of all those notices telling people what they can't do. It just creates a depressing, negative atmosphere.
  • Make sure the keyboards are clean. When I use the tech facilities in a school, I don't expect to have to use an alcohol-based hand wash afterwards.
  • Make sure the monitors are dust-free, as far as they can be. Why should people have to risk eye or skin irritation?
  • Make sure the environment is clean and pleasant. When I work at home I am not surrounded by screwed up print-outs on my desk and floor, so why should I have to be in that environment in a school?

You might say that these things aren't your job, and I'd agree. But I'd argue that it is your job to make sure they get done. Your role may be that of a 'technology evangelist', working alongside teachers and encouraging them to use the technology rather than having a direct part to play in the provision of such facilities. Even so, your job is going to be that much harder to do if the physical environment is deeply unpleasant.Incidentally, in case this post seems predicated on the existence of a computer lab, pretty much the same arguments apply in other circumstances. If, for example, you have banks of laptops and no computer room at all, you would still want to make sure that, for example:

  • The laptops are clean.
  • They are fully charged.
  • They come with instructions for using the laptop itself, including log-in details...
  • ... and instructions for using common programs like the word processor on your system.
  • A number to call if assistance is needed.

Of course, none of these are 'extras' as such. So extras might include, say:

  • A private area where staff can work at computers without having to worry about students looking over their shoulder.
  • Providing staff with the most up-to-date and/or advanced facilities.
  • Making tea, coffee and biscuits available.
  • Having USB sticks to give to staff on which to save their work, security considerations permitting.

If none of these appeal, perhaps the 'extra' is simply a pleasant and friendly attitude. If staff feel that they are in a sharing, collegiate environment, rather than invading someone's private domain, they are much more likely to return.

For more ideas, read the series called 31 Days to Become a Better Ed Tech Leader.

An earlier version of this article was originally published on 15 September 2009.

Xobni

I am in love. I wasn’t expecting this to happen, it was just one of those things. I was in my local supermarket, browsing through the latest copy of PC Advisor, just going about my business. Then, one thing led to another and, well, what can I say?

The object of my affections is Outlook. I have used Outlook for my email on and off over the years, but have never really liked it. Over-featured and unwieldy, it’s slow at finding emails and hopeless at finding conversation threads. It has some good features, admittedly, which is why I stick with it, but that slow grinding away of the search function drives me insane.

However, Xobni, which is reviewed in PC Advisor, changes all that, and does so much more. In fact, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Xobni makes Outlook work as it was meant to; it’s what Microsoft should have done to make Outlook not merely usable, but useful.

What Xobni does is index your emails and analyse them, and places an extra pane in your Outlook view. Searching is incredible, because Xobni works the way people do. Take a typical scenario. I am about to phone you to discuss the ICT Vision document you’ve commissioned me to write. What will I need before I pick up the phone? Your phone number, obviously. The email containing the brief you sent me. The follow-up email you sent clarifying a couple of points. And, for when I send you an email confirming what we end up agreeing in the phone conversation, the name and email address of your colleague to whom you always cc your emails.

To obtain all this information, I simply type your name into the search box, and I see something like this, virtually instantly most of the time.

Xobni gives you contact info at your fingertips

As you can see, it has collated my contact information so that I have your email address(es), phone number, Skype link, and Twitter, Facebook and Linked-In details (if I’ve added you as a friend in those applications).

A row of icons at the bottom of the panel gives me instant access to our email conversations, attachments sent, and other potentially useful information. As for the name and email address of your colleague, that’s contained further down in the panel shown in the screenshot (which I’ve cropped to avoid giving other people’s details).

Xobni can also suggest meeting timesThe application is also linked to the Outlook calendar. If I click on “Schedule time with …” an email like the one shown is automatically generated. Xobni has looked at my calendar for the next few days and suggested times when I have no appointments.

Another feature is that it gives you lots of metrics. For example, it will tell you the times of day that people respond to your emails, the purpose being to enable you to call them when they’re most likely to be in the office.

There’s a free version of Xobni that works just fine. The paid-for version costs $29.50 and has an advanced search function and works on more than one .PST file. I tried the free version, and liked it so much I bought the upgrade. I think in terms of time and my blood pressure it paid for itself on the very first use. You can find out more about the program and download it from the Xobni website.

