Computers in Classrooms

ISSN 1470-5524

02 March 2009

Practical advice for colleagues who use, teach, lead or manage information and communication technology (ICT) in schools.

Home Page: http://www.ictineducation.org Updated virtually daily.

Email: terry@ictineducation.org

Welcome to the new-look newsletter

I hope you like the new-style HTML newsletter. A trial involving around 25 people, with feedback from quite a few more, provided very useful information. As a result, I have used mainly links to pictures rather than embedded graphics, and included horizontal lines and a table of contents. Unfortunately, I am still getting to grips with the software, so the table of contents doesn't have links, and the horizontal lines seem to have been replaced by large gaps instead. Please bear with me!

If you have any comments about the newsletter, please email me with the subject heading New Look Newsletter. In fact, if you click on that link, it should put the email address and subject line in for you!

I'm using a different method of sending out the newsletter now. A few people originally asked not to be sent the newsletter by email. Unfortunately, there wasn't an easy way of filtering out those subscribers. If you were one of them, please email me.

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In this issue

Welcome to the new-look newsletter

In this issue

Quote of the month

BETT 2009

Talking Books

Sponsored article: You've heard of mobile learning, so why not mobile revision?

Visualisers - their use in the primary classroom

World Maths Day 2009

Report on the Primary Capital Action 08 Conference

Question time: questions to ask pupils during lesson observation

Book Review: Virtual Shadows - Karen Lawrence Öqvist

Book Review: Making Money With Your Blog

Hardware review: The MPRO 110 Micro Projector

Software review

Forthcoming issues

Information about this newsletter and its editor

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Quote of the month

Actually, it was for the month of January 2009, but still. I had the privilege of chairing a seminar at the BETT Show organised by Mirandanet. In the course of the discussion, Professor Daithi Ó Murchú exclaimed, in relation to assessment in the context of e-learning in projects, that the key question is:

“Has meaningful, soulful, authentic learning taken place?”

Hear hear to that!

The photo shows Daithi waxing lyrical, with Markku Rissanenlooking on.

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BETT 2009

Neil Howie reports.

I attended BETT this year for the first time in six years, and for the first time as an international visitor and as an exhibitor.

There is a buzz about the place and whilst it can take a day of getting lost and being bedazzled by all the bright lights and not knowing what is where, because of this buzz that you find it's almost closing time and you haven't stopped all day.

I helped on the Adobe stand, as an Adobe Education leader, and it was amazing to simply feel part of the show, and to talk about what I do in school with the Adobe products. I would recommend to any ICT teacher that they get involved with some aspect of the ICT world that would allow them to take part from this side of the fence.

There is always the business to do, and I went prepared (essential) armed with a list of things I needed to find out about on behalf of the school.

The scanning of my barcode pass (making sure I used the right one) does work as it meant I didn't have to carry back so many leaflets, and most of the exhibitors I wanted more information from have been in touch in the week after BETT.

I caught a late flight back to Vienna on Saturday tired, but feeling that it had been a worthwhile trip that my school and students will gain from, and at the same time it was amazing as a personal development and keeping up with current thoughts/trends for me. I can't wait for next year's event.

Neil Howie is Head of IT Studies at the Danube International School, Vienna, Austria. He taught ICT over ten years teaching ICT in UK, Nigeria, Serbia and Austria, and is currently Faculty Head of Creative Arts at Danube International School, Vienna.

He is an Adobe Education Leader, Microsoft Master Instructor, and Member of the Institute of IT Training. His website is http:// www.greenmars.co.uk.

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Talking Books

Schoolgirls Melissa (left) and Gemma describe a project they worked on.

We created two talking books, one called Jimmy and the other named The Elf. Talking books are basically stories that have the words written down, and spoken to you at the same time. They can be used for a number of teaching methods, written for the deaf and spoken for the blind. They can also be used to teach different languages because you can speak in two languages e.g. English and Spanish.

We did the talking book for our end of year assessment project in year 9, ie at the end of our third year in secondary (high) school. This was not for a course, but our end of year assessment. We have now moved on to OCR National Level 2 IT (the equivalent of 2 GCSEs) in year 10, or our fourth year of secondary school.

