Wednesday 9 July 2014

Google docs and ILT for teaching and learning



Inspired by my colleagues in #ukfechat, I've been investigating and playing with some more ILT apps for Teaching and Learning.

Here are a few easy to use examples to get started with.



Socrative: fun and super easy to use http://www.socrative.com/


Screencast: Captures screen and Webcam video and saves it or posts it online on YouTube or the program's Web site. With a well-designed interface and simple operation, it's a fun and useful way to develop lesson content    http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/


Reviews of similar software are here, so you can find the one that suits you best ... or try them all http://www.emergingedtech.com/2010/01/comparing-12-free-screencasting-tools/

Drop Box: really useful for accessing your documents and files anywhere you are and no need to carry data sticks and discs around. https://www.dropbox.com/ you can also download through iTunes for iPhone and iPad

Prezi: cloud based presentation software to make exciting presentations http://prezi.com/

Maths: http://www.mathseverywhere.org.uk/ brilliant collection of maths ideas

Show Me: easily produce and share lessons on iPad.  There are all minds of resources and games on the website. The UK site is currently undergoing construction but the worldwide has lots of useful stuff http://www.showme.com/ also available on iTunes

AudioBoo: Podcasting and audio software https://audioboo.fm/

Google Docs: Stunningly clear and useful site covering everything you need to know about 'using the Cloud' all Google docs knowledge is here http://www.gcflearnfree.org/usingthecloud

Pinterest: can be used to collect images relating to a topic. Great for visuals and starters such as .
"what's the connection between" https://uk.pinterest.com/

Edmodo: like a 'safe Facebook', great for creating on line closed classrooms https://www.edmodo.com/

Alice: creates a 3D animated environment for telling stories https://schoolforge.net/education-software-download/alice

 Flipped Classrooms and Learning: http://flippedlearning.org/site/default.aspx?PageID=1

Using Mobile Phones for Learning:  http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/mobile-learning-for-education and    http://www.teachhub.com/how-use-cell-phones-learning-tools

I find mobiles are brilliant in areas of a college with no computers and/or WiFi. Learners can photograph each others work if they're stuck and use those images for revision

You can also send them the relevant bits of their assignment brief as a quick text, so if they're out in a field or a building site, they can quickly check the criteria they're working to. Very useful for differentiating the required outcomes when there is no easy access to paper assignments or computer whiteboards.

See QR codes use below

Using video: I use video in a range of lessons; for recording discussions, for presentations (especially Functional English and A level Project equals, for recording role play, experiments, etc as evidence for Exam boards and for evaluative feedback on a learners performance.

Also useful for discretely filming your own teaching and class behaviour. Watch it back and it's so clear how many issues are easily missed in the heat of a lesson. Share it with your teaching mentor too or a colleague in Peer Triangle to identify areas which you can develop.

Put the video on YouTube, so learners can use them for revision. Even better, make a 90 second 'key aspects' video using Screencast and upload it to YouTube, then tag it to a QR code so they can scan it with their phone and revise .... fast!

There is no right or wrong way of using ILT, just pick a medium and try it.  if it doesn't work first time, try with a different group. It will work, you just need the right group and right idea to come together and once it does ... there will be no stopping you.

These are people who really know their stuff and are incredibly collaborative; follow them.

@robsolway

 @gillersn

@chas_countryboy

@bcotmedia

@jo_bale

@EdTech_Stories

@bobharrisonset

@MoodleMcKean

@A_Clowe

And of course @FurtherEdagogy and his fabulous http://eteachingutensils.blogspot.co.uk/

There are many, many more and the best way to find them is to type #ukfechat into the box, type a question and answers will appear. Someone will always have a fab idea.




 

Sunday 6 July 2014

End of an era; The Mouzer Years

Children need education, that is a truism so true as to be self-evident. What constitutes education though is another question.

Much of my childrens education came from their pets and today, the last of the original 'magificent three' passed away. I'm not counting the fish, guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits and assorted bugs in temporary capture nor the worms in a wormery or the seemingly endless 'things we grew in water', brine shrips, scary things and a host of others including tadoples for frogs and toads, nor the newts that have taken up residence in the pond.

No, the 'magnificent three' consisted of a loopy labrador and two cats, rescued from the Cat Protection League when my daughter was three and my son, 5. Living on a farm, cats were a necessity if we weren't to have more mice than an IT classroom.

Their favourite book was 'The Mousehole Cat' and the brother and sister kittens were named Mouzer as she was the very spit of the cat on the front cover, and Old Tom - cue odd looks from the vet when presented with a 10 week old kitten named so, but my children were using their imagination.

Old Tom passed on some time ago aged 15 after he fought, killed and dragged home one ferret too many. He never really adapted to 'indoor' life except in the winter, when the lure of the Rayburn became too much and he curled up, resting his bones and restoring his muscles in his quest to be the Ultimate, the most dominant life form in Hampshire. He loved Christmas Day too, when the Turkey roasted and he had a series of large and juicy slices of his own. Smudge, the loopy labrador went last year achieving a fantastic 15 years on the farm, proud to have chased Rabbits and Hot Air Balloons with equal passion. Mouzer just went on and on and on.

Over the years, the animals fell to one injury or another, nursed by the children. The earlier days of indignity, when wrapped in blankets and transported with a resigned tolerance we would all do well to learn, in a Ladybird dolls pram by my daughter, were forgotten. Flinty paws were bathed, Ferret bites were cleaned and the entire contents of a cows backside, which had fallen onto a dozing Mouzer and set like concrete in the heat of a summers day in the buttercupped meadow were scraped off and the remaining dross bathed away with love and care.

Mouzer went everywhere my daughter did; sleeping on her bed, following her to the bathroom, kitchen, down the garden and back in the most devoted way imaginable. Mouzer was her cat and no others. Once she disappeared and we plastered the area in posters and our local postman kindly stuffed flyers though everyones letter box for us. She turned up in our neighbours house, fast asleep in the airing cupboard, sadly on top of the clean white sheets, but the look on my daughters face when reuinted with her beloved pet was beyond priceless. She had learned to love, unconditionally and to understand that sometimes, things are not permanent.

As cats they had a poor start in life; abandoned in a sack, contracted Cat Pox and were isolated until they were 10 weeks old. When we finally got them home, they raced around the house as if their tails were on fire, then slept behind the fridge for a week until they felt more confident. My daughter, aged 3 sat by the fridge all day, trying to tempt them out. As soon as Mouzer appeared, she climbed on to my three year olds shoulder and rode, like a parrot around her new domain. It was wonderful to see such a bond form.

As she grew, Mouzer continued to devote herself to the girl. When she came home from school, Mouzer would be waiting, she joined in the birthday parties, wandering from tent to tent and stealing bits of sausage as we held mini-festivals in the back garden, charming all who met her and guarding my daughter as she slept. She was a one girl cat and it was mutual.

She's grown now, and moved out, to live her own life and it was the hardest thing I've had to do, to tell her that Mouzer had finally gone in her sleep and the last of the triumviate was no more.

We buried her in her favourite spot, under the Buddlia bush in the sunshine with a cushion of springy Hampshire moss and sweet Clover for her cover and gave thanks for her life. She was a cat who taught my daughter so many things and gave me the deepest pleasure in watching her learn them.

RIP Mouzer (21 years of age).