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Over the last few months Karen Robertson has been developing a Responsible Use Policy for East Lothian. This can now be found on our Edubuzz Wiki. As this is the first draft of this policy, we would very much welcome any feedback either via comment or email.

 The trial of the Winning Game will commence at Knox Academy after the Easter break. On Monday I met with the Head of PE, Kenny MacDonald. We will be taking quite an organic approach to the trial. Here is a summary of our plan:

• The trail will involve 67 third year pupils.
• These pupils will use the game in conjunction with the work that they are doing in their Standard Grade PE course. There will be no interruption to the existing curriculum.
• Pupils will be given a brief introduction of the game and it’s relevance to teaching and learning.
• It is proposed that there will be three assessments undertaken by the pupils over the duration of the trial.
• The feedback received from the first assessment will be used as a basis to determine progress.
• Theory tests will be run in conjunction with these assessments in order to look at other impacts.

 Watch this space!

I haven’t posted a factoid for a while so I thought I would share this. At the weekend I decided to take a trip to Marks and Spencer. I wasn’t really looking for anything in particular- just browsing when I stumbled across this tie…..

…..Well, I mean it would have been wrong not too

However, the tie is classed as a Sartorial Tie. Sartorial? I asked myself. I thought it must have been something to do with the material or the theme. I brought this up with my colleagues over coffee yesterday. None of us were really sure of the exact meaning so we consulted the dictionary:

Adjective

1. of or pertaining to tailors or their trade: sartorial workmanship.

2. of or pertaining to clothing or style or manner of dress: sartorial splendor.

Credit here

What is it they say? You learn something new everyday!

Note: OB and AB- These ties can be purchased from M&S at the Gyle

Mr Cocker  discovering that, in fact his “angel is a centrefold”.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am a huge fan of  80’s music. When I heard that North Berwick High School were putting on a performance of the musical ‘Back to the Eighties’ I knew I just had to get tickets.

‘Set in the USA, Back To The 80’s tells the story of the senior class of William Ocean High School that graduated in the 1980’s, as remembered and seen through the eyes of Corey Palmer, who is now 30-something’

The Musical

The performance was fantastic! The talent to be observed on stage was immense. The pupils really were a credit to themselves and their school. A mention must go to the very lively Robert Jones who played the part of Mr Cocker and  also Alan Coady’s brilliant guitar playing.

Well done to all involved for a very enjoyable performance!

Something to share…

(A bit of a rambled post here so I hope it makes sense; if you have any questions please ask on or off Weblog).

As part of my remit I am responsible for overseeing the installation of Interactive White Boards (IWBs) in a number of classrooms throughout my Authority. Having IWBs installed is not as easy as one might think. It involves the collaboration of many bodies including the department/teacher/school, the Authority’s Property Department, the IWB Company and external bodies such as Scotsys who deal can deal with the redeployment of projectors. Here is my account of the process:

The Classroom:

• Site visit to the classrooms with a member of the property department.
• Notes to be taken on projector location in the room, where the nearest double power sockets are (they need to be in a 200cm radius of the boards location), the redeployment of an existing pen/black roller board or the erection of a static board, distance between the existing classroom computer and the board being installed.
• Choice of USB connection is a must, though a serial conversion via USB should suffice.

The Installation:

• Following the acknowledgement of a detailed report submitted to the relevant parties, the installation can then proceed. The boards need to be ordered via the IT department.
• Helpdesk calls need to logged with the IT Department so that the relevant software can be installed on the specified machines.
• If the projector is already mounted it may need to be moved forward, back, left or right depending on: Projector type and location, power (socket) location, computer location and inbuilt cupboards etc.
• If the projector requires to be moved (even a few inches!) extra expenses are likely to be incurred.

