After a few weeks of sorting out arrangements, it was a real joy to spend time on secondment with Microsoft earlier this year.  During my time with the Partners in Learning team, I had the huge privilege of working with some inspirational innovative teachers – and it’s good to see a large company sticking to their principle of supporting, nurturing, encouraging and sharing good practice when it comes to the use of technology to enhance education.  Being able to attend the European and US Partners in Learning Forums in Moscow and Seattle respectively was a fantastic opportunity to see how practice is continuing to evolve due to the creative and imaginative uses of technology by teachers from all over the world – definitely a professional highlight!  Of course, standing in Red Square and travelling on the Moscow underground were personal highlights – who’d ever have thought that I’d be able to visit that historic place!  The Seattle trip had another purpose – another professional highlight – as I had been invited to the first Partners in Learning Institute.  It’s hard to describe just how much fun was had with 49 other enthusiastic educators from all over the world! Laughter and learning filled the week in equal measure – the research-based training had depth and substance; the friendships forged are very special and it is wonderful to be able to follow what those friends are doing all over the world through the power of social media!

And as the secondment came to an end and I was preparing to return to the classroom full time, a change in direction led to my joining TES as the IC T subject lead …. You can find out more about what I am doing there; I particularly love my trim waist on my avatar!  Again, the principle of supporting and encouraging professional generosity – which we know drives standards up across education as a whole – is at the forefront and I’m enjoying working with other teachers as they continue to share a fuller range of quality resources – with so much sharing I guess you could say my role is as curator-cum-cheerleader-in-chief for those teachers! And it’s always a huge privilege to be able to go and work with other people’s classes – thanks to all those who let me come and continue being a practising teacher! After all, the children are the reason for sharing resources – so we share good practice, so we don’t have burnt out teachers who are all re-inventing wheels, so we support each other… Working with my lovely new colleagues and the great team that is being established is a huge privilege. The new role has led to this blog being quieter of late and the comments I have about the use of ICT in schools now tends to be via TES and @TESict.

Personal highlights include seeing Les Miserables and Wicked, visiting the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, getting a Kindle, moving house (twice!)…  Buying my own house was remarkably stress free and there were just a couple of hours of nail-biting in the two months of paperwork, so I was extremely fortunate.  The research into Digital Learning Dialogue continues and I hope to be completing that (or should I say the first part of that) and sharing it more widely during 2012 – I’m afraid I’m on my third tutor in a year but that’s due to personnel changes at the university, not because I have scared them off!

Two years ago at the Microsoft UK Innovative Education Forum, Stuart Ball from the Partners in Learning team said that life would potentially change for those who were going onto the European Forum….. life has changed beyond all recognition in the last two years since I was given that amazing opportunity – I remember each step of the journey with fondness and gratitude –  and I’m looking forward with optimism to all the new adventures that 2012 will bring! Who knows what there will be to reflect on next New Year’s Day….

Fist by Filipe Ferreira; Creative Commons Share Alike

There was a call for revolution yesterday at the Roundhouse in London.  Not the
sort of revolution that we have seen that involves civil unrest. Something much
more constructive and lasting – a way forward for education.  A way that gets
back to the basics of education – something that can have an impact on our
society, our economy, that values our culture and the cultures of others, that
is personal and personalised. If the bare minimum that is needed for theatre is
an actor and someone to watch (Peter Brooks via Sir Ken Robinson) and only things that enhance the theatre should be added in, then the bare minimum for education is the relationship between a teacher and a learner. I’d go even further than Sir Ken and suggest
that teacher needn’t be “me” in a classroom – it could be another child, a friend, a parent, an aunt, an outside expert.  But I completely agree (and have often been heard to say!) that learning is dependent on relationships.

Reflecting on the wide variety of speakers  and the conversations I had with others during and after the event, though, I think the title of the event was misleading.  I believe the revolution is already happening. And maybe it isn’t happening as a megachange, as Seymour Papert advocated in The Children’s Thinking Machine. If change is to have a real deep impact and affect more than just a few people in isolated classrooms, it needs to happen in a much more subtle and organic way. As Georgia Mills said, she learnt a lot before attending
the event through social media, online maps, websites – and she wasn’t even in school! Harnessing those tools that are becoming part of everyday lives empowers our learners to be lifelong learners, “Martini” style learners (remember the anytime, anyplace, anywhere adverts from years ago?!).  The tools we use are not as important as the way they are being used – there’s so many ways that technology can provide immersive, direct learning experiences of the kind that we couldn’t experience without the tech. This was touched on by many of the speakers… Nick Stanhope’s 4 dimensional history maps, Max Whitby’s hands on space app, Evan Grant’s use  of the kinect and other tools with autistic children, Scott Snibbe with his innovative music app for Bjork’s album, Dan Roberts’ collaborations.  But all tools that are becoming “normal” in peoples’ everyday lives.  Geoff Stead talked about mobile devices being the Swiss army knife tool for learning – they are an affordable agent for the change in learning, in pedagogy, for empowering learners so they can learn when, where, how it suits them.

