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4iP and Channel 4 @ the Scottish Learning Festival

Education is a core part of Channel 4's business and, for the past couple of years, the Channel has been a major sponsor and supporter of the Scottish Learning Festival and TeachMeet, the unconference, as well as producing its highly innovative web 'programmes' like Battlefront, Year Dot and The Insiders that educate and inspire.

This year, in a nod to the Channel's ongoing Sexperience campaign, the education commissioning team will be holding a free lunch and set of seminars on how we can engage young people online in sexual education. Sex Ed Up is just one of the places I'll be hanging out over the coming few days in Glasgow at the Scottish Learning Festival. Sign up, and I'll see you there.

Wednesday:
12h30: Language, learners and the ower of new technologies
Looking forward to hear Ollie speak - someone I've never seen out of the confines of the 7-minute TeachMeet presos.

13h30: Thinking Out Of The (X)Box
You can find the notes for this presentation on my blog already, and take more time over the vids and games.

15h00: Discovery Hour: Inspiring Stories of Technology, Education and Design
Some of the highlights this year, told in short, entertaining stories. Includes an amazing SecondLife project from New Zealand. This is in the large expo area, so please drop in.

16h45: BBC Scotland Learning: Preparing learners for 21st century life
Wondering what our friends at the Beeb are going to do over the next few months.

18h00: TeachMeet08
My last TeachMeet for a while, and my last (ever?) as compère, it looks like I'll have to leave around 8pm for a working dinner.

Thursday:
09h30: Can Nintendo's Dr Kawashima impact on mental maths? An extended study
I'm keen to see the results of LTS's 500-Nintendo DS experiment across Scotland.

10h30: 21st Century Teacher: Your personal professional development network
Find out what basic online skills you need to acquire to understand this virtual Web 2.0 world, and learn how Ewan created a personal network of peer support across every continent. Importantly, learn some tricks about how to cope with the rapid innovation on the web in 2008.

12h00: Discovery Hour: Inspiring Stories of Technology, Education and Design
Some more highlights of this year.

13h15-14h15: Sex Ed Up
How and when should we teach our children about sex? Earlier this year the FPA (formerly the Family Planning Association) and Brook - which provides sexual health advice to under 25’s - called for sex and relationship education to become compulsory in primary and secondary schools. It sparked off huge controversy with critics arguing that this would compromise childhood innocence, encourage underage sex, increase rates of teenage pregnancy, abortion and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Sex Ed Up! will allow you to debate these contested issues and see some of the programmes and projects in the season.

14h30: Channel 4 Education Showcase
Showing off some of the amazing (and free) projects you can get your students involved in.

Pic 1: Misty Morning   |   Pic 2: SECC

TeachMeet08 at the Scottish Learning Festival

TeachMeet08 SLF2008
Originally uploaded by Edublogger

Things have started to move on the TeachMeet08 site, and you're invited to add your name to the list of attendees for an evening of sharing some of the coolest and most exciting ideas for learning from this past year on September 24th.

I'm not able to take quite as much of a role this year in shaping the sponsorship, although I've put some feelers out for a potential venue. LTS have offered some degree of support already in that respect if one of our current short leat of potential places can't work out.

However, if you can help in any way  - beer money, £x towards any costs or a particular expense in particular, cool stuff - then please add your name, organisation and contribution to the wiki.

There are lots of reasons for getting involved in this kind of way, none more appealing than the fact the event has, for the last three years, taken on "must attend" status amongst many of the most innovative teachers in the country, particularly those making use of new media and gaming in the classroom. The potential for some blog link love and good word of mouth about your stuff is great. Here's hoping you can help!

Remixing Cities, remixing learning: Charles Leadbeater

There's a great deal of 'play' at this year's Scottish Learning Festival, with LTS's Consolarium Challenge stretching over both days, pitching student gamers from across Scotland against each other for the ultimate accolades (and loads of free gaming kit for their school). I'll also be doing a seminar on the crossover between gaming, social media and learning, as well as leading a band of innovative educators at the Discovery Hour on Wednesday and, maybe, Thursday - come and find out how teachers have been making superb uses of Second Life, robots and new media in the classroom.

However, as always, there's at least one keynote I feel might not have the pulling power on the masses who, by the last day of the Festival, are seeking some easy takeaways for their schools and the latest classroom innovations, a keynote that promises to have several profound messages for our school leaders and curriculum designers. In fact, if the audience were not 2000 but more like 200 of Scotland's ICT coordinators, Directors of Education, Head Teachers and policy wonks I'd be quite happy. This is my appeal for you to attend or watch the video stream of Charles Leadbeater's keynote on the future of education.

To leave you in no doubt as to the thought he's given this issue, let me direct you to a paper he published about the evolution of the city. I normally abhor those who ask "What does School 2.0 look like" but, by kings, he's pretty damned close. In Remixing Cities he manages to succinctly outline what 'school' might look like. It's more like Schools, in the best tradition of Malcolm Gladwell's Pepsis and Spaghetti Sauces, because, in the future (well, the sooner the better really) there will no longer be a school that we go to, but rather schools that we go to. And, yes, play features heavily throughout. Here is a lengthy citation from his superb manifesto:

If a city addresse learning from the vantage point of these social web models, what could it offer? The outer circle would be:
An eBay for learning: a city-wide learning exchange to match learners to those with the skills to teach but who are not teachers. For example, if someone needed a tutorial in using garage band software, they could find someone with the skills who may not be a school teacher.

The Learning Game: more learning opportunities modeled on large scale, multi-player games in which players discover challenges and acquire the tools and skills to overcome them together. For example, a city-wide sustainability challenge using maths and science skills.

