Details of this website focusing on literacy was circulated this week. It looks an excellent collection of resources and links with a very clear focus.
This site aims to help teachers by drawing together and categorising many of the free Literacy teaching and learning resources on the web.
Exactly 20 years ago this month I was preparing to write the third or fourth TMA (Tutor Marked Assignment) of my Arts Foundation Course (A102) and preparing to attend my first Open University Summer School. My experiences over the following 6 years were great - 40+ TMAs, 3 Summer Schools (Stirling & York twice) loads of friends and 6 exams!!!
I remember being fastidious in my recording of the course videos and became adept at setting up the technology to record the programmes that were typically broadcast at 2.30 am!!!! It was the radio broadcasts, however, that really caused me the problems - it was much more difficult to set up tapes to automatically record in the early hours of the morning.
All of these difficulties - and memories of missed broadcasts - flooded back to me as I read about the Open University’s decision to make course materials available on iTunes U. No more piles of videos, no more missed broadcasts, no more writing up of sticky labels………oh joy.
My experiences with the OU led me into new career paths that I’d never have considered had I not undertaken the studies which effectively changed the course of my life.
I’m seriously thinking of going back to look at today’s updated versions of the courses I studied - perhaps I’ll even sign up formally for a course or two in this new era of anytime, anywhere access to audio and video resources for learning.
As a Dundee lad, weaned on the Beano and Dandy, who later worked as a teacher in the school next door to the D C Thomson offices I’ve always had a fascination for stories told in pictures as well as words.
It was, therefore, with great interest (but no great surprise) that I read Emma Seith’s report in this week’s TESS on the potential use of comics and graphic novels to encourage reluctant readers.
Ever considered using Viz’s Fat Slags to spark a class debate about gender representation? What about using Jackie to teach history? Or juxtaposing Japanese manga and Shakespeare? No?
In all likelihood, neither had teachers gathered at the National Library of Scotland, in Edinburgh, until they attended a recent continuing professional development session on using comics in the classroom by Dr Mel Gibson – or Dr Mel Comics, “because there’s no point in doing a Google search for Mel Gibson”.
Nat Edwards, head of education at the library, introduces Dr Gibson as a leading scholar on comics and graphic novels. Her job, she says, is to “enthuse” the assembled teachers, but she also wants to dispel any idea that such literature is “mostly violent and full of awfulness”.
Comics are, she argues, a means of developing literacy. There is, for example, the Classical Comics range which includes Shakespeare’s Henry V and Macbeth; there’s Persepolis, an autobiographical novel by Marjane Satrapi depicting her childhood in Iran after the revolution; and The Tale of One Bad Rat by Bryan Talbot about a girl who has suffered sexual abuse. “It’s a book about the power of literature and art to make life worth living again,” Dr Gibson says.
She begins, however, by talking about manga, the Japanese graphic novel or comic. In schools it can be used as a means of exploring a different culture, Dr Gibson suggests, but it is also a “powerful vehicle for literacy and creativity”.
She continues: “Graphic novels are good at drawing in new and developing readers, but they also engage passionate readers, who will keep coming back wanting the next volume.”
The Secondary English Network based in West Lothian have been detailing their use of such materials on their exciting blog. These folks are fortunate to have events and exhibitions such asLocal Heroes: The Art of the Graphic Novel on their doorsteps with the associated lecture opportunities that go with them and I’m very jealous!! However, thanks to them for sharing their work so generously - it’s really great to follow what they’re doing.
Remember ComicLife software is available for our schools.
Glow’s not coming our way for a while but things are happening elsewhere. As someone who was, at one time, tasked with involvement in Glow I like to try to keep a close eye on where things are at…………..
Was quite amused by this chance find when I ran a Google search for Glow in Highland!!
You may find that you can’t follow the link below in school!!!!! but I’ve put up a few bits of info from this week’s edubloggers and elsewhere so you can get a feel for what’s happening out there where the bulb’s shining a little brighter!!
Strathpeffer was the centre of attention yesterday: Doug Dickinson was in town (village just doesn’t sound right!) and tickets for two Kaiser Chiefs‘ gigs went on sale. I think whoever secured the Kaisers’ gig for the rejuvinated Strathpeffer Pavilion is very smart - injecting new life-blood and providing what young people want into such a historical, and perhaps, perceived traditional building must be one of the best ways to maintain it as a venue and secure its future. It made me ask what we are doing, as agents of educational development, to keep abreast of and maintain the interests of young people in our schools?
