We live in interesting times…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: January 18, 2010
Well, I certainly do anyway, both personally and professionally. And thats why I’ve not had the chance to blog about the TESS article I wrote recently and the responses from LTS. You can see the article if you’ve not already read it by following this link…
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6032879
as well as the editorial, together with some interesting comments that perhaps might give LTS a clearer picture of how the national feeling is…
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6032846
You might also not have seen Marie Dougan’s letter in the current addition of TESS
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6033524
Andrew Brown has written on his blog about this, and his post, toghether with some interesting comments can be read there
http://www.whereisab.co.uk/blog/
Now I’ve not really had much of a chance to think about this and respond, due to some personnal stuff which has been going on for a couple of weeks now. Thanks to all for the emails and twitter DMs. I will get round to responding to all those this week I promise. I’m also going to be writing a blog post on the whole GLOW thing as soon as possible this week, as well as commenting on both Andrews blog, and to Marie’s letter. These are my own views (and not those of my employer or anyone else) but are based on two years classroom day to day use of GLOW which is probably what most classroom teachers are actually interested in, rather than endless statistics about how many GLOW log-ins there have been or how many registered users there actually are. What I’m concerned about is why folk don’t log in or use GLOW and as i made it quite clear in my TESS article, GLOW is here to stay but needs to be made to work better for those who have yet to use it, put off for whatever reason.
More on this later this week.
Another year over….
Posted by: mimanifesto on: January 1, 2010
I’ve been very quiet on here and over on Twitter these last couple of weeks….nothing unusual for me as the last few months have been fairly up and down both personally and professionally, but recent events really have caused me to stop and take stock somewhat.
Most recently, coming back from a trip to the midlands just before Christmass, we were involved in a really bad car crash. having been racing just ahead of the snow coming up from the south, we pulled in at Gretna to top up the windscreen washer tank, hit some black ice on a curve, skidded into an island at speed and sailed through the air in some kind of grotesque slowmo into a snow-covered embankement. A trip in what must have been one of Cumbria’s oldest and most decrepit ambulances followed, and after some clothes-cutting, x-rays, scans and copious amounts of painkillers, we both left the Cumberland infirmary battered, bruised, whiplashed, and really feeling rather the worse for wear. Someone, something or somebody must have been watching over us both that night. A later car crash at the same place that night apparently resulted in a fatallity so we were told by the car salvage company…
Our car did not come out so well as these images show…
So, yet more time off work to recover.
My last blog post summarising the latest findings from my GLOW/ICT research prompted some interesting comments. One voiced surprise at my apparent volta face on the usefulness of GLOW as a classroom tool for both learners and teachers, particularly it’s value in saving time. All I can say is that over the past couple of years, I’ve used GLOW in every which way but loose…I’ve run countless tests and trials, different projects and uses, large scale and small scale and over short and extended periods of time. probably more so than anyone else in a classroom setting in Scotland, and with regular classes rather than just special events and one-offs. I think therefore that I am actually more able to comment on it’s usefullness or not in classroom settings as well as a CPD tool. And after my initial findings published last year I set out to try and find answers to the questions raised then. I’ve come to the conclusions set out in my last post and presented at SERA last month after careful consideration and much angst. I wish Andrew Brown well in his new post, but he has a hell of a job to do after many months of drift and some very iffy project management which have set GLOW back in my opinion. Andrew has promised more ‘democracy’ in his approach. I’m taking this to mean openness, and I’ve asked him to publish the performance criteria and quality indicators by which GLOW is judged and success measured. After all, it’s no more than those of use at the chalkface are used too, so why should LTS (funded by the taxpayer of course with our money) be any different ? lets hope 2010 is a year in which the ethos of openness and accountability is truly apparent… I think TESS will be running a piece I’ve written on GLOW sometime soon. This expands on my thinking and experiences somewhat….
So Christmas and new year has been a quiet and reflective time for us this year. Putting two famillies together has been interesting !!! It’s certainly thrown up some challenges which have caused us to run through a race of many contrasting emotions. Different cultural backgrounds always provide curious interactions. Our Chanukah/Christmas celebrations have been a thoughful and unusual mix for all of us and having the Chanukiah lit as well as the Christmas tree lights was certainly led to a very ecumenical experience. Advent and Christmas at St Mary’s have been as wonderful as ever with some outstandingly glorious music as well. My better half has blogged about this as well (her thoughts are over here…http://loveneverletsyougo.blogspot.com/2009/12/g-d-light-miracles-and-of-course-taboo.html ).
A very happy and peaceful new year to you all :-0)
SERA 09 Presentation – and the future of GLOW
Posted by: mimanifesto on: December 8, 2009
Last week at the annual Scottish educational research association conference, I gave a short presentation during the GTCS-sponsored practitioner researcher session. This gave me an opportunity to discuss the findings of the two year (give or take a couple of months !) study into using ICT delivered through GLOW, to raise attainment.
I’ve summarised the main points in this post. The same data analysis was used as with the initial part of the study published last year and showed an increase in the attainment from the 14% found at the end of the first phase to just over 20% across the whole standard grade course. This is a fairly substantial gain and one which shows just how effective using ICT can be if combined with innovative and well thought out pedagogical approaches.
The study also involved extensive classroom coding of activity. This focussed attention on pupil time on task as well as the interactions between teacher/pupil and pupil/pupil, and demonstrated the ability of ICT to engage and motivate pupils very effectively, again, when combined with appropriate and stimulating pedagogy.
I’ve loaded the presentation into SlideShare…
My notes and comments are below in the summary, together with some of my thoughts. My thanks to the GTCS and to SERA for the support and advice with this work. Of course, this presentation was offered to LTS for inclusion in the Scottish Learning Festival, but strangely, they declined it…I wonder why :-/
Maybe the total lack of serious GLOW evaluation and impact assessment on their part was just too big a cross to bare, but then again, maybe SERA was much more suitable for this type of substantive and thoroughly researched work. A perusal of the literature on education and ICT initiatives like the one I carried out last year points very clearly to the reasons why such initiatives struggle to make a serious impact on classroom practice. Such a review appears, in my opinion anyway, to have played little or no part in informing previous project management of GLOW.
