OPLS blog

As this is my last post before I leave the IB, I thought I would sign off by sharing with you some correspondence I have had with a person who has both inspired and encouraged me over the 7 years I have been with the organisation.

Barbara Stefanics has been a faculty member for the IB’s online curriculum centre since its inception way back in 1999 and has helped develop a community of learners in ITGS that is both self-sustaining and serves as a model for other curriculum areas within the programmes.  She retired from that role last year in order to become the chief examiner for ITGS.

Over the years, we have exchanged ideas, experiences and stories related to technology in education and how it can transform the design of teaching and learning.  Recently she shared the following with me.  I have copied it verbatim because, to be honest, she tells it better than I do.  It’s a great example of why we fight.

Dear Lee,

The Horizon Project which was amongst one of the first Flatclassroom Projects 2006-07.
http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com
My first collaborative global project with my ITGS class and David B was a member of this class.

David B had diagnosed health problems that hindered both oral and written communication. He would stutter terribly - often struggling for minutes before he could say the one sentence that he needed to say. We all waited because we knew that that one sentence would have real value and substance. On any written work or test, additional time would make no difference. The longest response he could manage would be only a few words, up to a sentence.

One day in the staffroom (thank goodness for staffrooms), I bumped in to David B’s English teacher. We shared a common problem, and she gave me the first clue that there was a chance for communication. She told me that strangely, David B’s stuttering did not occur when he was involved in drama. That was quite a surprise.

As part of the horizon project there were two breakthroughs that gave me a hint of how to actually get a more reliable assessment for David B and by-pass the communication blocks. Both used technology.

1. All of the students in the horizon project were required to produce a video. David B produced this video at home on his own in his room. It was the evidence that I needed to show that David B could communicate just like any other student if he could use video or similar technology tools. Please go to
http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/MMEG+Impact+on+Science+and+Enviroment+and+Health
to see the video … you have to scroll down until you see “Overview of MMEG’s Impact on Health” and David B’s picture on the screen.
2. The second indication I got was in the student meeting on Elluminate with Julie [Lindsay]. All of the students were expected to explain their outcomes of their research and the Horizon Project. I simply could not believe it! Right before my very eyes, David was completely articulate. Unfortunately, it was such a surprise that I did not record it in Elluminate.

When I was in Cardiff at Grade Award 2007, I asked the subject area manager who I could speak to about this and he arranged for someone from the Special Ed’s office to meet with me. I showed her the video (1 above) and this actually started the process going that David B got the opportunity to record his IB examinations in ITGS and English with a microphone.

The result was that instead of a grade 0-1 for ITGS, he got a 5. He also passed his IB! It is truly the most amazing success story of my entire teaching career and all due to the support from IBCA for such a special case.

I thought you would enjoy this and the proof that technology opens doors for special students.

If you have similar stories to tell, please share them. It matters.

Thanks for listening and, as an old mucker of mine used to say, “Have fun!”

Lee

CASPAR, or Computer Assisted Self and Peer Ratings, is a project we have been watching for some time now out of the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice (CEMP), Bournemouth University, UK.

It’s a tool for evaluating both the process and outcomes of group work in media projects and has a particular focus on assessing individual performance within the group.  Understanding what contribution an individual has made within a collaborative piece of work is a major challenge for both teachers and assessment bodies, so this is one approach worth investigating further.  Watch the video for more info.

When following the link to CEMP, check out their other projects too.  There’s some interesting work that focuses on the application of new technologies, whilst at the same time demonstrating pedagogical principles in action.

Apologies for the rather UK-centric nature of this post and the fact that I’ve ripped it from TechCrunch, but it appears the British government is proposing that Twitter be taught in primary schools as part of a wider push to make online communication and social media a permanent part of the UK’s education system. It is to include blogging, podcasting and how to use Wikipedia as well, alongside the traditional Maths, English and Science curricula.

The draft plans were due to be published next month, but have been leaked to The Guardian. It’s worth a read as it hints at a much more comprehensive overhaul of the primary curriculum than just getting kids to tweet.  I look forward to the official report.

I’d like to give a little publicity to some great work being done by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis over on Ning.  For several years now they have been designing some class and project work around the Horizon Reports which come out every year from Educause and the New Media Consortium.

I’ll leave you to check out the links for yourselves, but I just wanted to mention an announcement they’ve made regarding the project for 2009. It’s copied below for convenience:

“Dear Flat Classroom Project Ning members

A message for all teachers

For 2009 we will be running a new project in place of the Horizon Project. It will be called Net Generation Education, and all details can be found on the wiki at http://netgened.wikispaces.com/ and the Ning at http://netgened.grownupdigital.com/

The NetGenEd project will continue to use the latest Horizon Report as stimulus for research and discussion. It is also being run in collaboration with Don Tapscott, author of Grown Up Digital, a new book released in November 2008 that features the 2008 Horizon Project.

