In a recent address called 'What is education for?' to the Royal Society of Arts, Michael Gove bemoaned the fact that there is no government department in the UK whose sole remit is the pursuit of educational standards.

According to Gove, education is not regarded as a good enough end in itself, but as something which can help to achieve some other goal.

In his exposition of his views in favour of liberal education, he used the term 'the tyranny of relevance'. Although he wasn’t talking about Information and Communications Technology (ICT), this phrase did strike a chord with me. In the continuing debate over whether ICT should be taught as a subject in its own right, is there perhaps too much store set by 'relevance'?

I’ve noticed (although, curiously, I’d never consciously noticed it before) that whenever people tell me that they think ICT should be taught through the context of other subjects, they always cite 'relevance' as a factor. They almost always throw in a reference to kids having to suffer boring lessons on spreadsheets and databases. They seem to think that having lots of lessons on e-safety and plenty of opportunities to use blogs, Google and Wikipedia will somehow turn out youngsters who can use their knowledge of technology and ability to transfer their skills to excel in subjects right across the board.

Perhaps I have overstated my case slightly – but only slightly. Like Gove, I happen to think that the best kind of education is one in which students develop a deep knowledge of subjects. I like the idea of cross-curricular themes, and of making subjects 'relevant' both to each other and a wide range of issues and circumstances. However, I do not think you can achieve that without mastering individual subjects. To summarise, I regard the following statements (which are mine, not Gove’s) as axiomatic:

 
1. It is important for students to gain a deep knowledge of ICT, because only by understanding key issues (such as the difference between data and information) can they protect themselves against some forms of hype.    
      
   More positively, an understanding of how ICT can be used for 'provisional' activities, such as drafting and modelling, and an ability to appreciate the importance of precision in language (as required, for example, in 'sequencing' or programming, is essential for being able to avoid being subservient to a computer system’s apparent will.    
      
   However, even this is falling into the trap of looking for 'relevance'. Why can't ICT be studied and enjoyed for its own sake?
 
2. Far from being boring, spreadsheets and databases can be extremely interesting, even beautiful. I don’t mean just to look at, but in their design and construction.
 
3. Any teacher who makes spreadsheet or database lessons boring either has not had the time to develop interesting lessons, or does not really have a deep grasp of, and appreciation for, these areas themselves.
 
4. What we need are teachers who have a deep love of ICT. I think to achieve that we have to encourage teachers to join communities in which important subject-related (not necessarily education-related) issues are debated (such as the RSA or British Computer Society).
 
5. To help promote #4 we need to ensure that teachers have the time, and the authority, to develop teaching resources of their own.
 
6. As part of that, teachers should have the flexibility to be able to teach topics they have a deep interest in.When I started teaching economics, something I was especially interested in was road pricing. I usually spent around 2 weeks on that topic alone, but in doing so I was able to touch on a whole plethora of concepts that I knew would prove relevant throughout the rest of the course.
 
7. Finally, there needs to be an entitlement for top quality professional development, and the funds to back it up. For example, why shouldn’t teachers be able to apply for a ‘scholarship’ to attend national or even international conferences about educational technology?

I strongly believe that if we are to tackle the oft-cited lack of computer programming courses, say, or the sometimes perceived 'dumbing down' of ICT as a subject in its own right, we have to address the 'tyranny of relevance'.

The video of Michael Gove’s talk is embedded below.

 
• I have started a number of blogs in the past, many of which were private. For example, I started one as a means of keeping a record of my reading and assignments for a course, one for posting information and photos of a trip to the USA for a NECC Conference, solely for the benefit of my wife; and a blog for PGCE (teacher training) students for the purpose of maintaining a course journal.      
       
  However, the only two I really pay attention to these days is this  one and My Writes.  I use the latter for creative writing and just about anything other than educational technology. But I don’t update it as often as I think I should.
  
• The reason I say that is that I see lots of things I'd like to write about, and when I leave it too long (eg because of work deadlines) I start to forget.     
  
 
• I love writing, so in that sense blogging is a nice activity in itself, regardless of audience. Interestingly enough, through reading Stephen Downes' Online Daily newsletter I came across this post by Jay Cross about moving on from blogging  and going on to something called ‘lifestreaming’, on the grounds that blogging is too introspective. Well, I am with Cyril Connelly here:      
       
  "Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."      
       
  This is interesting, isn’t it? We are always telling pupils they must learn to write for an audience, and for different audiences. While I would agree that those are important skills, I also think we should encourage them to write for the sake of writing, ie for self-expression  -- which can itself take many different forms.      
  
 
• Blogging also has the advantage of being relatively safe and always available – I have lost loads of stuff in the past through moving and as disk formats have changed, so it’s nice to be able to store my stuff in a place I can get to any time and anywhere! I think the internet is stable and reliable enough these days for me to be able to say that.      
  
 
• Blogging is a way of connecting with people. For that reason, I try to see it from a (potential) reader’s point of view:      
       
  -- What do they expect to see and read when they come to my blog?      
  -- What would just be a waste of their time?      
       
  Is this approach compatible with my (implied) view that it’s ok to blog primarily for your own enjoyment? I think it is, from the point of view that if you don’t enjoy writing then I think readers will pick up on that anyway.      
       
  Besides, having two outlets for my writing means that I can use one as a means of communicating what I think is useful information and discussion points to people who have kindly decided to give me some of their time, and the other for pure self-indulgence.

We had an interesting discussion at the Mirandamod. Much of the video is still being edited, but there is a Flashmeeting recording of some of the discussion.

What are your views on these issues?

The woman at the end of the accusing finger pointing at my laptop edged cautiously towards the pub door, giving me a wide berth -- presumably in case the "thing" lashed out at her.

"I've tried, but they hate me, they do!"

Easy to dismiss such talk as the incoherent prattle of someone slightly unhinged. And yet, a part of me wonders whether she is not, on some level, quite right?

There certainly does appear to be a mischievous element to technology, which the failure to acknowledge can cause us to waste much time. I know this, and still I continue to apply logic to trouble-shooting issues, when what I should be doing is paying homage to, and attempting to placate, the Tech Force.

Think of the Tech Force not so much as a malignant power but a mischievous one. Unseen and unrecognised, it manifests itself at times such as one hour before an important deadline, or just when you were thinking of going to bed. There is no point in applying logic to the symptoms of the Tech Force's presence; all you can do is appeal to its better nature, and acknowledge its supremacy.

Over the past few days I have had ample opportunity to test my theory of the existence of the Tech Force.

A few days ago, we were suddenly unable to connect to the ICT in Education website. Given that this was the only website we were unable to access, a sense of panic ensued. Fortunately, after some fruitless checking of trouble-shooting forums, I remembered that last year when this happened I was able to resolve the situation by rebooting the wireless router. This I did, and it worked.

