Monthly Archives: January 2012

Building social networking into #digitalstudies

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Image: ‘Close connection – Verbundenheit’ 

Recently when blogging about #digitalstudies I have been trying to take a bit more of a practical approach.  This post is more about a ‘philosophy’ for #digitalstudies of placing social networking at the very core of the subject.  I know in this blog post I am simply stating the obvious for a number of more social networking savvy teachers (the ones who will read this post mostly) but I know there are many ICT teachers out there who are still unsure about the use of social networking in classrooms.

In a recent article in the Guardian ‘Teachers warned over befriending pupils on Facebook’ a number of examples were cited of teachers who used social networks inappropriately in class.  I cannot obviously comment on the merits of those individual cases but it can be said that there will always be cases of teachers misusing social networking tools in class.

This obviously leads to an issue.  Traditional school leaders will probably react to that quite negatively and in a sense they have a right to do so. These are clearly examples of serious cases where the teacher has overstepped the mark. 

However although social networking gives the opportunity for causing harm it also gives the opportunity for much learning.  That’s why #digitalstudies will have social networking built into its core rather than as an adjunct to support learning.  For one thing I make sure I write the name of the subject as a twitter hashtag and certainly the strands can be written as hashtags eg Digital Creativity becomes #digcreate.

How else I can build it in I’m not sure just yet.  I have a facebook account but I avoid it like the plague for more personal reasons.  I suppose what I would like to do is make sure that the following happens within #digitalstudies:

  1. Make sure that all teaching content for #digitalstudies is shareable through social networks
  2. This will mean no paywalls for the subject unless you are accessing content, services, programs already owned by another company (which we can try and avoid although I am considering building free digital textbooks in iBooks author)
  3. Encourage communication and collaboration between teachers and pupils both within a school and between other schools and include businesses as well
How else this is going to happen is up to anyone who is able to contribute to #digitalstudies. Social networking as a core part of the curriculum will be essential and should showcase the subject as relevant and modern. Besides we may very well see pupils beginning to develop apps for social networks as part of their portfolio!

Hack days for developing #digitalstudies to upgrade #ictcurric

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Image: ‘DSC_9783′ 

On Thursday the 19th I led a discussion for #ukedchat on the topic of #digitalstudies.  It was incredibly fruitful with a huge response across the entire hour.  One idea I had which I proposed when discussing assessment was for pupils to be assessed using hack days instead of exams.  This received a pretty significant response without 15 retweets over the next half an hour.

@campbellhowes also said that she had a friend at Nokia desperate to do something like this and the very inspirational @teknoteacher and his hack days for kids was mentioned.  So over the weekend I had a think about the issue of hack days and now would like to suggest the following.

Hack days for education could fall into three categories
  1. Hack days for building interest and sparking creativity
  2. Hack days for assessment and presentation of final projects (bit of a loose definition of hack day)
  3. Hack days for building resources and ties between teachers and industry
It’s the third one I want to focus on for now particularly in the lead up to Chris Leach’s excellent #rethinkingict conference on the 8th of June – http://rethinkingict.wordpress.com.  At this moment this seems more like a policy and practice debate at the moment so I was thinking a more traditional hack day could be a good forum to focus on practical development of resources for a new #digitalstudies curriculum.

Let’s call it #resourcehack for now and think about what the day would look like?

What would be the purpose of the day?

For developers to work with teachers and pupils to create new tools, resources and software which is relevant for the new curriculum.

Who would be involved?
  1. Pupils – a selection of motivated pupils would be vital for developers to chat to
  2. Teachers – we need to be there, developers or not
  3. Developers from industry – social networks, BCS, games companies etc, blogging networks
How would it run?

This is where I would need advice as I have never run a hack day before.

What would happen with the resulting products?

Released as part of the open source curriculum.

Conclusion

Comments as always very welcome.  I think this idea has merit and I would be interested to see what other people think.

#ukedchat summary of discussion on #digitalstudies

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ukedchat archive 19 Jan 2012.xlsx
Download this file

Last night I had the opportunity to lead a discussion on a new subject which is being proposed and worked on by a small group of teachers called #digitalstudies.  The aim of the evening was to give people a chance to find out about it, discuss it's implications and come up with practical solutions.  After Gove's announcements recently about the changes to the curriculum it was natural that a fair bit of the conversation would be about the fallout from his announcements.  The conversation was fast and furious with multiple threads and therefore this summary is only touching on some of what the archive offers.

The conversation began with some scepticism about his announcements with people saying he hadn't gone far enough to expressing concern about whether the free choice element of the ICT curriculum would come about.  Some were also concerned about the about the business and commercial influence this might bring into the subject.  There was also some discussion about whether his message was 'we could do what we want' or 'there must be more computing' or whether it should be a bit of both with a couple of tweets about what we could 'do' when it came to september.  Another concern was whether the new curriculum could be handled by non-specialist teachers.

