ICT | Pedagoo.org

Writing with them & iPads as a tool for feedback – late to the party?

April 24, 2013 in Assessment, Curricular Areas, English, ICT, Ideas, Involving Pupils, Pedagoo by Sam Bainbridge

Do you ever get that horrid sinking feeling? That ‘late to the party’ feeling when it seems that everybody around you doing something that you’re not? Well, that’s pretty much how I felt about the good old iPad. Yes, I have an iPhone and yes, I was using it to take pictures of positive learner behaviours, projecting photos that I had taken on to the IWB, using the odd app etc. but with such a small screen and such terrible eyes…I really wasn’t doing it justice. We’ve all heard the expression ‘using tech for tech’s sake’ and I’m a firm believer in only using something if it enhances the learning experience for the pupils in the classroom so, when I recently gave in and got an iPad, I was understandably cautious. I had got it to use for work yes, but in spite of the mountain of amazing recommendations from others far more experienced than i (see @ICTEvangelist), I am still following the line of ‘cautious’ in my approach.

By introducing it into the classroom slowly however, I am finding that the simplest things are made far easier. Take revision with Year 11 for example. Having made it my mission to change their mindset when it came to drafting extended answers for the English writing exam (see my previous post Meat is Murder), we are getting through a good deal of past papers at the moment. In the spirit of channelling my inner year 11 pupil (scary at times!) and working to develop a Growth Mindset with the group; I have started to write with them, a fantastic tip from David Didau @LearningSpy , and it has developed both their learning and my relationship with the class in a very positive way.

In the vein of ‘exam papers are hard but they are worth giving your all to’ as opposed to ‘give up at the first 10 mark question’; I explained to the group that each time they were to write an exam answer, reading or writing paper, I was going to write with them. I too was going to ‘sit’ the exam. This was a novelty for them. Rather than me going round, peering over shoulders offering little or no input until the marking stage; I too was feeling the pressure of the silence, having to analyse the question, find the information and structure the answer. It’s completely different from writing model answers in the staffroom during your PPA’s let me tell you! It really was a great learning experience.

Rather than sitting at home or at my desk, creating model answers; for 30 minutes I was able to understand their experience and they loved it! With the occasional well placed utterance of ‘it’s a bit tricky that second one’ or ‘must remember to use the key words from the question here’ from me, it really enthused the pupils to know that we were ‘in it together’. Quite apart from that, the notion of me completing the exam with them removed the desire for those ‘can you just look at this and check it’s right?’ until the appropriate time, as I was doing the exam too and they ‘couldn’t’ disturb me. The subtle promotion of independence within this situation was something so simple yet so important. It is doing them a disservice to step in at every possible opportunity; after all, they won’t get that assistance in the exam. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t refusing assistance, we have been working on structuring responses for the better part of six months now, but in this situation, it can be too much of a temptation to ask teacher.

Having completed our allotted questions it was time to mark and feed back. During the initial attempt I used only the answers that I had written, photographing them with the iPad and projecting on to the whiteboard after which we marked them using the mark scheme, annotated key points and compared with pupils’ own work.

This technique of projecting your own work is beneficial for a number of reasons. On a human level, if you make mistakes (on purpose or not!) pupils are quick to correct them, suggesting improvements and learning from the errors – what not to do next time. We all make mistakes, that’s where the learning happens!

From a ‘time’ point of view; you are able to create model answers which can be used again with other groups, thus saving valuable planning time (we all need that!). From an expectations point of view, the answers, yours and theirs, can be used to raise pupil aspirations by explaining that only the best answers will be shown and analysed, therefor enthusing pupils to produce their very best work, ‘I’m going to get this just right so that mine will be shown’ or in contrast to remove the fear of feedback and move towards a focus on progress by using answers that aren’t quite there and building upon them as a group, visually, making improvements. I’m definitely a fan of the iPad, albeit a cautious one, yet its use to give instant visual feedback is a simple yet effective technique and I have found it to be great for exam preparation.

Although writing with your classes is not appropriate all of the time, I would really recommend doing it when you can as it promotes independence. If you are writing too it encourages pupils to independently work through any issues they might come across, using their own skills and knowledge to resolve them. You can always clarify misconceptions / misunderstandings at the feedback stage and most valuably, use these ‘moments’ to reflect upon and improve exam technique. It develops your understanding of the tasks you set – you see things that you may miss if you are ‘just’ planning it rather than ‘doing’ it. Finally, it develops your relationship with your class; they see that you are prepared to do the task rather than just dishing it out, struggle at times and then show them your work as well as theirs to critique. A useful technique for developing writing all round.

