Just before 11 o’clock on the 11th of November, the Head Boy and Head Girl will stand up to tell the rest of the school about one of her sons: Sgt BCT Halley.

100 years ago, Bruce Halley had just turned 16. He lived just down the road in Cherrybank. Every Monday to Friday, Bruce made the walk to the North Inch to attend classes at Perth Academy.

He would walk down the Glasgow Road, past Dewars’ Whisky Factory (now the ice rink), cross the railway bridge and then walk past St Ninian’s Cathedral on his way to Rose Terrace.

After a full day of Maths, English, PE and Classics, Bruce and his pals would walk out to the North Inch to kick a ball about.

Bruce Halley was, by all accounts, a normal 16 year old boy and pupil of Perth Academy.

When War was declared on the 4th August, 1914, Bruce was 19… and like so many others from Perthshire he headed for the Recruiting Station. Before he knew it, he and another 1,000 men from the area, were members of the 6th (Perthshire) Black Watch… one of the finest Battalions in the History of the British Army.

As part of Kitchener’s ‘New Army’, Bruce was trained hard for the fighting that was to follow. He was soon singled out as someone special (he was, after all, an Academy pupil!), and was quickly promoted – first to a Corporal, then in 1916, to Sergeant.

The 1st of July 1916 marked the beginning of the Battle of the Somme – Lord Kitchener’s grand plan to smash through the German Lines and to win the war by Christmas. The plan called for over 100,000 soldiers to break through the German lines and advance several miles into German held territory. It was a disaster.

By the end of the first day, the British Army had suffered almost 60,000 casualties, with around 20,000 killed. To give you an idea of what that means, the population of Perth is just over 40,000 people.

Bruce Halley’s Battalion were ‘lucky’. They did not take part in the fighting that day, however, on 22nd July, they were to attack a place called High Wood. Although they did not take the wood, they fought with such spirit and ferocity that the Germans named them “The ladies from Hell” – a nickname that has stuck for all the Scottish Regiments who have fought in the kilt.

Withdrawn from the line, the 6th Perthshire Black Watch had one more part to play in the closing stages of the Battle of the Somme.

Just before dawn, on the 13th November 1916, Bruce Halley lead his platoon into the mist and fog of no man’s land in an attempt to drive the Germans out of one of the most fortified defensive positions on the whole of the Somme. The boy who had been a pupil at Perth Academy, had played on the North Inch, and who had walked down the Glasgow Road, had one last walk to make. He never returned.

Today, Bruce Crawford Taylor Halley lies at peace in Hunter’s Cemetery close to where he died… but he is not forgotten. You will find his name on the plaque at the back of the Assembly Hall and when you see it, remember this.

It is not a list of names, it is a list of people. Every name there was someone who studied at Perth Academy. Every name there was a child who laughed and loved and hoped for better things. Every name there deserves to be remembered…

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

In Memory of
Serjeant BRUCE CRAWFORD TAYLOR HALLEY

3284, 6th Bn., Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)
who died age 21
on 13 November 1916
Son of the late John C. and Annie T. Beveridge Halley. Native of Cherrybank, Perth.
Remembered with honour
HUNTER’S CEMETERY, BEAUMONT-HAMEL

This leads me to reflect on the one truly sour note that I took away from on the day, and sadly, it came in a throwaway remark by Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Mike Russell (aka @feorlean on twitter — a recommended follow BTW!) I have long maintained (eg: Computer Says No!, and the accompanying blog about my talk from Ewan McIntosh / Who Watches the Watchers? / Instant or Filtered?) that the changes that need to happen require someone to actually make the decision to allow access to the internet in schools. This was a point I put to the then Cabinet Secretary Fiona Hyslop at the 2008 Scottish Learning Festival only to be told it was an ‘operational matter’ — I think in Father Ted the phrase is “That would be an ecumenical matter“. John Connell wrote a great post on the exchange and what it meant on his blog. He concluded his post with the following postscript:

— there was, pre­vi­ously, dis­cus­sion about the pos­si­bil­ity of orga­niz­ing a national con­fer­ence on the issue, per­haps through the good offices of LTS, involv­ing not only peo­ple from edu­ca­tion but also rep­re­sen­ta­tives of those in the IT sec­tions across the coun­try who main­tain the cur­rent lock-everything-down sit­u­a­tion.

