My Speech - Osprey Quay Opening

 

On Tuesday 12th February, 2013, Dorset County Council, Co-Sponsors of the Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy (IPACA), handed over the new Osprey Quay Campus to the Academy at an official ceremony at the new site. The event was attended by the High Sheriff of Dorset, Jeremy Pope, Weymouth and Portland Town Councillors for Underhill Ward, County Councillor for Portland Harbour Tim Munro, the Chair of the Portland Community Partnership, Andy Matthews, local business leaders, students and teachers.

As part of the event I spoke about the importance of Digital Learning here at IPACA, a clip from this speech is included below:

For a full copy of my speech, please read below:

Good afternoon, my name is Gary Spracklen and I am Director of Digital Learning and Innovation here at the Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy. It is a great honour to stand before you all today and share the importance of Digital Learning here at IPACA.

Technology is now an essential part of our everyday lives and has changed the way we behave, learn, communicate and fundamentally live. The rate and speed of change in technology is phenomenal and shows no signs of slowing down. This is replicated in the jobs market where the top ten jobs in 2012 did not even exist in 2004! The future for many of our students is therefore likely to be a job that does not even exist yet, using technology that hasn’t even been invented!

To prepare our students for this changing world, we are embedding digital technology in all we do at IPACA. Most powerfully we are doing this through the students themselves through a project called Digital Leaders.

Digital Leaders provides students with a real voice on the issues that matter to them. The project although still in infancy has proved incredibly popular with over 100 students involved across IPACA. Digital Leaders range in age from 3-16 and each bring something unique to our Online Discussion area which is proving a great hit.

Digital Leaders have already been involved in some excellent projects including working with Mozilla (the company behind the Firefox web-browser) to develop an online accreditation scheme. This project involved six IPACA students visiting the Mozilla head office in London to meet with peers and industry experts. The students aged between 6 and 14 each worked collaboratively and effectively to present their thoughts in a clear and concise way. My personal highlight of this project was seeing Finlay Short, who is running the Skype station today, speak completely independently in a room of about 50 people about his passion for Computer Science coding. This was a skill he had discovered only hours earlier while working with an older IPACA pupil.

Last Tuesday, I took a further 7 students to London for a meeting at the BT Tower. This was not a sight seeing visit but a further  opportunity for the students to talk about their vision for their Academy.

The journey forward is an exciting one for our whole community and what technology we will be using in even three years time is hard to say. However, what is clear is that whatever technology we use it will be for the inspiration, engagement and enjoyment of our students to deliver outstanding outcomes and a very bright future!

I encourage you all to visit the three areas in the hall today showcasing the technology we are already using here at IPACA to support learning.

The Skype station is currently taking a call from St. Mary’s First School in Charminster and I believe one of our Digital Leaders is hoping to speak to a relative there.

Our 65” plasma is also looking for testers to explore this touch-screen technology that will support our agile learning spaces.

Finally, if you haven’t seen our Augmented Reality display yet, please do not leave without having a student show you the power of blending virtual reality and actual reality. The results are magical!

Thank-you very much.
 

 

Nanocopter

Thanks goes to Lisa Kelly who stumbled across the following article and shared it with me, I thought it was worth sharing with you all too. The original article can be read at: http://www.springwise.com/life_hacks/continuously-recording-nanocopter-films-users-move/.

Continuously-recording ‘nanocopter’ films users’ every move... 

The MeCam device is a camera that hovers continuously around the user, enabling them to stream live video of their life to smartphones.

We’ve already seen jeans that can make status updates on social networks easier, as well as continuous recording from Looxcie, an ear-mounted camcorder that has provided a way for people to film everything they see. Combining elements of both of these, the MeCam device is a camera that hovers continuously around the user, enabling them to stream live video of their life.

Unveiled earlier in the year at CES 2013, the MeCam consists of a miniature video recorder and chip mounted on a platform surrounded by four rotor blades that keep it in the air. The device does not require a remote control and instead relies on voice command technology. Users can tell it to move up or down, or select the ‘Follow Me’ function – which uses 14 sensors and three stabilization algorithms to ensure the camera is always at close proximity. A sound filter strips any recordings of motor noise. Video can then be streamed through iOS and Android smartphones and uploaded onto social networks. The following video explains more about how the device works

 

The MeCam is still in development and Always Innovating – the team behind the concept – are currently looking for licencers. Once it hits the market the creators believe it will retail at around USD 49. One to get in on early?