No Comments »

by Stephanie Hansom

ShowMe App

April 15, 2013 in Curricular Areas, ICT, Ideas, Pedagoo, Resource, Science by Stephanie Hansom

I stumbled upon the ShowMe App completely accidentally when looking for some revision aids for students, it is a free App for Apple products and the idea behind it is that it allows you create and share resources as a narrated video, using your own drawings as a basis.

When you sign up to the App you automatically ‘follow’ a small selection of other members who have similar areas of interest. For me, this was Science and an existing member ‘Ms. Booth’ has already made nearly a hundred ‘ShowMes’ which were great to take inspiration from to get started.

However I felt the real engagement with my students would be them being able to hear my voice talking them through topics, as part of a lesson, homework, revision, or maybe in the future- as a cover lesson? So I quickly got started creating my own. Needless to say, my first attempts at drawing on the iPad left a little to be desired but if you take a little time and use a stylus you quickly improve (even a free stylus supplied with an iPad cover made a big difference). You can also import pictures from your iPad or the internet to use in your ShowMe.

The trickiest thing to get the hang of is drawing in ‘real time’, as everything you draw while it is recording becomes part of your ShowMe, even the mistakes. If you stop and start the recording every so often I have found it works much better as you can clear the screen between each piece of information you want to show, so the final presentation has the appearance of a running slide show.

Having used it for a few weeks now I fully recommend using an iPad in conjunction with a PC or laptop as you can only create a ShowMe using the App but you can easily manage and download your completed ShowMes as an MP4 using any computer (not just a MAC) which means you can upload them for students to use on your school VTLE, website or Twitter.

There is also the facility to have student accounts linked to your account, so students can view your ShowMes and create their own which would be great for peer teaching!

Since using it I have also been recommended to try ‘Explain Everything’, a similar App, which is my next project and for other Science teachers out there @MyGCSEScience has been making similar presentations for some time.

I just can’t wait for the day I can make my own animation to show something really specific rather than trawling the internet for hours to come up empty handed!

Tags: screencast, ShowMe
No Comments »

by Sue Cowley

The Missing Skill

April 14, 2013 in ICT, Ideas, Pedagoo, Technologies by Sue Cowley

There’s a skill that I was taught nearly 30 years ago, which over the intervening years has saved me literally years of wasted time. It’s a skill that is completely missing from the current National Curriculum in England, and indeed the new draft curriculum. But it’s a skill that both teachers and students need to use on a daily basis. Indeed, the further we move into the future, the more valuable and vital this skill will become. It’s a skill that is crucial in the vast majority of workplaces as well, and yet we completely fail to include it within the world of education.

When I’m in the classroom, and I show my students this skill, they are totally astounded. Comments range from: “How do you do that miss?” to “Miss, that’s like, magic innit?” They simply cannot believe that it’s possible, and yet it’s a relatively easy skill to learn. Like most skills, it just takes a bit of practice and commitment to get the hang of it. And the more you do it, the better and faster you become, until you can do it without even thinking. A handful of UK schools teach this skill, but the vast majority do not.

It’s a skill that I’m using right now, as I create this blog entry for Pedagoo. Have you guessed what it is yet? A couple more clues … I can do it at a speed of about 80, while those people who haven’t learned the skill can only go at a speed of about 8. So, that means I’m ten times as fast at this skill than someone who cannot do it. If you have mastered this skill, you can do it at the speed of thought. If you haven’t mastered this skill, then your thinking processes (and those of your students’) will be slowed right down.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? And yes, you’ve probably guessed by now, that I’m talking about touch-typing. There are various ways to learn. There’s the old fashioned way I was taught, which in those days involved a book of exercises, an hilariously huge BBC computer or even (gasp!) a typewriter. But these days a quick Google search will bring up software options suitable for schools, such as the ‘Englishtype’ programme. I recently bought my own children a Pokemon DS ‘Learn Touch Typing’ Game, with wireless keyboard included, which would work brilliantly in a school environment and which is great fun.

