By Eshrat

For anyone who doesn’t normally read my blog, I am currently doing the first of my Masters modules via the Open University. My module is looking at Innovation in eLearning. For our second assessment, we were asked to interview someone who is connected to or who has created or led an innovation within an educational context.

After some research on Twitter – (Bless my Personal Learning Network!) – I discovered these lovely ladies from Norfolk (I know I’m from Suffolk but I can’t help it!). The date was set, the venue chosen, the journeys planned – ever the pro, I rocked up with a postcode scrawled on a post-it < /eternally a teacher >

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I’d seen this #DLChat hashtag on my Twitter feed but I’d never really understood it or researched further. The longer I spent on Twitter, the more often I saw it. I started following SheliBB’s tweets and started to understand more of what was happening. I requested that Sheli could be my innovator and she agreed and suggested that Jenni could help out too.

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Thursday 19 April I attended a borough MLE networking event and found a lot of interest in the leader idea. I am now going to address local primary leaders in June. Teachmeet Kent on the 18 May will offer an opportunity to include DLs as part of the latest Mishmash presentation.

A quote that I used as part of my presentation:

Also we were using the Apple Macs for Literacy. Some students changed the tempo to suit the atmosphere for our suspence music. We were using them to accompany our suspence story, so when we read our suspence stories there was more excitement created and in some cases a scream or two! 

If you would like to listen to our BETT Radio interview please go to:
www.andertontiger.com/audio/engayne-pupils-visit-BETTRadio.mp3

http://feb29th.net/

Have to say a big thank you to @SheliBB, who has given me some excellent ideas and structure to what I am planning.

I have decided to ask my recruits to apply for the position.   This may go one of two ways.  I am aware that some pupils may be wary of having to apply, but I feel that it is important that they realise that it is an important role and has responsibilities and is to be taken seriously.  Although in essence an after school club, I expect the pupils who do attend to be respectful of the position and consider it as a job of sorts.

I am going to ask my pupils to fill out a questionnaire, simply asking why they want the ‘job’, what skills they think they can bring, and what they hope to get out of it.  I really wanted to get them to produce a Kodu game as I feel this is the nicest environment to start us off, unfortunately our machine will not run Kodu so I have decided to run with Scratch instead.

Pupils will be given a simple game example and then 45 minutes to develop further or create something new, they will then be told whether they are successful or not.

Once successful the applicants will be in on two hour sessions a week, one session will be to develop Scratch, the second session will to be develop Text Adventures.

Their role is to trial ‘new’ software packages and then assist me in the teaching of topics in the classroom.

I hope that the Digital Leaders programme is successful and gives pupils a sense of worth and enjoyment.  I hope to record pupils as they work with Audioboo and blog the results.

Watch this space!!

The three young leaders and I gave a presentation at the conference to teachers from across Wales on how the Digital Leaders programme was progressing including how it started and what has been involved. They discussed their work on E-safety, the VLE and an insight into Ysgol Bryn Elian’s new 3D technology.

A video of my youngest Digital Leader (my son Lincoln aged 2 confidently using an iPad) helped pose the question “When does Digital Literacy begin?”

After a few questions at the end, the leaders were interviewed by another school on what they had achieved, then it was back to the train station to rush back to school as they were also representing the Ysgol Bryn Elian at our annual open evening.

As a teacher of ICT it’s great to have such a dedicated group of youngsters who really want to make a difference in their school. The three representatives along with the rest of the YBE Digital Leaders worked tirelessly during our open evening to showcase the 3D technology and the new Augmented Reality resources available for 10 subjects. They were presenting to parents with such confidence they made me very proud.

I look forward to continue working with these dedicated pupils for a long time to come.

Well done guys, you ALL did a fantastic job!!!