My reflection so far:

• There is a lot to IWB installation that is worth while considering. One thing that is worth noting is that HP projectors have a greater range in their projection. This means that the distance between the IWB and the projector usually isn’t a problem (you can swap projectors between rooms). The down side is that you cannot freeze the frames on HP projectors (i.e. keep up a static screen on the IWB whilst working on other things on your desktop).
• Each room tends to be individual, and I have to say I have learned a huge amount over the last two months.
• My main advice is to have the IWB company site visit your rooms prior to the installations and keep confirmation of everything that has been agreed. This saves a lot of time.

If you are undergoing IWB installations and you have any queries or advice, please get in touch as I am on my journey to becoming a bit of a Guru!

In addition if you represent an IWB company I would welcome your thoughts on how to ensure smooth installation with minimal cost, time, hassle and disruption.

Learning and teaching is very much at heart here.

Thanks to Ewan for letting us know! It is great that our East Lothian EduBuzz wiki is being so widely used. It has lots of useful documents, tips, links and guidelines. It will also soon host our Responsible Use Policy (RUP) which is currently been developed by Karen Robertson.

Well done and thank you to all of you who have contributed to the EduBuzz wiki- Keep up the good work!

Originally uploaded by Patrick Mayon on Flickr.

A Teacher’s Role

“There are two things we must give our children.

One is roots- the other is wings.”

 I was tagged by Jonsie for this one, which was initiated by Miguel Guhlin. 

1. Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.
2. Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
3. Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
4. Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

I tag John Connell, Lynne Lewis, Sharon McPhee, Louise Jones and I believe OB has escaped this one so far

On Thursday, I along with the other Glow mentors attended the second day of our Mentor training. During the course of the day we learned about a number of components that make up Glow. This included some ‘hands-on’ sessions.

A lot of what we covered was not of new ground to me as I used most of the tools during the trial phases. This meant that I was able to help and talk to other Mentors.

The links below will provide you with a recap of my experiences during the trial phases last year.

Video Conferencing using Marratech (Glow Meet)

Glow Chat

Glow Groups (creation, management, admin and permissions)

Web Hosting

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

There was a lot covered during the training, each mentor contributing their own thoughts and ideas. In due course I will introduce you to each of them. It came of no surprise to see how well we worked together over the two days. There was a real buzz and vibe to be experienced. This will really drive Glow forward in East Lothian. It is also clear that Glow and EduBuzz will ably complement each other. We are hoping to discuss the outcomes of the training next week as we want to start rolling Glow out to schools within the Authority as soon as possible.

I would like to say thank you to the trainers from Learning and Teaching Scotland and RM. Following the session on IPR I would also like to state that the credit to LTS and RM was on a yellow post-it on the rear of the car- though it may have fluttered of during my Journey home

It is a very exciting time in Scottish education and I am very much enjoying contributing to the development of a project that I will be involved with over the next three decades.

I meant to post this on Thursday- better late than never!

There was a really super article on Glow in The Independent. You can view the online version here. I still have my paper copy if anyone wants a loan.

Today we received the first day of out Glow Mentor training at Prestonpans Education Centre. It was exciting and engaging for all of our Mentors and it generated a lot of enthusiasm for the project. I will write a more reflective post over the weekend, but in the mean time, here are a few notes pulled from my scribbles:

• Learning About Glow- resources.
• Glow groups- Setting Up A Group. Adding web parts from the Virtual Server Gallery. Uploading Documents- dependent on what your Glow Group is for.
• Page Viewer Web Part- The integration of Google Maps and changing the title of a Web Part.
• Creating Web Parts
• Altering Pages- i.e. Changing the name of the name of the page from ‘Discussions’ to ‘Points Of View’
• Choosing Templates- The format of the page.
• Using the ‘Picture Library’ Web Part- Looking at sizing of images etc.
• Advanced Settings- Changing Group titles and Glow Group tabs.

During the afternoon we looked at Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).
This certainly merits a post and discussion on its own (there was a mention of creating an East Lothian Creative Commons and we will consider this further).

A very exciting and productive day was had by all. I am sure I am not alone in thinking:

‘I am really looking forward to tomorrow’!

You can view some of today’s footage here.

More to follow…