Nicholas Hughes

2DIY Examples

2012-01-05T16:32:00.001Z

This week I will be at the BETT show on the 2simple stand on Thursday at 2pm and Friday at 10am to talk about some of the work my school has done with 2DIY. On Friday I will be bringing children along to let them teach you about the programmes. Please come along if you can - Details are below

Thursday

14.00– 14.15 'The Power of Programming'

By Nick Hughes, ICT Co-ordinator at Nightingale Primary School in Redbridge

Friday

10.30 – 10.50 – 'Look What I can do'

By Nick Hughes, ICT Co-ordinator at Nightingale Primary School in Redbridge

Below are some of the games that I will show in the Thursday.

Click here for more resources.

Action Script Examples

Collecting Game
_root.dxy=5;

Journey Game
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Others - Creative uses of the Templates

Lincolnshire CfBT Fast Forward Conference

2011-03-30T10:54:00.005Z

I was lucky enough last week to be asked to provide the final keynote at the Lincolnshire CfBT Fast Forward Conference. I spent the whole day there and sat in on a number of workshops.

The conference and a theme of using video within Literacy and Numeracy and Games Based Learning.

I sat in on 4 sessions and had to make some hard choices as all of the sessions seemed great.

Games based learning led by Darren Price.

Darren overviewed the work that he had been doing and supporting across their borough. (Which BTW is a lot bigger that London ones) His work focus on using GBL to support mathematics.

He talked briefly about the impact of the work stating that most children increased their average point’s score by 6.3 and even sighted one example of a child who had an increase of 11.3. He explained that the games where allowing children to use and apply their math’s a lot more confidently.

He then when on to demo a number of number of class activities.

He used Deal or no Deal on the Wii to discuss fractions.

As numbers where removed what was the fraction of blue and red values left.

When the offers came from the banker they would then look at the mean amount of money left to see if it was a good offer. Lots of discussions about probablity can be introduces how likely is it that a red number will come up next? Etc.. It does like any lesson require careful planning of questions.

He suggested that unless you plan questions and activities carefully when using games based learning you are just playing a game.

He extended the work by looking at screen shots taken from Deal or no Deal and asked us to decide who had the best chance of getting a red number? A great discuss came up about decimals or equivalent fractions.

Next he looked at Pictochat. Children shared a DS between two and they discussed the questions and recorded the answers. He used an ITP called guess the number. It gives you clues and you need to decide what the possible numbers could be. Children use pictochat to give possible answers. As a teacher you ask other questions what is the smallest/largest number it could be so far? Great for AFL learning.

I’ve never been a great fan of pictochat as I always feel that a WB is faster and pictochat slows things down, but Darren’s demo really showed the powerful tool it can be to get children to think and then discuss answers in some depth. I’ve always thought if it used in MM starters but this was a lesson and worked a lot better. Sold on that now, got to try it….

Finally he showed us WiiFit plus and a game where you have to make 10, it is a really simple game that supports a basic core skill. He said he had used this in year 6 and when the game used 3 numbers even they seemed to get stuck. How to make 10? What does it look like?

This then moved onto another example – Give 4 numbers arranged like the Wii Game and then asked to make 10 using as many ways as possible. (5, 3, 2, 4) This was extended to 4 number but then given a range of numbers including decinals. Like count down but with 4 numbers that you could use again and again.

A great session that included loads of games and ideas that I had not seen used before.

Screen to page led by Chris Whitney and Peter Wall.

This was a really interesting session on Film literacy and the Grammar of writing.

They suggest that when children know how to make films they can apply this back to their writing.

They pointed out that reading and making of film needs to be already familiar to children in order to fully embrace this.

When you think about composing a film you think about shots, sound, cuts all these things can be applied to your writing setting, description and paragraphing. A scary film has these sounds. How can we show this in writing? A film in the past is sepia how do we show this within text? Editing a film link to choosing where the best places for sentences and words are.

Peter spoke about his work in KS1. Where the children would make a film as part of the writing process, compare it to the drama work some of us to before we write.

He showed some great examples of films made using photostory about the Gruffalo. They took photos of the story, narrated it and then wrote it.

He talked though a number of examples using The Lighthouse Keepers Story and Lost Happy endings. He also showed a non-fiction film about pandas that had been made that led to a piece of report writing.

It was great to see this work and once video use within schools is embedded it is a great process to adopt.

F1 Fun in Maths – led by Daniel Ballard

This was the second session based on GBL. It focused on his love for F1 racing and all the maths work that could be gained from it.

He used Video clips of the races to discuss the times and how decimals are used. Looked at how to order the timings. If one car came 3^rd what was his actual time, so bringing in addition or decimals. A good example of good question to bring out the learning.

This continued by investigating how the points where given out to racers. How could a racer get 8 points over 5 races? What are all the possibilities. Is it possible to get 141 points over 18 races?

Mario Kart was introduced and the points system was compared. This led to a lot of work on what is a fair system.

He said himself that he could have gone a lot further with it over the 4 weeks, buy looking at Kart and track designs. How could you make a track that is 45cm long?

Another great session that really showed the potential using context to teach complex mathematical ideas and keeping it fun.

Superheroes, Master Villains Excited Pupils led by Andy Dickenson

This was the best talk of the day for me. Using comics and comic characters with children.

He explained the basic structure of the lessons.

It starts by making children either a member of league of evil or team hero. You show a trailer about them becoming superheroes or villain and then the children have to create their identity. The trailer really grabs their attention it did mine. ;o)

It promotes a lot of discussion. What do they know about superheroes? What makes you a hero or a villain? Why is a dalek evil? Are all superheroes good at their job? Then what powers do you have? Do you have any? This is a good one for G and T pupils.

Children look at creating a cool wall of ideas and words. Children think about the best adjectives for good and evil. What is the antonym to each of these words. Children can be paired by hero and villan and write the same stories from different points of view. You could do diaries of each days work? Or recounts of someone being saved? There are loads of possibilities.

Create your own here on cpbherofactory.com Dress the character. Print screen and create a comic cover.

A great session which being a comic geek I loved. This I will also be doing next term in my class.

I like to say thanks to all involved and hopefully everyone enjoyed my final keynote about the work of the Redbridge Games Network on Games Based Learning

BETT 2011 Day 1

2011-01-12T21:29:00.005Z

So BETT is here again. So what if anything grabbed my attention.

I'll be honest only 1 thing really turned my head, but I had a plan today to check out the various 'iPad' like devives out their on the market. I'll come on to the 3 I found in a moment.

Firstly 2simple was in force as normal showing off their new 2Start English and Mash2web. I popped along but was alos due to speak about some of the 2DIY work I had done. Check out the 2simple blog for that later.

Next up - and this links to some of the great presentations I saw this Sunday and Monday at the Learning Without Frontiers Conference. (Blog spot on that to come!)

I Can Animate that great bit of Mac (and PC) software is avaible for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Looks great and easy to use. Use other apps to mix it up and add sound and other effects.

On to some Tablets - Now I saw 3 which where insteresting and something that I can only describe as a PC DS.

The Libretto is made by Toshiba and runs Windows 7 - It has 2 touch screen and closes up like a DS - looked amasing but the £800 price was a bit much.

Next was a Slate called the Filo 1000 (I hope thats spelt right) It is a Android tablet running 2.2. Looks nice and didn't have a bad response time for the screen. A newer version is coming soon. I'm gonna get one on aproval soon so watch this space. I was told these where aboud the £300 price point.

Next tablet was one from RM called the RM Slate 100 - Running Windows 7. Nice weight and price at £400. Again getting one on aproval soon.

The final slate was from Avantis called the LearnPad. This was £295 and was also running Andorid 2.2, but it had a overlay which locked the system down so make it more child/school friendly. This slate had the best hardware and screen is was very responsive. Again 'hopefully' will get one on approval.

I suppose the question what about apple - yep I am, but all the above devices run flash so lots of the content us teachers like will work on them.

Finally my final head truing find and it was on an Interactive Whiteboard! I was wandering past the Smart stand and saw 3D objects being manipulated on a slide. Interesting. Thats me rotating a object from the Google 3d warehouse. (Where you get your models for Google SketchUp) I was stuck by the ability to rotate a model of a Viking Longboat for children to study. Also if you have a Smart Document Camera, you will be able to use that AR cube to turn and intearct with the object on the board. Nice! This will be in a later update of Smart Notebook this summer!

Now onward to Day 2.

Video Conferencing

2010-12-12T12:16:00.013Z

Hi all its been a while.

Just wanna talk about the VC work that my school has taken part in this term. We purchased a camera late last year and didn't really have much chance to use it. Now this term we have managed to use it 3 times and hopefully more on the way. All off the VC where arranged though LGFL at no lost to us which was great.

Firstly my year 4 year group met up with Michael Rosen via VC. We had a 20minute session where we read him some of our poems, asked him some questions and he performed some of his. It was a great experience and we had planned it as part of our work that week on performance poems. Click here if you would like to watch the session.

Our 2nd and 3rd VC's where last week on the same day! Both year 1 and reception met up with Father Christmas. This is great. We connected to Santa's Grotto and he told us all about his holiday and then the children got a chance to answer questions. Our school news on this!

Throughout these you are always thing how will the children react to the VC - will they understand that they are talking to a real person?
In Year 4's case I showed them the camera and showed them all what they looked like on screen and gave them a chance to get all the waving out of the way. During the VC in the top corner we could see our camera image all the time, so the children where always reminded they could be seen.
In year 1's case I was told to turn off our camera view as it would take up screen space for the video we where shown. The year 1's where told quickly about the camera but the weren't always reminded they where on screen. The year ones had to get up and talk into the microphone so it was almost like them coming up to speak to a person in class.

Is it worth not having the home camera view on screen as it distracts from the full effect of the VC? Will have to try this again on the next one. Hopefully next year we will have more VC's with some American schools. Exciting.

Anyone who wants to meet up with my school contact me - you don't need an expensive VC camera to connect a web cam will do. nichughes.317@lgflmail.org

Lego WeDo

2010-06-30T22:17:00.008Z

Over the last two weeks I have been experimenting with the new(ish) Lego WeDo kits. I'd seen these before, but at Bett this year has a closer look and really saw the potential for an challenging KS1 piece of control hardware.

Just to explain Lego WeDo is a kit that builds over 10 different models that you control using the computer. All the instructions are presented onscreen and Max and Mia are two characters that take us though the activities. Unlike the more advanced Mindstorms Lego, this remains attached to the computer, you have a motor, a light/distance sensor and a tilt sensor to use in the models. The onscreen programming is just a series of coloured blocks that snap together, very simple to use.

I have been exploring this with the aim to introduce it as a unit next year for year 2. I was worried about the building and then programming aspects. What is the best way to teach it? I couldn't see teh point of building one week and then comming back to it the nest week as you loose all the excitment, so could it be done in an afternoon? After working for two weeks its clear that the children really enjoyed the experience and nearly all of them at the end of an afternoons work (1 hour 30 minues) had built and programmed a model. I think its possible to spend a little more working on them as well.

