May 17th, 2008
Super Logo is a company owned by my good friend Andrew Dall. His company provides emboridery and print onto garments for schools, companies and any other groups looking for personalised clothing. For the Knox Academy school Ski trip this Easter, I asked Andy what kind of deal he could offer for Hooded tops. Here it is:
A minimum of 15 tops had to be ordered.
The pupils can choose the size and colour (0ver 25 colours!) of the top.
The School crest will be embroidered on the front and a personalised print on the back.
And the tops were coming out at an amazing £16 each!!!
Pretty hard to beat I say! If you are interested in finding out more please visit the Super Logo website here.
May 17th, 2008
I wonder if Irn-Bru might sponsor me?
May 9th, 2008
This week I attended a Glow Key Contacts meeting in Edinburgh. There are around four Key Contacts meetings held every year. Key contacts are the representatives nominated by each council. These meetings are designed so that authorities can get together, share and learn from each others experiences. Out of Scotland’s 32 authorities, 21 have now signed up for Glow. Out of the 21, 14 are now live.
During the course of the day, we were able to discuss glow and our rollout plans. Angus, South Ayreshire, Renfrewshire and East Lothian were in my group. Gordon McKinlay gave us an update on the rollout within his authority. They are embedding Glow within ACfE. Glow is on every schools development plan. Within each school, responsibility for the portal is on the remit of three members of staff:
- 1 member of the Admin Team- Responsible for daily content and updates
- 1 Teacher (Champion)- Responsible for staff training and support.
- 1 Member of the SMT- Responsible for discipline etc
As we will be rolling out in the very near future this is certainly a model that is worth considering.
During the the day were also given a number of talks. Dawn Adams gave us a brief run through and update on Glow Learn, the VLE. We won’t be using the VLE during the initial rollout in East Lothian. However, if time permits, I will start my own work on classroom resources.
Following my last post, I have also liaised with Andrew Brown. He will be setting up a National Biology Teachers Group. Jaye Richards and I will start the group off. We will be inviting teachers of Biology from across Scotland to join us. Initially the group will be a sort of ‘who’s who’ with a view to perhaps offering CPD? If you are interested in getting involved, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
A very productive day was had by all. Many thanks to the Glow team at LTS for their hospitality.
May 5th, 2008
I haven’t really written much in the last wee while. This is largely due to the projects I have been working on. I don’t really think that White Board installations, PC refreshes/upgrades and letter drafting etc are really that interesting to those not directly involved, so I have kept quiet. However the next few weeks will prove to be a lot more exciting.
We are now ready to start our user provisioning of Glow. We are holding weekly twilight sessions which our mentors can opt to attend. These have been really useful for sharing ideas and interacting within the portal. During last week’s session, we gatecrashed a Glow meet which Andrew Brown had been hosting. There is a lot going on in the back ground with our Mentors… watch this space! One of my intentions this week is to get a national Biology group set-up. Jaye Richards has been doing some fabulous work with pupils over in the West. I made contact with Jaye a couple of months ago and we are both very keen to start making links and connecting Biology Teachers and pupils. I will be attending a Glow Key Contacts meeting tomorrow and I will report back in due course.
The forthcoming Internet Safety Talks for Parents by Ollie Bray will be informative and exciting. I am sure you will have read all about these on Ollie’s site, but if you happen to have missed his post, here is the link. We will be running five sessions in East Lothian (one for each cluster) and prior to these, Ollie will be running a session at Liberton High School. I am looking forward to listening to Ollie talk there; it will be nice to see one or two old faces as well.
There is also an Edubuzz Open Meeting on Monday the 12th of May 4-6pm, the Large Meeting Room, John Muir House. All welcome!
May 2nd, 2008
Yesterday I attended a conference on Using Virtual Worlds in Higher Education. It was run by eLearning Alliance at Moray House, Edinburgh University.
“Second Life (abbreviated as SL) is a 3D online digital world created and owned entirely by its residents. It provides a unique and flexible environment for teachers and learners interested in distance learning, simulation and new media - one which enables them to work together from anywhere in the world as part of a globally networked virtual classroom environment”
Fiona Littleton- Second Life Educational Development Advisor.
Image originally uploaded by Pathfinder_Linden
The University of Edinburgh has set up a virtual campus for its students. The purpose of this space is to bring learning, teaching, research and development into a different dimension.
I have yet to venture into Second life. I find the whole concept a bit surreal; that is not to say I won’t give it a chance. After all, I said the same about weblogs three years ago!
I will be interested to hear how this project evolves and develops. Well done and thank you to Fiona Littleton and Hamish Macleod for a very informative presentation. You can read more about the project here on the Edinburgh University wiki.
April 29th, 2008
Ian Usher has written a super review of this machine. You can read it here.
Photo credit PC Adviser
April 23rd, 2008
It has been a while, so here is another factoid.
When you wake up in the morning, you are on average 2cm taller than when you went to bed. I know this because when I get into my car in the morning I always have to adjust the rear view mirror. Likewise, when I get back into the bug to drive home, I have to adjust the mirror back to its previous position.
I also know the Biology (or Science) behind this; but… do you?
The closest (scientifically correct) answer will gain you a small something (on me!) at the end of term
Photo credit: Elpoca
April 17th, 2008
Derek Robertson has set up a Glow Group at National level for the Consalarium-
“If you are a teacher in Scotland and you have access to Glow then please feel free to join our national group. Just select this link, login and when the page appears click the ‘request access’ button”
I am hoping to use this group to share my thoughts and experiences on a number of games based learning projects.
:P
April 17th, 2008
Stenton Primary School have been podcasting some interesting descriptions of monsters that they have created. The pupils at Athelstaneford Primary School will draw the monsters from these descriptions. The team here at John Muir house have been so impressed with these podcasts, we have decided to join in. Here is my drawing of Lewis’s monster.
I might try a few more at the weekend. Well done to both schools- Keep up the good work!
April 15th, 2008
- Presentations to pupils to take place Monday 14-04-08 and Friday 18-04-08 (T.Watson).
- First session of the game will take place following the presentation. Pupils will be expected to complete the tutorials during this session and (time permitting) try playing against fellow classmates.
- Pupils will be given a paper log. They will be asked to record their scores and thoughts in this during the trial. The game will then be subsequently played once a week for 5-10 minutes (TBC).
- Three theory assessments will take place during the trial. The first will form the control for each individual. The dates of the second and third will follow shortly. The results of the test will be analysed to determine whether or not the game has had an impact on the pupil’s attainment. The two components of Knowledge and Understanding (KU) and Evaluation (E) will be looked at separately.
Progress wiki here
