Presented by: Caitlin McMillan (teaching & learning consultant, Connected Learning Centre)

The phrase ‘blended learning’ is everywhere at the moment, but what does it actually mean? And how can educators make use of blended approaches going forward?

In this podcast, educators from the Connected Learning Centre discuss the different definitions of blended learning, pulling out the various strands and approaches that can be taken in the classroom.

Hear about the CLC’s BlendEd programme of free resources and support and learn more about how schools across northern Europe are approaching blended and personalised learning.

This podcast also rounds up some of the CLC’s exciting CPD opportunities on offer to teachers in the coming weeks, including the Computing and Online Safety conference and the BETT show.

If you’d like to hear more about the Empower to Learn project referenced here, check out our podcast with Katarina Sperling, project partner and International Project Coordinator at the Department of Education, Norrköping.

Personalised learning in the classroom has become a hot topic, especially with the move to remote and blended learning. As lockdown hit, schools and educators were increasingly asking how to do remote learning in a way that really helps teachers have a personalised dialogue with students and enables feedback.

In this podcast, educators from London CLC, along with Katarina Sperling from the Department of Education in Norrköping, Sweden, tackle this exciting subject through the lens of the Erasmus+ project Empower2Learn (E2L), which has been looking at different approaches across Europe.

Hear about stories of promising practice which can help that personalisation process, including how a Swedish school developed a digital portfolio that made learning more visible to parents and a London's school's successful use of SeeSaw.

This podcast also rounds up some of London CLC's exciting CPD opportunities on offer to teachers this term, including virtual sessions around assessment and feedback,  a new to computing subject leadership course and a digital security for schools briefing.

Plus, early news of a new national programme of support to make sure teachers have the right tools and skills and pedagogy they need to ensure children can continue learning whatever the circumstances, and developments with the Tate Exchange programme for schools.

How are schools using technology in creative and innovative ways to stay connected to children and parents? In this podcast, recorded at the 2020 EdTechX Summit, London Connected Learning Centre's Caitlin McMillan talks to a head and a teacher from two London primaries about how they are maintaining a sense of belonging and teacher presence during lockdown. Ideas shared range from responding to the register with an emoji and five-minute tours of Peru to phonics tasks and dance routines from a class puppet called Chocolate Chocolate Button!Caitlin McMillan, teaching and learning consultant, London Connected Learning Centre

In our first podcast of 2020, get insider info on this year's Bett education technology show. We recommend the talks to catch and the people to see across the four days.

We also offer their top tips for surviving the show, based on years of Bett experience and the thousands of steps we've walked through the exhibition halls.

You'll also find out more about our own Bett sessions - a whole day of professional development across six workshops on Friday 24 January. Find us on the Professional Development Stage in North and South Halls:

• Pedagogy and future software developers with Scratch, with Rowan Roberts
• Storytelling with digital technologies with Sarah Horrocks and Caitlin McMillan
• Enhancing primary history and geography with digital technologies, with Peter Lillington and Caitlin McMillan
• Technology in early years with Sarah Horrocks and Louise Wade
• Schools – saving time, working smarter, with Peter Lillington
• Leadership of technology and digital strategy with Sarah Horrocks and Peter Lillington

What happens when you give nearly 200 primary school children the freedom of a floor of Tate for two days? Creativity, learning and fun!

In this podcast Sarah Horrocks, London Connected Learning Centre’s co-director, and Caitlin McMillan, a London CLC teaching and learning consultant, discuss the annual Tate Exchange programme, in which a floor of the famous London gallery is given over to Tate Exchange associates to curate.

As long-standing Tate Exchange associates, in February we worked with 170 pupils from 20 schools to deliver our Making Moves workshop. Activities included digital sound manipulation, robot programming, animation, film and puppetry.

Hear in the podcast from children and their teachers about the experience and their highlights.

Sarah and Caitlin also look ahead to next February's Tate Exchange project, which will involve not only London primary schoolchildren but also children from Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark as part of the Co-Think Erasmus project. Together they will explore concepts of power, next year's theme, through art and making, both digital and analogue.

This podcast also rounds up some of London CLC's exciting CPD opportunities on offer to teachers this term, from a special project with First News to our ever-popular Primary Computing Conference.

