Category: Technology

QUAD BLOGGING

At Port Ellen Primary we have enjoyed using blogging technology to keep track of our learning, recording exciting and interesting events and expressing ourselves online. However we would like to improve our blogging skills and can best do this by looking at blogs from other schools around the world.
To do this we are going to take part in Quad Blogging, where we join with 4 other schools to follow and leave comments on their school blogs. The 4 schools that we will follow are; Burravoe Primary on the Isle of Yell in Orkney, Mrs Dechaine’s 3D class who are in Alberta Canada and Y5PM from Waterloo Primary School in England. So get blogging and leaving comments!

How To Write A Blog

  • First  you  must  log  onto  glow and by  doing  that you  must click  on  Fire  Fox.
  • Second  you  must  click  on  glow, and  then  you must click on go to glow .
  • Next you must type in your user name and password.
  • Then you must click on p4/5.
  • After that you must scroll down the page you type in your little and type blog underneath.
  • Finally you copy and publish.

    By Abbie

    How to Download Stuff onto a Key

    • First you’ll need to find your self a key.
    • Next there is a a sockit on the side of the computer with a picture of a cactice.That is only on a mac .
    • Then ,there are 2   squares on each side on 1 side has hollow squares and ton the other side has a ones with white in  the midle it’s the hollow side yo put facing up.
    • After you find what you want ptu it onto a key.
    • While you do that, drag the thing you want to put onto a key wate a wee minute on want what our key is called to see if it is on it.
    • Then if you look closely there’s an arrow beside your key name and click on it.
    • Finaly if your key name disapeers pull thekey out.

    PHOTOSHOP OUR OWN CALENDARS

    As part of our technologies project we decided to produce calendars for the school fair using Adobe Photoshop. This program not only will edit photos and backgrounds for interesting effects, but will also allow you to put them in a format like a calendar.
    Initially we learned how calendars are set up in maths, then used our knowledge to create our own calendar month. To do this we had to learn how to create tables in Word, and used Wolfram Alpha, a computational search engine, to tell us on which day our month started next year. Those doing February had to remember next year is a leap year. Some clever person in the class had the idea of making the calendars bilingual, so we then found the Gaelic and used it in our tables.
    The artwork required backgrounds for each month, designed and drawn by the children, then photographed. We took advantage of costumes from the panto to dress up and act out scenes for our backgrounds against a white board, taking photos.
    After preparing the photos they were imported into Adobe Photoshop, where they were used to create layers. The magic wand tool was then used to remove the white background from the photos of the children and put them against their hand drawn backdrops. Text was added, and the calendar put together and printed. The result was fabulous and sold really well at the Christmas Fair.

    Technology update

    We have been busy in P45 improving our ICT skills through a process of shared skills peer learning, research and direct teaching.  I am very impressed with how quickly most children pick up skills that took me ages to refine, and some of the best teaching in my class recently has been by the children passing on skills to each other, embedding and refining the skills as they progress.  Talking about and reflecting on learning is a major part of this topic; we have found ICT skills are tools to help learning about anything, but how we use them helps us understand how we learn.

    In order to track our skills development we have the web.  The web uses Blooms Taxonomy of digital skills so the children can track their skills development and ensure they are getting a breadth of experience.   Using spiders to chase skills ‘flies’, they note skills achieved on a ladder, earning a sticker if they successfully teach to someone else.  I worry for my job with the speed and success of these teaching sessions!  They record their learning in a plan do review format that requires evaluation of the learning process as well as their success at acquiring the skill.

    Recently acquired skills include bullet pointing, making tables, transferring information onto a memory card, printing, taking and editing photos, down loading music and pod-casts, deleting files and creating their own blogs on Glow.   Children have chosen how they demonstrate these skills initially, but eventually we hope to create an online space for recording a potted history of Port Ellen from local residents whilst teaching them internet and ICT skills they may find useful, applying their skills in a real life context.

    Hi

    We are Primary 4&5 at Port Ellen Primary School on the Isle of Islay.  There are 14 children in our class, and we all love science and technology.  That makes us geeks!  This Blog is about technology and science that we have learned about and want to show you.  We have decided to do a blog because Alicia thinks it is easier than having to write everything down in her jotter!  Maisie thinks a blog is a good way because everyone around the world can see and comment on what we are doing.  David says paper and pens are not technology, and Emily reminds us that paper and pens  use resources like trees and oil, while writing a blog does not.  Also Oliver likes spell checking because he likes to use big science words that he can’t always spell.  Jodie likes being able to design using a blog.  Mrs Clark likes that everyone in the class is really excited and engaged and will learn lots of technology skills using the blog.  So, we hope you will join us in our enthusiastic discoveries of all things scientific and technological.

    P45