Back again after a long break as time has been hard to come by. For a while now I have been looking into the productive uses of iPads in the classroom and today was no exception. Thanks to those at Apple Meadowhall for the early but extremely informative educational session on using iPads in the classroom. Also thanks to @9ineConsulting who gave insight into the darkness some of us are stumbling in. More to come on this subject as the days unfold.
Sometimes a lesson can just drift on the wind and although learning may be taking place things just aren’t right for one reason or another. The complex learning undertaken by teachers in order to be “qualified” will be substantial but the fact remains that they are not the finished article and never will be. Teaching must be about adapting, creating and continuous self reflection and then start the process again. What is my point? I am barking at the moon….
How do you stay up to date with software, hardware, apps and the flavour of the day curriculum changes? Education moves so quickly, time as a child in the classroom moves so quickly….does education stay relevant for the lives children live.
Hmmm….I have honed my twitter account @mediaonabicycle to capture just education tweets, well thats the idea. When I started with twitter it was fun and I like many others followed the sports and media celebs, ok some of it was interesting but not relevant to my search to adapt. Having shaved those not required for twitter service off the followers list my education tweets flow fast with interesting resources and ideas. My schools are fast championing the twitter revolution and that a major bonus for parents wondering what has little Peaches and Carter are doing at school today. Regular tweets can be achieved throughout the day by using bufferapp which seems a very useful tool to release your tweets over a timed periods during the day.
Loving using SketchUp as it’s an excellent 3D construction app. It’s accessible to a wide range of ages and abilities due to the ease of toolbars and the excellent video tutorials. The art gallery project is part of scheme of work from the Raising Stars – Switched on ICT resources which is excellent. My gallery needs some more modelling to complete it.
Ok so I have been industrious today. SketchUp is the educational flavour of the month, well in this area anyway. And the bone thrown in my direction is set to develop into a fine learning outcome for myself and hopefully my pupils.
From building an Art Gallery to creating a digital town SketchUp is the technological cornerstone to develop within a changeling ICT curriculum. It runs in parallel with my strangely named old friend “Gimp” which also the the ability to develop animation skills.
For a considerable period ICT has drifted in the digital wind, it is only now that the seeds dispersed and fallen have rooted and developed into the food source of hungry technology educators.
Just blowing in the wind…….
Life moves to quickly and so some times you need to stand still……….and just look around………Our super speed, super highway lives are devouring the vital seconds, minutes, hours and days. The time spent gazing at one screen or another for the latest tweet or post soon breaks the back of your waking hours.
So if we stop, look around and take a few seconds just to focus on our World it may bring moments in time back into focus rather being obscured by a screen. I am not a luddite, for from it but I do think moments in life need to be recorded and used at a productive moment. Recalling or reflecting is a crucial part of teaching practice and as much a part of learning for our pupils.
So why not encourage your students to record images of life, store them and reflect on them. For my part I will be teaching pupils how to use a camera productively, how to edit images and how to safely share them. Setting up a flickr account has been my starting point, uploading life images for other to view and reflect on.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/75876506@N07/
Please comment and use my images but not for profit or resale.
I love twitter, unfortunately I just don’t get enough time to search through all the tweets. Occasionally I find an interesting link tweeted from someones blog and it really makes me sit up and think about its content.
But when it comes to the specific task of helping students, what’s the best app in education? “A web browser,” said Chris Lehmann, Principal of Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, a school that’s embraced technology for years. “Or a Google Doc, or anything that gives you the ability to make a film, or to research, to create, to connect or collaborate,” he said.
Lehmann is famous in progressive education circles for his quote: “Technology must be like oxygen: ubiquitous, necessary, and invisible.” His point: The best technology allows students to explore and create “artifacts of their own learning.”
This comes after a couple of weeks where all I have heard is ipad, ipad, ipad….I am still sceptical…are educationalists blinded by the Wow factor of Apple products which is in itself a pretty exciting experience. Well I have an ipad which sits on our living room table as a quick reference guide, photo gallery, missed media viewer and sometimes we even check our emails online. What a brilliant device, you could say excellent even, but for the price and how open it can be on a network should it be used in a school environment?
Will ipad’s used by the school SMT need to be encrypted? When will the first school be prosecuted for not buying the correct licenses for their app’s per device?
Interesting these apple times….
Working hard on getting to grips with Gimp and Scratch which I will need to know inside out. Thats quiet a clean image, think i am getting somewhere.
This is like so much fun…. Cowhead….the new album by John Doe
Not a bad attempt for my first go, will be trying other stuff over the next few days. What a great program and its free.