 

Does ICT Improve Learning?

The intuitive answer to those of us involved in ICT is “of course it does”. However, the evidence from research is not conclusive. I think the reason is that it’s actually very difficult to carry out robust research in this area. As the impact of ICT has been a topic for discussion recently in the Naace and Mirandanet mailing lists, I thought it might be useful to try and clarify the issues as I see them.

The question “Does ICT improve learning?” naturally leads on to a set of other questions that need to be addressed:

What ICT?

The question as stated is too broad. A computer is not the same as a suite of computers. It’s not even the same as a laptop, which is not the same as a handheld device. Software is not the same as hardware, and generic software, such as a spreadsheet, is not the same as specific applications, such as maths tuition software.

What other factors are present?

ICT doesn’t happen in a vacuum. What is the environment in which the technology is being used? How is the lesson being conducted? What is the level of technical expertise of the teacher? What is the level of teaching expertise of the teacher? These and other factors mentioned in this article are not stand-alone either: they interact with each other to produce a complex set of circumstances.

What is the ICT being used for?

What is being taught? There is some evidence to suggest that computers are used for low-level and boring tasks like word processing, in which case comparing technology-“rich” lessons with non-technology-rich lessons is not comparing like with like. On the other hand, technology can be, and often is, used to facilitate exploration and discussion. Since these are educationally-beneficial techniques in their own right, the matter of validity needs to be scrutinised (see below).

How is the impact of the ICT being evaluated?

There are several ways in which this might be done, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. For example, in-depth case studies yield rich data but may be difficult to generalise from. Also, there are three other problems. One is that it is difficult to conduct experiments using a suitable control group, because no teacher wishes to try something which may disadvantage a particular group of students. Another is the so-called “starry night” effect, in which case studies focus (naturally) on the successful projects whilst ignoring all the ones which either failed or were not believed to have deliver the same level of benefits. Finally, there is the danger of all kinds of evaluation study, that the methodology itself may affect the outcome.

What exactly is being measured?

This is the issue of validity, already touched upon. Are we measuring the ability of a teacher to conduct a technology-rich lesson, in which case it’s the effectiveness of the teacher rather than the ICT that is being weighed up? By implication, it may be the quality and quantity of professional development which is being measured. It may be students’ home environments that are inadvertently being evaluated, or student-staff relationships.

How much is ICT being used?

I suggest there may be a difference between schools in which ICT is being used more or less everywhere, and those in which it’s hardly being used at all. In the former, presumably both teachers and students would be accustomed to using it, there would be a good explicit support structure in the form of technical support and professional development, and a sound hidden support structure in the form of being able to discuss ideas with colleagues over lunch or a cup of coffee.

Is there an experimenter effect going on?

This is the phenomenon whereby the results of a study confirm or tie in with the expectations of the people or organisation responsible for the study. This is an unconscious process, not a deliberate attempt to cheat. I’ve explained it in my article called Is Plagiarism Really a Problem?

Conclusion

My own feeling – backed up by experience --  is that in the right set of circumstances, the use of ICT can lead to profound learning gains. However, rather than falling into the trap of arguing whether ICT is “good” or “bad”, we need to move the debate onto a much sounder intellectual basis.

Further reading

I’d highly recommend Rachel M. Pilkington, “Measuring the Impact of Information Technology on Students’ Learning”, in The International Handbook of Information Technology in Primary and Secondary Education, Springer, 2008, USA.

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What are the big issues facing ICT (Ed Tech) leaders? Please take a very short survey to help us find out.

A (Hopefully Temporary) Email Problem

One day after telling a colleague that one of my email providers has experienced problems only three times in the last ten years, there was, and still is, what they call a "major outage". What that means is that if you have sent me an email and not received a response, that's because I haven't yet received it. If you resend it to terry[at]terry-freedman.org.uk that should get to me with no trouble (I'm reluctant to say will get to me: look what happened the last time I prasied an email service).

