My Learning deployment complete!

Last week saw the final 5 GEMS schools in the UAE trained in the new ‘My Learning’ Learning Management System.

Along with the integration of Pearson’s Equella repository, Office 365, Google Apps for Edu, a large range of high quality digital content options and the flexibility to plug in pretty much anything else our schools need, this growing ecosystem is already proving to be a catalyst for revolutionizing the provision of digital and blended learning. We have deployed 39 schools in the UAE along with one other managed school and the Kingdom Schools in KSA. Overall, more than 100,000 students and 11,000 educators have been impacted.

The process of professional learning and digital transformation continues, as we work to deliver an ambitious digital strategy over the next five years. Next up is the launch of the GEMS My Learning parent notification app later this term, which will provide unprecedented opportunities for empowered parents to engage in their children’s learning anytime, anywhere.

Below is the article due to be published in the next edition of the GEMS Family Magazine. We look forward to seeing some great family engagement within the new ecosystem.   

   

‘My Learning’ Overview (to be published in GEMS Family Magazine, Issue 6, September 2015)

All GEMS schools in the U.A.E. have now moved from the GEMS Learning Gateway (GLG) to an exciting, dynamic new online learning ecosystem and parent portal, known as ‘My Learning’.

Research shows that average user satisfaction with institutional learning management systems is less than 50% (BrandonHall Group, 2014). In particular, the ‘features’ and ‘ease of use’ categories are often poorly rated, averaging less than 40% satisfaction.  Given these statistics, we knew we would need to innovate and do things very differently in order to provide each user with an outstanding experience that would, ultimately, inspire and optimise every student’s learning. 

We know that every student - and every school community - is unique. One size does not fit all, hence the need for a digital learning ecosystem that provides a truly personalised experience for every student, parent and teacher. And so it was that we embarked on a long process of eliciting the views of a wide range of stakeholders from our schools and implementing a solution to meet their needs. Andrew Nolan, Manager - Education Technology, visited over 20 schools, interviewing focus groups of students, parents, teachers and other school staff, asking the question: “What do you want from an online learning environment?” It quickly became clear that there were as many answers as there were people questioned, which led to the clear understanding that a successful solution would need to be a pin cushion rather than a bubble.

Pin Cushion

The history of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) in schools, colleges and universities around the world is not a happy one. Students and teachers have not, for the most part, fallen in love with online learning or digital workflows and this has been due, in large part, to the approach taken by administrators at the district and institutional level. The received wisdom has, for a long time, been that learning institutions should create a ‘bubble’, within which all learning, productivity, collaboration and communication should be contained. Teachers and administrators would control all content, tools and interactions and all learners and teachers would be safe and happy learning in their bubble, with what was on offer.

Groups of schools were forced to adopt the same ‘bubble’ VLEs and these were invariably not situationally fit for purpose. Even worse, they tended to be inflexible in developmental terms, meaning that it was difficult or often impossible for schools and individuals to request changes to the structure, content and tools. The result in every case was that innovative teachers and students naturally found new ways to learn. They burst out of the bubble to use third party blogs and wikis, social media, YouTube, Google Apps, Weebly, Edmodo, Voicethread and a host of other tools, too numerous to list. These innovators weren’t trying to rebel – they were simply attempting to improve learning by using tools they perceived to be more effective than those they had been given.

For administrators, however, it became a nightmare. They could not control access to the third party tools, teacher-student workflows became fragmented and parents were confused as to where they could find information about their children’s learning – even between classes and teachers in the same school. Worst of all, questions around students’ online safety arose, often without acceptable answers other than to force the shutdown of everything outside the bubble. In many cases, this also shut down the learning.

Developing a shared understanding that we simply could not, and indeed should not, dampen the enthusiasm, nor doubt the expertise of teachers and students in selecting the best tools for learning, was the first step towards seeking out a pin to burst the VLE bubble. That said, there was still a need to provide a structure for all GEMS schools, which would help to ensure the online safety of our students, encourage innovation and optimise learning through a clear and consistent workflow – as well as providing a system that would enable parents to engage more effectively in the learning process.

Equipped with a sea of data from stakeholders, Andrew led the mission to find the best solution, knowing that we had to meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of people. This would have to be a pin cushion solution – a system that would provide clarity and structure, whilst accommodating the tools that teachers and learners wished to use. The concept of the pin cushion provides all users with a secure and robust system, together with the ability to plug in the tools they need to optimise the learning process in any given situation.

Following an evaluation of over 60 potential solutions, the My Learning platform was selected as the preferred spine of the new ecosystem. As well as the product itself coming out on top by a long way when evaluated against the stated user needs, it was also important that the provider was prepared to adapt to our schools’ individual requirements, both at the outset and in the future. My Learning is an adaptable platform and the provider has already shown impressive agility and customer-focus in delivering the modifications, improvements and integrations requested. This is vital, as it puts us in the position where we are able to accommodate innovative practices and new tools as they arise in our schools, responding quickly to development requests and ensuring seamless integration into existing workflows. 

Meeting the teaching, learning and parenting needs of so many users, in such a diverse group of schools, could only be achieved by creating a solution that is capable of on-going customisation, augmentation and personalisation. Below are some of the features that we hope will deliver an outstanding experience for all our school communities in the months and years ahead.

