tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210770632009-12-08T13:40:00.956ZWhat is Plan B? Not Plan A!Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.comBlogger360125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-84020279668197685352009-12-05T13:40:00.010Z2009-12-08T10:31:18.518Z<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/Sx4qJjpRIqI/AAAAAAAABcE/qeb1uIZll0c/s1600-h/DSC_3833+(1).jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 133px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/Sx4qJjpRIqI/AAAAAAAABcE/qeb1uIZll0c/s200/DSC_3833+(1).jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5412810145821434530" /></a><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; ">Fireworks in Berlin at 'The Big Debate', where Aric Sigman and I locked horns on the question:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; ">“The increasing use of technology and social software is <b><i><span></span><u>damaging </u>students' minds</i> and <i><u>undermining</u> the benefits of traditional methods of learning</i></b>”. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; ">I argued that it <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">improved</span></b> students’ minds and <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">enhanced</span></b> the benefits of traditional education.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; ">'Facebook causes cancer' was a headline from the Daily Mail this year, sparked off by a paper written by Aric Sigman, in a peer reviewed journal called ‘Biologist’ (Well connected? The biological implications of ‘<span>social networking</span>’). Ben Godacre, Doctor and award winning journalist, author of Bad Science, and a debunker of some renown, took Sigman to task on Newsnight. It’s as good a demolition job as I’ve ever seen on Newsnight and I’ve seen a few. Even Paxman thought he was a nutter! (Also watch out for Susan Greenfield's admission that there is NO EVIDENCE.)</p><object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Gg8LlUME-IM&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1&amp;"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Gg8LlUME-IM&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1&amp;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">Sigman's Cherry picking</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Back to the debate. I followed Goldacre’s line and attacked the original paper on the grounds that the papers Sigman cited did NOT mention social networking and were largely about medical effects in people over the age of fifty, in some cases even older.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>Cole SW <i>et al</i> </b>(2007) <u><a href="http://genomebiology.com/2007/8/9/R189"><span style="color:windowtext;">Social regulation of gene expression in human leukocytes</span></a></u><i> </i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>No mention </b>of ‘social networking’ </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Tiny sample aged <b>50-67</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>Lamkin D M </b>(2008)<i> </i><u>Positive psychosocial factors and NKT cells in ovarian cancer patients </u></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>No mention </b>of ‘social networking’ </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Study of women over <b>65</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>Rutledge T <i>et al </i></b><i>(2004) </i><u>Social networks are associated with lower mortality rates among women with suspected coronary disease</u></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>No mention </b>of ‘social networking’ </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Mean age was <b>59</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>Cohen S <i>et al </i></b><i>(1997) <u>Social ties and susceptibility to </u></i><u>the common cold<i> </i></u></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>No mention </b>of ‘social networking’ </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><i>1997 </i></b><i>– </i>way before social networks!</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>Ertel K A <i>et al</i></b> (2008) <u>Effects of Social Integration on Preserving Memory Function in a Nationally Representative US Elderly Population</u></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>No mention </b>of ‘social networking’ </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">US sample of <b>elderly adults</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Deception<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">On top of this, on one citation, he deliberately failed to mention that the authors <b><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language:FR">Kraut R <i>et al</i></span></b><i><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language:FR"> (1998) (Internet Paradox: A Social Technology </span></i>That Reduces Social Involvement and Psychological Well-Being?) who had discovered<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><b>s</b><b>mall negative effects </b>of using Internet on measures of social involvement and psychological well-being among Pittsburgh families in <b>1995-1996, had in Kraut R et al (2001) (</b>Internet Paradox Revisited) had changed their minds, “In a 3-year follow-up of the original sample, we find that negative effects dissipated over the total period. We also report findings from a longitudinal study in 1998-99 of new computer and television purchasers. This new sample experienced <b>overall positive effects of using the Internet on communication, social involvement, and well-being</b>.” That is more than cherry-picking by Sigman, it’s deception.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">In fact the evidence, that Sigman knew about, but deliberately ignored points to the opposite:</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>1. Caplan SE (</b>2007) “<u><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17474841?ordinalpos=6&amp;itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum"><span style="color:windowtext;">Relations among loneliness, social anxiety, and problematic Internet use</span></a></u>.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>“The results support the hypothesis that the relationship between loneliness and preference for<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>online social interaction is spurious.”</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>2. Sum <i>et al </i>(</b>2008) “<u><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18422415?ordinalpos=2&amp;itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum"><span style="color:windowtext;">Internet use and loneliness in older adults</span></a></u>“. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">“<b>greater use of the Internet as a communication tool <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>was associated with a lower level of social<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>loneliness</b>.”</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>3. Subrahmanyam <i>et al</i></b> (2007) “<u><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18229503?ordinalpos=2&amp;itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum"><span style="color:windowtext;">Adolescents on the net: Internet use and well-being.</span></a></u>” </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>“loneliness was not related to the total time spent <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>online, nor to the time spent on e-mail” </b><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Byron review<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Tanya Byron was commissioned to look specifically at these issues by the UK government and in a well conducted and level-headed research project, collected a” vast array of evidence…commissioned three literature reviews:</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">•<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>up to date research evidence on <b>children’s brain</b> <b>development</b> – Prof. Mark Johnson Birkbeck University </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">•<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>comprehensive review on the <b>vast body of child development research</b> - Professor Usha Goswami <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Cambridge University</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3; tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">•<span style="font:7.0pt &quot;Times New Roman&quot;"> </span></span></span><b><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>current media effects literature </b>in relation to video games and the internet – Prof. David Buckingham Institute of Education"</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Annexes F, G, and H and at <i>www.dcsf.gov.uk/byronreview</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Some of her conclusions, relevant to this debate, were that, “<i>there is no clear evidence of desensitisation in children</i>”, “<i>children actively involved in sport play on consoles for same amount of time as those who are not</i>” and “<i>technology specifically useful; for those with learning difficulties and disabilities</i>”.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>US Department of Education Study</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">In support of my proposition that technology enhanced education I then quoted from the US Department of Education’s study ‘Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies’ which looked at data from 1996 to 2008, selecting rigorous, measurable effects, random assignment and the existence of controls, </span><i>“The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">performed better </span>than those receiving traditional face-to-face instruction.”</i> <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>and <i>“Instruction <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">combining online and face-to-face elements </span>had a larger advantage relative to purely face-to-face instruction than did purely online instruction.”</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Finally I pointed toYouTube EDU, iTUNES U, Open Learn, MITOPENCOURSEWARE, Project Gutenberg and the Hole in the Wall project to show that there are some wonderful examples of enhancement.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>Conclusion</b><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Aric Sigman is the academic version of Sue Palmer, cherry-picking luddites who have books to sell, with titles like ‘Toxic Childhood’ and The Spoilt Child’. They’re part of a ‘parenting industry’ that creates and thrives on fear. It’s people like them that are promoting helicopter parenting and risk averse attitudes that lead to kids being locked up indoors, not the technology.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><o:p><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">That's was pretty much my case. I only had 10 minutes, so summed up with a quote from Douglas Adams, </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><o:p><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">“</span><span class="apple-style-span"><i>everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal;</i></span><i>anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really. Apply this list to movies, rock music, TV, word processors and mobile phones to work out how old you are</i>.”</o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">We won the vote. I have to say that it was a great format and really got the juices flowing. Conferences should have more of this.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">One last point. Sigman claimed that kids spend on average 7.5 hours a day online. I challenged this but he stuck to his guns. Now I don't know about you, but but mine would have to switch on the minute they got back from school and stay focussed until midnight every night without going to the toilet, eating etc. This figure alone makes him look ridiculous.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>Appendix</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Here’s some tweets and a blog post on the debate:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Arial;">Why blame technology for something that depends on the home environment, parents must take responsibility for childrens learning<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Arial;">read his book on 'bad science' and then you'll see through people like aric<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Arial;">by the way, nasty of Aric to slag Ben Goldacre..he's not a journalist but a doctor and specialises in statistical misuse<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Arial;">Good fuel for a hot debate - extremely well selected speakers<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Arial;">Donald Clark : technologies helps inclusion. Very important<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Arial;">The Brits are demonstrating how to run a controversial debate. Fun.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="msgtxt"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Arial;">Lectures on YouTubeEdu are improving education. Teachers get a larger audience<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Arial;">Donald Clark: USDE meta study found good support of e-learning<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Arial;">Donald Clark: Aric's studies based on the elderly, not using social networking<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Arial;">Sigman uses sources for his theory that are not about social networking</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Arial;">Sigman does not understand that social software is very social<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Arial;">listening to Aric Sigman I start to think we should call it OFFLINE Educa next year.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Arial;">Aric Sigman: North Korea as the model for modern education - teachers get respect!<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:9.0pt;line-height:15.6pt"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;">The sessions were rounded off with a 'debate' on the proposal that the internet is destroying our children's minds. A motion led by Aric Sigman who shouted and attempted to scare everyone. His extremely aggressive style offended some, particularly those unfamiliar with him (the vast majority of the 2,000+ international delegates), but for others gradually seemed like a raving madman. He attacked the audience as being pushers of this mind-rotting technology..not a great debating tactic, but he gives the impression of a man who cares about nothing other than his ego which was bloated by the use of the video projection screens, sadly.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:9.0pt;line-height:15.6pt"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;">He then was robustly challenged by Donald Clark who did a great job and was happy enough to show some passion and contempt for the scaremongering. The next two speakers were less effective. Bruce 'the Brute' (see Private Eye) Anderson, a veritable caricature of a fleet street hack, his tie slung askew muttered along the lines of trying to support the motion but being 'reasonable' (the old good cop/bad cop pairing), then some guy 'from Silicon Valley,' Jerry Michalski gave a fairly anodyne response to that...his analogy of the development of the 'automobile' with the net currently being at Model T wasn't a good one for a European audience, as a bicycling Dutchman commented!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:9.0pt;line-height:15.6pt"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;">Anyway, what needs to be said to those unfamiliar with Dr. Sigman is that cherry-picking (ie selective use of some reports and wilfully ignoring of other contradictory findings) seems to be his speciality, as pointed out by Ben Goldacre who he seemed to have a pop at during the session. If you want more on this aspect and <a href="http://www.badscience.net/2009/02/the-evidence-aric-sigman-ignored/"><span style="color:windowtext;">some examples then visit this link</span></a>.</span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-8402027966819768535?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-8342499675358742862009-11-15T15:57:00.003Z2009-11-15T16:08:57.154Z<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SwAmG_tTfMI/AAAAAAAABb8/jI4S6pfmAXc/s1600-h/alev.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 144px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SwAmG_tTfMI/AAAAAAAABb8/jI4S6pfmAXc/s200/alev.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404361454467120322" /></a><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Learning or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">cramfests</span>?</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">Reached that time in life when my kids are off to 6^{<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">th</span>} form college and have to knuckle down, and narrow down, in terms of subjects, which is a shame. No one really know what they want to do at 15, and if they do, it’s a probably a bad sign. If the answer is a doctor or lawyer, you can bet good money that a pushy parent has his or her hand up their offspring’s spineless back.</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">The good news is that A-Levels have been around since 1951 and are simply the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">de</span> facto</i> qualifications for UK Universities, with some cache on an international scale, as they are used by lots of Commonwealth countries. The bad news is that the A-level system is cripplingly restricted as it forces young people into 3 subjects far too early. Despite the Curriculum 2000 split into As and A2, you get students who are often one-sided, either Maths/Physics/other science OR English/Psychology /other arts. It’s this Manichean aspect of the system I don’t like. You see this in the culture. There’s the anti-science brigade versus the anti-arts brigade. Then there’s the ‘fill their heads with this stuff as quickly as possible’ approach to most subjects. It’s a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">cramfest</span>.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Highers<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">The Scottish system is in one way better but in another a complete disaster. Their Highers, where students take 4/5/6 subjects usually give them more breadth. It’s a system I went through 35 years ago and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">hasn</span>’t changed a bit. The downside is still the same; the stupidity of the lost sixth year, when most students switch off (University positions secured on Higher results). It’s a waste of time for no mother reason that lazy politics - preserving 4 year degrees in Scottish Universities.