Month: April 2008

Animoto now free for educators

Posted on April 23, 2008 by Doug Belshaw

I’ve been a paid-up user of Animoto for a few months now, ever since I saw how powerful it’s behind-the-scenes trickery was. I blogged about its potential over at dougbelshaw.com, providing a sample video that I used to encourage more Year 9 students to opt for History next academic year.

I’m delighted to discover, therefore, that Animoto is now free for educators. It’s a fantastic and engaging way to introduce a topic, present photos of a trip, or allow your students to have some fun! 😀

Meme machine

Posted on April 23, 2008 by Doug Belshaw

I’ve been tagged several times in the passion quilt meme going round the edublogosphere, so I’d better respond. Also, Matthew K. Tabor followed up his link on another recent meme with a very kind email about this site, so that’s prompted me to action. :p

First, the passion quilt meme. The idea is to post a photo that sums up what inspires me in education. It’s certainly not this. Don’t tell anyone this, but if it wasn’t for having a family to support, I’d teach for half the money I’m on now…

No, what inspires me in education is hard to define in a picture. It’s the positive energy surrounding thinking and grasping towards answers. It’s promoting self-reflection and learning-to-learn in young people. I’m going to cheat and post 3 images, all of which present aspects of what I’m trying to get at:

This image is rather aptly entitled Considering a Digital Future. I like the way that the boy seems to be lost in thought and looking away, even though there’s something massive that should be taking his attention in the background.

Too often in education we don’t allow young people time to reflect and think. I don’t think large class sizes are conducive to this, and it’s something perhaps somewhat beyond my control.

This picture is simply entitled Leadership. At 27, I’m fairly young – even in the eyes of students – and so can be a role model to them. I take this aspect of my job very seriously, although it presents itself in a slightly offbeat and quirky view of the world.

This might look like a bizarre inclusion. After all, I can’t surf and that’s certainly not a picture of me and my son Ben!

The reason I’ve included this one is because it symbolises the idea a ‘teachers as lifeguards’ that I’ve discussed before.

And now for the other meme. This one’s about readers finding out more about the blog author. Here goes:

1. What was I doing 10 years ago.

Erm… I was 17 and half-way through my ‘A’ Levels in Maths with Mechanics, Physics, English Literature and History. I dropped down to an ‘AS’ level in Maths as I found the ‘Pure Maths’ element very difficult. Taking 4 ‘A’ Levels was slightly unusual when 3 was the norm. To make up for the half an ‘A’ Level I dropped, I took General Studies ‘AS’ Level. It was the only subject for which I didn’t have timetabled lessons and the only subject in which I got an ‘A’! Of course, it didn’t help my Grandma dying on the morning of my European History exam… 🙁

2. Five things on my to-do list for today

I’ve actually done most of them! But they were (using Remember The Milk):

Plan ‘How to attack a castle’ lesson for Year 7. (I look for resources in advance, but plan at the last minute to make sure I respond to learner’s needs and interests)
Pick up Ben from nursery. (my wife, Hannah, works on a Wednesday and a Thursday. To make her life at school easier for her I take our son to nursery and pick him up – at least on a Wednesday)
Hand in cover sheets. (I’m presenting at the Schools History Project Conference with Nick Dennis on using new technologies in History teaching – as we did last year. Also, I’m attending a standardisation meeting for the Edexcel AS-level History exam paper I mark. Consequently, I need time off school in the coming months…)
Book ICT rooms. (the new ‘online’ booking system at school didn’t work properly. Hence, when I thought I was booked in for one lesson per week with both my Year 11 History classes using my new Y11 Revision wiki, I wasn’t!)
Email my publishers. (Nick Dennis and I are working for a publishing company, producing interactive resources to go with their range of Key Stage 3 History textbooks)

3. Snacks I enjoy

Chocolate. Cheese. Things with peanut butter on them. Spicy stuff.

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire

Set a good example to other rich people by paying off my mortgage and then giving the rest away. And I mean that – you can hold me to it if I ever win big! (not that I gamble…)

5. Three of my bad habits

Biting my nails. (I don’t consider this a ‘bad habit’ – but others, including my wife, do)
Being overly sarcastic and dry with my humour.
Spending too much time online. (again, it’s only others who tell me that it’s a bad habit of mine!)

6. Five places I have lived

Not very inspiring or exciting, I’m afraid – they’re all in England:

Nottingham (it’s where I was born, despite neither of my parents being from there – a bit like Ben being born in Doncaster, really)
Ashington, Northumberland (where I grew up, and once the largest ‘coal mining town’ in the world)
Sheffield (where I went to university and met Hannah)
Gateshead (whilst Hannah and I did our teacher training)
Doncaster (where we live now)

7. Five jobs I’ve had

Erm. Do these count?

Paper boy (when I was about 13/14 years old – didn’t exactly do wonders for my posture…)
Assistant bookseller in Oxford (summer after my GCSEs)
Sales assistant at HMV in Meadowhall, Sheffield (part-time whilst I was doing my BA in Philosophy)
Bookseller at Waterstone’s in Newcastle (part-time whilst I was doing my MA in Modern History at Durham)
Teacher of History and ICT (schools in Worksop and Doncaster since I was 23)

8. Five people I want to know more about

All of you! If you read this, consider yourself tagged – link back to this post please! 😀

Is a degree enough?

Posted on April 22, 2008 by Doug Belshaw

There are some very intelligent people in the world without any qualifications. There are also some people who, shall we say, we wouldn’t want on our Trivial Pursuit team or to be assigned with for a team-building exercise. That being said, there has, historically, been a correlation between ‘intelligence’ (whatever that is) and level of education. I fear that may no longer be the case… :s

This is not a post bemoaning degrees in surfing or golf. No, I’m more concerned with the rather 19th-century idea of degrees being ‘of a standard’ and that these can universally be broken down into 1st class, 2:1, 2:2, etc. If this were the case, then the necessity of having met such a standard should be a necessary and sufficient condition for entry onto a postgraduate teacher training course such as the PGCE in the UK. I don’t think anyone would argue against the fact that some degrees are easier, some harder, and some provide skills more and some less relevant to teaching.

In that case, why should a degree plus a short-course, vocational postgraduate qualification be enough? Surely there should be a requirement, more than merely an expectation, that teachers work towards at least a Masters level postgraduate qualification in education? Or, if compulsion is not a feasible option, why not at least explicitly recognise further qualifications with pay rises? I believe this is common practice in most places in the US, and whilst there are many things about their system I don’t think we should import, this is one I would welcome with open arms.

“That’s easy for you to say,” I hear you cry, “you’re doing an Ed.D!” This is true. But how did I come to be doing this qualification? By choosing my PGCE carefully so that it was the first year of an MA; by continuing to a level where I could switch to the Ed.D. course, and then continuing my studies. Apparently, I’m the first person to do this at the University of Durham. I can’t see why it shouldn’t be a heavily-suggested (and rewarded) path for the majority of teachers.

OK, so theory doesn’t always lead to amazing practice – I know that. But surely such a scheme couldn’t be a bad thing? Look at Finland, a place where the top graduates end up in the teaching profession. Where does it come in international rankings? Oh yes, pretty much top every time… :p

What do YOU think? What would you change about the current system?

(Image credit: Out to Lunch with Audio R8 by Gregor Rohrig @ Flickr)