Interface Options

Students can customise their own dashboards and plug in the tools they need to optimise their own learning.  Flexibility and personalisation are key because students learn better when they construct their own learning ecosystems and use the tools they have chosen. My Learning has a choice of age-specific interfaces and a wide range of themes for students, making it attractive to learners across the 3-18 age range. Many students have already opted for the popular ‘Minecraft’ theme to personalise their site! Our youngest students now have the opportunity to learn how to construct an authentic digital workflow and, at the other end of the scale, students headed for university will hit the ground running as tertiary education moves rapidly towards online and blended learning.

Language Options

The site is available in over 90 languages, including Arabic, Hindi, Malayalam, Russian and Farsi, to name but a few.  We hope this will prove particularly useful for students who are new to English language learning and for foreign language learners, as well as parents who would prefer to navigate the system in their native language.

Online Safety

There is, of course, a secure login for all GEMS users, including parents. Teachers and parents can, by default, see everything their children do through My Learning. Also, the school administrator is able to track all activity, including through the use of a customisable profanity filter. A prominent ‘Report Abuse’ button acts as a medium for students to contact the school’s Child Protection Officer discreetly and in confidence about any issue of concern, including real life problems, and anything that is making them feel uncomfortable online. Together with the established Digital Citizenship programmes in GEMS schools, our young people are as safe as they can possibly be in today’s digital world.

Student Profile

Every student has a space to build his or her own social profile, within a safe and secure environment. Students can choose the information they include and how to share their profiles within the system, thereby learning good social networking habits from an early age. They can also take a personality test, which is proving to be very effective in developing emotional intelligence, empathy and self-awareness.

Options for Portfolio Building

Students have a range of built-in options for developing learning portfolios, from multimedia journals and diaries to websites. They can also bring in other tools such as Google Sites, OneNote, etc..

Parent Portal

Through the Parent Portal, parents are able to access all the information they need about their children’s learning and welfare. Each student’s homework, calendar, progress reports and on-going work are all visible to their parents. Over the course of the 2015-2016 academic year, the site will be developed further, enabling parents to access a wider range of GEMS services.

Customisable Parent App

Due to be launched in Q4 2015, the My Learning parent notification mobile app will further enhance communication and parental engagement in the learning process. Parents will have the ability to customise the information flow, enabling them to receive the updates they want in a way that suits the individual user. 

Communication with Teachers

Parents are able to contact their children’s teachers through a secure, threaded discussion system, with instant, two-way notifications.

Data Integration

Schools within the GEMS group employ different student data management systems, reflecting the diverse range of curricula provided. All of these systems are linked through My Learning, allowing the relevant access to authorised users. This will allow teachers to manage data and learning more closely and effectively and provide parents with relevant, up-to-date information on their children’s progress.

High Storage Capacity and Choice of Tools

In addition to the storage space in My Learning itself, students and teachers can seamlessly integrate their other, preferred cloud storage solutions, such as One Drive, Google Drive and Dropbox. My Learning supports over 150 file types, providing students with the opportunity to create a wide range of content and demonstrate their learning in the way they choose.

Content Library

As well as a wide range of free content, the Content Library provides Single Sign On (SSO) to the educational content already in use in the school. This functionality saves valuable learning time that may otherwise be wasted through students having multiple web addresses, usernames and passwords to remember. Also, QR codes provide instant access to content, which is particularly helpful for younger learners.

YouTube and Flickr

A huge array of filtered images are instantly available through the Flickr integration tool and YouTube videos can be easily accessed and downloaded directly into My Learning, all within a safe and secure, monitored environment.

Productivity Tools

Google Apps for Education and Office 365 are both available for students and teachers to integrate into their dashboards, again with SSO to further streamline and enhance the learning process. Other tools can be easily integrated, as required.

Social Media Plug-ins

Schools can easily plug in their existing social media feeds, such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and parents are encouraged to participate in these conversations!

Secure Collaboration Tools

Chatrooms and multimedia forums can be set up and moderated by teachers, providing students with a safe, dynamic environment in which they can perfect their online collaboration skills, whilst deepening their understanding of subject content.

Repository

As part of the learning ecosystem, all GEMS teachers have access to an area where they can share their planning, resources and innovations, helping to ensure that the most outstanding practice becomes the norm in all schools and for all teachers.

It is recognised that the impact of any system is reliant on the capabilities and engagement of the users. Teacher professional development is, therefore, at the heart of the GEMS Digital Strategy and a full programme of initial and continuous training and support for GEMS teachers is on-going. Along with the high degree of personal ownership given to all users, we hope that everyone will enjoy and engage fully in the My Learning experience.

Schools will continue to work with parents to ensure a smooth transition to the new system and, as always, we welcome your feedback as we strive to constantly improve the personalised experience for all users.

Innovation and the case for optimism

Global education is on the brink of true transformation and we have more reason for optimism than ever before.

Governments, companies and other organisations around the world are scrambling to embed a culture of innovation. Being ‘innovative by default’ and developing a ‘culture of innovation’ seem to be the must have phrases for the modern vision statement - and with good reason. I don’t believe it is a buzzword or just another global fad, even if it is already becoming something of a cliché. On the contrary, we are at a stage now where innovation is the key to survival, not just in education and business, but also for humankind.

What is Innovation?

