When the elements of teaching and technology come together it’s a kind of alchemy

Fleur Sexton, managing director of PET-Xi and Deputy Lieutenant of West Midlands describes how her company adapted their highly successful intensive courses to a digital world

Schools and colleges rely on us to work miracles, sometimes in just a week. When lockdown came, we had to do some soul searching and decide if and how we could replicate the PET-Xi experience online.

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      string(362) "... into or, in some cases, replace traditional curriculum elements, teaching methods and educational theories is essential. What may be harder to define is how the teaching role itself changes accordingly,For many teachers, who may not enjoy the same familiarity or ease of use with technology that their students possess ..."
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      string(5742) "Technology is at the heart of the educational reform. And as programmes such as Building Schools for the Future (BSF) make the move from theory to practice, to bring together significant investment in buildings and Information and Communications Technology, there’s no doubt that for teachers, administrators and IT managers alike change is far-reaching and inevitable. However, although valuable lessons may be learned from best practices around the world, there is no one-size-fits-all formula for the rate and scale of adopting technology in the education sector.  Understanding the broader implications of curricular, administrative, financial and social dimensions of using technology in education is key to determining the optimal level of this integration.  Andy Barnes Director of technology at Bryanston School looks at the key considerations and competencies needed to make a successful start.From infrastructure to curricula, teaching methods to multimedia resources, change has come in many forms across the education system. However, despite having several concerns and conundrums in common when it comes to adapting to this change, every educational institution in the UK will also face its own unique challenges, depending on a variety of factors. Addressing these challenges head on, and finding a suitable solution, will require careful planning and committed support from all parties involved, be they teachers, administrators or IT managers.Begin at the beginningSchools and universities may differ when it comes to size and remit, but the key elements to consider when formulating an ICT plan remain constant:Establish where you are now – the first step is always to take stock of the current system and examine what drivers and barriers to ICT adoption exist within the organisation. From hardware and software to operational practices and even basic infrastructure and utilities, analysis of current systems will help to identify not only where changes can and should be implemented, but also what resources are available to facilitate the process, as well as sticking points that could cause bottlenecks    Apply goals and context – an understanding of and an objective for each kind of ICT deployed is vital to making the right choices, so it’s important that decision-makers know (or learn!) what technology is available, what it can do, what it needs to achieve and how success will be measured    Find the funding – ICT is a highly valuable asset but requires ongoing investment to remain useful and productive. Securing the budget to make initial purchases can be challenging, however, it’s almost equally important to factor in long-term requirements such as regular maintenance if productivity is to be ongoing or indeed incremental.    Test the waters – even the best designed models or those that have already been proven to work in other contexts need to be tested on a small scale. Trying a pilot project in just one area can be a valuable safety net to help identify and correct potential glitches in design, usability and effectiveness ahead of a full-scale deploymentIn addition to these, perhaps the most vital ingredient to successfully implementing any ICT system is having the appropriate competencies and skill sets across all those involved in using it and the education sector is no different. While the teachers, who have to integrate new technologies into their methods, will be at the coalface of managing the change, administrators and IT managers will be equally responsible for providing the appropriate knowledge and support for a smooth transition to these new systems. Who knows whatFor teachers, the need for skills with specific applications and technologies that will be used directly in the classroom goes without saying, both in terms of using the tools to teach as well as teaching the tools themselves. Similarly the need for broader understanding how technologies can be incorporated into or, in some cases, replace traditional curriculum elements, teaching methods and educational theories is essential. What may be harder to define is how the teaching role itself changes accordingly,For many teachers, who may not enjoy the same familiarity or ease of use with technology that their students possess, this transition into the unknown can be a harrowing experience and certainly one that could knock their confidence or position of authority within the classroom environment. As the education process becomes increasingly learner-centric, the roles of teachers, and what knowledge they are perceived to bring to the metaphorical table, has undergone a significant transformation, flattening the once wholly hierarchical nature of the classroom. Staying relevant to their audience in an increasingly dynamic educational environment means teachers now require ongoing upgrades to their knowledge and skill base; an investment in time, effort and , sometimes, money that can act as a deterrent to entering or staying in the profession.Another potential point of anxiety, and one that is a fairly common in situations where large-scale changes are implemented, is the concern whether the new systems and technologies may in fact replace individuals completely. For teachers, the rise in online and multimedia resources that can provide instruction, metrics for success and evaluation, with a minimal amount of regular human involvement could be thought to represent a significant threat. That said, as with any technology, it’s important to maintain a sense of perspective of what the system’s limitations are"
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Digital Learning

Teaching & Technology: where to begin?

