teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk

In preparation for my joint presentation (with Nick Dennis) at the Schools History Project Conference next weekend, I’ve updated the Directory section of this site. In particular, Web 2.0 stuff I’ve used lists – with a description and links to posts on this site – the Web 2.0 tools I’ve used or plan to use. The focus of the presentation is using New Media (i.e. Web 2.0 apps) to solve learning problems.*

In the comments section of this post I’d appreciate it if you could point out any obvious ones I’ve missed or those that you’re using with your students to solve particular learning problems.

* ‘Learning problems’ means things like engaging learners, encouraging them to collaborate, presenting their work effectively, etc. :)

If you haven’t already, you’ll need to read my original post, Coursework 2.0, in which I outlined how I was going to do coursework with my Year 10 History classes a little differently this year. What follows is a brief evaluation of the successes and failures of the system… :p

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BBC News reports on the NASUWT’s (a teaching union for readers outside the UK) denouncement of student panel interviews. Since ‘pupil voice’ became a buzzphrase recently it has become the in thing to do when recruiting new staff. I was ‘interviewed’ by students when I went for a Head of Department job last month. It actually contributed to me withdrawing as they were supposedly some of the best and most knowledgable students about the school… :s

Almost as soon as I’d boarded the train yesterday to take me back from an examiners’ standardisation meeting, the following image kind of popped into my head. On reflection, it’s a tad over-simplistic, but ideas do not have to be fully-formed to be useful to others!

Perhaps someone could take it and run with it? More arrows need to be added – teachers aren’t just pulled in two directions at the same time (if only!)

(the image is in Fireworks PNG format if that helps anyone)

Although I was tempted to post this over at edtechroundup.com, I think this is better suited here. You may have heard of PLEs, or Personal Learning Environments. If you’d like to learn more, I came across a decent post entitled Personal Learning Environments: what they are and how to implement them. We educators need to be clued-up on these things to stop having constraining and inappropriate tools foisted upon us… :)

I came across an interesting post today on John Connell’s blog entitled The Radical Impossibility of Teaching. I considered a lengthier response to this as the philosophy of education is of particular interest to me, given my academic background. However, I shall have to put it on the backburner for the time being. Suffice to say I agree with the following extract of a quotation from Ron Burnett, cited in the post: “The contradiction is that learning can never be reduced to the way information and ideas are structured for communication.” Amen to that.

This was going to be a post for the Microblog (the shorter ones that show up in the yellow box below the main post), but I found it the issue too interesting to fit into the number of words required! The public/private nature of the classroom is an fascinating issue… :D

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BBC News reports that the General Teaching Council (GTC) for England has called for tests for under-16s to be scrapped, citing a failure to raise standards and increase stress on students. Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary thinks differently, “Parents don’t want to go back to a world where schools were closed institutions, no-one knew what was going on in them.” True – now we know exactly what’s going on in them: teaching to the test! ;)

Some may be interested in a post I made earlier today over at edtechroundup.com about Pageflakes Student Edition which, to my mind, is a better offering than iGoogle. I’d appreciate your comments and/or experiences with either if you’ve used them with students! :)

According to MIT news, a study has found that the brain needs ‘noise’ in order to learn. I won’t go into the neurobiological specifics, but suffice to say that it would seem the brain employs error correction as neural pathways develop and evolve. On a tangential note, this adds weight to the theory that I’m exploring in my Ed.D. thesis that to be ‘educated’ in the 21st century is a lot to do with pattern-spotting. :)