“Innovation is the multi-stage process whereby organisations transform ideas into new/improved products, service or processes, in order to advance, compete and differentiate themselves successfully in their marketplace.” (Baregheh et al, 2009)

Contrary to most dictionary definitions, which tend to stress only the need for something ‘new’, in reality, innovations have to add value to be worthwhile. They must make a positive contribution to our lives, otherwise they will not gain traction and be scaled to the point of sustained normality. Innovations don’t have to involve new technologies, but they do have to make a positive difference.

Innovation in Education

“The United Arab Emirates Vision 2021 has education as its foundation, both explicitly and implicitly. Vision 2021 includes aspirations for citizenship, a spirit of entrepreneurship, enhanced educational attainment, and a knowledge-based economy driven by innovation, research, science and technology. The realisation of these aspirations requires a world-class education system, responsive to national needs and aligned to international standards.”

-          UAE School Inspection Framework for 2015/16

Arguably for the first time, we have a school inspection framework that explicitly recognises and values the need to teach our students to be innovative and for schools to model innovation in providing learners with authentic skills for life and work. I believe this is very good news for our children as it represents a real driver for positive curriculum and pedagogical innovation that will, ultimately, better prepare students for the future.

We must be very clear about the rationale and predicted outcomes whenever major changes are made to the education of our children. Our young learners only get once chance and we need to make it count. So, as the innovation drive inevitably begins to filter down into schools and their curriculum offerings, we should be certain about what we are trying to achieve - and why. 

I believe there are at least five key reasons why we need to innovate in our offering to students, whilst also empowering our young people to become innovators throughout their lives.

1.       The need for something more

Firstly, competition for places in higher education institutions, as well as positions with employers is more intense than ever and, faced with a flood of students who all have the same top grades in public examinations, companies, colleges and universities are looking for additional indicators of achievement. Authentic links with industry, internships, elective qualifications, MOOCs and the Maker Movement are becoming normal provision in today’s innovative schools. Such opportunities go beyond the Community, Action, Service (CAS) program in IB schools and Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) in the English curriculum. These programs undoubtedly add value to students’ prospects, but schools now recognise the need to provide an even greater range of authentic routes to educational development and enhancement of life skills.

The University of Kent in the UK has produced a list of skills that employers want, based on a number of surveys on the skills required by graduates undertaken by Microsoft, Target Jobs, the BBC, Prospects, NACE, AGR and other organisations:

1.  Verbal communication

2.  Teamwork

3.  Commercial Awareness

4.  Analysing & Investigating

5.  Initiative & self-motivation

6.  Drive

7.  Written communication

8.  Planning & organising

9.  Flexibility

10. Time management

11. Global skills (including appreciation of other cultures)

12. Negotiating & persuading

13. Numeracy

14. Computing skills

15. Self-awareness

16. Confidence / personal impact

17. Lifelong learning

18. Stress tolerance

19. Integrity

20. Independence

21. Professionalism

22. Action planning

23. Decision-making

24. Interpersonal sensitivity

25. Creativity

This certainly bears little correlation with traditional subject-based curricula offered in most schools today, which is why schools must continue to engage in innovative, hopefully transformative, curriculum design to provide students with a much broader and relevant range of skills, values and attributes.

The clear message from industry is that today’s students need outstanding examination results and a whole lot more.

2.       Every child really does matter

Choice within the curriculum is the key to providing students with the opportunity to achieve their potential in their areas of strength and interest. I believe that every child is gifted and has the right to have their gifts nurtured to develop into talents that will serve them with optimal impact in the future.

I am wary of gifted and talented programs because, for the most part, such initiatives tend to direct resources to developing the skills of a minority of students in a narrowly-defined view of what is valuable. Whilst I agree that our best mathematicians, scientists and linguists should be extended, I also believe that every other child deserves the same attention and opportunity, whatever their gifts may be. Only then can every child aspire to self-fulfilment and lead a happy and successful life, making a positive contribution to a society in which full employment and universal self-actualisation are the norms. Personalisation of curriculum and learning opportunities is a key innovation that we must continue to develop. This starts by recognising the teacher’s vital role, in partnership with parents, in identifying the gifts and potential of every child and ensuring those gifts are nurtured.

Of course, this assumes that all children have access to education which, tragically, is not the case. The latest statistics from UNESCO suggest that “124 million children and young adolescents, roughly between the ages of 6 and 15 years, have either never started school or have dropped out.” The quest for equality of opportunity is fundamental to the future prosperity of humankind and, having so badly missed the Millennium Goals, we will need to find new ways to ensure that every child has access to a quality education.  This will require a multi-faceted approach, involving online and blended solutions, closer collaboration between policy-makers globally, innovative infrastructure projects, hardware development and teacher training and recruitment. This is achievable. Organisations such as the Varkey Foundation are already making a difference in teacher training and Google’s Project Loon is about to bring complete Internet coverage to its first whole country, Sri Lanka, where only 1 in 5 people are currently connected. Those 124 million children may not all be learning in brick and mortar schools in the future, but there is growing cause for optimism that innovative online access solutions are being found, with the potential to transform individual life chances, the global economy and, ultimately, political stability and cooperation.

3.       Digital skills

The development of digital skills is now a non-negotiable. These skills are explicitly recognised in the UAE inspection framework and research from around the world consistently reinforces the importance of a digitally capable workforce. For example, the UK Digital Skills Taskforce Beta Edition July 2014 Interim Report suggests that well over half the workforce requires digital skills that extend beyond the basic skills of digital citizenship and that over 90% of jobs require at least those basic digital literacies. And that was last year. It has never been clearer that today’s students require at least a basic level of digital competency, in much the same way that they require basic literacy and numeracy skills – perhaps more so. Schools will need to continue to develop digital workflow skills in all students to help them become accomplished, independent and adaptable digital learners. Moreover, the data suggest that many will require a much higher level of creative competence to flourish in the digital age. 

