andykemp.org.uk

I have very much enjoyed reading the tweets over the last few days from the first UK Google Teacher Academy (#GTAUK), which has caused me to stop and think again about the value of the Google Apps package…

There is much to like about GApps, and many excellent reasons why you might want to adopt it in your school, particularly for Gmail and the excellent real-time collaborative editing facilities.

I am also really excited about the platform agnostic (well apart from mobile devices) perspective which allows students to work from whatever device they like.

However the flip side to all these awesome features is that the actual office apps themselves are quite limited.

In the word processing part of GDocs for example you are limited to a very small subset of fonts, and an even more restricted set of font sizes. This is a pain for me as I use a custom font to represent the keys on the TI-Nspire calculator that we use in school, so this means I can’t do this in GDocs… I’m sure I can be the only one who needs occasional access to extra fonts…

One of the areas we have recently started using at school is a plagiarism checking service (turnitin.com) which allows us top check that students work is original and has reduced the amount of work that is just copy and pasted from websites like wikipedia! I’ve had a look and can’t see how this could integrate with GDocs… I guess we could get students to save their work as PDFs and submit thoughs, but I need to look more carefully into this…

Another area that causes me some concern is the limited ability to include multimedia in the PowerPoint-esq editor. Here you seem only to be able to insert YouTube videos (admittedly this is a great service) which makes it difficult to include your own video content or clips from copyright material (covered by the schools copyright agreement). There also appears to be no way to add in audio content… Something which has finally become easy in PowerPoint 2010.

I really like that you can now store any documents in your GDocs, and there are some interesting services that will sync your local files to GDocs (memeo and syncpacity) but they are quite expensive.

I like the idea of Google sites, but find it quite limited as your can only embed GDocs, not PDF documents (which is the format that most exam papers etc come in).

I also find it really odd that GApps doesn’t include any blogging or wiki systems, and all the other great things that google offer which are not integrated (reader, picasa etc)…

There is a lot to like about the GApps system, and many excellent and exciting features, and I certainly agree with those who say that this type of web based systems are the future, but I am not sure they are there yet…

I suspect many (most?) schools would find they still needed to keep a desktop version of office (whether MS or OO) for those occasions where GDocs isn’t up to the task yet…

I would love to hear from schools who use GDocs as to whether you still use MS office (or OO), particularly for use with the MIS. And how you manage having some local office docs and some cloud GDocs…

I’d love to know if others have had similar issues, and more importantly if anyone has found good solutions for these problems…

The other question that keep going through my mind whilst reading the #GTAUK tweets was: does a school with GApps still need a VLE, and if so which ones offer the best integration with GApps?

Filling on from a very interesting chat with @IanYorston a few weeks back I have been giving a lot of thought to what the best way of controlling the Internet access in a school is.

Amongst those who take child protection issues seriously (and who can afford not to these days!) there seem to be two major camps.

• Filtering
• Monitoring

Historically it seems schools (or LEAs) have taken the the line that the best way TI ensure the safety of those under their care is to implement a strike filtering scheme to block access to anything that might possibly be interpreted as inappropriate or disruptive. The problem with this is that often completely innocent and often potentially useful resources become blocked by the heuristic used to identify inappropriate material (I can’t begin to count the number of Maths related resources I have tried to look at on our school system which have been blocked as Swedish Pornography’!!)

The other problem is often that the control of these systems (and the associated responsibility for when things go wrong) tends to live in the domain of the technical ICT department. Because they are often held to account if and when things go wrong the net result tends be a very cautious filtering, which gives students a fairly small walled garden at school.

The problem with this is that these students then go home, and all we have done is tell students that there are scary things on the Internet, and not prepared them for the realities of the wide open Internet they often experience at home (or these days on their smartphone in their pocket!)

This has gotten me thinking that a much better approach would be to mirror the approach that is often suggested to parents that we give them freedom to explore but do so in a safe environment where they know there is someone there to help if things go wrong and like a most parents we keep an eye on their activities online to make sure they are not getting themselves involved in anything they shouldn’t…

Many might argue that this approach is more risky in that it allows students the possibility of accessing inappropriate material, I would argue that the risk is small compared to the potential gains, both in terms of providing wider access to valid and educationally beneficial resources. But also in providing an environment where the responsibility for appropriate use is put much more in the realm of teaching appropriate behaviour (or in short education a something schools are supposed to be good at!) and less dependent on making sure we have appropriate blocks in place.

