Stop, Collaborate and Listen...

Collaboration is a funny thing. As you may know, I train teachers at the moment and I would say currently, 90% of my days are used training on using the VLE. We talk about sharing and collaborating all of the time. Teachers think it sounds like a great idea, but who's going to start it? 

We are a large authority, I believe 2nd behind Kent, but collaboration across our schools isn't great at the moment. Is it because teachers don't want to? Is it because they don't know how? Not sure. I tend to work with ICT teachers and people that have already been 'won over' by technology, so maybe my audience is a little biased, but even so, they still worry about sharing being time consuming. 

Within our VLE, we do have a shared area that can house content created by teachers, but it is still very limited. If/when this takes off, it will be great, but is there a quick win I can achieve? I believe so. 

Through my job, and more importantly, through Twitter, I am finding tonnes of useful websites and resources that need to be shared. Have I used all of them? Of course not, but I now know about them. Most are stored on my Delicious account for sorting later, but at least they are there. So if I find storing websites useful, maybe others will too? Imagine the power if all 440 of our primary schools shared websites amongst each other? To be honest, if 10 of them shared, it will be a good start!

So that's where Hampshire Delicious comes in. I've started the account and it's currently going through the management team to check they are on board, but if they're not? I'll push it anyway. It'll be harder, but it will work for those that want it to. 

The key I believe is not just in standardised tagging (KS2? Key Stage 2? KS 2?) but with the notes element. This will be extremely useful for teachers to see what the site is about rather than them having to wade through it to explore. 

At the time of writing, it has 12 websites on it. 2 of those being guidance notes or a video of how to save bookmarks. By the end of the week I want 50. By then I should be ready to start launching it. Will it work? Will it change the way teachers find websites and resources? Will they see it as another thing to do? Who knows. But if I don't try it, we'll never know. 

So...what do you think my problems will be? What will be the main benefits? Would it be something you would want to use/add to? I'll hopefully be writing the communication to schools about it before Easter. 

Just because it is a Hampshire Delicious account doesn't mean it can't be shared wider. The username and password is there for all to see on the guidance, so feel free to add a site or two (maybe your blog?) to it. I trust my network to use it wisely.

Why not check it out so far... www.delicious.com/hampshirebookmarks

If you want to see a huge Delicious resource, check out @simonhaughton's account: www.delicious.com/parkfield I want to emulate this, but with notes about each site to help teachers a bit further.

ps. I sort of apologise for the Vanilla Ice-inspired title to this post, but hey...it made me smile.

Home Access

I spend all day training schools to use the internet, the VLE and other web-based tools. Often we get the negative comments regarding children's computer access at home. Schools sometimes have no idea how many children do not have access, so we often suggest running a survey or hands-up in class. We also suggest that they open up their suite at lunch, break of after school. But then you need to think about supervision. Why not get a year 6 child to run it?
This works well in junior schools or if your suite is in an area with high traffic, but not so good for an infant school!

So what is being done about the lack of internet or computer use at home? Home Access. That's what. 

This is a Government funded scheme aimed at children from low-income familes to help them get connected and get online. Familes with children in year 3 to year 9 that have registered for free school meals will be entitled to a free laptop or PC. If you want to be picky, there are flaws. I hear these everyday when I mention it to teachers.

• Why is it the people on benefits getting more handouts?
• What about the people who work, but are just above this cut-off point?
• Surely they'll just sell it/swap it for drugs (I swear, some schools said this)

For those that know me, I am a fairly positive person. So I take this scheme for the positive areas. Yes, it is this cohort that again get another benefit, but potentially, 270,000 families will be online because of this scheme. As a teacher, that is a huge bonus for what I would want to achieve in my classroom, whether it is blogging, VLEs, Voicethread etc. The power of the computer can not be underestimated.

So how do parents go about applying? By going to the website (ironic, I know) or calling a number, they will get an application form. Filling this in is very straightforward. They then send it back and get a voucher for their free computer.

Although currently seconded to the LA, I ran some parents evenings recently to showcase the benefits of having a computer at home and keeping safe. I mentioned sites that could help the children's learning, such as iboard, tutpup, education city or primarygames but I tried to focus on supporting the parent as well.
I gave examples of how I had used the internet since moving house recently. I had used sites such as Confused or Money Saving Expert to save £100s on gas, electricity or even foreign currency for my half-term holiday. We also looked at sites such as Jobsite, Monster and Learn Direct.
One parent was particularly keen to see Picasa and how photo sharing could help her send photos of her grandson to family in Scotland. ( I would've shown Facebook, but due to LA-blocking, I was limited to screenshots).

We briefly covered e-safety as I didn't want the meeting to be too negative, but we did discuss keeping safe on Facebook, phishing and antivirus software. Parents seemed positive, even if the turnout was disappointingly low!

If you want to use the resources, feel free. They are below. If you want to adapt them, go ahead. the main thing is that the children and families we work with are given every possible opportunity to succeed and that maybe, you need to spend an hour of your time helping those parents complete a form or become more aware of internet safety.It is always hard to share a presentation, but hopefully someone will find it a useful starting point.

I'd be very keen to hear how your sessions go!

Home Access PowerPoint
Sample Application Form 

ICT Cluster Spring 1 - Roundup Pt2

Part 1 of the Roundup can be found here

WallWisher - http://www.wallwisher.com/
What does it do?
Wallwisher allows you to create an empty space or wall and collate children's comments. You can create any name for your wall so you can make it easier for your children to remember e.g. www.wallwisher.com/wall/ianaddison
This can then be embedded into a VLE to show the children's learning or their ideas.
Possible Uses
Starting a topic: What do you already know about_____? What would you like to find out about___? Or later on, what have you learnt about ____ ?
Top Tip
This doesn't work with Internet Explorer 6, so if you still have that, you'll have to wait until you get an upgrade. For EdICT schools, this should be happening in the next few months.