Website: www.alwaysinnovating.com

Contact: www.alwaysinnovating.com/company/contact.htm

Spotted by: Katherine Noyes

Guest Post - Helen Collings

Review of Samsung Google Chromebook

I was really impressed by the Chromebook, it delivers a lot of positive features for such a reasonably priced machine. I loved the battery life and the web browsing facilities, obviously there are many things it can't do due to it's size and it doesn't compare to the bigger beefier laptops. But it beats any netbook I've used, and I would certainly consider buying it as a machine both for home and work. 

 

I thought I'd put some thoughts into bullet points for ease of reading:

 

Pros:

• Turns on really quickly - once signed in it takes seconds for it to be up and running.

• It has a good battery life for its size (especially when you've been using your iPhone a lot!), which it conserves by sleeping whenever it's unused, and it wakes up really quickly.

• It has a decent keyboard which has a good 'click' to the keys if you know what I mean. Long word processing is quite comfortable.

• It has USB and USB3 sockets, an HDMI output, SD card slot and 3.5 mm headphone jack.

• You can easily jump between search/email etc using the browser bar at the bottom.

• It has a good screen size, even if you're quite old and often have to squint at things!

• There are a variety of apps that can be pinne.

• Google docs is great!

• It has some offline functionality for docs and drive, and it will upload changes when you log back on.

• It is small and incredibly light, fits in most bags!

• It is silent when running.

Cons:

• Although there is an app store, and there is a good choice of apps, if you're used to Apple it's not quite so impressive.

• It has an odd right click function involving tapping with two fingers which takes a bit of getting used to.

• It doesn't cope too well with lots of browser tabs open, and sometimes video and photos are slow loading or viewing and long documents don't scroll too well.

Guest post written by: Helen Collings (IPACA, Southwell Campus)

@BETT_Show 2013 - Day 2

This is the second of three posts in which I will share my thoughts from BETT 2013. BETT is the world's largest educational technology show and attracts thousands of visitors from all around the world each year. This year BETT was held for the first time at the Excel Arena in London.

Today has been another brilliant day here in London and although I still have tonsillitis, my cough is getting slightly better and I enjoyed today so much more because of that fact!

Yesterday, I promised you two key highlights and one question from each of my three days at BETT 2013. Well today is a different day and I have decided to give with one highlight and one question (just to be different).

Key Highlight: Google Stand (@RoscoMahon)

My first highlight of today came at the very beginning of my day when I sat down to listen to Ross Mahon on the Google stand. Ross who is Global Awareness Manager for Google Apps for Education describes himself as a Google Apps Edu Evangelist. His aim while working at Google is to try and get the world of Education thinking about 100% web and he certainly did that through his presentation.

Beyond just talking about Google, Google Apps and Chromebooks (all of which are very interesting), Ross spoke about great learning! Ross shared examples of inspiring practice with and without Google and the power of working in collaboration. The point that really touched me though concerned the humble Rubik Cub.

Ross explained that the current world record for an adult to successfully solve a Rubik Cube is around six seconds (check out the below for some amazing Rubik Cube action) -

But with technology, can student do even better?

Ross' illustration serves to show yet again that we should never limit our expectation of our pupils, especially when using technology because anything really is possible!

One Question: Why? Why? Why?

As promised, I will end this blog post with my question of the day which has to be -

Is putting all your eggs in one basket with say 1:1 iPads or 1:1 Chromebooks really the way forward? Does one product alone prepare students for the world in which they will have to live, learn and work?

Answers on a postcard or alternatively use the comments section below to discuss.

@BETT_Show 2013 - Day 1

This is the first of three posts in which I will share my thoughts from BETT 2013. BETT is the world's largest educational technology show and attracts thousands of visitors from all around the world each year. This year BETT was held for the first time at the Excel Arena in London.

I must start by saying that I have been suffering with tonsillitis for the past four days and my first experience of BETT this year has been overshadowed by a continuous cough (apologise if you have sat or been anywhere near me today). Withstanding this, I have still had a brilliant day and take away some great points to move forward with.

To keep my blog posts concise over the next couple of days (I like being concise), I am going to share two key highlights from my day and one question...

