Adobe Slate

I was wondering if it was possible to embed an Adobe Slate 'story' into a blog.  It sort of works - you have to click on the image and it opens in another window.  I had hoped that the scroll mechanism would work within the blog.
Please ignore my ham photography and over-sentimentality- the purpose was to trial the software/ application - Nikon Bridge camera, SD card reader, iPad import, Adobe Slate app and Blogger.
I can see this being used in the classroom and as a presentation tool; it offers an alternative to the obligatory PowerPoint presentation or Prezi.

Pasg Hapus, by the way.
Liz

I'm sitting in work (I know that it is supposed to be a holiday), listening to Radio 4 as I scan in the Science Department's assignments and I have just listened to a programme about Minecraft.  I was struck by the evangelical way that people feel about it; the mother with a home-schooled Autistic son who feels that it is allowing him to develop life skills and be less isolated; the medic who is concerned about addiction and displacement and the Danish (Were they Danish?) cartographers who created a country only to find it was impossible to police.  It is well worth a listen if you have five minutes. Should parents ever worry about Minecraft?  Mincraft - More than a Game
I have to admit, I still don't get it, but......

Liz 

Update from St. Cenydd

Well the camera club is finally up and running.  Using a grant from the National Lottery we purchased some Digital SLRs with a variety of lenses, lighting equipment and books.  The club is for year 10 pupils at the moment because most there are already clubs for lower school pupils and year 11, 12 and 13 are examination classes.

The club was advertised in the school's newsletter and I was initially expecting it to attract less academic pupils and pupils with a stronger interest in more vocational studies.  What has surprised me is that it has actually attracted the top achievers in the year group and just one boy.

Our blog can be found at http://stcenyddcameraclub.blogspot.co.uk/ although the only page that we are making any good use of is http://stcenyddcameraclub.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page.html which is a series of links to YouTube videos to help teach some important fundamentals of photography along with some projects that are quite fun.  It's already in need of an overhaul as the page on famous photographers is of no interest to the group and will probably need to go.  We're currently discussing the possibility of setting up our own YouTube channel and replacing the short videos with our own.

While the digital camera club is my main project we just started teaching Scratch programming to our year 7 and 8 classes.  It has proved so popular that our ICT suites are now full at lunchtime !!  This was completely unexpected but really pleasing to see how engaged the pupils are, they're really keeping us on our toes but they are keen to teach each other so I can see us making use of a lot of flip learning.

Finally our HWB+ project looks likely to start this summer.  We know how important and how useful the platform will be for us, we're just waiting for our new Head Teacher to attend a strategic briefing on it.

My projects so far

This is a brief outline of the projects I've been working on and where I am with them so far.

Update from Sue

As previously planned I use opportunities to raise the use of social media in lessons; for example, if the topic lends itself I will ask the class what Face Book status would this character put or, what Tweet would this character put?  I have found this really interesting as the responses from the pupils are often varied, but always in line with the character we are studying.


In addition, I have held a series of mini focus groups in preparation for my main Student Voice project.  These were informal 'chats' mainly with KS 3 and the topic was simply 'Social Media'.  I wanted to keep the topic open to see where the pupils took it and to see their baseline understanding of what social media was to them.  They mostly participated in Facebook, Snap Chat, Instagram and YouTube.

Interestingly, they took this platform of communication as the 'norm' and took it for granted (if that is the right word). The majority of pupils participated daily, mostly on smart phones or tablets.
The questions we discussed were: How they  use social media?  Why the use social media? Are there any dangers of using social media? Personal responsibility on social media; public persona (did they understand the open and public platform?)  and Are their parents aware of their usage?

Although the answers were varied, as expected, there were themes.  Social media is definitely an acceptable and widely use platform of communication with our youngsters.  They use Face Book a lot for private messaging and group chats, often creating a chat for a specific reason - e.g. gathering, team sport and even school based projects or home work!  They all like the fact that it is an instant mode of communication and widely accessed where ever they are.
When asked about the dangers of using social media, I was greeted with mostly blank faces... it hadn't really occurred to them that there could be any real dangers.  An area that did come up was cyber bullying, and 'gossiping' about people via a status.  One or two pupils were aware of 'cyber stranger danger' and we discussed tactics for them to use if this happened (as prompted by previous Digital Leader sessions).

I found these focus groups to be very insightful, they have given me focus to develop the idea further and move forward with the Student Voice Project that I will be starting soon with a colleague.  The outcome for this project is to develop the themes that were raised in more depth. to create a video and to then show the video in an assembly format.

Projects at Pontllanfraith Comprehensive School

Digital Leaders
I have created a Digital Leaders group that has been given the remit of being role models in the school in their use of ICT and delivering training sessions to pupils and staff. Each Digital Leader has their own twitter account, blog and meets on a weekly basis for training and planning purposes. Digital Leaders have been selected from years 7 and 8, and come from all socio-economic and gender group. In the first instance, expression of interest and attendance of the meeting was enough to secure a place on the DL team, but in future an application process will be implemented.

Digital Citizenship
I have included a series of lessons based around the 'Look up', 'Socialnomics' and 'Ronan's Escape' videos. These activities range discussions on blogs, discussion forums and the use of iPads to write and film a response to 'Look up'.

Training
I am part of a PLC with a group of local primary schools working on digital inclusion and upskilling staff in the use of ipads and specific apps. The group

Role Modelling ICT
In-class displays use interactive elements like AR triggers and QR codes, including an 'App of the week'. I try to run my department as paper-light as possible, and to share good practice during whole-school INSET sessions.

I haven't made the progress on these that I anticipated, for a variety of professional and personal reasons, but hopefully will make better headway once the school's set of iPads have been properly setup for pupil use.

Update on Digital Leader Project - Kyla Honey