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It’s Friday evening and there is nothing on the television, so why not go and grab some popcorn and sit down to watch our very own Katrina Smith from Priory School, Shrewsbury.

Hopefully you are all aware that John Davitt is the morning keynote for the Shropshire ICT Conference in 2010 (March 16th).  The video below is his presentation at Handheld Learning 2009, October.

If you wish to attend the conference or require further information, please contact Chris Walker.

A little bit late in posting this, but times are busy……

At the conference I was lucky enough to attend Russell’s radio station workshop, in 50mins the audience was set the task of producing a 5min radio show.  We were split into groups and I foolishy volunteered our group to do a slot on fashion!!

Harvey had brought over a group of students from Sundorne who are looking into setting a radio station at the school.  The students were embedded into every group to assist the teachers.

As a group we decided to write our piece on ‘Teachers School Uniform’  – should teachers be allowed to wear what the wished or should they were a uniform?  We had to put togther 1mins worth of content, Tim Curtis (Shrewsbury High School) decided to cut the 1min down in 1second slots and assigned activties to each one.

When we had put together our piece we moved over to the radio station and started to cut it.  The radio desk appeared very simple to use and we quickly had our section cut.

Following on from our success the remaining groups put there sections of the show together.

You can listen to the whole show here: Radio Workshop Broadcast.

 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/

(If you are still using the old Flowol software you can upgrade to the Go software for about £75. Download a free demo by clicking here). 

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.

We hope to post a series of reports from the ICT conference over the next few days. I’d like to start by thanking the pupils and staff of Clunbury School for providing a fantastic workshop on their use of the Learning Gateway. They looked at the primary product but decided to go for the full version. Pupils have rapidly become confident with the interface and are using blogs, wikis and email, customising their own areas and uploading work. They are using the classroom area to hand in homework, where it is marked online and returned to them. There are links for the children to access to help with their work and a class calendar to help them keep up to date with events. The children talked about their work with enthusiasm and expertise and we were all wowed by them! Thank you every much, Clunbury.

Due to being called for jury service, Andy Black is unable to be the keynote speaker at this years conference – stepping up to the mark is now Russell Prue.

Russell Prue
Award winning ICT Evangelist, Author & Inventor

Russell is an independent ICT Evangelist and Entrepreneur.  Using live demonstrations Russell looks at new and existing technologies and suggests new ways that colleagues can take advantage of these in their subject teaching in the C21st.  Russell also provides strategic ICT thinking to a number of key UK education players.  He is involved in several action based research projects and is passionate about educational ICT.  Russell also produces resources for parents and teachers on E-safety that are sold under the RPC Training Ltd brand www.rpctraining.co.uk

In his keynote presentation Russell will be showing colleagues how to engage and motivate learners using some of the latest technologies and also how by relaxing some of the rules and regulations that we impose on learning can benefit learning outcomes.  Mobile Phones, Nintendo Wiis and DS-Lites are just a few of the examples that will be demonstrated.  Russell is also a keen inventor and has made some significant improvements to literacy and engagement with his mobile keyboard and prediction software.  www.cre8txt.com   Russell will also be showing a new concept in PE and Dance Exercise education with a Virtual PE Teacher system, pulling a “Bollywood” or “Salsa” teacher out of thin-air is something that technology can do in the C21st.  More information from www.virtualpeteacher.co.uk

In September 2008, Russell started broadcasting two live Radio Shows a month to educators about Learning & Teaching in the C21st and started Anderton Tiger Radio.  He also runs Live Radio Workshops in schools so that young people can experience the thrill and excitement of producing a live radio show.  Russell will have his radio studio with him and in his workshop session that immediately follows his keynote; colleagues will be encouraged to participate in a live radio workshop with some young people working alongside them.  More about Russell’s live radio shows and to listen again to any of his broadcasts or podcasts please visit www.andertontiger.com/radio

‘It’s Not About The Gadget’
Using Technology to Support Learning
ICT & E-learning Conference

26th March 2009 Albrighton Hall Hotel

o    Keynote and workshop sessions by Andy Black & David Baugh
o    Presentations by Shropshire Schools
o    Software and content exhibition and special deals
o    Update on the Shropshire Learning Gateway
o    Excellent venue and food

Full day price: £130 per delegate (or £200 for two, if one is a member of SMT)

This is a conference for primary, special and secondary colleagues including governors, about learning and teaching using ICT.

