Hoeben’s Blog

BECTA are responsible for developing the government’s e-strategy and have the official remit of “leading the national drive to ensure the effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning.” Last September 2008, Charles Crook and Colin Harrison from BECTA published a report called: ‘Web 2.0 Technologies for Learning at Key Stage 3 and 4′, and make the cautious case for further adoption of web 2.0 technology. Below are some extracts, which make interesting reading:

“Overall, although most learners use the internet for learning, there is only limited use of Web 2.0, and only a few embryonic signs of criticality, self-management and meta-cognitive reflection.”

“Many learners lack technical skills, and lack an awareness of the range of technologies and of when and how they could be used, as well as the digital literacy and critical skills to navigate this space. Teachers should be careful not to overestimate learners’ familiarity and skills in this area. There is a clear role for teachers in developing such skills.”

“Findings on impact are cautiously positive. The research team identified four potential benefits to learning and teaching from using Web 2.0 to establish and sustain a participatory, collaborative, creative ethos of enquiry. These were found in the data, though in differing degrees:

• Stimulating new modes of enquiry
• Engaging in collaborative learning activities
• Engaging with new literacies
• Online publication of content

When used effectively, Web 2.0 technologies had a positive impact on motivation and engagement through involving students in more participatory learning.”

You can see a video on the use of web 2.0 in education here.

There is a tenancy amongst teachers to assume that children/young people can essentially be self-taught when it comes to technology and that all they really require is access to new technologies. Although this progressive view of learning has its merits, especially for encouraging creativity, most people require some kind of theoretical understanding, which they can then subvert. Nevertheless, the creation of ICT as a subject has led to technology becoming a separate discipline with a fixed curriculum and has further excluded its collaborative use across schools.

There is a reluctance by many teachers to learn about new technologies over existing practices, since it is possible to satisfy the curriculum requirements by using teaching methods that predate computers.The use of technology has to be exciting and open up potential learning opportunities in order to motivate staff, whilst also being integral to the assessment process. In terms of CPD, there is a case for sharing current pedagogy that involves the use of technology within schools.

Blogs and RSS feeds are a useful way of disseminating good practice and departments should be encouraged to share their achievements in this way, along with, of course, the students. Fronter have a useful tool called ‘News’ on their MLE servie, which allows for this. However, it is only an internal system and does not encourage interaction with a wider, global audience like blog platforms such as Blogger and Wordpress.

I would be interested to know what other people think about how technology should be taught in schools?

Thomas Tallis School is a specialist Arts status college in Kidbrooke, South East London, and have recently made the decision to set up YouTube throughout the school. They have set up a profile called Tallis Tube, where videos from all departments can be posted. I particularly like this video, which shows how mobiles might be used in lessons such as biology to explain processes – although this student needs to be taught how to hold the camera still…

It is inspiring to see a school prepared to adopt the use of web 2.0 applications so enthusiastically and, in particular at a Senior Management level. At Thomas Tallis college, Jon Nicholls, the Assistant Head, who I met for the first time at the BETT show in Olympia earlier this year, has been at the forefront of pushing the school towards the use of popular open-source applications such as Flickr and YouTube. Click here to visit his school blog.

This image has been simply manipulated using Tiltshift maker – this can also be achieved easily in Photoshop using a duplicated layer applied with a blur and the area of focus removed with the rubber tool, and then applied a high contrast/saturation using levels.

This great animation was recently produced by director Josh Raskin and animator Alex Kurina and uses the original interview recording between a 14 year old and John Lennon in 1969. I particularly like the way it is a continuous animation with few scene cuts, allowing the illustrator to playfully mutate from one scene to another.

A simple project might be to get students to create an animation of a famous speech using a combination of their own drawings and photographic images to illustrate some of the key concepts, eventually exporting as a video podcast. Alternatively, they could just create a simple animation based on the notion of metamorphosis; the transformation from one form into another.

A colleague of mine recently went to a QCA conference about the new curriculum and they revealingly acknowledged that the use of level descriptors at Key Stage 3 are being abused. From a statutory point of view, they only need to be applied at the end of Key Stage 3, so why are we wasting our time applying it here there and everywhere??

This video, shown on TeacherTV, is a classic example of how mad the whole assessment process has become at Key Stage 3.

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I’ve been trying to work out the best way to use Google Maps to develop international linking projects without using Google Earth, which has a complex interface and might put off students. Instead, I have found it much better to create maps directly in Google Maps and embed HTML in the placemark box using images and videos from other sites such as Flickr and BLIP.TV. It is possible to collaborate within a closed network of people and publish the results. As an experiment, I have set up a map for my department and will be trying out some tests next term with my Year 10 GCSE Photography students adding imagery from the local area.

Has anyone tried to use Google Maps for international linking and, if so, what kind of tasks did you set students?

After becoming increasingly frustrated with the British Council’s E-Languages site for our UKIERI link, I’ve decided to set up a blog, which can be used by all partners in Delhi and London to document outcomes. It will also allow students to have discussions without the need for a password, making it easy to hold forums. The site can be viewed at:

UKIERI London-Delhi Hub School Link

Strobe 4, originally uploaded by Fortismere Art & Photography Department.

This project worked really well – one of our Year 13 students, Patrick Raimondi-Taylor, recently brought in a strobe and took photos for his photography exam project ‘transition’ using a long exposure and low ISO. He’s got some great results – visit his Flickr site and leave a comment.

Next year, I hope to make creating a digital portfolio a prerequisite of the A-Level course so that students are use to sharing and managing assets online.