24th February 2009

Inter sessional task (early!!)

This is a link to the animated movie that Ann and I made today "Food for thought". I have managed to upload it onto You Tube, and then onto my Blog ...... go on, have a peek and make yourself smile:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1RZBxSMMqE

Inter-sessional Task - for Tuesday 24th February

Saturday 21st February:

I have managed to open a document in Google and 'write' a few lines, AND publish/save it!!
Now I am supposed to be able to provide a direct hyperlink to it on here???????? Keep trying!!

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg98mmnb_0hgxcs2m7&hl=en


Typical, stupid mistake - I had it on Edit Html instead of Compose and it 'looked funny'! Hopefully it should work now?! Can't see what I might need to do this for though???

Wednesday 18th February

Back again, (getting worried - seem to spend a while on this 'ere blog!) Feeling quite satisfied with the fact that I am more at ease with my practical part of my assignment and consider myself 'on track' now!!!!! (Now there's a thing!)
Have become pretty interested in this 2.o web, internet malarkyand how it might develop, since starting at Uni and tonight found this:

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In for a penny, in for a pound, I went for it ..... watch this space! And, yes, I have done this sort of thing before! ;)
Oh well, back to the Brit Awards!

Monday 16th February

Help!!! I really need to learn how to use the interactive whiteboard ....... I want to use it as part of my practical assignment for my ICT module and we are on 1/2 term and can't ask anyone yet alone get to grips with one!!!!!

Sunday 8th February

Sunday 8th February

Seeing as I couldn't actually finish my photos and post them anywhere whilst at Uni last time, I decided to try and complete the task at home that weekend!! I managed to use the photos initially in a Word document and put the photos in different shapes/backgrounds, etc. Then I put speech bubbles in - not bad I thought!

Having done that I wanted to progress to the next stage and put them into a 'movie'. I was ready to throw the computer out of the window the first day I tried - exasperated or what!!

Still, a good nights sleep and a new day (and about 5 minutes assistance from my eldest son!) I managed to download the music I wanted and edit the photos with captions and music ..... wow, was I impressed!

I then thought it'd be a good idea to upload it onto my Blog.........

Yeah, I know, it's pretty basic - it is my first attempt - ok, it's VERY basic, but I am very proud of it! And Bisto wants to know when he starts getting royalties!!!!

Unfortunateley, it's come up as an error and I can't do it (error codes below!) Wonder if it's to do with having external stuff plugged in? Tried again but same error code/s appeared...?

SUNDAY 15th FEBRUARY!

Have now downloaded GEARS to enable Google Video to host/store any videos I make!, and can now upload my video/movie from here onto my Blog?!?! Oh flippin' hec, not again?!

Well, in my searches (and there have been many folks!) I found I had posted it onto Google Video to be hosted but it might take a day or so for me to find it through a search.

Believe me, I tried ..... I searched for it, and found it - posted 5 days ago (Hmm, just about when I sent it to my sister to see!!) on YouTube!!!!! Oh well, here it is! At last :)

(Bit of a cheat I think as I should have been able to actually upload the video as opposed to the link, still better than nothing at all!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jblPSzjayEs

Sunday 15th February

Hadn't realised until today that there was actually a European Commission for Lifelong Learning Programme, within which they are actioning eTwinning - a means of communicating, sharing ideas and running online collaborative projects. All this through an online platform which makes use of the 2.0 web tools to facilitate communication and where teachers can show creative ways to strengthen the classroom work they do.
It made interesting reading and certainly makes you think of how things may change in the future, in the classroom. Will all schools be 'eTwinned' in the future - to other UK schools, or schools worldwide? How will they utilise this? Will it start with simple emails, etc and build up to '2nd life' type worlds where they are taught in other countries too? Anything is possible!!

INTER-SESIONAL TASK (5th February for 24th February)

THIS WAS ONE OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN ON THURSDAY 5TH FEBRUARY -

Inter-sessional task for 24th February:-
Discuss on your posting any creative ways that you have seen digital media being used in your school. Consider also what were the factors inherent to ICT that made it so successful.

We use digital photography within the ASDAN work the pupils do, and sometimes during English lessons. They have been used to help create storyboards in English (most pupils enjoy having their photos taken - posing for them!) - it assists with pupils that find it hard to sit still for a whole hour or more! They can get up and move around, it involves different types of learning (VAK), and if it keeps them in the classroom rather than getting sent out for getting up and running around, it must surely improve their self esteem too?!