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">International Baccalaureate<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">What a joy, then, to find an approach that is better than all of this, the International Baccalaureate. This has the right blend of breadth and depth, knowledge and skills, arts and science. Here’s the deal. You commit to doing:</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">3 Higher level courses and 2 Standard</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Maths, English, Science and a language compulsory</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Lots of choices in other subjects (philosophy, psychology, history)</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">150 hours of community, creative or active work over the two years</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">4000 word essay on a subject you’re passionate about</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">core theory of knowledge course</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">This is recognised by universities worldwide, and the smart ones see the benefit in the rounded education the student receives, preparing themselves for University, and life. I spoke to a bunch of these kids at Varndean College in Brighton, in both their first and second years of study and have never, ever, come across a more enthusiastic bunch of learners in my life. They absolutely love their course. It’s hard work, they say, but the classes are small, the work interesting and projects inspiring. The course also attracts a wider mix of students, with more international breadth. Some were quite keen on studying abroad. They seemed way wiser than the A-level herd I spoke to that same evening. Far more confident in the fact that they were ‘learning’ rather than completing a series of separate and unrelated qualifications. It stops kids taking pure analytic courses or a set of oddball A-levels, presenting a balanced set of options with a solid analytic approach. It's about the learner, not the qualifications.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">We’re stuck with these dated, national systems, struggling to translate credits from one country to another, yet here’s a solution staring us in the face. I hope at least one of my lads will take this course. He’s keen, but it’s his decision.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Footnote: Welsh Baccalaureate<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Interesting to see Wales take a lead, of sorts, here, ahead of England, Scotland and N Ireland, by introducing their own Baccalaureate. Available at three levels, Basic, Intermediate and Advanced, studies from the Universities of Nottingham and Bath have been positive, producing a wider, more skills-based approach to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">pre</span>-University qualifications. However, it lacks the core subject approach that the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">IB</span> offers, and has less traction as a qualification, even in the UK.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-834249967535874286?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-20489068059719057712009-11-13T11:59:00.006Z2009-11-13T16:56:00.829Z<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/Sv2PmOpnBhI/AAAAAAAABb0/fvqjOb6MEOw/s1600-h/elearningage.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/Sv2PmOpnBhI/AAAAAAAABb0/fvqjOb6MEOw/s200/elearningage.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403633014844884498" /></a><p class="MsoNormal">Award ceremonies can be the worst and best of times. I’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">ve</span> been to lots and the one’s I’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">ve</span> enjoyed the most have been those that descended into chaos! Easily the best was way back in the early 90s where Willie <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Rushton</span> told a horrifically sexist joke (based on the name of the host organisation<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">BIVA</span>) and was booed by most of the women in the room. Bread rolls were thrown and the whole thing descended into farce. My second favourite was last year’s <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">WOLCE</span> awards, where Marcus <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Brigstocke</span> had a hilarious time congratulating non-deserving companies like <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">RBS</span> on their ‘Understanding Business’ e-learning programme. It started late so the audience was as at peak point of drunkenness, where all are at one with the world and everything seems funny. The hotel, somewhere in Birmingham, was seedy, tacky and slightly odorous, as only cheap British hotels can be. The poached pears were as hard as marble. So, I was hoping for some welcome anarchy last night, as I trooped off by train, with Clive Shepherd, to the Sheraton in London, for the E-learning Age Awards. As the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">WOLCE</span> awards have collapsed, this is now the premier UK awards night, and deservedly so. The number of entries was up and the mood seemed buoyant.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Caspian’s double triumph<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">I have to declare an interest here (as I’m on their Board) but well done to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"><a href="http://www.caspianlearning.com/">Caspian</a>.</span> a Gold Award for best games/simulation in learning (for Royal Navy), as well as a Silver for Most Innovative New Product, '<a href="http://www.thinkingworlds.com/">ThinkingWorlds</a>'. It takes some doing to get two awards on the one night for both your content and the tool you created to make that content. We had three of team who helped create the programme and tool at the table (down from Newcastle) and they deserved this. I also had time to talk to the wonderful <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>‘Queen of Tools’ Jane Hart, who was sitting next to me at the table. We’re speaking together at Online <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Educa</span>, which should be fun. Check out her incredibly useful <a href="http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/">tools site</a>.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Piers Lea<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">I’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">ve</span> known Piers for 20 odd years and he’s as nice a man as you’d ever hope to meet, and thoroughly deserved his Outstanding Achievement Award. Piers is the CEO of <a href="http://www.line.co.uk/">LINE</a> which has seen a surge in sales over the last four years. He has some really talented people in his team with Keith, Sean, Bruce, Fi, Andrew<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">et</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">al</span>. These guys really know their stuff. Again I’ll declare an interest, as I’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">ve</span> been working with Piers over the last few years helping to open up the defence sector and bringing in some fresh blood, such as Ken Robertson (best proposal writer in the business) and John <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Helmer</span> (best e-learning marketing person in the business. Just a word of praise for David Wilson, who was shortlisted. He’s sure to win this some time soon, as he’s been a key figure in the industry in terms of objective analysis.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Brightwave</span><o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">You can’t keep us Brighton boys down! So a big congratulations to Charles, Lars, Virginia and the rest of the excellent <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Brightwave</span> team, for winning Production Company of the Year. Their table was curiously packed with kilted Scotsmen (from Sky TV), as they have an office in Scotland. Good people doing good work. And check out <a href="http://larsislearning.blogspot.com/">Lars blog</a> – it’s quality stuff.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Epic<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Good to see my old company Epic get back on track, after its disastrous dalliance with the hapless <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Huveaux</span>. Great to see Roy Evans, of the British Army, and the Epic team, Nick and Vicky, get the Gold for best mobile application. I’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">ve</span> blogged about these excellent projects before, on the Nintendo and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">iPods</span>, as they’re way beyond the often fuzzy mobile learning projects you find in education. These teach numeracy, Arabic and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Pashtun</span>, to young soldiers on the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">frontline</span>. It’s not often you can say that e-learning may be saving lives – ask Roy, he knows. Let’s hope there’s more from Roy and the Epic team. Strange footnote to this one. I was collared by Jonathon and Naomi, of Epic, for being rude in my blog about some quango person in their Oxford debate. They were a little confused as I haven’t written anything about the debate in my blog (I think). I did, in fact, make one short comment on Clive’s blog about her banal views. Lighten up guys – it’s only a blog!</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Kineo</span><o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">More Brighton success with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23"><a href="http://www.kineo.com/">Kineo</a></span> coming in for an award for something. Nice to see Mark Harrison swan up to the stage dressed even shabbier than me! Well done to Steve, Stephen, Mark and Matt. These guys are working their proverbial bollocks off to build their business and continue their meteoric rise with over 50 staff and new offices in the US. Go <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Kineo</span>!</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">Learnosity</span><o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">A word also for Gavin <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">Cooney</span> of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27"><a href="http://www.learnosity.com/">Learnosity</a></span> who won a Gold for Most Innovative Tool. Gavin, who’s a prodigious social <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">networker</span>, online and offline, will no doubt put this new sobriquet to good use. He’s another lovely guy with, he tells me, only one suit. Clive and myself look forward to working with him in Ireland in the new year.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Bankers!<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">All in all, a good evening. The right folks seemed to win the right awards. No, sorry, hold that ending……I forgot to mention The Royal Bank of Scotland, who won the Gold Award for (wait for it) ‘Meeting the Needs of Compliance for an External regulator or an Internal Workforce’. Have the judges been locked up in solitary confinement for the last year? This is the company who we’re all bailing out, as they failed to comply with anything, even normal standards of decency. Maybe a Platinum Award for the ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Most Non-compliant, Arrogant, Wasteful, Incompetent and Greedy Behaviour of any Bank in the History of Banking Award’ </i>would have been more appropriate. Sorry, let’s get back to business. A good comedian would have ripped into this one, and maybe that’s what the event needs next year to take it to the next level – some comic chaos!</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-2048906805971905771?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-4714609694058279742009-11-03T13:38:00.005Z2009-11-03T13:55:23.462Z<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SvAzmjgu8lI/AAAAAAAABak/ufdPXFn1hgY/s1600-h/dylan_wiliam_keynote_wednesday.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 133px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SvAzmjgu8lI/AAAAAAAABak/ufdPXFn1hgY/s200/dylan_wiliam_keynote_wednesday.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399872690677805650" /></a><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Parents get pretty annoyed every time an ‘INSET’ day comes along. What other organisation simply closes shop and refuses to deal with all of its customers or clients five days a year? Imagine phoning up the school and saying, ‘Listen, my work is having a training evening next week, could you look after my kid for me, until I get home?’</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Here’s seven reasons to scrap them: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"></p><ol><li>Organisations don’t throw customers out of the door for an entire day of training</li><li>Extra cost/load on parents in terms of childcare is significant</li><li>Kids lose about a week of schooling a year</li><li>No convincing research evidence that INSET days have any beneficial effects</li><li>Some are not training and used as catch-ups for work</li><li>Many are hotchpotches of faddish, non-empirical training</li><li>Many are ill-planned, dull and irrelevant</li></ol><p></p><p></p><div><div><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">Other organisations don’t throw customers out of the door for an entire day to do training</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">Imagine banks, hospitals, shops, police forces, fire services – almost every other service, closing down for five days a year with a simple notice saying ‘staff training’. It’s unimaginable.</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>The extra cost/load on parents in terms of childcare is significant<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">People don’t find it easy to cope with teacher training days. Additional childcare, often at a cost that huts people on low pay, is the cost to the community. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b>Kids lose about a week of schooling a year<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Schools have 5 INSET days a year, resulting in a significant amount of lost teaching. Imagine the fuss if parents suggested that we should be allowed to take our kids out of school, for five separate days, of our choosing.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:#404040">No research evidence that INSET days have any beneficial effects<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:#404040">Prof Dylan Wiliam, from the Institute of Education thinks that INSET days are largely a waste of time as there’s no real evaluation of their effect and no conving research showing they work.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:#404040">Some are not training and used as catch-ups for work<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">INSET days are not supposed to be work catch-up days, but are often treated as such. This is clear from teacher forums.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:#404040">Many are hotchpotches of faddish, non-empirical training<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">INSET days are used to introduce theories from outside ‘mom and pop’ training companies that are often out of date, untested <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>and nothing short of snakeoil. Brain Gym, Mozart Effect, L/R brain theories, Gardner’s MI, Learning Styles….the list is huge.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:#404040">Many are ill-planned, dull and irrelevant<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:#333333">“</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:#333333"><i>We have to go to stupid, boring, meetings that last all day and often are a total waste of my time</i>” (from teacher’s forum). This sort of reaction is not unusual from teachers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">And why not simply latch these days on to the start or end of holidays? Why pop them into the middle of terms? The problem here is that the timetabling is at the discretion of the school.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What’s not generally known is that, </span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">the regulations state that attendance outside the regular required hours at INSET days is not obligatory.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black"> </span> In other words, they needn’t attend at all!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Who knows? It seems to be a pretty scrappy affair but evidence from teacher’s forums is pretty disturbing. Here’s the <a href="http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/t/354497.aspx">first post</a> on the subject from the TES and there’s lots like these in teacher forums:</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="color:#1F1F1F">“<i>I am just looking to get a feel for what other schools do with support staff on inset days. Until recently we were left to our own devices which was great as we were able to catch up on work but under a "Whole Staff" ethos we are "invited" to attend training. The problem is that we do not find the training offered to be relevant to our job roles and, at times, is completely incomprehensible to us! We are also informed that failure to attend our allocated training session is a disciplinary issue which does wonders for the morale. We would be happy to attend targetting training but curriculum INSET is a nonsense for us and we'd rather be clearing the decks!</i>”</span></p></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-471460969405827974?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-28395620006085363942009-11-01T23:11:00.004Z2009-11-01T23:19:13.786Z<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/Su4V8Oe1a2I/AAAAAAAABac/yncqQxmqvM8/s1600-h/Howard-gardner-786855.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 175px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/Su4V8Oe1a2I/AAAAAAAABac/yncqQxmqvM8/s200/Howard-gardner-786855.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399277127687564130" /></a><p class="MsoNormal">In Gardner’s 2003 paper in the American Educational Research Association<i>, Multiple Intelligences after Twenty Years</i>, he states, </p><p class="MsoNormal">“<i>I have come to realize that once one releases an idea – “meme” – into the world, one cannot completely control its behaviour – anymore than one can control those products of our genes we call children.</i>” </p><p class="MsoNormal">Absolutely. One of the problems with Gardner’s ‘Multiple Intelligences’ was its seductiveness. A teacher could simply say, everyone’s smart, we’re all just smart in different ways. There’s a truth in this, in terms of a narrowly academic curriculum, but when adopted as ‘science’ in schools, Multiple Intelligences <span></span>can be a dumbing-down, destructive force. In general people confuse the critique of single IQ scores as a measure of intelligence, with Gardner’s theory, as if he were the final world on the matter. He is not.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Not neuroscience</b></p><p class="MsoNormal">First, teachers who quote and use the theory are unlikely to have fully understood its status and further development by Gardener himself. Few will have understood that it is not supported in the world of neuroscience, despite the perception by educators that it arose from there. Gardner’s first book, <i>Frames of the Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (2003) </i>laid out the first version of the theory, followed 16 years later by a reformulation in<i> Intelligence Reframed </i>(1999)<i>,</i> then again in<i> Multiple Intelligences after Twenty Years</i> (2003). Few have followed its development after 1983 or the critiques and Gardner’s subsequent distancing of the theory from brain science.