End of term report 2014

One term down, two to go. Time for a little reflection.
Firstly I've not achieved all I wanted this term. Yes, I think like I've taken big steps towards winning the hearts and minds of my pupils. They all seem to be on board with the curriculum changes I am trying to make, and I do genuinely believe that my lessons are more engaging, relevant and interesting. I'm optimistic that recruitment into KS4 will improve, and next year will also see me deliver Computer Science GCSE, as opposed to Business Studies which was foisted onto me. February will see my first extra-curricular activity, a trip to Disneyland Paris ostensibly for an ICT seminar, but which has instead become a purely recreational visit, which is fine with me.

However, my progress has been limited by out-of-date computer equipment and a headteacher that is understandably reluctant to invest, given that we are moving to a new school in 2 years. Not that this helps our current situation, but nevertheless, I do understand. Rome, and Islwyn West Comprehensive School (I hate the name) weren't built in a day.
What's next? More of the same. More self-reflection, more openness to new ideas, more letting the learners have fun rather than just fulfilling their NC requirements. Next term I'll hopefully have the iPads up and running (that is if I can wrestle them away from the English department, 'as they are a priority subject, they should have them').Yeah, good luck with that English Department...


I hope your Christmas is a relaxing and peaceful time.

"Sir... I've forgotten my password"

Since starting the Digital Leaders training, I feel inspired, re-invigorated and my passion for ICT has returned. I am excited by the new tools I want to try out in my lessons, the cool projects I want to develop and the ways in which I want to make the school environment interactive and fun.
My enthusiasm has taken a real swiftie to the nethers this week. I start my lessons with the usual teachery stuff, starter activities (well, doing a uniform check and taking the register is a starter activity, of sorts), recaps of last lesson, lesson objectives for the current lesson. Then comes the sinking feeling as I say the words "Right, if you could login to the PCs please!". Some pupils put their hands up straight away, without any thought as to what it could be; some will make a token poke at their keyboards before uttering the dreaded words, others will make a genuine effort to remember before admitting defeat. But, all paths eventually lead to ..."Sir... I've forgotten my password". And so continues the Sisyphean adventure.

Each and every lesson at least fifteen percent of learners have login issues because of forgotten passwords. Bear in mind, these are passwords with no real length or format policy enforced on them.
Don't get me started on the problems I have with Hwb+ which enforces an appropriately strict password policy. The percentage of pupils with password-related Hwb+ access issues rises to at least 40% on average. in my school, Hwb+ access is clunky, at best, and each password change can take up to a minute. Worst of all, password changes are not necessarily a one-off issue. Repeat offenders present themselves, week after week after week.  For all the talk in recent months of teaching time being lost due to low-level misbehaviour (here), the amount of time my pupils lose due to an inability to remember an 8 character password of their own choosing, is equally dispiriting.

My predecessor in my previous school had a policy of charging pupils £1 per password change, which I was horrified by and quickly ditched; even I am thinking of a return to this draconian punishment (or should that be entrepreneurial endeavour?).

So, what's the answer? As a solution of sorts, I'm recommending to older pupils they store their passwords in a password vault on their smartphones. But, since these often require password protection, the irony is delicious. So, this is a plea. How do you get pupils to remember, week on week, an eight character (including one capital and one upper-case letter) password?

What's this?

I love Disney films. Their sunny disposition and feel-good message of good overcoming adversity. And don't get me started on the songs. Of course I have my favourites. The Toy Story trilogy, of course, A Nightmare Before Christmas, and the Tinkerbell* movies. But, these films, unlike so many of the other Disney classics, are not about stretching your boundaries, aspiring to be whatever your heart desires. Their message is of acceptance, contentment with your lot in life and dedicating yourself to being the best at what your role is. Not about aspiring to be better or different than you are, but to flourish and find fulfilment in your role and within its constraints. To be the best damn you that you can be.