22 Oct 2009

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      string(5690) "has happened and content is being retained. Traditional testing for project-based learning mismatches creation and synthesis cognition with knowledge and understanding assessment instruments, so Minecraft projects lead teachers to explore assessment tools that allow students more ownership of the presentation. Assessment focuses on showing and telling.  Individual work with Minecraft is easily shown with visual evidence using screen capture or video capture software. Students document finished work and send it to the teacher. Some teachers allow student presentations where the student shows and explains their work to the class. Class ‘gallery’ walkthroughs allow students to see each other’s work and the teacher can quickly assess at the end of a larger project. Galleries can also be put on display for external and authentic feedback – for parents or at a local library. Also, depending on the work, students act out scenes from plays/books/history and use Minecraft as a digital theatre space.  By using screen names, students can post videos online and keep their identity private. Online videos will garner various ‘hits’ that provide further external feedback on student work. For grading, project-style assessment in the form of traditional rubrics or lists of requirements suit most of the teachers I spoke with. They have teacher-created things to look for in the work that relate to different elements of student growth: Did they accurately demonstrate content knowledge? What? Did they represent # or more aspects of X?  Did they work together and build collaborative and social skills?Did they conduct independent research that is evident in the work? And cited? Did they encounter problems and find creative solutions to overcome them?Did they demonstrate quality in all aspects of their work?  Did they endeavour for greatness?When having a unique experience in a space like Minecraft, writing is a natural form of telling about that experience. Each tale will be unique even if the students worked in the same server world. Written explanations build writing literacy along with digital literacy and communication is part of building lifetime practices. Teachers leverage writing non-fiction instructional guides, Minecraft ‘histories’, or direct explanations of classroom content. Reflection writing assessment focuses on the social domain (How did your group/class work together?), elements of problem solving (Did you see any other solutions that would have saved you time? Why?), and personal reflection work (What have you learned?).  Trying Minecraft for the First TimeMinecraft has found its way into thousands of classrooms, at various ages, across all subject areas. The potential of a digital stage and building space is as obvious as using cheap blank paper was to our ancestors. Yet, using any digital tool requires that the teacher has built up some degree of digital literacy and capacity themselves. The narratives above come from a small sample of early adopting teachers – all of whom have a teacher-as-designer disposition. As central and interesting as Minecraft can be, the simple spark of interest is really far more inspiring. Teachers who humbly show interest in tools they do not yet understand bring innovation to our schools and practice. All of the teachers above first had to see potential in Minecraft; they had to experiment with small groups of students and learn from them; and most had to find a clear connection to their content responsibilities before they were willing to try Minecraft in their own classrooms. This is careful and deliberate practice. Take note that even the early adopters took time to test things out at home and run it by their after-school students. They also leveraged expert students and colleagues to help set up for the first time. They found a friend and asked questions, much like how they encourage their students to do. For every Minecraft-type tool they adopt, there are scores of other applications that they do not validate.    Finally, innovative teaching is not necessarily a character trait for the teachers I spoke with. Thank goodness! Innovative teaching is a learnable practice of thinking like a designer. Playful pedagogy includes a joyful approach to learning and design. Designing teachers are always looking for their next idea, building networks of other innovators, validating, experimenting, adopting and refining ideas until they get the right results from assessments that match the work.  Seann Dikkers is a storyteller and gamer serving as an Associate Professor of Education at Bethel University. He researches narratives of innovative teaching and learning; sharing internationally in presentations, articles, and recent books including Real-Time Research, Mobile Media Learning I & II, and TeacherCraft.ReferencesDikkers, S. M. (2012) The Professional development trajectories of teachers successfully integrating and practicing with new information and communication technologies (Doctoral dissertation, The University of Wisconsin-Madison).Dikkers, S. (2015). TeacherCraft: How teachers learn to use Minecraft in their classrooms. Pittsburgh, PN: ETC Press. Gee, J. P. (2007). Good video games + good learning: Collected essays on video games, learning, and literacy (Vol. 27). Peter Lang.Kuhn, J. (2015). Meaningful play–Making professional development fun. The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language, 18(4).Prensky, M. (2006). Don’t bother me, Mom, I’m learning!: How computer"
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Applications and Software

