Ewan @ Jordanhill

Yesterday, Ewan talked to our students about Web 2.0 (a bit), blogs, podcasts and a lot about why we would want to use this stuff in our classrooms in the first place! It was good stuff.

Ewan at Jordanhill,
originally uploaded by DavidDMuir.

This is a picture of Ewan in full flight. (I took it handheld with the flash off, so he looks a bit blurry.) He seems to have an unfeasibly large number of gadgets round his neck and yet later on he took an iPod shuffle on lanyard from out of his pocket to add to the collection! On his own blog (where some of the students have already started leaving comments) he says that he, "Had a nervy start to my lecture at Jordanhill". Well, from where I was sitting, it didn't show. Ewan said, when faced with such a large group, he finds it hard to judge how well what he says goes down. It is also hard to deal with the huge range of understanding in the room. However, as well as the positive comments on his blog, I've also had a few emails from students expressing their appreciation for what he did. For example one said, "I thought the speaker today was very interesting".

One of the things he did that I thought was really cool was to interview some of the students as they arrived in the lecture hall. He took their photo with his camera phone and recorded their replies with his iRiver. Then, while I was doing my spiel, he added this stuff to his presentation so it was ready to use when it came to his turn to speak to the students. Brilliant! Digital native or what?

I think what he did was great and I am very keen to see his presentation again. There was so much packed into what he said that I think there will be a lot to be gained from repeated viewing. (I'll put a link here as soon as its available online.)

The best thing about it though, as far as I'm concerned, was his emphasis on learning and the learner. As he has said before:

It's not about the tech, it's about the teach.

Finally an apology. Ewan asked where was the student was who writes ToProbationAndBeyond. We publicly slagged her off for not being at the lecture. However, if we'd read her blog, we would have seen that earlier that morning she had posted a message from her bed of sickness. She is down with some sort of flu thing and is being forced to watch "This Morning" (worse than having flu in my opinion, but when your ill perhaps normal critical faculties are impaired). So sorry Lesley for calling you out in the lecture. I guess I might have to offer you chocolate on your return to apologise.

If anyone who saw his presentation is reading this, what did you think? What were the best bits? What made you think? What made you go, "Hmm!"? What are you most looking forward to trying out for yourself?

Tags: EwanMcIntosh | Jordanhill | teacher education

Have you heard the one about...

I wouldn't normally do this since I suppose it is not entirely politically correct, and Mrs EdCompBlog has adopted blond as her hair colour of choice, but I thought that this blond joke from Stephen was so good that I had to give it a mention here. Enjoy!

Seven Things...

Back at the start of December, Stephen tagged me with this... bah!

1. Seven things to do before I die
2. Seven things I cannot do
3. Seven things that attract me to my spouse
4. Seven things I say most often
5. Seven books (or series) I love
6. Seven movies I watch over and over again (or would watch over and over if I had the time)
7. Seven people I want to join in, too

I decided to wait until the holidays before I had a go.

Seven things to do before I die:

1. Visit New Zealand. (I would have said space... but I think New Zealand is more likely.)
2. Do something on Blue Peter.
   
3. See U2 in concert.
4. Appear in a film.
5. Learn to play a musical instrument. (Guitar, trumpet, drums or saxophone - whichever is easiest/cheapest!)
6. Juggle with four objects.
7. Go sky-diving.
   

Seven things I cannot do:

1. Play football.
   
2. Play golf. (In fact, pick a sport, any sport...)
3. Keep a tidy desk.
4. Get Things Done.
5. Get organised.
6. Finish things I start.
7. 
   

Seven things that attract me to my wife:

1. I'm sorry, I just can't do this one.
   
2. How am I supposed to do it in only seven points?
3. Even if I tried and said something like, "Joni Mitchell", ...
   
4. ... I'd have to spend half a page explaining what I meant.
5. If I could describe what makes her attractive, I'd write a book and make a fortune.
6. Suffice to say...
7. She's gorgeous.
   

Seven things I say most often:

1. Emm!
2. The same thing three times.
3. Scunner!
4. The same thing three times.
5. Blue, leave it!
6. Yes dear.
7. The same thing three times.
   

Seven books (or series) I love:

1. The Chronicles of Narnia.
2. Lord of the Rings.
3. Pratchett's Discworld books (especially Thief of Time).
4. What's So Amazing About Grace?
5. Pride and Prejudice.
6. Lemony Snickett's A Series of Unfortunate Events.
7. Feersum Endjinn.
   

Seven movies I watch over and over again (or would if I had the time):

1. Star Wars (the original trilogy).
2. Lord of the Rings.
3. Anything with Laurel and Hardy in it.
4. A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races.
5. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
6. Dark Star
7. Rush in Rio (Sorry - I suspect that one is a bit of a cheat!)
   