I have worked with GLOW for over two years now in the classroom day in day out. I’ve evaluated all parts of it, used it with different age groups in both primary and secondary settings. Run every test and trial possible, tried to work around problems and gremlins. Creatively subverted it in many ways, and been a passionate advocate of it’s potential. So it’s with somewhat of a heavy heart that I now have to say that after all of this, it’s probably not going any further in it’s currrent unwieldy and clunky format. Issues and problems raised quietly and constructively over this time have been brushed aside in the hype and spin and the race for the full 32 sign-up. This cannot be allowed to continue. I said as much in the recent MJ online ‘Innovators’ interview article. Now is the time for some strong leadership if this project is not to become litttle more than an irrelevance to most Scottish teachers.
I welcome the appointment of Andrew Brown to head up the next phase of GLOW for LTS. I hope he can bring some much needed focus to this important and ground breaking national initiative, together with an intuitive feel for how learning can be enhanced by IT which has perhaps been lacking at this level thus far. Recently, I asked Andrew on Twitter to publish the quality indicators and criteria by which LTS measure the impact and success of GLOW. Lets hope his much vaunted ‘democratisation’ of GLOW is more than just window dressing and becomes an integral and substantive feature of further work. Until then, and until such rigorous impact assessment and evaluation has taken place, I’m calling for a moratorium on any further spending on developing GLOW. We’ve had long enough – the basics need to be right before any more development, and this includes investigation into the reasons behind the lack of take up and substantive use by many schools and indeed, local authorities across Scotland.
SERA 09 CONFERENCE PRESENTATION
Conference abstract (revised handout)
This seminar will present the results of a year-long classroom based research study into using ICT facilitated via GLOW to raise attainment. The evidence of substantial increases in exam performance will be presented first, and it will then be shown how GLOW has been used in the science classroom to deliver the four capacities of a Curriculum for Excellence within the existing standard grade curriculum. These results depend not simply on the use of technology but on the particular pedagogic design introduced. Classroom coding measures of the improved process (as opposed to the final exam results) were used to measure these pedagogic changes. The implications on teachers’ workload, measured through comparative work diaries will also be considered. Conclusions on the possible longer term impact on the way students develop enhanced thinking skills, social skills, critical analysis and problem-solving through the use of self-paced and peer-assisted learning facilitated by changed classroom pedagogies (with particular emphasis on the shift from teaching towards an approach more centered on learning) will then be offered for discussion, together with thoughts for the future direction of the GLOW project in Scotland.
Summary of main points from presentation
Attainment was ahead of the rest of the pupil cohort by 20.4 % over the standard grade course (this had improved from the shorter term study presented last year which showed a 14% difference). The p-values of less then 0.05 show that this is statistically highly significant and likely to be as a result of the intervention (GLOW/ICT)
- Time on task (Pupils) was significantly more in a GLOW class than in both non-GLOW classes with the teacher-researcher, and colleague (p-Values indicate statistical significance).
- Pupil-Pupil time on task was increased in GLOW lessons when compared to non-GLOW classes (p-Values indicate statistical significance).
- No difference in the teacher-pupil time on task was found to be statistically significant
- Benefits come at a cost. Huge increase in teacher planning workload found, as well as continued unreliability of system (GLOW not infrastructure). Very often, it just does not work! e.g. documents will not load or save, filter settings will not change. Whilst there have undoubtedly been success stories (GLOW Meet being one of them ) we are too far down the road with this project for the gremlins to have remained. Teachers need to know that when they try to use it, GLOW will work.
- Poor project management has glossed over issues of reliability and funding in the race to sign up the holy grail of the full 32 LA’s. Too much hype and spin and not enough management. A simple SWOT analysis would have highlighted issues of sharing resources and quality assurance. More experienced classroom practitioners with actual day to day experience in using GLOW regularly as a part of planned learning and teaching are needed to bring credibility (in the eyes of teachers in schools) to the national team.
- Issues surround funding. LA’s simply don’t have the money to fund the necessary training. Teachers need time to become confident in the use of GLOW and this needs investment, which has not been forthcoming. The cascade model fails because the cascade of skills is not followed with the necessary funding to consolidate and build on the training gains. LA teams have performed miracles in bringing GLOW thus far. They deserve more support and ring-fenced funding from national government.
- Assumptions made about the digital native kids being at home with the GLOW technology are wide of the mark…GLOW is not BEBO. It’s not intuitive or user-friendly. Kids won’t and don’t use it in the same way and with the same familiarity.
- National moratorium needed on any further development until proper evaluation and impact assessment has taken place. Far too much taxpayer’s money has been spent without proper cost-benefit analysis. Sound project management could have had this built in to the first two years planning.
GLOW lights up Cathkin High opening celebration…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: December 2, 2009
It’s nice to be able to write about a GLOW success story….
Our school had it’s rather belated opening ceremony today. Invited guests and civic dignitaries watched many of our students performing in a celebration of the life of the school. The ’street’ area is too small to assemble the whole school so we had to find another way of involving as many of the staff and students as possible…and so enter GLOW.
I’ve always been somewhat of a fan of GLOW Meet. I use it in different way perhaps than originally intended, for peer assisted working (creative subversion at work I suppose) as I’ve often documented on this blog, but today, we used it to stream sound and video from the event into most of the classrooms in the school. With excellent technical support from the South lanarkshire GLOW team, who worked incredibly hard to ensure that school staff did not encounter any problems during the event (big thanks to Jim, Margaret and their team for helping to make everything run so smoothly 
) everything worked well and GLOW Meet performed brilliantly without a hitch, allowing 800 people who would have not been able to see the events to become involved.
A great example of how technology such as GLOW can enhance the wider school experience of our staff and young people…
MJ Online article
Posted by: mimanifesto on: November 25, 2009
Here’s the link to the article by Merlin on agent4change.net.
Thanks for all the comments so far on twitter
SLF09 – presentation
Posted by: mimanifesto on: November 21, 2009
Finally, I’ve got round to posting the few slides I used during my presentation at this year’s Scottish Learning festival. As I said at the time, this presentation was my penultimate one on the work I’ve done with GLOW. The last will be this coming week at the SERA09 conference in Perth, when I present the findings from the extended study into the actual effectiveness of GLOW in the classroom. Having used it for two years now, and having seen little improvement in the clunky and unintuitive platform over this time, I think it’s time to look around the edges of the GLOW-blinkers at some of the other things out there which could do the job better and more cost-effectively. In effect, disruptive technologies to the GLOW behemoth itself. This is what I’m currently engaged in with the electronic voting systems work, where the technology enhances the peer-assisted learning through formative assessment approaches.
