OllieBray.com

21st Century Teaching Tools: South Lanarkshire

 

Last Wednesday evening nearly 100 South Lanarkshire teachers turned out to hear me talk about 21st Century Learning Tools. Jaye Richards did an excellent 15 minute job of warming up the audience with a great thought piece and the whole evening was organized by Andrea Reid (who is now on Twitter).

Here are most of the slides that I refered to during the presenation:

21st Century Teaching Tools

View more presentations from olliebray.

I also referred to the following links:

1. The use of ICT

Generators

Use generators to liven up your lessons and to set learning / home learning objectives in a more creative way. Some good examples include:

• Fodey – Includes the famous wizard text and the newspaper generator

• Wordle – Turn paragraphs of text into beautiful work clouds (try it with your exam syllabus departmental development plan or anything else you can think of!)

• Smoke Signal Generator - Make smoke signals come out of your location.

2. 21st Century Students

21st century students are a new bread of student. They exist in a high tech, multimedia and glamorized world. We need to be prepared for this in our classrooms.

Tips:

• Think about your own on-line presence (social networking, ex-directory in the phonebook, be carful what you post etc…)

• Make sure you know what resources your students have at home. For example how many of them have a computer with Internet access? How many have the capacity to play an mp3 file? How many have a games consol? If you don’t know this information how will you set appropriate and imaginative home learning tasks and get a real understanding of prior learning?

• Knowing your students also means you can set appropriate assessment tasks.

3. The Basic Tools

Search

Tips and good search engines:

• Use the Advanced Google Search – remember you can use this to get specific file type returns such as just PowerPoint or shockwave flash (animation) files.

• Quintura provides a really good visual search – excellent to use with children on project work.

• Google News

  – searches the most up-to-date news web sites

Images

• Don't forget Advanced Google Image Search

• Flickr

  can often provide really good and powerful images that can be used in education without breach of copyright.

• BigHugeLabs lets you do all sorts of things with images such as make motivational posters.

• The BBC Day in Pictures – great starter or discussion activity.

• The BBC 3 minute news bulletin – children like to watch the news if you give them the chance!

3. The audience tools

Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, podcasts and wikis allow you to quickly publish information to the Internet. Most importantly they can be used as an alternative to traditional assessment and give the children a real sense of audience. Use these tools to make your own World Wide Wall Display.

Some Good Blogging Tools include wordpress, blogger and typepad.

Audacity is a free audio editing piece of software that will also w you to edit voice and audio recordings. It is also available as a Portable App – which means you can run it off a memory stick.

Think about getting your students to write Wikipedia articles.

CANVAS (Children’s Art in the Virtual Arena of Scotland) – A new LTS project. More information here.

5. The Creative Tools

Comic Brush – On-line comic book creator (a bit like Comic Life – but free!)

Pixton – Sophisticated on-line comic book creator

Go Animate – Robust on-line combined on-line / animation software

6. Cross Curricular Tools

Google Earth – Watch my 15 minute mini-note from Teachmeet NorthEast on how to use Google Earth in the Classroom here.


7. EDUtainment (learning through play)

Good case studies of games based learning available on the LTS Consolarium website:
here are some examples of web based games that can be used for home learning:

• Classic Sim City – Useful for teaching about towns, cities and settlement.
• Ordnance Survey Map Games – Good for homework.
• Fantasy Famer – Manage a farm for a year
• Stop Disasters Simulator – Can you protect the world against floods, volcanoes, earthquakes and other nasty stuff?
• Sim Sweat Shop – What is it really like working in a sweat shop in a less economically developed country?
• An idea for setting web based games for homework activities

8. ICT Strategy

• Your school must have an ICT strategy. This is not the same as an ICT policy.

9. Don't stop learning

The future of CPD is on-line:

• Find CPD opertunities using CPD Find

• Record your CPD using CPD reflect

• Download CPD from LTS iTunes U

• Take part in a CPD event in GLOW (eg: Glowing Thursday’s?)

Develop your personal learning network by finding out more about:

• Teachers TV – good classroom and professional development resources

• Slideshare – A place to up-load and view PowerPoint and other presentations

• Microsoft Innovative Teachers Network – join and collaborate with teachers globally

• Twitter –

  A micro blogging service. You can follow me here.

10. Finally

Please leave any comments and feedback from the presentation below.

Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (Nintendo DS)

A couple of weeks ago a pre-ordered my copy of Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box for the Nintendo DS. I really enjoyed the first game (professor Layton and the Curious Village) which came out last Christmas. At the time I commented on the huge educational potential of such a resource.

Since the games release the LTS Consolarium has supported a number of Professor Layton projects and by all accounts the children involved seem to have had a great time and have been learning loads.

Recently Learning and Teaching Scotland seconded a new development officer for Games Based Learning in the form of Brian McLaren (from Clackmannan Primary School). Brian’s been doing a lot of work with Professor Layton and if your interested in hear more about how this game can be used in the classroom then you can see Brian present his case study at the 2009 Scottish Learning Festival and also at this years Handheld Learning event.

Lets hope that the second title in the Professor Layton series has as much education potential as the first!

Video clip of the game below (You Tube Video):

Handheld Learning Conference – October 2009

In October 2008 I was lucky enough to attend and present at the Handheld Learning (HHL08) Conference in London. My presentation was on Computer Games Based Learning in Secondary Schools.

The presentation seemed to be well received and I have since repeated an up-dated version of the presentation at the NAACE 2009 Strategic Conference. If this is something your interested in I will also be presenting on the same topic at the 2009 Scottish Learning Festival (SLF) and at BETT 2010.

Anyway, this years Handheld Learning Conference is fast approaching and the programme of speakers seems to get more an and more interesting by the day. I’ll be contributing to the Spotlight Scotland Session (supported by Learning and Teaching Scotland) on the Wednesday and I will also be delivering a session on Social Media in schools strand on the Tuesday afternoon.

Here is a brief outline of my two sessions:

Leading the change: social media in schools.

Tuesday 6th October at approximately 15.00h

"Social media is rapidly changing the way that we communicate, shop, live, do business and learn - but many schools still haven’t really harnessed the power of social media to improved their learning environments.

This seminar will examine examples of how social media have been used in classrooms and by school leaders to make their institutes become more productive, open and engaging for their learners? It will suggest tools that can be used by education professionals to help publicise their schools, increase audience for student achievement, contribute to staff professional development and make significant efficiency savings.

In addition the presentation will attempt to define exactly what we mean by social media. After all, until we understand exactly what social media in education is how will we ever promote wide scale, sustainable adoption supported by appropriate strategy?"



Web Tools for Teachers: how Scottish schools are making the most of free web based resources to communicate, collaborate and learn.

Wednesday 7th October at approximately 12.30h

"This presentation will showcase some of the exciting work that has been going on in a number of Scottish Schools who have been making the most of free web based resources.

During the 30-minute session you will be shown examples of innovative practice from a variety of curriculum areas in both the primary and secondary setting. Examples will include on-line comic books, animation, collaborative documents, 3D modeling, web-based games and the creative use of web 2.0 technologies.

Importantly, any of the resources mentioned will be able to be replicated in your own school or education authority."


More information about this years Handheld Learning event can be found here.

Everything's good, nobody's happy...

Most Scottish teachers have now been back to work for a week. We are lucky in Scotland to have a well-trained and motivated teaching profession. But, just like any organization or business you always get at least one person who is never quite happy!

Try showing them this clip (You Tube Video below) at your Friday morning staff briefing!

Smarta: 60 Second Start Up - BrainPop UK

Chris Bradford is COO of the Brainpop UK Team he is a man with over 10, 000 pens and lots of creative ideas. Recently Chris was interviewed by Smarta: Thing, create, grow in nice little 60 second interview. Chris also mentions our Guitar Hero project in the final few seconds of his interview.

Before I was directed to the article I had never heard of Smarta before but its 60 second interview ideas seems like a great way to find out more about UK start ups.

The website also contains a wealth of information, advice and interviews for small business. There is even a section on how to do the killer pitch or presentation. This website and the resources within would be a great resource for anyone teaching business education or enterprise in schools.

BrainPop UK will be supporting Teachmeet SLF 09 - have you booked your place yet?

Teachmeet SLF09: Scottish Learning Festival 2009 – Up-Date

The Scottish Learning Festival is fast approaching and with it comes Teachmeet SLF09. As with all Teachmeet events this is an event organized by teachers for teachers.

This year the event will take place at the BBC Scotland Building just over the road from the SECC. I met with @clara_mac yesterdsay morning to sort out some of the final arrangements for accommodation, break out space and wifi.

