Change bLog

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I really need to speak more clearly, my diction has really gone downhill since working up north
Sorry about the poor quality, I’m uploading over 3G from my phone. Remember, this is still an experiment!

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If you listen carefully you’ll realise that I don’t even know what day of the week it is!

I’m doing this as an experiment. The plan is to get my students to vBlog once I can convince the other teachers that it’s a good idea.

Schools minister Jim Knight yesterday opened the BETT Show 08 with the announcement that all school will provide ‘real time‘ reporting on children by 2012, using the internet as a vehicle. Whilst I welcome the broad concept, this is yet another example of a good initial idea implemented badly.

Firstly, I am a teacher. Has anybody asked me what I think? If schools are being treated as businesses, then we as staff should have been told, rather than just catching it at the end of a news bulletin on Channel 4. If we are a public service, trying to give our children the best possible education rather than make money, then there should have been some public consultancy.

Providing up-to-date feedback on a number of areas to parents is essential. However, most primary teachers have a good dialogue with most parents, often at the school gate. This announcement seems to suggest that there will be a minute-by-minute update on everything from behaviour to what the child had for dinner. Will we be given an assistant to sit in class, constantly typing information into a computer about each child? Are teachers expected to do this rather than actually spending time helping the children to learn (I thought that was one of the main points of teaching)? This seems to be a rushed announcement to make the government sound like they have their finger on the pulse. A far more considered announcement would have been better, outlining a practical implementation of the scheme.

One of the best things about this communication ‘revolution’ that we are experiencing is the choice that is available, especially from freeware/open source solutions. Even better is that these solutions are usually natively compatible with each other and, if not, there is usually some patch or work-around. The choice is also there with how and when to use these tools. Some schools might decide to use SMS to keep parents informed, some may choose email and others may choose a combination of protocols. The important thing is that the school can choose a method that best suits a particular situation and preference. The government seems to have taken the same approach to school administration as it has to the curriculum, make the children fit the plan rather than making the plan fit the children. Have we learned nothing?

If I can be brave enough to walk around shoving my camera phone in people’s faces, I will try to bring my 2 subscribers up-to-the-minute video action from the BETT show. If I feel like too much of an idiot, I won’t bother.

I’m writing this post on my new Nokia N95 8GB on three which is stunning, i’m so glad I didn’t get an iPhone! The picture has been added straight from my phone too, big social networking potential! I’m off to the BETT show tomorrow for three days, complete with two nights free at the Olympia Hilton!. I’ll be doing my best to annoy and badger people into giving me information, tips and free stuff. I’m particularly looking forward to the TeachMeet08 on friday night.

edit – so the photo didn’t work, but it’s a good start!

One of the great things about the internet is that I’m getting the best training and development from around the world, not just in my geographical location, and I’m doing this through the very means that I am supposed to be teaching. The interactivity that is now available means that, perhaps, someone might learn from me too. Some of the best practice I have been able to copy learn from has been found on the web. Some of this has been on YouTube or from other people’s blogs (interesting to note that many of the ways I learn are blocked in schools).

People seem to use blogs in three main ways:

1. As an online diary
2. As a way of displaying news
3. A mixture of the two

I hope to use my blog as a mixture of the two. In the main, though, I will separate my ideas so they are more useful. If i’ve spent a day at a conference, it is probably more helpful to the reader if split my blog up into different posts covering different subjects rather than one big blog covering the day’s events. This means less reading through stuff that is irrelevant.

It was useful to read Your First 10,000 Blog Posts are the Worst as it gives people like me hope. If I’m 100% honest I’m not sure why I’m blogging, but talking about it certainly isn’t the reason. Blogging about blogging is like having meetings about meetings. With that in mind, I’m off to find something to write about.

This is the first part of my review of the year, mainly for my benefit. The idea is shamelessly stolen from Ewan McIntosh and will be nowhere near as interesting.

So, 2007 ends and this is the first year for a long time that I have had a lot to reflect on – qualifying as a teacher, getting my first teaching post and my first year as a ‘Mac Man’ are just a few of these things.

Having never gained any qualifications in the world of ICT before starting my degree in Primary Teaching with ICT three years ago, I have found the way we do computers in school quite alien. Until recently I’ve never studied ICT, just discovered things. This anti-education was enough to get me a job as a computer engineer at the age of 19. So the way we plough through the dated curriculum in England and Wales is bizarre. (In fact, an ICT curriculum will be dated as soon as it is printed). I think I probably had an early insight into the way most teens ‘do’ ICT now; practically, in the real world. Because that’s what ICT is now, part of the real, everyday world.

Some time in the early nineties, the geek-bound area of ‘IT’ gained a new letter. This was a reflection of the rise of the internet into the public domain (by the way, the letter was ‘C’ and it stands for communication). Now, about 10 years after the net became commonplace in the average family home, the ‘C’ now stands for a whole lot more. We used to communicate through the internet and mobile phones. Important people could communicate through TV, radio and maybe some other stuff I can’t think of right now. However, we don’t use the internet to communicate now, we use myspace, Bebo, Facebook, Twitter, SMS, video and we use the internet, 3G and bluetooth to access these things. Incidentally, most of these things are blocked and outlawed in school. You could probably pick holes in this statement like ‘SMS should be in the other category because it is a protocol’. I’m sure you understand what I’m getting at though. Most teens aren’t bothered how they get their regular fix of MyFaceBo; mobile phone, iPod touch, PSP, Hacked DS, PDA, PC, TV, Wii, XBox, PS 3; each one is just a tool.

http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=1568053464

Well, as good as. The newsletter, video and Rock You slide show had to be taken off because of parental permission for the publication of photos.

What a pain in the neck.

We have taken our first tiny steps towards improve our webspace.  The children have been playing around with the blogging space and were amazed to see all of their comments appear.  Some of our year 10 pupils will be creating ‘Rock You!’ photo slideshows later on too! (hopefully).  Please (if anyone actually reads this!) feel free to comment as the website progresses.  At the moment i’m trying to decide whether we need a traditional website at all or whether we just go all wordpress.  What do you think? Our Headteacher has been very forward thinking on our ICT, as can be seen on his comments on my ‘about me’ page.  He is more concerned with making ICT relevant and beneficial to the children rather than making sure we dot all the ‘i’s and cross all the ‘t’s of the curriculum.  The more of a back seat the school staff can take on this, the better in my opinion.  Let’s get the students running the show. www.delves.derbyshire.sch.uk