Street Life

Day one: PM - First ICT lesson in new suite.
The concept was to provide a flexible display option to the open plan ICT Suite within our 'Learning Street'. I took my year 4 class down the street on Wednesday afternoon and got the four 42" screens fired up, using one of the new desktop PC's as the input. The result the children were presented with an identical desktop as there one following log in. The objective of the lesson was: 'To set up subject folders in my documents' this was included to ensure that the children's file management system on our new network started out on the right foot. Having the 'my documents' folder displayed directly in front of the children was an excellent teaching aid - the children found it easy to see the demonstration of the skills required (ok not rocket science to make and name a folder)and were able to transfer those skills effectively to there own computers. The close proximity of the screen kept all the children focussed even those whose concentration tended to wander. On a negative side the control point at one end of the tables was difficult when demonstrating, whilst children had visual stimulus there were some limitations to their aural input (possible use of air mouse to allow central presentation)The outcome however was encouraging - all children achieved the lesson objective, some of these in a surprisingly quick time. Verdict: My initial thoughts are all predominantly positive. It looks good, sounds good and does the job what more could I ask?

Day Two: PM - Parents Open afternoon
The afternoon was punctuated my year 6 pupils showing an assortment of parents and family around the new school building. The Smart table, now comfortably located in its own area, proved a big hit as parents joined in with pupils trying to answer questions on Henry VIII's wives. As I walked around the school I was greeted with:
Nursery - children playing on games on the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB).
Reception - Whiteboard on and counting games being played - nursery rhymes being streamed via the computer to the speakers located in the outside play area.
Year 1 - IWB on and children engaged in activities on the board.
Year 2 - Children writing on IWB, gross and fine motor skills being utilised.
Year 4 - Children led by TA (or was it the other way round?) creating Smartboard pages on Henry VIII's wives - inserting pictures, handwriting converted to text - using information researched from books, internet and taken from Smart table activities. The TA said afterwards "I had a really good time" (is that right at work?)
Year 5 - Classical music being streamed via computer to outside decking area and into classroom.

Now this was not a typical day at school, and the plethora of new ICT equipment in every classroom has a certain amount of novelty value. however I am encouraged by the way the staff have embraced the technology and tried to utilise it. My aim was to make the equipment as user friendly as possible and so every classroom has exactly the same set-up of Smartboard, visualiser and internal and external speaker and amp system. thereby trying to ensure that in any classroom the teacher or TA (they all received the same training) can operate and use the equipment. Still getting teething problems (normally user error) and I am running around in a similar way to the proverbial decapitated fowl, but all, I hope, for a good reason. I truly believe that technological awareness is an essential part of a child's education. They need to see, be aware and where possible, use as many different tools as we as educators can provide. I still have Activevote and Activeexpression to introduce as well as our media streaming server and ICT enrichment week. The challenge rolls on but the first hurdle has been cleared.

The solution

After weeks of juggling time and speaking to technicians and pushing through work that should have been completed the day is finally upon us. Tomorrow(Wednesday 3rd June) the school is officially open to the children and today the ICT solution finally came to fruition. The problem of providing a aesthetically pleasing yet practical display option for the ICT suite in our open plan 'Learning Street' was at last booted up. The concept sketched whilst on residential finally came to fruition. Not without the total support of our Headteacher (Sylvia) and several days of work from ICT Technician (Kerrie), Network & Cabling Solutions (Paul) and myself culminated in a successful trial of the equipment and it certainly looked spectacular. From the neatly mounted control unit in the bespoke ICT table allowing a multitude of choices from the four video inputs displaying to one, two, three or four of the screens and providing similar audio versatility:

To the pleasing lines of the high mounted screens on custom made stanchions part of the bespoke table.




It is not quite finished, the digital signage and media server which will link to the 42" screen in our reception area, as well the ones in the learning street, should we choose is still to be completed and therefore I cannot say my vision is truly realised but it was a great day when two laptops streamed seperate videos to the large screens in 'The Street' and a multitude of positive comments from other staff members.



So finally we are near to completion of the solution, the ICT provision of a small Kent primary school: 33 Fully networked desktop PC's, 8 Adjustable Smartboards, 8 Visualisers, Internal and external audio speakers in each classroom, media streaming server throughout the school, Smart Table, 60 Asus minibooks. My task now remains to ensure that the equipment is utilised to its maximum potential. First ICT training session today: All staff introduced to visualisers and IWB's. thanks to @wigglemyears for his time today as usual his games were a great hit. I came home today pleasantly surprised by the positive approach all teaching and support staff had towards the changes they were faced with in there classrooms. Long may it continue......

