"We are the people we've been waiting for"

There was a celebratory mood in the camp last Wednesday night as we basked in the enduring glow of what was an amazing event - TMBelfast2012. It was obvious from the big turnout in the chat that the TeachMeet the previous Friday had certainly served one of it's purposes, namely to "get the word out there" that we exist!


It's pretty hard to write a blog post about the discussion, I thought it would be better to let a number of the "#niedchatterers" speak for themselves.


On the buzz:

"We are the people we have been waiting for!" @he4therw4t5on

"...because of Twitter it felt like we were in a room with friends despite many of us meeting for the first time" @dmurray742 

On the learning

"I loved meeting others with similar ideas - great shared enthusiasm." @hezmar

"Presenters made it look easy, good ambiance, no competitiveness - really good!" @medv2

"Great to see what's being done elsewhere and get new ideas" @s1taylor1

 "Though the session was fantastic. The enthusiasm you guys have for teaching is inspiring." @jonnyholmes86

The way forward

"We need a poster like "Your Country Needs You!" - get those great teachers out there to come and share the wealth." dwatson802

What was plain to see in the discussion is that TMBelfast has created a real buzz and it is now imperative that the momentum is not wasted Plans are afoot for TMBelfast2 and there were murmurings of TMNorthWest too... more on that at a later date I'm sure. 


A big congrats then to the organizers of TMBelfast - Barry, Amanda, Daithi, Corrine and Heather. Great work guys and judging by the tweets this week it is already having an impact in the classroom.

You can watch all the presentations from TMBelfast here

Tweet of the week


Seriously...could you look past @johnmayo 's comment about the format of TMBelfast? 


The question was asked by @dmurray742 

"What did you think about the 2 and 7 minute presentation slots?"

John's answer:

"The format was like a hockey skirt - long enough to cover everything, short enough to keep interest!" 

Session 9 - 8th February 2012

Dealing with Teacher Workload

It was obvious from the conversation that many teachers feel overwhelmed in their jobs. Many work late into the evenings and report 50 hour + weeks. The causes of this are many. Among those cited were

• Pressures from the inspectorate to show evidence of Self Evaluation and the need to leave a paper trail for every decision.

• Many teachers and schools still lack sharing culture although many of the participants reported that they were seeing more sharing taking place.

• Many teachers are incredibly conscientious and often adapt and re-adapt resources to suit different learners. It was stated that it would be easier to teach out of a textbook but that this would be short-changing the learners.

• Teaching is a never ending job; finish one task and there are countless others that can be done.

• More experience usually means more responsibilities but same amount of time. This is a struggle for teachers who have reached a certain level of seniority in their schools but who still retain a large amount of teaching.

• NQT’s find it a struggle to adapt to the pressures of teaching.

Half way through the focus switched to strategies to take some of the burden off of teachers.

• @hezmar spoke of her schools Digital Leaders programme were the children take responsibility for coordinating ICT activities in the school including the delivery of a club to their peers. A great idea!

• C3B4Me was seen as a good way to take some of the pressure of the teacher to do menial tasks during lessons by fostering a culture of independent learning.

• Peer Assessment was having mixed success with teachers being reluctant to trust the judgments arrived at by students however many teachers reported that they do now try to make the marking of work an integral part of the learning experience.

• Students creating resources such as worksheets and information booklets/wikis can be rewarding in terms of learning and provide a resource for the teacher.

• Resources Sharing was a popular idea amongst the mfl teachers present and Dropbox was considered to be an excellent way for teachers across the world to share resources. For more follow #mfltwitterati

• Wikis were also mentioned as a good way for a learning areas within a school to collaborate on resources. A good example here from Grosvenor .

• Giving students in each class responsibility for checking attendance sheets or distributing resources.

• Using self marking assignments such as those on Yacapaca

General Advice

• Learning to say no was seen as important (if difficult)

• Prioritising – being able to differentiate between the desirable and the necessary

• Keeping your focus on Teaching and Learning and being prepared to speak out when administrative tasks are impinging on this.

• Think about how much control you have in the classroom. Is it really necessary for you to always control everything that is done and said.

• Are you working harder than your students? Read the Lazy Teacher's Handbook for more advice on this.

• Get children actively involved in teaching and learning. Try to limited teacher talk as far as possible (100 words challenge!)

As if to reinforce the importance of tonight’s topic two teachers reported that after the was finished that they were returning to marking books and preparing lessons. The time was 9.30pm…a full 13 hours after the beginning of the school day!


Tweet of the Week

“Key is to not do it all yourself, I’m realising, and realising that makes me better leader - not worse,”

@amandasalt

Session 8 1st February 2012

 Tonight’s NIedchat was a topical one with the announcement by Apple the previous week  that they were ‘giving away’ the authoring software ‘iBook Author’ which enables Mac users to create interactive textbooks and make them available for students with iPads to download via iTunes.


The interactive textbooks allow students give students the ability to create notes on pages, highlight text, watch embedded video and manipulate 3D images and they can also keep a track of their progress via in-build tests.


