TeachMeet - Just Add H2O

On Thursday night, I was planning on attending and presenting at #tmaquarium, an event that an enormous amount of effort went into planning courtesy of just a handful of third year BEd students and a particularly supportive lecturer. Becy Allen (@trainieteacher) and Katie O'Reilly (@kforeilly) were the students most involved, really putting their heart into trying to make this the most exciting TeachMeet ever and it truly showed, so I want to congratulate these guys on a job very well done. Thanks must also go to Pete Yeomans (@ethinking), a lecturer in ICT at the University of Plymouth, who was instrumental in helping organise the venue and secure sponsorship. Unfortunately, Becy could not chair the meeting due to a last minute emergency, so she asked me if I could step in and chair. Now, my confidence may have grown considerably in the past year, but chairing only my second TeachMeet... Oh, who am I kidding? I couldn't say no! 

Again, Twitter was in full effect

This is very much the moment where, though I'm trying to set up various aspects of student support at uni, I mention how incredible the support network already in place at the University is. Alex Gingell (@alexgingell) and Katie O'Reilly (@kforeilly) were instrumental in helping me get some last-minute preparation done and thanks also to Alex Meiklejohn (@ameiklejohn) for helping us get set up and ready. Really goes to show the community feeling that is present in the faculty of education - no matter what year or specialism you are in, there is someone there ready to jump in and help out. One of the aims of the Student Teacher Resource in the future is to try and develop this sense of community amongst the students, but it is only when I needed the help that I realised just how important this aim is.

The venue for the TeachMeet was the National Marine Aquarium's brand new Just Add H2O Learning Zone. When I visited just a few weeks ago with Pete, the building work was still ongoing, but the venue looked fantastic. Arriving on Thursday evening to see the finished article was incredible - the staff at the NMA have done an amazing job, the facilities they have designed look to have amazing potential So again, a massive thank you to everyone there for your support! They have a TV studio with a green screen, breakout spaces and seminar rooms deigned to give children a range of learning experiences within their marine-based curriculum enrichment. The TeachMeet took place at their AquaLab, a stage playing host to crab and starfish filled tanks and strange bubbling tubes of water in front of a space capable of supporting an audience of around 60-70 people seated.

The AquaLab - photo courtesy of Alex Gingell

A few of the comments about the lab

The one thing that struck me about this TeachMeet above all others that I have seen is the number of attendees. We didn't have an exact count, but the 60-70 capacity of the AquaLab was almost full. It was incredible to see such a turnout and a large proportion of the audience were students from the BEd course in Plymouth. I think this goes to show the passion for education that has been developed in the students by the staff at the Uni. As I keep on mentioning, I think that sharing and collaboration is key to Continuing Professional Development (CPD), so it was great to see that not only were a lot of the students being enthusiastic audience members but many of the presenters too! I think that the future of education in the South-West is headed firmly in the right direction if the teachers being produced already have this attitude of supporting each other.

The enthusiastic audience - Photo courtesy of Alex Gingell

Taking the stage was quite a daunting feeling. The lights are shining on you, the audience is watching you. You are front and centre of everybody's attention. I'm not sure how much I enjoyed it at the time, but the adrenaline rush was great. Maybe with some more preparation, I would have been more comfortable in this role, but I guess with experience comes confidence. I am very much someone that learns through evaluation and reflection of my experiences and this, in essence, is one of the driving forces behind my blogging. If there is anything that I have learned  over the past year it is that confidence builds confidence, so I implore any of my readership not to shy away from opportunities -  take them. We teach our children that failure is perfectly acceptable, it's the fact they gave it a go that matters, yet we are hesitant to fail ourselves. But success is a driving force behind anybody's confidence and the feedback I got was fantastic, so thank you for everybody's kind words.

Speaking of confidence, one of the things we included in the TeachMeet was inspired by Dan Roberts (@chickensaltash) who created 'Chicken Nuggets' - a selection on the random generator whereby anyone from the audience that hasn't signed up can take the stage and talk unprepared about anything they'd like. Seeing as though there were no chickens there, and we were in an aquarium, we created the 'Fish Finger' presentation. Again, it goes to show the level of enthusiasm generated in the audience when the fish finger came up and Grant Taylor (@createach) took the stage to present. Very well done, I hope that in the future I can exude such an air of confidence!

One thing that I found particularly interesting about this TeachMeet was the fact it was being streamed and broadcast live for the entire world to see. Thanks to Ed Bolton (@eddbolton) for setting up this fantastic resource. Not only was it broadcast live, but recorded too. As much as I may hate seeing myself on stage, it was really interesting to watch as a spectator. I did want to talk about all the presentations I saw or made, but seeing how long this blog post is already has made me decide to put the stream here and record my thoughts on presentations in separate posts in more detail.

Thanks to Pete Yeomans (@ethinking), Katie O'Reilly (@kforeilly), Alex Meiklejohn (@ameiklejohn), Alex Gingell (@alexgingell), James Edwards (@jimmy_edwards), Gareth Excell (@garethjxl), Chris Taylor (@forestmanct) and Grant Taylor (@createach) for presenting. Everyone had some fantastic ideas to share and judging by the audience's applause and feedback, you all did brilliantly, big well done!