We thought it would be a good idea to do the books in different languages (Jimmy) because we were curious about other languages. We chose Spanish, because we have Spanish relatives and thought it would be good to learn about their culture, and their way of life and how it differs from ours here in England.

We made these books on computers using the Serif program Page Plus for the text/writing and Draw Plus for the pictures, and the free program Audacity for the sound file recordings. We both took part in the speaking: Melissa did the Spanish, another student did the English and Gemma and Melissa shared the speaking in The ELF which was made on the Be Very Afraid day. We were taught the basics by our teacher and then we had to learn the rest for ourselves with help if we needed it. We learnt this program at the end of Year 9.

Throughout this project we have learnt how much different people depend on reading and language. We learnt this by talking to people and showing them ‘Jimmy’. We also realised how useful it was during discussion with people at the “Be Very Afraid” day. People there were saying this would be useful for teaching reading in Primary, and also suggested not only for the blind but for the hard of hearing.

We learnt how to use Draw Plus, Audacity and Page Plus. We now know how to export sounds as WAV files and publish pages as PDF files. We also learnt how to hyperlink pages so we just click next to go instantly to another page. The first one took a while because we had to work out the Spanish language so a few weeks of lessons. We made The ELF as an example during the Be Very Afraid day so it only really takes a couple of hours once you have your story.

If you found this interesting, watch the interview featuring Melissa and Gemma, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygOhOqmh1Go&eurl=http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/Be_Very_Afraid_2008.php&feature=player_embedded.

Gemma and Melissa are 15 years old and attend The Northfleet Girls school in the UK.

If you have any comments for Melissa and Gemma, please email me at terry@ictineducation.org; I will pass them on to their teacher if it is appropriate to do so.

We’re always interested in publishing writings by young people. If you have students who would like to see their name in print, and have something to say about ICT in education, please get in touch.

Visualisers – their use in the primary classroom

by Simon Widdowson

When I moved school in early 2007 to take another primary ICT coordinator role I was extremely fortunate as the school I moved to was (and still is) well resourced for ICT; Smartboards in every classroom, an active directory server network, both wired and wireless networks, a 30 laptop computer suite and another 20 laptops for class use.

There were visualisers in the school too (one from Elmo, and the others from Geneevision) that were being used in their most basic form – as a modern day OHP device to project a prepared worksheet onto the IWB.

I instantly took to the visualiser in my room (an Elmo P30 visualiser) and began to see what else I could do with it. Big books went out of the window, as any book could now be displayed larger than life on the IWB.

Displaying pupils' work

Displaying pupils work on the visualiser

It also became apparent very quickly that a visualiser was perfect for peer review of pupils work. At the end of a lesson, with a few minutes remaining, it was now possible to place a pupil’s book on the tray below the camera and – with the entire class able to see the work on the IWB – the class could comment on the work. The “3 stars and a wish” technique was ideal in this situation with pupils praising work and suggesting improvements for next time.

The “3 stars and a wish” idea is a peer review system in which a pupil’s piece of work is shown to the class, or a group of children. The class or group then give 3 positive comments about that piece of work – the 3 stars – as well as suggesting one target for the pupil to improve on their next piece of work – the wish.

Displaying work directly through the visualiser, was effective, but not that interactive. However Smart had the answer, and their smartboards had the facility to capture a visualiser image, drop it into a smart board page and then allow annotation over the original image.

Use of the visualiser in English and Maths was mostly for either peer review or displaying texts, but in other subjects the visualiser had more unique uses.

Using the visualiser to look closely at the nibs of pens

Using the visualiser to look closely at the nibs of pens

In science, it had already been used before I’d arrived at the school to capture images of a plant over the course of several weeks so that the photos could then be viewed and the plants growth pattern seen. I began to use it as a microscope. Zooming in on materials to view their structure with the sharp camera produced crystal clear images on the IWB. A drop of water magnified allowed the pupils to see the shape it formed on a flat surface.

The ability of a visualiser to drop the camera arm down, and also spin the camera to give a “ground view” brought a 3D aspect to watching wildlife move. A worm or snail in a container could be watched in real time as it made its way around the container. This movement could be recorded as a movie through the visualiser software, recorded as either .avi or .wmv files and it could then be used elsewhere.