<span style="font-family:CalifornianFB-Reg;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">Lynn Waterhouse laid out the lack of scientific evidence for the theory in <i>Multiple Intelligences, the</i> <i>Mozart Effect, and Emotional Intelligence: A Critical Review</i> in Educational Psychologist<i>, </i>a paper to which Gardner felt duty bound to respond. In fact, in response to the absence of neurological evidence for his separate 'intelligence' components, Gardner had to redefine his intelligences as “<i>composites of fine-grained neurological subprocesses</i><i> but not those subprocesses </i><i>themselves</i>”(Gardner and Moran, 2006). In fact, many areas of learning such as reason, emotion, action, music, language and so on are characterised by their overlapping, dispersed and complex patterns of activity in the brain, as shown in brain scans. Islands of functional specificity are extremely rare. In short, Gardener suffers from conceptual invention and simplicity. Brain science simply does not support the theory.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Gardener himself admits that the science has yet to come, but teachers assume it’s already there and that the theory arose from the science. Big mistake. Pickering and Howard-Jones found that teachers associate multiple intelligences with neuroscience, but <span></span>as Howard-Jones states in his recent BECTA report, “<i>In terms of the science, however, it seems an unhelpful simplification as no clearly defined set of capabilities arises from either the biological or psychological research</i>”.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b></b></p><b><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><b><span style="font-family:&quot;;color:black;">Training's the problem</span></b><span style="font-family:&quot;;color:black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span style="font-family:&quot;;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">The problem seems to be the culture of in-service training ( a fact confirmed in the Howard-Jones survey), as the most quoted source for such myths. It would seem that a rather lazy culture of oddball suppliers and ‘psychology for dummies’ INSET days has led to this sad state of affairs. There's an army of small teams of trainers peddling this snake-oil. They cull populist, fashionable theories, string them together in PowerPoint presentations, and the ever-popular 'workshops' and so the meme is virally spread, not only through the minds of teachers, but to our children who suffer from the misconceptions of their teachers. We all agree that teachers don't have a lot of spare time, so why waste it on this rubbish? Their time would surely be better spent on real brain science, where real increases in the productivity of learning are possible, not tomorrow but now.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span style="font-family:&quot;;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">Gardner, H. (1983) </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">Frames of the Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">. (New York, Basic Books).</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span style="font-family:&quot;;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">Gardner, H. (1999) </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">Intelligence Reframed</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">. (New York, Basic Books).</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span style="font-family:&quot;;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">Gardner, H. (2003) "Multiple Intelligences after Twenty Years." </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">American Educational Research Association</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span style="font-family:&quot;;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">Gardner, H., and Moran, S. (2006) The Science of Multiple Intelligences Theory: A Response to Lynn Waterhouse, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">Educational Psychologist</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">, 41.4, 227-32.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span style="font-family:&quot;;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">Pickering, S.J., and Howard-Jones, P. (2007) Educators' Views on the Role of Neuroscience in Education: Findings from a Study of UK and International Perspectives, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">Mind, Brain and Education</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">, 1.3, 109-13.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span style="font-family:&quot;;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">Waterhouse L. (2006) Multiple Intelligences, the Mozart Effect, and Emotional Intelligence: A Critical Review, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">Educational Psychologist</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">, 41.4, 207-25.</span></span></p></b><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-2839562000608536394?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-52437583206569116862009-10-29T20:13:00.006Z2009-10-29T21:20:59.516Z<div><b>English GCSE Revision</b></div>To Kill A Mockingbird<div>How were black people were treated in 1930s America?</div><div>a) Treated like everyone else</div><div>b) Treated extremely badly</div><div>c) Treated for dry rot and rising damp</div><div>What halfwit came up with this question and its dumb-assed third option? In what way is this really testing 15 year old GCSE students? It simply reduces the questions to a 50:50 chance of getting them right.</div><div>Here's another...</div><div>Why are we told about Jem's broken arm at the start of the novel when the attack does not occur until the end?</div><div>a) To make us feel sorry for Jem.</div><div>b) To create suspense.</div><div>c) So that we know what happens if we don't have time to read the book.</div><div>There's loads of these. Standards and BBC - an oxymoron?</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-5243758320656911686?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-10960308064682470152009-10-24T16:30:00.004Z2009-10-25T13:03:11.301Z<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SuMsR4VvrcI/AAAAAAAABaI/xbUk_Wrw9oI/s1600-h/piaget.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 165px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SuMsR4VvrcI/AAAAAAAABaI/xbUk_Wrw9oI/s200/piaget.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396205464212975042" /></a><p class="MsoNormal">Asked my niece, who’s doing teacher training (B Ed), what she’s getting in psychology and the first name that comes up is ‘Piaget’. My heart sinks as there’s almost nothing left of his theories that is remotely useful to a new teacher. His four-stage theory of child development has been so completely wiped out by subsequent studies, that there’s nothing left. It’s merely an exercise in the history of science. What’s shocking is the way he’s still revered and taught in such courses. It’s like teaching Lamarck, not Darwin.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Famous four-stages demolished<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">His famous four stage developmental model (Sensorimotor, Pre-operational, Concrete and Formal) has been fairly well trashed. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">First, the Sensimotor Stage with the infamous ‘hide a toy under a cloth and the child thinks it’s no longer there’ study, which turned out to be an exercise in distraction, and when repeated by Bower and Wishart in the absence of an adult, with a teddy, most children had no difficulty in understanding that the toy is still under the cloth. In general, Piaget simply focussed too much on motor actions when the real development is perceptual. Kagan also attributes object permanence to a simple increase in memory capacity.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Second, the Pre-operational Stage study, where a child fails to recognise a doll’s point of view from photographs of three mountains, was shown to be too complex for the children to understand. A simpler experiment by Hughes, using dolls of two policeman, showed that many children can understand non-egocentric perspectives. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Third, the Concrete Operation Stage was demolished by Rose and Blank, when it was found that Piaget had been verbally correcting the children towards his wanted conclusions, invalidating the data. The ‘naughty teddy’ experiment also wiped out his famous three rows of sweets trial supposedly showing that kids couldn’t get constancy in number. Overall he ignored hereditary, educational and cultural effects, thereby standardising theory, when, in fact, there are large differences in the speed and nature of development due to these and other factors</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Fourthly, the Formal Operative Stage focused to much on formal logic, ignoring many other mature cognitive skills. It’s as if we were all little mathematicians, not ‘little scientists’. In fact kids develop, not in a predictable, linear fashion, but in fits and starts, and in many different ways. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">All in all, the four stages were pretty much demolished and subsequent research has shown that development takes place much earlier than he had posited, is more of a continuum, with more variation in ages and more plasticity than was previously thought.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Poor scientist<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">How did he get it so wrong? Well, like Freud, he was no scientist. First, he used his own three children (or others from wealthy, professional families) and not objective or multiple observers to eliminate observational bias. Secondly, he often repeated a statement if the child’s answer did not conform to his experimental expectation.. Thirdly, the data and analysis lacked rigour, making most of his supposed studies next to useless. So, he led children towards the answers he wanted, didn’t isolate the tested variables, used his own children, and was extremely vague on his concepts. </p><p class="MsoNormal">I wasn’t kidding when I compared him to Lamark, as his theories are mostly wrong and he offers nothing but descriptions of development without any real underlying explanations. This was his biggest weakness, failing to understand the mechanisms behind development. For him, kids just ‘do thing’ stripped of motivation, language development, memory development and so on.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The good news is that his mistakes led to more rigorous studies that really did unravel child development, although one wonders why he is taught at all. The bad news is that the hole was filled by an even less rigorous and more flawed theorist, Lev Vygotsky. Don’t get me started on him!</p><p class="MsoNormal">What's worrying is the fact that teachers are coming out with a fixed view of child development based on 'ages and stages' that are quite wrong. This leads to amateurish teaching methods and a lack of understanding of when and how to teach numeracy and literacy. The 'whole-language' teaching fiasco in primary schools was the perfect storm of this amateurish approach.</p><p class="MsoNormal">The sad fact is that education and training is still soaked in this dated theory, as they suffer badly from 'groupthink'. The community literally thinks that theories are sound if a) they've been around for a long time (sorry, but in science, especially psychology, the opposite is true) b) everyone does it (that's precisely the problem).</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-1096030806468247015?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-59643205956664377912009-10-23T13:03:00.003Z2009-10-23T13:12:51.467Z<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SuGrye-A4JI/AAAAAAAABaA/GVEnXjInvjk/s1600-h/1905211473.01._SX273_SCLZZZZZZZ_V248013182_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 130px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SuGrye-A4JI/AAAAAAAABaA/GVEnXjInvjk/s200/1905211473.01._SX273_SCLZZZZZZZ_V248013182_.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395782712361541778" /></a><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Reading Chris Anderson’s book <i>FREE – The Future of a Radical Price</i>, makes one think that these powerful principles could be applied in education and training.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;tab-stops:21.3pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Phase 1 – Free knowledge<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;tab-stops: 21.3pt">In fact, it already has. In 1991 the encyclopedia industry was worth an astonishing $1.2 billion, Britannica being the market leader with sales of $650 million. In 1993, Encarta was launched for $99 and in the same year Britannica laid off its door-to-door sales force. Within 3 years Britannica had dropped to $300 million and the overall encyclopedia market had shrunk to $600 million, of which Encarta had $100 million. So a cheaper price not only revolutionised this market, it decimated the market. Along came <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Wikipedia</span> and the market shrunk again, with Encarta canned completely in 2009. The end result is a market where the cost to the learner is ZERO. However, the availability of free encyclopedic knowledge base, that is bigger, better, broader, in more languages than ever before won the day.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;tab-stops: 21.3pt">The really interesting economic point is that the real money that would have been spent on expensive sets of rarely read Encyclopedias, can be spent elsewhere. It’s redistributed. We as customers get to keep our money a well as getting a better product.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;tab-stops:21.3pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Phase 2 – Free teacher created content<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;tab-stops: 21.3pt">Now that lectures are being recorded, and distributed, often for free through YouTube <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">EDU</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">iTunes</span> U, Open Learn, MIT <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Courseware</span> and others, anyone can have access to this level of instruction. See previous post. The advantages are obvious. In fact these recorded lectures, are in the end better than their live originals in all sorts of ways supported by the psychology of learning.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;tab-stops: 21.3pt">Google and its many services has also given us access to a wealth of resources, especially in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">searchable</span> print. Project Gutenberg and others have given us hundreds of thousands of free books. You pretty much get an answer to any question you pose.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;tab-stops:21.3pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Phase 4 – Free formative teaching<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;tab-stops: 21.3pt">This is the tricky one, but formative feedback is improving greatly in online content, especially in simulations and games. There’s plenty of evidence to show that many learning tasks can be completed without teacher intervention. It’s simply a matter of designing top class content.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;tab-stops: 21.3pt">Live teaching is not a necessary condition for learning. In fact it can be a condition for stopping learners from learning. If e can take some magical motivational dust from games and other media and apply it to learning, we’ll make great gains.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;tab-stops:21.3pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Phase 4 – Free accreditation<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;tab-stops: 21.3pt">At some time in the future, the technology will be able to provide free assessment. Let’s face it, current types of assessment in education and training are often fairly crude. It’s no great stretch of the imagination for it to be largely automated.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;tab-stops: 21.3pt">The first problem is unique identification. Iris scanning, fingerprints, digital photographs and other cheap techniques will make this very cheap.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;tab-stops: 21.3pt">As for delivery, the online delivery of assessments, which avoid leaks, can be varied from person to person and really does provide high quality assessment, is already possible.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;tab-stops: 21.3pt">This frees people up to take the assessment when they’re ready, and not just when it’s convenient for the organisation. It’s about attainment not attendance.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;tab-stops:21.3pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">I’m free<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;tab-stops: 21.3pt">I, for one, am already a ‘free learner’. I don’t go on courses, don’t use teachers, yet learn daily online (and offline). I know from the many other people I encounter online that we all read, click on links, use reference material, do academic research, email, blog, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Facebook</span>, Tweet to improve our knowledge and skills. The future is free.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-5964320595666437791?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-66620165622488563922009-10-21T12:36:00.002Z2009-10-21T12:40:54.050Z<p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="font-family:'Verdana','sans-serif';font-size:10;color:#333333;">Last year I had a few drinks and dinner with Steven Johnson, and he was delighted to hear that Flynn, whose data he had used in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Everything Bad is Good</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">for You </i>had come round to his hypothesis, that new media was making people smarter. Johnson used f Flynn’s IQ data from the US military that showed a 0.31-0.39 points per annum rise over 46 years. New media doesn’t dumb down, but smartens up, he concluded.<?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family:'Verdana','sans-serif';font-size:10;color:#333333;">New<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/St8BFokB2LI/AAAAAAAABZ4/6S508YzXaf8/s1600-h/0_21_091020_internet_brain.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 156px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395032074912651442" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/St8BFokB2LI/AAAAAAAABZ4/6S508YzXaf8/s200/0_21_091020_internet_brain.jpg" /></a> study from UCLA<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="font-family:'Verdana','sans-serif';font-size:10;color:#333333;">A new study has looked specifically at the impact of web use in older subjects. A fMRI-based study from UCLA has just been presented by Teena Moody in Chicago at the Society for Neuroscience, which took scans from 24 normal 55-78 year olds. It showed significant increases in brain activity patterns and increased function after just seven one hour sessions on the web over seven days. The control was the group who did no web activity.