Happy New Year! Start designing packaging for CD ROM which will be sent out in a cardboard wallet, with insert with details and a few sample sheets. Getting a little ahead of myself perhaps but it's something I can do while I wait for the return of the questionnaires. A little depressing that so many people haven't returned the questionnaires yet, I'll start ringing round the schools in a week or so. Making the arrangements for the trip to BETT 2002, rail strikes permitting. Fee of £98 for cover for the day, plus £40 for the train and £15 for seminars means it's an expensive day, but that's what the research grant is for after all. Let's hope it's worth it.
January 12th
To BETT 2002 yesterday: excellent. Several gas leaks on the Underground meant a lot of swaps of train. Arrived bang on 10 o' clock, and received first free pen (from Texas Instruments) at 10.02. Round first hall, then up to first seminar: BECTA Keynote lecture delivered by Peter Housden, new Director General of Schools. He didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, and got his Power Point slides in a muddle. Some people walked out. Had some lunch, then wandered and chatted to various people: a list of BETT LINKS and more photos are here.
The second seminar was by the GA ostensibly, but turned out to include 2 teachers who'd done their own websites. The session was a little unstructured, and petered out at the end. I already knew about both teachers' sites and didn't really gain a lot. One piece of advice was to avoid long pages - like this one ?
Not helped by dreadful noisy venue. More useful were the following exhibits: Ordnance Survey, 4Learning, Becta, & TEEM.
Best freebie ? The little footballs from GRIDCLUB's FOOTEE site. 2 women in Lara Croft gear with bubble guns wandering around for some reason.
Good to see so many teachers in one place all intent on improving the ICT experiences of their students.
Today it's time to update some website sections, and deal with the recent questionnaires. Need to e-mail Tim and bring him up to date with the latest, and prepare questions for Liz Taylor. Followed up details on latest from FISCHER TRUST.
January 18th
The end of a long week. My form's 'Blind Date' assembly today, and the 'AS' resits.
Yesterday, went to the University of Cambridge's Department of Education: behind the black door as promised to meet with Liz Taylor. She listened patiently to my rambling spiel before exposing a few weaknesses in the focus of the research. Have to think about the word 'Improving' and whether I can actually ascertain whether the sites and practices of teachers have a verifiable impact on students' learning. The focus is very much on the outside influences of teachers rather than on what goes on in the classroom; although the two areas are related, there is not necessarily a causal link. The wide ranging audit I've done on existing and ongoing research and developments in the area does at least seem to be fairly impressive. A little more in the way of 'Action research', and a few more choice interviews would perhaps tighten up the finished product. Discuss the idea that even Governments sometimes go ahead with projects without necessarily being able to prove they will 'add value'. Liz passes on something she was told: to try to make the research outcome 'interesting and true'. Most research perhaps achieves one of the goals, but not both. I will need to rethink the next phase once the questionnaires come back - I'll be ringing the schools who haven't yet returned the questionnaires next week.
On returning home, sign up to Becta's ICT Research Network. Participating in the research project has already been valuable in the new areas of interest and data it's already opened up - and that's before a word of the conclusion has been written. Confirmation from UEA for Online course I've sent off an application for on science of Climate Change.
January 20th
Start to tackle the pile of BPRS related information piled up on top of my scanner. Sketch out the outline for new website format, and head up some folders to start writing the Geography Review article. Also e-mail a very talented graphic designer friend to ask for help with coming up with an 'identity' for the website. Get details on ICT Research Network back.
Print off report from conference at the Barbican in June 2001: Building an ICT Research Network: Helping to create schools of the Future, which had been publicised at the very start of my research planning. Some interesting ideas. Need to start writing the report preamble to get the huge amount of information collected so far into some sort of shape.
January 27th
Out into the garden to take part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, then e-mail my results. Go through e-mails received from BECTA ICT Research Network - interesting to see what other people are up to. Going to start ringing round the schools who haven't yet returned questionnaires next week. One of the problems with questionnaire research is the people who don't return them. After years of GCSE students telling me their problems, the boot is on the other foot. Even the offer of free resources for a few minutes work doesn't seem to be sufficient. On the plus side I finally saw 'The Lord of the Rings'.
