Tag Archives: Braeview Academy

Wikis at Braeview Academy

Internet Safety Wikis at Braeview

As part of the S1 CFE Computing course pupils are studying a unit on the Internet, and a topic within that unit is Internet Safety. Pupils watched some short videos on issues like Cyberbullying using the BBC On top of the digital world site (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fq2n1) and visited the thinkuknow (http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/11_16/control/), cbbc (http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/topics/stay-safe) and kidsmart (http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/) websites. Following on from this the class divided themselves into groups of 2 or 3 people and were given a topic picked at random on which they had to produce an informative Wiki.

The topics they had to choose from were:

  • Cyberbullying
  • Social networking sites
  • Mobiles
  • Chatrooms and IMs
  • Hacking and viruses

The teams then divided up their topic into chunks so that each person had the chance to create a sub page for their wiki. Pupils were shown how to capture, upload and insert images into their wikis and how to create hyperlinks to subpages and other websites.

Finally when the task is finished pupils then peer evaluate another member of their team using traffic lighting and two stars and a wish sheet (shown below). The teams then also peer evaluate another teams wiki using a similar evaluation sheet (again shown below).

This exercise brings in group work, cross curricular themes building on work the pupils have already done in Social Education and develops their technical skills in producing a Wiki for the first time. Obviously Health and Wellbeing outcomes are covered but also numeracy can be slipped in if the teacher talks about file sizes of images and compression e.g. comparing bitmaps with jpegs. In addition Literacy outcomes can be touched on with pupils proof reading their own and other pupils pages and creating their own text.

The wiki can be seen by clicking here. (https://wikis.glowscotland.org.uk/0001444/Internet_Safety_Wiki/1X2)

Teachers can review, edit and comment on pupils wikis in a straighforward manner.

What I’d do differently:

1/ Team dynamics can be a problem with pupils starting off the best of pals week 1 and then falling out by week 3 over artistic differences, I would pick teams more carefully in the future.

2/I would allocate more time to the task as 3 lessons was not enough to allow pupils time to learn the software, get good quality original content in and then evaluate the wikis.

Below are some pictures and captions outlining the lessons:

Front page of wiki

Editing a wiki

To insert a picture it first has to uploaded by clicking attach file button, I found that the Flash uploader worked quicker than the Classic uploader and that it can be hit and miss with a few attempts before the upload actually works and doesn’t just hang, but it worth the wait. Once uploaded or attached you can then insert it using the editor tools and play about with sizing and alignment.

Peer evaluation sheet

Team evaluation sheet

Lesson 3 LIs and Scs – Internet Safety

Visualisers at Braeview Academy

Visualisers at St Paul’s Academy

In case you didn’t know, Visualisers or Document Cameras are basically powerful digital cameras on flexible arms which when connected through your computer and a projector  allow you to share a magnified image of an object (a page of a text book, 3D model, pupils work etc…) with the class. When connected through the computer you can then annotate the image and/or record video and audio so that you could replay the demonstration at a later date to another class without having to set it all up again. There are a number of different makes and models out there I have been lucky enough to trial the following:

Easi-View Visualiser

Approx. Price £100

Slot for SD Memory card – No

Resolution (Megapixels) – 3MP

Image Capture Area – A4

Zoom – N/A

Remote Control – No

 

 

 

 

 

 

Avermedia CP155

Approx. Price £400

Slot for SD Memory card – No

Resolution (Megapixels) – 3.2MP

Image Capture Area – 330 x 248 mm

Zoom – 8 x Digital

Remote Control – No

 

 

 

 

Samsung SDP860

Approx. Price  £450

Slot for SD Memory card – Yes

Resolution (Megapixels) – 1.39MP

Image Capture Area – 420 x 336mm

Zoom – 6 x Optical  8 x Digital

Remote Control – Yes

 

 

 

 

Elmo L-12

Approx. Price  £600 (including tablet)

Slot for SD Memory card – Yes

Resolution (Megapixels) – 3.4MP

Image Capture Area – 420 x 334 mm (A3 size)

Zoom – 12 x Optical  8 x Digital

Remote Control – Yes

 

 

 

 

 

 

Promethean ActiView 322

Approx. Price  £400

Slot for SD Memory card – No

Resolution– XGA (1024 x 768)