You can see a demo of the interactive textbook by visiting the link below (via @dmurray742)

http://www.apple.com/education/#video-textbooks

I terms of the possibilities I was generally thought that the development was to be welcomed. @dmurray742 described Apple’s announcement as

 “the most disruptive thing in education in the last 400 years” 

the adjective ‘disruptive’ being used in it’s most positive interpretation.


A number of the participants were concerned about how ready teachers were to embrace this change and the question was asked about how would teacher’s find the time to create interactive textbooks. A number of the languages teachers who took part remarked that as they produce most of their resources already then this would not be a problem. What also emerged was that interactive textbooks can be updated and that these updates will sync with the student’s iPad meaning that the books could be written during the duration of the course; the modern equivalent of being one page ahead of them!


The next issue was cost. This is possibly not the domain of teacher’s however some were worried that access to this technology would be costly and that in may cases this cost could not be met by parents. 


A general discussion then ensued on the use of other devices in the classroom including mobile phones. The new IT contract ENNI came in for some praise as it intends to open up access to student owned devices and this was largely welcomed with the usual worries around responsible use. A topic for another day maybe.


A very productive meeting and it was clear that those present welcomed the possibilities that new technologies offer to education and that they would like to see some investment into this area in their own schools and in the eduction sector in general. 


Tweet of the Week goes to @AnGaeilgeoir1 who reminds us that technology is only a tool which requires a skilled user if it's to be effective:

"iPads and iTextbooks aren't the answer on its own. Knowing when and how to use them is more important."

Session 7 25th January 2012

"How can ICT be used effectively in the classroom?"

A very wide ranging discussion was had this week. Many of the teachers who participated were actively involved in embedding ICT tools into their everyday teaching whether it be the use ion Nintendo DS for numeracy to the use of class blogs to highlight achievement and to record learning.

It was generally agreed that using ICT in lessons helps to engage and enthuse students and creates a link with their ‘outside of school’ lives. It was also suggested that the uptake of new technologies is very depended on the teacher although it was suggested that CCEA’s ICT Accreditation scheme was helping to broaden the reach of ICT.  

Teacher’s were very willing to share links to their own work and to web tools which are having an impact in their classrooms. I have tried to consolidate all the links below but if there are any omissions please add them in the comments section at the bottom of this article.

Devices

http://microsite.leapfrog.com/leappad_uk/index.html

Wikis

http://www.wikispaces.com/

http://spanishingrosvenor.wikispaces.com/

Blogs

http://kidblog.org/home.php

http://spanishingrosvenormoblog.posterous.com/

https://posterous.com/

Scratch Tutorials

http://info.scratch.mit.edu/support/scratch_cards

http://scratch.mit.edu/

Web2 Links

http://www.delicious.com/dmchugh675/Web2.0+web2.0

http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/

http://www.livebinders.com/play/present?id=138192

Online Learning/Networking

http://www.memrise.com/welcome/

http://www.edmodo.com/

Interesting Ways to use ICT in the classroom

http://edte.ch/blog/interesting-ways/

Word Clouds

http://www.wordle.net/

http://www.tagxedo.com/

Mindmapping/Organising

http://www.spicynodes.org/

http://www.mindmeister.com/

http://popplet.com/

http://en.linoit.com/

http://www.livebinders.com/welcome

Web Tools for the Classroom

Session 6 18th Jan 2012

"What are you hopes for the future of ICT in NI schools?"

A very popular topic this week which arose out of this announcement made at BETT last week.

Key messages from the discussion

The contract awarded to Northgate to deliver ENNI (education Network Northern Ireland) will see a shift in emphasis from hardware to cloud services.

The proposed service will involve My School portal which will require a single login to access a range of services including such things as school folders and a VLE . As this is cloud based it can be accessed from anywhere.

Schools will have flexibility in terms of devices. Students will be able to connect to the network via any browser therefore smartphones, laptops, tablet PCs, ipads etc will all be able to access the managed service. This was warmly welcomed although there was some discussion around equality of access and what provision if any would be made for schools in areas of high deprivation.

The issue of teacher training was also addressed. There was some agreement that the cascade training model was probably not very effective. ICT specialist and enthusiasts were sent on training courses but met resistance when they returned to school. Other approaches were mention and the example of online training shown by #edtechcc was given as a possible example of how things could be done. 

Some concerns were raised over how schools in areas of disadvantage would compete with schools where all children could bring a mobile device to school.

On the whole this was a very positive night on #NIedchat and there was a definite vibe that we could be on the cusp of something really big.

Selected Tweets

I'm excited to hear/read ENNI's vision for ICT in NI Schools in the next few years. @dmurray742

Well it's nice to hear that the use of smart phones will be allowed in a protected environment! @stiofanoc

Are there equality issues re access? Not all kids have smart phones. @dmchugh675

How ready are teachers to embrace change in their ICT? what would make the transition easier? @not_out_97

I think many teachrs feel o'whelmed by tech & think they need 2 B doing everything, I sugg starting small & evaluate benefit 2 T&L @medv2

Can I move conversation back to mobile devices? Why r we focusing on kit in classrooms when kids have powerful tech in pockets? @dmurray742

Schls will access a range of apps and educational resources through N'gates My-School learning portal." Anyone experienced this? @dmchugh675

Portal will be personalised "way in" to pretty much everything - from MIS
to Apps; datastore to VLE  @not_out_97

That's were we need to be investing money! Better wifi - more bandwith. Let the kids bring the tech to the room. @dmurray742

Much has been learned from the past & much of past 10yrs was necessary to get everyone up to a level... @not_out_97

New service will be browser agnostic @not_out_97

Tweet of the Week

Daithi Murray wins TOTW for this contribution but to be honest he could have won it for any one of ten posts in the chat.