So this blog post is a plea to all you technologically minded teachers out there, to seriously consider teaching this skill in your schools. My ‘missing skill’ might not make it into Gove’s controversial new curriculum, but that doesn’t mean you can’t teach it in your classroom. Your children will thank you in their digital future, I promise.

Tags: skills
No Comments »

by John Bilton

CLAWS Teaching and Learning Model

April 13, 2013 in ICT, Ideas, Pedagoo, Resource, Technologies by John Bilton

During my work as a Head of ICT and Business Studies at Esher High School over the past year or so, the importance of two things has become increasingly clear to me:

1. Students enjoy homework!
Maybe I should rephrase this and state that students enjoy the right kind of homework. They enjoy homework that they see as having value, and for which they are accountable. Homework is an essential element of the teaching and learning process.

2. Students can be sociable!
Yes, we know that given the opportunity, students will socialise rather than work in lessons—it’s not cool to do otherwise. That stated, given the right environment, they really enjoy working in a collaborative and practical way in lessons, much more than they enjoy being lectured to by their teacher.

I am acutely aware of these two points today, just as I was a decade or more go. So what has changed? Well, quite simply, I began reading about the Flipped Classroom model of teaching. You know, the one where the students watch videos at home and then the teachers sit back and watch the students in class? This is the negative view of the model, of course. However, I am not writing this article in support of the Flipped Classroom model, but as a description of how it led progressively to the development of what I am now calling the CLAWS Teaching and Learning model.

CLAWS is an acronym, short for:
Consider
Listen
Answer
Watch
Share

The CLAWS process is a linear one and is described in the table below:

C	L	A	W	S
Consider >	Listen >	Answer >	Watch >	Share >
Students are set a homework which they consider, as directed by the teacher	Students return to class and listen to a short podcast on the subject	Working individually, students answer worksheet questions	Students watch a video version of the podcast they listened to earlier	Students share their answers and discuss the issue raised in the worksheet
Example: At home, students research the topic of binary using books, websites, VLE quizzes, YouTube links etc	Example: In class, students listen to the 60 second AudioBoo Podcast on binary (link below)	Example: Class answers the questions on the binary worksheet (link below)	Example: Class watches the 1 minute video on binary (see link below)	Example: Discussion followed by Q+A session (see worksheet)

With the CLAWS process in mind I have developed a set of resources on the topic of Binary. The location of these resources is detailed in the table above (with links at the foot of this post). I have tried to ensure that:

1. Students enjoy homework!
The homework that is set is seen as having value and students are accountable for it. They quickly learn that will not do very well in the Answer component if they fail to do their homework.

2. Students can be sociable!
As most of the more theoretical aspects of the syllabus are covered with the CLAWS Teaching and Learning method, this leaves more time for practical activities in class. In my subject, Computer Science, we can do more programming. And that’s the bit we enjoy most!

Links
Listen:

http://audioboo.fm/boos/1319866-meld-1-binary

Answer:

Download the worksheet

Watch:

Download | YouTube to MP3

Share: – see the above worksheet

Tags: Flip
No Comments »

by Debbie and Mel

The future of CPD

April 8, 2013 in ICT, Pedagoo, Professional Learning, TeachMeet by Debbie and Mel

We have come a long way in our understanding and experience of CPD. When we began teaching, our experience of CPD was sitting in a bare, draughty hall at the end of the school day, preparing to be enthralled by whatever speaker the head had decided we were going to listen to for an hour and a half. Since we didn’t know any different, we attended these sessions dilligently, taking notes and trying hard to maintain focus for what seemed liked an eternity. After these CPD sessions, we would come back to work the next day, scan over our notes and vow to try out the latest thing we were told would make us outstanding teachers – except we never did. This thing called ‘teaching’ got in the way, and besides, no one ever seemed to check to see if we were following up on the CPD we’d received so it fell to the bottom of our pile of things to do.

Once or a twice a year, we would be lucky enough to go on a course. We always tried to get ourselves on courses run by Osiris. First, they always had the best presenters and, secondly, they had great lunches. N.B. Never underestimate the power of a great lunch to make teachers choose a certain course provider! We have been lucky enough to experience fantastic CPD led by thought-provoking and knowledgeable educators: Jackie Beere; Andy Griffith; Zoe Elder and Claire Gadsby to name the very best. These were always great days out and we would return to our schools brimming over with ideas and determined to implement them with gusto. However, there are serious drawbacks to these one-off events. They are expensive (and there is precious little money left at the moment in most school budgets) and it’s still a version of sitting in a big room listening to someone tell you how to be better with the aid of a whizzy PowerPoint.

