OllieBray.com

The Future of Work

Thanks to Alan Parkinson for pointing out this great PowerPoint presentation on Slideshare to me. It’s along the same sort of lines at ‘did you know?’ and ‘thirst’ – some really interesting facts and figures and would be a useful resource for schools.

The Future Of Work

View more documents from Jeff Brenman.

Sand drawing used to give WWII History Lesson

Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who just won Ukraine's version of "Britain's Got Talent" in August 2009.

She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and "sand painting" skills to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII. Apparently Kseniya started drawing with sand after her business collapsed because of the credit crunch and she had been drawing for less than a year when she entered Ukraine's Got Talent in August.

The video is very impressive and strangely hypnotizing.

As well as it being inspirational to watch it would also make an interesting lesson starter.

(You Tube video below)

2009 UK Innovative Teachers Forum and Awards (plus FREE CPD)

 
Microsoft has announced the 6th Microsoft UK Innovative Teachers Forum, which is to be held on 1 December 2009 at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Birmingham.

This one-day conference is free of charge for all teachers and educators who wish to attend and will look to address the theme of ‘Connecting Learners, Connecting Teachers’.

Keynote speakers include John Davitt and practical workshops will explore the above theme, along with ‘real life’ examples of some of the most innovative use of technology to enhance teaching and learning. If you attend you also get a free copy of John's book.

Registration for the conference is free and is now open.

Innovative Teachers Forum awards

Entries are also now also open for the UK Innovative Teachers Forum Awards. I was a UK innovative Teacher award winner earlier in the year and my success at the UK awards led to my attendance at the European Innovative Teacher Awards in Vienna and on Sunday I fly to Brazil for the world finals. All because I submitted a Virtual classroom tour about this time last year.

So if you you have a learning project that utilises technology and has made a difference in the classroom then why don't you consider entering for an award?

You could be one of the top educators in the UK invited to share your work with delegates at this conference in Birmingham on the 1st December 2009.

This year Innovative Teachers Forum awards will be given in three categories:

1. Microsoft Innovative Teacher Award – sponsored by Microsoft Partners in Learning

2. Innovative Teaching and Learning through a Learning Platform Award – sponsored by Shireland Learning

3. Impact and Improvement Award– sponsored by Specialist Schools and Academies Trust.

Full details of how to enter can be found at www.uk.innovativeteachers.com

The closing date for entries is 15 November 2009.

If you want some help and advice with your Virtual Classroom Tour then please get in touch with me and I will be happy to give you a hand.

It would be really good to see more Scottish teachers involved in these awards. We have some fantastic practice in Scotland and a Glow related project is crying out to win an award in the Learning Platform Category. Last year I was the only entry from Scotland in the UK finals and there were four from Wales and five from England.

Again, please get in touch if you want any tips, support or help.

The Tempest from Classical Comics

I have spoken before about my passion for graphic novels and how I think they are so engaging for encouraging literacy and creativity within young people. There are lots of types of graphic novels that are available for teachers and Learning and Teaching Scotland has published a great graphic novels resource for professionals who might be interested in this subject.

For schools wanting to get into graphic novels you can’t beat the work from Classical Comics. I've written about their Macbeth and Henry V work before and also how it is available electronically for you to use with your class or even add your own speech bubbles!

Anyway, Classical Comics have also just recently released The Tempest as a graphic novel. It is written by William Shakespeare, scripted by John McDonald, penciled by Jon Haward and inked by Gary Erskine. 

As before with all the Classical Comics releases there are three editions:

1. Original text version: Ideal for purists, students and readers who will appreciate the unaltered text.

2. Plain text: The full text made more accessible by the translation into modern English.

3. Quick text: The full play in comic book form, translated into modern English and with less dialogue for a faster paced read.

There are PDFs  available on the Classical Comics website that explain all three available formats in more detail.

According to Gary Erskine’s blog, 'there are more books planned and the future brings other classic authors to the graphic novel treatment soon'. Great Stuff - I can't wait to see what they come up with next!

Tim Rylands – HHL09 and African Safari

(photo: James Clay)

I’ve heard lots about Tim Rylands and have followed his blog for a long time. Tim is the king of education web links, a clearly a talented teacher, fantastic presenter, PowerPoint Jedi and knowledgeable education consultant. I was lucky enough to meet Tim at Handheld Learning 2009 – I just wish we had more time to chat?

Unfortunately I missed his presentation but I did get a chance to watch the re-run on the Handheld Learning Blip TV channel. The main focus of Tim’s presentation was on the work that he has been doing with the Wii game Wild Earth: African Safari. If you have not played African Safari then it is defiantly worth a look as the education potential of such a resource is outstanding.

Brian McLaren who works as one of our development officers at the Consolarium in Scotland is doing some work with this title at the moment and with time we will get this written up over on the Learning and Teaching Scotland Games Based Learning website.

African Safari is a unique simulation for the Wii based on the PC game from Super X Studios. It is your task to take award-winning pictures of exotic animals in their natural habitats without disturbing them. This includes running with herds of zebra to following hunting lions and scavenging vultures.

