Rethinking ICT

Tickets

Chris Leach — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:37:51 +0000

Tickets for the day are now available at a price of £10 plus a £1.25 booking fee.

You can purchase tickets from http://rethinkingict.eventbrite.co.uk/

There are only 100 places available so hurry

Plan for the Day

Chris Leach — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:46:41 +0000

Here is a very rough outline of the day as I currently see it.

8.30 – 9.30 : Arrival, coffee (breakfast?) and chance to network.

9.30 – 10.00 : Welcome and Introduction

10.00 – 11.00 : 10 minute presentations on Rethinking ICT (volunteer speakers needed)

11.00 – 11.30 : Coffee and networking break

11.30 – 12.30 : 10 minute presentations part 2

12.30 – 13.30 : Lunch

13.30 – 14.30 : What is happening now in ICT

14.30 – 15.15 : Group sessions (possible organised by Key Stage)

15.15 – 15.45 : Coffee and networking break

15.45 – 16.15 : Group sessions 2 (mix up key stage to get an overall plan for ICT?)

16.15 – 17.00 : Summary and What Next?

If you have any thoughts on this plan or would like to have one of the 10 minute slots to share your thoughts please let me know.

#ICT500

Chris Leach — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:44:58 +0000

As part of the build-up to the #RethinkingICT day on the 25th June I want to start gathering as many ideas and opinions about the future of ICT. This is so that people who maybe cannot attend the day can still contribute in some way.

Today I am launching the #ICT500 blog campaign in which I am simply asking people to write a blog post (in no more than 500 words) about their thoughts, opinions and vision for ICT as a subject. All contributions are welcome and I would then hope to collate these posts into a freely available e-book.

If you are interested please feel free to simply write your post and then tweet a link to it including the #ICT500 hashtag. Could you also add your name and link to this Google Doc.

I look forward to reading your contributions.

25th June

Chris Leach — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:34:48 +0000

Finally the date for the RethinkingICT conference has been confirmed as Monday, 25th June. Trying to fix the date has proved very difficult and I am well aware that this date does not suit everybody and that there will be some people who have expressed an interest in attending who will no longer be able to. Unfortunately, no matter what date was suggested, there were issues and so I have had to make a decision so that we can move on and start the official registration process. There will also be a small fee to cover the costs of catering etc and I really hope that a ticket price of £10 for what promises to be a very exciting and inspirational day will not seem unreasonable.

Over the weekend I hope to start drawing up a rough outline of the day and will put together a mission statement. if anyone has any thoughts about what you would hope to achieve from the day please let me know by leaving a comment here or emailing me – chris.leach@winchester-house.org

The Date

Chris Leach — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:07:24 +0000

The conference is being held here at Winchester House School which is why it needs to be on a day when we have no children in. The initial thought of having it during the first week of our Summer holiday proved problematical because it fell during lots of other peoples’ final week and therefore would be difficult to be released. People were also concerned that holding at the end of the term wouldn’t give much time for the day to actually influence what schools’ do in September.

This led to the June Half term being the favourite which then gave the advantage that there wouldn’t be a problem releasing staff. As @philallman1 has already mentioned he had 4 other staff lined up to attend who he won’t be able to release on a school day.

The suggestion of Monday 25th has been made because it is our Sports Day Exceat. Our Sports Day is on the Saturday and as a result all children have the Monday off but the key thing is that all admin, catering and housekeeping staff will be in on the Monday.

Therefore Monday the 25th June is the favoured day from the school’s point of view. Holding it during the Half Term could still be theoretically possible but could have implications on the cost of attending as the school would have to bring in the catering staff on an extra day.

Please comment with any thoughts regarding the date as I am desperate to get it confirmed once and for all.

Apologies for any confusion.

Post It Notes – Questions Needed

Chris Leach — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 09:02:53 +0000

One of my ideas for the #RethinkingICT day is to have questions or topics written on various whiteboards in rooms around the school so that as people move around they can respond to the questions by writing on a post-It note and sticking it to the board. This is also part of the day that I hope people unable to attend could also contribute to.

All I need now is suggestions for questions relating to the future of ICT that people could respond to. If you have a suggestion please leave a comment.

ICT Curriculum Strands

Chris Leach — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:22:51 +0000

This post originally appeared on my blog on the 7th November

Over the past year and a bit I have slowly been gathering ideas in order to overhaul the ICT curriculum in our school. I now feel that it is beginning to really take shape in my head and this year I will gradually be introducing some of the new ideas before introducing it completely for next year. I have gathered ideas and inspiration from so many people via Twitter and hopefully put them together in a way that really suits our school. We teach ICT as a separate subject for all year groups from Year 8 all the way down to Nursery and I want to take full advantage of that in order to introduce some of the computing elements such as programming and computer technology. I also hope to encourage a cross-curricular use of ICT in other subjects. Already, our music and art departments cover some of the objectives that are in our current ICT plans.

I have split the curriculum into four strands through which I hope to cover everything I want the children to learn. These four strands are ….

Digital Literacy
This will cover…

basic keyboard and mouse skills in the Early Years.
An understanding of the common, key functions in most software such as Save, Open, Print, Copy and Paste.
Basic skills in commonly used software.
Touch typing
Internet research skills
Using Web 2.0 tools
e-Safety
Collaborative tools
Blogging
Copyright
Use of other ICT equipment – cameras / scanners / microscopes / microphones etc
Data v Information

Digital Creativity
Or Making Things Happen. This will include…

Digital art and animations.
Photography and Video
DTP
Web design
Computer programming
Creating Games – 2DIY / Scratch / Kodu etc
Control – Logo /2Go etc

Digital Technology
This will cover

being able to recognise basic hardware such as monitor, mouse, keyboard in Early Years
An understanding of bits, bytes and binary.
Comparing digital and analogue
History of computer / communication technology – i.e. “The Victorian Internet”
Telecommunications technology
The future of computer technology
Control technology

Digital Society
This will cover…

Issues relating to how ICT is used in the real world – such as computer technology in shops / hospitals etc
Environmental issues regarding computers such as the recycling of old technology.
Topics to debate such as age ratings on games / websites.
ICT in the News, such as the role of social media in the Arab uprisings and the Summer riots.
ICT in other cultures.
How future technology will affect our lives etc

I imagine that Digital Literacy and Digital Creativity will take up most of the curriculum and that there will be a lot of crossover between the different strands. The ideas listed above are far from the final list and I am always open to sugegstions on how it could be tweaked and if there is anything glaringly obvious I have missed.

Interested?

Chris Leach — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:50:15 +0000

If you are interested in the idea please could you add your name to this Google Doc. This is by no means an official sign up and there is no commitment to then attend. It will just help me with the planning of the day to have a rough idea of who and how many.

Welcome

Chris Leach — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:45:41 +0000

The Rethinking ICT day aims to bring together teachers from all age ranges and industry professionals who all have an interest in how ICT develops as a subject. The plan is to get as many people together to share their vision so that we can develop a workable plan for the future.

I also hope to begin to co-ordinate an informal network of ICT specialists who would be willing to offer time and support to those schools that need it. How this is organised and managed is one of the things that we will need to discuss on the day.

My school, Winchester House School, have kindly offered to host the day and the date for the event has now been confirmed as Monday the 25th June.

I will use this blog to post regular updates about the day and hopefully many of you will come along and join me for what promises to be an inspiring day.

Thank you

Chris Leach