Brians Blog ....... a view from the prep room

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I gave a short in-service to the Biology department about ALBA data loggers on Friday afternoon. We have had data loggers in the department for a while but few staff have had the time to discover just what can be done with them.

I explained what all the components were, briefed the staff on what the different sensors looked like, how to connect them to, and run the software on, a laptop and then demonstrated three experiments.

The first was very simple one using the Carbon Dioxide (CO2) sensor to measure the difference in levels of the gas in inhaled and exhaled air. It takes only a few seconds and the resulting bar graph gives a great visual representation of the increased levels of CO2 in the exhaled air.

For the second demonstration I simulated a biology practical in which the enzyme catalase is investigated, the end product being oxygen. I used the oxygen sensor to detect an increase in oxygen level in a plastic container.

The alba data loggers have the capacity for up to four sensors to be used at the same time so for the third demo I used a combination of the oxygen and carbon dioxide sensors to show how respiration effects the levels of these gases in a sealed container.

To finish off I showed how the loggers could be used in their remote mode. This feature enables them to be disconnected from the PC and so can be left in a variety of locations to capture data over a period of time. I had left an experiment to run the previous evening, so demonstrated how to download saved data and how to produce a graph from the information that was remotely gathered over a period of ten hours.

As the session went on the Biology staff came up with interesting and novel ways of integrating the use of the data loggers into the syllabus, with some of them realising that they are not as difficult to use as they previously thought.

Hopefully the technology will get more use now and enhance the already excellent learning and teaching experience currently had by the pupils that visit the biology department of Musselburgh Grammar School.

I met with Ewan McIntosh at lunchtime. When I was at the GLOW mentors meeting last week I had mentioned, in general conversation, that our Chemistry department was starting up a Chemistry club. He came up with all kinds of suggestions and ideas with regard to new media/multimedia so I said I would mention some of them when I got back to school. I asked the teachers involved what they thought and we all had a meeting. The staff came up with some cracking ideas, so watch this space and see what happens !!!!!

This afternoon I received a report from the Scottish Executive Education Department that contains a national survey carried out with regard to CPD and related activities for technical support staff. All 32 local authorities were contacted and asked to complete the survey form. In authorities where there was a central technical support team, meetings were arranged and heads of technician services were interviewed. In local authorities with no central service an appropriate member of HQ staff of sufficient experience was identified and interviewed or issued with a survey form to complete.

In cases where neither of the above scenarios existed an experienced school based technician was asked to complete the form. With regard to East Lothian we didnt fall into either of the first two catagories so I tried to fill in as much of the data as I could but couldn’t find out any information regarding recruitment policy, formulae for staffing levels, levels of technical support in primaries or any information as to who is actually in charge of the technician service in East Lothian. In the end 30 councils fully or partially completed the survey forms.

I had a quick scan through the interim report and it seems that many councils are on the ball, others have let things slide since local government reorganisation in 1996 and some have left their technician services to languish in no mans land, unsure of whose in charge and what they should be doing. I will read through the more detailed report and no doubt some of the issues that it raises will appear as posts here very shortly.

I attended the East Lothian GLOW mentors meeting in Prestonpans yesterday.

There was a presentation by Learning and Teaching Scotland about how the GLOW project is progressing and we were given some idea of the timescales regarding when GLOW will be made available and also given some idea as to when our training as mentors would begin.

The dates will not be set in stone and I guess with such an ambitious project such as GLOW it must be expected that the timelines will slip to the right a little.

It is hoped that GLOW mentors will be able to access the portal in November for about a month to enable us to familiarise ourselves with all its components.It should then reappear in January with more tools and applications to be assessed and “played” with.

Our training as mentors will take place in the Stirling Management centre and will last approx 2.5 days and will cover subjects such as sharing practice, a curriculum for excellence workshops and the theory of co coaching. It is expected that training for the 600 or so GLOW mentors will take place from May next year.

Don Ledingham then gave a talk about his vision including East Lothian Schools, learning and teaching and the future. Having reads Dons Blog, posted comments, and written in this blog about a topic he had blogged about I was interested in hearing what he had to say, rather than reading it in print. I liked what I heard. At no time did I feel like I was being patronised and I genuinely believe Dons philosophy with regard to community, management attitudes and the future will be a great asset to East Lothian Council.

We worked in groups after lunch and continued to shape the strategies which will affect how GLOW is handled within East Lothian, and the feeling of excitement amongst the GLOW mentors was almost palpable.

We are using wiki’s to put together our ideas and I will blog more about how things are going when we get things firmed up.

I got the bus home with Ewan McIntosh, after a couple of pints of Gothenburg porter, and we blethered about all kinds of stuff and the possibility of doing a couple of projects in the science department of Musselburgh Grammar School utilising multimedia technology.

All in all it was an excellent day, many thanks to Karen Robertson for organising it.

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We were told yesterday that we will be getting an interactive whiteboard in the department. We have twelve labs so a debate started on where it should go. Our labs come in a variety of shapes and sizes so it may not be suitable for some rooms. Others are not so well provided with inconveniently placed electrical sockets and there are instances where cables are tripping hazards due to the necessity of have a data projector at the full stretch of its electrical cable in able for it to be directly in front of the current whiteboards.

All our science rooms now have a data projector, none are ceiling mounted and most are used from the teachers desk at the front or precariously balanced on top of piles of books to enable it to be used correctly.

It was a bit like watching a game of pass the parcel with most people hoping that the music wouldnt stop when the package was in their hands.

