One of the advantages of being a Digital Leader is that of now having access to YouTube and being able to use resources in the classroom. In a class on the Reproduction System, pupils were engrossed in Rolf Larson's 'Miracle of Life' as too were the staff. 'Miracle of Life' is a fascinating short film showing how fertilisation occurs and how a baby develops inside the womb.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9nzoQScgAM
Tuesday, 14 October 2014
Working with other professionals from around the world.
As part of the work that Trinity Fields has been doing on gesture based technology we have been in contact with many people while using resources for the Kinect sensor.
We had one usable program from Cardiff Met Uni that was in BETA phase and was developed for pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorder- one pupil had used this program a lot and had great interaction an engagement with it.
But we needed more- to develop this interaction and also because every pupil is different we needed as many interactive programs as possible.
So I set about finding Kinect programs on the web and then contacting developers, programmers, digital artists and companies to ask if we could use their programs (for free!)
About 80% of people contacted responded very positively- and gave advice on installation issues and the technical side of things- none of these programs had been created for our pupils but they worked really well- they had started life as night club software, programmers showing what they could do or as art projects.
So we ended up having to thank:
Davor in California for Visikord (Night club program) Trent Brooks in Sydney for Noise Ink (art installation)Chris Riebschlager in Missouri for Kinect Art (programming business) Adityo Pratomo in Jakarta for Evil Twin and Rainbow Man, (programmer)Amnon Owed in The Hague for Kinect Physics and Flow (creative programmer)
My mother always used to say- if you don't ask you don't get!
So it's good to ask every now and again!
I'm still in contact with most of these people through twitter or email- and one of them is even developing their software further for pupils on the back of our work.
Also we have made links with a university in Finland that I have spoken on-line with at a conference.
Anthony Rhys
Sunday, 12 October 2014
Overcoming apathy
Two weeks ago, I introduced Remind across three year groups and their parents. I sent letters home to parents inviting them to take part in this useful and informative project that would be mutually beneficial. I targeted my form class (year 7) and four KS4 ICT and Business Studies groups. So, that's approximately 200 pupils and at least the same number of parents. As of the time of writing, only 13 pupils and 2 parents have made the effort to take part. Only 3.7% of the people I am trying to engage. Allowing for letters getting 'lost' on their way home and a proportion of people that don't have access to the internet, that's still a pretty poor show. At which point do I decide to not invest any further time in it? My time is limited, and I have plenty of other demands on it, both professionally and personally.
Having said that, it would be naive of me to think that everyone would readily embrace this scheme. However, it does raise some questions and concerns. Is it the idea of Remind they aren't connecting with? If not, why not? Do I need to raise my profile with pupils and parents, as I have only been at the school for 6 weeks, after all? Is it a case of having to keep trying new ideas and new initiatives, in the hope that a few will gain traction and lead somewhere? Won't that just irritate the ones that are on board, or further disinterest the ones that are uninterested? Perhaps the low level of parental uptake is due to the lack of digital transparency I spoke of previously. Do pupils see this scheme as a way of me establishing a direct-line method of contacting their parents, and they are eyeing it suspiciously...?
I'm going to give it more time, more nagging and continue using it as though I am speaking to a larger audience than the 3.7%. If you build it, they will come. I'm also going to spend more time reassuring pupils of my motives behind this app. I am not using it to 'tell' on them; I just want to start a dialogue and use this as a gateway to more fun and interactive things we could do.
This week I am starting my after-school ICT club, with the aim of developing pupils into Digital Leaders. It'll be interesting to see how many pupils are engaged in this idea...
Having said that, it would be naive of me to think that everyone would readily embrace this scheme. However, it does raise some questions and concerns. Is it the idea of Remind they aren't connecting with? If not, why not? Do I need to raise my profile with pupils and parents, as I have only been at the school for 6 weeks, after all? Is it a case of having to keep trying new ideas and new initiatives, in the hope that a few will gain traction and lead somewhere? Won't that just irritate the ones that are on board, or further disinterest the ones that are uninterested? Perhaps the low level of parental uptake is due to the lack of digital transparency I spoke of previously. Do pupils see this scheme as a way of me establishing a direct-line method of contacting their parents, and they are eyeing it suspiciously...?
I'm going to give it more time, more nagging and continue using it as though I am speaking to a larger audience than the 3.7%. If you build it, they will come. I'm also going to spend more time reassuring pupils of my motives behind this app. I am not using it to 'tell' on them; I just want to start a dialogue and use this as a gateway to more fun and interactive things we could do.
This week I am starting my after-school ICT club, with the aim of developing pupils into Digital Leaders. It'll be interesting to see how many pupils are engaged in this idea...
Tuesday, 7 October 2014
Radio in Lewis Girls' School
YR11 Radio Project
As part of the launch of our radio station, YR11 students were asked to prepare a show that would be broadcast on the European Day of Languages. Each student was given a country and they had to carry out some research, script their set, find appropriate music, record their set, edit their set and ensure that it was transferred (in the correct format) for transmission. Two of the students broadcasted live, on the day itself, using the material created by the class.Usually, the evaluative part of the project would have been written by the students. Some of the students find this a challenge so, in the spirit of this audio project, we asked the students to create audio evaluations.
