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

mberry@bcs.org

Terry Freedman

www.ictineducation.org

twitter.com/terryfreedman

terry@ictineducation.org