Superpower

"Twenty years ago, a quiet British engineer was on the cusp of changing the world.  Tim Berners-Lee was ironing out the wrinkles in a project that would become the "world wide web." As he readily admits, no-one could have predicted its significance."
Peter Horrocks, Director of BBC global news, 8th March 2010, Superpower blog

As the BBC Superpower Series draws to a close I'm taking a little time to reflect on the incredible experience that it has been.

Click on the image above to take you to the BBC Superpower Series which in their own words.

"Explores the extraordinary power of the internet"

This has been a phenomenal social experiment and experience.  Bloggers have interacted with other as they posted their opinions, personal stories from every corner of the world and in many different languages on The Superpower Blog. Tweeters twittered with their reviews of blogs, podcasts and videos on Superpower on Twitter. Many entries were received for the "My World" competition where entrants uploaded a 2 minute video clip with a glimpse of the world as they see it.

The winning video was "Wash, rinse and spin" by Frederico Teixeira de Sampayo from Spain.

The BBC has a phenomenal range of podcasts, they are edited superbly with extremely professional journalists who keep you engaged as they set the scene, give you a sense of actually "being there" and if needs be step in when debates between locals get a little heated.  But hey, don't take my word for it!  Download iTunes and subscribe to the BBC podcasts that you are interested in. 

They are all a little long for students to listen to in class but could be set as a homework task.  There are endless Science podcasts for different agencies, one of my favourites are the 60 second podcasts from Scientific American, they are short, sharp and to the point.  I have used them as a lesson starter or on occasions a guide to students before they are given the task of making their own podcast which they have edited using Audacity.  I'll blog about Science podcasts in more detail another day :-)

On their "World have your say" site, the BBC provides the platform for discussions that take place between people from all around the world, on topics that they want to talk about.  Some people blog, others tweet or contribute to the discussions be texting, phoning and emailing in when the programme is broadcast.

Here's a selection of the World Service podcasts, mainly documentaries that I've enjoyed listening to, they aren't all science related but general interest/social studies/business/studies/sports related.

The other internet
China patrols its cyberspace carefully. The government there closes down hundreds of websites each year and blocks access to many international websites.How do Chinese citizens get over the great firewall of China?

Internet Cafe Hobo - part 1
Nick Baker is on a mission to connect people, stories and places via internet cafe.

Internet Cafe Hobo - part 2
In Kenya and France he finds a remarkable story in Benin of a young man for whom a single search changed his life.

Internet Cafe Hobo - part 3
Nick find that internet cafes are not just a way to stay in contact with family, friends and football results.

The Crash: The bank that busted the world
What were the key moments that lead to financial meltdown, and what happened in the aftermath?  The first of a three-part series that looks closely at the turbulent events in the autumn of 2008.

The Crash: The age of risk
The second of this three-part series that examines the boom before the bust of 2008 looks at how are attitudes to risk and debt changed with disastrous consequences.

The Crash: Back from the brink
The third part of the BBC's definitive series on the banking crash tells the extraordinary story of how politicians reacted, and asks what has been learnt from the entire calamity.  Could it happen again?

Nina Robinson meets the community living in the shadow of the London 2012 Olympic games


Click on the links for archived BBC World Service broadcasts, Documentary podcasts, World have your say podcasts, Science podcasts, Outlook podcasts.

The quality of broadcasting and diverse mix of programmes from the BBC are among if not the very best in the world.  As regards creative, collaborative, learners...the BBC leads by example, now it's up to us to spread the word, get our students making more (educational!) use of social networking and using that newly found information to produce creative resources using the diverse range of multimedia tools that are available to them. 

Oh... and just for the record I have absolutely no business, personal or other connection with the BBC.

mobiles in the classroom

According to a Unicef, State of the children report, 2009 94% of teenagers in NZ own a mobile phone, according to a 15 year old intern at Morgan Stanley, UK 2009 99% of teenagers in the UK have a mobile phone and in the US it is 71% of teenagers according to Pew Internet & American Life Project 2009.  The age of mobile technology has well and truly gripped us, so to speak.

There I was taking a stroll through Victoria's Way in County Wicklow, Ireland a few months ago and was feeling very zen as I meandered amongst the Indian statues in Victor Langheld's Sculpture Park.  Victor or Victoria as he prefers to be known, left Dresden, Germany when he was 5, lived in India 20 years later and studied and practiced for many years before becoming a Buddist monk.  Victoria designed these remarkable sculptures and had them handcrafted in India before being shipped over to Ireland.

Much to my surprise, loe and behold, one sculpture known as the Dark night of the Soul and described as...

"This unique 14ft 6ins bronze is a copy of a 2ft stone Gandhara (roman provincial) period sculpture carved in the 1^st century AD in what is now Pakistan. It represents the future Buddha practicing severest suppression of the urge to life (and rebirth) in order to end his personal stress (Pali: dukkha). This attempt failed. He then decided to take a rational, scientific approach to the problem, eventually understanding that “Whatever is subject to arising is subject to cessation.” To wit|: “Nothing lasts.” “If you attach to that which doesn’t last you’re going to get stressed out, and suffer”. So, “Detach! Back off!” and stay cool and happy." 

...is perhaps a true representation of a future Buddha with a nokia phone tucked in his robe!

