All posts by John Johnston

I am a teacher, currently working in Banton Primary for North Lanarkshire Council. I also act as Product Owner/provide support for Glow Blogs.
Turning Point

Turning Point – St Adian’s PS

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Intention – I had seen the voting system before but not within a class setting and I was curious to know how the children would react to it and various ways it could be used.

Evaluation – The cards that the children used were great. They were sturdy and of a great size (easy to pack away). The children were able to do everything that was asked and were very motivated when using them.

Impact / conclusion
I did not like the turning point software. I thought it was difficult to set up and I am still unable to generate reports which means it takes me a long time to figure out who answered correctly. My school is intending on purchasing a voting system but not turningpoint.

Martha McGuigan

Easi-Scope, Flip Camera

Digital Microscopes, Flip Video Cameras – St. Monica’s PS

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Background

My after school club ‘Log on to Learning’, aimed to introduce the child and their parent to different ways of approaching ICT. We offered lots of supportive websites to help a parent support their child at home. Also, we looked at other innovate ways to encourage ICT skills which encouraged parent and child to work on a project together.

I have been the teacher responsible for delivering ICT since January. Whilst having this loan I have been able to integrate the items borrowed into delivering a wider spectrum of technology rather than just using the school laptops.

How ICT supported learning and teaching

  • Able to give the after school group (members of the community) and pupils confidence and skills to embrace new technologies for the future.
  • By using the digital microscope to look at and around everyday objects, help to broaden pupil’s awareness of how science is used with technology.
  • Pupils have been able to experience CforE targets such as TCH 1-04b/TCH 2-04b by working cooperatively in groups to create dialogue, action and events for a short drama episode. Each group was responsible for filming and editing their work. They also had to choose an appropriate background and music to match the style of their task.
  • A ICT development officer came in to deliver an in-service for the whole staff (classroom assistants/ sen’s/teachers) on the types of equipment available to loan and how to use it.

Impact / conclusion

  • The loan was highly successful for the ‘Log on to Learning’ after school group.
  • When the pupils realised their ‘loan’ period was over, they were disappointed.
  • The equipment will help ICT to become embedded across the curriculum.
  • I will apply to loan some of this equipment next year – the response and interest from the children in the second stage was extremely positive.

Martha McGuigan

Easi-speak, Flip Camera

Flip video cameras, easi-speak microphones – Dalziel HS

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Background

Spanish – Pupils were working on the unit ‘Leisure and Healthy Living’ and had been learning how to discuss activities to promote healthy mind/healthy body.

Whole school – We were asked to create an interdisciplinary quiz for the entire S2 cohort. This quiz was to be made on Powerpoint and to last around 3 hrs.

How ICT supported learning and teaching

Spanish – We employed the co-operative learning technique of ‘round table’ and each pupil was given a role. This was expanded and became the technique ‘pass and add’. The groups were reliant on each other to complete the task and all groups were mixed ability. The microphones allowed for recap and amending information prior to a final submission for each team. There was a winning group who in their evaluation did not actually realize just how much Spanish they had actually been using and were really impressed ans was the class teacher and the PT.

Whole school – ICT was critical to the S2 quiz and instantly made the information visible and thus more reader friendly. The microphones, although not used by the pupils themselves, were used as an invaluable teacher tool for a quick way to record round by round instructions which could then be inserted into the Powerpoint as freestanding mp3 files.

Impact / conclusion

Many pupils commented that having both verbal and written instructions had helped them to clarify tasks within their groups. Furthermore, our HID specialists praised the use of audio as well as visual and learning support mentioned that the kinesthetic learners amongst the cohort would have benefited enormously.

Example MP3

A Boyd, C McCormick & M Pégard

Document Camera, Turning Point

Document Cameras – St Barbara’s PS

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Background

The aim was to explore how technology could be used to support Assessment is For learning (AiFL).

How ICT supported learning and teaching

Document projector was used to display examples of children’s work on the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB). This allowed children to assess their peer’s work more effectively having seen it modelled.

Examples of work which had met a set of success criteria was also shared to demonstrate to children exactly what they are required to do. This was used primarily in literacy and art, but did impact on most curricular areas.

Having no squares on my chalkboard meant it was difficult to demonstrate the correct layout to use in numeracy jotters. Using a squared jotter and the document projector allowed me to overcome this. Furthermore, the projector helped to reduce photocopying costs as worksheets could be displayed on the IWB.

Turning point was used to support AiFL by assigning a remote to each child, and matching their name and remote number to a participant list in the software. This allowed me to track the whole class’ progress at a glance, and adapt teaching and learning accordingly. This was used primarily for environmental studies, but could be used across the curriculum.

Impact / conclusion

ICT effectively supported AiFL, and ensured children were actively engaged and motivated in their learning.

The document projector was a valuable piece of equipment and enjoyed by the children. There are many more uses which could be explored further.

Turning Point software took some time to get the hang of.

Easi-speak

Easi – speak – Kilsyth Primary

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Background

I borrowed the Easi-Speak mics to record music & drama work related to the Scotland topic we were doing. I then got the children to upload their poems (P4-7 only) and used discussion boards on Glow (P1-7) to first listen to then respond to what children thought of the work they had done.

How ICT supported learning and teaching

It supported it by allowing the children to have the means to record and hear their voices in larger numbers. It also gave them a chance to improve their computer & internet skills by allowing them to upload & immediately let them hear the results of their work.

Impact / conclusion

It made it easy to work with the whole school to record quite a number of poems & songs. The children thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience & will be seriously considering recommending these mics as a good resource in our school.

Alison Burrows

Here is an mp3 recorded by the pupils: The Puddock

Wii

Wii – Eastfield Primary

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Background

Raising awareness of healthy living and promoting the recent Winter Olympics. We also wanted to highlight the importance of working as a team and sportsmanship as well as sharing and taking turns.

How ICT supported learning and teaching

The Smartboard was linked up to the Wii system and which allowed 4 children to play the Wii on the big screen. Children brought in a variety of games and had the choice of what game they wished to play. Included was Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics, which introduced the children to new events and words such as the luge, skiing, skating and curling. This could be discussed back in class and developed into the rules of the game etc.

We set out clear instructions when playing on safety and looking after the equipment and made the children responsible for tidying away controllers and games at the end of the day.

Impact / conclusion

Most of the children had experienced the Wii before and had lots of knowledge on how to navigate to games and how to safely play the game. It was interesting, however, to notice that the children were not used to clearing after themselves and making sure each game was placed back in the appropriate place. We moved this discussion into the classroom on looking after possessions and belongings. The children loved to show off their skills though and were very competent at using the system.