#LWF12 a quick review

Storify by Joe Wilson

Sun, Jan 29 2012 13:01:47

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Learning Without Frontiers #lwf12

I spent two days this week at learning without frontiers . At some points of conference we made it out to the frontiers but there was also a fair number of old ideas being recycled. I loved the igloos but did think conference was not as good as previous years. Day Two was best day for me.

1. 

   .@stephenheppell #lwf12 t.co/B1Ajqxpe

   heloukee@heloukee

   ·

   Sun, Jan 29 2012 02:50:02

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2. Stephen Heppell was as his best as a reliable anchor. He really should get a lot more attention paid to his grounded ideas for moving education forward. It was great to hear him on day two . It helped for me at least to bring lots of ideas had picked up back into a real world context.
3. 

   D. M. McGrory@DeeItsy

   Fine words from Noam Chomsky "A person can do magnificently on a test, and understand very little." #lwf12

   Wed, Jan 25 2012 10:28:24

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4. I thought Noam needed to be challenged  - but that is really the problem with deities  - he offered some very  clever questions but not really solutions - the lot of the über  academic .This was a very clever way to open conference but I don't think he really has answers that learners today need never mind future of learning.
5. 

   #lwf12 Ellen MacArthur passionate about the future, renewable resources & inspiring young people. t.co/fTgzEpOD

   catherinecronin@catherinecronin

   ·

   Sun, Jan 29 2012 02:50:02

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6. Rest of  morning of day one for me at any rate was too much thigh slapping empty rhetoric.  Though I'd still like Ray Kurzweil's slide deck.

   Jaron Lanier and Debbie Forster were hard going for me at least.
   

    Ellen MacArthur would have been brilliant but I've seen presentation before and I used this slot for some external meetings .

   After lunch Charlie Leadbetter gave us standard fayre biggest disappointment was perhaps Ed Vaizey - with Digital Britain agenda surely great moment to talk about life long learning and challenges that can be tackled that will lead to greater economic prosperity - thought he set his sites too low.
7. Ended Day One in one of the marvellous igloos discussing educational Armageddon with lots of old friends and some new ones - if anything highlighted ongoing lack of consensus about what education is for - especially in England as everything seems fractured.  It seems like politically engineered Armageddon in England . I'd love an igloo for my back garden would be great for parties !This is worth a read from @dajbelshaw 
8. 

   Marshall Dozier@mafrado

   What is ‘digital literacy’? EdD thesis by @dajbelshaw  http://neverendingthesis.com/doug-belshaw-thesis-as-submitted.pdf …esis.com/doug-bmscilolthesis-as-submitted.pdf via Nigel on #mscilol

   Sun, Jan 29 2012 02:50:02

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9. 

   Salon Foucault at #lwf12 t.co/rnvGDmxs

   grahambm@grahambm

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   Sun, Jan 29 2012 02:50:02

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10. Day two started is much more grounded way - David Puttnam does have a vision and Mitchel Resnick has done some great work at MIT Media Lab . I know lots of schools in Scotland are using Scratch to teach computer programming 
11. 

    Aimee Tang@greenthumbelina

    RT @wayneholmes: If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will be condemned to spend its whole life believing it is stupid. David Putnam #LWF12

    Sun, Jan 29 2012 04:44:43

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12. 

    Mitch Resnick, Lifelong Kindergarten, MIT Media Lab on stage at #lwf12 t.co/baM5emCD

    grahambm@grahambm

    ·

    Sun, Jan 29 2012 02:50:02

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13. Really enjoyed Mozilla Foundation input and moving something on with them 
14. 

    Mark and Michelle from Mozilla #lwf12 t.co/8yytYrVI

    jamesclay@jamesclay

    ·

    Sun, Jan 29 2012 02:50:02

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15. 

    sava@savasavasava

    @nerdsrocket here are some links:  http://openbadges.org/ g/ http://hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/2011/09/16/why-badges-why-not …bl http://dmlcentral.net/blog/doug-belshaw/badges-lifelong-learning-reframing-debate …011/09/16/why-badges-why-not, http://dmlcentral.net/blog/doug-belshaw/badges-lifelong-learning-reframing-debate...

    Sun, Jan 29 2012 02:50:02

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16. 

    Joe Wilson@joecar

    Really hoping we can plug Scottish education into Mozilla global community #lwf12 lots we can bring

    Sun, Jan 29 2012 02:50:02

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17. Some other links and ideas I am going back to look at - 
18. 

    Joe Wilson@joecar

    Thingiverse - Digital Designs for Physical Objects: Where learners can share amazing things they have done with ...  http://bit.ly/ybopuo 

    Sun, Jan 29 2012 02:50:02

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19. 