Well, arguably, the Education Scotland ICT Summit was the opportunity to finally set Scotland on a new course. This was the time that the Cabinet Secretary could listen and see that there are a lot of great minds thinking about how we progress and implement the Scottish Curriculum and use ICT as an integral part of this. So, inevitably, the point was made to Mr Russell that there needs to be direction from the top if we are to have a level playing field of access to tools that are an integral part of working and learning in this connected world. Someone needs to stand up and say that things need to change and here is how they are going to change… but Mr Russell’s response to this was to say that he “…wished he had that much power”.

If the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Life Long Learning does not have the power to direct Local Authorities to allow access to the internet in a meaningful way, then who does?

This is not an operational matter, this is a strategic matter. The decision to allow teachers and learners to start harnessing the resources that so many pupils already have unfettered access to on their mobile devices is one that has to be made, and made soon.

Nowhere was this more eloquently highlighted than in the words of one of the Stirling High pupils who were present to introduce the 5 topics. Their introductions are now available on the wiki and you owe it to every learner you will have in front of you for the next few years to go and read what they have to say. However, if you are not going to do that, you should consider this one thought from Fraser Davidson as, more than anything, I believe it gets to the heart of the matter. If Mr Russell, or the collected minds who attended #eduscotict can’t make a decision, then the learners will make that decision for themselves:

If I walked into a coffee shop such as Starbucks and took out my phone, I could access anything on the internet with consummate ease. So why is it the case that in my school — a place of education — … I can’t do the same?

I am so aware of John Siracusa’s words: “We aren’t stuck with the things we have now. We can make new things, better things. And it doesn’t take many people to do it…”. He is right, it only takes one person.

Mr Russell… over to you.

I’ve been working on a number of things over the October break, but one thing I keep coming back to is how to improve the classroom experience for every learner — including the teacher. One of the side effects of this reflection is the following list of questions and thoughts and observations. They are rough and ready, and many may only apply to my own practice, but I thought I’d share them with you in the hope that you may have some observations or thoughts of your own to share. Enjoy!

Everything starts with the learner.

Think:

• Would you want to be taught by you? What do you do that would annoy you?
• Do you give sufficient feedback – verbal, written, facial?
• Do you praise good work?
• Do you annoy the class in any way because of what you do?
• If you are confrontational with anyone in the class, what are the rest of the class thinking? What would you be thinking if you were another learner in the class?
• Are your lessons engaging for the learners? Do they want to learn? Do they do the bare minimum, or do they ever want to do more?
• Are you asking interesting questions?
• Are you giving learners new ways to demonstrate their learning, or are you asking for the same thing every time?
• Have you taught the learners how to write an essay?
• Have you chosen texts that you love or simply ones that you happen to have access to?
• What have you learned recently that you have shared with someone else in the department or in the class?
• How well do you know what you are expected to do with your classes?
• When did you last ask anyone in one of your classes what they enjoyed doing?

Thoughts:

We are reluctant to consider questions that we already know will give negative answers;
We are so focused on the end results of what we are teaching that we do not take the time to consider whether there is a better way of doing what we are doing;
We are in thrall to the need to have “robust evidence” at the expense of our experience and professional judgement. It appears that it is no longer enough to say that “we know”, we now have to think “we can prove”;
If we do not have the support mechanisms in place to allow us to teach to the best of our abilities – what strategies (and more importantly, what tactics) do we need to implement in order to free us up to do what we love most – teach.

What is a good lesson?

• We have all said “that was a really good lesson” at some point or another, but was it a really good lesson for the learners as well?
• Why was it ’good’?
• What are the 3 key points that you would identify as having made it a ’good’ lesson?
• Why was it not a great lesson?
• How do you move from good to great?

Consider:

• How well do you know what your classes think of your teaching style?
• When was the last time you tried something completely new?
• What was the last thing you personally learned… and who did you share this with?
• What was the last thing one of your class taught you?
• What qualities does the best CPD have… and has any of it had a lasting impact on your classroom practice?

That’s it so far. Lots of questions, and I’m not thinking of specific answers so much as I am thinking about the implications of the questions. What do you think? Are these the right questions? What would you add? Do you have any answers? You are very welcome to chip in in the comments.

When it was launched, Glow was a truly ground breaking project. It was justifiably lauded for its ambition and its intent. However, for those who began using it, it very quickly paled compared to the newly emerging social media tools that were springing up. Many teachers (myself included) have been levering tools like wordpress, wikipsaces, glogster et al to enhance our classroom practice, and as a result, we have seen Glow become more and more ‘clunky’ in comparison.