This TeachMeet gave me so much in terms of my professional development. Not only did I have the opportunity to see what all the other teachers brought to the table, but the support and feedback I was given has pushed me even further along the path of my development. Where this path is going, I do not know, but one thing is for sure, I'm very much enjoying the journey. I'll end with two of my favourite tweets from the #tmaquarium hashtag. I look forward to seeing a TeachMeet audience from a stage again!

On Twitter

Thanks to Steve Wheeler for the inspiration behind this blog post

Before the start of the year, I could not understand Twitter. I had never used it, and I never thought I would. Facebook held everything I thought I needed from social networking, surely Twitter is just 'Facebook lite' with it's 140 character limit, no? The perception I held was the perception that the media had presented to me. Celebrities caught up in a storm over a misconstrued tweet. Celebrities stroking their egos by collecting as many followers as possible. Celebrities filling the minds of the masses with useless trivia about their latest pair of designer shoes.

However, with a little encouragement about the benefits from some lecturers and coursemates, I signed up. I followed my friends at first, and people I knew in person. But that's not the point of Twitter. Not for me anymore at least. 

As I started to follow more people that had been suggested to me, I started to see the benefits that I could take from Twitter. Soon enough, I was following links from people high up in the profession. I was seeing these professionals converse about current events. I was seeing hundreds of teachers join in discussions about a particular teaching issue. As I got more involved, I started tweeting more, which gained me more followers, which encouraged me to share more and at that point it dawned on me... In a world of continual funding cuts, the network of educators on Twitter sharing their ideas and opinions grows. It's become my professional network to Facebook's social network.

My preconception of Twitter lead me to think that if I had Facebook then I didn't need Twitter, but as I've progressed through my course, I've come to realise that teachers have two lives. In one life, I am JC,  making the most of my free time, enjoying life to it's fullest and exchanging banter, amusing anecdotes and embarrassing photographs with friends. In my other life, I am Mr. Sheffield, a responsible adult charged with the education of a class of 30 little people, running projects for students and someone that upholds a medium of respect and grace at all times. These two lives are mutually exclusive. As such, one must keep them separate. Facebook has now become my 'Me' network. That is to say, it's my online escape from work, a chance to catch up with friends and have a good old gossip. Twitter is my online place of work almost. A place where I can find out what other teachers have been doing, find new resources, share my own opinions and generally gain some free CPD. I've been a member of Facebook for around 6 years now, and Twitter only 3 months. Twitter has now ousted Facebook in terms of daily usage.

I think that says something awful about my Work-Life Balance right now (the subject of last night's #ukedchat by the way), but to be honest, if I didn't think I was getting anything out of it then I wouldn't be using it. I've had a lot of hand in dates recently, and Twitter has made finding new sources of information and helpful quotes so much faster and easier, more often than not giving more direct and relevant information than trawling through books and journals.

I apologise, @timbuckteeth, for not being able to fit that reply into 140 characters. This reply will have to do I'm afraid...

And blog I did!

Monty Python as an Analogy of the Poor Use of ICT in the Classroom

This blog post may initially seem a little off the wall, but stick with it and it’ll eventually make sense. With the TeachMeet at the National Marine Aquarium next Thursday night, I thought back to PELC11 and the TeachMeet that was held there. While I was thinking about the presentation i gave, I realised that although TeachMeets are ideal places to share and flesh out ideas, they’re still somewhat limited to sharing ideas with the attendees. As you may well know by now, I think sharing and collaboration is one of the most valuable techniques that teachers, especially trainee teachers, have to grab hold of, so why limit my presentation about Monty Python to the attendees of TMPELC11? Here it is, in full textual glory!

Over the course of this year, I’ve had many an ICT lecture from Pete Yeomans (@ethinking). Thankfully, for the purposes of interest and engagement, Pete occasionally breaks his lectures up with a video clip. One of the videos he showed was completely unexpected, however. But then, nobody expects the Spanish inquisition! Pete showed several Monty Python clips to us over the module, managing to somehow relate them to what he was talking about. As a fan of Monty Python myself, I was entertained, but left wondering why one of my favourite scenes wasn’t used, because I thought it was incredibly relevant to ICT.

So I asked Pete, a week or so before TMPELC11, why he’d never used it, explaining why I thought it was an incredible analogy. His words were ‘Present this at the Teach Meet’.  Here I was, my first Teach Meet, following from some great (and very educational) presentations, when my name comes up on the random generator accompanied by the title of my 5 minute slot... ‘Monty Python as an Analogy of the Poor Use of ICT in the Classroom’

Firstly, I’d best include the clip so that you can see what I’m blabbering on about. The scene is taken from the opening of Monty Python’s ‘The Meaning of Life’, entitled ‘Part 1 – Birth’

‘But how on Earth does that link to bad ICT?’ I hear you ask! Well, let me explain.

(0:46) ‘A bit bare in here today isn’t it? ... Get the machine that goes ‘bing!’ – This line, to me, represents one of the common mistakes made by teachers using ICT. It seems like the doctors here are using technology for the sake of using technology. As @ethinking mentioned rather quotably in his first EICT350 lecture this year, ‘ICT is a tool for learning not a ‘silver bullet’ to cure the ills of the education system’. In other words, if you don’t need it, don’t use it!

