Case Study Candice‘s part - group presentation LV002

Innovation (Why are these practices considered innovative?)

n       The innovation is aimed at the new approach to teaching Geography using ICT as a source of information for different topics of curriculum of Geography

n       Students develop their abilities to learn independently.

n       The main activity is information searching through the Internet and subsequent development of presentation materials and reports using ICT

n       One more significant detail of this example of innovative ICT use is that students work on topics regarding Geography also during regular lessons of Informatics. So, they have additional chance to use ICT for specific subject matter and also they can practice their skills in ICT use on real assignments regarding specific subject matter. This is a good point to motivate students.

How do these practices transform learning & teaching?

n       Teachers

n       Monitor students’ task progression,

n       Provide feedback to students,

n       Develop teaching Materials,

n       Design curriculum and learning activities

n       Students:

n       Search for information,

n       Presentation of own learning,

n       Electronic presentation of own learning,

n       Peer tutoring,

n     Provide technical support to teachers/other students

What are the contextual factors associated with these innovative practices?

n       A. Meso-level context of the innovation

n       School background

n       School culture

n        ICT in School and Beyond

n       ICT Support Structure in the School

n       B. Macro-Level Context of the Innovation

n       National and State/Provincial Policies

n       National policy on ICT use in education system of Latvia is based on idea that all schools should have at least one computer lab (12-15 computers) with networked computers and Internet connection.

n       C. Thematic Analysis of the Innovation

n       Curriculum Content, Goals and Assessment

n       Teacher Practices and Outcomes

n       Student Practices and Outcomes

n       Kinds of Technology and Ways They are Used

n       Problems and Solutions Related to the Innovation

n       Sustainability

n       Transferability (within the school and the other schools

 By HuYonglang （Candice)

session 7 activity (3)

http://www.naace.co.uk/

What's the purpose and nature of the organisation(s)?

Naace is the National Association for all the people who wish to advance education through the use of technology, more than just computing.They are a community of schools, teachers, those who work in schools and the Education Technology industry who share a vision for the role of technology in improving and transforming learning and teaching. The members  of organisation include teachers, school leaders, advisors and consultants working within and across all phases of UK education.

How are they trying to support innovative practices with IT in schools?Give examples.

1.They intergrate IT technology with primary subject leader courses for computing.This is an extended course over two terms delivered through a blended learning approach including online meetings, moderated online discussions, email contact with the course tutor, online self-study, reading and completion of directed tasks.  It has been refreshed and updated to build the skills, knowledge and understanding that subject leaders will need as they prepare for the 2014 Computing Curriculum, as well as for leading the use of technology to develop teaching and learning across the whole primary curriculum.

2.Naace has developed a Self-review Framework (SRF) support course for personnel who are working with schools and within schools to support their progression through the SRF, with special emphasis on how to achieve ICT Mark accreditation.

This course is aimed at schools engaged on the SRF journey but may also be useful to support providers working with a number of schools.

Session 7 Activity (2)

www.wholeeudcation.org

Purpose and nature of this organization:
Purpose:Encourage everyone involoved in education to look outside the narrow confines, such as examination, national tests or the national curriculum.
Nature: Whole Education is a partnership of like-minded schools, organisations and individuals that believe that all young people should have a fully rounded education, developing the knowledge, skills and qualities needed to help them thrive in life and work. 

How are they trying to support innovative practices with IT in schools? Give examples.
To seeking to build the capacity of member schools at whatever stage of their journey to provide young people with a 'whole education'.

They also host various events across the country to support networking, knowledge-sharing and CPD for school leaders and teachers.

For example:

They seek to develop an awareness and understanding of the need for Whole Education and to promote its values
They work to engage a wider group of stakeholders including parents, young people, employers and higher educationThey strive to enable necessary changes in education policy to support those who would like to provide young people with a whole education

                                                                                                           By Gan Wenwei and Luo Chen
                

Session 7 Activity

What is the purpose and nature of the organizations?
How are they trying to support innovative practices with IT in schools? Give examples
How might their work impact on the Ecosystem which supports innovative practice?
hose one example of their work which best illustrated what they trying to achieve?

Session 6 Activity - Analyzing institutional contexts on the innovation

TOPIC: Innovations in own school or workplace

Hey guys,
I post the topic we should do in the session 6. Please post you own ideas about it here. And my own experience about the innovations in my school as follow:

As you know I had the accounting background in my undergraduate school. And during my studying, we should use the computer to do some financial matters. We should use general financial software and U8 system to support us a better understanding of the accounting when we are going to work in society.