More importantly both classes said that they would love to do it again and they would be better next time. So over a 3 or 4 week period if you spend an afternoon on it by the 3 or 4 one the building will be quicker can you can focus even more on the programming side.

One more next week. Check out a short video of some of the action in class.

Purple Mash and Year 1.

2010-05-17T14:37:00.003Z

Recently I did a lesson with year one on the topic of toys and describing them. I had done similar lessons before and used a range of programmes in the past. I wanted to do something a bit different so looked towards purplemash.com/

The task was very simple and after giving children some time to talk I explained the Apptivity I had chosen and they where away. They had no problems using the pen tools, or even dragging in the clip art.

The children did struggle with typing the text, but the apptivtiy had its own clicker grid of sorts, to help the children. The only issue was that the text was a little small for some of the children.

Check out a few examples of they work they did.

Try out the Apptivity here. http://purplemash.com/describetoys/

Games Based Learning 2010

2010-04-15T10:30:00.002Z

Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend and speak at the Games Based Learning Conference.

Click here for videos of all the talks, some will be linked below as well.

Thoughts

I attended many sessions of the 2 days. I’m not doing to do a blow by blow review, but give some brief overview comments about talks that perked my interest and then direct you to them to watch yourself.

Day 1

Media Molecule creators of little big plant gave an interesting talk about how they become interested in games and the importance of allowing people to create things. LBP is a tool that allows you to be creative without all the programming instructions. They said that traditionally to make a game you would need to know a lot and so lots of energy would go into learning and you would have less final product. LBP allows it to be about content. They used a great phrase – ‘learning by stealth’ to explain that though playing the games you learn a lot. You have to go through a process of trying things out and then testing them.

Giving children time to explore and create seems to be important to the creative process and a tool that isn’t so hard to use is a way in to provide more immediate feedback before progressing into more complex areas.

Derek Robertson from Consolarium talked about the work across Scotland. He asked some good questions though about Why do we still need to justify working with games? They have started to move into games design saying it should be about creation as well as consumption.
It’s great to see so much positive work going on with a varied array of games. I loved the work with Sony Eyepet. (more on that later) Great to see the push towards games creators as well now. http://newlearning.blip.tv/file/3435637/

Matt Mason author of the Pirates Dilemma wasn’t really a talk related to classroom practice. It was about how we understand piracy and the benefits that it has had on society. The best quote was innovation happens in piracy, because they can work in an area that the mainstream can’t. If you have been wondering about digital rights and the true impact of piracy then check out his talk.

Gillian Penny the Head Teacher from Gavinburn spoke about her whole school approach to games based learning. She emphasised that you need careful planning; Teachers need to be onboard and sharing with parents. She discussed the work her school had done with Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics and Guitar Hero. She explained the cross curricular projects that where run. http://newlearning.blip.tv/file/3437105/

Tim Ryland’s talk about children being creators and owners of games was great. He even had children creating a short game during the 20minites he talked. They were great, though I am biased as 2 where from my class. http://newlearning.blip.tv/file/3437986/

Day 2

Ollie Bray introduced a session on games where he discussed the importance and value to games within education. The key points where that games are playful learning. Games are a new ideas but so where whiteboard and pens a few years ago. The competitive and non treating environment of games is hard to find else where. You can loose at a game and not feel bad, you’ll just go again, why can’t this be applied to a mental maths test. Only got 5/20 no worries lets replay the level. He went on to emphasis the need to get the teacher to on board. Can kids be as addicted to learning as they are to games?

Watch the contribution from me and Dawn Hallybone and the Redbridge Games Network.

Jo Armitage spoke about the Olympics project that is being run in Hounslow, which had Mario and Sonic at the Olympics as the core game. But the cross curricular work surrounding it was amazing, Children had to create a whole team of people surrounding the athletes and then do the research to support them, for example they had to have trainers, PR mangers and dieticians.

Brain McLaren of Consolarium spoke about some of the projects he had been running in Scotland. The two that caught my eye was the use of Little Big Planet, where KS1 children have the design brief to the older children. Also they had character designs done as models away from the computer. The Sony Eyepet was an amazing idea that I will be looking into further myself.

Brian Clarke also Consolarium spoke about games design and for me was probably one of the best speakers of the two days. The Scottish curriculum emphasises the need to children to be creators of games as well as consumers. Brian basically gave an over view of what games creation progression can look like from primary to secondary level. The key thing seemed to be use software that starts with having an icon based system that has fairly instant visible results and then move on to more complex code. So 2diy then move to action scripts and then scratch. For 3D games start with Kodu and then move onto sandbox and the UDK. The great thing is all expect 2diy are free. I have lots of learning to do to see how to use all these great bits of software. http://newlearning.blip.tv/file/3442640/

The final PM session had a much more industry feel to it.

Margaret Robertson who is a games designer asked what makes a good casual game and how can educational games learn from this. Annoyingly there isn’t really an answer games need to be a lot of things but they importantly respond to needs. The advantage that casual games have is that they can be written quickly thrown out there and then updated an improved. Education need to copy the process not the result.

A number of people spoke and suggested that industry doesn’t know much about education and sadly there is little reason to pursue it since there is little profit in it. The message seemed to be that industry doesn’t know how to make educational games and have little interest in doing so.

Finally Jesse Schell spoke via video conference about his view of education. He is not a teacher this is just his opinion. His main point was that the future is beautiful, customized, sharing and real. But looking at classrooms today they are far from this is fact they are ugly, standardised, isolated, fake. This was a really interesting discussion, about the only one I questioned was isolated since think that sharing is getting a lot better, but the rest very true.

I loved his idea to make things more beautiful though using experience point and level ups to make recording progress in a more positive light. You can never loose this way. Check out his talk and his presentation.

He spoke recently at DICE 2010 and was a buzz for a while - http://fury.com/2010/02/jesse-shells-mindblowing-talk-on-the-future-of-games-dice-2010/

Summary
Overall it was a great two day experience. I came back with lots of ideas of where to take the Games Network. I got expanded view of the importance of allowing children to explore ideas and create games and programmes. Children need to become creators of content.

Where do I go next?

Investigate the following software - Sony Eyepet, Kodu and Little Big Planet.
Investigate the embedding of games creation with the curriculum. How to I make children creators of games content.
How can I insure that my classroom is Beautiful, Customised, Shared and Real?
The level up achievement system.

Children in Action(scripts) Part 2

2010-03-28T13:06:00.011Z

Below are some of the level games we completed over the course of the project. Have a place and leave a comment to say which one you liked best.

Kellie and Zahra

Laura and Humaiza

Tom and Daniel

Kiran and Daiyan

Easha and Maisha

Osain Louie and Josh

Sasha and Jessie

Jake and Twia

%20

Children in Action(scripts)

2010-03-21T12:53:00.004Z

We have been lucky enough to work with with 2simple using a product called 2diy over the last couple of weeks. 2DIY if you haven’t heard of it before allows the user to create simple flash games. We have been exploring some of the hidden treasures of the software a programming language called action scripts. This is all leading towards making my class experts in Action Scripts and some of my class and me going to Game Based Learning Conference and allowing the children to teach others about what they can do.

Below is a brief over view of what we have done over the last few weeks.

Week 1
My class used the software and created a simple game based on the theme of internet safety. It allowed the class to use the basic functions.

Week 2
Started to introduce action script and learnt how to creating power ups. So how to make the player jump higher, move faster and fall quicker. This was taught to use via Skype and Anthony Evans of 2simple. Children liked this and its worked, Powerups are a great place to start with action scripts.

Week 3
Introduced more action script ideas, how to teleport a player and how to turn things invisible, these seemed to be much more difficult. The teleporting needed children to think about coordinates which threw some, also others needed to practice powerups again.
I realised that even though the focus of these lessons is to teach action script, it is a concept that was designed for the higher ability in the class. Though I want it to be accessible for all, we just need to remember to balance how many new ideas we add, this week we did too much. We need to practice more.

Week 4
Had two sessions this week – one where we just spent an hour going over the action script skills we had already learnt and practice them by adding them to our World Book Day games from last week.

The main session this week was a small bit of action script teaching in the form of a video from 2simple that reviewed teleporting and the how to lose a life. My class was set a challenge to create a multi level game which included some of the action script skills we have been learning. We discussed game design, what we had to consider to make a game challenging and the story or aim of a game. I didn’t give children a topic to follow i wanted them to use their imaginations.

Week 5
Most of the class continued to work on their multi level games. I worked with two of the children in my class who where best at using action scripts and we met up with the Year 6 children of Whissendine CE Primary School their Headteacher Rob Gooding. They taught the children how to make Power Ups, I helped a little bit. Check out the video below.

I met up with the school again later and saw two great examples that where using action scripts.

Moving onto week 6 this will be a final chance to practice before 4 of my class attend the Games Based Learning Conference. Come back for more info and some examples of the games we produced.

TeachmeetBETT 2010

2010-01-17T11:33:00.006Z

In the evening of Bett I attended the Teachmeet, a place where anyone can get up and talk for 2 or 7 minutes about what they are doing in class. It’s a great place to be inspired as one teacher said what’s normal to us is a lightbulb to someone else. A list of all the speakers is here and you can re-watch the whole thing by replaying the live flashmeeting.

If you wanna know nore about what a teachmeet is click here and watch the video.

These are the things that I took away with me.

Voki.com – as a way to create speaking avatars. 2 teachers spoke about how they are using it as:
- a way for showing younger children to navigate the MLE
- an MFL tool, by creating Voki’s that speak different languages.
- a way to present Lit work inparticular poems – it also has the ability to leave comments.

Get a Voki now!

http://linkbun.ch/ – a way to share a number of links in a single link. Click on the link and they will all open up in tabs. It’s a great way to prepare lessons and almost teach just from a series of webpages. Share your planning over twitter. http://linkbun.ch/khv7 - of all the links from this post.

An idea for Databases – a murder mystery which you have to solve by investigating databases – cool idea.

http://www.xtranormal.com/ - create videos online – great starter activity for introducing video creation and editing.

David Phips of http://www.ictcoverlessons.com/ – showed live how you can turn two Wii motes into a Interactive whiteboard - £100 cost. It was great ;o)

Helen Myers – talked passionately about how she has discovered Second Life and been using it to learn languages and how that she is starting to build a Languages world in Teengrid. Check out her video.

Of course I spoke as well check out the video of the of me speaking about the Redbridge Games Network.

BETT 2010 - Thoughts and things

2010-01-16T17:44:00.012Z

Yesterday was my day to soak in the technical goodness that was Bett. It was a very long day, since I also attended TeachmeetBett2010 (post to come)

While I saw a few interesting things, there where no wow moments this year for me. I'll briefly list some of the things that caught my eye.

