Apps for Good – Teaching kids more than just coding!

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Charlotte

We’ve known about Apps for Good for a while now, and it’s about time that we shouted from the rooftops about how great we think they are!

Apps for Good is a fantastic course by not for profit organisation CDI Europe that aims to inspire young people to use technology for social goods. As well as delivering courses in schools across the country to support ICT Education, they have recently teamed up with Facebook to pilot a course for unemployed 16-25 year olds in London.

The Apps for Good courses are about teaching young people to build applications to solve problems and have also some sort of social benefit. As well as the practical side of learning about making Apps and how to code, the courses teach young people about problem solving, research, business planning, teamwork…the list goes on! The bounty of skills that these courses deliver is fantastic and really helps to discover and develop creativity, talent and innovative young people increasing their employability at a time when these skills are becoming ever more important.

In the midst of huge amounts of criticism about ICT education in our schools, it is projects like these that are beacons of hope! The pressure on schools to deliver better ICT education is mounting, Apps for Good supports schools by alleviating this pressure, rather than loading more onto teachers who may not have expertise or confidence in this technology.

A question raised in the last few months is whether it is a problem for teachers to know less than their students about the latest technology. As long as teachers receive support and training alongside their students it doesn’t have to be a problem. The Apps for Good network of experts are available to support teachers and teach them alongside the students, ensuring that they can develop the skills and confidence too.

Dorothy Stringer High School in Brighton are running an Apps for Good course for around 45 of its students, led by tech savvy ICT teacher Genevieve Smith-Nunes who is hugely enthusiastic about the project.

“They understand the process and work that goes into the amazing apps they use. This term we are moving into the mock-up and build phase; this will show the students the difficulties faced during the development phase. They love using their own phones for research and are excited about the prospect of using their own apps once finished. From my perspective as a teacher, it’s a fun environment in which the students can manage their own learning. What more can any teacher ask!”

In June 2012 students who have taken part in the Apps for Good course from across the UK, have the opportunity to enter the Apps for Good Awards 2012 competition where they pitch their App designs to a Dragons Den style panel. Previous ‘Dragons’ include Mark Schmid from Talk Talk and Jo Twist from Channel 4.The Dragons vote on which Apps they think should be given funding for further development. This is a fantastic learning experience for students; they follow the development process all the way from identifying the problem to design through to pitching a business proposal. How much more ‘real life engagement’ can you get?!

If your school is interested in running the Apps for Good course in 2012/13 please visit the Apps for Good website http://appsforgood.org/course/

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Facebook in the Classroom

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Sarah

Should teachers use social media such as Twitter and Facebook as an engaging learning tool with their students? Should these websites be blocked in the classroom?
Millie Watts, a geography and geology teacher wrote a fantastic article in December’s Leader magazine about how she uses Facebook as an engaging tool for learning with her students.

Highlighted in the article is the huge potential that Facebook has, it allows teachers to interact with students in real-time; it acts as a forum where news and information can be shared; students can vote in polls; and the quieter more reserved pupils often find a voice using social media. Millie used Facebook to support students in their revision, being online for a couple of hours the night before the exam to answer any questions and clarify and last minute confusion.

Huish Sixth Form College, where Millie works, has trained staff and instated a code of conduct on the use of social networking sites to protect both the students and the staff. This involved giving teachers a chance to ensure that their own Facebook sites adhered to the new code of standards.

Obviously using social media with students has to be monitored and controlled, however is this is done effectively then it opens up a whole world of potential in terms of engaging with students, making learning more exciting and interactive using a platform that they use in everyday life.

Much of young people’s learning is informal. It’s important to recognise that not all learning takes place within the classroom, and nor should it. By stepping outside the confines of the classroom and its textbooks, effective teachers are finding ways to engage with students in the context of their world. In doing so they are attempting not only to understand better but to relate teaching to a language and environment that students associate with daily, making learning far more relevant and effective.

If we don’t understand the world that our children are in, we will fail them”

Neil Hopkins, Head Teacher, Rosendale & Christchurch.

In order to succeed we need to understand the context that our children live in. Participating and understanding social media is important. The power resides with the children; however the responsibility to understand that lies with us.

So when asked if teachers should use social media with their students? With the correct controls and moderation, absolutely!

Juliette and Stephen Heppell have an excellent page on the Do’s and Don’ts for teachers and Facebook.