I think though, that its good news for GLOW that Andrew Brown has just been appointed GLOW-supremo. At last, after a long period of uncertainty and lack-lustre project management, there is someone at the helm with an intuitive feel for 21st century pedagogies. Can he drag GLOW out of its current doldrums and inject some reality into the whole shebang ? this remains to be seen, but it’s the best chance the project has if the injection of yet more public millions is not to alienate hard pressed and IT-cynical teachers across Scotland and their employers, many of whom are struggling to fund the basics under the tightest financial settlement for many years…
From an earlier blog post, the quote from J Spencer still rings true about GLOW…
“Government projects in education fail because they are conceived ‘top down’ by bureaucrats who forget that they have to be made to work by humans on the ground. When you set systems against the grain of human nature you fall into totalitarianism – consequently failure at some point in the future is all but guaranteed”.
This will happen with GLOW unless the project is subjected to some rigerous national impact assessment and evaluation. This is what I’ll be arguing for next week, and I believe it’s absolutely vital if the gains in the use of ICT made over the last two years or so are not to be lost in a welter of budget cuts and indifference.
Here is my presentation from September…
MySpace
Posted by: mimanifesto on: November 20, 2009
Ok – question…. does anyone use ‘MySpace’ for anything nowadays ?
I’ve set up a page, but not really sure how useful it might be….
http://www.myspace.com/jayerichards
and come to think about it, what about Linkedin as well ?
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/jaye-richards/17/a46/162
Clues, or answers on a postcard please
But still trying with other stuff..
mimanifesto
Future models of assessment…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: November 8, 2009
We had the second meeting of the SQA Future models of assessment working group last week. This gave the seven classroom practitioner members an opportunity to report back to the group (and several interested folk from within the SQA management teams) on how their individual assessment projects were taking shape. Very interesting presentations followed from from Neil Winton, Robert Jones, Ian Stuart, Caroline Breyley, Kenney O’Donnell and Donald Macleod and myself on the different assessment activities we are developing and trialling around the country from Shetland and Perth to Glasgow, and Islay to North Berwick. My own work has been focussing very much on formative assessment, using questioning as a means of assessment which drives learning. I’m doing this in two ways. One is students writing assessment instruments which are then attempted by others, and marked by yet another different group, thus giving each individual three ‘bites’ at the assessment cherry, with the aim of promoting deeper learning. The other is in developing higher order questioning using electronic voting systems (EVS) which then becomes a learning stimulus, or ‘catalyst’ where the function of assessment questions is to trigger subsequent deep learning without direct teaching input through investigations by students with subsequent presentations reporting back to the whole class on the correct answers, but also why that particular explanation is correct. The assessment by the teacher and the students (peer-peer is just as valid here) in both projects is on how each learner works both individually and in their groups. I’m currently working on trialling three different platforms of ePortfolio with P7 classes to assess their suitability as platforms for evidence of achievement storage and presentation. My assessment projects will possibly feed into the ePortfolios with a view to their suitability as evidence for the new national literacy and numeracy qualifications.
My thinking is based on the following assumptions..
•Assessment is currently ‘done’ by teachers/examinations to learners to test what they know, and this needs to change…
•Examinations have had their day…
•Assessment IS for learning…not for testing…
•In the future, school-based qualifications will be based on formative evidence collected by learners and their teachers and be a gateway to further study at tertiary and higher levels, or employment and training.…
•Any future model of assessment demonstrates life skills not memory..
All the projects from around the country had the assessment of the process rather than just knowledge gained as the significant factor. The demonstration of life skills (where knowledge is never more than a couple of clicks away) such as search and retrieval, analysis and evaluation, presentation, coherence and relevance, as well as social skills in team working and responsibility and organisation of workloads and tasks to be carried out. Peer assessment was common to all as well.
What we are all now thinking about is just how we can accurately assess all of these factors to provide a rounded and fair representation of the true abilities of each learner in a way which can have some national credibility. Of course, this may involve materials and exemplars from the National Assessment Resource (NAR) which will come on line from next August but also has to promote the professionalism of the teaching profession by trusting teachers to make judgements based on sound assessment practice which involves the learners as full partners in their progress and achievement.
It’s to their credit that the SQA is now very candid about the current examination system being unfit for purpose, and that there is a need for a change. The end of the annual exam diet and a move to online assessment ‘on demand’ to suit learners and not administration is very welcome, together with the recognition that it is skills and process which should be assessed rather than knowledge. It’s disappointing, therefore that many local education authorities are insisting on keeping their 5-14 testing regimes, despite the introduction of ACfE. These are artificial tests which give nothing more than a snapshot of a student’s performance on a particular day, at a particular time and on a narrow selection of material. They are certainly not a true reflection of the true abilities of a learner and are therefore mistrusted by many teachers. The professional judgement of a teacher must surely be a truer and more accurate reflection of progress and any future model of assessment must be grounded upon this premise….and enhanced by assessment instruments which demonstrate achievement rather than memory.
Our work in this group at national level, and our approach of ‘what if…..’ is perhaps a good start in driving forward the 21st century assessment agenda. Things do need to change, and an approach such as this at local level might help shift education from a reactive to a more proactive schema…
GLOW and student engagement – the qualitative stuff..
Posted by: mimanifesto on: October 27, 2009
Here is the abstract from the latest phase of our GLOW/ICT research project. I’m going to post a summary of the data and conclusions later. This was written by Elianne Ashwood who was working with me before last year, and it’s printed with her permission, and should be attributed in the usual way
A mixed bag of results, some good, some not so good. More to come soon.
