TED Ed - Because You're Worth It .....

TED (http://www.ted.com/) has been around for a while; Ideas Worth Sharing (in 20 minute videos).

This week I wanted to focus on TED Ed (http://ed.ted.com/); Lessons Worth Sharing (in short video clips with extra content).

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/disappearing-frogs-kerry-m-kriger

A lesson is built around a video clip, or animation, with the scaffolding (http://www.edutopia.org/blog/scaffolding-lessons-six-strategies-rebecca-alber) components:

• Let's Begin - the hook to motivate student engagegment.
• Watch - the subject matter in video format.
• Think - up to 15 multiple choice and short answer questions.
• Dig Deeper - resources for discovering more about the topic.
• Discuss - a forum for students to respond to a posted question/comment .
• And Finally - what to do next.

 The site contains around 300 TED Ed Original Lessons - those created by renowned educators or subject experts and the TED Ed team whos mission is to capture and amplify the voice of the worlds greatest teachers.

The really cool bit:

1. You can simply re-use the existing lessons.
2. Each lesson can be customised by you - see the red 'Flip This Lesson' button.
3. You can create your own lessons using Youtube video clips.

The site contains another 40,000 user generated 'Best Flip' lessons that you can search for and many more lessons that you can only access if you know the web address.

TED Ed is therfore both a learning resource bank and a tool for creating new resources!

And there's more....
When logged in, you can share a lesson's web link with your students (an individual or a group) and if they are logged in too, you can keep track of their responses to the lesson questions and discussion topics and provide feedback.
NB: Students under 13 are not allowed to create an account (due to US legislation). They can still use the lessons but as an anonymous user their answers won't be tracked.

The observant amongst you will have realised that TED Ed is a perfect companion for anyone wanting to try out Flipped Teaching where classroom-based teaching time and traditional "homework" time are reversed (flipped). You provide lesson recources to be reviewed outside of class, which in turn gives you more time in class to focus on higher-order learning skills.

Create an account and give it a go.
See the FAQ for further information - http://support.ed.ted.com/
Enjoy the weekend .....

TGIF

PS One part of the FAQ might be worth keeping in mind as you create your own lessons:

What are the criteria for Best Flips?

• To be selected as a Best Flip and featured on TED-Ed's lesson list, your lesson should start with a great video that people can learn from. Generally speaking, the video you select should be under 10 minutes, however there are a few exceptions. The videos can be serious (as in something from the History Channel's YouTube or National Geographic's YouTube).  They can also be silly (like a cat video uploaded by an individual). Videos should never include content that's inappropriate for a typical high school classroom.
• Lessons that are nominated as Best Flips should have a creative introduction written in the Let's Begin section that alludes to the objectives that are learned in the lesson. The best introductions are a couple sentences long and serve to intrigue or hook the learner into watching the video and completing the lesson. 
• A Best Flip should contextualize the video using the Let's Begin, Think, Dig Deeper, and Discussion modules. A lesson does not necessarily need to include all of these sections to be selected as a Best Flip, but it should use several of them to present engaging material.
• The Think section is pretty straightforward -- multiple choice questions should gauge understanding using information gained directly from the video (include the time code that points to the video hint), and open answer questions should challenge a learner to think critically about the lesson. As a general rule, for a 5 minute video, Best Flips should contain 5 multiple choice questions and 3 open answer questions, though this is only a loose guideline.
• The Dig Deeper section should be robust and challenging. This is not simply a place to spoon feed resources to the learner. It is a place to provide avenues for the learner to explore further. You can share links to other videos, links to magazine articles, links to blogs or op-eds. You can also further explain difficult topics here. The point of the dig deeper is to help the learner understand as much as possible about the topic at hand. Generally speaking, five resources for a five minute video seems to be a good start. This is where the learner has the potential to spend most of his or her time.
• Lastly, the Discussion section should provide a prompt that encourages meaningful, healthy debate and/or conversation. The questions often skew a little more personal. They may solicit opinions, but they are rarely looking for a single fact. For example, it's better to say, "What do you think is..." rather than, "According to the video, what is..." Hopefully, this measures an entirely new kind of understanding. Learners will share original abstract thoughts and challenge each other to think more interestingly about the lesson.