(1:02) ‘Get the most expensive machine, in case the administrator comes!’ – In a world where you can find almost any application to do any task for next to nothing, this line brings up an interesting issue. This happens all over the world in consumer goods – price relates to quality. In teaching however, I don’t think that this is the case. Sure, with the costlier products comes a wider range of features,  more support, flashier graphics, etc, but more often than not it’s the simpler, cheaper, things that are more effective. It also makes me think about the number of schools that have bought expensive software or hardware as a ‘showing off’ tool. Again, this defies the purpose of buying it. In a world of limited budgets, teachers need to focus on what they really need and use it effectively.

(1:22) ‘Still something missing though... Patient!’ – One of the strongest points that can be taken from the clip. The doctors have brought in so much machinery that they’ve literally lost the patient. I think this is analogous to a teacher trying to bring so much ICT into a lesson that they’ve lost sight of the objective. ICT needs to be implemented in a way that it supports an objective, not hinders it.

(1:38) ‘Mind the machine!’ – Linking nicely back to the last point, the doctors seem more concerned about the machinery than the patient. Pupils should always come before equipment. After all, the equipment is there for the pupils to use!

(2:05) ‘What do I do?’ ‘Nothing, dear! You’re not qualified!' – This one made me chuckle. Who is better qualified to take control of a situation than the person it’s happening to. In other words, who better to steer the direction of the learning than the children themselves? Children should be allowed to explore technology, as Sugata Mitra’s Hole in the Wall project demonstrates effectively.

And finally, (3:50) ‘OK, show’s over!’, is a line right at the end of the clip, before the doctors, staff and random members of the public leave. I can almost imagine a teacher taking the children away from a piece of technology once they’ve ‘taught it’, never to come back. ICT is often used as a ‘wow’ device, as a ‘look at how exciting this is’ trick than a constructive part of a child’s learning.

So there you have it. Share it with every Python fan you know. Monty Python was 30 years ahead of its time. I just hope it’s not too late.

Education in Hungary - March 2010

This may seem like a bit late coming, but seeing as though I've only recently started my blog, I've got a fair bit to catch up on. The University of Plymouth offers students various opportunities to visit other countries to observe teaching abroad in order to gain experience in a wider range of teaching methods. As a maths specialist, I was able to take the opportunity to go to Hungary (way back!) in March 2010 with 10 other students to observe how the Hungarians teach maths in their schools. 

I've travelled to many countries in Europe, but never one that once belonged to the Eastern Bloc, so I didn't really know what to expect. Flying into Budapest early in the morning, however, gave us all a chance to explore the city and get a good feel for the place. Whilst I'd love to blog about everything that happened and everything I saw and did, I'd quite like to keep it more relevant to education. After all, this is much more my professional blog than a personal one. Sufficed to say though, Budapest is a beautiful city, one that is definitely on my list of places to visit again.

Budapest Market - Lovely, but not relevant!

The reason I mention how full of wonder Budapest was is because of the contrast to the outskirts of the city we were based in to observe some teaching. Nyíregyháza is a city about the same size as Exeter, but the area we were in could not have seemed any further away. The city was very flat and filled with high-rise and fairly run down concrete blocks of flats. The surroundings were fantastic however, lakes, a zoo and a particularly large school.

The school that we were visiting was populated by around 1,800 students, which apparently is not uncommon for schools in Hungary. What I found particularly interesting was that the school houses the students from when they arrive in their first year (aged 6) to when they leave in their final year. This was also a 'University school', as in, a lot of the teachers there are still in training to become fully qualified teachers. It is an interesting concept, one that I could understand the reasoning behind, but I don't think would catch on over here (not unless Michael Gove has anything to do with it anyway).

As I saw in Stephen Heppell's PELC11 keynote, the classroom environment is essential to the children's learning. Children must feel comfortable and at ease, as well as find their environment stimulating. In the classrooms we visited however, it felt like we were in the 1950s. Children all had their own individual desk with a draw and all sat in regimented rows, facing the front of the class. This was right from the start of their school life - no 'carpet time', no collaborative workspaces, just individual desks facing the front. As someone that has progressed through my own education with grouped tables and such and now understands why they are effective from a teacher's point of view, this struck me as fairly odd practice. That was, until, I saw the style of teaching.

The teachers in the school we visited had seemingly an unlimited amount of energy. The amount of preparation that had gone into preparing the resources for each session was impressive. Classrooms did not have a laptop connected to an interactive whiteboard, nor even a whiteboard at all. They had the basics - an OHP and a blackboard. Everything was pre-prepared behind pieces of paper stuck to the board with blu-tac, and each section corresponded to a section on a worksheet that each child had. What was most different and, certainly for me, most surprising about the lessons was the ratio of teacher-child speak. I was recently asked what I think the ideal teacher-child talk ratio would be in a multiple choice question for a job interview, and I chose the lowest - 20 : 80 Teacher : Student talk - for the sheer reason that I think children need to discuss ideas and opinions with peers to get a more rounded understanding of the topic. In this case however, the ratio was MUCH higher - I'd estimate to be around 80 : 20 - 90 : 10, with the adult talking almost non-stop for the majority of the lesson and only really prompting answers from the children.