4.       Entrepreneurship

Students are already aspiring not to become mere employees, but the entrepreneurs and employers of the future. Today’s world presents opportunities for entrepreneurs on an unprecedented scale, not least because of the wide availability of online crowdfunding for startups, such as Kickstarter. No longer is it necessary to seek funding from traditional sources to bring an innovation to market and build a business. Knowing how to do this will become a key component of school curricula in the years to come.  It is essential that schools continue to expand provision in this area, through targeted programs, authentic links with industry and integration of entrepreneurial skills within the subject-based curriculum. Youth unemployment is a major threat to economic and political stability throughout the world. Educating students to get jobs will not create the billions of new jobs that will be needed globally in the coming decades. Educating students to become confident, capable and adaptable entrepreneurs will help to solve this issue and lead to a more prosperous, peaceful future.  

5.       Saving the world

And that leads to the final, most important reason for innovation in schools today. The world is facing unprecedented challenges, including global warming, pollution, deforestation, clean energy needs, endangered species, hunger, preventable diseases, lack of safe drinking water, child exploitation, inter-cultural tension, refugee crises and fragmented, unpredictable political upheaval on a global scale.

As never before, our children will need to be able to identify problems, creating and implementing effective solutions. The difference between now and the past is that so many past innovations have not been necessary for our survival – now they are.

Cars, aeroplanes, television, computers, tumble dryers, disposable nappies (diapers, to my transatlantic friends), plastic bottles, iPads and digital music collections are all ‘nice-to-haves’ but they were never, arguably, things we needed – certainly not in terms of ensuring the very existence of our planet and species. Indeed, many have contributed to the problems we now face. Today, there is a need to innovate simply to save our planet from ourselves. Of course this will be anything but simple, but one thing is certain- the future is in the hands of our young people, our future political and business leaders, scientists, engineers, doctors and all citizens.

Right now, therefore, it is firmly in the hands of schools, teachers and parents.

The solutions to many of these problems will be technological, but many will rely on policies formed by future leaders of countries and global organisations.  The formation of such world-saving policies will require innovation, vision, creativity, courage, risk-taking and high level skills in critical thinking, diplomacy, negotiation, influencing, empathy and inter-cultural understanding, as well as the STEM skills needed to design and implement technological solutions.

One of the goals of the UAE Vision 2021 is to be among the top 20 countries by 2021 as ranked by PISA and here, once more, there is cause for optimism for educators and students. 

Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), oversees the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and has recently stated:

 “The world is certainly becoming increasingly ambiguous and volatile. But I believe people have probably always struggled with change. What is new is that the kind of things that are easy to teach and easy to test—the kind of routine cognitive skills—are also easy to digitize, automate and outsource. We find ourselves in the same situation that people with routine skills found themselves in during the Industrial Revolution. A lot of people are losing their jobs because the kind of ways we used to work and think are no longer relevant. That’s what the digital revolution does to many of the skills that are very well established in education today.

The question is: how do we respond to this? How do we equip people with the skills that are essential in the modern world? Not as an alternative to disciplinary contexts, in my view. You can teach creativity in mathematics, problem-solving in mathematics, social skills in mathematics. We need to think about what kind of skills we want to develop—and how to use established disciplines to develop these skills.

“Human beings are certainly connected in a way they have never been connected before, and I wonder if success in this day and age might require a form of empathy that hasn’t been required before. Economic success today is very much about you being able to collaborate, compete and connect with people. It requires the capacity to see the world through different lenses, to appreciate different value systems, to respect different cultures. And those people who are able to do that will find their way through this kind of world. Those people who struggle with this will see the world as threatening to them; they will see globalization as something happening to them, rather than them being part of it.”

The unprecedented influence of PISA on educational policy globally has been well-documented, so it is welcome that the assessments are evolving to encompass a far broader range of skills. Whilst I don’t necessarily agree with the approach of incorporating these skills within the existing hierarchy of traditional subjects (I prefer the more innovative curriculum model proposed by Marc Prensky), it does seem that PISA’s direction of travel has the potential to begin relieving some of the tension between traditional, archaic assessments and the need to develop a creative, relevant curriculum that truly meets the needs of all 21^st Century learners.

In the 2012 PISA round, optional tests in creative problem-solving and financial literacy were introduced in some countries. The 2015 assessments included collaborative problem-solving tasks, requiring negotiation and consensus building. We now have a strong indication that future assessments will go even further in assessing what may be recognised as ‘21^st Century Skills’ and we know that this development work is already underway.

The value of so-called ‘soft’ skills has never been greater and Schleicher’s recognition of empathy as a key skill is, again, welcome. It would be helpful to stop referring to skills such as empathy, emotional intelligence, consensus building, conflict resolution, collaboration, negotiation, etc. as ‘soft’ skills, as this invariably devalues their importance. If, as Prensky argues, we place these vital skills at the heart of our curricula – and find a way to effectively measure them – then we may begin to see that there is nothing ‘soft’ about them. They need to be an essential element of today’s educational offering on a global scale.

