ICTeD Services

A Postcard to Tim and Moby [and everyone else at BrainPop UK!]

http://www.brainpop.co.uk/

BrainPop UK http://www.brainpop.co.uk/

After getting this nice postcard from Tim and Moby a while ago I thought I would write back [all the way from Australia as we used to say in the snail mail days].
I'm Information and Communication Technology Coordinator at Williamstown Primary School. Williamstown is a suburb of Melbourne, Australia.
In 2009 we really started to install Promethean Whiteboards at the schooland wanted something else as well as ActivStudio [later ActivInspire] to support student learning. After investigation by a group of staff who “road tested” a number of subscription websites, we decided that BrainPop UK was what we needed. So we are into our second annual subscription, it has been great, but it hasn’t taken off in the way that I want. Yes, we are using BrainPop UK in years 3-6 particularly, but we need to give it a real boost in 2012.

So there is the 10 part plan for BrainPopUK implementation at my school next year!

1.     Explore BrainPop UK fully myself, looking for links to the activities we are doing already at         school.


2.     Add a BrainPop UK PopBox to the school’s website home page when it is revamped next year.         See http://www.brainpop.co.uk/blog/request-a-popbox/ Also add the PopBox to the school’s         Intranet homepage. The PopBox highlights new BrainPop UK videos and will generate a lot of         teacher / student and parent interest.

3.     Take some lessons with all Grade 3 – 6 students and their class teachers. Go through some of         the huge amount of resources that are in BrainPop UK and the different activities for each         topic, e.g. the quizzes.

4.     Encourage all of our Professional Learning Teams [PLTs] to add BrainPop UK activities into         their term and weekly planners.

5.     Now we have the 24/7 license [a really worthwhile purchase] get students to start using         BrainPop UK at home. Publicise this feature in the school newsletter.

6.     Build BrainPop into Interactive Whiteboard activities that teachers and students do throughout         the year.

7.    Explore the link between BrainPop UK and Promethean Learner Response Systems. This looks        to be a really cool feature, see
       http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-gb/resources/partner-resources/brainpop/brainpop-uk.aspx

8.     Encourage teachers to share their use of BrainPop UK at their PLT meetings and in their space         on the school’s Learning Management System.

9.     Encourage students to share what they like about BrainPop UK in their class blogs.

10.   Put the URLs of favourite BrainPop UK activities on appropriate pages of the school Intranet          for easy student access.

So that is the plan, let’s see how it goes!.

 

Western Region Study Tour: Integrating ICT into your Primary School Program.

Hope you can join me as part of
ICTEV - Western Region Study Tour: Integrating ICT into your Primary School Program.

Thursday, October 27, 2011 - 09:00 - 15:30

From the ICTEV website.

Following previous successful study tours within the metropolitan area, we are pleased to offer this study tour program in the Williamstown locality of Western Region to assist with ideas for you to integrate ICT into your primary school program. The format of the study tour is to provide a mini bus to transport you between three schools in one day. These study tours are a great opportunity to join with fellow teachers, share ideas and see what other schools do. They are days for observation and to discuss the various approaches being used with ICT in the classroom to achieve exciting outcomes in student performance.
Each school has a differing approach to the integration of ICT and yet in each school their students are obtaining excellent results through the use of ICT in the primary years.  In this tour there is an emphasis on the 1:1 program, with detailed descriptions of the planning that went into its successful implementation. Each school took a varying pathway, which provides delegates with choices and alternatives to consider for their own situations. On the tour you will be taken by bus between Williamstown Primary School, Seabrook Primary School and Altona Primary School.

My part of the itinerary:
 Meet at Williamstown Primary School, Cecil Street, Williamstown for a 9 am start.

9.00
 Williamstown Primary School - Host: Mark Richardson, ICTeD Services
Mark Richardson, ICT Coordinator at Williamstown PS, will introduce you to the ways that the school organises its curriculum around its notebook/netbook trolleys and interactive whiteboards. Find out how these devices are used in English, Mathematics and Integrated Studies and learn how you can plan activities like these for yourself. Examples of planning and activities will be shown and you will be able to talk to teachers about their work.
Topics covered will be:
    •    The importance of whole school ICT / eLearning planning;
    •    How to plan great ICT / eLearning lessons;
    •    The organisational and technical support that is needed;
    •    Using Bloom's Digital Taxonomy as a planning tool;
    •    Making the most of all the software on PCs and Macs;
    •    Using Interactive Whiteboards to enhance classroom management, teaching and learning.
Mark will also demonstrate some of the great Web 2.0 tools to use in the primary classroom, discuss the assessment of student work in ICT / eLearning lessons, explain how a Learning Management System can enhance your lessons and conclude with describing how PD can be integrated into these activities.

Followed by
11.00
 Altona Primary School - Host: Danielle Webster and Robyne Luketic
Making the most of the Ultranet: Strategies at Altona Primary School to promote and encourage teachers' learning.

1.30 
Seabrook Primary School - Host: Delores Giordimaina
In 2011 Seabrook Primary School implemented a one to one MacBook program.

To register go to
http://ictev.vic.edu.au/pd/2011/10/27/western-region-study-tour-integrating-ict-your-primary-school-program

Hope to see you there!!

