Head in the Cloud

Yesterday afternoon (14th May) I attended a Curriculum for Wales 2022 event at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. Organised by the Welsh Government, the event provided stakeholders who had no input into the construction of the draft curriculum with the opportunities to find out more and importantly, communicate their own thoughts on the draft. The afternoon event was well attended and appeared to be a mix of people from FE/HE, business and some teachers. I understand that teachers / schools are also being offered similar events via their regional consortium. View from our workshop room For the first hour, the Welsh Government delivered a presentation on the background to the draft curriculum. Much of what was outlined is already in the public domain, but it was helpful to hear the details again and will certainly help to form a background to subsequent meetings or courses I provide to schools. Consistent messages are definitely helpful for schools. Delegates then broke off i...

The following post is my attempt at beginning to understand and reflect on the proposed Science and Technology Area of Learning and Experience. It is only focused on the computer science statements in What Matters 6 (WM6) and more specifically on the statements that relate mainly to the primary school - Progression Steps 1, 2 & 3. At the end of April we finally got to see the long awaited draft Curriculum for Wales 2022 , to much fanfare from the Minister for Education, Kirsty Williams, the Welsh Government and the teachers and pioneer schools involved in its development. So it was with professional interest, tinged with trepidation, that I downloaded and began reading the proposals for the Science and Technology Area of Learning and Experience (AoLE). Before I go any further, for colleagues reading this blog outside the bubble of education in Wales, the draft curriculum is another step along the major changes to education in Wales , initiated by Prof Graham Donaldson and his...

I seem to be spending much of my time talking to head teachers at the moment about GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) which is implemented on May 25th 2018. It is an issue that is certainly vexing many. However it's not just GDPR per se, but around related issues in what schools can and cannot save in the cloud, and the usual 'Google isn't safe’ mantra that is still being trotted out by some. Let's look at the GDPR issue first. From discussions I’ve had, there seems to be a lack of good information or advice about exactly what this means for a school, especially primary schools that I mainly work with. Here’s a link to GDPR education section of the Information Commissioner's Office website. Here schools can find out more information about GDPR. However, what I would really like to see is some concise information coming out from local authorities, regional consortia or the Welsh Government. Spelling out simply (if that's possible) what head teacher...

This week we finally got confirmation from the Welsh Government of the Google for Education implementation into Hwb, the end of the Learning Possibilities Hwb+ virtual learning platform and further investment in school broadband. Kirsty Williams, cabinet secretary for education, is quoted as saying: "We want our teachers to have access to the best digital tools and resources and the best quality superfast broadband. We have listened to the feedback we’ve been receiving from schools and I’m very pleased that, as a result of their feedback, we will be rolling out Google for Education in 2018. This will give our teachers a much wider range of digital tools and resources and will lead to greater collaboration and communication within the classroom." No date for the implementation was mentioned, only that teachers will "soon have more choice about the digital tools they use". As I outlined in my post at the end of October , it looks like G Suite for Education will p...

Once or twice during my recent visits to schools, confusion has arisen over whether the Digital Competence Framework is a statutory document or not. I've always explained that unlike the literacy and numeracy frameworks, it is not. I've posted below something on this from the National Digital Learning Council minutes from June 22nd 2017. Jane Peffers - Welsh Government lead for the DCF was presenting to the NDLC on the Digital Competence Framework: 4.5 The potential for the DCF to be made statutory was raised. At this time, this is considered unlikely and it is hoped that encouraging its use, rather than prescribing it, will support and encourage a more significant change in culture, for teachers to adapt to the new ways of working.

Last Monday, Chris Owen (head of digital learning unit, Welsh Government) announced at a Google Leadership Symposium in Cardiff, that G Suite for Education will be included in the Hwb platform possibly from April 2018. For those schools in the room this was great news, many feeling finally vindicated that their Google approach to developing cloud student learning was finally being recognised by the Welsh Government. Up until this announcement, several local authorities and regional consortia had made it quite clear to schools in their areas that they didn't want them using G Suite for Education, that basically Hwb was the only show in town and Google "wasn't safe". Chris Owen - Google Leadership Symposium, Cardiff As you might have picked up from my previous posts, that's fine as long as what is being provided through Hwb are the best set of digital tools and resources that are available. In some instances this has arguably not been the case. Hwb+ being th...

Back in June 2015 I wrote a post about the announcement from the then Welsh education minister, Huw Lewis, about the introduction of a new Digital Competence Framework  (DCF) for schools in Wales. As many of you will know, that framework has since been written and is beginning to be implemented in schools across Wales. In the post, I provided a list to several digital literacy or competence frameworks already in place across many countries, highlighting to the digital pioneer schools who were writing the framework that they didn't have to start from nothing and that they didn't necessarily have to 'reinvent the wheel'. Therefore it was interesting to see this morning an update to one of the frameworks mentioned. The European Digital Competence Framework for Citizens, also known as DigComp, was first published in 2013 and "consists of detailed descriptions of all competences that are necessary to be proficient in digital environments and describes them in term...