Huawei: National needs vs. World Internet

The recent issue of Huawei 5G equipment in the UKs 5G infrastructure highlights the challenges of the internet and technology, which often cross international borders, but where the services and hardware is produced by companies which exist clearly within the borders of countries and therefore potentially within the influence of their governments.     There is a clear tension here between the services provided to the internet and the companies providing them.

The Huawei case is very much about internet security.     The implication is that Huawei could be influenced by the Chinese government who could then leverage the Huawei equipment installed in foreign countries telco infrastructure to gather intelligence, modify or filter communications or otherwise impact on the operation of a country through control of its communications systems.    This all seems quite logical.   Who would want a foreign government to be able to exercise power of their infrastructure?

The issue for me here, is that the technologies, either hardware or software, have to be created and then developed and deployed from somewhere in the world.     Apple devices, Microsoft Windows, Facebook, Google, all have to come from somewhere and in doing so could be influenced by governments or political powers within that given location.   So, the Huawei argument from the perspective of a UK citizen, may equally be matched by Chinese concerns over Apple from the perspective of a Chinese citizen.     Looking to the US, there is even some precedence for being suspicious with Kaspersky, which I note are a Russian firm, highlighting in 2015 that the NSA, a US intelligence agency, could “implant spyware of hard drives to conduct surveillance on computers around the world”.

Technology and technology services are used internationally whether that is a Dell laptop, Dropbox cloud file storage or newspaper website.    Often, these products or services may use components from other organisations, such as Seagate hard drives in a laptop, or Google Analytics or Facebooks share and like buttons on a companies website.   This further complicates things.   The devices, services and components are all used without consideration for international borders.     Yet we live in a world where international borders exist, where governments may have a stake in technology companies or may have influence.  The risk of influence exists.

One solution to this is to block and to ban.   China block Google and YouTube for example, and now it looks like the US and UK are banning Huawei.    Meanwhile in Russia they are testing their own national internet system separate to the “real” internet.    This may be the direction governments increasingly pursue, to block, ban or to create in-country copies, but for me I don’t see how this will work.    In China VPNs provide a solution to circumvent blocks while I am sure Chinese semiconductors/microchip are already in so many of our devices in the office and at home.   If the service or device works for users, it will find its way into use no matter what governments choose to do.

The answer for me is an acceptance of the complexity of this predicament and that countries will have their own personal motives or ends that they wish to encourage.    It is, in my view, a lose-lose situation.     Leave Huawei in place and allow for the risk of Chinese influence or remove Huawei which will likely result in counter moves by the Chinese plus, assuming they are seeking to exert influence via technology, them targeting other parts of the world wide internet infrastructure and services.

All we are left with is a risk-based judgement, which is what I believe must have been taken here.    The risk of counter action, Chinese influence over other parts of the internet and additional cost of changing supplier including removing existing Huawei technology must have been judged to be less than the risk created by Huawei technology within the UKs core or edge network.  My worry here is the potential for bias in the decision making.   As Pinker(2018) points out, “people are poor at assessing probabilities” so “if two scenarios are equally imaginable, they may be considered equally probable”.   Potentially the probability of destructive Chinese action against the UK may have been over estimated.   As such the preventative action taken in blocking Huawei may be excessive.   Or maybe it isn’t!

And if you want to take this whole discussion a stage further let’s consider how companies might now influence the world.   Take for example Facebook which, if it were a country, based on users it would be biggest in the world.    What if we accept that it to may have motives and ends to its is actions, beyond simply providing the Facebook platform?    Google, Microsoft, Apple, Twitter, etc, may all be the same.   But that is possibly for another post.

 

References:

BBC News. 2020. Huawei 5G kit must be removed from UK by 2027. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53403793. [Accessed 16 July 2020].

CNet. 2015. NSA planted surveillance software on hard drives, report says. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.cnet.com/news/nsa-planted-surveillance-software-on-hard-drives-report/. [Accessed 16 July 2020].

Pinker, S., 2018. Enlightenment Now. 1st ed. UK: Penguin House.

TechCrunch. 2019. Russia starts testing its own internal internet. [ONLINE] Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/26/russia-starts-testing-its-own-internal-internet/?guccounter=1. [Accessed 16 July 2020].

