Connected Blog

A child starts planning the storyboard, while another begins cutting some archived film. Two other classmates seek out some images on the net. Each student in this group, like all those students who attend Islay High School, are using their own Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC), which they bring to and from school to provide a continuous portable base for their work.

But this is not just a story about cool gadgetry – this is a school which has changed itself entirely in the past five years.

I was taking in all of this on Friday, the same day the school won Learning and Teaching Scotland’s Ambition Awards at the Scottish Education Awards. I was joined by John Johnston, primary school teacher and blogger from Glasgow’s Sandaig Primary School, whose account shows how visits like these can lead to new practices in schools many miles away. Krysia and Doug Semple also joined us along with John’s Head Teacher; blog posts to follow, I hope…

But what grabbed us all was the scope of change. First, everyone in the school community (that’s students, teachers and parents, too) is part of a grand peer-assessment ring, with the UMPC acting as a show-and-tell hub for the work and discussions that took place at school that day. Using OneNote, students can capture text notes, audio and video from their classes, with teachers as accomplices in the recording of their explanations and discussions. All too often, the thought of having a teacher recorded on the fly by a student would have the teacher confiscating the device doing the recording. Here, it is celebrated, with OneNote allocating each segmentof audio to each relevant paragraph.

Students can be heard sharing secret numerical codes – their machine’s unique IP Address – so that such documents can be shared and edited collaboratively in real time. This is how students brainstormed and created storyboards collaboratively, keeping all their progress for future analysis in their review of their work thus far.

Andy Wallis, the English teacher running this excited film-making adventure, brings the class to a brief pause, to encourage them to video their own discussions for the next few minutes. It’s a real eye-opener for those who have been hogging discussions, providing a spotlight moment for those who’ve been a little quieter until now. As they say, the camera doesn’t lie. Another piece of evidence for for the formative assessment pile.

It’s not just pedagogy that has changed to make learning work here; the timetable has seen the beginnings of change. Wednesday and Friday afternoons are curious times for the uninitiated: students who, when I was at school, even had separate social areas are now collaborating on projects. It’s not uncommon to have a 14 year old S3 student working alongside a 17 or 18 year old sixth former who’s seeking to work through a brand new subject area. Here, the class you are in is decided by your level of attainment, not your age. Twice a week these afternoons offer an opportunity to expand horizons through extended project work.

As John says, it’s the overriding desire to learn which can be felt from every member of the school community that is quite overpowering – you wonder why you’ve not felt it in every school you’ve ever visited. It’s the responsibility that has been transferred to students – when they misuse their UMPCs they are subject to the ‘normal’ rules of engagement you’d find in any school. The technology has changed all the things it should do, and left some elements of school life, rightly, untouched.

This is a school where the introduction of a new piece of technology has helped introduce changes across the rest of the system. Or where the system’s changes led to the necessary introduction of the technology. You see, that’s the other thing. When change is so integrated into everyday life, it’s hard to remember what happened first.

See the rest of the photos from this trip on Flickr.

Update: Doug “DigitalMaverick” Semple has just added his extensive thoughts, too.

Between June 9-13 you have the opportunity to help young poets from Georgia and Glasgow’s East End with their poetry. In On The Street Where You Live, young poets will write about their neighbourhoods (or should that be neighborhoods?), and you are invited to leave your two stars and a wish comments to help them on their way.

Just last week I was introduced to Ben Saunders, who responded with a courteous and short email along the lines of: “I’m a little busy at the moment but would love to meet up for a pint.” He was, in fact, four days away from starting his 30-day dash to North Pole. Alone.

An attempt to set a new world speed record from Ward Hunt Island to the Geographic North Pole by Ben Saunders.
The current record was set in 2005 by a guided team using dog sleds and
numerous re-supplies in a time of 36 days 22 hours. Ben’s expedition
will be solo and unsupported and on foot. This route has only ever been
completed once solo and unsupported, by Pen Hadow in 2003. Ben aims to
halve his time and complete it in 30 days. More than geographic
exploration, Ben is exploring the limits of his own human potential.

You can follow the trip blog, catch up on his amazing Flickr stream (but probably after the trip , and see what equipment one needs to make this voyage alone.

I’m hoping that, the next time, we might be able to help spread Ben’s work to more school children, and bring their aspirations to a high with some of the motivating speak that Ben can offer. Maybe something schools on Glow can enjoy through Marratech video-conferencing, as well as in person. Don’t know what I mean? Take a look at Ben’s TED Talk, Three Things To Know Before You Ski To The North Pole, and be inspired to get cold and miserable yourself:

See their full story on the MFLE blog

Cross-posted at edu.blogs.com

Thanks to the kind people at Core-Ed the video and slides of my last ’season’ of talks on how all of us can lead education and technology change in our schools, Local Authorities and organisations have been put online for all to view. There’s also a Google Video without the slides.

Every time I do a talk or seminar it’s different; in the age of podcasts, vodcasts and conference blogging it’s only a fool or a lazy researcher who says the same thing day in, day out. The main lines of this talk have been popular but two points were raised afterwards which are worth tackling. They are both related, one about the substance of what I showed in the talk and the other on the ‘entertainment only’ value of new technologies. I disagree (of course) with both, because I believe they’re just wrong.

In this version of the talk I have unashamedly concentrated on the final products of learning, giving passing mention to the importance of the changes in process that leads to them. I was, if you like, appealing to the professionalism and attitudes of teachers to think about what the processes might have been, rather than just listing what changes took place.

The second relates as much to the way I present stuff as to the depth of change and transformation these new technologies offer. Yes, they are entertaining, and what’s wrong with that? Yes they increase motivation for being rather fun to use. But they also transform the way we do things because they open collaborative and time-shifting opportunities in learning that have never, until now, been on offer.

I hope these points come through for most people, but any other ideas or feedback you have that hasn’t already been mentioned would be greatly appreciated.

Educators and students from North Ayrshire Council, a Shetland school and Argyll and Bute Council share their knowledge and experiences at the Scottish Learning Festival on a variety of topics, including play and active learning for early years children, animation techniques, secondary citizenship and developing rich tasks for Curriculum for Excellence.

See more about this podcast or listen to other shows on Connected Live’s podcast page. Or, you can listen by clicking the play button below.