In terms of the general financial software, we should learn deeply in the excel application. In the final of the course we should create a interface like a system which can be used in reality and it must support the financial working. We learnt a lot of the function to support some difficult counting on the computer. It is one of the  most useful course in my accounting course during my undergraduate school.

As to the U8, it is a virtual system that we use it just like we are the worker in different company to do the real working for that company. There are many sub-system in U8, we should learn all the part to get the better understanding of the real work of accounting in the real company. Because in China, almost companies are using this system in their accounting department, so it is also a very useful course.

However, in terms of the accounting studying in the innovative environment is very difficult, maybe different companies use the different system. But for the school education, it is impossible for them the use all the system among their curricula. How to make the connection between school and companies is a big problem. Because accounting is a application curriculum, most of the students will take over the job in the accounting department, so getting  accustom to the system in their companies is very important both for students and companies.

Case Study - Conclusion

We have finished our case study and gave the presentation to the 6310 class. I think we have a good work on that. Thank you for the team members' hard working.

During the Case studying, we came across some problems and exchange experiences and thought to conquer it together.  Some problems we have are:

1. The cases we choose. The first class of this course, Mr Woodhead let us choose the cases from the M2 database. At that time we can not understand each cases background. So, when we analyzed it later, we recognized that we chose the cases were from the different places and it difficult for us to make a connection to each other. However, this is a challenge for us to develop the analysis skills from the case study. 
2. The plan of our case study. Although we chose the case at the beginning of the class, actually, we did not start our studying immediately. We talked about the cases study when we are all free or just said something during our group discussion. So we do not have a well-planed schedules on this.
3. Preparation. We are lucky that our case study presentation is after the reading week. It gave us so much time to prepare it. And in fact we have discussed the preparation of each case and the whole part before the reading week. I post some information before to show us the job responsibility on one another in our group. We did well I think, except some members forgot to post his/her parts on the Blogger.
4. Presentation. After we finished our own parts of the case analysis. We put it together into the PPT. And giving the presentation in virtual environment some times in the discussion room. When we gave the presentation on Thursday, we really get ready. But we have some technology problems before our presentation, and thank you very much to Mr. Woodhead for us to handle it in time. We gave the presentation one by one. And I presented the comparison part. I spent a lot time on that. In the class, Natalie asked us the question about the efficiency of the framework. At first, I did not understand what her meaning. But through that I found there was something important thing I forgot to post on the PPT. So I explained directly which Mr. Woodhead thought it's great. After the class, I asked Natalie the specific question meaning. And I have talked some points of mine with her.

Anyway, this is a very good experience and process for us to work, discuss and present together as a group. We think we really learn something from the case study. 

Case Study: CN009

Case Study - Landon's Part: Comparison

To be honest, I want to say that we have no idea that why we choose these three cases at the beginning of the course. When we begin our analysis, we found it is difficult for us to connect each case. But this is the most important part that we should do.

As our group members talked right now the LV001 and LV002 cases come from the same country, Latvia, but different schools. On the School level, it seems like all the situations are similar. We marked the difference into red words. Here I want to say, LV001 innovation started in 1999 and LV002 started in 2000. And LV1 only last two or three years they start to pay attention to ICT as a tool for innovations in education, but LV2 has four or five years attention. Under the same national policies, the school of LV2 has a little longer history on the ICT. And school of LV2 seems more motivate on the improvement of ICT, because they hosted the conference of ICT teachers in Latvia.

On the class level, there is a totally different between them. In LV1, students not satisfied with such kind of ICT use, because it is not interesting of searching information. While, in LV2, students are satisfied, and they looked motivated and tried to fulfill the task. Here, we think that how to integrate the ICT into the different curriculum and make the course more interesting is a big question. The course teacher and coordinator should be the creator and facilitator. Because it relates to the innovations’ sustainability and scalability.

Compared with school of LV002, the computer using after regular school day should pay for the incoming traffic from abroad in the school of LV001. Maybe without the extra payment, the ICT use in School of LV001 will more common.