Embedding Youtube Video in PowerPoint 2010

As resources become much more media rich, learners (and teachers) need to know how to find or create audio and video clips and then use them in their teaching/assessment materials.

This post describes how to embed a Youtube video into PowerPoint 2010 and what to do when that doesn't work!

In PowerPoint 2007 the only video you could easily add to your presentation was one that you had on your computer as a video file. Techie types were able to create and edit a Shockwave Object to embed a Youtube video (see later for details).

Firstly, find a Youtube video that you want to embed in your presentation.

Underneath the video, click on Share and then on Embed.

Make sure that the Use old embed code box is ticked and then copy the code and paste it into the PowerPoint dialogue box (see below for how to open the dialogue box).

PowerPoint 2010 added an option to use 'Video from website' (click on Insert and then under Media click on Video then on 'from website').

A dialogue box opens ready for you to paste in the Youtube embed code. However, the embed code from Youtube DOESN'T WORK (at the time of posting) but there is a fix.


The embed code looks like this:

In the PowerPoint dialogue box, edit your embed code as shown below:

value="// should be edited to value=http://
src="// should be edited to src=http://
version=3&amp should be edited to version=2&amp (this appears twice)

Click on the Insert button and a black box appears on your PPT slide.
Right click on the Movie box and select Preview. The movie start image and controls should appear ready to play.


If you prefer, you can watch Ron Bosch's movie of embedding a video and fixing the code problem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V0gm98Xj4g

or embedded in Blogger (this does work OK :-)

PowerPoint 2007
A friend gave me the following PowerPoint that contains a slide with a Shockwave object that you can copy into your PPT 2007 presentation and then edit for your chosen Youtube clip. The instructions are on the slide also.

Download and save a copy of the PPT file from Google Drive:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4qrMq-w6bVwN0JkRmFkWXFvWDA/edit?usp=sharing

Have fun with these over the weekend ....

TGIF

Learning In Digital Wales 3

This is the third post in a series looking at the National developments in Wales to promote the use of digital technologies and resources for learners aged 3 to 19.

1. Task & Finish Group Review
   http://the-friday-feature.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/find-it-make-it-use-it-share-it.html
2. Ministerial Response
   http://the-friday-feature.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/learning-in-digital-wales.html

Lots of work in the background by government officials, interest groups, practitioner panels etc led to an invitation to tender for developing an 'All Wales Learning Platform' affectionately titled Hwb.

The contract was awarded in September to Learning Possibilities
(see their News Item: https://learningpossibilities.lpplus.net/Pages/News.aspx)

A series of meetings with key stakeholders are scheduled during the next few months to outline details of the proposed platform.

The National Digital Collection of teaching and learning resources will be accessed via the Hwb. The development of a system for unique learner IDs has been mentioned and this would provide a huge step forward in learner transition and progression.

An iTunes U channel will also be created to showcase the best courses available in Wales.

The National Digital Learning Council for Wales will oversee the direction and development of these initiatives plus other longer term plans. The council met yesterday for the first time and members include:

• Dr Tom Crick (Senior Lecturer in Computer Science, Cardiff Metropolitan University and Computing at School),
• Janet Hayward (Headteacher Cadoxton Primary School, Vale of Glamorgan),
• Sue Burnett (University of Glamorgan, RCT),
• Maldwyn Pryse (Estyn),
• Geraint James (ADEW ICT, Director of Education, Conwy),
• Simon Pridham (Headteacher Casllwchwr Primary School, Swansea),
• Hannah Mathias (St David’s College, Cardiff),
• Peter Sishton (eSkills UK) and
• Chris Britten (Headteacher Ashgrove Special School, Vale of Glamorgan).