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><o:p></o:p></b></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family:'Verdana','sans-serif';font-size:10;color:#333333;">Enhanced cognition<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="font-family:'Verdana','sans-serif';font-size:10;color:#333333;">“The first scan of participants with little Internet experience showed brain activity in the regions controlling language, reading, memory and visual abilities. The second brain scan of these participants, conducted after the home practice searches, demonstrated activation of these same regions, but there was also activity in the middle frontal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus – areas of the brain known to be important in working memory and decision-making.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="font-family:'Verdana','sans-serif';font-size:10;color:#333333;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span>“The results suggest that searching online may be a simple form of brain exercise that might be employed to enhance cognition in older adults.” says Moody.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span style="font-family:'Verdana','sans-serif';font-size:10;color:#333333;">What’s fascinating about brain scanning research, is the possibility of identifying optimal learning techniques. For example, what type of internet activity leads to highest levels of desirable cognitive activity and improvement?<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-6662016562248856392?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-24126760367964488042009-10-19T13:40:00.004Z2009-10-19T19:25:08.411Z<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Universities, in their current guise, have become closed, inward-looking, traditional, elitist institutions. Shut for much of the year, empty buildings, three lectures a week, poor teaching – the current financial squeeze will hopefully force us to re-examine the model.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Imagine a world in which some universities simply opened their doors to learners, even offering courses for free. There are signs that such a paradigm shift may be happening on the web. Suddenly a huge amount of good content is available on the web, for free, as some of the biggest brands on the web act as conduits for higher education content, with hefty foundation grants paying the bill.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">YouTube <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">EDU</span><o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Simple enough, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/education">video lectures</a> with ratings and details of number of downloads, from over 320 Universities such as; Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford,, and so on. Cambridge, Coventry, Edinburgh, Leeds, Nottingham, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">OU</span>,<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The top lecture has received 10.5 million views! But even physics lectures are beating the 350,000 mark. Compare this with the once a year, lecture from a typical living academic – let’s say 100 students once a year for 15 years (and that’s really pushing it). You’re effectively extending the life of a good physics lecturer by thousand of years!</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">YouTube lectures can be public or private, structured as <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">playlists</span> embed on your site or show on a mobile phone. YouTube Insight gives you loads of useful stats on; views, referrals, gender, age, geography. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">iTunes</span> U</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Like YouTube <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">EDU</span>, <a href="http://http//www.apple.com/education/guidedtours/itunesu.html">iTunes U</a> is all free content, currently at 200,00 audio and video items, from major Universities. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>You can download all the tracks on a specific topic or just one. You can also subscribe to receive new stuff automatically. Top downloads – Intensive English, Introduction to Mac OS, Building a Business, beginners’ French etc. <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-;font-family:Arial;">One distinct advantage is that you can play audio or video on your <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">iPod</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">iTouch</span>, iPhone, MP3 player, Mac or PC.</span> i<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Tunes</span> U Reports give you lots of stuff on downloads, unique users and so on.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Open Learn<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><a href="http://http//openlearn.open.ac.uk/">Open Learn</a> is the OUs <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Moodle</span> based system is much more sophisticated on support for learners with its learning tools, knowledge maps, shared activities and activity reports.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>All you need do is register with a personal profile. The content and forums are then available for group discussions, you can do the self-assessment, where you answer questions, then compare your answers with model answers. You can rate and review units, create a learning journal and use Learning Space to organise your study. Pretty impressive.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">MITOPENCOURSEWARE</span><o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">That guy Walter <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Lewin</span>, physics lecturer, is at the top of the downloaded courses with his <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmJV8CHIqFc">Physics 1 Classical Mechanics lecture</a> with its subtitles/transcript, lecture notes, assignments/solutions and exams/solutions. More of him later. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><a href="http://www.ocw.mit.edu/">MITOpenCourseware</a> has an annual running cost of $3.6 million (10% lower than last year) they’re constantly lowering their cost base. Over 1900 courses, some translated, at both undergraduate and graduate level, this is an astonishingly rich resource of free lecture notes, videos and exams from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">MITs</span> actual courses. There’s translations in Chinese, Thai and Persian. Zipped downloads and lots of user controls coming</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">The <a href="http://mitocw.vocw.edu.vn/OcwWeb/web/about/stats/index.htm">stats</a> are astounding 40 million visits by 31 million people from almost every country in the world. The majority view this stuff for personal learning 62%. Overall the breakdown is 49% self-learners, 32% students, 16% educators.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">University of the People</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><a href="http://www.uopeople.org/">The ‘free’University</a> , yes ‘free’. Just started this year but puts forward a model that may be ideal for the developing world (see my previous post).</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">WikiBooks</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">A growing <a href="http://www.en.wikibooks.org/">resource</a> of ‘Open books for an open world’ are available with the usual wiki functionality of discussion, source and history for each book. There’s also print-ready and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">PDF</span> books available.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">Project Gutenberg</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">At 2.5 million downloads per month, <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenber</a>g is starting to motor. What’s interesting is the eclectic nature of the downloads. The top ten contains fiction such as Alice in Wonderland, Pride and Prejudice, but also a science book, the Kama <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Sutra</span> and a book on the history of Furniture. They also have their famous ‘Distributed Proofreading’ system, where volunteers proofread e-books, a page a day.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Wikipedia</span><o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">The greatest single, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">searchable</span> store of knowledge on the planet and growing still. It’s a miracle of the web, and I’d persona<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">lly</span> give Jimmy Wales the Nobel Prize for knowledge dissemination. Who <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">doesn</span>’t use this thing? It’s wonderful beyond belief. Who cares if a few errors are noted, they’re soon fixed. It quite simply the greatest knowledge sharing show on earth.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Open Education<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">OER (Open Education Resources) is a rapidly growing movement with the not-for-profit OER Foundation launched last month on the back of a $200,000 grant from the Hewlett Foundation and support from the Learning4Content<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>project. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">The <a href="http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/">Cape Town Open Education Declaration</a> is up and running, a sort of manifesto <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">for</span> future development. The <a href="http://www.opencastproject.org/">Opencast Community site</a> has a wealth of information on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">podcasting</span> in Higher Education. The Matterhorn project is of real interest with $1.3 million from the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Mellon</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Hewlitt</span> Foundations to develop software that will schedule, capture, encode and deliver <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">audio </span>and video content to the likes of YouTube <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">EDU</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">iTunes</span> U. Should be ready by summer 2010. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27"><a href="http://www.wikieducator.org/">WkiEducator</a></span> is one of many communities operating in the field, where you can join, and create free content. They promise to ‘turn the digital divide into digital dividends’.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">Funding</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">So how is all of this funded? Well, there’s a number of sources; foundations, most notably, <a href="http://www.hewlett.org/">The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation</a>, institutions themselves, free contributions, donations and payment. The foundation money (mostly from private sector benefactors) tends to seed the initiative, which then gains momentum either in a University or community. The real progress comes when you get a slingshot effect from altruistic contributors (as in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">Wikipedia</span>).</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Recorded lectures – better learning?<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Are <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Youtube</span> video lectures better than the real thing? I think the evidence is in the video themselves. In the cutaways to the audience you see some students attention wander and always towards another student. You don’t have that distraction in your own company. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">Lewin</span> understands and explains at the start of his lecture series, that lectures complement other forms of study. He is NOT lecturing the book. It’s about demonstrating physics, selling physics, exciting people about physics. It’s about motivation, as well as understanding.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">What I love about Walter <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">Lewin</span> is his style – he walks around, he shouts, he gesticulates, he demonstrates, he stands up on his desk, gets students up, he quips – he’s a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">livewire</span>. He does the very opposite of playing that ‘I’m an academic and have to be serious, grave and dull’ routine.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Case study 1: </b><b><a href="http://http//tiny.cc/BHUwg">University of Texas - Austin</a></b></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"> </b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b></b></p><b><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Major findings included:</span></p> <ul type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Attendance was not significantly affected by webcasts, even given the limited degree to which some students repeatedly substituted webcasts for attending class.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Students perceived webasts to be a helpful tool for learning, but the impact of webcasts on their performance in terms of grades and test scores is not clear.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Students used webcasts for learning benefits (e.g., reviewing course content) and psychological benefits (e.g., anxiety reduction, course satisfaction).</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">A majority of students watched webcasts at least once, typically 1-7 times, before exams or 1-3 times a month, at night from home through high-speed connections.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Most students watched the entire lecture and typically they both listened to the lecture and watched videos and slides.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Female students and students who cared about their course grades perceived webcasts as more beneficial than did male students or those who did not care about their grades respectively. Also, those with certain difficulties non-native speakers of English, students with a learning disability, and students with difficulty in understanding the professor’s speech) did not report benefits from webcasts, contrary to our expectations.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Students rated most current and future webcast interface features as important, in particular stop/rewind (current feature), scan (current feature), manipulating the slides or video window (current feature), and better quality or full screen animation/video (future feature).</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Students and instructors were generally satisfied with webcasts’ quality and did not experience many technical problems. Many problems they did report can be resolved through training of instructors, students, and camera operators.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Both students and instructors in general indicated that webcasts were good supplemental learning resources but not a substitute for attending class.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></li> </ul> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"> <span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="apple-style-span"><b>Case Study 2: <a href="http://tiny.cc/9q0fI">University of Michigan - Flint</a></b></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><b> </b></span><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span style="color: windowtext; "><a href="http://tiny.cc/9q0fI" style="outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">http://tiny.cc/9q0fI</a></span></b></span></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: windowtext; "><a href="http://tiny.cc/9q0fI" style="outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; "></a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">The results presented here now further extend the benefits of the cyber classroom by demonstrating a significant improvement in student outcomes as assessed by final grades with a nearly half grade improvement in mean grades, a 56% drop in failing grades, and a 36% increase in grades B+ and above.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: 800; ">Case study 3: ICTP Trieste</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Another comes from ICTP in Trieste, who have been using recorded lectures for some time. Assessed learning improves, students watch 2 hours per night after live daytime lectures and even watch lectures from other courses they’re not taking.</span></span></p></b><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-2412676036796448804?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-59494051414127653002009-10-16T08:45:00.004Z2009-10-18T13:31:05.762Z <meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 2.4 (Linux)"> <style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </style> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Some years back I gave a talk in Glasgow, and behind me was a huge banner saying, “Scotland, healer, educator to the world”. It was embarrassing hubris, but the myth still persists that Scotland is somehow, a leader in learning. This week I gave a talk at the Royal Society of Scotland in Edinburgh, and the mood was far more realistic, but maybe more worrying. <br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Scotland 3 myths</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Hugh Trevor-Roper’s ‘The Invention of Scotland’ literally scotches three myths; political, literary and sartorial. Celtic nations are good at mythologizing. We made up a list of fictitious Kings to fill in the gaps, forged documents to prove it, wrote fictitious poetry in an attempt to create a Scottish Homer (Ossian) and the kilt and its accessories was invented by an English Quaker (Thomas Rawlinson) for workers in his Highland factory. It is a “purely modern costume…to bring them off the heath and into the factory”. Kilts were never worn by the clans and neither were clan-specific tartans. The Late 18^th century Romantic movement, formation of Highland regiments (to suppress the Highlands and fight abroad), a visit by George IV and Queen Victoria all helped create the myth of a ‘tartanised’ Scotland. Trevor-Roper describes Scotland as a mythologizing nation, keen to invent a history that often doesn’t exist, and uncovers the long list of forgers and fantasists who helped create that myth.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Fourth myth?</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">He was said to have been working on a fourth myth. We don’t know what that was. It could have been sport, we never did invent 'Golf', nor 'Curling', nor any other sport for that matter. Even the Highland Games were a mid-19th century concoction, as well documented in Grant Jarvie's <i>Highland Games: The Making of the Myth</i>. As for the bagpipes, Nero played the damn things and they existed in Europe, Ireland and Northumbria long before their appearance in Scotland. Again, it was the Highland Regiments and their colonial exploits that spread the myth.