Anyway, this is very [...]]]> The maths department at Birley recently purchased 12 iPod touches for use in lessons. I’ve been getting them set up and trying them out. They have caused great excitement in my lessons – in fact, just seeing the iPods was enough to drive some of my students into a frenzy of excitement!

Anyway, this is very much a voyage of discovery for me: I’d never owned an iPod or an iPhone, so there’s been a bit of a learning curve – helped enormously by recommendations from some of the fantastic people I follow on Twitter.

Let’s start with ten apps that have worked well for me in the classroom:

1. Arithmetick This is a free app (recommended by @colport – thank you!)
As the name suggests, it’s great for practising basic arithmetic. Choose from add, subtract, multiply, divide – or a combination of these, pick a level and get started. I’ve used this with students in Y6 working at level 3/4 and with a foundation group in Y9. A few of them couldn’t keep up with the timer and opted for a practice session rather than the game, but most students opted for the game, got really competitive and tried to get high scores.
Verdict: Great for practising multiplication tables, in multiplication and division form. Also good for number bonds.

2. TwentyFour Lite This is a free app, there’s also a paid version.
I used the 24 game as an intro to BODMAS/BIDMAS with Y7 students working at level level 5/6 . We played this as a starter activity. They loved it, several of them went home and downloaded this onto their own devices.
Verdict: Nice version of the game, shows working step by step (which was ideal for me). The free version is fine for classroom use, but any serious 24 addicts would probably run out of games and need to upgrade.

3. World Maths Day 2010 This is a free app (recommended by @misterel – thank you!)
I used this with some of my Y10 form group, they really enjoyed it.
Verdict: Nice app, wide range of levels available, but it does require an age range setting – which is reset via the settings screen, not from within the app itself. Not a big problem, but will need re-setting if I use this with younger students.

4. Guess My Age This is a free app
I downloaded this one (it’s an app version of an old trick – maths teachers will recognise it!), but didn’t ask students to try it. A lot of them tried it anyway – and are amazed by it.
Verdict: The students love this and want to know how it works – but I’m not telling! I’m sure they’ll work it out sooner or later.

5. Dynamic dice This is a paid app (currently 59p)
We use assorted dice for probability work. This is nice for students, they like shaking the iPod to roll the dice.
Verdict: The students like this, but it does present a distraction when we are supposed to working on other things, so I think I’ll save this for the next round of probability. It’s intended for use when playing games, so it doesn’t record the scores, which we would need to do in a maths lesson.

6. Coin toss and Heads Tails Both are free
Two coin flipping apps, which I was trying out for probability work.
Verdict: Heads Tails is the better of the two for maths, because it records numbers and percentages of heads and tails. Good for gathering data rapidly, without the need for students to record anything.

7. Algebra Level 1 This is a paid app (currently 59p)
Solve simple equations, selecting an answer from a list.
Verdict: Worked well as part of a revision session with Y7. I didn’t want to restrict myself to using multiple choice questions, so we started with this and then moved onto Mathmaster Algebra.

8. Mathmaster Algebra This is a paid app (currently 59p)
Solve simple equations, but this time the answer must be typed in using a keypad. The students competed to get a high score.
Verdict: Worked well as a revision activity, following on from Algebra Level 1. It got a fantastic response from the students – they were really engrossed.

9. Falling Algebra 1 This is a paid app (currently 59p)
Solve simple equations, but this time the answer is selected from a cloud of falling numbers.
Verdict: This drove me mad – but Y10 loved it, so it’s a keeper.

Some more nice maths apps are listed here and here (via @IaninSheffield, who has bookmarked lots of useful sites that I’m working my way through – thanks Ian!)

Photo: iPod touch 1.1.3 (main screen) by chrisdejabet. Used under Creative Commons Licence.

The aim of the session is to provide you with some starting points and ideas that you can incorporate into your teaching. You [...]]]> These were originally on a wiki, http://bccpgce.pbworks.com,  but since I’m handing control of that over to the student teachers, I though I’d better keep a copy of my own:

Starting out with Educational Technology

The aim of the session is to provide you with some starting points and ideas that you can incorporate into your teaching. You should also be aware of some of the issues surrounding e-safety and professionalism.

 I won’t be doing handouts for this presentation – all the links and resources are here:

Introduction

• A bit about me
• Why are we here?
  • QTS standards
  • Starting a journey
  • It’s all about the learning
  • Tools I’ve chosen are either available at Birley or free 

ICT tools for teachers

Getting started: 

• Prezi
  • see it in action – this is James Mitchie’s first ever Prezi and this was mine - it’s easy!
  • get an education account with a dot edu or dot sch email address 
  • try the tutorials on the site to get started

• Wallwisher
  • try it out here
  • for groups to share ideas
  • for individuals to get creative – maybe in the style of Life on the Refrigerator Door 
  • It’s not limited to text - look at what Thomas Tallis School created 
  • Interesting ways to use Wallwisher  (more Interesting ways resources later!)