Whilst the results vary in quality, every student participated enthusiastically (with very little help from staff). They used Audioboo/m, set up and populated their own blog, added my introduction and embedded their audio evaluations. They sent their blog address to the group who funded the project and plan to add to it in the near future - their next task is a radio interview.
Feel free to listen to some of their comments (keep in mind that they are a mixed ability group).
lgsparadio.blogspot.co.uk
Software and apps used:
Audacity (PC)/ Hokusai (iPads) Word (PC)/ Pages (iPads) Google Drive
Excel (PC)/ Numbers (iPads) iTunes GarageBand Dropbox
Radio Zara Radio streaming software (sorry, I can't remember the name)
Audioboo/m Blogger - not too shabby for one project
Twitter - points to consider when encouraging use in lessons
I might have mentioned this to some of you in person, or in blog comments, but thought it worth a quick blog post:
If you are encouraging pupils to use Twitter, it will be a good idea to go through the following link:
https://support.twitter.com/articles/470968-families and design a lesson for your
pupils discussing good net-etiquette as well as privacy so that they are aware of their 'voice' online.
Also as Twitter is made up of lots of diverse communities of people, they need to be aware of not sharing 'personal information' like mobile numbers, locations etc. - particularly if they are young. This is all part of developing their digital citizenship - an important issue to address with pupils before they use these platforms.
As mentioned during our first 3 days, in the US , because of the COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act), many social platforms ask for a minimum age of 13. As far as I can tell Twitter doesn't appear to ask for a minimum age for members. However, my suggestion would be that they are at least 13 if you want to get them to use Twitter as part of your lesson.
If you are encouraging pupils to use Twitter, it will be a good idea to go through the following link:
https://support.twitter.com/articles/470968-families and design a lesson for your
pupils discussing good net-etiquette as well as privacy so that they are aware of their 'voice' online.
Also as Twitter is made up of lots of diverse communities of people, they need to be aware of not sharing 'personal information' like mobile numbers, locations etc. - particularly if they are young. This is all part of developing their digital citizenship - an important issue to address with pupils before they use these platforms.
As mentioned during our first 3 days, in the US , because of the COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act), many social platforms ask for a minimum age of 13. As far as I can tell Twitter doesn't appear to ask for a minimum age for members. However, my suggestion would be that they are at least 13 if you want to get them to use Twitter as part of your lesson.
Progress to date
Ive been looking into several different project ideas, but have become frustrated at the barriers to delivering them. I initially enquired with our technician into enabling social media platforms such as twitter, but was told it would not be possible to enable social platforms, due to our network being RM and using dynamic IP's. Fortunately since then I have found that I have access to twitter.
The first area I am going to look into is game play in the classroom. I see that some teachers are using Minecraft, to be different I'm going to try survival craft. During the process of learning the game I hope that I can set learners up using a Wiki, so we can co construct knowledge, share game strategies and become familiar with game objects, objectives and vocabulary. I intend to follow up with a series of learner blog posts, outlining what they have done, what they feel they have learned from it and including some creative and extended writing activities. I'm also interested in teaching actual use of social media, and so far have access to twitter on my computer. I intend to get learners to tweet about their Survival craft experiences, and hopefully working with another teacher - set up a twitter chat where learners from two classes can talk to one another. This will then lead nicely into some work on digital citizenship.
Roadmap - alpha
Contact developer of Survival Craft and ascertain if possible to play Survival craft online, or have installed on network for educational use - Free of charge
Draft letters to parents seeking permission for children to create Twitter Accounts for lesson use
All Wales Internet Filtering
Evening all
Yesterday Liz, Stu and I met with Neil James and Abigail Evans from Caerphilly Education IT, along with Ian from St Gwladys Primary, Bargoed (worth contacting Al - he's a very enthusiastic iPad trainer!) to discuss the Welsh Government's Proposals for an All Wales Internet Filtering Policy. WG have expressed an eagerness for all pupils in Wales to work on a level playing field when using the internet. There's a comprehensive list of categories of sites that were under discussion, with each one being allocated a suggested 'Allow' 'Block' or 'Decide on a Local Level' criteria. I'm sure that Liz and Stu will readily comment below to offer their perspectives but I felt that this was a very encouraging meeting. I think it's fair to say that everybody present agreed that we have duty towards our pupils to develop their digital literacy hand in hand with keeping them safe and that this involves opening up a far wider range of content than previously experienced. Once I get an electronic copy of this list of sites, I will post a copy here - Neil and Abi were genuinely keen to get as broad a response as possible to the proposals. Access to various elements of online content is to be categorised according to 1. Staff Access, 2. Primary Pupil Access and 3. Secondary Pupil Access. (This is far clearer on the proposal document!). In fairness to Ian, our primary colleagues will certainly have a different perspective when agreeing on filtering sites for pupils aged 4-11 than we might for 11-18.