2create a superstory from 2simple was a really nice product which allows children to create a variety of books and texts. Its selling feature is the ability to very easily add animation and sounds to these stories. Think 2createastory all grown up. I've got my copy and hope to be using it with the children next week.

Augmented Reality was on a few stands and is a really interesting concept. These little black shapes or square patterns when shown to a web cam allow a 3d model to be show and moved around. The people from connectED where showing a PSP system that would also play videos or sounds when shown a certain image. There is something to this tech, it just seems that no-one really knows how to make it work in class. Below is a video of a Smart product - the page turning this a nice idea. 2simple have also shown some AR in the past working with their online tools and 2design and make.

Projectors seemed to the talk of a number of stands and they seemed to range in size and power. Casio has a revolutionary one which was bulb less. £750 2000 lumen's and a 5 year or 10,000 lamp hour life warranty.

I'm always on the look out for cool new laptops and this one below really caught my eye. Dual screen, net book sized. The company called VYE has a range of net books and smaller sized products. Click the link to check them out.

I was as always on the lookout for new robot products and spotted two things. One was the new LEGO Education WeDo System which is a really nice KS1, early KS2 introduction to Programming and the Lego Mindstorms system. The children build models based on a story. It is a really nice package and allows children to experience some control concepts that aren't normally taught till year 5 or 6.

The other product I saw was from RM and called TETRIX. Another Lego product that combines Mindstorms and the NXT brick with a metal construction system. Think Mecano but it connects with technic lego as well. Great progression, more of a secondary resource though. :o(

Anthings was at the show of course and showing of the new audio recorder in their software.
Finally a great success for Redbridge was that children and teachers where invited to talk about their work with 2DIY at the Playful Learning Stand which was sponsored by Stephen Heppel. Children from Geries Infants and Cleaveland Juniors had been working together to make games for each other it was great to see and their will be video available soon.

New post on Redbridge Games Network - Wii and PE?

2009-12-13T14:16:00.002Z

Click the link to check out the work I did with my class using the Wii in my PE lesson.

http://redbridgegamesnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/12/wii-and-pe-part-3-power-up-to-year-6.html

Vikings - We want you!

2009-11-23T19:55:00.010Z

Use the following video and links to find out some information about Viking Warriors.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/vikings/viking_raiders/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/warriorchallenge/vikings/profile.html

Espresso video - Raids on the British Isles

Find out about

1. What they did.

2. The weapons and equipment they had.

3. Where they travelled to.

4. How often they would go on raids.

Write a leaflet encouraging people to join up and become vikings. Include the information above.

Wii in School this week.

2009-11-22T18:18:00.002Z

Its been a good week for the Wii in Nightingale this week.

Its been used in both a Year 6 maths lessson and a Year 4 PE lesson.

Click on the links to see what we did and how it worked out.

Mario Kart Day 2

2009-11-10T22:07:00.002Z

Today was day two to Mario Kart in class. Click on the link to find out how it went.

Mario Kart in Year 6 - Day 1.

2009-11-09T22:34:00.002Z

Today I started using my new Wii in class, which I got though the Redbridge Games Network. Click on the link to find out how it started out.

Space Pig

2009-11-04T15:30:00.001Z

Click here to download:

Space_pig2.avi (1339 KB)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nicholas Hughes <nichughes.ast@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 3:20 PM
Subject: Space Pig
To: post@nichughes.posterous.com

Work done by primary NQTs.

Posted via email from nichughes's posterous

Kirby Krackle Rocks!

2009-11-02T20:39:00.001Z

via kirbykracklemusic.com

I Love Kirby Krackle - New Geek Music. Check out Back to the Beginning if you like Mario Kart. Ring Capacity if you love Green Lantern.

Posted via web from nichughes's posterous

Antithings Launch

2009-10-16T09:46:00.002Z

Yesterday at Parkhill Infants school, a new piece of software called Antithings was launched.
It also announced a Redbridge Competition for the software.

Basically Antithings is a very simple, yet powerful animation tool.
Below is an example I made in about 10 minutes.

Its a great price of software and I look forward to using it with my Year 6's. For more details and loads of videos check out the site http://www.anithings.com/

Scratch

2009-08-26T13:33:00.008Z

Been playing with Scratch today, managed to make a pong game after about 2 hours, still needs to tweaks.

Not quite an alterative to 2diy, since it is complex, not suitable for KS1.

Something to use alongside 2diy. It teaches the ideas if flow diagrams and cause and effect, since to can adjust programmes on the fly with instant results.

This will be shown in a subject leaders session soon.

Click the image to play

Check it out - http://scratch.mit.edu/

Using Nintendo DSi in class

2009-06-29T07:01:00.004Z

Its been a fun week for trying new things out.

We have had new DSi' in school now for about 2 weeks. We have started to use Brain Training to support mental calculation stragies.

When the PTA offered to buy DS' for the school, I convinced them to pay a bit more to get the new DSi.

This week we used the DSi' to support our revision work for creativity week. We where researching countries in Asia and Australiasa. The DSi' where provided as an alterative to a laptop. There was something great about the children in my class engauged in learning using a range of mobile technologies.

New podcast

2009-05-21T12:54:00.001Z

http://podcast.lgfl.org.uk/channels/media/1242313574VID00019.mp4

Click on link for our new episode.

Woodlands Junior INSET

2009-05-06T08:39:00.012Z

Here are the recourse and links to relevant videos from today's INSET.

How to add an ITP to Smart Notebook.

Screencasts and videos online

How to update the Gallery.

How to in Smart....
http://www.youtube.com/user/SMARTClassrooms - Link to a series of vidoes.

Video Conferencing - Does it work?

2009-04-27T21:19:00.006Z

Over the last term I have been experimenting with using Video Conferencing in the classroom. I'd already seen the opportunities that are available from museums round the county, but wanted to investigate the uses that schools themselves could make by connecting to each other.

A few schools in my borough where interested in working together and we decided on a overall topic to work on, linked to our SATs revision in year 6. The plan was to challenge each others science knowledge. We initially met up and did some short science presentations. Then we aimed for the children to take part in a quiz where the questions where generated by them.

We started well and the presentations went smoothly, we planned the date for the first quiz, but the sadly the technology failed us. This did happen a few times unfortunately, date where set but issues made the VC unable to happen.

Today though my class took part in a video conference with the National Maritime Museum. This was a great success and in the end a overall really good use of the VC equipment.

Overall I love the possibilities that the VC technology can bring and provide in the classroom through bringing experts into the classroom and connecting with other schools and children.

Sadly the technology is not 100% reliable so that is something to consider since it did spoil the effectiveness of my longer term project connecting with local schools.

What have your experiences been of VC? Please leave a comment?

Google Earth and Google Forms

2009-01-27T22:16:00.005Z

This week I was inspired by Tom Barrett's Blog and his own post on using Google Earth and Smart Notebook for understanding 3D shape. I decided to attempt this myself.

I started the lesson by using Google Earth to explore a 3D shape. The children using their whiteboards discussed the features and then I annotated the board. The kids where amazed as we zoomed into the location, which had been previously bookmarked. I challenged the children to find some more places we could investigate - so hopefully some more next week.

Once this was done we moved on to investigating the different ways you can make the nets of the cube. I asked the children to mark the top and bottom face. I kept this activity open ended and challenged them to find as many different nets as possible. I borrowed from Tom again and used Smart Notebook to allow quick recording of the nets using infinite cloner.

It was a successful session and the children where working seamlessly with the computers to support the learning.

Google Docs

I stayed with Google this week after being inspired and decided to use Google Docs and the form creator to aid with our formal writing. We had previously written forms about how to join a Library or a swimming club.

I created a simple login for the whole class to use and they had simple instructions to follow to start a from. The children's task was to use the form creator to help them create a form for applying to be a secret agent or a sports player.

Unfortunately the idea while sound didn't mesh with the ability of my class. I have the lower ability group and while they understood the idea of what they had to do, they spent a long time on the ICT and not the literacy.

I've had this discussion before how are children supposed to use the ICT tools the new frameworks calls for without learning the skills. I don't want an Literacy lesson becoming a ICT teaching lesson. Some of the higher ability worked well and did achieve a lot. Something to try again but with a different ability range.

This is one of the form that where created.

Loading...

Bett 2009 Round up and Teachmeet 09

2009-01-17T15:01:00.005Z

The day after Bett and its time to collect some thoughts and point you in the direction of what was cool and inspiring.

First up the Smart Table - this seemed like a really cool bit of technology. It was multi touch and the activity bank included works on the idea of collaboration and cooperation. It is also possible to make your own activities using templates. I think we'll be seeing more on this over the coming year, but at the moment I don't see many schools shelling out around £5000 for this to go into KS1 classrooms.

From Bett09

Microsoft Surface is the direct competition to the Smart Table and RM had one on display. The basic idea is the same a multi touch desk surface, the touch sensitivity was basically the same. The difference is with the OS, it has some cool applications like mapping, and there are some educational application being developed now with RM. It can recognise cards and from a dot 'fingerprint' it tells the table what to do. We where making a pizza and if we put the cheese card down cheese appeared to place, and if we put the peppers card down peppers appeared. It was nice and smooth, but the educational push just wasn't there for me compared to the Smart Table, again we'll see more of this over the coming year, but at around £7000-8000 its the most expensive. Have a look at this video of the 'ideal' possibilities.

Next Robots - one of my guilty pleasures and the only wow moment I had this Bett.

RM had on there Stand the Mech RC which is a programmable robot. Now I've been doing a lot of work with Robots in school and this one blew me away. Firstly it was a great range of movement that allows for great animation and agility. Secondly the software to program it is so easy to use, its almost more like animation that programing. I ordered one I was so impressed - £380.

From Bett09

Check out these links for a bit more info.
http://www.mechrc.com/
http://www.rmeducation.com/mech-rc

I went along to Q4Technologies to check out there new ranges. This year they have added Femispaien - a female robot, and Wrex the Dawg - a dog. Both come with software. They look and feel has changed so the software is much more appealing. Go-Robo Stuido which controls all the WowWee robots has also undergone a face lift. Check out this video for some of the work that has been done with the Femisapiens.

From Bett09

Finally I was also checking out some of the newer netbooks trying to explore the best for children and for teachers.

3 stood out, the Samsung NC10, the Toshiba NB100 and the Fizzbook Spin. The first two for teachers and the Fizzbook for pupils. Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be able to tell you more.

From Bett09

Overall a Bett was good show, but not as many wow moments as I had last year.

Teachmeet

As always a great social and networking event - many people spoke.
The high points for me where:
Tom Barret - Who used Twitter and Google Earth in a lesson He asked his Twitter group to give his class clues so that they could find them in the world. The children became explorers and had to give proof back to the Twitters that they had found them in Google Earth.

