Channel 4 Education Consultation Event -

Study of Slavery Compulsory from September 2008 for KS 3

Marcia Hutchinson — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:08:22 +0000

The Adventures of Ottobah Cugoano Teaching Pack & In School Programme

Primary Colours marked the 200^th Anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade by creating a new educational resource and in-school creative programme aimed at primary aged children and their teachers. This activity will also mark Primary Colours’ 10^th anniversary (1997 – 2007). We focused on the life of Ottobah Cugoano, a freed slave who wrote his autobiography and lobbied for an end to slavery in the UK. We developed a teaching pack in the period January – August 2007 and delivered a series of schools-based workshops in the school year September 2007 – July 2008.

Activities to date – September 2007 – March 2008

To date we have:-1. Held a launch on 28^th September 2007 in Huddersfield at which the Chair of the Education Select Committee (and Huddersfield MP) Barry Sheerman and Chief Executive of ACE Yorkshire Andy Carver spoke.2. Agreed short listing of participating schools with Leeds and NE Lincs Local authorities.3. Delivered the Drama show to 25 schools in Leeds & NE Lincs

4. The project has been featured on ‘My Yorkshire’ ITV 7^th February 2008 and was watched by 540,000 viewers. click here for youtube link

Courses for Careers - A Programming Idea

Nigel Newton — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 10:16:21 +0000

It was reported in the press recently that most students find careers advice pretty useless. “The Association of Colleges found that 55 per cent of students believe teachers steer them towards courses which the school does best, rather than what is right for the student…” and “The ICM poll of more than 1,000 university students found that 66 per cent wished they had received better careers advice.” (TES, 06/10/06) So, what can we do about it?

On the train back from the consultation last year I sat opposite a young man who was reading Homer’s Odyssey. I asked him whether he was studying Classics at Uni and he said no, that he had read English at Bath and had never got round to reading Homer. When I asked what he was doing now he told me that he was working for a market gardening firm testing soil. This seemed to embarrass him, he had already felt a little awkward admitting he had not read Homer, and felt that an English degree should have led him into a different occupation.

We then began discussing the kinds of thinking and communication skills he has to use in his current job. I suggested that if he thought about it the right way his degree had probably equipped him quite well. At this point the businessman who had sat down next to me folded his lap-top and joined the conversation. He had read psychology and anthropology at uni, after graduating he started working for a telecommunications firm. It wasn’t long before a manager spotted his talent for analytical thinking and his good interpersonal skills. He is now a telecommunications consultant and very successful.

What has his job got to do with telecommunications? Nothing formally, should he have studied telecommunications at uni? He was adamant that for the kind of analysis and problem solving he needed to do, probably, his degree was of more value. What mattered was that he enjoyed his studies and benefited from them, it was the eagerness to explore and develop his thinking skills that has become so useful to him.

Second example, to study law or psychology at degree level do you need A-Levels in law and psychology? Answer, not if you want to study law or psychology in the universities with best reputation in these disciplines. You will need a good set of A-Levels to be accepted but you won’t need these subjects in particular. For psychology the best departments would prefer you to have biology and maths and for law economics and history would be of more use. These departments will teach you the law or psychology you need. Law and psychology A-Levels are of use to weaker candidates where the uni is worried about retention and can take these qualifications as indicators of commitment. How many students choosing their A-Level courses think through their options in this way? Not many.

So, can we have a series of programmes which focus on people in different occupations and traces their routes into theses jobs? Two individuals could be presented from each profession/occupation, one who followed a more conventional route, and another who entered through the side gate. The programmes could draw attention to the transferable knowledge and skills, acquired formally and informally, that are essential to success. As well as explore the ‘softer skills’ necessary. Through interview and discussion, connections could be made to help students see more relevance in their current studies to work in the real world.

More ideas on this later. What do you think?

Geographers take over the Today Programme

Daniel Raven-Ellison — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 11:13:49 +0000

To get an idea of the power of Geography listen to the Today Programme on New Years Day. This special edition is being edited by three Geographers. To find out more visit http://givegeographyitsplace.blogspot.com.

Draft Conference Report

Roy Charles — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 07:22:45 +0000

As well as being available to download from the "Cool Reads" area of the web site, the draft conference report is now on-line in the "Whitespace" section.

This enables all to revise and amend it at will, using "WIKI" technology.

PROGRAMMING IDEA “ THE REAL COURSE CHOICE “ THROUGH STUDENTS VOICES

Nigel Newton — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 20:25:03 +0000

An idea that takes student created media, adds careers advice, and generates a resource for schools to use. The Real Course Choice “ Post-compulsory students on A-level, GNVQ, or BTEC courses are encouraged to produce a 5-10 minute short film on what it is really like to study on one of their college/6^th-form courses. These are posted on a C4 site. To post students also have to vote for the best short about another course, and they are prevented from voting for shorts from their own study centre. The producers of the top short for each course is then given the opportunity to visit C4 and sees their work broadcast on TV. The whole collection can then be collated and sold as a careers DVD for schools as a resource.