World Economic Forum. 2016. If social networks were countries, which would they be?. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/04/facebook-is-bigger-than-the-worlds-largest-country/#:~:text=If%20Facebook%20were%20a%20country%2C%20it%20would%20be,it%20each%20month%20-%20around%201.9%20billion%20people.. [Accessed 16 July 2020].

SharePoint Online

I have been pushing ahead with Office 365 in school for a few years focussing initially on email and OneDrive before moving on to Teams and OneNote.   I didn’t give SharePoint online much of a look, until I started looking at alternatives to the often-pricey Learning Platforms or Virtual Learning Environments used by many schools.

I am not a fan of VLEs and haven’t been for many years due to the fact rather than being interactive and part of learning they often end up being little more than a repository of learning materials and resources.   It isn’t the nature of the VLEs as a repository that bothers me but the significant cost, often related directly to student numbers, which they command.   I recognise that many schools have them and need to continue to offer a nice and easy way for students to access resources ideally in a nice visual way so with that in mind I went searching for an easy solution.

Initially my thoughts alighted on MS Teams, as we use Office 365 heavily, but I felt teams is more a collaborative space for discussion, collaborative working, etc, rather than a repository of resources, plus Teams lacks the visual presentation side of things.     It may be important to demark which online spaces are for collaboration and which are simply sources of materials hence I thought this another reason to avoid using Teams for this purpose.

So, I arrived at SharePoint.   I was a little trepidatious initially as my previous interactions, albeit a fair number of years ago, with a locally hosted SharePoint installation had me remembering it as very fiddly and complicated.

Where SharePoint online is concerned these concerns quickly disappeared and I found myself identifying the below positive features:

  • Its simple to use. Training staff to create pages and build sites therefore takes little of the limited time that is available.   Yes, there are limits on design, layout, etc however this means the sites created simply work and display correctly across different devices and platforms.  In my eyes this is an acceptable limitation.
  • Its easy to integrate into Teams; I can make a SharePoint online document library appears as a tab in a Microsoft Teams so teachers can simply open the team and drag and drop files in, with these then appearing on the SharePoint site, via the appropriate document library webpart, for students to access.
  • Its flexible and scalable; I can use one site or many interlinked sites as is defined by needs, easily adding additional sites as required.
  • It supports several integrations with learning tools such as FlipGrid and Quizlet among others.
  • Its included within Office 365 licensing so offers a saving on commercial VLEs.

I am not saying SharePoint is perfect but with limited effort a site or series of sites can be created to act as your repository for learning materials, all without the significant cost of a VLE.

PowerBI and percentages

Was playing around with PowerBi the other day and found myself with a challenging situation.   Basically, I had a number of records for events, however wanted to know what percentage of available slots were booked and which were free, plus wanted this to be displayed in a pie chart.

The issue I had is the only records I had for each day were for booked slots, and I didn’t want to try and pre-process the data to add in records for un-booked slots, although this would have been one method I could have used to solve the issue.

I needed a way to get to the percentage of a fixed number of slots booked.     The answer it turns out was to create a New Measure in PowerBI (Right click in the Fields window and select New Measure or use the Modelling menu and then select New Measure) and to use a little bit of DAX, something I hadn’t really used before, to calculate the required data.

So, the measure I used is shown below:

Booked = COUNTROWS(Data)/(DISTINCTCOUNT(data[Resource])*50)

Data is the name of the table from which the info is coming from while Resource is the attribute/field listing the various bookable resources.   CountRows(Data) gives me a count of the number of records subject to any filtering which might be applied by the user of visual/page.   By using DistinctCount(Data[Resource]) I am only counting resources which have at least 1 booking.    Each resource has 50 possible slots which can be booked hence multiply by 50.   This returns a value between 0 and 1 representing the percentage of slots booked.

In order to create my PieChart I also need to know the percentage of a resource, which hasn’t been booked.   This is easy as it is simply 1 minus the booked value so could be calculated as below:

NotBooked = 1 – (COUNTROWS(Data)/(DISTINCTCOUNT(data[Resource])*50))

Now I can easily add the Booked and NotBooked measures to a pie chart and get my required chart like below:

I suspect this is me only starting to scratch the surface of what DAX might be capable of so I look forward to experimenting a little more with it in the coming months.