This angered the Tech Force. Yesterday, for no reason I could discern, the sound card on my computer stopped working. Restarting the computer resolved that one.

I laughed at the Tech Force. "Ha!", I said. (Try saying "Ha!" to a computer: it is most satisfying.) "Ha!", I said. "You will have to do better than that!"

It did. Last night I spent a miserable hour trying to figure out why I was no longer able to send any email. Receiving? No problem. Sending? Forget it. Typing the incomprehensible (to me, at any rate) error message into Google yielded nothing of any consequence. But then I looked at the error message again, and noticed that it seemed to be objecting to my IP address. I rebooted the wireless router (again), thereby obtaining a different IP address, and all was well.

But not for long. This morning, I wasted 15 minutes trying to synchronise my phone's calendar with my online calendar. In desperation I tried switching the phone off and on. It worked.

Last week, writer and blogger Joe Nutt coined the word "techle", which is the inadvertent interruption of a speaker by misbehaving technology. I almost agree with him: those of us who have come to know the Tech Force believe that there is nothing "inadvertent" about it.

And who are we to say that Ned Ludd and his intellectual descendants were not merely unwitting instruments of the Tech Force, having a good laugh at humanity's expense?

We are careful to get students and colleagues to approach technical problems systematically and with logic. There is nothing inherently logical about resolving a problem by switching something off and then on again or, as I have done on occasion, speaking nicely to an inanimate object. ("Come on, now. Remember that nice new antivirus upgrade I installed just an hour ago?)

Perhaps we should be telling them about the Tech Force too.

Why should teachers blog, how can they go about it, and what are the issues to be aware of?

These are the areas to be explored tomorrow (Friday 18 June 2009) in an afternoon/evening conference being organised by Mirandanet.

There are three parts to the programme: From 2pm (British Summertime, or BST) to 4pm Ray Fleming, of Microsoft, will lead the session called ‘Teachers as Bloggers’.

Then from 4pm to 6pm there will be a practical workshop. I’m not sure how this will work out, but I think it’s a great idea. All too often one attends an inspiring talk by someone, only to be left with the unanswered question: “But how to I get started?”.

In the final session, from 6pm to 9pm Theo Kuechel and Drew Buddy will be considering a range of issues with, hopefully, contributions from the floor. This promises to be highly relevant, and I am hoping there will be an opportunity to discuss the implications for teachers of the recent High Court ruling in Britain that bloggers do not have the right of anonymity.

Other people involved in the conference include John Cuthell, Leon Cych and Daniel Needlestone, so it should be a hotbed of discussion and insight. One of the key outcomes will, hopefully, be a concept map on this subject.

If you can’t make it in person, Theo has set up a Flashmeeting for the last session. Look on the Mirandanet page for further details of the conference, and to put yourself down to take part.

Finally, just to be clear, I have an interest in that I am chairing the first and third sessions, so perhaps I will meet you there.

The Independent Review of ICT User Skills of Britain’s population has just been published. It makes for some interesting reading.

Chaired by erstwhile Education Secretary Estelle Morris, the committee looked at this aspect of ‘digital Britain’ from all angles.

From an educationalist’s perspective it is essential reading, I think. For a start, it summarises the various policies throughout the years, of which Harnessing Technology is but one (although there is at least one, I think, that has been omitted). I believe that such an historical perspective serves to place current policies in perspective – the more so when you consider that for the time period covered in this section the same political party has been in office.

I don’t think there will be anything in here to startle people. It states, unsurprisingly, that there is a strong correlation between digital exclusion and social exclusion (although there is at least some evidence that some people choose to exclude themselves digitally: see Virtual Society?: Technology, Cyberbole, Reality and The Myth of The Digital Native).

Also, it makes the obvious point that more and more companies are turning to web 2.0 solutions for their internal communications (which was nicely exemplified by the company I visited yesterday as part of the Inside the Workplace events I’ve been running on behalf of the SSAT for teachers of the new Diploma.)

There are some interesting points about what makes for successful teaching of ICT (remember, this is for adults, but the same would apply to youngsters too):

“1. Effective provision is delivering ICT SfL [Skills for Life] in contexts that match the purpose for which the learner wishes to learn.

2. Teaching of basic ICT provision is not underpinned by a clear pedagogy, and existing 
programmes are delivered by tutors with a range of qualifications and backgrounds.

3. For some learners embedding ICT SfL provision in other learning, such as literacy, 
numeracy or vocational provision is an effective means of delivery.”

With an outline of the plethora of ICT skills qualifications on offer in the UK, the report represents a quick way of getting to grips with the vastness of this whole area without the need to invest too much time into finding out.

Thankfully, unlike many such reviews it recommends a simplification of the system rather than lots of disparate and unconnected reforms. The fundamental idea is to define a simple set of skills which would constitute an ICT entitlement, and then provide up to 9 hours support for would-be participants, who could access courses through a single point of contact. Crucially, in my view, the variety of delivery avenues, with tutor involvement kept to a minimum, reflects the importance of informal learning – except that I would add the caveat that informal learning without extremely effective materials and support can easily fail to be effective.

You can access the review online.

The document referred to is Crown copyright. Items reproduced with permission (PSI Licence C2008000032).

E Talbert has asked me to make some comments on effective feedback for the Terry's Two Minute Tips series. So here is my response, with some useful links for further reading.

In the video, I mention assessment for learning and research findings. My comments are based on the work of Black and Wiliam. In particular, Inside the Black Box was a seminal work which I believe forms the basis of the best practices in formative assessment.

See also my review of Information and Communication Technology: Inside the Black Box.

As it happens, I didn't mention technology in the video! This is because I think that effective feedback starts with the right principles. Once those are in place, information technology can be used to track progress and quickly highlight gaps in knowledge. It can even be used to draw out what students’ know, understand and can do through the use of computer-based scenarios. That was the basis of the on-screen test I worked on whilst at the Qualification and Curriculum Authority.

If you would like to suggest a topic for this series, please go to the wiki I set up for this purpose, and I will do my best to accommodate the request.

The way to do so is to carry out a risk assessment. That sounds like it could be a lot of work, but it need not be. Or at least, it can be turned into an enjoyable professional development exercise. That way, not only do you assess the risk, you also (hopefully) bring your colleagues along with you and, into the bargain, have some mind-stretching discussions as part of the process.

The reason for that is simple: risk assessment tends to be fairly subjective. You can make it less so by doing some research and obtaining a range of facts and figures, but ultimately you have to take a decision, and that will involve a degree of conjecture.