My thoughts keeps returning to the dichotomy between satisfying the needs of an infirm education system and delivering a curriculum that supports and engages my pupils. I will always have to deliver lessons that meet the national curriculum. Doing this isn't quick and easy and leaves few opportunities for going off-piste. There is always be an end game I am working towards; end of Key Stage levels, giving pupils the skills they need to succeed in GCSEs.

Picture this conversation...

Head: So, Mr Lewis, your end of year 9 L5+ percentages are massively down on previous years, and fall below local and national levels. You've also fallen to the 4th quartile. How do you explain this?
Me: Yes, but my learners can now express themselves confidently and safely in this digital age.

Will that carry any weight? I doubt it. Will I be able to look myself in the mirror each night, and still have a job,  knowing I've made a difference to lives rather than provided a bunch of stats that show I'm a good teacher. Should I trust more in the intangible notion that I am making a difference? Does it matter what I think, when my head teacher and the local government are beholden to statistical data? If my effectiveness is only ever going to be measured by the results my pupils achieve, then is it wise to put the cart before the horse and put the learners at the centre of my lessons and deliver the curriculum they need rather than the one that's forced upon us?

So, how do I tick both boxes in my lessons?

This got me thinking about Sugata Mitra's extraordinary Ted talk from 2013. In it he says he doesn't think our current education system is broken, merely outdated. He is of course, correct on the latter, but I'd contest that it IS broken. It is and has always has been a behemoth that is fuelled by and driven inexorably towards quantifiable and measurable performance targets that benefit neither the learners, employers nor society. A self-serving machine; by effectively delivering the content the government dictates, I prove I am a good teacher; my school proves it is a good school, the LEA proves it is a good LEA, the government shows that it is a good government. What's missing this this though?
To move this behemoth from its current trajectory is near impossible, all it can do is continue along its path. New initiatives, curriculum revisions and national priorities come and go, but don't ultimately make a single meaningful difference. As inspirational as Mitra's vision of a school in the cloud is (and holy crap is it inspirational!), it's not achievable.Yet, anyway.

So, the new big question I have is this... How can we quantifiably evidence that our pupils are progressing and leaving schools with a skill-set that is desirable to employers and higher education. What even are the skills demanded by these nebulous entities?

Perhaps another question is.. Is it better to be highly effective in a broken system or to impotently rage against it? If it is truly impossible to effect meaningful change in our education system, should we strive at being excellent exam factories? Don't blame the player, blame the game. Or do we dare to be better? Can we succeed where Buzz Lightyear, Woody and Jack Skellington failed? Should I try to make my pupils fly, Space Ranger-like, or should I limit them to being mere toys?

*PS Whilst I will gladly watch any and everything Disney, the Tinkerbell movies aren't actually favourites of mine and have only been included to further illustrate my point.

Dad-dancing

It's a widely accepted fact that kids know more about ICT and the 'cool' apps than teachers do. They have the time, the insight and the word-of-mouth recommendations to keep them ahead of the game (and their prying parents). Is that actually true, I wonder? Let's assume for now that it is, and that our learners really are the gatekeepers to all that is cool on the Internet. So, where does that leave us?

It leaves us in a very powerful position; we get to sit back, and let the kids do the work for us. We let them be the compass and barometer of our ICT lessons. We let them decide what to teach, and we let them teach it. Let them be the ones knackered at the end of each working day, instead of us.

What role do we have in our own lessons if we are as hopelessly behind the curve as we assume we are? We could just worship at the altar of our beneficent superiors, and let them run the show, whilst we watch on, impotently. We could play the buffoon to their straight-man, dad-dancing our way through our ICT lessons, embarrassing ourselves (and our cringing pupils) with our hopelessly out-of-date talk of MySpace, and this cool new 'social-networking app' (remember to do the air-quote thing with your fingers for extra cool-appeal) called Bookface. And why not? If we can't win this race, why even try? Let's just be content to support them as best we can, to try inject some actual guidance in the application of these tools, rather than try to keep up with them. They provide the tools and skills, we provide the ideas and pedagogical insight.