Professional experts and "associate members" (ie students) will also be involved from time to time. I'll post in a month or so with details of the team of 'Digital Leaders' who will work directly with schools and teachers.

Things seem to be moving quickly and so they need to if The Minister is to have a Hwb to unveil in December. I have seen the 12th December mentioned as a possible date.

I'm not given to superstition but 12/12/12 seems to have a rather eerie feel about it.
At least that gives us 9 days before the end of the 'Fourth Mayan World Age' on 21st December when cataclysmic* events have been predicted.

I guess another interpretation could be that the cataclysmic* event is happening 9 days early in Wales - hold on to your hats - only time will tell.

TGIF (only 11 more to go - possibly !-)

*note - some writers see the translation from the Mayan not as cataclysmic but as transformative (hope on the horizon?).

Startpages Revisited - 2012

A few years ago I tried out a number of Startpages and Netvibes fitted with what I wanted to have easily at my fingertips.
Things change so I've revisited what is available to see if there is a better solution.

To save you scrolling to the bottom, my findings are in the next paragraph.
If you are new to the idea of Startpages, come back to the findings after reading the rest of the post.

Findings 2012
There doesn't seem to have been a huge increase in the number of Startpage sites over the last few years.
Netvibes still rides tall although Google have announced that iGoogle will be 'retired' on 1 Nov 2013 because they feel there is less of a need for Startpages now that web and mobile apps have put personalized, real-time information at people's fingertips (iGoogle diehards can use Apps in their Chrome browser however).

Startpage Further Details
A Startpage is a place where you can gather together all the web based sites and tools that you use regularly. Although browser bookmarks can do a similar job there are functions offered by Startpages that make them a better 'one stop shop'. Startpages offer a type of 'virtual desktop'. They have also been called Aggregators (although these are often more focused on News Aggregation), Personal Portals (often more concerned with promoting yourself to the wider world) or Dashboards (usually more to do with visual display of data).

A review in 2007 by James Mowery covered the most popular 14 sites:
(http://mashable.com/2007/06/29/personalized-homepages/)

• Netvibes - the one to beat - customisation is a major strength.
• Pageflakes - the main competitor.
• iGoogle - not as polished as the others although gadgets are being given a big push.
• MyYahoo - playing catch-up.
• yourminis* - very cool virtual desktop type but flash based.
• WebWag - clean interface but lacking customisation.
• Schmedley - has potential but some quirks and bugs.
• Eskobo - very fast but few features.
• Windows Live - not as good as its main competitors (Google, Yahoo).
• Favoor - disappointing - bugs.
• Gritwire - more of an RSS reader.
• Inbox - an extremely simplified iGoogle.
• Protopage - virtual desktop - good but yourminis is much better.
• It'sAStart - not a serious competitor yet.

A comparison of the major functional features you would expect from a Startpage is shown below:

A comparison site (http://www.siterapture.com/categorymain.asp?CategoryID=17) provides further information about Startpages and the following rankings (date unknown):

"Ultimately, there’s no “best” Startpage. Netvibes and Pageflakes are not short on content, and offer amazing customization. iGoogle and My Yahoo are great options if you already use those services. Schmedley and yourminis* approach the market uniquely, and some people swear by them."

In the last couple of years some new sites have emerged but with a brief look they don't seem to be breaking new ground.

• http://yourport.com/ (donations appreciated)
  http://maketecheasier.com/yourport-a-friendly-and-feature-rich-startpage-website/2011/04/02
• http://flavors.me/ ($20 pa for full features)
  http://lifehacker.com/5478632/flavorsme-is-a-simple-and-elegant-personal-portal
• http://www.prioritize.biz/
• http://www.blinkdash.com/
• http://www.tizit.com/
• webwag.com, nowsy.com

The nice people at Google think that Startpages have had their day and will be 'retiring' iGoogle (shades of Blade Runner in this terminology!) towards the end of 2013. I agree that Apps running on smartphones and pads make it really easy to get to the same sort of information, links, subscriptions etc as my Startpage. However, I spend a lot of my working day on a PC and having a PC based Startpage still makes my life easier. The Google people must think so too otherwise why would they provide Apps for the Chrome Browser (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/home)?

