Hotmilkydrink: The Digital Home of Derek Robertson

When the going gets tough the tough get traditional!

My profesional career has seen me devote my time, thoughts, ideas and energy into making the classroom experience for schoolchildren as worthwhile, dynamic and memorable an experience as possible. I like to think that I have a growth mind-set and that I will continue to evolve as a professional so that I can always look at new ideas and approaches with a critical eye but where I am always prepared to take informed risks. As Ken Robinson states, "If you're not prepared to be wrong then you'll never come up with anything original!"

Now up until now the work that I have done with teachers across schools in Scotland in the field of games based learning has received a pretty good press. In fact, that fact is mentioned by me whenever I deliver presentations. It seems though that I'll have to make a slight amendment to my presentations now after an article in today's Scotsman.

In Cash-strapped schools urged to spend on games consoles a rather disappointing attack is made on an offer recently made by LTS to local authorities to be able to buy Nintendo DSs for their schools at a discounted price, much less than what is quoted in the article. This, as I understand was a one-off offer to meet demand from schools that have had their interest in this educational resource raised mainly by the work of the Consoalrium but also because of some evidence based research that was carried out by LTS and the University of Dundee. This first research article is about to be featured in the British Journal of Education in the next month and if you are interested the reference is:

Miller, D.J. & Robertson, D.P. (in press) Using a games console in the
primary classroom: Effects of ‘Brain Training’ programme on
computation and self-esteem. British Journal of Educational Technology

Dr David Miller and I are curently working on the paper that details the finding of our extended research study that was partnered by HMIe in the summer term of last year. This work has led to requests to share our innovative work with audiences throughout the school community in Scotland, England (BECTa, Futurelab & Stephen Heppell's Be Very Afraid), and further afield-Singapore, Germany, Denmark, Australia, USA. I have also just finished, today, writing the UK case study for a forthcoming paper for European Schoolnet with a request to share our work in Strasbourg in May.

The Scotsman article mentions research by Professor Alain Lieury but fails to go into detail about research done in Scotland. Now I recently put my thoughts about Profesor Lieury's work down in print on the Games based Learning discussion forum but here's what I had to say about that:

I, on behalf of LTS, carried out the first small scale research initiative in Scotland. This is really what made people sit up and take notice of this application of a commercially available game. If you haven't seen the case study then have a look:
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/ictineducation/gamesbasedlearning/sharingpractice/braintraining/introduction.asp
As a result of this study and the many questions that we felt were raised by it, LTS funded an extended study http://ltsblogs.org.uk/consolarium/2008/09/25/dr-kawashima-extended-trial-summary-results/last year that saw the same methodology compared with only a control group this time. This was done in 32 schools across Scotland. The results we found were very similar to our initial study. The first study has been peer reviewed and accepted for academic publication and the second one hopefully will too.

I read the headlines about the Rennes study and was at first a little bit apprehensive about what their findings meant for the work that I have led. As a result I have taken my time to reflect on things...

There are questions that I'd like answered before I make a definitive comment about the Rennes research but as there is little available to read (but you'll get it in a forthcoming book ) so I don't feel that I can do that. What I can do though is ask some questions:

• Where did they carry out the research, was it in school setting?
• What was the social setting for this research?
• Was it contextualised within a setting that the children understood, could relate to, that was natural for them?
• Why did he test for memory?
• What were the tests that he used?
• What can schools learn from this research, how does it take things forward?
• Could they not target the use of the device in a much more learner focused way than they appear to have done?
• Who in their right mind, who has maybe worked in some of the more challenging schools in the UK, can honestly say that they'd be prepared to put down pencil and paper questions for the whole class to do independently for 25 minutes a day for 10 weeks? Whatv reaction would we get? I know that I would not.
• Also, how do we then explain what we have found in our sample that was 10 times the size of this research activity?