Abstract
This study is a follow-up to recent research conducted on the effects of introducing Glow (the Scottish School’s Digital Network) to the school curriculum. The possible cause of findings which reveal an increase in attainment for those pupils regularly using Glow in comparison to pupils experiencing their normal lessons are investigated in this study, through observations of Glow and Non-Glow lessons during which pupil and teacher activity and behaviour is recorded with the use of a structured coding system and categories for coding particular pupil and teacher activity and behaviour. Past research investigates a number of interventions, several which involve Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that make use of internet and other curriculum related resources, instant messaging and discussion boards for instance; all or which were highlighted as effective and beneficial tools in empowering pupils. In particular, this study focuses on the effects of Glow as an intervention in terms of the amount of time pupils spend ‘on task’ and how much task related interaction occurs between pupils and between pupils and teachers. Findings from observations reveal that more on task and less off task activity occurs during Glow lessons in comparison to Non Glow lessons. More task related pupil-to-pupil interaction was found to occur in Glow lessons in comparison to Non Glow lessons, with mixed findings for non-task related pupil-to-pupil interaction. However, no significant differences were found between Glow and Non Glow lessons in terms of pupil to teacher and teacher to pupil task and non-task related interactions. Findings are discussed in relation to previous research and a number of suggestions are put forward, which may go some way in explaining these findings. Limitations and suggestions for future research are also discussed. This pilot study reveals findings, which are informative and perhaps valuable for future research in this area.
Work-life balance – a rediscovery
Posted by: mimanifesto on: October 14, 2009
Things have been very quiet on this blog of late. Now I’ve threatened to go quiet in the past, usually with much fanfare and then kept on blogging anyway. This time, I just sort of faded away. A combination of many things prompted this quasi- web 2.0 disappearance ( I also went very dark on twitter and facebook too) including my daughter getting very ill, a momentous change (for the better) in ‘domestic’ circumstances, a confidence crisis just after getting my promoted post and recovery from surgery and illness. All this stress, I guess, makes you consider just what you are all about and where you want to be. What I have found of late is a rediscovery of the ability to let go of things. Other folk have taken on stuff at work that I previously did, and it’s happened at home too, and I’m now finding that I’m able to focus very much on me and mine in a way that for two years at least, I think I’d forgotten, or at least lost sight of. So I’ve spent the last 3 months recuperating, hospital visiting (things got a bit hairy there at times, as some of you will be aware !) moving house and looking after teenage children again (something I certainly thought I’d seen the last of !). And I’m now looking forward to the birth of my third grandchild (and first granddaughter). I think having been forced almost to take some time out has been good for me in reflecting upon where I want to be in both my professional and personal lives. I have a much clearer focus, both on the end and the means of getting there.
And there’s much to look forward to over the coming year. My new principal teacher post has a very broad remit !! so much to get my teeth into there, including work on ePortfolios using blogs, Wiki’s and MyGlow in our learning community primary schools as well as continuing the games-based learning work using Guitar Hero World Tour. The EVS research project starts next week in our High school tracking attainment of two parallel S1 classes. We have been busy this week at Glasgow University writing higher order questions for use with the voting system software which really push learning skills at the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. This novel use of voting systems will be tracked over the next few months until March next year.
My next post will be on the continuing GLOW research. I’m going to be giving a presentation on this at the SERA conference in November this year (which will be the last ever time I speak about GLOW, by the way) when we will be making available the data from the extended project which followed an S3/4 cohort through their entire Biology standard grade course using GLOW as the means of delivering ICT. The hard work of writing the journal papers can then begin. Despite a somewhat sniffy attitude from some in Scottish education, this has succeeded in its original purpose (and has been brilliantly supported by the GTCS) in shining a little spotlight on just how effective (or not) GLOW has been in raising attainment and school improvement. I’m just putting the finishing touches to a piece about qualitative aspects of this research, based on an honours thesis written by a research student who looked at GLOW using classroom activity coding.. I think its the first piece of research measuring the effects of GLOW on student engagement and it’s impact upon learning and teaching time. I’m saddened that there is so little evaluation of such an expensive national project taking place, and, I actually think its a shame that in their rush for the ‘full 32’ , Learning and teaching Scotland appears to have sacrificed sound project management on the alter of hype and spin, and that some breathing space for a comprehensive evaluation of the GLOW project nationally so far is now called for. Perhaps the forthcoming government report on this organisation will lead to a more robust approach to quality assurance here.
Time will tell…
EVS, GLOW, and raising attainment.
Posted by: mimanifesto on: August 5, 2009
I had a very productive meeting with a couple of colleagues today discussing the proposed Electronic Voting System (EVS) research project we’re planning to carry out (with the help of a couple of UG research students from the university) in school over the course of the next session. The design and methodology for this project are now taking shape nicely. Basically, it uses the idea of higher-order questions becoming learning objectives at the start of a week. The questions are asked and voted upon acting as a ‘brain-teaser almost. This reveals the extent of existing knowledge. The answer choices are then removed, and the remaining questions become the learning stimuli. The class splits into groups and each group is tasked with researching the questions, finding the answers, explaining why these answers are correct, and presenting this information to the rest of the class in some way (of their choice). At the end of the week, the questions are posed again and the difference in scores for each answer noted. The difference is a measure of learning attainment. I was looking today at a great program, written by Dr Quintin Cutts of Glasgow University’s computer science department, which analyses differences in voting responses for each student and each question. Essentially, it provides visual information on how each student’s choices change, from incorrect to correct, away from correct, and all other combinations. This gives really valuable information on the learning processes taking place, and the influence of these activities on learning. In other words, how effective are the activities on student attainment. The university are going to be using the WordWall system. I’m currently using Turning Point, but will be looking closely at WordWall as well. Their handsets have different options including a ‘Joystick’ mode. They are exhibiting at this year’s Learning Festival so check them out if you’re going along.
Research by Mazur suggests the learning gains from this type of use of questioning is highly transferable, both within and across curricular areas. Dr Steve Draper describes and develops this concept more fully in his recent BJET paper, calling approaches of this type ‘Catalytic Questioning’ (copies from Dr Draper on request if you don’t have an academic library access). We are going to try and gather some information on this by using a third set of similar but different questions assessing the same knowledge ( isomorphic questioning) maybe a couple of weeks later. As our S1 science topics usually last 4-5 weeks, assessed by an end of topic test, we will be able to compare my S1 intervention class with my other S1 class over the whole S1 year-long science course, and with the 10 other S1 classes taught by my colleagues. The members of each group will self-evaluate their own learning, as well as the contribution of each of their group members, and the other group’s presented work. We will also attempt to carry out a coding exercise similar to the one we used for the GLOW/ICT lessons to help measure time on task in the project/non project classes.
