Category Archives: New Technologies

New Technologies

Facebook – How can we keep our pupils safe?

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This morning I decided that I would check what information was available for everyone to view on the Facebook profiles of the pupils in my class.  I did it back in February when we had a Safer Internet Day and a lot of them reset their privacy settings and changed their profile pictures so they couldn’t be identified.  Unfortunately when I checked this morning only 2 out of the 12 who have facebook accounts still had this.  I therefore decided to look on the CEOP run thinkuknow website to see if they had any resources I could use that would demonstrate the dangers of sharing too much personal information online.   If you haven’t already, it is really worthwhile registering with the site so that you can download the resources.  They have resources available for all ages and the one I decided to use was the film Jigsaw for Key Stage 2.  At the beginning the film shows the main character posting the same kinds of information that a lot of children post online without thinking about it, in the real world.  The children are then shown the dangers that this can pose and who they can ask for help.  The film had a real impact with all of the children in my class as they realised with shock just how much of this information they themselves had allowed to become public.  As a result they are all now resetting their privacy settings and changing their profile pictures. Objective achieved.

CPD, New Technologies

Glow Basics

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Caroline Breyley and I have been asked to host a Glow Meet for CPD Stepin on an Introduction to Glow.  CPD Stepin is a support group for supply teachers which offers them access to CPD, help and advice.  Caroline and I decided that the best way to introduce new users to Glow was to let them know about all the amazing resources they could access through it.  I have created a presentation of Screen shots which demonstrates a large number these resources.

This has actually been a very valuable activity for me to do as it has reminded me just what is there and helped me discover some new resources.  This presentation is also going to help me as I am visiting the first ever school I taught in next week to tell them all about Glow, plus I have arranged a series of ICTworkshops for the staff in my cluster group the first of which is Glow Basics.

You can view my presentation below please feel free to download and share.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.slideboom.com/player/player.swf?id_resource=436546" width="425" height="370" allowfullscreen="true" /]

New Technologies

Technologies I used in Term 1 2011

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This term we have been doing a project on endangered animals. As always we had a brain storming session to find our prior knowledge. The children carried this out in groups of 4 with large sheets of paper and marker pens. Each group then shared their knowledge with the rest of the class and we made a collaborative mind map using popplet. Popplet is a web app that can help you to create an online mindmap that you can then embed in your glow group or glow blog.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://popplet.com/app/Popplet_Alpha.swf?page_id=64083&em=1" width="460" height="460" allowfullscreen="true" /]

One of the first key questions that the children wanted answered was why are animals endangered? They started by carrying out research using the Internet and project books, taking notes as they were doing so. They then had to write a script and create a Go Animate that would demonstrate the information they had discovered. This activity was a big success as all the pupils were extremely engaged at all times and had great fun creating their cartoons.

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I’ve also been using Animoto a lot for our class blog. Animoto is a great web tool that you use to make really creative short movies of photographs and video you have taken.  It’s really simple and easy to use because all you have to do is upload your files, choose your music then it does everything else for you. It’s a great way to record trips, events, active and outdoor learning.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/ktK1-Eui68A" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

CPD, New Technologies

#EduScotICT

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This week I was fortunate enough to be asked to attend and present at the ICT Summit held at the Stirling Management Centre. The summit was held to discuss the 5 objectives set by Michael Russell, MSP when he made the announcement about the future of glow.

The 5 objectives were

1) To change the culture of the use of ICT

 2) To improve confidence in the use of ICT for learners, teachers, school leaders and parents

 3) To promote new behaviours for teaching 

4) To deepen parental engagement

 5) To strengthen position on hardware and associated infrastructure

 Richard Nealsson gives a very good overview of the whole event in his blog post.

 I was asked to present on the 3rd Objective – To promote new behaviours for teaching.  Below is the transcript of my presentation and the full length version of the video I showed.

Using new technologies to demonstrate / reflect on learning

We have been using Glow for just over a year.  It has totally transformed teaching and learning in my classroom.  It has enabled me to embed ICT throughout all areas of the curriculum and is not seen as a separate add on subject.

Now when planning work instead of thinking, what piece of written work or worksheet can I use to evidence children’s learning and understanding, I think what piece of technology or web tool can I use.

 Glow has given us the space to house all our digital evidence as most of the tools we use can be embedded either into a glow group or a glow blog.  Over the past year we have been developing our use of glow blogs.

Each pupil has their own individual eportfolio which can be used as a learning journal.  In these eportfolios they can embed videos, slideshows and other web tools as evidence of their learning.  They can also use it as a place to reflect on their learning and share wider achievements.

 This year we have also started a class blog in order to share our learning with parents and other schools.  So far we have had over 300 visits to our site and comments from as far away as Florida.  The pupils are highly motivated by these comments.  You can visit our blog by googling Wellwood Primary Blog.

 These (see photo below) are just a few of the web tools we have used this year.  For example we created vokis, which are animated avatars, to record our burns poems.  We used I can animate to create digital still animations for our Myths and Legends topic.

The level of writing within the class is still high as although the final outcome of these activities is a digital one, often they require researching or script writing.  There are still a very large percentage of teaching staff who don’t realise all these resources are available and often free to use.  Levels of pupil engagement and their ability to work cooperatively have greatly improved.

We’ve achieved a lot in a year but we only have a ratio of 2 pupils to 1 computer, imagine what we could achieve with 1:1.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/vceYAnrDH5k" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]