I do think that they have missed the point here. Come to Scotland, see the children work with Dr Kawashima, listen to them talking about how they are better at maths, challenge them to the x20 test and watch their faces give you total respect when you do it in 10 seconds 

Also come and talk to our teachers who continually talk of improved performance in mental maths, self-esteem gains, social dynamic enhancements, improved time-keeping, metacognitive activity and much much more. Also, teachers don't worry about the tech here, they can focus on supporting the learning. There is so much good that has come out of this initial idea that I devised whilst playing this game nearly two years that I find it hard to take in a piece of work that appears to be so detached from the real world of classroom practice that I like to think that I inhabit.

Finally, with a little help from Dr Kawashima I believe we have made it a valued aspiration for our schoolchildren to be red hot at mental maths. Can you really tell me that pencil and paper does that? I look forward to reading a fuller account of what was carried out in Rennes but I have faith and confidence in what LTS, the University of Dundee and Scottish teachers and children did. It worked an absolute treat.

I was also not convinced that Ken Cunningham's, the general secretary of School Leaders Scotland and Frank Gerstenberg's, the former head of George Watson's College, apparent scepticism was really about the value of the games and what we argue it can bring to the classroom. It was more about school budgets in particular. No it took Nick Seaton, the chairman of the Campaign for Real Education to really get the traditional mobs 16 hole Dr Marten boots on when he said: "It's absolutely crazy and a poor use of taxpayers' money for schools to be spending on things like Nintendos when there isn't sufficient money to pay good teachers and buy school books." Now I know that we are in a difficult climate at the moment and that money must be spent wisely but I do believe that schools who have chosen to spend some valued cash on this offer are doing right here...at least this ICT spend has some evidence to base the spend on! This appears to me to be a clear case of when the going gets tought the tough get traditional. Come on, who in their right mind thinks that pencil and paper, alone, is going to do it for the very many school kids who are not and will not connect with a school experience that does not move with the times, evolve and position itself in the cultural framework from in which it's client group comes from?

Have I got it so horribly wrong. Have I imagined the raise in attainment that our data has shown? Am I strong-arming the very, very, very many teachers across Scotland that I am working with to come on board with this? Am I not seeing happy, challenged and interested faces on school children in the classes that I work in with some of the most thoughtful and objectively critical teachers that I have met? I can assure that the answer to all these questions is no.

Maybe it is the turn of games based learning to have its bad press day but I will debate the merits of gbl with anyone. It works, it's right and this backward and traditional view is one that, in my opinion, will fail our schoolchildren...or do we never want them to come up with anything original?

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.

Must watch TV (nothing to do with games)

When I was a teaching student I remember developing an interest in ‘the hidden curriculum’ and in particular the implicit messages that school transmitted to learners. This interest ws given the perfect opportunity to grow when I was lucky enough to be sent to Denmark for my rural placement when I was in 3^rd year of the B.Ed at Dundee. This experience and opportunity led me to finding out about the socio-historic context of Danish Education which then resulted in my decision to investigate, compare and contrast the concept of autonomy as an aim in Danish and Scottish schools for my final year thesis. This proved to be quite a good thing to do at the time as luck would have it I found out that both Denmark and Scotland had certain key players who have played significant part in either framing the development of, or, encouraging debate in their respective countries.

The ideological father of the folk high school that is commonly found in

Denmark

and Nordic countries was a chap called Nicolai Grundtvig. He was very much a child-centered and holistic educator who placed great emphasis on the importance of creating the environment and context in which the creative spirit of the individual could be unleashed.

This idea of freeing the spirit and allowing the creativity in the individual to be nurtured and developed also came through in the thinking and practice of both R.F Mackenzie and A.S.Neill. I was hugely influenced by the work of both of these educators and would like to think that they have in some way contributed to the way I taught and how I view what learning should be about.

After that preamble I’ll get to the point! The reason for this post is just to let people know that BBC4 will be broadcasting a programme about life at A.S. Neill’s Summerhill school. Should be interesting and will I’m sure that it will definitely stir those youthful altruistic feelings of contributing to the greater good that made me want to teach.

Parental pressure to buy a console...in verse

I have an order in for 18 Nintendo Wiis at the minute and there is still no sign of them! These are going to a number of Scottish local authorities who are keen on using them with pre-school and early years children. More of that to come...

