http://communicty.edublogs.org/2008/01/26/computer-games-in-education/

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I’m starting to gather resources for students to create their own computer games.  So far the most popular one I’ve found is Scratch.  I’ve also found some teaching resources to go with it.

I’ve made a wiki page to gather information, links and teaching resources.  If anyone wishes to add some ideas, either post a comment below or request to join http://communicty.wikispaces.com/Games+Design

This post may be Copyright © 2008 Alex Savage. Hosted by Edublogs.

http://communicty.edublogs.org/2008/01/22/communicty-enewsletter-3/

Just in case you didn’t get what you wanted for Christmas, here is the next edition of my ICT enewsletter. It was great to meet lots of you at ICTnet East and at BETT. To view this newsletter as a blog post click here.

Flashmeeting Video Conference 31/1

As a follow up from ICTnet East, I promised to organise a flashmeeting to demonstrate how it works and give ICT practitioners a chance to share some ideas. It will take place on Thursday 31st Jan from 20:00 - 21:00. Anyone is welcome to participate, but places are limited to 25. For more info click here.

Resources Update

7.1 MyTree - This SEAL project on creating a powerpoint presentation about describing your personality has proved really popular. We’ve now made a short video to explain the project in more detail.

8.3 Searching the Web - This project uses the contrasting themes of life and safaris in Malawi as its focus. There is an assessment task at the end in which students review two contrasting websites. I’ve also added some short films about Malawi.

9.4 Digital News - This project enables students to plan a storyboard in powerpoint and then save the slides as .jpgs and import them into movie maker. I’ve added some examples videos. I’ve also made simple life cycle and gantt diagram for them to do plan the whole project.

To visit our entire KS3 ICT SoW, some KS4 resources and lots more, visit www.communicty.wikispaces.com

Useful Sites

Online stopwatch - a flash based countdown timer that can be used online or downloaded.

Pagebull.com - a visual search engine that shows thumbnails of websites as search results.

Etwinning - Help on how to set up a virtual link with another school, or contact the eTwinning Ambassadors for some free advice

Exploratree - Futurelab’s new thinking guides website.

Bridgebuilder 2000 - Free download simulation software. An excellent cover lesson.

QCA, new KS3 ICT PoS - Explains the revised curriculum in terms of concepts, processes, content and attainment targets. Useful definitions of terms.

Digital Video CPD

The Machine is Us/ing Us - This video explains web2.0 is revolutionising the Internet

Shift Happens - How the evolution of computing is influencing our own evolution (or right click here to save).

Do schools kill creativity - Sir Ken Robinson makes a profound and entertaining case for an education system that promotes creativity.

In the Pipe Line

Assessment for Learning resources for KS3 ICT including pupil tracking using Excel markbooks.

Digital Film Review unit - Revising unit to enable students to create and analyse film review data in database, then create audio film reviews using audacity.

Internet Safety - resources being developed by Pip Cartwright to teach the issues including digital videos

Just for Fun

Zombies in Plain English - Watch your back, Zombies can appear where you least expect them!

This post may be Copyright © 2008 Alex Savage. Hosted by Edublogs.

http://communicty.edublogs.org/2008/01/09/bett-show-08/

On Friday I’m giving my first ever presentations at the BETT Show. I’m on the Policy in Practice stand and Stephen Heppell’s stand in the afternoon. This should make for a busy day!

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Presentation Handout | Presentation | MyTree Article | PageBull Visual Search Engine | bubbl.us mindmapping | Flashmeeting Basic Videoconferencing | My KS3 ICT SoW |

This post may be Copyright © 2008 Alex Savage. Hosted by Edublogs.

http://communicty.edublogs.org/2008/01/08/uea-pgce-training-day/

On Thursday I’m giving a day’s training at UEA for their secondary PGCE trainees.

Training Day Handout | Global Worksheet | Global Village | Rich Poor | R U Global | Global Presentation | ICT Presentation

This post may be Copyright © 2008 Alex Savage. Hosted by Edublogs.

http://communicty.edublogs.org/2008/01/07/teacher-networks-networking-

The Typical Teacher Network and The Networked Teacher are two diagrams created by Alec Couros from the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina as part of his doctoral thesis to signify the different ways in which teachers network in the 21st century.

