Congratulations to Steven Simpson from the Argyll and Bute Council Learning Technologies Team who won the Scottish Training Federation (STF) Modern Apprentice of the Year Award. Steven was presented with this award at this year’s STF conference at Crieff Hydro, hosted by Kaye Adams.
All posts by G. Clark
Technology Showcase Event @ Hermitage Academy – 7th May
A fun and informal technology day – starting at 10am prompt and will include a short presentation by a technology specialist. There will be a range of exciting hands-on technology workshops, led by primary pupils from Helensburgh schools. This event is open to primary pupils and parents/guardians. Please note that all pupils must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
Continue reading Technology Showcase Event @ Hermitage Academy – 7th May
Twig and Tigtag free until July 2016
Twig and Tigtag have been procured by Education Scotland for a further 12 months until July 2016. As a result, these award-winning online resources will continue to be available to all local authority schools through Glow for use by educators and learners across Scotland.
Twig is an award-winning online teaching resource providing thousands of tailor-made, short films to help bring lessons to life. Content has been created by teachers and academics to support delivery of Curriculum for Excellence covering sciences, social studies and mathematics for learners aged 11-16. Twig Experiments offers over 300 short films covering 81 key experiments.
Scottish Kodu Final 2015
Congratulations to Dunoon PS, Car
dross and Rosneath who were invited to the Scottish Kodu final. Results to be announced soon….
Technology Showcase Event @ DGS – 23rd May 2015
Technology Showcase event at Dunoon Grammar School on Saturday 23rd May between 10am – 1.30pm
– Free technology showcase event at Dunoon Grammar School
– Fun and informal event with an opportunity to try out some exciting new technology
– Learn new skills from our primary pupil experts
Continue reading Technology Showcase Event @ DGS – 23rd May 2015
Scottish Kodu Kup 2015
The Kodu Kup Scotland competition launches today. This competition follows the same format as the UK Kodu competition. The closing date for both competitions is May 29th 2015.
This year students not only have to create a great game, but develop a business plan for a game franchise and create and produce a least one single piece of merchandise that promotes their game. Schools may wish to link this to current entrepreneurial or business projects already taking place.
Kodu Kup 2015
We are very pleased to announce this year’s Kodu Kup UK 2015 competition is now open. Many of you will be familiar with format of what has become the world’s biggest Kodu competition. There are a few changes and a new theme.
If your school plans to enter this competition then please let me know by emailing Web.Master@ea.argyll-bute.sch.uk or leave a comment below.
Kodu computer games design – getting started help
Kodu is a free application developed by Microsoft to introduce young people to computer games design. This visual programming language allows students to design and build three dimensional games. Kodu can help young people to learn the core concepts of computer science within the context of a project which includes narrative writing, design and maths.
Continue reading Kodu computer games design – getting started help
UK Kodu Kup final success!
Congratulations to Cardross Primary school who won the ‘judges choice award’ at this year’s UK Kodu Kup final. Cardross is the first Scottish school to be invited to the UK final and they certainly represented Scotland well! The pupils competed against 11 other schools from across the UK at Microsoft’s HQ in Reading.
To give a sense of the scale of their achievement, Microsoft estimates that 380,000 students have used Kodu in the UK this year. Microsoft said “…the quality of the 160 games that were entered into the competition was outstanding and your games were voted the best by our judging panel.”
Kodu Results
Argyll and Bute Kodu Competition
The judging for this year’s Argyll and Bute Kodu competition recently took place and was judged by Alison Drever, senior education officer from Education Scotland. There was a total of 23 games submitted and they were of a very high standard.
The results are as follows:
CALL Scotland RTC Launch
To launch our new status as an Apple Regional Training Centre, specialising in iPads and Additional Support Needs, CALL is hosting a free half-day conference at Moray House School of Education on Friday 9th May. Speakers include Steve Bunce, Jenni Robertson and David Ryan. There will also be parallel workshop presentations on using iPads for:
– Literacy and Creativity (Jenni Robertson)
– Pupils with Dyslexia and Reading / Writing Difficulties (Paul Nisbet)
– Pupils with Communication Difficulties (Sally Millar)
– Pupils on the Autistic Spectrum (Sue Fletcher-Watson)
Argyll and Bute Kodu Competition
Kodu is a free application developed by Microsoft to introduce young people to computer games design. This visual programming language allows students to design and build three dimensional games. Kodu can help young people to learn the core concepts of computer science within the context of a project which includes narrative writing, design and maths.
