Education Blog Awards 2012

Last year I was delighted that this blog won the Best Teacher Blog in the Education Blog Awards 2011.  I always find it hard to believe that other teachers read and value what is written here.  Anyway,  thank you to the kind person who has nominated this blog again.

Whether or not you vote for this blog or others, I'd encourage you to nominate your favorites here (although it says vote for me, you really don't have to):




 


or here




 


Right, back to Eurovision ;-)

Education’s view of technological change?

I’ve just finished reading Lee Child’s most recent Jack Reacher book, The Affair.  In it, Reacher reflects on the introduction of technology and new computer systems into the US Army.  He says:

‘…it was happening slowly and cautiously, with a great deal of doubt and suspicion…’

Sound familiar?

I’m happy to say that the description can not be applied to Priory Geography.

Let me introduce you to @PrioryBench #priorybench

Linked to the Mobile @ Priory project that I’ve been developing over the past year or so, the Design technology team led by teacher Alex Blandford came up with the idea of creating a bench that would tweet and tell the story of its transformation from neglected item to restored centrepiece. 

Lee and Ian at Borbonesa have put together a neat folding project book as students focus on the 6 R’s of sustainability.  The idea is the bench will tweet out images during its transformation.

During the secret classroom show case, the bench travelled to a few locations around the school, including the roof, the astro turf for break duty and the main hall.  It was amazing to witness the bench achieve celebrity status as young people scrambled to scan the QR code, created with the school’s laser cutter.

Strand by for more….

Mobile @ Priory–the secret classroom

On Wednesday, we created a secret classroom in the school’s main hall.  Then we invited everyone to see it. 

We were showcasing the work created during the second phase of the Mobile @ Priory project.  The aim was to create some embedded learning sequences that made use of mobile devices (including pupils’ own) so that the mobile device policy could be built upon.  Of course, in the tradition of guerrilla (chalk graffiti for example) we wanted to hold a trade fair with a difference. 

An overview of the project is represented in this graphic, I’ve tried to avoid any jargon or too many subject specific terms.

I’ll try to describe the main findings before digging deeper.  I’ll post about each individual lesson separately, hopefully as a guest post from each teacher.  These findings are preliminary as we are still evaluating. Also, I’m keen to point out that the use of mobile devices is only presented as tool for learning.  Like any other tool, including glue sticks and mud, using it is only effective if its use is both appropriate and linked to sound learning objectives.

1. If you give teachers time to collaborate and plan, fantastic learning sequences will occur.  This isn’t limited to this project.  Each teacher was given three hours with the amazing Ian and Lee from Borbonesa and DiGITAL LEADERS.  The young people were simply stunning, working with the adults in a truly breath taking and unexpected way.  Three hours may seem a lot, but considering that teachers get five days per year or around 25-30 hours, of in-school Inset days, completely doable in my opinion.  Each group of people brought something valuable to the table.  Teachers the expert knowledge of their subject and curriculum context; the DiGITAL LEADERS the perspective of young people and what they can actually do (as opposed to what we think they can do) and Ian and Lee the creative input.
2. It’s not about the device, it’s about the learning. As this image shows (a folding project booklet put together for the DTRM @PrioryBench project), good quality resources are needed to support learning.  Young people do have almost ubiquitous and easy access to technology, but as consumers.  They simply aren’t aware necessarily of how to use the devices to be creative.  Google et al simply don’t provide the guidance for the creative process for most students.  Yes, there are the case studies of the brilliant, self-driven entrepreneur young person, but I would argue that they would rise even if there wasn’t access to technology.  Learning needs to be well supported and linked into solid learning sequences.
3. Trust young people and they deliver. Most of the time.  I work in what could be considered a challenging school.  Over the past year, when encouraging young people to be independent and collaborative, they have been.  The learning has been messy and lower ability students still need the ‘quick win’ and encouragement that ‘right’ answers give.

During the day, we collected live information about student devices using a giant paper scrolling machine.

The DiGITAL LEADERS captured the event as well as holding discussions on the way forward with this project.  They also helped to keep track of data using a ‘live’ graph created from Lego.

Did we engage everyone? No, especially some teachers.  Did we start conversations? Yes, I think we did.  Did we create disruption? For sure.  Will that disruption result in change and the adoption of mobile devices? It already has. 

More to come?…………

Create custom geology maps–#fschack news

I like iGeology (even got to see a Beta version of the 3D '# Augmented reality version hopefully coming soon) and I was thrilled to meet the team behind it and other British Geological Survey goodness.  One thing I really do love is the new(ish) ability to create custom geological maps that can be centred on a particular location. Such as this one based around Year 10’s fieldwork location:

 

At the moment, the options are limited to surface geology and earthquakes, but there is the potential to add all sorts of data in the future if there is demand.

#fschack

Breakfast time at the first ever Field Studies Council Hack Day/Weekend, working on my lightning talk and feeling out of my depth (great toast though).