Cross curricular uses of the visualiser became more and more apparent over time. Demonstrating activities, when the camera was pointing down to the tray, allowed all the children to see a procedure. Setting up an electric circuit, demonstrating an art technique, or working through a science investigation could now be viewed on the IWB screen without pushing and jostling for a decent view.

The best use of the visualiser though had to be as a great stop motion animation tool. 2D animation could be achieved with the camera pointing down onto the tray, and a card, paper or felt scene then created. With the use of animation software (for example 2Simple’s 2Animate), a quick click would grab the visualiser image, before a small alternation made and another click, and so on and so on.

For 3D animation, the camera arm could simply be dropped down, and the camera rotated. A backdrop placed beyond the camera, and then plasticine, or popular plastic figures, placed between the backdrop and camera to create a scene. As before, a quick click, a small move and so on created animation. Making movies suddenly became easier.

At this point I must make clear that this was only possible using the GeneeVision visualisers we have around school. I have not yet found a way to use the Elmo Visualiser with 2Animate to create stop motion movies.

Using the visualiser to record stop motion animation using 2Animate

Using the visualiser to record stop motion animation using 2Animate

As the visualiser can grab moving images, it could also be used as a classroom webcam. The ability to move the arm and camera means that it can be arranged to point out at the class, and if connected to video conferencing software then used (with an external microphone) to communicate with anyone, anywhere. I’m looking to try this within the school year.

At BETT this year, one provider (interactive education) was demonstrating their class voting systems. Within their presentation, they were using embedded video of a science procedure recorded through a visualiser – paused at a crucial point – to then test the children on what would happen next.

It seems that as more and more people become more familiar with a visualiser, they find more and more unique uses for it.

Elmo: http://www.elmoeurope.com/

Geneevision: http://www.geneeworld.com/

Smartboard: http://smarttech.com/

2Simple Software: http://smarttech.com/ 2Animate: http://2simpleshop.com/2animate/

Interactive Education: http://www.interactive-education.co.uk/

Simon Widdowson is a Class Teacher and the ICT Coordinator at Porchester Junior School in Nottingham, England. He has been a primary teacher since 1993, and an ICT coordinator for the past 14 years in several schools. He built his first school website back in 1996, winning a coveted Becta / Guardian newspaper award for the Comic Relief section in 2001. In 2003 he spent a year working on secondment for a digital literacy project at Nottingham Trent University entitled "Writers for the Future" where he developed two online education resources - 'Dragonsville' and 'Adventure Island' - as well as visiting schools through England to deliver Insets and other training events promoting the use of the Internet to help with literacy. After his return into the classroom in 2004 he has been following developments in the use of the internet in education closely, and have made use of many web2.0 applications that provide new opportunities for teaching in the 21st century.

School site: http://www.porchester.notts.sch.uk

Personal site: http://www.digital-teacher.co.uk

The Visualiser Forum

For case studies on the use of visualisers in the classroom, see the Visualiser Forum blog.

World Maths Day 2009

By Neil Howie

There are many competitions around, some good, some not so using ICT. World Maths Day (www.worldmathsday.com) is one that I would put into the excellent category. It covers many points that a good educational game should. Student engagement for example: last week I invited our Director to see what it was all about and in both the Year 10 and a Year 3 classes he visited the students were so absorbed in what they were doing they didn't realise he was in the room. This was made even better when he couldn't help but enthusiastically assist the students himself. On the other side there is the cost involved, or rather there isn't as this competition is free, which pleases the Business Manager no end.

World Maths Day is on from Tuesday 3 March until Thursday 5 March (whenever it is 4 March somewhere on the globe). Once students log in they can create their own avatar and then they compete in answering arithmetic questions over 60 seconds against students from all around the world. At the moment students can use the system to practice, and I can only marvel in many cases at how poor the basic skill of mental arithmetic is for a lot of them. Students get a point for every correct answer and these points not only count for themselves, but for their class, school, and country total; so even the slowest students points help the team cause, whilst the fastest can go for the top prizes.

The international dimension is what makes this competition so engaging for students; they get to play in real-time against students from many different countries. Even being in an international school with students from all over the world, our students still find this aspect fascinating, and they remember which schools from which country have the best students. There is scope in the future to develop these links, using a Web 2.0 format and this avatar system through the likes of a social educational networking site, or alternatively using a social networking site and adding in engaging international educational games/competitions.

