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Thursday
May242012

Gmail, Google Docs(Drive) and Google Sites Video Help for Students

There are now several Video help pages, and more to be added, for Gmail and the suite of apps we use in school. The children from year 2 (soon to be year 3) will have their portfolios for sharing and displaying work they have done via ICT.

All Video help is available here:

Gmail first time log in (only really apporopriate for our school although you could use it if you downloand and edit yourselves).

Google Docs, soon to be Google Drive.

Google Sites- online portfolios for children with personal pages too.

There will be a series for Google calendar as we will be arranging home work and other events the children need to subsribe to in Year 5 and 6. 

Monday
May212012

Scratch Day 2012 - A Bug's Life

Francis the LadybugScratch Day is in its third year this time round and had the largest turn out globally. As you are probably aware I'm a big fan of Scratch and all the far-reaching elements into the curriculum it can enhance via ICT. With 175 events in 42 countries we were the only school to post to the Scratch Day site in Taiwan. Last year we collaborated with the American School to share the learning on both campuses via Skype and Ustream. This year we decided to go it alone.

The turnout this year was surprisingly low (a combination of timing - the Saturday Soccer overran by a week, the Year 5 Camp Taiwan had just finished and a break-out of enterovirus has swept through school like Whirling Dervish. Nevertheless the children managed to produce some brilliant animations. The theme was to be called 'Funky Concertina' but the plan soon evaporated when we tried it out in class and it was apparent that the saving and re-opening of files on different machines would cause the animations/ games to become snagged by human error. The premise was this: each child would create a simple game based on a ready-made template with 6 coloured blocks. The aim would be to reach a goal either by maze or imaginary world.

The concertina part would evolve when each person in the group would move to the next computer in the classroom to their right. It would be timed to 5 minutes so all children would have to edit their idea in that time be it adding sound, move, broadcast, effects etc. They would then move to the next computer and numbered scratch file and the process would start again.

The problem lies in the differentiation of the concertina. Not all children would be able to add the sufficient script the person before them had in mind for the game to continue especially if the child leading is a Year 5 and the follower is a a Year 2. It's great in a maths setting with total control of the template and if you have confident children on Scratch but otherwise it's gets messy and argumentative very quickly!

So I decided to change it and go with something more fun and easily edit-able: A Bug's Life. The videos are below for you to follow and have a go yourself.

And these are the .sb files

Images: Backdrop 1, 2, 3

Sprites: Ladybug and Ant

As for the day itself it always goes so fast and the children are always surprised by how much they get done. This year there was a higher percentage of girls attending was excellent and the winner of the competition was a girl too which is a double bonus - I'm always conscious that ICT is heavily weighted towards a boys and try to encourage the girls to out perform them in their creations.

The animations below are from one of the runners up and are in Year 2. Well done to them all. They used the video as a starting point then added their own variations to scripts. I think they have done really well for the age that they are and the adventurousness of the animation. They have even begun to look at broadcasting which I only tend to bring into scratch at around the end of Year 3 and Year 4.

Scratch Project

Learn more about this project

As usual the competition is about who shares the most and who really achieves the most on the day. So the prizes are weighted that way too with the team players getting the same prizes and the winner getting a bigger goody bag. What's always strange is that as soon as they settle down to create and build they totally forget about the prizes until I remeind them about 30minutes at the end! It's so funny to see their faces and then the mad rush of conversations!

The next runner-up was from Thomas in Year3. A new boy to school and has never used scratch at all. This is why the video help can become so handy. Thomas is from the Netherlands and language is still imporoving but his enthusiasm is full to the brim. Well done Thomas.

Scratch Project

Learn more about this project

This is the winner on the day. Tiffany is in Year 4 and worked solidly on her animation while simultaneously helping the boys in Year 2 above. Well done Tiffany.

Scratch Project

Learn more about this project

So, that's it for another year. A big thank you to the CAS students that turned up to help and Miss. Soo too who came later to take the pics for the day. Looking forward to further conversations and projects linked on twitter.

Winners!