I’m excited by this project as I think it’s shifting the perception of technology as a ‘gimmicky’ occasional thing to a more embedded feature of everyday learning. I’m not convinced that EVS are being used effectively in many meaningful ways in schools other than qualitatively (fun, engagement etc) yet and certainly not as a tool for raising attainment quantitatively. Of course, the technology is just the means of using well thought out pedagogy to improve learning, in this case, questioning and peer-assisted learning. What is also important is reinforcing the links between educational research and everyday classroom activity in a way that is sometimes not done.
The other project I’m working on is my extended use of GLOW/ICT to raise attainment. My intervention class have just had their standard grade results, and it’s looking like this class has maintained their attainment gains over the rest of their Biology cohort. Particularly, the middle ability students appear to have been shifted from a general to a credit level of achievement. Two things jump out from the extended study;
1 – time on task (measured by classroom activity coding) is greatly improved in the ICT-based classes. Teacher time assisting individual pupils is also much greater than in non-ICT classes. This might be one explanation for the attainment gains.
2- It appears that working in this way can somehow boost a teacher’s ‘results’ to those of the level of much more experienced colleagues. Dylan William found that teacher experience was the greatest influence on attainment, and my own data tends to suggest that GLOW/ICT might be able to compensate for a lack of comparable experience when measuring the effect of pedagogy on attainment. Certainly, in looking at the data, (and the fact that classes are genuinely of mixed ability and randomly assigned to teachers) it would appear that my own class results are comparable to those of vastly more experienced colleagues.
We are still working on the classroom coding paper, and hope to have this ready by September.
Whatever the reasons though, it does appear that using GLOW as a platform in this project, to deliver the embedded ICT has significantly and positively impacted upon attainment. The big advantage of using GLOW has been that it has provided a good way of combining all the different tools under one ‘umbrella’ . This is not to say that GLOW is perfect-far from it I’d like to think there is a role for GLOW to play in the development of ePortfolios for assessment, but at the moment I’m just not seeing this, apart from using ‘My Glow’ perhaps.
Despite the shortcomings however, I still believe it’s a great starting point for many folk in their use of technology in the classroom. Lets hope that more of Scotland’s LA’s start to help their teachers and students meaningfully engage with GLOW as the year progresses and that it will truly achieve the national usage which was always intended.
iPhone gets intimate….
Posted by: mimanifesto on: July 31, 2009
I’ve blogged in the past about the uber-geekiness of that charmless and ubiquitous slab of black plastic known as the iPhone, and the headlong rush by many folk into ownership, together with the craze for downloading quirky but ultimately useless apps, but the latest one just about takes the biscuit…
Now, you can download an app that claims to be able to rate your sexual performance ! apparently, and I quote…
“….claims to rate your sexual performance using the phone’s microphone and accelerometer. Simply start the application and put your iPhone on the bed. Have intercourse. You are then scored out of ten on duration and vigour”
I had to do a double take when I read about this, courtesy of Jonathon Margolis in the Daily Mail ( yes, yes, I was in a hospital waiting room and I didn’t actually buy the rag)..
Of course, this makes many assumptions about our sex-lives such as actually doing it in bed for a start. Will some folk be tempted to use the app whilst in a passionate clinch on the laundry room worktop with the washing machine humming away underneath, or fake it for the microphone, just to boost their ego’s ? The mind boggles.
Lets hope it’s scores are not used as a drinking boast – particularly in conjunction with the measurement app which is in cm’s but often changes after imbibation of alcohol, to inches….
Who, I wonder, amongst the Scottish education twitter/blogeratti will be the first to try it out and have the cojones to report back(honestly) on the efficacy of the results ?
Why top-down initiatives in education sometimes fail…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: July 25, 2009
An interesting letter in a recent edition of the Herald (Tuesday 23rd June) provides a much more objective view of the recent graduation of Scotland’s first teachers qualified to teach Mandarin, and the Confucius classroom ‘hub’ schools set up to further the teaching of Mandarin. In the letter, Prof. Stuart Picken argues that if Scotland had been serious about its desire to develop trade and cultural links with China, the opportunities have existed for many years, and in fact, it’s really Japan which is far more important to our economy that China anyway, through inward investment into infrastructure and trade. He further argues that when one compares Scotland’s education system (underpinned as it is by a philosophy of non-competitive group and social collaboration) to that of China which rigidly pushes an extremely competitive agenda for life, Scotland is doomed to be an economic backwater by comparison.
Now I’m not sure I agree with Professor Picken’s analysis here, but it opens up a wider point for me, anyway, about the nature of the Scottish educational establishment, which is characterised by top-down management and hierarchies which promulgate a system of expensive white elephants, under-funded initiatives and vast sums of money being poured into the pet favourites of the prevalent political colour. How many teaching posts could be funded if these combined initiatives and events were either slimmed down, properly managed or axed ? and how much more of an impact would this have on learning and teaching ?
Sheila Lawlor, writing in the Guardian is advocating this as a way of paying teachers higher salaries in return for better qualifications…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/22/teachers-social-mobility
I think the time is approaching when we need to take a long hard look at how the total education slice of the financial pie is spent, especially on non frontline services which don’t have a regulatory or statutory function. The same test could also be applied to other sectors in our society such as the health service, social work, and the uniformed services. Michael Lipsky coined the phrase, “street level bureaucrats” to describe what he felt were the ordinary folk on the ground, walking the streets, on whom successful policy change and adoption was, in his view dependent. Those who actually implement and carry out the changes. He was arguing (translated to education), as was Terry Wrigley (2008) that without the consent and acquiescence of teachers, top-down policy is bound to fail, or at least struggle to gain acceptance. Good leadership is vital if we are to achieve consensus and acceptance of the need for change in our schools. Michael Fullan rightly, in my view stresses the importance of emotional leadership setting the tone in which change can take place, particularly if one agrees with his assertion that behaviours change before beliefs.
The following quote is one of those I’ve harvested from somewhere but forgotten to reference (So if its yours, I apologise for using it without acknowledgement). It says more about our education establishment and its pet projects and national bodies than I ever could, and much more surgically too..
