mikes web log

Tessa, my eldest daughter, is an accomplished artist. Her latest exhibition in Colchester is brilliant. Her macabre fairies seem to have got smaller and more powerful as they continue there takeover of the insect world. The three pieces of work called ‘The Terror’ consist of three swarms of fairies (or insects) interacting with the wasps, bees and now animals (snakes and birds) in frightening ways. One of the presentations was in an outside ‘alley’ which added to the potential fear factor of this dominating species.   My problem is when will they start tackling us.

It has been a long time since my last desire to add to this commentary about the project. Things haven’t stopped but you do have to make decisions about those things that you wish to make public and those that you dont. It is probably the latter that controls the situation. Where are we in the preparation stages as we come to the end of one of the coldest dullest March months that I have ever experienced?

All of the equipment has now been purchased. All £400,000 of it. The four schools have received their laptops (135) and there are 270 computer systems in storage awaiting delivery to homes. Planning for the September start is underway. The schools involved (1 secondary and 3 primary) have all agreed to devote substantial sums to supporting the project over the next three years(Thank goodness – a  job for me) Following the principle that money follows money other bids for support have been made.

Coming up are software choices, teacher training, marketing to parents, delivery of computers, parental training and a host of other bits and pieces.

Today one of the most interesting developments was the illumination of the systems that will be used to administer the first and second line help for the new users (The year 3 and Year 7

It has been a long time since my last desire to add to this commentary about the project. Things haven’t stopped but you do have to make decisions about those things that you wish to make public and those that you dont. It is probably the latter that controls the situation. Where are we in the preparation stages as we come to the end of one of the coldest dullest March months that I have ever experienced.

All of the equipment has now been purchased. All £400,000 of it. The four schools have received their laptops (135) and there are 270 computer systems in storage awaiting delivery to homes. Planning for the September start is underway. The schools involved (1 secondary and 3 primary) have all agreed to devote substantial sums to supporting the project over the next three years. Following the principle that money follows money other bids for support have been made.

Coming up are software choices, teacher training, marketing to parents, delivery of computers, parental training and a host of other bits and pieces.

Today one of the most interesting developments was the illumination of the systems that will be used to administer the first and second line help for the new users. I already knew that computer distribution was not a problem. The suppliers had agreed to deliver and fit the computers and organise Internet access into the home (this was integrated into the costing of the computers).

The mousemats that they will be using will have a telephone helpline number on them (brilliant idea – there are some clever bods out there). The helpline will be prepared for all the usual sorts of problems. All the computers will be the same, with exactly the same motherboard (more about that later). The helpline (part of the Birmingham help system) will either help immediately or pass the help onto other groups BUT they will record the response from these groups.

This is utterly different from the organic help that I have been conducting in the trials and was unsustainable so I feel a Case Study coming on…..

The first stage next week is to sell the project to the parents. How do we do this? There is a capture time when the parents come to pick up the children at the end of the day. This gives the opportunity of a quick 20 min. presentation. The idea is to prepare a quick PowerPoint presentation which will mainly consist of video clips of parents and pupils who trialled the Computers in the Home Project talking in both English and home languages (Urdu, Bangla,Punjabi etc) about what having a computer in there home has mean’t to them.

 See next week for the presentation and how it went. (a busy weekend ahead).

parents). I already knew that computer distribution was not a problem. The suppliers had agreed to deliver and fit the computers and organise Internet access into the home (this was integrated into the costing of the computers).

The mousemats that they will be using will have a telephone helpline number on them (brilliant idea – there are some clever bods out there). The helpline will be prepared for all the usual sorts of problems. All the computers will be the same, with exactly the same motherboard (more about that later). The helpline (part of the usual Birmingham help system) will either help immediately or pass the help onto other groups BUT they will record the response from these groups.

This is utterly different from the organic help that I have been conducting in the trials so I feel a Case Study coming on…..

The first stage next week is to sell the project to the parents. How do we do this? There is a capture time when the parents come to pick up the children at the end of the day. This gives the opportunity of a quick 20 min. presentation. The idea is to prepare a quick PowerPoint presentation which will mainly consist of video clips of parents and pupils who trialled the Computers in the Home Project talking in both English and home languages (Urdu, Bangla, Punjabi etc) about what having a computer in there home has meant to them.