Assessing ICT Understanding

I always have the impression – I know not why – that people who educate their children at home (known as “homeschoolers” in the USA) are somehow not regarded as “proper” teachers. Yet if you think about it, they potentially have much less of a support network than teachers in a school, and less guidance on how to do things. If I am correct in such sweeping assumptions, perhaps there is something the rest of us can learn from them in certain areas? I mean, if they have had to do a lot of figuring things out for themselves, to find out what works and what doesn’t work in their particular context, it would be a wasted opportunity to not benefit from that in some way.

A case in point is assessing youngsters’ understanding of ICT. It’s a notoriously difficult thing to do. Without going into a lot of detail now (see this article for more, although it needs some updating), the chief issues are the following:

  • Is the assessment valid, ie does it measure what it purports to measure? You could be measuring literacy, for instance.
  • Is it reliable? That is, if you applied the same test to similar pupils elsewhere, or the same pupils tomorrow, would the results come out more or less the same?
  • Are you assessing the pupil’s own work, or a joint effort? How do you know what the pupil has done by themselves?
  • The nature of the assessment can itself affect the result. If the pupils have learnt something using technology, testing them with a pencil and paper test is not likely to be appropriate. It will almost certainly yield a different outcome than if you used technology for the assessment. Similarly, if the pupils have been learning through scenario/problem-based learning and are tested through multiple choice, there is likely to be a question about validity.
  • Rubrics: I am not sure they are ever really valid, and think they tend to be either too “locked down” or not objective enough.

So I was interested to read Ashley Allain’s views on assessment. Ashley, a homeschooling mother of four who contributed two fantastic case studies to the Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book says:

To coin a phrase from Howard Gardner, I want to know if our children are reaching a level of "genuine understanding".  In other words, I want to see if they have moved beyond basic mastery of the material towards a deeper, richer level of understanding.

This resonates with me. I sometimes meet people who know a lot of stuff and yet have no clue how to apply their knowledge in a real situation. It’s as if they know, but do not truly understand.

Ashley goes on to say that the usual sort of testing regime had unfortunate side effects:

As a matter of fact, our then second-grader, directly associated her daily mood with how well she performed on a given test.

As a consequence,

We take a more organic approach versus a rigid, test-driven curriculum.  Assessment is often done through formal discussions, projects, and portfolios.

Have the pupils fared badly in compulsory tests? Quite the opposite. Ashley’s inspiring post (do go to it and read it in its entirety) suggests that if you can drag yourself away from checkboxes, point scores and all the rest of it, assessment can be both enjoyable and reasonably accurate.

Professional Development in Technology

I recently came across a blog by a Head of English in a school. It’s interesting to hear the views of a non-ICT specialist about what works or might work in getting teachers engaged. There are some very useful points made in the post entitled Professional Development in Schools:

Listening to staff after PD, their number one complaint is about not getting time to play and make stuff with what they just learned

This is absolutely correct in my experience. In fact, one of the most successful training sessions I ever ran was one where I allowed the teachers to spend three hours playing and experimenting, with myself and a technician on hand to give advice and guidance when asked. Teachers often think that they have to be doing and speaking all the time. You don’t.

Make sure the project is based on something that can actually be used in the classroom (not just an excuse to try new tools) following a sound curriculum planning process.

Something which ought not need to be said, but it’s all too often the case that people fall into the trap of pursuing gadgets and widgets for their own sake. The key question to ask about anything in education is “So what?”. If you can’t answer that question truthfully and convincingly in terms of students learning outcomes, then why are you undertaking that activity?

Are lunch and learns the answer?Another idea is that of “Lunch and Learns”, taken from Bianca Hewes’ blog. The idea is that you run short lunchtime sessions which teachers may attend in order to refresh their knowledge of, or be introduced to, an application. I have to say that although I can see the attractiveness of this, I have an ambivalence towards it, for the following reasons.

Firstly, I have come to the conclusion, rightly or wrongly, that the best thing to do at lunchtime is have lunch, followed by doing the crossword, chatting with friends, going for a walk or staring into space. I can’t see how working at lunchtime can be effective or even healthy – which is why for the past eight years I have eschewed breakfast meetings whenever possible.

On the other hand, I can see that lunch and learns are an attractive alternative to twilights and learns. Perhaps the important thing is to experiment and find out what appeals most to your colleagues.

