What are your kids learning when you’re not looking?
Miles Berry and Terry Freedman
BETT, January 2009
What are your kids learning when you’re not looking?
• BCS– Cre8or
• Who we are• Why this matters• Literature review• Survey results• Implications for schools
Miles Berry
• Head at Alton Convent Prep• Former Becta ICT in Practice Award winner
– Moodle– Elgg
• BCS, Naace, Mirandanet, RSA etc.• opensourceschools.org.uk• Blog: milesberry.net• Twit: twitter.com/mberry
Terry Freedman
• http://www.ictineducation.org
http://www.lulu.com/terryfreedman
Why this matters
PLTS:independent enquirers creative thinkers reflective learners team workers self-managers effective participators
The Primary Review
The new secondary curriculum, and the Diploma
Employability
Accreditation/e-Portfolios
The digital divide
School design
Continuing professional development
E-safety
Every Child Matters:
Positive contribution
Healthy
Safety
Enjoy and achieve
Economic
Functional Skills
Some statistics
% of hours pw on web page
0
1
3
>3
Some more statistics (UK)
Doing homework 90%
Playing games 70%
Made a website 34%
Voted for something online 22%
Visited a site for hobby 40%
Posted pics or stories 17%
More stats: Writing in the USA
47% of teen bloggers write outside of school for personal reasons several times a week, compared to 33% of teens without blogs.
65% of teen bloggers say that writing is essential to later success in life (53%)
Literature Review
Miles Berry
Growing up digitalDon Tapscott, 1998
Contrast between N-Geners and Baby-boomersContrast between TV and the NetThe Net:•Active•Raises Intelligence•Democratic•Community building“Using the new technology is as natural as breathing”
The Digital DisconnectLevin & Arefah, 2002
A substantial disconnect between how students use the Internet for school and how they use the Internet during the school dayReasons:•Administrators•Variation in teaching policies•Uninspiring assignmentsBarriers•Quality of access•Filtering•Inequalities of home access
Pupils’ home use of computersValentine, Marsh and Pattie, 2006
• High level of access• Educational
opportunities outside school are beneficial
• Children value the freedom they have at home
• Extensive use of communication
Their SpaceGreen and Hannon, DEMOS, 2007
• Building relationships• Creating content• Essential skills
– Creativity– Communication– Collaboration
• User types:– Digital pioneers– Creative producers– Everyday communicators– Information gatherers
Beyond TechnologyDavid Buckingham, 2007
The new digital divide:“Home uses were often
extensive, diverse and open-ended, school often posed restrictions on students’ autonomous access and use”
Learners and Technology: 7-11Cranmer, Potter, Selwyn, 2008
• “Use of computer games, digital cameras, and making pictures were all more prevalent in the home”
• Relatively little creative or collaborative use of the net, either at school or home
• Good awareness of e-safety issues
Safer Children in a Digital WorldByron Review, 2008
• Opportunities for fun, learning and development
• Generational digital divide and risk averse culture
• Children are still developing critical skills
• Empowering children to keep themselves safe
Digital Media and Learning InitiativeMacArthur Foundation, 2008
• Generation gap in perceived value of online activity
• Learning social and technical skills
• Peer learning• Most aren’t making the
most of the opportunities• Hanging Out• Messing Around• Geeking Out
Social Networking Survey
Terry Freedman
Social networking survey resultsNumber of general social
networks 3
Number of specific social networks 2
Specific %
Video-sharing networks, like YouTube 42%
None 34%
Photo-sharing networks, like Flickr 12%
Music-sharing networks, like iLike 10%
Book-sharing networks, like FictionPress 2%
Other 0%
Social networking survey results
% who blog: 44
Reasons for being online Rank Order
Learn new things 1
Do homework together with friends 2
Play games 3
Social networking survey results
• Number of “friends”: 30• % who upload photos etc: 61• % supervised by adult: 24• % providing email address: 59
Summary of the research
• Young people spend a lot of time online: it is part of their life
• They use it for socialising, with people they already know (esp. girls)
• They use it for homework more than recreational activities like games
• They do a lot of multitasking
What are you learning whilst your teachers aren’t looking…
• edtechuk.net• Live from 26th November to 18th
December• Publicised via
• online forums, • discussion lists, • blogs and • twitter
• google docs spreadsheet form• Demographics• Access to tech• Use of Internet and
computers at home• Filtering• Social networking in school• Comparison between
school and home
985 responsesexcluding duplicates and blanks
Access to Technology
Access to Technology
Use of the Internet
Use of the Internet
Use of computers
Use of computers
Writing (not school related)
Use of social networking
Use of computer games
Social networking at school?