What makes the difference, what makes it possible to use those tools for learning, is the creativity of those who are teaching – or should I say facilitating learning – and those who are learning. Jude Kelly talked about the need to harness the creativity of both students and teachers and this could be seen in, for example, the creativity of the Saltash.net students making their own app for a timetable – the eTable, as well as the creativity of Emily Cummins with her amazing inventions that have the power to change the lives of other people. And being creative is not just about what we make – it’s about the questions we ask. As Ewan Macintosh pointed out, problem finding is even more important than problem solving! It seems eminently sensible to me that we need to be able to recognise and describe problems before we can go about solving them!! But good ideas, inventions and questions don’t just emerge because they are good, as Professor Ken Spours pointed out. They need the right conditions in order to be realised.

So what are the right conditions? They’re not the same for everyone, as Goldie reminded us when he described that his learning had come from street culture rather than school. He talked about the importance of mentors in his learning, which brings us back to the point about learning being relational. Emily Cummins’ mentor was her grandfather. Jude Kelly from the South Bank Centre
talked about how the encouragement she had received had been key to her own development and success.  Geoff Stead showed how the use of mobile technology can build collaboration between teachers and between students.

Revolution? It’s not something to plan for – it’s happening. And it’s happening through the use of tech tools, creativity and relationships. And out of all of those, it’s the relationships that are key. Those who were at the event were encouraged to make a pledge about how they were going to contribute to the revolution. Me? My pledge has to be to encourage collaboration – between learners, between learners and their teachers (whoever they may be) and between teachers, so EVERYONE feels empowered to lead amazing learning opportunities in their own lessons.

I always feel the start of a new school year is a time for New Year’s resolutions – those of us in education are fortunate enough to have two times in the year when we are able to make resolutions! But resolutions are probably not as useful as that feeling that there is a blank piece of paper, a fresh start, a new story to be written. The excitement of a new school year is the unknown adventures to come, the thrill of the unexpected, the opportunity to make a difference. It’s that time of year when we need to listen lots, keep an open mind but have a clear vision of what we want to achieve. Sometimes its hard to make resolutions when we don’t know what is going to be round the next corner – and let’s face it, that is so often the case in teaching. But my own resolution will be to keep blogging here more regularly than over the last few months! What’s yours?

There is a wide gulf that we are in danger of creating in learning at the moment. Young people are using technology to communicate and participate in social practices. Research even suggests that as educators we need to understand those uses of social media to build on what is currently being learnt in classrooms – that we need to partner those in our class in the learning process. But while learners have been found to be going beyond what is being done in class – taking charge of their own learning process by continuing with project based work outside school (yes, this has been shown by the research!)– they often describe school computers as slow, frequently crashing and restrictive because filters that are designed (and necessary) for appropriate protection can hinder appropriate information finding and collaborations (depending very much on where the students are). Teacher skills are still variable and “playing it safe” might mean familiarity with tools but, to quote the learners, “it makes it easier but it gets boring after a while”.

The points I’m making aren’t new – for two consecutive years, I have been seeing questions raised on twitter about filtering and blocking. Check out @tombarrett and @wjputt’s work.  It’s a postcode lottery for learning – not the school, but the tools we have access to! We can’t always change that as classroom teachers – at least immediately –  and we may even be unable to use social media within our classrooms.

But I believe we CAN learn from how social media is being used – for social purposes, for professional learning networks, from those who are able to use some tools.  It isn’t, after all, the tools that “maketh the learning”.  It’s how we use the tools that matters. It’s how we use them that makes opportunities for co-construction, for collaboration. It’s how we use them for creating a learning dialogue, for peer feedback, for “expert” feedback.

So what tools do you have access to in class that COULD support collaboration? That could help learners to share? That could help them to communicate with others? That provide alternative ways of working to achieve similar effects as the tools that are blocked? Because if we don’t think this way, the yawning chasm between those who have access to equipment, sites, skilled facilitators – either in or out of school – and those who don’t, will become even wider and increasingly difficult to overcome.

But school buildings are only the packaging for the learning that is going on inside. Monkseaton are using a method called Spaced Learning, which builds gaps into a lesson by including something physical, something distracting and unrelated to what is being learnt, so that process of letting the learning sink in can take place.  It’s not something to use in every lesson – after all, we all know that variety is the spice of life and learning – but it certainly seems to be having an impact on the learning that is going on. It makes a lot of sense to me, as often it’s when I’m doing something mundane and physical – usually vacuuming or ironing(!) – that something I have been reading or learning or thinking about really sinks in to my consciousness so I can make sense of it.