The challenge is to train teachers to become active contributors to these new networks instead of simply passive observers!

This post may be Copyright © 2008 Alex Savage. Hosted by Edublogs.

http://www.learnblog.net/ict/2007/06/13/whats-happening/
If you think that social network sites such as My Space and Bebo are just for teenagers and pop groups, then think again.  It is now possible to set up a social network of your own and customise it for a group of people with the same interests as you.

Ning.com provides a free service with similar features to My Space such as a blog tool and discussion forums as well as the ability to upload and/or embed images, audio and video. You can also communicate with other members of the network via email.

With a traditional blog, you put up your ideas in isolation and hope that other people will find them. With Ning, you are able to bring your ideas and questions to an existing group of people. This process of firing ideas off other people enables the content of the site to grow organically. Consequently, it becomes possible to show how your ideas form part of a wider context.

Ning also extends the concept of social bookmarking tools such as del.icio.us. By clicking on a member’s avatar you can view not only their contributions on this network, but also what other networks they belong to and who all their ‘friends’ are. This more social form of tagging enables you to literally put a face to an idea.

Rss brings the site to life as you are able to keep up with new additions as they are added. As a result you sense that the contributions become more of a dialogue than a list of seperate ideas.

Networks such as classroom2.0 are excellent for finding out about new teaching tools and resources. However, they also enable you to communicate with teachers who are actually trying them out.

Some teachers are even considering using a closed Ning network as a form of VLE to enable groups of students to access activities and learn how to create their own virtual space in a safe and responsible way.

It is tools like Ning that are changing the internet from an artificial environment of ideas, into a space to meet and share ideas with real people.

http://www.learnblog.net/ict/2007/06/02/what-is-web20/

This is a brilliant video called the Machine is Us.  It explains web2.0 by using web2.0.  Very inspirational.

To view it click here

http://www.learnblog.net/ict/2007/05/24/global-messenger-9/

This edition of Global Messenger coincides with two very important events, the G8 Summit and Father’s Day!

Contents

Communicty.org Update

British Council / Global Gateway Update

Global Dimension Update

Oxfam Cool Planet Update

Sustainable Schools Update

SSAT / iNet Update

Art for Life: Bridging the Digital Divide

Survival International

Global Dates 

Communicty.org Update

Global Dimension in ICT - We recently did a project to create leaflets about the right to education and learning to learn.  We used a blog to share ideas with some schools in the USA and used photos of school life from our link schools in Malawi.  We finished the project with a flashmeeting video conference to Summit High in Cincinnati.

Personalising Data - We’ve created a number of ICT resources using real data instead of imaginary scenarios.

British Council / Global Gateway Update

Etwinning Toolkits - A useful list of teaching ideas for a variety of subjects. There is also a comprehensive list of reccomended etwinning web tools to enable students and teachers to communicate with eachother.

Learning Together - A special free booklet on the European dimension.

Sports Zone - How sport brings countries together

Global Dimension Update

Hot Topic: Trade - A quick start guide to global trade with links to resources.

Case Studies - Find out how other schools have brought a global dimension into their

New Resouces - An update of all the new resources on Global Dimension.

Oxfam Cool Planet Update

G8 - A collection of resources on the key issues concerning the G8 meeting this year

Oxfam School Speakers - fully trained to help pupils aged 8 to 18 explore a range of

issues including poverty, health, education and the work of Oxfam.

Our Food, Our World - A free photopack of resources for 5 - 9 year olds

Oxfam Unwrapped - Lots of unusual gift ideas for Father’s Day!

Sustainable Schools Update

TeacherNet -  An area of their website is now devoted to promoting sustainability in schools.  Links to information, resources and events.

UNESCO - Guidelines on bringing sustainability into teacher training.

SSAT / iNet Update

iNet Primary Conference 3/7/7 - practical advice on developing or sustaining partnerships to enrich teaching and learning

iNet International Conference, Beijing, 18-20/9/7 - How educators can respond to the effects of globalisation?