I mentioned the amount of energy the teachers had - this was especially highlighted by the pace of the lesson. In England, the standard format of a lesson is 5-10 minutes of input on one topic, 30-40 mins of activity and then 5-10 minute plenary to round up the lesson. In Hungary, the lessons consisted of many shorter, sharper inputs and activities. The teacher would talk for 2 or 3 minutes, then the children would work on their worksheets for a minute or two. This would happen three or four times before a more creative activity, such as placing a puzzle piece that the children had 'won' on the board before switching to a slightly different topic and repeating the process, which itself would happen about twice during the lesson. This would be akin to teaching measuring lines, perimeters and areas all in one lesson. The overall topic (Shape and Space) would be the same, but the focus would shift throughout the lesson.

I quite enjoyed the fast-paced nature of the lesson, and the multiple short inputs and activities would be something I would like to try at some point. However, I don't know whether the children in England would be able to cope with such a high pace that they aren't used to. Not only that, but I'm not sure how effective a method it would be in terms of allowing the information to sink in and be processed by the children. Judging by the way the teacher was racing around the room, I'm not sure I'd have the energy to keep up with my own lesson either!

What I would have liked to have found out though, is how the teachers assess the children. How do they know what they have learnt and what they haven't learnt? Why is the more regimented system in place instead of a classroom with more freedom? I felt that the contrast was so stark that I couldn't formulate a comparison of the effectiveness the approaches to teaching between our two countries. What I did notice was the behaviour of the children. I don't think that in our two days there that a single child spoke out of place or moved from their seat without being asked to. Whether this was to do with the more regimented style of teaching or the culture and upbringing or even the fast pace of the lesson not allowing children time to think about misbehaving, I do not know.

The trip to Hungary will undoubtedly stay in my thoughts when thinking of new approaches to teaching, for things to do that I haven't done before. It hasn't been until this year though that I have really been able to fully appreciate what I got out of the visit. I got an insight into an entirely alien classroom environment, a vastly different teaching style and an eye opening look at what can still be achieved without the aid of technology in the classroom and whilst I may not be adopting several of the things I saw, I will most definitely use my reflection and evaluation of them to inform my own style of teaching and my own classroom environment.

If anyone gets the chance to see teaching abroad, I suggest you grab it with both hands and take in all that you can.

'Networking' and #ukedchat

Being somewhat of a tech geek, to me 'networking' used to mean fiddling around computers, manually setting  TCP/IP controls so that the cables that I'd spend hours routing around the house would start doing what I wanted them to. Now however, networking has a much more profound professional meaning to me. It has been said that 'It's not what you know, but who you know', and as true as it may seem, it's not until you realise that you know the exact person that can help you solve a particular problem that it clicks.

PELC11 gave me an ideal opportunity to start networking. I've mentioned in my round up of the conference some of the 'education celebrities', pardon the expression, that I met and talked to, but it was the locally-based attendees at the conference that I am most likely to forge productive professional relationships with. James Edwards, for example, who is an ICT and Business Studies teacher at Saltash.net Community School. James showed some much appreciated enthusiasm for our project, and gave us some great ideas and tips. One thing I have come to realise through talking with James is that whilst Primary and Secondary teaching may seem completely different at first glance, the underlying principles are still very much the same. Things that are useful resources for primary teachers can still be useful for secondary and vice-versa.

Another very useful (and again, secondary) contact I made was Dan Kennedy, an ICT teacher at The Grange School in Christchurch. He has created a unit of work based around Kodu, which is some software that I'd like to try using with primary children, and the enthusiasm he has generated with his students sounds incredible. Will definitely look for advice on where to go based on what he found did and did not work.

Whilst I may have made some very useful contacts in the 'real world' as it were, my discovery of Twitter has lead to finding a number of useful contacts that I have never even met before. It seems like an odd concept, how can you judge how useful a contact someone is if you've never met them? How did I even meet them in the first place? Enter #ukedchat.

Every Thursday night, between 8pm and 9pm, my Twitter feed is abuzz with the tweets containing a certain hashtag. #ukedchat has been a staple Thursday night appointment since I stumbled across it a few months ago. It is entirely open, anyone can join in and share their opinion, or just sit back and watch the discussion unfold. Each week, a topic of discussion is decided upon, and from 8pm the conversation starts to flow. Whilst I was unable to attend this weeks discussion (damn you, full-time job!), I was able to attend the session on Thursday 7th April, enticingly (and considering my attendance at PELC11 at the time, relevantly) titled 'What to do with teachers that don't tech'. Whilst the discussion was moving along nicely, I thought it to be a bit one sided. Surely teachers that don't tech won't be on Twitter discussing it? So I decided to play devil's advocate to some extent. I may not have agreed with some of the points I was putting forward, but the extra comments I was getting back proved to be much more useful. I always think that argument generates more interesting discussion that agreement, the back and forth really fleshes out a topic rather than skirting over some of the more contentious issues. Just thought I'd let everyone that may have disagreed with me know that it was my comment you were disagreeing with, not myself!

I have been questioned recently what the point of my blog is. Why post what you think about things? I guess I just want to show other people what opportunities are out there and why they should take them, so I best summarise what I'm trying to encourage people to do with this post.

Firstly, get out there. Meet people. Socialise. The more people you know, the more opportunities you create not just for yourself, but for others you may know too. Someone may come to you with a project that you might not be interested in, but you know someone that would be that would be grateful for the opportunity. Case in point, I wanted an ECS specialist to help out with resources for the site, but I didn't know any. But if I didn't know someone that knew a particularly enthusiastic student that would love to be a part of the team, then I most likely wouldn't have @trainieteacher as my able deputy and in turn, I wouldn't have had some of the amazing opportunities and contacts that she brings to the table.

