marlyn.moffat

Met with Peter Lambert from Promethean and our P3 Training Video for Teachers on how to set up and calibrate a board, is now on their resources site at http://www.prometheanplanet.com/uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.1326 The sound is not great, some of the clips are a bit overcut, but it is the children’s work not mine. I offered to tidy it up, and in fact have a tidier copy, but he was taken with the notion that it was the work of a primary 3 class from start to finish and wanted to use that version.

Did a wee experiment just there to see if I could upload it directly, here, and got the message that ‘This script was not meant to be uploaded’ Was trying to see if I needed to use an archive for video. It was large 14mb, so I’ll condense a bit more to webformat and see how that goes. This one was about 4 mg Quicktime format, but got the message’ You cannot upload files of this type.’ So a web archive is required. OK then, to view, click the link above, meantime.

Now going to try a sound file, without an archive.Bon Anniversaire.MP3 Looking good.Lasts 17 seconds. We learned this song to reply to Flappy le Crow from Tobermory.

There was a clip attempted to be posted on the wiki tonight.  Done by someone who doesn’t really know where they are at. Of course it was not accepted, Vandalism or is it graffiti, but without the artistry. What a waste of time eh? But we do need to be aware that this will happen.
A page you are monitoring on Wikispaces has been changed:

guest (80.41.226.60) (You left a trail, by the way!)

I knew I was going to take something away from listening to Brian Boyd at SETT, having read his book “CPD:Improving Professional Practice,” in which he started each chapter with a quote from Winnie the Pooh. So had to take the boys along.

He’s so grounded for someone a long time away from the chalk face, and always on the side of the classroom practitioner.

Morag live blogged his presentation, so you’ll get the content of his talk here.

It might have been Graham Dickie, (correct me if I got the wrong person, there were lots of people talking), who suggested that we should have a discussion forum for our Glow Mentors, since we were missing the Masterclass forum on eolas, for support and advice. To support novice bloggers, in Argyll, I set one up some months ago, but it hasn’t been used much, probably because I didn’t advertise it in the right places. So it could be used for this purpose. Anyway, there’s a link on this blog to marlyn_connects where you might like to post a query or a comment in much the same way as Masterclass did on eolas.

Wordpress appears to have been down since Friday and BTBroadband was dodgy on Thursday night, in this area, so I know from others that they were unable to get posting their SETT comments, as I was myself.

The teddies were checked in. I know it is hard for some to understand how tongue in cheek this project had to be, for grown ups, but this was all about what happened in the two classrooms. Morag and myself were at SETT to lead two seminars for teachers etc ‘Infants can communicate”. Interactive Chatting Teddies. ICT for short, if you hadn’t noticed. What we were not prepared for was the interest it generated, that it was being used by others to exemplify, in other seminars, or the press coverage, erroneous though some of it was, placing Castlehill Primary 3 in Dunoon. We were delighted with the support from some our Argyll and Bute Masterclass colleagues, and fellow bloggers John, and David, and we didn’t at all mind being introduced to Ewan’s company as “These are the ‘Talking Teddies.’” We were concerned though, that classroom teachers should take something away that they might use, as we had done at the first SETT, and make it work in their situation. The problem is, that, unlike in the classroom, you have no way of knowing the skills/ responsibility level of those to whom you are speaking, where to pitch your delivery, so we mostly allowed the children to do that for us. Kyle’s final comment ‘Mrs Moffat thinks we are superstars, and so do we!’ seems to have hit some spots though, judging by the extra activity on the teddy blog tonight.

My Head Teacher had a eureka moment today! And so did I! (She was on the Promethean INSET course I did yesterday.) She connected and calibrated the board and used resources she identified yesterday as being suitable for a P6 class, with them. She cascaded her new found knowledge to the P6 teacher, too. I hovered, but was not required to do anything other than shift the board into position. Felt like a proud parent.

Where is SSDN Argyll-Bute?

Microsoft JET Database Engine error ‘80004005′

Could not find file ‘e:\inetpub\websites\ssdn\live\Connections\ssdnNews.mdb’.

/index.asp, line 30

After tutoring a course in ICC today, not without it’s problems, I wonder what really stops our teachers making use of the possibilities available to them. Sometimes they are just ovewhelmed by the technology. Sometimes it doesn’t work. Sometimes they are insecure  in their own ability. Sometimes their minds are closed to possibility and imagination and can’t see an adaptation that they might use, because it emerged from the wrong platform, despite looking remarkably similar.

I have devised a questionnaire covering skills and barriers to furthering the use of ICT in class, for staff in our local area to try to set up CPD that they really, really want. If you think a copy may be of use, be in touch.

Friday was a busy day. Got my old class back for a spell. TES photographer was here, taking pics of the little chickadees, cheering when I said they could have a look at their sitemeter while he snapped. Ten minutes in the door and he was calling the bear by name and making plays on ‘bear speak’. It gets to the most sensible of adults!

After school session tonight was on the use of our recently gifted whiteboard. So good to be able to introduce staff to something that will enthuse them, and let them see the expansion there might be in their teaching. It came with the wrong software, but Promethean were quick to send the Activ Primary version, so all is well. I’ll have to set up a timetable for it’s use, but I have installed the software on several ibooks so that they can take them home to prepare the material they wish to use, or allow them to create their own. Having read the small print, that doesn’t appear to contravene the licence since only one can be used with the board at any time.

Had a go with www.educationcity.com in P3 today and they loved it! Did a school trial last year but new ibook power connectors, to replace the weakest link, were more of a priority, at the time. There is some excellent material there.  But now that the authority is going to pick up the tab for half the cost, I distributed the  login details and invited comment. However many of our machines do indeed need the later Flash player, to make use of it, and you should not attempt to download it as the site suggests. Well it won’t anyway because of the firewall, and it would just take ages to tell you it can’t. Now, if I could only find that bit of paper that was sent to the school, I would be able to give a link to the site set up by the IT Dept where it can be accessed easily. Still got to find the time to do the download for all the machines that need it. Off on the paper chase.

This topic is receiving much hype in the media, but there are some genuine and serious concerns. I heard today of several situations that could make us all thoughtful and indeed worried for our children. It’s a relatively new area of necessity for teachers to support, but one that we cannot ignore, having as we do a ‘duty of care’. A study done in Australia as far back as 1997, exemplified the children’s belief that they ‘played’ on the computer at home and ‘worked’ on it in school. The survey I did this year supported that. So the trick might be to have them think that they are ‘playing’ on it in school to glean the knowledge that might keep them safe, rather than a list of ‘don’ts’, (which didn’t work with me as a teenager!!) So have a look at :

www.children-go-online.net

http://partners.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=rh&rid=11302.

www.fkbko.net is the cyberspace research unit at Lancashire University and have produced a Programme of Education for teenagers.

www.websafecrackerz.com is the British website for teenagers, produced with teenagers.

There’s been discussion on the LTS blog and I have had communication from many knowledgeable persons on my original blog.
( There’s a link to the right)
However, today I was pleased to be involved with Argyll-Bute’s initiative to attempt to address the problem, though it’s not just to do with ICT. It’s PSD and Health. In this area, more than many others we need to be more in the society of our young people, to understand their use and their fears. Now is the time to put ‘young heads on old shoulders”. I’d be delighted to hear from others how they have tackled this issue.

This is the 5th time I have attempted to post in 3 days, that the server has been down. In Blogger the information and explanation at least was always available.