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Smartphones: the new differentiation

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Sarah

Guest blog post by the fab Genevieve Smith-Nunes, recently mentioned in the Guardian!

I use smartphones in lessons for various reasons and I LOVE them. They’ve got so many possibilities, from acting as a learning aid, to a really useful piece of technical kit. For me it is the new way to differentiate.

All the kids in the class get the same worksheet but what changes is the “help”, a little QR code a next to the question. The QR codes might link to keywords, formulae, learning objectives, homework…. whatever takes my fancy. It allows the students to self-manage their learning and also stops the gaming on the phones. Unless that is the purpose of the lesson of course! Teaching teenagers and allowing the use of phones in classrooms is seen to be difficult, which it can be, but it’s also a huge amount of fun and great for learning!

As a learning aid it is great tool for EAL and SEN students as you can add links, content or images to support their learning. I cannot promote the positive effects it has on engagement in lessons enough.

I have some classes where none of the students have a personal smartphone, so the students use mine or I display the content of the QR code on the board. They are everywhere, magazines, on bins, window displays and even TV. Using smartphones in the classroom enables students, who don’t own one, to feel involved, understand what they are, and have a go at using them. Being unable to afford the kit should not exclude anyone from understanding and participating in this fantastic tool! The DEB Smartphone for Schools project will enable all students to access new technologies and develop and deeper understanding how “tech things” work.

Today in one of my Christmas lessons we developed e-greeting cards using Alice2.2, Prezi and incorporated QR codes as images or texture within the e-greetings. We discussed what they are what types of information can be included. Some students hadn’t seen them before so one students explained “it is just like a hyperlink to stuff or info”… Brilliant! It’s this type of technology that is so easy to incorporate into lessons, making them more relevant, teaching really useful skills at the same time as being really great fun.

If you haven’t used smartphones in your classroom yet…… GET THEM OUT from under the desk and think of it as each student’s personal assistant.

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FE Colleges – satisfying Ofsted whilst remaining sane!

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Sarah

Supporting a large body of teaching staff, satisfying Ofsted whilst remaining sane! Is it possible?

The revelation that none of the FE colleges inspected in the last school year were graded outstanding for teaching and learning came as quite a surprise to me. These statistics do not represent the whole picture of FE in England but it does highlight a need to reassess the training and professional development provision in the FE sector.

Another point of concern is the provision of FE teacher training. Whilst the government are offering £20,000 bursaries for first class graduates to teach priority subjects in schools, the FE teaching grant of a mere £400 is being discontinued as of March next year and the fees are going up.

These issues combined present a concerning picture for teaching provision in FE. It’s interesting to note that there is government support of bursaries for school level teachers but a distinct lack of funding at FE, yet Ofsted are hot on both of their heels to raise the bar of attainment and focus on CPD provision and training opportunities.

There are many outstanding teachers in colleges, however according to Ofsted the consistency across the board is lacking. A call for bottom up professional development has been made by the Chief Executive of the Institute for Learning, I think there’s a lot in that.

But how does a Teaching & Learning/CPD Co-ordinator manage 400+ staff, identify and support each one individually? An important challenge for colleges in achieving the more consistent level of teaching that Ofsted demands, is to find a way of disseminating best practice from those outstanding teachers and ensuring that all staff are able to learn and benefit from it. Quite a challenge when colleges have a huge staff body and are split across multiple sites.

Large multi sites challenge any CPD provision even for the most eager teacher. The opportunities to discuss practice, observe others can be difficult and costly. It’s ok allowing teachers to go away and immerse themselves in their own CPD, but without the interaction with their colleagues the best trained teacher will find it difficult to sustain their performance on their own.

The government and society as a whole increasingly expects ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Teaching 30 + students between 4-6 hours every day ensuring every single one is motivated engaged, actively involved in their own learning and doing well is no easy feat.  In the absence of support, guidance and opportunities to engage with other professionals – how many people can be expected to do complex tasks at the level required?

Innovating and using technology to aid professional development to tackle these challenges is something that some colleges do fantastically well. Gloucestershire College being one example, where they share practice and drive innovation through the use IRIS Connect. In order to meet Ofsted’s demands, raising levels of attainment for both staff and pupils, at a time of tightened purse strings, Colleges are starting to think outside the traditional box for CPD provision and staff training.

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