Learning Platform / VLE demonstration October 13, 2007
Posted by ictblog in Learning Platforms.add a comment
Whilst this video is presented by a Secondary school it is interesting to see the methods used to introduce the Learning Platform into the school.
Speaker: Domenic Volpe, Acting Deputy Headteacher, Heaton Manor School and Richard Campbell, ICTAC, Heaton Manor School
Heaton Manor is a large mixed comprehensive school that used to have a messy shared G: Drive, where staff and students, if they were lucky, could negotiate their way to a file or folder. Five or six years ago staff began to ask whether there was a better way. Surely there could be better use made of the technology that was beginning to litter the school?
Heaton Manor is now a leader in the use of VLEs as not only a learning tool allowing true interaction between student and teacher but underpinning all that happens in the school.
The recently changed school day, the Progress, Behaviour and Welfare system within the school as well as the innovative Teaching and Learning Research work is all enabled by the spine of the school which is the Heaton Manor VLE. Presented to AMAC September 2007
Another data handling website October 11, 2007
Posted by ictblog in ICT - the subject!.add a comment
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
Posted by ictblog in ICT - the subject!.add a comment
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?’?
Now there’s a surprise! September 21, 2007
Posted by ictblog in Life.add a comment
When lessons are interesting pupils are less likely to play truant from school, suggests research into attendance. A report from watchdog Ofsted says the higher the quality of teaching, the better the rate of attendance reports the BBC today – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7004845.stm
RM Education Lectures in your own home September 13, 2007
Posted by ictblog in ICT - the subject!.add a comment
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
Film Street September 4, 2007
Posted by ictblog in Digital Video.add a comment
Film Street describes itself as being”packed with FREE short films, interactive online activities and printable activity sheets that you can use to help bring film education into your classroom!”
They have now added guidance on how you can use the films on Film Street to support units from the revised Literacy Strategy – http://www.filmstreet.co.uk/articleview.aspa?PageId=543&nodeid=233
New term, new academic year September 3, 2007
Posted by ictblog in Life.add a comment
After five weeks holiday when I’ve done nothing with the blog other than add a link to my del.icio.us page, we’re back. Just to keep things in perspective here’s a view of the Pembrokeshire coast that I was enjoying this time last week!
Bayeux Tapestry meets YouTube August 22, 2007
Posted by ictblog in Uncategorized.add a comment
One Laptop Per Child project July 23, 2007
Posted by ictblog in ICT - the subject!.2 comments
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.
How far would you go….. July 23, 2007
Posted by ictblog in Resources.add a comment
….. to save energy. When I first saw this I thought it was an April Fool, and I’m still looking for someone to tell me that I’m just too gullible – http://www.blackle.com/
