sett2006

My second day at SETT began with a further trawl of the show stands: two in particular caught my imagination – Pearson/Phoenix had a full running demo of e1 MIS, the slick web-based successor to creaky old Phoenix (can’t wait!) and the Apple stand had a media-rich podcasting demo run by some scarily clued-up senior pupils.

First seminar today was SPIRITUALITY IN SECONDARY SCHOLS, by Rosa Murray from the GTC. This wasn’t about the teaching of RME, more a plea for a properly balanced curriculum recognising hearts as well as minds; less concern for achievement and more for creativity and sensitivity. Peter Peacock should have heard this.

Ewan McIntosh ran a short presentation on PODCASTING next on the LTS stand. He recorded, compiled and uploaded to his weblog an audio-only report on SETT, with the help of a couple of unsuspecting female teachers in the front row (to one of whom I had previously given up my seat, a lucky escape!) in about 15 minutes. It was all pretty basic, but slickly done and I picked up some useful hints about the kit involved. Hope he makes it to the Nicolson for our own mini-show next month.

The afternoon began with a seminar on DIVA (Digital media & ICT Vendor Initiative) by the Project Manager. We learned that the first 6 partnerships were underway between the SQA and Apple, Avid, Cisco, Comp TIA, Adobe and Oracle. Negotiations had begun for a second phase with IBM, Sage, AutoDesk and Serif. The Adobe partnership had already produced the Digital Design course referred to in yesterday’s blog, while Apple’s contribution would probably major on media-rich blogging using the iLife suite.

My final session was interestingly titled THE POWERFUL EFFECTS OF TEACHING THINKING EXPLICITLY AS A SKILL by Sir Edward de Bono. This drew a capacity audience in the Clyde Auditorium, all keen to hear the famous originator of ‘Lateral Thinking’. This certainly featured a lateral use of technology; no PowerPoint, no Internet, the stage empty except for the great man with an OHP and a set of colour pens. He took us on a quick tour through 2,400 years of logical thinking, then demolished it by listing his own alternative concepts such as Operacy, Parallel Thinking, 6 Hats Negotiating and CORT Acronyms, in each case adding anecdotes of how his ideas had solved problems in industry and government round the world. All quite entertaining, but sadly promoting himself and his agencies rather than informing and inspiring his audience. Come to think about it, education was barely mentioned – I for one was left feeling rather short-changed.

Overall this had to be the biggest and best SETT yet – almost too big for two days. My favourite quote? This morning Rosa Murray quoted her own school-age daughter: “He writes notes on the blackboard, we copy them into our jotter; we give them back to him as homework and he marks them. Why?”

He needs to visit SETT.

Noel Eadie

First seminar was YOUR SCHOOL’S OWN RADIO STATION: A FIFE CLUSTER PERSPECTIVE which demonstrated how several primary schools had set up online audio blogs by subscribing to radiowaves.co.uk. The examples (and the young presenters) were very cute and entertaining, and this service might be of interest to some of our small primaries. However my own impression is that any school with a half-decent website could set up something similar at minimal cost with a little one-off technical help.

After a quick lunch I hit PETER PEACOCK’s address, which began with some hearty pats-on-the-back for everyone concerned with putting the Scottish Labour Party’s educational policies into effect. Well almost everyone: apparently plans are in progress to give under-performing teachers a remedial spell as probationers. Otherwise it was the usual promises of greater investment, smaller classes, fullest possible support for teachers. You would be excused for thinking there was an election looming next year.

I stayed in the massive Clyde auditorium (well, the seats were comfortable) to hear American guru David Weinberger expound on EVERYTHING IS MISCELLANEOUS. This was thought-provoking stuff; he reckons the traditional hierarchical knowledge structure which has served us well since the ancient Greek philosophers (knowledge should be systematically categorised like books in a library, with only the tiniest unavoidable fragments left over in the ‘miscellaneous’ box) is rapidly breaking down. The future is ‘Social Knowledge’, represented by Wikipedia, which is now more credible than Encyclopaedia Britannica, since in the former every fact or opinion can be rigorously tested by one’s peers.

I followed this with DIGITAL LITERACY USING MACROMEDIA by Ian Stuart from Islay High School. He reported on a new Digital Design pilot course run as a DIVA project in conjunction with Macromedia and SQA (we discussed applying for this in the Nicolson too, but couldn’t set it up in time). His examples of student-generated web design impressed, and he iterated that this is fast becoming an essential life skill. SQA certification should come on-stream at Intermediate 2 level next session; why was I the only W.I. representative there?

My final seminar of a long day was TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG? by Susan Buchanan of East Dunbartonshire. In it she explained the nature of both Blogs and Podcasts, and how to set them up, bringing up copious illustrations from both primary and secondary schools. Modern Language teachers seem to have taken up podcasting most enthusiastically, confirming my own belief that this technology has a role to play in the teaching of Gaelic locally.

Noel Eadie