 See next week for the presentation and how it went. (a busy weekend ahead).

I dont know whether to add this to the notes of the previous entry or to continue building the development of my thinking (rambling) this way. Is there a blogetiquette?

Two questions have arisen which are worth researching. Firstly there may be a link between subtractive bilingualism and learning difficulties. Secondly there might be a community effect. I have been discussing this with colleagues and comparing the communities (similiar ethnic background) around different schools. It was apparent from this discussion that the relationship of different communities to their schools can be very different and this could influence the interaction with the project.

My idea was to produce concept soundbites in community languages. I had forgotten about dialect. This also needs some research.

I would imagine that these are just three of an endless stream of questions that may need answering.

My daughter pointed me to an interesting article by Dan Gillmor on the BBC site. I particularly like his optimism with respect to the posibility of a ‘more diverse media ecosystem’ as I still enjoy the weekends papers. I still haven’t worked out how to safely operate the laptop in the bath. The real interest is however the comments, hundreds of them. They make brilliant reading. Including ‘The vast majority of blogs are self-indulgent ramblings’. In part I agree but am I bovvered?

What a big title?

I have found what I was looking for – the theoretical support for the hypothesis that some second language learners in Aston not only suffer in their second language (English) but also in their home or first language. As I have said before my experience of going into family homes in Aston is that the main language spoken is the home language whether it be Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati or some other language. This is also supported by a diet of Sky Television in the home language. The kids therefore meet English is school and their first language at home. The problems are many. It hinders both languages development, undervalues their first language and adds to the problems of the development of conceptual knowledge.

I was therefore very pleased to find a term which explained (represented it). Such are the delights of Google. Colin Baker (University of Wales)  says:

“Subtractive bilingualism occurs when the development of the second language is detrimental to the development and maintenance of the first language. Through this a person may also come to have lower esteem for the culture of their first language. This can happen in many situations, for example, when the first language is regarded as unnecessary for education, has a lower status in the community, or is simply not supported. Subtractive bilingualism is directly related to less-positive self-esteem, loss of cultural identity, alienation, and a failure in education and finding work.”

This and other supportive comments by Cummings who says that :

“It is very important that students be encouraged to continue their native language development. When parents ask about the best ways they can help their child at home, you can reply that the child should have the opportunity to read extensively in her own language. You could suggest that parents make some time every evening to discuss with their child, in their native language, what she has done in school that day: ask her to talk about the science experiment she did, question her about her understanding of primary and secondary sources of historical information, have her explain how she has solved a math problem etc.”

gives me a way forward. Imagine 90 second, aural notes in home languages linked to important conceptual knowledge placed on a VLE so that both parents and pupils can access. The project has access to these facilities and it should be within our capabilities. I think I am now beginning to construct the framework to make this a pretty special project.

I have just finished working with colleagues on an instruction sheet on podcasting and out of interest I was just looking at a few other sites. Came across the Education Podcast network and for ‘fun’ looked at the American Society for Microbiology. They have a set of 90 second podcasts on different subjects and I learned something new from each of the five I visited. Its a brilliant example of what you can do in 90 seconds.

Looking at it another way. How long do you wait at a set of red traffic lights. Maximum 30 seconds. Try it. I wish life was as long.  Introduction_to_Podcastingv2.doc

I was talking to a group of teachers today about the benefits of podcasting and blogging and decided to show them the Ford blog. It was filtered out by the Birmingham network filtering system for porn……… I really get fed up with this heavy filtering environment. It makes no difference whether the filtering is right or wrong (in this case very obviously wrong) the kids go into the playground get out their mobile phones and access completely unfiltered material. Education has got to be the name of the game we cannot keep building higher and higher fences.

There was a very interesting article in the Observer today from John Naughton, who is apparently an Internet Guru. He was talking about broadcasting and the way in which it is changing.

You have the general picture of a boadcasting medium which might have attracted 20 million ten years ago but will now only attract 5 million because our interests are now more focused and there are more pushing channels available to us.

What I couldn’t understand was the push/pull arguments he developed. i have heard these before. Why is broadcast TV only a push technology. We choose to watch it. We choose to change channels. We choose to switch off. We can choose to pull it.