The goal of education in the 21^st Century must be to equip all students with the philosophies, knowledge, skills, attributes and values that will empower and inspire them to seek not only self-actualisation and personal happiness but also a common way forward for all humanity.

It is an exciting time to work in education and, now that assessment and inspection frameworks are beginning to support what teachers and schools really believe is best for their students, rather than these frameworks acting as perceived barriers to innovation and creativity, it is also a time for great optimism.

But that optimism must be accompanied by courageous action. If we don’t get education right in the 21^st Century, there may not be a 22^nd.

Phil Redhead is Senior Manager, Digital Strategy at GEMS Education

References

Baregheh, A., Rowley, J. & Sambrook, S. (2009) Towards a multidisciplinary definition of innovation, Emerald Group Publishing Limited http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sally_Sambrook/publication/41104662_Towards_a_multidisciplinary_definition_of_innovation/links/0c96051e5a3eec5628000000.pdf

Fastcoexist.com (June 2015): Sri Lanka Will Be The First Country To Deploy Google's Balloon-Based Internet

 http://www.fastcoexist.com/3049287/sri-lanka-will-be-the-first-country-to-deploy-googles-balloon-based-internet

Prensky, M. (2014) The World Needs a New Curriculum: http://marcprensky.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Prensky-5-The-World_Needs_a_New_Curriculum.pdf

Schleicher, A. (23^rd July 2015) interviewed in Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ashoka/2015/07/23/the-critical-role-of-teachers-in-transforming-education-systems/

Times Educational Supplement (7^th August 2015) https://www.tes.co.uk/news/school-news/breaking-news/sixth-formers-turn-extended-projects-win-top-university-places

UK Digital Skills Taskforce (2014) Beta Edition July 2014 Interim Report http://policy.bcs.org/sites/policy.bcs.org/files/Interim%20report.pdf

UNESCO (July 2015) POLICY PAPER 22 / FACT SHEET 31: http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/fs-31-out-of-school-children-en.pdf

United Arab Emirates School Inspection Framework 2015-16 – Not published

University of Kent:  What are the top ten skills that employers want? http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/top-ten-skills.htm [Accessed 13 August 2015]

Defining Innovation: Normalising the New

An innovation may be defined as an original idea or approach that improves practice, creating or adding value to the realisation of desired outcomes.

Two levels of innovation are proposed for any organization seeking to remain viable: internal and external:

Internal Innovation is a new approach or practice that adds demonstrable value and which, whilst it may have already been seen elsewhere, has not yet been visible or scaled within the organisation. As it is new to the organisation, or not yet normal practice, then it may still be classified as innovation.

External Innovation is an original practice, which has demonstrable impact, or the potential to deliver such impact, and is truly unique to the organisation.

It is essential that we distinguish these types of innovation to ensure we are clear as to where we are really innovating and developing Unique Selling Points on the one hand or merely keeping up on the other.

This is not to say that internal innovations do not have value. Indeed, they are essential to ensure the future viability of the organisation. They should, however, be seen for what they are – playing catch up or keeping pace rather than truly leading. There is an essential role to be played here by any R&D function, in ensuring employees are aware of effective global practice, both in education and business processes, and also by those charged with facilitating the sharing and scaling of the most effective existing and emerging internal innovations.

Measuring Innovation

Whether an innovation is internal or external, its true value lies in its potential to be scaled to the point of normality.

Everyone has an iPad (or tablet).

Everyone has a TV.

Everyone has a mobile phone – kids don’t even call them mobiles; they’re just phones.

These pure, technological innovations have been successful.

Question: What makes them successful innovations?

Answer: Once they were new and now they are normal.

In fact, objective measurement of their impact may be irrelevant – the customers have decided that the innovations add value and they have flocked. Competitors have ‘built on’ the innovations, e.g. Samsung’s phones and tablets all look like Apple products (not without a fair amount of litigation along the way, of course).

So a good measure of effective innovation may be imitation – i.e. viral, global reproduction at scale by competitors (or internally across the group). It should be noted that viral scaling is the opposite of forced scaling, which includes misguided, top-down decisions by policy-makers.  What identifies viral scaling is willing, active and independently-driven adoption by end users, e.g. teachers, students and parents.  Flipped Classroom methodology may be seen as an example of a successful, viral innovation, while Interactive (or ‘Inactive’) Whiteboards an example of misguided policy across districts / authorities.

It is also worth making two points about the Flipped Classroom, which should be kept in mind as we move forward.

Firstly, the concept is far from new. Public schools in the UK and universities globally have set pre-reading for centuries – for as long as they have existed, in fact. This empowered students and teachers to spend their face-to-face time more effectively, engaging in creative, reflective activities and discussions higher up Bloom’s. The only real innovation in the modern Flipped Classroom movement is that technology has been brought to bear in both the format and platform of content delivery - so this is a new iteration of an existing effective practice, rather than an entirely new concept (those are extremely rare).      

Secondly, as Mal Lee and Roger Broadie (2015) have noted, the research that proves the impact comes after the innovation, not before.  In the digital age, it is the end users driving the change, not the researchers. This necessitates an acceptance by all that risks must be taken and encouraged as part of the culture of the organisation. The world is now moving too quickly and the once safe option of waiting for researchers and policy-makers to inform effective practice is no longer a viable approach for schools and organisations looking to remain competitive and provide the best for their students and stakeholders.

