Thunder

Last year I was working in a school where pace in the lesson was an issue, so we thoughty getting a timer that could be projected onto the whiteboad and then play an alarm when the time was up. We both hunted around and couldnt find anything free, there was a nice flash timer within SMART notebook but that was no good as they school didn’t have any SMARTboards.

At last months subject leader update in Shropshire John Holmes from Rhyn Park school mentioned ‘Cool Timer‘ which was a free countdown timer that he had used to keep the pace in his lessons.

It has taken me to this morning to download it and try it myself, having done so I would recommend it to everyone who would like to keep track on the various actvities that are going on in their lessons.

I have just read an article in TES online entitled ‘Look what’s happened to mobiles phones and broadband‘ by George Cole, in the article he says:

A shame then, that most schools still see mobile phones as a threat rather than as an opportunity for extending the use of ICT. I know there are management and security issues, as well as questions about who pays for using many of the features. But it’s sad that a personal computer which many students have in their pockets is being banned rather than used as a useful ICT tool in the classroom.

We need to keep opening headteachers eyes to the power of the mobile phone, it has been great over the last few weeks to be working in two schools in Shropshire (Oldbury Wells and Sir John Talbot’s) where the headteachers have supported my use of mobile phones in the lessons I have been teaching. It would be great if organisations like Becta could note the power of the mobile phone and publicise case studies showing their positive impact on learning, we also need unions like NASUWT to stop stating that we should ban them (see my earlier posting).

Today I took my podcasting roadshow to Sir John Talbot’s school in Whitchurch Shropshire, this is my local secondary school.

It was the year 6 induction day and the headteacher had asked me to get a group of 20 mixed year group students to record the events of the day. Prior to the day, just like at OWS, I emailed the students with a link to their blog and asked them to comment on the first six posts. Unfortunately not many of the students participated in this activity, this lead to me having to spend time going through the questions with them to assess what they knew already. The applications I had asked them to look at where all new to them - so today was going to be a big, but enjoyable, learning curve for them.

So after getting their brief and planning the questions they wanted to ask the year 6 students off they went with ibooks, mobile phones, mp3 recorders and digital cameras in hand to record their discussions.

The students were given a brief introduction to Garageband, iPhoto and iTunes to enable them to produce their enhanced podcasts. All photos taken throughout the day were uploaded to the schools Flickr account, they even caught me doing some work - I think I should frame it!

The students were really motivated and engaged with using the ibooks and ICT being more than spreadsheets and databases. All the teachers that popped their head in during the day were impressed with the work ethic and the buzz that was going around the room. It was amazing to see how much they produced. You can read their evaluations of the day here, at present there is only a couple but they have all agreed to add theirs comments tomorrow.
Please check out their blog and leave them some comments.

It was great to see the students so engaged in their work, there really is great potential in developing this kind of experience for our students. I will have to put some time aside during this Summer break to produce a unit of work for KS3 ICT lessons based around these collaborative and social technologies.

Today I ran a workshop as part of an RE conference at Oldbury Wells School in Bridgnorth. I had 4 sixth form students and 2 year 9 students, that had worked with me a couple of weeks ago.

Our role was to blog and podcast (using Garageband, iphoto and itunes) the events in the morning and to record and publish the question time event in the afternoon.

The blog can be found here - it isn’t complete as I am waiting for the information that the ethics group completed so I can upload it. Photos taken during the morning, mainly of the food group for some bizarre reason can be viewed on their flickr page, unfortunatley we ran out of space on the free account so I will need to upload the outstanding photos in August (I hope I remember). The websites that formed the basis of the ethics research can be found on their del.icio.us page tagged by ethics.

The question time mp3 is 58Mb at present so I will try and splice it up over the next few days and then upload it to the blog.

The year 9 students were stars, and commented that they wished their ICT lessons were more like this and not just using Office applications!

Tomorrow I am off to SJT to set up a blog and do some podcasting with a mixed age group of pupils.

20 September 2006, 4-6pm, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Glasgow

What is TeachMeet06?

Learn something new, be amazed, amused and enthused. This is an informal gathering of those curious about technologies.
Anyone can share cool ideas they have or great ideas they’ve triallled in their classrooms. Join us in person or via Skype.
We want things that have succeeded and which have failed. Whatever it takes to further the knowledge of the education community.

Click on the logo on the top right hand corner of the homepage for further details.