Risk assessment involves considering, and assigning values to, three criteria:

 
• What can happen as a result of this course of action? 
• What is the likelihood of each outcome happening? 
• How bad will be the consequences of each thing happening?

Now, in some scenarios the value assigned to the last one is so great that it crowds out any other consideration. For example, what is the likelihood of your child being abducted if you allow her to go out on her own? The answer, despite what you may think from keeping up with the daily news, is quite low in the UK. However, the consequences of that happening would be so awful as to render the low likelihood irrelevant.

Thankfully, when it comes to trying out innovative teaching methods we tend not to have to countenance such extreme situations. So, let’s work through an example:

Question: What might happen if I introduce the use of social networking into my lessons?

You might set out a grid like this:

Now, you can start to manage all this. For example, taking the last one, you can prepare the students by teaching them about keeping safe online, and you can further protect them by having an invitation-only social network, such as a Ning network. That won’t completely protect them (if only because some of the students may themselves be unsavoury characters), but it will certainly go a long way towards reducing the risks. In this context it’s interesting to read Miller’s comments on how she and her classmates have kept themselves safe online.

But the important thing to bear in mind about risk is that once you have identified an activity as potentially ‘risky’, the solution is not necessarily to simply abandon the idea. After all, keeping to ‘tried and true’ teaching methods also carries a risk.

Miller (left) is a teenager living in the USA. It's always interesting to hear what young people think about educational technology, so I was delighted when Miller agreed to have a go at answering questions about it.

The questions below are all genuine, ie they have been submitted by real people, not just made up by me (although I can assure that I am a real person!).

Equally, Miller's answers are genuine too, which is to say she didn't receive any prompting or assistance from either her teacher, Vicki Davis, or me.

Today, Miller answers these questions:

 
1. How have you been made aware of e-safety (internet safety) issues - did your school have e-safety lessons or e-safety awareness programs. Did the school have an "Acceptable Use Policy" (a set of rules for the use of computers / the internet). is e-safety an issue for American teenagers (thinking of computers, hand held devices, cell phones etc)
 
2. As a young person what do you think would be most helpful to protect young people online?
 
3. Do you think it's necessary for schools to block social networking sites like Twitter & Facebook? Do you see any benefits that students can receive from this channels of technology?
 
4. How do you feel that your use of Web 2.0 apps will change over the next couple of years?

This feature on the ICT in Education website has run as an experiment run only for just a few weeks. If you have any feedback, whether about the idea itself or Miller's answers, please let me know by leaving a comment here.

Also, I am in the process of writing a testimonial for Miller which may be helpful in her college applications. If you have enjoyed reading Miller’s answers, and would like to be quoted in that, please get in touch right away!

How have you been made aware of e-safety (internet safety) issues - did your school have e-safety lessons or e-safety awareness programs. Did the school have an "Acceptable Use Policy" (a set of rules for the use of computers / the internet). is e-safety an issue for American teenagers (thinking of computers, hand held devices, cell phones etc)

Miller replies:

Hello Reader,

Up until last year, I had no idea about safety issues on the internet. I knew that there had been instances where somebody had post something very bad (showy and inappropriate) on YouTube , Myspace or Facebook , but I never really knew about the horrible consequences until I took my computer fundamentals class starting in August of 2008.

Our first lesson about safety came indirectly with the start of our digital citizenship course. Our class was to participate in a project with other kids from across the world. We were to study digital citizenship. I was so excited to be able to work with other kids from across the globe, but I didn't realize how significant the our study would be.

Through our studies of digital citizenship, I learned that the internet is more than just videos, pictures, or emails. The internet is another world. It is like a sea filled with thousands of predators waiting to take advantage of the next unexpected victim.

I learned that there are ways to be safe. Just as you take precautions to be safe offline, you take precautions to be safe online as well. Another way we learned about safety on the internet is through our study with virtual worlds. We taught younger students (11-14 year old) about how to be safe online, and we learned too. Our teacher, Mrs. Vicki (coolcatteacher) , stresses the importance of being safe. Before we can venture into any new program, she must test it out first to make sure that it is safe for her students. She also teaches us scenarios of what we need to do if something were to happen.

Example: What would happen if somebody asked you where you live? (Mrs. Vicki would ask us that question.)

We will immediately get away, shut down the computer, or do anything to get away from that predator. (The students would reply.)

Our school definitely has an acceptable use policy. Myspace and Facebook are blocked at our school. Our teachers encourage the use of the Ning programs. Ning is a social network like Myspace and Facebook. The only difference is that a Ning can be monitored. Our teachers monitor everything that we do. We each have our own user names and passwords. If something comes up that is inappropriate and our teachers find out, the student or students who were involved will be penalized.

The great thing that our teachers do to help us to learn how to use the internet safely is not smother us. A lot of the time, when teachers smother their students and not allow their students to try, then they will most likely resist and do what their teachers don't want them to do.

Most schools block the use of YouTube and blogs because they think that some of the things that are on there are bad. There are bad things on the internet but there is also good things. YouTube contains many educational videos. Blogs contain many wise people's thoughts and ideas that need to be heard. My ninth grade class (14 and 15 year olds) started a blog called the Digiteen Dream Team to protest the Google Lively shutdown. We expressed our beliefs and opinions and obtained a lot of attention to our cause. By allowing students to hear the good things, they will look for more good things. They will want to learn more about the internet and blogs and the educational videos on YouTube.

I believe that every teenager should be taught safety. There are too many teenagers that believe that they are untouchable. The truth is, there is danger lurking online. There are also ways of keeping teenagers safe online as well. If we prepare teenagers by teaching them e-safety, then they will be ready to face whatever dangers they might encounter on the internet. Teenagers are the future, we need to prepare them it.

As a young person what do you think would be most helpful to protect young people online?

Miller replies:

Dear Reader,

There are many things that you can do to protect teenagers online. You can set up firewalls to prevent inappropriate things from appearing. You can block sites that you do not want your teenager to see. You can also put restrictions on the computer and monitor every single thing that the teenager does online. All of these steps are very important to the safety of your teenager online.

I believe that there is one little detail that is a must-have in the safety of teenagers. That detail is a little thing that I like to call education. Education is key in preventing hazardous things from happening online. In educating the teenagers, they learn how to be safe online. They learn things like how to spot a suspicious person. In learning how to spot a suspicious person, they learn what to do when asked for personal information like full names, ages, or street addresses. They learn how to spot scams so that they will not jeopardize their parents' or their own credit card information. They learn what kind of risks there are on the internet and the consequences of taking those risks. They learn how to act in appropriate ways online so that they will be safe.