Come the event itself we'll be suspending lessons for the afternoons in all years from 1 to 11 (as well as having open access at breaks and lunchtime). As it’s an internet based game students can do this in their own time at home as well, although last year I had students stay throughout the evening at school desperately trying to better their score and ensure their class was top in the school.

And at the end of the day students are doing what; simple arithmetic, using a computer, but most importantly they are enjoying their learning experience.

Report on the Primary Capital Action 08 Conference

By Terry Freedman

What’s the primary capital programme? In a nutshell, it is to primary schools in Britain what the Building Schools for the Future programme is to secondary schools. A conference in October 2008, organised by Govnet, proved very useful in helping me to learn more about it.

I thought that the event was very well-organised, and well-balanced, with a good mixture of speakers from “officialdom” and private companies. The exhibition was good too, with ample opportunity to look at the stands, talk to the exhibitors and generally network with others.

Key issues relating to proposals

I picked up some useful information. For example,

Peter Connell, Primary Capital Manager, Schools Capital Division, Department for Children, Schools & Families, told the audience what was wrong with some of the plans his team saw. I think these points could be useful to bear in mind for almost any proposal:

· A tendency to describe rather than analyse;

· No explicit link between analysis and aims;

· Failure to convince over their capacity to deliver the programme proposed.

I was impressed by the way it became clear that the Primary Capital Programme, like its big sister the BSF programme, was excepted to incorporate ICT as a core component – not simply in schools’ plans but embedded in the school’s whole teaching and learning approach.

Design matters

The seminars were good too. I attended one given by a representative from Keppie, a building design company. Keppie involves children in the design process which, if you think about it, is the right thing to because they are the clients, along with the staff.

It’s a sensible thing to do anyway, if you are looking for innovative solutions. To quote from the seminar:

“Kids can force you to think differently.”

It was fascinating to learn what spaces are important to kids: mainly toilets ad dining areas. (Apparently, they wanted the latter to replicate the experience of the high street.)

Environmental issues were a concern, and they thought that space should be airy with as few stairs as possible. The girls wanted somewhere they could chat to each other without being hit by a football.

The trick is to make the space work harder.

Sense sensitive design

A presentation from Nightingales was very interesting, and brought together much of the research into how the environment affects us. For example, full spectrum lighting promotes learning and growth, and daylight metabolises vitamin D. Sunlight releases serotonin, which helps to relay messages from one area of the brain to another. So schools which take account of such factors are more likely to see alert students than sleepy ones, especially in the afternoon.

Food for thought

The closing part of the conference was highly stimulating. John Davitt was on top form, bringing the audience together with a mixture of humour and fascination. I especially liked his Learning Event Generator, which is now available for the iPhone.

Have a look at it. There are two boxes, one containing a randomly-generated topic, and the other containing a randomly-generated method. So, for example, you might see:

· How to make a sponge cake – as a public service announcement.

· Explain the concept of gravity – as an origami.

· Describe the uses of the apostrophe – as a play-by-play sports commentary.

These have in common a shock factor, in the sense of a surprising juxtaposition of ideas, humour, and usefulness.

Curriculum design

Gareth Mills, of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, made the point that a school’s curriculum can be creative and innovative and still meet the requirements of the National Curriculum.

He referred people to Gloucester’s City Curriculum, in which pupils’ direct experience is the central focus:

“Within the City Curriculum, schools and teachers work with each other, drawing on the resources of the city to create a coherent, challenging and exciting curriculum. Each school is able to be distinctive and unique, while working to agreed principles and objectives. “

Conclusion

All in all, then, a good conference on a subject which, let’s be honest, has the potential to be as dry as dust. It was well-organised, had a well-balanced programme and offered ample opportunity to network.

Question time: questions to ask pupils during lesson observation

By Terry Freedman

If your school or your department has a system of lesson observation in place, it is important to recognise that it can be very useful, when observing a lesson, to quiz the pupils as well as watch the teacher. So, when the teacher gives the instruction to “get on with your work” whist s/he walks around the classroom, instead of walking out, do some walking around of your own, and ask these sorts of questions:

1. What are you doing?

2. Why? An answer such as “Because Miss told me to” is a warning signal. If lots of pupils answer like that, it is likely to reflect the fact that they do not actually know why they are doing it.