“Government projects in education fail because they are conceived ‘top down’ by bureaucrats who forget that they have to be made to work by humans on the ground. When you set systems against the grain of human nature you fall into totalitarianism – consequently failure at some point in the future is all but guaranteed”.
References
Fullan, M. (2007) The New Meaning of Educational Change. Routledge, London.
Wrigley, T. (2008) School Improvement in a neo-liberal world. Journal of Educational Administration and History 40, 2. 129- 148
On society, inclusion, and evolving attitudes….
Posted by: mimanifesto on: July 15, 2009
- In: Equality| Inclusion| homophobia
- 1 Comment
I think we’d all agree that society (whatever definition one gives to this term) evolves over time. Things don’t remain static and with this change, beliefs and values also evolve. I’ve certainly seen the way society treats minority groups change, and very much for the better, over the past thirty years or so. It would be unthinkable nowadays, to shut away unmarried pregnant women, or to sterilise and institutionalise the mentally handicapped. The kind of jokes made about people’s ethnic origin have all but disappeared from our newspapers and television screens, and civil partnerships, although not perfect, give important legal standing and recognition to same-sex couples (and I don’t believe it will be long before full marriage between same-sex couples, already a fact in many of our European neighbours, will be legislated for here in Scotland and the wider UK).
As society evolves, so to must the structures in society evolve. In our schools, we try hard to deal with bullying on any pretext, although most schools could probably do more, particularly, as the statistics tend to suggest, on homophobic bullying. Even the police have changed too. Looking back at the words written by Tom Robinson in 1978 for his song, “Glad to be Gay” I think many folk would find it hard to believe that the police regularly bullied and stigmatised the LGBT community….
“The British Police are the best in the world
I don’t believe one of these stories I’ve heard
‘Bout them raiding our pubs for no reason at all
Lining the customers up by the wall
Picking out people and knocking them down
Resisting arrest as they’re kicked on the ground
Searching their houses and calling them queer
I don’t believe that sort of thing happens here”
I remember this kind of thing happening all too well.
Tom went on in another verse (in the updated version of the song) to write about the media, another important structure in society which undoubtedly has had to change its style of reporting over the last 30 years….
“The papers in Britain are really the pits
Commissioned by bigots & written by shits
They plaster their pages with bingo & tits
Then add all the scandal and slander that fits
They pick out their victims, destroying their lives
They sneer as they smear as they damn and despise
If it’s paedophile teachers or lesbian nuns
If it’s filth and it’s fiction… it’s there in The Sun”.
You can download all the mp3 versions of this song, and all his other recordings for free from Tom Robinson.com
Of course, recent goings on in the church here in Scotland have focussed attention on equality. The Scott Rennie affair has pushed the attitudes in the Church of Scotland into the limelight recently and the Episcopal church in America has been debating the appointment of openly gay Bishops.
And perhaps it’s also fitting, and a reflection of the modern tolerant society today’s Scotland aspires to be that a lead on equality came this Sunday from a senior churchman in Glasgow. Whilst the Church of Scotland prevaricates and fudges, the free churches spout their usual bigotry, and the Catholic church offers only condemnation and exclusion , the very reverend Kelvin Holdsworth, Provost of St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow gave a thoughtful and very brave interview to Scotland on Sunday. I think he speaks on our hopes for the future of our society far more eloquently than I ever could.
Of course, many play the selective quoting of the bible game here, but to me, the real issue is not what was written in a few tracts here and there, but the meanings of the words in the context of the time in which they were written. The bible reflects the cultural context of the time and it’s one which has changed immeasurably over the thousands of years which have passed. That’s why we no longer sacrifice our animals, or even our first-born sons, and have no qualms about wearing clothes made up of mixtures of fibres. It’s why we would also consider wife-beating unacceptable.
I’m no theologian. I find some parts of the bible unintelligible to be honest, but I can’t believe for one moment that the God in which I believe would create men and women who are born gay and lesbian and then deny them the comfort and support of a loving and committed relationship. If the churches are going to survive then they have to do as they have always done and reflect the changes in society. After all, many have done that before over the years with regard to animal sacrifice, translating the bible from the Latin, remarriage and the ordination of women priests.
I’ve never managed to find anything in the bible which condemns or forbids loving, stable and committed same-sex relationships, in fact there doesn’t appear to be anything at all on this (although I’m happy to be corrected). Nowadays, If I do read the bible, then its usually the psalms, mainly for the beauty of the language and the messages of joy, peace and acceptance you can usually find there. Psalm 118 has a particularly apt verse 22. It says this…
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone”
Maybe this could be taken (in the context of today’s culture anyway) to mean that those people who in past times, society has ridiculed, rejected and persecuted are actually now able, through changed attitudes and acceptance, to take their proper place in contributing to the building of communities which are better, fairer and more just, and take their rightful places in the structures which make up society, including the church.
Provost Holdsworth and the Episcopal church have given a courageous lead on the true meaning of equality which many others might do well to consider, not just in the churches, but in all walks of life and in all the many parts which make up and underpin our society here in Scotland and further afield. Especially if we aspire to live in a world which truly values each and every one of us for who, rather than what, we are.
Harry Potter and the half-blood prince
Posted by: mimanifesto on: July 14, 2009
I went to a special press screening of the new Harry Potter film yesterday. It’s not out on general release until tomorrow, so I guess i was quite lucky to get a sneak preview. The experience was enhanced by seeing parts of the film in 3-D, courtesy of the Glasgow IMAX cinema at Glasgow’s Science centre. They really pushed the boat out for this screening with special interactive displays, exhibits, and wonderful potions and food on offer whilst we waited for the film to start…..
I think it’s the best film adaptation of these books so far. The human aspects and relationships really come to the fore as the magic moves into a supporting role and the characters really start to develop their complexities. It could almost be subtitled “Wizards on Hormones” I think. Anyway, if you’re thinking of going have a read of this review. It sets the tone without giving too much of the game away.