• PowerPoint
  • Good and bad
    • Alvin Trusty shows you how to imporve your presentations (nb this is a long video – around 45 mins, but worth taking the time to watch. It is also for an American audience, so the copyright rules aren’t exactly the same as in the UK)
    • Dan Meyer redesigns a slide Sounds simple, but there’s some very thorough analysis of how this would be beneficial to the learners.
  • Slideshare
  • Voting system

• Open Office – it’s free!

Images

• Copyright and Creative Commons
• Flickr 
  • Creative Commons images
  • Advanced search - remember to tick the Creative Commons check box!
  • The Commons 
• Online image editing with Picnik 

Searching and researching:

• Improve your skills and meet the team from Commoncraft
• Visual search with Spezify.com - demonstrated by Dai Barnes using Screenr. Spezify allows the results of a web search to be displayed graphically: pictures, photos and snippets of web pages appear. Of course some of these may not be suitable for school – Dai uses this as a teaching point and discusses what should/shouldn’t be clicked on, but obviously teachers should do the search and check the results before they use Spezify with a class!
• News search with newsmap.jp (don’t be put off by the japanese domain name – results are in English). Nice for tutor time, as well as for looking at current events.
• How do you decide if information is reliable? How do you teach this skill?
  • Teachers TV resource – for teachers. Obviously be aware about age appropiateness of websites etc if you use this type of activity with students.
  • North Pacific Tree Octopus (Google key words: tree octopus), or provide a direct link: zapatopi.net/treeoctopus.htm
  • Boilerplate   (Google key words: boilerplate robot), or to avoide the unhelpful search suggestion that includes the word hoax, provide a direct link: www.bigredhair.com/boilerplate/

Sharing links:

• URL shorteners
  • pros and cons
    • We were asked to let our students do a survey. This was the URL: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey.zgi?p=WEB229PGRBLP3H As you can imagine, this caused problems, so I made a shortcut: http://tinyurl.com/sypolice
    • This type of shortcut has to be entered into the address bar – typing it into Google won’t work!
    • What could happen if students mistyped? A teaching point here – use the back button!
    • Filtering in place in many schools
    • Beware of malicious links – this is a teaching point 
  • tinyurl and others
• Social bookmarking
  • Commoncraft again (I love these videos – can you tell?)
  • Delicious
    • for teachers - my bookmarks
    • as a search tool 
    • for students - Tom Barrett’s class page 
  • Diigo
    • annotate the web – but beware of risks – and SPAM!
    • groups - edtech and teaching and learning with web 2.0
    • allows automatic backup - I do all my bookmarking with diigo and it exports automatically to delicious. I can be part of two networks and I have a backup – just in case 

• The classtools fruit machine 

Literacy: language, reading, writing and speaking

• Wordle
  • To introduce a topic
  • To compare two or more texts
  • To teach students how to do a presentation without a script
  • To encourage students to vary their vocabulary (for example considering alternatives when the word ’said’ appears in large letters when students analyse their own creative writing)
  • See a presentation here on Samantha Lunn’s blog, or read about 23 ways to use Wordle in the MFL classroom 
  • Interesting ways to use Wordle 
• Digital storytelling
  • from talking to writing
  • Using Samarost 2 as a stimulus for creative writing. [nb: Chapter 1 is free, the full version costs $5. There are some Google ads, at least on the free version] It tells the story of some aliens who visit a planet and leave with the inhabitants’ dog. An adventure to rescue the dog ensues. It’s very nicely animated and can be used as the basis for descriptive or imaginative writing. A new version is expected soon, there is also Samarost 1, but this contains characters smoking hookahs, so might not be suitable for use in school!
  •  inanimatealice.com is really good for digital storytelling, students can discuss what is happening, predict what will happen next, talk about the images or discuss the choice of music. They may even be inspired to create a story of their own.
  • Create or choose your own starting point – it doesn’t have to be fictional:
    • Video: Most schools filter YouTube, but you could try Teacher Tube, Vimeo or DotSub
    • News
    • Historical event
    • Animoto
• Blogs
  • Blogs and wikis in the classroom (The first link includes a comparison of some different sites by Tom Barrett  – it’s worth reading)
  • For students
    • Preparing for Paris 
    • Nottingham High School’s travel blog 
    • Mr Higgins’ classes (the links to the class blogs are in the sidebar on the right hand side)
  • For teachers
    • as authors – reflect, share
    • as readers/commenters -discover,  reflect, discuss
• Wikis
  • Wikis in Plain English 
  • PB Works (you’re looking at it!), Wet Paint and others
  • YoRead (created using Wikispaces)
• Audio and podcasts
  • Can be made by staff or students
  • Record on mobile phones? (But not in the classroom!)
  • Use a simple microphone
  • Audacity
  • Don’t worry if your early attempts sound less than great - content is more important than top quality sound
• Collaborative writing
  • Google docs - take the official tour, or try the Plain English version.
  • Etherpad/Primary pad  
    • Etherpad is an online collaborative writing tool. It was recently acquired by Google, but the code has now been open sourced, so other versions have started to appear – such as primary pad which is for use in primary schools. Keep a lookout for new versions – lots are now starting to appear.
    • A number of people (originally up to 8 people, but this may change as people play with the source code) can write at once; each person’s contribution is highlighted in a different colour, so it easy to see who wrote what. There is a chat window at the side, also colour coded. There is a time slider that can be used to see how the writing developed over time.
    • Steve Kirkpatrick is a teacher who used this really effectively. He played an animated Batman clip from YouTube, students were split into groups and asked to describe short sections of the clip (it’s only one minute long). The clip is full of action and vivid imagery, so it’s an ideal stimulus for descriptive writing. The students collaborated on Etherpad to produce the written work. The teacher can enter the Etherpad and check/correct work – with their contribution clearly highlighted. Read more on Steve’s blog here.