    Brain Power @brain_info_kids

    RT @joecar: Great resources on education and development of neuroscience:  http://bit.ly/z0ccFB 

    Sun, Jan 29 2012 02:50:02

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20. 

    Joe Wilson@joecar

    RT @oliverquinlan: Digital Technology and the Brain: A Guide for the Online Family  http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/digital-technology-and-the-brain-a-guide-for-the-online-family/18705197 …prlwf12/paperback/digital-technology-and-the-brain-a-guide-for-the-online-family/18705197 #lwf12

    Sun, Jan 29 2012 02:50:02

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21. 

    Joe Wilson@joecar

    Oops and here it is any Scottish learners tuned in to this ?  http://youngrewiredstate.org/ tate.org/

    Sun, Jan 29 2012 02:50:02

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22. 

    Bob Harrison@bobharrisonset

    RT @GrahamBM: Diary dates for #LWF13 Jan 29-30 2013, the brand new "West Hall" Olympia - expect us... #lwf12 Get it in your diary now!

    Sun, Jan 29 2012 02:50:02

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23. 

    Check it out: @paulhollins & friend #lwf12 t.co/2NBeYT6s

    heloukee@heloukee

    ·

    Sun, Jan 29 2012 02:50:02

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24. There are loads more of reviews appearing 
25. 

    Ian Addison@ianaddison

    More #lwf12 blogposts courtesy of @dawnhallybone  http://hallyd.edublogs.org/ gs.org/

    Sun, Jan 29 2012 02:50:02

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26. 

    Doug Belshaw@dajbelshaw

    From last night: my first reflections. RT *New* 'Learning Without Frontiers 2012 (#LWF12)'  http://bit.ly/wVtX6V 

    Sun, Jan 29 2012 02:50:02

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27. Schmooze did not really do it for me 
28. 

    waltatek@waltatek

    @joecar Schmooze  http://bit.ly/sFrsKd  sounds really interesting! Let us know how it works for you at #LWF12

    Sun, Jan 29 2012 02:50:02

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Class Dojo

I think this is interesting  development and probably running ahead of policy makers in this area of classroom management and reporting.

Young learners  who have seen Kung Fu Panda will probably understand concept of a Dojo and those that haven't will quickly see normal penalty and reward system of classroom management in this tool

Appeared on my radar a few times now in last six months and flagging it up for this reason alone.

Check it out at  http://www.classdojo.com/tour

#TeachMeetImpact

If I've done this correctly each time this page loads you will see 10 more photographs from one of the Teachmeets  that are happening right now somewhere in the world - Images from flickr tagged 'Teachmeet' and a  wee tool courtesy of Flickr Badge

The inspiring thing about Teachmeet is that it has travelled well

It works best where there are about 40-50 participants

The rules work well for teachers - who are not used to

a. Being in the audience
b. Talking for only a minute in some cases
c. Speaking in front of their peers and/or strangers
d And originally who wish to share and build their confidence in using technology in the classroom - and might not be that confident.




Created with flickr badge.

Playing with Drawing Packages

I am a terrible doodler and result of being away from home and trying to seek inspiration in meetings is that I sit and doodle .
I wonder if any of my pals recognise these doodles ;-)

The Bett Show 2nd Helpings #bett12, #BETT_Show, #bett2012

Michael Gove set a much better tone and direction for this year's conference, he may have disappointed some with talk of making programming exciting while perhaps overlooking the  fact that many folks still see a need for ict to permeate the curriculum more,  just using the stuff does require support and neither teachers or learners naturally apply technology in a learning context. We still need a focus on digital literacies.


I looked around for some familiar Education Department folks to compare notes with - I think an Education Department Stand at BETT would be useful. Though I have to say Naace and ALT are doing a fine job in keeping debate going and providing guidance for schools in maintaining quality of ICT Provision for learners.
It is worth looking and contributing to the  following debate at SchoolTech.Org.Uk 

When you see commercial muscle that is on display each year at BETT it is easy to see how and why local authorities can be seduced in to making large investments. There is an  interesting on going BBC investigation on UK Schools paying up to fives times more for technology than other parts of the world.

There was I thought some misplaced smugness from Scotland - we have done much around games and learning , programming in classroom and lots more and Curriculum for Excellence genuinely opens up a very broad range of opportunities from 4- 19 and across the full subject range,  but we still have much further to go.

Hoping Gove's  damascene conversion is what it appears and that it spurs on some more joined up messages and actions from Education Scotland and SQA . We've been talking about wikifying education for last six years hope some ears pricked up at Michael Gove taking this forward in England.