If you have not been to a teachmeet before, anyone is welcome (but you do have to sign up). We ask for people to put their names forward to give a 7 or 2 minute presentation on something that they have done in their school or classroom. Speakers are picked at random using a giant fruit machine and there is absolutely no guarantee at all that you will get to speak.

Emphasis is on openness, professional dialogue, swapping ideas and sharing good practice. Importantly,  Teachmeets are about learning in a fun way and supporting your professional learning network. Everyone who attends is expected to contribute something - even if it is sharing your favorite website with the person sat next to you.

You can find out more about Teachmeet past and future events over on the Teachmeet Community Wiki.

A successful Teachmeet relies on volunteers to help organize the event and also on sponsors for the venue, AV equipment and refreshments.

So far the BBC has sponsored the venue, the AV equipment and the WiFi (Thank you BBC!), Do-Be Ltd have offered some money towards the wine and BrainPOP UK have had Tim and Moby working on something special for months.

BUT, we still need more sponsorship to cover the cost of the rest of the refreshments and also to help contribute to the TeachEat after the event.

If you are commercial company (or just feeling generous!) and you would like to sponsor Teachmeet please get in touch with me or leave a note about your donation over on the wiki.

Graphic Novels in Education at the Edinburgh Book Festival 2009

I still believe that Graphic Novels and comics have huge potential in the development of literacy skills for young people. I have been absolutely convinced about this since seeing Dr Mel Gibson talk about Graphic Novels in education back in April last year at the National Library of Scotland.

Around the same time I also went to a talk by Garry Erskine and was equally inspired by his work on some the Classical Comic Series (and also Dan Dare!).

Dr Mel is speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on Thursday the 20th of August at 17:00, with her talk entitled Visual Literacy, Learning & Graphic Novels. If you’re a teacher in Scotland and you can’t make it along to the book festival Learning and Teaching Scotland will be broadcasting the presentation live in GLOW meet. For more information on how to join the GLOW group have a look at this post over on the GLOW blog as this promises to be a really inspiring hour about what comics and graphic novels can do for young people.

Gary Erskine is also speaking at the Book Festival on Monday 24th August 2009 at 5.30pm where he will be running a 'How to Draw Comics' class.

If your interested in some of the ways that graphic novels can be used in schools why don’t you have a look at this on-line resource from Learning and Teaching Scotland or click on the ‘Graphic Novels’ category of this website to see some of my previous work and thoughts.

Web 2.0 Emergent Technologies and Innovative Practice Videos

One of JISC’s jobs is to inspire UK colleges and universities in the innovative use of digital technologies. Much of the work of JISC is also directly relevant to schools but many UK school teachers have never heard of the organization and the great work that they do.

One of the latest JISC Projects has been to create a new range of resources (web2practice guides) to explain how emergent web technologies like RSS, microblogging (eg: Twitter) podcasting and social media can enhance your working practice.

Each available guide currently consists of a short animated video explaining the key concepts and is supported by a more in-depth overview of the topic. The overview details potential uses for each technology, possible risks and also explains how you can get started.

Currently the topics covered are:

• Social Media
• RSS
• Collaborative Writing
• Podcasting
• Microblogging

The videos are very high quality and would be excellent as an introduction to a CPD session on any of the topics.

I have embedded the one on collaborative writing below (BLIP TV) so that you can get a feel for this excellent resource.

Is 2009 the year of the Apple Tablet?

It seems that people have been talking about the Apple Tablet for years. I was convinced it was going to come out in January 2007 – which was of course the release of the iPhone. But rumors of such a device have actually been circulating the Internet since at least 2004, including a number of pretty interesting conceptual designs.

The above conceptual design (Apple Collection) from 2004 even suggested that the device would contain a CD ROM Drive. Obviously there is not a chance of this these days when we have access to so much WiFi. Apple has also proved that people don’t need CD/DVD drives with the success of products such as the MacBook Air and also the way they have revolutionized on-line music through their iTunes store.

eBook Reader

I am absolutely convinced that a device has been developed and that it will build on the success of the iPod Touch / iPhone. I am also convinced that Apple will start to use the iTunes store to sell a range of eBooks and that the device will rival other ebook readers out there (such as the Amazon Kindle).

