image by Sean O’Sullivan

A recent study suggests that the use of interactive whiteboards (IWB) can improve learner achievement by 16%. This could be good news for those schools seeking to improve the number of learners achieving 5 A*-C grades grades, particularly the current crop of National Challenge Schools.

The study would suggest that by focussing upon the effective use of  a widely available piece of technology, schools and pupils can improve their performance.  This positive news, however, should be tempered a little because the study also shows that some inappropriate use of Interactive whiteboards may have a detrimental effect for some learners (see previous post). So, with appropriate staff training or CPD, schools could make better use of their IWBs and anticipate improved levels of achievement for their learners.

Training, CPD, of course, costs money but in this instance, it would seem to be money well spent. National Challenge Schools may already have budgets to help them improve the attainment levels of pupils. For all staff and schools, the upcoming ICT CPD for staff initiatives could help provide the necessary input.

So if you find yourself with an ICT CPD budget or an upcoming INSET day and you’re not sure what to do with it, spending part of it on improving the use of Interactive Whiteboards might be worthwhile.

For interactive whiteboard training in UK, you could do a lot worse than contact Danny http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/about/

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I discovered a great blog post at http://theelearningcoach.com/elearning2-0/10-ways-to-learn-in-2010/ which lists 10 new ways to learn. It includes the old one about using visual search engines; these have been around for a while and I womnder whether 2010 will be the year the visual search engine goes mainstream?

It also includes learning from wordclouds, these I thought were ‘old hat’ by now but I guess some people may not yet have come across them. Wordle for me is almost a waste of time, just because a term appears a lot in an article does not make it significant and, for me, a word cloud or tag cloud that is not hyperlinked is not very worthwhile.

Asking Questions, which is the third new way listed in the post, is hardly a new way at all. Asking questions is possibly the oldest method of learning known to man, so it is surprising that websites devoted to allowing people to ask questions have not become more popular. Then again maybe it is the silly answers that you often receive on such sites which has led to their demise.

Thinking visually and using mindmaps is again not new. What does appear to be new, however, is the ability to collaborate and share mindmaps online. This could become a great new tool for collaborative learning; it just remains to be seen whether people take to this approach. I have long been a user of mindmaps, myself, and I feel that such maps are personal; it is notr always easy for another person to interpret one person’s map, so I’m not yet sure whether collaborative maps would be of great use.

Hanging out with professors and watch documentaries are again hardly new ideas but the web is making these a lot easier than in the past.

It is very pleasing to see the growing popularity of TED talks and videos and this blog post lists a few others of a similar nature.

Using Twitter is well worth while in my experience so I wholeheartedly endorse this method of learning.

There are twoi more worthwhile tips for learning in 2010 which are mentioned in the blog post. I recommend that you pop over and have a fiull read of the post for yourself.

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Why is Change Management necessary in education?

We find ourselves in a time when the organisations and institutions in which we work are changing dramatically in terms of their structure, their strategies, their systems and, not least, their expectations of their staff. The rate of change and discovery often outpaces our individual ability to keep up with it. These statements I have paraphrased from the book ‘Making Sense of Change Management: ’ by Cameron and Green, as they seem to ring true in our schools, especially those involved in capital build projects such as BSF or PCP.

What is Change Management?

Change Management seems to cover a wide brief; you may come across it in business or commerce where a new system or way of working is being proposed or implemented, you may come across it in project management where a change or amendment is being considered within the project, and you may come across it in coaching or counselling where individuals or teams are being better prepared to cope a change and its effects.

For me, effective change management in schools should have elements from all three of these examples, with an emphasis upon the third example. I like to see the emphasis upon the third example, where individuals or teams are being better prepared for the change and its effects, because in schools we are principally concerned with the outcomes of our teaching and learning, for which we rely upon our staff and our learners.

CPD and Change Management

Sometimes we see Change Management combined with CPD or training and there is little doubt that elements of training are important in successful change management. Change Management, though, requires more than just one day’s INSET or time in staff meetings to be effective. Change Management needs to be planned, it needs to be ongoing and it needs to be geared to the levels of the individual or teams affected. It requires time and finance, two things we are often short of in schools especially with all the other ongoing demands on resources. Additionally, effective change management needs to be able to respond in ‘emergencies’ where an individual is having difficulty coping with new ideas, aproaches, systems or just the thought or prospect of their introduction or, indeed, where a particular new system is misfunctioning or having unforseen adverse effects.

Change Management and Financial Control

Effective change management may also have an effect upon finacial controls or budgetting. I daresay we can all think of a project, an initiative or piece of equipment which has been introduced at great expense but which has subsequently failed to live up to expectations or lain idle or rarely been used to its full potential. Such situations will often give rise to thoughts, or even accusations, of money and time having been wasted. My thinking here is that where a new project or initiative is combined with a process of change management, then the potential benefits of the project are more likely to be realised and there would be a lower likelihood of accusations of misspent money.

Let’s not go overboard here. I am not saying that we need a full blown Change management implementation every time a school acquires an additional piece of equipment, especially where that piece of equipment is just an augmentation of what already exists. However, where a complete new system or a new way of working is being considered, then I believe that change management should be implemented to ensure its effective introduction and subsequent use.

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