     Issues:

• Need to check that Etherpad actually works – some firewalls block it.
• The pads may be public, so in theory anyone can enter the discussion.
• Students don’t tend to start this in an organised way, so it is worthwhile either modelling how different group members should start at different points, or even putting names in for them to show where to start.

Numeracy: handling data and more

• Collecting data with Google forms
  • An introduction from Google 
  • How Dan Stucke amazed his class with Google forms: 

He used Google forms to set up a survey and asked his teacher network (more on that later!) to complete it. Students were hooked by the sudden appearance of their own data. Once exotic locations from around the world started to appear there were oohs and ahs! Forms and data were used to generate discussion about quality of questions etc.

One disadvantage – pupils can put rude words in and there’s no way of checking who it was.

Read more – Dan’s original post about using this in his interview lesson is here, his post about the presentation is here.

Dan recently did an even better versiopn of this which included the use of Wallwisher. The people who completed his survey left feedback about the questions on postits.

•  
  • Forms are also good for pupil surveys 
• Maths maps Another brilliant project started by Tom Barrett. These are all aiimed at KS2, but why not adapt it to suit your own subject and key stage(s)?

Taking control of your professional development:

Networking with other professionals and sharing ideas online

• Teachers TV
  • Videos (obviously) for use in class and for CPD
  • Groups/comments/discussion
• TES
  • Shared resources
  • Discussion forum
• Twitter
  • Meet my PLN
  • #movemeon What happened when Doug Belshaw asked educators to share hints and tips using Twitter and the #movemeon hashtag?  Lots of people joined in to share their ideas and create a really interesting crowd-sourced resource.

    Doug created an archive of the tweets using Twapperkeeper, which is great,  but it’s not likely to reach teachers that aren’t already using Twitter. So he made a book as well. Brilliant.

    This isn’t just for new or trainee teachers, we’re all learners, I’m sure everyone can find something in here to make them think  ‘I’ve got to try that’, or ‘I used to do that – why did I stop?’ Doug and Stuart Ridout have done a great job with the book. Best of all, the e-book is free, so what are you waiting for? Go and download one.

    PDF/ebook (free download): http://bit.ly/movemeonpdf

    Book (at cost price): http://bit.ly/movemeonbook

• Teachmeets
• Blogs and RSS
  • more from Commoncraft – the miracle of RSS or try Google Reader in Plain English
  • Some suggestions to get you started:
    • Tom Barrett’s edte.ch
    • José Picardo’s Box of Tricks
    • Rodd Lucier, The Clever Sheep
• Interesting ways presentations 

…and finally

• Don’t believe everything that you hear about so-called ‘digital natives’
  • always teach the skills – don’t assume that they know how to do things
  • always teach the behaviours – don’t assume that they know what to do
  • find ways to encourage and monitor participation – you need to overcome the 90-9-1 rule
• Beware of advertising
• Always have a Plan B 
• Have fun! 

Could you pick one thing from today that you could use with a class after Easter?

Last term I sat with some students and asked them to show me things that they liked on various websites. There was no agreement whatsoever about preferred colour schemes, design styles or layouts, but almost everyone liked [...]]]> Yesterday I wrote about creating rollover images in Wordpress. This is all very nice, but what’s the point?

1. Engagement

Last term I sat with some students and asked them to show me things that they liked on various websites. There was no agreement whatsoever about preferred colour schemes, design styles or layouts, but almost everyone liked games, videos and interactive content. I am reliably informed that buttons which change when the mouse is rolled over them are ‘cool’.

