The Tree House

While reading blogs in bloglines, I learned of google trends.  The graph below is for blog and wiki.  It speaks volumes.

A while back I posted about setting up a wiki for my new SG chemistry class.  I chose not to give out the address for two reasons, (security of the kids who I hoped would use it - I wanted to see that they could use it responsibly, and secondly, because I wanted to see that it would work).  Very soon after setting it up I realised that it wasn’t going to work in the way that I had envisaged.  It has therefore been sidelined for the time being. (Sorry Ollie - I know you had been interested to see how it worked!)
 It occurred to me that what I needed was something more structured, and which I could “control” a little easier.  I had planned on using a blog with my higher class, but since the SG course had now started, I thought I might as well give it a go, but using a different model to that planned for the S5 class.
I have now been posting to the S3 Chemistry blog for over a month now.  Every day I have the class I write a post, saying what we did in class, linking to some of the resources that we used, and perhaps asking a few questions.  I am encouraging the pupils to comment on the posts, perhaps with answers to my questions, questions of their own, or perhaps commenting on their understanding of the days activities.
I have been encouraged by the way that the class have taken to it (at least some have).  Perhaps this is linked to me telling them that the more comments there are on the blog, the less written homework they will get!
At the “new technologies” course I was on in Stirling, there was talk about the “conversation” that web 2.0 facilitated.  The class blog appears to be delivering this.  One pupil posted a comment saying that she had not understood an aspect of that days work.  I picked up the comment that night, and was able to prepare work for the following day which hoped top help the young lady overcome the difficulties she was having.  Incidentally, I was going to be at an inservice that day so the cover work for the class was left on the blog itself, including the additional tutorial on endothermic and exothermic reactions!  The next post the student made was saying that the work had helped, a little! 
As if this wasn’t enough encouragement, I was sitting at lunch later that week, when another teacher opposite me said
“I want one of those blog things”
I was a little confused as I had kept the blog very quiet (again wanting to see its worth before sharing it with colleagues).  That was until it dawned on me that the teacher had a daughter in the chemistry class.  She had seen its value, not from a teachers perspective, but from a parents perspective.  She saw the benefit it was having with her daughter, and wanted set one up for her to use with her new S3 class.
Until last week, I have seen the potential with web 2.0 for education but with no real personal evidence for its benefits.  This has held me back from becoming a “champion” for the cause.  Now, I have the evidence!

Note, I am not going to post the address of the chemistry blog to this blog, as I want to allow the students a little more freedom, that they would not have if the school were identified.  Since my school can be identified from this blog…. No links.  If you are interested, feel free to ask, and I will send the link to your email address.

Life has been a little hectic the last wee while, and although I have been setting up a blog for use with my new chemistry class, I have been too busy (sorry) to fire up bloglines or even post here.  The only problem is, now that I am back, there is just far too much good stuff in my bloglines waiting to be read.  Is there room in an individuals life for a full time job, wife, kids, house, garden, excercise, and blogging?  and I even missed of the most important thing from the list. 

One aspect of my job is puting systems in place which will make the life of my fellow teachers easier.  Our biggest hit so far is the behaviour managenment system that allows us to log kids behaviour (good and not so good) via a webpage on our school intranet.  The staff like it, the managers like it, and we recently allowed the pupils to view their own loggings - they too love it, and behaviour accross the school appears to be getting better since!  This week the staff in the school have been discussing target setting with a view to formalise what we are already doing accross the school, and to move over to a database driven, web interface target setting application.  Time will tell, but I am hopefull that it will make things easier for staff in the long term and may even allow us to do away with formal reports to parents…. 

Anyway, next week I will start developing it.  The point of this rant however is that technology should make our lives easier, and free up our time to spend interacting with people, with friends and family, and the students we teach.  Im sitting here blogging with my back to the TV, (and my wife), when really I should be spending the evening with her.  I guess therefore that this post should really conclude with something “relationship building”.  I was interested to learn that Oly was into kayaking.  As someone who lives near some great kayaking country/seascape, I feel it only fair to issue an invitation to any kayakers up this neck of the woods to came and visit (stay if you are house trained), and we can paddle, and ponder the wonders of web 2.0, and if I crank up the gain on my wireless connection, even blog from a canoe in the bay in front of the house with my iPac.

Im off to spend some quality time with the wife in front of friday night’s TV best.

http://safeinternet.blogspot.com/2006/04/internet-safety-survey-is-now-ready.html#links

Tis the season for internet safety.  The SQA are looking into an internet safety related qualification.