He says ” The web is opposite to this. It’s a pull medium. Nothing comes to you unless you choose it and click on it to pull it down to your computer. Your in charge” How on earth is this different from the push model?

It was a classic. I was trying to explain it to my youngest daughter and you suddenly realise the stupidity of your statements. Everything is a ‘pull’ technology. Even with a podcast you pull it down even though it is pushed towards you.Is this an emporer’s new clothes scenario? Shouldn’t we abandon this simplistic model and accept the fact that it is even simpler. We are in an era when their are a myriad of pushes that we can choose from. We can also also join the pushers with our web based activities including our blogs. Everybody can become a pusher and likewise all can be pullers.

Naughton was right when he said that “the asymmetry of the old push-media world is being overturned” It has omly because we can all be pushers not just pullers.

When I was in Torquay I knew that I had been there before. OK, I had been there three years ago at the last but two NAACE conferences. I had also walked through there with James when we did the coastal walk from Cornwall to Dorset some fifteen or sixteen years ago. Somehow I knew that I had been there as a child but couldn’t work out when.

As I walked with my colleagues/friends down to Torquay on the Thursday this was a point of reflection. Keith also thought that he had been there sometime in his youth. Who could forget the fantastic Torquay scenario of white houses climbing over the hillocks that surround Torbay. I had. We both bemoaned the fact that we had no parents to ask about our youth and why  hadn’t we asked the question earlier. No point in asking your mum about the holiday’s of your youth when she has been dead for the last four years. Had it been lost for ever?

Maybe not. There was my brother. Could he give me some clues. He is three years younger that me and one of his strongest memory of our youth  seems to be the stone that hit him on the beach at Hastings. I was not throwing it at him. I was throwing it at the sea…he happened to get in the way. So I tentatively asked the question. Did we ever go to Torquay for a holiday. “Of course we did” was the reply “Don’t you remember?” Obviously I didn’t. “We cycled there”  We cycled there was my amazed reply and then of course it all came flooding back to me.

We did ‘try’ to cycle there all of 220 mile (courtesy of multimap). I was I think 14 years old and my brother was 11 years old. Our mum and dad went by train. Isn’t that bloody amazing. They allowed us to try to get to Torquay by bike on our own.

The amazing thing is we did 155 miles of that 220 miles. Eventually we gave up and took the train from Dorchester to Torquay, were met by our parents in Torquay and transported to our hotel. What do I remember about the trip? We stayed at Youth Hostels and there was one particular barn that served goats milk for breakfast cereals and you had to get the goats milk yourself. You try milking goats at 7.00 in the morning.

My brother is kind. He said that the problem was that he couldn’t continue with the hills that we kept meeting so I had decided that we had to tranfer to the train. I’m not sure it was like that. I have my suspicions that I used his complaints to help me make a decision that I wanted to make. Where the money came from for the remaining train journey remains a mystery.

When we got to Torquay we enjoyed a holiday, linked to an organisation called the Holiday Fellowship, which was walk orientated and we joined many organised walks over Dartmoor and the surrounding area so we didn’t see much or Torquay. I can also remember a couple of lasses that joined us on the walks and as a thirteen/fourteen year old the juices were on there way. Maybe that is why I don’t remember Torquay.

One of the discussions I had at NAACE was the problems that children have when they are taught in English and go home to their home language. This results in eleven year olds who are not wholly competent in English and in addition they are not wholly competent in their home language. For example at school a child meets thousands of words which they would never normally meet at home. For the second language learner this means that their are thousands of words that they never experience in their home language.

This has given me some ideas relating to the new computers in the home project that I have mentioned earlier. Using the available technology it should be possible to take a lot of the teaching language that children meet in the school and translate it into the home language. This could then be stored online allowing both the pupils and the parents to access it.

Luckily the schools involved in the project have a large number of brilliant teachers and support staff who are fluent in the home languages of most of the children so the translations would not be too costly. I now need to link to the research that the initial premise was based on so that I can evaluate the idea.

The NAACE conference has its uses!

Here is a list of over 200 words that appeared on six pages of test papers for Year 3.doc