Basic eBook readers are already available as Apps in the Apple Apps Store and I agree with John Connell that the Eucalyptus is one of the best ones on the current market. Its likely, of course, that any new device will have a custom eBook reader built into the OS, developed specifically by Apple. An eBook reader of this type could be a real game changer in terms of educational publishing – we have already seen Course Smart education textbooks appearing iPhone / iPod Touch platform. Them might seem quite limiting on such a small screen but this is a company that is just waiting for the next device to come along. I wonder if UK publishers have started to think about this yet?

Connectivity

Any tablet will have connectivity and I hope that this will include optional 3G connectivity as well as WiFi. With the first live music event being streamed directly to the iPhone just a couple of weeks ago and Livestation quietly launching their first mobile application to stream live content (Al Jazeera World News) a bigger device surely has the possibility to re-invent how we interact with television and new digital media. I don’t think it will be long until you can subscribe or buy access to live events through the iTunes store. In the same way that you can currently rent films for a short period of time.

I think that there is also a possibility that the tablet device will be able to download and cache web pages (via RSS) so they can be read off line. The Amazon Kindle already does this with the New York Times. But I suspect Apple’s version will allow you access to a lot more traditional and un-traditional media sources off line and they will also be in colour.

So what will it look like?

Unlike the first tablet PC’s I think it is unlikely that the Apple tablet will have a stylus. The problem with multi-touch of course is that it relies on your figures to make it work and if your wearing gloves they are almost impossible to operate. But we also know that Apple have already thought if that. Battery life is likely to be a problem. I think Apple will go for a non-removable battery (like the new MacBooks) rather than the option to be able to change to a new battery.

All the rumors suggest that such a device will be about 10inches  and look a bit like a big iPod Touch. I’m not sure about this and think that any Apple tablet will look and feel like a completely new device. Although I did like this conceptual design over on the Gizmodo site.

Here’s also a nice little YouTube video:


Release date?

So when will we see the Apple Tablet appearing in our shops? This question is still up for debate and it may never appear at all. Rumors have been flying around that we might see a September launch for this new product? Traditionally, September has have been iPod an iPod launch time for Apple and I think its more likely that we will see a new range of iPods being launched in early September. The new range is likely to include additional storage, voice control (like the new shuffle) and of course cameras (including a camera on the Nano).

We may also still see a tablet launched at this time.  But the latest rumours suggest that Apple may keep any device like this for a launch event in 2010. This may be to replace the traditional Keynote that occurs around the time of MacWorld in early 2010 (Apple have pulled out of the MacWorld event and key note).

One thing is for sure. Steve Jobs is likely to do the next be Apple launch event and as he is only recently back to work, you can guarantee he will want to put on an excellent show. So I guess we will just have to wait and see?

Additional special features

Its unlikely that the new tablet will have the same functionality as the proposed Apple iPhone 3Gi :-)

Twitter Learn: Learn French from Twitter (140 characters at a time!)

 

I met up with my award winning friend Mark Pentleton last week for a quick catch up – I actually hadn’t seen Mark since Handheld Learning 2008 when we were both presenting in the Spotlight Scotland Section.

Anyway, Mark is the brains behind the Radio Lingua Network that I think has completely revolutionized language learning via the use of audio and video podcasts. Mark and his small team have now produced podcasts in over 20 languages that form a range of language courses to allow people to learn at anytime and in any place.

Importantly, the lessons provide structure, depth and progression. Much of the material is also free to download and there is also a subscription service.

You can always find Podcasts like Coffee Break French and Coffee Break Spanish near or at the top of the iTunes Education Podcast Store (in a number of countries!).

During out meeting Mark started telling me about one of his summer projects called Twitter Learn. Basically, during the summer holidays you could sign up to Twitter learn in French, Italian and Spanish.

Each day you receive a number of short (140 character) tweets going over the lesson and phrases for the day.

Also each day there is a short (140 second) podcast to accompany the tweets that get sent out. The tweets link to the podcast but you can also subscribe by RSS via iTunes.

I just thought this was a great idea and can’t believe I missed the launch of it while I was away in the summer. I just love this idea of drip-feeding learning is short bite size chucks that in re-enforced by a variety of media.

This type of learning has huge potential for schools. The use of twitter sending short messages to a mobile device makes the learning highly personal and instant for children. The audio content then provides the ability to dip in and out of the learning and offers reinforcement and practice.

Really looking forward to watching this service evolve with time. Well done Mark!