So that led us to our next CPD model: twilight sessions. When we were working together, our school got rid of INSET days and opted for after school twilight sessions that staff could sign up for and attend throughout the year. The school championed this as ‘personalising CPD’ and giving teachers ‘autonomy’ over their teaching needs. On the surface, this model seemed much better; groups were smaller, teachers had chosen a particular session so they were semi on-board already and there was much more discussion amongst teachers. However, we couldn’t help but have this nagging feeling that something was missing… Eventually, we worked out that there was still no way to judge whether teachers were getting anything out of these sessions; in jargon-speak, we couldn’t ‘measure impact’.

After spending a long time sitting down and thinking where we could go from here, we decided on establishing a group of Lead Learners. These teachers had been chosen because they were excellent practioners who were always happy to share their ideas with others and wanted to seek out new ways to develop their practice. We looked at the school’s development plan and decided that we would focus on the following areas: AfL; Stretch and Challenge; Marking and Feedback; Inclusive Classrooms; and Independent and Collaborative Learning. The idea was that teachers would sign up for one area run by two Lead Learners, stick with it for the year and track their progress by experimenting with different strategies with their classes.

Although we were much happier with this model of CPD, it still felt like CPD was something that happened a few times a year and could be ticked off to show you were meeting your performance managament targets. We were looking for something less top-down, less formal, more frequent. And then we found Twitter.

Twitter has been a revolution for the pair of us. At first we felt a bit hesistant: ‘What do we do?’ ‘Who are we allowed to tweet?’ ‘How can I say what I want to say in just 140 characters?’ ‘What do these hashtags mean?’ We are eternally grateful to our former colleague Aisling Cowan @CaldiesEnglish who persuaded us to dip our toes into the world of Twitter. She said we wouldn’t regret it and she wasn’t wrong there! So far, we have been on Twitter for just over two weeks and we have not felt this level of excitement for a long time. We can’t wait to read the blogs of @LearningSpy, @Fullonlearning, @ICTEvangelist, @shaun_allison, @HuntingEnglish, @Joe_Kirby and @TotallyWired77 to name but a few. There are literally thousands of great ideas being shared by teachers for no other reason but for a love of teaching and wanting students to get the best possible educational experince. There is something rather humbling about being part of this Twitter community.

Back to the original premise of this post: what is the future of CPD? We believe that teachers are missing a trick if they’re not on Twitter. Schools should be actively encouraging all members of staff to sign up and receive free, daily inspiration from like-minded professionals. There is still a place for more traditional forms of CPD but there is also plenty of room for quick bursts of CPD provided by Twitter. Twitter has also led us to Pedagoo and TeachMeets. We are looking forward to attending our first #TMLondon in May and putting faces to some of those names on Twitter!

Finally, the notion of the Flipped Classroom is being discussed by many teachers at the moment. The larger question of what role technology has in improving learning is asked by tweachers every day on Twitter. What we would add to this discussion is what role technology has to play in teachers’ CPD. Perhaps we should be flipping CPD and offering videos and other multimedia resources to our staff. After all, students appreciate being able to pause and rewind the videos as many times as they so wish – we’re pretty sure a library of videos made by teachers for teachers would be much appreciated for those who may just have nodded off for a brief moment at the back of the room after a long day in the classroom!!! - [Check out our new sister site for this, TeachMeet TV! Ed.]

Although we don’t have all the answers on what constitutes as influential CPD, we are confident that those teachers who find inspiration on Twitter, talking to supportive colleagues across the globe, will ultimately be getting a lot more out of their CPD than those who are sitting at the back of the hall waiting for the slideshow to begin.

Tags: CPD, Twitter
3 Comments »

by Carol Stobbs

WordFoto plenaries in History

April 4, 2013 in Creativity, Curricular Areas, ICT, Ideas, Pedagoo, PedagooFriday, Social Studies by Carol Stobbs

I was recently given an iPad to develop its uses in the history department as the resident geek! I have had my own for the last year and could see so many positives to enhance the learning experience. I love the ideas of word clouds and saw some great uses at TLAB13 in John Mitchell’s workshop. (@jivespin) I was inspired to see what was out there and found WordFoto. This is great to use in so many ways and when you only have 1 iPad in a classroom. It is an iphone app and isn’t free but I am happy I will get value for money out of it.