The Bett Show First Pass #bett12 #BETT_Show, #bett2012 , #mmafa , #tmbett2012 , #C84C , #EWF , #ELB2012 , #ATC21S

Lots of people can and do spend a lot of time slagging off the BETT Show but it is the one week in year where you  get the sense in the UK that learning technology has a full part to play in the future of learning.  

It can be really hectic but it is always a privilege to attend and critical I think that anyone who gets to attend shares things with the broader learning community. There are a few learning 'consultants' who top up on their jargon this week and will drip feed it to their clients for the rest of the year.  I think "flipped classroom" will be the term  for Bullshit Bingo this year.  ( not knocking theory but those who will mouth it emptily in the coming year ) 

The event was a lot busier than last year both on exhibitor and it felt on attendee front.  Some folks said rightly that last year had a poor turn out because of the weather but it still felt busier than last two previous years.  Good too to  meet up with both Education Scotland and Scottish Government at the  event - it is really critical we make the most of events like BETT both for information gathering and on promoting the best of Scottish Education.

I'll do a few posts  to summarise my BETT experience. There were lots of great links and interesting topics flying around on twitter I hope some of these streams will be archived.

#EWF,  #ELB2012  , #ATC21S I think lots of folk are unaware that BESA now helps organise an Education World Forum on the Monday and Tuesday before BETT started.  There are quite a few useful snippets in the feed from this  http://www.ewf2012.org/  , Microsoft's Education Leaders Briefing  and one to have a look at the assessment and teaching of 21st century skills programme http://atc21s.org/ which we at SQA have been engaged with from inception.

#bett12 #BETT_Show,  #bett2012   - I wish that the official BETT Tag did not have an underscore in it . I don't know who came up with that idea but hopefully one that changes next year. 

 #mmafa  The Miranda Mod  Unconference and some excellent sessions http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk/bett/ 

#C84C  Collaborate for Change a useful new additional fringe event on Thursday evening some lively discussion from vendors and ICT support people http://www.c84c.org.uk/   Looks too that it has a format that can sustain large conference numbers.

#tmbett2012 The one and only - but I'm still not able to hang about until Friday and I am still not sure that teachmeets work when you get 200 folk in one room. But it looked good as ever http://teachmeet.pbworks.com/w/page/48562279/Teachmeet%20%40BETT%202012  and its still critical to have this kind of informal , informative , networking event for teachers at BETT. I'd still like to be able to offer some  no strings sponsorship for  this but I am not quite sure what is happening on this one. Delighted too that John Johnstone has been nominated for a NAACE award for impact of teachmeets http://www.johnjohnston.info/blog/?e=2245 I am sure lots of folk from across UK and beyond will want to help John get his portfolio together. 

More posts to follow 

, 

#BETT12 Here it comes

Well my diary is almost full of the important catch ups with vendors that I can only really make in this slot in the year.  I'll  be at BETT from Wed morning to Friday afternoon this year.

Normally I am aware of what the main big ticket issue is as a backdrop to BETT - in the past you could guess before you went that dependent on year you would be running into

- purveyors of electronic whiteboards
- ICT Training initiatives for teachers, learners , adults , civil servants ....
- whole school and local authority management information systems
- technical service providers for local authorities
- special deals for bulk buys of hardware
- Virtual Learning Environment providers
- Schools for the future , gazers , describers , sellers , costructors - in handy pre-formed partnership teams

The only constants over last 10 years are quiet stands full of fuzzy felt and interesting things for primary learners and  appalling really for Britain's premier education exhibition, wi-fi will be inaccessible or really dreadful.

It is hard to tell what main thing will be this year - I am guessing policy folk will sit around and talk about PISA - this has been main topic for last three years. It is verging on the obsessive really.

I'd like discussions to be around how education in the  UK can support BYOD if not for learners then certainly for teachers and how and why we can't be as ambitious for learners as a county like Uruguay can be in terms of moving to one lap top per child and building the infrastructure around this.
It may only be a short hop away as 4G and new networking technologies may mean that high bandwidth is available to support new initiatives in this space without cost of all the hard-wiring.

Would be great too to hear from school system of some examples where local authorities of regions have moved into cloud in an open scaleable way and overcome any security issues they may have had for learners and for information security too.

I usually come back with some great new ideas from international links we have http://www.joewilsons.net/search/label/BETT  and a huge sense of relief we don't operate in the same policy landscape as the English education system. ( should add for blogging police this is a fact on policy landscape  rather than any form of  political statement )

See you there folks