Art for Life: Bridging the Digital Divide

ELearning 4 Africa has launched an Africa wide art competition for children between the age 5 - 11. Each child may submit a one page drawing or painting about the chosen topic.  Topic: Life in my country. Closing Date: 31 July.  For more information contact el4a@technowledgeable.com

Survival International

Survival International helps tribal peoples defend their lives, protect their lands and determine their own futures.  Their website has a digital storybook called There You Go  to explain how tribes are being wiped out by development.  

Global Dates

World Environment Day - 5.6.7

Father’s Day - 17.6.7

World Refugee Day - 20.6.7

World Population Day - 11.7.7

International Day of Peace , Notre Dame Peace Resources - 21.9.7 

Subscribe/Unsubscribe

Global Messenger is also available as a enewsletter that comes out once every 3 months.  To subscribe email global@notredamehigh.norfolk.sch.uk.  Global Messenger is made in association with Norfolk Education for Action and Developement (NEAD), Norfolk LA and Notre Dame High School, Norwich.

http://www.learnblog.net/ict/2007/05/19/nspcc-poll-on-children-u

The NSPCC is encouraging young people using online social networking sites to speak out about child abuse as part of its new Don’t Hide It initiative which was launched on 14th May.

See: http://www.donthideit.com/

Earlier this year the NSPCC ran a self-selecting online survey on www.Habbo.co.uk . Here’s a quote from the NSPCC online press release:

“There were 2,053 responses from young people (1,187 boys and 866 girls). 1036 had an unwanted experience online. 1071 used social sites at least once a day.

When asked for their top reasons for using social networking sites the poll asked young people to choose as many options as they wished. Top reasons were:

• Making new friends (1824)


• Connecting to friends I already know (1630)


• Improving communication skills (1324)


• Finding people like me (1315)


• Getting advice from people my age (1288)


• Knowing I’m not alone (1194)


• Sharing problems with people my age (1098)

3. 1094 children said they had used social networking sites to support a friend having a rough time; 1061 said they had used social networking to find support when having a rough time.”

For more, visit: http://www.nspcc.org.uk/whatwedo/mediacentre/pressreleases/2007_14_may_nspcc_urges_children_to_stary_safe_

http://www.learnblog.net/ict/2007/05/03/giving-ict-a-global-dime

 

Click on image to view a pdf of the leaflet

It is clear that technology has a significant role to play to inspire and motivate our learners.  We all know that WWW stands for World Wide Web.  However, many schools have yet to realise its true potential for bringing the real world into the classroom.  Communication is literally at the heart of ICT.  Sadly, students are often given tasks involving made up situations rather than being given the opportunity to communicate with a real audience for a real purpose.

In the past students at Notre Dame High School, Norwich did a project to research and create leaflets about their school.  They included information about the history of the school and subjects they learn.  The ICT skills they demonstrated were fine, but their sense of audience and purpose was very limited.

This year we adapted our leaflet unit by making it more personal.  We asked the students to think about how they learn best and what makes a good teacher.  They shared their ideas by adding comments to a blog post set up for free on edublogs.org.  We also invited children at our link school in the USA to contribute their ideas.  We gave our students a digital camera and asked them to take images of the school from their perspective.  Students at our link school in Malawi took photos of their school using disposable cameras and we uploaded them into a digital gallery using bubbleshare.com.  Our classes then did some basic research about the universal right to education and why it is such a valuable part of our lives. 

With all of the ideas and information they had gathered themselves, the students created leaflets on the right to education and learning to learn (see examples learn1 | learn2 | learn3 | learn4 | learn5 | learn6).  The best examples have been sent to our link schools.  The students helped to make the selection, thus providing a real reason for peer assessment.  The project culminated in a flashmeeting video conference between children at both schools to discuss and compare school life.  A recording of the conference was put onto a blog post and the students contributed comments to give feedback on the experience.

We did a student voice online survey using SurveyAtSchool at the end of the project to research whether giving their work a real purpose and audience motivated them to produce better quality work.  According to the analysis 78% said that sharing their ideas on a blog helped them to write better ideas.  88% said that having a real audience gave their work a clearer sense of purpose.

Enabling students to research real issues, create real resources and communicate with a real audience gives their work a real purpose.  The improved quality of our students’ work proves that this motivated them to produce their best.  So, if you want to inspire your learners, remember to Keep IT Real!

 

Click on image to view a pdf of the leaflet