During the session a regular point which people came back to quite repeatedly was the discussion of terms and their definitions as well as how strands of teaching based on those terms could be taught.  A pertinent comment was made that any curriculum needs balance and should be flexible to meet the needs of pupils.  A lot of positivity was expressed with people wanting to design a curriculum which augments what we do as teachers.

Another theme of the evening was practical ways of moving forward either #digitalstudies or something similar.  A comment was made that a lot of the current ICT curriculum could be cut back.  A #rethinkingict conference was also mentioned being led by @chrisleach78 during which people will have a chance to work on developing future plans.  On the topic of assessment for ICT or any new subject a suggestion was made to have pupils do 'hack days' as a form of assessment instead of regular tests and exams.  Some comments and links were also posted on including EYFS in any new curriculum which was very much recommended.  Training was a regular point of discussion as something which was vital for pushing forward with a new curriculum.

A selection of tweets from the evening:
Links:

10 pts about #digitalstudies for #ukedchat tonight

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As I have written fairly extensive blog posts about #digitalstudies and as many people coming in tonight probably haven’t had a chance to read up about the subject I thought it would be a good idea to write some brief points about it.

1. My name is Brian Sharland and I am a Head of ICT at an independent school with a number of years teaching state school under my belt as well.

2. I would describe myself as a campaigner for #digitalstudies – a subject which is in the early stages of being developed collaboratively using an open source framework.

3. #digitalstudies is being positioned as an ‘upgrade’ to the old ICT curriculum which includes what the UK government is proposing for the subject but goes further to include what was good about the old subject curriculum.

4. The subject includes four strands; Digital Literacy, Digital Technology, Digital Creativity and Digital Citizenship and would cover at this point key stage 1 to key stage 3 with routes into GCSE.

5. The philosophy for the subject would be collaboration and creativity through pupils working on extensive projects in what could almost be described as a ‘startup’ culture within the classroom.

6. Pupils, especially from late primary school and up, would be encouraged to create products, apps, media which are released onto the net and form part of a digital portfolio which is carried into HE and hopefully work.

7. Currently descriptions for the strands exist, ideas for topics exist and a basic wiki has only just been set up this week.

8. There is a lot more which still needs to be done (assessment objectives, project ideas etc)

9. Tonight therefore I hope will provide constructive and practical discussion surrounding the subject to see whether this has support and can have an impact.

10. Links:
http://digitalstudieswiki.pbworks.com

http://BrianSharland.com/tag/digitalstudies

http://rethinkingict.wordpress.com/

http://teachesict.wordpress.com/digitalstudies/

People to chat to:

myself @sharland

Chris Leach @chrisleach78

Nick Jackson @largerama

Nic @teachesict

Hashtags:

#digitalstudies

#rethinkingict

Looking forward to this …

Critical Study Proposal for MA ICT and Education #classblogging #sen

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In a slight change of pace from the impending #ukedchat on Thursday on #digitalstudies I have my critical study proposal to submit for my MA on ICT and Education.

My proposal is as follows:

I propose to investigate whether blogging as both a planned and organized activity or as a free activity can have an identified positive impact on pupils with SEN.  I would like to investigate how pupils learning and for those who it is relevant social and language skills are affected.  I will use a group of identified pupils in hopefully at least two schools to ensure that the pupils concerned have different levels of technological access at home.

The proposal can be brief at this point as I am simply needing to get a tutor who can work with me but it at least covers what I am interested in.  I enjoy blogging and see its learning learning potential but up until now I have been concentrating on promoting general blogging for pupils as a form of reflection and self assessment.  By focussing on the SEN department of a school I think this will help turn attention to how blogging can be used for pupils who I think can be overlooked when it comes to the use of technology.  Furthermore our SEN head loves the idea and the head of SEN at another local state school lives two doors from me.

Upgrading #ictcurric to #digitalstudies

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This week I have the privilege of hosting #ukedchat on the topic of #digitalstudies. I will probably write another quick summary blog shortly before Thursday night giving those who are coming new to the topic a quick refresher and a full set of links. Today therefore I more want to follow on from my last post on our Secretary of Educations’s announcements on ICT by thinking forward to how this is going to impact #digitalstudies.

Firstly a quick recap of what has happened so far. Late last year I saw a blog post by @mwclarkson on possible strands for ICT and I asked him if I could use those as a basis for working on my new schemes of work. Shortly after that I began to think that these strands could be used as the possible basis for a ‘rebrand’ of the subject and after seeing a while ago some discussion about whether the name of ICT was a problem a thought that perhaps a new name could be found. I wrote a blog post setting out my thoughts for wanting to rename the subject to #digital and after some initial reservations both online and with some colleagues @largerama proposed the addition of studies to the name and #digitalstudies was born.

Since then I have come across @chrisleach78′sexcellent work on his version of a new curriculum which uses similar strands and have also made contact with @teachesict who has started producing some fantastic mind maps on topics for the subject. Chris has also launched the #rethinkingict conference which I think has reached its limits in terms of numbers. More details can be found here.

So after Michael Gove’s announcements last week on the 11th of January I was very chuffed to see that not only does much of #digitalstudies match what Gove is suggesting I think the subject we are working on will not only include all of what Gove wants to see but also goes further in providing a broad, exciting and balanced curriculum.