I fail to see how this is issue is really any different then any risk assessment activity. There are risks in every Science Laboratory lesson, but we don’t say students may only observe experiments (which would clearly be safer) but instead give them the freedom (with appropriate oversight) to make have a go for themselves and occasionally make mistakes… The net result of this is that students learn a lot more about what they need to to do to be safe.

It seems to be that the technological equivalent to a science teacher in the lab checking that everyone is doing roughly what they should be is some form of monitoring (whether software based or people based). There are several software based solutions which are designed top identify inappropriate activities (including cases where students may be getting themselves involved in bullying or grooming). When these issues are identified they should then fall to the pastoral team to deal with, as whether these things happen online or offline dealing with the fallout is a pastoral concern not a technical one…

The problem is that these types of systems require more man power then a simple filtering scheme, as someone has to be responsible for checking the logs of flagged up issues on a daily basis.

Many of these systems involve installing a small piece of software on the client computer. This has the advantage that if students are required to install the software to gain access to the network, then they cannot circumvent the system by using a 3G dongle. This is especially important in boarding school environments where it is almost impossible to monitor or control access when a student is in their dorm room.

This solution is not without its problems (for example how to do you monitor access via a smart device?) and it is probably best to combine this monitoring with at least some low level filtering to prevent access to those most undesirable areas of the Internet (racist material, pornography, etc). However hopefully with some low level filtering combined with a more careful monitoring of student access we can more from a scenario where the Internet is something to be feared in schools, to one where the Internet is something to be embraced and students are encouraged to explore its many amazing features safe in the knowledge that someone is watching over them to make sure they don’t get themselves into too much trouble…

This seems to be the direction that Ofsted are favouring… But what do you think, am I being too idealist or am I missing something?

Related Reading:

• Safe use of new technologies (Report by Ofsted)
• Turn Filters off and use Securus (Edugeek Thread)

Image CC BY-NC-SA by Sally06

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Let me know if you have any problems!

Well my self control wavered and I ordered an iPad and after a few days with it I wanted to post some initial thoughts…

In an effort not to repeat what everyone else has said on the topic I will concede that an iPad is not a laptop replacement, but neither is it just a big iPhone…

Let me talk about a few of the things I have used the iPad for in the last 3-4 days.

• Surfing the Web
• Safari (and the other browsers like iCab etc) are a fantastic way to browse the web in a comfortable and intuitive way…  I’m already finding myself sat at my desk a little less often!  Yes it’s not perfect, with no flash, but on the whole this hasn’t been an issue so far…
• Email/Twitter
• The email client on the iPad is excellent, and when they add the iOS4 features of conversation view and multiple exchange accounts it will be even better
• For twitter I have been using Osfoora, which whilst not perfect is a very pleasant way to read and post to my twitter feed
• eBooks
• I’ve had a bit of a look at iBooks and Kindle today and am not sure if it is for me, but will have a go…  With the ability to sync PDFs to iBooks, this might be very useful as a reference tool.  You could for example carry school handbooks, textbooks etc…
• RSS feeds
• I’m using Reeder for checking my Google Reader RSS feeds.  This is a fantastic app and is the first app that I have actually found better at managing and reading my RSS feeds then the google reader web interface!  Check it out!
• Notetaking
• I haven’t yet explored the wide range of note taking and office style apps, so have only used the built in Notes app.  However this is much more a comment about the virtual keyboard…  The keyboard is amazing!  I was so surprised how quickly I can type with it in landscape orientation.  I attended an INSET day on Friday with a group of about 12 teachers and I wouldn’t have felt comfortable having my laptop out to take notes as it would have been too intrusive.  However with the iPad on my lap I sat and took notes throughout the day.  One of the nice things about a virtual keyboard is that it is silent! None of the click-clacking, which again makes it a great tool for use in meetings etc, which coupled with its low profile (even in a case) means that you are not putting up barriers between you and the rest of the room in the way that laptops do…

There are definitely things that are not perfect yet.  It needs a good office app that is fully compatible with MS Office.  It needs a proper blogging tool something like an equivalent to MS LiveWriter (The current WordPress app doesn’t allow any formatting or inserting of images etc).  A built in camera would also be useful at times!

However that said I could see this being a perfect tool for the SMT in the school, a great tool for reading and performing some editing of documents on.  Keeping track of email, and task lists, and taking notes in meetings.  It is incredibly portable and light and a could easily be carried about around school.

I’m not quite sure where it would be useful for students, I still think that for students to get the most out of a tablet-esq machine it would need to work with a stylus as well as fingers.  However the excellent battery life (I got through two days of fairly constant use over Wifi and 3G before needing to recharge!) and the low profile makes it an interesting classroom tool.  Coupled with appropriate online tools it has the potential to be a very interesting classroom tool!  I can’t wait to see what people do with it in their classrooms!