48 hours later and I was leaving the Slapton Lee FSC Centre buzzing with possibilities and genuinely fizzing with goose bumpy potential.  This post will be a little messy as I’m getting these ideas down as they form.

I had no idea what a hack day involved before I stepped foot into the arena.  I was sceptical as so many ‘tech-ed’ conferences fizz with potential but rarely turn in to reality.  From the moment #fschack started, I was taken back by the positive fizz of excitement and hard work.  Plus, after being frustrated for years about the lack of good technology to use in the field, I left having seen at least a dozen worked up prototypes and apps.  Three of which I could see working in my setting now.

I helped to set off the day by presenting some challenges from my perspective, then visited a few ‘bar camps’ which are 10-15 minute spur of the moment chats.  Having never been to an unconference, I really liked this format.  It seemed to give the developers a clear insight into the issue.  I was also impressed with the questions coming from the hackers.

In summary, the challenges I tried to present were:

• Technology shouldn't detract from the awe and wonder and exploration of the world;
• It would be great to be able to visualise data in the field in order to stretch and support students
• Off line and works
• Data rich is great
• I want students to focus on the in depth analysis of data

If we take the enquiry process, and especially apply it to the Controlled Assessment process, the gap between when the data is collected and when it is processed or visualised is far too long, even if it’s later that day.

It was great to see that the resultant hacks all improved learning, and it was clear that the concept of having technology that adds value to learning was central.  For example, several of the hackers talked about the importance of getting young people to do things the ‘hard’ way before using the quick solution.

I also came away with a clear message: young people should be involved in building scientific equipment.  More on this below.

Finally, there was some powerful visualisation methods for existing data that would assist students in exploring data.

Some of the hacks that I was either involved with or stuck in my head are described below.  Check out the blog for a blow by blow account including podcasts and interviews and a full list of hacks.

1. The bat men

Created a bat detector for under a fiver.

2. RepRap 3D Beach printing.

We conducted some beach profiles on Slapton Sands (hard work I know but someone had to take the hit…). Gemma created a 3D model and printed out cross sections.  This has huge potential as the 3D cross sections show subtle changes in the beach profile and could be used to compare different stretches of the same beach, sections after storm events…. In terms of helping less able students to visualise their data this would be fantastic.   How good would it be to create 3D models of the beaches which we study? The equipment is affordable, and the training in using the CAD software achievable.

3. FLAIR (Field Log Analysis Instant Resource)

I loved this and it won the best in (the) field hack.  A web app that collects and visualises data.  River cross sections were used, the app would replace a clipboard, worked off line and guided students through the data collection process.  The data can be seen in graph form immediately.  This would allow data quality to be checked and would act as an incentive for students if the patterns were correct.  The app also graphed the data allowing students to focus on the patterns.  As mentioned above, this would augment the traditional data collection and presentation process and make data more accessible to all students.  Traditional techniques of measurement are used also.

4. Floggr (Field Logger) and Bristol HackSpace’s range of stuff

These two project hit me like a bulldozer. A lightbulb went off. Ting!  It dawned on me that students could a) build their own equipment and b) gain more and better data in this way. More on this in time, but this has cross curricular written all over it

 

 

 

5. Geocaching

Explored the possibility of using geocaches with hacked stuff to enable assessment / options / auto lock down.

6. River Crunching

This took historical river data and visualised it.  There was a collective ‘ahhhhh’ when channel cross sections were shown as a graph that morphed between different times and sites.  The changes in channel shape were immediately obvious as we travelled downstream.  A side effect was that different data sets (all collected by students) gave different results and this would allow the easy exploration of data and data capture quality.

All in all. Excellent, and it;’s only the beginning as I type there is an idea for a student built volcano bomber,……..

A big thank you to Harriet, Ant and everyone there.  I arrived a sceptic and left inspired.

Digital Explorer mini-expedition: Oceans @de_Updates

Jamie and Sarah from Digital Explorer popped down to Portsmouth on Friday to work with some of our students linked to their excellent Oceans project.  The idea was to run a mini-expedition during which young people explored the issue of sea level rise.

Firstly, we found some of the only sandy beach in Portsmouth and created housing developments.  Students were sored on how many developments were left standing at high tide.  Let’s just say, there weren’t many to make Jamie’s judging job too difficult….

Next, some experiments were demonstrated in order to explore the effects of polar ice melting and thermal expansion of our seas.  Both of these experiments were put together with simple equipment available from our science lab techs and shop bought.

After some plastic combing, it was off to a classroom to work out the actual projections for sea level rise in Portsmouth and then a walk along some of the sea defences to reflect on whether Portsmouth City Council are doing enough to stop the problem.

We wondered if this development was really a good idea!

Overall, I was impressed with the mini-expedition and pupils’ understanding improved.  The activities are easily embeddable within a coastal / oceans unit. All of the experiments (apart from the sand castle building) could be replicated in a classroom / school site setting.  We’ll be doing so at Priory for sure.  My eyes have certainly been opened to how we can teach physical geography and complex concepts and processes better.

A big thank you to Jamie and Sarah!