3. Explain how this works, please.

4. Supposing…, how would you…? You need to ask a question here which is likely to be slightly more difficult than the skill level the pupil seems to be displaying, but within the scope of what you would expect from someone of that age. If in doubt, ask a question or several questions that try to get at the heart of whether the pupil really, deeply, understands what they are doing.

For example, in the National Curriculum in England, each Level Description in the Programme of Study for ICT has several key characteristics. For example, one of the key characteristics of Level 4 is understanding the concept of plausibility when doing research. A key characteristic of Level 5 is understanding the need for accuracy, and also understanding the concept of a system. So asking questions of a 12-13 year old that explores these notions should give you some idea of what Level they seem to be thinking on.

Now, none of this is scientific, but if several pupils in the class appear to be working on a level that is lower than what you would expect, it merits further investigation. For example, is the teacher being challenging enough? Does the class need some catch-up lessons?

If most pupils are working at the level you would expect, but one or two are not, why is that? Is there an inclusion issue here? Should they be given extra help, or extended tasks?

5. What Level/grade do you think you will get in the examination/test at the end of the year? Each pupil should know this.

6. How do you think you could improve your grade? What you are looking for here are specifics. Not “By working harder”, but, for example, “By making sure that I annotate my work properly and include an evaluation of what I did.”

The idea of asking the pupils these sorts of questions is not to catch the teacher out, but to find out extra information which will help to put what you’re observing into context.

Book Review: Virtual Shadows - Karen Lawrence Öqvist

Reviewed by Neil Howie

With Safer Internet Day on 10 February rightly focussing us on the importance of ensuring that our students are aware of the dangers and how to mitigate them this recently published book is an excellent addition to my desk.

Karen Lawrence Öqvist is a security specialist for HP, and as such has not directly aimed this book at the education market which given the examples in it is a pity, and I'm glad I came across a copy. One finds in this easy to read book many case studies and examples of a wide range of personal security issues when using the internet, as well as many tips on how to avoid them.

There are four sections to the book: The Online Information Society; Having Fun Safely Online; Children's Safety; and issues with National Safety. All are covered in succinct data and give plenty of good and not so good examples of how each can be abused, and some simple tips on how not to be.

I found it useful in bringing together things that I do cover in my teaching but often have to look up separately to make sure I have useful pertinent facts. Here a lot is covered within the 200 pages, with plenty of UK and international examples. It is written in a style and manner that make it a useful book for sixth-form students (16 – 18 year olds) to read by themselves, as well as being one to pick out tit-bits as examples to share in the class at KS3 to KS5 level (11-18 year olds).

Title: Virtual Shadows, Your Privacy in the Information Society

Author: Karen Lawrence Öqvist

Publisher: British Computer Society; 1 edition (5 Jan 2009)

ISBN-13: 978-1906124090

Book Review: Making Money With Your Blog

Reviewed by Terry Freedman

Written by Duane Forrester and Gavin Powell. Published by McGraw Hill, this book describes itself as "The Ultimate Reference Guide for Building, Optimizing and Monetizing Your Blog".

I've looked through this and I have to say that I'm impressed. A lot of blogs on this subject seem to suggest only two options: having a website littered with Google ads, and to buy the author's fantastic "secret" plan. But this book goes rather deeper and looks into a variety of ways of earning money from blogging, including such considerations as where to place ads on the page and search engine optimisation.

So far, so ordinary. But there's more, including ways of making money through writing reviews, how to spread the word about your blog through RSS feeds, and how to earn money indirectly from your blog.

The book is well-written, and supremely practical, and is jam-packed full of good stuff in the form of knowledge and websites.

But the key thing about the book, and this is how it is relevant here, is that it assumes that you regard your blog as a business. In other words, it starts from the basis that what you write has (potential) value.

Where does it say, in any ICT curriculum or scheme of work, that students should be made aware of the potential monetary value of their work? Certainly in none I've seen. And yet there are courses in which it is expected that the students will work with businesses, perhaps building a website for the business or writing for an existing website. Thus, there is the clear implication that such an activity by the students has value for the business, but not that it has any value when applied to the students themselves.