Overcoming apathy

Two weeks ago, I introduced Remind across three year groups and their parents. I sent letters home to parents inviting them to take part in this useful and informative project that would be mutually beneficial. I targeted my form class (year 7) and four KS4 ICT and Business Studies groups. So, that's approximately 200 pupils and at least the same number of parents. As of the time of writing, only 13 pupils and 2 parents have made the effort to take part. Only 3.7% of the people I am trying to engage. Allowing for letters getting 'lost' on their way home and a proportion of people that don't have access to the internet, that's still a pretty poor show. At which point do I decide to not invest any further time in it? My time is limited, and I have plenty of other demands on it, both professionally and personally.

Having said that, it would be naive of me to think that everyone would readily embrace this scheme. However, it does raise some questions and concerns. Is it the idea of Remind they aren't connecting with? If not, why not? Do I need to raise my profile with pupils and parents, as I have only been at the school for 6 weeks, after all? Is it a case of having to keep trying new ideas and new initiatives, in the hope that a few will gain traction and lead somewhere? Won't that just irritate the ones that are on board, or further disinterest the ones that are uninterested? Perhaps the low level of parental uptake is due to the lack of digital transparency I spoke of previously. Do pupils see this scheme as a way of me establishing a direct-line method of contacting their parents, and they are eyeing it suspiciously...?

I'm going to give it more time, more nagging and continue using it as though I am speaking to a larger audience than the 3.7%. If you build it, they will come. I'm also going to spend more time reassuring pupils of my motives behind this app. I am not using it to 'tell' on them; I just want to start a dialogue and use this as a gateway to more fun and interactive things we could do.

This week I am starting my after-school ICT club, with the aim of developing pupils into Digital Leaders.  It'll be interesting to see how many pupils are engaged in this idea...

Freaked Out - part 2

Belatedly, here are some of the good practice and ideas that were shared as part of last week's Freaked out training.

Creating a culture of pupil Digital Leaders: 

• Develop a of expertise – digital wizards, digital leaders and digital learners. Pupils can keep their own blogs and Twitter accounts. Section on ddp and minutes. Publicise digital leaders 
• Digital leaders charter - what they will offer pupils and staff
• Every break of lunch create a Genius Bar for digital leaders to teach pupils and teachers
• Digital leaders appointed by digital wizards
• Change school website, where teachers can produce a weekly blog, to increase learner and parental engagement

Making our schools more interactive:

• All displays contain at least two interactive items
• Use aurasma to create interactive displays, or videos for pieces of equipment. Scan wall display and a video will play. Good for explaining and adding detail to wall displays. Use it to do book recommendations and reviews
• Qr codes in classroom, wall displays, targeted key areas. Linked to audio descriptions of newsletters, blogs etc.
• Using audiobook and qr codes to leave feedback for pupils
• Using Twitter to write stories. Using Twitter as a hook to interest. Using a Twitter account for historical figures and get them to interact. Use as class display

Changing our learners from consumers to creators:

Use explain everything to get the kids to do their own interactive learning guides

An argument in defence of the use of mobile phones in schools:

It is frustrating for us to not to be able to use a mobile device. If we need to know something,we'd immediately reach for our smartphones. Why do we deny this facility to our learners? Simon displayed a wonderful image (which I can't find online) comparing today's mobile phone with the plethora of devices that we used to use independent of each other (phone,l camera, video recorder, GPS, microphone, etc.). And most of us have access to this wondrous device, yet we never use it!