To continue the theme of paying attention to HOW we can get our pupils to learn, the Thinking Schools conference at St Robert of Newminster certainly lived up to its title! Dr David Heyerle spoke eloquently about how learning and thinking is non-linear and depends very much on us making connections. But it prompted the question in my own mind about how much we try to put non-linear learning into linear education systems, into linear assessment systems!?! What he was saying got me reflecting on my own ideas…. about how thinking isn’t always a solitary activity (though deep quality learning depends on personal internalisation), how thinking can be extended, enhanced and develop into critical, analytical thinking when we bounce ideas around with others…. As I sat in the lecture theatre next to fellow twitterers @nellmog, @dughall, @Ideas_Factory chatting and reflecting in the discussions, they made me think even more deeply about what was being said.  They facilitated my absorption and assimilation of the ideas we were hearing.  One of the teachers I was sat next to at the end of the day commented on how exhausted he felt, even though he hadn’t been “doing” anything – it’s hard work thinking about thinking!!!!

The other keynote speaker was another international traveller – Andrew Churches from New Zealand. He continued one of Dr Heyerle’s themes about the importance of visual learning.  I also liked the suggestion that LAYERING learning by using other senses, too, can improve the power of learning. And, of course, as an advocate of collaborative learning myself, I was bound to find myself agreeing with a lot of what he said! (and thanks for the book suggestions!)

Other highlights of the day and takeaway things to try out included:

• two lovely teachers sharing how they had been using dramatic enquiry – role play – to great effect with their KS3,4,5 special needs students – I’ll certainly be using the idea of searching for buried treasure in the school grounds at some point in the future!!!
• some great “killer apps” for thinking – great activities shared by the history department including Pecha Kucha – something I heard about first from Dan Roberts (aka @chickensaltash) on his blog and I keep meaning to try it out in school but run out of time – perhaps if I adopt Pecha Kucha more I won’t run out of time!!!! But I’m even more determined to make sure I really do try it out soon…..
• the teachmeet – and the fab use of paper in the final presentation – I love paper!!!! I know that is a strange admission from someone who is passionate about using technology to enhance learning, but I love the feel of it, the smell, the variety of textures etc – perhaps it’s something to do with always having a fascination for books, reading, writing from my early childhood  or perhaps its something to do with my early career in the paper industry. It’s certainly a fascination I have continued to indulge in a low tech card making hobby!!! Seeing how paper chains of people and shapes can be used as alternative ways of recording learning and understanding was  brilliant and another of the ideas I’m looking forward to trying out in class when I’m back in school….

It’s been a great year for visiting different places and last week was no exception. And, of course, the wonderful thing about visiting different places is that they are full of interesting people to talk to and learn from.  There were a few highlights for the week – meeting up with my tutor is always an enormous pleasure and it was great to catch up with David Mitchell over a coffee, too, when I visited Chorley. But I never imagined being cast in the role of a pickpocket’s wife by Tim Rylands! Having heard so much about Tim’s work and having communicated a little via twitter, it was good to put a face to a name at the ICT For Education Conference in Cardiff. And even better to have an opportunity to hear him speak.  What a story teller! He talks about how we can use the digital world, games and the importance of breaking down barriers to learning using whatever means we can – SOOO true and a principle I fully subscribe to (as readers of my blog will know). He talks about using an analogue response to digital experiences.

But after the work we have done in our school with collaborations that have been made possible by digital means, I wonder if we also need to be helping our teachers and learners to develop digital responses too.  We need to be learning from the essence of the social dialogue that is taking place through various online media, to apply what we know about face to face learning dialogue – and be aware that there is a  new language for digital learning dialogue evolving. No matter what the tools – web 2.0, learning platforms, social media – we need to be able to recognise how to use that digital dialogue effectively for LEARNING. And perhaps it is something that needs to be taught and not caught.

It has been as interesting and inspiring as the previous Partners in Learning events I’ve been to – looking at the event and the projects through more experienced eyes and not as a competitor was a huge privilege. To see teachers sharing ideas, what’s going on in their classes, experiences and passions is an amazing thing – but begs the question why so many other teachers aren’t as open to sharing as these individuals. Hence the Shakespeare paraphrase that makes this blog post title.  I suppose one of the reasons that I think sharing is important can be summed up by another (paraphrased) Shakespeare quote:

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy  classroom.”