In my opinion, qualifications such as the OCR national had become a qualification for the school rather than the individual. Trudging through MS office for years to get the equivalent of a million GCSE’s seems a little pointless and hardly preparing our children for what lies ahead. Who knows what the technological landscape will look like by the time the enter employment. The likes of the OCR National sit well with those comfortable in teaching “what they know” with little requirement to spread your wings further than a 4 bit binary number!

Here in Wales, we are fortunate to have time on our side in that we don’t have to run with this for some time, however my feeling is why delay it? Let’s do it now, embrace it, get brilliant at it and most of all enjoy it. It’s the curriculum I’ve been dreaming of anyway so for once I get to open my presents BEFORE Christmas.

Today took me back to 1987 where I was a 14 year old nagging my parents for the brand new Spectrum +3. Thankfully they heard my plea and I was furnished with one for Christmas. On that epic first computer of mine I learned to code in BASIC. I spent hours typing code to see an array of beautiful graphics displayed on the screen. I went on eventually to develop a Football simulation game and a fruit machine game, both of which I submitted to Future Publishing for them to include on the cassettes on the front of their Spectrum magazine.

Now, at 38 years of age, I’m learning to code in Python, a language I dabbled with when working for a software house in Bangor shortly after completing my Computer Science degree at University in 2005. I aim to be teaching this to a group of MAT pupils this year and then to Year 7’s starting September 2012.

I’ve often lamented about the work of Alan Turing, particularly when working on my own Artificial Intelligence project making a Tutorbot, looking at his famous Turing Test, today, he would be a very happy man indeed. The field he excelled in has been put centre stage for ICT teachers across the country to grab with both hands, never before have we had so much freedom to develop a curriculum suitable for the requirements of the future. So long as we make the right choices through careful decision making during curriculum redesign I feel excited about the future. I’m excited to be teaching a subject I have passion for. I am now a teacher of Computer Science and ict (small ict).

The only ones that should be scared are the ones who are too comfy to move with the times, my advice, we are moving without you. Our children deserve it, the success of our future requires it.

Let’s get out our coding manuals, Computer Science is coming home!

What did you learn?

Did you enjoy the training?

What are our next steps in school?

Here are some of their example games:

Eliza’s Games
Art: Picasso created…
History: Henry’s Wives  and Stuck in Egypt

Georgina’s Games
Maths: Maths Mayhem

Holly’s Games
KS1 adventure: Dinosaur Game
KS2 adventure: Dr Who Game

Zoe’s Games
Literacy: Spell it!

Oliver’s Games
History: Medieval Mayhem
Space themed: Moon Madness
Maths: KS1 Maths
Science: Plants

Tom’s Games
Maths: Factors of 72 and Factors of 100
Adventure: Evil Enemy Werewolves! and Computer Geek
Space themed: Moon Dance

Max’s Games
Science: Healthy Food

2DIY 3D can be used to reinforce learning, show understanding and to prompt writing. It is an extremely easy and versatile programme. Why don’t you give it a try on www.purplemash.com? If you create some good games, your teacher might put them on your year group Fronter page so everyone can play them, or they might make it onto our blog here!

Thanks to the inspiration of #Matt Ray,From the Desk of Mr Foteah, our #Blogger’s Cafe is ready to launch on Monday. I must say that I’m really looking forward to developing this. Its finally beginning to feel like I’m moving things forward. A slow process but our Learning Platform is beginning to feel like it has a significant presence, as are our Digital Leaders. I’ve also created a new ‘Book Den’ within our Library Space, home to lots of engaging opportunities for Teachers, children, parents and grandparents to Blog and add Media. So quite a lot of visible ’marketing’ needed, if you’ll pardon my use of language; simply got to get everyone talking about it, cultivate some curiosity and generate some interest. Exploring the idea of a monthly newspaper/poster styled ‘What’s New on the LP’ idea to send home, it needs to be friendly but captivating, able to cultivate the curiosity I’m seeking to foster, and actively promote Blogging and positive engagement with our Learning Platform. Generating active interest is certainly a hurdle I need to get to grips with, so along with the continued development of our Planning Portal, remains uppermost in my mind. All positive, so we’ve got to be on the up!