 

 

 

 

 

6 EdTech takeaways

Schools all over the world have had to switch very quickly to remote learning.    This has resulted in all manner of challenges in relation to hardware, software, deployment, use in lessons, staff IT skills and EdTech pedagogy and a variety of others.     Over this short period of time, I feel a huge amount has been learnt.  That said I think once the governmental lockdowns are lifted, a lot of what happens in schools will attempt to return back towards the way it used to be.    This attempt to return towards the previous normal is natural, it is an attempt to return towards what is comfortable, known and familiar versus the current situation which is uncomfortable and unfamiliar for many.   The danger here is that we may lose the lessons learnt from the last couple of months.    As such I thought it appropriate to write a post focussing on the learning points, or at least the 6 key learning points, I believe we need to take from the Covid19 crisis and the resultant period of remote learning.

  1. The importance of wellbeing

During this crisis we have seen communities come together to support each other, for example in the weekly clap for the NHS.   We have seen lots shared online on how to remain healthy and on wellbeing.   There has been recognition of the difficulties and challenges being experienced by teachers, parents and students, plus a real sense of community has become apparent.   The Covid19 crisis has been a turbulent time for many, in uncertainty, in personal loss and in change.   Even when lockdown is eased many will continue to have to deal with these issues and therefore it is important that we continue to be cognizant of the human element of schools and of the importance of community spirit and support.   This includes the health, both mental and physical, plus the general wellbeing of students, staff, parents and the wider school communities.   Before learning, before curricula, before assessment for or of learning, before everything, people come first, adults or children.   We need to ensure we consider them first in all we do, both online or in real life.

  1. More asynchronous learning

Pre-Covid19, learning was largely face to face in classrooms, conducted in a synchronous manner.   The issue with this is all students don’t work at the same rate so this doesn’t suit all.  Some students would benefit from the ability to review and recap learning in their own time.    There is also the occasional student absence to deal with and for independent schools with international students working remotely there are issues in relation to differing time zones.    Use of learning experiences and content delivered in an asynchronous style can help to address the above challenges.   For example, the flipped classroom model which some teachers already use.   As such I hope that the balance between synchronous and asynchronous learning will be readdressed to see greater value than previously put on asynchronous learning over the more common classroom synchronous learning.

  1. Professional development, but also the need to build urgency

Professional development has always been key to the successful use of EdTech and the current crisis has once again proved this to be true.  EdTech tools are after all just tools and to make effective use of them, like all tools, appropriate training and support is required.    Where remote learning has been successful there has been a clear programme of professional development and support often involving in-school resources supplemented by various online support materials including Wakelets, YouTube videos, websites, blogs and many other curated resources.     Going forward beyond the current situation, we need to continue to support staff and students to use the EdTech tools.   I also feel it is important to note that Covid19 has added urgency to professional development and training, leading to school leaders and teachers being more engaged and focussed on developing their skills and experience to manage the need for remote learning.     We need to somehow maintain this urgency where EdTech PD is a key priority rather than something over which lots of other school priorities often take precedence.

  1. Flexibility

Covid19 has seen a number of schools and teachers experiment and try new things, often in terms of using existing tools in new ways rather than introducing new tools.    Where necessary systems where adjusted and tweaked to meet the needs of students and teachers with changes being made on an ongoing basis as we all experimented with what worked and what didn’t.    This is very different from the often rigid and locked down nature of technology use and of school systems prior to Covid19.   Now I will acknowledge that a more flexible and less rigid or locked down approach to school systems, to allowing students to communicate, create their own online groups, etc. may introduce some risks however it also introduces opportunities.   Opportunities to get students more involved in creating their own structures, in peer collaboration and communication, in problem solving together and in other soft skills development as needed for the world we now live in and for the associated technologies.   It is also more closely matched to the world of Universities and the working world our students will go on the inhabit.   As such I think we need to acknowledge the risks which exist, manage them but try to be flexible in doing so.