We are already in a sense ‘open source’, we will be including the heavy programming the government wants to see but will also be including topics and challenges which are relevant to pupils. What is also very important is the following point which I will make in its own paragraph as I think it is vital for ensuring this project gets taken seriously.

Digital Studies must be seen not as a collection of fun and cool teaching ideas but as a consistent, challenging, engaging and academically rigorous subject which is above and beyond what any other country has to offer.

I am setting a high benchmark for two reasons. Firstly it gives us something to aim for and the higher we aim the further we reach and secondly because I think there is a collective skill set amongst ICT teachers in the UK (and obviously further afield as well) which can help produce this.

So what needs to happen next? I was hoping to get to teachmeet BETT last Friday but for personal reasons was unable to do so. Fortunately I have very kindly been offered a slot by @chilledteaching to moderate a discussion on Thursday night on #digitalstudies. The conference which Chris is organising is a next logical step and I think will prove immensely valuable in giving some serious direction to the next stages for ICT whether it will be #digitalstudies or something else. Further action points:

1. For those attending the #rethinkingICT conference start preparing for it. For those not attending get as much contributions as you can to those who are attending.

2. Attend the #ukedchat session on twitter Thursday 19th January at 8:00pm.

3. From today http://digitalstudieswiki.pbworks.com is now open to start compiling ideas and developing content. It currently has very little and I will try and give it some structure during today. Request access and begin editing.

4. If you are buying into this then get exposure for #digitalstudies in your school, home, LA office, company, government department, newspaper office, blog posts, tweets etc. I like what Gove had to say but I think we can be better then he probably thinks we are.

Cheers
Brian

Ps: need a logo – get tired of searching through flickrcc for decent images

My response to #Gove’s announcement on #ictcurric (#digitalstudies #schoolstech)

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Yesterday was a fairly momentous day for ICT teachers in the UK after Michael Gove's set piece speech on the future of ICT teaching in schools.  There has been an avalanche of news stories, tweets and blogs about it so I thought it may be a good idea to let the dust settle before adding my two cents.  A lot of the comment has been quite in depth about some of the issues so for me I will be trying to slightly 'summarise' the main points.  A post on #digitalstudies should hopefully follow soon

The problems people have been having with the speech

Some commentary including some incensed tweets from someone at NASUWT have focussed on Gove's comments that ICT teaching is boring and dull.  Ofsted did pick up on it and I largely tend to agree with Gove.  In those schools where leadership has not invested properly in staff to teach the subject I can very well imagine teachers who are trying to do a really good job but are struggling due to not probably being their main specialism.  

The curriculum itself I don't think was 'boring' as such.  There was a lot of good quality and challenging points within it but again I think it suffered through schools not paying it too much attention.  Trying to take a step back I would say that the curriculum for ICT was probably a great curriculum for most of the 2000's leading up to about 2007-8.  This I would say is the point where social networks, apps on mobile phones and the like started to really take off beyond the level of enthusiasm which sites like myspace had achieved.  The pace of technological change since then has meant that the ICT curriculum is now largely out of date (my textbooks are a joke) and change certainly is needed.

A further problem I have picked up on briefly is that some may think the government is wishing their hands of ICT and that by giving companies the opportunity to set the pace for future curricula this will lead to excessive commercialisation of ICT.

To answer that (and more in the opportunities presented by the speech)
  1. Gove has committed to including Computer Science within the EBacc if it meets standards
  2. ICT is already heavily commercialised with teachers having to pick their way through Microsoft, Apple, Adobe products etc etc
It may be a cynical view to adopt that they are washing their hands of it but given the alternative of taking ages to develop a centralised national curriculum for the subject I think Gove has given us the lesser of two evils.  Although it may only be Computer Science in the Ebacc I think at GCSE level I don't see anything wrong in pupils choosing to focus on one strand of #digitalstudies.  As for the commercialisation question I think most teachers are adept at finding their way through commercial products (If you have been to BETT that skill would be hardcoded in you by now!).

Opportunities presented by the speech

The biggest opportunity presented by Gove's speech is the mention of the words 'open source curriculum'.  This does obviously allow corporates to produce their own curricula and I would certainly welcome that.  However in my only real gripe he didn't acknowledge that teachers themselves could be responsible for developing an open source curriculum.  This is something myself, @teachesict and @chrisleach28 are working on in different ways under the guise of #digitalstudies.

A new open source curriculum should be able to provide opportunities for bringin gin more coding but also keeping some of the value from the old ICT curriculum.  I certainly don't want to restrict it to computer science right the way through the curriculum as this I feel would be too limiting.

Summary

Although my opportunities is shorter than the problems section I think the opportunity of a truly open sourced curriculum is fantastic and should give the scope and vitality to really take this subject forward.  Although Gove based part of his speech on misconceptions the balance I think was largely positive and should ensure that ICT or whatever it will be called is not only safe for the future but provides a market leading educational experience for pupils.