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…

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.

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…

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.

I’ve often used this blog to write a little about my thoughts on equality and inclusion and in particular, homophobia in schools and the real damage to so many lives it causes. Here is a collection of these posts, grouped together in one page.

Why do I often write about these issues ? well, I guess for many reasons, most of which are highly personal.  My own experiences in life have left me with a real sense of sadness at the prejudice and injustice which despite changing attitudes and legislation, remains, at least in part, in many parts of our society, including, I’m sad to say, schools. Many LGBT teachers are not comfortable with ‘coming out’ for entirely understandable reasons. This is a shame because young people coming to terms with their own sexuality, often in the face of ridicule and often real hostility in schools need role-models. Challenging homophobic remarks is  unfortunately something many teachers just won’t do and this is a shame. The little snide remarks, the derogatory use of the word ‘gay’ and the playground catcalls all build up into an overwhelming barrage of negativity for young LGBT people in schools and this really needs to change.

These posts expand on my own views and hopes….

An article I wrote for the Times Educational Supplement (Scotland) in 2003

http://mimanifesto.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/equal-under-the-law-but-maybe-not-so-equal-in-schools/

On how education can help to change  some attitudes….

http://mimanifesto.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/how-education-really-can-make-a-difference/

On Scotland taking a lead….

http://mimanifesto.wordpress.com/2008/08/23/scotland-the-braveand-the-pragmatic/

In memory of some….

http://mimanifesto.wordpress.com/2008/11/11/remember-them/

What we can do….

http://mimanifesto.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/self-evaluation-a-wider-purpose/

On brave and courageous action by individuals showing real leadership

http://mimanifesto.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/political-integrity-its-not-all-bad-news-if-we-look-back/

http://mimanifesto.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/on-society-inclusion-and-evolving-attitudes/

If a journey through these posts makes anyone think and reflect upon circumstances and situations and their own experiences, that would be great. Our society is getting better, but there’s still a way to go yet. Schools too need to grasp the reality that is inequality and act. Teachers must be the change agents….who else is able to influence future society as much ?

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 ?

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

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.

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.

http://mediaeyefilm.tripod.com/id117.html

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…

http://bit.ly/hUxZE

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….

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.

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

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.  

Arriving at Islay High School early last Friday morning in the glorious sunshine, it was easy to forget the 0400hrs start from Glasgow. Some great company and conversation in the car with David Noble, Maureen Park and driven by Katie Barrowman and so the journey up to Kennacraig passed by through some amazing scenery in a relative flash. Gorgeous sunshine for the sea crossing as well as whale spotting and we were soon there.

The morning’s activities started with coffee in the school library. It was great to catch up with some familiar faces and to finally meet, face to face, some others. It’s amazing how well you feel you know someone even though all contact has been online through blogs and twitter. Twitter, in particular has a been a boon to those of us who make connections all over the world with educationalists who we would otherwise rarely, if ever, get the chance to meet. All those who decry social networking really need to get off their clouds and give it a go. They’d be amazed at the level of informality which exists between folk at all different levels in education as well as the depth of these on-line friendships and the ease in which they translate into face to face relationships, certainly for the forty or so folk who had journeyed to Islay last week.

Presentations followed on the curriculum and leadership structures at IHS as well as their use of technology. Some of the senior students spoke to us about their experiences of the curriculum, which had a blend of academic and vocational courses. The other notable characteristic was the removal of age-stages, with the S3-6 years being treated as one stage with all these students opting for 5 courses per year. All the young people who spoke were articulate, confident and able to vocalise their opinions and feelings about their high school experience. Indeed the confident aplomb with which they explained their choices and experiences spoke volumes about the success of this particular curriculum model as well as the ownership of learning by the students and commitment and willingness of the staff to go the extra mile on behalf of their youngsters.

It was a similar story from the students (about confidence and success) with whom we spoke whilst on the school tour, visiting classrooms, workshops, hospitality suites and the hairdressing and beauty salons. The walls of the school were covered with examples of young people’s learning, and it was absolutely clear just what this school is about: celebrating its young people’s success and declaring a vision of just where the school wants to be.

The morning was rounded of with an excellent lunch, produced and served by the hospitality students. A break of a couple of hours followed to give us time to check into accommodation before the afternoon and evening activities (distillery tour and Education 2020 unconference). More on these later…

I’ve just returned from a really great weekend away. I’ve been in Islay, where as well as the Education2020 unconference (much more about that in my next post) they were holding this year’s iPhone convention. The streets, bars and hotels were packed full of folk extolling the virtues of their little slabs of black plastic and shiny but slightly greasy screens. Feverish tapping and sliding of fingers across the slick black flashing interfaces was the order of the day…and indeed,  the tip-tapping continued  well into the night. Of course, not everything was all sweetness and light as  the much talked about and dreaded ‘App envy’ swept through the most popular of the local watering holes on the Island. Frantic comparisons of the number of these apps took place (“my app screen is bigger than yours” was definitely the phrase that pays)  and the sheer mind-blowing number some people had managed to cram onto their screens defied belief, with some having to scroll through five screens to find all their apps.  New app development was discussed over copious amounts of the local brews, including an app to assist in the ordering of large rounds. The iPhone really got put through it’s paces as the full extent of its functionality was revealed and taken full advantage of. Some funky choons were played by people blowing into their phones whilst others applauded using a clever little twist on the classic holding up of a  ‘cigarette lighter’ flame to express one’s appreciation of certain musical events – an app displaying a flickering flame. Other apps were used to tell the time, check that the bar and tables were indeed level and the walls were plum, find the way to the toilet, checking for food particles between teeth, ordering the mornings’ breakfast, remembering which way to walk to the bar, and a clever little one which kept a record of whose round it was. Some even managed to use their iPhones to scratch itches, strum iGuitars, play ping-pong, zip up their morph-suits, and create a cunning mini crazy golf course amongst the empty glasses on their tables. Discussions, having turned to important skills acquisition, were livened by the opinion, expressed by one iPhoneophile that a ‘Mac preference’ was vital to future success in life. Sage nodding of heads spread around the room like the ripples which might be caused by the dropping of one of these black uber-phones into the bath (useful if the owner had the bubble-bath maker app of course). Many blurry pictures were taken with the powerful 37 pixel camera’s, but for some strange unexplained reason, no video footage was able to be recorded by the iPhone owning hordes (this was left to those rebels with their Nokia n96’s) However, the proper balance was restored with an exhibition of fixing an iPhone to each shoe, and then performing fine feats of daring-do such as walking across the water from one side of the bay to the other in front of the favoured bar in Bowmore that night, thus proving the almost divine status and miracle working powers accorded these wonderfully versatile machines by their fanatical followers.

And as the iPhones tweeted, and the macs pinged on through the night, the tales continued, of wondrous new apps, and a new more powerful 39 pixel camera, someone brought silence to the revelry by expressing the hope that one day hopefully sooner rather than later, their iPhones would be blessed with the power to actually make regular phone calls ….