In terms of the case of CN009, as we mentioned, it was a school in Hong Kong, and with the first plan about the ICT use, the innovative school become more creativity. Compare with the Cases from Latvia, the school in Hong Kong more liberal and democratic and it has a long history of innovations. As to the IT infrastructure, 70 computers allocated to different Rooms and even corridor and every teacher have a notebook for their preparation of the lessons. For the support, the student supporting team is more outstanding than the LV1&2. And the support from the IT team and Conveyor is more professional. Based on the history and the innovation, on the classroom level, teachers’ role and students’ role are totally different with LV1&2 which my team member talked right now. And ICT use in this school was very common. And there is a wider scope of connections with people in other school or other organizations.

However, why these two regions have the gap in ICT use in education? They were all starting the plan in the late 1990s, why? In our group, we think first, the history of the school, although they used the traditional education before, but Hong Kong school more innovative under the traditional education background. And second, the economic base determines the superstructure. Hong Kong school got more resources from the government aids. Third, students’ participation in ICT used. Hong Kong school gave the student more opportunities to make contribution to the ICT environment but in Latvia we saw a little. And last, teachers’ creativity, in Hong Kong school, it has a long history of the innovation, so teachers are in the environment of creativity, but in Latvia, not only the teacher are not creative before, and also they only get the basic skill of ICT after they using ICT in education.

This is our group’s presentation, if you have question, please. And thank you.

Case Study - Latvia

As we know, there are two cases from the Latvia, I don't think we are familiar with this country, here is the link to get some information about it:

Latvia(Click Me)

Case Study - Comparison of the three cases in table

Classroom Level

School Level

Hey, guys, these two table I will use in our group presentation, they are just parts of my comparison part. All the contents in the table come from the report of the SITES M2 Database. Compared with analyze of the database, there are some points different with ours.  But I think we should depend on our own understanding, it is better for us to present our outcomes from our analyze. 

If you have any idea want to share with it, Plz comment~

Case Study - Reflection on reading LV002

My part in the next week's presentation is to demonstrate my opinions on ICT innovation in a school after reading LV001. 
When I finish reading, I decided to organize my talk in answer 4 questions. Why are these practices considered innovative?  How do these practices transform learning & teaching? What are the problems of this innovation? And finally, what are the solutions? 

More specifically,  

}  Why are these practices considered innovative?

From my perspective, the use of ICT as a tool to guide students in the class was an innovative move. As governments and schools in Riga was poor, the school what I looked into had only 23 computers in total. Sometimes, they need to separate students into 2 sections to guarantee that everyone has one computer to use.

Also, back to that period there is no written document containing school policy on ICT use and most of the teachers don’t know how to use computers. So school hires a technology coordinator who is responsible for development of ICT and school and provides teachers with necessary training.

How do these practices transform learning & teaching?

Although it might be a risky move to conduct such an innovation of ICT, the outcomes seem to be good. Unlike the old times where teachers don’t have many opportunities to learn from each other, after using ICT in classes, English teachers may contacts teachers of history and geography. For example, maybe the topic in today’s English class is about a history story. Students with computers can search information online and come up with different questions related to the history story itself, so in this case, the innovation encourage teachers to learn from each other.

As for students, using ICT in classes provide them with a chance to exchange opinions and information about their assignments and ways how to find and gather information.

  Problems and Solutions Related to the Innovation

Some teachers of this school mention the lack of specific software, not enough time to prepare new materials, tasks and approaches, and also the problems with finding space for ICT lessons of different subjects in time table.

To address this problem, the principal supports the innovation and expresses support of further use of it. ICT co-ordinator also strongly supports the innovation and hopes that next year the other teachers of English will start to use ICT in their lessons.

Blogger Management - Big Chang of CSLV Blogger

Hey, guys, I add some new page to make our blog's construction more clear and brief.

Reflection of Session:
Every class we should give a reflection here. And If you miss some session, you can reflect after your reviewing.

Discussion:
In the class, we may have many discussion, but the time is limited, so there must something you want t say but no time to say, please give us your idea here.

Reading:
This course have many useful reading, after your reading, leave your idea here.

Sharing:
If you have something want to share with us, such as video, articles, games, anything you want to share you can share your link or files here. But please relate to the education.

About us:
This part just introduce ourselves.

If you want to add a new page, please enjoy yourself.

-Landon

Session 5 Activity - Reflection on Fallibroome Academy

Fallibroome aim to deliver a 'world class' curriculum fit or 21 century, which meets the individual needs of the studeents and collective needs of wider community, both locally and globally. They used various support to equip studetns with 21st century skills.

