Next Generation Learning in Kent - All Comments

re: Top technology ... BETT 2010

AlanDay — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:45:19 GMT

Can't comment for Advisory Service Kent colleagues, but I visited all day Thursday, and in my own time on Saturday. I admit that although I was booked for the AmpliFied Barcamp / unconference on Thursday evening, I wasn't able to attend in the end as an earlier BETT gathering ran over time.

There are KCC policy constraints on who, and how many staff can attend events, forms have to be submitted and line manager permission obtained, so it isn't down to individual choice.

James (ASK) and myself attended SUKE Teachmeat last year, which was great. I am always interested in what's going with ICT in schools.

Alan

re: Top technology ... BETT 2010

Mark Warner — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:31:21 GMT

BETT this year was a fantastic event... particularly with the Teachmeet and Teachmeet Takeover events taking place - allowing real teachers to share real (and free) ideas that can impact upon the classrooms of those in attendance.

However, it was a shame to see so few of the Kent ICT team in attendance... surely it makes sense for the whole team to visit 'the world's biggest educational technology event' when these are the people who go into schools and have the some of the biggest influence on the ICT that takes place in Kent classrooms?

As an ICT co-ordinator, I was able to go for two days and will be sharing my discoveries with my colleagues at school (and via my blogs / Twitter network). However, I can't share these things with other Kent schools in the same way that your ICT advisors could.

In my experience, Kent is seen as a leader in terms of ICT (especially with our fantastic Kent ICT site and the resources that are shared there). So why weren't they there?!

re: Home Access! ... do you know what's going on?

Lou Gage — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:39:34 GMT

How do parents apply?

re: Capita CS v Bromcom? ... fighting talk!

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:31:25 GMT

Err, is this the same Bromcom that tried to enforce a patent claim that no school in the UK should be allowed to take a class register using laptop on a normal wifi connection because they held a patent that would stop anybody doing it, and instead they'd have to buy Bromcom's own hardware.

re: British Pathé? Great ... but can you get it to work?

Marc — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:36:07 GMT

Here at EIS we receive a fair few comments from teachers about accessing these resources from home.

Every school connected to the Schools Broadband network are entitled to utilise the centrally hosted VPN. when you are connected via the VPN you are effectively connected to your school LAN. This means you would then be able to access resources like this from home

Contact your ICT department within your school, or if you are the ICT department, contact the Schools Broadband service desk to get this setup

schools.broadband@kent.gov.uk

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Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:19:15 GMT

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re: Home Access! ... do you know what's going on?

Mabel Hahner — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:46:29 GMT

A leaflet was mentioned but I have searched and I can't find it - does anyone know the URL to access it?

Regards Mabel

Home Access « Mike McSharry

Home Access « Mike McSharry — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:51:00 GMT

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Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:34:07 GMT

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Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:20:33 GMT

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re: ICT Suites ... an update!

Justin Dodd — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:31:08 GMT

And as you have already said, that does not show how effectively they are used. :)

ICT Targets ... now that's an interesting subject!

Next Generation Learning in Kent — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:55:03 GMT

I had an enquiry from a Kent secondary school asking about current targets for ICT. It set me on a bit

re: Assessment for Learning - critics vindicated?

James Blomfield — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:55:06 GMT

Hi Alan

It's 00:53 - but some of us do still enjoy reading your blogs late into the night (morning)!

I have an idea for re-introducing assessment for learning that will (and has) made a difference to learners. Would like to share with you.

re: Learner Voice - its in the can!

Doug — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:50:28 GMT

There are many of these things in the TTS Catalogue ... See the 'Talk Time' range ... www.tts-group.co.uk/Range.aspx

re: Is 'Personalised Learning' just waffle? ... the Emperors New Clothes?

AlanDay — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:39:18 GMT

I think a more effective approach is for teachers to have an armoury of techniques and approaches that go beyond single exemplar lesson plans and link learning across the curriculum whilst providing structure. Most children's experience is of subjects as unconnected islands that they move between in the gaps. As one of the teachers involved in Enquiring Minds admitted

"I’ve been disappointed that we’ve been so crap at team planning I have to say”.

re: Is 'Personalised Learning' just waffle? ... the Emperors New Clothes?