For those of you teaching in and around Dublin and County Wicklow, Victoria's Way is well worth a drive and meditative stroll as you take a few deep breaths and release the stresses of day to day life, you may even bump into Victoria himself who will no doubt keep you engaged for a while with his welcoming smile and friendly words.

The general trend around the world is to ban mobile phones, however, we as teachers need to find ways in which we can embrace the use of the mobile phone in the classroom.  The mobile phone, is not longer a toy but an essential piece of communication.

"It really is taking advantage of the love affair that kids have with technology today." says Dan Domevech, executive director of the non profit American Association of School Administrators.  "The kids are much more motivated to use their cellphone in an educational manner."

These days mobile phones are the equivalent of mini computers, one can check email, browse the internet, record images, video, audio.  We should take advantage of the fact that there has been and continues to be a significant rise in the number of young people buying mobile phones as opposed to computers.

There are the usual concerns that mobiles in the classroom encourage bullying.  Personally, I don't believe that mobiles phones encourage bullying as such, but are unfortunately another avenue through with bullies can operate.  The hard fact of life is that bullying does happen and will continue to happen in the classroom as it does in many workplaces, one doesn't need a mobile phone to become a bully or a victim of one.  If anything, equipped with a mobile phone one can record, film and store evidence of a bully's cruel and cowardly words/actions and pass that information onto school managers, parents and if needs be the police.  One can also call for help from a friend, adult or counseling service with the aid of a mobile.

My students have been using their mobile phones in class for a few years now, only on odd occasions when they need to do a quick calculation or use the stopwatch for an experiment.  I'm fine with that and am clear with the expectation that it'll be put away after wards and so far that privilege hasn't been abused.  However, this year I've been trying out a few new things....recording audio, taking photos, recording video clips and will explore whatever other options are out there for the benefit of students in an educational environment.

So far this year, my Year 11's (15 years old), a high ability Chemistry class have used their phones to take photos of experiments which they have sent to their laptops via bluetooth, then edited the images using Macromedia Fireworks or Adobe Photoshop and uploaded them in sequential order to a Microsoft Powerpoint where they explained the process at each stage of the experiment.  In the future, I'll look at the option of them making a video using Microsoft Movie Maker and adding audio, that has been edited and put together using Audacity.  One of my students in that class is allergic to sulfur so when I carried out a couple of demos in the fume cupboard on sulfur (producing SO2 and observing the low mp of sulfur molecules), she gave her mobile to another student who filmed the demo and I passed the phone back to her a few mins later as she was working quietly in another room, safely away from the fumes of the sulfur.  She was really pleased not to have missed out on the class demo.

My other Year 11 class have taken photos of models that they have made of DNA replication, mitosis and meiosis (made using plastercine, straws, pipecleaners, basically anything at hand) and edited them as above to make a picture storyboard.  Because there are students in those classes who don't have bluetooth on their mobile, I usually suggest that they work in pairs or threes so lack of bluetooth isn't an issue.

I would like to make more use of the fact that a mobile phone as it is a key tool for communication amongst young people.  I'd like to explore the option of texting them any last minute plans to extra-curricular sports such as cancellation or change of time.  I have the option of using my own phone but for privacy reasons would prefer to use the school mobile.  I'll also see if there is a possibility of students texting to free polls for the purposes of surveys eg continuous and discontinuous variation amongst a class of students while studying genetics and voting eg winner in a class competition or votes for class representatives.  Free test voting is available in the UK and Australia through http://www.smspoll.net but as far as I know there isn't a similar option available in New Zealand.  However, I have used the online survey http://www.surveymonkey.com

For additional guidelines on using a mobile in the classroom Liz Kolb book "From Toys to Tools", 2007, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education)is worth a read.  Click here for excerpts from her book which is available to purchase online.

I recommend reading this article which was published in the TES (Times Education Supplement) a year ago titled "Lecturers see the benefits of mobiles in the classroom", it provides an overview of a Molenet project that was carried out in 2007 to '08 and involved 10,000 students, all the statistics reflect positive thoughts from both the students and teachers regarding use of mobiles in the classroom.

And, another detailed article in the TES in Nov '09 discussing both sides of the story, titled "Friend or Foe?"  Basically, the articles suggests that volunteer teachers who are willing to experiment with the use of mobiles in the classroom should be allowed to do so.  Ollie Bray, who is a National Advisor for Learning and Technologies in Scotland suggests in his blog that

"we teach and work with our children to use these tools safely and responsibly."

It's that easy.  Pull your phone out of your pocket, move with the times, lead by example and lets embrace the use of mobiles for educational purposes in our lessons while at the same time giving our students responsibility for their actions.

Are Apple pleased with the huge popularity of mobiles phones and in particular their iPhone, you bet they are!  Accoring to MacWorld, Aug 2009 The "iPhone is now the teacher's pet".  Some recommended top iPhone application are here

In 2008, Toni Twiss carried out a research project for the Minstry of Education.  She states in an article "Mobile phones in the classroom", Aug 2009 in the Education Review that

"It seems somewhat ironic that while schools try to find extra funding to increase student and teacher access to ICT, the tool that many students already have in their pockets is overlooked and its use actively denied through restrictive school policy."

Yes, it is a little ironic, isn't it!

Well that's enough from me, it's St Patrick's day, Beannachtai na Feile Padraig!  I'm off to slip into a green jersey and sink a few jars of Guinness in a tacky Irish pub while having some craic and listening to a load of blarney.