Kristianstill

Its been too long since I spent time on a Middle Leadership CPD learning task. Accepted, I read technology and education blogs most days, I try and write to my blog most weeks and I have taught myself how to use a few new software tools. I continue to contribute to my Personal Learning Network (PLN) although with our new son, thats tailed off a little. I contribute to the Subject Learning Network as part of HIAS and I have also visited four schools this term, when it comes to genuine Middle Leadership and strategy development I need to make time for my own CPD leadership development.

Working at Taunton’s College, I stumbleupon the National College and School Leadership (NCSL). It took two weeks to get my memberhip approved and I completed the highly valued Online Facilitation & Tutoring course. To be honest though, the interface was pretty dismal, clunky but functional. I read the LDR magazines and from that I dipped in and out of the NCSL site to watch some of the excellent leadership videos referenced but I dont think I really took full advantage of the service.

Yesterday I revisited the sites and its had a much needed makeover. It looks ten years younger! Slim lined, functions, modularised (as most Social Networks are these days) and informative. If you have not been recently, its worth a visit.

A enjoyable start to the day with a  seminar style event with Sir Ken Robinson, only problem was the booking system delayed the start and frustrated a fair few delegates and of course restricted the time we had to hear him speak and confer with the audience. Technology, you can’t rely on it? Disappointingly, just ask the Minister if you dont believe me.

We then looked around the exhibition, I liked one or two products, in particular nComputing who were offer low-cost virtualization software /hardware to tap into the unused capacity of the classroom PCs and share it with other users. 1 PC acting as a host to 6 PCs.

Benefits are; creating desktop space, dramatically reducing your e-waste and recycling costs and a reduction in power, well your are only running 1 PC for 6 access points. All PCs are recognised by any classroom management software you have running.

Another interesting product was Vivo Miles. Vivo Miles is a very comprehensive rewards and sanction system and very current in its design and application. Plugins allow it to integrate with websites and they have plans to marry up with the VLE providers. A powerful way to raise standards but also for students understand and achieve economic well-being. Its a schools club card – complete with its own hole in the wall. What I will note, is that its visual presentation is excellent, a very web vogue, social networked, internet market place user interface will, IMHO engage.

Next Sir Michael Barber, again a very impressive public speaker offering an aliens aural feedback from a recent Earth inspection – the written feedback to be posted later. Outlining where perhaps organisational failing are impacting on education. Concluding with E(K+T+L) an the equation / solution left by the aliens to prompt thinking. That Knowledge plus Thinking plus Leadership underpinned by ethics is required for effective leadership, and from his tone, not only in education.

Charles Leadbeater - web thinker / innovator highlighted the shareability of the web, and that term again, web 2.0. For the SSAT conference, I felt that the pitch was excellent, as web innovators / enthusiasts often engulf their audience with techno speak / babble. I wise decision considering the next keynote information….

‘The web allows them (Charles Leadbeater referred mainly to learners, which this context inferred students, but I am confident his view is broader than that) not just to publish but to share and connect, to collaborate and when the conditions are right, to create, together, at scale.’

His analogy of big organisations as boulders, including schools, being hard to move was coupled with the new technologies as pebbles more fluid and flexible, slowly swamping the cumbersome boulders. I enjoyed the analogy of User Generate Content (UGC) as pebbles, but I think the boulders are a little further up the beach than he perhaps presented, but that would have been a far less impressive communique. And yes, perhaps Google and little brother Youtube are the best pebble examples in the mainstream. In fairness he touched on others, World of Warcarft, Sims, Flickr.

(What would a seminar follow up with? Twitter? Social BookMarking)

Should any educator stumble upon the post FREE animation tools and some great examples! Now stickman may look simple, but our Year 7s and 8s spend hours creating and share it and there is a huge back channel / community sharing ideas.