 

 

Thursday
May172012

iPads in Education: Reception/ EYFS ICT Review 2011/ 2012

We are coming to the end of another Year at your school. The ICT dept. is gaining strength and is asiPad with Children's Book impermanent as ever: we are to become facilitators instead of discrete ICT teachers (albeit our new guy is 'front loading' skills for me to transfer in cross curricular lessons).

The problem we both face now is that the Reception children are demons on the iPads. They have been utterly sublime all the way to the Easter break. We have tackled some really tricky clusters of skills such as in-app camera work (MadPad and Puppet Pals) and other combinations such as animation using imports of various kinds via DoInk.

While these successes are great on their own and sharing the glorious depth a 5 year old has had to go to to achieve this - its not till we switch to a desktop that we see that the skills are so far removed from each other I am now trying to fast-track our classes in readiness for Year 1.

By Year 1 my set baseline is that they should be able to: Log in unaided (Ctrl + Alt+ Del), find a folder, open an application either from the folder or from the programs menu, use the application from a demo and then explore the application's buttons (lets take MS Paint or Purple Mash as a picture cue here). I have to say that the children just fail at the middle parts of that list. But it's not their fault.

There are many pluses that I will come to in a moment but the alien world these children now find themselves in is quite scary for me and them. Once articulate boys who are very versed in the use of the iPad and very much able to laud their abilities like some champion athlete are dumbfounded by the use of a rigid menu structure and a set of hard, fast rules that govern Microsoft (Linux and Mac to a similar degree) applications. This is a steep learning curve. One boy is almost mute by what he is new to.

The children now have to travel to the ICT suite (up a flight of stairs and some way down the school. Sometimes across a bridge!) where I once used to arrive in their classroom with a iPads set out or for them to gather from the trolley (tool chest). They would come to the carpet and see what new app I had for them this week or how we were going to take last week's introduction further. We would demo, talk, explore and revisit in a very fluid manner that was social and very mobile. Children are paired and in small huddles sharing advice like an infant notice board. This is now very different. I could almost play the theme tune to 2001 Aspace Odyssey and all would fit into place.

They now have a terminal to sit at in a big ICT suite that isn't mobile by any sense and they have only two people to share their learning with or lean on for advice before our wonderful Learning Assistants or I arrive as surrogate triage and apply TLC via Ctrl +Z. I feel for them.

They now have a mouse. Not the thing that 'eeks' and 'squeaks' and certainly isn't call Jerry. It's green and its best used with a thumb. Apparently. I've never had so many children use a mouse with a thumb in the near 8 years as an ICT leader. Every time I revert their hand position so that they use the mini-mice correctly that as soon I turn around it's back to a trigger position with the mouse sideways and the cable pointing left.

The mouse is peculiar to them. The remoteness of the gestures in relation to the screen and indeed the cursor, has at least 10-15% of the children looking at the mouse like a learner in a car checking the gear leaver by looking down (right before they have a prang). The problem is that this remoteness has a knock-on effect: Flash-based activities are forever being right-clicked leaving the child lost for words as to why its asking them do they either want some kind of hardware acceleration altered or grant access to the web cam or microphone. Alternatively it will just zoom in to 800% via right click and leave the eye of a cartoon Monkey blinking repeatedly at them. When you're 5, got your headphones on and seemingly in the jungle; to be 3cm away from the cornea of an Orangutan I too would wonder what this mouse is doing for my education.

What I find the most difficult is the change for my own teaching. Last week I set up videos for the children to watch and follow as I usually do for all other year groups. My own displacement was as plain as the nose on my face as I had completely overreached my audience. The video was set up for them and in my thinking, my experience, the deftness of their ability of using an iPad and that they are term 3 Reception, I thought that they could switch a window and play a video return to attempt the task. I cannot explain the look on their faces - imagine they'd asked for a pony and I gave them a goldfish. Without a bowl. You're someway close.

iTunes EulaIt's not as if they don't use a desktop in their classrooms - they can if they elect to as part of their child based learning it's just that the iPad is the all singing all dancing poster boy of Infant ICT. And therefore they don't opt to use it. It's what I have installed, championed even and I must re-evaluate its use in Reception. It's great, it's fantastic but the desktop, as with laptops still have a very firm place in young educational technology and for a log while yet.