If a set of buttons with rollover effects will encourage students to access the site I’ve set up for them, then it’s worth doing. (Yes I know, it’ll take much more than that, but it’s still worth it.)

2. Simple interactive content

Once you’veset up the use of rollover effects for the first time, it makes it possible to put some simple interactive content into web pages or posts in a class blog. Here’s a few examples:

Flashcards:

I’m going to ask Y10 to make some of these for the perimeter/area/volume formulae that they need to learn for their exam in January.

Revision prompts:

Giving information or clues:

Any more suggestions?

Doug created an archive of the tweets using Twapperkeeper, which is great,  but it’s not likely to reach teachers that aren’t already [...]]]> What happened when Doug Belshaw asked educators to share hints and tips using Twitter and the #movemeon hashtag?  Lots of people joined in to share their ideas and create a really interesting crowd-sourced resource.

Doug created an archive of the tweets using Twapperkeeper, which is great,  but it’s not likely to reach teachers that aren’t already using Twitter. So he made a book as well. Brilliant.

This isn’t just for new or trainee teachers, we’re all learners, I’m sure everyone can find something in here to make them think  ‘I’ve got to try that’, or ‘I used to do that – why did I stop?’

I have to say that Doug and Stuart Ridout have done a fantastic job with the book. Best of all, the e-book is free, so what are you waiting for? Go and download one.

I’ll definitely be sharing copies at school next term.

PDF/ebook (free download): http://bit.ly/movemeonpdf

Book (at cost price): http://bit.ly/movemeonbook

Badges to promote the book are at: http://bit.ly/movemeonbadges
(no need for CC attribution, etc.)

All the photos are taken in Sheffield; I’ve found that pictures of our local area always go down [...]]]> I really like using photos as a starting point to get my students talking about maths. I used this slideshow [PowerPoint] with Y7 to get them talking about parallel and perpendicular lines.

All the photos are taken in Sheffield; I’ve found that pictures of our local area always go down well. We had a bit of fun guessing where the photo on slide 5 was taken, before I revealed the next slide, which gave it away.

At this point one student got very excited and started asking me if I had seen ‘that new building called the Cheese Grater‘. Funny you should say that…” I replied, as the aptly nicknamed Cheese Grater appeared next. (Personally I think it looks like a Borg cube, but who am I to fly in the face of popular opinion?)

Another one of my students had an interesting question: “Miss, if we got a really big, massive piece of cheese, do you think it would work?”  Brilliant idea! We’re writing to Brainiac to ask if they’ll try. Do you think they’ll take us up on it?

Unfortunately, my planned trip there last week was something of [...]]]> The museum in Weston Park, Sheffield is an interesting place to visit, with exhibits that cover a wide range of subjects – the museum describes itself as being a place to “explore the world and its past, from millions of years ago to the present day”.

Unfortunately, my planned trip there last week was something of an epic FAIL. We were supposed to be trying out a STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Maths) trail that I’ve written, but alas, as a result of good old circumstances beyond our control our trip was cancelled.

In view of the fact that this was the best school trip that I’ve never been on, I thought I’d blog it anyway! (On a less flippant note, other teachers at my school are going to use this trail, and I have to put the teacher notes somewhere, so here they are.)

The STEM trail is intended to encourage students to explore Weston Park Museum and learn from some of the displays, but it could easily be adapted to suit other locations or projects.

The trail [Publisher file] [pdf] (uses three sections of the museum [map]:

• The Big Bug Show, which is located in the Harold Cantor Gallery (until 21st February 2010, at which point I will have to update the trail)
• Arctic World
• What on Earth

Teacher Notes

There are six sections to the trail:

1. Who rules the world?
STEM subject links: science (biology – minibeasts), maths (scales and enlargements)
Wider learning: reading for information, creativity
Notes: This section is based on The Big Bug Show, which runs until February 2010. Students learn about bugs, insects and minibeasts; they then use what they have learned to design a ’super bug’ that will star in a movie.

2. Could you live in a freezer?
STEM subject links: technology (materials), maths (negative numbers)
Wider learning: problem solving, learning about other cultures
Notes: This is based on the Arctic World exhibits. Students will compare the lives of modern-day Arctic dwellers with those of the people who lived there 50 years ago. The emphasis is on the changes made possible by the arrival of new technologies and materials.

3. How wild is Sheffield?
STEM subject links: science (biology, ecology), maths (statistical diagrams)
Wider learning: observation skills, sorting and classifying, possibility for follow-up research
Notes: This section is part of the What on Earth exhibition. Students will find out about species that live in Sheffield’s woodlands and then consider which of these might also be encountered in urban gardens.

4. Would you drink water that has passed through someone else’s body?
STEM subject links: science (water cycle)
Wider learning: reading for information, explaining ideas using words and diagrams
Notes: The What on Earth exhibition includes a display about the water cycle. Students will need to think about how water cycles through the system and then add explanatory notes/labels/drawings to a diagram that they have been given.

