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Ed Podesta

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About Ed Podesta

  • Birthday 01/03/1973

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  • Website URL
    http://www.podesta.org.uk
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  • Location
    Newbury, Berkshire
  • Interests
    Teaching history, blogging, talking authoritatively on things that I know little about.

Ed Podesta's Achievements

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  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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
  4. 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.
  5. 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)
  6. They might be able to run to a daisy.
  7. yeah, and the room should be round, on at least two sides, with big curving displays... mmmmm
  8. 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...
  9. Terry, this looks really helpful, will read in detail... thank you. Ed.
  10. Perhaps I should stop taking a crack at geography teachers then... You could send them a site map... Ed.
  11. ????? 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
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