I've just been browsing a recent report from the DfES in the UK titled Children and Young People's Home Use of ICT for Educational Purposes (downloadable PDF) which contains some points worth noting - particularly in light of the discussions taking place about the use of OLEs as a means of supporting home-school links.
While the sample size for the study is relatively small, (they studied home use of about 1200 pupils across 12 primary and secondary schools during the summer term 2004), many of the key findings are worth noting and considering in terms of the trends that are being identified - particularly given the fact that a lotwill have moved on since this research was undertaken.
Some of the key findings are:
There were very high levels of home computer ownership across all year groups (89%) (Incidentally, this is about the same as reported recently in
The report has a good section on implications that is worthconsidering - especially in the NZ context. Among it's conclusions are the following statements:
The clear relationship identified in this study between subject specific use of ICT in the classroom and subject specific use of ICT for school work outside of lessons highlights the need for good scaffolding in terms of introducing children in the classroom to how technology can be used in specific subjects across the curriculum and showing them how this ICT use can be developed at home for school work in specific subjects.
More generally, home-school ICT links appear to be poorly developed. Teachers have not had training in developing these uses of ICT, therefore do not have extensive understanding of what this might involve and are fearful about the potential impact on their time of home-school ICT links. Further attention to these matters is needed in pre- and in-service teacher education.
It would be very beneficial, I feel, to engage in a robust discussion in the NZ context to see just how these findings might hold up here. My feeling is they'd be pretty well on the button - which raises all sorts of questions for me at a time that we are so enthusiastically promoting the developmentof broadband networks, together with the use of OLEs/school intranets as a means of broadening the educational opportunity for our students. I'm the first to put my hand up and confess to being a part of that enthusiastic group - but I am very aware of the warnings in this report and elsewhere of the need to simlutaneously address the professional development needs of teacherrs in a rigorous and systematic way.
A most interesting podcast by Graham Attwell via The Bazaar in which he traverses a wide range of ideas behind the Personal Learning Environment. It refers to the origins of the PLE, in dissatisfaction with older forms of educational technology and concerns over institutional control. However it goes on to question whether the PLE is really the answer, suggesting the use of freely available Web 2 tools for learning might offer a better way forward. Well worth a listen!
An humourous entry from Firda, the WeblogWannabe. Guess this result makes me a serious blogger - or perhaps a little sad - or simply a balanced person???
The proliferation of 3D games, flight simulators and use of Google Earth are just some examples of how our young people are growing up using tools and environments that challenge them to think spatially. A new report titled Learning to think spatially from the National Research Council (US) recommends that schools use geographic information system (GIS) software, among other tools and methods, to help students practice and apply spatial thinking across all areas of the curriculum.
The report defines spatial thinking as the ability to understand spatial relationships, the knowledge of how geographic space is represented, and the ability to reason and make key decisions about spatial concepts. Numerous examples of the need for spatial literacy in everyday contexts are referred to in the report to illustrate how important these skills are.
Thinking spatially is one of the key attributes of the "Net Generation" that is identified and discussed in Educating the Net Generation (available here to read online), edited by Diana and James Oblinger. They say "The aptitudes, attitudes, expectations, and learning styles of Net Gen students reflect the environment in which they were raised??one that is decidedly different from that which existed when faculty and administrators were growing up."
One of the things attracting lots of attention in my talks during the recent TUANZ tour was the discussion about RSS , and the way in which RSS is used by (among other things) news websites, weblogs and podcasting.
I personally use the desktop feed reader NetNewsWire on my Mac for aggregating the RSS feeds from the blogs and websites that I read regularly. (similar programs are available for Windows machines, eg FeedDemon ).
I use a desktop reader for the same reason that I use a desktop email client to POP my mail - I like the flexibility of reading my mail offline when travelling etc.
For others, though, a web-based mail account or feed reader is more useful, so I was interested to read Frank Gruber's State of Online FeedReaders article on TechCrunch this morning. Frank has had a look at 9 online feed readers (all available free, apart from 'FeedLounge'), providing a useful comparison of each.
The article is worth a read in order to understand more about the features available in these readers - thanks Frank.
Having just finished the TUANZ educational roadshow where I ran a workshop on social software, I was interested to come across this good slideshow from BusinessWeek (courtesy of Xplanazine)
that gives the lowdown on some niche social network players. There are interesting trends here and some good ideas about how social networks can become increasingly important in education.
A great entry from the "Chief Learning Officer" by Elliott Maisie titled "Making Your LMS Dance".Elliott describes his LMS wish list as a ??cheat sheet?? when you go in to talk to your system!
Elliott notes
It??s time for learning executives to have a heart-to-heart conversation with their LMS. Ask them if they are ready to dance to the music of performance, profitability, talent management and extreme learning. Tell your LMS that your company is ready to have it step up from its early role as an enterprise database of learning activities. Now, you want it to become an engine to drive business and talent outcomes.Written in a slightly humorous manner, it caputres the spectrum of things I think we need to be thinking about in relation to the emergent OLE! Thanks Elliott.
This report just released from BECTA in the UK is worth a read if you're interested in perspectives on what lies before us in the uses of ICT in education. Titled Emerging Technologies for Learning the 56 page report covers emerging technologies and some of the future trends that are likely to have an impact on education. The paper includes 5 main sections:
Mobile Technologies: Transforming the Future of Learning, Geoff Stead
The Ambient Web Bill Sharpe
The Future of Human-computer Interaction Paul Anderson
Following the thread of entries in my blog over the past few weeks, this diagram comes from a presentation on LukeW's Functioning Form blog - (linked courtesy of Tom Smith's The Other Blog) There's a downloadable PDF version of the presentation available on Luke's blog entry.
I really like Luke's analysis of the notion of community here - illustrating very well how our ideas about community are now very different from what they may have been just five years ago. Luke uses the example of Flickr to illustrate this (as in the diagram above) - revealing the ways in which a community is established around the simple act of sharing photographs.
All of this thinking is further discussed in today's issue of NewsWeek, in an article titled The New Wisdom of the Web by Steven Levy and Brad Stone. They use the examples of Flickr and MySpace to illustrate how current innovators are "making hay out of the Internet's ability to empower citizens and enrich those who help with the empowerment."
Levy and Stone list a number of characteristics of what they identify in their article as the "Living Web", including a couple that particularly resonate with me:
The smartest guy in the room is everybody - this is the thing I've often referred to as the "power of the collective", or as others refer to the idea of "harnessing collective intelligence" - ref. Wikipedia as a key example.
It's not an audience, it's a community" - the whole idea of moving from regarding the web as a place to access other people's information (like a TV or newspaper) to where everyone is a content contributor as well as consumer.
If yoou're unfamiliar with the thinking around Web2.0 this article is a good introduction.