The greatest strength of Glow as I have seen it, has been the single sign on for a host of services… but in a remarkable move, Mike Russell has called a halt to the procurement process for Glow 2 and has decided to ask everyone what we should consider next.

The EduScotICT wiki to support the discussion closes to entries and editing tomorrow for passing on to the Scottish Government, and so I spent a wee while chipping in some final thoughts on one particular aspect, namely: Objective Three – New Behaviours for Teaching

I’m afraid my answers kind of grew and grew… so in the interests of giving them a slightly clearer narrative thread, I have collected them into this post.

The wiki’s preamble to my comments and thoughts is as follows:

Objective 3: Promote new behaviours for teaching

Update: The Cabinet Secretary has expanded on this objective and set the context in a post on Engage for Education.

Benefits: a measurable improvement in the application of technology in learning; increased innovation by teachers and learners in classroom practice; increased achievement by learners; increased sharing and collaboration amongst teachers to develop themselves as learners.

What do we need to do:

• Revisit models of classroom interaction and share good practice. Technology has changed how we learn – how we find information, how we share, how we interact – our classrooms need to more fully reflect this.
• Support all Education staff in identifying the benefits of using technology to improve pupil learning.
• Promote good models of effective learning and teaching
• Support teachers in seeing themselves as confident, life-long learners.
• Adopt a pro-technology stance for our daily activities, allow use of technology and access to the web for all learners as a routine part of the teaching process. Computer access in formal examinations and tests; move the emphasis from knowledge to skills by making the knowledge freely accessible for all.

My Thoughts and Responses

How will we do this:

1. Have a basic standard for ICT competence in classroom – re-enforced by GTC , Teacher Training Institutions, HMIE ( Education Scotland) , SQA ( perhaps through appointee network and where necessary qualifications )

I completely agree that there should be a basic standard for ICT competence — with the proviso that, by codifying this, we are in danger of repeating the mistakes of the past. We have reached the current impasse simply because there are LA ‘standards’ for tool provision and access, and these are part of the problem. As soon as you wish to try something new, or that is not covered by a set of standards that will be out-of-date as soon as the next FaceBook or Twitter or BlackBoard or School Intranet is invented, you are likely to create new friction points based on these ‘standards’. The simple fact is that the whole landscape is changing with regards ICT and especially education. ‘Standards’ is perhaps the wrong word. ‘Skills’ would be better as this should have more ‘future-proofing’ built in. Let me illustrate:

(Likely) Standard: Teachers should be able to use Powerpoint competently and justify that use on pedagogical grounds. [Problem: Many teachers believe wrongly that they can already use PowerPoint and will not accept that they might anything more to learn, thus effectively making the standard a dead-end with built in obsolescence and no incentive to improve or share]
(Attempt to define an equivalent futureproof) Skill: Teachers should be able to use a presentation software tool of their choice and justify that use on pedagogical grounds. In addition, they should be able to share their presentations online using a suitable and appropriate online service.
[Intention: That teachers are allowed to use new services such as Slideshare and Prezi to create engaging and effective support materials, and that the ability to experiment with new tools is built in. In addition, it is essential that we move towards a culture of openness and sharing.]

This is one possible way that I see the imposition of standards playing out. I am using Ppt as an example that most are familiar with, but it is the underlying notion that we should allow a ‘standard’ to be flexible and open-ended that I believe to be the most important thing.

2. Support development of subject networks and encourage subject specialists to belong to these as part of their continued professional development. Support independent services for subject specialists where they exist don’t reinvent wheels.

In a sense, this is an encouragement to acknowledge the value of the Social Media Networks that many teachers have already accepted and have seen as an invaluable part of their personal CPD. It matters not whether this means being a member of the TESS forums, or an active Facebook or Twitter teacher, it is the recognition that we are learning and developing outwith the usual channels, and that this needs to be encouraged.

It goes without saying that there will be many who are uncomfortable with the notion of using ICT in this way, however, the financial realities mean that it is much more cost effective to have an online equivalent of the old Subject Advisors in these straightened times. For example, a National English Base (to use the bricks and mortar equivalent as an analogy) would allow easy dissemination of professional materials, SQA updates, Govt initiatives, and so forth. It could also be a fantastic means of sharing lessons and blethering with colleagues across the country… in short, everything we hoped Glow would become.