Finally, the impact of generations and eras on leaders and leadership and Dr Graeme Codrington keynote. Although not obvious to me as an aspiring young teacher, this is very important. Ironically, it was as important to the seasoned professionals in the audience. It would appear, few of the professionals in the audience, either young or seasoned, had fully considered the imapct of their default settings on colleagues they worked with. Something to reflect upon. Dr Graeme Codrington has promised that these slides will be available but a short cut to the download section of his site.

So, another very good day. Now for the informal learning.

Topic or Tool: Ancient Rome in Google. Wow. Google has released an “Ancient Rome 3D” layer for their popular Google Earth browser. The new layer shows many of the buildings and structures that made up the city during the rule of Constantine the Great. Some of the buildings even have interiors.

What does it cost? FREE as part fo the Google Earth tool. Another great amazing tool.

How it could be used for teaching?

I recently read about hi tech 3D immersive education at a school costing serious investment and although not fully immersive, it is free. This product allows you to;

• Fly into Rome as it looked in 320 A.D.
• Tour the interior of famous buildings.
• Visit the sites in 3D such as the Roman Forum, Colosseum and the Forum of Julius Caesar.
• Learn about how the Romans lived.

Dont expect me to tell you how to use this tool, be imaginative, but Google also announced a curriculum competition in conjunction with the release. Educators who create the most interesting curricula based lessons around the Ancient Rome 3D layer will receive a range of goodies. Maybe HIAS can offer goodies for the best shared resources? Would that encourage educators to share?

Watch the Youtube press video here.

How it could be used for learning?

Not having spent that long in ancient Rome, you could certainly set an orienteering task, a Roman treasure hunt. As the competition gaunlet has been laid down, can we put forward an offering to compete with our Amerian counterparts? Post your ideas here of contribute to the Google Doc.

I hope to send out the invites real soon.

Topic or Tool: Social Bookmarking. Another term for website ‘favourites,’ only you can organise these bookmarks and share then with colleagues or with ‘your network.’ Still not clear? Then watch this Common Craft video. PS if you have not come across Common Craft before, have a good rummage, plenty of CPD goodness here.

What does it cost? FREE. It boast more than 5.3 million users and over 180 million unique URLs saved. There are other bookmarking clones, StumbleUpon, Digg and Diigo to name but a few of the more prominent ones.

How it could be used for teaching?

Personaly, I use Delicious to keep a record of all my favouriate websites, available to me at any time from any PC with an internet connection. That in itself is very useful.

What I did not fully appreciate when I first started using Delicious, was the power of tagging and grouping bookmarks, and the subsequent benefit. I now have my websites tagged by subject and topic. Very useful.

But the real power of Delicious comes in developing a network of colleagues with shared interests. The creator of a bookmark assigns tag giving the website meaning. These bookmarks can then be shared (very easily) with colleague (simply type for: Kristianstill). Users can easily make social connections with colleagues and share their bookmarks.

Currently I subscribe to Edtechtalk, an American group of educators with great common knowledge. They dont miss much. Plus a number of personal online collaborations. I share my links with students and a few staff.

How it could be used for teaching?

Most of the teacher benefit will come from sourcing, tagging and sharing your own bookmarks. It does not take many colleagues in a network (3-4) before you will be receiving a number of websites to review.

I would really encourage you to use tags from the start, later tags become a great way to organise your bookmarks. Feel free to use any of mine.

Delicious is also a great search engine, as each page shows you the number of recommendations it has received. Its far less hit and miss than Yahoo or Google for example.

How it could be used for learning?

Apart from the fact you will have more and better web resources for your students, social bookmarking is a difficult topic to introduce. I have encouraged a few of the senior students to create their own networks. We have a group of students tagging Critical Thiking resources for an AS Level class they take outside of College, but its a challenge.

At Hamble College we do not have roaming profiles, so we use Delicious to evidence our bookmarking skills (even though Delicious can do so much more.) It is also a good way to share websites with students. Just point them to your Deliciious links.

Its a great way to show the power of collaboration, although the lower end of 11-16 education market may find using social bookmarking a challenge. Give the students a simple topic to research, save and share the bookmarks via Delicious.

It would be great to receive links from you, add me (Kristianstill) to your Network.