Secondly, get involved in #ukedchat. Even if you just sit back and watch the discussion unfold, the unpicking of a topic by teachers, education professionals and even students proves to be a very useful Thursday night for your professional development.

TeachMeet - PELC11

"What is a Teach Meet? It is an informal and enjoyable gathering of those curious about using technology for teaching and learning. Anyone can share great ideas they've trialed in their classrooms, ask questions or simply turn up and soak up all the great ideas and enthusiasm.

The main part of TeachMeet is hearing stories about learning, from teachers and other education professionals. This is a chance for education professionals to hear ideas from each other, a chance to hear real narratives of practice that makes a difference. It is about being engaged and inspired by our immediate colleagues and gaining a whole bucket load of networking to boot!" - 

http://teachmeet.pbworks.com

Dan Roberts (@chickensaltash) was kind enough to chair the meet, and he used the list of topics from the sign up wiki in a random generator in order to make it more interesting. Dan was a very entertaining host, and I'd like to thank not only Dan, but Vital and GCSEPod for providing 'refreshments' that definitely helped with the nerves of presenting for the first time!

I'd been interested in going to TeachMeets for a while, but work commitments had made it difficult. However, PELC11 provided me with the opportunity to not only attend, but present too. But what would I present? In actuality, the answer was obvious - I wanted to present the Student Teacher Resource to a wider audience including teachers and professionals from across the country, and get as much feedback as possible in order to take the project forward. However, there was something else that I ended up presenting in addition.

For the past few months, we've had an ICT module with Pete Yeomans (@ethinking). Pete is obviously a fan of Monty Python, as every so often during his lectures, he'll play a clip much like the Spanish inquisition, these clips appear when completely unexpected, but seem (at least in some respects!) to relate to what he was talking about. The scenes ranged from the 'Spanish Inquisition' sketch, to the 'What have the Romans ever done for us?' scene in The Life of Brian, but there was one glaring omission that I had to ask him about. For those that haven't seen the opening sketch from 'The Meaning of Life', go and watch this clip from YouTube. Whilst you're watching, see if you can relate any of the things the surgeons do to how ICT can be (mis)used in the classroom. Anyhow, I talked to Pete about why he'd never shown this clip, and he suggested I present my thoughts on how the scene relates to bad ICT at the Teach Meet. So that's what I did! Simon Finch (@Simfin) took this photo of the slide that I used to talk about why showing an Monty Python clip was remotely relevant, and the feedback I got was great! 

I'd only just got my first TeachMeet presentation done (or in the words of @chickensaltash, lost my TeachMeet... ahem) when the generator picked myself and Becy out to present the Student Teacher Resource to the others in attendance, and so back I went. Whilst I'd unfortunately misplaced the basic presentation I had, I thought quickly to just show the actual website and ask Becy to navigate whilst I talked about the various features, handing over to my able deputy to get involved too! The feedback from the audience was really useful, giving us points for development to head towards. @ethinking also had something to say, deciding to announce to us and everyone that there are some very interested parties that want to support us. It was a pretty big moment to know that we'd done something that could become so big. I want this feeling more!

Getting back to my seat and reading the Twitter feed from #tmpelc11 gave me a grin as wide as the nile. The feedback was really great - really gave me a sense that I'd made an impact in a positive way, which relates perfectly to teaching.

I'm really beginning to get a sense of confidence when I'm presenting now, in much the same way that my confidence in front of a classroom full of children has developed over the years. I've noticed I like to be quite animated, to walk around the room, using hand gestures to convey extra 

information about what I'm saying. Several people that I talked to afterwards, such as Steve Wheeler, Russell Prue and Pete Yeomans said that I came across as very confident. Now I'm starting to feel it too.

I think I've caught the bug however, I want more. I want to share more, I want to meet more people and I want to see new ideas. I also want to thank everyone in attendance for the kind words, support and feedback (and wine). It was a brilliant experience. They say nobody forgets their first time, I sure won't.

PELC11 Day Three

One thing that has been mentioned to me is that I've missed out the Teach Meet at the end of the first day. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten, I just think it deserves it's own blog post because it was a bit of a milestone event for me. I'm taking a similar approach with something else I like to be involved with, and that's #ukedchat, which I'll talk about later. 

It does need a quick mention however, as it lead to a fantastic conversation I had with Russell Prue when I greeted him in the morning. The topic of #ukedchat on the eve of day two was 'What to do with colleagues who don't tech'. Knowing that Russell is a keen ICT evangelist, and particularly outspoken, I asked him his opinion and I was very glad I did. Sufficed to say, it was a subject he was clearly passionate about (which I could tell for reasons I won't go into!), and through the course of the conversation he really made me think about the wider issues involved, which was exactly what a good conversationalist should do. Pete Yeomans joined in had a similar point of view, echoing much of what Russell had already said, and between them they shared a lot that I found to be particularly insightful. Was an incredibly useful 10 minutes, and one of the things that stands out most from the entire conference.Russell also pointed me in the direction of http://www.wearethepeoplemovie.com/ and I suggest everyone else check it out too.