Some teenagers will not always be at home where their parents can monitor them. They will grow up and travel to college and get their own jobs. Parents will not always be their to monitor what they do on the computer. By educating teenagers, they will know what to do. They will not have to have their parents to monitor their actions on the computer. Teenagers will be responsible and be able to handle themselves. They will learn more than what to do online.

They will learn responsibility.

Do you think it's necessary for schools to block social networking sites like Twitter & Facebook? Do you see any benefits that students can receive from this channels of technology?

Miller replies:

Dear Reader,

I am a strong believer that students should be able to access sites like Twitter and YouTube. I do believe, however, that kids should not be able to access sites like Myspace or Facebook unless they incorporate a lesson that the teacher is trying to teach. I believe that teachers should encourage a Ning. A Ning is a social network that allows students to interact with each other, much like Myspace and Facebook. They can post pictures, videos, blogs and upload music. They can post comments and leave each other messages. The only difference is that the students are monitored by their teachers. This allows the students to learn how to interact with students in their class and around the world. This teaches them digital citizenship and respect for other people's cultures and beliefs.

I believe that Twitter is a great way to communicate. Our class used Twitter to communicate with the makers of Reaction Grid. When we were having trouble with Reaction Grid, the location of our virtual world, we would tweet the makers of Reaction Grid so that they would be able to help us.

I believe that some videos on YouTube are bad. I also believe that some videos on YouTube are good. Students need to be introduced to these videos. These videos on YouTube could range from information on movie-making to seminars on digital citizenship.

Students need to be introduced to things like social networks and Twitter. Schools cannot continue to hide things from their students. Students can be exposed to social networks like Myspace and Facebook during the weekends. Teachers will not be there to keep them away from the social networks. By educating students on how to act on social networks, they will be able to navigate their way safely around Myspace and Facebook. By using Twitter, they will be able to communicate other ways than by using the phone.

Education is key  in school. We need to make the education of technology important in school as well.

How do you feel that your use of Web 2.0 apps will change over the next couple of years

Miller replies:

Dear Reader,

I love to use my Web 2.0 apps. They not only make assignments and projects go smoothly, but also keep your items organized. As advanced as Web 2.0 applications seem today, I am certain that they will become even more advanced. I believe that you will be able to access almost anything over your cell phone or your Ipod or Iphone.

I also believe that your Igoogle page will become revolutionized. The Igoogle page will be a must-have. There will be many varieties of apps to choose. I believe that the best thing about the upcoming Web 2.0 is that more and more people will have to use the internet. Because of the need of programs on the computer, people will need to become more used to using the internet. Hopefully, that idea will persuade people to obtain an education of the computer.

I also believe that the auto industry will thrive with the new Web 2.0 devices. I believe that large cars with the size to host a computer will be installed with a computer. Some vehicles have a navigational system already installed  in the cars. By installing computers in cars, there will be more useful things that you will be able to do while driving. I also think that they will incorporate apps like Jott, a program that you can sign up to over the internet, that allows you to send messages to people over the phone. This will enable people to concentrate on their driving rather than on their phone conversation.

Miller’s acknowledgements

I would like to say thank you to the readers that support Mr. Terry's newsletter. Thank you to Mr. Terry for giving me this opportunity to write for his wonderful newsletter. Thank you to my Computer teacher Mrs. Vicki for giving me the knowledge to be able to answer the questions that everyone has asked. Thank you to my family for supporting me and allowing me to write for this website. Thanks to everyone for their support.

Sincerely,        
Miller

My acknowledgements

My thanks to Vicki Davis for introducing me to Miller in the first place, and for managing the communications between all concerned, and allowing Miller time in school to answer the questions. Thanks also to Miller’s parents for allowing and encouraging her to take part in this little experiment. And, of course, to Miller herself for taking time out of her busy schedule! Finally, thanks to the people who have sent in questions for Miller to answer!

Disclaimer

Miller's views do not represent the views of her school, her teacher, nor any other organization which she belongs to, but are solely her own views and opinions.

Next steps

If you missed the previous sets of Miller’s answers, sign up to the free newsletter Computers in Classrooms, because I will be collating all of Miller’s answers into an issue in the near future.

If you enjoyed reading Miller's views...

 
• What are your kids learning while you're not looking? That was the title of a presentation that Miles Berry and I did at the BETT Show 2009. Based on original research, it made it very clear that teachers make life more difficult for themselves, and less than interesting for their students, by ignoring what their students can already do. For more information, including a link to Miles' blog on the subject and a slide show, see my article on What are your kids learning while you're not looking?      
  
 
• What does Miller think about digital citizenship, social networking and online safety? Listen  to a discussion we had via Skype. It lasts just over 26 minutes.      
  
 
• Miller lives in the USA. What does Edith, an English schoolgirl of around the same age, think about the same sort of issues? Elaine and I enjoyed an interview/discussion with Edith, who without a doubt was the star of the show at a recent Teachmeet. Click this link for our interview with Edith. 
  
 
• Miller wrote a cracking article on the subject of social networking and digiteens for the special social networking issue of Computers in Classrooms. You can read it online. If you don't want to miss future issues of the newsletter when it comes out, sign-up for it now -- it's free!      
  
 
• Finally, as I mentioned earlier, I am in the process of writing a testimonial for Miller which may be helpful in her college applications. If you have enjoyed reading Miller’s answers, and would like to be quoted in that, please get in touch right away!

Here’s my response. Unfortunately, it didn’t make it into print. The reason (I assume and I hope) was that I picked up my email too late for it to be used. Journalists work on a different timescale to most bloggers, so although Anthea Lipsett from The Guardian sent me an email asking me to respond within an hour, by the time I’d seen the email the deadline was long past.

Usually, I check my email every hour or so, but I was running an Inside The Workplace event for people teaching the Diploma yesterday, so I could only check at lunchtime.

As I was racing against time, I don’t regard these musings as terribly profound. I said:

My view is that using online textbooks is fine to an extent, but  that there is a danger that what will happen is that the printing costs will be transferred from the State to families! On the other hand, young people do much of their reading online these days, and they will therefore probably be more prepared to read textbooks. Also, having online textbooks makes it much more economic to update them more frequently than is usually the case.

There are further thoughts on the matter from other people in Lipsett’s article.

What do you think?

Miller (left) is a teenager living in the USA. It's always interesting to hear what young people think about educational technology, so I was delighted when Miller agreed to have a go at answering questions about it.

The questions below are all genuine, ie they have been submitted by real people, not just made up by me (although I can assure that I am a real person!).

Equally, Miller's answers are genuine too, which is to say she didn't receive any prompting or assistance from either her teacher, Vicki Davis, or me.

