Integrated, Creative Educational Technology: A Fresh ICT Development

Using ICT to drive subjects needn't be a chore.

What you're about to read is this:

1. Why we're changing things around.

2. What we're doing. Maybe you're doing this or wish to adopt too.

3. A closer look. Examples.

Integrated, creative educational technology means learning to use technology as the joint driving force for the lesson or project in hand. This is the mantra and ethos behind all of the changes we're putting in place at our school. It's a tall order. We have a very mixed set of abilites from both students and teachers alike - new students when they arrive seem to be off the pace and, by contrast, new staff seem to be right on. You can see, then, it's also very difficult to manage training for such a large number of teachers that is both meaningful and has an end skill they can use in the classroom.

So in terms of training we are soon to be running the ICDL (ECDL) - a stalwort of basic qualifications in ICT but I feel it's quite limiting (We have become a testing center thanks to my counter part in secondary). I like the structure of the ICDL, I just wish there was an equivalent for giving you options of other office products. It's fine if Microsoft Office is your only means presenting, text editing, web browsing and communicating but at our school it isn't. We have just implemented a full roll-out of Google apps for school - 1500 accounts for Year 2 to IB. Therefore everyone from the kids to staff are creating and sharing documents (or at least have the option to do so) for each other to collaborate on. We have 45 iOS devices too and we know the difficulities in making universal web-based files on there. Getting them out of the device is always my main goal. So sharing, collaborating is this modern approach to ICT we should all be adopting. Why? Because our students are keen to do it, are keen to be involved in it and can do it because they know it's a labour saving device.

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Our colleagues need advice and first hand experience of this - this is also the point of putting someone in the classroom to lead and demonstrate that it isn't all coding and fancy stuff. Simply adding an iPod touch + app/ laptop + online game to an extended plenary can be the difference between your core group getting a concept or missing the point. There are though those lessons where I am going reasonably technical for some - iMovie is one. Scratch as a method of presentation. Mostly though I am choosing a middle ground - something the class teacher will look at and think "I could do this myself. What's the big deal?"

Long term timetable for in-cass ICT

This year our integrated ICT curriculum is being built from scratch. After a long time contesting the merits and pitfalls of a discrete ICT curriculum it seems the best approach is to boldy take ICT back into the classroom. This means a lot of work. A lot of building resources from existing objectives. A lot of planning. A lot of meetings in different year groups. And a changing timetable every half term (or thereabouts). This means I might lose a few Saturday mornings!

We have kicked off the year with the steady weekly teaching of ICT to Reception using the iPads and then in the ICT suite rotating every 5 weeks. This is because last year we went all the way to Easter thinking we had enough time to teach the year group about logging in and finding common links. For various reasons we didn't. Reception children this year though are, in this order, all about:

1. Play and discovery. For this we use Interactive books and simple games. Initially these apps are: Cat in the Hat. Spot the Red Dot. Toca Robot. Drawing free. Photo Booth. Mad Pad. Paint My Wings. Red Fish (Poisson Rouge)

2. Knowledge and Understanding of the World. Toca Suite. Toca Store. Toca Doctor. Toca house. Toca Train. And role play. Learning about Letter formations and initial sounds. QR codes for Occupations etc.

Click to see Video

3. Key PC skills. Turn it on. Turn on the Monitor. Logging in with the 3 magic keys. (Ctrl, Alt, Del). Pointing and finding. Finding applications. Double clicking. Closing. Shut Down (without pressing the power button!). Using common menus. Using common equipment, cameras etc.

Now, the rest of the year groups as you can see above are given blocks of specialist ICT time. This time is for teachers to work alongside me planning and delivering Topic or Literacy lessons where ICT is thought about in as much detail as the original lesson. In addition to this, the classes also receive a maths lesson, planned and delivered by me once a week.

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If we take Year 2 as an example (above). You can see what the teachers want to teach themselves in blue and what they want to take on in their own ICT time. This term we are making a longer project called 'All About Me, VIP' and making a film in iMovie (some of the photos are in the slideshow above). This ties in with their Literacy with instructional language (later examples) and building 'Super Sentences' a strategy to add adjectives and connectives . The whole project will focus on the parent's event where we showcase the children's work ever an afternoon. All parents can see the videos both in the class and download via Vimeo.com.

Click to Play

In the slideshow you can also see the children's maths work. Building on the literacy sessions we've combined Maths and Literacy as they are about to start on a instructional text topic. We used the Bee-Bots to make maps and a treasure hunt. They made a game where they had to create directions using cards and compete against each other by passing on their instructions and scoring by pausing on the treasure. A fun way to talk about instructions and incorporates the Bee-Bots (always fun) and the iPod/ iPad app making them share, talk and guide each other in new way.

To round up: Using ICT to drive subjects needn't be a chore. You just need to be open to something new and fun. We didn't go the 'explore' forst route as we are tight for time. But, in future when we are making circuits in Scratch we certainly will be. In the meantime this is what we're doing and it's a darn sight better and more meaningful than teaching discrete ICT.

Olympics QR Code Treasure Hunt with iPods and iPads

QR Codes, I have to say, are a marvellous method for discovery in school. Why? Because they offer up the 'unknown' to children and techers alike. The children, as you can see to the left, don't know what is behind the code until the image appears, like magic, before them. The game we played ensures good language and teamwork as they try to work out which image matches the code. Some children didn't know what the Olympics were and none of them had ver heard of Greco Roman wrestling or water polo - "What? They play handball in the water?" Well, yes, they sort of do.