January 28th
Exam board course tomorrow - hopefully get in touch with a few Norfolk teachers. Logged in to website, and there's been almost 200 visits in the last 10 days. Wow. Thanks to anyone who's visited. Made some useful contacts through BECTA network. Also put together e-mail to Stephen Heppell at Ultralab, as I came across tfort.net in my research, and want to contribute to that too. Start adding sections for my students as exam period approaches. This is the way I'm going to go for the next few years. Colleague at Hills Road sending me details of a residency at Selwyn College which I could perhaps apply for next year. Lots of things appearing.
January 29th
Went on exam board course today to Mildenhall. Helpful advice on levels of response marking, to be introduced from June 2003, and coursework marking. One of the trainers from OCR: John Pallister offered to distribute questionnaire at other similar meetings around the country, so I plan to have a second group of responses. Realised that the teachers of Norfolk are not going to be forthcoming in their help with the research: got 60 questionnaires back, but that's not enough, so I'll have 2 lots of responses: ones from within Norfolk and those from outside. This will give me the chance to compare 2 samples. Realise I haven't been in touch with Tim for some time, so I'll try to get things moving over half term, assuming I make it that far - sleep deprivation is a terrible thing and a 5am start doesn't help much.
Continuing to sort through resources collected so far. Publishers seem to be keen on the idea of an Intranet: CD-ROMs which mimic the internet but have a large range of resources chosen by the publisher. An interested idea, but a little limiting without the extra sense provided by the Internet of the idea that the thing you want is just around the next corner, although it removes the frustration of the 'blind summit'. E-mail the Norfolk schools who didn't yet return questionnaires, and 6 of them are returned, as the e-mail address given in the official Norfolk publication on Secondary schools is wrong. Oh well.
Also posted message on TES Forum. Some good contacts HERE.
February 5th
Received invitation from BECTA to attend a conference run on behalf of the DfES to discuss future research directions for ICT and education. Not sure why I've been chosen, but apparently the various contributions to the ICT Research Network and so on have been noticed, and I 'sound interesting'. Nice to know I've been noticed - just want to come up with something worthwhile for the money that's been 'invested'.
Still waiting for e-mails to Norfolk schools to have an effect. Perhaps no-one in these schools ever checks the inbox ?
February 10th
A big day. Enter 'geographypages' into the GOOGLE searchbox, and up comes my site! I've finally made it, and only 3 hits away from a googlewhack...plus had my 1000th visitor.
February 17th
Half term week come and (nearly) gone. Received a book on KS3 assessments: want to get involved with ICT in those, and also put together some 'Thinking Skills' type activities, but time has gone quick. Family trip to Cambridge in the sun.
Read the latest TOP newsletter from BECTA and also download their very useful information sheet on Action research - if only I'd had that at the start I would have actually known what I was supposed to be doing. The information sheet sets out the structure of the research and although I'm doing most of what it says, the main worry is that the questionnaires aren't coming back in sufficient numbers.
Follow one of the links, and work through to EDUCATION-LINE: a database of previous research. Some of these would be relevant to any practising teacher if they were to read through them and get some ideas. I can see that the main answer would be time: teachers don't feel that they have any. Print some off of reading later.
Also follow link to BERA: British Educational Research Association. Interesting site, and come across some new resources and ideas on the Teacher Resource Exchange.
Making lots of contacts and it could all start to get a little overwhelming when my 17 periods still need to be taught week in week out.
February 24th
Parents' evening season started this week, just to add something else. Putting some thought into suggestions for the BECTA seminar next week - want to make it worth their while inviting me, and worth my while slogging round the Coventry ring road. Last time I was in Coventry was for a putative interview at the University, where I remember some lecturer asking about periglacial dry valleys ! Made contacts through Harris Open course forum starting, and also from Chris Durbin at the Staffordshire Learning Network.
Continuing to make slow progress with BPRS. Need a good run at it. Received book on Teachers and Research which looks useful. Still waiting for Hodder to sort out exchange of books: they sent me the wrong one. Google search expands now to 164 links, but most of those are all the pages on the website. Mentioned on "Geography World". Also make contact with the Internet Resources Newsletter at Heriot Watt University, and Geographypages is to be featured in March Newsletter:Issue 90.
Put together a questionnaire to give to all the Year 9's who are currently using the Internet to help research an assignment on the Kobe Earthquake. Hopefully that will give me some insight into their views on their access to the Web. Not exactly 'action research' yet, but it's a start.