Today, Miller answers these questions:

 
1. Do you do think that technology in teaching is better than face-to-face teaching?
 
2. Do you ever use virtual worlds to socialize, like ‘Second Life’?
 
3. What mobile devices are students in America using, and what are they used for?

This feature on the ICT in Education website has run as an experiment run only for just a few weeks. If you have any feedback, whether about the idea itself or Miller's answers, please let me know by leaving a comment here.

Do you think that technology in teaching is better than face-to-face teaching?

Miller replies:

Hello Reader,

I believe that in teaching with technology, students can get a hands-on grasp at what they are doing. As a student, I can honestly say that I learn better by doing than just listening. It is hard to concentrate while your teacher is sitting at the front of the room lecturing to the students (no offense to any teacher that does) to really grasp what they are saying and let the knowledge sink in.

One way that we taught through technology was through virtual worlds, which I have explained in more detail in my answer to the next question. That way, students learn by doing. They learn by enjoying themselves in the cool virtual rooms that we created. I promise you, you learn much better when you are having fun.

Do you ever use virtual Worlds to socialize, like "Second Life"?

Miller replies:

Dear Reader,

I love virtual worlds. As a matter of fact, my ninth grade class(14 and 15 year olds) started using virtual worlds back during November of 2008 to teach seventh graders(12 and 13 year olds) at our school about digital citizenship. We started using Google Lively. Lively was a great place to take the seventh graders into, so that they may learn. They loved it! We continued to have two more lessons  in Lively before Google announced that they would be shutting it down in December.

After hearing the news, we decided to protest to Google. We became the Digiteen Dream Team. We set up a blog on which we would post daily posts giving Google reasons to keep Lively. We gained much support for our cause, but in the end, Google shut Lively down. We were so upset because our precious virtual world had been shut down.

In defeat, we also found victory. A very generous supporter of our cause heard that we wanted to continue our lessons in a virtual world. He was gracious enough to give us our own island in Reaction Grid. We named it Digiteen Island.

We decided to take a new approach with our teaching. We decided to try object teaching. Object teaching is when you place objects in a virtual world that incorporate facts about the topic that you wish to teach. We decided to do the same with digital citizenship. We divided the nine aspects of digital citizenship:access, communication, literacy, security and safety, netiquette, rights and responsibilities, commerce, law, and health and wellness, among the 23 people in our class. We each put a couple of objects that we thought incorporated our aspects of digital citizenship. Our teachings were a huge success! We gave people from around the world tours of our virtual worlds. Virtual worlds are great. They allow you to have fun as well as learn.

Do you communicate using AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) as much as you used to? Would you use AIM with a teacher to help with homework?

Miller replies:

Dear Reader,

I do not use AIM or any other kind of instant messenger. When I communicate over the internet, I send people emails. My email account is through Google. I love all of the services that Google offers. Through Google's email services, which is called Gmail , you can chat as well. I can't say that I have tried Google's chat, but I am sure that it is similar to AIM.

A great communicating tool that I love to use is Skype . Skype is a free service that allows you to call people over the computer. As long as the person that you are calling has a Skype account and is online, the calls will go through. You can also chat over Skype. I love chatting over Skype.

In my opinion, Skype offers a lot more options than Google or AIM with chatting. Not only can you talk to someone over Skype, but also have video chats with other people. When Mr. Terry interviewed me for the podcast, we used Skype. Skype allows gives you so many options while chatting.

I believe that chatting with students is a great way to help with homework. By giving the students easy access to their teacher, they can get help with Math, English, Social Studies, Science, or anything that they need help with. I also believe that there should be a time frame set up so that during that particular time, the students will be able to get in touch with their teacher and come to an understanding about their homework. There are many ways that technology is changing the way that students are doing their work. Many of these changes are to the students' advantage.

What mobile devices are students in America using and what are they used for?

Miller replies:

Hello Reader,

There are tons of mobile devices that teenagers are using across America. My personal favorites are my Ipod and cell phone.

I use my cell phone to communicate with my friends and family, both by caring on a conversation with talking and with texting. Cell phones can also be used to look up things like the weather. I have an application from Garmin that allows me to look up the weather in whatever city or state that I choose. Cell phones also have the ability to download and play music, just like an Ipod.

People are amazed at what a cell phone can do. What they don't realize is that cell phones are computers. With their easy communication, applications, and fun to use ability, almost all teenagers have cell phones.

Another great piece of technology is the Ipod. The Ipod has come a long way since its last 4 years or so of being in existence. It started with the Ipod Nano and the Ipod Shuffle, which were a huge hit, and has now evolved into a technology as sophisticated as the Ipod Touch. Ipods allow you to download music from a program called Itunes , and sync it straight to your Ipod. Ipods can now be placed in car docks so that you can play your favorite songs from your Ipod through your car speakers.

Ipods are also great tools to use while running. You can now attach them to a band that you put on your arm that allows you to run while listening to your favorite songs.

Those two technologies are just some of my favorites, but there are many more devices that teenagers love to use. One of which is the laptop . Laptops are portable computers that are great tools to take on bus trips, or airplane flights. With wireless Internet compatibility, laptops are great if you don't like the bulk of a huge computer, and you want to take your computer with you. Digital cameras are also very popular among teenagers. Camera companies are know making cameras to where you can download music onto them as well as take pictures. The companies are also making the cameras different colors so that more an more people become attracted to them. These mobile devices are just a few of latest trends of teenagers. As more and more technologies enter our world, teenagers will be the first to acquire them.

Miller’s acknowledgements

I would like to say thank you to the readers that support Mr. Terry's newsletter. Thank you to Mr. Terry for giving me this opportunity to write for his wonderful newsletter. Thank you to my Computer teacher Mrs. Vicki for giving me the knowledge to be able to answer the questions that everyone has asked. Thank you to my family for supporting me and allowing me to write for this website. Thanks to everyone for their support.

Sincerely,        
Miller

My acknowledgements

My thanks to Vicki Davis for introducing me to Miller in the first place, and for managing the communications between all concerned, and allowing Miller time in school to answer the questions. Thanks also to Miller’s parents for allowing and encouraging her to take part in this little experiment. And, of course, to Miller herself for taking time out of her busy schedule! Finally, thanks to the people who have sent in questions for Miller to answer: keep ‘em coming!

Disclaimer

Miller's views do not represent the views of her school, her teacher, nor any other organization which she belongs to, but are solely her own views and opinions.

Tomorrow...

Miller will answer some more questions tomorrow.

If you missed the previous sets of Miller’s answers, I will be publishing the full list of links tomorrow, so drop by then!

If you enjoyed reading Miller's views...

