Replied to a tweet by Athole (twitter.com)
Definitely part of it. But I think it’s also the culture of these digital tools. Free to use for teachers. And they offer and promise a lot. But, ethically, this is incredibly problematic. Says the man currently tweeting on an iPhone! Feels like there was more open source before

Personally I like open source & I like paying for software (hopefully I pay for FOSS by using, bug reporting & sharing). I’ve no problem tweeting from an iPhone I paid for. More problematic ‬Is how I “pay for” twitter.

Replied to Athole (twitter.com)
You really should follow Ben. Reading his research strongly influenced the way I currently about EdTech. Quick adoption of new ‘free’ tools can be a dangerous path to tread. I have been guilty of this in the past. Beware of shiny digital buttons!

Always worth thinking about what “free” means. I think there is something in the idea of teachers exploring software, finding possibilities, testing & playing with pupils and evaluating. As opposed to using software designed for education by big tech.

Replied to Athole on Twitter by Athole on Twitter (Twitter)
Back to School – Engaging with the NEW NORMAL http://throughthewindae.com/back-to-school/

Fascinating read. Going to be a very useful starting point to to thinking about August 11, albeit my circumstances are very different.  Delighted to see it coming to my RSS reader via ScotEduBlogs. Hopefully blogging is part of the new normal.

Replied to Athole on Twitter (Twitter)
Fascinating stuff: https://theconversation.com/digital-homeschooling-we-need-to-rethink-our-worries-about-childrens-screen-time-138914

Not sure about kids but spending so much of the day online is sucking the pleasure out of the digital for me. I’ve nearly always got something digitally playful on the go, daft web pages, weird image stuff, but pretty dry at the moment. I did not expect this.

Replied to Athole on Twitter (Twitter)
“@johnjohnston Why do you do a daily Teams meeting? Are they all class Teams? Do you do 1:1s too? I do a daily video message , 2 whole class video meets and two 1:1s a week. As well as all the video feedback. I’m just curious and comparing.”

Hi Athole,
Good question. I am not sure. It is the pattern I’ve fallen into. I put a weekly post of learning ideas up on our blog. The pupils respond on their e-Portfolios, occasional e-mails and in our Class Team.

I put the audio of the weekly post up.

I’ve a class of 24 p4-7, so 8 to 11 year olds.

We only have one team, we had not used Teams much before this. Just an an example of a chat app really. We used e-Portfolios a fair bit (WordPress, Glow Blogs).

I am trying to get some interaction with the class, give them some fun and encourage them to keep engaged. I’ve heard from some parents that it is motivating.

I’ve only had a maximum of 15 pupils in a meeting. I think some get bored and drop out. The environment for them all is different both physically and digitally.

During the meeting I work through a few different areas, usually look at a poem, have a quiz, do some ‘number talks’. Based on a powerpoint. It takes a lot of prep.

Our teams lacks pupil video. Which might be a good thing.

No 1-2-1s I’d not thought of that, nor heard of anyone doing them here?

I’ve not seen any local or national guidance here, so just trying things out and seeing how they go.

I’d be keen to talk about this more and obviously need to think more too.