Easiscopes – Stepps Primary

October 21, 2011 Mrs Shaw

Background
We had initially borrowed the easi scopes to use with our nature topic. We were looking at the variety of wildlife/plantlife that can be found in our local environment and were going on to compare different types of habitats.

How ICT supported learning and Teaching
The children worked in small groups to gather items and record the area that they had been found in. Each small group had a different area to examine.
We initially started using the easi scopes to get a better look at some of the natural that we were finding out in our playground. The pupils quickly realised that there was so much more to them than the naked eye could see. They were amazed at the variety of textures and smaller details that they had been totally unaware of.

However, one of the groups discovered that the different textures on the human body were pretty interesting. This led on to the children looking at the different textures and details that were on the Human Body. Since this was a topic that they had completed in the previous year we decided to spend some time on this. The pupils had chosen to take their learning down a new path. They were very enthusiastic and were able to relate their new learning to knowledge that they had previously gained.

Conclusion
The easi scopes are very easy to use and all of the pupils were able to use them independently.
The pupils were able to discover for themselves just how detailed, patterned or textured things are. They literally have had their eyes opened to the fact that although our human eyesight is amazing it can also be very limiting. Several of the children have since spoken about how they have examined items at home using magnifying glasses and shared their learning with others at home.

Easi-speak

Easi-Speak Microphones – St Margaret of Scotland Primary

October 13, 2011 User deactivated

Working in groups, P6 pupils were challenged to create raps highlighting the negative aspects of cyberbullying. The pupils were very enthusiastic and asked if they could record their work. The children were delighted when they discovered that they could use the easi speak microphones.

The equipment was very user friendly and the children were able to record their raps in the classroom. The raps were put on Glow for the children to listen to and share with their family. The next stage is to add music using Garageband.

Each pupil also recorded a poem, which again was put on Glow. Every pupil enjoyed the experience of recording and listening to their work. A few children were nervous at first, however, all were keen to participate.

The quality of each recording was good, considering they were recorded in class. It was very easy to transfer and upload the recordings.

iPod Touch

IPod Touches at Cathedral Primary School

October 10, 2011 User deactivated

I explore and experiment with the features and functions of computer technology and I can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts.

TCH 1-04a / TCH 2-04a

This year I’m responsible for delivering ICT and French throughout the whole school. We recently borrowed 10 IPod Touches from the Computer Centre and they have been exceptionally popular. I have used them in every stage throughout the school in a variety of different ways.

In Primary 6 & 7, children used them to research countries around the world and Google Earth to enhance their class topic.

In Primary 5, The Human Body app tied in nicely with their current topic.

In Primary 3 and 4 the maths apps were a huge hit.

Primary 2 had great fun with the Martian app, Fling Free and Sketch Pad apps; and in the last 2 weeks I have been brave enough to try them out with Primary 1 classes. Initially, it was very basic things such as unlocking the screen and sliding between pages. However, their enthusiasm and fearlessness has meant that they have quickly been able to progress to choosing an app themselves, after showing them simple ones that were suitable for them.

The French Lite app has been used throughout the upper school classes to reinforce taught French vocabulary and encourage a renewed enthusiasm for learning a language.

Nintendo DS

Improving Mental Agility with DSi

August 12, 2011 User deactivated

In term 4 Primary 5 at Chapelside Primary School in Airdrie had the opportunity to borrow a set of 10 Dsi’s. The children were extremely excited about this familiar piece of equipment in their classroom. Only a few of the children had never used a DSi so initial instuctions in the use of the equipment was very quick and the more experienced users in the class were able to support the novices in getting to grips with this.
The children used the DSi during their everyday numeracy sessions in class. The children were shocked to discover that they were working with a brain age on average of 80 years old.

They were very keen to improve on this and an element of competition in doing so kept the children engaged as they battled to improve their own and at the same time beat their classmates ‘brain age’.
The main aim of using the DSi in our primary 5 classroom was to support the children in developing mental agility in order to assist and improve their work in numeracy. The nature of the games in the brain training programme helped the children to do this. This was esepecially evident during quick fire multiplication, addition or subtraction games used in whole class or group situations. I was very pleased to see that many of the children were answering the questions quicker and with more ease and believe this is linked to the use of the games in the brain training programme.

I would highly reccommend the use of DSis in the classroom in order to support and develop mental agility and to engage the children’s interest through the use of technology in the classroom.

Miss Docherty and The Brilliant Bloggers

Easi-speak

Using Easi Speak Microphones

June 30, 2011 User deactivated

Background

As part of our S2 ICT course pupils were asked to create an animation of an Olympics game. After working in groups to produce the animation they would be encouraged to record their own voice over to personalise their animation as pupils would work on their own to edit the animation.

How ICT supported learning and teaching

Using the easi speak microphones pupils recorded their voice over in a quiet room and were then able to add it to their animation. Working in a quiet room with the microphones allowed a variety of pupils to enhance and personalise their animation. Some of the pupils managed to upload their animation to Glow for othe pupils to see and comment on.

Impact / conclusion

Some of the pupils were enthusiastic about recording their voice over and others needed some encouragement! Pupils who did this were delighted with their final product even though they hated listening to their own voice. We have now bought some easi speak microphones for use in next year’s S2 course!

Yes, the voice over script was that long!

I Can Animate

Using I Can Animate With S2 Pupils

June 30, 2011 User deactivated

Background

Our S2 course was a ‘dip your toe in the water’ CfE course. Pupils had no formal ICT teaching in S1 so we were able to try out lots of different tasks using the Olympics theme. I knew that I could borrow equipment from the Computer Centre to use for some of the tasks as we didn’t have suitable hardware and software to create an animation of an Olympics game. We worked with some of the Art staff to use their expertise for making backgrounds and models for our animations, what a difference this made!

How ICT supported learning and teaching

Using laptops with I Can Animate software allowed pupils to work collaboratively as part of a team to plan and produce their animation. Pupils then worked individually on their animation using iMovie to edit and add audio and titles to it. Some of the pupils managed to upload their animation to Glow for othe pupils to see and comment on.

Impact / conclusion

The pupils were enthusiastic about this task, “I used to hate Thursdays but I like them now!”. They enjoyed working with others to plan their animation and were delighted with their final product. The classroom was always full of busy, noisy pupils organising themselves! I added a survey to our Glow group and most of the pupils indicated that it was their favourite task and would have liked more time to work on it. We have now bought I Can Animate and cameras for use in next year’s S2 course!

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