All posts by Mr Sharp

Nintendo DS

Nintendo DSis – Eastfield Primary

Background

Our school is currently trying to update the teaching of I.C.T. and the hardware available to use in class.  When I decided to loan out the DSis the school had placed an order for IPads but only had laptops and Desktops timetabled to classes.  Therfore I wanted to loan the DSis to give more opportunities to my class and other pupils in school to use technology to enhance their learning.

How ICT supported learning and teaching

Primarily I used the DSis as a finishing task, where the pupils could practise their quick mental maths and reading skills on the Brain Training.  I rotated the DSis arounf the groups in the class so that everyone was given an opportunityto practise and ‘beat their brain age’.  As the IPads arrived in school I was then able to give more pupils the chance to use I.C.T. as a finishing/consolidation task.

Impact / conclusion

Pupils were more engaged in their finishing task when using the DSi as they saw it as luxury or playing a game – even though they were still learning.  It was also clear to see pupils helping one another and working together (pairing up and sharing a DSi) to get a better score or result.  The class loved the chance to use the DSis and I am sure they will have the same enthusiasm with the new school IPads.

   

Airliner

Airliner Slate – Eastfield Primary School

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Background

I decided to borrow the Airliner as I do not have a Smartboard in my class and the I.C.T. room in the school can become crowded with a full class lesson.  Therefore I wanted to see if I could solve the space issues with the wireless capabilities of the Airliner.

How ICT supported learning and teaching

Basically I used the Airliner to allow pupils to interact more during lessons and presentations.  Instead of moving through the crowd to come out to click on the screen etc, the pupils just passsed round the slate which solved classroom management issues.

Impact / conclusion

The pupils enjoyed the fact that they had more interaction with the Smartboard instead of just wathcing and listening.  They also liked the novelty factor or everyone watching their movements on the ‘big screen’.  During class presentations of their topic research, some the pupils also decided to use the Airliner instead of just standing out the front clicking on the laptop to move on a slide.  This gave the pupils more of an opportunity to move around the classroom, pose questions to the audience and take answers.

Easi-Scope

Easi-scopes – Eastfield Primary School

Background

We borrowed the Easi-scope equipment as a useful tool to supplement the learning and teaching of our Science topic ‘Investigating Plants’.

How ICT supported learning and teaching

The Easi-scopes were used enable the pupils to explore the various parts of flowers in greater detail and record the intricate make-up of flower parts.  This coincided with the class picking their own flowers to dissect from the school grounds and then deciding which part of the flower they wanted to firstly research and then place under the microscope.

Impact / conclusion

The pupils thoroughly enjoyed looking at the parts of the flowers in greater detail and were amazed at the textures and colours they could se under the microscope.  They also extended their knowledge and understanding of I.C.T. and worked co-operatively with others to achieve their goals.  After taking still pictures under the microscope, the pupils were then able to upload them onto the class Blog (through GLOW) and left evaluative comments on what they thought of each other’s pictures.

Evidence

   

   

featured, iPod Touch

I-Pod Touches (Eastfield Primary School)

Background

We borrowed the I-pod touched with a view of supporting the learning and teaching of I.C.T. both in the classroom and also during an after school club.  The school were made aware of the loan and several teachers took the opportunity to use the equipment to enhance the learning of their pupils.

How ICT supported learning and teaching

At the school’s I.C.T. club we decided to create a Virtual Tour of the school which would then be uploaded to the school’s website.  Although this is still in the process of being edited we used the I-pods to quickly capture the various parts of the school and then uploaded the images onto I-Movie 09.

After downloading a ‘time lapse’ for all the i-pods many teacher took the opportunity to capture a lesson and them upload it to their Blog on the school website.  This allowed parents of the school to watch a little snap-shot of their child’s class and then leave a comment on the lesson (if they desired).

Some classes also chose to use the video function to record class talks and then edit them in I-Movie 09 before uploading them onto their Blogs for parents to see. 

The I-pods were used extensively for surfing the internet gathering information about non-ficiton texts and also to take notes on class topics at the time.

Finally the pupils also loved to use the various language and maths apps on the I-pods when they had finished their class work.

Impact / conclusion

As you can see the school used the I-pods to a great effect and now we have made real developments on our school website due the quick capturing and editing process of the I-pods.  It cut out the need to borrow/share cameras and video cameras in the school and teachers could use the I-pods when opportunities came up instead of planning weeks in advance.  The pupils also had the opportunity to experience much more I.C.T. learning instead of only a weekly timetabled slot of the school’s I.C.T. room.

Evidence

Scottish Dancing:      Primary-3-4 Primary-4

P7 Science Fayre:  Capillary Attraction Full-Fat-v-Low-Fat Liquid Reactions

Iron Brew Volcano Marvellous Marshmallows

Natural-Disasters Oil and Water

Time Lapse:             Castles-1 Castles-2 p1-time-lapse p1-time-lapse-2

P2 time lapse P4-Maths time lapse

featured, I Can Animate

I Can Animate – Eastfield Primary School

Football Funny Haunted House Tom and Jerry X Factor

Background

Our I.C.T. school club ran from September to December in weekly 1 hour blocks.  15 children attended to learn how to use animation software and how to edit the movies in I-Movie.  At first we split the pupils into smaller groups and asked them to create a basic storyline, characters and background to their movie.  Next we used various art materials to make our background and plastercine to make the characters.  The filming process lasted a few weeks with each pupil choosing to be either a director, filmcrew or actor.  Then we exported the finished movie and added titles, credits and voice effects using I-Movie.

How ICT supported learning and teaching

We used the school laptops for the webcams and downloaded the ‘Frame by Frame’ software.  The webcams and microphone allowed the pupils to add in their own effects and movements.  The pupils worked in small groups so that everyone would get a chance to use the various hardware and software.  The teacher used the large mounted smartboard to show the pupils each step of the process and to highlight any problems and solutions they were having.

Impact / conclusion

The pupils loved using the new software and different functions on the laptops that previously they would not have used.  next the club aims to build on the knowledge gained to produce move movies, using I-Movie.

Flip Camera

Eastfield Primary – Flip cameras using Imovie 09

Battle of Eastfield Primary

Background

The Primary 4 and 5 pupils came together to share their learning from their respective topics (Romans and Wallace and Bruce). They decided to create their own battle on the school pitch and planned the battle, made weapons and shields, voted for leaders and wrote speeches for the leaders to say before the battle.  

How ICT supported learning and teaching

We used the Flip cameras to film the entrances, speeches and main battle scenes of the battle and we able to zoom in and out of the action, picking up the expressions of the faces of the soldiers.  After filming the two classroom teachers uploaded and edited the footage using Imovie 09 and added transitions, captions, music and credits creating a real film for the pupils to watch back and enjoy.

Impact / Conclusion

The pupils thoroughly enjoyed carrying out the tasks invovled in creating the battle and loved using the Flip cameras to pick up the footage of their friends.  They found using the camera very easy and would often teach each other about the functions of the buttons and how to zoom etc.  When watching back the completed movie the pupils loved seeing themselves and ther friends acting out and were impressed with the transitions and credits.  I would have liked to include the pupils in the editing process but they have not had any experience with Imovie 09 yet.  This is a project I would definiately recommend to others as the pupils were completely enthused about using the cameras and producing a professional film.