5. Who would win the Animal Olympics?
STEM subject links: science (biology), maths (scaling and enlargement, measurements using metric units, comparing numbers)
Wider learning: using data to support an argument, research skills, reading for information
Notes: The What on Earth section includes an area that explores how strong different species are. Unfortunately the fabulously bizarre ‘Push the Poo’ exhibit didn’t seem to be working when I visited! Students will need to consider which species would win various events at the ‘Animal Olympics’ using information is in the main display and the materials in the binder marked ‘Learn More’. The answers are somewhat subjective, so students should support their answer with some data.

6. Who lives in your house?
STEM subject links: technology (food), science (biology)
Wider learning: opportunities for further research, importance of hygiene, correct food storage etc
Notes: NB: There are two display kitchens at the museum, so there is real potential for confusion here! The correct one is in the ‘Close to Home’ section, which is part of the ‘What on Earth’ exhibition.
Students will explore the kitchen. Opening the cupboards and looking inside the storage jars and bread bins will reveal a variety of unwelcome house guests: from mould and flour weevils to a hamster and a corn snake! Students will add labels to the diagram that they have been given.

Running the trail:

1. Make sure that each student has a copy of the booklet and a pen or pencil. Ask them to write their name on the cover of their booklet.
2. Draw their attention to the ‘Trail Guide’ section at the bottom of each page. Explain that will need to use these clues to find their way around the museum.
3. Make the students aware that the ‘Puzzle It Out’ sections will require a bit of thinking – they will have to work out the answers for themselves. The  ‘Find Out’ sections can be done once they get back to school.
4. Make sure students are in groups of two or three. It will probably be helpful if they don’t all start on the same section!
5. Make sure that they know how long they have to complete the trail. (We are aiming to do it in an hour, but since my test run was cancelled, I’m not sure if that’s ideal.)
6. Once they have set off, you should simply need to monitor and encourage.

Back at school:
There are opportunities for follow-up work, some are identified in the ‘Find Out’ sections. Students could also produce work for display based on a section of the trail, or create a presentation to show something they have learned.

Copyright

The STEM Trail at Museum Sheffield Weston Park by Lois Lindemann is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. Basically you are free to copy and remix it as you please, as long as  it’s not for profit and any copies or remixes are shared on the same basis. Please note that I do not hold the copyright on the two photos in the ‘Could you live in a freezer?’ section (pages 4 and 5). The owners have been acknowledged and have very kindly given permission for me to use these photos.

Useful links:
Download the trail: as a Publisher file or as a pdf file (If anyone knows a way to share files created with MS Publisher in a more open format, please let me know.)
The Museum Sheffield Weston Park website

If anyone uses this trail and has any feedback or suggestions, please let me know in the comments. I’ll be happy to hear from you.

I’ve wanted to go to a Teachmeet for ages, but somehow other things kept getting in the way. Last Friday, I finally made it.

(If you are thinking, ‘What’s a Teachmeet?’ then click here)

A few friends and colleagues clearly thought I was a bit mad (You’re driving to Manchester? The rain! On a Friday? The [...]]]>

I’ve wanted to go to a Teachmeet for ages, but somehow other things kept getting in the way. Last Friday, I finally made it.

(If you are thinking, ‘What’s a Teachmeet?’ then click here)

A few friends and colleagues clearly thought I was a bit mad (You’re driving to Manchester? The rain! On a Friday? The traffic!), some others thought I was a lot mad (You’re meeting people from the Internet?), but I was really looking forward to my very first Teachmeet. I wasn’t disappointed.

I went armed with laptop, netbook and dongle, but a long day, followed by a long drive (‘they’ were right about the traffic – and the rain) left me feeling a bit tired. A couple of hours looking at a screen didn’t appeal – not even if it was attached to one of the super cool Macbooks that we were encouraged to borrow. It was the low-tech option of notepad and pen for me. Here’s my slightly-belated notes from the evening, with a few musings about some of the ideas I was left with:

[nb. Anything in italics is my own ramblings/commentary - if it's wrong, it's my fault, not any fault of the presenters!]

21st Century Classroom

Katherine Howard introduced us to some of the work done at our venue for the evening, the BBC’s 21st Century Classroom in Salford. It was a fantastic venue for a Teachmeet, with some really interesting student and teacher workshops on offer. (It sounds like these fill up quickly – especially the student ones. Book early!) Katherine showed us lots of examples of projects that the 21st Century Classroom had organised and hosted.

Boolify

John Sutton gave us a demo of boolify.org, a site that allows you to build up Boolean searches like a jigsaw. Very nice for teaching students about web searches, but there are a couple of disadvantages: it doesn’t work too well with older versions of Internet Explorer (<IE6) and there are no quotes (yet) so “World War II” becomes World + War + II.

