Just over one in five (20.2%) said they left the phone on in lessons – which is usually forbidden by schools. Should this statistic be a surprise – and what of the ‘forbidden by schools’? Does this represent a bias in the way mobile phones are regarded in a school setting? What’s wrong with having a mobile left on in class – provided the appropriate courtesies are observed about sound off and avoiding distracting behaviour etc.?
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing an innovative english teacher in a secondary school who was integrating the students’ mobiles into her lessons in several ways:
She was getting them to use predictive txt to teach spelling.
Those that had internet access on their phones she appointed as researchers to look up quick facts for the rest of the group, eg. when students came back from break saying they had heard that Michael Jackson had died she got somebody to find out as much as they could from their phone and report back to the class.
She put a mobile number up on the board and said it was a mobile phone dictionary and if you txt a word to it the definition will be returned. The number was actually her phone, and when students sent a word to it she would secretly return the definition.
The mobiles that students have in their pockets are being increasingly powerful devices – why not try and make maximum use of them.
Recently watched Emily Levine’s theory of everything Ted Talk. I am no post modernist, so wouldn’t agree with all of her thoughts, but I liked her concept of the trickster – the one who deliberately avoids trying to be objective, or drawn into win/lose debates.
There is currently a lot of debate going on at the moment around various aspects of educational technologies, eportfolios, IAM, etc. which is trying to be very objective, and narrow everything down to neat and tidy applications with fixed standards for interoperability, etc. I can’t help thinking that there is the need for a trickster or two in these discussions.
I have just been looking at frameworks for reviewing IT systems in schools. We have used the ITIL version 3 framework as the basis of reviews in the tertiary sector, but I thought I would look at BECTA‘s adaption of ITIL for primary and secondary schools.
At first glance it appears to be based on the ITIL version 2 framework, which is ‘process’ driven. I like the version 3 approach which is instead ‘service’ driven. I think this was a sensible move on the part of ITIL. It is too easy for IT people to get focused on the processes and forget that the delivery of services is the key reason for IT to exist – and the version 3 framework helps to keep the focus on this. It is largely just wording, as the underlying processes of v3 are much the same as for version 2, but is still a worthwhile change in my view.
I wonder if BECTA are going to revise their framework to keep current with version 3 of ITIL. Must have better hunt through the above site to try and find out.
I was lucky enough to get a small contract in the middle east country of Bahrain a few weeks ago. It was my first time in the middle east, and it was a great experience. Click on the photo below to see a few snaps from the visit.
I was reading the South China Morning Post in a cafe in the City Gate mall in Hong Kong, as you do on a Saturday morning, and spotted an article about a great scheme to kick start the economy in the Fujian province. They were offering 10 bonus marks on the high school entrance exam for children whose parents spent more than $284K on property. For some reason there was a bit of an outcry against the scheme and they had to withdraw it. I think someone in the NZ ministry should pick this idea up and run with it
I have recently finished reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. I really enjoyed it. There are some interesting thoughts in it for the education sector, like the fact that given 3 seconds of video of a lecturer, with no audio, a group of students came up with an identical evaluation of the lecturers effectiveness as a teacher as another group of students that did the evaluation after being taught for a semester. Universities could save thousands on their course evaluation processes by getting a group of random people to evaluate 3 second videos of the lecturing staff rather than analysing thousands of end of semester evaluation forms
With numerous examples Gladwell shows that with flashes of insight humans can make split second decisions that are sound and reliable – particularly when backed by years of experience in a particular field. But he notes that
“This insight is not a lightbulb that goes off inside our heads. It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out”
In some ways it backs up the ideas of extreme/agile programming which in a lot of ways operates around the split second hunches of the programmers as the cards are shuffled around the table, rather than the endless analysis and documentation of the waterfall methods.
If you are someone that feels you need to thoroughly research a topic and write a detailed bibliography in APA format before you can even think about making a sound decision then I suggest you read this book.
We have been evaluating a couple of iPhones with the view to wider use of this technology within our organisation. Here are some of the pros and cons to-date:
Pros:
Provides quick and easy access to email. While many other cheaper phone handsets also give email access, the iphone provides almost usable two way email, ie. you can read and send email. On a standard phone handset sending emails is painful on a number keypad – with the iphone it is much easier, but still slow compared to a proper keyboard.
Calender, contacts, etc. are all easily accessible, but probably not much different to a standard phone handset.
Excellent device for collection and listening/watching of material for professional development, podcasts, videos, etc. The screen size is more than adequate for watching video whilst on bus/train/plane – so a great way to make use of downtime to catch up on those TED Talks you have always been meaning to watch.
Reasonable camera and good application for storing/viewing/sharing photos
Almost usable web browser – for quick access to small amounts of information the web browser is usable. For large amounts of web surfing the screen size makes it painful with lots of scrolling and zooming required – maybe that is a Con – you decide
Excellent and easy to use map tool for finding your way around
Provides a single device for phone, ipod, camera (providing you don’t have a need for high quality photos), so no need to carry multiple devices around.
Cons
For heavy phone use the battery life is limited. If you are making a lot of phone calls battery life can come down to less than 8 hours. If you are watching a lot of videos it can come down to 4 hours. With no backup battery this means that you can’t afford to leave home without your charger.
The text input is not brilliant. The iphone is a great device for consuming information, but sharing info is still clumsy with 1 or 2 finger at the most typing on a slightly too small keyboard.
The need to have a compulsory data plan. For a lot of people you could mostly get away with using it on wifi networks only, so could get away with only casual data useage plan if it was available
The inability to use it as a modem for your computer
No inbuilt video recording – but you can get an add-on app for this
On our corporate plan the cost is an extra $400 for each device above a standard phone, plus at least $30 extra per month for data plan – so with 50 staff you do the figures – rolling out to all staff would be a reasonable investment.
Another good watch from our resident Sir Ken Robinson spotter Jedd. Hopefully it will stay on the web longer than the last one!
He is such an engaging speaker – and makes such sense with his views on education and creativity.
A quote from this one to think about – “Human systems are organisms not mechanisms” – unfortunately the bulk of our education system is still in a mechanised mode.