*Note - Startpages that have bitten the dust:

• yourminis
• schmedley?
• Eskobo
• Goowy
• Live (my.live.com)
• Pageflakes
• Zoozio

**Note - If you have scrolled to the bottom of the page to see the conclusion / recommendations - you missed it - it's at the top of the page (wakey, wakey).

I've closed my Startpage, turned off my smartphone and pad - time for a break.....

TGIF

Who Do They Think They Are?

The one constant thread running through my work over the last 10 years is 'at your service'!
Because a large part of my job involves the education and training of academic staff (mostly technology but I sneak in pedagogy where I can), a lot of my time is spent supporting and troubleshooting as and when required. Other aspects of my work get squeezed somewhat by this; I get to mostly do the urgent and not the important.

One aspect that I don't give enough time to is reading around and finding people who I think it important (or enjoyable) to revisit regularly. Earlier this week I came across a brilliant article by someone that I already had on my 'People' list - I just haven't re-visited for months!

I thought I would share the list as it is now.
There is not a conscious selection process going on with this list, I just liked what they were saying.
Please do post a comment and let me know who you follow.

John Seely Brown - http://www.johnseelybrown.com/

Part scientist, part artist and part strategist, JSB's views are unique and distinguished by a broad view of the human contexts in which technologies operate and a healthy skepticism about whether or not change always represents genuine progress.

Stephen Downes - http://www.downes.ca/

Stephen Downes works for the National Research Council of Canada where he has served as a Senior Researcher, based in Moncton, New Brunswick, since 2001. Affiliated with the Learning and Collaborative Technologies Group, Institute for Information Technology, Downes specializes in the fields of online learning, new media, pedagogy and philosophy.

Jane Hart - http://c4lpt.co.uk/

Jane Hart is an independent consultant, speaker and writer. She is an internationally known specialist in the use of social media for learning and working.

Stephen Heppell - http://www.heppell.net/

...sometimes people need a short "who is he?" for bid documents, flyers, etc. or some media quotes for conference intros. I struggle with this kind of thing, to be honest, but here's my version - feel free to chop it about any which way you like: Professor Stephen Heppell ......

Will Richardson - http://weblogg-ed.com

This site is dedicated to discussions and reflections on the use of Weblogs, wikis, RSS, audiocasts and other Read/Write Web related technologies in the K-12 realm, technologies that are transforming classrooms around the world.

Ken Robinson - http://sirkenrobinson.com

Sir Ken Robinson, PhD is an internationally recognized leader in the development of education, creativity and innovation.

George Siemens - http://www.elearnspace.org/

George Siemens, Founder and President of Complexive Systems Inc., a research lab assisting organizations to develop integrated learning structures for global strategy execution.

Joyce Seitzinger - http://www.cats-pyjamas.net

My name is Joyce Seitzinger. I’m an education technologist working in higher education, passionate about improving learning experiences through emerging technologies and innovative teaching strategies. My special interests are digital curation, learning design and networked learning.

Martin Weller - http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/

I'm a Professor of Educational Technology at the Open University in the UK. I'm into exploring the impact of new technologies for learners and academics. Recently this has coalesced under the broad, inadequate heading of 'digital scholarship.

NB: The sites above are just one point of access for each person. Mostly, there are other sites, user names etc where they display their work. The text below the image comes from the person's 'about' page.

TGIF

Gaia: Stereoscopic 3D for Education

Gaia Technologies (http://www.gaia-tech.com) was  formed in 1992 has become one of the leading providers of ICT solutions to UK schools. From their headquarters in Bangor North Wales, and with operational bases in Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and London, they currently look after a large number of education customers.