The fact that it involves ICT means, in this instance, that it was talked about, gone and done, (and shown to everyone else by uploading the photos), very quickly. In the past photos would have to have been sent away to be developed and would then have perhaps been displayed on a board. Today it can all be done in one or two lessons and the students know this - everything they have done can be seen immediately and can be edited too - it has SPEED these days!. If pupils want to change the border or colour they can as their photos are really only PROVISIONAL- 'old fashioned' photos cannot be done so easily, and especially not at school!

The BOUNDARIES, at the end of the day, are only as restrictive as the facilitator/educator. If the pupils want to put the photos into a storyboard, they can - on Powerpoint for instance.

If the pupils want to put the photos onto a Word programme and put speech bubbles on to them, the can. They can put relative music in the background if they wish on Powerpoint, and they can chop and change all of this to suit their requirements, as often as they wish - until they have what they perceive as the perfect item to show everyone - ideal for their self esteem ....... they CAN do it and make their work look good!!!!

Saturday 7th February

Oh boy! Have spent several hours trying to use my movie maker with some photos ...... also tried to put the photos onto Power Point (not enough time during the session on Thursday). Am rather confused to say the least as they appear to do pretty much the same thing! It was a shame that there wasn't eough time on Thursday to do it all then - lack of equipment maybe - Mark needs a TA to sort it all out!! ;)
Anyway, they both look ok eventually - the P/P is the best though, and I'm quite proud of it. I have managed to put the photos on (6 slides), insert speech bubbles and even put background music and some animated effects in! How cool is that? I ust need to be able to sort something out for use during a leson ..... yikes!
I am sure that with some more practice, I will become more confident and quicker at it (hopefully!) - I should really like to be able to get something up and running that I can use at school for a lesson. Perhaps I can find a spare 1/2 hour and get someone to explain things like "can I link my laptop or memory stick to the schools IWB and other stuff"??!! (and make them work more to the point!) ......... watch this space!

Monday 2nd February 2009 TASK for Session 2 - results!!

With 17 out of 20 surveys complete, I thought it time to 'record' my findings! I was only going to do 10 originally to get an idea alongside those students that I had spoken to. The first 10 surveys made interesting reading and therefore I decided to do another 10!
The TASK was to find out how pupils are using the internet inside and outside the classroom. It asked that from non-intrusive conversations with pupils consider the following:

1. what they are using the Internet for when not directed by the educator
2. what skills have they developed for negotiating the www
3. which of these skills have been formally taught in school
4. which of these skills have they aquired for themselves (or from their peers)
5. how much time do they actually spend accessing the Internet

I decided to put out a survey as the students didn't have to put their name to it, but I would ask them to identify their gender and year group.

The first question I broke down into areas I was interested in seeing if used by students - email; chat roooms (such as Facebook and Beebo); gaming; music; films; photos;following or updating websites; Blogs; homework; personal hobby/interest or something else.

The second, third and fourth question were as stated above. The fifth question I split into how much time they access the Internet when NOT at school - after school, during a weekday, and during the weekends. The answers were quite surprising to me.

There was a good cross section of male and female students from year 7 to year 11.

There was only 1 student that recorded rather excesive hours on a daily basis but then they also commented that they didn't really use the Internet as much at the weekend as they were always out!

Of the skills learnt at school, only 2 raised the fact that safety issues had been learnt/taught at school.

The majority appear to think that school hasn't taught them many skills at all and, in fact, that they have picked them up mostly themsleves, or with a little help from peers.

Most stated that they did homework/homework research on the Internet alongside emails, chat (such as Beebo, etc), and games. Some downloaded music or films and only a few had heard of Blogs. Only 1 student had their own Blog!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

From this I realised that most students don't appear to use the Internet to excess, or maybe they believe they don't - perhaps if they timed themselves, they might find different? Then it made me wonder if maybe it's that their parents/guardians have a strict limit on how long they are allowed to spend on line.

The safety issue doesn't seem to be of a high interest or to be of noteable value in a skill learnt at school. Is this because we don't "push it enough"? Or do the students not think of it as something that has been taught them? Maybe as a school we should look into this issue and make it a higher priority - especially after reading the Byron Report!!

Maybe the safety aspect doesn't evolve at school due to the filtering that is in place, but this is not in place at home one would assume and therefore students still need educating about this issue. I often overhear students complaining that a particular site has been 'blocked'!!

Will bring this up in the near future! An interesting result and would be even more interesting if done over the whole school!

Sunday 1st February

Have just found out that there is a "webinar" (?) on Tuesday from 5pm all to do with Wiki's in the classroom, and how to create accounts for students, with Chris Bell. I really would like to be able to listen in but don't know if I am going to be home in time!?!?! It just might be of help with my assignment!!!