My year 7′s have been studying castles but with so much interesting stuff they were having trouble selecting what they considered important. For a really quick and easy plenary I had selected 6 pictures of the castles we had used in a chronology starter activity. The students had to work on their tables to select a picture and write 10 words about what they have learned. You can put up to 12 characters on a line so we cheated extra words e.g. Motte&Bailey. Whilst the students were packing up I put in their words and voila could show them on the IWB before they left.

They loved it and were discussing whose looked best on their way out of class. I had a box of transparencies, which I had recently used for printing scenes from the Bayeux Tapestry to draw on the windows, so thought I would print them off. The finished product looks great but would be better in colour like the originals. The year 7′s have been discussing who picked the best words and castle. I have printed smaller versions for them to stick in their books which is great for the visual learners among them.

The possibilities are endless and I am going to use them next with GCSE political cartoons but I think I might need some more windows!

Carol Stobbs @littlestobbsy

Tags: Tlab13
1 Comment »

by Ian Sellwood

Sorting the wheat from the chaff #LTT2013

April 2, 2013 in Creativity, ICT, Ideas, Implementation, Involving Pupils, PE, Pedagoo, PedagooFriday by Ian Sellwood

I was really looking forward to this week. The obvious reason was because I am now on holiday for two weeks and will be able to catch up with friends, family and some well earned rest. But there was a far more interesting event for me this week. I attended the 2 day Learning Through Technology conference in Glasgow.

This event could not have come soon enough for me, partly because it ticks the rest of my CPD requirements, but mainly because I was looking for some help in sorting the wheat from the chaff when it comes to the use of technology in teaching. I am particularly guilty of dabbling with far too many different methods of bringing technology into my lessons. I don’t think I am alone in this and I hoped someone would talk some common sense this week and let me see the wood from the trees!

What with flip cams, twitter, edmodo, ubersense, coaches eye, phoster, evernote, wordfoto, dropbox, mini league, qr scanning, mindmaple and of course the essential pedagoo, pegeeks, iphys-ed, pescholar, and my weekly podcasts, my head is a blur!

Now, a lot of these new areas of my teaching week are very helpful and add a really enjoyable dimension to lessons, but where does it stop? One of said podcasts, the #physed podcast, recently discussed the balancing act between using technology and keeping the pupils active. Imagine a pupil struggling to keep their arm straight and score a consistent shot in basketball. Which is better, asking a pupil to film the shot with ubersense then discussing and offering feedback from the slow motion capture, or the teacher quickly going across and simply tucking the shooting elbow in to the body and letting the pupil get back to it. There is a time and a place for technology and sometimes the lines for me are blurred.

There were some fantastic presentations over the two days but it was the networking opportunities which really were the highlight for me. I came way from the event having met some fantastic practitioners and leaders in their own field. It was these conversations that helped the most and at the very least I now know almost every other school faces the same issues and together we can actually make a difference.

The introductory speaker, David Cameron, argued that we might be talking too much about technology and not enough about the learning which comes from its use. This made a lot of sense for me and I agreed with his opinion that we must avoid the novelty factor. Something which I am probably guilty of just now!

There seemed to be a lot of focus around which devices are best suited in school. Apple made a big appearance over the two days and I am already a convert to this system. This is not the issue for me though. Our school uses chromebooks which have made a big impact as well. My frustration is with the speed at which new tech and apps arrive but the polar opposite with which our working environment is being made future proof and allowing and trusting us as professionals to utilise all these exciting advancements safely. Our school is not far away from trialling filtered access wifi in a small area of the building. Once a suitable product and service is decided upon then it should be rolled out school wide. But even when or if we get this next step education budgets cannot keep up with always providing the “next big thing”.