Over the last three years or so the Gaia 3D Team (http://www.gaia3d.co.uk) have been developing an affordable stereoscopic 3D projection system together with a bank of curriculum focused learning resources. Using a 3D-ready projector, 3D glasses and the Viewer software, virtual 3D objects can be projected and manipulated with an impressive sense of proximity in the foreground and depth in the background. Using the viewer software, the presenter (teacher or learner) can rotate or slide an object and zoom in/out. Extra controls (setup by the developers for each object) provide further functionality such as show/hide labels, make areas transparent, animate, assemble etc.

In the software version to be released in the next few months, users will be able to customise objects for their own use by editing the labels and information panels, adding PowerPoint Files and web links and embedding external videos and images into the object's control panel. Assets can also be added to the content library directly from sites such as Google Warehouse by downloading the Collada Zip format. DIY resources can also be incorporated from many 3D authoring packages by exporting as a .ive object.

The learning content also includes a number of 'immersive 3D environments' where the user can explore an area and gather information about that time and place (eg World War 1 Trenches, London Plague, ancient Rome, Giza etc).

The team are constantly creating more objects and environments and developing the pedagogic content by working closely with teachers around the UK. Existing objects are also being improved as teachers see further opportunities from having used the resources in class.

At present, the resources are focused on the secondary school curriculum but as more FE colleges take up licences and work with the development team a wider range of curriculum topics will be available. The Gaia team are also working on new functionality and interactivity options so what you can do with the content will also develop with time.

Personal experience shows that short bursts of 3D presentation integrated with classroom activity provides the most effective mix of engagement and further study. My college has opted to trial a PC classroom based system that doesn't have the full wow factor of a large screen viewing room but does have easy transition from presentation to study I guess the ideal would be to have a room large enough to have a viewing area at one end and a set of PCs at the other - I can dream!).

Case Studies & a White Paper can be seen at http://www.gaia3d.co.uk/category/case-studies

The Gaia system is based on the 'active shutter' approach where left and right images are flashed on screen at 120Hz and the glasses have lenses that are alternately clear then black at the same flicker rate and are synchronised to the projected image. The brain is then fooled into seeing a solid object that protrudes out of or sinks in to the screen. It is only the PC connected to the projector, usually the staff machine, that needs a Gaia 3D licence. Student machines use similar software with the same functionality but the object is not seen stereoscopically (ie it is in 2D).

You can download a viewer and sample content from http://www.gaia3d.co.uk/downloads


There are many factors to consider when making judgements about whether this is the 'next big thing' in teaching and learning. Many staff who have seen demonstrations and played with the software are highly impressed by the experience and see great potential. The whole notion of '3D Learning' could make teachers re-evaluate their materials and methods, always a good thing, and could lead to new approaches.

It is possible that 3D might become the 'stereoscopic elephant in the room' but it is the development of resources, teaching experiences and learner feedback that will ultimately decide.

I'm sure there will be many more posts on this topic in the months to come - stay tuned.


 However, I'm flickering off now because TGIF.

Find it, make it, use it, share it

Find it, make it, use it, share it: learning in digital Wales - A report from the Digital Classroom Teaching Task and Finish Group.

The Welsh Assembly Minister for Education and Skills, Leighton Andrews, commissioned a review of digital classroom teaching in September 2011. A 'Digital Classroom Teaching Task and Finish' group was set up consisting of two Primary and one secondary school head teacher, an ILT Manager from an FE college, six members of community and commercial organisations and two LEA advisers.

The group consulted widely from November 2011 until February 2012 to answer the question posed by the minister;

‘Which digital classroom delivery aspects should be adopted to transform learning and teaching for those aged 3-19'?

In particular, the group was asked to consider:

• how high-quality, accessible digital classroom content could be developed;
• how National Grid for Learning (NGfL) Cymru was used, and whether there was a more effective way to deliver its aims;
• whether and how a cloud-based content delivery system (e.g. the 'iTunes University' model); would work alongside a virtual learning environment (VLE) for Wales; 
• how high-quality English and Welsh language content could be generated;
• how to develop Welsh intellectual property which can be used to deliver digital teaching content;
• and how teachers might get the digital teaching skills to use ICT to transform schools.

