Getting kids thinking

The theme of this month's (September 2015) issue of UKED Magazine is 'Getting kids thinking'. Our Director, Dr. Ahmed Kharrufa, wrote a piece, which is on page five.

The article, 'Appreciating the value of skills: Evaluation beyond subject-specific knowledge', looks at how we can evaluate, measure and reflect on important skills rather than only students' level of knowledge on a topic.

To read the piece, please click here.

5 ways to make the most out of Digital Mysteries

Since Digital Mysteries for iPad launched in November 2014, we’ve been developing more and more apps and now have 37 live on the App Store! We are regularly uploading more so keep an eye out.

Much to our excitement, downloads have come from far and wide – the UK of course, where we are based, but also USA, Australia, Canada, China and far too many countries to list!

After speaking to many teachers who use the mysteries, there can be differences in how and why they are used. Some teachers prefer to download the app then have a quick run through and then use it with their class. Others prefer to really explore everything the app has to offer, try different things and customise it, then, and only then, do they use it with the students.

So to make the most of what our Digital Mysteries apps have to offer, we’ve created this ‘Top 5’ list of things you might not know are available:

1. Dedicated collaboration: Although our descriptions discuss how the apps are designed for working in pairs/small groups, as well as many of our tweets and emails, this is not always the way people use them. This is probably because when a teacher downloads an app, they are on their own and each individual app has a specific focus, e.g. Shakespeare, so they focus on the content, ease of use, the process and what students could possibly learn. While working individually on Digital Mysteries is absolutely fine, and can bring lots of benefits, it brings a multitude of extra benefits when worked on in pairs (or a three). It is excellent for developing collaboration skills, discussion, communication and higher level thinking. The apps are made so that more than one touch is allowed at a time, so students work together on ONE iPad – an added bonus being that you actually only need half the amount of iPads (see ‘Doubling the availability of your iPads’).
   
   How to: When you’ve tapped ‘Begin New Mystery Session’, toggle the number of users there is using the arrows. Names are entered and they have separate buttons to press in-session. They must tap on their own name to agree certain things throughout the session, e.g. that they’ve read an introduction, agree with the name choice for a group or that they’ve decided on their answer.
   
   


2. Reports: When students have finished a session and wrote their answer in, a PDF report is automatically generated. Upon completion, you aren’t automatically taken to the PDF, as it may not be the right time to look at it, or it may be something the teacher would print/share rather than the students.
   
   How to: To view a session report, just go to View Reports in the main menu and tap on the one you want to see. From there, you can print, email or share.
   
   


3. Differentiation: Most of our apps have three difficulty levels to them. It varies from app to app what difference this makes, but it usually means the higher the difficulty level, the more slips of information are provided to students (which may have abstract or more advanced content on them). There are also sometimes differences in the hints given to students when they have difficulty moving on from the Grouping Stage or Sequencing Stage.
   
   How to: To change your difficulty level, go to Settings from the main menu and toggle between levels in the top right hand corner.
   
   


4. Number of stages: If you didn’t know already, most Digital Mysteries apps have three stages in ‘solving’ them. The default is usually 1. Reading, 2. Grouping and 3. Sequencing (followed by entering an answer and playback). However, if you would rather students have access to all of the tools from the beginning and have the process unsegmented (before answer and playback), you can. If you like the idea of students simply reading all the slips, then moving to the stage where they create and group them all, choose Two Stage.
   
   How to: To set a different amount of stages, just go to Settings, and toggle between the amount of stages in the top left corner. (One Stage is all tools at once, with no segmentation of reading, grouping then sequencing. Two Stage is reading then grouping).
   