Key Highlight 1: Chris Mayoh (@ChrisMayoh)

 

My first highlight came towards the end of my first day here at BETT 2013. By chance, I stumbled across a presentation that I had already favourited in the BETT App - 'Embedding pupil voice and pupil participation in developing strategies for whole school improvement'. This saw the brilliant Chris Mayoh from Bradford present to us about his excellent Digital Leader project. This project has seen 50+ schools across Bradford come together to engage pupil voice in moving forward new technologies that support learning.

Obviously, many of you will know that I am a strong advocate of the Digital Leader programme having had a successful group in my last school (http://www.dl-pow.blogspot.co.uk/). You may also know that I am starting to embed this practice at IPACA (see Digital Leader trip to Mozilla Blog - http://www.dlmozilla.blogspot.co.uk/). It is always good therefore to hear from others running similar projects. 

What really impresses me about Chris' work is the sheer scale in which he has taken Digital Leaders to become a success across 50+ schools in Bradford.  Equally impressive is that Chris has retained the key principal that makes Digital Leaders have such an impact in schools. Namely that there are no limits of what pupils can achieve... anything is possible! See below:

Key Highlight 2: Learning Together (@StephenHeppell)

My second highlight has to be my first port of call for the day. Stephen Heppell's 'Learning Together' area really embraced it's title and saw mixed age students - from PhD to primary - encapsulate the joy of 'learning together'. The messages from Stephen's stand link heavily with those from Chris Mayoh's presentation.

More information about the stand is best summed up in Stephen's post:

'Our 2013 theme is Learning Together. A mass of activity will include some Raspberry Pi and makeymakey programming / building, some binary maths (all our children will be wearing 0s or 1s!), and some student-led explanations of the Internet. We are very pleased to be joined this year by partners Netgear to help us narrate the topography of the Internet. Netgear are following on from previous years' partners like Google and Panasonic. 
 
In particular you will see children of all ages working together - NEETs students helping primary programmers, grandparents helping yougsters and youngsters helping grandparents to know where learning is in this millennium.

Many of the students from Spain and England have in common that they have been engaged in projects to "make their learning better". Indeed a lot of the stand is painted with a surface developed by the SEK schools' Spanish students to make every surface writable (and cheaply!).
 
In addition, we will be Skyping to students building huge and ambitious robots in Michigan, listening in as students in other countries partner and support each other through live link ups, looking at projects near to home and abroad, hearing from experts on the stand.
 
We have found a host of old maths technology devices, from pre-historic Sinclair calculators without equals = keys through pre-decimal comptometers and slide rules, to abacuses and even circular slide rules! Our students will be dragging you onto the stand to see if you can remember how to use this old technology, and to reflect on your own school days.

And all this fun & learning will be captured as we work. There is a student led podcasting feature to do all this, using iPads and a simple USB mixer deck. Last year at BETT 2012 we had the wonderful Russell Prue from Anderton Tiger on our central feature stand, with his very pro schools' radio kit. This year, in keeping with our Learning Together theme, the children will be running the whole broadcast schedule and asking you for everything you can remember about learning with old and new (and very old!) technologies'.

Original source: http://www.heppell.net/radio/

I have to say that my interview for BETT_Radio today on the 'Learning Together' stand by Lampton School pupils was another personal highlight. As well as having a great discussion about learning, it was the only time today I could hear myself clearly as I listened through my headphones (due to my blocked sinuses)

One Question: Why? Why? Why?

As promised, I will end this blog post with my question of the day which has to be -

Why are so many companies at BETT 2013 still pushing old projection based technology?

Answers on a postcard or alternatively use the comments section below to discuss.

Digital Leaders Begin Role

 

This week I have the pleasure of visiting different campus sites to tell a selected group of IPACA learners that they have been selected as IPACA Digital Leaders. The news comes following an application process which saw over 100 learners from across IPACA apply to support me in my role as Director of Digital Learning and Innovation.

Moving forward there will be lots of exciting opportunities for the Digital Leader group and others to shape the vision of how technology will support and inspire learning here at IPACA. I hope to meet with each of the Digital Leaders regularly at their Campus' as well as arranging IPACA wide events and educational visits (more information to follow).

In the meantime though, I have set the Digital Leaders a challenge! I would like them all to sign up for Edmodo. Edmodo is a secure online environment to connect and collaborate, share content and access discussions and notifications. I hope Edmodo will become the online home of IPACA Digital Leaders where we will all be able to work together across all campus sites. 