I'm currently part of summer school and even though I didn't really want to be the ICT Guy during this time I really wanted to try out a few new ideas, namely QR codes with older children and mulit-app projects on the iPads.

What I am presenting to you below is an assembly that I ran using the iPads and iPod Touches as part of a treasure hunt activity based on the 2012 London Olympics. The reason I decided to use this approach was the huge range of ages involved. Summer school is 4 -11 and one or 2 children have only just come from Nursery (I'd forgotten just how small they are!). Also, this needed to cater more to the younger children than the older children with the older aiding the younger with loading the codes and steadying the iPads etc.

So, to get this underway I decided to use iPads with the younger children because they already had experience with QR codes and the iPads themselves. The older children obviously have (or should have) more adept fine motor skills to use the iPod Touches speedily in order to help their younger team mates.

Intro.

I made a simple Google Presentation to show the children a: what the Olympics is about (all the children are multi-lingual and English is either a second, third or distant language). The children need as much visual stimulus as possible - part of the reasoning behind using QR codes and the devices.

The first couple of slides show the Olympic Rings, what QR is and a video with Micheal Phelps as the thumbnail. Micheal Phelps is recently the greatest olympian ever with 22 medals. You might want to keep this fact as a tie-break question later.

Play the video. I asked the children to shout out the events they knew but with them being second language learners just shouting running or jumping or hitting was fine. The video plays the events so quickly that they don't have time to really rest. It's just a starter for what's to come.

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Where do we use QR codes?

Next, show then QR codes. We have an image of the QR code use in Taipei for Christmas cards and children's presents being delivered to shopping centers. You will want to edit this no doubt.

For the next part you definitely need a large-ish projector screen. The QR code test is for each group of children to try out the App on the Touches and iPads. It also gives you time to assess your network speed too. If you're using this with 20 or more devices then this part is crucial to the succes of the activity. We're using 30 devices and had to move an access point to our ampitheater (we use these if you need a good quality, load-balancing AP).

The children then get a 'feel' for how this works. I then repeated the test with another simple image and told them about the treasure hunt. The game would have prizes of Gold, Silver and Bronze wrapped chocolate bars these were a Twix for Gold, tin foil wrapped Kit Kats (silver chocolate is very hard to come by!) and Hersheys something or other with a deep brown/ bronzed package.

Play the Game

The game would go like this: The children would, in their teams, explore the ground floor area for QR codes. The codes were placed all over the walls, windows, floors and ceilings (Ceilings - make sure they are flat else they bend and are unusable). The children have a sheet to fill in when they think they have found the correct sport to match the name of the event. On the bottom of the QR code is another code that matches the answer sheet the teachers have. See below.

Children's Sheet (Blank)

 

Teacher's Answer Sheet with all the codes.

 

At the end of 12 minutes (we chose 12 as the 2012 Olympics!) the children were brought back and the scores tallied. If there were any tie breaks we chose the ones who had the bonus archery or Water Polo answer. If they didn't have them then it was a simple question (above)

Winners Ceremony

The children didn't know who was gold, silver or bronze. Instead we used the QR code on the big screen for the children to use the iPods and find out. I said the team name and brought up the final QR code for them to find out. Then the prizes were handed out. All being chocolate they went down and treat.

A simple but fun way to explore, discover and learn about new events at the Olympics.

Next, Olympic Art and the strange events that happened at both the Ancient games, the fore runner to the modern games and the modern games from 1896.

The .Zip file of all the QR code Images.

Animoto

For a while now we've been using Animoto and to great effect. There are a bunch of creative guys behind the site and this shows in the way that the movies (photo stories if you like) get spliced together. Essentially, they are randomised according to the music you wish to use.

At school we decided to make a club for the more creative kids in our school first. The reason we do this is to iron out the kinks first - not to make an elitest group. The great thing about making a club is that the kids that attend the club become your in-class experts and helpers when things inevitable go awry! Just make sure you select the kids in your classes ;)

How to Create a Video in Animoto?

• Sign up for a free account
• Choose to do a short 30-sec video or a full length video
• Choose to upload images from your computer
• Or pick one of the following services: Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, Photobucket, etc.
• I chose Flickr & chose a set from my Flickr account after authorizing Animoto to access Flickr
• Then wait a few mins when Animoto gets your images and processes them
• Once it grabs your images you can choose to keep them all or delete the ones you don’t want
• Then choose a song from their collection or upload your own.
• Then finalize your video with a title and description and let Animoto works it’s magic.
• Email the video, download it or even embed in a webpage to share in with others. (like I have done top right)

If you had more than 15 images Animoto will warn you that you some images might get cut off or you can choose the full length version.

The great thing about Animoto is furthered by it's iPod app and the Education log in. The education edition allows several features of the fully fledged animoto edition - namely unlimited slide shows to be uploaded. To access the education edition you have to prove youare an educational establishment and you are who you say you are.

Lastly, Animoto gives you the option of HD. So, should you be a keen photographer and you know the images you have deserve to be in HD then there is this option. Perhaps then use them on Vimeo?