 
• What are your kids learning while you're not looking? That was the title of a presentation that Miles Berry and I did at the BETT Show 2009. Based on original research, it made it very clear that teachers make life more difficult for themselves, and less than interesting for their students, by ignoring what their students can already do. For more information, including a link to Miles' blog on the subject and a slide show, see my article on What are your kids learning while you're not looking?      
  
 
• What does Miller think about digital citizenship, social networking and online safety? Listen  to a discussion we had via Skype. It lasts just over 26 minutes.      
  
 
• Miller lives in the USA. What does Edith, an English schoolgirl of around the same age, think about the same sort of issues? Elaine and I enjoyed an interview/discussion with Edith, who without a doubt was the star of the show at a recent Teachmeet. Click this link for our interview with Edith. 
  
 
• Miller wrote a cracking article on the subject of social networking and digiteens for the special social networking issue of Computers in Classrooms. You can read it online. If you don't want to miss future issues of the newsletter when it comes out, sign-up for it now -- it's free!      
  
 
• Finally, Miller will answer more questions tomorrow. If you want to make sure you don't miss that, or any other good stuff, then subscribe to this site's RSS feed now!

As the title suggests, this book is concerned with helping you improve your blog. Written by Darren Rowse, founder of Problogger, it started life as a series of daily blog posts and, latterly, a daily email task if you signed up to the course.

So, how good is it, and does it represent value for money – especially if you have already read all the posts?

Before looking at the book itself, let’s examine why this might be of interest to you in the first place. I think there are two potential ‘hooks’ for a book of this nature.

Firstly, many educationalists have a blog these days, or have an interest in an online presence of some description (for example, their school’s website or blog).

Secondly, I get the impression that a lot of people have a ‘build it and they will come’ mentality when talking about setting up blogs for their students. For most people this is not the case, and they will have to be more active and proactive than that.

Having said that, it’s important to bear in mind, I think, that these posts were not written with education in mind. In one sense, the target audience is generally anyone who wants to increase the popularity of their blog. Personally, I think it’s a good thing because it’s not simply about  attracting more readers, but keeping them, and encouraging them to interact with you, such as by making comments on your posts.

Note that the purpose of ‘31 Days…’ is to help you become a better blogger, which is not the same thing as becoming a better writer. It will help you get your blog read more, perhaps, but it won’t do a lot to help you improve the way you express things – but it will almost certainly assist you in generating ideas for topics.

There is much to recommend this publication, which comes in electronic format as a PDF. It is filled to the brim with ideas and, crucially, has been written by someone who has successfully implemented the techniques himself.  It is always somewhat disconcerting, not to say unconvincing, to  pick up a book which has been written by a person whose understanding of the subject is entirely theoretical (a theme I touch upon in a discussion of Stephen Potter’s observations for his ‘One Upmanship’ books).

What I especially like about the book is the preponderance of lists. My view is, if I want to read ‘literature’ I can pick up a Jane Austen novel; if I want to work on my blog, I need something I can dip into very quickly.

The content is presented in manageable chunks, and is well-written with plenty of links. Reasons for the activities are given and explained well.

The ideas themselves are interesting. For example, I like the one about grabbing a pencil and notepad and sitting in a shopping mall for a couple of hours watching the world go by, garnering ideas for future blog posts. I’ve been doing a variation of that for years: I tend to get quite a lot of stuff ‘written’ in my head just by heading down to a nice coffee bar and wasting time in a Zen-like fashion (the Zen expert Suzuki once said that a Zen student must learn to waste time conscientiously).

You could easily adapt this for an educational context because the underlying message is that you don’t always need a computer in order to do computer-related work. In fact, sometimes you can get more done, of a higher quality, if you switch the computer off and play around with ideas on paper or in discussion with others.

Another message that comes through loud and clear is that it’s not all about being self-centred. Well, it is, but there’s an element of enlightened self-interest in the sections about focusing on other people, be they readers or ‘rival’ bloggers.

If I were to level any criticism against the book, it is that there is, perhaps, an implicit assumption that you can actually write. The world is full of people whose writing is about as interesting as the list of ingredients on the side of a packet of cornflakes. They would be better off investing time and energy into improving their writing, such as through a creative writing course or following blogs in that area, before getting stuck into ‘31 Days’. Following the latter course of action may help them gain more readers, but I doubt that it will help them retain these new readers if the writing itself is wooden.

In other words, you can’t get away from the fact that, as Rowse himself has said in writing and on video, the key thing you need is great content. This is implicit in ‘31 Days’, of course. Many so-called ‘marketing’ books concentrate on techniques (search engine optimisation, for example), forgetting that decent content needs to be there too! If you put some of the ‘31 Days’ ideas into practice, you will most likely generate lots of interesting ideas; the challenge will be to write about them in an interesting manner.

So, bottom line: is this worth buying? I found that it contained little that I didn’t already know about. However, I have to say that I had forgotten some of what I knew, and found the ideas very inspirational. Also, having all of them in one place rather than having to trawl through emails or a website is very convenient.

It costs 19:95 Australian dollars. However, if you get your skates on, you can get it free of charge if you buy a copy of Sitepoint’s Online Marketing Inside Out, which I shall be reviewing soon. You can also purchase direct from Problogger.

Bottom line:

Not perfect, but what is? Buy it!

If you found this review useful, you will also enjoy a forthcoming issue of Computers in Classrooms in which a number of books will be reviewed. Why not sign up now to this free newsletter?

At this time of year in England, senior students are sitting external examinations. Once their exams are over, the students will be allowed to leave school, and have a long break before going on to university (or getting a full-time job). And so what do many teachers do in this new-found swathe of free time stretching out before them? Why, clear out their cupboards, of course.

In this video I suggest that’s a good idea to think twice about throwing out magazines and books just because they’re old.

View more videos and suggest topics of your own for future episodes.

This has been clearly demonstrated in  our interview with Edith, a 14 year old, recently, and it’s also apparent from emails and other messages I receive. So what can be done about it?

1. How about talking to your students? Yes, a novel concept for some people, but when Edith complains that she is being ‘under-taught’ she is not alone. When Miles Berry and I researched for our presentation on the subject of ‘What are your kids learning while you're not looking?’ we found (as if we didn’t already know) that youngsters are a lot more tech-savvy, and do a lot more with technology, than teachers realise. In fact, when we gave the presentation at least two members of the audience were inspired to conduct a survey of their own students to better inform their teaching.

2. Think about what you do. This point very much ties in with the preceding one. At the Naace 2009 Conference, Niel McLean mentioned the standard question asked by an advisor called Jeff (or Geoff) Howard:

“Did you teach the kids to do that, did you ask them to do it or did you allow them to do it?”