Please see below for a selection of pictures and audio clips following my first visit (Grove Campus) to break my exciting news:

Blank mind map:

Pupils begin to share their thoughts:

 Pupils share work of other IPACA Digital Leader:

Audio clips:

listen to ‘IPACA Digital Leader Clip (1)’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘IPACA Digital Leader Clip (2)’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘IPACA Digital Leader Clip (3)’ on Audioboo

Edmodo - My First Step

On Tuesday afternoon, I will be joint leading an IPACA Engage, Innovate and Inspire C.P.D session entitled - Edmodo - A Beginner’s Guide. Edmodo provides teachers and students with a secure place to connect and collaborate, share content and educational applications and access homework, grades, class discussions and notifications. I am encouraging IPACA staff to come along to this session to find out more about how to get themselves and their students on board.

This session will be led by John Smith (Science Teacher at Royal Manor Campus) who has already used the platform successfully in his class to engage and inspire his pupils. This is a platform suited not just to secondary pupils but the whole IPACA learning community and as we move forward together I can see it being the perfect solution for lots of work including cross-campus collaboration.

One way I am already planning to use the platform myself (as seen in the screenshot above), is to provide an online home for my IPACA Digital Leaders to connect, collaborate and be inspired.

This is my first step with Edmodo and I look forward to sharing with you all how I get on.

Interview with Professor Stephen Heppell

On Tuesday 15th January, 2013, I was very proud to have two of my Digital Leaders interview IPACA Patron Professor Stephen Heppell. Professor Stephen Heppell, has a strong personal commitment to the area of Portland and understands the educational landscape in detail. He is passionate about ensuring that young people on Portland have access to the best education we can provide.

Stephen is a visionary educationalist and Chair in New Media Environments, Centre for Excellence in Media Practice, Bournemouth University. Stephen has a remarkable track record in designing innovative large scale projects over three decades, and is acknowledged internationally as a leader in the fields of learning, new media and technology. Speaking about IPACA, Stephen says, "I am delighted to be involved in the evolution of this exciting new Academy for Portland. With my grandchildren currently at school on Portland I am very aware of the things we already do so well in our local schools. As a professor in England and in Spain I am lucky to be directly involved in some remarkably effective school projects around the world and to see the things that they do exceptionally well too. I’m honoured and thrilled to be able to play my part in developing IPACA as a world class Academy".

To see the video recording in full, please see below:

The Power of a P.L.N

I have already shared with colleagues how powerful a P.L.N can be but it is always worth saying again. On Thursday (10/01/13) I worked with some colleagues to explore ideas focused on incorporating I.C.T more into their work. Instead of just relying on our own experience and thoughts though when approaching the meeting, I first asked my P.L.N (not sure what a P.L.N is keep reading below the pictures), please see below for the response I had.

My initial question on Twitter:

Snapshot 1:

 

Snapshot 2:

 

Snapshot 3:

 

But what is a P.L.N?

Post taken from: http://www.teachingvillage.org/2012/01/03/what-is-a-pln-anyway/

PLN is an acronym for Personal Learning Network. The acronym is relatively new, but the idea is not. Teachers have always had learning networks—people we learn from and share with. Teachers are information junkies. We’re also social. Put the two together and you have a personal learning network.

The structure of my PLN has changed since I first started teaching.

The pre-Internet 80s

Yes, there was an internet of sorts in the 80s, but I wasn’t on it. Teachers at my school made up the core of my PLN. Network central was wherever we gathered between and after classes. Most of the information we shared came from articles or books we’d read, conferences or workshops we attended. Books came from the bookstore, information from conferences came home in suitcases. The good stuff was photocopied and filed for future reference.

My PLN was very small—the teachers in my school, a few colleagues from graduate school, workshop presenters. Most information was shared face to face.

The e-mail 90s

I sent my first e-mail message in 1995. I could find information about books online, but had to buy them in a store (or, ask someone in the US to buy them in a store and ship them to me). I saved bookmarks for websites I liked, but still printed out pages for my files, and still shared information face to face.

My PLN got a little bigger in the 90s. I could use the Internet to look for infomation, and I could use e-mail to communicate with people after I met them at conferences. However, the people in my PLN were still mostly teachers I had met face to face.

The social 2000s

For information junkies, this decade has been amazing. Not only can I order books online and have them shipped to me in Japan, I can order books and download them to my computer. I access most journals and newspapers the same way. Information is waiting for me each morning in my inbox from discussion groups. The sheer volume of information available can be overwhelming at times.
The  biggest change has been in the way I meet and communicate with people in my PLN.