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The fourth myth could have been 'finance' but the broadsword has been taken to RBS and HBOS, Fred Goodwin has been exposed as a greedy half-wit and the myth has evapourated as quickly as Scotch mist. </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Education myth</b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Interestingly, both Goodwin and Cummings (HBOS) were the product of the Scottish state schooling system. My guess is that it was the ‘education’ myth. So I did a little analysis myself. <br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">It is still widely believed that Scotland has a superior educational system. Well, despite the favourable Barnett formula, kicked off in 1979, described in a recent 2009 inquiry as ‘arbitrary and unfair’, that gives every Scot £1,644 more than England, the system is not performing. We can expect changes on this front soon, as the Conservatives have nothing much to gain North of the border, and the SNP would rather push for nationalism at the expense of revenue. Salmond said as much at his conference this week where he looked forward to a 'hung parliament' where, and I quote, "Westminster would dance to a Scottish tune". </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The 2007 OECD (PISA) assessment showed that despite a doubling in spend over the decade of devolution, improvement was marginal, a similar result to England. In fact, Scotland slipped in Maths, English &amp; Science and its PIRLS (Reading/literacy) rating stands at 21^st , down from 14^th), six places behind England. Even worse, Scottish students don’t like school one bit. Only 65% said they liked being at school (near the bottom of the survey).</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Scottish schools are torn apart by sectarian policies (faith schools in Scotland mean Catholic schools), a wasted sixth year and in some places social problems and division (in Edinburgh 25% of students go to private school).</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>What’s next?</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Like every developed nation, in the wake of the financial crisis and squeeze on public spending will hit Scotland hard. There are several ways in which the public finances will be squeezed. First a reduced Barnett formula, secondly slower growth leading to lower tax base, thirdly the persistent problem of low productivity, fourthly the dependence on financial jobs which are due to be culled or moved south, fifth dependence on public sector employment (23.6% employed in public sector compared to 19.1% in England, 56% of economic activity flowed from public economy compared to 43% across UK).</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>What to do?</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">They (and we) have few options:</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Spend more – NOT POSSIBLE</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Make learners pay – MARGINAL EFFECT</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Do more for less – LOGICAL OPTION</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I agree with OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría when he says, "optimising policy choices" and improving the overall management of education institutions” and "Investments in education will need to become much more efficient." </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Scotland continues to issue bellicose and belligerent statements to Westminster. This is perfectly compatible with Scottish nationalism (as voted in by the Scottish people). Salmond and Swinney may simply be driving the nationalist wedge more deeply, accepting a poorer Scotland as the price one pays for separation. That, in my view, would be tragic.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br /></p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-5949405141412765300?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-65058133947919452892009-10-12T19:36:00.003Z2009-10-14T18:38:45.753Z<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/StYapMGkjhI/AAAAAAAABZI/xXdC5-RmsBI/s1600-h/4012085370_196d54fb48.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 133px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/StYapMGkjhI/AAAAAAAABZI/xXdC5-RmsBI/s200/4012085370_196d54fb48.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392526898748493330" /></a><p class="MsoNormal">Hey, that's me that is! As educational conferences go Handheld Learning is unique, mainly because of Graham Brown-Martin. I’ve known him for years and he’s more than a maverick, he’s got enthusiasm, knowledge, connections and chutzpah. The speaker list is stellar and you get a free iPod in the rather cheap price. But what makes it different is that he abandons the traditional plastic name badge, cheap black canvas bag, and brochure approach. You get a wrist band, the res</p><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/StOGGTSTmsI/AAAAAAAABY4/egDqv1Gfpxo/s200/3989825448_b011096601.jpg" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391800621707008706" /><p class="MsoNormal">t is online and it’s all about deliberate contention, debate and discussion. Interestingly, the professional conference attenders (mostly from educational institutions) resent the fiddling about with their cosy, old model.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I love the way the audiences split down the middle on the speakers. The traditional educationalists hated Malcolm Maclaren and Zena Atkins because they don’t fit into their mouldy mould. On the other hand, the creative types loved these two. The point is to have a mix of the academic, practitioners, evangelists and simply ‘out there’ types. That’s Graham’s forte.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Malcolm Maclaren</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Articulate as ever, Maclaren bemoans a system that ignores creativity. A very personal talk about how he made his way in the world. He decried contemporary ‘karaoke culture’ but I’m not sure that this is anything oter than an old svengali looking fondly back over his own shoulder.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Zena Atkins</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Zena’s the Chair of OFSTED, and has some pretty strong views on how institutions are warping education. Her message – it’s all about ‘learning’. She castigates teachers for being to wedded to their unions and organisations and not ‘learning’. She’s a big fan of parental choice, a voucher system, and of parental involvement in education, something that most educational professionals abhor.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Inclusion<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I chaired the second day, on ‘inclusion’ and rather than accept the topic as an unquestioned ‘good’, I tried to get it going (to Graham’s brief) with some challenging questions:</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Q1 To what problem is ‘inclusion’ an answer? Doesn’t everyone have a mobile?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Q2 Is ‘Digital Divide’ an outmoded term? It’s no longer a poor/rich divide, but a series of fractures.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Q3 Does inclusion actually result in exclusion? The fact that the few don’t have the technology means the many don’t get anything.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Q4 Has the ‘Digital Britain’ report helped or hindered our digital future? It’s largely about TV, Radio and Newspapers or punishing filesharers.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Q5 Is Martha Lane Fox a stupid choice for Inclusion Tzar? Everyone should have a pony?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">It went OK, but I’ll leave others to judge.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">If Graham has a problem, it’s with the audience. If the audience gets pared down to educational people it becomes a bit of a teacher-fest, whereas loads of interesting things are happening in corporates, the military and so on. That's not to decry the educational world, simply point out that it's not the whole world. Unfortunately, only those in education and research have the time and money to do this sort of leading edge conference going these days. To be fair he had Bob Harrison on pedagogy<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"> </b>some military stuff from Epic on<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"> </b>the Nintendo and iPod apps.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">It would be great to see Graham handling a bigger e-learning conference, as opposed to just the ‘Handheld’ stuff. Anything’s got to better than WOLCE!</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-6505813394791945289?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-29416642288640206902009-10-14T15:11:00.003Z2009-10-14T15:14:26.208Z<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/StXqpxJ6aLI/AAAAAAAABZA/zBHGI86LyXA/s1600-h/Youtube.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 125px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/StXqpxJ6aLI/AAAAAAAABZA/zBHGI86LyXA/s200/Youtube.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392474132136487090" /></a><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Millions are now accessing Higher Education without going near a campus. Many <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">aren</span>’t that bothered about getting a degree either. There’s been an explosion of activity in Open Educational Resources:</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Open Learn (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">OU</span>)</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">MIT <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Courseware</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">YouTube <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">EDU</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">iTunes</span> U</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Project <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Gutenburg</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">WikiEducator</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">WikiBooks</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Wikipedia</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">University of the People</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Professional educators assume that everyone wants to be part of an institution, signing on for courses and getting accredited. In practice most adult learning is precisely the opposite. In my 25 years of designing and delivering training into large organisations, very few had any form of accreditation. What mattered was whether people learned or not. I like using these resources but have no interest in attending these institutions or getting another degree. Perhaps we need a rethink around the whole idea of the desirability of degrees. There has been a huge surge in degree getting, yet it is not clear that this is desirable.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">New learners understand the importance of quality and sharing. Universities don’t really get this. They rarely collaborate and share and this results in massive levels of duplication, with every lecturer inventing their own course. Why attend your own institution’s lectures when you can get world-class lectures from MIT fro free? The technology is allowing students to access top-class content by using the technology.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Of course, the Universities who have gone down this route have much to gain. Many see this as a valuable marketing awareness tool. It’s no accident that the ‘money-smart’ top tier has been generous with its content. They are confident enough in their brand to make this move.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">What’s interesting about the funding of much of this is that it ultimately comes from the private sector, especially The William and Flora Hewitt Foundation (of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Hewlitt</span> Packard fame). To be fair the contributing Universities contribute greatly through the delivery of content. This philanthropic activity from both sources is heartening.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">So are we on the cusp of an era where the drunken meander through a 3 or 4 year degree becomes increasingly anachronistic? <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Couldn</span>’t a University just offer assessment with no teaching? Why can’t I learn on my own, or with others, then simply get assessed by an organisation, rather than hanging around for years in crap lectures and student union bars? Why don’t Universities allow year round access for online students? Why do they close down for so long every year?</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-2941664228864020690?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-45669244012870462342009-10-08T17:23:00.004Z2009-10-08T17:37:09.893Z<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/Ss4jPpCWhHI/AAAAAAAABYw/ysQkm4moryc/s1600-h/david-cameron-%2410321%24300.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/Ss4jPpCWhHI/AAAAAAAABYw/ysQkm4moryc/s200/david-cameron-%2410321%24300.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390284555629790322" /></a><br /><p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10.9pt;margin-left: 0cm;line-height:15.05pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:15px;">David Cameron singled out Education in his speech today as the first firestorm in his Bonfire of the Quangos. BECTA and the QCDA were actually named, which was astonishing in itself, but the intent is clear. In their first 100 days educational quangos will be decimated. To be fair the whole sector has become Byzantine with dozens and dozens of organisations overlapping, checking on each other. It's become a massive mess that is confusing for industry and learners. Rather than being sensible in culling organisations they've been allowed to multiply out of control. The danger is that the good get mixed up with the bad in the clear out.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10.9pt;margin-left: 0cm;line-height:15.05pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-weight: bold; font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:15px;">Cameron's speech - education bit</span></p><p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10.9pt;margin-left: 0cm;line-height:15.05pt"><span style="Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-family:&quot;;font-size:11.5pt;color:#333333;"><i>To build a responsible society we need to teach our children properly. I come at education </i><b><i>as a parent</i></b><i>, not a politician.</i><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10.9pt;margin-left: 0cm;line-height:15.05pt"><span style="Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-family:&quot;;font-size:11.5pt;color:#333333;"><i>When I watch my daughter skip across the playground to start her first term in year one, I want to know that every penny of the education budget is following her and the other children into that school and that classroom.</i><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10.9pt;margin-left: 0cm;line-height:15.05pt"><span style="Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-family:&quot;;font-size:11.5pt;color:#333333;"><i>So when I see Ed Balls blow hundreds of millions on so-called "curriculum development" on consultancies, on quangos like the </i><b><i>QCDA and BECTA</i></b><i> like every other parent with a child at a state school I want to say: This is my child, it's my money, </i><b><i>give it to my headteacher instead of wasting it in Whitehall</i></b><i>.</i><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10.9pt;margin-left: 0cm;line-height:15.05pt"><span style="Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-family:&quot;;font-size:11.5pt;color:#333333;"><i>But it's not just about money. It's about values. We know that discipline is vital but we overrule head teachers when they exclude a disruptive pupil.</i><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10.9pt;margin-left: 0cm;line-height:15.05pt"><span style="Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-family:&quot;;font-size:11.5pt;color:#333333;"><i>We know that every child has different abilities and different needs but too often we put them all in the same class so the brightest aren't stretched and those who are struggling fall behind.</i><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10.9pt;margin-left: 0cm;line-height:15.05pt"><span style="Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-family:&quot;;font-size:11.5pt;color:#333333;"><i>We know that competitive sport is important but we've had minister after minister promising it and nothing ever happens.</i><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10.9pt;margin-left: 0cm;line-height:15.05pt"><b><span style="Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;font-family:&quot;;font-size:11.5pt;color:#333333;"><i>Discipline. Setting by ability. Regular sport.</i><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></b></p> <p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10.9pt;margin-left: 0cm;line-height:15.05pt"><b><span style="Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;font-family:&quot;;font-size:11.5pt;color:#333333;"><i>These are all things you find in a private school. Not because the government tells them to do it, but because it's what parents want. Why can't parents in state schools always get what they want?</i><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></b></p> <p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10.9pt;margin-left: 0cm;line-height:15.05pt"><span style="Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-family:&quot;;font-size:11.5pt;color:#333333;"><i>With us, they will, because our reforms will create more good schools and more school places. Yes, our plans will </i><b><i>increase competition</i></b><i> – and no, that is not a dirty word. It means that when a good new school opens down the road, the other ones around it will want to improve. Big government has totally failed in state education and with Michael Gove </i><b><i>we will get the radical change we need</i></b><i>.</i><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-4566924401287046234?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-47099231087194731812009-09-27T17:37:00.003Z2009-09-27T17:40:39.667Z<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/Sr-jjFqpVmI/AAAAAAAABYg/P65wVBQLcZM/s1600-h/learn+direct+logo.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 66px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/Sr-jjFqpVmI/AAAAAAAABYg/P65wVBQLcZM/s200/learn+direct+logo.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386203502570198626" /></a><p class="MsoNormal">Spent a day listening into a wholly online training ‘<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">learndirect</span>’ service on basic numeracy and literacy where there is ZERO face to face interaction. You sign-on online, get a telephone call, do a diagnostic online, choose a course and get online and telephone tutor support. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">TESTMYPC</span> checks their PC operating system, browser etc and the learners also get support from others where experiences are shared.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">What struck me about the learners was how grateful they were for the service. They mostly want to get some basic qualifications to get a job and clearly had a bad time at school. This is their second chance and they’re motivated.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The tutors are excellent and know how to motivate and help with problems the learners experience. This is the way to go. Why get people to turn up to institutions at place distant from their home at specific times that may not suit them? In this service mothers with young children do their work at all hours. They like the fact that they’re not getting loads of face-to-face stuff. There’s even specialist tutors for those with problems such as dyslexia.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The only time they see a real person is when they have to turn up to an assessment centre to sit the exam, and it’s this that causes most fear. The assessment process is primitive and does more damage than good. Rather than accepting a more continuous form of assessment, it’s all down to this exam in a centre that can be up to 30 miles away. Curiously it’s this one face ton face experience that causes most problems.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-4709923108719473181?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-67277650062238713112009-09-21T11:00:00.005Z2009-09-21T12:47:26.086Z<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SrddnSKeBUI/AAAAAAAABYY/NAhZdiLhKtI/s1600-h/uop.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SrddnSKeBUI/AAAAAAAABYY/NAhZdiLhKtI/s200/uop.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5383874809016747330" /></a>Power to the people.power to the people right on...... people of a certain age will know that tune. We’ve had the Open University and the School of Everything, (let’s ignore the UKeU and NHSU for a moment) but now we’ve got an idea that could be truly revolutionary, and global. The <a href="http://www.uopeople.org/">University of the People</a>.<br /><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">How much does it cost?<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Nothing. That’s right – it’s free. It’s the world’s first TUITION FREE university with its first crop of students coming from 49 countries aged from 16-61. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Where is it based? <o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Nowhere and everywhere. It’s the internet baby, so it truly is the first global university.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">When can one join?<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Enrolment is on a rolling basis, with five terms and therefore five start days, avoiding the stupid traditional model of a ‘once per year’ start. They can do this by having a solid orientation programme on ‘Computer Skills for Online Learning’ as well as 'English Composition' (as all courses are currently in English). The first cohorts will be around 300 students.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Drift to the free<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">This is exactly what the web leads to in terms Chris Anderson and Kevin Kelly’s drift towards the free model. We saw it with knowledge. First it was holed up in elitist, expensive books, libraries and institutions, then published as ‘encyclopedias’ (Encyclopedia Britannica), then half-baked business models like Microsoft Encarta and eventually the free Wikipedia. The democratisation of education will follow the same road. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Will it work?<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">It still has all the hallmarks of a US driven initiative, with US holidays in the calendar and the usual stuff that US people think is global but is actually local. However, it has all the hallmarks of a successful initiative; vision, global reach, free and online. Someone’s going to crack this and it sure as hell ain’t going to be the Donald Trump University. Good luck to them – they deserve it.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-6727765006223871311?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-1821438727130981592009-09-16T19:38:00.005Z2009-09-16T23:13:29.124Z<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SrE_YOWktNI/AAAAAAAABYI/9S23-ISgVa8/s1600-h/sony_reader.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 170px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SrE_YOWktNI/AAAAAAAABYI/9S23-ISgVa8/s200/sony_reader.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382152715086640338" /></a><p class="MsoNormal">Nice little <a href="http://www.dlc.org/documents/DLC_Freedman_Kindle_0709.pdf">paper </a>from the US on the benefits of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">eBooks</span> in schools. It’s this simple, ideas approach that we need in the UK, not these tedious long-winded reports from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">quangoland</span>. Real progress is being bogged down by tedious inclusion debates, obsessions with classroom fixtures like Whiteboards and a chronic case of talk, talk,talk and no action.</p><p class="MsoNormal">This well written paper focuses on one piece of technology, explores the benefits, has clear recommendations and sets you thinking.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Benefits:</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Texts <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">searchable</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Texts interactive/<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">bookmarkable</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Texts <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">updatable</span>, paper books are not</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Huge numbers of classics can be available for free</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Easy to distribute textbooks</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Teachers can provide assignments, quizzes etc</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Environmentally sound, saves loads of paper/trees</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Healthy – less back/shoulder strain</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Saves money for student, school and taxpayer</p><p class="MsoNormal">Thanks to Andy Black for this link.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-182143872713098159?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-52431459623106998812009-09-14T09:39:00.000Z2009-09-14T09:41:23.532Z<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Last week on the front page of my local paper (The Argus) I saw a face I recognised, as I had met him at a dinner some time back. He was an Assistant Head at a local school, quiet guy, but now suspended after child porn was found on his computer. In fact there’s been a spate of this in Sussex, with a teacher in BHASVIC (local sixth form college) installing cameras in the girl’s toilets, a maths teacher at Longhill School charged with 22 counts of possession of child porn, Bewbush Primary School teacher who abused three boys under the age of 13, a teacher at the CE Bishop Bell School having sex with young girl pupils and a lesbian PE teacher having an affair at Hillcrest School – and this list is far from exhaustive. Quite worrying really.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">This is directly relevant to the current debate on CRB checks, which some regard as overkill and others as overdue. A total of 3,850,000 checks were made in 2008-09 and the total cost so far is an astonishing £600 million. It’s amazingly inefficient with people having to reapply every time they work with another public body.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">On the other hand the system has supposedly stopped 98,000 people from working with children in the last five years. Supporters of the system point to the suffering prevented, rather than the cost. But, at well over £6000 per block, this is expensive. Then again, the deterrence effect will have prevented many more from trying. Interestingly the number of people actually convicted of crimes against children was 616 in 2002 and has risen to 1, 175 last year. A worrying statistic one could say, but as most of those charged were relatives or those known to the children and their families, the CRB checks would have been of little use.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">So is this a huge piece of costly public bureaucracy or a valuable public service that really does protect children? My own view is that, despite the fears, the CRB service (ISA) has become bloated and is not looking at simpler and more cost-efficient ways of providing the service. It has become the biggest vetting service in the world, and is heading towards covering 1 in 4 adults living in England, NI and Wales. Bodies like this tend to evolve into having their own growth as an objective, rather than the public good and the costs of a search, through computer databases, seems excessive. It also puts people off volunteering. The tone of voluntary service is now one of guilty until proven innocent. It also increases the distrust children have in adults, normalising a dysfunctional view of adults. This can’t be right. Then there’s the problem of malicious accusations, sometimes used as a weapon by children and others against innocent adults. The ‘false memory’ scandals that have arisen out of the therapeutic industry have been scandalous. Another reason, and a clincher for me, is the support given to the agency by Esther Rantzen!</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-5243145962310699881?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-54470074665285192172009-09-08T23:56:00.008Z2009-09-14T09:13:05.204Z<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SqbxeLCFjCI/AAAAAAAABYA/-yBbV5seieA/s1600-h/finalreport.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 154px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SqbxeLCFjCI/AAAAAAAABYA/-yBbV5seieA/s200/finalreport.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379252305600547874" /></a><br /><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-size:16px;"><b>Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning</b><span><b> </b></span><b>A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studie</b>s</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-size:16px;"></span><a href="http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf">Fascinating report</a> from the US Department of Education. First: top quality advisors, people like Richard Clark and Dexter Fletcher, who know research methodologies. Second: scope, going from 1996 to 2008. Third: rigorous, clearly identifying measurable effects, random assignment, the existence of controls and ignoring teacher perceptions.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;">Interestingly they lambasted educational research for its lack of rigour, but after filtering out the good stuff, here’s the results:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-bidi-font-style:italicfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;"><b>Online better than face-to-face</b></span><span style="line-height:115%; font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;;mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><br /></span><i><span style="line-height:115%;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;">“The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving traditional face-to-face instruction.”</span></i><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><b>Jury out on blended</b></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; ">“Instruction combining online and face-to-face elements had a larger advantage relative to purely face-to-face instruction than did purely online instruction.</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><b>Online and on-task</b></span><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;;mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><br /></span><i><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;">“Studies in which learners in the online condition spent more time on task than students in the face-to-face condition found a greater benefit for online learning.”</span></i><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-style:italicfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><b>Online is all good</b></span><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><br /></span><i><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;;font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;">“Most of the variations in the way in which different studies implemented online learning did not affect student learning outcomes significantly.”</span></i><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;;font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-style:italicfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><b>Blended no better than online</b></span><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><br /></span><i><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;;font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;">Blended and purely online learning conditions implemented within a single study generally result in similar student learning outcomes.”</span></i><span style=" line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-style:italicfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><b>Junk video &amp; quizzes</b></span><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><br /></span><i><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;;font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;">“Elements such as video or online quizzes do not appear to influence the amount that students learn in online classes.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><b>Let learners learn</b></span><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;;mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><br /></span><i><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;;font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;">“Online learning can be enhanced by giving learners control of their interactions with media and prompting learner reflection.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-style:italicfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;"><b>Online good for everyone</b></span><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><br /></span><i><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;">“The effectiveness of online learning approaches appears quite broad across different content and learner types.”</span></i><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-style:italicfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><b>Get them doing things</b></span><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><br /></span><i><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;;font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;">“Online learning can be enhanced by giving learners control of their interactions with media and prompting learner reflection.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-style:italicfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><b>Groups not way forward</b></span><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;"><br /></span><i><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;;font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;">“Providing guidance for learning for groups of students appears less successful than does using such mechanisms with individual learners.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-bidi-Times New Roman&quot;; font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;color:black;">An interesting little observation, tucked away in the conclusions is, “</span><span style="line-height:115%;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;font-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;">one should note that online learning is much more conducive to the expansion of learning time than is face-to-face”. In other words it’s better at getting learners to continue learning after the event. What more can you ask for?</span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-5447007466528519217?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-28520656696014289432009-09-07T17:06:00.003Z2009-09-07T17:10:26.665Z<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SqU-ejmJrKI/AAAAAAAABX4/w1KSPq4DyFw/s1600-h/google-books-imagen1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 111px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SqU-ejmJrKI/AAAAAAAABX4/w1KSPq4DyFw/s200/google-books-imagen1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378774024636181666" /></a><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Someone comes along and says, “I’ll fund the publication of the largest <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">respository</span> of human knowledge ever, make it available, and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">searchable</span>, online. On top of this we’ll put $125 million into an independent registry, so that other deals can be done. Authors, readers and publishers will all gain”. Sounds too good to be true. Well that’s exactly what Google are doing, albeit, with a meander through the courts in the US and Europe. They’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">ve</span> already passed the 10 million book mark in over 100 languages (aiming for over 32 million), with authors and publishers receiving 70% of the revenues.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Google want to play global Bernardo’s to the ‘orphan’ works, that are locked up in difficult to reach libraries. They took the risk, invested the money, digitised the books, even when unsure of the legal outcomes. Compare this to Microsoft, one of the main critics of the project, who abandoned their scanning project Live Search Books in 2008. Why? Cost and legal worries.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Readers rejoice<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Readers have most to gain, as libraries have proven, inadvertently, to be the enemies of knowledge and progress. The great libraries have locked away knowledge in inaccessible vaults, with over 90% of books, tens of millions of them, out of copyright and even when in copyright, out of print. What’s more, books are going out of print faster than in the past, due to the business practices of publishers. All of this leads to books being less, rather than more, available. The library system never got round to doing it for themselves, so why blame Google when they want to realise such a brilliant idea.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Authors rejoice<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Authors also have lots to gain by having their books republished. Most of the books under the settlement are out of print, namely the majority of books that exist, books before Jan 5 2009, as books go out of print faster. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Inter-library</span> loans are expensive, slow down research and the researcher can’t really gauge its worth prior to ordering. Paper production is expensive, polluting and contributes to global warming and books disintegrate, are expensive to store and are non-searchable.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Nothing new<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Encyclopedia <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Britannica</span> was created by a private publisher in 1768 and has continued to be published by private companies for nearly 250 years. In fact, the vast majority of books have and continue to be published by private companies. Google’s effort is simply the market working efficiently to satisfy demand by moving beyond the physical storage and distribution of paper books. They stepped up to the electronic publishing plate with a bold initiative, in line with their stated business aim. There is now way that the public sector would or could have achieved this goal, as it would have been mired in ‘not invented here’ jealousies and weak management.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Readers’ enemies<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Guess who’s against? What a surprise; Microsoft, Amazon and Yahoo (all part of the oddly named Open Book Alliance), the Author’s union and some reactionary librarians, who would dearly love books to be imprisoned for all time in the vaults of their paper palaces. In any case. the deal is not exclusive as the Book Rights Registry will be free to do other deals with the existing 25,000 publishers and others. Even under this deal </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">While the fight between interested parties rumbles on, the main argument seems to be suppressed, that there is a huge social good at stake here. Access to knowledge which is, at present, inaccessible, is a good thing, especially for those with disabilities or distant from one of the few major libraries. Then there’s the debate around the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">searchability</span> and suitability of what’s being called ‘The Last Library’, making it truly useful in advancing knowledge and research.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-2852065669601428943?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-82360038844040814242009-08-29T13:36:00.003Z2009-08-31T13:58:35.767Z<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Digital Britain points to present and past, not future</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Here we go, Digital Britain is off the blocks and it’s mostly a tired set of protectionist prohibitions, and potential punishments. Actually most of it has little to do with ‘Digital’ Britain, as it focuses on TV, radio and newspapers. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Our Digital Future has been spiked by a bunch of London-based paper and TV folk.</p> <h3>Who’s running the show now?</h3> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">All the hallmarks of ineffective leadership – two alternating Chairs and a Board of civil servants (oh, and Martha Lane Fox, as Digital Inclusion has been promoted to top spot!) OK, what about the Partner Group? Out of the 11, no fewer than three are Digital Inclusion bods. Talk about overkill, this partner group has so many inclusion experts that everyone else is excluded! Then a TV guy, two sector skills council (we all know how effective they’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">ve</span> been), three more civil servants, an <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Ofcom</span> guy and some unnamed person for some quango I’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">ve</span> never heard of. It’s a sorry lot.</p> <h3>Digital Economy Bill </h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">Impending election, not a chance. A <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">mish</span>-mash of dull radio and TV stuff that is about as ‘digital’ as my granny’s bloomers and of, course, the promise to prosecute real digital users.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3>Digital Inclusion and Participation</h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">Much as I admire the work of Helen <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Milner</span>, putting this as the first priority is tragically backward looking. The original report confirmed that huge numbers of people who are not online DON’T WANT TO BE ONLINE. £12 million set aside but most of that will be eaten up by the a new model army of Digital Inclusion professionals. Laughably, Channel 4 are to be asked to lead the charge – a TV channel leading the way – how very British!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3>Digital Skills</h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">Money will be poured into known and unknown quangos to no good effect. Most of this is far removed from the private sector that knows most about delivery in this area. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Skillset</span> – the TV and film mob will be central stage. And guess what the TV mob Channel 4 are leading the charge – again! C4's like a lost abandoned child, everyone fusiing and finding things for it to do.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3>Current and Next Generation Broadband</h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">Universal Service promise – but this will be plagued by problems, namely, 'Who will pay and by when?' New snappily branded quango “Network Design and Procurement Group”.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3>Spectrum Modernisation</h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">Arbitration, consultation and harmonisation through <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Ofcom</span>. Problem here, “<span class="apple-style-span">"With a Conservative Government, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Ofcom</span> as we know it will cease to exist. Its remit will be restricted to its narrow technical and enforcement roles,"</span> David Cameron. One concrete idea here, and they’re rare, is the possible support for Broadband on trains and mobile on tube.</span><o:p></o:p></p> <h3>Digital Radio Upgrade</h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">This section is the longest but least relevant. Expensive DAB upgrade that nobody wants or cares about – really an excuse for giving yet more cash to the BBC. Since when did radio become a force for digital good?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3>Video Games</h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">Tax relief for video games companies – no chance as European competition laws forbit it. A ‘usability’ centre – completely unnecessary – good, professional, commercial usability and test centres already exist. I know, I set one up. Then some stupid stuff about strengthening the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">PEGI</span> system. This became law in June 2009 and has worked fine for years. It's complicated enough as it is, leave it be.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3>Illegal file sharing</h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">DB turns out to be an analogue wolf in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">sheeps'</span> clothing, hunting down digital users. Don’t worry, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Ofcoms</span> powers will be stripped away by the Tories and this unworkable proposal will die a deserved death. It’s just so unbalanced – no real look at outdated <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">IP</span> laws – just threats by top-down politicians and curmudgeons to kids and students.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3>Contestable Funding</h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">Amazingly brief sentence on taking some money from BBC to give to locals. What’s ‘digital about this?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3>Public Service Content </h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">Usual licence fee wrangles on how to split up the analogue pie between BBC, C4 and others – yawn. Digital Britain appears to be one in which we’re still all watching TV and listening to radio.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3>Independently Funded News Consortia </h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">Funding ‘News Consortia’. Looks like more analogue protectionist rubbish.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3>BBC/ Independent Production in the Nations </h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">More TV stuff. This time TV production quotas – apparently we need more in regions. Wow, that’s a new suggestion! You try getting all of those luvvies out of London.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3>National Digital Security </h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">At last, some sensible, hard hitting technical and business-based, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">internet</span> suggestions. This one section is worth more than all of the rest put together. Unfortunately, no one on the board or partner group knows a damn thing about any of this.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3>Personal Digital Safety</h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">Fair enough, as long as <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Reith</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">doesn</span>’t rear his ugly head and the moralisers start telling me what to do.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3>Online Consumer Protection </h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">Again, fair enough. Online commerce has to be robust.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3>Digital Government</h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">Weak, weak, weak. Easy for Gov departments to wriggle out of this one. Then an amazing sentence, ‘Establishment of G-Cloud’. What the hell is that! And lastly reference to those unremittingly, backward looking map people, the Ordnance Survey.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3>Digital Delivery Agency </h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">Having spawned so many units, quangos and bodies in this report, the report then suggests bringing them all together. Why not start off this way? Talk about horses and stable doors.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <h3>Other Relevant Activity </h3> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">Next Generation Digital Test Beds (whatever they may be), Local newspapers, Local Authority advertising, BBC rights. It all ends on a string of bum analogue notes.</span></p> <p class="Default" style="line-height:115%"><span style=" line-height:115%;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latinfont-family:&quot;;font-size:11.0pt;">What a wasted opportunity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-8236003884404081424?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-51992490919291208192009-08-13T11:44:00.003Z2009-08-13T11:47:13.107Z<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SoP89JK4BII/AAAAAAAABXg/WmKDfwQZNvI/s1600-h/Daniel.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/SoP89JK4BII/AAAAAAAABXg/WmKDfwQZNvI/s200/Daniel.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369413308119516290" /></a><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 14px; font-size:13px;">Daniel’s an autistic savant, one of less than fifty worldwide that have ‘Savant syndrome’, with unbelievable mental abilities in maths and language acquisition, matched by weaknesses in social skills. In this, his second book, he tries to lay bare the inner workings of his own remarkable mind. What I love about this book is his laser-like attention on the brain, or rather his own brain. Daniel knows a great deal more about learning than most learning professionals because he’s an expert or extreme learner. We, in turn, have much to learn from him.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;">Extreme learning<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:10.0pt;color:black;">Autistic savants, Tammet tell us, are no more than ordinary brains doing extraordinary things through focus and extreme learning. He’s not afraid to attack known figures like Oliver Sachs and Tony Buzan, literally accusing Sachs of lying in an experiment and Buzan of lazy thinking on learning a second language. Theorists who attribute special abilities to savants also come under attack, especially those that assume unproven concepts such as photographic memories and genius-type subconscious ability. He shows that memories and abilities can be extraordinary, but that the techniques are ordinary. We can all learn how to learn better.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;">Magic of memory<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:10.0pt;color:black;">He starts with a tour of the brain, with some interesting references to neurogenesis and neuroplasticity, along with the groundbreaking Pasceul-Leone piano experiment that showed the same levels of brain activity when both playing and simply imagining a piano exercise. In other words we learn by visualisation and mental rehearsal. But it’s his analysis of learning through feedback, the 'power or practice' (this law is ubiquitous) and structured diligent study that impresses.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:10.0pt;color:black;">Memory is explored in detail and it is here that Daniel drills down into his amazing abilities. He has the European record for remembering pi to 22,514 decimal places, learnt Icelandic in a week and has an astounding ability to learn new things. He explains contemporary memory theory, episodic/semantic, observer/field and construction at the point of recall, along with brain scan studies that show a complex process of reformulation, rather than duplication, of experiences. Autobiographical memory is multilayered in years/decades, days/weeks/months and finally in short second/minutes/hours. It’s a fine primer to the basic theory.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:10.0pt;color:black;">The first key to improved learning is to understand and apply the encoding of a learning experience by attending to its meaning. Elaborative encoding must integrate new information with pre-existing knowledge. In other words, you need a comprehension strategy, not just a memory strategy. This is where role playing, the use of our imagination, music (NOT the Mozart effect) and movement come in. Chunking and the visualisation of concrete images encode in such a way that they can be efficiently stored and recalled.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:10.0pt;color:black;">Consolidation is the next key, with sleep being an essential part of the process. It’s better to learn at night before one goes to sleep than during the day, with little chance of consolidation. Retrieval cues through contextual learning are also necessary. Here he has a go at classroom learning (the wrong disembodied context). Cue-rich learning is much more effective than disembodied learning. Forgetting through interference must also be avoided.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;">World of words<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:10.0pt;color:black;">Savants are usually known for their numerical skills, but many have remarkable linguistic abilities. Daniels’s ability to learn a second language is superb. He shows that a second language is stored separately in the brain (except when acquired as a young child) and that one must learn a second language in a different way. He’s full of wonderful techniques based on repetition of sounds, songs, affixes, onomatopoeic words, word clusters, word relationships, pairs of words, nouns with articles and lots of reading, and uses his own experience as a multi-linguist to bring this all to life, with a great description of how he appeared on Icelandic TV and wowed them with his conversational Icelandic, learnt in a week. Language teachers should buy this book for this chapter alone.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;">Number instinct<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:10.0pt;color:black;">We have an inborn ability to do maths, as has been shown by a battery of clever experiments with babies and infants. Born with the ability to recognise quantities between 1-4, and maths, he explains, we simply need perseverance and the simple visualisation of numbers to make it work for your own brain. He sets great store by the ‘languageness’ of maths. He could have gone much further here and explained how this and other practical techniques could be used to improve numeracy in schools. We know where and how learners fail in numeracy but continue to teach them in an abstract and dislocated fashion, leading to puzzlement and an early exit. We know that contextualising and visualising maths through the workplace, shopping and so on, improve learning, but still teach it in dull doses of abstraction.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;">Light to sight<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:10.0pt;color:black;">On perception, he gives a reasonable account of the basics of the psychology of perception with an interesting account of famous Ramachandran and Hirstein’s ‘Science of Art’ paper, where they put forward a neurological theory of aesthetic experience, based on eight universal principles. This caused a stir among those who abhor reductionist approaches to art, but it’s fascinating stuff. The eight principles are; peak exaggeration shift, grouping of similar perceptual effects, isolation of a single visual component, contrast, perceptual problem solving, generic viewpoints, metaphors and symmetry.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;">Food for thought<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:10.0pt;color:black;">The second half of the book is more speculative, but no less interesting. He has some insights into the danger of political correctness leading to a stifling of debate, something explored in Diane Ravitch’s The Language Police, where a simplistic morality may limit complex analysis. Urban myths are discussed in terms of their exaggeration, tipping over into scientific urban myths such as the link between MMR and autism. As an autistic person he hates this sort of pseudoscience. But it’s his speculation into the nature of belief, with his admiration for Spinoza’s idea of disbelief involving the rejection of belief that takes him beyond the simple scientific stuff. This guy is one smart cookie.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;">Information overload<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:10.0pt;color:black;">David Schenk’s Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut sees info-glut as a psychological problem. We are immersed in many different flows of information and some psychologists have looked at the effect of this on our ability to concentrate, even sleep. He is also part of the backlash against the common belief that young people can multitask; they can’t, as studies by Marois, Horvitz and Iqbal have shown. This work has considerable consequences for the workplace where recovery times from emails and browsing have been shown to decrease productivity. He also brings in Roberstson’s study on the outsourcing of memory. All in all, he’s not fond of what Rosek called The Cult of Information – he’s an ideas man.