Someone showed Photoshop Tennis. The teacher posts a picture in a forum on a topic - his example was lust, the children had to photoshop the picture and take it in different but linked directions. The images took on a unique story and narrative of it own. This was a secondary example, but is this possible in primary?

There where a a number of good links given as well so check the below out.

Glogster.com - An Interactive poster maker.
Mathtrain.com - children being teachers using screencast telling us about maths concepts.
Zoomit - a useful screen zooming tool.
Comicbrush.com - create and change comics
Flickr Related Tags Browser

Finally of course Teachmeet East London 2 was also launched. Keep your eyes on the Teachmeet site for details.

Asus Minibooks at the British Museum

2009-01-16T06:37:00.003Z

Yesterday I worked with a Year 5 class on a Trip to the British Museum. The difference with this to normal trips was that we didn't take clipboards and worksheets, we took 10 Asus Minibooks.

This was a first for me and the school I was working with. Within Redbridge a few other schools has taken these laptops on trips so I was keen to see the advantages that they offered.

Their task was to throughout the Greek galleries they where asked to choose artifacts and then record information about it. The children used the web cam on the laptop to take pictures, then inserted the picture into a prepared Openoffice presentation file and added text.

The children had used these laptops before the trip and had recapped the main skills a few days before the trip.

There where 2/3 children working with each laptop, it was interesting to see the children at work. It was obvious that the fact they where using laptops excited the children, but they where all working on the tasks. They had to look carefully at the objects they where taking photos of and then had to find, read and take notes about the artifact.

These mini laptops were well used and provided children an alternative focus to the traditional worksheet. I would definitely think about using them again, you just need to make sure you have an appropriate task in mind to use the laptops. One of the other ideas we had was to use googleforms to do a survey or questionnaire, unfortunately the British Museum doesn't have wireless but I could be an idea in other places.

The children are now going to review there work and prepare to show their presentations to other classes their school. When they are finished I will update with their presentations.

Has anyone else used these laptops on trips? Please leave a comment.

2diy Take 2

2009-01-14T22:28:00.002Z

I couldn't resist myself - this is my effort using 2diy.

2diy - Hands on testing

2009-01-13T23:29:00.005Z

This week I managed to use 2simples newest program 2diy with my class. It didn't disapoint. I saw this programmed at a consultants day at 2simple HQ a few weeks ago and was blown away by the simple and rapid results.

I simpley showed my class the basic functions and then allowed them time to create a game. This was bit of an experiment to see the potential of the software. Below are just two examples of games my class made over the course of about an hour. Most of this was done with very little teacher input - this was a piece of software where the children led the way. I offered evauation when I had a go of the game and said that it was too easy or too hard, the children did this to each other.

There is a vast amount of potential for this piece of software as a teacher tool - creating games for the IWB and as a creative tool for children. To make an effective game children need to be taught and to think about the 'story' of the game, and to consider audience in terms of difficulty.

Click on this link to check out more of the games my class made.

Check it out and Bett this week.

What is Interactive IWB use?

2008-12-17T07:41:00.006Z

This was a question I asked the staff at my school.
We brainstormed what was Good, Poor and Interactive use of a IWB.

Effective is a combination of Good and Interactive.

Comments?

Leave them on the blog or on this Voice Thread

Video Conferencing.... first steps.

2008-12-16T20:32:00.003Z

Today marked my first major foray into the VC world.

I have done one event before with my class last year when we met up with the National Space Centre.

This time it was organised by me - click the link to find out more

http://npsyear6.blogspot.com/2008/12/video-conferencing-with-year-6.html

Watch this space for more....

2simple Advisors Day - 2DIY

2008-12-12T19:10:00.009Z

Just a very quick note about last Fridays Primary Advisors Day at 2simple.

This was the first time I attended such an event, and we where shown some great stuff in advance of BETT. This is a bit of a teaser and Anthony will soon have a more in depth look at the software shown.

We where shown:
2Collaborate (with ActiveExpression)
2Simple French
2Simple Online Tools
2Do It Yourself

The last one quite simply blew me away. It basically allows you to make flash based activities. Check out the one I made in 2 minutes below!

2DIY is a truly a amazing bit of kit which teachers are gonna find invaluable. I want it now!!!! I can't wait to unleash my children on it to create their own games.

Grab it at BETT.

J2e

2008-12-07T12:10:00.003Z

I've been looking at j2e.com for a couple of weeks now and had the opportunity to meet with one of its creators Danny.

As some of you might be aware this online desktop publishing tool is now available to anyone with an LGFL account.

I have only been exploring this my self and with other teachers, but in the new year I plan to use this with my class much more extensively.

Why do I like it? Well it is a very easy to use online word processor, so ideal for KS1 and even KS2 children. It is also something that children can access at home and create interesting pieces of work through it.

The real power of it though is with its collaboration possibilities. I or any child can create a document and then share with others and you can all interact on the same piece of work.

Some of you are thinking what about google docs, and yes there are many similarities but this is a well designed, secure children friendly environment.

If you have LGFL in your school go a check it out at http://j2e.lgfl.org.uk/

Let me know if you use it in any interesting ways.

Handheld Learning 2008

2008-10-13T22:00:00.004Z

I was lucky enough this week to be asked to speak by Andy Black of Becta at the Handheld Learning Conference.

I was one of 7 people who spoke about Next Generation Learning - Right Here, Right Now.

I spoke about the Robosapien project I ran last year. This project is still running in Redbridge, keep track of it here.

A overview of the me and the other speakers is here http://ubiquitousthoughts.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/handheld-learning-day-1-next-generation-learning-session/

I'll be posting my thoughts later.

Below is my presentation and the videos I showed.

Robots in KS2

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: robots robosapiens)

Guitar Hero in Year 5

2008-07-15T17:21:00.002Z

Inspired by the work by LTS in Scotland with their work using Guitar Hero in class, rewrote one of the Year 5 DT units and decided to design and create controllers for Guitar Hero.

The outcome where amazing. Check out the video below.

What next for next year? Well though the Guitar Hero angle is a good way into the topic, i'd open it up to allow design of a game controller and the game that it goes with - watch this space for that....

Animation in Chadwell Primary

2008-07-09T14:10:00.002Z

Links to examples work across the borough and useful resources.

Redbridge Animation Resources

Below are some examples of the work that the teachers achieved in the 1 hour INSET. Well Done!!

VC in Nightingale Primary School

2008-07-03T20:41:00.008Z

This week my class took part in a Video Conference event with the National Space Centre. This project ran all week with 9 schools across Redbridge, it was organised by Mina Patel from LGFL

The event itself was a self contained e-mission, where the children had the task of designing, launching and crewing a space station. A topic that can fit into KS2 science.

The mission was a success and the children all worked hard and enjoyed themselves. There where some issues, but this was mainly with some of the content and resources provided. This was a new mission for the space centre and our feedback was collected and will be fed back to them.

The main issue I had was the need for it to be accessible to all children either though differentiated worksheets and challenges for the more able.

But its is a great event, brilliant for team work, and one that I would do again in a heart beat.

tutpup - online learning

2008-06-15T16:44:00.003Z

Stumbled across this excellent site after reading an article about it on Ewan McIntosh's Blog.

Basically it is a game site that asks children mental maths questions and how to spell words.

What I like is the competitive nature of the site, since you don't play by yourself you compete with other children on the site. The children score points based on how well they do, what is great is that you can play children from all over the world, basically anyone who is logged in.

The site is very secure the only information you see is the login that the children use. The site itself collects only a very small amount of information about the child, date of birth and country. If you create a school account the children will need that as well or they just put in their parents email address and within 7 days their parents must respond or the account is frozen.

The school account allows you to track those in your class and see what games they have been playing and how they are doing.

This is a very interesting alternative to using DS's and Doctor Kawashima's Brain Training. Next year I will be looking into this in more detail.

Check it out.

http://tutpup.com/

Roding 4th June - Notes and Links

2008-06-03T22:07:00.007Z

Windows Movie Maker

Search on youtube for movie maker and you will get loads more.

Where does the Literacy Frameworks make expicit refernce to video and audio use...
In Year 5

Narrative

Unit 2 - Myths and Legends
Record the groups' retelling of the legend using microphones, digital sound recorders or video cameras so that they can be reviewed and evaluated.

Unit 6 - Dramic Conventions
Establish the form of presentation, for example a performance of the script to be recorded using a form of ICT (consider use of a recording format that would allow children to save their own and others' presentations onto portable music players).
Children present their scripts either in performance or through a recording and evaluate their own performance and that of others.

Non-fiction

Unit 2 - Reports
Demonstrate or model the use of note-taking in interviews to prepare the teams. Emphasise the distinction between quotations and reported speech (refer to earlier activities). Consider the use of digital sound recorders to assist children in carrying out their interviews.

The presentation can be a newspaper report, radio report, TV report, for example using video cameras with simple digital editing programs, magazine article, e-report or web page (consider hyperlinking from or to the school website). Possibly compile group recounts into a class newspaper, TV-style news programme, etc.

Poetry

Unit 2 - Narrative Poems
Give children time to rehearse and polish their freeze-frames, recording them digitally for later use.

Allow the groups time to explore the poem and select stanzas for performance. It may be appropriate to place children's dramatic images into presentation software to support children's decision-making process. Allow children to practise, record and listen to their oral performances in order to evaluate and improve them.

Unit 3 - Perfomance Poems
A simple digital video camera, which itself can be operated by children, provides an excellent way of recording and reviewing children's own live performances, and ICT media, such as pod casting, can provide a wider audience for such performances.

There are other places where it is not explicit but can we worked in.
Narrative - Unit 5 Film Narrative - Create photo slideshows or even movies
Non-Fiction - Unit 3 - Persuasion - Create your own adverts

Links
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/trailermaker/ -Make your own Dr Who Trailers
http://mashup.starwars.com/ - Make your own Star Wars Trailers
http://www.cueprompter.com/
http://catchvideo.net/ - Choose windows format - mpg
ICT applications - Primary Frameworks
http://youtube.com/
Easi-Speak Microphone
http://www.jumpcut.com/ - edit videos online
http://splashup.com - Edit pictutres online.
http://www.go2web20.net/ - list of web 2.0 sites.

SEE Sidebar for ICT applications guide and Teachers guide to ICT skills needed in Literacy.

Updates and Reflecting

2008-05-29T14:41:00.002Z

It was a busy week last week with the Redbridge ICT Conference and Teachmeet East London.

Keep your rss readers tuned to the Redbridge Subject Leaders Blog as soon there will be video and/or audio downloads of the Keynote Speakers Ewan McIntosh and Karl Hopwood.

Speaking of Ewan - here is his blog post about teachmeet and guess what I'm on it. Cool. :o) I'm in the picture with the white robot. http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2008/05/teachmeet08-nor.html

If you missed Teachmeet and what to see what the fuss was - you can rewatch it on Flashmeeting.

Hopefully there will be as well some videos of the primary and secondary schools who showcased their work.

