The Guardian | Tuesday June 19 2007

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Magic number: pupils from Stowheath junior school in Wolverhampton get to grips with history using handheld technology

When three is not a crowd

Give each child a handheld computer, split them into threes and just watch the results. John Galloway tests out an idea that comes from South America

s their handheld computer screens simultaneously flash up correct, Josh, Aaron and Jack let out a cheer. They have just worked out why Tenby in south Wales has a wall around it. It cant be to stop local hoodies from vandalising the place because it was built in medieval times and hoodies werent around then, says Josh. The other two agree: they now have to work out which of the other four answers it could be. Only when all three pupils agree the answer and wirelessly transmit it back to the class computer will they get the next question. Shortly afterwards, Gavin Hawkins, assistant head at Stowheath junior school in Wolverhampton, clicks on his own personal digital assistant (PDA) and brings everyone to a halt, despite their protests. On my PDA Im getting all the answers, he says. Every group is getting question five wrong at least once. As the class lift their heads to focus on the board remarkably, there has been no reaction to the boys cheers as they are all too engrossed in their own learning the screen from Jordans machine omes up for all to see. At the top is the question, Tenby is famous for being a medieval walled town. Why do you think it was important to build a wall around the town? and then the five possible answers. The Eduinnova software (from Steljes Limited) they are using has been designed to promote discussion, so the answers are in a different order on each device in their working groups of three. Pupils

cant simply say The top one or B but have to quote the whole text. In Medieval times Tenby was owned by Henry VIII, says Jordan. It was to stop other countries from getting it. Across the class, understanding dawns as to why. To protect the town from the Welsh is the rather unexpected, correct answer. As their PDAs are released, they settle back to work. Although the classroom looks like any other, with the exception of the banks of chargers around the room, something quite new is happening. It is not just that every child from the end of year 5 onwards has their own device, but the way in which they enable them to learn. While Hawkins is quietly confident of a significant improvement in maths Sats results, the greatest changes have been less easy to measure. It has had a huge impact on social skills, says Louise Russell, whose year 5 class have had their PDAs for just four weeks. The effort they make to try to help each other is just incredible.

They all get a number

Sarah Corey, achievement coordinator, explains why. With Eduinnova, the computer puts them in groups. Children from families who dont talk have to work together. I couldnt get away with doing it, but the computer gives them all a number and there is no argument. Many might consider it negligent to allow a computer to select group memebership randomly, with no possibility of influencing the make-up. Yet such a situation is key with Eduinnova. The software assigns children to groups of

three, a significant number. There is a reason for three in a group, says Miguel Nussbaum, professor of computer science at the Catholic University at Santiago, Chile, and the brains behind this approach. When there are two there is a conversation. With three you have a new dynamic. When there are four too many viewpoints appear. It is more difficult to converge. Nussbaum sees this as the core of Eduinnova. What we need in the 21st century is the development of social and communication abilities. What I try to foster is to bring technology to change the classroom to develop these abilities. Back at the school, the teachers role has shifted, even if at first its just getting to know the technology. If they can teach me something I havent found myself I give them five house points, says Corey. This developing responsibility is also found in the childrens approach to classwork. Tim Franks, the recently arrived head, believes there is a shift towards kids working for themselves in lessons not the teacher having to deliver everything from the front. Its a belief reinforced by Hawkins, who says there are occasions when the teacher becomes a facilitator and the child almost becomes the teacher. This cooperative, constructive learning underpins Eduinnova, which has been used elsewhere in the world at every level of education. Multiple-choice computer activities may be just a new way of doing established routines, but the other aspect of the software, Colpad, offers more than that. Here pupils use blank screens to

The Guardian | Tuesday June 19 2007

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address open questions, for example, why is it good to walk to school? After each pupil has answered independently, the teacher puts all the groups answers on each of their PDAs. Now they have to pick an answer they all agree on or offer an alternative response. This whittling down of ideas continues with groups debating each others suggestions until one, shared viewpoint is agreed. Along the way the teacher can intervene to share pupils thoughts, sometimes using a software program called the Synchroneyes, which monitors every device and can bring up any one of them on the whiteboard. Nussbaum sees the process of debate and discussion is the most important element. For me, groupwork is the key. While the device itself, especially its size, is important, he is most excited by what it allows to happen. I need a seamless machine as transparent as possible. I want to make the social network the key element inside the classroom. When you have the technological network, you can support the social network. Gavin Hawkins cannot think of a subject where this approach could not be used. His confidence in learning with new technologies is shared by the pupils. When Cheyanne complains that my machine hasnt come up, classmate Jodie quietly responds: It will, though. It will.