I think we (read the tweets) have gotten carried away with the plethora of opportunity the iPad offers. I mean, its a complete device for Infant ICT. It's cartoon, a book that speaks, it has two cameras, records voice, dictates, apps galore, games, creativity (for the nay sayers drop: me a line I'll set you right!) and above all it is tactile. This combination is a 5 year old's dream.

Yes, there are issues with a device without a proper file system and walled garden of an ecosystem whose Eula can change at any time (especially where app purchases for schools are concerned) but this week has taught me something: it's not the be all and end all. And those of you who come across this transition will know what I'm talking about. Depth, breadth and balance is going to be mantra next year as we move into the new territory of facilitation.

Wednesday
May162012

Making Art Galleries in SketchUp and Google Earth

The Year 5 Children have been following up on their work we began at the beginning of the year in our Image Manipulation strand. The children loosely follow the lessons set out by the Newham ICT scheme and the art work done by Patrick Caulfield. The images are good and have a clear use in the learning of layering. I suppose you could do this in regular MS Paint, Tux or MS Word but Paint.Net is our Favourite.

The Children followed my lesson introductions (a two Parter that culminated in them adding Gausian Blurs and Skewing the images to suit their experimentation) and then added their own finishing touches to their layers.

The classes were split into 3 levels with 3 separate set of images. Each image contains or requires more layers and layer management. You will notice from the video in the middle group below that I have deliberatley cut and paste the goblet from the 'Background' with the solid white still attached. The reason for this is to force the children to discuss the use of the Magic Wand tool before they can fill with colour.

Top Group

Middle Group

Lower Group

 

The follow-up to this lesson is to 'Mash' the final product with another aplication. We always require the older children in KS2 to take their work into another program if they can. This can be a somehting as simple as inserting into a Word Document and adding a Word Art Title and decorative border or as you can see here SketchUp and Google Earth. 

SketchUp offers Photo textures and the possibility to make materials out of images found via Google Search or ones that we have made ourselves. 

N.B. Play around with this yourself first as the breaking of the apsect ratios isn't always as straight forward as it should be.

 So, onto the mashing. The chidlren followed my lead with the video above (I anotated with the IWB) and they made their own materials. While they were doing this I assigned two lead children to apply the Art Work to the gallery I had prepared uing the 'make new material' skills in this session. The final piece looks like this:

B5CM Added theirs first. This is the result:

Then B5MF added theirs.

B5LW are yet to add their work and will be posted here once they have completed it.

The next task is to add to Google Earth correctly and share the KMZ file.

Download the Galleries here, here and here 

Tuesday
May082012

Parents Internet Safety Morning

This morning I invited the parents along for a talk on the upcoming Internet safety topic we'll be running for the next 4 weeks. The Presentation that is embedded below is in several versions depending on what you prefer.

The links in the final slide aren't there, instead they are here which makes things a little easier.

The next presentation will be all about games in education and how to engage our learners at various points in a topic. It wil also highlight how games are now common place and used to build Literacy, Numeracy and other topics' levels of attainment. This article my help you get an understanding.

The Presentation in PDF Download from here.

Parents Presentation for Internet Safety May 2012

For Parents:

fbparents

 

Safer Internet Day

Safe Kids

Digizen

Our Internet Safety Guide/ Manual/ Whole School Assessment

Family E-Safety Kit

Resources we use in Class

Brain Pop

Hector's World

Moshi Monsters

WebWise

BBC

Welcome to the Web

Monday
Feb202012

#21CLHK '12 - How will I integrate technology in my classroom now? 

The 2012 21CLHK comference has just finished this weekend and now I have several tasks I'm sure other EdTech leaders have to think about. In fact, I now have many.

There were so many great strands going on at the conference that in the end I had to basically double up and dip in and out of a few towards the end and try to get a flavour of what was going on. The best of what I saw and heard came from Robyn Treyvaud and Sugatra Mitra's keynotes. Many people commented on Punya Mishra and the cross-over of Tachnology in TPACK . But in terms of our needs the former two hit the nail on the head. If you don't know who these people are then follow the links. But rest assured that they are key figures in education and technological usage within education.