As the Apple case is sold out everywhere I decided to go with a leather case and bought the Noreve Tradition iPad case, this has the same features as the apple case in becoming a typing or viewing stand but is made from a slightly more padded leather.  In addition it includes a fantastic ‘rails’ system which the ipad slides into so that you don’t have anything covering the beautiful iPad screen.  So far I am very impressed, even if it was a little more than I had wanted to spend!

Next step for me is to get a capacitive stylus and see how well that works and explore the potential for office document uses…

If you have an iPad what have you done with yours?

I have been asked to spec up a ‘show classroom’ which could be used to demonstrate the potential for ICT in teaching (specifically Maths), and could also be used by external visiting groups etc.

So I have been giving it some thought and this what I have come up with so far…

So the kit is as follows:

• Smartboard 690
• 2 x WXGA Projectors
• Toshiba Dynadock U
• ELMO P10S Visualiser
• TI-Nspire Navigator Wireless Graphical Calculator System
• DVI Switch
• Toshiba M750 TabletPC

Would love to know your thoughts.  Have I missed something?  Will it work? Any practical considerations?

Check out my presentation from the T3 conference in Atlanta this year by going to:
http://www.andykemp.org.uk/t3atlanta/

The Texas Instrument TI-84 calculator has been the dominant graphical calculator in schools for quite some time. But despite some tweaking here and there it has remained relatively unchanged for quite some time. So I was very pleasantly surprised to see a very significant free software upgrade to the TI-84 being offered this week in the form of version 2.53MP.

This upgrade brings some of the improvements we have become used to on the TI-Nspire over the last few years, specifically in the form of something they are calling MathPrint. MathPrint is the name that TI have given to the technology that enables users to enter mathematics the way it appears in the textbook. In particular this deals really well with some of the most frustrating elements of the TI-84, in making it much easier to work with fractions, logs of non-standard bases, summations, definite integrals, differentials at a point, and matrices.

The key new features are linked to a series of new menus associated with the shortcuts  , , etc…

The first of these , give you access to the fractions tools, with option 1 giving you a fraction template, option 2 a mixed number template, option 3 converts a top heavy fraction into a mixed number(or reverse), and option 4 converts a decimal to fraction (or reverse).

The second of these menus , gives you access to the main new templates including the modulus symbol | |, the summation template, derivative at a point, definite integral and finally logs to non-standard bases. Using these templates significantly simplifies the process for students, and eliminates the confusion of trying to remember the correct syntax for fnInt() etc. The final option logBASE() actually adds a completely new feature to the TI-84 in the ability to work with non-standard base logarithms.

The third menu , deals with one of areas of the TI-84 that I always found most frustrating; that is working with matrices. Previously on the TI-84 you had to define your matrices by going into the matrix section and defining matrix A and vector B etc and then you could calculate A^-1B to solve a set of simultaneous equations for example. With 2.53MP it is now possible to directly enter and work with matrices on the calculator screen, which greatly simplifies the steps involved in working with matrices.

Many of these features can also be accessed via the normal menu structure, however for those who are set in their ways and would rather work with the ‘classic view’ these new features can be turned off on the second page of the ‘Mode’ menu, notice this also now includes a handy option for turning on Stat Diagnostics, which is required for calculating regression coefficients.

Another very useful feature that is new to the TI-84 is the addition of a ‘history’. It is now possible to scroll back through previous calculations and answers and copy them down into a current calculation by pressing enter (this doesn’t work for outputs which are matrices or lists).

All in TI have done an excellent job bringing some of the excellent improvements of the TI-Nspire back to the classic TI-84. This will certainly breathe new life into the TI-84 platform, significantly reducing the complexity of using it for students. I suspect for some students this simplified and enhanced user interface will also result in less mistakes and as a result higher marks on their exams. Something I am sure my students will be grateful for!

It is great to see TI continuing to support their large customer base through development work on the TI-84, which is still widely used in schools across the country. However we should not pretend for a second that this puts the TI-84 on an equal footing with its bigger brother, the TI-Nspire, which has always aimed (and in my opinion, succeeded) at being more than a simple graphical calculator, but rather a full mathematical toolkit for the classroom. Therefore it is with great interest that I look forward to seeing what they manage to achieve next on the TI-Nspire!

You can download the upgrade from here.  Let me know in the comments your favourite new features…

Notes:

• Due to some of the changes in 2.53MP it also necessary to update the Catalogue Help App to v1.1
• To use 2.53MP with SmartView, simply download the OS file and install it by going to the ‘Load File’ option on the File Menu.