Thoughs...

How do we encourage teachers to communicate and share there good practice?
We need to have a go with these new(ish) tools and technology and be prepared to fail.

"Don't Think. Try."

Are we doing all we can to promote and educate children about e-safety issues?
How do we get a uniform appropach?

Teachmeet Live

2008-05-19T17:04:00.009Z

PSHE Go-Givers

Free Tools.

Make personal timelines - future goals.
Ballot box....

2simple - work in africa - desire for technology.

Richard - Delight http://blog.richardmillwood.net/
Delight is......

What is exciting....
Jen Herron.... Book - Physology in.....

blog.richardmillwood.net

RM - Asus.
Power of asus....
Youtube video - review edugeeks.
birmingham - molenet.org.uk
one laptop per child -

machine for uk school or promise elsewhere in the world.

Getting global - humanties ed centre.
Global citisenship.
Tower Hamelets.

Golbal Change
http://www.global.tower-hamlets.lgfl.net/

Global Home - Geography
Datalogging on a global scale.

Frame datalogging in a real context.

Terry Freedman's

Free Book - interesting projects
People invited to tell about web 2.0 projects.
His page http://www.terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/index.php

36 ideas for flickr

1. school profile create

2. Big Art Mob - Channel 4.

3. Photographs - community walk.

4. love lines -

5. flickr set comics - bangs

6. cloning and photo distorion.

7. Libaray of Congress

8. Add notes on photos.... explain objects.

9. My story - group - adding story to photo.

10. Ticket stub and a story

11. keith richards - photo a day

12. working closet - what people wear.

13. i ATE THIS

14. Classroom displays

15. fashion street......

16. tell a photo in 5 frames.

17. six word story - add 6 words to a photo

18. voice treads - tell a story

slide share....

Fortismere art department.

How to slack off in ICT sessions

MP3 sleave

french games

babelfish - tarnste sites

Dugles Adams - technology change.

Visulizer forum

- whay are visulizers are good?

Youtube video about effective use.

Demo what what you are doing....

Why is a visulizer better/worse that a IWB?

Creative, technical tasks.....

Nic Hughes
Have a go even, though it might fail..... - quote for teachmeet
Robosapiens Rule http://robosapienrules.blogspot.com/

Communication...... through ICT
Becta site.....

Stories being told through videos, images... Allows stories to be told.

Daniel Needlestone's Lady...Year 9
Masterclass for GandT

China - chinatown project and scripting and movie created.
Live online chat

Posted questions to be answered by expert?
Separate Lessons

GandT and ICT???? How can we do this more???? Next Year can this be done????
Allowed to fly.

Softease - Honeycomb.
Web2.0

Drew Bubbie's
Rockbuilding.... GandT
ICT research thread - VLE are they any use?

Pupils don't like them and teachers can't put on content.
Not true.....
merapolis moodle site
Refute -

Project created - allowed this blog post to happen.

tEXT mESSAGE FOR E-LEARNING
rss to phone sms
txttools.co.uk

yccpodcast 88020

what works well
Sharing practice to improve learning - case studies dcff - national stargies supported.
whatworkswell.org

Tom White - Animals into art.
Shape poetry workshops.
Year 5/6 - arkive

redcon

scryfire
slider

Robosapiens Rule.

2008-05-18T15:08:00.008Z

Recently I have been working with my class using Robosapien robots. This is a project that has been funded by Redbridge borough and is linked in with my AST work.

This is a video that I have prepared to show at Teachmeet East London.

More information about this project can be found on my Robosapien Project Blog.

Please check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLU9lkZJEHM

Try something it might fail.....

Doctor Who Trailer maker.

2008-04-29T19:45:00.001Z

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/trailermaker/view/7frcrd

This great new feature allows you to mak your own Doctor Who trailer using clips from the website.

Great idea and some definate links with Renewed Frameworks Literacy

Online Newspapers

2008-04-02T20:31:00.003Z

It's that time again in Year 5 where we look at newspaper reports. Stumbled across this after I'd done all the the planning but got to remember for next time.

http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/wansteadwoodford/

And click on the link on the left hand side

<-- Look like this.

You have a range of local papers to choose from.

You are what you share....

2008-03-30T15:44:00.000Z

Another thought provoking video....

Effective Use of the IWB

2008-03-18T20:50:00.014Z

The following are links and resources involving effective use of the IWB.

What does good look like? Effective use of an IWB.

Recording Presenting Interactive

Use online games -
Use video - Youtube, Teachers TV.
Use images - flickr
Don't over plan - but do plan (think key questions)
Leave blank spaces to write and record.
Remember it's not just a teacher tool.

Web Resources

http://iboard.lgfl.net/
http://cms.lgfl.net/lgfl/web/content/grid

Teachers TV Videos

Story Starters
Story Starters 2
Numeracy Problems

Using Images

http://flickr.com/
http://images.google.co.uk/

Using Video

http://zamzar.com/ - Online tool for converting video file to other formats.

http://keepvid.com/ - Online tool for saving youtube, teachertube, googlevideos.

Super Video Converter - you need to click through 3 pages - keep looing for download

Use of video to inspire writing and discussion.

Scheme of Work information

Newham SoW
Year 4 QCA
Wokingham SoW
Greenwich SoW
ICT Primary Progressons

Games Based Learning

2008-03-16T21:59:00.002Z

Wanna use games in the classroom? What about a DS?

Check out this post on the Redbridge ICT Subject Leaders Blog

http://redbridgeictsubjectleaders.blogspot.com/2008/03/games-based-learning.html

Nightingale Primary School INSET

2008-03-16T17:06:00.002Z

Here is the presentation from the INSET.

Doctor Who Series 4 Trailer.

2008-03-01T08:33:00.002Z

Just had to blog this - its one for you Anthony.

Robosapien – Contexts for use.

2008-02-14T00:10:00.005Z

As you know I was raving about the Q4Technogies control software for Robosapien at Bett. They even won an award I discovered later.

Within my AST work I’m hoping to run a Robosapien project as an alternative to Lego mindstorms, this year. That’s a work in progress and I’ll keep readers updated on that.

But I digress, I was lucky enough to visit the UK toy fair a few Saturdays ago and spoke to the inventor of Robosapien at the WowWee stand, Mark Tilden. A Canadian guy who was really interesting and knew and was excited himself about the work q4technoligies was doing. He said the company is trying to support them in every way they can. He also showed me new robots which should be compatible with the Go-Robo software. The Femisapien is cool, more on that later.

I had a good discussion with him we were talking about contexts for using robotics. Most of think (myself included) that control is one of the last units which is truly discrete ICT. Normally the units involve control the robot, the software in some way. Get it to draw a picture, get it to dance etc... Can we get a context to pull control into other curriculum areas?

He told me about work in the US and Canada where the robots where being used to act out plays, a really cool idea. Check out the videos later. This work has all been down without the Go-Robo software, using it now will just make this sort of work infinitely easier.

Imagine retelling the Romeo and Juliette balcony scene using the robots as actors. (and yes a Femisapien is coming and she is sweet)
So suddenly control ICT has a much wider cross-curricular context.
We now have to think about scripting and voice acting. How the robots will move and gesture. You can even take it further into set design and costumes. It would be a great project and excellent use of control since is it’s embedded into the whole process. Great stuff.

It would fit in nicely with some of the new drama and speaking and listening objectives of the new framework.

Check out these videos below to get an idea of what you can do.

Funny but a little rude.

Finally Femisapien – she’s great – check it out

Even more WowWee Robots http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/05/wowwees-robotics-lineup-gets-some-new-additions/

Teachmeet08 - Drek Robertson

2008-01-15T08:10:00.000Z

Derek Robertson micro-presentation on - Objection! Games in the classroom? Using Phoenix Wright for the Nintendo DS to encourage and motivate writing in an S2 English language class.

Cool Items from Bett 2008

2008-01-14T22:09:00.000Z

First off Hardware: Q4technologies - Interesting Stand which caught my attention from some of the show guides. Basically its a piece of software that allows you to programe and control Robospaien Robots. Most of the software only works with the new robosapein V2, but the highest programme level had support for all the robospaien robots. The software has 3 versions which have a clear progression from KS1 all the way up to KS4. I saw it and was really inpressed. The ks2 interface has programing language like LOGO - its a new take on robo dance with mindstorms Lego. Check out this video of the robots danceing to a program - at the highest level. http://www.q4technologies.com/GoRobo.objects/ExtObj-2/The%20Lion%20Sleeps%20Tonight%20-%20lq_r24-1.wmv

On the TTS stand we had the newest offering from the makers of Beebot. The Easi-Speak it is a really easy to use voice recorder. It records about 2/4 hours of voice, (depends on format), it had a USB rechargeable battery built in and had the ability to record multiple tracks. For £25 each or 5 for £100, it is a great buy and a possible solution to how to podcast in the classroom without the need for a pc.

Finally the last offering was the Roamer Version 2 - Sadly still a prototype but it seems to have a lot of potental. The way I understand it is that you will be able to remove the 'brain' of roamer and get it to control other things - so set up traffic light simulations.

Next up Software: - there where 4 interesting pieces of software at the show.

Honeycomb by Testease - which i mentioned on the last post is a easy to use safe - blogging personal website tool - its is worth a look, though isn't cheap.

Podium Version 2 - was also being shown - Podium is a great pieces of software which others have been using for a while - these updates finally allow to add backing tracks to the audio you record.

2Simple had 2Publish+ which Anthony had already talked about - I need to have a closer look still, but looks great. Another I just spotted as I left was 2Design and Make - which allows you to make nets.

All in all another great show.

TeachMeet08 Live at Bett 2008 - and some thoughts

2008-01-13T19:57:00.000Z

Unique talk program with something called nanopresentations. Which are basically either a 2min or 7 min presentation - you were not allowed to use PowerPoint.

It was a unique format that allowed for a forum where you could hear from "innovators" about their practice in ICT. Nice and easy to digest in bitesize chunks.

Just listened to Vivien Black about work she has done with year 1 using blogs in Honeycomb - new software from Softease. She told use about a year 1 child who at home drew a picture in paint and then logged in and uploaded it to his blog.

Me and Anthony had been shown this software (by Vivien Oddly enough) on the Softease stand earlier. It’s a mix interesting mix of piczo.com and Blogging tool - wrapped up in Textease Studio Tool. I'm not a Textease user but it looked good and very easy to use - Vivien's example shows this. Well worth a look.

There were many other speakers but one which stood out for me and Anthony was Derek Robertson micro-presentation on - Objection! Games in the classroom? Using Phoenix Wright for the Nintendo DS to encourage and motivate writing in an S2 English language class.
It was an inspiring talk about how in Scotland he has been using computer games and consoles in the classroom.

I need some more time to digest it - but he talked about using Wii in Nursery. Using DS with Brain Training to develop mental maths skills and Phoenix Wright, a text based decision making game to learn about play scripting and persuasion in English.