It’s a great looking site which I’ll definitely use, but the lack of quotes seems like quite a big drawback to me. Teaching students the difference between using AND and searching for an exact phrase is important. Hope they address that soon.

Google Wave

Dan Stucke gave us a quick demo of the much hyped (but still rather exclusive) Wave.  He started with text, which appeared letter by letter as he typed – something that everyone participating in the wave can see. He showed how easy it is to add maps, pictures and so on. Dan also demonstrated how things get very messy very quickly. There were a few ‘Oohs’ when we discovered that it’s possible to edit other people’s words.

Dan recommended a YouTube video (about an hour long!), not sure if it’s this one, but it seems to fit the description. [By the time I write this, it's this rather shorter video that seems to be the one that is currently doing the rounds.]

I’m still undecided about this. I can see that Wave has real potential, it’s a much richer environment than, say, Twitter, with the maps, photos and other media all integrated, but I’m not won over (yet). I can see that real-time typing can remove the stilted nature of IM/Twitter conversations, but personally I’m uncomfortable with the idea of people seeing what I’m typing in real time. I like to think, reflect and often redraft. Text doesn’t convey tone the way voice does, so I tend to weigh my words with care. Maybe I’m just over-cautious. I’m rather alarmed at the idea that other people could edit my words – without it being clear that they have done this! However, since I’m not yet invited to the Google Wave party, my concerns are academic, so I’ll take the wait and see option.

Games Based Learning

Tom Sale presented lots of great ideas that he has used to motivate and inspire his students:

• Using Samarost 2 as a stimulus for creative writing. [nb: Chapter 1 is free, the full version costs $5. There are some Google ads, at least on the free version] It tells the story of some aliens who visit a planet and leave with the inhabitants’ dog. An adventure to rescue the dog ensues. It’s very nicely animated and can be used as the basis for descriptive or imaginative writing.
• A new version is expected soon, there is also Samarost 1, but this contains characters smoking hookahs, so might not be suitable for use in school!
• tutpup is used for maths and spelling, students compete against others from their own school or from around the world. Teachers register a class code, then students register as an animal, colour and number. No personal data or chat so is secure. There are lots of rewards: a hall of fame/medals/badges. It’s also useful for assessment, eg can easily see which students have mastered number bonds to 10.
• Talked about his school’s use of 15 DS Lites. Brain Training has proved popular. Picture chat has worked well with those who don’t like to put their hands up, although Tom would like to move away from pictures and txt speak over time. Dawn Hallybone has provided some advice and support – is a Teachers TV video featuring her that’s worth watching.
• iamlearning.co.uk [subscription required] asks students to practise skills in the context of a game. Lots of different games eg football based.
• One from the audience – Tom Barrett [proclaimed King of Teachmeets by Mr K - I can't disagree!] was in the Flashmeeting and suggested www.mangahigh.com

Keep track of future developments at http://meresideblog.wordpress.com/

I tried using Manga High with Y6 on my weekly visit to primary school. They loved it, to the point that we had difficulty prising them off the PCs at playtime – especially the boys. Tutpup is next on the things to try list.

Geovisitor Widget

Peter Rafferty demonstrated the Geovisitors widget on his school blog. He talked about the way they had used it to show where visitors had come from – often being able to show an actual house. Spooky! Not as spooky as the visit from Southport beach when the tide was in though. [Mind you, when I tried it from home in Sheffield, my location showed up as being in the sea off Hove. I guess locations aren't always accurate!]

Blogging in Primary Schools

James Maloney talked about his school’s blog (hawes-side.org.uk). Blog used in lots of ways. Children were involved in blogging, at first through the creation of a news team. e-safety issues addressed – a password protected page was used, children were told ‘never look at the SPAM queue’ – and they didn’t.

The blog has been a real success with 44K visits in 1.5 years! Next step – using a campus on Edublogs to run unlimited blogs. Children’s blogs will be monitored.

Sadly we didn’t get to see the nice Prezi for this presentation (Prezi.com is blocked at the 21st Century Classroom), but you can find it here.

Wallwisher

Steve Kirkpatrick demonstrated Wallwisher.com (nb site doesn’t run well on older versions of IE – needs IE8). It’s basically a set of post it notes that Steve used a s a ‘learning wall’. Steve talked about using it to introduce a topic on dinosaurs, asking students what they thought they would learn. See more on his blog.

I like this and really want to try using it. One room that I teach in is a converted corridor with no projector, just a distant whiteboard, I can see that this site could be particularly valuable in that environment. I need to find out more about making it ’secure’ though, my school will almost certainly block it if we get undesirable post its from people outside the classroom!

Google Forms

Dan Stucke talked about a lesson he did when interviewed for his current post. He used Google forms to set up a survey and asked his network to complete it. Students were hooked by the sudden appearance of their own data. Once exotic locations from around the world started to appear there were oohs and ahs! Forms and data were used to generate discussion about quality of questions etc.