There was a lot of very healthy debate about IT restrictions and opinion over buying, leasing and bring your own device options. An overwhelming number of the people attending were in favour of removal of all IT restrictions and investing time in the teaching of safe and sensible use of the Internet. Dr Alexander Allan, MSP, spoke about a vision and promise for equality for every pupil to access and learn with technology. This is something which is still a long way off when we heard from several different teachers in the final debate who spoke about such a wide range of restrictions in their regions. Why can there not be more trust in our ability to deliver learning with the aid of any technology we feel is applicable? There will be examples of schools a few miles apart separated by a county line who have completely different sets of rules and restrictions. How can that be fair to the children?

I came away from the conference with some useful contacts, advice and opinions. I look forward to the new Glow Plus. Jaye Richards-Hill spoke with a real sense of belief that this project will meet national requirements for a world leading learning environment. I have a sense of understanding about how I should use technology in my teaching. It is a support and should stimulate learning not constrain it. This also goes for my planning…..support not constrain.

There are some exciting projects using iPads which are both primary and secondary driven. This 1:1 pilot programme is already showing both the benefits and problems with purchasing a device for every child. I was really impressed with the pupils from Bellshill Academy, who delivered a session of their experiences with using iPads. The major question from this was how does it continue to roll out across the school?

I have some thoughts on this. We currently have the fantastic #pupilfriday and #pedagoofriday where pupils and staff are invited to take out their smartphone and share positive teaching experiences that week through a tweet. I think the next stage for me would be BYODfriday. Bring your own device day which encourages staff to create lessons which incorporate the use of smartphones, tablets or something similar. And for those who cannot access a device like this (which is a remarkably small number) there is always the option of partner work and school provided devices. I know in my subject the possibilities of using coaching apps, data recording functions and collaborative document creations are endless. It does need a robust wifi system but within the next 5 years what won’t?!

Allowing pupils to be given the freedom to use open access wifi on curricular tasks for a short period of time like our half day Fridays would give the school a chance to test the system, develop lessons and strategies of best use and instill a safe use policy for the pupils. This would then naturally give way to full use through the whole week which is surely where we will all end up in a few years time anyway?

So, did the conference help me sort the wheat from the chaff? Not directly, but it was never going to do that! What it did do was focus my thoughts into a more streamlined approach to using all the excellent resources out there just now. But the event was also much more than that. I thoroughly enjoyed the thoughts of Derek Robertson and the promoting of a culture of creation. Andrea Reid was a refreshing voice of reason from the perspective of a quality improvement officer. I even managed to create a fantastic link with Skill Development Scotland and my work within the fitness for work element in our S2 Careers block. I have added a few new names to my following list on Twitter and look forward to some interesting points of view in the coming months.

I feel much more at ease with what I am trying to do in my own teaching career with regards to technology and appreciate that with a more trustworthy system of access to the World Wide Web, we would all make much better progress. After all, as the Head teacher from Hawick High School said, why stop a teacher or pupil from accessing “bloody Culloden” in a history lesson when they can just pull out a mobile device and jump onto 3G within seconds?

I look forward to the day when we can move forward at a pace which is much more suited to the modern era, and I know for a fact my subject is more than ready to lead the way!

Tags: #LTT2013
1 Comment »

by JemmaPDuck

Tweet tweet twoo…

April 1, 2013 in ICT, Ideas, Involving Pupils, Maths, Pedagoo, Resource by JemmaPDuck

After recently conversing with the History teacher in my school I found out she had pupils creating facebook and twitter profiles of famous people from the past. What an awesome idea, I thought, for meeting the CfE Maths outcome MTH 3-12a. A few days passed and as all teachers do, I played with how to make the idea even better… After some mulling I decide that for my next S1 lesson I will use twitter as an exit pass. I searched for a tweet template online for a while but nothing was catching my eye so with the help of an S3 pupil I created this template:

I put 3 on an A3 sheet, printed off, laminated (yes, I’m one of those folks!), guillotined and hey presto everyone in the class got one for themselves along with a wipe-off marker.

Firstly, I asked my S1s to tweet a fictional professor (@prof – I don’t think it’s in use!) to help him find the circumference of any of the planets from a given table. Worksheet here.

Kids loved it and there was so much maths as a by-product (we discussed hashtags/trending, counting characters, how many re-tweets/favourites, advertising). I tweeted a #pedagoofriday post with a picture of them making their tweets which was favourited and re-tweeted. When I showed the pupils they were so chuffed they have asked if @prof has any more questions they can help him with! They are desperate for more favourites and re-tweets next time.

