OllieBray.com

Magic Moments #25 - Intel Teach Advanced Online: Outdoor Learning

Through my work with Intel Education I've had the chance to meet a lot of teachers from all over Europe (and beyond) and we really have worked on some good projects over the years.

About a year ago my morning commute for Intel was a little shorter than normal and it was a real privilege to invite a group of European Teachers to the Cairngorms National Park where I had a chance to deliver the Intel Teach: Advanced Online Course with a focus on Outdoor Learning. It has become the first of many 'Kingussie Conferences'.

Based from Aviemore, we welcomed teachers to Scotland from England, Sweden, Spain, Jordan, Bulgaria, Israel, Romania, Poland, Czech Republic, Turkey and Russia. We ran the theory sessions from the MacDonald Highland Resort and the practical sessions at the Highland Folk Museum, Cairngorm Mountain and at the Highland Wildlife Park. Lots of things were discussed over the three days of training including:

• Using technology to prepare for outdoor learning opportunities;
• Using technology during outdoor learning opportunities; and
• Using technology to evaluate outdoor opportunities.

We talked GPS, Geocaching, Educaching, Mobile Apps, Digital Maps and lots of Google Earth. But most of all we talked a lot about teaching and learning and our common challenges with student engagement and school improvement across Europe. 

Short write up from one of the Russia participants here.

 

Journey Into the Arctic: a YouTube Interactive Mystery

A few years ago a did a presentation / thought piece at Creative Scotland's Media Literacy Conference on Multimodal Learning. At the end of my input I demonstrated (amongst other things) YouTubes capacity to be interactive and to link to other YouTube Videos during or at the end of a video. It was a fairly new feature at the time (back in 2011) and I suggested that it might be nice for schools to use the feature to create some interactive storytelling or multimodal mysteries. 

I still think there is a lot of potential for this but I was reminded of it recently when I saw Canadian Herritage's project titled 'Journey Into the Arctic'.

Journey Into the Arctic is an adventure (set in YouTube) in which you play an explorer on a mission to find the Northwest Passage. Just like a classic mystery book you have to make decisions at the end of each short video (chapter) on how the story unfolds and to help you reach your final goal.

Lots of potential with this - not just as an education resource in its own right but also as an inspiration to create your own YouTube multimodal mysteries stories.

Alastair Humphreys: In Search Of Adventure [Video] @Al_Humphreys

Cartier/T Brand Studio | In Search Of Adventure from Spindle on Vimeo.

Lovely little video from  that explores the lure of adventure and what draws Alistair to seek out challenges in the world’s wildest places. It is beautifully shot in Iceland and includes some good drone footage as with some lovely narrative.

Certainly worth two minutes of your time.

Cycling in the Western Isles

 

Summer seems to have missed Scotland this year!

But, last week we managed to avoid the showers (well most of them...) and get away on a short cycle expedition to the Western Isles. The weather was pretty kind to us and we had a favourable tail wind for most of the journey which helped us haul the panniers up some of the steep hills.

We cycled from Kingussie to Ballachulish and then from Ballachulish to Oban where we got the ferry to Barra. From Barra we caught another ferry to Eriskay before cycling up though South Uist, Benbecula and North Uist. Another Ferry took us to Harris where we took the 'Golden Road' along the west coast to Tarbert and up into Lewis. Harris was my favourite part of the cycle trip as the road was challenging with stunning scenery. We ended up in Stornoway where we caught the ferry back to Ullapool and cycled home. The whole trip took us six days door-to-door.

Louise made a nice map of our route using Google MyMaps.

I was impressed with the Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac) Hopscotch Ferry Deal which was only £37.60 for all the ferries in the island chain. Bike also go free and everyone that we met seemed to be very cycle friendly.

I wonder if the trip might make a good DofE Gold route?

The book Cycling in the Hebrides: Island Touring and Day Rides (Cicerone Guides) is worth getting if your thinking of heading out that way.