Board in School!

The scene is set at last. After years of waiting we have finally moved into the new school. It is with some trepidation that some of the staff will come into school on Tuesday for training on their new Interactive Whiteboard (IWB). I too am nervous, I am keen for the new technology to be embraced and utilised but having not had an IWB before it is a bit of a culture shock for most of my colleagues. To this end I am just hoping to give them a walk through the board, one or two ideas and then the chance to play. The following day the school will be operating normally and I am keen that the children 'interact' with the board as soon as possible.

So I have my ideas, and some links to share but following the success of @dannynic and his literacy blog posting I set up an Etherpad and asked for input from the Twitter community. The resultant ideas for IWB's are not my own work but the postings of: @simonhaughton, @twowhizzy and several others who did not leave a name. Thanks for your input on this and it is this collaborative capability that makes social networking an ideal tool for educators.

WORKING WITH AN IWB
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As a starter, make sure they all understand how to align their board so that it can be interactive when touched and that they realise (if its a Smart Board) that the pens & rubber have to be put put back properly into their holders.

Also, make sure that they are are aware of a couple of health & safety points:

* Don't look directly at the light beam (there's been lots in the news about the dangers of this - e.g. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6253410.stm)
* Don't forget to turn the projector off - many a time I've seen a dark screensaver come on an then the user forget that something is still being projected.
* Clean the lens filter regularly so that the bulb doesn't get overheated.

* Use the spotlight tool to highlight areas of the screen.
*Similarly use the screen shade to hide/reveal things that are on the screen
* You can write on the IWB at any time, such as to annotate things on a website or pause a video and label things you can see in the frame

WOWY ACTIVITIES
===============

A game to consider for instant effective use and class interaction
http://www.kwarp.com/portfolio/grammarninja.html

The whiteboardblog is a great resource for tips and tricks
http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/guides/

Some games where children have to reach around the board pressing lots of different things are always fun - see: http://www.active-maths.co.uk/games1/splat/index.html or http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/SpeedGrid/Multiplication/urikamultires.html

Three of my favourite sites with links to LOTS of games/activities on are www.ictgames.com, www.learningclip.co.uk and www.topicbox.co.uk They usually come in handy if I'm struggling to find an interactive activity on a particular topic.

For big timers to display on the IWB there's www.online-stopwatch.com/ and http://www.fieryideas.com/ (this also has other interactive bits on it like marble jars and advent calendars)

Using Smart Notebook
Hide and reveal techniques are really useful Post on my blog http://twowhizzy.blogspot.com/2007/02/bad-dog-exploring-hide-and-reveal.html

Rub and reveal place an object or a text element on a page, and using digital ink from the pen tool, cover areas of the screen. These can be erased to reveal either elements of an image gradually to support prediction, vocab development. or within a text to help predict words or phrases etc.

In maths this technique is quite handy during modelling sessions. eg prepare a calculation and example models away from class masking areas with "digital ink". These areas can be revealed (by rubbing away)as part of the modelling process to show the method and calculation beneath, but also to help review student predictions around what might be there as process evolves (AfL). I also use this to support talk for reasoning.

magic box
Uses layering on the notebook to help sort and classify. Eg a collection of calculations might be presented, or an odd one out type of quiz. Those objects that obey a certain rule will go into the box be hidden by an object. Those that don't obey the rule will appear out side of the box. Magic box is made by creating a set of objects to sort and an object to be the box/mask/screen. 0bjects that obey the rule are sent to the back, those that don't are brought to the front. The box/mask is placed on the middle layer.

White on white

is a favourite tool of mine, a coloured shape is placed on a contrasting coloured background. A number of text objects are created, and then recoloured to hide them against the central object eg if shape is white the text is coloured white. Pulling these out onto the contrasting colour say black, makes them visible again.

Science - set up experiment grid - variables can be labelled in boxes, and these boxes can be noved according to which variable will be changed, and which will be kept the same -like whiteboard sticky notes.

Coins onto a hand from the gallery would be good for KS 1.

Create mood page - with photo(s) and sound file(s). Create mood in classrooma and annotate page with vocabulary - good for scene setting in narrative writing, or empathy in history.

Younger children tracing handwriting letters from gallery onto whiteboard - 'Big' handwriting.