I also used the tweet template for S3 pupils to summarise individual lessons and used with the S5/6 Higher class to try and get them to summarise a topic in 140 characters as a revision technique (this proved difficult in the end but hilarious frustration resulted in good fun).

In the future I plan to something similar, as requested by the pupils! … I also think that I might choose the best of the bunch and allow them to really tweet it if I create a class or school account. I guess the possibilities are endless…

The tweet template mentioned in this post can be found here.

Hope someone finds this useful. Any comments/suggestions/questions are gratefully received, especially the constructive ones…

Tags: Twitter
1 Comment »

by Mark McShane

Supporting Absent Pupils – Update

March 24, 2013 in Curricular Areas, ICT, Ideas, Involving Pupils, Pedagoo, Science by Mark McShane

In December of 2012, I posted about our aspirations and plans for supporting pupils through the use of our website and wireless devices:
http://www.pedagoo.org/2012/12/supporting-absent-pupils/

I said that I’d update you when I had something to report, at which point it was very likely that no such update would be required. I’m pleased to say that it is. Before we go on I should say that the emphasis on absence is reduced here; we’re mostly about supporting pupil-centred independent and collaborative learning. Oh yes, and making learning fun.

For a start our bid for twenty three iPad Minis, cases and some other bits and pieces was a success! I’m not sure who is more excited; students or staff. I insisted that we did not break the news until the goods were in our hands. We have them now and we’re very pleased with them – lesson: if you don’t ask you don’t get.

Secondly, our local authority (Perth and Kinross) has publicly stated that it is moving towards an open wifi and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) situation and that we can anticipate having this by the end of the summer term! My wary approach still holds, but if this materialises then we will make much greater progress.

Thirdly, my staff and the students have engaged very enthusiastically with the kit and the approaches: Not news…it’s what we all knew would happen.

Thus far we have been feeling our way. However, we have learned a few things and confirmed some others:

We said that we would only get 50% of the values of these devices without network/internet access. The percentage is open to debate, but we feel even more strongly about this. Stand-alone-app. based access is NEVER going to be enough to support independent learning. There are some great apps to be had and we are making full use of the ones we find as we go along (see example Space, below). There are lots of great apps allowing students to consider stellar measurements, view planets and stars, consider the astronomical unit, etc. However, we still need to return to teacher/board/projector-centred approaches to show them film clips such as the “Scale of the Universe”, “Minute Physics” or “Sixty Symbols”. Some of the apps listed allow students to synthesise their own notes and presentation, but without wifi they have to be saved locally. This then creates the problem of students having to use a certain device each time!

I imagine that most people reading this will understand that our aim is not to get our hands on shiny kit. You’ll probably also agree that the “engagement” argument is good, but it’s not enough. The point of this work is to support our students in being better independent and collaborative learners.

So, one-way access to learning materials with no effective mechanism for students to save their work or contribute to a growing corpus of “learned stuff” is…how shall I put it…rubbish. We’ve got iPads woo hoo! We’re living in the late 90s, but with 21st Century kit. When we finally have open wifi, with unfettered internet access then, AND ONLY THEN, will our students become effective contributors instead of consumers.

My S1 class is studying chemistry and has been investigating the three states of matter. Well, people have done this for a long time and we can still draw diagrams of particles, but diagrams don’t vibrate or move. How do we address this (see example 2 below (S,L,G):
1. mix of traditional intro lesson and practicals on S,L,Gs (compressibility, volume, shape, etc.)
2. book-based and iPad-based research and note-making
3. use if ComicLife to explain a state
4. use of comic as story-board for iMotionHD animation of particles n a solid, liquid or gas.
5. show and explain to the class: old maxim – “If you want to learn something try teaching it.”

What are our next steps?
1. to continue to develop our learning content for the upcoming units, making them accessible for mobile devices and hosting them on our site: sites.google.com/site/physicsatkinross/
2. to keep emailing and calling HTs, DHTs, council officers, support services, Information Compliance Officers and anyone else we can think of to push our requirement for acceptable internet and wifi access as soon as possible.
3. to showcase the outcomes of the students’ work to them, parents, council officers and the public. We aim to use the OneLan system in our “street”.
4. to continue to us and promote a mix of learning approaches…not just ICT.
5. to keep asking students for ideas and views.