But this wait makes you think about how the 'must have' nature of the latest games consoles when first released must be murder for some families. This is probably going to get even worse with the imminent release of the hugely priced PS3! There's a really good Scots language poem in today's The Herald  that touches on this as it articulates a mum's desire to be a 'good mum' by getting her hands on the latest console, irrespective of the economic hardship that her family may be enduring, for her son. Here it is...

In the 'Wii', 'Wii' Hours...

“Ah telt him straicht last nicht,” the lassie said,

“Noo Billy luik, ah says, there’s juist no way,

Ah’m gaun tae spend five hunner oan eBay,

It’s still a fortnicht yet till ah get paid.

There’s Leigh wi her twae, bidin’ doon the street,

She’s loast a fortune tae thon ‘Farepak’ crew,

An noo she says her man’s pit oan the burro –

Some Christmas thon! Enow tae mak ye greet!

Likesay, the wurd goat oot the store hud some,

An boy, dis he ken hou tae twist yer airm!

That’s why ah’m stuid oot here at fowr a.m.

But, juist think oan his face, ah’d be some mum,

Gin he didnae hae the latest console gear –

Thenk Christ tho, Santa comes juist aince a year!”

Rab Wilson

Apparently Rab will, be one of 100 poets meeting in St Andrews tomorrow as part of a marathon poetry session that is features in the StAnza poetry festival. Meanwhile the PS3 release date is getting ever closer and may be looming very large on the horizon for some parents.

MLK Google bomb

I too have used the MLK site that I saw David Warlick refers to when lecturing to students about digital literacy. If this Google bomb (see Tom's site) helps in any way then great....

Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King

.....better late than never as they say

Games and PSE

Is it the case that computer/video games are agents for creating mindless, emotionless players? Do they simply make games players want to go out in to the real world and battle with another army, fight zombies with a sword blast other combatants to pieces with a range of high-tec weaponry? Are they the means by which we will eventually have social meltdown which will undoubtedly bring the moral panic chickens home to roost?

Okay, I am maybe over-egging the point here. You may have guessed that I do not subscribe to the opinion that games are adversely and negatively influencing players. I tend to think that young children, adolescents and young adults by far and away have an innate grasp of the differences between real and virtual worlds. Whether this was me as a child playing cowboys and indians with my peers or my friends children warring with their home made Lego light sabres, we knew that this was toy play. The same, I believe, a stands for computer games.  James Paul Gee discusses this in his What Video Games have to teach us about learning and literacy text. He relates this ability to behave appropriately and differently in the virtual world from what you would do in reality to Erikson's 'psychosocial moratorium'.

Another interesting read on this matter is Gerard Jones (2003) Killing Monsters: Why children need fantasy, super-heroes and make-believe violence.

The author, who is a veteran comic book script writer, explains:

"....why validating our children's fantasies teaches them to trust their own emotions, helps them build stronger selves, leaves them less at the mercy of the pop-culture industry, and strengthens parent-child bonds.

and, more provocatively he argues that...

...packing a toy gun can be good for your son-or daughter. Contrary to public opinion, research shows that make-believe violence actually helps kids cope with fears. Explosive entertainment should be a family affair. Scary TV shows can have a bad effect when children have no chance to discuss them openly with adults. It's crucial to trust kids' desires. What excites them is usually a sign of what they need emotionally. Violent fantasy is one of the best ways for kids to deal with the violence they see in real life."

The reason for this post is that a colleague (thanks Barry) sent me a link that he saw in PC Gamer. The eCircus framework is an academic network that aims to explore the potential that games can play in supporting personal and social development. They have a particular focus on using  games characters that have a degree of emotional intelligence within contexts that explore bullying and inter cultural empathy. I look forward to finding out more about this....

Hand to Eye: Games and Inclusion

How games, and one in particular called Quest, can help engage learners from the Priority 1 (NEET) group was the focus of one of the breakout sessions at Hand to Eye.  Learners who fall under the Priority 1 label in England includes children/learners who are:

•    permanently excluded from school
•    ill for long periods of time
•    refugees

or learners who may be characterised as:

“… those who face a range of vulnerabilities which can rapidly develop into exclusion from social institutions.

