Ed Podesta

Hi all, John has asked me to update you all on the kinds of things that I’ve been doing since giving my talk at Heerlen in, wow, 2006! Firstly I’d like to write about the effect that the Heerlen visit had on my teaching, and on the way that I thought about ICT for learning. In short it was an extremely engaging and informative weekend. I left with a hundred ideas, and having had some of the most interesting professional conversations that I’d ever had. In particular I was delighted to find myself listening to experienced teachers who, without cynicism, and with enthusiasm, could reflect on their work, its value and on how that work could be understood and used by others. Since then I’ve been re-evaluating my own work using ICT. I’ve moved classrooms, and now teach in a room with 19 PC terminals, which work using Ultra-Thin Client technology, meaning that a classroom can be kitted out with computers that work very well for text and internet work, but not so well for media manipulation, for relatively little money. In school I have also taken on more responsibility for helping other teachers use ICT for teaching and learning, and I’ve just been appointed as an SSAT Lead Practitioner for ICT. In that work I’ve noticed a real fear in many teachers, which makes them reluctant to use complex ICT in their lessons. In addition, much of the internet that offers web-2.0 functionality has been blocked by the filters used by the LEA – which means that many exciting new online opportunities cannot be taken in the short term by me, or by teachers that I help to train. All of which is a round-about way of saying that I’ve more and more been using ‘word’, ‘excel’, and other ‘bog-standard’ pieces of software to help teaching and learning. Attached to this post is a transcript of a video that I use when training teachers, which tells you about the way that I think about using ICT with classes. I’m also attaching a document that I ask teachers to use when thinking about the application of ICT for the teaching and learning of their subject. You will also find a copy of a file I recently wrote entitled ’51 great ideas for ICT in your classroom’, which is supposed to offer things that ‘everyday’ teachers might use ‘everyday’ in a normal classroom with PCS. Finally, I’m attaching a lesson plan file which also contains a history lesson in which bog-standard ICT is used to facilitate learning about how to assess the significance of an event. My original talk was about web 2.0 – wikis and blogs – and I still use these in my teaching. My use of wikis has not been the ground-breaking, earth shattering success that I hoped, which is what has partly made me re-assess the use of ICT in the classroom as a whole. However, at the moment I’m taking part in some lessons with a colleague from Oxford University, Jane Shuyska, who is investigating the use of wikis for learning in the history classroom. I’m ever so grateful for the opportunity you guys gave me in 2006, and I wish you all the best for the future.

Hi All, firstly, please accept my apologies in not being on here more often. Turns out that being a parent of a two year old (three last thursday) is no easier than being a parent of a one year old. Who would've thought?! I've also been working on my website at www.onedamnthing.org.uk, and trying to write a diploma portfolio about ITT in history. Which brings me neatly to the reason for this post. Quite straightforwardly, I need your help. I've got a project running at school, in which three ITT students are going to spend three weeks making 9 lesson plans and resources for topics across our schemes of work. These lessons are going to be based around the idea of getting pupils to use ICT in their study of history. By way of an introductionary activity for these students, I've been developing a CDP webquest. I really need testers. Not just technical, but pedagocial testers prepared to spot errors in spelling and contradictions in mentoring! Could anyone help? If you can, please visit the webquest page on the site, and either reply here, or leave a comment there. thanks for your help - in advance! Ed.

Knowledgeable, clever, passionate, but above all open, friendly and humane, I would have thought that Richard was one of IST's greatest assets. Meeting him and the other teachers on the E-Help project at Heerlen was a real inspiration for me. I hope that the parents of students at the IST recognise the potential harm that this decision could do to their childrens' education and use their influence with the directors to reverse his dismissal. I'm shocked that the management of a school would risk the educational welfare of its students in a move that seems to be more about kneejerk fears of unionisation under the excuse of a paltry breach of procedure. Ed. Podesta

A quick update on recent changes at One Damn Thing. There's already quite a few activities, a couple of articles under the "research" category, Dave Stacey is working on some really interesting stuff about reviewing and drafting a KS3 curriculum, and today I've posted the first proper curriculum entry, a mini scheme of work about transport in industrial revolution Britain. Take a look, and let me know if you think this is useful. ta Ed.

