Head in the Cloud

In my previous post about Digital Literacy I attempted to set the context of what is currently happening in education in Wales with regards to the recommendations from the ICT Steering Group report.  These recommendations included the changing of ICT to the new subject of Computing, and the introduction of a statutory Digital Literacy Framework that would sit alongside the current Literacy and Numeracy Frameworks. The Welsh Government in their response to that report explained that Digital Literacy would now become part of a statutory Wider Skills Framework. Currently Professor Graham Donaldson has been tasked with reviewing education in Wales and one of his remits is to look at the ICT Steering Group report and recommendations. His review findings should be released at the end of 2014. It was was important for me to try and look at the definition of digital literacy. I personally feel that there is some ambiguity about the term, which I will come back to at the end of this post...

At a time when England have introduced digital literacy elements to their new Computing PoS, and with the recommendations from the ICT Steering Group report for a digital literacy framework alongside the new subject of Computing, I’ve been attempting to look closely into what exactly is meant by the term ‘digital literacy’, and ultimately what this could mean for primary and secondary schools in Wales. I intend to put together a series of blogs on the topic, mainly as a way to help me with my understanding around some of the current thinking in this field, but hopefully it will still be of interest to teachers and others. I'd welcome any of your thoughts or comments on this topic. The Context In June 2012, Leighton Andrews, the then Minister for Education and Skills, announced “an additional £3m of funding over the next three years to support a range of measures to improve computer science, digital literacy and ICT in schools and colleges across Wales.” This announcement came ...

Some really good news, British Pathe have now launched a YouTube channel. Users now have access to 85,000 historical films, about 3,500 hours of historical footage. Definitely an excellent resource for supporting history in the primary and secondary school. Hopefully your local authority hasn't blocked YouTube for use in school!! I've just been Chromecasting the videos to my TV, but they can obviously be embedded and shared in the usual ways. They also have separate channels focussing on War , Vintage Fashions and Sporting History . British Pathe have created some playlists under different themes to help you explore some topics. A couple fo examples are shown below. World War I Greatest Sporting Moments Vintage Fashions