Why not allow them to use mobiles?? If we mutually devise a code of conduct, to give the learners ownersip and a shared sense of responsibility for their conduct, can't we create a culture of acceptance? Yes there will be problems; but if they are dealt with effectively, if the risk is managed, then we stand to gain so much.  He shared an example of w working code of conduct, where lessons are colour coded as follows: 

Red – no phones to be used in this lesson, keep them out of sight use

Amber – phones *may* be used, keep them close at hand 

Green – phones will definitely be used, but use them responsibly

However, Simon seemed at pains to acknowledge that this practice is fraught with pitfalls, and that patience and an understanding SLT is called for.  To give an example, if I may share a ribald anecdote, I discussed the issue of allowing mobile phone access with my Year 10 ICT, at which point, several class members (no pun intended) erupted. They then shared a story of how mobile phones and Snapchat had been used in the school toilets to share images of people using the facilities...

Plenty of ideas there to chew on, I'm sure you'll agree.

Freaked Out training - part 1, apps

The course was an interesting day, and gave me plenty of hands-on experience with apps that I'd either had on my own personal iPad for ages and hadn;t found time to use, or completely new stuff. It was also valuable to be the only secondary teacher there, and I was treated as a guest of honour at times, which was cute.

So, as promised here's a list of the apps we looked at, and most were self-evidently useful in a classroom. I apologise if this information is absurdly behind the curve, but not having used the iPad in an educational context means I am forever playing catchup!

Simon recommended that schools have a core body of apps, rather that too many.
i can see the wisdom behind this at it allows teachers to be more focused and allows for better sharing of good practice. not to mention it is more cost effective.

All iPad apps (well, duh).
Explain everything - creates interactive and fun slideshows and screencasts.
iFiles - manages and transfers content on iPads, and allows easy downaloading of clips from youtube.
Book Creator - pulls in assets created in all manner of iPad apps to create an interactive story book. Really fun.
Aurasma - Creating interactive assets using augmented reality. I really liked the idea behind this app, and definitely intend to use this in my classroom. Learners take an image of a poster, for example, and it triggers an event such as a video or audio clip. A great idea and a good gateway towards acceptance of mobile phones in and around school.
Hyperlapse- creating time lapse video clips
8MM - a video recording tool with a variety of in-built filters to create authentic looking clips (e.g. for a history lesson)
WordFoto - generating word clouds from a customisable word list and mapping it onto an image.
Vemory - will search a user's social media account to automatgically create a memory book of images that have been tagged in a particular way
Skitch - annotating on an acquired image
Audioboom (formerly Audioboo)
iTubeList - creating safe playlists of youtube content matching a given criteria
Tagcloud - creating word clouds
Showbie - a student work manager
Post-it Plus - allows you to take a photo of a grid of post-it notes, and will scan them in and allow your to rearrange them on the ipad. Sounds crap, seemed cool.
Xnsketch - a pretty standard drawing app with some nice filters.
Tellegami - create a digital avatar that can be used to give presentations and such. I can imagine the pupils will love abusing the hell out of this...

Tomorrow, I'll discuss the key issues that Simon spoke about regarding 21st Century Learners, and some very interesting ideas on how we can help create a culture of digital leaders and learners in our classrooms.

Platform Neutrality

Wednesday I attended a Freaked Out training session delivered by Simon Pridham. It was an enjoyable hands-on session ostensibly revolving around the meaningful use of iPads in a classroom.
I'll make a more detailed report on the apps we used on another post, but I just wanted to share a thought that occurred to me.

As of the time of writing, our educational standardisation and qualification systems primarily revolve around the teaching of the Microsoft Office suite. After all, it's what's used in the real world isn't it?

Now the paradigm has shifted (not that you'd know it from the glacial pace of change of the Welsh Government). The iPad is the de facto system used from an early age, and there is increasing pressure for us to teach towards the iPad. After all, it's what's used in the real world, isn't it?

Headteachers are throwing massive amounts of money at Apple, oftentimes without there being any solid strategy to support this decision. This half-baked 'me-too'ism is potentially costly and can add to the burden of already overstretched teachers.

