Fizzics

image “Justice League” by levork

I mentioned earlier that Doug Belshaw had been on the receiving end of some hassle due to an EdTechRoundUp podcast about VLEs.  The story was picked up by several other bloggers, including Alan Cann, Will Richardson, Jo Badge & Nigel Gibson and also generated a lot of traffic on twitter.  This week, we gave Talmos a right to reply by offering an invitation to put their side of the story during our weekly flashmeeting.  

While the meeting lacked sufficient focus to put it out as a podcast, we felt it was important to allow the views of Mike Jones from Talmos to be heard and so the link to the recording of the flashmeeting has been made available to anyone who would like to watch and listen to what he had to say.  In making the server recording of the meeting available, EdTechRoundUp has provided an unedited account of the meeting.  

Personally, I would encourage you to follow the text chat of the meeting as the video replay proceeds- do this by clicking on the chat tab in top right of the replay window. This will give you a fuller picture of the views of participants.  If you do follow through to the replay, please come back and leave a comment with your thoughts on the issues covered, thanks.

I attended a training day on the new Energy Foresight resources this week.  Although the programme has run as a pilot before, covering NW England and London, this was the first time that the materials had been presented to teachers in Scotland and the strategy appeared to start at the top and work downwards, since the schools involved were located in Orkney, Caithness and North Sutherland.

The effectiveness of the resource has been investigated by the Open University and, from what I have seen this week, I agree that the content is presented in a fresh, modern style with clear animation and illustration to explain each aspect of the three topics covered: Radiation and Health, Managing Nuclear Waste and Electrical Energy, Production and Distribution.

I particularly like the Radiation and Health section, which contains a lot of Nuclear Medicine.  There are interviews with different healthcare professionals and I was pleased to see a lead role for women in this, since the Standard Grade Physics unit on Health Physics is such a great hook for girls in the classroom.

The Electrical Energy topic essentially covers everything you need to meet the learning outcomes of the first section of unit 6 of Standard Grade Physics, Energy Matters.  The coverage of different electricity production methods is comprehensive and is accompanied by an award winning visualisation that is fully interactive to allow pupils to see each stage of the process.

The final element concerns the disposal of nuclear waste.  There is a clear link to my own community here and I would expect this section to have much less of a following in other areas.  In terms of providing an insight into the kinds of jobs that pupils’ parents might be doing while they are at school, I think that it will provide a valuable local dimension to the resource within my own classroom.  I also hope that this section will help to provide a more informed consumption of the media in relation to the nuclear industry.  One criticism of this section, and I aired this during the course of the day, was that women were not given as high a representation in the case studies.  A site manager and an assistant at an information centre did not seem to be particularly interesting jobs compared to those opportunities presented in the other two sections.  The animations are snappy (see the screenshot above) and are used to good effect to support points made in the short videos.

I will definitely use this resource in my classroom and would encourage any other teacher to take up the Energy Foresight training day if you are offered a place.

I mentioned previously that the group of UK teachers behind EdTechRoundUp had released a discussion-based podcast on the use of VLEs. One of the contributors to that show, Doug Belshaw, also blogged about it in a post where he asked the question “What is a VLE?“. He tweeted today to tell us he was called into his school office today to be told that the supplier of one VLE mentioned in the blog post and podcast were demanding that he remove the post and accompanying podcast from the web or face “legal action”.

Core Projects & Technologies (UK) Ltd are the people who sell the TALMOS system. Their approach to Doug is heavy handed. They might not like the fact that he said something negative about their product but that’s life. It speaks volumes about a company that makes a living selling interactive software to react in such a “web 0.5″ way to a single blog entry comparing VLE systems. Incidentally, the link I gave for Doug’s blog shows the version he edited today, possibly an act on his part to appease his employer who should never have been involved in the first place. Here is what Google’s cache told me he said in the original post

“There are other VLEs available - for example Doncaster, where I teach, has gone for FrogTeacher from 2008/9 onwards. Despite the bizarre name, I was quite impressed with it when I had a play with it at the BETT show earlier this year. Up to now we’ve been using TALMOS. Well, not using it, actually, as it’s so difficult to use, cumbersome and singularly un-useful…“

There are lots of questions raised here. Doug himself raises the professional versus personal aspects in a post he made today. I’m concerned by the way in which these people get heavy on his employer when something he does outwith his classroom annoys them. I’ve been googling today and the one thing that I learned from the TES is that Doug is not alone in having few good words to say about the TALMOS VLE. Can I redirect those with a curious mind to the following threads: “poor version of powerpoint“, “does anyone have anything good to say about TALMOS“, “please say something positive” I am sure that you will find more if you dig deeper but the point has been made.

