Hot Potatoes CPD February 28, 2006
Posted by Mark Tennant in : Computing, Dunbar Grammar, Subject Support , add a commentRather disappointingly I had to postpone today’s CPD session on creating an online learning resource after some of the participants had to pull out. Guess it’s just the time of year when we are all under a lot of pressure. Thankfully I had (just!) managed to finish the course booklet and collect together some other resources, but the postponement will at least give me more time to develop some more materials. If you can’t wait another two weeks though, you can download the tutorial
here .
Winter Skills February 28, 2006
Posted by Mark Tennant in : Mountain Rescue , add a commentWell, things are slowly getting back to normal after the winter skills in the
Cairngorms . On Saturday, we had a fantastic opportunity to go out with members of the
Scottish Avalanche Information Service and learn how they predict and forecast avalanches. This was followed by tuition in snow anchor usage. Sunday saw the team carry out a mock rescue in Coire an t-Sneachda which involved lowering a stretcher from below the Fiacail Butress. Coincidentally,
Cairngorm MRT would be involved in a real rescue only 24 hours later that would take a dramatic turn when the RAF helicopter they were using was forced to land in the coire as the rotors iced up!
Also pleasing to see two colleagues from the school taking part in a Winter Skills course that weekend too, run by East Lothian Outdoor Education.
Interactive teaching and learning February 23, 2006
Posted by Mark Tennant in : Dunbar Grammar, Mountain Rescue, personal , add a commentWell, a busy day today! Between trying to mark Higher prelims, second year tests, third year homework and pack for the weekend (rescue team winter skills weekend in Aviemore!), I have finally started writing the material for an internal CPD session on interactive teaching and learning I am running for two evenings, starting this Tuesday.
The first session will focus on the use of some fine software called
Hot Potatoes - an easy way to build online quizzes, crosswords and match-the-pairs exercises. The software is fairly easy to use (I think!) and requires no knowledge of web design or programming to use. Best of all, it’s free for non-profit use!
The second session is still being planned, and to some extent will depend on the wishes of participants, but topics will include using web design software to design index pages for interactive quizzes and an introduction to other free or commercial software that can be used to enhance learning. Free software CDs containing full versions of free software, and trial versions of some commercial software will also be on offer.
Anyway, I’m off to play in the snow. By curious coincidence, the East Lothian Outdoor Ed folk are also in Aviemore for their winter skills session. If anyone’s looking for me, I’ll be in the Old Bridge Inn!
Just for fun February 21, 2006
Posted by Mark Tennant in : Mountain Rescue , add a commentIf you’ve ever wondered what being in a Mountain Rescue Team is like, play the game…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/rockface/game/index.shtml
The first Blog entry! The challenge! February 21, 2006
Posted by David Gilmour in : Uncategorized , add a comment
Well, what a weekend. Sitting down to an enjoyable curry on Friday night, beeper goes off! Cue 28 hours of scrabbling around through farmland looking for a missing person - not exactly
rockface , but it often isn't! While leaving the curry was a pain, the real problem was the huge everest-proportioned pile of marking I had intended to do before going for a quick pint or five in the Black Swan. Ah well, I will volunteer for these things.
And that leads me to what you're reading now! Volunteering for 'The Weblog'. Blogs. Web. What the. Did I really sign up to this? How drunk was I? Can I get out? No! oh sh…
No, seriously. The aim of this weblog will be to share information about how I go about bringing myself into the 21st century and integrate ICT into my teaching and learning in the classroom. Sounds daft coming from a Computing teacher, I know, but seriously: ICT resources have been seen (and used) as a bolt-on to classroom practice for the past 10 years. I am as guilty as the next person of treating it this way. I've been bemoaning this problem since I became a teacher, but done little positive about it. Probably too busy playing with my
rescue team mates to notice the quiet revolution going on in Scottish education.
And this is what makes it interesting - teachers of any subject getting in on the act, and showing how ICT should be used. I can only applaud
Ollie Bray's
GEOCAST project - click on it and see for yourself. What is Computing in East Lothian doing along these lines? Nothing yet, but here's the challenge…
I have decided that, within the next year, I will commit myself to developing an online portal for Computing students in
Dunbar Grammar School - and possibly the whole of East Lothian. This should be an all-encompassing site covering revision notes, online assessment, access to discussion forums, multimedia content and more!
That is where the 21st century part comes in. Come next year, I intend to have implemented this. Watch this space. Or better yet, if you are a computing teacher, get in touch. Let's show people how to use the very technology we are supposed to be experts in! Anything else is just scratching the surface of what ICT can do.