I've always thought that history teachers, at least those with a strong sense of helping children to "do" history - as opposed to those who help children to simply "learn" it, are at an advantage when talking about information skills. What are historical skills if they are not techniques of obtaining, evaluating, manipulating (in a non pejorative sense) and presenting information? A good place to start with this kind of thing might be Albert's e-help seminar. One of the links he posted was this. (edited for daft spelling)

They might be able to run to a daisy.

yeah, and the room should be round, on at least two sides, with big curving displays... mmmmm

Reference books, easily reached by students. F-off fast (colour) printer(s). Headphones and sockets. oooh - a soundproof booth - (for recording stuff, swearing in) Scanner(s). Roll of paper that can be torn off at the size you want with huge box of large colour markers. Air-con/heating/amazing insulation and ventilation so that neither was needed. Water cooler. Not really classroom related, but here's my extra wishlist... No SCHOOL BELL (ours broke the first day of term, and the universe did not implode, neither were students late ® than usual). 30/50 hours teaching limit. well funded CPD programme for teachers. Ed. ps. when this list is finished, can we put it on the wiki?! collapsible stackable tables that look like segments of a hexagon, so that they can be put individually, in groups, etc; each one big enough for a book and a laptop. Lectern in the floor, so that the pupils can address each other in debates, presentations etc, comes up when needed like those posh tv cabinets in "MTV cribs"! Each teacher gets an office next to their classroom, where they can store their carp, so it doesn't clutter up the learning space. Big spaces between groups of classrooms, for drama, physical stuff, filming etc. Ed. once you start doing this its difficult to stop! oooh - just noticed that I've gone from member to "experienced member" how exciting...

Terry, this looks really helpful, will read in detail... thank you. Ed.

Perhaps I should stop taking a crack at geography teachers then... You could send them a site map... Ed.

????? Richard means this rather hideous thing I think http://geographyforum.invisionzone.com/ Sheez, you'd think that with all that colouring in experience they'd choose something a little easier on the eyes! Ed.

with great pleasure! Ed.

Ta. one more thing... marratech? Ed

thanks David, especially for the stuff you write about peer observation and blogs. I've been (tentatively) asked to set up an ICT champions group at school, with the intention of implementing ICT across the curriculum more deeply. I've thought about using an action research/peer observation model, and your post makes me think I could use a blog to assist with this. hmm food for thought. Ed.

Cheers John! What you need is a wiki log in, then you could change what I've written to reflect what you know, showing the strength of the wiki. Can I PM you one? Ed.

I've been travelling round Europe (OK, I went to Holland) talking about wikis and blogs, and I've done quite a bit of pupil blogging now, so I thought I'd put my money where my mouth is about wikis. You see I've been spouting about how wikis for small groups or communities of learners have much more potential for teaching and learning about history than large wikis such as wikipedia. Right, so I'm tentatively announcing "wiki.onedamnthing.org.uk" which is a wiki for history teachers. So far it's for one history teacher only - me! It'd be great though if a couple of others wanted to join in and contribute. There's a blog , powered by Doug Belshaw's excellent edupress where members could announce things they've added, or changes they've made. No forums, as that's done elsewhere much better than I could, and no file downloads, as this too is done elsewhere to greater effect. The more observant of you visiting the wiki will have noted that I’ve opted to put up some ads. I thought it would be nice to pay my book bills by selling books to people interested in the same kinds of things as me. I hope that I’ve not offeneded anyone. Come along and sign up! If you email me at anythingatonedamnthing.org.uk I'll give you an account for the wiki and the blog. see you there. Ed.

Thanks Dan, Andy and John. If I can summarize the points raised so far. My ITT mentor programme should aim to help Trainee Teachers understand the following things: 1 - the importance of aims, which I suppose is also the importance of planning for learning; 2 - the importance of experimentation; and 3 - the importance of engagement, inspiration and enjoyment. is that a fair summary? What about you lurkers out there!? What about the international dimension, how is it different out in the wide world? Ed.

