Fortnightly Mailing

Judging experimental evidence: a couple of informative essays

Proponents of ideas sometimes find, stake their careers on, and then cling to bogus evidence in support of their ideas, ignoring other, stronger, negating evidence. (think free schools, learning styles, neuroplasticity, and The Shallows.....).

Two essays by Peter Norvig: Evaluating Extraordinary Claims: Mind Over Matter? Or Mind Over Mind? and Warning Signs in Experimental Design and Interpretation are dryly written, entertaining, but at the same time very informative essays about research methods. The first essay illustrates the problem using an extended case study. The second provides a clear framework for judging experimental evidence more generally.

Clayton Wright's worldwide listing of educational technology conferences

Clayton Wright continues his very valuable contribution to the field of technology in learning with another comprehensive listing: "Educational Technology and Related Education Conferences for January to June 2011".

A varied crop of articles in the October 2010 ALT News Online

Here is a list of authors, titles and links from the current issue of ALT News Online. I think that Sean Duffy's piece about the design principles behind his excellent Excel Everest teach yourself Excel programme is particularly interesting, as is the Stuart Sutherland's and Ray Irving's article about CancerNursing.Org.

Sirin Soyoz - Identifying learning technologists – The key roles, activities and values of an emerging group.

John Stone - Technology revolution is the way for education to deliver through the cuts. 

Marion Walton - Deep thoughts or deep prejudices? 

Kevin McLaughlin -  When using technology makes a difference. 

Adam Blackwood - GPS:  What is the learning value of knowing where you are? 

Ray Irving and Stuart Sutherland - CancerNursing.org – A case study in international open educational resources. 

Sean Duffy - Make them struggle but keep them smiling – A set of design principles for interactive learning tools.

Bob Harrison - iStanford.

Bryony Taylor -  A Twitter experiment.

Meic Watkins and Liz Bennett - I don’t want any help!! - A survey of attitudes to help packages. 

Tom Browne, Roger Hewitt, Martin Jenkins, Julie Voce, Richard Walker and Hennie Yip - Key Findings from 2010 technology enhanced learning survey.

Adrian Perry - Instinct or reason – How education policy is made and how we might make it better.

 

A quick and dirty review of a Dell netbook running Ubuntu Linux

Over the last few weeks I've had on/off access to a Dell Latitude 2110 which I was offered to trial by a company working for Dell, in exchange for writing a brief review. I do not normally get distracted by this kind of thing, but when I idly asked if Dell could supply the review machine with Linux on it, and Dell said yes,  curiosity got the better of me.

Here is a rough and ready assessment of the device.

Features

1. Weight - 1.35 kg.
2. Construction - extremely solid with a non-slip easily gripped rubberized surface.
3. Keyboard - quiet action, with full-sized key, 250 x 100 mm, with trackpad.
4. Indicator lights - prominent and unambigious, for all the normal functions.
5. Security - Kensington lock point on either side of the device enabling a carrying strap to be fitted.
6. Resilient screen covering that looked like it would be difficult to puncture, but with a shiny enough surface to work badly in conditions of high ambient light.
7. Ports:
   • - on the sides not the rear - VGA, audio, three USB ports, network socket, power input;
   • - on the front - SD card reader.
8. Battery - removable 2.42 AmpH, with the option of a larger one, which would alter the keyboard and screen orientation, probably for the worse in both cases, by raising the rear of the machine, and possibly fowling the screen when opened to the maximum.
9. Power supply - rather bulky and weighing 380 g.
10. 144 GB hard disk; 1 GB? of RAM.
11. Video camera and microphone centrally positioned on the upper edge of the screen, and speakers positioned on either side of the screen.

Performance

1. Time to boot from cold - 45 seconds; time to load Firefox - 7 seconds.
2. Silent operation, but with slightly disconcerting barely discernable vibration from the hard disk.

The device in use

1. Strongly built, pleasingly designed, simple, and obvious, and perfectly satisfactory as a netbook, with the only stand-out flaws being the shiny screen and weighty power supply, with the latter only an issue for travellers.
2. Ubuntu and the supplied applications that I looked at worked OK but on the device supplied Firefox was not set up to play YouTube videos; I did not have the patience and possibly do not have the wherewithal to sort this problem out.
3. Several hours of operation using the standard battery.

Would I buy one?

For years I've spoiled myself with a series of top-of-the-range as light as you can get high specification laptops, usually with a docking station, full sized keyboard and large separate screen, doubling as a desktop machine, running Windows, and the Windows applications I am accustomed to and fluent in.  (The photo below is of the first of these, circa 1994. I think it cost about £1200, which is about £200o in today's money.) A netbook like the Latitude is not a substitute for my current set up (and nor is designed to be). But as a back-up or second machine, it would work well. As a device for student or pupil use I would consider it seriously, with the apparent build quality, good layout, nice grippy surface, and sensible positioning of ports all being points in its favour.

Value for money? This is not something I can easily judge given the big differences between bulk and single device prices.

Windows vs Ubuntu Linux? I would need to be confident that I would not be tripped up by the video problem I encountered, but my guess is that after a steepish and possibly enjoyable learning curve, I would become confident in problem solving, just as I have had to become with Windows. In a managed environment my guess is that you'd have a standard disk image organised via which everything could be made to work consistently.

1994 Dell 320 SLi - 1.6 kg, rubberised, running DOS and Ability Plus, with a mono LCD screen that worked worked well in direct sunlight. The then state of the art, and manufactured in Ireland.....