The author of the blog, M Giddins, surprised me by saying that she avidly followed my 31 Days to Become a Better Ed Tech Leader series -- “surprised” because I’d written the series for ed tech leaders rather than other subject leaders, and it hadn’t occurred to me that others might find it useful. I put this to her, and she responded by saying:

I think now that any leader in education also falls into the role of educational technology leader in some ways. I have a faculty that need to be guided in their quest for technology integration and I need to be both the one who models, leads and inspires as well as the solver of the practical problems sometimes inherent in the integration of technology. Your series was very clear about the WHY behind the practical solutions that you offered, which made it possible to apply different solutions to suit my situation.

Finally, there is a link to a list of tools which is definitely worth exploring. The ones I know about already have a rightful place on the list, and I’m looking forward to exploring the others.

This précis of the article hardly does it justice, so do take the time to read the original, which is as inspiring as it is engagingly written.

Other articles you may find useful

31 Days to Become a Better Ed Tech Leader: Are You REALLY an Ed Tech Leader (ictineducation.org)

31 Days to Become a Better Ed Tech Leader -- Day 22: Organise In-Service Training

What are the big issues facing ed tech leaders today?

Please take five minutes to complete a survey about this:

Ed Tech Leadership Issues

Clay Shirky on The Times Paywall

A couple of days ago The Guardian interviewed Clay Shirky, thereby giving him great, and free, publicity for his latest book. I mention this purely because Shirky is reported as saying:

… that people are more creative and generous than we had ever imagined, and would rather use their free time participating in amateur online activities such as Wikipedia – for no financial reward – because they satisfy the primal human urge for creativity and connectedness.

The bit about no financial reward doesn’t apply to Shirky himself: his book costs £20.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m all in favour of people earning a living from their writing activities, as long as they don’t fall into this trap of suggesting that if the writing is on the internet, it should be free. Indeed, I’ve noticed this about most people who say all content should be free: they either charge for their own or they earn a salary, meaning they don’t have  to charge the consumer directly. It also means, of course, that they draw the line at providing their own expertise for free all the time.

Shirky says:

Just as the invention of the printing press transformed society, the internet's capacity for "an unlimited amount of zero-cost reproduction of any digital item by anyone who owns a computer" has removed the barrier to universal participation…

But the cost is not  zero. Maintaining a web presence costs money unless you don’t mind putting up with loads of advertisements or you have the technical ability and time to maintain your own server or you have some benefactor, such as an employer, who provides the stuff free of charge. Even then, there’s a cost somewhere down the line in terms things like of backup storage and antivirus protection. And since when was someone’s time free? See also this paper about the costs of digital storage for the British Library.

Shirky seems to have a rather bizarre view of business:

Here's what worries me about the paywall. When we talk about newspapers, we talk about them being critical for informing the public; we never say they're critical for informing their customers. We assume that the value of the news ramifies outwards from the readership to society as a whole. OK, I buy that. But what Murdoch is signing up to do is to prevent that value from escaping. He wants to only inform his customers, he doesn't want his stories to be shared and circulated widely. In fact, his ability to charge for the paywall is going to come down to his ability to lock the public out of the conversation convened by the Times.

Actually, every business tries to limit consumption of (the bulk of) its products to its customers, otherwise it wouldn’t be a business. That's how businesses work: by charging some people in exchange for providing a product or service, and then not supplying it to people who don't pay. The first group of people is known as "customers" or "clients". What we seem to have here is yet another example of muddled thinking, as also exemplified by Chris Anderson's Free, which I discussed here.

Economics 101 states that the more effectively you can prevent people in group A, the customers, from providing the product or service to group B, the non-customers, the more you can charge for the service. Murdoch's problem is that anyone can share the content of the The Times, if not the articles themselves, with anyone else. But there's nothing evil or wicked about his wanting to "prevent that value from escaping", unless you take the view that it's fine for some businesses to want to do that but not others. How would you justify that?

You can read the interview here. Be sure to read the comments too.

The Big Issues for ICT Leaders

QuestionsIn the series called 31 Days to Become a Better Ed Tech Leader, I covered a range of issues that I believe are key ones for Ed Tech/ICT Leaders.

But what do you think?

I've created a very short survey which seeks to determine the three most important issues as far as ICT leaders are concerned.