Filtering
Enjoyment
What do teachers know?
Anything else?• Make school like home? “I don’t think it should be made more like
home because you wouldn’t learn very much.” (17 y/o girl; 11 y/o girl).
• “Unblock access” (many respondents)• What have you learnt at home? “well i learn new things for videos i
see like how to make your computer run faster or part's to make it fast.” (17 y/o boy)
• “Touch typing” (10 y/o boy)• Favourite activity at school? Virtually nobody said PowerPoint!
Designing, and making or creating things featured heavily.• Favourite activity at home? “Making videos, making music and
photo booth” (9 y/o boy)
A few case studies…
Adrienne Blaser, 13
• loads of friends…• … all over the world..• Reads online• Uses podcasts to teach self• Researches on web
Max, 7
• http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=6fYVQ12-nVQ
Eleanor, 11
My mum taught me people`s email addreses but I taught myself how to actually email. I just clicked most of the buttons until I found the right one! I also taught myself a lot of diseses as I would love to be a docter! For this I mostly used the internet. I once also worked out how to use Google Earth. I`m not a very tecnical so this was a big leap for me! I simply fiddeld around with the buttons picking the ones that I thought would do the job and after just half an hour I found my house! I don`t actuelly no why i kept at it- probably wanted to learn something new as usual!
Implications
Primary curriculum
• Learning through play• Digital show and tell• Meeting children where they are, moving
them on– From communication to collaboration– From consumers to creators
• Rose Review: KS3 ICT by the end of KS2?• Office skills?
Digital divide
• Phones!• Home access scheme
– Broadband– Laptop with “relevant”
software– Support for internet
safety – filtering?– “embedding improved
safety features”
• Cultural divides
CPD
• Net-Gen Teachers• Teachmeet• PLNs• EdTechRoundup• TES Forums• Filtering
– Blogger, Twitter, YouTube etc.
Secondary Curriculum• Blogging and writing• Citizenship• Providing opportunities• Accreditation• Diploma and New curriculum• PLTS:
– independent enquirers – creative thinkers – reflective learners – team workers – self-managers – effective participators
Collaboration
“Wikispaces is a great way to communicate with people from all over the world. You can send emails, make web pages, work on projects, the possibilities are endless! You can communicate with each other and do projects and write things to help people and solve problems in the world. One thing I learned is that when you work hard, as a group or alone, trying to solve something it comes out as a big success.”
Every Child Matters
• Positive contribution• Healthy• Safety (“Mission Impossible”?)• Enjoy and achieve• Economic
Safety• Filtering:
http://flatclassroomproject.ning.com/video/8amission-impossible
• No “eyes on the street” (http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/eyes_on_the_street.php)
• Parental/family supervision• Research skills:
“It takes a teenager 1/20 of a second to determine whether a web page is worth reading.”
• Uploading stuff about self• Legal issues, eg ©• Economic issues, eg ©
Filtering: safety or Mission Impossible?
http://flatclassroomproject.ning.com/video/8amission-impossible
School design: some ideas (1)
• More areas given over to creating stuff rather than just receiving it
• Online repository of videos etc, some of which student-created
• Own page on school VLE, like Facebook page• NOT banning phones or iPods…• … Designing spaces to accommodate them
School design: some ideas (2)From the University of Nottingham:
Contacting us
BCS
www.bcs.org
01793 417567
Miles Berry
milesberry.net
twitter.com/mberry
Terry Freedman
www.ictineducation.org
twitter.com/terryfreedman