Although its been on my mind for a few weeks, tonight, inspired by both Stephen Heppel and Oly Bray, I actually set up my first wiki for us in the classroom.  I plan to use it with a new S3 chemistry class.  I want to leave it quite flexible to start with and see what the kids make of it.  I am hoping that the kids will post (this will be part of their homework) thoughts about what they have done in the topic, what they have learned, any questons they have, links they have found usefull….. like most first attempts it will probably fail, but at least I am giving it a go!  I want to get them contributing and sharing with each other, and a wiki seems like a good way of doing it. (just glanced at the clock and now realise why my wife was giving me grief half an hour ago!  Time to go, but updates soon!)

In the region where I work web filtering is done at a school level.  Having spoken to colleagues in other regions I see this as a real strength.  Today, an email was sent to the conference for ICT coordinators suggesting a site to block with the reasons for doing so.  You guessed it!  Bebo!  Given the recent debate here and elsewhere in blogosphere, and that the region had sent me to an in-service event highlighting the benefits of Web 2.0, I thought it only fair to revisit the debate about what to block and what not to block.  I was also interested to note that today Fiona posted a comment to the original post To bebo or not to bebo backing up the case for blocking the site in schools. (PS: No new students at my school on Bebo)

I was showing one of my nieces a piece of software (Game Maker) earlier that I in turn learned through the students at my school.  She is the same age as some of my students and it got me thinking again about how best to sever these youngsters with respect to their ICT education.
Every year the pupils we get into Secondary (S1) have skills which are better than the previous year’s intake.  Over the last 3 years this has led to us changing our S1 curriculum 3 times!  We have now moved over to an assessment system that is based on an (open-ended) portfolio of work produced, rather than solely overtaking certain skills or competencies. One of the portfolio areas relates to “programming”.  The students can submit any work which is relevant, and we make some suggestions of how they could overtake this area.  One way they can do this is by using “Game Maker”.  It was a brave step to include this as it was a piece of software that I had never used. 
I was happy to do this however because I got to the point, a good few years ago, of realising that I did not have to be an expert in the software to “teach” the kids how to use it.  “I am not an expert in gamer maker but an expert in learning.” 
For some staff who teach ICT this is just too radical!  If we are going to help the youngsters to fly higher and further than we do (or did), then we must stop limiting them with the limits of our own experience and skills.  While it might scare us a little, we should give the youngsters more control in terms of what happens within our/their ICT lessons.
So what is our role (as “teachers”) in the ICT classroom?  I am still wrestling with how best to help the kids “fly higher and further”.  I once heard Alan November say (paraphrase)… ”Teachers, get out of the way and let the kids learn.”  I think that as long as I can recognise some truth in this, I will still have something to share with the kids!

There is a widespread hypothesis — Six degrees of separation — holding that any two people in the world are separated by a chain of no more than six acquaintances.  I think that blogging may have the potential to reduce this!

I met David Muir at a masterclass workshop.  I got a link from his bloglines to the history teacher.  This looked interesting so I too subscribed in my bloglines. On this blog this morning was a link to an article in the washinton post about teachers blogging.  This in turn made reference to a number of teachers blogs.  The one by David Warlick caught my eye

“I have an idea, I put it on my blog,” said David Warlick, of 2 Cents Worth ( http://davidwarlick.com/2cents ), who teaches teachers around the country how to use blogs. “I learn something as a result. This last year has been the most incredible learning year of my life because of this ongoing conversation of ideas through blogging.”

Every time I come across someone with some interesting ideas, I add them to my bloglines - the next time they say something, I am notified, and in a sense, have moved to n-1 degrees of separation.  I guess that I am becoming hooked on social networking in the same way that teenagers are with Bebo!

 They say that the best way to get hooked on gambling is to win big when you first start out.  I guess I am becoming hooked on blogging!  

Within 10 days of setting up my first blog, I have had comments from Alan November (Guru).  I have also been “advertised” by David Muir, suggesting that I might become recommended reading for his PGCE students, and Ewan and John have passed my name to the editor of the GTCS magazine “Teaching Scotland”.  Cheers Guys.  J
 

10 days ago I was wondering if I would have anything worth while to say to a global blog audience.  I guess I do have something to say after all (although I cant guarantee it will always be worth reading).  This has been both a humbling and an encouraging 10 days.  Working where I do has given me a real chance to explore some of the big issues of using ICT, both from a class teacher perspective, and as a manager of the schools ICT – it has been good to start sharing this with a wider audience.  The last few days have helped me realise that perhaps the purpose of my blog should be as a way of reflecting on what I see, do and think about education, and in particular the role of ICT in education.  It can be hard to find time to “reflect” on ones own work, or on the good practice of colleagues when we are all so short of time.  Hopefully by making these reflections public, they can be a catalyst for other people thoughts and creativity, and allow others (wiser or more insightful than I) to correct or steer my own thinking.  (By the way bloaty head is a medical condition found in my wifes fav. computer game - Theme Hospital)

OK Waffle over.  Here is an “Alan November Style” question for you….. 
 

Why do you blog?  What purpose?  Is it selfish or altruistic?  Who is your audience?