Gaming the Curriculum with Minecraft

22 May 2018

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      string(325) "... then write out poems, or quotations. It is important to give children the chance to say, discuss and feel the words and how they work together.Top tip – what’s your passion?Find out what your class is passionate about. Whether this is climate change, animals, space travel or technology ..."
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      string(5662) "children to slow down, stop, and allow their thoughts to develop and materialise. Though not impossible, this is much harder for children to do using a tablet or laptop, where writing happens significantly faster, offering less time to think and meditate on the words being chosen.This slowness is also valuable as it can help with problem solving. Research published by the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Washington in the United States (Berninger et al., 2006) found that using multiple strokes instead of singular key presses on a laptop or tablet, which requires someone to spend more time on each letter and word, gives the brain more time and space to process and think about what it is producing, leading to more creative writing.This again highlights that while creativity is, of course, subjective, handwriting is a mechanism that we can use to facilitate children’s creativity, providing them with a tool that lets their natural creativity flow as best as possible.Self-expression – handwriting helpsThe benefits of handwriting go beyond allowing for more creative writing. There is also a lot to be said for its ability to act as a release, encouraging self-expression in children. Simply, handwriting isn’t about neatness or which pupil can write the prettiest cursive letters. It is fundamentally about expressing oneself. And those benefits are far reaching.As mentioned previously, we are seeing a push-back from teachers and parents against attempts to introduce overly prescriptive assessment criteria and marking guidelines on primary school children. There is in this a definitive call for self-expression to be encouraged and valued in the classroom, and it is therefore incredibly important that we prioritise things, like handwriting, that will help children to engage in these key areas of self-development.So how can we put this into practice?My experience with the Write Your Future campaign, working with children in schools to encourage handwriting skills has taught me that it is essential to come up with activities that encourage their active engagement with learning. Often, lessons that teach handwriting to children are dull and demotivating – hardly inspiring creativity.But there are plenty of ways that we can teach handwriting to children of all ages, making it accessible and fun, and encouraging creative thinking even during the learning process (See Teacher Tips – Write Your Future, 2018).Top tip – sand drawingGet your pupils to use a stick to write out letters in a sandboxThis activity is perfect for younger children who are just starting out on their handwriting journey. The activity combines a familiar play activity with learning for children who haven’t had much exposure to writing, engaging their sense of touch whilst teaching them basic handwriting skills.Top tip – celebrate handwritingOffer children the chance to write their favorite poems (or quotations) out for a displayGive children a selection of poems to choose from and encourage them to read them aloud to each other, choose particularly interesting combinations of lines and then write out poems, or quotations. It is important to give children the chance to say, discuss and feel the words and how they work together.Top tip – what’s your passion?Find out what your class is passionate about. Whether this is climate change, animals, space travel or technology, you can bring these topics to life in the classroom. Ask children to write a few words or a letter about a cause they are interested in. For example, they could create a poster for a wildlife centre or suggest a new spaceship design to NASA.There’s no better way to encourage children to write creatively than to get them talking (and writing) about something they care about. Finding out their passions is a sure-fire way to combine handwriting practice with creative thinking and writing. Parents can take this further by encouraging their children to write down their imaginative thoughts. Children are full of natural imagination, and getting them to write their creative thoughts down on paper can make a big impact on their handwriting development and on their ability to develop their creative thinking.Top tip – sometimes looks matterGet colourful pens and pencils to encourage children to be creativeThis may seem elementary, but many teachers may have seen that giving their pupils new and colourful stationary can make the world of difference in how they engage with the tasks set for them. Especially with handwriting, giving children eye-catching resources can motivate them to get stuck into creative writing.ConclusionHandwriting is one of the most important, yet often overlooked elements of a child’s education. In today’s digital age, when this basic skill is encountering unprecedented challenge, it is more important than ever to be aware of its far-reaching benefits.Not only does it have important physical benefits to children’s development, handwriting allows children the time and space to grow their fertile imaginations, giving them the opportunity to articulate their thoughts and to express themselves in an increasingly digitalised world.We are already seeing steps being taken to formalise the understanding that creativity is valuable in children’s education, so now more than ever, it is important to highlight the benefits that solid handwriting skills can have on fostering the creative process and enabling children to express themselves.Dr Jane Medwell is the Director of Teaching and Learning in the School of Education at"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Valuing the Art of Handwriting