To be more specific, they first established a community within school students. As from the above screenshots I took from the offical website, there are many councils consisted of students. This is of course advantageous to students by providing their a true community environment, so that they will learn how to cope with difficulties and work out problems by collaborating with other people.

Moreover, there are many homework clubs in the school. Unlike the conventional school, they offer students an opportunity to work with other people for the homework.

Lastly, they offerd a wide range of disciplines to students, aiming to develop their creativity and skills in 21 century.

To recapitulate, from my perspctive, the school's innovative curriculum is a disruptive one, as they are not just simply offer students with untraditional courses, but provide them with a more interactive learning atmosphere where they can learn from each other and handle the relationship with other students.

Session 5 Activity - Refelction on Djanogly Academy's curriculum innovation

Djanogly City Academy provides education for various students in various ages, ranging from 3 to 19.  The Academy's specialism is information and communication technology (ICT). Unlike the traditional school, they offer a wide range of subjects, covering arts, sciences and life skills. Besides, they also aware how important are the core subjects, such as English, Maths and Science.

By looking at their curricula closely, I found out that they sparate the students into 3 key stages. Therefore, they created 3 different curriculum as aiming to various stages. The first stage is focusing on students from 11 years old to 14 years old. In this stage, they emphasise on traditional, tried, tested and successful approaches to learning with an emphasis on literacy (reading, writing and speaking) and mathematics. The second stage is for year 10 and year 11 students. In these two years, school adds some interesting subjects to the curriculum. They are Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Art, Textiles, Business Studies, Child Care, Dance, French, Spanish, German, Food Technology, Design Technology, Information Technology, Geography, History, Hairdressing, Media, Motor Vehicle, PE and Sport, Psychology, Sociology. Finally, as it comes to the third stage, students can choose a wide variety of academic and vocational subjects.

After synthetize and linking all the information in Djanogly Academy to what we learnt in the class, I personally think that they are doing sustaining curriculum innovation as for the following reasons. Although they try to engage students with a more interesting and wide range by providing some untraditional courses in the second stage (arts, hairdressing, ect.,) , they are still using the conventional classes to teach which will make no major differences. On top of this, like the traditional schools, they care about the test results as I can see there is a exam success bottom under the curriculum category.

Nevertheless, one thing I like about this innovative curriculum is that they offered students a platform to demonstate their innovative works on the internet, which will be advantageous to students development.

Here is the link to aceess the students' work of Djanogly Academy:
http://www.djanogly.notts.sch.uk/curriculum/student-showcase/Pages/default.aspx

Session 5 Activity - Virtual Worlds at NBCS

Session 5 Activity - Curriculum Innovation Practices - Northern Beaches Christian School (NBCS)

Here are some video that show us the school:
(1)School Learning Environment

(2)Students' Feeling about the School learning

Through the video, we can see that Northern Beaches Christian School offer the students a very wonderful school learning environment. And it is an open area that can combine the collaboration, flexibility, personalization and different learning styles. They said they not just the content itself, but learn how to learn, and also learn something that belongs to the other courses.

I extremely like the environment in this school. It seems like we can do everything in the school to develop myself. Especially I am in the ICT-supported innovation environment, knowing how to improve my all kinds of literacy during my learning.

In this school, I find an online course that support the students learning out of school anytime anywhere. Maybe in the future, when the students are working in the society, they will get use to use this online learning tool to support their working too.

Case Study - Useful Reading for preparation

Useful Reading: Education Innovation Beyond Technology

It is written by Nancy Law. And in this book, we can find something about how to analyze the cases. The Cases analyzed in these book just the case data M2 database. So you can learn something from it. 

It can download from the Moodle. In the 6310 course, on the top of the page, in the middle of the list (the only PDF file). Enjoy your reading.

Case Study - Allocating tasks

Here are the Cases we should analyze. The Numbers are: CN009; LV001; LV002 and M2 database. You can click the link to scan the content directly.

All the PPT should be finished before Sunday next week( Reading week):

Vivian ：           CN009

Carven :             LV001

Candice：          LV002

Landon and Sun: Conclusion

All the PPT follow these steps that we discuss:

first PPT:                 

Summary your case

the following PPTs: 

Answer these questions:

                          Why are these practices considered innovative?

                   How do these practices transform learning & teaching?

                   What are the contextual factors associated with these innovative practices?

                            How sustainable is the innovation？

                            How well connected is the innovation to wider aims and goals in the school/ region/country?