However, what concerns me is where this is leading. There is a real danger that we are allowing recidivism into our classrooms. Being so narrowly focused on one system to the virtual exclusion of all others didn't get us very far in the past, yet I wonder if we aren't hell-bent on repeating that very mistake with the lionization of the iPad. The use of a PC has become somewhat passé. Learners are becoming, in my own experience at least, less confident with the use of a mouse and keyboard. The widespread use of the iPads in primary schools has just substituted one transferable skill for another, and hasn't actually improved the level of skills in our learners.

We need to be more measured in how we spend our time and money; for us to be less hardware orientated and more platform neutral. Keep one eye on the future and another on the present.

Tentative first steps as a digital leader

Despite all my ideals and lofty targets, reality hit me this week. Lessons to plan, work to mark, subjects to lead. As a result, my sights had to be lowered somewhat.
Still, I have made some progress on my journey.
Firstly, I carried out some initial research with several KS3 classes and discovered a little about their digital habits. I set aside time during a Year 7 and a year 8 lesson to discuss what I am working towards and why. Some of the responses I received have been eye-opening, disconcerting and worrying...

• Approximately 90% of learners have access to a smartphone, laptop/tablet or desktop PC
• Well over half of the pupils claimed to use the internet and related devices in a completely unsupervised, unfiltered and unmoderated manner. Of the remaining pupils, a handful have time restrictions imposed on them, and a few parents use filtering software
• Very few year 8 pupils were fearful of the internet and did not admit to feeling concerned about its risks
• A few year 7 pupils confessed to having experienced a difficult situation when online, but the anecdotes they shared seemed relatively trivial
• About a third of the classes confessed to using a device/app/site in a manner that they knew their parents would disapprove of
• Playing the devil's advocate even further, I asked how many of them take advantage of their parents' lack of ICT skills to conceal what they are doing. There was some reluctance to them confessing to this, but about a quarter of the class admitted they behaved in such a way

The last two points, whilst not particularly surprising, gave me pause for thought. I expected a level of disinterest from parents; I am prepared for apathy from my overworked and overstretched SLT, but I wasn't expecting the pupils to be anything other than fully committed to this process. In retrospect, this was naive of me. Of course the pupils will object to what we are trying to do when it shines a light on them capitalising on their parents' ignorance! Clearly we need to address another strand of digital citizenship, Digital Transparency.

However, before I can draw any firm conclusions or present this data to SLT/parents, it needs to be more substantial and less anecdotal. To this end, I will collaborate on a survey with fellow digital leaders to get a more complete picture of our learners' habits and opinions.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, I've thrown my lesson plans away (not literally, of course) and asked a few classes the big question "What do you want to learn?". As you can see below, it's pretty much a who's who of social messaging and social networking. Turning this wishlist into something meaningful and challenging will be an interesting prospect.

I've tried to broaden the impact of digital citizenship, by trying to incorporating more digital literacy skills into a non-ICT subject. I suggested to a business studies class would they be interested in the use of wikis, podcasts, blogs, vlogs and creating their own YouTube channel to help them revise and consolidate learning, and they all seemed really enthusiastic about this suggestion. 

I am fully aware at this stage that I've only made ideological progress; I now need to start actualising my goals. By the time I next write, I intend to have made tangible progress.Wish me luck.

Digital leadership in an analog educational system

"It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult." -- Seneca

Today, for the first time, I felt like I was failing my pupils. I've always prided myself on my ability to translate national curriculum orders into a fantastic set of end of key stage levels. Always well above local, regional and national averages. But really, that isn't enough, is it? Not even close.

I was doing a basic literacy exercise with some Year 8 pupils, pretty standard stuff, but they were still getting into it, and were really enthusiastic about simple things like peer assessment and our general pupil/teacher interactions. But as fun as that was for me, I felt, no I knew, that I was letting them down. This wasn't what they needed. The numbers game, pissing contest of end-of-key-stage results feels trivial and pointless. I, for one, am going to make a commitment to stop this madness and re-align my priorities. I swear, that on Monday, I am going to stand before my first key stage class and boldly ask 'What do you want to learn today?'. I also swear that their needs will come before those of the national curriculum.  Come Monday, I am going to start on the road to creating digital citizens, not Level 5+s. 