Not heard back yet from tfort.net. Registered interest at new BECTA site: ICTADVICE: launched in early March.
The end of another busy and varied week. Phoned the first tranche of schools who hadn't returned the questionnaires. A while later, one phoned back saying that they didn't make much use of the Internet at their school so they didn't need to send it back - er..hello! That's what I want to know! Also sorted out delivery of ICT Pack from Fred Martin.
Invited to BECTa Seminar last week. Drive to the University of Warwick Science Park, and the seminar I had been invited to by Niel McLean: Director of Evidence and Practice at BECTa. This was to come up with ideas for priorities for research into ICT and Education, and pass on recommendations and suggestions to the DfES, who were represented at the seminar by John Tallantyne. Lunch and chat with primary headteacher from Sussex (very amusing anecdote about deputy head, detainee and a heavy school lunch...), and then we were put into groups.
I was placed with 3 very knowledgeable and open colleagues, plus a BECTA 'facilitator'. Thanks to Dr. Rachel Pilkington who has recently joined Birmingham University from Leeds University's Computer Based Learning Unit, Chris Price Head of ICT at Birmingham City Council/LEA, and Peter Rudd from the NFER. It was a valuable learning experience to hear their comments and reactions to my own modest contributions. Considered the value of new pedagogies, and e-learning, social inclusion, and skills that modern pupils had in use of text messaging and IRC. We also thought about the money spent on Curriculum Online, and the assumptions that teachers would use the resources wholesale, and whether this was really how teachers worked. Thanked Niel McLean for inviting me. Would like to get more involved in this area.
We came up with several areas we thought were worthy of further study, and these were then narrowed down and modified by other groups before we got our original ideas back annotated by the other groups. Lots of mobile phones going off even in the middle of the introductory session - I'd have had those confiscated.
Seems to suggest the area of Internet use is one worth pursuing. Also introduced me to some new pointers for diagnostic methods, as used by NFER: considered pupil logs, 'video diaries', pupil-pupil interviews with a 'script' to follow, or 'machine logging'. There was also mention of the possible 'demotivational' impact of having an innovative teacher on the staff, as pupils may ask the other teachers 'Why can't you do what Mr. So and So does..'
Considered how best to disseminate good practice: some people seemed to think a 3000 word analytical report was best.
A valuable afternoon, and worth the M6/A14 junction (sorry to all those motorists I queue-jumped past, but I plead ignorance of the road layout..)
Did a bit of web research on my fellow group members and sent thank-you e-mails. Also investigated a website which was originally recommended from the BECTA Online conference some months back: Simon Midgley's excellent site. Also discover Miranda Net, which seems to have several of the aims of my research at the heart of their activities, and contacted them.
The main jobs section of the TES disappeared from the staffroom by the middle of the first period and didn't reappear. An SMT plot or just eager colleagues who can't bear to part with money for their own copy?
Try out the software obtained from a PC Magazine at the weekend: Finereader OCR Software for my scanner, which will allow me to take all the thousands of pages of text I've word-processed over the years but not got on my computer hard drive, and scan then in, save them as Word documents, edit them, then import them into Front Page. Geographypages should then grow at a much faster rate. Just a matter of time...
Also some classroom observations during the week. Had a letter from BPRS about expense payments. Hadn't remembered, but the research is split into 2 sections, and that means I may have lost some chance to claim cash as I didn't claim in time. A bit of an expense on the supply cover front for observations and interviews with various people. Need to start sorting the mass of details and supplementary information into some sort of order. Did some Year 9 feedback sheets and started to get those filled in by some groups.
March 7th
Today sees launch of new BECTa site: ICT ADVICE. Log on and join one of the forums, and also register for the 2nd online conference. Following on from the one in November, BECTa are hosting another one in May on the theme of 'Transforming teaching and Learning with ICT'. It runs from May 1st-2nd. Hope to be able to make a few more links, and advance my understanding still further. I recommend a BPRS to anyone who needs to inject a bit of interest into their career. Just wish I had more time.
Come across one of their timesavers which is How to evaluate effective use of the Internet. Has some useful forms which I download to look at later, and some ideas on evaluating web resources which may also be useful. Will add links to these to the relevant section of the final site.