Image Capture Area – 350mm x 280MM

Zoom – 6 x Optical  6 x Digital

Remote Control – Yes

 

 

 

 

Avermedia V355AF

Approx. Price  £600

Slot for SD Memory card – Yes

Resolution (Megapixels) – 5MP

Image Capture Area – 400 x 300 mm

Zoom – 5 x Optical  8 x Digital

Remote Control – Yes

In summary for me the most important features are the resolution of the camera, and the capture area if the resolution isn’t good enough then if you are trying to show a page from a text book up on the projector or through AB Tutor onto pupil’s screens then the text will be too fuzzy and illegible. Similarly if the capture area isn’t big enough then you have to keep moving the textbook to show different parts of the page. It is worth noting the two main types of mountings for the visualises, they either come with a goose neck flexible articulated arm which you can bend into any position you like, or the more expensive models have a mechanical arm which although lacking the flexibility to put into any position would seem more robust for a classroom situation.

The easiview camera is in my opinion fine for displaying 3D objects or perhaps doing some stop-frame animation, but as a document camera the image quality was too poor.

I found the other visualisers to be fairly similar in terms of quality and functionality, however my favourite to use and the one I thought had the best overall performance was the Avermedia V355AF. The thing I particularly liked about the V355 was laser positioning guide to help indicate where to place the document/object under the camera.

Two exemplar papers ready underneath visualiser


Zooming in to the relevant question


Two different pupil answer clearly displayed together on screen


Using AB Tutor software answers displayed on all pupil screens in the computing lab,
but also displayed on the multimedia projector.

There are loads of features I haven’t used or talked about in this blog, but to round it off visualisers are a great tool whether it is just to save money on textbooks, to quickly show off a good piece of writing to a class or to show a large class the insides of a computer or other small object.

News 20/01/13

Recently I got to use  ELMOs latest compact visualiser (MO-1 MOBILE VISUAL PRESENTER) and I have found it very easy to use and very practical for the classroom.  For more information click here

The MO-1 is tiny, and I can easily put it in my laptop case along with my laptop. The visualiser can be mains powered or just powered through the USB connection which again adds to its convenience. Having used a number of other visualisers I can confidently say for me as a normal class teacher overall it is the best I have used. If you need really high resolution images say for Technical Drawing then perhaps you might need one of the top end models but for everyday use the MO-1 is great.

What have I used it for? The MO-1 is good for showing the whole class an object that is on my desk through my projector and if you are in a computer lab with AB Tutor it can also then be shown on pupils screens at the same time. When delivering a recent training session on Flipcams I used the visualiser liked to my projector and ABTutor to show people a close up of the camera buttons and screen as I was demonstrating functionality. With my S5/6 Digital Creator class, pupils have used the visualiser with I Can animate to produce Stop Frame animations, the software picked up the visualiser on pupils computers without drivers needing to be installed, and the fact that the camera is fixed makes animating very easy allowing pupils to keep their hands free for animating rather than having to perch a webcam precariously somewhere . The MO-1 has other functionality like the ability to run by itself and store images directly to an SD card but I have not had the need to use this yet.  Priced at around £280 the visualiser is more affordable than most of its rivals too and you can get it in different colours if that interests you!

 

Arduino at Braeview Academy

Arduino at Braeview Academy

Education Scotland have a facility called CPD Consolarium whereby teachers can sign up to the Glow Group and then make a bid online for software and hardware which if successful you can use for loan period, the condition being that you give feedback through a Wiki created for you by Education Scotland.

This past year I have had a loan of Arduino kits which are programmable boards to which you can motors, lights, sensors etc.. and then by plugging the board into your PC using a USB cable you can then write computer programs and upload them to the board. I used the boards with my Advanced Higher pupils and also arranged for Chris Martin from Dundee University who has some experience in this field of physical computing to deliver a workshop to my Higher pupils with his wheeled robots made from Arduino boards.

Rather than repeat the information on the blog the link below takes you to the wiki I am working on.

https://wikis.glowscotland.org.uk/0001398/Consolarium/Other_Technologies/Arduino/@Braeview_Academy%2c_Dundee

I strongly recommend putting in a bid for some kit as Education Scotland has a huge amount available from Nintendos to PS3s. If my bid is successful I hope to try out some other programmable boards that they have made available.