BETT and "A rich seam"

I was invited to give a talk at BETT about the research and the project and there was a great audience of about 120 at the HE tent - hopefully all of them knew what they were in for that this was a discussion about pedagogy and now a "here's a dozen apps you can use in your school".

More on this can be found on the project's support webpages at:

http://www.mmiweb.org.uk/hull/ipad/publications.html

The main thrust of the talk was around the key models of learning we used to construct pedagogic change and the core elements that needed to be in place for this to happen. We feel that these were:

(1) 1-1 device ownership - we chose to go along the "provider" route by BYOT is also possible
(2) Stable, flooded, fast wifi - this is a absolute essential for technological pedagogic change
(3) Mindset of the teacher / tutoring staff to change

This meant we were able to develop a new way of learning in the faculty - see more of this in previous posts, but the heart of this is the Inquiry Based Learning model we developed based on Justice and Levy (again see previous posts).

There were good questions raised by the audience:

Q/ Do all students now just carry an iPad and no books? No, but there is a definite movement in that direction and the amount of materials they are expected to carry (and buy) has significantly diminished.

Q/ Have you digitised all your materials? No, but we are working towards this. All essential materials are either digitised or available via the library's e-book or e-journal processes. All other materials are linked from the support materials and we are looking to digitise all other paper materials over the next couple of months.

Q/ Has this changed the teaching? Yes is the simple answer as the procedures have changed (so we have ditched the lecture and moved the IBL format - but this is also starting to have impact in other areas of the teaching and and learning as the tutor's comment on the ways in which they are able to teach have changed given the conditions above so (1) and (2) have led to (3).

When I got back from BETT I found a new report from Michael Fullan and Maria Langworth entitled A rich seam: How pedagogies find deep learning which I would strongly recommend a read of if you are interested in this relationship between technology / pedagogy and change.

The report can be found at: http://www.michaelfullan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/3897.Rich_Seam_web.pdf

The first term of iPad use

So, the student have had the iPads now since September and have been in school since mid-November. There is no doubt from the data returned that the students have valued the iPads whilst in the university (see previous posts) but we are now starting to ask if this has changed their own attitudes to teaching and learning, or changed the attitudes of those who are tasked to teach them (Qui doceat ipsos magistros!).

We interviewed some of the students just before they went onto teaching practice and there were some very interesting responses. We have also now sent out a wider survey (December 2013) and are awaiting the responses from this survey.

The telling thing is the enthusiasm with which the students are using their pads and how keen they are to have (and keep) hold of them.