Is being replaced by:

See http://schoolevolutionarystages.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2015-Taxonomy-of-School-Evolutionary-Stages.pdf for more on this.

This, of course, makes it essential that we build the capacity and culture for sustained innovation, rather than simply looking at quick fixes/wins/stories. It is this culture that will put organisations ahead and keep them viable. By definition, a cultural transformation impacts and includes everyone and will be partly organic. We can, however, genetically engineer this organic change, by implementing a clearly communicated vision and strategy, visibly and continuously reinforced by all business and HR processes.

Viral adoption is a good indicator of effective innovation, so we must empower the end users to drive the process. This empowerment must be an aim of all systems and working practices going forward if schools and organisations are to ensure their future competitiveness and effectiveness.

Assessing whether ‘the new will become normal’, when driven by the end user, may be the key to identifying future successful innovations.   

A story of transformation in a GEMS school

This reflection from Rebecca Dickinson, Head of ELL at GEMS Royal Dubai School, is a great example of how we have to step back and change our whole approach to teaching and learning - rather than just adding rockets to a tractor!

Innovating for Excellence

A Story of Innovation, Improvement and Excellence: GEMS Royal Dubai School English Language Learners

GEMS Royal Dubai School is an English National Curriculum school of over 1000 students, ages 3-11, many of whom are bilingual learners.  When I became Head of English Language Learning in 2012, I was keen to make sure the children received the very best education possible, so I began looking at how we could improve provision for all our English Language Learners (ELLs).

Journey

Through my own curiosity, coaching and personal research, I saw the potential of using mobile digital technology for students who have very little English, specifically through the use of iPads. I presented my classroom research and was allocated 8 iPads for the new department. Over the next few years, through the natural growth in numbers of English Language Learners, more staff members were added to the team and they brought with them their expertise and confidence in using other digital tools.

The structure of support came from Mark Stone, our Digital Learning Coach, and I ensured that each member of the team had time to receive weekly coaching. This level of 1:1 support was, and remains, both uplifting and powerful. It allowed for individual creativity and time to discuss ways of making our teaching – and the children’s learning - more exciting. Underpinning this was the intrinsic motivation of each team member and the confidence in their own abilities to use their newfound skills, sharing them through whole team planning meetings. As each member became more confident, our passion to share our work grew ever stronger and out of this grew our ELL blogs, which have been a great success.

Very soon, multiple sessions were being taught simultaneously, student numbers were up, resources were spread thinly and we realised that the only way forward would be for the students to bring their own iPads into school (Bring Your Own iPad or BYOI). I arranged a workshop for the parents to explain the benefits. Initially, I only invited students from Years 1 to 6 to take part, however, I soon extended it to Foundation Stage (FS) as well.  Parents saw the blog posts about the initiative, or had older children taking part, and I received many emails from FS parents wanting to participate. We found that the students were excited to share their favourite apps with their friends, providing opportunities for speaking and listening that were not anticipated. We quickly found that, because the children had their iPads both at school and home, the parents became much more aware of, and ‘in tune’ with, their children’s learning.

Previously, we informed parents of their child’s learning by writing in a learning diary, one for every child for every ELL session, and, as our numbers grew, this task became more difficult to complete and to maintain consistency. Once we started blogging, it became a quick and seamless cycle of teaching, learning and reflecting. Sharing the blogs with parents and showing them how to use them to access their own child’s learning had an immediate impact on a daily basis, allowing parents to share the photographs of their children to extended family across the globe.

Parents are now given lists of recommended apps and digital tools for their children’s year group topic, or to support their child with a particular area of learning. For the older students, it allows them to make informed choices about which apps and websites they wish to use, helping them to becoming effective thinkers and more able to support their own learning. Our ELL parents now very rarely attend teacher parent conferences because they are frequently and consistently updated about their child’s learning.

Curriculum and Assessment Re-design

From Year 2 upwards the team encourages the students to share what they have learned on any platform they prefer. They choose different tools to complete their ‘Mini – Missions’, including Powtoon, Prezi, iMovie trailer, Comic Life, Google docs, Voki and, in Key Stage 2, their own individual blogs. Using Google has proved to be a powerful tool for collaboration and students have built meaningful and effective relationships with their peers by working together online.

Topics are planned using a rubric that provides interest and variety, with scaffolded support to allow for learning without walls. In Upper Key stage 2, the planning is shared with the students and parents together in learning workshops. They both have access to the planning at all times through Google Docs and they are actively encouraged to add their own ideas by adding comments. Within the structure of the learning rubrics, the students are given continuous support and formative feedback to allow them to make their own decisions about their learning. Through a project- based approach, they are learning new skills and gaining confidence through collaboration, giving them the tools to transfer their learning into the classroom.

It is the students’ responsibility to track their own progress, selecting which level they want to start from and modifying the success criteria based on what they achieve for each Mini-Mission (learning outcome). The students are learning to be more self-regulated and are intrinsically motivated to learn. Ultimately, they are more aware of their accomplishments. As the ELL team only sees the students for a few hours a week, they inform us of the different stages of their learning through Google Classroom, email or posting on their blogs. Students come voluntarily to the department at break times and often stop me in the corridors to tell me about their learning.