  1. The Global Educator community

I have always found the global educator community to be very helpful especially on Twitter, which has been my go-to place for a number of years.    I feel, during this crisis, the Global Educator community has really stepped up its game.   I have heard new voices sharing their thoughts, ideas and resources while existing voices have generated new platforms to share including new podcasts and virtual PD events.   There has also been lots of collation of resources going on, with people trying to make it easier to find what you need by grouping it together in once place, using Wakelet for example.    It is important that we continue this and that we continue to make more people aware of the resources, and in particular the support available from educators across the world through the wonders of Technology.   I always remember Mark Andersons description of twitter as the “best staffroom in the world” and during this crisis I feel the online community of educators has only got better.   I think signposting the opportunities and resources available from the global educator community post Covid19 will be critical.   I think it is worth mentioned that this also links back to point 1 and a source of support, someone to listen, etc, to help with wellbeing where you need an impartial/independent view.

  1. (Digital) Citizenship in this changing world

Most of the above points have been positive in what we can take away from this period of remote learning, however I feel my last point is less positive.   For me the current crisis has highlighted ever more how short we are falling with preparing students to manage the digital world they have been born into.   Online safety in schools continues to fall short.   It doesn’t cover discussions of the potential impact of the data our lives leave strewn across the internet, the cyber security risks at home and as we use ever more apps and services, the potential implications of AI and machine learning or the potential for human behaviour to be influenced by targeted media, including not just fake news but also selective targeting of real news stories.   It also doesn’t cover the potential implications of viewing the world through posts of less than 255 characters or videos of 15 seconds or less, and how such a narrow view can lead to bias or events taken out of context.    The sudden shift to remote working and remote learning makes the need to address (Digital) citizenship learning with our students all the more urgent.

Conclusion

The last 3 months in lockdown and the resulting remote working and remote learning have been a roller coaster.   At the end of February and start of March things seemed normal with daily life experiencing its usual ebb and flow resulting from long established routines.    Then mid-March everything quickly changed and the world of learning and working remotely via online services took over.

My worry is that the return to “normal” could be equally swift and that in this we may lose some of the multitude of things we have learned during this hectic and challenging period of time.    The above highlights the 6 main learning points I currently am taking away from the last few months, however there are many other points which just didn’t make the cut.    I haven’t mentioned safeguarding, IT resilience, data protection, cyber security, online/remote learning pedagogy and many other possible take away points.

The last few months have seen a necessary momentum in relation to EdTech and online learning.   The key now is to grab the bits which matter most and sustain the momentum as things return to a new normal.

 

 

 

What does a great online learning experience look like?

I think many schools are asking themselves the above question as they look to improve on what they currently offer and as they prepare for what could be a long period where at least some students will be working remotely due to isolation resulting from Covid19 symptoms.

The issue with this question, is that if you remove the word online from the question, you arrive at another question.   What does a great online learning experience look like?  The difference is that we have had decades and even centuries to identify what makes a great learning experience whereas for online learning we have had only a couple of decades, and it has only been with the recent crisis that so many have found the need to give this serious thought.   Given we have been unable to reach a satisfactory answer for general learning I think it becomes doubtful that we will be able to come up with such an answer for online learning.    This, however, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try or that we shouldn’t share ideas or share experiences, indeed I think it is critical we do.   Each idea or experience is another thing learned and another step forwards and closer towards that which we seek: great [online or face to face] learning.

So now for my tuppence worth on great online learning.   Am just going to outline my thoughts as they stand as to things which great online learning needs to contain:

  1. Wellbeing and balance

Am putting this point first on purpose.  It is all too easy to be drawn into the world of students and teachers messaging each other at all hours of the day or night, or spending hours developing content or coursework.   The digital world as many an author has put it, can be addictive.   We need to be conscious of this and set clear boundaries plus we need to put in places structures and processes for all to seek support should they need it.   Above all we must remember the human aspects of learning, of schools, of education and of the wider world.

  1. Sync and async

Am not going to rehash my earlier post on the benefits and drawback of synchronous or asynchronous learning; You can read the piece here if you would like.    This is about balance and what works for teachers and students.   Start with a balance that works for you and then adjust until you find a point where you and the students have enough real time interaction and enough tasks which are self-directed.