Please take a few moments to complete it. You will find it here:

Ed Tech Leadership Issues

Thank you!

The Power of Words

The accepted wisdom is that when teaching a topic you should display a list of words associated with the topic – especially when first introducing it. Why? To my mind, words are representations of concepts, so if you have no idea what the underlying concept is, the word itself is surely meaningless? Before anyone can learn terminology, they need mental hooks on which to hang the words.

However, there is no doubt that we need to ensure that pupils and students do understand, and use correctly, the appropriate terminology for a given topic. One way of testing their understanding, and giving you an insight into any misunderstandings, is to try a fiction approach.

When I was teaching, I used to make up short stories in which the terms relevant to the topic being taught were used. The students’ task was to identify the words and then decide if they had been used appropriately. I never actually used terminology wrongly, in case I inadvertently reinforced a misconception they already had. By “inappropriate use” I mean suggesting something which, though not wrong exactly, could be questioned. For example, the story might include a scene in which someone creates a list of names for badges using a word processor. Of course you can do that, but if you have a large list of names, and you want to apply criteria such as printing out girls’ and boys’ names separately, a word processor is unlikely to be the most appropriate tool.

I liked that idea, and it worked well. But yesterday I came across an idea which turns that one on its head: get the kids to write the story. The original idea may be found at Creative Copy Challenge. Intended as a means of stimulating the creative juices of (fiction) writers, the site mainly puts up lists of ten words selected randomly, your task being to work them into a story. It’s challenging, fun (in a masochistic kind of way), stories submitted by people are great to read, and the comments on the posts by Shane Arthur are kind. (To give full credit, I came across the site via an article by Ali Hale called The Secret to Writing Powerful Words, at the Men With Pens site.)

OK, so here is my variation on the theme. At a suitable point during the teaching of a topic, or at the end, give the pupils a list of 5 to 10 words which relate to the topic – the words that you would normally put on the whiteboard or wall as a glossary aid-memoire anyway, and ask them to construct a short story, how-to guide, script for a 30 second TV advert or whatever. If you have a class blog, do what they do over at Creative Copy Challenge, which is to post the words as an article, and ask readers to submit their stories as comments. That way everyone gets to see everyone else’s efforts, which paves the way, in an educational context, for an interesting class discussion and some peer assessment. A further variation would be to have the kids working on the assignment in small groups or pairs. Incidentally, you don’t have to use a blog: any means of collaborative writing will do, and as far as I know all Learning Platforms have such a facility.

I think that would be a great way of testing the kids’ understanding and, as I suggest, for you to gain insight into how they’re thinking, but in an enjoyable way. But don’t take my word for it. Pop over to the Creative Copy Challenge website and have a go yourself. Then decide if it might work in your classroom.

Related articles by Zemanta
  • Short Story Lesson Plans Unit (brighthub.com) This is written from an English teacher’s point of view, but contains some interesting ideas on this theme.
  • Word of the day! (ask.metafilter.com) This strikes me as another way you might assess students’ understanding, and perhaps give them some mental gymnastics too. Each lesson, give them an ICT-related word. What does it mean? In what type of context might it be used.
  • Some wee changes to our blog... (writingiscake.com) This suggests a more extreme version of the idea discussed in this article: take a single word and construct a story around it. I’m not entirely convinced that this would be as useful or effective as the ten word idea, but it’s interesting and certainly worth considering.

Benchmarking and Customer Satisfaction

If part of the purpose of your job is to spread the use of information and communications technology, it's a good idea to start collecting statistics in order to benchmark your performance.

This article looks at a fairly simple approach to benchmarking which does not take long to implement, but which can be extremely useful.

It is true that you could content yourself with collecting statistics on how many people are using the educational technology facilities, but I regard that as necessary but not sufficient. For a start, it tells you nothing about the quality of what people are doing, and it is more than likely that if you start to insist on high standards of work, or even merely that colleagues do not use the computer facilities as a fall-back when they don't have a lesson planned, you will start to see a fall in the amount of usage -- at least in the short term.

Furthermore, there is little you can do about increasing the usage until you know why people use or don't use the facilities. Hence, some deeper probing is required.