Bottom line? Well, TALMOS may wish they had never called Doug’s school. How long before a standard Google search for TALMOS produces a marketing manager’s worst nightmare. Next time you take issue with a blogger, try getting in touch direct, possibly with a comment on the relevent blog entry, to find out what issues they are having. Maybe that blogger can help you to make your product better.

I had a moment last week when I realised that I could model exactly how a problem-solving strategy would look to pupils as they stared down at the jotter in front of them. I was trying to show my new Higher Physics class how to find resultant displacements and forces by adding vectors. This is the first time I have taught the higher course and, while I would probably resort to trigonometry myself, I had to demonstrate the scale drawing method as it can prove useful when several vectors are involved.

I wanted to show pupils, step-by-step, how to measure angles and draw the lines representing the vectors to an appropriate scale. I tried begging an old blackboard protractor from the maths department but there didn’t seem to be any going spare. In desperation, I turned to the SMARTBoard software on my mac, even though the room I was using at the time had no IWB installed†. I found a brilliant protractor and ruler that I could easily move around the screen.

The best thing was that the protractor and ruler are such a good match to the physical equipment the pupils have to use when it is their turn to tackle the problem sheet. Actually that wasn’t the best thing. The total best thing was doing a scale diagram with these tools live in front of the class and coming within 0.4° of the angle they obtained using trigonometry

†This is probably a gross breach of the EULA. Sorry about that. Yes, really.

I’ve been working on other things recently and the RSS feeds have been building up a little higher than I would like. One of the sites I caught up on today was Kairosnews, where playpus matt has blogged about his discovery of a template within Office 2007 that makes it easier to complain about a teacher.  Microsoft go that extra mile to help their customers, especially when that means complaining about teachers.  You can tell this by the presence of additional templates for complaining about a teacher to the Principal of the School and even writing to the school board to complain about a teacher.

Thanks, Microsoft.  You’re just the kind of Partner in Learning that we need.

I’ve been “tagged” for one of these blog themes that go round from time to time. I usually avoid them, like the emails that say you have to send them on or there will be consequences. This one is a little different though. I have looked at a lot of blog entries with the same title and it is amazing to see what others show to communicate their inspirations in education.

In my tardiness, I have been tagged by both Mrs Moodle and Nick Hood.  Here, finally, is my image.

photo uploaded by jurvetson

Those of you who know I teach Physics will think it’s an obvious choice of image. What is it that appeals to me here? It’s obviously a geeky image with kids taking apart a piece of electronics (it’s a betamax vcr). What I really like is the fact that it is years since Betamax lost the VCR format wars but this device still has value today.

We throw things out unnecessarily these days. There is a lot of educational value in older equipment, particularly in electronics.  Modern equipment is often constructed with a built in obsolescence that prevents repair or makes it uneconomic (so much for sustainability) that often also makes it difficult to see the individual components when we remove the outer cover.

In taking things apart, we offer active and engaging learning.  Ask pupils questions as they “dissect” an old vcr, freeview box or electric sander.  Better still, get them to film the event and add a commentary afterwards -  which part are they removing, what role did it have in the unit ?

I’ve just acquired an old colour portable TV.  My next S3 class will be assessed on their video of this “alien’s” autopsy. 

I’m meant to tag 5 people now.  It’s unlikely I will find five who have not completed this challenge but I shall try tagging

• Tom Barrett
• Alan Stewart
• Andrew Rathie
• David Noble
• Kristian Still

Hot on the heels of ETR#4 comes another show from EdTechRoundUp.  Show #5 has a different format from previous podcasts as it was recorded during one of our regular Sunday evening Flashmeetings.  The show contains a discussion about the merits of different Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), including the Glow portal being rolled out across Scotland.

I just got a tweet from Doug Belshaw to say that the EdTechRoundUp show I recorded with him has been uploaded.  This is the fourth ETR show and it’s the first time that Doug and I have worked together on a show.  The theme of the podcast is internet safety and we talk to a brilliant guy called Ollie Bray who has been doing great work in Scotland, promoting safe and responsible use of the web among pupils and their parents.  Our thanks once again to Ollie for agreeing to the interview.

You can get the show here.

It’s not so long ago that I shared some things I learned during a traffic lighting exercise with two S3 classes.  Now that the end of the school year is approaching, I have found myself handing out questionnaires to senior classes to find out what they thought of the course they have just completed.  The questions are not mine, they came from much further up the chain of command.  Given the feedback I have received, I am actually relieved to have no responsibility for putting the questions together.

