mikes web log

For all this focus on ICT, blogging, podcasting, computers in the home etc etc I am really a scientist through and through. 

I can still remember my first science investigation when at the tender age of about 9 I did a couple of weeks survey of the seagulls that were settling on the playing fields outside of my parents semi council house in the London suburb of Eltham. I noticed that there was always more of them on bad weather days and I wrote to the ‘Old Codgers’ about them. For the uninitiated the ‘Old Codgers’ were a correspondence team working for the Daily Mirror (probably a set of young idealistic journalists). I’m not sure that the letter was published but I did receive a reply which was proudly passed around school. 

Later I can remember vividly the moment when, two weeks before the Chemistry GCE examination I realised that a chemical equation could be treated like a mathematical equation . That one side of a chemical equation would equal the other side. This was quite a revelation because it mean’t that you didnt have to memorise hundreds of chemical equations and held me in good stead when it came to the chemistry degree five years later. 

Then came the PhD ..what was it ….’The ortho-para hyrogen conversion over first row transition metal salts AND Molecular Complexes’. All good fun but what did it really mean. I wasn’t really sure so I decided that a life of research which was 15% being on a high and 85% boredom was not for me so I went into teaching. 

It was only when I started teaching that I began to realise what science was really about. On my PGCE I can remember being inspired by reading for the first time about the history of science. Was this what I had been involved in for the last eight years of my life? However the pressures of teaching soon moved this to the back of my agenda and it didn’t re-emerge for the next ten years when I found myself in teacher training and particularly involved in primary science. I then found myself back with the seagulls and discovered what I had been involved in for all those years. 

Why this little résumé? In 1990, there was a book published (just before the National Curriculum in the UK) It was part of a series called Assessing Science in the Primary Curriculum – Written Tasks by among others Mike Schilling, Linda Hargreaves, Wynne Harlen and Terry Russell. It is about an attempt to assess science process skills through written tasks. An impossible task but a brilliant attempt. Called the ‘Walled Garden Project’ it attempted to present pupils with tasks which upon completion could indicate observation, hypothesising, interpreting, measuring etc skills. When I read it in 1990 I thought it was the answer to all sorts of prayers (the SAT’s testers probably thought so as well). There was also another publication at that time called Match and Mismatch from Wynne Harlen (primary science guru). None of it really made a proper impact on the classroom which was unfortunate because they were looking at real science rather than the accepted traditional fact based subject. 

I have this idea now that ICT can deliver what they wanted to deliver. In the real science world there is the all important idea which with preliminary observations becomes the hypothesis which then with the appropriate experimentation can become a proven hypothesis which is then tested again. This is almost impossible in the normal school environment but with the ICT communication and collaboration potential it could be possible.

My definition of science is that it is ‘Applied Curiosity’. Watch this space. 

PS
I tried to induct my children into science as I walked them in the park and took them here and there. “Look there is a worm. Has it got any legs? Whats thats sticky stuff on its back? What does it eat? Where does it live?” One did an English degree, the other a Fine Art degree and the youngest a Sociology and Physcology degree. Maybe when they are a little older…………………..

Here I am again. I have previously asked about this and didn’t seem to get any replies. I suppose I should go to  Google and Google it. I posted a relaxing blog about a visit to Torquay and the NAACE conference. Today I really wanted to revisit the podcast of Peter Fords brilliant talk at NAACE to look at his statement about the ‘Rainforest’ blog. Why? I thought it would be useful to refer to it with respect to a small article i am writing for Birmingham’s ‘Education Now’ on blogging and podcasting.
What do i find?
No podcast of the talk. Whose problem is that …..NAACE  or some other restriction?
And then ….copies of my blog comments on the NAACE conference on their conference site.
Now. I did enjoy the walk around the Torquay quay. I thought the visit to the Brunellian station was brilliant and the discussion with colleagues was inspiring.
The question is. Do when we publish something in a blog automatically give people permission copy it and to publish it elsewhere? Or do the rules of email apply.
On reflection I think that the copier is correct. When you publish in a blog you are forgoing copyright and should in essence be grateful for the reference. But that should be plainly clear in the blog etiquette.
Just a thought.
 

After a two week break with 6 nights in the Oman (30 degrees C and blue skies) I have never felt less like getting back to work. I suppose I am at last beginning to feel my age. It might be nice to stop and potter in the garden, sip wine in the sultry evening air etc., etc. However Aston and the project calls and what a nice start to the term with a further £62,000 for the schools from a bid I made to the e-learning foundation. If anybody is interested in bidding in the future let me know and I will help you with your bid (UK only). 

Its now onto the work of recruiting the parents to accepting a computer into their homes. Not easy because as I have said before computers and the Internet do not seem to a ‘must have’ within the project community. A recent visit to a house which one family had moved to illustrated the importance of the ‘big TV’, a brand new 42” job dominating their sitting room. We have had three parents meetings in Prince Albert (the biggest primary) with no problems. The presentations have been in English and the Community languages. Now we move to complete presentations in the other primary schools during the next two weeks. The children are certainly excited. 

One of the interesting aspects of this project and maybe something that stops me retiring is that I am no longer intimately involved in the distribution of the computers. I admit to an organic methodology in the pilot stages. The first 30 computers in the pilot which started two years ago were delivered by me, set-up by me and have since been repaired by me. Computer failures have been reported to the school secretary and I pick up the message and then visit 2,3,4,6,7 days later depending on my other commitments. Not very satisfactory but I do seem to have a very patient clientele. I still get my black tea and samosa. This might be due to the fact that it has not cost them anything. In the pilot there has been no charge for the computer or Internet access (thanks to Aston Pride RDC). Repairs and rebuilds have kept me busy but I am now a bit fed-up with them. I would much prefer to spend the 30-40 minutes in each home talking and working with the parent on how they use the computer. I have however collected some wonderful pen pictures of the the homes I have had the privilege of entering. 

The new system seem to be out of my hands. All I have to do is to suppy the names and addresses of the recipients. The computer suppliers will ghost the computers, deliver them to the homes, sort out the connectivity and then sort out help systems. The mouse mat will have the help telephone number on it and they are now training the ‘Help Team’. That leaves me to concentrate on the curriculum that the teachers will use and the pupils will receive. To support this I will be working in each school for at least half a day each week working with the teachers and kids on classroom based activities which can be supported by suitable home based activities. This will start within the next two weeks and is going to possibly make me reconsider my desire to retire. Watch this space. 

Had first meeting with parents today. Important meeting because we need all parents onboard. This was the first of probably ten or eleven meetings. We will need seven with the year three pupils (year two at the moment) and an unknown number with the year 7 pupils. 

It was a classic trapping exercise. The pupils were met by their parents in the hall and the presentation was delivered there. We had a presentation prepared which was in a number of different community languages. The process of doing this was strange, it indicated the lack of confidence that the pupils have with their own language. 

I read a book today from Usborne called Introduction to Asia with Internet links. What a good idea, wish I had thought of it.  How does it work? You present the pupils with a paper activity- colourful and well presented. You then give them links to a website which has links to sites that give more information on the themes illustrated on the page. 

What is special about this. Nothing much, but there is a significant difference from what has normally been available. Look at this. The kids read the page in the book, go to the web link, type in the page number, then click on links that are directly related to the page and immediately access the multimedia resources that are on these sites.  

For me it seems to complete the picture.  Paper compliments Web. Web compliments paper.