A series of workshops were held (morning and afternoon) at this year’s conference at Albrighton hotel. I had the pleasure of attending two. The schools had put a lot of hard work into their presentations and the children did a fantastic job of teaching the adults. Their confidence was impressive. Well done to all.
ELECTRICAL CONTROL – NEWCASTLE PRIMARY
The children demonstrated the use of Beebots and mats, Probots and Go Software, explaining the controls and suitability for different age groups. The programming of the Probots was demonstrated both by using the buttons on the car and also by using a computer and Probotix software.
The older children demonstrated a good understanding of logical control of the Go software mimics while at the same time addressing the whole group (daunting). They also explained that there is evidence to show the sequencing skills used in Control had a positive influence on children’s sequencing skills in written work. Displays of the children’s own models, which could also be used with the software, were on show.
Find out more about Go control software by visiting www.data-harvest.co.uk . To learn more about Beebots and Probots visit http://www.beebot.org.uk/ and http://www.pro-bot.org.uk/
FILM MAKING – BROSELEY CE PRIMARY
In this session we viewed video clips of a play performed by the children and armed with our check sheets we were able to analyse the different types and effectiveness of shots. Then it was our turn! Using a Sanyo VPC-CA 65EX ( about £130), and under the watchful eyes of pairs of children, we soon became experts at panning, tilting, over the shoulder, mirror, tracking, high, low and snap ( no not at each other)! Super fun to take part and now we can all take our videoing one step higher in the interest charts. Brilliant.
Other cameras you might like to consider are Flip camera (the £70/£80) or the Kodak Zi6 HD Pocket Camcorder (about £100). Interested in a package to create, edit and share you movies? You can have a free trial of Adobe Premiere Elements 7 by visiting http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/premiereel/ Full cost is about £60/£70.