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;">Forgivable weaknesses<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:10.0pt;color:black;">The chapter on IQ is an interesting skim through the academic pros and cons of IQ testing, but says little about Daniel himself. In fact the book only springs into life when he’s relating his theories to his own wonderful experiences. The editor could, perhaps, have guided him more in this direction.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:12.0pt;">PS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:10.0pt;color:black;">On page 176 he claims to ‘regularly spot misspellings and other subtle errors in the pages of a book or newspaper’ yet failed to spot the howler on page 147 where he describes his own number range landscape between ‘2,9000 (sic) and 3,000’. I’m no savant, in fact my wife suggests that this only goes to show shows that my talents are in being a pedant!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height:115%;mso-fareast-Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:&quot;;font-size:10.0pt;color:black;">(Originally published in <a href="http://tinyurl.com/ns7q2n">LINE’s newsletter</a>)</span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-5199249091929120819?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-92030270461958115472009-08-11T18:52:00.002Z2009-08-11T18:58:47.992ZObesity? I personally blame <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">JK</span> Rowling, encouraging all of those chubby little teenage girls to spend hours reading those big, fat tombs of books in the quiet of their own bedrooms. Then there’s the endless, overlong movies, where they sit on their fat butts munching popcorn and slurping coke. Can’t they get out and play or take up a sport? I’m convinced there’s a strong correlation between Harry Potter fanatics and fatness. Show me a fat girl and I’ll show you a reader! Show me a book group and I’ll show you a room full of overweight bods. Now, I’m sure your indignation has been aroused by this rant, but this is the sort of argument that the middle-class, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">mumsy</span> brigade pull out all of the time when blaming technology for obesity.<div><br />I had a weird experience recently when a few members of my audience (all teachers) harangued me over the problem of obesity, caused they claimed, by being online and playing computer games. This is a common comment (rarely a question) at talks I give, and curiously it often comes from people who, for want of a better phrase, are more than just a little bit cuddly themselves. Unfortunately, putting the rap for obesity on technology is all too easy. So let’s chew the fat a little.<div><br /><b>Padded out problem</b><br />Sure prosperity has led to an increase in obesity, but let’s keep this in proportion. We come across our first problem with definitions of obesity, which are confusing, especially among children. There’s a difference in the literature between being ‘overweight’ and ‘obese’ and compounding the two leads to exaggeration. The definitions themselves are variable, complicated by gender differences, growth patterns, doubts over <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">BMI</span> measurements and so on. The whole filed is dogged by a lack of comparative standards.<br /><br /></div><div>Interestingly, in looking at the research in this area you do come across some rather wild claims about causality. Suppose a study does show a correlation between obese children and the amount of time they spend online. The causality may be complex. Fat kids may have low social skills, low self-esteem and may use online activity as a way of avoiding ridicule. On the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">internet</span> nobody knows your weight. In other words <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">internet</span> activity may be caused by obesity, not the other way round.</div><div> <br /><b>Evidence</b><br />So where’s the evidence that computer activity causes obesity, as opposed to genes, reading, listening to the radio, watching TV, reading newspapers, sitting at a desk at work, sitting in class at school, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">commuting</span> by train, driving or the most obvious candidate – stuffing your face? Answer – there is none.<br /><br /></div><div>In fact, there is neither correlation nor causation. The ‘digital divide’ people tell us that technology is not being used by the lower <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">socio</span>-economic orders, but these are precisely the people who suffer most from obesity. If there was a correlation between obesity and the use of technology things would surely be reversed. </div><div><br />Most of the activity in this area is just noise by people who know little about either obesity or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">internet</span> usage. Anti-technology moralisers isolating the variable they love to hate.<br /><br /></div><div><b>Computer games and obesity</b><br />Playing computer games is not as sedentary as most think. With modern input devices, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Wii</span>, Guitar hero and other games have led to a surge in active, physical gaming. The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Wii</span> is the best selling fixed console worldwide and five out of the <a href="http://www.vgchartz.com/">top ten games</a> in the chart this week are active sports games: <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Wii</span> Sports Resort (1), <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Wii</span> Sports (3), <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Wii</span> Fit (5), EA Sports Active (8), <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Wii</span> Play (10). It’s a convenient scapegoat for the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">luddites</span> to blame the medium they hate most. It used to be radio, then TV, now it’s the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">internet</span> and computers. In fact, given the direct link between obesity and sugar-rich, junk food, it seems likely that TV, where most such advertising takes place, is far more dangerous than being online. Indeed, computer games are now being used to combat ageing, cognitive problems and obesity, with positive results.</div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-9203027046195811547?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-39744042499953012862009-08-08T15:20:00.003Z2009-08-08T15:25:50.840Z<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/Sn2Y6ZqpnbI/AAAAAAAABXY/Epy9kxv8ias/s1600-h/teachermirror.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 196px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_e5CENKp5eYU/Sn2Y6ZqpnbI/AAAAAAAABXY/Epy9kxv8ias/s200/teachermirror.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5367614459985108402" /></a><p class="MsoNormal">Saddened today at the news of Film Director John Hughes death, aged only 59. Ferris Beuller’s Day Off is my favourite ‘school’ film and I’ve shown the famous<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>‘teaching’ clip from this movie hundreds of times all over the world. It always raises a laugh, because he absolutely nailed the single, most absurd problem in education – boring teachers/lecturers, boring people by just talking at them. Ben Stein (left), a former teacher, plays the role perfectly. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Here’s the transcript:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span">“In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in an effort to alleviate the effects of the ... Anyone? Anyone? ... the Great Depression, passed the ... Anyone? Anyone? The tariff bill? The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act? Which, anyone? Raised or lowered? ... raised tariffs, in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. Did it work? Anyone? Anyone know the effects? It did not work, and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression. Today we have a similar debate over this. Anyone know what this is? Class? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone seen this before? The Laffer Curve. Anyone know what this says? It says that at this point on the revenue curve, you will get exactly the same amount of revenue as at this point. This is very controversial. Does anyone know what Vice President [George H. W.] Bush called this in 1980? Anyone? Something-d-o-o economics. "Voodoo" economics.</span>”<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span">Why my favourite film on education? Well I positively hate the whole private/boarding school thing that has dominated school films in the UK, especially the whole Harry Potter boarding school thing (including the books). It makes me wince when I see adults reading this tosh. I ahve a similar feeling when I see young minds being similarly polluted, but don't those middle-class mums just love this stuff. A tiny number of kids went to these schools, but as our culture is often defined by the people who went to such schools, we get it shoved down our throats. It’s repulsive, unrealistic and divisive. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span">Ferris Beuller showed school as it really is, OK at times, but on the whole rather boring. My other favourite scene from the movie was the long ‘taking attendance’ scene, again played by Stein, "Beuller, Beuller, Beuller....”. It goes on forever. The empty chair said it all. Bunking off school is likely to have been one of the most exciting experiences in a young person’s life. It was thrilling and the freedom exhilarating. That in itself says much about school.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-3974404249995301286?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-20556468259775869582009-08-07T13:54:00.002Z2009-08-07T14:06:45.236Z<p class="MsoNormal">Thanks Sue – good of you to reply to my last post (see <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">comments</span>). So let’s carry the debate forward. I have read Toxic Childhood and 21^st Century Boys. I did so after seeing you in the Brighton Festival two years ago (I’m a Trustee), when I attended and reviewed the debate hosted by Polly Toynbee. I thought then, and think now, that this species of ‘parenting’ literature is ‘toxic’ only in the sense that it is largely middle-class bile. Let me explain.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">Toxic prejudices </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "></span>You claim that you love technology but every single chapter of Toxic Childhood has a go at technology. “<i>At the moment, too much technology is dumbing down our children....</i><i>if the gap left by preoccupied parents is filled by the fruits of technology, toxic childhood syndrome begins to take hold</i>”. Technology in schools “<i>has made no noticeable impact</i>”. “<i>insidious.. screen-based activity..imagination-rotting, creativity-dumbing</i>”. I could go on.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’m also not at all convinced on your claim about very young children. The opening salvo in Toxic Childhood is against a teenager you describe, in the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Uffizi</span> Gallery of all places, as having, “<i>the multiple trademarks of the brat...Poor child. Poor Parents. Poor Western Civilisation...the whole of the developed world...now teems with miserable little creatures</i>”, and that’s just on the first page! All of this from the observation of a bored teenager in an Art Gallery in Florence! Go to any art gallery and you’ll see bored teenagers – it’s normal. You go on to blame this<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“<i>epidemic of misery</i>” firmly on the “<i>clash between our technology-driven culture and our biological heritage</i>” calling children “<i>battery children...</i><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><i>technobrats</i></span>”. Difficult to backtrack from your claim that “<i>My research suggests that children’s development in every one of these areas is threatened by the side-effects of technological...TV and computer games at home</i>”. I really winced at your description of working class kids as “<i>pinched and angry, with dead eyes....Their parents, deprived, uneducated, often scarcely more than children themselves...this feral generation</i>”.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Then the outrageous, old, racist chestnut “<i>the birth rate among the have-</i><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><i>nots</i></span><i> is soaring, while among educated classes it is falling...could eventually threaten social stability</i>”. At this point, and all of this is in the first chapter, I thought I was reading a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">BNP</span> manifesto.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Toxic marketing<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">You make a great fuss in these books about the “<i>siren call of the marketing men</i>” (sexist or what?) but the opening chapter of Toxic Childhood (in itself a marketing ploy) is titled ‘Toxic Childhood Syndrome’. This is hysterical, and worse, borrows terminology from science (toxicity) and medicine (syndrome) to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">hyperbolically</span> market your ideas. You are not a physician and hyping this term you’re doing a disservice to language, medicine and psychology. AIDS (Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndrome) is a real syndrome. You’re ‘syndrome’ is a piece of marketing. ‘Toxic’ infers actual toxicity, again usurping a scientific term for the trite purposes of marketing. In truth, your ‘syndrome’ is an attempt at popularising a piece of polemic.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Marketing seems to be ‘good’ if it’s associated with hysterical parenting literature, but ‘bad’ if it comes from companies selling their wares. ‘Parenting’ literature is marketing at its worst, and ‘Toxic Childhood’ is perhaps the worst example I can think of, exaggerating the case, using pseudo-medical language to blame everything and everyone, especially poor parents, for the ills of society in general.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:&quot;Segoe UI&quot;">Toxic claims: <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">ADHD</span>, Autism<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:&quot;Segoe UI&quot;">Here’s where things get really ‘toxic’. Autism is NOT caused by emotional deprivation, that much is clear, and to attribute causes at this stage is to move well beyond the research findings. The most promising line of research at the moment seems to be complicated genetic factors (multiple genes), so let’s be sensible. It is a mistake to see autism as a problem that is curable through some simplistic parenting books, it is a lifelong condition not caused by ‘good’ or ‘bad’ parenting. It is a downright insult to the parents of children with these disorders to blame them, even in part. Rich or poor they deal with the problem, while schools often struggle to even recognise the issue.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">Similarly with ADHD. Genetic factors are clearly involved as shown in twin and genetic studies. More worrying, however, is that the lack of real evidence from brain studies is puhsing many researchers towards a more sceptical stance, looking at over-diagnosis. To blame technol,ogy is simply speculation.</p> <p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left: 0cm">The hysteria whipped up around the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">MMR</span> vaccine is the most recent example of dangerous amateurs dabbling in areas they know nothing about. Non-scientific populist writing flooded the parenting ‘market’ causing the current problems with measles. Schools (my own included) are still dealing with parents who refuse to vaccinate their children, putting other children at risk, because of the so called ‘toxic’ arguments.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Research?<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The research quoted in Toxic Childhood is simply one-sided and unrepresentative. In among the cherry-picked reports are lots of secondary and tertiary articles from newspapers (including that journal of fairness the Daily Mail), personal interviews, anecdotal speeches and personal emails. In no sense can this be regarded as a balanced look at the research. To take one of many examples, to exclude Judith Harris, from this debate is to exclude someone who really has done the research on the nature/nurture debate, a serious area of research which you describe in the book as “tediously familiar”. Perhaps the most hyperbolic example of one-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">sidedness</span> is your description of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Laynard</span>’s book ‘Happiness’ as, “<i>surely the most extraordinary book on economics ever written</i>”. Sorry Sue, it <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">doesn</span>’t get into the Top 100.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Technology<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I agree that your books are not just about the malign influence of technology, but that’s my field and that’s what I’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">ve</span> focused on. You do have a go at technology in every single chapter of your book, so it’s not just one small part of the problem. It underpins your whole argument. Even here, it’s all about one-sided. TV, on the whole, is bad for young children, except, of course for the BBC, where you’re an advisor. You can’t have it both ways. You criticise the “glut of TV nanny programmes” but <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">isn</span>’t Toxic Childhood, exactly that in print? The main difference being that only middle-class parents will buy and read your book, which is not the audience you’re aiming for.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Primary teachers<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Primary school teaching has been more than guilty of introducing problems of its own into the education of our children. At no point have you really addressed the point that it was educational professionals, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">advisors</span> and teacher training establishments that caused many of the literacy problems that authors are blaming on ‘screen-based’ culture and other causes. There’s a lot of blame attached to other causes but little thrown at the ‘whole-language’ Taliban, who wrecked the literacy of so many children for so many years. I witnessed it myself with my own children, when spelling remained uncorrected and no attempt was made to explain or teach the underlying phonetic structure of our language. The ‘entire primary teaching profession’ is the very body that delivered the flawed teaching, and some of it is still hanging around in the system.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21077063-2055646825977586958?l=donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.com6