The group published their report in March 2012 (http://wales.gov.uk/docs/dcells/publications/120328digitalen.pdf) and video case studies were commissioned by the group (http://www.learningobservatory.com/digital-classroom-teaching/).

The report's vision is encapsulated by John Putt, the Headteacher of Holywell High School;

"Learning throughout the world is standing at a very interesting crossroads and this is in the main to do with the ubiquity of access to information anywhere in the globe. The information accessible to educators and learners is vast and the potential to collaborate, co-construct and learn with others has never been so great. As a nation Wales must harness this vast open learning potential and put in place some of the necessary principles, frameworks and processes to tap into this in order to ensure a place at the ‘top’ table of learning futures but more importantly to equip its educators and young people for the exciting and creative challenges that lie ahead. In such a world learning will be more dynamic and we need to switch our learners and ourselves on to this by understanding that the ability to learn and use new skills and technologies in a collaborative way will be key to the future."


The group feel that a National Body in Wales, the name 'Hwb' has been suggested, is needed to oversee the transformation process with a team of local officers working with regional collaborative networks of school based e-Coordinators and FE college ILT Managers supporting the work of classroom teachers. A National digital repository will be created containing resources created or commissioned by the Welsh Government and its agencies, trusted sources and resources created by teachers and learners themselves. The resources and the networks of people will be accessed through a 'Hwb Portal', envisioned as a 'dynamic dashboard customised to the learner'.

Recommendations are made covering 'Supporting Teachers', 'Sharing skills and resources', 'A national Digital collection', 'External conditions for success' and 'Hwb'.

The headline recommendations are:

1. Establish a powerful organisation (working title ‘Hwb’) to manage, oversee and develop these recommendations. Its remit will be to lead, promote and support the use of digital resources and technologies by learners and teachers, and create and develop a national digital collection for learning and teaching in English and Welsh.
2. Establish a group, including representations from existing practitioners, as well as other bodies both public and private, to govern the implementation of these recommendations.
3. Ensure that a substantial difference is made to educators’ digital competencies and skills, and how they apply them to learning and teaching, by prioritising training and sharing good practice.
4. A national digital collection should be created by acquiring English- and Welsh-language resources through commissioning, purchasing, obtaining licenses, and also through actively encouraging contributions from learners and teachers.
5. Give all users their own individual logon ID, potentially for a lifetime of learning. This will take them into their personalised user experience and will be accessed from anywhere.
6. Ensure that learners and teachers have the freedom to access rich learning and teaching resources from anywhere, at any time and from any device.
7. Manage intellectual property rights in learning and teaching resources to ensure maximum access by learners and teachers and create income from external licensing.
8. Commission new resources in English and Welsh and procure national licences for existing materials and tools, to ensure economies of scale when building the national digital collection.
9. Use existing tried and tested web-based products and services to disseminate existing and new content.
10. Ensure that a culture of digital citizenship is encouraged and developed by learners and teachers. In addition to key digital skills, this will help learners develop the competencies and values to use digital technologies responsibly, ethically and safely, with an understanding of the security and legal issues surrounding the ‘digital space’.

My Initial Response
The report is well written with a very clear presentation of the vision, the resulting key ideas and the reasoning involved. I like the notion of the Hwb and agree with most of what is said. The report forms
an excellent summary of the main issues talked about for many years by the Learning Technology community.

A major reservation however is the balance between ‘teacher education/training’ and ‘Content collection’. My feeling is that the patchy uptake and use of digital materials and methods is not due to the lack of resources but due more to the lack of teacher skills and positive attitudes. The greater emphasis for me should be on teachers not resources.