Justin Dodd — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 17:40:22 GMT

At Ashford Christ Church we use a number of the above models.

I think the answer has to be it is also 'personal' to the school. What works with one school might not work with another. Some of the models need higher level of literacy which our students do not have. For many of our students personalising their work means a greater focus on functional literacy skills. This is clear from assessments....A4L. Are we not going in circles here? What good teachers do is deliver the curriculum to students, catering for a variety of strengths and weaknesses, learning styles, prior attainment, use of ICT etc etc.

Why is this not enough?

Assessment for Learning - critics vindicated?

Next Generation Learning in Kent — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 14:58:37 GMT

Alongside my previous post on personalised learning , the same committee also questioned the Assessment

re: Innovation is risky ... what happens if it doesn't work?

AlanDay — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:42:26 GMT

This was printed in the TES, and may be of interest in this debate.

www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx

Those of us using thematic learning need to understand that just because we have a thematic curriculum and our children are clearly enjoying working in this way doesn't necessarily mean the rigour is there.

But a rigorous, well-managed, well-maintained thematic curriculum that incorporates quality learning, explicit skill development and addresses all abilities is, without doubt, the best learning you'll find.

As a school, we organise learning - especially in the non-core subjects - in a thematic way, using well-structured and engaging units provided by the international primary curriculum. It would be hard not to make it highly effective for pupils. If blame is to be apportioned, it may be the messenger and not the message.

Jon Trotter, Headteacher, Handford Hall Primary School, Suffolk.

Innovation is risky ... what happens if it doesn't work?

Next Generation Learning in Kent — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 09:21:30 GMT

Reading last weeks TES, I came across an article in which OFSTED is reported to have given a 'thumbs

re: Kent's Building Schools for the Future - signed and sealed!

Sunil Kumar — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:27:30 GMT

The sculpture was created by Angela Connor, see graduates.lovells.com/.../guidedtour.htm for further details.

re: What do Kent KS3 students do online? ... and for how long?

hade — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:03:44 GMT

thank you for doing my homework.

re: Extended Schools and ICT - paradigm lost?

247oaks — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:36:10 GMT

The trouble is that there are elements of a good idea within this that will never see the light of day due to poor implementation and lack of interesting in seeing it through.

Given how wide spread the use of ICT is it is still surprising how poorly people seem to understand fundamental concepts. There is a great need to not only provide community access to ICT but also support for those users.

Schools should be championing the use of Free and Open Source ICT software and be providing support for parents and the community as a hub of learning in their area. However, to achieve this requires a vast rethink of funding and priorities for the education system in the UK.

There are many more reasons why this rethink is long overdue but I don't hold out much hope of it happening anytime soon.

Microsoft moves ...

Harnessing Technology in Kent - Digital Curriculum — Thu, 22 May 2008 20:22:36 GMT

One of Becta's complaints in their referral of Microsoft to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) appears

re: Assessment for Learning? Learning to Learn?

Ray Tolley — Mon, 19 May 2008 09:56:07 GMT

Hi,

I have visted CCHS several times, including their major conferences. As much as Newcastle might be proud to lay claim to CCHS it is actually part of Northumberland CC - even if the local airport is Newcastle!

Perhaps the first thing to note is that the outstanding work at CCHS is not a quick technological fix but is the product of a long-haul effort by the Head, Derek Wise, and the whole-school team that works with him.

Yes, the vision is fantastic, the educational goals are well-founded and the technology works because, as far as I could see, all the 'techies' have a very clear understanding of the educational strategies.

One comment about 'Assessment for Learning' - CCHS has developed a very successful system of self-assessment of learning using SmartAssess. It might be a bit unnerving to think of students assessing their own learning until the educational values of this approach are fully understood.

Bottom line? A MUST SEE school.

re: Assessment for Learning? Learning to Learn?

Jerry Owens — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:03:55 GMT

Seeing you this morning reminded me that I needed to respond to this blog entry!

Cramlington is at the cutting edge of applying these approaches and their annual conference is worth a visit for any teachers and school leaders looking to explore where some of the developing next practice now being widely discussed in terms of delivering the Kent Secondary Strategy vision (within BSF or not).

For interest the conference date is 27th June.