One disadvantage – pupils can put rude words in and there’s no way of checking who it was.

Forms are also good for pupil surveys.

Read more – Dan’s original post about using this in his interview lesson is here, his post about the presentation is here.

I’ve always felt that teaching students about questionnaire design is one of my weak spots. I’ve tried various approaches over the years, but I’ve never really felt that the students have ended up with anything other than a superficial understanding. I’ll definitely be trying something like this next time.

Developing a Transformational Learning Test Bed

Daniel Gould talked about developing a transformational learning test bed. His school is moving into a ‘radical’ new building [which seems to be just a set of boxy classrooms] and is considering how to use the space. They have involved the children and asked them what they want.

The space that they have developed includes flexibility in the form of breakout areas (both indoors and out), an outdoor plasma screen (in a very secure case) and an absolutely enormous SMARTboard made by mounting two boards next to each other.

Mapwing

John Sutton showed us Mapwing, a tool for creating a virtual tour. On the right is a map or plan – or anything else you care to use, with a series of red dots. Click on the red dots and images appear on the left. The idea is to create a virtual tour, but there were lots of other possibilities already occurring to me: a treasure hunt, a virtual maths trail, a guidebook of Paris….

John showed us some examples from aintreedavenhill.net [beware - loud music! - just click the next link to bypass the musical homepage and see the tour ->] (this one was a virtual tour of the school) and yearsix.horltonparkblogs.net (a virtual tour of Europe, with PowerPoint slides for each country created by students).

Mapwings can be embedded or on a page at the Mapwing site. The images can contain hyperlinks to other sites and pictures.

John suggested that a family tree could be placed on the right hand side (eg Henry VIII and his six wives) with the red dots linking to slides about the various people.

There is a free version, but once created, the Mapwings can’t be edited. There’s also a premium account which allows editing.

I’ve been looking for something like this to create a virtual maths trail. Perfect! It’s also just what I need for a tour of the maths department on our fledgling e-portal. Then there’s our planned trip to Paris, which is crying out for a guidebook. Think I’m going to be busy.

Myths and Legends

Steve Kirkpatrick returned to show us myths.e2bn.org. Features include a myth map showing myths and legends from around the world. It is also possible to create your own story using images on the site or by importing your own.Great for digital story telling – or writing a story book.

Mind Mapping Teacher Tools

Steve Kirkpatrick then presented a mind mapping tool (www.mind42.com) that he is using to create a resource showing stuff that’s useful for teachers – with links to more information.

Email Steve (mrkp @ mrkp.org.uk – but obviously without the spaces) to collaborate.

Santa Chat

Dughall McCormick is Santa! He offers local primary schools the opportunity to video conference with Santa. He dresses up, stands in front of a suitably snowy scene, hooks up the video link and answers their questions. Brilliant!

e-learning with nursery and reception

Sallie Lumb from Netherthong School in Kirklees showed us the VLE she is using with the youngest children in the foundation stage. It’s really child friendly with an easy interface and the ability to draw messages. The VLE is provided by dbeducation (also known as digitalbrain). It looks like a brilliant platform for young learners.

Wordle

Samantha Lunn outlined lots of interesting ways to use Wordle:

• To introduce a topic
• To compare two or more texts
• To teach students how to do a presentation without a script
• To encourage students to vary their vocabulary (a comment was made about ’said’ appearing in large letters when students analyse their own creative writing)

See the presentation here on Samantha’s blog, or read about 23 ways to use Wordle in the MFL classroom.

I’m going to try producing a Wordle from the syllabus before my Y10 class start revising for their next module exam in January. It will be interesting to see how that comes out.

Simple Science

Tom Sale returned to the podium to introduce us to www.simplescience.net. It’s aimed at KS2 science and covers the QCA units for KS2.

Each section is split in two: the science and the song. The songs are designed to help children remember the key points from the science. They are very catchy and Tom told us that his students enjoy singing them.

It’s a great site, but (how can I put this tactfully?) the songs could drive me a bit mad. I’m still going to recommend it to the science department though.

Etherpad

Steve Kirkpatrick told us about how he had used Etherpad. It is an online collaborative writing tool (in fact by this point, several people at the Teachmeet had started an Etherpad and were using it as a backchannel).

Up to 8 people can write at once; each person’s contribution is highlighted in a different colour, so it easy to see who wrote what. There is a chat window at the side, also colour coded. There is a time slider that can be used to see how the writing developed over time.

Steve played an animated Batman clip from YouTube, students were split into groups and asked to describe short sections of the clip (it’s only one minute long). The clip is full of action and vivid imagery, so it’s an ideal stimulus for descriptive writing.

