communICTy

There are a number of versions of this video, but they all have the same message. Not only is the world’s population growing, so is the amount of information that we are producing. Therefore our ability to access this ever growing mountain of data and make sense of it will also have to grow.
However, what it does not mention is that the abilities that we continue to value are still interpersonal skills required to be creative with these new ideas and to collaborate with other people around the world.

Download Video: Posted by alexsavage at TeacherTube.com.

This week I am giving a training day to a group of ICT GTPs. We are going to look at a wide variety of classroom routines to give lessons a similar structure. This is will include:
How to set up a lesson before the students come in
Arranging a seating plan
Delivering a starter activity
Lesson aims and objectives
Giving instructions
Creating a lesson plan

The following video demonstrated I start every ICT lesson. I do not allow the students into my room until I am 100% ready. I stand at the door to welcome them in. They check the seating plan and log on. There is then an activity that they are able to do independently whilst I take the register and ensure that everyone is ready to work.

Download Title

All of my lessons use the same online lesson plan template that both the teacher and the students follow. To view an example go to MyTree. You can also view my complete online KS3 ICT SoW.

Our Y8 students have been creating their own film reviews (see lesson plans).

They started by researching the latest films on the BBC Film Review Archive. They then shared their ideas on the films they liked by contributing comments to posts on notreblog.
Adventure Reviews| Animation Reviews| Comedy Reviews | Fantasy/Sci-Fi Reviews
They then completed an online survey and analysed the csv file in a database to see what film other students reccomend.
Finally they used Audacity to create their own film review podcasts with podsafe soundtracks from www.garageband.com

Example Podcasts
You can either listen to a streamed version of the podcasts below, or download the files by clicking on the titles.

Dumb and Dumber

Dream Girls

Harry Potter, Goblet of Fire

Mean Girls

Mean Girls

Pirates of the caribbean 2

Pirates of the caribbean 3

Pokemon

She’s the man

Storm Breaker

The Corpse Bride

The Da Vinci Code

Tokyo Drift

Who cares how you get to school?!!
Having to create a survey and analyse the results can be quite a tricky and time consuming business. Therefore, students are often given data sets of ready made, often fictitious, answers. Also the same old themes seem to be used over and over again. To be frank, very few students are interested in how children travel to school!

Real Data
Online surveys are a great way to enable students to generate and analyse real information from people that actually exist anywhere in the world. They can also empower students to research issues that they are actually interested in.
There are now a number of quick and easy to use sites that enable teachers and/or students to create a survey and then collate the data into a file for analysis. One of the best free sites I have found to do this is surveymonkey.com. It enables the user to create a 10 question survey for up to 100 responses. For the last three years I have been using SurveyAtSchool. There is a small charge, but it gives the user more control and features to use.

KS3 Resources
KS3 ICT unit 7.5 introduces students to generating and analysing survey data. Our Dept. has adapted the QCA sample resources to make it a project on ways to save energy. By analysing the data students can then suggest ways to reduce our energy consumption.
Another unit that we have adapted from the KS3 ICT strategy is 9.2b Online Surveys. After creating a project plan our students record their assumptions about how the lives of young people in the UK and USA differ. From these initial ideas they create hypotheses and then questions to prove/disprove them. We then compile the questions into one global survey and invite our link schools to participate. This year 1238 students took part!
The survey data is compiled and saved as a .csv file (comma seperated value). This can then be imported into a spreadsheet to be filtered and analysed. This year we taught the students how to create pivot tables. To view an example of how we analysed the data click here.
It is interesting to note that a number of our students’ stereotypical impressions of life in the USA were proved to be wrong. For example, on average, UK students ate chips more regularly and more of them had their own website than students in the USA.
As the students had thought of the themes and questions themselves they were much more motivated to analyse the data in detail and produce reports on what they discovered.

GCSE Resources
Our Y10/11 students also use online surveys as part of their AiDA course. This is an effective way for them to gather research from a large number of people. Our Y10 students are currently gathering information on whether parents are concerned about their children’s use of screen based media. To view their surveys and help them in their research click here. We’ve come up with a great formula to help count results when using filters. To view an example exercise in how to do this click here.

In the news
The role of assessment in the National Curriculum has been the hot topic in the educational press recently.
In December, IPPR produced a report stating that regular teacher assessments of pupils’ work should replace the testing of pupils aged 11 and 14 (bbc article).
This month the Gilbert Review said that England’s school tests and exam league tables should be changed radically as part of a drive to put more focus on individual pupils’ progress. (bbc article)
Then it was announced at the BETT show that the KS3 ICT online test was no longer to be statutory (bbc article).
So what role will assessment play in the future of our education system?

Can we assess it? Yes we can!
It seems that we are moving away from high stakes summative assessment of learning to ongoing assessment for learning. We need a system which conforms more to the needs of the learner, rather than the learner to the system. Did you know that Bob the Builder is based on effective uses of assessment for learning? If not download Bob’s guide to A4L.

Practical examples of A4L in KS3 ICT
I’m sure that most teachers, students and parents would agree that personalising the curriculum is a good idea in principle. However, how can we enable learners to play a more active role in how they are assessed?
A basic, but fundamental idea is to ensure that students have a clear understanding of lesson aims and objectives. We show students a welcome presentation at the start of the lesson to explain what it will be about. If an activity is to be assessed we also show the marking criteria (slide 3) and how it relates to NC levels.
It is also very important to give students clear instructions on what work they will need to produce to show evidence of a specific level such as in this excel activity.
When students have completed the first draft of a product, they can receive not only teacher, but peer and self evaluation. However, peer and self assessment only works with clear guidance such as this checksheet.
In order to give our students an overall picture of their progress we have created an assessment grid that either they or the teacher can fill in at the end of each unit. We also use a level table with targets specific to the unit, so that students can see why they achieved a certain level and what to do to improve.