If I give a simplistic interpretation, Glow failed not because the information wasn’t there, but because the information wasn’t easy to find. If you know Twitter, you will know how easy it is to follow a theme or conference or conversation through the use of hashtags… imagine an online Subject Base that allowed us to use hashtags to follow relevant conversations and/or initiatives. Simpler and clearer, with the added benefit of being a familiar model to many, and easily explained for the rest.

3. Agree nationally to change the nature of devices allowed in examinations through consultation with SQA, Scottish Government and other partners. 

Arguably, this is a no-brainer. About the only time I use a pen nowadays is to mark. When I am writing new materials, preparing for meetings or any of the other countless jobs I have to do, I use technology: a school PC, or more likely my own iPad or even my mobile phone. It seems indefensible and more than a little perverse to continue insisting that learners be denied the very tools they will be required to use after they leave school. ICT is no longer an extra, it just is.

4. Provide central consultancy support (perhaps via Education Scotland?) to help schools and local authorities who wish to open up access to student and staff owned devices, deploy “1 to 1″ computing initiatives or engage in other innovative learning space or school design projects. This will help avoid “reinventing the wheel”.

I am a little concerned at the get-out word: “wish”. This one word would probably be enough to prevent most LAs from changing on the basis that they would not ‘wish’ to change, so they won’t.

I’m tempted to ask ‘Why are we making this even more awkward than it needs to be?’ If I want to use my local library’s free wifi, I key in my reader number and a 4 digit PIN. I have no doubts that anything I then access is being logged and recorded, and for a public/council service, I would not expect anything less. How difficult is it to roll this simple model out for schools?

In addition, given that most school filtering software sits between the wifi connection points and the internet itself, we would already have the means of ensuring that users (ie learners/pupils/young people) were protected from inappropriate content.

As a final point, if this is likely to lead to bandwidth issues, then quite simply, we need more bandwidth.

5. Teachers should be encouraged to take risks. Some of the savings generated from not continuing with the procurement of Glow Futures should be developed into a system of providing teachers with small amounts of money (grants) to try new things, observe lessons, visits other school and undertake training. This investment should be where it matters – at classroom level. This is key to enabling new practices which require additional ICT equipment, such as microphones or webcams.

Risk taking is an anathema to many… and understandably given the accountability that is heaped on us. One possible means of encouraging ‘risk taking’ could be to have a peer-review committee, much like an ethics committee for some of the medical disciplines, and they could approve , guide and mentor new practices. The downside of this would be that nothing would happen because by the time anything ‘risky’ was approved the teacher would probably have lost interest or retired! The plus side would be a means of reviewing and evaluating new practices, and if done properly, of then sharing these with the education community as a whole.

6. Develop resources to support schools in teaching on-line learning skills. These skills are an important part of a broad general education particularly as some learning in the senior phase is likely only to be accessible to some schools via on-line arrangements.

The short answer:

This could be done in two simple stages:

i) give every school a Moodle deployment,

ii) provide every teacher with a copy of Moodle for Dummies.

Job done.

The long answer:
It is not easy to deploy on-line learning well. For a school, the answer is in deploying Blended Learning solutions where the on-line aspect enhances the classroom practice. This is not the same as Distance Learning which would need to be used in the scenario mentioned in the point about the senior phase only being able to access some courses using on-line arrangements.

This is one area where I do think that money should be spent centrally to develop National Courses using the very best teacher’s resources and input from the SQA and EducationScotland as well as teachers with the relevant skills and know-how. This is an important area for a whole host of reasons, but one that will require very careful management lest it become son-of-Glow.

7. Government or Education Scotland should investigate alternative models of centralised on-line schooling to assist individual local authorities deal with aspects of inclusion (for example travelling families, children in hospital, excluded children, children in care, children with phobia, etc.). Stephen Heppell’s  NotSchool.net model is also worth investigation.

See my longer comment to point 6!

8. Scottish Government or Education Scotland along with local authority, industry and higher education partners should start to develop and capture examples of emerging pedagogical practice for learning, teaching and assessment. This should include 1:1, flipped classroom and mobile technologies in learning. Scotland may benefit from a centre of emerging practice.

I love the notion of a Centre of Emerging Practice, especially if it shares actively all that it uncovers. I am thinking along the lines of FutureLab. While LTS did sterling work in this respect, I actually think we have the opportunity to devise a new body to encourage and develop and share the very best practice from where-ever it may be found, be that Scotland, England, the world. More importantly, we would need the capability to support other teachers who wished to try identified strategies. It is one thing to read a case study, it is quite another to then try to implement that in the classroom.