The main features of the game include:

• 11 picture-taking missions with both primary and secondary objectives. Inclusding, nvestigating the hyena during a midday thunderstorm, observing giraffes in a hidden valley from a helicopter and meeting a family of elephants as they take care of their young.

• The Wii lets you use the Wii Remote to play from the animal’s perspective in the different games.

• You can come across more than 30 African animals including: cheetah, crocodile, crowned crane, elephant, flamingo, frog, bat, gazelle, giraffe, hippo, hyrax, leopard, lion, ostrich, oxpecker, pangolin, rhinoceros, meerkat, tortoise, trout, vulture, warthog, wildebeest and zebra.

• Multiplayer mode gives players the choice to drive the vehicle or snap photos while playing with anywhere from 1 to 3 friends.

• Photos collected are placed into an animated slide show presentation of informative articles. Players can select their own favorite photos to keep in their portfolio.

• An Impact Meter tracks how much of a disturbance you are to the natural habitat. If you disturb too many animals or get to close to them, your Wii Remote will rumble at varying degrees, making it harder to take a steady picture. If the Impact Meter becomes completely depleted, you fail the mission.

• There are terrific photo opportunities due to the accurately presented flora and terrain from the Serengeti National Park in Africa. This includes shrubs, flowers, kopjes (rocky outcroppings), streams and lakes. The weather also changes through the day

You can view a trailer for the game below (You Tube):

During his presentation Tim games lots of ideas about how he has used African Safari with classes all over the UK. I have embedded the video of Tim speaking at HHL below:

During his talk he mentions the following links, software and web based tools:

• African Safari – for the Nintento Wii (more details here)

• PowerPoint – In particular Tim mentioned how you can write in PowerPoint slides in the 2007 edition, which is useful for note taking within presenations.

• Quotepad - A great tool to take / aggregate  notes from the web or your computer (from anywhere!).

• Vocab Grabber - A great visual thesaurus to get children to experiment with worlds and to improve their language

• Ether Pad - Online collaborative documents – not normally blocked by school firewalls.

• Switheroozoo - A great little website for learning about animals and even creating some of your own – what do you think of my ElicheetaZeb?

• Fighting Maleria - A good website for learning about Malaria and a good example of how very serious citizenship issues can be talked through the medium of computer games.

• Wordle - An old classic but Tim uses it in an interesting way to analyze note taking – watch the video to see how.

The video is well worth 30mins of your time.

Climate Change Resources for Schools - Blog Action Day 2009

 
Today is Blog Action Day.

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance.

First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. Bloggers are asked to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue. By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the Web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue. Out of this discussion naturally flow ideas, advice, plans, and action.

More information about Blog Action Day in this YouTube Video below:

As this years themes is climate change and to show my support I thought I would post five of my favorite climate change resources that should be being used in schools.

1. Google Climate Change Resources

Google has produced a great set of on-line resources in the build up to the Copenhagen Climate Summit. This includes a series of YouTube videos and Google earth files.

Have look at this youtube video below to find out more:

This is Google maps mash up for sea level change is also a good old favorite of mine!

2. ZeroFootprint - Kids calculator

A great carbon footprint calculator aimed at children - thanks to Mr Evans for showing me this on his excellent blog.

3. The Climate Mystery

The climate mystery from Microsoft and the Discovery Channel is a great resource and set of mini games. But I can’t quite believe how few schools are using it in the build up to the Copenhagen Climate Summit.

More information here (you tube video):

Also see my previous blog post for links to resources.

4. LogiCity

LogiCity is a game produced by Logicom and The National Energy Foundation. The game set in a 3D virtual city where players are set the task of reducing the carbon footprint of an average resident. As players work their way through the game they will pick up information about Climate Change, and some of the main ways in which everyone is currently contributing to the emissions of the main greenhouse gas (CO2) that causes Climate Change.

It places students in a virtual environment and lets them experiment and experience the potential effect that individual actions can have on the planet before it's too late. Users can travel to the future to see the direct results of their actions in real time by quickly fast forwarding to the year 2066.

Thanks to the serious games blog for the heads up and original post on this.

5. Learning and Teaching Scotland Climate Change Website

There are some great resources on the LTS Climate Change website that are specifically aimed at Scottish Schools.

Finally, don't forget my melting men idea and what is your favorite resource to teach about climate change in schools?

ICT in Geography PGDE Lecture - University Edinburgh (October 2009)

I met with an enthusiastic bunch of PGDE Students at Edinburgh University today where we talked about ICT in Education.

I promised that I would post the links and slides from the talk so here they are:

• PGDE Geography Workshop – September 2009

• Free Tools for Teachers – October 2009

• Games Based Learning in Secondary Schools – October 2009

• Classroom Ideas for using Google Earth – June 2009

You might also like:

• Geography: 50 ideas in 50 minutes – October 2006

• Geography Back to Basics – October 2007

If you were at the presenation today I would very much welcome your feedback. Please feel free to leave a commnet or to get in touch. Also don't forget you can also subscribe to this website by email (top right).

Creating Classroom Comics

Regular readers of this website will no that I have a real passion for the use of comics and graphic novels in the classroom. My favorite free on-line comic creation tools at the moment are Comic Brush and Pixton.