  1. Regular check-ins with students

Linked to the above, to decide on the balance, we need to seek feedback from students.   We need to ask them if there is enough self-directed work, enough real time interaction, enough support resources, enough time for the work set, etc.    In a class we have lots of visual and auditory cues as to how lessons are going; We don’t have the same access to these cues when teaching online, so we need to find another method to check in with students and to gather this data.   This could use an online form or be a discussion point for a video chat or be any number of other methods; It isn’t important how the info is gathered.  What matters is that it is gathered and that the learning experiences are adjusted accordingly.

  1. Space for students to chat with peers, to be social and to decompose learning

We so often focus on the learning and this is vitally important however we mustn’t forget the social aspects of learning.  The classroom, the school corridor, the canteen, etc are all a very social experience for our students.   This is where students catch up with the latest goings on, the latest TikTok craze but also where lessons, homework, etc are discussed in passing.   As such we need to try and replicate at least some of this in the environments we create for online learning.   For some this might be as simple as a chit chat space used by the class for general chat or it might be a year group or even whole school online social space.   The important thing is we need to provide such spaces.  It is also the case the staff would benefit from similar spaces whether this be an online Staff Room or a virtual pub.

  1. individuals and Groups

There can be a tendency in online learning towards students working individually; Think the student working on their device at home, working through a task set by the teacher.   This is especially common where learning is asynchronous.    It is important to remember that in face to face lessons we regularly mix individual and group work dependent on the learning, the students, etc.    We need to remember to do this within online learning environments and to be conscious of the tendency towards tasks which are individual.   This may therefore require that more effort needs to go into providing situations for students to work together.

  1. Wider networks and crowdsourcing

Students, if encouraged, will actively seek solutions.   As a result of this there are significant opportunities where students are allowed to develop their own structures for sharing, discussion and other collaborative activities outside the formally create online structures a school will create (e.g. form groups, subject classes, year groups).   Just consider how some students have crowd sourced the exam questions, answers and mark schemes for GCSE and A-Level exams within days of the exam and long before the exam boards release any info.   I believe it is therefore important to give students some flexibility to create their own groups and online structures based on their needs rather than having a centrally controlled structure mandated by the school.  This might be a creating a book club or study group, project meetings for a class project or a group focussed on a civic movement; The main thing being the students are empowered to create such groups as the need and interest arises.

  1. Teachers and student professional development in IT and EdTech

EdTech tools are just that, they are tools.   Like any tool there needs to be support and training so that they can be used effectively both by the teachers and the students.   Only then can we possibly get the best out of the EdTech tools we have available.   A believe a key requirement here is a community and culture of sharing, a culture where it is safe to try things and admit and share where they didn’t work, a culture which is open and continually seeking to improve and/or develop, and a climate of warmth and positivity.

  1. Feedback

One particularly important benefit of EdTech in my view relates to providing students with feedback.    Technology allows this to be automatic in some cases, with feedback instantly given to students based on tests they complete.    Students can also seek support from teachers in-between lessons and teachers can provide guidance and correction where students are going wrong, but at any time rather than being forced to wait for the next lesson.  This all makes for potentially more dynamic feedback and opportunities to address areas of difficulty more quickly.   I will however note that balance is important here and care needs to be taken in relation to point 1 and teacher/student wellbeing where an “always on” learning environment may develop.

  1. Be inventive and seek new solutions, plus put on a show

Innovation is important;  We haven’t had the time to do countless research studies into what works in remote learning with the technology we now have available to us.   Yes, there are studies, but few are current enough to cover the current myriad of EdTech tools available to use in todays lessons and learning experiences.   This reminds me of the phrase, “building the plane while we fly it”.    As we don’t have plans and studies to go on, we need to try new things and to be inventive.   Linked to this is the need to engage and excite students with the learning experience.  This isn’t appropriate for every lesson as some content may need to involve desirable difficulty, however in any period of learning there needs to be something to grab students attention. Aligned with this is the need for a performance;   Teaching for me has always been a bit of a performance with the teacher as the main actor putting on a show.    Teaching remotely, whether live or on-demand, has the same requirement for at least some showmanship albeit it may not look the same as it does in the face to face class. The best online learning experiences are likely to contain at least an element of the teachers character in their structure and/or delivery.