MyEBook - http://www.myebook.com/
Examples - http://www.myebook.com/mr_hill_3-4H from @colport
What does it do?
MyEBook allows you to create an online book to showcase children's work. There is an over-13 limit on it, and some books are not suitable for primary, but if created by the teacher, they could be used within a VLE or website. You create a book, choose a template or blank book and start dragging photos, sound or text onto the pages. You can add and remove pages at will. Why not get the children reading the text in a story or their work and upload that too? For an exmample of this, look at the Wallace and Gromit book from the link above.
Possible Uses
You could have a book for 1 child over a year, showcasing their work and creating a portfolio of their learning or create a class book to showcase all learning from a particular topic.
Top Tip
MyEBook links to online photo sites such as Flickr, Picasa or Facebook, so if you have pictures online already, you can link to them to save you uploading.

Animoto - http://www.animoto.com/ (Free 30second long videos) www.animoto.com/education (Free, longer videos)
What does it do?
Animoto allows you to upload pictures and create an online presentation. Create a free account, choose some pictures and then upload them. These can then be manipulated and re-ordered if necessary. You then choose a soundtrack from the library or upload your own and then finish. Within 10minutes or so, you'll have a presentation video that can be linked to or embedded within a VLR or website.
Possible Uses
Uploading pictures of a DT project so that the photos show the making process from start to end. Picture 1 being the materials and picture 8 being the final car/sandwich/model.
Top Tip
Why not get the children to record some audio to upload onto their presentation?

The next session will be on March 18th at Hulbert Junior School and we will make it a 4:15pm start this time as that seems to be when I start anyway! If you can get there for 4, you'll be treated to tea/coffee and some biscuits too.
The next session will be looking at blogging. This will be a mixture of getting the children involved with blogging, getting YOU to start a blog and sharing examples from other teachers too. Don't be scared about it, I only started in December, so we can all be new at it together! Brilliant for reflection and I will show how it can be brilliant for CPD too. I might also try and fit in a brief bit about convincing you all to join Twitter too...but we'll see if time allows.

I am running a Home Access meeting for parents at Hulbert next week, (8th February) so will post resources after that.

ICT Cluster Spring 1 - Roundup Pt1

So, another ICT cluster has finished and this one seemed to fly by like a whirlwind! I think I probably tried fitting too much into a short space of time. I promise next session I will slow down and give more playing time! (and find a room with a decent projector)
So here is a round-up of some of the things we did, and didn't, cover. I will also send this out on twitter and hopefully people will add examples below too.

The purpose of this session was to show you some of the exciting websites that I have found recently, the majority through Twitter. These range from time-saving to collaboration-based tools. After meeting with some teachers before Christmas and one of them stating that there seemed to be a lack of innovation from Lead Teachers and above, I thought I'd try my best to lead by example. Who knows if it worked or not!

So, what did we look at? (BTW, all of these are free.)

Delicious - http://www.delicious.com/
Examples: www.delicious.com/ianaddison or www.delicious.com/parkfield
What does it do?
It allows you to store websites and favourites online so that they can be accessed from anywhere. Now this might sound like a small thing for some people, but if you think a bit bigger, such as creating a school account like @simonhaughton has done, then collaboration becomes much easier. I showed this at an inset day at the start of term and the teachers added their favourite sites, within an hour we had 50 websites for them to share. even amongst this small number of teachers, they were all adding websites that others hadn't heard of. This means that next time they want to find a site for poetry, it might have been found by someone already. Very useful indeed. Next step? What about a Hampshire-wide account? hhmmm..might need some thought!
Top Tip
If you create a school account, make sure you decide on the tags beforehand. Otherwise, you'll end up with KS2, KS 2 and Key Stage 2.

PrimaryPad - http://www.primarypad.com/
What does it do?
Primary Pad is a tool that allows you to upload a word document or start from scratch and then have multiple users adding to and editing the document at the same time. Sounds chaotic? It can be. But now that @johnmclear has limited it to 6 people per pad, it works brilliantly for small groups of children. We have used in Hants to plan testing for Wizkid, we were all online plotting our next steps in real-time. It's quite a lot of fun too!
Possible Uses
Why not get the children to collaborate on a story or piece of writing? Poetry? Playscript?
What about teachers editing a policy?
Top Tip
Go to www.primarypad.com/whateverwordyoulike and providing someone hasn't put that word on there before, you can make a new pad. This means that you can have a pad tailored for your class or group, much easier to remember than using the random letters at the end!
Also, let the children try it first, then decide on rules. They can edit and delete each others work, so session 2 may need some rules!

Wordle - http://www.wordle.net/
What does it do?
Wordle takes a selction of words you have typed or pasted and create a collage of them with the more frequent words appearing larger than the others. The best way to see this is to copy and paste a news article from a site such as http://www.bbc.co.uk/ and then try to see the key words of the article. I showed this using Andy Murray's match report and the key words were 'Murray', 'Tennis' and 'Open'. Useful to see if a child has written one word more than the others.
Possible Uses
Why not ask the children to list different words for 'said' or 'walked'? Write the main word e.g. 'said' 3/4 times, then the others will appear smaller. Great for a vocabulary display or a way of creating a wordbank before starting a poem.
Top Tip
When typing words, put ~ between them. This way, the words stay together e.g. once~upon~a~time would stay together as a phrase. Perfect for story starters! More tips can be found at www.delicious.com/ianaddison/wordle

Part 2 will follow with Wallwisher, MyEBook and Animoto as well as details of Home Access