Here is the complete Interview that I took part in at the recent UK Internet Safety Centre eSafety Live Events in Edinburgh. I was being interviewed by a group of young people from St Paul's Primary School in Edinburgh as part of their on-going work with Radio Waves. I think they did a great job of interviewing and also editing the video.
The main point that I was trying to make is that in 2012 should we really still be talking about ‘eSafety’? Shouldn’t safety in the digital word be integrated into part of the normal safe and responsible use messages that we give to children and young people to support them in other aspects of learning and growing up?
In fact the ‘e’ has been bothering me on a lot of words recently…. eSafety, eAssessment, eLearning, ePortfolio, eModeration etc…
It seems to me that in 2012 technology has successfully infiltrated every aspect of our lives apart from our schools. What we should actually be talking about is safety, assessment, learning, portfolio and moderation that is fit for purpose and a modem era. Digital is not just part of this solution and it can't be seen as an optional extra it has to be fully integrated.
As part of the Edinburgh Event I was also interviewed along with representatives from Xbox, Beatbullying, Facebook and Russell Prue by a group of children from St Paul's Primary School in Edinburgh. This was part of their ongoing work with Radio Waves.
The young people were incredibly professional with the filming, sound recording and interviewing. You can see the final interview below where they ask us about Top Tips for Internet Safety and also how safe we think we are on-line.
I’m doing lots of interesting Internet Safety and Responsible Use work at the moment. Last week this involved attending and presenting at The UK Internet Safety Centre’s eSafety Live Events in both London and Edinburgh. The Scottish Government supported the Edinburgh Event.
At the London and Edinburgh Event I was asked to share some thoughts on the Challenges and Opportunities for Computer Games in Education. Lots of people have been asking for the slides so I have embedded them below - I’ll write up the notes at some point soon.
At the Edinburgh Event as well as the Computer Games workshop I ran two additional workshops on the use of Social Media in Schools. Again, I have embedded the slides that I used below and will write a more detailed narrative explaining some of the key points over the Easter break.
If you have ever been involved in writing books you will know that it is always nice to get your hands on the final product. In the week our family of books to support CfE Level 3 and Level 4 in Social Subjects became complete with the arrival of Hodder Gibson Exploring People and Society CfE Level 4 written by Gemma Ritchie.
I had the job of writing the thematic chapter at the end of the book which is on fast-food! and the final editing of the series. You can see all six books in our award winning set here.
Dynamic Learning (inclusing the excellent lesson planning tool) is also now available for the Level 3 serise.
ChronoZoom is an open-source cloud based community project dedicated to visualizing the history of everything. Big History is the attempt to understand, in a unified, interdisciplinary way, the history of cosmos, Earth, life and humanity. Importantly it aims to bridge the gap between humanities and sciences.
ChronoZoom uses the theme of Big History as a storyline and provides access to learning materials in an easily understandable and navigable way. On the site you will also find links within the tool, tutorials, user guides and lesson plans.
On Friday night I attended the Naace Impact Awards and I was absolutely delighted that Derek Robertson won the award in the category for, ‘Adviser or Consultant or Support Service’. This was for his work on leading the Consolarium Games Based Learning and Games Design project in Scotland.
I’ve know Derek for a long time and I have also spent some time working within his team at the Consolarium during the early days of my secondment to what was Learning and Teaching Scotland.
The Consolaroum project was started in 2006 but Derek’s interest in Games in Schools stretches back to the 1980s when he was a Primary School Teacher in Dundee City.
The video below, that was prepared for the awards ceremony tells Derek’s story (it was also great fun to make!):
Derek has been an inspiration to work with. He is a whirlwind of ideas and enthusiasm. He is a person who generally wants to make learning exciting, real and relevant for young children. I can think of no one else who I would have rather seen get up on stage on Friday night to receive the award.
I spent last Friday and Saturday at the Annual Nacce Conference. This year the Conference was held at the Marriott Hotel in Leicester - which was an excellent venue with some fantastic staff.
While I was at the conference I was interviewed by Luke for RadioWaves on what I thought about ICT in the Curriculum, computing in schools and the idea of Playful Learning.
He didn’t ask me to many difficult questions and I am pretty pleased with the results, which is embedded below.
While on the subject of RadioWaves - A huge congratulations should go to Lewis Philips from Inverkeithing High School for winning a Nacce Impact Award for his work on school radio.
More on other events of the Nacce Conference later in the week.
Ian Stuart (@islayian) and I first met David Christian at the Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Education Forum in Washington DC in November 2011. David was talking about Big History and we were instantly impressed with the quality of David’s presentation, his passion for education and how the concept of Big History fitted with the principles of CfE. You can see my short write up of his talk here.
Since Washington Ian has remained in contact with David and facilitated a conversation between him and Joe Wilson, Head of New Ventures at the SQA. Ian and Joe were keen to explore how we might get Scottish Schools involved in the piolet programme for 2012/2013 before the large scale worldwide rollout in 2013/2014.
The rest as they say is history and we are excited to announce that…
Winging its way out to Directors of Education and Headteachers today was a superb opportunity for three Scottish Schools and their science & social subjects departments.
We have been invited as a Nation to participate in the pilot roll out of the Big History Project. Funded by Bill Gates directly through Bill Gates Catlyst Three. This is a superb opportunity for Scottish Schools to be part of a cutting edge, project based learning, global project - that fits very well with a Curriculum for Excellence
The SQA and The Big History Project invite applications to be part of The Big History Project and join pilot schools in Australia and USA.
In particular:
We are looking for three secondary schools in close proximity to each other - this is stipulation from the Big History Project.
Funding is available for two teachers from each school to attend the programme induction in Seatlle, USA between 22-25th March 2012
These teachers will be a Science Teacher and a Social Subjects Teacher (the curriculum leaders).
Participating schools need to deliver the Big History programme as a pilot from September 2012 to a 2nd or 3rd Year cohort and provide feedback where appropriate.
Participating schools will also be expected to carry out a curriculum mapping exercise for the Big History Project materials to the experiences and outcomes of CfE.
Pilot schools will gain experience of working with global partners on a new and innovative multidisciplinary curriculum.
You can find out more about the Big History Project here www.bighistoryproject.combut this short video sums it up nicely!
To apply for this opportunity - we need an Education Authority’s nomination of three suitable schools.
The project will meet the travel and subsistence costs associated with the programme but will not provide cover costs for the induction programme.
Applications will be screened by panel drawn from SQA, Education Scotland and The Big History Project.
Application Process
Applications should consist of one side A4 with a simple statement from each of three nominated schools on Why the Big History project appeals to them.
Attached to the application we need a name and short resume of the Science and Social Science Teacher nominated to take part in induction programme from each of the three schools. Given the tight timescale on this nominees need to hold a full British Passport.
Applications close on Monday 5th of March - successful applicants will be contacted to make travel arrangements on 7th of March .
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