Last Post on LTS Blog
I left LTS at the end of June to work for myself and am in the process of moving this blog to my new website which will go live early in August.
Posted: July 26th, 2009 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 1
Laurie’s learning log
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I left LTS at the end of June to work for myself and am in the process of moving this blog to my new website which will go live early in August.
Posted: July 26th, 2009 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 1
The back cover of this political thriller sets the scene for Rogue Nation by Alan Clements:
‘The year is 2014. The Republicans have recaptured the White House, the Conservatives have just won a second term at Westminister and hardliners dominate Russia. In a small corner of north-western Europe, the Scots have just narrowly voted for independence, a decision they immediately regret.’
Nothing in the above looks too far fetched. Add in the notion that the English are happy to see Scotland make its own way in the world – breaking the political union but retaining the social union – and we have a highly credible backdrop for a work of fiction.
The book’s structure makes it easy to read (the pace of Dan Brown meets the erudition of The West Wing) as the author takes us on a journey: from the White House to the Kremlin; through the streets of Edinburgh to the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood; from Dennistoun to the BBC at Pacific Quay in Glasgow. Covering everything from party politics, religious sectarianism, nationalism/unionism; the army to the global military power struggle.
The novel is sprinkled with great quotes from Benjamin Franklin – the subject of the main character’s thesis. One of my favourite quotes has a very contemporary resonance to it:
‘Those who would give up liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety’.
A great summer read and an admirable first novel. I look forward to the movie – hopefully starring somebody Scottish!
Posted: July 15th, 2009 under Books.
Comments: none
I am starting to make some progress through my pile of summer reading as detailed in this week’s Times Educational Supplement Scotland and finished ‘What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis over the weekend.
Since visiting Google HQ in Mountain View, California last August I have been interested in how this company, which is barely 11 years old, is contributing to the remaking of our economy, culture and society. Is Google the corporartion of the future? I described it earlier as like a university run by the students. What are the implications for education if success is measured on the basis of 21st century creativity, innovation and ingenuity rather than passing exams that test 19th century skills and knowledge?
Jarvis writes the new media column for The Guardian and keeps the www.buzzmachine.com blog. His own post on the book talks about reverse engineering the Google approach and then applying the principles to a range of industries.
Jarvis starts the book by picking out what he calls ‘Google Rules’ which include:
Jarvis then considers how Google applies these rules across its business and provides a fascinating insight into how the company works and the trends it is both driving and adapting to. The section on how Google ads work is worth the cost of the book in itself. I found it absolutely fascinating to see the maths behind Google ads. Google has reinvented advertising, disrupting the old economic model that newspapers and tv have relied on in the process.
The section ‘If Google Ruled the World’ is a speculative piece as Jarvis considers how the Google approach might be applied to everything from the media, retail and manaufacturing to education and public institutions. At times the argument is a bit thin and to his credit Jarvis accepts the limits of both the approach and his imagination. Again the attempt is well worth it and full of valuable insights about the trends we can expect to see over the next few years.
As a final thought I noted that Google looks for people with 5 sets of skills:
How well are we preparing our children, young people and students for this world? How well would a Scottish school leaver or university gradute be able to compete in this new world?
Posted: July 13th, 2009 under Books.
Comments: 2
It is now 5 days since I left the ranks of the salaried public sector to become self employed. At the moment it just feels like the school holidays in the years when I was a teacher … and I am loving it
My plan is to take most of July to get myself organised with email, website, bank accounts etc and also to have a proper break from work after LTS.
I am in the process of setting up my own website/blog www.laurieodonnell.co.uk (currently redirected to www.ltsblogs.org.uk/laurieodonnell).
Some of my post LTS portfolio is already in place and it looks like a good mix already with more variety to follow (I hope).
Planning to blog about my reading and my future plans over the summer. Have a great summer (or winter if you are in Oz or NZ).
Lx
Posted: July 5th, 2009 under Diary, Metablog.
Comments: 5
Just back from an event in Glasgow’s Oran Mor organised by Scotland’s Centre for Confidence & Wellbeing. The speaker was Professor Barry Schwartz.
I have tweeted some of his quotes (@laurieod) and this post is my notes of what he said.
