Design Thinking: Workshops by Ewan McIntosh and Tom Barrett

On November the 8th we invited over Ewan McIntosh and Tom Barrett two of the leading specialists in ICT in education from the company NoTosh. They were here to work with all staff in Primary and Nursery plus a few from our Bi Lingual section too. They were here for 3 days and were structured so that year groups could work together in their teams and produce new and exciting resources to teach with. They also learned new methods to try and be more experimental with the ICT equipment we have in school.

The days began with our staff learning to use the Google suite of applications that mostly come with a Gmail account. Many people do not realise the potential that these applications have for education. Tom, who specialises in this field was the first teacher in the UK to become a certified Google Educator and leads the way in its use with his ideas called "Interesting Ways". If you should do a Google search for this you will see the variety of uses that have been put together from teachers all over the world.

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iPad in the Reception Classrooom. EYFS

This is a snippet of the latest use of the iPad in Reception.

The children have used the app called MadPad that essentially turn the iPad into a musical instrument via video buttons.

This was a two part lesson - the first being to get to know the mad pad app and record percussion.

Then the second to import other children's percussion into new set of buttons.

They had to review what was good sound and what was poor sound. They also had to make sure we could see the instrument being played. 

The result was a mixed bag really but the children understood immediately that they could use Johnny's hammer sound as it was the best and he was from another class. Collaborative effects next time where we chose who we want to send our sounds to. 

Baby steps as they say as this is only really the end of the first half term.

Next up, drawing and painting with a stylus.

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(FutureLab.org.uk) Connecting digital literacy between home and school

This essential piece of reading about the differences and similarities of ICT in the home and at school highlights a major part of my ICT ethos: "What can be done at school ICT can be done at home and the two should be interlinked"

This report describes the connections and discontinuities between children’s digital literacy practices at home and in school in two primary and two secondary schools. It provides a brief introduction to the research, presents and explores findings from the research, drawing out some common themes and discussing challenges and opportunities for connecting children’s digital literacy between home and school.

Worthy reading from Futurelab as always - link, save and spend 20 mins reading for introduction to your gaming professional development.

Connecting Digital Literacy Between Home and School

iPads in the classroom: Enhancing ICT in Early Years

 

This year there has been a huge change in the perception of ICT in the classroom and it is undoubtedly down to the iPad.

Let's take the notion of purchasing one application for a class set of computers - so that's per set not per seat. This is the one thing that already attracts me to the device. The fact you can purchase books fro school that not only are stand alone books but also have games, spoken word and animation all built in make the world of reading a completely new entity. So, I have set about completing a plan that I can edit when I have to install more or a project of similar standing.

Research

There are several methods to the research. Most to do with Android and how I would cope with the user on an iPad, the 'viewpoint' of the child - if its not an iPad then its not worth the money that was spent on it. The mentioning of the word gets the children into a chattering frenzy.

So I looked about and found these key snippets of research that swayed me.

Via Tom Barrett at edte.ch...

 
Since March I have been running this little survey that is a limited comparison between the current preferences between Apple iPads in the classroom or Android Tablets. It obviously doesn’t take into account the other platforms that are on offer such as Windows machines.

There has been a fantastic response with over 1000 responses submitted and counting!

From conversation with colleagues on Twitter it seems that many people are heading towards Apple products due to the maturity of the App store and the sheer range of Apps that is available.

It would seem from these results that most educators are opting for the iPads over tablets running Android operating systems.

more...

A new crop of Android-based tablets is targeting the educational market, striving to capture a piece of a niche sector spearheaded by the iPad.

Toronto-based mySpark plans to sell its Android-powered tablets from $200 to $350 this spring. The two 10-inch devices are aimed at the college market and will let students buy digital textbooks, sync their school calendars, collaborate via instant messaging and run apps.

The devices, equipped with a dual-core 1-gigahertz chip with graphics and media acceleration, comes with a stylus to let students write and take notes directly on the screen. In addition, files will fully be backed on a cloud server for safety if the tablet gets lost.

"Everybody is learning how to use the digital form," said Adrian Hartog, mySpark's chief executive. "We're really trying to provide a comprehensive solution for students."

The startup is facing a healthy competition from niche educational tablet developers, such as Santa Clara, Calif.-based Kno, which developed a dual-screen tablet that features a pair of 14.1-inch displays. Kno is expected to sell its tablet in mid-April for $900.

 And finally over at the Guardian...

Teachers at Ysgol Glannau Gwaun, a primary in Fishguard with stunning views across Cardigan Bay, are convinced their pupils are benefiting from their iPads and iPods.

The school invested in 16 iPads and 20 iPods specifically to improve literacy skills among its 247 pupils, thinking the boys especially might react positively to the technology. Irwyn Wilcox, the headteacher, said: "We were looking to beef up technology and find ways of engaging the pupils in different ways. I'm convinced it's having an impact."

It has been a steep learning curve for the teachers. "This time last year I'd probably not have been sure what an iPad was," said Wilcox.

Orders

Ordering the kit:

 

People

Training

Route map

Applications

 

Edmodo.com Using a Social Platform in the Primary School

I have been using edmodo now for a while and find that it's very simple to use and a real hit with the children. The most common remark being " it's just like Facebook". Not quite.

The children love it and are on there daily sharing their links links to games (mostly Sploder.com links to their home made games) and chatting in a safe environment- the language being used is excellent if a little short.

We have tried to encourage the use of proper grammar and not use this: !!!!!! or ????????? or "what the..." which is a commmon phrase here in Asia schools (they know the word that comes after it so they should not be using the phrase at all!

We currently have a Moodle setup at our school that is really never used and pretty defunct - this seems the perfect ticket. I just hope that Edmodo's business plan incorporates importing iCal (and others) to their systems or some kind of 3rd party cross app ingenuity that will really get the party moving. 

If you're wondering what is going on here then look at the comments from Simon Haughton about it too.

This helping guide should be pretty helpful too. The below embed is in HTML 5 so hit the link if you can't see it.

As much as I like Edmodo I kind of feel that there isn't much in the way of expansion in an education context. Moodle, as we know is a little clunky and filled a void of affordable LMS, Edmodo fills a void that is NOW using a Facebook skin but out of our (general) control (ICT folk baulk at this).

Please, don't get me wrong, I like the whole premise but am waiting for the day when the money pot is dry leaving us high and dry - and those who have advocated its merits - even higher as we've pushed it as a LMS to our devoted colleages.

Personally, my staff enjoy the links and guidance I give them, but this could be too much should Edmodo one day say (a la delicious.com) "Yeah, we love your enthusiasm but we're done; so and so has bought us for 140 gadrillion Dollars" = Angry teachers. The knock-on effect would mean that our teachers would think twice about hitting the link I give them. 

So, in summary, I am going to make this plain and clear to our teachers and maintain that should they want to stay with Google Apps then all is good - just make sure that parents know which platform you're going with.

Edmodo