The man’s a machine!

“Why are we focusing on kit in classrooms when kids have powerful tech in their pockets?”

Jargon of the Week

"Browser Agnostic" via  @not_out_97 


 

Session 5 11th January 2012

#Niedchat on Wednesday 11^th Jan 2012

“Should teachers have a dress code?”

Opening Shots

I think that professional formality that suit/tie/dress code imposes builds barriers between pupils/teachers/parents (@dmurray742)

I feel more professional, especially with exam classes when I am smarter. (@MsRGraham)

I think a good dress code creates a collaborative learning atmosphere between pupils and teachers (@MrMalcontent)

I think 'well dressed' is the key, a scruffy suit can be just as bad if not worse than Tidy t-shirt and jeans (@Medv2)

Professionalism

I also like a relaxed day - we all do, but I think there is something about the professionalism of dealing with pupils and parents. Would you want to meet your barrister in court in jeans, et al? (@MrMalcontent)

To which @dmurray742 replied

As long as he did his job properly, he can dress in a tiara and high heels. (@dmurray742)

Is a dress code fair?

Our school introduced a staff dress code in an effort to deal with a few members that wore flip-flops and combats in summer time.

Unfortunately with some people it's about control. (@AnGaeilgeoir1)

Just another way of turning my job into an office job..(@Conmeist)

I always loved my English teachers, who tended to wear slightly more flamboyant/dramatic stuff. (@senseilp)

I recently had a friend told by a VP to fix tie & do up his top button! (@cillian_walsh)

Alternative to an imposed Dress Code

I think that it helps build a collective approach (@MrMalcontent)

If no dress code, employers/heads need to be willing to approach individuals who're wearing v inappropriate stuff. (@senseilp)

If you were Head would you impose a dress code?

I wish I'd could be brave enough to say 'to hell with the whole lot of it, for students and staff', but I don't think it wld work. (@MrMalcontent)

My staff would be so happy & proud of their school that there would be no need for a  code. (@Medv2)

Humour

I remember my old English teacher S___ H________ (Genius) who fought intro of ties for male teachers by wearing Dickie bows! (@MrMalcontent)

Surely someone has done a thesis on correlation between exam results and school dress codes for teachers??? (@dmurray742)

Perhaps a nightclub door policy approach would be good – smart casual. (@cillian_walsh)

Tweet of the Week

I'd go for a code, "smart" clothes all round and only the art teacher is allowed to look cool! (@not_out_97)

Session 4 - Wednesday 7th December

A tied voted meant that this session of #NIedchat would be in two parts. Part 1 would look at what difficulties teachers were having in incorporating “the 5 Es” of the UICT framework into their lessons. The second half of the chat would look at strategies for promoting independent learning.

It quickly became apparent that “Exchange” was the element of the UICT framework that our teachers were having the most difficulty with. A number mentioned that it was “meaningful” exchange opportunities which were hard to plan for. From experience exchange has meant e-mailing a document tot the teacher or sharing ideas within LNI although often this type of exchange is” manufactured” and isn’t born out of necessity. Examples were given of how exchange could be achieved. Edmodo, Voicethread and Quad-Blogging were all mention. Information about Quad-Blogging can be found here. Many of our teachers are getting excited by the possibilities of using Elluminate as a means of Exchange and collaboration. The suggestion was made that or next #NIedchat could be through the medium of Elluminate and an agreement in principle was made.

UPDATE: NIedchat Elluminate session on Wednesday 14th December at 8.30!

“Exhibit” was the next E to come in for some scrutiny. Participants were asked how their schools were managing with the requirement to store a portfolio of pupil work for assessment. It seems that schools are improvising with external hard-drives and shared areas as well as LNI workspaces. None of the respondents mentioned bespoke e-portfolio builders such as Mahara. Many of our teachers seem to like the functionality offered by dropbox and free websites like Wikispaces however it was hinted that e-portfolio building software could be on its way for NI schools.

The conversation then moved on to “Independent Learning”. How can it be encouraged in the classroom.

• Group work to encourage learning from peers and to take ownership of the learing process @katebook
• KWL grids @mrmalcontent
• Addressing all learning styles @medv2
• SOLO taxonomy @amandasalt
• Offering choice of learning materials/styles @dmchugh675
• Making learning relevant through “authentic” texts and examples @amandasalt

  

Tweet of the Week

Links Shared during the discussion

An “Independent Learning” popplet was shared by @amandasalt.

 http://popplet.com/app/#/127307

Video shared during the discussion

from  @katebook