Following an early start (6.30am), 3 TED talk (Luis von Ahn: Massive-scale online collaboration – http://www.ted.com/talks/luis_von_ahn_massive_scale_online_collaboration.html, Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves – http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves.html & Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education – http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html), a serious brain workout on The Things That Go Bump In The Night (www.textadventures.co.uk) and an interesting article on how Modern Warfare 3 beat Avatar in the fatest $1bn race (16 days) I finally arrived London and made my way to Piccadily Circus and the BAFTA building. A cup of tea layer and I was sat taking to Mr N Willis, principle at Longfield Academy @ilongfield and Mr Tim Cross (Head of ICT) @mrcrossy. They are doing amazing things with Apple and are the first all apple school in the UK, I think i will try and pay them a visit. Bill How (Head of Learning Technologies – ICT Register, The Schools Network) opened the conference and pointing us all in the direction of the new white paper, ‘The Importance of Technology’ (http://www.ict-register.net/The_Importance_of_Technology.pdf) which is an excellent read and makes some fantastic and relevant suggestions.
Next up, Professor Stephen Heppell @stephenheppell with ‘Technology is astonishing us, it is time we astonished the students’. Stephen started by discussing how students can do things better hand we think and it is us that sometimes put the limitations on them. He used an excellent example of how students learn to swim and cycle (using a great video clip of his grand daughter riding a balance bike at the age of 18 months) by immersion and they can do he same with technology. Next he discussed superclasses of 60, 90 and even 120 students learning from multiple teachers (with specific roles) in parallel which research suggests helps children to progress quicker than learning from 1 teacher in series. The next suggestion was ‘shoes off’ learning relating to increase productivity due to comfort and attitudes (he also mentioned how it is difficult for boys to bully without their shoes On). I can’t wait to try this in my carpeted ICT suite but am dubious about how my 15/16 year old year 10s and 11s will react, watch this space. Stephen when went on to discuss the Singapore mantra of, teach less so we can learn more, something i have Ben exploring via Alan Novembers @globalearner flipped learning. Next up was the use of student owned devices and their relevance in 3rd millennium schools. This is something i have been exploring for a while and hopefully we will increase the use of these devices over the coming months. A great quote from Stephen nd captured by Bob Harrison @bobharrisonset, ‘post appropriation technology, the way ahead. Don’t forget your PE kit, lunch and browser. The final important point made by Stephen was that schools can change quickly, contrary to popular belief and he even showed us an example of a school in Australia who turned their tables into writing surfaces (using unused white Boards) following discuss with students 12 hours previously. Stephen left us with some great leadership inspiration, ‘If your not scared then your not brave enough. You will get lost and left behind’. Following Stephen, which was not an easy job was Lord Jim Knight of Plymouth, @jimpknight with ‘engaging teachers, pupils and parents’. He opened with ‘technology on its own doesn’t make a difference but when used well it does help raise achievement’, linking to the conference theme. He also referenced Michael Gove from his talk at The Schools Network on the 1st December 2011 (https://registration.livegroup.co.uk/ssatnationalconference/Downloads/Embed.aspx?dfid=3270)
Jim then discussed how the single biggest contribution to students success is parental engagement. He supported this by mentoring the importance of extend opportunities to learn by developing an engaging pedagogy (pictured below). He also asked, ‘Where’s the school app. Parents want real time data on their students?’ He went on to highlight that policy makers focus on the supply and not the demand – the Learners! Well led schools who welcome the input from parents and pupils will create the conditions for personalised and engaging learning that irons outcomes. He then praised David Mitchell’s, @deputymitchell, work on the ue of flogging to improve literacy. Something that is also high on my agenda along with interactive fiction, with the likes of The Things That Go Bump In The Night which I mentioned earlier. He then supported the comments made earlier by Stephen on how schools need to embrace student owned devices to support collaboration, leading to better use of teacher time. He also mentioned online one-to-one tutoring via video tutorials and such sits as iTunesU and the Khan Academy (maybe one day he will mention the st-james-ict wiki for the video tutorials it contains). An interesting tweet from Graham Brown-Martin, @grahambm, followed this stating, ‘if we just digitise familiar teaching practice nothing really changes – we need a digital not digitised curriculum’. Jim finished by mentioning the importance of students having access to technology at home and how this is of increasing interest around the world.