Schools are places full of media of various sorts, whether it is old tapes and videos to DVDs, and a variety of differing electronic files…  The problem with this is that schools have to maintain a wide range of tools to be able to play back all of these different things…  And in many schools that still includes the old TV & Video trolly!

However a lot of classrooms have a computer and projector in the room which is the obvious playback mechanism – So the question becomes how do we get all these different types of media into a format that we can easily playback via a PC (or Mac) and how do we store them and play them back?  In addition, with the growing popularity of VLEs etc how do we enable students to watch this media even when they are not in the classroom?

Things like YouTube are great (where they are accessible in schools) but they don’t allow you to show copyright material (that the school has a licence to show) and then use huge amounts of bandwidth!

I know some Schools who manage their media by ripping DVDs and storing them in a ‘shared folder’ which teacher can go to and can  play back the file in Windows Media Player etc..

We have a lot of media at school and still need to regularly record new shows off the TV and need a better solution to look after all this media.  I’m just not sure what the best way to manage this process is…

So how are you currently managing your media and/or what plans to do you have to simplify the media in your school?  Please let me know in the comments!

The world of Biometrics in Schools gets larger and more complex by the year!  I was particularly looking for Biometric Registration systems and saw a few options…  Not had a chance to look at them in great detail yet but these are the ones that caught my eye whilst walking round BETT.

LiveRegister:
Live Register is small robust box that has a fingerprint scanner used for AM/PM registration.  A student simply places their finger on the scanner and a second or so later they are marked as present with this data being passed on to SIMS.  New this year the system also allows ‘Signing in/out’ so that 6th Formers and Boarders could use the system to indicate they are going off-site or returning.  The boxes are about £550 each plus software licence – I reckon an average sized school could install this for about £15K.  They were also demoing a version that included a 7″ display screen which looked like it might have some potential!

DRS:
DRS have been in the registration game for a long time being the main supplier of OMR forms used in many schools.  They also offer a e-registration system which looks quite capable and again feeds into SIMS.  Their system for signing in/out requires a separate scanner to be setup for this purpose  which would work really well if most people leave via reception etc – but wouldn’t work as well on our wide site…  Their boxes were about £850 each (which included one main terminal and 2 subsidiary scanners)

Aurora:
Aurora are very much the wildcard entry into the world of school based Biometrics as rather than the traditional finger-print approach taken by others this uses ‘facial recognition’.  The student walks up to the box, enters a 4-digit pin then the internal camera checks the person matches the pin and registers then (again passing data to SIMS).  This is technologically an interesting solution, but with the added element of the need for a pin and the fact that the boxes are around £3,500 this is not a cheap or simple solution – however definitely one to keep an eye on!

The strange but appealing product that also caught my eye whilst wondering round wasn’t related to registration but would be great addition to any school already using biometric registration.  It is called “Password Manager” and was made by BioStore.  Whenever a student forgets their password they simply go up to the machine place their fingerprint on the pad and it creates a temporary password for the (valid for 30mins) so they can login and reset it without having to bother the ICT techs…  All this happens in about 7 seconds – Would be great for the start of terms!!

There are lots of good online Word Processors out there but at the end of the day they tend to all just offer a subset of the features of a locally installed Word Processor.  So imagine my surprise to find such a fully featured system independent web-based Word Processor which offered something new! (loosely web-based – it is Java based and looks like it uses Web-Start technology)…

What WriteOnline does that makes it really special is it offers graduated support for those who find writing difficult.  For example it supports writers by reading-aloud individual words or sentences.  It offers a clever prediction engine that attempts to predict what you are trying to type (including phonetic spelling – i.e. type in ‘fiz’ and it will offer words like ‘physical’ etc.)

In addition to this it supports multiple word-banks depending on the task at hand and writing-frames (i.e. sentence starters).  One particularly clever feature was the ability to create Mind-maps and then use the completed mind-map to create a word-bank which can be used to write the essay.

All in this looks like an excellent tool to scaffold learners who find writing difficult (for whatever reason – young students, SEN, EFL etc).  The tool can be accessed from any computer and also includes a version that can be installed locally (where internet connection might be an issue such as a laptop).

A nice feature is the Moodle integration which allows you to create an activity which specific wordbanks etc within moodle.  Students then complete the writing in WriteOnline (which can be saved as a draft to Moodle) and then submit it for marking.

All in this definitely looks like a tool worth some consideration!

To get a better idea of what WriteOnline offers I thoroughly recommend having a look at their Video Demos