The challenge ahead.
The main challenge presented by these proposals as far as I can see involves working with SLT's and more specifically head teachers. To be honest there were occasions when I felt mild apprehension at the thought of such open access to a wide variety of online content. Convincing your Heads, who hold the ultimate responsibility for pupil safety will be the main challenge. Sangeet's advice involving making small proposals that are explicitly thought through with sound supporting evidence will be crucial. As we know - for developing digital literacy put the learning ahead of the technology and prepare robust e-safety policies (in tandem with your behaviour policies) and when mistakes are (inevitably) made, look to learn from them without losing heart. By the way, Neil and Abi were more than happy to produce an exemplar acceptable internet use policy for schools to adapt/adopt. It was also interesting to hear Abi mention a school in the USA which dispensed with any 'E-Policies' altogether, relying instead purely on behaviour policies (e.g. rather than looking at cyber-bullying as a separate entity, deal with it as part of the anti-bullying policy; or treat defacing of Facebook walls in the same way as physical graffiti is handled). Perhaps some of you might be familiar with this approach, if so you might like to elaborate (or correct any of my misapprehensions!).
Chris Williams also popped in to mention his 'Digital Leaders Group' (essentially a show and tell teach meet for all Caerphilly Schools). The first one is Thursday at Ty Penallta from 1.30. On this occasion it will involve brief presentations from several Primary colleagues. Hopefully this will include some Secondary examples in the next session. If you haven't heard about this, don't worry - Neil, Abi and Chris all expressed frustration that emails might not always get to the right person in each school. As a result, I will ensure that they are made aware of the membership of our group so that messages can get to the appropriate person in future.
Reading back over this post, I think I've captured the main gist of the meeting - although I don't think I've quite captured the sense of fun as I can honestly say that this was a very enjoyable two hour meeting. Which is refreshing!
Yesterday Liz, Stu and I met with Neil James and Abigail Evans from Caerphilly Education IT, along with Ian from St Gwladys Primary, Bargoed (worth contacting Al - he's a very enthusiastic iPad trainer!) to discuss the Welsh Government's Proposals for an All Wales Internet Filtering Policy. WG have expressed an eagerness for all pupils in Wales to work on a level playing field when using the internet. There's a comprehensive list of categories of sites that were under discussion, with each one being allocated a suggested 'Allow' 'Block' or 'Decide on a Local Level' criteria. I'm sure that Liz and Stu will readily comment below to offer their perspectives but I felt that this was a very encouraging meeting. I think it's fair to say that everybody present agreed that we have duty towards our pupils to develop their digital literacy hand in hand with keeping them safe and that this involves opening up a far wider range of content than previously experienced. Once I get an electronic copy of this list of sites, I will post a copy here - Neil and Abi were genuinely keen to get as broad a response as possible to the proposals. Access to various elements of online content is to be categorised according to 1. Staff Access, 2. Primary Pupil Access and 3. Secondary Pupil Access. (This is far clearer on the proposal document!). In fairness to Ian, our primary colleagues will certainly have a different perspective when agreeing on filtering sites for pupils aged 4-11 than we might for 11-18.
The challenge ahead.
The main challenge presented by these proposals as far as I can see involves working with SLT's and more specifically head teachers. To be honest there were occasions when I felt mild apprehension at the thought of such open access to a wide variety of online content. Convincing your Heads, who hold the ultimate responsibility for pupil safety will be the main challenge. Sangeet's advice involving making small proposals that are explicitly thought through with sound supporting evidence will be crucial. As we know - for developing digital literacy put the learning ahead of the technology and prepare robust e-safety policies (in tandem with your behaviour policies) and when mistakes are (inevitably) made, look to learn from them without losing heart. By the way, Neil and Abi were more than happy to produce an exemplar acceptable internet use policy for schools to adapt/adopt. It was also interesting to hear Abi mention a school in the USA which dispensed with any 'E-Policies' altogether, relying instead purely on behaviour policies (e.g. rather than looking at cyber-bullying as a separate entity, deal with it as part of the anti-bullying policy; or treat defacing of Facebook walls in the same way as physical graffiti is handled). Perhaps some of you might be familiar with this approach, if so you might like to elaborate (or correct any of my misapprehensions!).
Chris Williams also popped in to mention his 'Digital Leaders Group' (essentially a show and tell teach meet for all Caerphilly Schools). The first one is Thursday at Ty Penallta from 1.30. On this occasion it will involve brief presentations from several Primary colleagues. Hopefully this will include some Secondary examples in the next session. If you haven't heard about this, don't worry - Neil, Abi and Chris all expressed frustration that emails might not always get to the right person in each school. As a result, I will ensure that they are made aware of the membership of our group so that messages can get to the appropriate person in future.
Reading back over this post, I think I've captured the main gist of the meeting - although I don't think I've quite captured the sense of fun as I can honestly say that this was a very enjoyable two hour meeting. Which is refreshing!
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