The current conventional wisdom is that we don’t teach kids to do anything, we allow them to find things out for themselves or from each other. How do you ensure that what they learn is actually accurate? How do you justify the amount of time wasted in letting kids ‘discover’ stuff that you could teach them in 5 minutes? And what exactly is the point of having a fully qualified and highly-trained teacher in the classroom if they’re not actually teaching?

But even if you shy away from such musings on the grounds that they are far too radical for a Friday morning (which is when I’m writing this), surely you would agree that in order to ensure that kids don’t have gaps in their knowledge and understanding, sometimes you actually have to teach them something?

3. Get out more. It’s all too easy to start to think that your school is the centre of its own universe, like the one-dimensional creature in Flatland.  In any case, as I explained recently, in the UK one of the aspects of ‘best value’ is using comparisons.

4. Embark on a programme of lesson observations within your team. This needs to be done carefully, and will take some planning and possibly a bit of creativity and quid pro quo-ing as far as cover arrangements are concerned, but it can yield very valuable results. For example, as I said to Vicki Davis yesterday, I once observed a lesson in which the teacher spoke for a total of 40 minutes – the lesson was only 50 minutes long! He hadn’t even realised until I pointed it out, because he had spent the lesson giving instructions, then letting the kids try it, then giving feedback, and so on. So it looked like there was a good balance talking and activity. But when you added up the time spent on each aspect of the lesson, as I did, the reality was rather different.

5. Finally I suggest is that you buy my book! Obviously, I would say that, wouldn’t I? But the book covers ten key reasons that ICT lessons can end up being as dull as ditchwater. Addressing any one of them would almost certainly result in a noticeable improvement. Also, the book is available as an electronic download for GBP 2.00 (around USD 3.00), which is not only less than the GBP 4.99 for the printed version (though not as nice, obviously) but also caters for people for whom deferred gratification is an unknown concept.

Wordle summary:

Why have I used Wordle? See Five reasons to use Wordle in education.

This is #19 of 25 reflections on the Naace 2009 Conference.

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In a sense, that’s what Graham Brown-Martin seemed to imply when he spoke at the Naace 2009 Conference. He said that a visit to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will tell you more about what you need to be thinking about technology-wise than a visit to the BETT show. I don’t know if that is literally true, but it does chime with my experience in general:

• I always read the technology section of my newspaper, even though it seldom features anything directly concerned with education.
• I watch technology shows on TV for the same reason – although, I have to say, infrequently because I find the style of presentation irritating.
• I listen to, and watch, technology podcasts which are not categorised as ‘Education’.

The problem with attending a consumer electronics show, whether in Las Vegas or not, is convincing colleagues that it’s a legitimate excursion. It’s hard enough getting permission to take a day or two out of school to attend the BETT show, a trip which, bizarrely, some people regard as a junket. Obtaining the go-ahead to attend something which, on the face of it, has nothing to do with your work would test your powers of persuasion to the limit.

Wordle summary:

Why have I used Wordle? See Five reasons to use Wordle in education.

This is #18 of 25 reflections on the Naace 2009 Conference.

A few things strike me about this observation:

1. He is no doubt correct. However…

2. Ratings on eBay are a reflection of customers’ perceptions and possibly hidden motives. In any rating system that relies on customer feedback or reviews, you have to hope that the positive ones outnumber the negative ones.

3. It strikes me that feedback on eBay is relatively straightforward because it has a pretty limited aim. In a school situation, feedback may be given for a variety of reasons.

4. Also, ideally, the feedback will not simply be of the ‘tick-good’ variety, but include specific suggestions for improvement.

5. It’s worth noting, I think, that the feedback in eBay is a crucial component: without such a mechanism, a lot fewer people would trust the system. I wonder how many schools can say the same?

6. Whatever our misgivings about using eBay as a benchmark for evaluating feedback or assessment mechanisms, we can’t get away from the fact that the technology behind it is pretty clever (even though it may not seem so because it is commonplace now). We ought to be able to extend the use of technology for everyday assessment in schools, not just end-of-course assessments.

7. As an interesting aside, Sir Richard Branson thinks that Members of Parliament should be judged on their performance, and any who underperformed  should be booted out. Perhaps eBay’s feedback system could be extended….

Wordle summary:

Why have I used Wordle? See Five reasons to use Wordle in education.

This is #17 in a series of 25 reflections on the Naace 2009 Conference.

You can always rely on Niel McLean of Becta to come up with a fresh insight, and his talk at the Naace 2009 Conference proved to be no exception. I can’t recall the exact details of the story, but Niel related a conversation which took place at a parents’ open day:

Parent: What’s this machine for?

Design & Technology Teacher: It’s for drilling holes.

Parent: So why would you want to use it?

Teacher: To drill holes.

Parent: Yes, but why teach the kids how to use it?

Teacher: So they can drill holes.

People don’t always express themselves very well, and this is a case in point. What the parent was really asking was: Why would anyone want to drill holes?

The issue is, how far do we fall into the same trap?

Q: Why use SlideShare?

A: To create slides.

Q: Why use Audacity?

A: So we can edit a podcast.

Q: Why use a spreadsheet?

A: So we can do calculations.

We need to make sure that we have a rather better set of answers!

This is #16 in a series of 25 reflections on the Naace 2009 Conference.

But what if this were a food relief programme? The specification of the hardware and software has to be approved. Miles Berry has drawn attention to the fact that laptops purchased for the Home Access scheme has to have ‘relevant’ software – but who defines ‘relevant’? (See slide 45 of our presentation entitled ‘What are your kids learning while you're not looking?’).

Graham Brown-Martin, speaking at the Naace 2009 Conference, went further. He said that if this were a food relief programme, people would be given food they’re allowed to have rather than food they actually want, because they’re poor.

He was being deliberately provocative, but is he right? Who decides what hardware and software is ‘good for you’ or ‘relevant’? There’s a case to be made for providing a range of stuff, including games devices and phones! After all, if people have chosen things they actually want to use, isn’t there more chance they will use it?

Perhaps there could be various ‘set menus’ on offer, which acknowledge the value to learning of different hardware-software sets. Perhaps there could be a free choice as long as the potential learning gains justify it? Or perhaps we should be pleased that there is such a thing as the Home Access program in the first place, and not pick holes in it?

I’d be interested in your opinion about these issues.

Wordle summary:

This is reflection #15 of a series of 25 reflections of the Naace 2009 Conference.

According to David Anstead of

Note that the session was timed to coincide (more or less) with the publication of Ofsted's report into the state of ICT, which I referred to in an article in Computers in Classrooms.

