Six Months of Programming and MooC'ing around

Source: 2headedsnake.tumblr.com via Sherry on Pinterest

In between real work I've been doing less blogging over last six months some of the time I have been doing a wee bit to support a range of initiatives in computer programming and coding domains. I also spent some time - usually in the wee small hours having a shot at some massive open on-line courses. I feed these experiences back into the day job as Head of New Ventures.

In programming space there are so many local , UK , global  offers in this space it can be quite hard to keep track on all of them.  They are all focused on learner and teacher engagement and around skill building.  Some are established global initiatives and some have more specific UK drivers - many are in response to the hiatus in England around GCSE  ICT/Computing space in the curriculum while  some others  focus more broadly on computational thinking for learners of any age.

Since Christmas SQA  have given bits of support to

One Day Digital 
Coder Dojo
Space Apps Challenge
Kodu Cup
Apps for Good

A bit of support might be as simple as using our networks to raise awareness of a specific initiative . In case anyone else is reading this and assuming SQA event sponsorship.

It would be useful if someone tried to capture all of these initiatives open to Scottish teachers and learners in one place. Perhaps a mission for either Computing at School or Comped.net or for somewhere in GLOW

I also had a go at three MOOCs and dropped out of all of them . I enjoyed the Mozilla Mooc best of all . I like re-mixing content but doing it in wee small hours was taking a toll on me - liked the Mona-Lisa Shining mix was how I was starting to feel after all the late nights - the shining bit rather than Mone Lisa-ish bit

I had a go at using Mozilla Popcorn to remix things - my feeble effort is here

But I was blown away this week by this creation from the Edinburgh University Digital Creations MOOC
#ECMooc

#Teachtheweb Homework

Thanks to a template for introductions I remixed this in about an hour with some of my
own bits and bobs . I could not work out out to end session - so there is a lot of white noise at the end of this . But overall what an easy tool to use -

I think anyone could have a lot of fun with these tools  https://popcorn.webmaker.org/

#teachtheweb RSA Animate - The Power of Networks

I am having a shot at the Mozilla #Teachtheweb massive open on-line course. A large part of this is simply about learning through networks . A colleague from Canada reminded me about this excellent video from the Royal Academy of Arts in London . It makes a great intellectual argument around why teachers need personal learning networks - in fact folks in every occupation need this kind of globally connected network

Curriculum for Excellence Senior Phase Described by Preston Lodge

Worth a look and captures philosophy well

#OER13 Open Access Explained!

The video below begins to explain open access in academic research but #OER is also about open access to learning and teaching materials.

I have been championing the sharing of learning materials since I came into the teaching profession. Here are some thoughts from a year ago.

I am delighted this year to be on the organising committee of #OER13.

 If you want to find out what you need to do to engage with #OER as an individual , as a teacher , as a learner or as an institution or public body based in UK or internationally then #oer13 is the place to be.

The keynotes are here http://www.ucel.ac.uk/oer13/keynotes.html .
The programme is here http://www.medev.ac.uk/oer13/prog/

I hope I can tempt more teachers, lecturers and policy makers in Scotland to engage in this global debate.
Look forward to seeing you in Nottingham 

Glen Coe and a Week's Leave

P2130075, a photo by joecar80 on Flickr.

Can't really believe all the things we packed in to the February Mid-Term, just as well I am getting back to work tomorrow.

Here is Glen Coe on Wednesday evening just as road was about to close and we snuck through on our way back to Glasgow.

Hard to believe we had just enjoyed three dry and mild days walking on Skye

#Bett13 The Excel London Docklands 2013

A week's worth of meetings crammed into three days in and around BETT13.  I liked the new venue for its space and for all the other presentations that were able to run simultaneously.
 Well done orgnanisers  for building an excellent programme around the exhibition area and reaching out to the right folks to populate the programme. I joined the Education Leaders Strand , The Workbased Learning Strand and the Higher Education Strand for different sessions and managed a couple of keynotes in the main learning arena. In past years I felt  guilty about buying tickets and not being able due to meetings to get to all the sessions I had booked.

The meeting rooms were also really useful I was able to grab a welcome cup of tea and a natter with colleagues from Mirandanet who were running an excellent programme . The British Computer Society and others had also booked some of the meeting rooms which meant we could do business on site. I was able to catch up with Adobe , Microsoft , Google , Oracle and many others and headed north with lots of ideas and business.

The bits I was not sure about were really down to me . I opted to stay over in Greenwich as the hotels were a bit cheaper than those around the Excel. This meant I was constantly worried that I would miss the last light rail train across the Thames. I think next time I will go for something on the north bank. It also took me some time to get my bearings to confidently navigate the light rail. The night of Bett Awards the line I needed was closed and I ended up stomping along under the tracks looking for a taxi.
I missed too my familiar bolt holes around Olympia where I can take folks for meetings without paying conference venue prices for coffee or lunch. I need to improve my east end knowledge.

It was really quite eye opening to spend time in this bit of London. It did really feel like a boom town rather than a city in a country climbing out or the worst recession since the 1930's . There seemed to be new developments going up all over the place. I am sure it will have made a very good impression on all of the international visitors to the event.

I looked really hard but I don't think there was anything startling new at this year's Bett - the event misses the ministerial input that Bett's of old used to have. But I think this is just a reflection of ICT feeling less of a priority for the current Westminster government. It is now about schools and learning institutions negotiating their own way through all of the offerings from the vendors. There were lots of 'new' systems that were really virtual learning environments with some elements of social software added. I think every third stand mentioned the word app somewhere. So not as much on policy or technology front as in previous years.