I would like to take the opportunity, whilst I'm talking about the last day, to say that Russell proved to be an incredibly influential figure during my time at PELC11, giving a lot of advice and feedback and really giving me a boost in confidence both professionally and personally when doing so. His outspoken and to-the-point opinions were exactly the sort of thing I can see a lot of student teachers finding engaging and entertaining in a world of roundabout ways of saying things, so I hope that at some point he can be convinced to get involved in some respect with the other students at the university.

Anyway, the first session I attended was by Lynn boyle (@boyledsweetie), the title of which was 'Creating a Community of Learners: Engaging Online Learners Online'. The title alone caight my eye, this is something that relates heavily to the Student Teacher Resource - creating a community online. The seminar was about how Lynn used Adobe Connect to host a 'webinar' with her students to discuss any issues, which occurred on a weekly basis at the same time (the Monday Surgery). She mentioned that up to 70% of students didn't want to show their face, a barrier that with the STR project we are hoping to breach - more anonymous comments means less fear when asking for help. One quote I took away was that 'Current online learninv relies too heavily on self-instructional text, failing to promote human interaction'. After the seminar, I managed to have a chat with Lynn about the STR project, and have potentially made a link with Dundee University to get their students involved too. Seeing as the theme of my day three summary seems to be gratitude, I'd like to thank Lynn for the feedback and the webinar is a concept I think could be merged with the ukedchat concept to create something that would provide great benefit to student teachers.

The other part of this session was from Steve Wheeler and Manish Malik entitled 'Of Cloud Learning Environments, Personal Learning Environments and Virtual Learning Enviroments: A Student Perspective'. Whilst I think that the ideals presented at the beginning and the discussion of the various areas of learning via Web 2.0 technologies were useful, but I think that there is a problem limiting students to a single set of apps, in this case Google Apps, to use in their PLE. I'm in no way choosing Microsoft over Google or anything, I just think that the achieve a true PLE, students must make their own choices in the software that they use.

The final keynote speech was from Shelly Terrell, entitled 'Causing Ripples: Education transformation through social media'. It was basically about how social media can be used by educators and students alike to share their ideas, their successes and their failures. This was something that resonated with me personally and professionally - I'm very open with sharing the things I have, and with the Student Teacher Resource, I am aiming to provide a new way for students to share their ideas. The presentation was endlessly quotable, for which I will be very thankful in my next few essays, I'm sure! One website that she introduced that is worth a look is http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/. The most important part that I took away was towards the end - she posed the question 'How do convey your message effectively?', dividing the question into 'Who is your audience?', 'Is it visually appealing?', 'What stories and examples do you share?' and I think most importantly of all, 'Does it convey your passion?'

Finally, the conference came to a close with a panel discussion, unfortunately the subject of which I was unable to note down because my old tablet PC decided to run out of juice. Ashamed to bring paper and pen to an elearning conference, I sat at the back reading through the comments on Twitter and speaking to Russell and Dan Roberts at the back of the room, which was highly entertaining I must admit! One of the more hilarious highlights of the conference was the fact that Dan (@chickensaltash) managed to break the terms and conditions of Twitter by tweeting too much, too often, and got served with a short ban. He evidently did not learn his lesson, as he got hit with another ban a day later. My twitter stream was an awful lot quieter (and less entertaining) without his presence. One quote I did take away from the panel was from Pete Yeomans (@ethinking) who said 'If you aren't making them uncomfortable, you aren't doing it right', which I thought was a definite Yeomans-ism!

I managed to chat to Shelly afterwards and thanked her for the keynote, mentioning that I've created something that I drew a lot of inspiration from it that I can apply to our project. It was great to speak to someone so influential and Shelly was very friendly and approachable. We had a brief chat about Edchat, going back to my participation in #ukedchat the day before, which she was involved in the creation of. It was great to speak to someone so enthusiastic and passionate about what they do, really inspirational person.

When I finally got home, I noticed that Shelly was hosting a webinar on using mobile phones in the classroom, which I thought would be quite interesting, so I attended. She used Adobe connect to talk to the room and i thought she generated some great ideas to use in the classroom. Unfortunately, Mr Gove would have very different ideas, but I would rather not voice political opinions (no matter how agreeable!) on my blog.

One final point of note - I've only been on Twitter for a few months now, and although I could see the benefit from the consumer side of things, I never really experienced the to-ing and fro-ing that goes on once you get more involved. This week at PELC11 has given me a great chance to do just that, and I am now using Twitter more than Facebook. Whilst I've been at work since 10am, I managed to checked Twitter on my phone to find this mention...

If you don't know me, I'm a pretty modest person, so for someone to give me such a comment is quite flattering - Thank you! Hope you don't mind that I mention you in one of my 'great reads', Alex. If anyone does want to get in touch, by all means leave a comment below, or contact me via Twitter (@JCBarrington)

PELC11 Day Two

I felt much more confident about the second day of the conference. I'd already met several new faces, and that meant more people I could mingle with and therefore more new people to meet! Such an opportunity presented itself early in the morning. Again, the advantages of picking the stand next to one Russell Prue were shining through, as I noticed Russell speaking to Stephen Heppell (@Stephenheppell), who was due to give a keynote speech to open the second day. With a little encouragement from @ethinking to make an introduction, I took the note-so-subtle approach and introduced myself during a break in their conversation (sorry, Russell!), talking to Stephen about the Student Teacher Resource and my aims. He seemed genuinely enthusiastic about it, offering me some key advice about possible things to share and we had a good chat about things for about 5 minutes. Apparently, some people at he conference would have given their right arm to talk to him for 5 minutes, but I guess 'right place, right time' would be an appropriate phrase.