Cheers Dan, invaluable advice, as ever. Ed.

Here goes with the first post to this forum, which I hope will be a place we mentors can come and discuss what we do! So. I've been mentoring for a couple of years, and I'm starting to feel a little more confident about the core skill of observation (though I think learning this will be like painting the Forth Bridge). Now I feel I need to build some structure into my Mentor programme. So, I guess my quesiton is, should I do this, and if so, how, and what kinds of things do I need to cover. I'd be really greatful for any help more experienced mentors can offer. Thanks Ed.

If you want to pm me with the FTP passwords n stuff then I don't mind taking a look at your localsettings.php file. Filezilla is better than smartftp, but a bit more daunting from a interface pov, Smart should work by drag and drop, once you're logged into your space using your ftp password. Ed.

(I take it you mean "localsettings.php".! ) yes, overwrite the copy on your remote server by uploading your new version. You need to place a file called "inputbox.php" in your extensions folder (under your wiki folder) and add some code to localsettings.php. You can get inputbox.php from here, and further instructions as to how to use it http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Inputbox. The code you should add to localsettings.php (at the end, and before the "?>") is: I would also recommend that you add the following line of code, which means that people have to log in before they can edit: Again, put this before the "?>" tag at the end of localsettings.php. Once that's done and working, then you can cut and paste code from the mediawiki help page on "inputbox" or use a simple version as set out below: Hope that helps! Ed.

Filezilla is good, or smart FTP. you need your ftp username and password from your ISP (you probably typed these into dreamweaver previously). Doug's Edupress site has a installation guide, in which he runs through using FTP to upload edupress to a server. The issues are the same. Ed.

Ok, you lost me on the first bit! I have only ever used dreamweaver rather than using code myself and I am sure that my webshosts did all the work for me. How do I edit localsettings.php? Open the wiki directory, using your FTP programme and look for a file called "localsettings.php". Download this, and then immediately make a copy and put it in a safe place, incase you cockup later. You can edit localsettings.php using wordpad or notepad. wordpad is better, as it keeps things on separate lines. In localsettings.php any line that starts with a #, ## or // is a comment line, which either explains what's going on, or has made an optional line of code ineffected (this is known as being "commented out"). Have a quick scan through, you'll see that the address of your sql database is there, along with the username and password (delete these from any version of your settings file that you plan to share with others, or if you post excerpts to forums to get help from experts). below this are lots of settings, most of which I don't get! But the customization page at wikimedia will help - and i fyou haev any specific questions I'll help! eD.

This is the exciting bit - you need to edit "localsettings.php" and add a couple of extensions. Visit http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Customization for full information, but I suggest you make the following changes 1. install inputbox extension. (makes it easy to add a "type here to add a new page" box") 2. change the logo 3. make it impossible to edit unless you've logged in. 4. decide whether you want your users to be able to upload pics, and make this possible. save a back-upcopy of your localsettings.php file before you edit, things can go wrong, and will, and you don't want to have to re-install everything! If you want to borrow pages/wiki mark up examples then click on the "edit" button of wikipedia, or my new (as yet un-announced) new wiki at http://wiki.onedamnthing.org.uk. Ed.

Well done Dan! I'll have a go, see if you think this is simple enough - I can expand on specifics if you need. You could visit this site for in-depth instructions. (these look fiendishly hard, but actually, if you go step by step then you can't go far wrong). 1. Make sure your server space has access to a msql database. 2. create a mysql database (call it something like "wiki"), using the instructions provided by your Hosting Provider (each one is slightly different). 3. Create a user on the new database that you just made. Call this user something memorable (wikiuser) and make a note of the password for that user. 3. Download a copy of the mediawiki software from http://mediawiki.org/. 4. Unzip the package to a folder. Rename the folder something simple (like "wiki") 5. Use your FTP programme to upload the "wiki" folder to your webspace, so that you'll get a URL of www.yourdomain.com/wiki 6. Go to www.yourdomain.com/wiki/config/index.php and follow the online instructions! Hassle me, if you want help! Ed.