Head in the Cloud

Today Hwb, the all Wales learning platform  was launched! We've just written a post over on our work blog highlighting how we believe Hwb and Hwb+ can support the work we do with schools. My initial thoughts on the Hwb website are that it has a very clean, clear and easy to use interface with a 'Microsoft Metro feel'. Resources are easy to find but at present it seems like only a selection of resources have moved from NGfL Cymru to Hwb. I'm sure that further appropriate resources are in the process of being moved. Discussion forums are available in the Community section which are open to Hwb+ registered users. All in all it's looking very good. Education Wales, which was launched at the same time as Hwb, is basically an area on Apple iTunesU that is hosting video and other digital content for Wales. One of the highlights for me is the access to some clips from the BBC TV programme "The Story of Wales". The only slight reservation I have at the ...

Six months since my last post, good grief where did that time go? Well it's certainly been a busy time. School improvement support has changed radically across all (most?) of Wales. In the South East where I work, all five local authorities (Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport and Torfaen) have combined school improvement services into one regional consortium called the Education Achievement Service for SE Wales . " The EAS has been created by the five local authorities to raise education standards. By working together as part of an integrated service to support and challenge schools effectively, enhance front line services and make the most of the available resources, progress will take place quickly and effectively. " Unlike the ' culling'  of education staff that occurred in the formation of some of the other consortia across Wales, the EAS retained the staff who moved from each of the local authorities. I now work for a 21st Century Learnin...

I’ve recently watched a couple of videos made by primary schools, demonstrating how they used iPads across their schools. I was particularly interested in seeing how the children were using them during a lesson. After watching for a little while, I noticed that many of the apps that were being used were basically digital versions of resources that the teacher would have traditionally used without the iPad or other technologies. For example, a 'whiteboard' that allowed the children to write down a sum and the answer and then to show to others; foundation phase children drawing letters on the screen; children playing matching games; drawing on the screen or reading books. This is not necessarily a criticism, just an observation. After watching, I started to reflect on how I've often seen technology being used by teachers. It reminded me of the experience of working on the 'interactive whiteboard initiative' some 10 years ago across our authority and the relatively rap...

Yesterday I blogged about the European internet safety report, and in particular how children might safely use mobile phones and games consoles to access the internet. So I made a trawl of the mobile phone and gaming console websites to see what each of the companies say about filtering internet access for young people and parental controls. I've listed below links to the relevant parts of their websites. A very useful task, for instance, perhaps naively I didn't realise that the various mobile phone networks have been unable to filter Blackberry handsets. Quite a potential problem considering the numbers of young people who use a Blackberry. However, the Orange website does say that by July 2012 something will be in place to filter these devices if needed. Photo from Flickr user Pauly This could be a useful list to share with parents? Mobile phones: O2 - Mobile phone and age verification   / Block or unblock 18+ content T Mobile - Content Lock Vodafone - Content...

Internet safety report - Articles - Educational Technology - ICT in Education  A quick summary by Terry Freedman of a new report entitled " European Strategy for a Better Internet for Children ". Interesting that Terry picks up on part of the report that has started to concern me. That is the issue of how children safely access the web through mobile devices and through gaming consoles. What filters or controls are available for parents on these devices? If they are there are many parents aware they're there? Definitely something for me to look more closely at.

I'm currently spending some time finding articles, publications and research on how ICT 'raises standards' and it's turning into quite a fascinating activity. This has sprung very much out of one of my last blogs about embedding ICT. In it I wrote about the need for a school to remember to ‘look back’ to evaluate what has been done in a school, what was successful or not, to learn from this before moving the whole school forward. Well I’m now doing the same thing. I’m looking for some clarity, reminding myself what benefits ICT does bring to the learner, the teacher and for the school. I’ve been doing this job for 10 years and I guess what I’m trying to do is de-construct what I believe I know about ICT and rebuild it on firmer foundations. It really has been fascinating. The same benefits keep appearing and also the challenges, the main challenge being that it seems to be very difficult to prove that the use of ICT has a direct correlation to the raising of standards. ...

Just read an article on the BBC website entitled "Facebook: Parents 'help children break age limits' ". It's not that surprising. During esafety sessions that I've carried out with parents of primary school children, some have said they have done this very thing. What is equally concerning in the article is the issue with young people and 'sexting' - the sending of explicit images to their boyfriends or girlfriends. An urgent need to talk with young people about dangers associated with these behaviours? How do you and your school approach these issues?