E-assessment, vision or reality?
According to a recent futurelab report ‘The issue for e-assessment is not if it will happen, but rather, what, when and how it will happen.’ The Government’s goal of producing an online KS3 ICT test that marks itself was a very ambitious goal. The application that has been produced to do the job is very sophisticated and cost over £20 million to develop. However, can a computer identify a learner’s creativity and whether what they have produced has a clear sense of audience and purpose?
This short presentation explores why we need e-assessment and what forms it could take.

Examples of basic e-assessment
E-assessment tools such as Hot Potatoes and Blockbusters can be used to quickly create a variety of self marking activities. These are very useful to either refresh learners’ knowledge or to identify areas that require more work.
Yacapaca has some very good baseline tests specifically written for KS3 ICT. The students can choose which level they wish to attempt and give themselves a target of how many to get right. It also has an eportfolio feature in which students can submit work to their teacher to be marked. See flash demo
Joint Assessment Systems also enables students to submit work to be marked. It also enables students to assess their own work by unit specific criteria and then the teacher can use the same criteria for their feedback. From this a complex picture can be produced of each individual learner’s strengths and areas for improvement. See flash demo.

Additional Resources
Assessment for learning: Beyond the black box, QCA
Interview with Prof. Paul Black on A4L, GTC
Futures, Meeting the Challenge, QCA
KS3 ICT SoW, Notre Dame
Biography of Bob the Builder, Wikipedia
Bob the Builder images to print out and colour in, BBC

Our Y7 students created leaflets in ICT about the right to education and learning to learn using our 7.3 online unit.

Before finishing the project they gave each other feedback in order to refine their work using a differentiated worksheet.

We sorted the class into low, middle and high achievers and then created a seated plan to alternate them. This ensured that everyone had their work evaluated in detail by a high achiever (roughly half the class). The middle and low achievers gave more focussed feedback on areas they could judge more easily.

The most valuable part of the exercise was enabling the students to look at a variety of other children’s designs. Trying to explain good design is very difficult, but showing examples seems to get the point across much more effectively.

At the end of the unit we did an online student voice survey on the project. 82% of the students agreed that the peer feedback had helped them to improve their leaflet.

Here are some examples of their finished leaflets: learn1 | learn2 | learn3 | learn4 | learn5 | learn6

Am I bovverd?!
Have you ever stopped to think why students lack the motivation to learn? According to research produced by EPPI Centre ‘pupils are more likely to be engaged with the curriculum they are offered if they believe it is relevant and if they are given opportunities to take ownership of their learning.’ This requires a shift in focus from concentrating on what we teach, to learning more about who we teach it to.

The 2020 Vision Gilbert Review identifies the vital role of personalised learning to ‘transform education’. This vision of tailoring the curriculum to the unique needs and interests of every child would certainly help to enagage learners more. However, can this vision be made a reality?

Achieving the vision with ICT
In fact, many learners are already ahead of the game. ‘By the age of 21 the average person will have spent 15,000 hours in formal education, 20,000 hours in front of the TV and 50,000 hours in front of a computer screen’ (Futurelab Report). Young people are using technology informally to learn about issues that interest them and share their ideas with online communities. The challenge for schools is whether they can catch up with their students!

It is clear that technology has a significant role to play to inspire and motivate our learners. We all know that WWW stands for World Wide Web. However, many schools have yet to realise its true potential for bringing the real world into the classroom. Communication is literally at the heart of ICT. Sadly, students are often given tasks involving made up situations rather than being given the opportunity to communicate with a real audience for a real purpose.

A Right to Learn
In the past our students did a project to research and create leaflets about their school. They included information about the history of the school and subjects they learn. The ICT skills they demonstrated were fine, but the information they communicated was very basic and uninteresting.

This year we adapted our scheme of work by making it more personal. We asked the students to think about how they learn best and what makes a good teacher. They shared their ideas by adding comments to a blog post. We also invited students at our link school in the USA to contribute too. We gave the students a digital camera and asked them to take images of the school from their perspective. Students at our link school in Malawi took photos of their school using disposable cameras and we uploaded them into a digital gallery. The students then did some basic research about the universal right to education and why it is such a valuable part of our lives.

With all of the ideas and information they had gathered themselves, the students are currently creating leaflets on the right to education and learning to learn. The best examples will be sent to our link schools. It will be the students that make the selection, not the teachers. This will provide a real reason for peer assessment and consolodate what they have learnt to produce a well designed leaflet with a clear sense of audience and purpose.

Keep IT Real!
Enabling students to research real issues, create real resources and communicate with a real audience gives their work a real purpose. The improved quality of our students’ work proves that this motivates the students to produce their best. So, if you want to inspire your learners, remember to Keep IT Real!

Links:
Alex Savage’s Blog www.communicty.org
A Right To Learn lesson plans http://www.ndhs-sites.org.uk/ICT/7.3/index.htm
Futures of Learning Seminars 2005 Report http://www.futurelab.org.uk/research/personalisation/report_01.htm
2020 Vision, Gilbert Review http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/docbank/index.cfm?id=10783
Eppi-Centre Review on Motivation and Assessment http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/Default.aspx?tabid=304