I attended the learning and teaching festival at the SECC the past couple of days. It was excellent. A completely worthwhile experience. I cannot praise it highly enough. My grey matter is still processing all the information to the extent that I didn’t sleep very well last night as my head was buzzing from all the stimulation. I will post more about it once I have had a chance to make sense of it all.

GLOW was showcased at the festival, and as a mentor I attended special events with all the other mentors in Scotland and learned a whole lot more about the project. I hadn’t realised that the project will be a first for Scotland. Its never been tried before anywhere in the world, and if the professionalism, dedication, and organisational abilities of all the GLOW staff and their partners at RM is anything to go by then it will be an amazing success. It truly will affect everyone who works in Scottish education and I am extremely happy to be given the chance to be associated with it.

During the course of the two days East Lothian Council was mentioned a few times. At a presentation given to all the, approximately 600, GLOW mentors the Wiki which has been set up for the collaboration of the East Lothian mentors was identified as one of the ways which local authorities are getting ready for GLOW’s implementation.

People that I met were also very complimentary about the contribution made by pupils from Musselburgh Grammar School who gave a short presentation to the delegates at the learning and teaching festival. They were a credit to both their school and East Lothian Council.

In my last post I said I would try and explain how some local authorities have adapted and modernised their technical support services to meet the demand of today’s curriculum. So here goes.

When the McCrone report which modernised the terms, conditions and pay of teachers was published in 2000 it contained no reference to technical support staff. Many technicians and support staff felt aggrieved by this as the last major review of technicians pay and conditions was carried out in 1987 so approached their local authorities and asked them to implement a re grading exercise which would take into account the changes in their duties, responsibilities and working practices since the last review.

Many councils embraced the opportunity to update job descriptions and build in flexibility needed to cope with the changes in the years to come, others did not and that is why some councils are so far ahead of others when it comes to coping with needs of the modern curriculum.

Technical support staff with modern contracts now play a wider role in the support of education. As I said yesterday many are trained in basic IT skills which means that IT officers now find themselves utilised more effectively whilst the support staff in the schools look after the daily routines that can so often eat up an IT officers time. Support staff often now take care of the portable appliance testing (PAT) within schools. The money saved by having testing done “in school” can be quite considerable running into tens of thousands of pounds.

Technical support in primary schools is now quite common. As science and ICT play an ever-increasing role in primary education, technical support is becoming a necessity.

Councils that have increased levels of technical support in secondary schools have been able to offer a service to the feeder primaries. Services range from giving technical support via email, teleconferencing, phone or personal visits to running in service courses showing and explaining the use of scientific equipment to non science specialists. Not only does this save teaching staff time and therefore money, it has the added effect of fostering closer links between the institutions.

It was even reported by one delegate at last years technicians conference that nurseries were now requesting assistance from technical support staff in response to the Curriculum for Excellence.

It wouldnt take that much to set up in East Lothian and its not that expensive either.In fact having a properly organised Technical Support Service results in savings from increased efficiency through teachers and management being relieved of the many small tasks which are uneconomical for them to spend their time doing.

Don in his blog today announced that the council is to employ more IT support officers in order to gain the best benefit from the councils increased investment in ICT over the next few years which is a great forward looking move.

There are, however, other options that could be also considered. Many local councils have anticipated the future need for increased technical support by training existing technical support staff in schools to assist in the day to day administration of IT systems. Support staff in many local authorities process new hardware coming into schools and after ensuring its electrical safety record it on the schools inventory. Day to day updating of software and showing staff how to get the best of their IT equipment is also an element of their duties.

For example, I was chatting to Ollie Bray who is an acting depute Head Teacher at Musselburgh Grammar the other day and he said that he spent quite a bit of time handing out passwords etc to the new staff at the school. That’s exactly the type of task that should be carried out by technical support staff and it would free up the time of senior management.

For this to happen in East Lothian the whole system would have to be reviewed. Technicians job descriptions and contracts are nearly twenty years old and would have to be updated to take the new technology into account. The correct training would need to be identified and better links between the IT officers and technical support staff fostered.

It’s all eminently achievable in East Lothian, and the local authorities that have instigated such initiatives are currently reaping educational, economical and logistical rewards

In my next entry I will explain how some local authorities have modernised their technical support service to enable staff to support the modern curriculum and its changing needs and demands.

Received an update on the single status negotiations taking place within the council. It seems that UNISON have withdrawn from the negotiating table on advice given at a national level. As far as I am aware no further progress will be able to be taken until UNISON return to the negotiating table and agree to the councils proposals in relation to pay, grading and conditions of service. All the council employees have been waiting a few years, lets hope that it wont be another few years before its resolved. Most people who I have been in communication with are frustrated and as time passes some employees are feeling quite anxious about the outcome of the whole exercise.

On a more positive note my master key arrived today. It was supplied by FES to our senior depute and I signed for it at lunchtime.

This means I should be able to access all the areas I need to access to be able to perform my duties without running up and down the stairs all day like a mad thing searching for a suitable key.

Key update – My master key doesn’t work !!

This week has flown by. The science department is always busy and industrious but seems even more so with the addition of two Newly Qualified Teachers which brings the number of staff in the department to nineteen.

Its changed out of all recognition since I started in 1987. I think at the time the school roll was under 800. There were around seven science teachers with two science technicians.Now the roll is around 1400 and there are seventeen science teachers in the department and still only two technicians.

I often quote the above figures in mitigation on the very rare occasions when something goes wrong, but more often than not I’m met with a blank stare. I would have thought that science teachers were quite good at maths, but hey, there you go.