May 22nd, 2008
This morning I was out at Campie Primary School visiting Alicia MacFarlane and her P6-7 class. This morning I was there to help the pupils use the application CrazyTalk. As discussed earlier this year the pupils would use CrazyTalk to tell a story that they had written in Chapters. They are working in groups for this activity. The first group to finish their series called their story ‘The Island of Belle’.
Here is the first episode:
island-of-belle-1.wmv
You can hear episodes 2,3 and 4 over on the class weblog. Their work is really impressive. I don’t think I heard one awkward pause, ‘hmmm’ or ‘emmm’ through out. Well done to the pupils involved. I am very much looking forward to hearing the other group’s series
It is probably worth me mentioning a couple of technical issues that we encountered with the program. While it is an easy application to use it was not a smooth process exporting the final product. Firstly the audio that the pupils had recorded was in an MP3 format. The CrazyTalk software doesn’t support MP3s. This meant that Alicia and her pupils have had to convert their MP3 files into WAV files using iTunes. These were then transferred (via USB) from the iBooks to the PC desktops, as CrazyTalk is a PC application. It is a rather circuitous way to create the finished file, nevertheless worth it. Finally before exporting the finished product, we needed to make sure that it was save as a WMV file. This allowed us to upload it onto our EduBuzz weblog platform (Edubuzz can be a little bit fussy with audio/visual files).
We would be interested to hear from anyone who has had more experience with CrazyTalk as we are pretty much self taught so far.
May 21st, 2008
Photo Credits: Edublogger
As I was in London this weekend visiting family and friends I decided to take a flexi-day on Monday (my secondment is not on teacher’s holidays). This meant I was able to catch-up with Ewan for a light refreshment in the afternoon and also attend the Teachmeet- London North East in the evening. I am always interested to see what is happening in other parts of the country and I was not disappointed. There was a lot to take in and you can see who was taking about what on the wiki here.
One particular highlight had to be Andy Black and his gadgets. If I find the time later this week I will try and write a bit more.
Many thanks to Anthony Evans and everyone else involved in coordinating this very successful event. I do hope some of you can make it up North for the Scottish Learning Festival.
May 17th, 2008
Photo credit: Edublogger
One of the projects that Elizabeth and I are currently working on is the refresh of the PC desktops in Primary schools. As part of the process we are visiting the Headteachers and ICT Coordinators in each Primary School to discuss what their preferred choice would be between a ‘like for like’ machine or a move to PC Laptop. It has varied between schools. The general feeling would appear to be that Desk top machines are far more robust however laptops are portable and obviously take up less space. We have also been asking Primary staff to consider what software they use and what has now become redundant. We are hoping to complete this refresh for the start of next session.
The G4 iBooks are scheduled to be refreshed during the 2009/10 session.
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