I had ‘booked’ Doug to talk to some of our school leaders about the use of ICT for today’s learners and the ways in which it may help them meet futures that are less predictable than ever before. The talks were, in equal measure, frank, provocative, interesting, and amusing. Doug raised many issues and challenges, as well as suggestions for our school leaders about how we can maintain our schools as relevant, exciting venues for learning.
Using the recently published outcomes for literacy and technologies from Curriculum for Excellence, Doug exemplified ways in which teachers and students could utilise a variety of tools to develop a multimodal approach and to capitalise on the ‘white space’ for learning that exists within the new structures. The new guidelines make specific mention of the use of text messages, blogs and social networking sites, web pages, catalogues and directories, and that, It is essential that all practitioners, in each sector, in each department and in all settings, find opportunities to apply reinforce and extend ICT skills. Accordingly,there needs to be serious reassessment of attitudes to, and practice in the usage and overall place of ICT in our schools. Teachers need to be better equipped, i.e. know the right techniques and have the correct equipment to make use of ICT for teaching and learning within their classrooms. This necessitates teachers making the decisions about what ICT they need rather than technical support teams specifying equipment and the levels of availability of software tools and content on their behalf.
Doug suggested that students will find ways to bypass any technology barriers schools put in their way - if they haven’t already done so. Current ‘block and stop’ practices such as overbearing Internet filtering, and a limited range of appropriate tools will make them look elsewhere for the information they need and for ways to use their chosen methods of communication. It is through educational support that children will learn how to appropriately use and be safe on the Internet rather than by, as he put it, ‘removing all the knives from the kitchen’.
I’m looking forward to the formal feedback from the day, but from discussions I had over coffee and lunch with a number of those present, there didn’t seem to be much disagreement.
The ATS Service has arranged a training day to help schools prepare for the inevitable increase in the number of pupils with Additional Support Needs who will opt to sit their exams using ICT.
Our friends at the CALL Centre, Edinburgh University have been developing this work with the SQA over a number of years now and have delivered training to large numbers of staff from schools around the country.
The Highland day is set for Tuesday 10th June and we hope to offer all our secondary schools a couple of places at this important event. The details of the course can be seen on the CPD Calendar but we’re targeting this at PTs of Support for Learning and SQA Co-ordinators.
Some of the schools who have been using digital question papers have begun to create interactive digital versions of other resources such as Prelims, NABs and worksheets and so we will look at tools and techniques for creating such resources.
The course presenters will be:
Paul Nisbet, Senior Research Fellow, Communication Aids for Language and Learning (CALL) Centre
Patricia McDonald, SQA Project Manager, National Qualifications Product Development
Margaret Dearman, Support for Learning, Buckie High School
Doug Dickinson is to speak with 40 Highland Heads and Deputes this Friday - he’s on a bit of a tour and we’re glad he’s able to come north to see us. He’s actually delivering in Strathpeffer Community Centre but the trip was organised via the Dingwall Office so I’ll allow him the alliteration in his latest post.
Dumfries (and Galloway), Dundee, Dunbarton (well nearly) and Dingwall … a Scottish tour !
Monday with over 100 teachers in Dumfries. Their first day back after the Easter holidays but what enthusiasm. We explored the changing definitions of text in educational contexts and looked at the wider picture illustrated by Article 13 of the UN Charter for children. This led us to look at the way Textease Studio CT handles multimodality, in particular the power of adding sound to text in a variety of ways.
Keeping reading records as ‘live’ sound recordings was the innovation here as many teachers had not imagined that they had the technology to do this simply and quickly. Tuesday in Dundee with 60 or so enthusiasts in a fantastically impressive hall with a huge presentation screen. Again we looked at the way Curriculum for Excellence had a clear focus towards the future and how the definitions of text opened up opportunities to look at multimodality, blogging and social networking.
In his recent blog post, All about perception?, David Muir revived the memory of Billy Connolly’s monologue, Musical Appreciation (Mairi’s Wedding) . It took me back to my secondary school music classes - around the same time as the Big Yin put this out!
While we had no such comedic presence in the music classes of my schooldays, we were treated weekly to singing sessions from the old dog-eared book of ’standards’.