Malfunctions

The use of assessment

These slides depict how assessment is used, and how Ofsted thinks it should be used:

The ACTUAL use of assessment in ICT

In this model, ICT is taught as a discrete subject, and is then assessed. Pupils’ use of, and achievement in, ICT in other subjects is not taken into account, and tracking does not take place either. As for pupils’ own evaluation of their capabilities, forget it.

The IDEAL use of assessment in ICT

In this model, the assessment of ICT is continuously tracked (assessment for learning), and the use of ICT in other subjects is fed into the assessment process too. Bizarrely, there is an arrow leading from 'assessment' to 'self-evaluation', whereas I should have thought that it would logically be the other way round, or even going in both directions.

This is all very well, but in practice, in my experience, the assessment of a pupil's achievement in ICT in another subject is problematic, for these reasons:

 
• The teacher has enough to do as far as her own subject is concerned, let alone assessing another subject too.
 
• The teacher often does not have the expertise to assess the use of ICT properly.

When I raised the second point as an issue, Anstead agreed with me, and thought the answer lay in training. But that simply begs the question: how do you get colleagues to attend training on how to assess ICT?

On the first issue, Anstead suggested that perhaps a quid pro quo of using the technical facilities is that teachers be expected to assess its use. In my experience, a lot of teachers will either not bother to use the facilities, or the 'assessment' will deteriorate into a box-ticking exercise. In any case, I think using the facilities should be a right, not conditional on doing something extra.

I do not wish to sound unduly negative, but in my experience it is extremely hard to get other teachers to assess ICT at all, or properly. A far better solution, in my opinion, is to recruit enough ICT staff to enable them to visit other lessons and/or look at pupils' work in order to arrive at their own conclusions.

I'd be interested in your opinions on this issue.

Qualifications

Surprise surprise, some qualifications at Key Stage 4 (16-18/19 years) are not especially challenging as far as ICT is concerned. Several of them ask the student to demonstrate mastery already achieved rather than to learn new skills.

Apparently, some vocational qualifications have not been approved by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, so any course that is based on them may not cover the National Curriculum in ICT, which is statutory.

Best value

Another statutory obligation on the part of schools is to achieve best value for money. Most people (me included) tend to think of this in terms of obtaining the best price for something, through competition. However, as Anstead pointed out, there are 4 aspects of best value:

 
• Competition.
 
• Comparisons: the need to benchmark your school's performance against that of other schools.
 
• Consultation: the need to consult with all stakeholders, such as pupils, staff, parents and teaching assistants.
 
• Challenge: you need to challenge why a service is being provided at all; this is clearly part of the 'so what?' principle which underlies much of the inspection process.

There is more on best value at Teachernet.

Getting ICT to the learning

I am afraid that I made no notes on this part of the talk, so I can only assume that it means that ICT should underpin learning throughout the school.

Improving ICT provision

Anstead suggested that in order to move ICT from satisfactory to good, the following had to be undertaken:

Moving from satisfactory to good

I think this is very sound advice. And once again, the importance of senior leadership and management in this process is highlighted.

Wordle summary:

This is reflection #14 in a series of 25 reflections on the Naace 2009 Conference.

Or, to be somewhat more accurate, how do we achieve it faster? In the UK we’ve had a massive investment in technology in schools over the past decade, but many schools are still not e-enabled. (Figures vary, but the percentage of schools said to be e-enabled seems to be somewhere between 11 and 20%.)

Perhaps this is an illustration of seeing a half-full glass as half-empty. I certainly don’t wish to come across as a pessimist – I think there have been huge achievements. Nevertheless, I think it would be an incredible feat of self-imposed blindness to not wonder how come we haven’t achieved even more. At the Naace 2009 Conference, Niel McLean of Becta had a few suggestions.

Challenges

The challenges facing schools as far as the ICT Strategy (Harnessing Technology) is concerned are many (see illustration).

McLean’s suggestions included the following:

1. Move from supply-side push to demand-side pull.

I doubt that anyone would disagree with this. You actually need both forces to be able to make headway, and it’s interesting to see how the emphasis has changed over the decades. My recollection of the the mid-80s to mid-90s is that the emphasis was on the demand side. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and Becta were  continually publishing glossy booklets extolling the value of ICT for geography, history and so on, as well as collating (favourable) research from all over the world concerning the benefits of technology in education. I was even on a couple of national committees at the time, discussing ways and means of getting more teachers, and therefore schools, on board.

Then it all seemed to change and be about funding and targets, driven from central government working through local  government. That was a welcome phase too, which has eased up somewhat.

The big question though is: how do you increase the demand? The government’s approach now is to try to do so via parents, hence the Next Generation Learning initiative, part of which concentrates on encouraging parents to find out if their child’s school has been awarded the ICT Mark. This leaning towards the home as a key influencing force is not without foundation, being either based on, or justified by, research by Charles Desforge into the impact of parental involvement in a child’s education.

Types of dialogue

McLean draws on the idea that there are different types of dialogue, as shown in the photograph above. The diagram kind of makes sense, except for the double arrow between the learner and the school labelled 'mentoring': I’m not sure in what sense the learner would mentor her school. Leaving such hair-splitting aside, this does lead on to McLean’s next point:

2. Let’s start talking about rights, not technology.

McLean illustrates this with a simple (but very effective) example. If your child was learning French at school, would not a reasonable expectation on your part be that he or she has a conversation with a real French person at least once a week?

I recall expressing a similar point of view some years ago in a school. I had asked the Head of Science if he would like me to show him some science software I’d been sent. His response was that computers were not relevant to his department’s work.

I was scandalised! "Wait a second!", I exclaimed. "You're telling me that computers are relevant to the work of every university and commercial science lab in the world, but not in this school?"

I should like to point out that such a response is not guaranteed to help you win friends and influence people. Still, I stand by the sentiment of what I said, and I think this is pretty much the point McLean is making too.

The problem is, of course, that many people have low expectations of themselves as far as technology is concerned, and so there is almost a kind of silent collusion between them and the school that 'we won’t do anything too challenging'.

3. We need to recognise the post-Plowden paradigm.

The seminal Plowden Report changed the face of primary (elementary) education in the UK by emphasising 'learning by doing' (as opposed to learning by listening). Now, in the post-Plowden era, we need to move to 'learning by making'.

Want to see what would happen if a volcano erupted? Then make it erupt, using a computer simulation. Want to understand the process of movie making? Then make a movie. Want to understand French (to link this to the previous point)? Then hold a video-conference conversation via Skype with someone in France.

Conclusion

This is all very sensible, of course. But I suspect that in five years’ time we will still be pulling our hair out over the vexed question of how to get more schools to make ICT an integral part of their being.

This is Reflection #13 in the series of 25 reflections on the Naace 2009 Conference.

Wordle summary: