Author: Brian Clark

What Digital Learning Might Look Like

The aim of the document is to provide examples of learning activities and how they can be incorporated into a range of contexts at early, first and second level.

The document lists the experiences and outcomes in the left-hand column with suggested learning activities in the right-hand column.

These examples are not exhaustive and are only to illustrate how educators can include the digital literacy and computing science experiences and outcomes into cross-curricular contexts.

Improvement questions

  1. How confident are you that the experiences you are providing for learners allow them to develop the skills, knowledge and understanding outlined in the curriculum guidance?
  2. Do you know the level of digital literacy learners come to you with?
  3. How confident are you when using digital technology in your lessons?
  4. How well do your learners make use of high-quality resources and equipment, including digital technologies?

View the document online, or download, here

17th Jan, 4pm iDEA – Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award

Come join us on 17th January at 4pm to learn about the free digital skills learning platform iDEA.org.uk, and their exciting new project with Digital Xtra Fund and Scottish Government to launch a Gold-level badge on digital ethics!

The Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award, known as iDEA, is helping people of all stages and ages develop digital and enterprise skills, discover new talents and gain digital confidence, for free.

There are over 80 bite-sized, interactive learning modules available to try on iDEA which have been created with industry experts and innovative employers. iDEA enables learners to showcase their skills as they earn digital badges, certificates and Awards which can be added to LinkedIn profiles, CVs and applications to help them stand out from the crowd.

iDEA has teamed up with Digital Xtra Fund and the Ethical Digital Nation team at Scottish Government to create a badge on digital ethics that aims to raise awareness of current and potential ethical issues that we all face in an increasingly digital world, to help learners gain an understanding of why digital ethics is important, and to help them develop skills and confidence to be a responsible digital citizen. Learners will even get to play the role of a Digital Ethics Consultant to advise an online start-up in the badge!

Join us to learn more about how iDEA can support you as a learner or an educator and be among the first to hear all about the new Digital Ethics Gold badge! Event attendees will also get to sign-up to beta test this badge before it is launched to the public.

Book your place here 

15 December 15:45, Private and Personal Information with Maddie is Online

As part of this free online session, Maria Bell from Mesomorphic will offer an overview of the 5th and final theme of our new series of “Maddie is Online: ethics of online safety and security” on “Private and Personal Information”. We are going to review Series 5 ‘Maddie is Online’ toolkit, pp. 65-79. The toolkit for series 4 can be found here. You can also download it as PDF. Please have the toolkit open for the session.

The concepts that will be explored include ethical considerations regarding:

  • The benefits and the potential risks of sharing personal information online addressing ethical considerations.
  • Collecting and/or sharing data about users with or without their knowledge or awareness.
  • Protecting passwords. The benefits of two factor and biometric authentication.
  • Choices and strategies to control the personal data that online services hold. Whose responsibility is it?
  • What to do if your passwords get hacked. Educating ourselves and others.

We have created two imaginative stories for that theme and one of them is titled ‘Dinner for three’. The other story is attached below.

Michael was issued with a school dinner card that needs to be topped up with money online. One day a friend of Michael asks for the card because they have forgotten their own lunch and have no money with them to buy lunch at school. Michael is happy to share his card and give his pin access number.

A few days later, however, the friend returns to Michael to say that the card was lost. Michael and his friend discuss the importance of keeping personal information private. Was it right for Michael to give his card and pin? Or should he had just ignored that his friend was hungry and offered no help? Was there anything that Michael or his friend could have done to protect their personal information or keep their personal information private?

Join us for this session to discuss what would be best for Michael and his friend, thinking about the ethics of online safety!

SIGN UP WITH THIS LINK: EventBrite sign up

 

 

About the work

“Maddie is Online: a creative learning path to ethics of online safety and security for young people” is a project funded by the Scottish Government and supported by Digital Xtra Fund.

