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The VITTA '08 Conference in Melbourne

It's funny the way things can happen and the circumstances in which you can met people. I'm currently in Australia as a result of one of those funny happenings that occured at BETT in London earlier this year. I delivered a seminar about the work that I have been doing in schools and at the seminar was a chap called Phil Callil from the Victorian ICT Teachers Association (VITTA). He introduced himself to me, said he was very interested in what I was doing and asked if I'd like to come out to deliver a keynote at the VITTA conference later that year. The proposed invite did duly arrive and eleven months later I found myself on a plane heading to Australia for the first time in my life...

This is the end of the second day of the conference and up until now I have been so very impressed with the standard of seminars in the programme, the keynote speakers and the organisation of the event. I have also been taken with the enthusiasm, knowledge and passion for teaching that seems to emanate from everyone that I meet. I can't remember meeting so many teachers who are interested in and working with games design in their schools!

Twitter also appears to be a huge hit here and the twittering that was going on in my keynote (live feed by ICT Guy here VITTA Day 2) showed just how this tool can be used to enable teachers to share ideas, perceptions and resources instantaneously.

It was really pleasing and also a great relief to see that my keynote was well received today. You can get a feel for how things are going when you present because you can tell from the members of the audience's faces, their body language and how they react to your attempts at humour if things are going well. All of these seemed to be at a good level today so that really just sealed an otherwise superb trip.

If you ever get the chance to come to Australia then I would say that Melbourne is a must see. The city itself is huge but so relaxed and welcoming. There are great things to see in the city, (including a pair of crested cockatoos that lived outside my hotel room) such as
Queen Victoria Market, the Eureka Tower, St Kilda Beach, numerous alleyways such as Desgraves Street. But not far from the city you have the Yarra Valley, the Dandenongs, Philip Island and Great Ocean Road. This place is spectacular, beautiful and welcoming and I would recommend it to anyone.

Countdown to return to Scotland now and to more bearable weather. Thanks to all at VITTA and evryone I met during my stay here for making this such a worthwhile and memorable experience.

Play Kraftwerk on the DS

I remember the late 1970s and the initial sounds of keyboard bands. Before Depeche Mode and the Human League I remember my brother playing Warm Leatherette and TVOD by The Normal. Great stuff but one day he came home with a 12" single of a German band called Kraftwerk and I was attracted to the somewhat harsh/angular sounds that were really quite infectious. They became the huge band that we all now know with Trans Europe Express being my particular favourite.

Now you can have a go at recreating your own Kraftwerk song as this chap has done by using the Korg DS-10 Synthesizer for the DS.:

Apparently it's quite a complex interface but I wonder how secondary music departments might be disposed to trying this out?

Here it is in action...

...and here's a fill list of the detailed features:

• 2 patchable dual-oscillator analog synth simulators + 4-part drum machine.
• 6-track/16-step sequencer – connect wirelessly to play up to 8 units simultaneously or exchange sounds and songs.
• Delay, chorus and flanger sound effects available from the mixing board.
• 3 note-entry options: touch-control screen, keyboard screen, matrix screen.
• Sequence keyboard and KAOSS Pad, allowing intuitive note input and control using the Nintendo DS Touch Screen and Stylus.
• Unlimited range of sound creation thanks to an authentic synthesizer sound editing environment with an installed patch-panel

The sound output from a DS is really quite something so I look forward to hearing what can be created with this. I'm not doing the robotic movements though.

Vermin, feral, animals: Is this really how we view children?

I have just felt my blood run cold with despair and then turn red hot with anger as I read the BBC post about a newly released report from Barnardos called Breaking the Cycle. The actual report did not lighten my mood in the slightest nor did the promotional video that will be released on 24th November. This video is severe. Be prepared for its hard hitting and ugly message but be even more prepared for the shock of finding out that every sentence said by the men in the video clip were actual responses to a recent YouGov poll about how young people are perceived by adults.