A very good "way in" is the customer satisfaction survey. If your school or organisation has a history of poor performance and bad experiences in this area, you may feel that to carry out customer surveys would lay yourself wide open to criticism, and therefore be the last thing you'd want to do. In fact, in those circumstances finding out what people like and dislike  about the service on offer is even more essential.

There is another dimension to this as well. In general, although people are often happy to criticise someone or something when in a crowd, and anonymous, they are usually much more considered when asked to do so in writing, and with their name attached to it. In one of my jobs, the IT service was constantly being criticised by Headteachers: not directly to me, but to my boss. As well as being upsetting for me, it was also upsetting for my team, who tried to do a good job and, from feedback they received whilst in school, thought that they were. Once I'd implemented the customer survey regime, my boss and I had a couple of the following sorts of conversation before the unwarranted criticisms stopped altogether:

Boss: At the meeting today, the Headteachers were complaining that your team take ages to respond to a call for assistance, and never complete the work properly.

Me: That's strange, because according to the customer satisfaction records we've been keeping, 95% of the schools rated our service as excellent, and the rest rated it as very good. Was there anyone in particular who was leading the complaints?

Boss: Yes, Fred Bloggs.

Me: Hmm, that's a bit odd. Looking at his last completed customer survey sheet, he said "An excellent service. The technician was really helpful and fixed the problem with no interruption to the school's computer network at all." Would you like a copy?

Now, there was no intention on my part to stifle criticism. However, I think that if you are going to criticise someone, especially when potentially people's jobs are at stake, you need to be very specific about what was wrong. The trouble with educational technology is that people have come to expect the same level of service as they enjoy from the electricity board. And so they should, but they do not always understand the wider forces at work. Thus it was that when an internet worm knocked out computer systems all over the world, my team got the blame! When things like that happened, the Headteachers would complain in their meetings with the boss that the IT service is useless, not realising what the real causes were. Given that on no occasion, as far as I know, did any of them contact him out of the blue to say "The IT service is fantastic today!", the impression the boss had was that we were not doing our jobs properly. The implementation of the customer survey approach counteracted that by being very specific, and by providing hard evidence of how Headteachers found the service in general over the long term, as opposed to how they felt immediately after the most recent virus alert.

OK, so how do you conduct a customer survey? I would suggest that you ask people to complete a very simple form, and sign and date it. Then transfer the details to a spreadsheet, which won't take long once you have created the spreadsheet in the first place. You will then be able to generate useful statistics.

The questions themselves will differ according to the nature of the service you are running, of course, but if you are an ICT Co-ordinator (Technology Co-ordinator) I would suggest the following items be put on the form:

  1. Name of teacher

  2. Class

  3. Date

  4. Subject

  5. Was the room tidy when you entered it?

  6. Was the system too slow/fine?

  7. How easy was it to achieve what you set out to achieve? Very easy/very hard

  8. Please add a brief explanatory note, especially if it was very hard.

  9. Any suggestions as to how the facilities or service could be improved?

As you can see, a very simple form, which not only helps you to obtain some information in a consistent manner, but also indicates pretty clearly what your own concerns are --  the room being left tidy, for example.

I’d strongly suggest you assign numerical values to the responses (EG 1 = Very Good) and use a spreadsheet to collate and analyse the responses, because it is easier to calculate averages where necessary.

Run this for half a term, and see if you can spot a pattern emerging. If so, it will help you to prioritise future developments.

How helpful did you find this article? Please leave a comment. If you like the customer focus approach, you will probably find this article interesting too, and this one on the Framework for ICT Support.

An earlier version of this article was published on 16th September 2008.

Spot the Differences in Technology: Ain’t No Doubt

Here’s something your students may find mildly amusing. This music video from 1992 features several examples of technological changes; can you spot them?

 

Here’s what you might have noticed:

  • Mercury phone booth.
  • Switchboard: one of the old-fashioned types where the operator had to physically plug different cables in to the board to connect people with each other over the phone network.
  • Instruments: the musicians are playing real ones, not synthesisers.
  • Microphone: a big old-fashioned one, not a headset mike (which was first used years before by Kate Bush, apparently).
  • Wristwatch: someone is wearing one. These days, young people tend not to because they use their cell phones to find out the time and a whole load of other functions.