Comic Brush (www.comicbrush.com) is a bit like a free version of Comic Life and it allows you to make on-line comics for the iPhone / iPod, comic strips and full length comics. It is easy to use and you can either insert your own pictures into the comic strip or download an art pack (small charge) or do a bit of both. The art packs are great as they allow you to introduce licensed characters / artwork such Judge Dread or manga into your comics.

Here is an example of a comic brush comic that I made quickly about the recent Handheld Learning 2009 Conference. All the pictures I have used in the comic were taken by James Clay.

(click on the image to make it bigger)

Pixton (www.pixton.com) is equally as good but serves a different purpose. With Pixton you can really develop the fine detail of a character right down to facial expression and gestures. Pixton is free to use but you can also pay for an education license that gives the teacher more control over student accounts.

Here is a quick example of a pixton comic that I used recently to set some tasks at a recent Learning and Teaching Scotland whole staff event.

The problem is despite these tools being free they may be blocked by some local education authorities and they rely on a reasonable bandwidth in order for them to work properly.

As a result I like to remind teachers that you can actually produce fairly good comics in PowerPoint. I recently produced an Innovative Teacher InnoVid on the subject which some people may find interesting (version embeded below).

You can find out more information about InnoVids here.

And if thats not enough comic stuff for you you could also have a look at these 100 tips, tools and resources for teachers.

Meeting Greg Whitby

After work today I got to spend a few hours with Greg Whitby I was really impressed with Greg’s style, philosophy and passion for education. I left the session feeling very inspired (and that’s not a word I use very often).

Like many others I first came across Greg in this short YouTube video – if you have not seen it is well worth a look:


Since then I have followed his blog and more recently followed Greg on Twitter.

A bit more background on Greg:

Greg Whitby is the pioneering Executive Director of Schools in the Diocese of Parrammatta, in Western Sydney, and leads a system of approximately 80 Catholic schools. He has 30 years combined experience in K-12 schooling and senior system leadership.
 
In recognising the critical link between good teaching practice and student learning outcomes, Greg is working to build the capacity of school leaders and teachers through a whole-of-system approach to professional learning.
 
 As a regular speaker at national and international conferences, Greg talks about the key areas underpinning a new model of schooling for today’s world:  de-privatising teacher practice, personalising student learning and ICTs as enablers to facilitate deep learning.   
 
In 2007, he was named the most innovative educator in Australia by the Bulletin Magazine in its annual SMART 100 awards.  Greg has also been awarded an ACEL Presidential Citation for his contribution to Australian education.   

 

So what was Greg’s message?

Greg spent two hours with a group of us at the LTS offices in Glasgow and we were joined by other practitioners from all over Scotland in a flashmeeting.

I took a number of things from his presentation including:

• Lots of young people are disengaged from their learning

• To overcome disengagement we need to search for relevance

• We have spent the last 20th Century perfecting 19th centaury learning (quoted Stephen Heppell here)

• We need to start asking big questions about learning and the structure of learning. For example why do all children start school at the same age? Does the class you end up in dictate where you end up? How much do school timetables kill creativity?

• The whole next version of the web will be a mash up

• We have good schools but we are victims of the past when it comes to school improvement.

• What’s the point of a classroom of the future or  school of the future? We want a classroom of today!

• If you want success you have to un-lock the timetable.

• I [Greg] expect all of my schools to be extremely diverse.

• We need to develop systems that allow us to take action as things happen.

• Students learning is what makes the biggest difference

• The focus of technology should be on teachers learning as well as students learning

• Good leadership involves the making or courageous decisions

• Use the wisdom of the crowds (teachers, parents and most importantly students) to drive forward school improvement

• All of our children and staff are allowed to use facebook, youtube, my space etc… But it is important to have robust network security and tracking.

• Teachers feel under valued because they are always being told how to improve.

• Our leaders have to be leaders in pedagogy

If you are interested in what Greg had to say – why don’t you listen to his presentation on the flashmeet re-play.

National Intranet, National Virtual World and Now National Blogs and Wiki’s

Recent comments from colleagues who live and work elsewhere in the UK at the Handheld Learning Festival 2009 reminded me that I am very lucky to work within the education ICT sector in Scotland. Yes, there are always things that can be improved but I actually think we are pretty lucky.

The reasons for this include:

Glow - we have a national intranet. All local education authorities in Scotland are now signed up to this service and roll out is well underway. As well as providing a set of tools that can be used by Scotlands learners including messaging, discussion boards and video conferencing Glow also allows us to authenticate other approved services via shibboleth.

CANVAS – Children’s Art in the Virtual Areana of Scotland is Scotland’s first virtual world. Accessed via Glow it provides all Scotland’s learners with access to a seafe and secure multi user 3D virtual universe for learning. You can find out more information about CANVAS here. Personally, this is something I have been waiting for!

Blog and Wiki’s – Announced yesterday by Learning and Teaching Scotland are plans to enrich the user experience and functionality of Glow by adding national blogs and wikis that will allow students to create on-line diaries, showcase their work and collaborate with other children all over Scotland.

You can read further details of the Glow enhancement over on the Glow blog.