As I read this report it made me think about the bleak imagery and frightening vision of feral frightening children in 'Come to Daddy' by Aphex Twin:

Ugly yes but look at some of the really disturbing responses to this poll:

• Some 54% of the adults questioned thought that British children behaved like "animals".
• More than a third of those surveyed also agreed that the streets were "infested" with children, while 43% said something had to be done to protect adults.
• Around 49% said they disagreed with the statement that children who "get into trouble" were "misunderstood" and needed professional help.

The ignorant flippancy of this last comment has really left me speechless. I was speaking to my wife last night on Skype and we got to talking about our two wee girls that we've recently adopted. We were laughing at some of the things they had said and done, pleased at how they were coping with me not being there at the moment but also marveling at how they had settled in to their new life and at how they were to put it …blossoming. Their arrival in to our house has been one of the best things that could ever have happened to us and we are so privileged to have these two characters. I am guarded about my girls but I mention them because our experience is so caught up with this. Our understanding of their needs, informed by Social Work partners, has helped us deal with issues, avoid conflicts, lay down boundaries - all within an informed framework that has let us understand our girls and to help them move forward in a positive fashion so that they can, and will, achieve their potential. My wee one hardly ‘gets in to trouble’ now.  Where would we, and our girls, have been without this professional help?

My ethos in education and life I suppose was very much informed and influenced by my upbringing and then work as a teacher in Whitfield, Dundee- a so called poor area where schemies lived. (God! This monkey on my back is really itching today!!!) We must always have the highest aspirations of young people and we should never give up on them. Don't want to sound like the lyric to an anodine Whitney Houston song but some of the challenging children that I have worked with have been talented, able, smart, engaging but it needed me as the professional person in their lives to help create the context/environment to open those qualities up and to allow them to flourish. Isn't that the job of a teacher too?

We can’t allow this to escalate any further folks. Some of us might live outwith peripheral housing schemes, some of us might get our children to the school of our choice but what about the children in these peripheral housing schemes and in the schools that are not the chosen ones? We MUST keep arguing for, and ensure, that all our young people are valued, challenged and that the highest expectation what they can do and where they can go is the minimum they experience when they are in the education system.  We’re failing them if we don't and if that's the case then get somebody in who can do it.

Vermin, animals, feral? No, children and young people deserve to be valued and supported by an informed set of professional services, hopefully sound families but also by a more empathetic and understanding wider society. I hope this video and the resulting campaign makes some people sit up and take a look at themselves.

Engage me: a message from children to teachers

Thanks to Graham Brown-Martin at Handheld Learning for posting this video that was made by children at Robin Hood Primary School in Birminham. Well worth a look and maybe something to share with decision makers? See what you think:

World of Goo on Wii Ware

Can't wait to download World of Goo form Wii Ware. It's one of those games that is immediately appealing because of how it looks but once you get passed the initial delight of what you are seeing you can begin to see the challenge and level of engagement it can bring. Have a look and see what you think:

You can download a demo of the game for Mac or PC from 2D Boy.

The game itself is described on the Nintebndo Wii Ware channel as follows:

World of Goo is a multiple award winning physics based puzzle / construction game made entirely by two guys. Drag and drop living, squirming, talking, globs of goo to build structures, bridges, cannonballs, zeppelins, and giant tongues. The millions of Goo Balls that live in the beautiful World of Goo are curious to explore - but they don't know that they are in a game, or that they are extremely delicious.

• Mysterious Levels: Each level is strange and dangerously beautiful, introducing new puzzles, areas, and the creatures that live in them.

• World of Goo Balls: Along the way, undiscovered new species of Goo Ball, each with unique abilities, come together to ooze through reluctant tales of discovery, love, conspiracy, beauty, electric power, and the third dimension.

• The Sign Painter: Someone is watching you.

• World of Goo Corporation: Congratulations! World of Goo Corporation is the Global Leader in Goo and Goo Related Product, including World of Goo Corporation Trademark Brand Soft Drink Beverage and World of Goo Corporation Trademark Brand Facial Exfoliating Lotion. Succulent!

