Jonathan Savage

Howard Jacobson’s piece in The Independent last Saturday caused my hackles to rise somewhat. I won’t bore you with the whole thing (which you can read here should you want to), but rather just quote the bit towards the end of his piece about the new Education Secretary – Michael Gove:

I confess to a liking for Michael Gove. He is a cultivated man and looks the way a cultivated man should look – always just a touch unkempt, cross-toothed and with a bit of a headache (I’m talking of impression, not fact), ironical, intellectually impatient, not quite inhabiting the space, as the two Cs (that’s Cameron and Clegg) occupy space, carved out for him by privilege. He is also, against all the prevailing orthodoxies, Arnoldian. Read the rest of this entry »

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning examines the effect of digital media tools on how people learn, network, communicate, and play, and how growing up with these tools may affect a person’s sense of self, how they express themselves, and their ability to learn, exercise judgment, and think systematically.

The full text of each volume in the Series is provided for free and open access thanks to the generous support of the MacArthur Foundation. The full text of these chapters is openly available here.

Ofsted have published their latest triennial report into the state of music education across the UK. You can find it here. It is vital reading for any teacher, music education researcher or ITE student. It paints a mixed picture about the state of music education and is based on findings from over 150 primary and secondary schools. I’ll be considering some of the issues over the next few weeks on the blog, but here is my quick summary of the key recommendations (the text in italics are quotes from the executive summary): Read the rest of this entry »

On the topic of computer games in education, I found this very interesting paper which applies some of the discussions about informal learning in various contexts (including computer games) to the construction of a ‘public pedagogy’. This quote is an introduction to what the paper explores:

However, informal learning, at least of the sort we see in today’s popular culture, does involve teaching in a major way. It is just that the teaching it involves is not like what we see in school. Teaching in informal learning, in much of today’s popular culture, involves three things: design, resources, and what we will call “affinity spaces.” We will give specific examples in a moment. But first, we want to point out that, since informal learning in popular culture today involves teaching in this sense, it is a form of public pedagogy.

This seems like a fine idea and one that is often missing from debates about informal learning, which often seem to imply that the teacher has to abdicate their role in order to allow more freedom for their pupils’ exploration of a chosen topic. That might well be the case for some, but there is a lot more going on than first meets the eye. I think that James Paul Gee and Elizabeth Hayes have done an excellent job here. Very incisive and compelling reading.

Bring a global dimension to your classroom with the Oxjam Global Music Lesson Plans. There are 20 or so stand-alone lesson plans that bring Education for Global Citizenship to all areas of Music teaching at Key Stages 2 and 3.

This unique collection provides opportunities for singing, performing, composing, improvising, listening and appraising, as well as exploring rhythm, timbre, texture, structure and pitch. They celebrate music from many cultures and countries, and feature links to examples of music from all over the world. It’s a one-stop-shop for Music teaching… with a global twist.

I had a quick look at the drumming lesson for Key Stage 3 and thought it was really good. There are links to web-resources including videos and pictures and some helpful worksheets and notated music too. Good job!

I’ve particularly enjoyed browsing through these lists of top 10 learning tools. The Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies asked e-learning professionals – consultants, analysts, developers, practitioners, academics, etc – to let them know what their 10 favourite tools were for their own personal working and learning or for creating and delivering learning solutions. It has been very interesting to see which tools were chosen. And I’ve found out about a load of new software and hardware tools that I’m going to be exploring myself over the next few weeks. I’ll let you know how I get on with some of them in due course.