Already mentioned hide and reveal

Smart Gallery has a huge collection of Clip Art images and interactive resources (e.g. number squares, dice etc.) that can be dragged onto a slide to enhance it. Agree here I really like the dice for random calcualtion generators. Use the images to replace shapes in some of the hide and reveal activities, "hungry bear only eats.... Hungry bear becomes the magic box.

Just remembered that there's a presentation on Ideas to Inspire about IWBs - see http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/interactivewhiteboards.htm


http://magazines.scholastic.co.uk/content/1069 is a good link with 10 tips aimed at early years children

@wigglemyears flash games - http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games/ are a fantastic set of resources for foundation and Key Stage 1 children.

So loads of links and ideas which I will share with my colleagues (probably a bit at a time!)

Visualisers next........

Humpty Dumpty

A previous Year 6 Animation Project.

Humpty Dumpty

Suite smell of Success!!!!

The concept

It started on a coach nearly two years ago, we were on the way to the year six residential, the new school build was being discussed. As I sat on the coach talking to our headteacher the problem of the ICT suite was raised. The problem was the layout of the school - The ICT suite was not a room in its own right but an area of the school's 'Central Learning Street'. This meant that an IWB was impossible to place without effecting the functionality of the street. How could we have a display capability to allow demonstration of ICT skills and maintain the open plan learning street concept. A scrap of paper was produced, a pencil and the concept of our ict solution was born. The idea being back to back 42" flatscreens, one above each bank of four PC's. This allowed the inegrity of the school building to be maintained and yet gave display capability in ICT teaching. Further discussion and it was decided that this concept could be extremely versatile allowing for: Display to all four screens, group work with four children displaying to one screen, two seperate groups of eight displaying either side. Coupled alongside the media system I was planning to have installed in the new school we had the capability to display messages and media in the reception area and in the main school building.

Finally after months of planning, numerous meetings with the furniture manufacturer and our cabling specialists the table is being assembled. Watch this spot......

Smart table - A nursery perspective

The Smart table, whilst increasingly showing its worth across all the key stages, was originally purchased with early years in mind. To that end an opportunity arose for me to see how the table was approached by a nursery child, I seized the chance and spent some time observing a 3 year old boy interacting with the Smart Table.

• Manipulation of images was quickly mastered and he easily moved the images around the screen, managing to resize images after being shown once.
• Paint proved highly engaging and he enjoyed mark making on the table.
• The height of the table was constricting and because of the angle of use his arms were registering as touches as well as his hands.
• The level of engagement with the surface was encouraging, the pupil's normal very low attention span was held for approximately ten minutes.
• Only used paint and media, need to think carefully how other activities can be adapted to engage yet challenge early years pupils.

For an initial play (still waiting to get the Smart table into the new school) I was encouraged by the experiment. Both the child and the accompanying member of mursery staff were engaged by the table. Unfortunately extremely limited communication skills prevented the child from giving any feedback on the table, nevertheless the engagement and attention precipitated by the table suggests that there is potential for the Smart Table to become a useable tool with nursery children.

The Smart Table has Landed!

Finally, after much anticipation and a little annoyance that I did not have the very first Smart Table in a UK primary school, the table landed at St James the Great in East Malling. We are third in the UK I think, and certainly first in Kent...

I have not got as much to offer as Iain Hallahan or Tom Barrett with regards the use of this tool in the primary classroom, yet I am sure as our joint experiences grow as will my rambling on here.

So:

Problems -

• It appeared at first that turning the table on was not the simplicity one would expect from a Smart product. Wrong, it is just a case (against my better judgement) of following the instructions.



• Then it just stopped working!! No apparent reason, complete lack of touch functionality. I remodelled the table (more instruction following) USB Mouse and Keyboard plugged straight in and I was working with a desktop. Went through the simple remodelling process and it all returned to normal. The upside of this sojourn into the inner workings of the Smart Table was the chance to play with the sensitivity parameters, not needed them yet but could do.

Unproblems:

• Ease of use, once up and running, so was I and all the staff who played (even the Luddites) could find there way round the simple interface.



• The activities are simple to use yet there is a huge potential for the expansion and diversification of the content (limited by imagination I think!!!)



• Target audience - I ordered it into school with the idea that it would be an ideal tool to ensure our Early years ICT provision is increased. Now I can see fights occuring across the Key stages for use of the table.



• Creating content is simple and quick. After playing for only a few minutes was able to create content for the table that was age and subject appropriate.

So it has landed, the new school is not finished so the Table has not got its state of the art surroundings to live in but so far the Wow! factor has been great. Only positive feedback from all age of pupils and staff.

More to follow......