Recorded in Tampere, Finland, Linda Liukas, creator of the Hello Ruby resources, discusses computational thinking, different practices across the world, her experience of the coding backlash and how her illustration and storytelling background helps her explain concepts.

Plus, London CLC's Sarah Horrocks and Rowan Roberts, who spent a day working with Linda in workshops at a school in Tampere, talk Co-think, the Erasmus project looking at inclusive teaching of computational thinking and different approaches in different European countries.

This episode of our podcast looks at London's digital industries and opportunities available to educators through our new TechPathways London project. Mark Martin (@urban_teacher) joined the conversation to give us some insights into how he works with industry to inspire his pupils.

Mark is perhaps better known to his 27,000 followers on Twitter as @urban-teacher; he’s also the co-founder of UK Black Tech, winner of the 2019 London Business Award…oh, and a computer science teacher in a Lambeth secondary school.

Listen as he shares his passion for connecting his students with digital careers and his commitment to bridging the awareness gap between young people in South London and the tech opportunities on offer locally, whether that’s the games industry or a bank looking for apprentices.

“Talent is everywhere. But the barrier is access and entry into these roles. Everyone needs to be in the room for these conversations. It’s common sense but to make it happen is a challenge,” says Mark.

Caitlin McMillan, TechPathways project coordinator, and Christian Turton, co-director of the London Connected Learning Centre, also discuss the digitisation of every career path and how having digital skills is an access point to a huge range of different jobs. The whole breadth of digital covers everything from animation to marketing, user experience to film and TV production It’s not just programming! They explain how TechPathways London aims to bridge the digital skills gap in London with the help of partners such as Google, IBM and the BFI and with free courses for educators.

What’s a critical learner? What are the skills children and young people need to develop in order to question and safely engage with information they come across online? How can educators support them to develop these critical skills?

In this podcast experts from the award-winning London Connected Learning Centre look at the latest research to explore what’s different about criticality when it comes to digital, discuss the tools educators need to feel confident teaching information and media literacy in a digital sphere, and share how to help children to become more aware of the collection and monetisation of their data – all the while taking care not to raise the level of mistrust and disengagement in our current age of information crisis!

It’s a fine line to tread but in the podcast we hear about specific activities teachers can do with children of all ages to help them to understand how web pages are produced, how photos and videos can be manipulated and how easy it is for anyone to put anything online – and that with publication come responsibilities. The take away message of the activity is that people exist behind the web pages we browse. For every piece of text we read and every image that we see, someone has made a decision about putting it there and so, inevitably, there are choices, biases and personal opinions involved that need to be recognised.

The podcast draws on the acclaimed talk the London CLC team gave in the main arena of the Bett Show earlier this year, as well as the work of the News Literacy Network, of which London CLC is a member. The News Literacy Network brings together research organisations and those on the ground, such as educators and journalists, in a shared mission to empower and equip news consumers of all ages with the critical skills they need in the digital age.

Find links to all the resources and organisations covered in the podcast in the show notes below.

According to the recent Carnegie Trust report on digital inclusion, Switched On, 10% of households have no access to the internet and 11.3 million people in the UK lack digital skills. This has far reaching impacts. Increasing numbers of basic services, from benefits to housing, are accessed online, not to mention job searches and shopping around for the best value goods and services. Digital skills and access are becoming fundamental to participating in society, accessing services and connecting with friends and family.

“I’ve learnt that it’s never too late to start using a computer whether you’re 35 and want to brush up on your IT skills or 85 and want to learn how to switch on a computer. It’s always such a pleasure to see people gaining some new knowledge.” – Digital Champion

This podcast explores this critical issue - and how it can be tackled - through the lens of Lambeth's three-year Digital Champions project. Run by the London Connected Learning Centre it offered free training and support for all things digital. The course was co-created with its users and took place where they were: children's centres, libraries and job centres. The project also trained up learners on the programme to be paid digital mentors to deliver the sessions - people who could say "don't worry, I used to be where you are, I did it - you can do it too". The project was a huge success, delivering more than 2000 sessions, reaching more than 1200 people, and seeing significant increases in knowledge and confidence.

In this podcast you'll hear how this was achieved along with the views of some of the Digital Champions and those they mentored.

“What I enjoyed most about being a digital champion was being able to share my knowledge and being able to impact the community in which I live.” – Digital Champion