I understand that the report has to be visionary/aspirational but there are many statements that are rather simplistic and some acknowledgement of the reality of teacher behaviour, conflicting classroom and
institutional imperatives, funding and scheduling would have helped to alert a ‘lay reader’ of the enormity of the component tasks. There is a clear feel that the group has obvious practical experience but in the absence of some level of realism, the report might as well have started ‘Dear Santa’ (or at least ‘pay for it’ added to the title).

For instance on p4, many in the Learning Technology world would agree wholeheartedly with:

“the belief that teachers and learners now live in a world where communication and knowledge are routinely digital, ubiquitous and highly interactive, and that the processes of learning and teaching can, and must, take advantage of what digital technologies offer.”

I’m sure a sizable proportion of classroom teachers would have reservations about this, especially when thinking of Monday morning, Lesson 1.

When talking about supporting teachers on p9 one recommendation is to:

“Define a set of standard digital competencies needed by teachers ...”

JISC have spent millions of pounds over many years investigating such competency frameworks with little consensus (likewise the X4L projects that focused on learning object, digital repositories and resource metadata come to mind when reading p20-22).

One could argue that I’m picking on specific details here but the devil IS in the detail.

The biggest detail of course is funding. The DCELLS eLearning strategy document from 2003/4 showed what happens to vision when funding is not addressed. I would love somebody to say that adequate funding has been earmarked over the next 5 years to make these recommendations a reality. Somehow I doubt that anybody, not even the Minister, would be able to make that promise.

One ray of hope however surrounds the ‘dashboard’. This is a great idea and probably the best place to start the transformation. The description sounds like a customised Netvibes for Welsh Education
(www.netvibes.com). Some of the aggregator, communication and self management functionality will be quick and relatively cheap to setup which will allow the more enthusiastic teachers and learners to form
pioneer communities and networks to begin sharing opinions, resources, tools and methods. If WAG were to fund a Hwb team that could deliver phase 1 of the dashboard across Wales in a timely manner, the rest of
the reports visionary recommendations might then look more realistic and achievable.

Time will tell if a sustainable funding 'map' is created but for now - TGIF.

TeachMeet – Show and Tell for Teachers

I heard of TeachMeets about 5 years ago and attended one a year later. I went to another a few days ago. My experience at each has been very different and while I think any event where teachers share what interests them is good news, I have some reservations. I’ll come back to that later.

TeachMeets started in Scotland in 2005 when Ewan McIntosh, David Noble and John Johnston, who knew each other on-line, met in-person for the first time to share how they had been using new technologies in education. The informal TeachMeets started with a dozen or so people in the Jolly Judge pub in Edinburgh (the Scots have a style I can relate to).
See: TeachMeet – The Story so far…. by Iain Hallahan (http://h-blog.me.uk/?p=161)

The idea caught on and events are now organised across the country by a wide variety of people and organizations with a wide variety of foci. Many events are promoted through an open pbworks site.
See: http://teachmeet.pbworks.com/w/page/19975349/FrontPage (the Navigator Panel to the right of the page gives links to details for each event).

The mid-week event was hosted by an Llandrillo FE College and was well attended by college staff, nearby secondary school teachers and some Local Authority IT staff. The organisers, NGfL Cymru and RSC Wales provided a live webcast for those who preferred the comfort of their own laptop (and recorded clips of each presentation). There were 15 micro presentations (7 mins each) and 3 nano presentations (2 mins each) and a rather nice buffet half way through (see here for details). All presenters spoke with knowledge and enthusiasm for their topic. I learnt something from almost every presentation and I will highlight those bits over the next few months. Today though, I will mention 3 topics that seemed to connect with me more than the others:

• Questioning (David Morris) – Most teachers are aware of closed and open type questions but the message here was to get students to ask the questions rather than the teachers as a way to encourage curiosity.
• Wordwall (Josh Smith) – I’ve investigated a number of voting systems over the years and most are variations on a basic theme. The handsets shown and the presentation software represent a completely new approach to collecting feedback. Shows huge potential!
• Digital Leaders (Allan Heard) – It’s really interesting to see how pupils will respond when you give them some status and a purpose.