  * Reasons to Blog

  * Benefits, especially developing children’s confidene and self-esteem, developing writing skills etc.

  * Benefits of use of Media Tools for developing speaking and listening skills

  * Developing classroom collaboration

  * Blog Ideas

Don’t want it to end up counter production and be too overwhelming, so need to be selective but inspiring. Any ideas would be most welome, please feel free to comment.

Have already created a Blog display board in our ICT Suite, inspired by the resources I found on #communication4all, so a big thank you to Bev Evans, for all her hard work, that certainly saved me lots of time and additional work. 

http://www.communication4all.co.uk/http/ICT.htm

I have also decided to build on an idea ‘borrowed’ from Matt Ray, From the Desk of Mr Foteah Blog, (I hope that he doesn’t mind, it’s such a fab idea) and introduce his Blogging Cafe idea. A designated, informal time to really get into some effective Blogging with a larger cross section of year groups alongside our Digital Leaders who are also learning to Blog more effectively, now. So thank you Matt for sharing this brilliant idea. 

http://photomatt7.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/opening-the-bloggers-cafe/#comment-1875

Our previous ICT groups have operated under different names; The ICT Group, The ICT strategy Group, Web 2.0 Kids but essentially it is a group of 10 and 11 year olds who support the school in developing the use of technology in the classroom. From road testing hardware to presenting on Web 2.0 to staff the group have a key role in taking us forward.

Our first ICT Group was formed several years ago, when we asked a group of interested Y6 children to take away some netbooks to trial. We asked them to play with them for a week and let us know what they thought. Their findings surprised us- they said they were ok for connectivity but the keyboard was too small and children would want full size laptops-but most importantly we realised we had been missing an important voice in our development of technology in school, the user. Me of them gave us a detailed written summary of the netbooks’ capabilities and potential for classroom use!

Since then our different groups of digital leaders have sported less confident staff in the development of class blogs (each year group is assigned Pupil ICT support) researched and presented on web 2.0 tools (identifying a key number to support learning) and presented nationally on their work at the ICT Register event. In the summer we held our first ever ‘kidsmeet’ which gave the children the chance to share what they had been doing with other schools who were using similar approaches. They regularly share their findings with staff and governors on different aspects of technology and in the new year, our New Digital Leaders will present to a larger number of schools on the ‘I am Learning’ platform.

The children have an important voice in the development of technology across the school. Year after year they surprise us with their increasing knowledge, their mature approach to its use to support learning and their willingness to research, share and move our thinking forward.

Firstly, they listened to the award winning Author,  Inventor, Broadcaster and Conference speaker… Russell Prue! 

Secondly, the organisers rang the bell meaning for all the guests to select their tables to listen to. There was 10 tables and 3 rooms.( It must have been a hard choice!)

 Oliver said ’Everyone went red when they talked except Zak who was exceptionally good at speaking to adults! I really enjoyed it, we got free name badges!  It was really nerve-wrecking, but also awesome’ 

Tom said ‘ I was really excited. We got lots of difficult questions like, but we answered them carefully with lots of thought.’

Holly said ’It’s definately  a experience to remember!’ 

Zak said ‘ It was a great opputunity, I never thought I would ever have the opputinity to actually go to a adult meeting!’  

Mrs Homewood says ‘This was the first time children had ever been invited to C84C to present. The Digital Leaders were absolutely brilliant and all my ICT colleagues have told me how impressed they were. I am very proud of them all for representing the school so well.’

Is there anything you would like to discuss at the next meeting?

Tom says “we had fun taking it in turns to speak to the teachers and to go on the computer to show them how to do it.”

Oliver says “we had a lot of fun but at the start we were all terrified of the teachers. However they seemed to like our presentation.”