We've worked on similar exercises at college and what becomes clear is that the perspectives of students about the nature of the course content and the methods of study required differ markedly from view points expressed in college brochures and course information sheets. Students are the ones experiencing the study first-hand and they can be the sharpest critics and most perceptive commentators on the qualities of courses. Secondary students often have only vague ideas about what A-level Film Studies or BTEC Travel and Tourism really entails. The professional advice, college or schools liaison and general course notoriety can sometimes provide little that is concrete for them to latch on to. Hearing and seeing other students provide a whistle stop tour of their subjects could provide a significant point of reference for them.

What do you think?

Five minds for the future? The latest from Howard Gardner

Steve Moore — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 14:34:01 +0000

To a fascinating - and rare - London lecture delivered by Howard Gardner at the RSA last week. Gardner is one of the 'big beasts' of education in the past two decades and his influence is as manifest as ever in the UK Government's emphasis on personalised learning in schools. Gardner was previewing his latest ideas that will published in book form early next year. The latest additions to his traditional focus on discipline and creative intelligences is the respectful and ethical minds.A Classic liberal ideas all, but who can doubt their relevance given the challenges we face in the world today and all delivered with a lucidity and modesty that was refreshing...

See what you think the podcast is here http://www.thersa.org.uk/audio/ (Five Minds for the Future)

also see Mike Baker's report on the lecture here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6048886.stm

At Channel 4 there remains a desire to go beyond the curriculum in search of what young people really need in the school-to-work transition phase. HG's Five Minds is as good a place to start as any...

You Tube,Obliquity and user generated content workshops

Steve Moore — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 11:57:48 +0000

'Strange as it may seem, overcoming geographic obstacles, winning decisive battles or meeting global business targets are the type of goals often best achieved when pursued indirectly. This is the idea of Obliquity. Oblique approaches are most effective in difficult terrain, or where outcomes depend on interactions with other people I have long been taken with John Kay's theory of obliquity But has there ever been a better example of how you achieve your goals without directly explicitly pursuing them than the You Tube sale to Google this week? It appears that this is a seminal moment in the early history of the Web and a sure sign that 'user generated content' - whatever your views - is going to be the very essence of the future of the web. In the 10th anniversary issue of Wired last year Kevin Kelley prophesised that 'in the near future, everyone alive will (on average) write a song, author a book, make a video, craft a web log, and code a program. This idea is less outrageous than the notion 150 years ago that someday everyone would write a letter or take a photographWell we are getting there...But what does all this mean in terms of Education.Who is experimenting in this space? Is there a role for Channel 4? Two workshops this month will explore this further. Come along if you can. Click here for more

My Space: Is Channel 4 going to space out 14-19 year olds?

Daniel Raven-Ellison — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 18:05:03 +0000

Distance is a funny thing. Somthing that is 'near' or 'close' to you can be geographically 'distant' and yet someone who is on the other side of the planet might be the 'closest' person to you in the world. The internet has the capacity to both shorten distances to the price of a Skype call, but also for users/learners to develop factually wrong opinions. Just think about wikipedia and how it is now going to use editors for much of its work.

The reality is that in a post Thatcher country people in society are arguably more independent and society is more fragmented. People often talk about the under-developed nature of community compared to some 'under-developed' nations.

So Channel 4 - I propose this. Let's educate students about the web and platforms such as 'My Space' by bring the virtual into reality. Myspace.com is based on networks that exist in reality just as they do online. What My Space does is remove space (along with a range of other psychological barriers) to bring people together. In addition to creating platforms for learners to collaborate it is important that they have the understanding and literacy to deal with online spaces. What I suggest is that C4 makes a programme that transforms the virtual to the reality by linking up people who are otherwise distant from each other (both physically or psychologically) and reflects the locations of 'physical communities'...

Of course.. this is solid sexy Geography.

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Over the next two weeks Give Geography its Place is launching an online petition. Spead the word and sign up now at www.passion4geography.co.uk

Janey Walker in The Guardian

Steve Moore — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 11:35:54 +0000

Janey was interviewed in The Guardian on Monday and raised the issues of access and distribution, future content and the need to innovate in how it is generated that featured prominently in last week's conference.

Carry on conversing - videos and photos now up

David Wilcox — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 17:50:09 +0000

Thanks everyone who agreed to condense their conversations and ideas into a minute or so of sound bite - you can now see the videos here. I have uploaded the photos, also shot by Dan, to Flickr. You can add comments to the videos ... which is one way to restart the conversations that they report. Scroll down the page to see all 14. If you spot any problem, please let me know.