Blog feedThe Road Ahead
13th February
Over the last couple of months, I’ve met with colleagues, with responsibility for ICT in education, from 13 LA’s to discuss their current, planned and future aspirations for ICT to support and enhance learning. I’ve found these meetings exceptionally useful in developing my understanding of what might form a shared vision and strategy for learning and technology. The challenge for me is to translate that understanding into actions that support you in managing change; this blog is one outcome, hopefully providing a mechanism for sharing information.
We are all on a journey to a future, the good news is that, I think, we are all on the same road and pointing in the same direction, we have brought a small range of different vehicles to travel in, some of us are further along the road than others but we aren’t miles apart, we have a similar perception of what that future could look like and we all want the support of our fellow travellers to ensure we travel as effectively and efficiently as possible and don’t get lost on the way.
Our vehicles for future learning are powered by the improvement potential of creativity tools, 1:1 Information & Communications Devices (ICD’s), personalisation, games based learning, resource accessibility, engagement and empowerment etc. Adding weight to the vehicles and reducing their speed and manoeuvrability is genuine concerns over, security, appropriate use, connectivity, capacity etc.
My meetings have highlighted that the drivers of the vehicles are highly motivated, enthusiastic, experienced professionals committed to maximising benefits for learners. Hopefully, together we can become leaner and more powerful, avoiding wrong turnings by using the same map.
I would really appreciate an invite to discuss the aspirations of colleagues in all Scottish LA’s, please email me at J.Low@LTScotland.org.uk if you would be prepared to do this.
Categories: future, technologies
Comments
Comment from OllieBray
Time: February 13, 2008, 8:13 pm
Dear John - you are welcome at Musselburgh Grammar School at any time. Ollie
Comment from John Low
Time: February 14, 2008, 9:38 am
Hi Ollie - thanks for the invite, I’ll definitely take you up on the offer. I had a very useful meeting with East Lothian colleagues just last week and was tremendously impressed with your Authorities strategy, ethos, enthusiasm and capacity to drive further development in improving learning with ICT.
Comment from Karen Robertson
Time: February 14, 2008, 5:40 pm
Hi John,
I’m impressed with your blog and looking forward to seeing how things develop on your secondment. I enjoyed our meeting to discuss our vision for moving forward and I am really interested to hear how other authorities are developing. We have a lot to learn from each other and we can provide a lot of support to each other. I think your role is key to facilitate this. I wish you all the best.
Comment from Laura Compton
Time: February 14, 2008, 9:06 pm
Thanks for this blog John.
I think it will be really useful. At times it seems like the Road Ahead is a bit steep and winding with a few fallen trees to challenge us. With the aid of your blog we can all push and pull each other in a shared direction.
Comment from Debbie Thom
Time: February 20, 2008, 12:08 pm
Hi John
I really like your blog, especially as a means of keeping us ICT enthusiasts informed about ICT - past, present and future. I am an ICT Staff Tutor working for Dundee City Council, and attended the meeting we had in Rockwell on Tuesday 19th February. I found it to be very interesting and worthwhile to share impressions and opinions with other like minded colleagues. I have recently started an ICT Staff Tutors Blog with links to Dundee Schools Blogs, which I hope will be informative and facilitate communication between our staff, pupils and the world beyond. The schools which are using their blogs in Dundee are doing so very successfully and the educational potential of these blogs is evident in the views of the pupils which I have just posted in our new Web 2.0 Glow Group. Pupils identified that they were extending their written skills, especially reporting to their school community and a wider audience. They also considered they were learning numerous ICT skills including keyboard skills, skills in uploading and manipulating images and research skills. Pupils also believed that blogging provided them with feedback about their posts which enabled them to evaluate the effectiveness of their communications.
I was wondering if blogging could provide the pupils with the opportunity to engage in social networking type activities in a safe environment as opposed to using facebook, bebo etc in schools?
The focus of the Web 2.0 Glow Group is to highlight the educational potential of Web 2.0, and provide relevant information and links for staff and pupils who wish to engage in Web 2.0 activities.
Ewan McIntosh has expressed an interest in joining our Glow Group when it goes live and it would be great if you could join the group also.
Comment from John Low
Time: February 20, 2008, 1:48 pm
Hi Debbie
Thanks for your comment, I too found our meeting interesting & worthwhile. I agree that there is scope for exploration of how the engagement and learning benefits of currently popular social network sites could be incorporated in our secure learning network. I’d be delighted to be invited to join your Web 2.0 Glow Group when you are ready.
Comment from Bob Hill
Time: February 27, 2008, 11:39 am
Like Debbie I am an ICT Staff Tutor in Dundee.
Thinking in terms of improvements to Glow, I would personally not like to see changes that might necessitate starting afresh. However, I would like to see a webpart that could aggregate RSS feeds from outside but more importantly from Glow Groups themselves.
At the moment, the calendar function is pretty rudimentary but linking the establishment calendar with group and personal calendars using the same targetted system as news would let staff and pupils see future events without having to frequently look at the main calendar.
Just some thoughts!!
Comment from Andrew Brown
Time: February 29, 2008, 12:10 pm
Hi Bob - using the pager viewer part and an online service like grazr.com, it’s a simple process to display rss feeds inside Glow.
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