   


5. Session playback: Schools we’ve spoken to about Digital Mysteries tend to love this feature. Students also find it engaging too; it is brilliant to watch as they show other groups what they’ve been doing. Session playback, also known as the Reflection Stage, occurs automatically after students write in their answer. This means that most people know about it. You could also:

• Bookmark: Sit with each group and discuss some key moments with students. Within the actual session, students can ‘bookmark’ certain points in time - these are then pinpointed on the playback timeline so you/they can easily go back to them.
• Improve: Ask students to think about what they would do differently as they reflect; it’s not just like a video playback, so they/you can pause it and play around with what’s on the screen!
• Quick glance: Have a look at our guide, ‘Interpreting What’s on the Screen’ – it’s a rundown of what the different icons mean at a glance.
• Go back to it next week: While the Reflection Stage automatically occurs immediately after students enter an answer, you can also go to ‘Session Playback’ from the main menu at any time afterwards, and just tap on the one you want to view. This is great to recap and see how much students remembered.
• Reflect as a class: Try connecting one of the iPads to a projector and reflecting on the session as a class (Using the Session Playback)
  
  
  
  

Thanks very much for reading this post on Digital Mysteries – there are many ways to use it (both, as a teacher and a student). We could have added various other things but this is a short summary of those which you may have missed. We would love to know how you use Digital Mysteries or if you have any tips for other users. Comment here or email info@reflectivethinking.com

There is also a video here which runs through a typical session, and you can visit our resources page and FAQ for more things not mentioned here, or contact us if you have a question.

Externalization: Making thinking visible

During collaborative group work, some of the main processes in the acquisition of knowledge are the construction, transmission, and comprehension of explanations. These activities result when trying to explain some concepts or when resolving conflicts about certain understandings/beliefs. This is because during such activities, some assumptions that are usually implicit, have to be made explicit. Furthermore, during the process, missing knowledge is identified and is subsequently filled by deductive and/or inductive learning mechanisms. These activities do not normally occur during individual learning.

Accordingly, technologies (or even technology-free activities) that are designed to foster collaborative learning, need to focus on increasing the probability of such useful group activities to occur. The more students' thinking is made visible to others (visually or verbally), the more likely it is that it will be followed by discussions aiming at explanations/conflict resolution.

This process of making thinking visible is usually termed externalization of thinking. Encouraging externalization can involve making very simple changes to the activity design. For example, instead of asking students to just put items in groups, ask them to specifically name these groups and write down the name of the group. Instead of asking the students to find a relation between items, ask them to be explicit about the type of the relation: whether it is a causal, temporal, or special relation for example. Asking for this bit of extra information means that students have to be more explicit about their thinking. The more explicit they are, the more chances that there will be a need for providing an explanation, or solving a disagreement in the group.

A screenshot from a mystery - students have named their groups, e.g. 'Attractions of the New World'.

International Day of Friendship

On 30th July each year, the International Day of Friendship is marked. Proclaimed only four years ago in 2011 by the UN General Assembly, the idea is that by developing friendships with each other, different communities, countries and even continents, bridges can be built and peace can come as a result.

"On this International Day of Friendship, let us cultivate warm ties that strengthen our common humanity and promote the well-being of the human family."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

All across the world, this has been celebrated. Individuals, communities and small to big organisations have spread the word. Just a quick search on Twitter shows there’s a lot going on. While many children develop friendships from a very early age, keep some, and make more, others do struggle. This may just be from time to time – facing temporary difficulties which ‘sort themselves out’, for example – but for some, they may go through year after year of finding it hard to make friends. There are many reasons for why this could be, but for this very reason, it’s essential to talk about it. This could be with someone they trust in particular, for example a parent or teacher, but as well as this, how about with their peers?

In many countries, the curriculum provides some guidance/stipulation that teachers must cover bullying for example, but not all. Plus, the way this has to be done is not usually enforced. If there was a simple way to trigger discussions in this area, with the help of some easy-to-use technology, would you try it? Even as just a starting point, then things go from there. This is why, to celebrate the International Day of Friendship, we have made our English/Citizenship/PSHE app/mystery story free for two weeks (until 7th August). While it can be used with any students you think suitable, the target age range is around 6-7 years old.

In pairs, or threes, students sit around one iPad and read 15 slips of information (interactively, on the iPad). They must start making sense of these together, helping each other to group them and work out why a young girl called Amy didn’t go to school this particular day.

It helps students:

• to recognise how their behaviour affects other people, to care about other people’s feelings and to try to see things from their points of view
• to listen to other people, and play and work cooperatively
• to understand that there are different types of teasing and bullying, that bullying is wrong, and how to get help to deal with bullying

If you want to try it, visit the App Store here now, search 'Digital Mysteries Amy' on the App Store or read a bit more about it on our website.