Seven people I want to join in:

1. Ewan
2. John
3. Lesley
4. Chris
5. Ollie
6. Paul
7. And I know I'm going to regret this... Colin
   

OK... let's see what you can do.

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas,
originally uploaded by DavidDMuir.

Happy Christmas and a good New Year to all.

Son of EdCompCast

Yogi's Akaash Vani,
originally uploaded by Shambly Hermit.

When I posted EdCompCast - Take 2 back at the end of November, I said I had more of the interview still to edit. So this is it - EdCompCast 3. As before, it is just me talking to Neil and Graham. What do you think they were most looking forward to as they prepared to go out on their first major placement? Take a guess, listen and then leave a comment here to say if you were right!

If you want to subscribe to these podcasts, there is a EdCompCast button further down this page. I hope to release a podcast roughly once a month, so let me know if there is anything you would like to hear in future EdCompCasts.

Tags: podcast | Jordanhill | teacher education | EdCompCast

You know you are a teacher when...

I saw a couple of these pictorial questionnaires recently and thought I'd have a go at one for teachers.

You know you are a teacher when...

You have an overwhelming sense of nostalgia when you see one of these:

work in sapporo originally posted by puss_in_boots

...but most days, you encounter one of these:

chad originally posted by cathycracks

You don't automatically fear a group like this:

Teen Hangout originally posted by tomswift46

...but start to panic at the thought of completing yet another one of these:

First grade report card originally posted by yksin

When you hear the word "dinner" you don't think of this:

birthday dinner originally posted by chiboulette

The word "dinner" makes you think of this:

Twizzler originally posted by Rob Lyons

You think this man is a hero:

Home page background image originally posted by Jamie Oliver

... but you struggle to recognise the person in charge of education in your authority/district/country:

Clowning around originally posted by Impactmedia

You forget to eat at the weekends because you don't hear one of these to tell you it is lunchtime:

School Bell originally posted by Sisters of St. Francis

It's not this bit of exams that worries you any more:

1138 originally posted by rosschapman

... but the marking bit scares you silly:

checking papers... originally posted by adlaw

Your automatic response is, "Oh, dear. Oops-a-daisy!" when you see someone slip and fall on this*:

icy trail originally posted by Sr.Mike

*True story! Primary teacher friend of mine said this to a chap that fell over and landed, painfully, on his backside in front of her. She was bending over to help him up when she saw the look on his face and decided it would be safer to hurry on past!

I'm sure you can suggest other tests. Send me your ideas.

Tags: teacher | quiz | questionnaire | fun

I blog, therefore I think.

Sometimes things just seem to come together... Various posts and events recently started me thinking about why I blog and why I think it's a good idea for student teachers to blog. In particular, I have been thinking about what skills a blogger needs and how best these skills can be developed. One of the things that started me off on this was a post from Ewan...

Hello!,
originally uploaded by itspaulkelly.

Ewan's brain is positively fizzing with stuff at the moment (although what has he done to his blogs colour scheme?) and I had responded to his post Education Panel: Ewan's Notes. I read a few more blog entries elsewhere and decided that a full blown response here was in order. Firstly, some of the things that I read.

First was Blogging as Attempts at Understanding where I had a real, "Yes! That's it!" moment. Some quotes will give you a flavour, but read it yourself and follow the links for the full effect. Konrad says, "... classroom blogging is primarily about responding to texts and not producing them" and "... we learn best when we write and have to defend, reorganize, refine, and further develop our thoughts". Reading and responding. Writing to help us think!

I then came across Anne Davis' blog entry Guidelines for blogging. Again a couple of quotes will give you the flavour: students should be... "asking questions that will make a reader think and want to comment" and "practice writing their thoughts about what they are learning, what they understand and don't understand, why it is meaningful or not". Reflective learners.

I also enjoyed Will's Disclaimer. I especially liked the idea that the opinions he expresses in the blog are the ones he considers "good enough criticize".

I'm not sure if I've responded to Ewan's post or just gone off on a tangent of my own, so I think I'd better summarize a bit. Ewan asked, "Who teaches people how to read blogs? Is it required?". My response was that the button pushing skills of using the technology are the easy bit, but there is a need for pupils and and teachers to learn about communication - see for example David Warlick on Why do we have to "“learn how to blog"”? The blog entries above show some of the skills that are required. Supporting and nurturing reflective learners, who respond to what they read by writing stuff and allowing others to comment, refining their own thoughts accordingly, requires more than the teaching of technology skills!

So, what do you think? Do we need to teach how to read blogs? What skills do learners need? How best can we develop these skills?

Tags: blogs | education | learning

P.S. Such is the state of my life at the moment that it has taken me a week to finish this entry. I hope it's still relevant.