The ‘Paradox of Choice’ – too much choice in certain aspects of our lives (commodities/products etc) can make us miserable whilst not enough choice in other areas (how we treat/are treated by other people) can also make us unhappy.
The official syllogism
More freedom = more well being
More choice means more freedom
But too much choice can lead to paralysis
Escalation of expectations
Disappointment – Self blame
Maximising and ’satisficing’
How can choice be both good and bad?
The choices worth having
Rules and the war on moral skill
Incentives and the war on moral will
Remoralising work
What creating a calling requires?
Never let a crisis go to waste
Great stuff, thought provoking, stimulating and inspiring. Worth watching Barry Schwartz’s TED Talk on the Paradox of Choice or on The Loss of our Wisdom if you want more …
Posted: June 16th, 2009 under Events.
Comments: 5
It seems like only yesterday that I blogged about my decison to leave LTS to work for myself. It felt like a big step on the 25th March announcing to the world that I was moving on after 8 years. I really liked being able to blog and tweet my departure (what did we do before web 2.0?) and have been delighted with the number of friends and colleagues who have been in touch to either wish me well or check out my mental health (’leaving a public sector job with a pension during a recession – are you crazy!’)
Still got far too much to do before I leave on 30 June but last week I got a big boost when my colleague Marie Dougan, LTS Glow Programme Director, was appointed as Interim Director of Learning and Technology. Marie will be great in this role and I wish her all the best in taking forward the major work of the directorate I have led: Glow; the LTS Online Service; and our work in new technologies including games based learning.
These are challenging times for schools, local authorities and the public sector economy in general. LTS has made a major contribution to the learning and technology agenda which will be increasingly important to education in the years ahead. I have been hugely privileged to have the opportunity to lead and manage some of this work over the last 8 years. More than that I have been incredibly lucky to work with some fantastic colleagues who have pushed the boundaries of Scottish education a little bit further forward. Colleagues who have remained positive and optimistic about the future, despite the many challenges, and never lost sight of the importance of making a positive difference to the work of our teachers and to the life chances of Scotland’s young people.
Posted: June 15th, 2009 under LTS, People.
Comments: 1
Interesting new development from Google. Thanks to @jonesieboy for tweeting about Google Wave
Posted: May 31st, 2009 under Technology.
Comments: none
Interesting research commissioned by C4 on how the 12-24s use technology.
Top-line stats are:
As the father of a 12 and 16 year old I am not at all surprised. My girls have lots of gadgets (no wonder the UK’s electricity needs continue to grow at 4% a year when I see how many chargers we have around the house); they have lots of spare capacity when watching TV (usually because most [not all] of what they watch isn’t very challenging – try doing 5 things while watching ‘The Wire’ and keep up with the dialogue!); in our family it’s a 50% vote for no holiday without mobile comms; I get calls on the house phone from a daughter who is upstairs phoning me on her mobile
; they are connected in a way that is really stunning and; our wireless network is on from before school in the morning until last thing at night.
The survey suggests two questions for me – ones that I think I know the answer to. Firstly, how does the experience of our young people compare with their counterparts across the world? Secondly, how does their school experience compare with their out of school use of technology?
Posted: May 30th, 2009 under Technology.
Comments: 1
More good news for Glow
While I was in Barcelona I was delighted to hear that Falkirk Council has signed the Glow Customer Agreement (effectively the licence to make Glow available to teachers, pupils and parents in the local authority area).
That takes us to 31/32 of the Scottish local authorities. My understanding is that Fife Council is in the process of signing the Customer Agreement and this will be a significant milestone for Glow as we complete the full set of local authorities.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill we are approaching the end of the beginning for Glow. To my mind it really starts to get exciting now as we explore the benefits of having a truly national system.
Posted: May 14th, 2009 under LTS, Technology.
Comments: 1
The IMS Global Learning Consortium press release with all of the winners from the 2009 Learning Impact Summit has now been published. Looking down the list I think our competition was from only 5 continents rather than 6 as previously claimed.
LTS press release with comment from Cabinet Secretary Fiona Hyslop.
Posted: May 14th, 2009 under LTS, Technology.
Comments: 3