Posts by Mark Taylor
203: thinkfour online learning platform with Matthew Pearce
thinkfour is a free online virtual learning platform for Scottish Higher pupils which distils complex sections of the curriculum into four minute videos as presented by experienced teachers.
It is available to all children throughout Scotland and targeted at ages 14-17. Young people are able to upload their own versions of the videos which are vetted by teachers and there is a whole section dedicated to helping parents and carers support their children with their studies.
It is a collaboration between expert teachers, academic specialists in education, and a Glasgow-based award winning digital agency. This independent start-up was funded by The Glasgow Academy of which Matthew Pearce is Rector.
Website
Social Media Information
www.facebook.com/thinkfour
@think4scot
www.linkedin.com/thinkfour
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The National Association for Primary Education speaks for young children and all who live and work with them. Get a FREE e-copy of their professional journal at nape.org.uk/journal
202: EduKit with Nathalie Richards
Nathalie Richards founded EduKit to help schools to ensure ALL students could access life-changing support in order to achieve their potential.
Now, 7 years on, over 150,000 students have taken EduKit Insight surveys and they have connected thousands of schools with impactful youth interventions via the free EduKit Connect service. And in the summer of 2020 in the midst of the pandemic, they worked with schools to launch a powerful Wellbeing mobile app to ensure that all children would have critical mental health and wellbeing support at their fingertips.
Nathalie has worked with young people for many years. After being bullied as a teenager, Nathalie decided she wanted no child to feel alone in dealing with a problem at home or School. She set up her social enterprise, EduKit, in 2014. Since then, she has enabled thousands of students to seek help and improve their mental health through EduKit’s online student wellbeing surveys and, more recently, the EduKit mobile app.
Nathalie is an experienced interviewee and speaker. She chaired the London Knife Crime Conference organised by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, sits on the Board of Virgin Unite and has mentored children and young people with ‘100 Black Men of London’ and ‘Young Enterprise.’
Website
Social Media Information
@Edukitters
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The National Association for Primary Education speaks for young children and all who live and work with them. Get a FREE e-copy of their professional journal at nape.org.uk/journal
Independent Thinking with Ian Gilbert – NAPE 067
Mark Taylor chats to NAPE patron Ian Gilbert.
Since founding Independent Thinking in 1994, Ian has built a global reputation as an educational thinker, innovator, entrepreneur, speaker and award-winning editor and writer. He was listed by the IB magazine as one of their top 15 ‘educational visionaries’.
Never happier than when he is making children’s brains hurt, he has a unique first-hand perspective on the world of education having lived and worked in schools and universities in the UK, the Middle East, South America and Asia.
He is now sharing his time between Rotterdam, where his wife is an international school principal, and their home in the middle of nowhere deep in West Wales.
He wasn’t always interested in exotic foreign travel and meeting interesting people from different countries, as he started off his educational career teaching French in Northampton. He didn’t really want to be a French teacher and, while you would think not wanting to teach French to people who didn’t want to learn it might be a match made in heaven, it was only ever really a stepping stone. His main ambition was to work with young people in the areas that most fascinated him then and in which he has become such an important figure today – thinking, learning, motivation, creativity and helping all members of the school community be the best they can be.
Through his many books including the ever-popular Thunks collection, his ongoing classroom work with children and young people, his keynotes and workshops at conferences around the world and his continuous work with teachers and leaders in schools, Ian has shown a whole generation of educators that there is always another way.
Following a chance meeting in the staff room, Ian was encouraged to set up Independent Thinking in 1994 and, since then, has built up a unique educational organisation that acts as a platform for some of the UK’s leading innovative educators and school leaders as well as serving as a ‘lighthouse’ for so many practitioners who might otherwise fall prey to the idea that silence is respect, obedience is behaviour, grades measure education and teaching and learning are the same thing.
Website
Social Media Information
@ITLWorldwide on Twitter
independentthinkingworldwide on Instagram
The National Association for Primary Education speaks for young children and all who live and work with them. Get a FREE e-copy of their professional journal at nape.org.uk/journal
201: Read Write Code with Jeremy Keeshin
Read Write Code written by Jeremy Keeshin, is a friendly introduction to the world of coding and explains why it is the new literacy.
Jeremy Keeshin is the CEO and Co-founder of CodeHS, the leading coding education platform for schools used by millions of students.
He is an expert in computer science education and education technology, and he has visited hundreds of schools all over the world. Prior to starting CodeHS, he taught computer science at Stanford.
Code is the new literacy.
Six hundred years ago, most people couldn’t read. In 1440, the invention of the printing press laid the groundwork for massive increases in literacy and ushered in the modern era.
Today, computers and the internet are causing a similar tectonic shift. Reading and writing are foundational skills, and in our digital world, coding is too.
But coding can be intimidating to learn. What is code? Where do you even start?
In Read Write Code, Jeremy Keeshin demystifies the world of computers, starting at the beginning to explain the basic building blocks of today’s tech: programming, the internet, data, apps, the cloud, cybersecurity, algorithms, artificial intelligence, and more.
Complex concepts are explained in friendly and engaging ways, with interactive examples and practical tips. This book is a must-read for modern educators and anyone who wants to understand why code matters today.
Website
Social Media
www.linkedin.com/in/jkeesh/
www.twitter.com/jkeesh
Resources Mentioned
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Xientifica SOS, written by Daniel Phelps, is a unique children’s adventure for young people aged 8-12–adult. It’s ‘Where science meets adventure’. It’s not a science book, it is a children’s adventure novel which has science in it.’
Xientifica SOS provides a perfect platform for discussions and encourages children to ask questions, so is not only ideal for lone-reading or as a class book, but perfect for home schooling too.
Xientifica SOS can be bought on Amazon and is available on Kindle or in paperback
Go to Amazon – or to find out more (and listen to extracts from the book) – go to Xientifica.com (with an X)…X I E N T I F I C A
Homepage: https://xientifica.com/
Twitter @xientifica
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The National Association for Primary Education speaks for young children and all who live and work with them. Get a FREE e-copy of their professional journal at nape.org.uk/journal
200: What I have learned in 200 episodes of Education on Fire
I share the themes and insights I have discovered in the first 200 episodes of the Education on Fire podcast.
I chat about my learning experience at school from discovering my passion to becoming a professional musician.
I explore how some of these themes have shown themselves in my podcast and how we can share the wisdom of my guests with the children in our care.
www.EducationOnFire.com