Our purpose is to engage schools with the concepts of an Ethical Digital Nation:

“Growing as an ethical digital nation and developing trust in the way we use data and apply digital technology is a collective responsibility” (Scottish Government Ethical Digital Nation).

Why focus on ethics?

Children and young people can benefit from a greater exposure to online ideas, opportunities for learning, creativity and connectivity, but there are also causes for concern, abound in modern discussions of data ethics: they are equally vulnerable to the pitfalls and harms that can befall anyone, who is unfamiliar with safeguarding their own rights.

You can also find other previous projects via the ‘Maddie is Online’ bookshelf.

Computing Science: Skill Building CLPL for CfE Level 3

Join us for one or more computing science skill building sessions every Tuesday at 4pm for 6 weeks from 10th January.

This first set of sessions are designed to support teachers build their own knowledge and confidence in aspects of Computing Science at 3rd Level (CfE) including:

  • Coding with Scratch to create animations, simulations and games
  • Web Development with HTML and CSS

Each workshop will last 1 hour and include template resources and activities.

These workshops will suit those who are / would like to offer Computing Science experiences at 3rd Level of the BGE and would like support in developing their understanding of these topics.  Sign up to all or some of the sessions using the button at the end of this post.

 

Tuesday 10th January

  • Animating with Scratch – learn how Scratch can be used to bring a story/topic to life using code

Tuesday 17th January

  • Creating interactions with Scratch – learn how to code simple programs that interact with the user (eg quizzes)

Tuesday 24th January

  • Creating Games with Scratch – create simple games with Scratch, building on skills and knowledge from the two previous sessions.

Tuesday 31st January

  • Build a simple web page that includes text, media and links with HTML and CSS

Tuesday 7th February

  • Learn to style web pages using cascading style sheets

Tuesday 14th February

  • Create multi page websites, building on skills and knowledge from the two previous sessions.

 

Sign Up To Sessions

 

12 December 16:00, **COMPETITION** Me, Myself and AI: How does artificial intelligence impact your life **COMPETITION**

The Scottish AI Alliance have recently launched their first-ever competition for schools and are looking for schools to take part!

The Scottish AI Alliance is a partnership between The Data Lab, Scotland’s innovation centre for data science & AI, and The Scottish Government. They are tasked with the delivery of Scotland’s AI Strategy.

Scotland’s future lies with children and young people and they believe it is fundamental to include their voices in creating a better awareness of what Artificial Intelligence (AI) is and shaping AI’s future in Scotland.

It is in this spirit that they have launched ‘Me, Myself & AI’ – a competition where children and young people are challenged to investigate how AI impacts their lives and share their findings for a chance to win prizes for their class. Any output from the investigation, as long as it can be displayed on a screen, will be considered by the panel of judges. The grand prize is a class visit from their competition partners, The National Robotarium!

With competition categories for P5-P7, S1-S4, and S4+, they would love to see submissions from across the year groups and across subjects. They are happy to talk to teachers to explore how we can best support their taking part but have also prepared a Teacher Pack with background information on what AI is, how it is used and how to investigate further.

 

You can register & find the Teacher Pack using this link: https://www.scottishai.com/schools-competition

Or get in contact with them via aialliance@thedatalab.com

The competition is open until Friday 24 February. We hope you have fun investigating, and can’t wait to see the creative responses to “How does AI impact your life?”

Scottish AI Alliance (@Scottish_AI) / Twitter

Research and evidence informed practice

CLPL Home

Practitioners should:

  • Engage with the main theoretical perspectives and research in the digital learning domain.

  • Be critically aware of the evidence and impact that digital tools, spaces and cultures can have on childhood and society and how digital learning and teaching can adapt to meet the needs of learners. 