Other examples of practice in some Kent schools can be found on the Transformation Webpage - on KentTrustWeb - www.kenttrustweb.org.uk/.../default.cfm

re: Deteriorating performance on network computers? Is 1:1 the answer?

AlanDay — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:58:36 GMT

Thanks Tony, thats really helpful. Below is a link to the relevant MS help and support page.

support.microsoft.com/.../307800

Thanks to those who emailed me responses whilst the Blog comments were down. These included the use of MS delprof. This looks like a good housekeeping utility, but means that the build-up of profiles just starts all over again. Link Below.

support.microsoft.com/.../en-us

re: Deteriorating performance on network computers? Is 1:1 the answer?

Tony Dod — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:19:19 GMT

Mandatory profiles, for at least students and maybe staff, should dramatically speed up logins, and also will never grow in size. They also prevent users from saving changing to applications, such as moving menus in work, so giving a more unified teaching experience since you know how applications will appear. If required it should still be possible to re-direct the likes of cookies and favourites to folders in the users home directory.

re: New Line Learning Academy + Samsung Q1 = 1:1?

AlanDay — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:48:31 GMT

Thanks for the update David. I'd like to pick up a couple of questions. Do parents contribute to the kit, or are their plans to do so? Also you mentioned management using 'correct network resources'. What do you use to monitor and /or control. We have looked at several solutions to this tricky problem. So far I have only come across intellisynch and sanako that seem to offer direct control of mixed populations of mobile devices.

re: New Line Learning Academy + Samsung Q1 = 1:1?

David Simons — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:25:55 GMT

The devices are afforded through efficiency savings and by putting ICT at the centre of all that we do. It is part of the overall vision of the Academies to use ICT as a driver for change within the classroom, to improve teaching and learning and therefore improve the life chances of all of our students. It is a leap of faith to spend so much of capital budget on ICT but we have not looked back and the benefits that have been felt as a result of implementation far outweigh any sacrifices made.

We are also realistic in the way that the devices are deployed. In the video the teacher stated that there was a greater likelihood that he student would bring in their device, but as with text books and pens students do forget them and don’t charge them but it is true to say that the engagement in learning with these devices is so great that it is true to say that it is only a minority of students that do not bring in their learning device.

With regard to the messaging and games playing in lesson time. This is going to happen, but as with any undesirable behaviour in the classroom this is a classroom management issue, the only difference being that it can be tracked more effectively and dealt with using the correct network resources.

There are of course lots of questions and challenges when deploying on this scale and we have not got it totally right yet but we are learning a great deal and will continue to do so. We will also continue to deploy on this scale as we fundamentally believe that technology offers us way to deliver a truly personalised and immersive educational experience for our students.

re: Booms and Swingers? ... Projecting the right image!

Andy Duckworth — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:47:07 GMT

This is a difficult issue. CDEC Limited are a company based in Kent and have been installing whiteboards for numerous years and were approved by BECTA to do this.

When the all in one interactive whiteboard solution arrived educationalists and educational suppliers were full of praise. I for one had big issues with putting boards into Foundation and KS1 stages as the projector was very low down and fixed if the board was low. This created a health and safety issue. We at CDEC did explore the option of producing a periscope mount to push up the projector when not in use but like anything the price was too expensive.

Having the board too high also creates a problem as some schools use steps for the smaller children. I fear that this again creates health and safety issues.

Using drumsticks on a smartboard or the longer Promethean pen again solves problems so children can extend their reach but this is not a total solution as the children are using an implement sometimes over 50cm in length.

The all in one solution does help children with special needs and children of all heights to interact fully with the board.

We have found however, that some schools have not fully understood the solution and I agree that the booms are easily used as swinging devices by some pupils. We as a company have had situations where we have installed the equipment and have had to de-install the system on the same day as the school had not realised what the system looks like.

On another note one establishment did say that at least we can now integrate the use of ICT equipment within the PE Department !!!!!!!!!!! (This is not the opinion of the author !)

Anyway, the future ? I believe we need to start to develop these systems with new technology and use shorter throw projectors with shorter booms. For those that went to BETT this year I am sure they saw this technology.

Anyone wanting independent advice about ‘All In One’ solutions I am happy to talk to them and offer free consultancy for any Kent School.