So, we invite you to consider joining us for this exciting new project!  We are starting this about NOW, a little earlier than last year….so check your calendars and then fill n the application form hyperlinked from http://netgened.wikispaces.com/

Send all questions to Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay at flatclassroomproject@gmail.com

We are especially looking for MORE non-USA schools. Come and join us! [Emphasis added]

Visit Flat Classroom Project at: http://flatclassroomproject.ning.com“

I encourage you all to investigate further and consider if this is something in which you might want to participate with your students later this year.

There is much speculation in the blogosphere that Amazon are just about to launch a second version of their e-book reader, Kindle (something we blogged about just over a year ago).

The guys over at The Boy Genius Report claim to have the first pictures, although they do look a little prototype-ish.

It’s a welcome announcement. Not least because these things need to get a lot better before they become more popular with the wider public. The wireless connectivity is a major advantage over its rival, the Sony Reader, but, as with the Sony, the current Kindle needs to meet the more social aspects of book reading, such as note/annotation sharing and clippings features.  Perhaps Kindle 2 will go some way to addressing these needs on Feb 9.

• Ryan Minnick’s journal
• Matt Dermody’s journal

Some extraordinary work has been done recently by Richard Allaway, Jim Williams and Natasha Winnard on a wiki to support the new IB Diploma Geography guide being launched in February next year. Drawing on their considerable experience in the subject, they have put together an outstanding resource structured around the forthcoming syllabus content. Full of web links, textbook references and the application of geographical skills, the wiki is constantly being updated as Richard et al come across new resources on the web.

How does it work? Well, they all have Delicious accounts and as they come across something useful on the web, they simply tag the resource using a previously agreed taxonomy and it automatically displays on the wiki via RSS. Thus a web link for Disparities in Wealth and Development could be tagged with ibgeog2009 and disparities_indicators or disparities_patterns for example.

It demonstrates the enormous power for social constructionism that wikis have and also how communities of practice can take a basic document like a subject guide and add real value to it for themselves and others. I encourage you to take a look when you have time, and if you’re a geography teacher, you can suggest resources or discuss an issue with them too. I’m sure they’d love to hear from you.

Google have recently announced their latest layer on Google Earth.  Under the Gallery option you can now add an Ancient Rome layer which displays more than 6000 buildings from 320 AD.

In collaboration with the Rome Reborn project, based at the University of Virginia, Google have provided some extraordinary detail on buildings such as the Basilica Julia, the Temple of Vesta and, of course, the Colosseum.

See more details and download the whole program here.

To all music teachers and musicians out there. Would you or your students like to be part of the world’s first online orchestra?

YouTube are inviting musicians from around the world to audition for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. “Your video entries will be combined into the first ever collaborative virtual performance, and the world will select the best of you to perform at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in April 2009.”

A fascinating development. If there is a school district or authority out there that is still preventing access to this extraordinary site, send them the link.

I’ve collected books ever since I was 9 years old and love them. We have more than we can accommodate in the house and yet still we keep acquiring more. There’s a copy of Prideaux’s Histories on the shelves, dating back to 1664, as well as, for some strange reason, the UK Board of Education’s syllabus for physical training in schools 1933 (it contains advertisements in the front for Weetabix and Ovaltine, with an explanation for teachers as to why they should recommend them to parents of “listless children” - deserving of a full blog post in its own right one day, I think). An eclectic collection but, as my old gran used to say, it “furnishes the rooms”, and to see them all on display warms the heart.

It was with some hesitation, then, that I recently purchased the new Sony e-book reader, with its promises of portability and signficant storage capacity (160 books on its internal memory - countless more through SD card slots). If I was to give up both the visceral and cerebral appeal of books, what could it give me in return?

I have to say, having access to a library on one device didn’t really appeal. After all, I rarely have more than two books on the go at any one time. I did, though, think it would be useful to have the IB’s document library accompany me on my travels and so I experimented with the Diploma core guides.

They went on easily enough via the software that came with the device, although I did have to rename them for ease of navigation on the Reader’s menu system. They rendered quite small initially (see below) so the increase font size button came in handy. Page turning was slower than I would have liked (I noticed it was much quicker when just reading one of the pre-supplied books), but the table of contents worked well.

Ebook reader and the IB's Learner Profile

Ultimately, though, I was disappointed with its lack of features. I wanted to annotate and comment on content - I couldn’t do this. Nor could I share these notes with others - it doesn’t even have bluetooth connectivity. I was looking for a device that had real application for teaching and learning. Instead, I simply had convenience. Yes, it stores images, but displays them in black and white only, and yes, you can store your music collection on there too. However, to justify its £200 price tag, Sony really needs to give us a little bit more.