The Digital Leaders showed the teachers how to use 2DIY 3D and gave them some ideas about how to use it in their lessons.

Why don’t you try out the ones the Digital Leaders have created so far?

Max’s Game

Tom’s Game – Moondance

It was really easy to create them and you can do it too! Just log onto Purplemash, log in with your USO details and go to the “Create a 3D game” robot.

Once your in 2DIY 3D, click and drag to create walls, drop robots onto your maze and also add apples to collect. You can change the rewards or enemies by clicking on them and uploading your own images. It’s also possible to make the objects move – the robots could chase after you!

You can make the game as hard or as easy as you like! Don’t forget to use the i button at the top of the screen to write the rules of your game, then press the green triangle to play. You’ll be amazed how your 2D maze is instantly converted into a 3D game – brilliant!

The best thing about 2DIY 3D on Purplemash is that you can save your work online and share it with friends! Enjoy!

The Digital Leaders are looking for some powerful Powerpoints, amazing animation and colourful creativity to share. What have you been working hard to produce in class? Why don’t you ask your teacher to e-mail it to Mrs Homewood or the Digital Leaders so we can all see!

The team of E-Safety advisors, Digital Journalists, VLE Champions and Teacher Trainers are offering assistance to pretty much anyone within the school that needs it.

The Digital Leaders already have their work cut out for them with many teachers lining up for assistance creating courses and uploading resources to the schools’ VLE and helping jazz up electronic teaching materials, making them more interesting and engaging for pupils to look at and learn from. Performing Arts events will be covered by Digital journalists who will be on hand to record and publish stories and interviews of performers. Similarly Sports Day will be covered live on Twitter with information on competitors’ progress in the individual events.

These young techies will also be working alongside members of the school council who have organised an upcoming event to raise awareness of e-safety aimed at pupils and parents. The event will allow parents to get hands-on experience of how to help their children tighten up their privacy settings on social networking sites.

The school embarked on their Digital Leaders journey after being inspired by pupils from Hamble Community Sports College at an event in Birmingham back in March. Since then, pupils have been working hard, training to gain all the expertise needed to help the ever growing list of teachers vying for their support.

Here’s what the team at Ysgol Bryn Elian had to say about the programme:

“I became a digital leader because I want to help teachers, parents, and students to use ICT to improve their skills.” – Lauryn Evans, VLE Champion.

“I have a passion for technology and often help my parents when they need help. I get a sense of satisfaction that I have helped someone when I have shown them something they didn’t know. This helps them get better at using technology and it also helps me find out things I didn’t know myself.” – Liam Herbert, Teacher Trainer.

“With this team of enthusiastic young people, I’m sure the Digital Literacy of staff and pupils in the school will be well placed for whatever technology has in store for us in the future.” – Allen Heard, ICT Teacher.

Ysgol Bryn Elian would like to thank Acer and Gaia Technologies who have teamed up to provide a netbook to assist the Welsh Digital Leaders in their quest for technological excellence.

For those teachers that struggle with pupils using mobiles in the classroom and applaud this move you need for starters to sort YOUR classroom management out first. Then you might also realise that such technology can be used to your advantage through online polls, homework logging (alternative to the planner they never have!), also great for using on field work or in collaborative projects.

Get your heads out of the sand for crying out loud, you too Gove! I’m not in favour of giving pupils more power and ruling the schools but I am in favour of utilising student owned technology to deepen pupils learning experiences at a time when school budgets will struggle to provide such technology to our students.

If this is what you plan to do Michael then we may as well turn off the Internet, rip down the white boards and lock the laptops away. When is the supply of blackboards and chalk arriving you backward thinking moron?

For all those that agree with this, post a link to this article on every social media site you can, for those that disagree, go and look up what social media is and think how technology can help you if you just open your mind to how you can help your pupils rather than being scared to move with the times!

I’m here to offer ideas and advice if you need it!