  1. Engaging parents/guardians

Remote learning happens in the home and therefore it isn’t complete without considering parents/guardians and how they can support learning but also how online learning from home might impact the balance and flow of home life.    It is therefore important to build processes for communicating and keeping parents up to date and for involving them in decision making around the online learning experience.   Like with traditional face to face lessons in a classroom, an effective school-home relationship only benefits learning.

  1. Beyond the school

Online learning and the fact students are online allows them access to the vast resources of the wider world.   From websites or YouTubes videos covering maths subject content to skype calls with an astronaut.    In online learning there is an opportunity to reach beyond the curriculum, beyond the bounds of the classroom and give students a breath of experiences which in the past wasn’t possible.

  1. Safeguarding

It isn’t possible to consider online learning without considering the safeguarding aspect where students are online and engaging in lessons through a virtual platform of one type or another.    I am not going to be prescriptive here as to what this should look like as it is for individual schools to consider the risks and their risk appetite, to identify what they are willing to accept or not accept, and to put appropriate mitigation measures in place.   My biggest concern here is overly strict control being applied as I believe the comfort such controls may provide a schools leadership team hides the real world ineffectiveness of such controls.   If learning is online, and the schools platform doesn’t allow students to do what they want to do, then this may force them to other platforms out with school control or monitoring.   I would rather have students on the schools platform where the school can support them when they make the inevitable mistakes.

Closing thoughts

When I set out to write this post it was just going to be a couple of ideas dumped on a page.   As it turns out it is significantly longer than I anticipated and on reflection it still is rather limited.   To do the subject matter any justice I think this post would quickly turn into a book or a whole blog of its own.

For now I am going to leave it here in the hope that there is some value in these roughly put together thoughts.

Exams: A fair system?

Covid19 has forced the cancellation of this years GCSE and A-Level exams.   As a result of this schools are being asked to submit grades for their students with a number of people expressing concern over the fairness of the grades which will result.   But were the exams ever fair?

Public exams were introduced in the mid eighteen hundreds, over 150 years ago and I would suggest that they haven’t changed that much.    They are now a foundational element of the world we live in.   Your qualifications, or the grades you get in these qualifications largely determined by exams, dictate your progress and the options available to you as you progress through the education system.  From secondary education to further education then onto university and eventually careers each influenced by the grades you achieve.     To pass each exam a key skill is memorisation.  To memorise key facts, to memorise approaches to using these facts and to memorise and practice techniques to manage exams.   The issue is that in a world of technology, a world where most of us carry Google in our pockets complete with the worlds biggest collection of knowledge plus videos and animations to demonstrate how to use this knowledge, is it really critical that we memorise things?

For some student memorisation is easy as is exam technique and therefore the exam system is perfect for them.   For others memorisation is more difficult and exams bring out exam stress.  In terms of the end outcome both types of students may be capable of the same things, albeit one may need to quickly review Google for assistance.    This seems to be biased in favour of those students who are better suited to exams which is unfair.

Lots has also been written about differing achievement rates in different types of schools, different social-economic backgrounds, etc.   I am not going to expand on this here, only to say that most discussions finish with a lack of equity for students in differing circumstances being identified; that students access to learning and preparation for the all important exams isn’t fair.

Taking “fairness” a stage further, we would expect all students who answer a particular question in a particular way to achieve the same number of marks however, outside of fact-based questions, answers need to be marked by human examiners which introduces variability.  Yes, there are standardisation/moderation processes to try reduce the probability of students receiving unfair outcomes but these only reduce the probability rather than eliminating it.

We also have the annual adjustment of marks boundaries to reduce unfairness where a particular years exam questions might be more or less difficult that the previous years.   On one hand this is good as it seeks to reduce the probability of unfair outcomes, however the existence of this process, and of the standardisation/moderation processes mentioned above both acknowledge the fundamentally unfair nature of exams.

For 2019/20 there will be no exams and instead teachers who have worked with students throughout the year will be making professional judgements as to what students would have achieved.   Schools will then be seeking to check that results across the school are fair, followed by the exam bodies to checking fairness across all schools.   I am not sure how this will be any more or less fair than what we had before.   It may be that the sudden nature of the introduction of this process may be unfair, but outside of this I am unsure that it will have introduced any greater variability than that which existed previously.