Needless to say, music periods were treated as an irrelevance. The outmoded syllabus, with no room to engage with music (and other subjects) on anything other than the teachers’ terms, had us seeking out our own routes to expression and learning. Our music happened at home and in friends’ houses and various garages around Dundee where we set up our tinny amps, guitars and drums to thrash out Communication Breakdown or Throw Down the Sword if the guy who could play the solo was with us that day. We were all into Zepp, Deep Purple, Lynyrd Skynyrd, (and Billy Connolly) and would have lapped up any help that could have helped us better understand how the music worked.
Music departments seem to have transformed themselves since I was at school in the late 60s and early 70s. They’ve moved with the times, brought in the right tools and regularly work with contemporary as well as traditional music. It’s now guitars, keyboards and drums rather than grand pianos, tambours, triangles, and singing (nearly) in unison. There’s been a natural and gradual adoption of the various technologies that have further supported teaching and learning as well as the writing and performance elements of their subject. As popular musical instruments such as guitars and keyboards have become cheaper, and recording tools more mobile and affordable, it seems an obvious transition to put these tools into the hands of the learners and to listen to what they can achieve when appropriately supported and encouraged by their peers and teachers.
Why are we so slow in other areas of education to see the relevance of ‘tooling up’ to offer more engaging opportunities to our, already, digitally aware pupils? Why do we spend so much time blocking teachers’ and pupils’ access to relevant websites and tools - financially negating our investment in some of the most significant resources that should be available for 21st Century teaching and learning?
Young people are turning in droves to the Internet, at home, to gain more relevant experiences in other subject areas. The National Year of Reading web site ‘Read Up, Fed Up’ recently reported that:
Compiling their own online blogs came fourth in the Read Up rankings and 80% of those taking part said they had written their own story, film, play or song.
National Year of Reading director Honor Wilson-Fletcher said: “Young people are web natives - exposed to a wider variety of reading material than any previous generation through the explosion of digital media.
“It seems not all adults are comfortable with this shift, and are often discouraging teens from taking advantage of this new reading landscape.
“Accessing the digital universe is absolutely central to life’s opportunities for teens.
“We may be only just starting to understand the dynamics of online reading, but adults need to feel more positive about it and to learn more about it.”
and that:
The National Year of Reading report shows that more youngsters are choosing online sites as a reading source.
Music in schools has shed many of its irrelevances - how will other subject areas fare if they fail to take account of the changed world that is already with us?
So, while Life’s Been Good to Me So Far and there’s no chance of a late-onset rock’n'roll lifestyle for me, I’m off to indulge in a Pandora’s Boxof permissible, proper reading - and listening - with a view to filling in some of the missing musical moments that I was starved of in my youth. Many thanks to the staff room blog of Auchenharvie Academy for bringing The Musicology Show to my attention. It’s a brilliant resource even if many of the follow-through links are off limits outside the US.
“There’s no longer any excuse! The secret is out! We teachers must embrace ’search’ for what it is - an effective and critical skill in finding and utilising sources available on the internet.”
So states Judy O’Connell on her fantastic blog before going on to provide really useful links to search sites, some specifically for kids, and a great tutorial that makes finding exactly what we want as easy as ordering your specially topped pizza!
“I would like a pizza with pepperoni and ham, but with no olives and no garlic.”
Here’s the good news: If you are able to order a pizza like that, you are able to use advanced “Boolean” searching on the Internet. It’s actually that easy!
The ATS Service had the pleasure this week of spending two days with staff from one of our special schools. We met with nine staff over the two days and made use of the excellent facilities and surroundings of The Storehouse of Foulis.
The time had been set aside to help raise ICT awareness and build confidence in deploying the various technologies in the context of teaching and learning for the wide range of pupils who attend the school. Writing about the days like this doesn’t reflect the buzz that existed as the teachers immediately saw the possibilities such tools could have for themselves and their pupils. I certainly left with new ideas as a result of the discussions and feedback we received.
All the teachers made voice recordings using Audacity software, took and downloaded photographs before making use of these in other software applications such as Jigworks, ChooseIt Maker2, and Softease Presenter. We painted using 2Paint a Picture and published using 2Publish+ from 2Simple software, looked at the benefits of click and drag software, Comic Life for picture story telling, and so on……..
The idea behind building confidence in these areas was to look beyond the keyboard and ‘through’ the technology to the opportunities for the pupils to express themselves and to give teachers a variety of tools to help build alternative resources - to change the way we teach and the way we allow the children to learn.
One teacher’s comments on the morning session.
There’s some discussion now to be had back at school then we aim to follow up, in more detail, any of the strands the teachers want to further develop.