10 Oct 2018

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      string(5662) "children to slow down, stop, and allow their thoughts to develop and materialise. Though not impossible, this is much harder for children to do using a tablet or laptop, where writing happens significantly faster, offering less time to think and meditate on the words being chosen.This slowness is also valuable as it can help with problem solving. Research published by the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Washington in the United States (Berninger et al., 2006) found that using multiple strokes instead of singular key presses on a laptop or tablet, which requires someone to spend more time on each letter and word, gives the brain more time and space to process and think about what it is producing, leading to more creative writing.This again highlights that while creativity is, of course, subjective, handwriting is a mechanism that we can use to facilitate children’s creativity, providing them with a tool that lets their natural creativity flow as best as possible.Self-expression – handwriting helpsThe benefits of handwriting go beyond allowing for more creative writing. There is also a lot to be said for its ability to act as a release, encouraging self-expression in children. Simply, handwriting isn’t about neatness or which pupil can write the prettiest cursive letters. It is fundamentally about expressing oneself. And those benefits are far reaching.As mentioned previously, we are seeing a push-back from teachers and parents against attempts to introduce overly prescriptive assessment criteria and marking guidelines on primary school children. There is in this a definitive call for self-expression to be encouraged and valued in the classroom, and it is therefore incredibly important that we prioritise things, like handwriting, that will help children to engage in these key areas of self-development.So how can we put this into practice?My experience with the Write Your Future campaign, working with children in schools to encourage handwriting skills has taught me that it is essential to come up with activities that encourage their active engagement with learning. Often, lessons that teach handwriting to children are dull and demotivating – hardly inspiring creativity.But there are plenty of ways that we can teach handwriting to children of all ages, making it accessible and fun, and encouraging creative thinking even during the learning process (See Teacher Tips – Write Your Future, 2018).Top tip – sand drawingGet your pupils to use a stick to write out letters in a sandboxThis activity is perfect for younger children who are just starting out on their handwriting journey. The activity combines a familiar play activity with learning for children who haven’t had much exposure to writing, engaging their sense of touch whilst teaching them basic handwriting skills.Top tip – celebrate handwritingOffer children the chance to write their favorite poems (or quotations) out for a displayGive children a selection of poems to choose from and encourage them to read them aloud to each other, choose particularly interesting combinations of lines and then write out poems, or quotations. It is important to give children the chance to say, discuss and feel the words and how they work together.Top tip – what’s your passion?Find out what your class is passionate about. Whether this is climate change, animals, space travel or technology, you can bring these topics to life in the classroom. Ask children to write a few words or a letter about a cause they are interested in. For example, they could create a poster for a wildlife centre or suggest a new spaceship design to NASA.There’s no better way to encourage children to write creatively than to get them talking (and writing) about something they care about. Finding out their passions is a sure-fire way to combine handwriting practice with creative thinking and writing. Parents can take this further by encouraging their children to write down their imaginative thoughts. Children are full of natural imagination, and getting them to write their creative thoughts down on paper can make a big impact on their handwriting development and on their ability to develop their creative thinking.Top tip – sometimes looks matterGet colourful pens and pencils to encourage children to be creativeThis may seem elementary, but many teachers may have seen that giving their pupils new and colourful stationary can make the world of difference in how they engage with the tasks set for them. Especially with handwriting, giving children eye-catching resources can motivate them to get stuck into creative writing.ConclusionHandwriting is one of the most important, yet often overlooked elements of a child’s education. In today’s digital age, when this basic skill is encountering unprecedented challenge, it is more important than ever to be aware of its far-reaching benefits.Not only does it have important physical benefits to children’s development, handwriting allows children the time and space to grow their fertile imaginations, giving them the opportunity to articulate their thoughts and to express themselves in an increasingly digitalised world.We are already seeing steps being taken to formalise the understanding that creativity is valuable in children’s education, so now more than ever, it is important to highlight the benefits that solid handwriting skills can have on fostering the creative process and enabling children to express themselves.Dr Jane Medwell is the Director of Teaching and Learning in the School of Education at"
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Leadership

