Scan and sticky toffee pudding

The recent copy of Scan makes it way to me from Wagga Wagga. As ever some very good articles in this quality journal. The first article is about blogging in a primary school and if you don’t have access to Scan itself, there are links to the students’ blogs at Belmore South Public School and also to the Assistant Principal’s blog. There are some excellent ideas in this articlewhich focuses on learning and how Web 2.0 tools can be used as just that – tools. This is no “isn’t technology fab” article but focuses on what can be done and you have the feeling that this school has created a culture where technology is seen as ordinary and integral and learning is encouraged. As with most articles like this, it would be good to have an insight of the problems faced as well as the obvious successes but it is certainly worth reading.

At the weekend, we ventured into England to visit my son Jonathan and his wife Rebecca in the historic town of Carlisle which is an attractive place withthe river Eden flowing through as well an impressive castle and cathedral, both of which are magnificient buildings. It was always amazes me to think that the cathedral, first built in the 12th century, must have been an awsome sight for those working on the land nearby. Cathedrals such as this were probably at least a hundred times bigger than anything the local people would have seen. As with castles, of course, cathedrals were built to impress and to show who had the power in that neck of the woods. On Saturday evening, we went to the Queen Inn in the attractive village of Great Corby. Very nice meal in a dining room with real tablecloths and the highlight for my son and I was the Sticky Toffee Pudding desert. This version was light, not too chocolateyand was served with a syrupy custard which wasn’t too sweet. You have to be careful where you order this sweet as some can be heavy and tasteless, but this was a pudding person’s dream. Did I mention the Black Sheep Ale served in the bar?

Connections and football

I’ve been sent a hard copy of the SCiS journal Connections which you can access online at the link. The reason for this is that I have an article published in the journal. The article was originally published in The Teacher Librarian as “The end of the teacher librarian”. The SCiS people asked permission to reprint it and change the title to “Turn a threat into an opportunity”. I can’t say that this title did much for me compared with the original but if it gets more people to read the article, then I can live with it. The article deals with the “end” of the TL as being the “purpose” or “goal” as well the possible end i.e. demise of the TL.  In it, I argue that unless TLs exploit the full possibilities of the web, school intranets and insturctional websites, they could be marginalised in the school.  See what you think.

The UK football (what some of you call “soccer”) season is over but thankfully, for us connoisseurs of the “beautiful game”, the European championships – Euro 08 - are on at the moment and it has now reached the quarter final stage i.e. each game is a knock out result with one team going through. Last night, I was hoping Portugal might beat Germany but they didn’t – poor defence. If I was a betting man – which I’m not – I would put my money on Holland who play tomorrow. Hup Holland! Oops, it’s 7.45pm and Croatia are about to play Turkey. Time for a beer and some (I hope) exciting football.

Exploratree and Traprain Law (2)

I’ve referred to FutureLab on a number of occasions and one of the best ideas, with practical applications, to emerge is Exploratree. FutureLab have just released the final version of this excellent source which provides TLs and teachers with a range of thinking guides which cover aspects such as developing ideas, solving problems, exploring, analysing and taking different perspectives. These guides may well cover a range of learning styles that your students have and provide students with a range of options. This is information literacy by another name but going through the site and picking out the elements you think might work with your students could prove a very worthwhile exercise.

I referred to Traprain Law in the previous post and was up there on Saturday taking photos of runners braving a coolish wind and some rain to complete the race which is about 10K i.e. 5K up and 5K down. What the early tribes of the 1st century AD would have made of people running up towards their fort on a Saturday afternoon in June is open to question. They might well have mistaken them for another local tribe or even the invading Romans. So no Votadini there on Saturday, just some hill runners and some nosiy sparrowhawks. Here’s the view the runners had from near the foot of the Law.

 

Saskatchewan journal and Traprain Law

I was alerted to the Saskatchewan School Library Association’s journal The Medium  which has some interesting articles on Digital Citizenship, Inquiry Learning and The 21st century teacher librarian. This journal is only available to the public for a limited period but it is still a generous gesture by the SSLA. I was very interested in the article about digital citizenship and show we might teach our students to use the web and particularly aspects of Web 2.0 ethically and responsibly. It also raised the question of whether educational authorities’ and schools’ policies of blocking access is a sensible way of encouraging students to be ethical. I suspect that many students see the blocking of websites as more of a challenge than a lesson. On the other hand, schools know that there are some very narrow minded people out there who would immediately challenge a school’s right to give students access to Web 2.0 tools. Ethical use of information – in whatever form – is something that students need to be taught – but try finding out in your school who might be responsible for this and you’re likely to get some very evasive answers.

This weekend my wife and some other local runners are running the Traprain Law Race  The Law (Scots for hill) mainly famous for being the site where a hoard of Roman silverware was found. The silver is likely to have been stolen in the 1st century AD by the Votadini tribe who dominated the south of Scotland in this period and Traprain Law is thought to be their capital. It’s also a very nice walk and on a clear day you have  360 degree views across the countryside and out to the sea. While the Votadini did not have Web 2.0, it’s pretty certain that there would have been some kind of censorship which prevented the more curious from getting information.

Student confidence and cycling to Abbey St Bathans

I’ve been analysing some year 7 student diaries as part of my research and looking at student responses when they were asked to comment on how confident they felt about doing an assignment. Most of the students – in 3 rural Australian secondary schools – stated that they were fairly or quite confident and a minority said that they were very confident and a smaller minority said that they were not confident. Student statements of confidence, of course, may not reflect how these students actually feel. Writing that you are confident in a diary to be seen by a researcher is a lot easier that writing that you are not confident. Also, it was clear in this study, that some students may have professed to being confident – and indeed, they may well have felt confident, but that they should not have been feeling as confident as they stated. The reason is that, for some of these students, understanding what the assignment demanded of them was problematic. So how do we get students – all students – to take a realistic view of their confidence and what’s expected of them? There’s no simple answer to this but recognising that some – and possibly many – students could be over-confident may be the place to start.

On Sunday, the hardest cycle yet. It was only 50k but we went up every hill known to man and woman – or so it seemed at the time. It was one of these cycles when you feel that it was up hill all they way there and all the way back. We set off from Dunbar and went to a wee place called Abbey St Bathans. Very picturesque route and place, set next to a good sized river. There was never an abbey there but in the 13th century a group of nuns were housed there. There’s now a tea room next to the trout farm and some great walks along the river and you can cross a bridge built buy Ghurka soldiers. When I searched for pictures of Abbey St Bathans, not much luck but, to my surprise, the Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies  has a number of records featuring the place – mainly on microfiche. There are pictures of the wee church  which contains some interesting historic artefacts.

Quality principles and green fields

From the ever reliable Becta, the UKgovernment’s ICT agency, there is a good guide to the principles to be used when selecting digital resources for schools. This Becta guide  contains some well known and recognised evaluation criteria but it also contains some wider principles for selecting digital resources. I’ll certainly be using it with my students next semester when they are asked to critically evaluate the criteria used for selecting digital resources and then to do some evaluation of websites. Ths doesn’t mean that it’s just an academic guide – it’s not – as it is a very practical guide and worth bookmarking and sharing around the school.

At the weekend I was out taking photos of members of Dunbar Running Club  – including my wife – who were doing a 5 mile (8K) race, starting  in the next town of Haddington and going out into the countryside. Photos are on my Flickr pages.  This is not to make those in the drier parts of the world – e.g. all my colleagues and friends in Wagga Wagga – jealous but to give an example of the lush greenery we get here at this time of the year. One of the photos is below.