Moving forward with IT
Posted by: mimanifesto on: July 9, 2009
The recent OFSTED report , talking about ICT initiatives in England and Wales makes the following point…
despite the heavy investment in ICT there was no evidence of the “systematic evaluation of the impact on learning”
Read the report summary, courtesy of Merlin John online here…
I’ve often written about my own feelings on the lack of quantitative research on ICT. I think that with such vast sums of money spent on ICT (including GLOW at some £37.5 millions on development and running costs rising every year) its so important to evaluate this on a cost-benefit basis, and in particular, on its possible impact upon attainment. It was one of the reasons behind my own research last year and the continuation of that research this year.
Whilst there are understandable tensions between school improvement (qualitative and mainly self evaluated) and school achievement (quantitative and attainment driven) and we go too far in one direction at our peril, the fact remains that investment must be justified by measurable gains of some sort. I’m no fan of the current examination system which the SQA itself admits is no longer fit for purpose, but when we get it right, assessment can be used to measure the efficacy of embedding ICT into learning and teaching; that it’s added value to student attainment.
And that’s why, particularly in these very challenging times, financially, we need to pause and evaluate the current state of play with our own national ICT initiative. These’s no denying that GLOW has been a groundbreaking force for good in Scottish education and has changed the way increasing numbers of us do things, but after using it regularly in class and out since October 2007, I know it has it’s faults which need to be addressed, and that’s why any talk of a version 2 needs to be put on hold until a proper evaluation has taken place. We simply cannot, as a nation, afford to invest more millions on a system which has yet, despite the positive spin from LTS, to be used effectively in vast swathes of the country. It’s unfortunately, not yet a national intranet perhaps as much due to political as well as financial constraints, with the two largest cities in the country making little if no progress towards regular wholesale classroom use. Particularly at a time when LA’s all over Scotland are operating in a difficult financial climate which has resulted in teachers being declared surplus in many schools across the country. Further large scale investment without a realistic evaluation and analysis is simply not, in my view, politically expedient.
The big issues, distilled from experience and discussions, as I see them are….
1 – QA and IPR issues are effectively preventing official sharing of resources. The ability to do this would attract many more users. For more discourse on this visit this link and this link
2 – GLOW is initially time consuming, particularly the VLE. This effectively precludes wide scale use as hard pressed staff just don’t have the time to upload resources one by one as well as completing an extensive tagging process. This has been debated extensively on twitter
3 – It’s slow and clunky by design. Uploading resources one at a time, and navigation issues are frustrating. Working through ‘My GLOW groups’ can be a fiendish exercise ! Design is not user-friendly or intuitive compared to using a Wiki or Blog.
To my mind, the cumulative result of this is that GLOW has become a vehicle for primary school projects and a means of facilitating on-line communities of practice populated by teachers and local/national educational organisation colleagues. Some of these GLOW groups are temporary and transient in nature, others have more longevity. Whilst this is certainly a good thing, and a progression of the journey to more widespread use of technology, it is nevertheless stalled at the point of more widespread use in the secondary sector with the very real danger of not meeting the expectations of primary pupils moving across to their secondary schools, and this is, I feel, a tremendous opportunity lost.
I have to admit to feeling disappointment that LTS, as the managing body overseeing GLOW have chosen not to engage in the debate, in any meaningful way, about these issues, but perhaps this is symptomatic of the headlong rush to the supposed holy grail of the ‘full 32’ at the expense of sound project management and full consideration of the pertinent issues, described above. The culture of secrecy surrounding the evolution of GLOW (commercial considerations notwithstanding) is something that disturbs me, particularly in this age of disruptive technologies and flattened hierarchies, where such open and honest engagement would certainly better inform decisions regarding the future directions, although perhaps this is symptomatic again, of the top-down hegemony in our society’s political and social structures and almost, in a way, iatrogenic in nature (with our national bodies cast in the role of physician).
In the spring of last year, I attended a workshop which looked at a series of modifications termed v1.1 which was intended to be a sort of half way house to v2.0 addressing some of the identified design issues. Now this was confidential (due to commercial sensitivity, we were told) but as a year has passed and others have mentioned it, I guess it’s ok to talk about this now, particularly as so many of the proposed modifications were very sensible and would have improved the user experience by no small measure. To my mind, this, coupled with the type of evaluation I’ve proposed above could be an eminently more sensible way in which to proceed . I think we need to get the current model right, and working well across the whole country before proceeding to expensive new models and major redesign processes. With the way and speed web 2.0 technology is progressing, a v2.0 might be an expensive and outdated irrelevance by the time the design and procurement process has been completed.
To summarise,
* I think there is much value in the developmental pathway which has resulted in GLOW groups, but the whole membership process needs to be streamlined. Groups will continue to provide valuable working spaces and resource repositories. The ability to combine tools such as videoconferencing and discussion boards are valuable tools for both learning and teaching and staff development in a safe moderated environment, essential when interacting with students in and out of school.
* The explosion in staff networking, for some folk, their first experiences of on-line collaboration, is very welcome as it provides a taste of what’s possible in the web 2.0 world beyond the ‘walled garden’ of GLOW. This has indeed acted as a springboard into further and more sophisticated on-line communities for many colleagues. The national CPD team are to be commended for their fantastic work in recognising the potential and using GLOW in some very innovative ways.
*Future development of the GLOW platform needs to build on these successes by fine tuning rather than wholesale re-engineering along the lines of the proposed v1.1 modifications, which would address issues of multiple upload, calendar synchronisation, navigation and user-friendliness and more choice in design interface. A v2.0 would be prohibitively expensive, confusing, and maybe even unnecessary, certainly as the majority of Scotland’s teachers have yet to engage with GLOW in any meaningful sense.
* Spending significant sums of money on a v2.0 in the challenging economic climate in which we currently operate would only result in more resistance and opposition to the use of technology from those who may normally be open to the potential for change, particularly with colleagues being made surplus, and so many unemployed teachers across the country. In any case, with the pace of technological change quickening year by year, is a static learning platform which might very rapidly become obsolete best use of scarce public funds. Surely a way of using open source tools in a safe secure environment should be our ultimate goal (visit this link for discourse on this)
* LTS needs to take an advocacy role in bringing together LA’s in order to reach agreement on the QA/IPR sharing resources issues. I really believe that this will be the biggest single factor in encouraging much wider use of GLOW in the secondary sector (other than availability, of course, which will remain an issue for the foreseeable future for vast swathes of the country). I’ve written before on this point. Without this issue being resolved, I don’t see any future for the GLOW Learn VLE which requires a huge investment of time up-front in order to set up courses and complete the tagging process. The ability to share and access ready-made courses could be a huge selling point which would make the time investment much more worthwhile.