Handwriting Your Way to Self Expression

12 Sep 2018

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      string(318) "... iPad, whether with their hands, feet, chin, nose, elbow or other body part! So, the trick was to find an interface that would register this kind of activity and connect it to music making. The two crucial technology elements are an iPad and the ThumbJam app. Note: I prefer iPad ..."
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      string(5693) "Overcoming Passivity  As a special needs music teacher, my greatest joy is creating opportunities for my students with profound and complex learning needs to explore their own playing and vocalising capabilities through music. For many of these students, traditional music activities require dexterity and verbal capabilities that are unavailable to them. Often, their musical experiences are passive—listening to music that is played to them, or perhaps having someone move their body for them, either to play a drum or percussive instrument or to be moved around while music plays. This model of passive engagement with music does very little in the way of adding quality to students’ lives and is more just a token way of passing time. I felt that there must be a way to focus on their capabilities rather than their disabilities and so I explored the available technologies and created a programme that would allow the students to play in their own band, expressing themselves individually. For most of my students, the ability to play or learn a traditional instrument is well out of their reach, usually due to severe physical limitations. However, for most students, moving their body in whatever way they can is crucial for developing a sense of self awareness and independence of being. I have found that most of them can manage broad movements that can translate on an iPad, whether with their hands, feet, chin, nose, elbow or other body part! So, the trick was to find an interface that would register this kind of activity and connect it to music making. The two crucial technology elements are an iPad and the ThumbJam app. Note: I prefer iPad over Android because the iPad’s touch screen is instantly responsive to the lightest touch and the Guided Access facility (in Settings) enables the teacher to cordon off any area of the iPad playing screen to prevent players accidentally changing the settings.Grooving with ThumbJamThumbJam is a music performance experience app that has a wide variety of sampled instruments, scales and features that make it possible to create musical sounds in a variety of styles. In addition to its high-quality audio samples, it is also possible to add effects using tilt and shake of the iPad. It allows for simultaneous touch so multiple sounds can be produced at once. Compared to other similar instrument apps, ThumbJam shines. It uses the whole screen, which makes it easier for students to use, and it has a wide range of instruments to choose from with good authentic sounds. It’s not pre-programmed with automated music loops, which means the students are truly making choices of what they play.When using ThumbJam, students can play with whatever body part they are capable of using—for some it’s fingers or toes, and others, it can be their nose, chin or elbow. It really doesn’t matter. The main thing is that they are making music themselves, actively participating in the ensemble, making choices and engaging personally with the experience. I listen to their sounds and create a musical backing (or use one of my pre-recorded backings) to bring us together. Between us we create an original composition and every time we do this, it sounds different. Ensuring independenceIt is crucial that the students have the opportunity to recognise that they are the ones making the sounds. Therefore, it is important that they have their own speaker and that the sounds are not all piped in together to one main monitor. I connect each iPad to a small vibratory WOWee speaker (this is a wired connection, not via Bluetooth, which creates a delay between what the student plays and what they hear). The students can then hear and feel the sounds, giving them immediate feedback that they can then respond to. In all my classes, the students love this, and in some cases, it is the only activity they participate in that gives them a sense of their physical presence in the world. Playing in HarmonyYou may at this point be imagining a horrifying cacophony of sound that hardly classifies as musical activity, and certainly there is potential for that. However, there is a better way and that’s by using the Pentatonic scale. The notes of the Pentatonic scale do not have any clashing tones, so it is perfect for this kind of setting. ThumbJam has many settings for choice of scale, so I just make sure Pentatonic is selected, which genuinely allows students to make music together that sounds good. I provide backing chords for the students (available for free download), which provides a structure for their improvisations. This general approach to music making and improvisation can work for students with moderate disabilities as well. Because there are no ‘wrong’ notes and the technology is very easy to use, it is an excellent way to encourage students to explore and be curious about music. There is a general, unspoken assumption in society that for students with disabilities, technology or music will be too hard for them or that they can’t try because they will break the device. The fear they develop as a result can be very disabling and limiting. The ability to play music in this way can help them develop confidence and it can help lay a foundation for further music learning. With one group of students I worked with in Ealing, many went on to take the basic level of the GCSE for music—something they had never dreamed would be possible. “The effects on someone with SLD and PMLD are extraordinary. The sense of ‘I can do this’, ‘this is my sound’"
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Digital Learning

Active Musicianship in the Special Needs Classroom

8 Aug 2019