I think those asking about the fairness of the 2019/20 results are asking the wrong question.  I suspect some may be invested in the exams machine, while some maybe so used to the exam system that they are scared of potential change and of the unknown.   The big question I find myself with is, if we can issue final qualification grades in 2019/20 without the need for final exams, do we really need these standardised exams in 2020/21 and beyond?

Some books for lockdown

During lockdown I have found myself able to read more.   This might relate to less other options such as going to the cinema, going out for a meal, or going out shopping, or it might relate to time gains made each day due to working remotely rather than having to drive to work.     Given the increased opportunity to read I thought I would share 5 book recommendations.  I have tried to pick a bit of a cross section of topics in terms of the books, but you may be able to see a bit of a theme which aligns with some of my current thinking.   I note that these are all books I have read in the last couple of years:

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Ariely explores how we believe ourselves to act rationally, using the available information to arrive at decisions, while in reality our actions are often far from rational.   One of the key issues I feel the book identified is how oblivious we often are to our irrationality and how we often create narratives to help us justify our decisions after the event.

“when stripping away our preconceptions and our previous knowledge is not possible, perhaps we can at least acknowledge that we are all biased”

The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb

Talebs book explores the human tendency to look towards averages and generalisations and therefore to miss the dangers and opportunities which the unlikely event might yield.   He explores how sadly the unlikely event, the black swan, is often not considered until after it happens at which point it is no longer an unlikely event.   Given the current situation we find ourselves in, in a global pandemic, I think this book may be more relevant than ever.

“the illusion of understanding, or how everyone thinks he knows what is going on in a world that is more complicated (or random) than you realise”

The Culture Map by Erin Meyer

Meyer explores the business world, however this is largely applicable to all organisations including schools, and how cultural norms have a significant impact on what works and what doesn’t.   As we increasingly live in a global world and therefore prepare students for this world, this book provides useful insight into the need to consider our own culturally identity and culturally driven views as well as the impact culture has on those we deal with on a day to day basis.

“when you are in and of a culture – as fish are in and of water – it is often difficult or even impossible to see that culture”

I am right, you are wrong by Edward De Bono

De Bono’s book is one which I read some time ago however I still find it an interesting read and especially so when you look at the binary arguments which arise on social media.   De Bono explores how differences of opinion arise and how we often use broad categorisation in our debates, among other areas.  He also explores how our attempts to constantly improve and refine thinking, practices, etc may be flawed.

“critical thinking is easy because the critic can focus on any aspect he or she likes and ignore the rest”

The Silo Effect by Gillian Tett

Tett examines how our organisations use hierarchical structures to sustain themselves once they get above a certain size.   She discusses how this can lead to silos of knowledge, skills, etc and how we can seek to try and break down these silos.    In the current world where information is easy to access via the internet and people can easily share and collaborate, I think this book is important in helping to break down the limitations of the historical organisational structures we have built.

“Social media created both the potential for people to open up their social world and to restrict it into self-defined groups, or cyber tribes”

 

I hope the above recommendations are useful for those trying to identify what to read next.   I would also welcome any recommendations or suggestions from others as to  books to read during this period of lockdown.

 

Sync and async remote learning

I have seen a number of posts on twitter pitting Synchronous and Asynchronous remote learning approaches against each other.   Sadly, this kind of binary viewpoint is all too common, if not specifically catered for and encouraged on social media platforms.    As I have often said, sadly the world is not that simple.   So, I thought I would add some of my views:

Synchronous

If we take the SAMR model and the first element of it, substitution, using live video as a substitute for the classroom experience seems to make sense where the classroom experience is not an option.    At a basic level it looks like a simple swap.   Through live video students continue to get access to some of the visual ques present in face to face communication.   They also have the opportunity to engage in the more social side of learning with quick feedback and two-way communications allowing discussion points or ideas to be explored and clarification to be sought where confusion arises.   I believe the social benefits of video-based communication in particular are very important as learning is very much a social activity so the more similar we can make it to “normal” social interaction the better.