9. Teachers, and pupils, should be able to access small amounts of funding (£100, £200, £500 or £1000) to trial new tools or resources and communicate the outcome. This could be done in conjunction with industry partners. Some of the money saved by cancelling the Glow Future procurement could be invested here where it will really have an impact in the hands of classroom teachers.

I love this idea. The notion that teachers could apply for funds to trial something that would then be fed back is as clever as it is simple. As with my comments above, there would need to be some means of centralising both the distribution of these funds, but also, and more importantly, collating and evaluating the results of these studies with a view to sharing them and then supporting those who wished to further investigate new practices.

The key to this would lie in evaluating the effectiveness of any trials. I am being drawn more and more to the notion of some form of professional review body for pedagogy. One that oversees these trials and offers advice and guidance for the participants as well as being a peer review body for the results.

This particular idea has immense potential… maybe not in isolation, but as part of a coherent whole, it could be a real game-changer.

Conclusion

As I attempted to answer/address these points, I became aware that I was almost arguing for a body like an ethics committee, ie: a group of peer teachers who could review and advise and guide teachers on pedagogical rounds. Whether this would be desireable (or whether such a body already exists) is a question for another day… but for now, feel free to agree or disagree with me here, or even better, on the EduScotICT wiki itself!

The book is brilliant:secondary school teacher and despite its overt bias towards the English education system, it is well worth checking out… especially as it only costs about £7 from Amazon!

You can read my review in the TESS by following this link!
Feel free to ask questions in the comments.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Steve Jobs commencement address to Stanford University, June, 2005.

They have inspired me to resurrect an old blog — http://pawriting.wordpress.com — I had wasting away so that I can highlight some of their writing. Most of what will be posted at the start of the term is pretty much as it’s submitted. No real marking or corrections from me yet, simply writing with all its warts and mistakes and glitches. We’ll be working on making changes and corrections in class, but I promised them that I’d post their work and we are already planning a real book (using something like Lulu.com) for the end of the year. In the meantime, the class would be over the moon if you could take a minute to drop by and leave the odd comment if you feel so inclined. Their latest writing task was to write about the following scenario:

You are visiting an old couple that you have known for a long time. The wife is very old and frail so her husband has to help her eat. As you watch this you begin to consider whether this is right.

As the husband finishes feeding her, you notice how old she really looks before realising that this is the fate that awaits all of us who live so long.

You might notice that this is actually an outline of the ‘plot’ of Iain Crichton Smith‘s poem, ‘Old Woman (And she being old)’, but that was a detail I didn’t share with the class until after I received the writing.

There are four stories up so far, with many more to follow, however, if you’ve time, you should start with The Familiar Stranger. I think it is exceptional, even with a few wee blemishes that will be fixed soon.

One thing I forgot to mention… all of these writers are between 12 and 13 years old. Now that truly is exceptional! Please go read, enjoy, and encourage!

My own journey is ongoing, and this is neither the time nor place to give you the rather boring details, but I can’t help but think about how we should seek to engage learners in our classes. As a busy Principal Teacher, I have to deal with the fallout from learners who are not ‘getting it’. These are not stupid children, but in some cases, they have horrendous home backgrounds that mean they simply see no value in school. Others have been brought up by parental units who hated school themselves and have steadfastly undermined any perceived ‘authority’ that a school claims to hold. Some have a very clear idea of what they want to do, and how they are going to do so… for these learners, the academic emphasis of most schools — caused by STACs and CATs and exam results and all the other paraphernalia by which a school is judged a ‘success’ — is pointless and irrelevant.

I look at Close Reading, an integral part of the exam process for my own subject, and can’t help but think that it has very little value in the real world. I get the point that the passages are taken from sources with a suitably sophisticated level of written English, and I even see the point in seeing how well learners can dissect the passage to see how it was put together, but just as when you dissect anything else of value — a flower, or a frog, or a poem — how easy is it to put the parts back together and enjoy it for what it was? A flower will always look better in a garden, a frog will always be more entertaining in a pond, and a poem will always be more beautiful when you respond to it on an emotional level… something which only happens before tearing it apart.

Incidentally, I am acutely aware of the irony in commenting on the ‘value’ of my subject given the context for the word!

In our quest to measure and assess and know the cost of things, we have forgotten their true value. We do not have time to stop and think and appreciate. Our subjects have become joyless because every time we try and share what we love, we are aware that someone somewhere is waiting to measure how effectively we have ripped it apart and passed that destruction on to a learner who probably didn’t appreciate it in the first place. We are teaching, not because we love our subject, but because we are being judged on the results that come from our teaching.