It linked nicely with a Seminar me and Anthony visited in the morning on ICT and the Primary Framework for Literacy led by Gayle Gorman and Helen Wolstencroft. Gayle made a comment about the press keeps talking about that children are on games consoles and the internet too much. She suggested that we should be enbracing childrens culture and using that to motivate and engage children in school. Derek Robertson seems to be doing it already.

Hopefully I'll upload the video I took of his presentaion so you can all check it out.
It’s always something I’d been interested in and it’s great to see that people are doing it. With my new AST status i’m now gonna try and pursue some of these ideas.

Check out the Teachmeet08 site with a list of who spoke. http://www.teachmeet.org.uk/

More on Bett 2008 and some of the highlights soon.

SMART Notebook Version 10 - its here

2008-01-09T18:39:00.000Z

Readers of Anthonys Blog will know that this is the new software from Smart. He has posted a number of youtube videos. (I'll put the link below)

Finally after weeks of trying I finallt managed to download it. It does not disapoint.

It retains all the functions from before and adds more.

Finally you can make tables - no longer will you have to draw them - works very much like MS word.

The dual page mode which in the past was hidden under menus is on the main toolbar.

The auto draw shape tool is excellent - this will correct all your bad shape drawing.

You have a fill tool - I think its new - I've never noticed this before.

You can now animate text just like MS Powerpoint. - need to play with this a bit more.

Themes are a new one as well - work in the same way as powerpoint themes - set one up apply it and all your sides will take on the same formatting - background colur etc... Nice quick way to alter Notebooks to your schools prefered set up.

All in all great additions - try and download it from here....
http://www2.smarttech.com/st/en-US/Support/Downloads/SBS/SBSv10Beta.htm

Here's a link to a selection of videos that show most of what I discussed above.
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=teachertrainer&search_query=version%2010

Enjoy - Hope to see some people a BETT 2008

More on ICT Infrastructure

2008-01-08T09:22:00.000Z

Happy New Year.

I was welcomed back to school with unfortunate news - the brand new ICT Suite which had been installed in September had been stolen. So no ICT for a few weeks....

But how is this related to ICT Infrastructure - before I was saying how important it was to have a reliable system etc...

What I have discovered the hard way is security is part of this. If you have poor security then your infrastructure will be stolen. Our server was also stolen - which meant the data and work went as well - luckily we have a backup that is done on a weekly basis automatically so we can restore our work. How many schools out there have a regular back up made. If we didn't we would have lost 2/3 years of planning and resources.

My new plan for the suite is - Computers locked to desks with cables. Bars on windows - not nice looking but its a deterrent.

Finally because the sever was stolen I've decided to keep the new server in a completely different location to the suite. A sever can sit anywhere. This way the work and data is much more secure.

Hopefully some of these points might help you avoid the same mistakes I have.

How important is ICT Infrastructure?

2007-11-22T20:30:00.000Z

In my new role as an ICT AST, I have had the privilege of visiting and working in a number of different schools around Redbridge.

Every school is different and so is their ICT infrastructure, so how important is this in your school?

What is ICT infrastructure firstly?
Well as I understand it it is how all the computers, ICT hardware and software interact.

The Becta website defines it as, "Your ICT infrastructure is made up of your network and the equipment that the network connects together plus applications, services and data."

We as teachers always are talking about using ICT and IWB effectively, but without good ICT infrastructure this can be very difficult.

My 3 top musts for ICT infrastructure are:

1. All computers must be networked to a central server - this allows you to share resources and software much more efficiently and helps in deploying software.

2. Computers need a reliable Internet connection - their is such a wealth of resources out on the
web that to work with out being able to access them is disappointing.

3. Wireless is great for add the odd computer to the network or running class laptops, but don't rely on wireless for your core network, go with wired, it is much more reliable.

Once your infrastructure is up, running and reliable we teachers can get back to using this great technology effectively to teach the children in our classrooms.

Activ Primary Or Smart? Which IWB to choose....

2007-10-31T12:48:00.000Z

In my new AST role, I've been working recently with schools who have Promethean boards over Smart boards in their classrooms.

Now I am a Smart user - I have always used their software, and choose their boards over Promethean when my school first got IWBs.

The main difference in the board itself is that Smart boards are touch sensitive, so you can use your hand to interact with it, and Promethean boards you need to use a pen. I prefer the Touch Sensitive board since it is much more versatile that the pen based systems.

So I have been working hard on learning how to use Activ Primary 3, the software that you use with a Promethean board.

My inital impressions, where that Activ Primary was a bit clunky compare to Smart Notebook. But on exploring further the two pieces of software are much closer in design that I had thought. (Just make sure you use design mode on Activ Primary)

Both have there good points.

Activ Primary has some very nice tools - that Smart Notebook does not, the ruler, protractor and dice tools are nice.

Smart Notebook - allows for a much nicer and cleaner interface and works alongside the windows (or mac) environment. I find text editing more fluid as well. The resource gallery is allow just easier to use and access.

Much of the other tools and options - though appearing slightly different work in the same or very similar ways.

Some negative points

Active Primary - awkward interface, the need to be in design mode to do certain things is confusing. My initial experiences with copy and pasting, from the Internet where frustrating.

Smart Notebook - more education specific tool set - this is improving though, the gallery has been updated in many positive ways. But there are more tools that should be developed.

What IWB to choose? Well for some school the choice has been made already. Keep doing what you are doing but, hope is not lost. Since both pieces of Software can be used on each others board.

Activ Primary does cost though where as far as i'm aware as Smart can be download and used for free.

The jury is still out, I know what I like and will be continuing to use Smart, though I will dabble in Activ Primary 3 for time to time.

Comments? Suggestions? What is best?

Take my vote.

http://www.prometheanplanet.com/uk/

http://smartboard.co.uk/

Encyclopedia's to use online?

2007-08-21T12:51:00.000Z

With the use of search engines, what is the point of an Encyclopedia? We can just Google what I want to know, right?

Well something that must be remembered about the web is that it is not always 100% accurate. Its validity must be checked. I spoke about this before in reference to Alan November and web literacy.

An online encyclopedia is owned by someone, such as Britannica, or Encarta, so is much more like a traditional book, where we trust the content to be correct and checked. A lot of these online encyclopedia's unfortunately need to be paid for to get full access.

That's where Wikipedia initially seemed great, (full access and pictures) but of course as we all know Wikipedia is a great resource, but its is not always 100% correct, its validity needs to be questioned at times, because it is able to be edited by anyone. The website dos its own checks, but is not always on top of this, you can come across articles that state that it hasn't been checked. The site is clear about what has and hasn't been checked.

But I would be uncomfortable letting children loose on Wikipedia, it is not a child safe environment. That where this new Wikipedia Selection for schools comes in.
Visit the link below and check it out, and read more information about how it works.
http://schools-wikipedia.org/index.htm

Basically it is a chuck of the Wikipedia site that has been checked and edited by Wikipedia themselves and an outside organization. So we get the advatanges of full infomration with images. (lacking in the free encyclopedia)

It is free to download and thus host on your local server or just use the online site.

Its worth checking out.

Scrapblog's Part 2

2007-08-21T12:47:00.001Z

This is it my scrapblog.

Such a nice piece of software to use.

It has some issues which I'll go into in another post, but the results speak for themselves.

Check it out.

Scrapblogs...

2007-08-09T07:18:00.000Z

I have discovered this very powerful tool called scrapblog.

Basically it is a online slide show generator. It is a powerful piece of kit. It allows you to add text, draw shapes, add backgrounds, import photos and videos.

The real power is the way it interfaces with youtube for videos and a number of photo hosting sites. (You can also upload, it interfaces with PhotoBucket, Yahoo! Photos, Flickr, Webshots and Facebook) Web 2.0 in action.

I've been using it to create a holiday scrapblog. I've uploaded my pictures to flickr and then just import them into my scrapblog.

The screen shot show what it looks like. It is very easy to use and can create some great pieces of work. The website has loads of examples since these are created just like a blog.

http://www.scrapblog.com/

Check this one out... http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/viewer.aspx?sbid=54249 and then look at the community page.

Linking this back into education. I've been reading Anthony's Blog and he has been exploring ICT and the skills needed within the Primary Frameworks.

This tool can be applied to a number of areas. For example:

In Y2 when design a website is offered as an activity. - sracpblogs could be a useful tool, along with wikkis.

Year 6 Non-fiction - Unit 4Formal/impersonal writing(3 weeks) - children create a guided tour presentation.

ICT Applications in Literacy - Multimedia - Shows all the possible uses of Multimedia software - scrapblogs would fit in aith all these areas.

Thats all for now - ill post my finished scrapblog later in the week.

Will it blend?

2007-08-01T20:32:00.000Z

Holiday surfing and you come up with some weird stuff.

Check this out. Not one for the kids though. Enjoy...

http://www.willitblend.com/

Alternative to maps.google.co.uk?

2007-06-27T21:13:00.001Z

Someone showed me an alternative to http://maps.google.com/ - this allows you to see very detailed aerial maps and of course is linked to Google earth.

http://maps.live.com/ - a Microsoft run version of Google maps. Very similar, but with one major difference that you can see views of certain areas from different angles. (North, South, East or West) This is all achieved from with the Internet browser.

Check it out - (Anthony this one is for you)
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=sk9n7hgr2r3r&style=o&lvl=1&amp;tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=7694281&encType=1

Nic

Amimation Day 2007

2007-06-20T18:32:00.000Z

Today I attended yet another useful ICT course. I was an animation Day and basically allowed us to explore and use some of the different pieces of kit and hardware out there. This was tied in with where could this be used in class.

First the curriculum side - The basic message is that animation can be used in lots of subjects, it is not an ICT only activity. (Though in an ICT session you could teach the skills needed.)

The limit is only how imaginative you want to be. Animation lends it self well to telling stories or explaining things. In science you could make a water cycle animation, in geography an animation to show cliff erosion, in history you could show what the ancient Greek Olympics where. The list is endless.

Literacy is where a lot of focus can be placed in the form of using animation to support story telling. Animation is a great example of a multimodal text, which is a flash way of saying a story with moving pictures and sound.

It is important to note at this point that children need a clear plan on their heads of what they are doing when animating, so using a storyboard is essential. This process requires children to think about what they want to do and then go back and edit it if needed.

Why use animation? The most obvious reason is motivation, animation is cool and exciting. But motivation links back to my post about Alan November, it has the scope to give children a much greater audience, by sharing their videos with other children and classes in school and with a wider audience by sharing their video's online, again only increases motivation. Animation also encourages collaboration as animation is not a solitary activity, it requires many people to get involved to get it just right. Children need to plan and then assign roles as to who is animating and who is recording, you might even have lighting and prop making.

On to the hardware and software - Over the course of the day we used. 2animate, Digiblue movie creator and Stop Motion Pro. We used Digiblue and Logitech cameras.