Students are invited to try out websites, apps and games that are new to the support staff, giving valuable feedback. On one occasion, a child in Year 6 shared what she had been doing at home with her sister on Minecraft. She explained how it had supported her with her learning, so together we added it to the learning rubric as a Mini - Mission and the students began to teach me how to use Minecraft so that I could understand the skills involved in the revised success criteria that she had written by herself. Out of this sparked a passion that I had never witnessed in school before and the spoken language that I observed during this task far exceeded what I expected or planned for; it inspired me to blog about the power of Minecraft in the classroom and led onto a different path for the topic.

Impact

Since using this new approach to teaching and learning, the data that we have generated from vocabulary assessments indicates that, on average, the ELL children were able to double their previous rates of progress. One child’s vocabulary (in Year 5) increased by 5 years and 4 months in one year - far exceeding our expectations.  A year later, she now has the vocabulary age of a 14 year old and no longer needs additional support. Most noticeably, we have seen huge improvements in spoken language. Students who were previously apprehensive are now more willing to discuss their ideas and talk about their achievements and are more active in their home learning. I believe that if a child can’t say it then they shouldn’t be asked to write it, so this is a valuable part of the learning process.

We have now built such a reputation within the community that parents with ELL children apply for school places here because they have heard about our language support. English speakers, siblings and friends of students receiving our support beg me to let them come to ELL!

“ELL helps you to learn about different things that you’ve never heard of”. Sama Year 5.

Using a combination of modern pedagogy, innovative curriculum design, effective assessment and technology, has provided us with the stepping stones to fulfilled, happy students, who enjoy and understand what they are learning. The children have told us that they believe the key to their success is that they are allowed to learn rather than being taught!

Being able to innovate educational experiences for our students has taken me on an inspirational learning journey. I have been able to take a step back and look at what skills the students really need. In doing so, I stopped doing what was expected and what wasn’t working. My students are living and breathing in the 21st Century. In a world where advances in technology are rapidly accelerating, the human brain is evolving. As facilitators of learning, we need to catch up.

I believe we all need to do things differently to make a difference. Innovation and improvement don’t happen without change.

Rebecca Dickinson, Head of English Language Learning, GEMS Royal Dubai School

Beat Summer Learning Loss!

This is the main article for the Digitz Section of GEMS Family Magazine Issue 5. I have attempted to provide some guidance to parents on ways to use digital effectively over the summer and avoid the extremes of banning it altogether at one end and kids doing nothing else at the other!

Summer’s here, so let’s keep learning!

We shouldn’t allow digital devices to dominate the summer months, but we can help our children to embrace the unprecedented opportunities that now exist to maintain and extend their learning in the digital world.

‘Summer Learning Loss’ is a well-recognised phenomenon and it is important that we keep our children’s minds and bodies active over the long holiday.  Research shows that students can lose up to two months’ learning each year and that the rate of weight gain can increase by two or three times! Also, half the achievement gap in reading can be attributed to summer learning loss, so it is vital that students keep on reading throughout the break.

With an active, learning mindset, the summer holiday can provide an opportunity for our young people to not only consolidate and extend their school-based learning, but also further personalise their learning journeys by pursuing interests that may not be covered in the curriculum. There is a great opportunity to read new books and more texts by favourite and similar authors, or explore new genres not yet discovered. An early trip to a bookshop to stock up can work wonders! Family outings to museums, art galleries, exhibitions, events and other attractions can all extend learning, whilst enriching current interests and sowing the seeds of new ones. Summer camps, clubs and programmes can also help to keep children engaged, as well as maintaining a learning focus and familiar routine.  

Of course, we all know our young ones love their TVs, gaming consoles, tablets, phones and computers, and there is a risk that screen time may increase significantly over the course of a long school break. We must be careful not to let these devices become babysitters, dominating our children’s activities and being their main or only learning tool or means of social interaction. So balance is, as always, key and, as a rule of thumb, three hours a day screen time should be seen as an upper limit, with a gap of at least an hour before bed.   

With all this in mind, how can we ensure that time spent on devices is productive and contributes to our children’s learning and positive development?     

From academic revision and extension, to life skills and new interests, here are ten ways to help our children keep on learning and hit the ground running in September, coming back stronger than ever!

1.         Learn to Code

It has been said that coding is the new Rock’n’Roll! Just as great musicians constantly work hard, create and strive to improve, coders and programmers must display these important qualities if they are to be successful.

We recommend:

http://www.codecademy.com/  - Codeacademy

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/sites-to-learn-coding-online/ - list of other great coding sites

2.         Learn to Cook

In the age of fast food, take-aways and eating out, cooking is often an under-rated life skill. And yet, we know how highly rated this skill can be in social circles, as well as helping us to understood the relationship between food and our health. We are what we eat! Cooking together as a family also promotes quality interactions and develops mathematical and literacy skills - with no small amount of creativity and innovation thrown in for good measure. You don’t have to follow the recipe!

We recommend:

http://www.greatbritishchefs.com/apps/great-british-chefs-kids - Cooking With Kids

3.         Take a ‘MOOC’

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are now widely available for K-12 students as well as adult learners. Why not take a MOOC yourself and compare progress with your kids? It’s a great way to learn independent, collaborative and online study skills, as well as the course content itself. By definition, most MOOCS are free, although there may be a charge for a certificate. We are living in competitive times, when universities, colleges and employers are faced with a huge supply of candidates, all with similar qualifications. So, a student having a range of MOOCs under their belt has a great way to differentiate their applications.