The Learning Technologies Team is pleased to announce the 1st annual Argyll and Bute Kodu Competition. The competition is open to all Argyll and Bute schools and entries must be received by Thursday 1st May 2014.
Kodu programming – getting started
Kodu is a visual programming language for creating games! Kodu can be controlled using an Xbox controller or a mouse and keyboard.
- Kodu provides easy tools to create elaborate 3D landscapes, and control the lighting and camera.
- Kodu programming involves selecting visual tiles for a condition (WHEN) and an action (DO).
- Students can learn about cooperation, logic and creativity, not just about programming.
Kodu Kup 2013
If you are interested in game design then a good place to start is with a free application called Kodu. This is a visual programming language and games lab environment which allows students from Second Level upwards to design and build three dimensional games using either a PC or an XBox and XBox controller. When using an application such as Kodu learners can begin to learn the core concepts of computer science within the context of a project which includes narrative writing, design and maths. Kodu was developed in the Microsoft Research Labs and is completely free to download and use.
If you are interested in submitting an entry to the Kodu Kup then full details are available here.
Tayvallich Primary School success in Heritage Lottery Fund bid
Pupils at Tayvallich Primary School in Argyll are taking part in a project to rebuild ancient links between Argyll and Northern Ireland with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
Inspired by local archaeology and views of Northern Ireland across the water, the children of Tayvallich PS will join forces with Mill Strand Integrated Primary School in Port Rush to research the story of their shared Iron Age and medieval heritage. Pupils will work with Kilmartin House Museum and the University of Ulster’s Centre for Maritime Archaeology, to find out more about what life was like in Argyll long ago.
Continue reading Tayvallich Primary School success in Heritage Lottery Fund bid
Glow Announcement
At long last Scottish Government have announced the way forward for Glow in schools. As you probably know, the current Glow system was due to be turned off in September of this year, but no clear replacement had been identified. The current Glow contract with RM has been extended by 15 months to allow us all a breathing space while the new Glow 2 apps and services are made available. The contract to provide these free apps and tools has been awarded to Microsoft and will be based largely on the free tools that they have provided through their “Microsoft Live apps” service. The more surprising news is that they will only provide this service until 2014. Simultaneously, Scottish Government will be developing our own sign in and authentication service, which will let us include a more flexible set of tools possibly including those from Google, WordPress and others after 2014.
London 2012 – Olympic Games
In July last year Amy from Campbeltown Grammar school, saw her Scottish design become a winner of the Get Set London 2012 design competition. Amy’s creation has become an official regional version of “Mandeville”, the London 2012 Mascot.
We now have some more brilliant news! Glasgow City Council is going to construct a 6ft sculpture of the Scottish Mandeville as part of its City Look Programme to decorate the city ready for the London 2012 Games!
The sculpture will be built near one of two central stations but the exact location is yet to be decided. A similar Wenlock sculpture will be built at one of the two stations and the pieces will welcome visitors to Glasgow and celebrate Scotland’s role in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
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Easter Island – Task 3 part 2 – Rothesay Primary
As part of our 3rd task, we wrote a story of how our Moai Head was feeling when he came to our school.
To help us write the story we thought about how we would feel if we were in the same position.
Primary 2
Rothesay Primary Continue reading Easter Island – Task 3 part 2 – Rothesay Primary
Castlehill Primary School – Baldy Cup Winners!
Castlehill Primary were this year’s winners of the Baldy Cup football trophy. Teams from South Kintyre primary schools all took part – a great time was had by all. Weather stayed dry!!! Looking forward to Millennium Cup to be held in June.
Smartphones in schools?
As the current news is filled with polarised opinions over the merits or horrors of allowing learners to have smartphones in schools, we thought that this blog about positive learning using mobile phones would help prompt a healthy debate. You might actually like some of the ideas?