First, there is Twitter, which is like a big noisy teacher’s lounge. Everyone is talking (texting) at once. I might share a conversation with one or two teachers in the lounge, and catch fragments of other conversations around me. As I read the newspapers and group digests in my inbox, I share the good bits by sending short messages to other teachers on Twitter. Since they do the same, there are a lot of good bits being shared.

Most of the resources are in the form of links—to websites, to e-books, to blogs, or to activities. Rather than printing out copies for my files, I save the links on a social bookmarking site, like Delicious. Because I use tags instead of file folders, I can easily search for specific items. And because teachers can look through each other’s bookmarks, it’s easy to share.

Discussion groups (like JALT’s Teaching Children SIG or IATEFL’s Young Learners and Teenagers SIG) are like conference breakout sessions, where teachers have extended, and topic-oriented conversations.

Nings are like subject area resource rooms in a large school. They’re social networks connecting teachers with common interests. In addition to discussion forums, members keep blogs, share resources, and plan group activities.  EFL teachers might belong to EFL Classroom 2.0 or English Companion, or both.

I attended more conferences than ever before, but travel much less. I still prefer to physically attend a conference, but online sessions and summaries allow me to be there in spirit even when it’s impossible to be there in body. For example, the IATEFL conference this year broadcast plenary and workshop sessions (and then archived the videos available on the website), Twitter allowed workshop participants to share updates and allowed teachers not at the conference (like me) to ask questions during panel discussions. Issues raised during the presentations were discussed in online forums.
The kinds of discussions I have, and information I share with my PLN hasn’t changed all that much over the years–what works in class, how students learn, how to become a better teacher. How I meet other teachers, where we discuss ideas, and how we share information has changed. Significantly. My PLN now includes teachers who live quite far from me—in Asia, Australia, the Americas, Europe and Africa. I meet them online. I learn from them online. I share with them online.
The teachers in my Personal Learning Network are some of the best friends I’ll never meet.

Flipped Classroom - VIDEO

Following on from my intial post about the 'Flipped Classroom' (copied below), please see above for a recording from my IPACA Engage, Innovate and Inspire C.P.D session entitled: 'The Flipped Classroom - A Beginner’s Guide' which took place on 18/12/12.

On the 18/12/12, I will be running an IPACA Engage, Innovate and Inspire C.P.D session entitled: 'The Flipped Classroom - A Beginner’s Guide'. IPACA colleagues can still sign up for this session by clicking here. This session will explore how many educators are exploring the flipped classroom model which uses technology to deliver instructions online which can be used outside of the classroom. The session will be held at RM Campus and will explore the model and provide practical examples of things to try out in your classroom.

In advance of this session I wanted to give a stronger overview of what is meant by the term 'Flipped Classroom'. After a little searching I feel Wikipedia gives a good definition which supports my understanding and application of the term:

'Flip teaching is a form of blended learning which encompasses any use of Internet technology to leverage the learning in a classroom, so a teacher can spend more time interacting with students instead of lecturing. This is most commonly being done using teacher-created videos that students view outside of class time. It is also known as backwards classroom, reverse instruction, flipping the classroom, and reverse teaching.^[1]

The traditional pattern of secondary education has been to have classroom lectures, in which the teacher explains a topic, followed by homework, in which the student does exercises. In flip teaching, the student first studies the topic by himself, typically using video lessons created by the instructor^[2][3] or shared by another educator, such as those provided by the Khan Academy. In the classroom, the pupil then tries to apply the knowledge by solving problems and doing practical work.^[4][5][6] The role of the classroom teacher is then to tutor the student when they become stuck, rather than to impart the initial lesson. This allows time inside the class to be used for additional learning-based activities,^[7] including use of differentiated instruction and project-based learning.^[8]

Flip teaching allows more hands-on time with the instructor guiding the students, allowing them to assist the students when they are assimilating information and creating new ideas (upper end of Bloom's Taxonomy).^[9]'

Extract taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_teaching

For some local examples of 'Flipped Teaching', check out the DASP (Dorchester Areas Schools Partnership) Maths website. This website contains

 short video clips of DASP students explaining how they do a particular sum.

http://www.dasp.org.uk/DASPMaths/mathsvideo.html