The students collaborated on Etherpad to produce the written work. The teacher can enter the Etherpad and check/correct work – with their contribution clearly highlighted.

Issues:

• Need to check that Etherpad actually works – some firewalls block it.
• The pads are public, so in theory anyone can enter the discussion.
• It is possible to run this from your own server – but there is a cost.
• Can have groups on a private pad, but only free for up to three users.

Read more on Steve’s blog here.

Using audio in the MFL classroom

Isabelle Jones talked about creating audio in/for the MFL classroom. She had lots of ideas, including:

• Encouraging staff/students to start by using headsets and the recording function in PowerPoint
• Moving on to use Audacity with digital recorders/Easi-Speak microphones
• Sending recordings to students’ mobile phones via Bluetooth – then they can listen to a variety of voices and accents
• Using Voki.com to read text – this can be a bit ‘robotic’ but does allow choice of accents and for students to hear pronunciation
• Using Odiogo.com to create podcasts by converting text – eg blog posts – to audio

You can find Isabelle’s presentation here on her blog.

As a maths teacher, I’m really interested in the idea of converting text to audio – this could really benefit weaker readers.

In my capacity as a student, I will be definitely be trying some of these ideas – I think they could really help me with my French course, especially since I’ve signed up for modules that concentrate on spoken French this year.

Animoto

Super-presenter Steve Kirkpatrick returned to the podium again to demonstrate animoto.com

He showed us a section from his school’s Y6 leavers presentation. It looked really professional, see it for yourself here.

Nice – I’ll be playing with this one!

Scratch

Simon Haughton demonstrated Scratch, an amazingly powerful tool that is free to download. The first thing I wrote down was ‘like LOGO’, but actually it does a lot more than any version of Logo that I’ve ever encountered. Simon showed us a series of photos as a slide show:

• Character can be moved around the screen, experiment with commands
• Character can be changed to own drawings
• Can make it respond to arrow keys
• Designing an Etch A Sketch game
• Asking students to change the picture to a car, draw a track and drive the car along it
• Asking students to design their own challenge, eg a bee flying to a flower, a spaceship travelling to a planet
• Putting a timer on screen for more confident children
• Using keyboard buttons to control speed
• Making a Pacman style game in an IT club

See all of Simon’s Teachmeet NW links here, on delicious.

I know what I’ll be experimenting with at half term. Logo type programming can be a bit dry, but this looks like huge fun. Designing Pacman games would be a great activity for our STEM club, especially since they could download Scratch at home.

Spezify – and Screenr

Dai Barnes demonstrated two tools at once as he presented via the Flashmeeting: he used Screenr to create the presentation, but told us about Spezify.com.

Spezify allows the results of a web search to be displayed graphically: pictures, photos and snippets of web pages appear. Of course some of these may not be suitable for school – Dai uses this as a teaching point and discusses what should/shouldn’t be clicked on, but obviously teachers should do the search and check the results before they use Spezify with a class!

Write Rhymes

Tom Barrett recommended writerhymes.com, which does what its name suggests: finds rhymes for use in writing.

Inanimate Alice

Steve Kirkpatrick rounded off the proceedings by telling us about inanimatealice.com. Really good for digital storytelling, students can discuss what is happening, predict what will happen next, talk about the images or discuss the choice of music. They may even be inspired to create a story of their own.

From the coffee break conversations:

There was some talk about how difficult it is to recognise people from their online avatars, especially when the avatar is a cartoon (oh dear, I’m guilty as charged) , or disguised.

There was lots of interest in John Sutton’s blog hosting packages. Edublogs has a rival!

Other links:

The fruit machine name picker is at http://classtools.net/education-games-php/fruit_machine/

Re-live Teachmeet North West on the Flashmeeting: http://flashmeeting.e2bn.net/fm/ee2a9f-7274

Teachmeet Northwest’s wiki: http://www.teachmeetnw.pbworks.com

Tim and Moby from brainpop.co.uk explain what a Teachmeet is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlSQYSnPUQY

Find out about other Teachmeets: http://teachmeet.pbworks.com

Some debate about widening the audience at Dan Stucke’s blog: http://www.mrstucke.com/2009/10/04/teachmeet-north-west-expanding-the-audience/

…and finally, some random thoughts:

I dithered for ages about whether to offer to present something, but in the end I merely lurked. I need to change that next time – the whole point of this was to exchange ideas. Bit of a one way process in my case.

The only downside to the evening was that the planned Teacheat didn’t happen, but since that was largely down to the fact that as a group we failed to make a decision about where to go, I can’t complain! Still, it’s a good job I didn’t encounter any passing horses before I tracked down some food, I was hungry enough to put them in some danger…

Well, that was possibly my longest ever blog post – you can see why it took a while to appear. If you made it this far – I’m amazed! Right, now I’m off to try some of those ideas.

I wanted them to