Also today joined a forum on the Staffordshire Learning Net. Teacher forums seem to be one way in which a teacher can dip a toe into networking and exchanging ideas with other colleagues. This would have been a useful addition to the original questionnaire, and is perhaps something I could consider when doing some individual interviews. Have a few people in mind for these. Online communities are an area of some value.
Carried out some more information gathering this week: a review sheet was handed to all Year 9 pupils who had completed a KOBE assignment, and had used the Internet in their information gathering. Will be sifting through the responses to see what sort of deep insights they came up with: hopefully more than the first few I looked at...
March 12th
A few more strands start to emerge from responses: link harvesting, and online communities. Also the importance of setting recommended links rather than allowing free searches.
Supportive e-mail from Chris Durbin posted on SLN forum page. Received an envelope of about 20 questionnaires which had been very kindly collected by John Pallister: OCR exam board trainer I met at Mildenhall. Cheers John. Start to add a few more to spreadsheet, and update references page. A few ICT Research Network postings too. Useful Miranda Net seminar, but it's in Huddersfield. Top town, but a long way from Norfolk.
March 22nd
Week wiped out by kids being ill. Get in touch with a few more people, and come across something called the DELIA project: Distributed e-learning and Internet Assessment. Launched by CIE on 1st December 2000 in is Pilot phase. Not sure how it panned out.
Also find a BECTa funded site looking at settlement, courtesy of Castleford High School. It offers the chance to look at images in different areas of the town. Something that could be easily sorted with a digital camera. We currently use a slide set, but could perhaps go round the town and get some pictures of the different areas. Also find Ecotech school initiative, which has some useful stuff on the effect of Meadowhall on Sheffield City Centre. Get in touch with one of the people involved to ask permission to use material on geographypages. Still not heard back from MirandaNet.
Also download all the necessary information on Advanced Skills Teacher applications. I feel this could be my next step.
March 24th
More new discoveries, and get the chance to explore the NAACE site: National Association of Advisers for Computers in Education, and find an excellent document (with BECTa involvement of course) which puts across the 5 factors which most lead to good learning with ICT - once again it proves that if you look in the right place, no matter what you want, someone will have done it first and posted it on the web.
The 5 factors of effective practice are Autonomy, Capability, Creativity, Quality and Scope.
Also explored notschool.net: a site related to a project to get students who had been out of education for some time back into the business of learning.
March 27th
Have an idea for a little more 'interactivity' which seems to be one of the themes of the moment. Will produce a series of investigations where the pages that people visit are determined by choices they make: a little like the 'Fighting Fantasy' books my brother used to like. A little episodic perhaps, but they should load quickly and be good fun.
Also find a useful David Leat article, and explore several county and borough council sites. Some interesting ideas buried amongst them. Book by Ashley Kent ordered online from Sage Publications arrives very promptly. Some useful articles. Also print off some very useful presentations from Staffordshire GA, including Powerpoint on World hunger, and virtual lecture on glacial features in Greenland. Thanks. The forum replies seem to be slowing down - online communities seem to be slow to get going. Also do a little more on the Harris Open online course. Still waiting for news from UEA on Global Warming course.
March 29th
Read several excellent articles in Ashley Kent book. Plenty of ideas about the reasons why teachers don't use ICT, and some of the strategies that seem to work. The Internet also comes in useful for another reason: first single for 6 years from Canadian band 'Rush' was released today, but only to U.S radio stations. Quick GOOGLE search reveals a Weblog (a 'blogger') has already posted a 5MB MP3 file of the single. 20 minutes later, and the song is mine to hear, months before I would otherwise be able to...
Yesterday did some paid ICT consultancy work, and had a happy client at the end of it.
March 30th
Another busy day. Did a few searches on the theme of 'Thinking Skills' and research in general, and came up with some very useful new leads.
Printed out a whole host of stuff on the theme of ICT and Geography, and made a long list of materials I need to pass to colleagues in the department. Very useful articles in BUSIP journal I find online (Bedfordshire support for BPRS), plus the University of Ulster's PGCE student pages. So much out there and so little time. Also a report on the GEOVISIONS 2000 project (featured in 'Teaching Geography'..) - perhaps try and get hold of the data.
Come across Colin Robson, a Psychologist. An article of his is on the Blackwells site: the introduction to a book called 'Real World Research' which sounds very useful. Also some resources produced from a mini-fellowship at Oxford. Useful article in Sunday Times too. Niel McLean quoted again.