Who still wants to learn languages? | Education | The Guardian.

This is a terrifying article. What is really horrifying is that there are no surprises in it. Not one. Language learning and study is dying in this country, to the point where university departments are closing across the country. Languages are niching themselves almost exclusively into the Russell Group / independent school spectrum.

Whose fault is it? The Labour government for removing the obligation to study a language after the age of 14? Examination boards for shaping the experience of post-14 language learning to be so dry, inaccessible and irrelevant that continuing after GCSE seems like a fate worse than death? Or teachers and teacher trainers for leaving language learning behind somehow, so that other subjects have more appeal?

Pointing the finger will solve nothing. It is most likely to be a combination of complex reasons that have led to this critical decline. Most importantly, what happens now? How can we move the study and enjoyment of languages back into favour with young people across the country? Or is it too late?

Your thoughts would be most welcome.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about productivity, procrastination and organisation in advance of the new school year due to start in a couple of weeks. I wanted to get my tools in place and set up before I begin so that I can hit the ground running.

Whilst I have dabbled a little at the edges of Getting Things Done methodology, I have never committed to it fully (and the jury is still out on that – I’m not sure I have the patience to go through the initial stages) and I wanted to do a little more research on productivity tools.

I’ve spent the morning syncing my iPhone todo list (I use ToDo) with a new pro online Toodledo account. Everything is running smoothly and I’m really pleased in particular with the Google Chrome plugin that goes with it.

My next job is to sort out my personal inbox. I am very disciplined about work email and normally achieve inbox zero daily. It feels good and works well for me. However, my personal gmail inbox is an absolute nightmare with 4 different accounts all channelled into one place and no sense of order. There are four thousand odd emails lurking in there that need sorting out in a very big way!

A reminder was called for so I did a little digging around on audio / video materials to support my productivity blitz this morning and found a couple of very handy things.

Firstly, here is Merlin Mann talking to the guys at Google about email productivity back in 2007. It’s superb and very simple.

Next up I enjoyed this podcast from Joe and Josh about productivity and GTD on Rumblings from the Man Cave. It helped to clarify some key things for me.

Finally I thought I would share a great article about email from Jeff Attwood’s blog ‘Coding Horror’ which made me smile and is a great piece on how we need to revisit the purpose of email. There are so many channels of communication, yet email tends to be the default setting for so many people. He says:

Stop. Sending. Email.

Instead of abusing email as a “one size fits all” conduit for communication, be smart. Know when to escalate your communication to the right medium for the particular message you’re trying to deliver:

• Broad kudos? Post it on a feedback forum or your blog.
• Need an urgent, immediate answer? Pick up the phone and call.
• Got something that needs a lot of touchy feely discussion? Set up a face to face meeting.
• Discussing a particular topic or product? Post it on a public message board.
• Is this more of a friendly, social thing? Try using a social network like Twitter or Facebook.
• Business proposal? Perhaps it would be smart to approach indirectly, through soliciting recommendations of business associates.

The real solution here is to move people beyond email silos wherever and whenever possible. Some amount of email is still inevitable, though. What steps can we take to turn our email from a dangerous variable reinforcement machine to something more … sane? Predictable, even?

• Turn off all notification and interruption features in your email client.
• Only check your email at regular, scheduled intervals.
• Set up your email client to automatically highlight those emails from friends and business associates who are historically known to send you useful email.

Interesting stuff! I will share more as I come across it. In the meantime, I’m going to procrastinate a little before diving into that inbox….. ugh….

EduDemic » How Social Media Can Help Your First Day Of School – Part 1.

The End of Publishing

The Commons Education Select Committee reported this week that teachers “need better qualifications” (read the BBC report here), with at least a 2:2 in their first degree. Poor literacy, numeracy, ICT skills and subject knowledge are clearly a worry; and in a bid to raise standards, the bar is being moved higher for entrants to the profession in line with many other graduate entry-level jobs.

At first glance, it sounds reasonable enough that the distinguised minds shaping the country’s future should have come out of university with a decent degree. However, when you consider that between graduation and classroom-qualified there are already a number of hurdles to jump: entry to teacher training course, successful completion of teacher training, passing NQT year, performance management after that…one would hope that these selection procedures would weed out those unable to make the grade. Inspirational teachers aren’t just the cleversocks with the redbrick 2:1s either, and I can think of many colleagues past and present who are outstanding in the classroom but would fall short of this requirement.

On top of this, the GTC; desperate for a proper remit, will end up administering a new ‘license to practise’ for existing staff. They must be rubbing their hands with glee as they see themselves one day having some proper gravitas like their more esteemed neighbours at the General Medical Council, with little concern for the squandering of taxpayers’ money that this will entail. Ignoring existing threshold assessments, annual performance management and good old monitoring and evaluation, the license to teach undermines schools’ capacity to raise the bar themselves. Another flock of posh-looking folders that will sit and gather dust in schools around the country is too close to becoming reality, for no better reason than to make the Westminster folk feel better about the legacy teachers in post for the next forty years. This is a nonsense in my view and if anything, time would be much better spent reviewing and streamlining the performance management and competency procedures properly to ensure that the good teachers stay and flourish and the struggling ones are properly supported with tailored CPD or allowed to move out of the profession with dignity.

My team is currently developing our vision for what ICT should look like at our school. It’s shaping up as follows:

Connectivity

Every learning space has reliable internet and network access.

Interactivity

Enhanced learning technology is available in learning spaces to enable learners to take an interactive role in their learning.

Community

Our school becomes a hub for high quality e-learning in the community.

Capability

Learners and teachers are empowered with skills and understanding to thrive in an interactive and information-rich learning environment.