The challenge with the above being access to high speed internet to support video plus issues around latency of sound and video which cause problems as soon as multiple people try to talk or where people try to interject with their thoughts or comments.  These issues don’t exist in real time face to face situations in a classroom, or at least they don’t where good classroom management exists.

Another synchronous option might instead be the use of real time discussion or chat solutions.  This doesn’t have the same issue in relation to a need for bandwidth or in relation to video/audio latency.  That said, I believe that typed comments, thoughts, ideas and questions are simply a proxy for spoken offerings, and as a proxy lose some of the detail which exists with face to face real time communications either in real life or via video.  As a result, you can expect higher rates of miscommunication and misunderstanding.

Probably the biggest concern with a synchronous approach is that of workload, stress and strain.   Delivering either real time video or chat isn’t normal when compared with how lessons are generally taught.    This means teaching this way represents a cognitive load in terms of using the technology tools, considering pedagogical approaches and adjusting these, and managing to get feedback from students as an activity or lesson progresses;   Never underestimate the feedback a classroom of students provides through comments, body language, the groups attitude, etc, all of which are more difficult to gather remotely via a screen.  This departure from the current established norm therefore represents an additional load on teachers.

Asynchronous

This focusses more on providing content with students able to work on it in their own time.   From a teachers point of view this is likely to be less stressful as they can plan and develop the required content, including repurposing already produced resources for sharing content.   As it doesn’t put the students directly in front of the students the cognitive load isn’t as significant, as teachers have time to think before responding to students or before posting the next activity.

The challenge here however is that in asynchronous learning the social aspect is lacking.   There isn’t the same interaction between students and teacher or between students and their peers that there is with synchronous or real time activities.    There is also a greater reliance on intrinsic motivation as it requires the students to complete activities in their own time without the teacher prompting in real time.

Sync vs async?

We would never suggest that learning in a classroom, in real time and face to face, was either synchronous or asynchronous.   The teacher might lead a class through some content or a discussion in a synchronous fashion then later in the lesson provide students learning activities to work through in a more asynchronous fashion.   The teacher may then review learning with students back in a more synchronous style.     We would never suggest the teacher just provide resources for students to work through in classroom lessons, or that the teacher and students spend their lessons all working together.

So why is this even being discussed in relation to remote learning?    It doesn’t make any sense to me!

Learning is a complex process best nurtured by experienced educators who know which tools to use and when, who know when they need to work in synchronicity with students or when to empower students to work on their own or in groups in a more asynchronous approach.    It isn’t a question of synchronous versus asynchronous learning.   Its, as is often the case, about finding the right balance between the two extremes, the balance which suits the teacher, the students and learning which is taking place.

Did you know: Updated

I have updated my Did you know guide to include more tips and suggestions including more in relation to Microsoft Teams which continues to be my favourite tool during this period of Remote Learning.

You can access the updated Did You Know guide here.

Teams: Creating meetings via Outlook

Up until recently I have been scheduling my Teams meetings via the Calendar option in Teams however I came across the ability to do this from Outlook or from Outlooks web equivalent which therefore allows you to use any personal email contact groups which I have created.   This makes it much easier to setup meetings with groups of people where a distribution list doesn’t exist and where adding the users individually to the meetings invitee list would be time consuming.

On Outlook assuming you have teams installed the Teams Meeting option should appear automatically in the ribbon when you are viewing you are viewing you calendar:

If it doesn’t you should be able to add it by customising your ribbon, plus if you want it to appear on your home page, when viewing your email, you can also do this.

In Web Outlook (e.g. via http://www.office.com) it is simply a case of going to your calendar and clicking where you want your meeting to occur.   Once the meeting details window appears click More Options in the bottom right of the window.

Now in the resulting window select the Add Online meeting option to the right of the Location section.   Here you can select Teams Meeting.

You have now created a Teams meeting which, once saved, all those invited will get an email invite for.   The only limitation I can see currently is I cant see a way to add the meeting to a channel if you need to do this.

For me this saves time as you can easily create personal email contact groups for those groups of people you frequently have meetings with then use this when you create the meeting so no longer need to type in the user names of each individual user.