The rest of the event was based around unconference type events that ranged from the basic tools needed to the more in-depth and leadership based discussions.

 

 

 

 

An example session run by Chris Smith from Shambles.net. As you can see from the slide show that if you're familiar with the tools then you can glean the basic premise from here and share with your staff.

Where it got a little more in-depth was from the keynotes by the people at the top of this post and the more abstract questions like "how will a future 21st Century school look?" (in terms of curriculum) and, of course, the school leadership strands. Where you really had to be on your techical game though was in Dana Watts's e-portfolio session. This really made me think deeper about making online devices such as ifttt.com to manage multiple classes of e-portfolios. (the slideshow below is Dana's and not mine had to download to embed!)

What impressed me most was the unifying voice of the need to address the curriculum as it stands: The model that has been around for centuries. 
Dr. Mitra and his HiWEL research suggests that children no longer need the direction of the teacher as it traditonally stands. Instead the teacher will become the mediator (by as he put "a network of grandmas" referring to his research in teaching via Skype). His idea, based on the historical evidence of teaching and schooling losing key lessons (think: medievel times and the need to learn to ride a horse and use a sword) and then brought up to speed - the death of traditional mathematics. This was posed in the form of an analogy of a shopper at the check-out - who uses more mathematics? The shopper or the shop assistant? Followed up by 'the Internet as a prothesis for the brain' raised a few interesting sub-questions. What about over reliance on devices?
What I also enjoyed was the need to instil a games based learning module in classes rather than the Scratch and Kodu game building I currently employ. As much as I love the making (and playing ) of computer games it would make a lot more sense to it integrated in the classroom rather than in the ICT lab.

Task 1:

The upshot of this is that we need kit. So, with the great suggestion from a teacher at Kellet School, Hong Kong I am going to set up an armistice of tech gadgets. All parents in EPC will be asked if they want to hand over unused Nintendo DSs if they want to. I will begin with this console first as it easy to administer and add games (copies obviously) and use directly in the classroom. See here and here. We will then move on to the larger consoles like Wiis, XBOX, PSP, CUBE, N64 or other oldies like NES and SNES if we're (I say we, I mean me) lucky.
This should give me enough leverage to broker a Games based learning module when we move to a facilitator model of teaching next year.
If, I revert back the explanation of the changes above, I am pleased to have learned first hand the other side of this idea of accepting obselescence in education from Ewan MacIntosh and Tom Barrett in November. They partially touch on a similar theme where the learner is and should have more control of their learning. Step one: Collect a sample of online games suitable like this from Frankie Tam and these from persuasive games.

Task 2:

Open up the approach to teaching ICT in KS2 (to begin with before moving to KS1). The impetus gained from the training in November allowed one of the best game making projects I have ever witnessed. I'm not sure if this is to with the children's familiarity of scratch but Tom and Ewan's mantra of letting go of the reins really paid off.
The tasks in a nutshell: find the bigger question at the beginning of the topic and set the steps needed from then on.

Task 3:

Re-evaluate the purchasing and school improvement plan for next year based on the above. What equipment does a group of 4-6 children need to be successful in... X, Y, Z topic?

Task 4:

This one is more immediate: Policy and the re-writing of the first steps needed to creating a better, more parent and student focused framework for Digital Citizenship. Initially, I will begin by inviting parents in for a coffee morning and explaingin to them that I am re-writing this and need their input. What does digital citizenship look like in Year 3 now and how would you like it, as a parent/ student, to look? This I hope will be adopted at a similar time in KS3 and 4.
To summarise then, 21CLHK is fabulous and probably one of the best conferences I've too. That and TechEx at Patana School, Bangkok just for the sheer scale and the amount of thinking needed on our part to address your own vision.  I think also the quality of attendees and keynote speakers is something I was taken aback by. I just hope that our school can send more than one person next year as there is necessary learning at every corner.