Reserve this date NOW – better still, register to guarantee your place: course code 82399c via Shropshire EMS Online CPD, email cpd@shropshire.gov.uk or tel 01743 254522.

Note: Further details including seminar and workshop options will be sent to all Shropshire schools. These details and conference news will also appear on here.

Creativity and E-Learning in the Classroom Conference
Key-note Speaker: Professor Stephen Heppell

‘For the times they are a-changin’

With so many new education websites springing up through the concrete vastness of the web, you could spend your life sorting through the rubble. Cue Professor Stephen Heppell: the superhero of e-learning. Acclaimed by The Guardian as ‘Europe’s leading online education guru’ and heralded by Microsoft as ‘Europe’s leading online education expert.’

Young people embrace technology and creativity, and have been hungry for change, so as Professor Heppell puts it: “We are pushing against an open door.”

“Creativities’ time has come”
All over the world Schools are moving from generic education, to personalized, unique, individual learning, in which staff and students can thrive. We are moving away from factory-like schools, corridor-like learning, to wide open multi-functional spaces. What space is more open? More diversified? More democratic and international than the internet? None.

Professor Heppell says: “When you look at something, you stop seeing it: it’s like that with schools.” It is also like that with education in general. This change and shift that we are just easing ourselves into is not “a change for changes sake”. It is essential. Our place in the world as a country that is regarded highly for its education standards is slowly slipping. If we use an analogy form the talk: think of which countries are world leaders in terms of the film industry. Now what about the car industry? Or fashion? Each time you are probably thinking of fewer countries than you have fingers, a handful for each industry. The race to be a world leader in education will produce a few countries: India, China, Turkey.  Now, is a crucial shift in education which will help us decide if we will be one of those world leaders. This depends on our attitudes to learning, and willingness to adapt to these changes.

Trying New Ideas
Here are some examples of what other learning educators are doing around the world:
•    Leasowes School in Dudley, studies one GCSE per month.
•    An Australian School has students from 11 years old sit in on 4 hours of lectures per week at a nearby University.
•    Bilston Academy has quiet cafes and the staffroom if for both staff and students.
•    At a school in Yorkshire, they have introduced “The Praise Pod”: this works in a similar way to Heads’ commendations, when a student(s) has done well they get interviewed and it becomes a podcast and/or video, which they can then take home that day.
•    A school in the Caribbean has students sit on both interview panels and lesson observations.
•    Most local businesses will showcase students work if possible: for example, cinemas can show videos of students work before the main film, TV shops can broadcast them, even simply turning a projector onto a window at the end of the school day is a great way of broadcasting to the local community the activities and achievements of the students.
•    Some schools have also introduced a Board of Good Work to celebrate and look into how to encourage students to celebrate their achievements.

This is mega advanced notice – date for your diary:

Shropshire ICT Conference and Create IT! awards – March 26th 2009, Albrighton Hall.

http://www.oscarstringer.co.uk/

There are many different types of software and types of animation. We are going to focus on stop motion animation. (Which is the type of thing used to create Wallace and Gromit.)

To create a stop-motion animation you need: a camera or video camera, Windows Movie Maker, (which all PCs have) or some other film editing software. You will also need something to animate.

Stop Motion Animation

• Keep it very simple.
• Don’t have too many characters.
• Adapt stories that both students and teachers are familiar with.
• Larger objects are easier to manipulate.

Using Models

• Focus on the main feature of the animal or character you are making.
• Keep facial features to a 2 or 3 (e.g. eyes, nose, mouth)

Areas where animation can be used are:

• in team building for staff,
• developing interpersonal/ people skills.
• as a learning resource for all subjects
• for creativity in Art
• to improve literacy in English
• for calculations in Maths.

One of the benefits of animating is that everyone starts at the same level so it is suitable for students of mixed ability.

Filming Tips and Tricks

• The moves in-between each picture don’t have to be too small.
• To avoid the objects you are animating looking like they are twitching then you will need to do the maths and work out how many shots you will need to take.
• To slow down the animation, you will need a pause. You do this be keeping the object/subject still and taking several photographs.

Bringing your animation to life
You make think once you’ve done your animation and edited it that that will be it, but no. One of the key things with any film or animation is the music. Here are a list of useful websites to get royalty free sound effects and music from.

www.findsounds.com
www.partnersinrhyme.com
www.freeplaymusic.com (this music can only be used in school.)

Also, here are some links to free animation programmes
StopMojo www.mondobeyondo.com/projects/stopmojo/
MonkeyJam www.giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.com/monkeyjam