I think we still have an opportunity to present a much more joined up picture of all the good things that go on in Scottish Education at this event. It would be great if Education Scotland , SQA and Skills Development Scotland looked at having a stand at a future event. There are still too many speeches and sales pitches based on false claims of a UK Education system .. which are really only trying to sell bits of the English system to international customers and often bits that we do much better  in Scotland.




 

#applesummit London

Storify by Joe Wilson

Mon, Feb 04 2013 12:27:32

Edit

Apple Education Leaders Summit

I am really privileged to get to these gatherings . We are all learners in this space and in think the price of a pass is sharing what I learn

1. iPads are lovely . I have one . Everyone at this event got one when they arrived for the day , loaded too with all kinds of wonderful educational apps.  It is a whole world made by apple from iPhone to iPad and presented by Appletv enabled monitors. 

   
   

    If you don't know the ESSA academy story you should have a look out for it , it is an inspirational story of how a school moved to an Internet enabled device for every learner and radically changed their performance and the ethos of the school. But equally you should have a look at the Islay High School story or lots of other places where learners now have access to devices and learning and delivery are changing.

   
   

    It was good to see Scotland's mobile pilots and the work of Cedars School featured in presentations. I've seen lots of inspirational things as ever . I'll add a wee list of apps that I have seen in action at the end of this post when I get some more time. The thing that struck me most is still with me at the end of the day 500+ educators were handed an ipad this morning fully internet enabled but there has been really very little collaborative learning or sharing around event . Well done apple for great event . Next time give everyone who attends a challenge or a question and get them all to have made a blog post or some other contribution to learning by the end of the day . Use of these tools has to be active not a passive consuming experience.
2. 

   Joe Wilson@joecar

   Apple Education Leaders Summit London is there a hashtag for this event or is this unstructured learning ?

   Tue, Jan 29 2013 15:55:05

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3. 

   Joe Wilson@joecar

   Apple Leaders Summit ipad study from Hull Uni on Scottish schools ipad pilot gets plug  http://www2.hull.ac.uk/ifl/ipadresearchinschools.aspx …uk/ifl/ipadresearchinschools.aspx

   Tue, Jan 29 2013 15:55:05

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4. 

   Dan Leighton@danhleighton

   #applesummit Interesting that every session has repeated content ... Apple TV + explain everything + Dropbox + Nearpod + iMovie Hmm.

   Tue, Jan 29 2013 15:55:05

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5. And to the apps and software used with apple devices - Drop Box to share things in cloud , Nearpod to share things between devices and onto data projector in classroom , Annotate.neu to give capture and record oral feedback on assessments , Explain Everything , Evernote and some other solutions used as eportfolios and more
   Apple launches too new Educational publications platform BBC News - Apple launches e-textbook tools with new iBooks bbc.in/xnziOg ; showcased new education bookstore books from usual suspects

E-Assessment Question , #InsideLearning and #GlowRoadshow

For learners,  and I am one, learning is a lifelong continuum . I still think though that those who deliver learning and the accreditation of learning still live in silos,  worse some of them have stopped learning.

At the E-Assessment Question, an excellent event in Leeds,  I presented to an audience where there was a confident inevitability that most things one way or another will be assessed on-line in the near future. In work based learning this will happen in next 3 years,  in College space I predict this will happen in the next five years in schools space mmm ? If it does not happen and it is not driven by schools then it will be driven by forces outside of the school system and directly to learners. You can see the big commercial interests circling.

Universities need to wake up too. They are still too inflexible. It is neither the most intelligent nor the strongest that survive but those most adaptable to change . Directors of Jessops , Blockbuster and HMV did not adapt.

In Scotland we are really lucky that we are able to push at all the boundaries associated with changing current modes of assessment. The drive in England back to paper and pencil and exam based assessment is as much to do with a false belief in some golden era of academic standards as it is to do with trying to discourage sharp practices from commercially driven awarding bodies along with a complete lack of trust in schools and school teachers. It really is a dreadful situation and I feel for many of those trying to innovate in this environment. I fear too that many of those who have been innovating in this space will simply give up trying to operate in the fragmented English schools system.

When I use that "assessed" word I mean the means of gathering evidence and the means to gain accreditation will be on-line and not that everything will be assessed by on-line multiple choice questions.  Which is common misconception about e-assessment.

But we have much to do too in Scotland - some of the comments from the panel at Inside Learning were just depressing . It would be awful to believe that schools start preparing learners for external examinations from 1st year of secondary school . It is awful too that some folks with experience of the system can't , don't or won't see that what is chosen to be assessed is often simply a reflection of what they choose to make important.  I think too conversations about what is important is still too top down. I hope my children get asked what they want to learn today - to pinch an old advertising slogan. I know the assessment and accreditation system can cope with this and I am sure that schools and teachers can too. To the student teachers who were along on the night one of the best things you can do for your professional development is to become a marker or assessor for SQA,  having an understanding of the system will help you change it.
And sign up for a relevant massive open on-line course to see how things are changing.

I am writing this on a Saturday morning where 120 teachers from around Glasgow and the surrounding areas have turned up to take part in a Glow Road Show  in their own time . I know they are really up for change and I hope they know that they really can change things.

There are big opportunities to change thinking in the assessment space and there are huge affordances that technology will bring to learners and this means different ways of assessing and accrediting folk at a national level. I am really hopeful that this is going to start happening with the new awards at National 4 .

I hope folks in school sector learn about how things are delivered , assessed and accredited in the College and work based sectors it will give them more confidence to change things

I am massively optimistic for learners and learning . Change,  it is a coming .

Van Gogh self portrait as a photograph

Just thought this was quite haunting .