Jonathan Savage

I’m giving a short talk at Middleton CLC tomorrow for The Guardian as part of their Going Digital series. I was asked to discuss some of the recent research surrounding approaches to digital literacy in education. I’ve also taken the opportunity to extend the notion to consider what might be meant by ‘digital fluency’ as well. For those of you who were there (and any others who are interested), here is a zip file containing the presentation ppt, a pdf of notes and some of the articles that I cited from.

The Futurelab latest handbook on home-school relationships is now available to order. Although I haven’t read this yet, I’m happy to recommend it. Other handbooks from this organisation have been excellent.

This one (Developing the home-school relationship using digital technologies) seeks to understand the needs and aspirations of teachers, parents and children for effective relationships between home and school. It also looks at how the use of digital technologies may affect home-school relationships.

To download this handbook, please visit www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications-reports-articles/handbooks/Handbook1659

I’ve been having a look around the internet for a glossary of terms for music technology. It’s amazing what you can find. I think that this was my favourite (which even managed to be humorous in places), followed closely by this (not quite so humorous) and there were plenty of other good ones too. I’ve posted the links here for some of our new PGCE student and hope you’ll find them useful. Given the prevalence of sites like this, I’m hoping that I won’t have to write my own glossary of terms related to the use of music technology. That seemed like a mammoth job, especially when there are resources like this already out there.

MMU students might consider the above question in preparation for the sessions we are running next week. My colleague Miikka has written a very interesting piece about this on his blog. He raises some of the thornier issues about the term ‘digital native’ which I’ve written about on a previous occasion. The link in that post to the Prensky’s article is also worth a visit. So, what are you? A digital native or a digital immigrant? Or something else?

Do you struggle using technology in your teaching? I’ve got good news – you’re not alone! The Guardian are reporting that a third of teachers struggle to use the technology schools are equipped with and want more support and training, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) said today.The National Foundation for Educational Research’s (NFER) first Teacher Voice Omnibus Survey (TVOS), which was completed by about 1,000 teachers, including heads and newly qualified classroom teachers, shows widespread use of information technology in schools: 80% said it had made a difference to the way they teach.

But a “sizeable minority” (33%) felt they lacked the necessary skills to exploit the technology available to them and needed more support and information to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) in lessons.

However, there is some comfort for those of us engaged in ITT. In Becta’s Harnessing Technology Review 2007 (p.22) the following paragraph indicates that those undertaking initial teacher training today are better prepared than ever. Or am I reading too much into it?

‘Using ICT in teaching’ has remained the most frequently selected topic for Continuing Professional Development in the General Teaching Council survey and is among the top three topics for all but the most recently qualified teachers. ‘Strengthening and/or updating skills and knowledge in curriculum subject areas’ and ‘addressing underachievement in groups of pupils’ featured in the ‘top five’ in both years. (Hutchings et al., 2006) [my bold]

Let me know what you think!

I’ve recently written a book review for Niall Ó Dochartaigh’s Internet Research Skills. I found it a really helpful book. Here’s the review:

Ó Dochartaigh has written a helpful book for those wanting to make effective and critical use of the Internet as a research tool. Through a clear and approachable style, the book shows how you can search the Internet for books, articles, Government statistics and archives; develop effective search strategies using a variety of online resources; interrogate databases of academic materials using well constructed keyword searches; sort out the reliable information from the unreliable; find and sort visual, audio and multimedia materials and much more besides.

The book is illustrated with numerous ‘screen grabs’ from various web pages. These provide a helpful visual dimension to what could have become a dense text. Similarly, helpfully constructed exercises throughout the book give the reader some practical, hands-on experience and are worthwhile for the beginning researcher wanting to become more adept at using the Internet in their work.

As with any book on new technologies, Ó Dochartaigh’s text faces the danger of becoming obsolete very quickly.  But general principles for searching, sorting, analysing and storing information are discussed in the book and this should mitigate the potential effects of concentrating on specific tools, which may become redundant, or not catering for new tools which develop and come online quickly.

I particularly liked the way that the book acknowledges (and recommends) a variety of open access resources, open source software and other freely available tools. Publishers and others have all too often hijacked the Internet revolution with a commercial agenda. But here, Ó Dochartaigh highlights the use of powerful tools such as Google Scholar, OAIster, Wikipedia and a whole host of Web 2.0 social networking software to illustrate his point that the Internet’s community of enquiry can provide a tremendously rich source of data and evidence for researchers without great financial cost. This is especially important for those professionals interested in research but not affiliated to an HE institution. Burgeoning journal subscriptions costs can be problematic, and even within HE institutions budgets are often limited, but Ó Dochartaigh’s observation (p.51; from Antelman 2004) that ‘open access articles are cited more frequently that those in pay databases’ may produce a shift in publishers’ future thinking.

In conclusion, perhaps I should declare my colours as a moderately technologically-savvy researcher. But that said, there was plenty in this book that I found helpful, interesting and useful for my work. For those researchers and students with less technological experience, Ó Dochartaigh clear, direct and personable style will guide you through the Internet’s potential as a research tool with care and consideration. There is something here for everyone and I highly recommend it.

I’ve blogged about this before, but I have to recommend the Sonic State website again. Loads of fantastic resources, reviews, links etc to all aspects of music and technology. I must site for all you student out there who want to update your music and ICT skills. The Tenori-on review (see below) is typical of the helpful resources they provide.

The Economist are holding an online series of debates about key issues in education. The first one, already started, has the following proposition: The continuing introduction of new technologies and new media adds little to the quality of most education. Sir John Daniel is arguing for the motion; Dr Robert Kozma is arguing against. At the time of writing this post the split was 48/52 but the debate doesn’t close until the 26th October when the winner will be announced! All good fun and some really interesting comments. Worth a look.

At long last (and apologies for the delay), the UCan.tv Moodle site is up and running. Please visit it and register to obtain access to the various free courses and resources. The educational resources which are currently on the UCan.tv site will slowly be moved across to this new Moodle site. We hope to have this done for the beginning of September.