Learn more about MOOCs:

http://www.kars4kids.org/blog/why-kids-should-mooc/ - Why kids should MOOC

We recommend:

http://www.moocs.co/K-12_MOOCs.html - for a comprehensive list of course providers.

4.         eBooks

Whilst there may be nothing quite so relaxing as sitting down with a real book on holiday, there are also real benefits to students stocking up their tablets or phones with their own holiday libraries. eBooks are readily available anytime, anywhere, are often free, and they are easy to carry around (on one device) if you are travelling over the summer. The only real drawback is that they shouldn’t be read at bedtime, as there is a lot of evidence to suggest that screen time in the hour before sleep can have a serious impact on health.

There are many online book stores in addition to the well-known Apple, Google and Amazon stores.

Also recommended:

http://www.ebooks.com/ - general site, so parents should monitor downloads

  

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-childrens-ebooks-online.htm - list of sites providing free books for children – legally!

5.         Visit a museum – virtually!

Almost all of the most famous museums around the world have fantastic websites and many have virtual tours available online. If you can’t get there in real life, exploring these sites is a great way to consolidate, revise and extend learning from school or explore new interests. It can also be a fun family activity, especially if your children are lucky enough to be visiting the museum in real life later as part of their summer itinerary. Inspiration taken from these tours could lead to creations of models and other art work at home.

We recommend:

  

http://www.si.edu/ - The Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC. The tagline is ‘Simply Amazing’ – and it is!

http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/ - The J. Paul Getty Museum, including a great video playlist!

https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/online_tours.aspx - The British Museum

http://www.louvre.fr/en/visites-en-ligne - The Louvre, Paris

6.         Social Media

As we know, many GEMS students will be travelling the world this summer, perhaps exploring new shores or visiting relatives in their home countries. In the past, this often meant losing touch with friends for up to two whole months. Mobile video chat tools, such as Skype, and a whole range of social media tools mean that students can stay connected with friends, sharing their global experiences in real time.

For the older ones, they will do this naturally and already have their ‘go to’ tools. We should encourage this connectedness, whilst continuing the family dialogue of appropriate use and balance. For the younger ones, keeping in touch through Skype (speaking and listening) and email (reading and writing) is also valuable. For a review of safe social networks for younger children, see:

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/safe-chat-rooms-and-social-sites-for-kids# - Review of social media sites for younger children

7.         Gaming

Children and teens playing computer games often gets a bad press, largely due to the fear of addiction or simply the view that it is not a productive use of time.  Of course, we should be wary of too much time spent gaming and some games are more appropriate and beneficial than others, but we should also be careful not to send the message to our children that we disapprove of the activity. Indeed, there are significant benefits to be realised from gaming.

When NASA astronaut and Space Shuttle Commander Barry Wilmore visited GEMS schools in the UAE, a young student asked him: “What should I do to become an astronaut?”

His reply? “Study hard, take a science or engineering degree and play video games – lots of video games!”

Computer games and gaming apps have been shown to improve key skills, such as resilience, critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, global awareness, collaboration, communication and creativity. Tests are currently being developed to assess such skills via online games and these could form part of formal school assessments in the not too distant future.

One of the most popular games around is Minecraft, a creative, ‘open-world’ game, and parents whose children are into this should be very pleased! The opportunities provided by Minecraft to learn the skills mentioned above are impressive – and kids love it! There is a cost attached to the full version but most people who have played the game would agree it represents great value for money. Parents of younger students should get involved in the activity and monitor their children, as not all content is suitable and online interactions may be involved. Used appropriately, though, it is fantastic!

For more, see:

https://minecraft.net/

8.         Keep fit with ‘Exergaming’

Gaming consoles such as Kinect for X-Box, PlaystationMove and WiiFit can keep kids fit even if they are stuck in the house. It is estimated that some of the games available, such as tennis, dancing and boxing, provide equivalent cardio results to the same time spent on a treadmill and with the added benefit of improving coordination. Even less energetic games, such as bowling and golf, have been seen to have a positive impact on fitness. Apps such as ‘Pop Flux’ for younger children can run on phones and tablets, using the camera on the device as a sensor, and even be mirrored to a large screen through an Apple TV, without the need for a console. My own boys (4 and 2) love this!           

9.         School subscriptions and digital content

Students will have been using a range of digital learning content provided by their school, throughout the academic year. Much of this content will continue to be accessible online throughout the summer so that students can continue to explore and learn at their own pace. The children will know what they have been using and should be encouraged, but not forced, to keep using these resources. For younger children, it is recommended that parents contact the school to ensure they know what is available. For GEMS schools that now have access to the ‘MyLearning’ Virtual Environment, the students will be to continue accessing great learning throughout the summer, via the Content Library.

10.       Explore new apps, sites and media to keep on learning

There are literally thousands of great mobile apps and websites for children to hone their skills in reading, writing, mathematics and other traditional subjects. Choosing the most effective ones, however, can be a challenge. Fortunately, help is at hand, with trustworthy review sites such as Common Sense Media providing comprehensive lists of apps, websites and other media, along with ratings for learning effectiveness and age recommendations.

Explore further here:

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ - reviews of apps, sites and other media

They even have their own summer learning guide – enjoy!

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/guide/summer-learning-guide

Footnote: space prevented inclusion of many more suggestions, such as learning a new language or how to write music and play an instrument as part of a global orchestra! I would welcome suggestions from students, parents and teachers if I have omitted your favourite site, app or area of learning!