I have not compiled a statistical analysis of the responses, I just skimmed thourgh the sheets as I headed off to hand them in to my boss.  However, I thought I would share the following responses with you as they stood out as recurring themes.

1. Was the course what you expected it to be? Yes but there was more/less maths than expected.
2. Did you enjoy the course? Yes
3. What did you like about the course? Lots of youtube and computer stuff to show us and keep us interested, other teachers say they are a waste of time.
4. What are other departments doing that we could be doing to improve your learning experience? The Physics labs are dumps! Can’t you at least paint them?

The first response interests me as it shows that some kids enter physics with a preconceived idea that it will be all about maths, while others barely notice the numerical side of the course.  It’s true to say that there is a numeracy divide in Physics and it is a shame that all we offer pupils on the other side is Intermediate 1, despite their often strong reasoning and explaining skills.

The third response in that list is interesting too.  As someone who has fought to have youtube.com unblocked for staff, I have continued to make full use of it to help pupils visualise a new concept as it is introduced.  It’s also very helpful in flushing out those persistent misconceptions.  Clearly, this response shows that my colleagues wouldn’t notice if access had remained blocked.

The final response is one with which I agree.  My room is a tip.  Partly due to circumstances I won’t air here but also due to the ongoing plan to move science into another part of the school.  Other rooms are being given a lick of paint, new carpet, perhaps even some new furniture.  Since my room is scheduled to be ripped out as soon as someone finds the cash to do so, I must continue to work in less than satisfactory conditions with broken floor tiles, 50 year-old stools and shabby walls that I try to hide behind posters.

More important than all of this is the verbal feedback I received.  Many of the pupils had completed the same survey in Biology and Chemistry earlier in the week and were now sick of it.  Their point was simple.  If we don’t care enough to taylor the survey to the subject in question then it sends a signal that we probably don’t care too much about their responses either.  They’ve got a point, haven’t they?  While some of my classes have already started study leave, I still have a week or so before the others head off.  I think there’s still time for me to provide a more personalised approach to the pupil survey.

I’ve heard people talking about “dead time” recently. It’s defined as the time between pupils choosing their course options for the next few years and the end of the current school year. The problem is that you end up with kids in your class who are not going to be taking your subject next year (for whatever reason) and whenever you try to motiviate them to work, they remind you that they don’t need/want to do your subject next year, so why bother?

Well, it bothers me. The way I see it, it makes little difference whether a pupil is taking my subject next year or not. Those who are will start their new course in June, those who are not don’t need to be dragged through what is left in the curriculum, all this does is switch them off to the possibility of picking your subject up again in later years.

Last year, I used the “dead time” to work with my low ability S2 class to produce a series of short films, each showing a small group performing an experiment (they all chose an experiment that went bang!) After filming, editing and producing a compilation DVD, they voted on their favourite script, effect, experiment, camera operator, scientist, etc. and awarded prizes at a “Science Oscars” ceremony.

Being the new boy in our department, I have the bottom S2 science set again this year. I’ve taken my inspiration for this year’s “dead time” from a Curriculum for Excellence meeting I attended back in November - a group of physics teachers and university researchers got together to start work on a set of resources supporting the introduction of optoelectronics in the draft science outcomes. We were looking at cross-curricular opportunities, linking physics outcomes on light into the chemistry/biology outcomes, and someone suggested an investigation into the response of plants to different colours of light. So that’s what my S2 class will be doing this year.

We have propagated some geranium cuttings from the school greenhouse and are getting ready to grow them on under single colours of light. I persuaded my PT to part with some cash and I’ve bought a supply of ultra bright blue, yellow and red LEDs. Tomorrow, I’m hoping to show some of the class how to assemble a circuit on prototyping board before we move on to soldering next week.

One of the things I am really looking forward to is the chance to give the class an opportunity to try soldering. Everything we do with circuits in school is based around the ubiquitous crocodile clip, a component designed to allow teachers to move quickly from one circuit to another with little thought for giving pupils the skills they might need if they decide to follow a career in electronics.

When I asked the teams to develop success criteria for their experiment, they told me it was important to know if the plant had grown. They came up with a range of ideas and settled on three different measurements; plant height, leaf size and “greenness”. While my classroom is fully quipped to deal with height and “size” measurements, I’m not so sure about the determination of colour. The kids came to the rescue with a suggestion to make their own “paint chart” to compare the shades of green, so that’s another task for tomorrow. It’s going to be a busy 50 minutes and that’s before I introduce our new wiki for recording our progress!