The reason, I think, is that ICT schemes of work are written and taught by ICT teachers who do not necessarily have the necessary value set to teach the students about monetary value. What I should advocate is that these aspects be taught by the business studies or economics staff or, even better, ambassadors from businesses.

The bottom line for me is that it's an essential element of keeping youngsters safe to help them be economically and financially safe as well as personally safe. That's why, even if they don't care about making money from their writings, they should learn how to monetize them. At the very least, they should be made aware that it's possible to monetize them.

How to Make Money with your Blog is published by McGraw Hill and costs 12.99 GBP or $21.95 (USD). ISBN: 978-0-07-150857-5

Hardware review: The MPRO 110 Micro Projector

Reviewed by Terry Freedman

You can see the size of this projector by looking at pic: no trick photography was used! It’s interesting that I was reading a review of it at the Tech Digest and the writer said he thought the product itself was fine, but that he couldn’t see a demand for it.

I say “interesting” because when I saw it I knew immediately why there will be a demand for it. When I was working in my local authority position a few years ago I was actually looking for a device just like this. I had a handheld computer (IPAQ) on which I was able to store slide presentations.

It was wonderful, because I was able to not only store all the schools’ most recent test data in my pocket, but was also able to show them a presentation explaining what they could do to improve.

Unfortunately, I was let down by the fact that I still needed a whacking great projector if I was to do anything with the handheld device. I wanted something that would enable me to give an impromptu illustrated talk that I could set up very quickly instead of jumping through 15 different hoops. I tried a few early devices, and none of them worked seamlessly.

The MPro 110 worked right out of the box. My only issue was that none of the computer devices I have possess a video output, rendering them useless for working with the projector. I was able to test it by using a charger for my iPod. It’s one of those which not only charges it but also enables you to display the videos on a TV. So, I’m not sure if the MPro would work with an IPAQ (if anyone still has one), but it would certainly work with an iPod and charger of the kind I’ve just described.

Not exactly a pocket solution, then, but definitely a briefcase solution. It is certainly something I’d consider investing in if I gave talks for a living, or if it were a substantial part of my job. It would give me just that little bit of extra security.

I tried it out in my living room, and you can see the results here.

I’m not sure how well it would project in a large hall, but I think I’d feel comfortable relying on it for use in an average-sized room. Obviously, if you are seriously interested in purchasing this or something like it, you will need to ask specific questions related to your own intended usage rather than rely on my initial thoughts recorded here. All I can tell you is that if you’re currently looking for a small projector, put the MPro 110 on your list of devices to investigate.

The MPro 110 has a recommended selling price of £299 including VAT. The product is available to order via 3M Select (go to the website and click on Where to Buy).

Software review

Unfortunately, there isn’t one. I wrote a review of an application, and then looked at its website to double-check the price, and there was a notice stating that the software is no longer available. I emailed the vendor and they suggested that I give readers his email address. However, he was not sure when the software would be available again, if at all, and not sure what the price would be.

I was therefore not prepared to waste your time by directing you to the website or suggesting you email them.

Sadly, I ran out of time and was therefore unable to write another review instead.

Forthcoming issues

This is the plan for the next three issues of Computers in Classrooms

Issue Date	Special focus	Copy Deadline
01 April 2009	Social networking	17 March 2009
05 May 2009	Reading	28 April 2009
02 June 2009	Professional development	19 May 2009

We have some great articles lined up for the next issue, with contributions from Dughall McCormick (who describes a brilliant idea for teaching very young children about e-safety), Tom Barrett (writing about his use of Twitter) and others – including, I hope, a couple of teenagers who are working away on articles the subject.

Some great stuff is on course for the May issue too, including (fingers crossed) an article from a teenager about podcasts and websites she has found useful.

If you would like to contribute an article, or know a youngster who would like to, please get in touch with your ideas. Although each of these issues has a special focus, they will also contain general articles about ICT in education as well, so your contribution does not have to be limited to the special focus topics.

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To contribute, please get in touch: terry@ictineducation.org, with the subject header “Contribute” (or just click on the link). We are also always interested in hearing young people’s views, so if you have a pupil, son or daughter who would like to write an article or a review, please start a conversation with us about it!

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