Today in Education Guardian.co.uk Stephen Heppell talks about 5 simple but effective things that have impressed him this year.  The full article can be read here, in brief he mentions:

• installing mirrors behind rows of pc’s so that you can see students faces, this is someting I have mentioned to schools for a while now.  It would allow you to see if they are enjoying their learning and have the effect of making the room look bigger and lighter (you didn’t expect interior decoracting tips did you).
• put postive statements on the walls not just rules, which tend to be negative don’ts.
• remove assemblies and produce a weekly broadcast instead to get information out, this could be in the form of a podcast that parents/pupils could subscribe to or a streamed movie.
• with “pupil voice” a topic in most staffrooms, texting offers a way to move on from frumpy schools’ councils.  Purchase a PAYG phone and give the students the number, they could take photos of issues they have around the school i.e. broken toilets etc and text them or just send a comment.
• give one pupil a digital camera for a week and ask them to photograph the “10 coolest things” then display these images on the school’s biggest street-facing window at night time.  This display could also be put onto the school website/blog for wider exposure.

What are your thoughts on these?  Do you do anything like this already, if so please share it here.

Logitech have released FREE avatars and video effects that will work with compatible logitech web cams, according to the website:

• Avatars will move based on your actions.
• Accessories will appear naturally while you move.

These video effects and avatars can work with many IM programs (i.e. MSN messenger) or to alter still images.

The avatars could be used to show moods or emotions if the students were doing a PSHE or citizenship project, they could be used by students who are not confident or shy infront of a camera.  If you have any other ideas how they could be used leave me a comment.

Earlier today I was fortunate enough to hear Ewan McIntosh talk about ‘10 ways to stay connected without losing your mind and why blogging isn’t one of them’. It was an excellent presentation, the only slight problem I had was that he didn’t have a long enough slot which lead to the final part of the presentation being rushed and there was no opportunity for audience questions. (If booking Ewan - you need to give him a couple of hours, an hour and a half at least.) Not only was the subject matter inspiring but the delivery was second to none that I have seen, I am sure he will publish his podcast from the day on his blog asap.

Many of the 100+ audience were inspired and challenged by what Ewan had to say, so much so that we should see an increase in the amount of blogs and podcasts originating from Telford.

Following his session Ewan and I made the trip to Church Aston Infant School to watch the students produce their first podcast. The podcast should appear on their website or newly created blog early next week. It was great to see this young students creating their own music to go in the podcast.

After lunch Ewan gave an impromptu session on podcasting using Audacity again a very well received session which just highlighted how well he knows his subject.  This podcast can be heard on his blog.

To conclude an excellent session, I am just waiting to listen to and see his enhanced podcast - if you are looking for a young inspiring keynote then Ewan is definately worth considering.  Keep up the good work Ewan McGregor, or was it Mr McEwan

After having a rest and watching the first half of Brazil v Croatia I have managed to spark up the laptop to post about the fabulous experience I had today.

About three weeks ago I was asked by Lisa Thomas at Oldbury Wells school if I could organise and deliver an ICT day for their able and talented pupils, I nearly bit her arm off So, today the day arrived and I was so nervous - it has been a long time since I spent a whole day teaching

Read the rest of this entry »

I have just read the following as part of a posting on Marc Prensky’s blog, I think it is an intriguing idea and would be keen to hear of any schools who would be interested in taking on Marc’s challenge. Could this work, would the motivation of a really interesting second term make out students engage more in the first?

This was a hope of the Key Stage 3 strategy in England when they introduced the condensed curriculum, but unfortunately most schools took it as an opportunity to stage Key Stage 4 in Year 9 - a pity

“We have prepared for you a second semester that is fantastic, and totally future-oriented. We will teach you about space exploration, nanotechnology, genomics, protonomics, bioethics, quantum computing, and all the wonders of the coming world. You will learn to program your phones and iPods to their max. You will build robots that can compete and win prizes. You will read and discuss the best science fiction there is. Your instructors will include – virtually – famous people from all over the world, including famous scientists, game designers, cell phone makers, etc. You will use technology such as 3D printers and Nintendo DS’s. This will be by far the most exciting thing you ever saw in school (and possible anywhere else).

“But here’s the thing: In order to get this fantastic second semester, you, the students, have to learn the entire year’s regular curriculum in just the first semester – and all of you must pass the standardized test that says you’ve learned it.

“To get you all to learn, those of you who are strong in whatever areas will need help those who are weaker. You can organize however you like, and work together in groups of your own choosing as much as you want, in order to meet the overall goal, which is that all of you pass. Your teachers will be there to guide you as to what you need to learn, and provide whatever help they can that you ask them for. But the basic responsibility for every student’s learning the material in just one semester will be on you.”

If a school is interested then they should contact Marc (marc@games2train.com)