ACCE Study Tour 2011 Day 12: Promethean, Schools in Queens & Manhattan NYC

 Two school visits today in NYC. One with the assistance of Promethean and the other with that of Apple. First was an Elementary School [234 Queens].

There was lots of great stuff here. Promethean had it as one of its lighthouse schools. The light was to be able to visit classes in the lastfew days before their summer break and chat to teachers and students. In comparing US and Australian schools it is a case of "Same, Same, but Different". Really useful de-brief after the visits.
Scg After lunch, we went back to Manhattan to visit a very different school, Marymount School, 5th Avenue.
Great presentation on how this school is essentially creating its own texts using ePubs which students can access on iPads and other devices.

Making a teaching and learning space for Challenge Based Learning

I've written about my teaching space before, see http://ictedservices.typepad.com/icted_services/2008/11/ict-teaching-learning-spaces.html
The space is now going through another transformation as students and teachers use it for Challenge Based Learning. It now includes a chromakey green screen for student video making using iMovie '09 [See http://ictedservices.typepad.com/elearning/2010/06/challenge-based-learning-activity-for-grade-56-tourism.html and http://ictedservices.typepad.com/elearning/2010/06/challenge-based-learning-activity-for-grade-34-the-human-body-1.html for the units being taught there this term]

Hardware / Peripherals now includes:
29 Intel iMacs running Leopard
1 Intel iMacs running Snow Leopard
1 Promethean Whiteboard
1 Chroma green screen with lamps
2 Flip Camera
2 Digital still cameras
3 Ipods with Belkin TuneTalks
Headsets with mics for nearly every iMac
5 iSight Camera [ the old silver ones]
3 Animation stages with lights
1 Bose speaker set
5 USB thumb drives

The key software includes
ILife '09 [DEECD licence]
iWork '09 [School site licence]
iStopmotion2 [3 seat licence]
Comic Life [School site licence]

Also DEECD provided high speed internet

The room has a great feel to it know and is an inviting learning space
For a plan of it see below
http://www.gliffy.com/publish/2173645/

I'm also starting the Grade 5/6 students using Moodle as a resource to their learning.

Twelve things I would like to see in a teacher using an Interactive White Board in a classroom

I'm planning to move the school that I'm into Interactive White Boards in a big way! A couple of years ago the school purchased a Mimio IWB, and it had some use for a year, but when the teachers that used it left the school, it got little use. It is installed in the ICT room at the moment, because no one wanted it and it is gathering dust! At the time it was a product that had advantages for our school. These included cost, as you can use an existing whiteboard, so therefore cheaper and it also came with Macintosh software [which is a free download]. I'm not being critical of the Mimio here, just explaining what the situation is in my school! I hope that someone in my school wants it and will set it up in their room ...........its available!

I do feel though, [and this ain't rocket science!], that any IWB "training" has to combine the both the technical aspects of IWBs along with the classroom practice and pedagogy behind them,

In June last year, my school entered into an Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian National Schools Network [ANSN]. This network runs five days pedagogical based training for teams of three teachers  from a school, [over three terms], using Promethean boards running ActivStudio 3. The school will become a training base itself later in the year. At the moment I am completing five day hub training myself, with the view of me
1. supporting staff at my school in the implementation of IWBs in the classroom
and
2. becoming a trainer myself when the school becomes an ANSN IWB Hub.
See my web page of IWB / Promethean resources, I'm using during my training.

So it comes down to this, the last ANSN IWB hub for 2009, starts early next term. We are sending a team of three teachers [from a larger number interested].

How do we pick? I think they need a number of characteristics to be able to lead the introduction of IWBs in the school.

Before I list my twelve things I would like to see those teachers demonstrate, I need to explain that obviously not everyone will be trained this year, three teachers will.  We will get one new Promethean IWB from the hub.

But also.......................

• There is another Promethean IWB in the ANSN training room in our main building, which teachers can use when ANSN training is not happening [A fair slice of each week]

• All teachers have been invited to two ANSN IWB "Taster Sessions" this year

• A Prep teacher trained at another school last year is taking all the Prep grades for IWB activities

• More Promethean IWBs and training will follow in 2010 and beyond

• I still have a Mimio IWB [different software, up for grabs!]

So what would I like to see in a teacher joining the ANSN IWB Hub?

01. Membership of a vital professional learning team

02. The ability to critically reflect on their practice

03. Evidence of mentoring / sharing their skills with others

04. To be happy to have other teachers / coaches in their classroom during teaching time

05. Evidence of a range of ICT skills and an ability to learn new ones

06. Ability to scaffold  students in skill and attitude development

07. The attitude to allow students to manage their own learning with parameters after that scaffolding

08. Interest in using the IWB in a variety of teaching situations, whole class, group, and individual

09. Acceptance that students can use the board as much or more than themselves

10. Being prepared to challenge their own teaching practice, or have it challenged by others

11. Being a learner as well as a teacher. Reading professionally on pedagogy and joining learning active communities / networks

12. Being prepared to share their classroom "best practice" with others.

The first team to be trained will need to be passionate about teaching and technology. As the vanguard for the introduction of IWBs at the school, they will need to develop teaching practice which will showcase the benefits of the board. It would be expected that the use of the board would lead to increased student engagement and improved educational outcomes for students in those classrooms.