Healthy fun A gizmo called Fizzee

Learning_Podcast/?p=29 being blamed for Technology is constantly children being glued to their screens, growing pale, obese and isolated. But it is fighting back with a prototype gadget designed to motivate people to do the opposite exercise. Futurelab, the Bristol-based,technology group, has come up with the Fizzee (physical electronic energiser), a gizmo worn on the wrist and containing a Tamagotchi-like creature that, if nurtured, thrives, all dependent on the wearers lifestyle. Built in to it are an accelerometer which detects movement; a heart monitor to make sure the pulse rate rises regularly; and an unseen clock that knows when you should be up and active and when you should be asleep. Rather clever algorithms then calculate whether you are having a healthy day, in which case you get rewarded with points (and your Fizzee with features, limbs and hair), or an alarm goes off to remind you to get up and do something. This prototype has retro styling, looking like a 1970s digital watch, and needs a chest strap to inform the heart monitor, although some commercial devices claim to be able to take the pulse rate directly from the wrist, suggesting this wont always be necessary. On my first day with it I got it some eyes and a mouth with a stream of hearts displayed to show how much my efforts

Weblinks
Synchroneyes (795+Vat for site licence) distributed by Steljes (www.steljes.co.uk), which is also developing Eduinnova for UK Schools. Wolverhampton project: www.learning2go.org/ pages/collaboration-eduinnova.php Podcast by Miguel Nussbaum (Handheld Learning conference, London 2006): www. digitalteachernetwork.net/projects/Handheld_

were appreciated. The next day saw stumpy limbs, and the day after a tuft of hair. It tinkled occasionally to let me know it was evolving, and it bleeped when I hadnt done enough to help it on its way. The idea sounds simple, but I wanted it to grow more quickly and efficiently. My half-hour cycle ride into work didnt seem to clock up many points, which I decided was because the movement was in the legs, not the wrist. But I found that there were few points to be had in typing either. The next day I strapped the Fizzee to my ankle, which brought some strange looks from the year 8s I taught first thing. Why was their teacher wearing a tag? Plus when ankle-mounted it cant pick up the heart rate. I also discovered that, while vigorous exercise is the best way to raise the pulse and up the score, if this isnt possible then strong black coffee has a similar effect. After two weeks my Fizzee was fully grown, and Id done a bit more exercise than otherwise to get it there. This is a novel way of getting children to be active and think about their lifestyle, but as yet its future is uncertain no commercial partner has yet been found to make it a product to fill the shelves of toyshops, the pages of lifestyle catalogues and, who knows, even an item on GPs prescriptions. All it needs is someone to nurture it. Anyone out there? JG

Time to unblock the policy plughole

of children rushing down the moving pathway offered by ICT want policy to get out of the way of their learning. Education is blocking them. But exactly who judges what is appropriate progress? A DfES colleague reminded me this week of the day I dropped a (colossal) digital mobile phone onto a desk and declared: thats a big bit of educations future right there. Incredibly, that was nearly 20 years ago and, while children have been early and inspired adopters and users of SMS and other phonebased technologies, education policy, like the couple on the moving walkway, has stood in the way of childrens progress with this important communication tool. Twenty years is a long wait. However, lately, I have seen a lot of schools doing inspired things with phones, whatever national policy might be. And that is a very clear hint for us about how we might organise education in the future. If we could only share and assure that progress. Well, now we can: next month, with support from Microsoft, Im involved in bringing together six nations in a brave new project. Each nation, from China to Spain, will identify certain schools, using the hypothesis that these schools can improve; their task will be to seek tested and effective ideas from other schools, worldwide; then they must take these ideas, fit them to a local context and improve their schools. At that point they exhibit their research and it is rewarded with a Prof D. for the whole cohort of staff involved at the school teachers become doctors. This is only possible because ICT gives us such great tools to share, communicate and exchange information. But make no mistake, this is the beginning of a revolution in educational policy-making. This week I was amazed when visiting a vibrant and wired special school in Scotland (wheelchair country dancing!) and an ambitious cluster of schools using ICT to unify science and maths vocabulary at the primarysecondary divide. Each week I see more great ideas, carefully trialled and measured. These schools do not need anyone to tell them what to do or to cap their ambition; they have a vision and they are getting on with attaining it. What they need most is for their research and reflections to be shared, exchanged, critiqued, valued and tested. Hence the project. Professor Stephen Heppell heads his own policy, research and practice consultancy, Heppell.net

Stephen Heppell Back and Forth

n the way back from a vibrant eassessment conference in Malaysia, I was strolling along one of those moving walkways at the airport when a couple in front of me stopped walking. In their minds they were moving forwards quickly enough the wall posters were whizzing by. But because they were standing still, they were delaying the family behind me who were clearly late. It was a nice metaphor for ICT. The pace of change is such that many feel just keeping abreast with online banking, booking, browsing or buying is enough; it feels like progress. But the generation