Jam – another flavour? November 15, 2007
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Thanks to Simon for flagging up the fact that the bbc are putting embedding codes on their Science Clips and Bitesize resources. Wonder whether they can be embedded into our Learning Platform???
Fireworks – I like a challenge … October 23, 2007
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… but I should have read the instructions properly. Unlike Anthony and Doug I’ve used the tools in Textease Studio, you’ll have to wiggle the mouse around a bit to get the idea. Click on the picture to open the textease file.
Another data handling website October 11, 2007
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Census at school describes itself as “CensusAtSchool is brought to you by the RSSCSE – a non profit making organisation whose aims are dually to:
- Provide real data for handling data activities across the National Curriculum, including increasing awareness of the uses of surveys and censuses
- Increase the integration of ICT within teaching and learning”
But things are much clearer if you take a look at the curriculum resources!
A new take on datahandling October 1, 2007
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Well, not really that new, but it can be difficult to engage children in databases if all they see them used for is finding the most, the least etc. etc.
Having used a Crimes database similar to one found here to teach and/or searches to a group of children I discovered that their understanding of fields and records was a little shaky and decided that they probably needed to set up a database themselves.
Following on the crime theme I introduced the children to suspect sketcher from http://www.tryscience.org/teachers/teacherstsic.html , the focus of which is the science behind the detective work. We used the parameters for the suspect sketches to identify the fields we needed to use and the key words within each field. Once the database had been created the children wrote their own witness accounts from which others could do and/or searches to identify the likely suspect.
Although this took longer than was originally planned, completing the circle in this way gave the children a better understanding of how and why databases are created and how they can be used. Perhaps I should move on to use graphing to investigate questions such as ’Are people with tattoos more likely to commit burglary than car theft?’?
RM Education Lectures in your own home September 13, 2007
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RM have published some of their recent keynote speeches on their site, with an RSS link for future events – http://www.rm.com/lea/Generic.asp?cref=GP955644&scrurl=aa1
Featured so far are Stehen Heppell, John Davitt and Tim Brighouse
One Laptop Per Child project July 23, 2007
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The One Laptop Per Child project is one step closer to releasing the completed machine to millions of schoolchildren in the developing world, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6679431.stm . The screen size is small and memory is dependent on a 1GB flash drive so whilst it may not catch on here, there is a very important message. The OS is open source, based on Linux. There is so much open source material out there and we need to be making better use of it.
ToonDoo May 21, 2007
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Datalogging – but not as we know it. May 20, 2007
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Take a look at this blog entry from Simon Mills. In it he reflects back to work he did in the 90’s when he began teaching, but the message is clear - datalogging, in the truest sense, isn’t about having the right kit, it’s about having a dataset and using it appropriately.
YouTube is widely banned across school networks for the best of reasons, but we lose so much in doing so. In the above post Simon shows a YouTube video of an apple decaying:
Making pupil peer review (a little) easier. April 20, 2007
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I am increasingly using what is now called pupil peer review as a mechanism for target setting and raising expectations (See the Becta Self Review Framework - 4a-2 Self- and peer- assessment for more.)
However, waiting for a pupil to navigate to their folder and then find and open the correct piece of work can be a time consuming process even when management skills are well established! To ease this process I have begun to create a folder within the class’s home space for specific lessons e.g. “Control Week 1″, children can then save their work by their names and retrieval becomes significantly easier and the pace of the lesson is much improved.
skills v capability March 26, 2007
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As the educational roundabout moves on I find that I am reading more about changing from schemes to a key skills curriculum. Whilst I have no problem with moving on from the schemes, both QCA and those published commercially, I remain to be convinced of the idea of key skills for ICT.
In the latest GTC survey of CPD needs ICT still featured in the top three for over 50% of teachers. With this lack of confidence teachers obviously need some form of support, but isn’t there a huge risk that a key skills list could become a tick list of skills to be taught without addressing how those skills can be used? This could become a bit like teaching children how to form letters and punctuate sentences without trying to develop an appreciation of literature.
On the other hand if children are shown how to use ICT to communicate ideas and information, through video, animation or Web 2.0 tools for example, then the skills will still be learned but in a much more useful context. I’m never comfortable with jargon but looking at this description of an ‘e-confident’ pupil I’d be a lot more comfortable if the eight aspects listed formed the basis of a new scheme or scaffold.