I must say that although there was a sound and impressive rationale offered from one of the researchers on the team in relation to the inclusion agenda and an enthusiastic report from the teacher who had been trialling the software with a group of target learners. However, the software itself was not that impressive. It seemed rather slow, ponderous, old school in terms of design and a little patronising in terms of its game play.

Without being too critical I really wonder if the designers had any real knowledge of the focus client group that this product is targeted at. Children that I worked with who may be described as vulnerable would not have taken seriously many of the characters (particularly the high pitched shop keeper or the Grandma who looked as though she came from the 1970s classic TV programme Bod) or the infantile plot that was on offer. It also seemed unsubtle for a player who had issues with self-esteem to choose the game module entitled ‘self-esteem’.

I am happy to be corrected about this game and its possible merits in its target group but it seems to me that children who may fall in the ‘vulnerable” category for whatever reason may find much more in terms of intrinsic self-esteem being developed by engaging with some of the other more challenging and rewarding titles on offer such as GameMaker, Mission Maker or Caspian Learning that require some degree of cognitive challenge and reward when they finally finish constructing a game that they have designed rather than simply playing a well-intentioned but poorly designed one.

Handheld Learning Industry Panel

Issac Asimov foreseen a future education system that would see technology enslaved to traditional teaching methods. The schoolgirl in his story, 'The Fun they Had' comes home from school complaining that she was bored with her day at school. Her 'robot teacher' had been teaching her something that had been pre-programmed. No thought of what the girl knew, what her experiences were and what her needs were it seems. Constructivism destroyed by an empiricist vessel filling prediction.

At the industry panel at Handheld Learning Ray Maguire, MD Sony Entertainment has just said that in the future computers will be teaching teachers how to teach. Is Sony's vision of education similar to the constricted, choking world of Asimov prediction.

A slip of the tongue or a lack of understanding ...let's ask him.

Update: didn't get a chance to ask him my question but he the Sony MD managed to get himself really in a mess with the 'teaching audience'. He glibly stated that the future with technology was all about content...again an empiricist view of the teaching and learning process. Just fill them up with what we know and what we want learners to learn. At this he caused almosr uproarius dischord from the floor. This was manifested in one chap who gave him a finger wagging about how the Sony MD did not understand learning. Particulalry constrcutivist approaches.

The Sony PSP is a superb device with bags of potential in in supporting and creating teaching and learning contexts but this was an unfortunate gaffe today that did not reflect too well on how Sony perceive their place in education.

To redeem Sony go and have a look at Loco Roco.:)

Have a look at what Ewan has to say about this and marvel at his Sony logo mock(ery)-up!

So does every child matter?

When I was a student in my first year at Northern College we were asked by our tutor, Frances McKenzie, to bring in a poem, a picture or a piece of text and to discuss what irt meant to us. I chose to read the passage from Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' where the Ghost of Christmas Present finishes his time with Scrooge by showing him two pauper children who he referred to as 'Ignorance and Want.'

This scene always resonated with me, particularly as a young child when my dad read this novella to me and my brother in the winter of 1976/76! I couldn't believe that there might be children who didn't have a happy home, shelter, good food and someone to read to them....

I think that was a seminal moment in the development of my value base, particularly in relation to my views on community and the importance of equal opportunities to a good and engaging education.

The reason for this preamble is that I just witnessed a powerful and passionate presentation by Valerie Thompson from the elearning Foundation. She spoke about the digital divide and in some ways made me take a step back and take another look at access to the social software that it is argued. One of the figures that she quoted was that 2.5m children still do not have access to the internet at home. I was rather embarrassingly blind to this figure.

In view of this fact and what it means in terms of inequality of access to effective learning resources, communities and practices, Valerie went on to ask:

So does every child matter?

I think that is a question that we all need to ask ourselves as a fundamental aspect of how we build learning communities. The figure she quotes suggests that our developing web 2.0 social learning community is unfortunately excluding a great number of people who may be shrouded by the cloak of the Ghost of Christmas Present.