Let's not forget, we stand on the shoulders of giants. We, as prospective digital leaders have been given a great responsibility; we are the ones charged with being agents of change, in our lessons, schools, pupils' lives, parents' lives and in our communities. There is a deluge of empirical research to validate what we are trying to do. Every youtube clip of Howard Rheingold or Sonia Livingstone only convinces us further. We know what we need to do, we know it makes sense. But, and this is a but of mammoth proportions... How do we do it?

• We need to be developing pupils' crap detection skills (is that term acceptable, or should we tone it down a bit??)
• Develop a better sense of self-filtering and self-censorship
• To widen their palate of possibilities
• For them to widen our palates
• Using new technologies, new apps and new web sites
• Creating new apps and new web sites
• Encouraging pupils to develop their own voice on-line, to experiment, to take risks, to take risky experiments, to try, to fail, to dust themselves off and to try again
• To allow our pupils to feel empowered, but not because they know we are taking care of them, but because they are taking care of themselves

The Internet is an adult world, yes, but it's time for a new paradigm. We've all taken our children to a playground, where they had their fair share of fun and their fair share of scrapes. Yes, there were tears, but they always want to return, despite their mishaps. Why wouldn't they?? It's a playground for god's sake!! Let's take something from this. Let's try to make the internet less of a murky underworld and more of an adventure playground. Yes, our knees may get muddy and our hands scraped, but we'll still be back there tomorrow, full of enthusiasm for the promise of more muddy knees and more unbridled fun. 

Digital Leaders Training - day 3

Today was the final day of this section of the training, and like the previous two days, was full of interesting debate, sharing of experiences and as many questions as answers about the future of ICT in schools. The overriding emotion I have from the training is re-invigoration.

Much has been spoken and written about the need to return to a wholesome, good old-fashioned Computer Science curriculum. This way of thinking never really sat right with me; I knew that the current NC orders were tired and hopelessly out of date, but I never believed that a return to a curriculum diet that had been click-dragged to the recycle bin decades ago was the solution. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. I think we can all agree that the days of death by PowerPoint are rightfully numbered, and a revamp was needed. But this revisionist thinking that algorithms are a panacea for the ills of the ICT curriculum is myopic at best and plain wrong-headed at worst. What our young need is ICT 2.0, not Computing 1.01. This training, though, was a case in the defence of ICT. Our young are living in a digital world they are ill-prepared for, if they are prepared at all. That the vast majority of them can function in it at all is testament to their resilience and spirit of self-discovery. However, if we teachers, senior managers and policy makers, are brave enough, imaginative enough and prepared to be lead and well as leaders, we can empower our pupils to confidently stake their claim as digital citizens and express themselves in the digital world.

Of course, I am aware that this is just sabre-rattling. Before this can happen, there are battles to be had, hearts and minds to be won over and schemes of work to be cast asunder. But, to be in a position where I can contribute to this is both humbling and a privilege, and I hope I can rise to the challenge.

Reflections on digital leadership training

I've taught ICT for about 15 years, and only in the past few days have I really considered myself an ICT professional. Until then, I think I've been a pretty good teacher, able to create and deliver a scheme of work to fulfil national and local priorities with a good track record of achievement. And that's always been enough for me. I've always been aware that there's a whole world of cool and interesting activities that I could be involved in, but since it's not really been a requirement of the NC, I thought why bother?
However, the digital leaders training so far has proven to be a revelation. Whilst teaching will always, to a greater or lesser extent, be a numbers game, I realised that I have a duty to equip my pupils for the digital world they have been thrust into, rather than just being beholden to out-of-date curriculum orders and performance management tables.
I am looking forward to redefining what ICT is capable of offering to my pupils, my school, and to me.