Five pupils from Stirling High School were invited to introduce the Objectives and speakers.  Here is what they had to say:

Objective One: Culture

Introduced by Rhys McKenna:

For me this objective really means bridging the gap between the use of technology in the home and in school. I really believe that the advances in technology in the last few years have made schoolwork for me a great deal easier and quicker to complete. However, this was from my own bedroom. 

It could range from surfing the net to find solutions to demanding maths problems or even just the facility to type up essays so that they were easily alterable. 

 With the likes of iPods, iPads and htc phones, the Internet is right at most pupils fingertips but In school requires sometimes out of date and slow computers to access it. That's why I feel the attitude of the Scottish schools should in turn change along with how technology is viewed. In school many useful sites are blocked under the fear that a pupil may access something inappropriate - which is a perfectly valid view. On the other hand there is nothing to suggest that adults are any more responsible than young people which feeds into my belief that if young people had full access to the world wide web in school, the vast majority would be responsible, knowing that their teachers had the facilities to monitor their digital footprint.
 

Also, if young people are not allowed to act independently and responsibly in school, how are they supposed to learn to act this way in the workplace?

Also, to me pupils should be allowed to bring portable Internet devices, tablets and laptops into school, and the school invest in these new technologies along with wireless to create a more stimulating and exiting learning environment and break down the barrier between the use of ict in school and in the outside world.

I strongly believe in this as currently more and more free wifi "hotspots" are becoming available in a great range of places: coffee shops, fast food restaurants, some Tesco supermarkets and even when we were on holiday in France, the campsite had it too. 

Although some would argue that this would distract young people from learning, i believe if applied correctly by teachers that a respect would be built up which would help to regulate this technology. 

Ultimately I think the experience of being independent around technology and responsible for the material you access is very valuable to any young person and will readily prepare them for later life. 

Thanks

Rhys

Objective Two: Confidence

Introduced by Sophie Loch

This objective means a great deal to me because as a member of a generation which is and will in the future be surrounded by fast moving technology, skills in ICT and effective use of related gadgets and devices are really important. Confidence in ICT from teachers means that they can pass on these relevant and helpful skills to us which can help us greatly in the future. Likewise, confidence that pupils develop themselves in ICT can allow them to pass on knowledge and skills back to teachers too! In addition, pupils can pass on the skills they’ve developed to parents , which in turn may allow parents to have a more active role in their child’s education. For example, having taught myself how to effectively use Facebook and Twitter for researching and sharing information about school projects and tasks, as well as social networking, I could show my parents and they then better understood the new ways my generation are finding to use ICT in education.

In another sense, confidence in ICT from teachers, school leaders and pupils could result in a better learning experience, because when information is shared really effectively between these different people through ICT tools it can create much better, co-operative learning overall. An example of this is within our school Young Enterprise group; we use Google docs and Facebook to communicate, plan, share and work together when we’re not in school. This way we can discuss and develop ideas without sitting round a table facing each other, which is great.

Finally, in my opinion it would be a great shame not to make use of the amazing opportunities and benefits that technology can offer us. A lack of confidence and competence in using new technology and ICT may result in many people losing out on these opportunities and never fully engaging with available ICT tools throughout their life.

 
Thanks, 
Sophie. 

Objective Three: New Behaviours

Introduced by Leah Anderson

     When you look at learning and teaching  now and then think about the possible changes that will occur due to technology you begin to see that there will be a real difference.

-      In 5 years time I believe that:

-      Learning will be more self-directed.

-      Students will have to seek information given by a teacher online and follow the course by submitting essays and homework online.

-      Also, monitored discussion rooms online could be available that make up part of the coursework - this is already proven at university level.

-      In 20 years time, I think that:

-      There might not even be a human teacher, with the possibility of a virtual one. This could create less disruption in classes as people would be self-studying – but will students be disciplined to work in isolation without their peers? Perhaps computer-led education needs to work alongside conventional teaching.

     I am sure that each student will have a portable computer or tablet now or in the near future so that they will be able to access school work which will be available 24hrs a day.

-      It will be very lightweight compared to what students have to carry around school at the moment.

-      Hopefully, school will be able to provide this so it is not unfair for some families who do not have the means to purchase.

     We need to make sure that schools are ready for new ways of teaching by:

-      Preparing pupils in advance prior to implementation.

-      There needs to be study sessions for heads of education and then this information has to be shared amongst teachers.

-      There needs to be enthusiasm for this to be taken on board.

     We prepare young people to learn effectively online by:

-      Ensuring that learning programmes are easy to access and easy to use.

-      Training on computer skills need to start at primary level so by the time pupils reach high school, time won't have been wasted learning basic computer skills.

     At the present time, answers to exams are hand written.

-      If exams were performed directly on computers, pupils could easily access information to aid them in examinations and so at the moment there are no facilities available to type using computers - but I am sure this will change in the future as technology progresses and examinations adapt to the technology.

     Schools need to develop as quickly as industry:

-      as young people will leave school and eventually go into industries or professions that will have advanced technology.

-      so young people need to have this knowledge already in place so they can succeed in the workplace and work effectively in their job.

     To help promote new behaviours for teaching:

-      Teachers should be allowed to choose which websites to be blocked or unblocked at school. This is debatable as there is already a safety system in place which protects schools from particular websites.

-      However, it may be more desirable for the heads of each department at school to make the final decision on this point.

-      Though some people would say we should be able to choose our own websites as we do at home. 

Objective Four: Parental Engagement

Introduced by Gordon Milne

Objective 4 is parental engagement. I think that parents seem to learn a lot from us in terms of ICT. This is through the use of social networking sites and different applications for homework. It is important for parents to understand computers like us. Stirling High has a Twitter account (@Stirling_High) that parents can look at for news updates, and the S1s and S2s have online portfolios which parents can see their school achievements. I think this is a very good idea as it gives the parents a good insight into the school work we have or achievements we receive.

Objective Five: Hardware and Infrastructure

Introduced by Fraser Davidson

Ollie said I was not allowed to start with a joke.  Wind turbines:  I’m a big fan.

Good afternoon, I am Fraser and I'm here to introduce Objective 5. This is all about hardware and infrastructure. An important issue involved with this is wifi in schools. If I walked into a coffee shop such as Starbucks and took out my phone, I could access anything on the internet with consummate ease.  So why is it the case that in my school - a place of education - that I can't do the same? The internet is one of the greatest modern educational tools and for t to be so restricted and limited in schools bewilders me. Most pupils now have a laptop or a smart phone, so why not make use of what many already have and enable us to use these in school? I can connect my laptop to the wifi network in the Apple store in Glasgow - so what are the real issues and challenges with security?

Another improvement is quite simply to put more computers in school.  I know from my years in school, growing up in the age of computers, that they are fantastic ways to learn - second only to teachers of course. It is easy to say "Give us more computers", and the money has to come from somewhere, but I believe it is the future. With more computers, how do we ensure we also have more bandwidth though? Furthermore, some websites in schools are blocked for safety reasons, and understandably so. But many excellent learning websites are inaccessible for no apparent reason. For example, for a good long time we couldn't access Wikipedia in our school. These are just a few of the points that I wanted to make and I am sure everyone has their own varying opinions.