We need to be open to the possibilities. Sharing with others is part of the process. It’s a key part – learning happens when we are in contact with other people, when they touch us in some way or other, when sharing happens. As John Davitt said on Twitter at the end of the event:

And as Ewan Macintosh says in his blog post “Content is not King”, interactions, conversations and exploration are the parts of our learning experiences that stay with us beyond our days in the classroom.  I heard a joke the other week that I’m going to repeat (with apologies to male colleagues/friends whom I greatly respect!). 

If a man is in a forest and says something, is he wrong even though there was no woman there to hear him?

Perhaps what we should be asking is, if we do something great in our classroom and fail to share with fellow professionals, can it be truly great? There’s a certain amount of professional generosity and openness needed to this sharing – I’m fairly certain that all the amazing and inspirational teachers I have met this week have “magpie-d” ideas from other professionals.  They will have taken an idea from here, combined it with an idea from there, tweaked and refined it, applied it in a different situation, re-invented the idea with a healthy dose of imagination and creativity. If we are magpie-ers, do we have a professional and moral responsibility to put something back in? Is a feeling that our ideas aren’t good enough to share an indication of insecurity or selfishness?

All comments about the ideas in this document would be very welcome…… Double click on the book to be able to read it.

Many thanks.

http://purposeducation.wikispaces.com/ 

It’s easy to make the assumption that we are all in the job for the same reason. But it’s also useful to stand back every now and then and review what our purpose is. We need, as a profession, to be – if not singing from the same hymn sheet – at least discussing what our purpose is and participating in healthy debate about that purpose,  if we are to work together for the good of our education system and the people who are impacted by it.  What I say might resonate with you, it might be a vision that you don’t agree with, it might echo other contributions to the purpos/ed debate.  This is a personal view - just where I am at the moment as a learner who tries to help others learn too – whether that is as a parent, teacher, student, colleague or any other hat I may be wearing. Learning happens through our interactions with others and not just in school.  Education is a way of life that includes much of what those adding to this discussion have already said:

• equips for the real world, real life, future choices -(echoing  Theo Kuechel and Oliver Quinlan)
• empowers to encourage independence, problem solving, resilience – (Ian Yorston and Dawn Hallybone)
• enables learners/participants in society to collaborate, communicate, make sense of the world – (Zoe Ross)
• provides effective learning
• engages curiosity/motivation – the fun factor , the achievement factor, the inspiration for social change (Kerry Turner)

 Supporting learning is like gardening. We plant seeds. Some of them grow to fruition while the children/learners are in our class but others won’t blossom for years! We water seeds.  We provide the right conditions – light/dark, warmth, water, nutrition (the right mix of activities, stimulation, independent learning, collaborative learning, encouragement, constructive feedback, opportunities, support). Some seeds remain dormant for years, waiting for the time when they will break the protective outer coating and establish their roots and shoots. Some shoots are delicate, fragile – easily scorched by the sun, swayed by the wind, damaged by heavy-handed approaches by those who are taking care of them.  Some bounce back, becoming more resilient, stronger. Some need protection from the elements – a greenhouse, a cloche, perhaps. They may need a stake to support the stem as they grow.  

That’s the purpose of education. To help learners (whatever their age) to achieve their full potential. To blossom, bloom and grow in skills, knowledge, confidence. To find their own inner beauty and their own inner resources. To develop strong stems so that in the storm they sway but don’t get knocked over. To find their place in and contribute to society so they can enjoy the full richness of a rewarding life. Education shouldn’t be done TO them, but something they are fully involved in. Not something that depends on a time or a place, but that makes learning an attitude, a way of life – any time, any place, any circumstance. Learning without boundaries, without walls, that recognises that experts (and gardeners) come in all sorts of guises, ages and places.

As @lisibo did, I will warn you of the cartoon nudity!!!

But it made me think about how those relationships may affect digital learning dialogue.  Steven Pinker talks about the sort of language we use in different relationships and how “veiled” language or innuendo is used in threats, bribery, seduction, solicitation. I wonder if  comments that involve innuendo will develop in sophistication as online dialogue becomes increasingly commonplace.

 According to Alan Fiske, the anthropologist, there are 3 types of relationship in whichever society around the world that we look at:

• Dominance (e.g. the relationship with our boss)
• Communality (Mutualism – the relationships with our family, friends, peers)
• Reciprocity (business-like, tit for tat, you scratch my back…, e.g. paying for food in a restaurant)

I wonder how these different relationships play out in online communications.

The other comment is that knowledge is shared effectively when explicit language is used to develop mutual understanding.  The example is used of people meeting together and realising that “I think what you think, you think what I think, I know you know what I think…..” etc  and how that mutual knowledge can lead to the overthrow of a dictator… it reminded me of a discussion I had last week with some friends when we were talking about how online social networks had contributed to just that mutual knowledge that contributed to recent unrest and government changes in the middle east – the online dialogue has contributed to mutual knowledge in a powerful way and with a huge social impact.