Open Minds, Open Curriculum?

Dear All!

What a few weeks I have had. I found out last week that our school is planning to deliver an "Open Minds" curriculum next year (September). Currently there is very little to show for it. I have become increasingly concerned as to the nature and availability of "Open Minds" materials- there seem to be very few available and schools that are delivering the curriculum are loathed to share their expertise- the "Open Minds" evangelists are very happy to tell you how wonderful the learning experince is- but are less happy to share "how" they do it.

I understand the concept of developing thinking skills and easing the transition from KS3 to KS4, however, am becoming increasingly sceptical due to the lack of academic research as to its effectiveness. If anyone has got data that shows that this approach has a significant impact on attainment I would gratefully like to talk to them.

I would also like to know what models schools are using to deliver this curriculum and how schools maintain standards in maths, english, science and ICT. The proposal on the table is that 22 lessons out of 30 will be included in the curriculum- this seems massive considering the lack of planning in place for a September start. I'm not saying that having a competancy based curriculum covering that amount would not be exciting but delivering the skills training and resource in such a short time scares me a little.

As an ICT teacher this really worries me. We have worked very hard to establish ourselves as a subject and we are now being consumed by thios curriculum. How will ICT not become death by PowerPoint for most and fabulous for others? The potential for inconsistency is massive.

Do you want students to learn about web 2.0- try google analytics!!

I have recently been teaching OCR Nationals, Technological Innovation and E Commerce (Unit 8). When it comes to making ICT real, this has got to be one of the best units from the wide selection available.

One assessment objectives regards investigating a technological innovation. The way we have done it is by allowing students to explore the world of blogging- more importantly though- we have looked at all the web 2.0 wlwmwnts that you can bring into a blog. The students have responded most to "google analytics". They have found it fascinating to see how professional bloggers adapt what they write to their audience and also to see the amount of feedback you can recieve. It also allows them a deep understanding series of careers that they may otherwise not even know exists.

This is something that I will definitely do again, when students show that they understand how to make money from a blog through adsense and ca track their users and then create content for them- this has to be exciting real education!

Time for a change?

There has a lot of talk and apprehension surrounding the revised programme of study for ICT. My message is don't worry. The new programme of study gives us the flexibility to decide to an extent what we ant to teach but more importantly how we teach it- if you ever felt that the six year old programme of study stiffled your creativity- then get prepared for some hard work in the short term but then a much better experience for students and teachers alike.

At the academy we will be creating a new scheme for year 7 and 8. This will be using as many new technologies as physically possible and surrounding this with an environmental theme. We are going to deliver the year 7 in 4 themed units. It should look like this- I have also included a framework map to illustrate how we will be meeting the curriculum needs.

In terms of functional skills, we complete OCR Nationals unit 1 (ICT Skills for Business) in year 9- and we are proposing that we cover functional skills at this point. As an ICT teacher I am glad that I am not in the same position as colleagues in mathematics and english who have new content to teach!

Year 7 (formation)

Unit 1. Emotional Literacy based PowerPoint.
Unit 2. Global Links/ internet safety/ blogging/ video conferencing- students get e buddy from abroad.
Unit 3. Issues for audiences.
(Desktop Publishing/ Podcasting)
Unit 4. Global Survey
Group questionnaires about pertinent topics relating to students and e buddies.

Year 8 (expansion)

Unit 1. Financial Spreadsheet unit based around different jobs and disposable income.
Unit 2. Games Design. Using scratch animation.
Unit 3. Web Design
Unit 4. Mp3 player database
Unit 5. Video creation and editing. Students make TV programmes about local issues.

Year 7 Framework Map

I'll have to email this one!! Its a bit long!!

Blogging in the classroom

I thought it may be interestiing to share my students experiences of class blogs in the classroom. I completed a project with a group of year 8's that involved them desigining and making a television programme and sharing their experiences via a blog. Their overall experiences where very poritive and though limited you can see how they have been able to evaluate their work and comment on various things.

For this I used blogger- this has allowed me to invite students to take part and also moderate their comments- ginving me a cotrolled and hassle free learning environment.

Hope its useful.

BECTA bids have their advantages...

We have just had our statutory training day where as teachers we have to master the intricacies of the new national curriculum. From ICT it has not changed much but it interesting to note how it has evolved.

The new national curriculum allows for much more cross curricular work- especially in ICT- we have been using a SOW that uses an environmentak ethos for some time. What this new curriculum allows is a great deal more flexibility as prescriptive programmes of study have been dispensed with allowing teachers to tailor courses to the needs of their learners.

We have just completed a bid to BECTA where we have asked for a sum of money to produce a condensed key stage three SOW taht we can then share with other schools- we are hoping to have the schemes available by September- if you would like to be involved contact me at school!

Cheeesecake- its the future!

I have just taken delivery of an eee pc from liverpool city council. I ahve it on loan for a couple of weeks just to see, whether it offers any advantages over current hardware.

Its a small, light and inexpensive laptop. It comes supplied with open source software which means its a very reasonable £169 +VAT.

The only two downsides are that it has a relatively small screen and battery life of two hours could be better.

This technology raises a few interesting pointers- its relatively small memory means that most resources that are used with it will need to be primarily web based as laoding lots of software on the machinme is likely to slow it down. Secondly, schools will need to make significant investment in their wireless infrastructure in order to enable students to make full use of them in every lesson.

This must give some useful pointers for leadership teams as to where they will investing money over the next few years as schools will have to face the change from "we cannot afford to have one computer per student" top "we cannot afford not to have one computer per student".

Most excellent blog addresses

Post your blog address here:

IMedia- moving ICT forward.

Things have moved on a pace! We have got the go ahead to deliver the OCR iMedia qualiofication next year alongside OCR Nationals- nationals will be our "core" qualifcation and iMedia will be the option- I have checked with OCR and they are not aware of this not being an allowable combination.

We will be using multimedia fusion in order to deliver this. It will also give us a vehicle where we can cover more practical aspects of ICT.

The overall structure of the qualification can be viewed here.

Differentiation in ICT and DT

Next week we are having learning walks in our school. These walks will be focusing on differentiation.

Here are some simple ways of ensuring that differentiation is seen on these walks:

1. Have tasks that are specific to individual learning styles- VAK. Try this questionnaire.
2. Pair students up- so that bright students can share their understandings with those who have not found it quite so easy. This ensures learning is consolidated for the brighter student and they get a boost to their self esteem and the other student receives more instruction and time. This can be further ensured by the use of a seating plan.
3. Display differentiated work on the walls- what is level 4,5 or 6?
4. Have structured activities that allow students to achieve different outcomes.
5. Link learning to national curriculum levels and targets- this will allow students to individualise their learning.
6. Make sure that you have included differentiation and how it will be acvhieved in your planning.

If there are other ways of achieving differentiation in DT and ICT please leave comments on this blog and I will update the post.