I'd already felt like I'd achieved something for the day before I went into the keynote speech, but the day had barely begun. Stephen's keynote speech was titled 'What have we learnt from the virtual that we might build in the physical world of education?' and focussed on the idea that children have found so much online that they enjoy that they are now looking for similar experiences in the 'real' classroom.I put 'real' in inverted commas because I think that the spaces in which children learn effectively are no longer limited to a specific place in a specific school. With the advents in modern, mobile technology, children can learn anywhere and at any time. Some of the classrooms that Stephen showed during the keynote included shoeless rooms, unstable stools ('active seating') to allow children to fidget, ovens that freshly bake bread for the children first thing in the morning, and in general very playful learning spaces. A particular highlight for me was when Stephen mentioned that the new generation of teachers will likely be of the highest quality for many years. This made me feel proud to be part of the new generation, but not as proud as when he furthered his conversation by talking about one of the fantastic projects he saw earlier in the day - OUR project! Mentioned by Stephen Heppell in a keynote speech in front of hundreds of people? Hurrah!

So, after meeting with Russell afterwards to apologise for my lack of subtlety earlier, I noticed that we had a new neighbour to our stand. GCSEPod had moved on and were replaced by Education City, the interactive children's resource. I'd only used Ed City's maths games with Year 6 children on a recent placement, but found it to be a fantastic resource. The children loved playing the games and each game was focussed on a specific objective within the curriculum, which meant that it was easy to select the right game for the right lesson. I'd never used it before this, and even then, not outside maths. Talking to other student teachers, I found that they were also singing it's praises for different reasons, phonics, science, etc. So I got talking to the man running the stand and we discussed the possibility of our students getting free access to Education City to take with them on their placements, the idea being that if the schools we were placed at saw its effectiveness, or if we wanted it in our schools when we graduate, that they'd make more sales in the long run. Now (hopefully) all students at the University of Plymouth will have free access to Ed City on their placements, and for a month after they graduate. Not only this, but we discussed briefly the possibility of their involvement with the Student Teacher Resource, which was exciting!

It seemed that a lot had happened today, and yet it was merely lunchtime. After a good plateful of food (than you, University of Plymouth catering department!), I went to go and see what Dan Roberts (@chickensaltash) was presenting at his 'Xbox marks the spot' parallel session. Dan's students have created a virtual, explorable map of the school that formed a game, playable on PC or Xbox, to aid the transition from local primary schools to Saltash.net School. The game was coded in XNA entirely by the students. Dan openly confessed to them that he did not know (Breaking news: Teacher in 'I don't know' shocker!), and played the 'lazy teacher' card to spur the children to take control of their own learning and find out for themselves. The results become even more impressive when you consider the fact that the teachers gave only guidance and pointers and allowed the children to have near total independence. I think this must have been an absolutely magical moment for the teaching staff - When the children realise that there are other ways to learn and then go and pursue those avenues of their own accord, so I fully applaud the chicken man for being able to pull this off, truly remarkable.

The final event of the day was the keynote speech from John Davitt (@johndavitt). John's keynote was titled 'From Silo to Orchestra: The staccato progress of eLearning'. I think that because I'm fairly new to teaching and still getting to grips with the pedagogical side of things, some of this was a little over my head. However, I did take some key ideas away. Firstly, he said 'How will history judge teachers? You had all these tools, but what did you do with them?'. I think this is quite a profound quote, essentially saying 'Look at what you have - use it, don't waste it!'. Definitely made me think about the resources I have at my disposal, and how to use them effectively in my lessons. Secondly, (this man is very quotable, thanks for the help with my future essays!) he said 'Teach less so they learn more'. I think this is quite profound, that in effect we as teachers can get in the way of a child's progress. Just look at what the children at Saltash.net achieved without teacher input, or the children of Sugata Mitra's Hole-in-the-Wall project. The final thing he mentioned that resonated with me is that 'It's not about computers, it's about tools, activities and risk'. This was quite inspiring, and linked nicely back to his first quote. We have a wealth of exciting things, but if we don't try them and use them effectively, then they go to waste. There should be no fear of trying something new.

Just when you think that your day has been exciting enough, I get home, open my emails and find one from the Alumni Assistant, Jack Stevens, telling me 'You have been awarded an Enterprising Britain Student Enterprise Award, which is for an enterprising activity. This is for your activity which involves developing a website to support the development of teaching quality across the Faculty of Education.' Cue grin like a Cheshire cat. It's given me an immense sense of achievement, and I think that everyone involved in the project should be proud at this token of recognition. I want to thank everyone for helping our project take our first few steps, and hopefully we can use this as a springboard to really  hit our stride!

PELC11 Day One

I've spent the past three days at the Plymouth e-Learning Conference 2011. I initially planned to write about all three days in a single post, but I just don't think I would be able to effectively convey the amount I got out of the conference. So here is my PELC11 experience day by day!

