Networks and sharing practice

It never ceases to amaze me how people continually re invest the wheel. As a teacher and then as an educator I have always been of the mind that if you understand something and can make someone elses life easier by sharing it then you should. With the technology that we have at our disposal currently sharing practice and ideas is incredibly easy to do. Take this blog for example anyone can search and find it and use the ideas from it. One of the key challenges for schools in this area is making sure that if teachers and staff are prepared to share ideas having someone who fundamentally can support the sharing through technology all too often we are in our silos doing what we always do.

Our education system

After spending a few years now in education - i am fast coming to the conclusion that our system of education is a bit back to front. My primary reason for thinking this is that from an early age in rimary school we engage students in whats seems to me in thematic based work where the primary curriculum allows teachers to explore content in a combined way. Whilst when the students get to secondary school we put them in silos seperate subject knowledge and traditionally expect them to learn in 5 or 6 50 min periods.

This creates a real dilema in that we expect students to be able to work independently and make decisions but the way we teach them promotes students who sit and digest learning rather than being active participants in it. It would seem logical to me that at an early age we teach students to make decisions and learn processes in a systematic/ more structured way whilst at secondary level giving them space work at a more independent level

Geography in the secondary curriculum

Have had an interesting day today. I attended a course on the process for gaining the secondary quality mark for Geography at KS3. The whole process focuses on the idea of identifying quality Geography in schools. Obviously one of the benefits of going through this process is that it raises the profile of Geography in your school. One thing that worried me slightly during the day is that in the examples given they did not seem to draw elements of Geography that were taught in other subjects. In other words there was no cross subject mapping. The problem with this is that whilst the quality mark for Geography will promote the importance of Geography within the Geography department it has only a short term effect on the rest of the school. In a way this means we are preaching to the converted within the department and not encouraging the values of a great subject in everything else. This highlights the issues of subjects operating in silos within school. In primary this problem isn't so great because teachers have to teach everything so to speak. My own feeling with the curriculum is that the personal learning thinking skills approach may be the way to go in that it means we focus on the skills and use the content to develop and enhance those skills. Obviously for many secondary teachers myself included this means we need to be far more relaxed about the whole concept of not being the font of all knowledge - but rather as someone who can facilitate and guide students in a particular direction.

Naace 2009

Currently I am attending the Naace conference in Blackpool. An interesting experience if nothing else. One of the concerns I have about the whole BSF/ICT educational agenda is that we seem to be focusing far too much on the technology and not enough on the learning. By creating a conference that has a focus around ICT in learning we effectively create an enironment where the focus is ICT rather than learning. Some of the seminars I have attended seem to fulfil this idea. In my view the key about anything we do in education is that it must enhance learning rather than just using technology because its cool. Take the latest emmerging technology from a well know vendor a large touch surface which can be used to manipulate images, use maps and content. The danger with this innovation is that whilst it is very cool and certainly has the wow factor it maybe that schools go and buy the technology before they have really worked out what we should do with it. We really need to change the culture and make sure we think about things before we do them.

First post - inital thoughts and ramblings

As someone who has worked in education for some ten years i felt it was time to start reflecting on some of the things I have come across both in my current role and jobs. I have to admit that I am not convinced by blogging as a tool to enhance learning but perhaps by trying it I may gain a better understanding of its potential. I am sure that as my blog develops it will explore my views on my sports and hobbies which are the things that keep me sane in an increasingly chaotic world.

I am in the fortunate position of being able to use and explore a variety of technologies for use in schools through my job which keeps things fairly exciting. Increasingly I am finding that the pace of technological change is increasing as a result of that schools, teachers and organisations that support them are struggling to keep up.

One of the key challenges we face in education now and in the future is a way to manage change within schools. If we dont develop systems to manage change in schools we will face the prospect of educators becoming increasingly turned off by technology or using technology for the sake of it rather than because it enhances learning opportunities.

Certainly in my experience upto yet it is evident that many initiaitves in schools
focus too much of kit and the supply of kit and not enough on the training and development to really identify how that technology can support teaching and learning. This is simply the wrong way much better in my view to provide the training and enthuse people and leave them wanting the technology than dumping a load of technology in a school and expecting teachers to adapt.

Well thats enough for now otherwise i wont post anything else for 6 months.