More information on the day from the UN’s website

“The International Day of Friendship was proclaimed in 2011 by the UN General Assembly with the idea that friendship between peoples, countries, cultures and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities. The resolution (A/RES/65/275) places particular emphasis on involving young people, as future leaders, in community activities that include different cultures and promote international understanding and respect for diversity.

The Day is also intended to support the goals and objectives of the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace and the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010).

To mark the International Day of Friendship the UN encourages governments, international organizations and civil society groups to hold events, activities and initiatives that contribute to the efforts of the international community towards promoting a dialogue among civilizations, solidarity, mutual understanding and reconciliation.”

World Population Day

This Saturday (11th July) marks World Population Day. This year’s theme is Vulnerable Populations in Emergencies.

Recommended in 1989 by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme, the 11th of July now holds this important day every year. While the overall cause remains the same, the focus is tweaked to raise awareness of certain subjects.

From the UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund)'s website, this eye-catching image has been designed:

For more information on this year’s occasion, please go to www.unfpa.org/events/world-population-day.

We have made one of our apps for 14-16 year olds free the whole of July for this day. It is on the population of China and the fluencies, issues and themes around it. To download, go to its page on the App Store here or search 'population mystery' in the App Store search bar. Using the app is a collaborative experience and designed for two people to work on one iPad at the same time. Discussion is encouraged throughout the process.

Storytelling through mathematics

Today, I came across Maths Storytelling Day (25th September, celebrated annually). Although the day isn't for a while yet, it got me thinking.

When pondering my own education, I remember maths being one of the subjects which incorporated stories fairly regularly. A favourite being that of making a robot move around and follow your instructions, which in today's education, could probably slide under computing. I always thought that it was perhaps my teacher's style, but upon reflection, and with a particular day dedicated to it, it has become apparent that the reason we do maths through storytelling is because it works!

There's various pieces online about this (found with a quick search), but I'll be looking more into this in future. The Guardian and NRICH are two particularly good ones. To quote the latter, "Children are born with an ability to make sense of the world through play and storytelling. By creating narratives, they act out concepts and ideas that confuse them or that they find fascinating. Examining the world in this way they are able to explore and relate to the variety of topics and subjects that the world throws at them."

Many of our iPad apps follow a story, but our maths ones are particularly engaging. They really do make you want to solve something, e.g. work out who really did kill King Ted. You want to find out what has or has not happened, and the way to do this is to do the maths! We have made all three of our apps FREE for a limited time, except King Ted, which is always free.

Students work in pairs or threes around one iPad. The app gives students lots of digital slips of illustrated information then one open question - they must work together to make sense of this information in order to answer it.They can create and name groups, stick things together and lay the slips out. As well as developing various mathematics skills, the apps also help with collaboration, problem-solving and higher level thinking.

All three apps target a slightly different age range but depending on ability level, what methods the children know/will be learning soon, they may suit younger or older students:

King Ted - FREE - Search 'Digital Mysteries King' on the App Store or click here
Main question: Who killed King Ted?
Age range: 8-9 year olds
Topics covered: Mental methods addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, comparing, calculations

Screenshot from Trev the Triff

Trev the Triff - FREE for limited time, usually £1.49 - Search 'Digital Mysteries Trev' on the App Store or click here
Main question: Should Trev hire the new machine or stick with the old one?
Age range: 9-10 year olds
Topics covered: Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, multi-step problem, averages

Captain Quint - FREE until 16th June 2015, usually £1.49 - Search 'Digital Mysteries Captain' on the App Store or click here
Main question: Did Captain Quint and his crew make it around the world in 30 days?
Age range: 10-11 year olds
Topics covered: Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, percentages, statistics, measurement

Many thanks,

Natalie

Would your students love to see their own ideas made into an iPad app?

The fusion of our experience in collaborative learning research, developing iPad apps and an interest in Project Based Learning in the last couple of years, led to our creative competition, Our Mystery.