Firstly, I arrived with one of the volunteers from the Student Teacher Resource to help set up not only our stand, but the conference exhibition space too. The first new face I introduced myself to was the person running the fantastic stand next to ours - Russell Prue (@russellprue), who was promoting his school radio system (http://www.andertontiger.com/default.htm) and streaming live radio and interviews from the event. From the first few minutes of conversation with Russell, I'd already picked up some invaluable tips on conference etiquette and presentation, and his useful feedback and vibrant conversation became one of the highlights of the conference over the next few days

On the stand to the other side of us on the first day was Gill from GCSEPod. Their product was a set of downloadable revision podcasts to help with GCSE revision, which was very interesting and I can imagine is very effective. GCSEPod were kind enough to fund nibbles for the Teach Meet later on in the day.

Amongst other notable people that I talked to during the first half of the day were two I already knew, my lecturer Pete Yeomans (@ethinking) and Professor Steve Wheeler (@timbuckteeth), who was organising the event. I also finally managed to put a face to the twitter name when I met Dan Roberts (@chickensaltash), Deputy Head at Saltash.net Community School. These are all people who have already proved valuable in my professional development and I hope I can get involved with any of their projects in the future.

Dan Roberts was hosting the event that i attended next - the Student Showcase. Children were invited to come along and show off what they had been doing with technology in schools, and the results were fantastic. To be fair to the staff on the stand, we swapped around looking after the stand and going into the seminar, so unfortunately I missed some of the presentations. I did, however, see the AMAZING (and I mean AMAZING) work done by the students at Broadclyst Community Primary on their BTV channel. The students record, edit and publish their own TV programmes related to their work. It's obviously made a difference to the confidence of the children too - seeing them present and talking to them afterwards was a real treat.

Next up was the e-safety panel discussion hosted by Steve Wheeler and presented by Simon Finch (@simfin, http://simfin.wordpress.com/about/), Dan Roberts (@chickensaltash) and Dan Kennedy (@djkennedy), an ICT teacher at The Grange School in Christchurch. The panel presented some of the key issues and misconceptions about esafety and tried to present their solutions. As a student teacher, I found it very useful to see these issues being discussed, as I have yet to be so involved in school life and ICT that I've run into the problems, so to know the solution before they arise will be very useful. I do wish, however, that someone had played the devil's advocate, even if it wasn't their own decision, as this would most likely have generated a more lively debate.

Finally, the day ended with the keynote speech from Jane Seale, who discussed digital inclusion and exclusion, provocatively titled 'Technology doesn't exclude learners, teachers do: A critique of the nature and scope of digital practices within our education system that include or exclude marginalised learners'. Having just completed a module with a focus on inclusion and exclusion in the classroom, I felt that this was almost the culmination of the research and work I have done in the past few months. I'd already had the opportunity of a session with Jane Seale during the course of the module, so this followed on nicely too. Was fairly interesting to see Jane being pushed into joining Twitter at the end of the session too - she can now be followed at @janeseale.

Overall, I think the confidence I gained by introducing the Student Teacher Resource to positive response and  feedback was incredible. Not only that, but the experience of networking with some of the most important figures in eLearning will be vital for the future. I'll be posting my updates on days two and three, as well as my experience at my first teachmeet, as soon as my time allows!

An Introduction to JC and the Student Teacher Resource

Hi everyone. If you know me, then you know that I'm trying to be involved as much as possible in whatever my time allows me to be. As such, I am beginning to lose track of events, as they're all starting to blend together. To remedy this situation, and with the bonus of sharing with everyone the benefits of my work, I've decided to set up a blog to talk about anything outside of the minimum requirements of the course that I've found to be useful.

Firstly, for anyone that doesn't know me, I'm JC. I am (at the time of writing) at the end of my third year of a BEd (Hons) Primary Mathematics course at the University of Plymouth. Towards the end of my third year placement, I had an epiphany that changed the course of my professional development from there on in.

I was up  at a very late hour planning a maths lesson for the next day, including an impressive (in my humble opinion!) mental/oral starter activity. Then something struck me. Here I was, creating these resources for my Year 6 class, when my next placement will be in KS1. Instead of letting these resources go to waste, why don't I give them to the rest of the maths specialists in the hopes that they are used again. Whilst I'm doing that, why don't they also share what they have with everyone else?

The seminar was a great success, so much so that it dawned on me to set this up across the other specialisms. This was quickly spiralling into something massive. I recruited other specialists to collate and share their resources with each other. However, it took another step forward when I realised that we were sharing our successes with other people in our specialism only - surely other specialisms would benefit from our resources in the same way that we night benefit from seeing resources from those specialisms that we feel less confident in? But where would we share these resources with each other, with everyone?

Step forward, http://studentteacherresource.co.uk.

What started as 14 students sharing maths resources has developed and developed into a project that aims to have over 20,000 student teachers around the UK sharing not only their resources, but their collective knowledge, supporting each other through teaching practice, suggesting reading for essays, interview questions... basically ANYTHING that a student teacher would find useful in helping them with their professional development beyond what their course already offers.

Through the course of the development of the site, the number of opportunities that I have seen and taken has grown and grown, and for anyone reading this that sits back and simply does what the course is asking of you, I say do more. Do more and more and more, and you will find that the number of things that fall into place for you will be staggering.

My aim with this blog is not just to record my extra curricular activities for my own purposes, but to inspire more student teachers to do whatever it takes to be the best teacher they can be.