* It’s time for a national debate on the future of the GLOW project, along the lines of the recent subject summits, which engages with a comprehensive representation of Scottish teachers, not just those of us who have been involved with GLOW from the start, and the twitter/blog communities, but those who currently are not engaged in the debate
I’ve been working with GLOW for the best part of two academic years now. I think it truly has the potential to change Scottish education for the better. I know this, having extensively evaluated it’s impact on attainment quantitatively and latterly, on more qualitative achievement indicators (as the second phase of my GTCS research). Our classroom coding work may point us in the direction of being able to answer some of the questions posed by John Connell and others as to an explanation of just how the attainment gains are realised. We now have data for a whole student cohort for an entire standard grade course, taught with regular embedded use of GLOW and are currently analysing and discussing this information. Hopefully, the findings from this extended phase of the project will be available, at least in part, by September. However, the original research was all about embedding ICT into the secondary school curriculum. GLOW just happened to be the platform for the delivery of this IT element, it being expedient at the time due to my LA being an early adopter.
Whilst GLOW has been a good entry point for many in their use of technology, what I now have to consider is this… could these gains have been achieved using other web-based technology along the lines of those suggested by the Ed Techie blog ?
Suggestions on a virtual postcard, please….
New term – New job…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: June 29, 2009
It’s been a really intense school year, what with the onward march of GLOW, a couple of research projects, ACfE, and the ‘BrainBoosters’ primary/secondary games-based learning project. Lots of interesting work so the feeling of moving slowly towards the summer break was really kicking in last week big time. Add to this another knee operation, and the recovery, as well as a job interview and you have a recipe for exhaustion. So it was really a great feeling to get a phone call to let me know that I’d been successful at interview been offered a new job.
So, from the start of the new school session in August, I will be the Principal teacher for the Cathkin learning community. Its a new flexible PT post with quite a wide remit. Some of the key tasks and duties of this post are…
1. To contribute to raising attainment and achievement through the dissemination of good practice within establishments and across the Learning Community.
2. To facilitate the delivery of In-service training as required.
3. To ensure that the work undertaken is compatible with current educational thinking e.g. A Curriculum for Excellence.
4. To focus mainly although not exclusively on the P7-S1 interface.
5. To be flexible and adaptable in promoting current innovative practice.
6 . To support a culture and promote a range of strategies to raise attainment and achievement within establishments and across the Learning Community.
I’m really excited about this new job, as it means I can carry on much of the work I’ve been doing on a small scale over the last couple of years, still keep grounded in my own classroom, and continue to support colleagues with their own development, particularly with ICT and the use of games to enhance learning, but in a more ‘formal’ capacity. I sure that my own progress from completing probation in 2005 to this promoted post has been due in no small part to my own professional learning network, and all the advice, help, and ideas that such an extended community of practice can bring to career development.
I’ve always been a big supporter of the learning community concept as a way of supporting a seamless journey through a learning program for our children and young people that’s holistic, skills-based, individual and appropriate, and as far as possible, uninterrupted by the somewhat artificial and constructed ‘stages’ our education system currently throws up as potential barriers to learning – we label them as ‘transition’ stages. I believe the joins between these stages need to become much less visible, and hopefully, I can help the process of smoothing some of them down in my new role.
Of course, the learning community is good for staff development as well, and over the past few years, as I’ve worked in the different establishments, I’ve felt a real sense that the Cathkin Learning community is coming together as an important and very real community of practice – people with shared aims and visions coming together to further their individual and shared learning journeys. Many of these establishments feed into our high school and we owe it to the young people to ensure that they have a positive learning experience which continues the good work done by their primary schools, is free from fear and uncertainty, and that’s appropriate for their own individual needs, both in the academic and emotional/social aspects of their time at school and teachers can play such a significant and influential role in this journey. . I look forward to further supporting colleagues through promoting innovative and cutting edge practice, and developing this aspect of our work in the learning community over the next few years.
Seth Godin on Tribes and leadership
Posted by: mimanifesto on: June 27, 2009
I know many have read Seth’s latest book ‘Tribes’….there’s a great TED talk he gave in February here..
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html
Professional learning networks…but personal too…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: June 20, 2009
- In: PLN| networking
- 2 Comments
This was going to be my second post on the Islay Education 2020 unconference, but that’s going to have to wait a little. I’ve just come out of hospital after having an operation on my knee. It was one of those not-too-serious ops, but one which has a reputation for being quite painful during recovery. And as I lie here on my couch under the influence of some serious players in the painkiller rankings, its a reputation which is certainly true, but if it allows me to put off a knee replacement for another couple of years than I guess it will be worth the couple of weeks of suffering.
Now the real point of this short post, I guess is on social networking. Many of us use networks such as Twitter as a large part of our professional learning networks. Many even proclaim it to be their ‘Google’. All justified, and of course, I use it in this way as well, but that I also use it as a social network for chat and conversation, and its a great addendum to my face to face social life. It was this on-line support that really came into its own earlier this week as I was about to go into hospital. Having a strong reliable support network is vital to everyone’s health and well being, particularly in the ever stressful jobs many of us in education do, and my twitter network is a significant part of my own support system. I’d like to think that we all recognise the need for a good support network in life and furthermore, realise how effective our on-line networking can be in contributing to this. Those who decry on-line networking ( as a few misguided souls did during the unconference) as a poor substitute for face to face contact are missing the point somewhat, I think. In this increasingly global environment in which we live and work, face to face meeting can be very rare, limited by much more than geography. Strong relationships can and are established on-line, something which was very apparent on Islay last weekend as even those who had never met face to face established an ease of conversation that would normally have only happened amongst close friends who might meet face to face many times. research is increasingly backing this up, and I can certainly attest to how powerful this support has been to me on quite a few occasions over the past year or so, and in particular this week.
So a big thank you to all who tweeted and DM’d their best wishes. I hope you know I’m there for you should you ever need this type of support.
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