The whole evening was extremely well planned and executed although I would have welcomed some more time for questions and networking, a very professional event.

And there lies my reservation; professional.

The first TeachMeet I attended was very informal, more like the original format but it turned out rather chaotic because there were too many people. Reading

TGIFIain Hallahan’s blog further (http://h-blog.me.uk/?p=225) there are fundamentalist stirrings at the moment that explain my reluctance to endorse the approach whole heartedly.  There seems to be a desire to get back to more informal smaller gatherings that mix the social and the professional in more equal balance. I look forward to future TeachMeets that are more ‘a chat with friends’ than a ‘professional conference’.

JORUM - Learning To Share

When very young, children are essentially egocentric and selfish.
Children want to keep ALL their sweets and won't easily give up the best toys to others.

As we get older we are taught to take our turn and share the goodies that we have. There are tantrums along the way of course but mostly we give and take with good grace. Then, at some point puberty (and/or teacher training) comes along and somehow we find ways/excuses to avoid sharing. Teachers in my college usually come up with one or more of the following reasons why they are unwilling to share their teaching resources:

1. I don't have time to assemble and disseminate the resources
2. It isn't new
3. It isn't good enough
4. Others wouldn't understand how to use the resources
5. It might actually be copyright somebody else
6. Why should I help out the lazy people
7. They wouldn't share with me
8. etc

Sharing good practice has been a mantra in education for many years as one of the main ways to improve teaching and learning. Disseminate the best/good/effective so that others can benefit and learn.
While there are teachers who are willing to share their work, it remains a problem (real or imagined) for many.

Another post will look in more detail at teacher these perceptions. The rest of this post describes one solution to how resources can be stored, discovered and shared:

The JORUM Repository (http://www.jorum.ac.uk)

Jorum is a JISC-funded Service in Development in UK Further and Higher Education, to collect and share learning and teaching materials, allowing their reuse and repurposing. This free online repository service forms a key part of the JISC Information Environment, and is intended to become part of the wider landscape of repositories being developed institutionally, locally, regionally or across subject areas. Jorum is run by Mimas, based at the University of Manchester. The word ‘Jorum’ is of Biblical origin and means a collecting (or drinking) bowl.


Anyone can search the repository and view the free learning and teaching resources but only staff in UK Further and Higher Educational institutions can login to download (or upload) materials. Primary and Secondary school teachers can view the resources which might act as a source of inspiration (although there are regional login services and trusted uploader status available for schools).



The advanced search allows filtering by Subject, Date, Author, Title and Keyword searching the Full Text or resource description. You can also browse the same fields by using the 'Find' link. resources use the Creative Commons 2.0 licences covering:

• Attribution  
• Attribution-Share Alike   
• Attribution-No Derivative Works   
• Attribution-Noncommercial   
• Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike    
• Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works

The search results show clearly which resources are available with links to further information, view and download options. Resources are downloaded (exported) as zip files from the site using a weblink eMailed to you. You should already have created a login account using that eMail address.






I first came across JORUM in 2003 as a 'repository in development' to store Learning Objects being created by the JISC Exchange for Learning (X4L) projects that I was working on. Around 2007 JORUM changed status from being a JISC project to become a JISC Service. In 2011 changes to the hosting of the site and the copyright details of the resources took place presenting the site as we have it today.




Information on all aspects of using JORUM can be found at http://www.jorum.ac.uk/Support and an A5 double sided leaflet giving a brief overview is at http://www.jorum.ac.uk/squeezy/cms/media/2jr2n9445twk.pdf

Effective sharing of resources is one of the Holy Grails in education and the number of resources packages held by JORUM (FE=845 & HE=11662) shows that there is still some way to go.

JORUM, other repositories and OER sites provide us with a place to play nicely.
We just have to convince our colleagues to also put their toys into the pot.

TGIF