Engagement comes when we move away from the antiquated notion that we have all the answers (We don’t — that rather dubious honour lies with Google, or Khan Academy, or Wikipedia, or Twitter, or The British Museum, or…), and begin to meet learners on their own terms. Find out what excites them. Find out how they can bring their own knowledge into the school. Find out what engages them in the first place, and then look for the learning opportunities. Don’t patronise them, don’t make them feel as if their own passions have no value, recognise that they probably know more than I do about so many things… and don’t make spurious connections so you can hijack their engagement for your own end of year figures. In short: accept that there is no such thing as the “one size fits all education”. But also recognise that it is genuinely impossible to provide a truly personalised education for every learner… if it was , we would have no disengaged learners…

This is a post that doesn’t set out to answer any questions, merely raise them. Engagement matters, but achieving it for every learner. That, that is a truly mighty ambition.

(1) I know that everyone can learn… and that to say anyone has no interest in learning is a sweeping generalisation, but the reality is that many of our ‘learners’ are too busy trying to make sense of their lives to have any time left to apply to learning as we practice it in mainstream schools.

This year, I’d love to get even more responses so… If you teach English and have 5 minutes to spare, please consider adding your chosen texts to the list. If you don’t teach English, could you please pass the link onto your friendly neighbourhood English Department! The all important links for the 2011 Text Survey are:
The Form: http://bit.ly/2011textsurvey
The Results so far: http://bit.ly/2011textsurveyresults

Although I’ve only just opened the survey up, I’ve already received replies from Scotland, Ireland, England, Canada, the USA and Australia… And there are quite a few surprises in the texts as well!

Please think about adding your texts, or passing the links on to any English Teachers you know!

If you’ve been following my posts, you’ll realise that they are currently password protected. Similarly, the wiki is set to private. Both these measures are temporary because, as I said last night, if you search for my name, it’ll only take seconds to find my blog… and because of the nature of the project, I don’t want my class finding out the ‘answers’ that way! They’ve got to work for them!

If you have seen me speak about it, or if you are a teacher interested in finding out more at the moment, you can contact me here: http://about.me/nwinton and I’ll give you the passwords and add you to the wiki!

GLOGSTER

The one thing everyone has been asking me about is my use of Glogster. I’ve always liked it, and have played with it a bit in the past, but this is the first time I’ve found a means of making it a useful tool for enabling learning. In essence, the whole project revolves around a research and investigation. As I mentioned last night, I’ve called it CSI:CfE, or MrW:CSI or some such. The class have been directed to the Glog(?) which is at http://nwinton.glogster.com/cfe-time-detectives, and that has given them access to some of the ‘clues’ I’ve placed on the Glog. (There is an annotated guide to them on the wiki)

The basic idea is that, they have to research all the objects, and try to find the narrative that links them. To do this, they are expected to use as many different sources they can think of. I’m awarding extra ‘investigation points’ for every book they use, or person they contact, or other source they use. In addition, they have been told they must keep a note of every source they use. If they don’t keep the sources and references, they can’t use the materials in their final project.

Incidentally, the way I put this notion to them was to produce a very quick ‘Powerpoint’ that I put together on lighthouses. I then gradually removed all the copyright infringing materials, and also any text that had only been ‘copied and pasted’. You can see the slides here, and you are welcome to take it and use it yourself.

As I’ve already said, the area I am interested in evaluating is the actual research skills. That will be expanded to guiding them into making the most effective use of all the materials they uncover. It is very much the case that it is the process that is the important thing, not the tools, and ultimately, not even the finished project. (I’m keeping quiet about what that may be in case any of the class are watching! )

One thing I will share with you is my attempt to reference the possible skills used in the project and process to the E&Os for Curricuum for Excellence. This does, however, come with a MAJOR HEALTH WARNING! This is NOT about ‘ticking boxes’! If you think that is what CfE is about, you’ve fundamentally misunderstood the changes it brings. What it is about, is seeing where I might find evidence of learning depending on what happens next. I do not expect every Outcome to be covered (…in fact, if it is, I’ll sell the plan to every school in Scotland and retire to the Caribbean!), but I do want to be prepared for finding evidence where ever it may appear.

My thoughts are in an Excel file here: Time Detectives Poss EnOs

And finally, I will be sharing all my thoughts and work on this unit once it has been completed and I’ve carried out an evaluation. Thanks for showing an interest!