Support and Resources

Digital Education Research Articles from Imperial College
Over 60 collated articles on the topic of digital education, including: “How multimedia can improve learning and instruction”, “Using Cognitive Load Theory to improve slideshow presentations” and “Using technology to promote metacognition”

Digital learning research | Teaching and Learning and Leadership
This collection of research from the Australian Council for Educational Research includes recent papers such as “Rapid review of effective practice principles in the design and delivery of digital resources for teachers” (Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Pru Mitchell, and Jenny Trevitt) amd “What sources of data did teachers use to inform remote teaching under Covid-19?” (Anne-Marie Chase, Kathryn Richardson, and Nathanael Reinertsen)

Using Digital Technology to Improve Learning 
From 2019, the Educational Endowment Foundation set out 4 recommendations
1. Consider how technology will improve teaching and learning before introducing it
2. Technology can be used to improve the quality of explanations and modelling
3. Technology offers ways to improve the impact of pupil practice
4. Technology can play a role in improving assessment and feedback

Digital Learning and Teaching on the National Improvement Hub
This page from Education Scotland will support policy makers and practitioners from all sectors to embed digital learning and teaching across the curriculum.

Call Scotland
Call Scotland have been a Research and Development centre as well as a working Service unit since 1983, supporting teachers and learners overcome barriers to learning.  This site provides access to support and resources to enable all learners access the curriculum using digital teachnology.

 

You may wish to look at digital learning theories and approaches, such as  RAT, SAMR, TPACK, Digital Blooms, Connectivism, Design Thinking and Peeragogy 

Other Interesting Links

Research and evidence informed practice

CLPL Home

Practitioners should:

  • Engage with the main theoretical perspectives and research in the digital learning domain.

  • Be critically aware of the evidence and impact that digital tools, spaces and cultures can have on childhood and society and how digital learning and teaching can adapt to meet the needs of learners. 

Support and Resources

Digital Education Research Articles from Imperial College
Over 60 collated articles on the topic of digital education, including: “How multimedia can improve learning and instruction”, “Using Cognitive Load Theory to improve slideshow presentations” and “Using technology to promote metacognition”

Digital learning research | Teaching and Learning and Leadership
This collection of research from the Australian Council for Educational Research includes recent papers such as “Rapid review of effective practice principles in the design and delivery of digital resources for teachers” (Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Pru Mitchell, and Jenny Trevitt) amd “What sources of data did teachers use to inform remote teaching under Covid-19?” (Anne-Marie Chase, Kathryn Richardson, and Nathanael Reinertsen)

Using Digital Technology to Improve Learning 
From 2019, the Educational Endowment Foundation set out 4 recommendations
1. Consider how technology will improve teaching and learning before introducing it
2. Technology can be used to improve the quality of explanations and modelling
3. Technology offers ways to improve the impact of pupil practice
4. Technology can play a role in improving assessment and feedback

Digital Learning and Teaching on the National Improvement Hub
This page from Education Scotland will support policy makers and practitioners from all sectors to embed digital learning and teaching across the curriculum.

Call Scotland
Call Scotland have been a Research and Development centre as well as a working Service unit since 1983, supporting teachers and learners overcome barriers to learning.  This site provides access to support and resources to enable all learners access the curriculum using digital teachnology.

 

You may wish to look at digital learning theories and approaches, such as  RAT, SAMR, TPACK, Digital Blooms, Connectivism, Design Thinking and Peeragogy 

Other Interesting Links

Identifying digital competence gaps 

CLPL Home

Practitioners should be able:

  • To understand where one’s own digital competence needs to be improved or updated.

  • To be able to support others with their digital competence development and be able to advise how to improve.

  • To seek opportunities for self-development and to keep up-to-date with the digital evolution. 

Support and Resources

Many vendors have professional learning programmes, specifically designed to support your understanding and skills of their technologies and services.  

Explore the digilearn.scot site, in particular :

Useful Documents

Features of highly effective digital learning, teaching and assessment in schools is a self evaluation tool that you will find useful when reflecting on your digital practice

What Digital Learning might look like is a document exemplifying possible examples of digital learning in the BGE.

Other Links

Digital Future Programme – Microsoft  UK