2Animate is a nice animation package that allows you to easily create, stop motion drawn animations. (Though I think you can use a webcam as well.) The animations save as an animated gif.

Despite past reservations of the Digiblue (I have experienced some annoying technical problems) they performed well on the day. The message I got is to keep them plugged in. Below is what me and Jack from Mossford Green created. We where very pleased with the end result.

We continued exploring stop motion, but moved on to use Stop Motion Pro and played around with choma key, which is basically green or blue screen. It took a while to set up but the results where exciting. Below is the video. (I will be updating it with sound later.) Just so you know the image of the town hall is what as added using the chroma key. The background was green really.

Stop motion animation was great fun, but very time consuming so keep that in mind when planning to use it, it might be a few weeks work.

Overall the day was great fun and really allowed us all to explore the software and hardware, so now we are all much more confident using it in school.

Prometeus, the future of the web?

2007-06-20T17:36:00.000Z

I'm on creative ICT's mailing list and the newest one had this video.

The future of web?

Credit to http://creativeict.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Nightingale Mac Project - in review.

2007-06-16T16:28:00.000Z

Recently Redbridge bought a bank of Apple Mac Laptops. I was lucky enough to be the first person in the borough to get them in my school. (Thanks David)

Now this was the first time my school had, had any contact with Apple Mac's as well as laptops in the classroom.

This was a bit of a learning curve, but one which I relished. I took a Apple Mac home, played with it and after a while, was happy with the interface. (Its not that hard once you work out that everything just has different names, they work in a similar way to a PC.)

The kids, took to the Apple Macs instantly, I just needed to compare some things to windows and they where away.

I had many plans for these laptops, over the term that we had them. Some worked out, others unfortunately fell to the side.

The most successful use, was when I used them with my year 5 Literacy Set. We were working on writing reports, so I planned to use the laptops to turn the children into newreporters. The children in my class where to become roving reporters, and then present their newsreports. We all worked on the same report, finding out "What kids are into?"

We used a program called iMovie, a really nice easy to use video editing tool. (Similar to windows movie maker) Since the purpose of the lessons, would be to create a newsreport, before those lessons came around I taught the children to use iMovie. This I felt was very important step as I didn't want to get bogged down in teaching the children how to create a newsreport, instead of them creating their newsreport.

So we did our interviews and then spent two lessons, working on our newsreports. The results where amazing. I should mention that my class is the lower ability set, but you wouldn't guess that from the results. The children where motivated and wanted to make there newsreport as good as they could. Some children even taught me a few things about what iMovie can do. You can view some of the results here, on our school site.

The Appple Mac's where also used a lot in year 6, for work in the foundation subjects. They where used for research and presenting of work. The teachers using them commented on how motivated the children where in their work and how useful it was to have the opportunity to use the Internet with the whole class without having to use the ICT suite.

Year 5 also worked on the Apple Mac's to plan and present a geography field trip on the local high street. The children used the laptops to create their questionnaires and then collate and present their findings.

One project I wanted to do was an animation one. But while the iSight cameras built into the laptops are of great quality they are in completely the wrong place to allow for animation work. Next time though.

Overall the Apple Mac's where a excellent resource. They allow a flexibility that you can't get with just having an ICT suite. Apple Mac's themselves have brilliant tools, for video, music and photo editing.

We'll miss them at Nightingale.... but lets hope we can get them back in the future.

Thanks again to David O'Neill for getting them in the borough and letting us have them first.

Redbridge ICT Conference 2007 Part 2 David Ware

2007-06-16T15:54:00.000Z

The second speaker of the day was David Ware from Little Heath School, he is an AST and ICT Co-ordinator. Little Heath is a school for children with Special Educational Needs.

David talked about how ICT provided children with unique learning opportunities.

He said that there are no limits to children's achievement when given the correct opportunities and experiences. Children want to learn, but for some children learning equals failure.

Why can't learning be fun?

He showed a great video with children and staff reactions to ICT and one girl was talking about using educationcity. She liked it because it was fun, but didn't seem to consider it learning as that had to be boring. David said that we are at a crossroads where personal learning styles are becoming ever more important, and ICT is one why in which they can be tackled.

The videos he showed had been created showing the impact of ICT in the school. The school has a comprehensive intranet, which does many things that an MLE should do, keeping records and tracking progress.

The school also uses there intranet, to store and record all the events round the school. Cameras are in use all the time, he carries one with him at all times. They are using to document events and learning, its nice to catch children being good.

ICT had been used to create a community. The photos allow learning to be revisited and retold and presented. He showed a few videos which did this very effectively. The children are also involved in a school radio station that is hosted by pupils.

ICT helps to remove barriers.

Children are informing teaching.

David showed a wonderful snapshot, of how ICT can be used to support and aid children in their learning.

Web 2.0 - The Machine is Us

2007-06-14T19:31:00.001Z

David O'Neill Showed this youtube video to start off and its equally inspirational. Its showing alot of what Alan November was discussing. After his talk I forgot all about it. Check it out while you wait for part 2 of Redbridge ICT conference.

Redbridge ICT Conference 2007 Part 1 Alan November

2007-06-14T18:00:00.000Z

What can I say Wow. This was a great success and before I go into details about the speakers. I just like to give a big thanks to all those involved in organizing this day.

First up
Alan November - I'll be honest before today, other than Anthony Evans telling me about his book, I'd heard very little about this guy.

To put it simply his 2 part talk was amazing. He talked in depth about Web Literacy and made me rethink what I knew about the Internet and how it should and could be used.

He started simply by saying, how would you go and find information about him. the response was or course Google you. So he did it and he appear in the top 5 or 6 hits. Try it.
Then he asked us do you know who wrote those pages, what do you believe? Of course they are all his site written by him so he can say what he wants people to believe.

He showed a site called technorati.com which is a tool to search blogs, photos and videos. The hits on the name Alan November where all people commenting on him, he has no say in the content. Try it. (Sandra when I tried this your brand new blog was right at the top.)

What he was trying to get at is that we as teachers need rethink what tools we are teaching children to use. We need to teach the correct tools to search for the right information.

Different sites give different hits. His message is that we need the right tools, most people only use one search engine, only look at the first page of results and don't really understand how the order of the hits work. This gives those pages that appear first a lot of power over the casual reader. He compared it to only looking at the top shelf of a book shelf in a library.

He went on to ask do you know how Google sorts its hits. Because his site is second out of 81,700 sites on the web. This was eye opening as I realised that I didn't have a clue how Google searches worked, yet use them all the time. The short answer was that it is based on how popular a site is, as in how many links lead to it, his site is high because he has alot of incoming links from big company's and universities. To a lesser extent it also has to do with his url and the name of his page being in the search string.

He talked about a guy called Marshall McLuhan who in 1964 coined two prases that you may have heard of, 'Global Village' and "medium is the message." Basically this guy talked about the multimedia revoution we are currently going though back in the 60's. He was saying that if you change the medium in which information is presented, from paper to on screen, all those critical skills that we use to look at paper based text are lost when we look on screen.

When we get a book we ask, who wrote it? Why don't we do that with webpages? Good question and one that is important to do, as there are some sites out there that questionable authors. This site http://www.martinlutherking.org/ seems to be about Martin Luther Kings but if you look into who owns the site it is by Stormfront, which is a group of white supremacist's. Quite shocking. easywhois.com is a site that tells you who owns websites. Check it out. Why don't we apply the skills we use with books onto the web.

We need to be teaching Web Literacy Skills. The real revolution is INFORMATION not technology. We need to be thinking about how to critically look at and use information.

His site has a whole section on how the web works and grammar of the Internet and how to search effectively. He told us all that you need to get hands on to truly understand all these concepts, "you need to own it." So click here to try them out, he had activities that demonstrated all the ideas he discussed. http://www.novemberlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=160 - It would take too long to explain, but I was very eye opening, definatelty something that needs to be consistered in year 5 and 6 to searching the web effectively for information.

He has an interesting comment on filtering in schools, as that changes search engines behave in school. So searching at home will give different results to searching at school. He also demonstrated how easy it is to get round filtering if you know how. (Lots of kids do, I've seen it happen.)

He said that there are 3 things to remember about learning on the web.
1. The Grammar and Syntax of the Internet needs to be taught.
2. The structure of information need to be taught.
3. Children need to have the capability to think critically.

Using the tools about the grammar of the Internet. He conducted searches to find opposing points of view on various topics. Like the differences between the English and American takes on The War of Independence. It has a way of motivating children, because it challenges what they know or think they know. How about getting information about Hiroshima from website in Japan? How would the bias be different? Using these searches it is fairly easy to discuss and find sources from around the world.

The role of the teacher is changing, and the classroom is becoming a global communication centre where critical thinking is essential.

Alan took a break here, but I'll continue with part 2.

Back to communication, he showed a great tool, which allows you to look at a website in the past. archive.org. This allow you to role back the click and see what a website looed like years ago. So there is no such think as a deadlink anymore, with this tool it can be retrvied. Making children aware of this could make them much more aware of what they publish, as it could come back to haunt you in 10 years.

Blog's then took centre stage, I'm blogging right now, so I'm one who understands some of there power, but Alan when on to explain the motivational drive they have for children.

Some kids are unwilling to accept criticism fro teacher and pupils in the classroom, but he finds that comments from blogs children are happy to listen to and accept. Your role as teacher changes as you are now helping the student to make sense of the criticism. Its is anonymity used for good.

Children making podcast knowing that others will hear it, dramatically changes there motivation in the work. But its not about the technology it's about the audience.

Before you think blog are bad and can expose children who aren't that confident with their work to start with to negative commnets. Ask the children do you want you work on the internet where people can see and comment on it?

It does call for a shift of control in the classroom, because instead of my class, my lesson. The classroom opens up to a much wider commiunity where children (and adults) reflect and interact in new and exciting ways.

del.icio.us was another site, which I already use, where you can set up social bookmarking, where groups of people can all contribue to a shared collective of resourses. Pupils can contribute to the resourses that teh teachers use in lessons (more secondary and university i'd assume)

Now that about wraps up the main points, but i coould go on.

To summarise
1. Web literacy is key, and we need to apply our paper skills to the web.
2. The classroom now is becomming the centre of a global communications network.
3. Children's audience is becoming alot wider than the class they are in.
4. The rules are changing

When should all of this happen? Not overnight. We as teachers need to retool ourselves but over the next 10 years. The new Liteacy Framework, with all its talk of podcasting and blogs allows for scope for some of this in our classrooms. Me, I came away very excited by this and its inspired me to get a class blog going.

Tune in next time for part two - David Ware from Little Heath School

PS Buy his book, I just have.

Pay Attention

2007-05-13T11:06:00.000Z

Taken from Anthony Evans Blog - This video gives, "a strong argument for the use of new technologies in the classroom." Check it out.