• Massive Online Competition: Human players around the world compete in a living leaderboard to build the tallest towers of goo in World of Goo Corporation's mysterious sandbox

Enjoy, and let me know how you get on with it. Also if you think you can use it in class then give me a shout.

BBC's new ARG: Lost Penny

I see that Lost Penny by the BBC is now up and running. I have heard a bit about this alternate reality game and it sounded and now looks really interesting and involving. However, I can't access the clips etc whilst I'm here in Melbourne! I'm out of the BBC's region it seems :-(

If anyone wishes to follow the game and get involved in solving th mysteries and questions that arise in Lost Penny then please let me know how it is going. I'll be way behind by the time I get back to Scotland.

Glow...are we really on the dark side

It was with interest that I read Tom Conlon's article about the Dark side of Glow in today's TESS. After reading it I couldn't help but feel as though I was in some way an acolyte of Darth Vader and the Empire due to my and others 'irrational exuberance' for such a technology. Don't get me wrong, I am not on here to have a dig at someone that is looking at what is happening in the education world with such a critical and questioning eye. We always need that and I have taken on board and am still in the process of digesting what Tom Conlon says...however. I do feel that the view that comes across is somewhat negative and the article is significant for me in the sense that there is no mention at all of the positives that the initiative that is Glow can, and, is bringing to teaching and learning in classrooms across the country.

I was recently in a class in Bishopbriggs (blog post to follow on the Consolarium's blog) led by a teacher called Susan Yeoman. Glow had become integral to what was happening in this class and the evidence of learning that I witnessed was, in my opinion, damn good. The class site/s were packed with evidence of rich learning, they were engaging with other children, developing their skills in the field of technology, enthused about learning, sharing their work at home and using technology in a purposeful and relevant way. I have seen this in many other classrooms too. I thought that we had moved past the trough of disillusionment in Gartner's Hype Cycle (particularly in view of a recent key contacts meeting) and were moving towards the plateau of productivity but Tom's article still urges caution, a little too much in the negative for me.

I have some comments to make about what Tom has to say:

• I question Tom's suggestion that a free laptop for every teacher might have been a better option. Where is the evidence to support that?

• I also question Tom's focus on the phrase 'the speeded-up school'. I look forward to a 'speeded up school' that engages with technologies in as informed and evaluative a process as possible. This work will continue to evolve and develop and I believe that we need to be in there actually doing it in class. Why shouldn't we aspire to have schools where learning is speeded up...

• I sympathise with his comments about the digital divide but should this stop us from building the infrastructure that learners might be able to access via a PSP, a DS, a Wii or any other cultural significant technologies that young people use? Such an initiative, aspirational in its conception and desire, could and should play a part in cementing the arguments for the support and provision of access for all.

• The final part of Tom's article that I must say is disappointing is his comment about the cultural trivialisation of amateur chatter within Glow. What exactly does he mean by this? The work that I am seeing with young people engaging with Glow and some of the professional discourse that is happening in some Glow groups is, in my opinion, far from amateur but wholly professional and enlightening and evidential of the superb and thoughtful range of teachers there are in Scottish schools.

I realise that as an employee of LTS that this blogpost may come across as on message and partisan but I hope not, We need people like Tom Conlon to make us step back and out of any blind enthusiasm for new technological initiatives and to always keep a critical eye on what we are doing. We do however, I believe, also need to make the best use of technologies to engage learners and in so doing continue to contribute to the discourse about effective practice in such a domain. Glow has great potential and there are of a great many teachers out there who are making it happen, I wonder how much of this Tom has actually seen? I look forward to reading more of Tom's thoughts when they come out in the Scottish Educational Review.

Now I'm off to construct my own light sabre and find that pesky Yoda!

Job opportunity at the Consolarium

As part of the success of the work that has been happening in Scottish schools with regards to games based learning we have managed to secure funding for someone to come and work with us in the Consolarium. Although you will support/partner me in much of my work you will head up The Winning Game project that we have been working on with the Winning Scotland Foundation.

If you are interested then have a look at the advert in The Learning and Teaching Scotland vacancies page.