As a very quick summary, it offers UK years five, six, seven and eight the chance to come up with their own ‘Digital Mystery’. There can be as little or as much ICT as they like involved, as we provide a template form in PDF or Word and ask for hand-drawn or photographed images to accompany it.

We wanted to help slot the opportunity in with existing school plans rather than require extra time, so the mystery can be on a topic students have covered or are soon to cover.

For an entry pack for your students, just go to www.reflectivethinking.com/ourmystery. The deadline for entries is in a few weeks so giving the task to students after their half-term holiday slots in perfectly.

Can technology help encourage more young people to get involved in politics?

In our previous blog post, we shared with you that we created a dedicated task for 11-14 year olds to discuss the UK 2015 general election.

Over the past few weeks, it has been brilliant to hear of teachers using the app/task across the country.

On the morning of the election day itself, the team went to the largest school in Newcastle, Kenton, to work with year 8 students and see whether the task had made any difference. It was incredible to see the transformation from before to after - one student said they had 'no interest in politics', but afterwards was asking lots of great questions about the different parties. They wanted to find out more.

In a couple of minutes, this video explores the session and has an interview with some of the students who took part:

Some quotes from the students:

• "If I did have the opportunity to vote, I think I would have a better idea of who I would vote for."
• "I also think I've got a better idea, because when it's on the news, it's often just clustered together, what people said. It doesn't give you the full insight of what the different parties want to do."
• "You want to know which (parties) are good for you, so with your friends, you know you can have a conversation with them to know which one is better."
• "I think it (the Digital Mystery) gives you a better understanding of stuff and you can know what's good and what's bad and I think it would be good to introduce it at other elections."

One of our brilliant pieces of feedback from Twitter:

@Refthinking Yes, of course! Brilliant, inspiring and extremely useful.

— Dominic Newbould (@DominicNewbould) May 5, 2015

Thanks to everyone for supporting this task/iPad app, including everyone following our social media updates, those at BBC Radio, the Northern Echo, Bdaily, Schools North East and North Tyneside Learning Trust.

If you've got something to share about 'Digital Mysteries: UK Election 2015', let us know!

The history of Mysteries

For those of you who don't know, our collaborative learning program Digital Mysteries is based on a popular paper-based tool called Mysteries.

In this guest post, David Leat, who founded Mysteries and is now a Professor of Curriculum Innovation at Newcastle University, tells us the story behind them.

Professor David Leat

"When the Thinking Through Geography Group developed mysteries as a paper based activity, it quickly became apparent that there was something very interesting going on as students manipulated the little snippets of paper.  With friend and colleague Adam Nichols, we started taking pictures and videos of groups as they progressed through a mystery and we found recurring patterns in the arrangement of the paper.

Through playing back the video to the students and asking them about what was going on at crucial moments and linking this to our observations, we were able to describe some typical stages that many groups went through.  These are the basis of the stages in the current digital mysteries.  One of the interesting outcomes was the realisation that the stages represented increasing complexity and sophistication in thinking, moving from comprehension to classification (grouping) to more complex processes of hypothesising and evaluation.

If some groups got ‘stuck’, it suggested that they had reached a temporary plateau in their thinking.  So the intriguing question was – how could skilled teachers intervene and scaffold more sophisticated thinking and in effect move the students on?  This was diagnostic assessment but instead of being interpreted from written work after the event, when the underpinning thinking has long gone cold, it was in the moment when students’ thinking is still potentially plastic and malleable.

The problem then was that it was a minority of teachers who got it, and could interpret what they were seeing and hearing.  It is perhaps not surprising that many teachers found it hard to get away from the idea of a right answer.  In addition, one teacher is spread a bit thinly across 6 to 10 groups.

Digital Mysteries on laptops or tabletops go a long way towards playing the role of the skilful, scaffolding teacher who does just enough to move pupils on, to challenge their thinking or provide a hint.  However the computer and the software don’t replace the teacher; there is still tremendous scope for the teacher to listen and watch, and critique and nudge students’ thinking.  We called our early paper based research ‘Brains on the Table’ as mysteries provided a window on students’ thinking.

Digital mysteries provide enhanced opportunity for teachers to intervene in the development of thinking – but we still need to articulate and share this sophisticated practice knowledge."