Control: LEGO Logo and Logging in KS2 ICT

2007-05-04T05:59:00.000Z

Hi all,

This week I had the opportunity to attend a great course on Control Technology.
Here is a brief rundown of the day and the key messages that I took away from it.

I was run by a great speaker called Garry Stevens from a company called onefourseven.

Over the course of the day we looked at control progression from Year 2 Up to Year 6 and focused on Logo and Robolab as programmes to achieve this.

Generally the group that attended had a wide range of experiences with Control, but it seemed to be common place that people had 'some pieces of kit' but where unsure of how to deploy it in class. "The Robolab has been stuck in a cupboard," seemed to be a common issue.

We started by looking a Logo, and we used a free program called MSWLogo.
This has the scope to teach Control from end of year 2 all the way to year 4. From extending Roamer work in Year, to allowing children to make their crystal flower in year 4.
Year 3 was discussed as a problem as there is specific no control unit. But it was suggested that some year 4 objectives could be brought down and through numeracy use Logo to explore 2D shapes and thus bridge the gap between year 2 and year 4.

We where also shown a great add on for Logo which allows you to simulate traffic lights. This seemed like a great way to introduce control in year 5 by using a program that they already have experience with. E-mail me if you would like it.

After looking at Logo we moved onto Robolab as one solution for teaching year 5 and 6 control. The program is, once you have played with it for an hour, very simple and had many different level settings. You don't need to really go beyond the (basic) pilot level, unless you have some real high ability children.

An issue that alot of us had with Robolab was, that you need models to use it right?
We were reminded that building models is not control, its DT. Any models you might have it school could be useful and it was suggested that they are built and glued together.
We looked at simulating traffic lights and for that all you need are 3 light bulbs. We continued with the simulation of traffic lights as it is something that the children could be familiar with from year 4 and Logo. In year 5 you only need to worry about outputs, like bulbs turning on. Which is why traffic lights work well. In year 6 the change is using an input, a sensor. Now we all seemed again though this meant a temperature sensor or a light sensor, but the advice was keep it simple, a push switch is a sensor. With that in mind use the traffic light model again and in year 6 create a programme that will control a pelican crossing, using a push switch.

My key Ideas I took from the day where:

- Children need to go through a planning, testing and impoving process in Control. Just playing with the programme or robot does not encourage children to plan and predict enough. Children should be making notes throughout

- Control does not have to be flashy and complex in order to teach the requirements and get children achieving an appropriate level. Keep it simple and achievable.

- Control is basically turning children into programmers, they are making desired things happen. (Making a roamer or a beebot move)
For control to happen you need 3 things.
1. INputs and outputs. (Sensors and things that happen)
2. A interface (A control box like the lego RCX)
3. A software package on the computer.

To investigate further check out www.comotiongroup.co.uk - as it had allot of the equipment we used for Robolab on there.

I'd like to thank Garry Stevens again for a fun and enjoyable day.

Graphic Novels, the new Literacy Superheroes

2007-03-05T21:48:00.000Z

Read a very interesting article today from the culture section of this weeks Sunday Times.

It was discussing the impact and popularity of graphic novels.

For those of you who don't know a graphic novel is basically a comic book, but the story is more self contained a complete, unlike a monthly comic book.

The most interesting point was in the final paragraph and I thought was very relevant in light of the new strategy and multimodal texts.

"The visual arts are booming. The screen fills our lives through television, cinema and computers. Thanks to computers, even when we are obliged to read words, we expect them to be arrange into helpful modules, with plenty of graphics. The computer normalises the graphic novel as a form. The graphical user interface may one day be seen as the most important invention of our time. Through such devices, the imperial image reigns and is more successfully than ever before, invading the book" - Bryan Appleyard Sunday Times 4th March 2007

Definitely has some interesting points to consider.

We have been saying for a while about the impact of images in the classroom. Perhaps we can look even further into it?

Nic

Google News

2007-03-05T21:23:00.000Z

Again a great site function I stumbled across today.

IN year 5 we have been finding newspaper articles. I bought papers at the weekend to go through. While checking them out with the year group thought I'd have a look online and low and behold. I discovered google news. Its one of the tabs at the top of the main google site.

http://news.google.co.uk/nwshp?hl=en&tab=wn&q

On the side bar give you options to look at different types of news stories. What is cool though is that at the bottom of each link is one which takes you to all the related articles.

These are all links to official sites all over the world as to what they reported. Some are online newspapers only but others a papers like The Sun and The Times.

Made the rest of the article finding easy after that.

Nic

Explantatory Texts

2007-02-07T08:31:00.000Z

In year 5, we have been looking at explanatory texts.

Of course Dorking Kidersley books are a great resourse for this. But I discovered by pure chance that on their website you can view pages from inside their books.

Choose a book, then click to look inside. Most pages are big enough to read on screen and some you could print and read.

Great for lots of quick examples.

Check it out

http://www.dorlingkindersley-uk.co.uk/

Updates to bookmarks

2007-02-02T07:34:00.000Z

I've just updated the delicious links page

http://del.icio.us/nightingaleprimary

Click on the Art tag on the right, and you see the new sites.

Also check out this http://redbridgeprimaryit.blogspot.com/2007/01/literacy-mini-clips.html

Some very nice ideas for story starters.

Nic

Bett Show 2007

2007-01-13T00:54:00.001Z

The Bett Show Yesterday was a whirlwind tour of up and coming technology for education.

It was manic, though I did manage to see what a wanted during my 5 hours there.

I'll summarize the cool technologies that I saw below.

First up Apple. - I watched a short presentation about the uses of Podcasting. Interesting and provided some interesting ideas for podcasting worksheets as well. Podcasting if you are not aware of it is when you put a sound file (of any other type of digital media) on the Internet and it is "pushed" to subscribers though programs like iTunes. It provides a way to create radio shows for parents. Load of schools already do this.

Podium was a stand I went to which was a program which made "podcasting easy." Looks good, but if you have a mac in school you have all the software you need to do it for free.

Also remember Audacity is still around which can allow you to do basic podcasts. (Without chapters and images.) Podium is still worth a look at.

Next up Microsoft. I watched a very interesting presentation from a teacher that had been given Windows Vista to try out in her classroom. (The next version of XP) She explained what she and the children though of it and what she used of the new functions.

Now a number of the things she said exist in some form or another either in XP or as an add on. She admitted this, but she found these options herself and they where easy to use. She was not a techie by any means. Main function I though was good, (Which won me a copy of Encarta 2007 from them:), was the voice recognition and text reading. She said it was easy to use and and has an instant use in terms of supporting children with reading difficulties and writing difficulties. Vista can read text to a child and record what they say. Very cool. And according to her it recognised a northern accent easily.

I had to have a look at the LEGO Mindstorms stand as it looked so cool . Its the newest version and had loads of improvement over the original. Expensive, but with a class set (£1550) which contains 8 full robots and a site licence for the control software and load of other bits. I could be used very effectively with the right mindset and vision.

I had a look at the SMART board stand and saw their new board with an integrated projector. Security issues with the projectors would be greatlt reduced with this design, you can steal the projector as its intergrated with the board. It also has some cool functions to allow you to use the board without having a computer attached. I think it was called scratchpad. The guy said there is an upgrade kit for current boards, but I'm not convinced how cost effective that would be. Cool bit of kit. :)

2Simple had their regular stand and where demoing their newest programs. 2paint a picture, is definitely worth a look. Get it on approval. It is a graphic packaged, obviously based on 2paint but with a million more options. You can paint in various styles, like impressionist. You have this wet paint tool, which looks so cool. Check it out.

Finally some cool website I discovered that are free and seem to be fairly good.

http://www.learningcurve.co.uk/ is the National Archives. It has loads of free videos and resources relating to British History. New at Bett was also a section on film. Great and Free. In has Teacher notes of how the resources fit into some of QCA schemes of work.

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/ - is a site run by the BFI. They do some short story DVDs for primary. The site seems to have videos from there archive. Check it out. It is free as well.

http://www.show.me.uk/ - is a FREE site that provide links to museums and galleries round the country. It does the looking for you. Its the children's part of http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/ which is aimed more at adults, and again links to various British museums and galleries. If you want to see what resources a available from European museums etc. www.michael-culture.org.uk/teachers might be worth a look.

http://www.edujam.org/ - MySpace meets youtube for kids. Its new (only been about 4 weeks) but it provide a secure place for children to express themselves creatively. This one costs though.

Thats all for now. I hope some of this is helpful.

Orb the new way to view your media

2007-01-09T18:51:00.000Z

Stumbed across this with a link from a friend of mine.

This site www.orb.com allows you to broadcast any files, videos, documents etc. from your home PC to any computer with web access.

As long as you leave your home pc on, you can set up the programme to share cetain files, such as music and video clips. It even works on the Wii - Check out this link to see it sort of in action.

Then you log on to the website and log in www.mycast.orb.com and hay presto you have access to all your shared files. Videos work ok the better your connection at home the better.

Not sure about security, but the webiste seems to suggest that it is very secure.

Thats all for now.

Off to play with the new Mac Books. :)

Poetry Links

2006-12-08T07:57:00.000Z

In Year 5 at the mo poetry is the order of business.

Three great sites I have stumbled across are below.

http://www.fizzyfunnyfuzzy.com

Loads of Kids poems that they can rate also a selection you can listen to.

http://www.poemhunter.com

A sight where you can search for poem by loads of authors.

Finally http://www.poetryarchive.org

A great site which has load of poems on. Many are also read by the author. There is a children's section as well. Best of all you can search the site by topic. e.g. all the summer poems.

That all for now.

Try Science

2006-11-26T10:39:00.001Z

A cool site I came across looking for some sound expirements.

It seems to be a bit like the bbc online experiments. But there are some games, allow some more interaction as well.

Worth a look I think.

http://www.tryscience.com

PhotoStory 3

2006-11-24T07:19:00.000Z

An amazing programme and so easy to use.

It can create the illusion of moving pictures from stills.

It can allow you to tell stories.

You can add music and sound to it as well.

Its a very powerful tool, that can provide excellent stimulation for children.

Here's one I made in about 5 minutes. Imagine asking children to write descriptions or poems about fireworks after seeing this.

Download it here.

Till next time...

Litearcy Links

2006-11-22T21:15:00.000Z

Recently I attended an interesting day at Redbridge Teachers Centre, led by John Davitt.

He was talking about the New Literacy Primary Framework and how to embed ICT more completely into Literacy. Using Video and Images

Below are some links I found to some great talking books and enjoyable videos.

http://www.tosiproductions.com/%5Famazingadventure/index_fl.asp

This has some excellent videos to watch and a good talking book. One of the video is a great story about Halloween and some pumpkin people. :)

http://www.ability.org.uk/kids_and_teens_online_stories.htm

This page has loads of links, the above one I found on this list.

Enjoy and post if you find any other great Literacy Links