YouLearn: using the power of user-created video to provide learning opportunities complete with user ratings and comments.

Wiki-learning: a city based resource of facts, figures, information and insight, created by and for the city’s citizens for its curriculum.

Social search for learning: using tools such as tagging, folksonomies and social book marking to allow more structured peer-to-peer learning, so that one generation of learners can follow in the footsteps of others.

These mainly digital tools would be augmented by enhanced opportunities to learn outside schools in businesses, libraries, galleries or in settings relevant to what is being learned—the city as a classroom.

The middle circle would focus on families, learning and social networks. That might include:

Social networking for learning: peer-to-peer networks on MySpace, Facebook and other networks to link people in learning clubs to learn with and from their peers, including adults and parents, online and offline, in coffee shops and homes.

Enhanced parental involvement in schools: development of family learning centers; parents as teaching assistants.

Get Started: Increased investment in early years provision for disadvantaged families and linking them earlier to schools that prepare them for learning.

NetMoms: Using social networks to promote mothers’ clubs to support informal learning and employment.

Personal trainers for learning: Local learning support workers who would work door-to-door, similar to health visitors.

Schools would still be vital, but they would be designed to maximize the value of the wider platform. For instance:

Parents and adults might learn in the same building as children.

Schools could be productive enterprises, centers for small business clusters, in which children run real money-making businesses.

Teaching by discovery and doing to instill social skills alongside cognitive skills would be much more central.

Schools would be open longer, more flexible hours, with schedules that suit the different paces that children learn and the times that parents work.

There would be more, smaller, studio-style schools, akin to cafes or drop-in centers suited for more virtual learning communities and particularly for disaffected teenagers.

Alongside teachers would be more para-professionals, teaching assistants, business people, environmentalists and artists.

Children would learn from one another with the creation of a new generation of lead learners.

Every child would have a self-directed learning support plan to shape what they learn and from whom, in and outside school.

Download the whole document.
Picture; Sparktography

Technology, design and the net: seeking inspirational stories from around Scotland

I've been given one hour each day at the Scottish Learning Festival (tag: SLF2008) to host some of the most inspiring stories from the past year that showcase an emphasis on technology and/or design. I'll be working the floor as usual to pull in as big a crowd as possible to hear your story, and chat with you afterwards about how they might replicate some of those ideas, too. The challenge: where are you?

• Some of the ideas that have already been put forward involve mashing up technologies such as GPS, mobile telephones, Google Earth, Twitter.
• I'd love to hear more stories about mobile devices being put to good use;
• Is anyone introducing programme to students in novel ways (with Robosapiens or Scratch, for example), anyone using robots, Beebots or Lego's Robotechnology?
• I'd also be really keen to hear from schools that are going green in curious ways.
• Are you a technology and design group who've been creating interesting structures in their workshops.

Ideally, I want the area to be packed with flip chart poster explanations of projects, prototypes, half-finished wonders, interesting concepts mapped out, but which might never make it off the drawing board.

The emphasis is not on being web-based - far from it. I'd love to have an hour where those listening can feel and touch technology in action, so any ideas that are out of the metaphorical box would be most welcome. Leave a comment here or get in touch via email if you have a suggestion, and we can worry later about practicalities of getting you or your materials to Glasgow in September. Please also forward the blog post address to any of your colleagues, staff mailing lists or interest groups.

Pic: I think my pencil's drifted

Scottish Learning Festival 2008 - free booking open

If you like what you hear on this blog, you'll probably be in learning heaven at the Scottish Learning Festival, a free two-day event hosted by us, Learning and Teaching Scotland, at Glasgow's monumental SECC at the end of September. From today, you can book your free place (thanks to them) and choose your seminars.

I'll be offering two seminars, one on each day, and would love to see you there. The first is looking at digital images and computer games as a source of inspiration and motivation for creative writing and speaking, a stimulus for international projects, such as eTwinning or UKIERI programmes. The second is designed to give all teachers, from newbies to information-overloaded net aficionados, mechanisms to develop effective personal professional development networks.

There are tonnes of other seminars on every aspect of education, from gaming to formative assessment, Web 2.0 to curriculum 101. I'll also be hosting some inspiring stories in the Discovery Hour in the main exhibition hall, lunchtimes each day. Don't forget your free invite to the most compelling CPD of the year, at TeachMeet08 @ SLF. Start booking your seminars up by adding them to your basket on the SLF2008 site.

SLF2008 - Conference proposals beginning to leak

  SLF2008 
  Originally uploaded by Edublogger

This year the Scottish Learning Festival seminar choices were made by an anonymous panel, so only now are there some hints towards an enticing programme for the country's premier learning event. Last year there were about 7000 attendees, hearing around 150 top-class seminars.

I've just had news that my two seminar proposals were accepted, one on digital storytelling using games, digital images and social media as an enabler for more creative work, the other on how a teacher can start out building their own worldwide professional network. I know that a few other seminars have been accepted on a social media or gaming vein, with a spattering of Glow 'futures' type discussions in store, too.

I'll also be on the lookout for anyone wanting to blog, vlog or podcast for Connected Live, which last year attracted a significant audience to its blog, video coverage and short podcasts as it relayed the various viewpoints of what was going on around the huge conference space. Wifi this year will hopefully be further improved, with extra fast access for those wishing to publish with us.

If you're writing about your proposals or the event itself, the tag this year will be SLF2008 (futureproof, too). Please do tag all your blogs posts, photos and videos that might relate to your presentations or informal discussions outside the event. Importantly, start tagging any relevant presentations on Slideshare with SLF2008. We're starting this week to publish some of last year's presentations, many with audio, too, on the Connected Live blog, to whet your appetite.