Here are a few points that we have confirmed:
1. the Griffin Survivor cases (23 pounds from XMA) are a good buy.
2. the iPad Mini is not too small for group work.
3. we need to find a sustainable method of recharging to pay for apps.
4. we’re using iTunes an slaving all of the iPads to one account, but that’s a slow process. The Apple Configurator might be a better route. Any ideas?
5. using Google Drive and caching content for offline use works well, but is also time consuming.
6. Notability is the most flexible note-taking app that we have found so far. It allows import and export of note to and from a variety of other apps and formats.
7. students can’t wait to start bringing in and using their own gear.
8. a mix of platforms (iOS, Android, etc.) is easy to support (although Blackberry can be a bit trickier).
9. “giving” a device to staff so that they can learn with and about it is a good idea (surprise!).

Here are a some people that need to do some work:
1. Pasco. The SparkVueHD app, which should allow us to use our interfacing equipment, is woeful. It is a perfect example of old code being dropped into a new environment. This app needs to be rewritten from the ground up. It slows the iPad to a halt, is the opposite of “user-friendl” and does not allow quick and easy use of kit. The idea is good, but get in touch Pasco and we can have a chat.

2. Smart. The Notebook app is a disappointment. This is a shame, as it really should be a leading tablet app. Contact us and we can talk.

Example 1: (Space)
To support S3s BGE/N4 students studying Space we are using:
Reference materials: Solar Walk (excellent), Planets (very good). Student note-making Notability or Evernote (excellent), ComicLife (excellent)
Storing learning materials: Google Drive (excellent), FileExplorer (early days), iTunes U (excellent).
Preparing learning materials: DocsToGo (excellent), iBooks, iBooks Author/Pages/Keynote (excellent).

Example 2: (S,L,G)
To support S1s studying Solids, Liquids and Gases we use:
Student note-making: Notability or Evernote (excellent).
Student media-making: ComicLife (excellent), iMotion HD (very good).
Storing learning materials: Google Drive (excellent).
Preparing learning materials: iBooks Author/Pages/Keynote (excellent).

No Comments »

by Lee Parkinson

What is our online global audience?

March 3, 2013 in Creativity, ICT, Ideas, Involving Pupils, Literacy, Pedagoo by Lee Parkinson

Since beginning our blogging journey, I am constantly trying to show the children the potential it can have on improving their writing. Giving the children an audience provides a purpose for their writing. They carefully consider their writing which provides them with a more focused approach which has a knock on effect to improve their writing.

It is sometimes hard for children to see how global their work can spread. Throwing numbers around doesn’t always enthuse the children to carry on blogging. Over the past week I have tried a little experiment to try and give the children a visual picture of the global audience available through sharing work online.

Just over a week ago, two classes from my school made their own versions of the latest internet meme – Harlem Shake. Here was our effort:

As much as the children loved making the video, there was a real purpose to it. Youtube provides in depth analysis of all the views the video recieves, from the demographics to the gender and platform used to watch it. I wanted to use these statistics to inspire the children to see how global our audience can be and further prove the benefits of blogging to showcase their writing.

First I downloaded the report from YouTube showing all the countries and the amount of views (3500 in a week.)

I then provided the children with a blank world map:

The children then used the app Globe to locate the countries and colour them in depending on the amount of views. The children had to think of their own key to show the amount of views. It was a fantastic exercise for children to further their geographical understanding of the world. It provided them with the rare opportunity to really study and investigate the location of different countries.

They were amazed to see how far and wide the video had reached. It completely inspired them, knowing that this is the potential audience for their writing and other work. I finished with this thought for the class:

If this is how many people watched you dance for 30 seconds imagine how many would read a story? 100 word challenge? or more?

The finished maps gave the children a clear visual picture to back up all my discussions about the potential of blogging. They were able to clearly see how much of the world saw our school! I am hoping this will then encourage the children to blog even more knowing their work can be read by thousands of people.

Most blogs have tools that will show maps of where visitors have come from, Clustrmaps for example. I chose to use the video as I hoped it would be able to give us a quick and concise picture of the potential audience by using a popular and current trend. The idea was to inspire the children to blog and I believe it has definitely served that purpose well. It also provided the children with a great opportunity to learn about different countries around the world.

Cross-posted from Mr P’s ICT Blog

No Comments »