The Google Classroom: Planning a Course

The Planning Process

Very few teachers would want to walk into a room and be presented with a title and expect to teach for an hour.  We adopted a process orientated approach that is measurable against specific outcomes.  With this in mind the approach I am going to adopt is one of measurable outcomes both for the student and the planner.  I have had a lot experience of this approach to working.

In 1998 when I first joined a Middle School Suffolk a as newly qualified teacher with QTS (a level attained after a year of being a PGCE qualified teacher on most UK career tracks) having already gained a BSc in Botany, MSc in Crop Protection and worked as a Postgraduate Researcher in Fertiliser Technologies and sometime agricultural lecturer.   I took over the running of the science department and later added ICT to the responsibilities.  Two major departments in the scheme of producing effective learners.   

Within a few weeks of taking over we were Inspected by Ofsted and were put into special measures having already been given a notice to improve.  In the next few years (2 and a half seemed like longer) we had quarterly visits from HMIs (Her Majesty's Inspectors) who take over from where Ofsted leave off having  put a school into special measures.  Twelve years later I left this post as they shut Middle Schools in my part of Suffolk to move to a two tier system.

In that time I have seen many changes in what is looked on  as effective teaching and trained a few PGCE students. One of whom I met in another school in Cambridgeshire, where I spent some time teaching secondary as a supply or substitute teacher as per my original science expertise.  Thus my experience spans age groups 9 to 18, to adult.  

Primarily I am going to cover course building using Google Course builder from an educator of 9 to 18 year olds point of view.  Adult courses I will also cover but a little later.  So, the topic.  A universal topic for all science labs, Design technology and  IT use is safety.   I recently  renewed Safeguarding Training and was struck by amount of new legislation related to IT that was brought in in 2010.  However, the 1974 Safety at Work Act still applies (even in Schools) so  some of the legislations key points in child friendly terms are pertinent  especially as we are training them for the work force.   Good habits start early! 

So having rambled on about my professional provenance, does you good sometimes to identify achievements, to the planning process.  I mentioned in one of the last blogs the suggested standard of a Google Certified Course as opposed to a Google certified teacher, not so much an endorsement but a recognition that certain steps have been gone through to produce the course.  A bit like the Investors in People accreditation in the UK,  a record of the good processes being in place but not necessarily a record of  successful outcome of the good practice.

Wiki pages produced by  Google suggest some good practice so I am going to use this as the frame work for the common process with adding layers on top.   One of the  major assessments attached to online courses is the record of time spent on the course.      As mentioned in a previous blog there is a National Framework for Qualifications in the UK as well as in Europe.  More relevant to time spent on a course is the   European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS).   A new innovation in Suffolk is the Suffolk Baccalaureate which a little controversially has been compared to new Ebacc proposed by Michael Gove.  Therefore as a change in the ground rules for qualifications is taking place any course produced has to be working to certain common international  standards to  have longevity.  This is possibly something the Google Teaching Community could look at.  While that discussion is initiated I will take on board to start with as I mentioned the Google planning framework.

So will be putting some "style pages" up for sharing based on the process outline on the Wiki Pages. 

         

Lifelong Learning for the self taught!

Grimes graves Norfolk, ancient factory with modern ladder!

Self taught, self made!

A Victorian entrepreneur who lived the improvement dream was admired more if his family came from modest circumstances and he then made a pile!  He garnered public praise  especially if he became a great philanthropist! Examples of donations to the public good include Tate Gallery (Tate as in Sugar) and  Andrew Carnegie  with the various Halls, learning institutions and buildings (even though he made his fortune in America he was still a Victorian in the sense he was Scottish born).  He became even more admired if he claimed to be self taught!

With generally universal free formal education available from the ages of 7 to 16 in the developed world the idea of somebody being self taught is a "strange" concept today!  We often hear self taught musicians!  We are only aware if they are self taught when they proudly proclaim they have never had a lesson.  This ability is part of the innate set of tools we all seem to possess to a greater or lesser extent!  What might we now mean by self-taught?

The definition  of self-taught becomes even more blurred in the digital age! We have a formal training culture in the UK built up from apprenticeships that involved work and formal qualifications.  Universities have existed but it has to be remembered that to practice in the chosen you still needed to be qualified in the professional bodies' exams eg the bar exams, solicitors exams, becoming chartered.  This is something that many English students are probably not made aware happens.  They do not realise a first degree is only the first step.  America a readily acceptance of the concept of Grad Schools.  They realise that the first degree does not produce a finished article.  This is also something that a lot of UK parents whose children are the "first to go to University in their family" have difficulty grasping that there is no immediate guaranteed reward for the investment of having a first degree!

So where does that leave us with the self-taught?  How do they have their experience and qualifications recognised!  Many self-employed people have this dilemma.  They run a business for many years, they have great experience and are successful!  A lifestyle changing event such as old age, accident, flood, fire or banking crisis may cause a change in direction.  How do they formalise skills and experiences that an eCV search filter will recognise? 

There is a National Framework for Qualifications  in the UK that tries to classify qualifications in to Levels.  There is also system in Europe that over arches this European Qualifications Framework .  Included in this framework is Europass and European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS).  The ECTS has been put on some diplomas especially from smaller organisations, I have myself been credited for points with a CPD course!

How is this affecting the digital age?  We have mentioned eCVs so far as being difficult for the person with non-formal "qualifications" to negotiate!  On-line learning that provides accreditation is a route many universities seem to be going along!  Even 20 (odd, very odd) years ago Dundee University and Stirling were talking of setting up video links to allow less well enrolled courses to continue!  A route to this attracted my attention called ALISON.  This may be the shape of training to come!

More discussion on these topics later!