@derekrobertson's...

Islay High School: a model for us all?

As you will have seen from the date of my last post I have been a bit busy of late. Or lazy as may be the case! Never quite finding the time to get online what I have been thinking or finding out about in my work and play time. However, my experience at the Education 2020 Unconference in Islay last week was soooo good that I just had to share my thoughts about it.

I first had the pleasure of meeting Ian Stuart from Islay High School a couple of years back when he presented at HHL07 (he also won a Wii in the prize draw). I learned all about how they had been looking to integrate ICT into the life of the school by virtue of the umpc and One Note amongst other things. So after hearing all about this it wasn't too long before I had managed to make my way to Islay to visit Ian and the school, a visit that left me truly impressed with the school's set-up, vision and ethos.

So after this initial visit it was with great pleasure that I received the opportunity of visiting Islay again last week to attend the Education 2020 Unconference. This unconference was a focal point for a group of educators from all aspects of the Scottish (and further afield) Educational landscape who use a range of online technologies to collaborate with professional colleagues in order to develop their own professional practice but also to contribute to their peers development. It must be said that I am less than prolific contributior to this community but to be part of it is something that I greatly value and feel confidence in. I can honestly say that I am a better profesional person for being a part of this community.

The chats we had were excellent, the high jinx and singing in the pub on Friday night just superb but the thing that impressed me the most about my time on Islay was my experience with the young people from Islay High School who presented to the conference delegates on ther Friday morning and then interviewed us on the Friday evening. Here we saw a group of articulate, confident, self-aware and mature individuals who presented a quite analytical yet wholly positive view of how the the opportunities afforded to them by the school had increased their self-confidence and enhanced their levels of attainment in whatever path they chose to take. The interviewers in the evening were also delightfully impressive and more than willing to ask for clarification if they did not understand one of my obscure mutlisyllabic references on innovation or if they felt they need to ask a probing supplementary question. What a credit you were to your school and if this is the kind of student that Islay High School turns out then I hope to send my girls there one day.

There were also interesting contributions to the conference that seemed out of kilter with the general consensus of opinion of the delegates but is it not the case that this debate is one that still needs to be argued? I'm sure that the tipping point is on its way and that the idea that interaction with online technologies offers so much more than just 'staring at a computer screen' will become stronger and will eventually become the norm. Education 2020 and the learners of Islay High School have given me even greater confidence in what I am doing in order to help contribute to the continued evolution of young learners' experiences in school. I am delighted to be in a position to do so.

Thanks to all at Islay High School (and the various distelleries) for a great time on your beautiful island.

Handheld Learning Awards '08: I won one!

It was with great delight and utter surprise that I found myself being the lucky recipient of the Special Achievement Award at last night's Handheld Learning Awards event. This is a great accolade for me but mostly for all the local authority partners, teachers and children in Scotland who have so willingly embraced the idea of using non-traditonal ICTs in  teaching and learning.

To good teachers who want to use good tools to enable good learning  the concept of using commercially available games is an obvious one, particularly when they get a chance to actually play them and reflect on what impact they may have on the cognitive and affective development of children. I'm really pleased that our work has gone some way to changing the discourse about the place of games in learning and I feel that this award in some affirms or/and validates what we have are all about.

It must also be said that this would not have happened had Learning and Teaching Scotland not create the space that allowed me to establish the Consolarium and to get myself out there in schools across Scotland. It's great to be involved with a national organisation that is prepared to take informed risks that will help us continue to explore how we can ensure that the learner experience is as good as it can be.

Thank you to all those who are in some way connected with this award finding its way in to my possession.

Handheld Learning 2008

It was with great interest that I read the programme for this year's Handheld Learning conference. It's being held in The Brewery in London from Oct 13th -15th.   I've attended this event for the past two years and have found this to be a particularly lively and worthwhile conference to travel all the way from Scotland to. Last year I even managed to get myself on the programme!

One of the main sponsors this year is Nintendo. Yes, Nintendo are sponsoring a conference that's all about mobile learning. Some of you who have followed or found out about what I've been doing in Scottish schools with games consoles, including the DS and the Wii, and will no doubt appreciate the wealth of learning opportunities that are inherent in many of the games that can be played on theses devices but to see this feature so prominently at and education conference is for me a massive step in the right direction.

I believe that these devices have so much potential due to the fact that there is a low technology skills threshold when users get their hands on them. The DS for example is a device that teachers of all ages and dispositions to technology can get success with in a very short period of time. Teachers are learners just like pupils in class. They need attainable success targets and when this success is achieved confidence grows and inhibition to use the technology dissipates. This then allows the teacher to use the cultural cache of the games device, as well as the dynamic and challenging learning environments within the games, to create rich tasks and contexts for learning. I tell you, it works.

Now, if you sign up early to this conference then you will receive a FREE Nintendo DS to use during the conference AND you'll get to take it home with you when it finishes. I'd get signed up asap if I were you!

I'm also pleased to say that LTS have agreed to support this years event and we'll be taking a number of speakers down to London to share much of the exciting and progressive work that we have been doing in our schools with our friends and colleagues in London.. More of this to follow...

Well the dates for HHL 08 are in my diary now and this event is one that I am looking forward to. I also look forward to challenging the delegates to  all manner of games on my DS.

ICET 2007: Games based learning in Singapore

I’m over in Singapore this week at the ICET 2007 conference. The title of this year’s conference is, Rethinking Pedagogies: Creating Possibilities through Digital & Interactive Media. I was kindly invited and sponsored by the British Council in Singapore to come out to the conference and present what has been happening with games based learning via the Consolarium and this is due to happen this afternoon…

I’m glad to say that after a fantastic night’s sleep (the jet-lag was terrible, no sleep on the first night at all) I am feeling particularly chirpy this morning and ready to go. The atmosphere within the conference had helped because everyone is so positive and interested in what is going on and what is being said.

Yesterday’s opening remarks from the Deputy Education Minster proved to be very interesting for me. Games based learning was mentioned a number of times by her and she saw this as part of:

“...The seamless and pervasive integration of ICT into teaching and learning.”

She also felt that approaches such a problem based learning and games based learning would help:

“…prepare students for a rapidly changing world so that they can adapt to what they don’t know or what they can’t do at present.”

Quite a powerful vision I thought. This was not just words though. The Singapore Government have been working with local industry and academic partners to try to make games based learning a part of what is happening in schools within the island state. Yesterday, I went along to two presentations that detailed the development of two games that will be delivered to all schools.

One is called Statecraft and it is a History game that puts you in the place of a medieval Emperor in either South East Asia, China or India. You have to make decisions about developing and maintaining the power, health and wealth of the state and of your own position. It’s still in development but it looked quite engaging.

The other games was called Simplicity and is a geography based game that looks at how you can develop a city from a third world to a first world state. They have packaged this up so that it looks like Singapore in geographical terms and again it looks rather impressive. The company that they are working with on these games is called Playware Studios
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Games based learning in classrooms it seems is something that Singapore has already switched itself on to and I look forward to hearing what they think about the way we have begun to do similar things in Scotland.