The impact of technology on classroom practice

The Impact of Technology: Value-added classroom practice [1.3 MB PDF, 95 pages], by Charles Crook, Colin Harrison, Lee Farrington-Flint, Carmen Tomás, and Jean Underwood was published recently on the Becta web site. The report is one of those useful and interesting attempts to get behind the normal generalisations, and to examine what teachers do, what works, and why.

Here is an excerpt from the executive summary.

The study reports an analysis of 85 lesson logs, in which teachers recorded their use of space, digital technology and student outcomes in relation to student engagement and learning. The teachers who filled in the logs, as well as their schools’ senior managers, were interviewed as part of a ‘deep audit’ of ICT provision conducted over two days. One-hour follow-up interviews with the teachers were carried out after the teachers’ log activity. The aim of this was to obtain a broader contextualisation of their teaching. The learning practices that we identified as mediating ICT for learning are presented as a taxonomy. This taxonomy is used to classify the lesson activity reported in the logs. We argue that ICT has reconfigured classroom practice in the project schools in important ways. Among these, we would highlight the following consequences:

• ICT makes possible new forms of classroom practice. This is apparent in three particular respects: (1) the reconfiguration of space such that new patterns of mobility, flexible working and activity management can occur, (2) new ways in which class activities can be triggered, orchestrated and monitored, (3) new experiences associated with the virtualisation of established and routine practices – such as using multiple documents in parallel or manipulating spatial representations.
• ICT creates the possibility of a wide variety of learning practices. Overarching this variety are three central activities which are significantly enriched by the increasingly ubiquitous availability of technologies: (1) exposition which is animated by the opportunity to invoke rich shared images, video and plans, (2) independent research which is extended by the availability of internet search opportunities, and (3) construction which is made possible by ready-to-hand ICT-based tools.

Critical success factors: CPD for teachers in using technologies for teaching and learning

Another first-rate post from Graham Attewell, this time reporting on research he has been doing with Jenny Hughes into models and practices in CPD for teachers in using technologies for teaching and learning. Areas covered:

• Peer learning / skill sharing
• Small group learning
• Informal learning more important than formal courses
• Clear links between CPD and practice
• A sound pedagogic base and reflexivity
• Leadership
• Working with newly qualified and trainee teachers
• Ownership of equipment
• Time useage a.k.a no time wasting
• Involvement of non-teaching staff
• Use of mentors or learning coaches
• Observation of practice
• Networks and communities of practice
• The use of E-portfolios as a tool in ICT CPD

Comment: in many respects this list could be applied to many workplace learning needs, and to many different roles.

CSR - converting cheap public debt into expensive private debt?

I've been thinking about the debt transfer that cuts in public spending will produce.

Those whose income is reduced by the cuts - for example public sector workers made redundant, unemployed people whose benefits are cut, businesses who supply the public sector, or higher rate tax payers whose child benefit is removed - will surely increase their own indebtedness, at least in the short term.

If they do this by borrowing at high rates of interest (through credit cards, loan companies, loan sharks, increasing their mortages, say) then the CSR transfers debt burden from (cheap) Government borrowing to (more expensive) personal borrowing.

Obviously (?) there isn't a one-to-one match between the reduction in Government debt and the consequent increase in private debt: I guess the latter might be larger than the former.

But given the disparity between the interest rates on the two kinds of debt what will be the net effect of the CSR on the total servicing costs of public and private debt?

Foundations for a New Science of Learning

Foundations for a New Science of Learning by Andrew Meltzoff, Patricia Kuhl, Javier Movellan, and Terrence Sejnowski provides an interesting overview of current research findings. Abstract:

Human learning is distinguished by the range and complexity of skills that can be learned and the degree of abstraction that can be achieved compared to other species. Humans are also the only species that has developed formal ways to enhance learning: teachers, schools, and curricula. Human infants have an intense interest in people and their behavior, and possess powerful implicit learning mechanisms that are affected by social interaction. Neuroscientists are beginning to understand the brain mechanisms underlying learning and how shared brain systems for perception and action support social learning. Machine learning algorithms are being developed that allow robots and computers to learn autonomously. New insights from many different fields are converging to create a new science of learning that may transform educational practices.

In praise of praise (and Local Authorities) on the day of the Comprehensive Spending Review

A

Sent: 20 October 2010 14:08
To: StreetForce
From: Seb Schmoller
Subject: A plaudit

Please thank whoever has caused the pavements of Albert Road to be blown clear of leaves. To my knowledge this is the first time that this action has ever been taken. Previously a small council sweeping machine struggled to do only the road but not the pavements. This year a guy with a blower walked up the street, with a large hired in lorry collecting the leaves. Good stuff.

B

Sent: 20 October 2010 14:56
To: Seb Schmoller
From: John Charlton
Director of Street Force, Sheffield City Council
Subject: A plaudit

Thank you very much for your recent email regarding leaf clearance, it was much appreciated and good of you to write. I will arrange for the people involved to receive a copy of your email so they can read it for themselves. People are very quick to complain when things go wrong and I wish there were more like you who write giving praise when it is due. Once again, thank you very much for taking the trouble to write, it is much appreciated. Kind regards.

 

Evidence-based policy in education?

The University of York maintains this Best Evidence Encylopaedia UK. Largely schools focused,  BEE "reflects an original US version which was created by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education (CDDRE) with funding from the Institute of Education Sciences, US Department of Education".  The site is "intended to give educators, policy-makers, and researchers fair and useful information about the strength of evidence supporting a variety of programmes available for pupils of both primary and secondary school-age".

The rate at which latest updates are being added is very low, and the site has a disappointingly untended feel. I would be very happy to be corrected.