During the analyzing, do not forget consider these dimensions:

                           The Role of teacher ( how did they use IT)

                           The Role of the student ( how did they use IT)

                           Learning behaviours of student

                           Curriculum design –how the innovation was influenced by curriculum design or how the curriculum design influenced the innovation

Then Conclusion

15 minutes Presentation. We will discuss later how to do it.

Case Study - Guideline

6310 Innovations in ICT

Guidelines for Group Presentation of the SITESM2 Case Studies

Each individual within selects a case from the SITES-M2 study to analyze the innovative practice. The group may consider organizing cases with a certain focus, e.g.; subject, type of practice, level, or countries etc. Each individual’s analysis will be combined and compared to address and discuss some of the following:

• Why are these practices considered innovative?

• How are these practices similar/different?

• How do these practices transform learning & teaching?

• What are the contextual factors associated with these innovative practices?

• A 15-minute presentation of the group work will be delivered in various sessions. Each group will pose a question for further discussion online

When you are considering the level of innovation reflect on the impact of the innovation on:

The Role of teacher ( how did they use IT)

The Role of the student ( how did they use IT)

Learning behaviours of student

Curriculum design –how the innovation was influenced by curriculum design or how the curriculum design influenced the innovation

How sustainable is the innovation

How well connected is the innovation to wider aims and goals in the school/ region/ country?

Session 5 Activity - Curriculum Innovative Practices - Cramlington Learning Village

Here is the content of the curriculum on Cramlington Learning Village website:
Cramlington Learning Village

After viewing the website, I find that this school's curriculum is so interesting and different. Firstly, year 7 in this school, they have the "Learn to learn" lesson which let their students understand how to become successful learner in the future. I am very interested in this course and I also think it is benefit for the student to be a life-long learner. I think it is relate to the learning and thinking skills of the 21st century skills.

Secondly, year 7 and 8 students have excellent opportunities to experience new areas of learning. In my opinion, it helps students to recognize the global awareness and get use to ICT literacy which let them know how to learn and how to develop personal adaptability in the society.

Thirdly, the school enables students to work at length and in depth on enquirybased activities, which will build up an open environment that let students obvious the problem, and find the reason through the collaborative team work and creative questionnaire. And they also allow the year 9 students follow an Enterprise course. This process may develops critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, communication skills, collaboration skills and Leadership skills.

Last, they build up the vocational Centre, and independent learning Centre for the higher Grade students to touch the job that only exist in the society. They will get the knowledge  of life skills. This innovation may let the students make the self-direction ability.

These curriculums are pretty cool. I think it is a disruptive innovation.

Session 4 Reflection - About our experience with Scratch and MakeyMakey

Here are the links to the Scratch and MakeyMakey for more information.

In Session 3, We had used the Scratch with MakeyMakey. At the beginning, I just thought the Scratch was for the kids for fun. But after I made a program on the Scratch website, the program was so familiar with the Virtual Basic but more easier for the children. And now I think, it like a idea that we can create anything that we want on the screen that can not never come true before. In terms of the MakeyMakey, we clip two objects to the MaKey MaKey board. For example, I and an apple. When I touch the apple, I make a connection, and MaKey MaKey sends the computer a keyboard message. The computer just thinks MaKey MaKey is a regular keyboard (or mouse). Therefore it works with all programs and webpages, because all programs and webpages take keyboard and mouse input. 

However, the Scratch and MakeyMakey are tools for learning and creating. Only if you have the idea, you will be the programmer rather than the audience. 

What the kids will learn from the tools? That is a question in my mind. Personally, I think Scratch is a platform for the children to make their image of idea come into reality. And MakeyMakey just the tool that make everything in reality connection with the Internet and I think the Internet of Things will be the  most  important in all kinds of our life in the future, which is the basic of education in my opinion.

For instant, although not all the school use the scratch and makeymakey, but all the innovations on education something like this will be implemented by children for their unusual but wonderful thinking sooner or later. Because it meet the children's needs, which inspire them creativity. 

In the future, students will not just the listener in the classroom, rather, they will learn from the class, and learn with the Internet, the teacher and the classmates. After they get the knowledge of how to handle the tools, they will think their ideas and try to connect it with the tool and take it. If there are some problems, they will try to ask for help to the teacher sincerely with their never-ending interesting. Or more hopeful, all the children will learn with their peers and exchange the idea and problem, which develop themselves from one level to another higher level. 

What we used is not so important, only if there is idea, all the children will try their best to take it.