Bridging the gap

The multi-faceted nature of a job within the education system can be fraught with many challenges. There are a multitude of different agendas being addressed by specialists, all aimed at maximising the potential of the children and offering them different and exciting experiences. I am one of those specialists, I like to think I have some degree of specialism in ICT and so therefore my agenda is largely technology based. I spend time, and thought into trying to ensure that the technological capability of my work environment is useful and accesssible for all the stakeholders in the school. My frustrations lie not with the hardware or software that I install (even though I sometimes make mistakes), or making it work (this in itself can sometimes be an enigma!) but in the ever increasing knowledge gap that exists between some adults within schools and the students they are helping.
This gap has been my target, I would not force anybody to embrace 21st Century technology, nor would I insist they utilise them in the classroom, but I truly believe that as yet further advances are made in technology, educators need to be aware of and, if appropriate, at least be capable of pointing children towards the tools available.
To this end I have been a staunch supporter, and advocate of the 'converted' (you are probably one if you are reading this) supporting those, who for whatever reason, struggle to access the technology that 21st Century society offers them. For this reason, predominantly, although there are benefits for the children and the school. I decided to offer a free 'Basic ICT Course' to the staff in my school.
I put up a list on the noticeboard, included a brief course outline, and a choice of days (I was going to do an hour a week, for 5 weeks, on a Wednesday or a Thursday). They were to give up their own time and stay late at school, to step outside their comfort zones. CPD is fine when it suits you, but personal sacrifice for CPD can be difficult to buy into. I was amazed, not only was there take up, but I was oversubscribed! Instead of Wednesday OR Thursday, I was having to do both days, 36 people ( a third of the staff), including all the SMT opted in.
I have just finished week two, the altruistic intentions of my actions are supported by a number of staff thanking me for the things they are learning, and putting into practise both at school and at home (I await patiently the arrival of my sainthood or at least a mention in the Queen's Birthday honours list). The ultimate outcomes:

• Greater confidence in use of ICT across the school.
• Better support for our students in their use of ICT.
• Maximised usage of the hardware and software available.
• A shift towards a 21st Century learning experience for the children.

It has been well received, I have enjoyed the praise that has been offered me and there is a discernable buzz around the staff room regarding ICT generally. Hopefully, despite it being a small step, I am making some inroads into bridging the gap between those who can, and those who want to, embrace the technological era.

Do you want to BETT?

Having attended BETT for the last 3 years I was aware that this time was going to be equally manic, tiring and fraught with a plethora of sales people thrusting Shiny glossy leaflets into my hands. So I was prepared for the day and entered into the fray with 3 clear questions:

1. What shall I do about my school website?
2. What are my options for a VLE?
3. How shall I approach my desire to have some 'games based learning' in the school?

A quick walk around the venue talking to nobody, scowling a lot and finding my bearings gave me an overview of what was on offer. Following a coffee and some consultation of the show guide I then did some targeted stall visiting. I am not going to mention names or products, nor am I going to link to any of the companies that I spoke to. Whilst I walked away with a small bag full of leaflets and spent a great deal of time discussing my needs, I was unable to answer any questions with any degree of fortitude, in fact if anything I asked myself more questions... Still that is the nature of the Technology beast.

So you might say: 'A wasted day!' Not at all, a day is only wasted if you do not learn anything from it. I got loads out of BETT, saw some new products, had some great conversations and I think moved my thinking forward. As I said, nothing jumped out at me, no one item or supplier floated my boat, but thinking time, and having time to reflect on my needs was an important benefit.

Following a long day traipsing the halls and galleries at BETT it was finally time for the Teach Meet: #TMBETT2010, as a TM virgin, I sat reticently (as if I do reticient!) in the Apex room as it slowly filled with a multitude of other professionals, I was impressed with the sheer number of people that attended, even more so was having that many i phones in one place, not sure what the collective noun for i phones is but I am going for 'an intelligence of i phones' (mainly because I like the alliteration). Within minutes there was a discernable buzz around the hall as people began to piece together their own PLN jigsaw, replacing an avatar with a face, a user name with a Christian one. There was a hum as these seperate parts discussed work environments, BETT itself and a range of other topics. I have to hand it to @tombarrett the whole thing was impressive. The list of people who stood up to share their classroom practises and thoughts is massive and I refer you to @dawnhallybone's blog for details of the speakers. But my thoughts are this:

• Not one single person who stood on that stage failed to deliver me something; A useful tool; a concept to muse over; something to laugh about; some infectious enthusiasm; in fact most of them offered me all of the above and more.
• Meeting some of the people whom I have: had conversations with; shared ideas with; read their blogs or shared a joke, was equally worthwhile and served to reinforce my opinion that my best CPD has come via the social networking of my PLN.
• The organisation of the event was faultless, from the free drink to the technology available to the presenters (and the camel) and I raise my hat to those who put it together and also the sponsors.

So it is with a heightened enthusiasm that I am typing this, I have used Voki today to embed some instructional tips in my Basic ICT page I have set up for the staff at school. A conversation with @jasondilling on the train after the TM led me set up an Edmodo account today for all my classes to enable a journey into microblogging. I am seriously considering driving forward a Teach Meet in Kent in the near future. My BETT/TMBETT 2010 experience proved to be a profitable one. I look forward to using the tools and ideas I have been gifted, thinking about the opinions and ideas of others and being able to share something of mine.

LO Hell

That is it, I have had enough, if one more person LOL's me I will possibly commit some unthinkable crime.

When I was small (too long ago to think about now) I think I possibly did 'laugh out loud' when my uncle, pinned me down and tickled me so hard it hurt. I have witnesssed people using recreational drugs or alcohol who have chanced upon some bizarre event that can reduce them to undescribable levels of mirth. Yet apart from those and the occasional outburst at a particularly amusing part in a sitcom or stand-up comedians routine, I have not witnessed many huge outbreaks of uncontrollable laughter. Then why do people insist on LOL, PMSL and other ludicrous statements in text messages, chat forums and e mails, if these are to be believed, a vast percentage of the population of the world are sat in front of their computers, netbooks, laptops and mobile phones laughing manically like a pack of cyber hyenas.

It sounds like I am a mirthless grouch, which is not true, I like a good joke and am quick to share with others if something relevant, witty and original hits my inbox. However, I rarely (in fact probably never) 'laugh out loud' for fear that the infamous 'men in white coats' arrive with their strait jacket to restrain me until a suitable area of padded accomodation is available. What I do however is smile - normally a small smile, enough to acknowledge the presence of humour in what I have read or seen. So for those of you who share with me on Twitter, MSN or Facebook, or recieve a text from me and get an addendum of SWS - that is just what it is, a Small Wry Smile. Not the ridiculous exaggerated statements commonplace in chat rooms worldwide.

Custard Running

Most of life, in my experience, is spent charging along towards a variety of goals. We spend the week running towards the weekend, eyes open with anticipation. Our pace increases at the weekend as we sprint headlong into a new week. This manic hurtling cycle is only broken just prior to a really big event, A long holiday, a special occasion an important celebration. At those times the running track of life is mysteriously exchanged for a large bowl of custard, the bigger the event the deeper the dessert sauce. I am eagerly anticipating my new post in September, I am looking forward to family camping holiday, cannot wait to go to China to see my brother. Consequently I am currently thigh deep in custard slogging through the last week of term, I know I will get there, I know once the weekend comes the speed will increase through the holidays to an almost breakneck level. But that does not make the custard running any easier.

Cube Life

I have been using animation in the primary classroom for 4 years now (see earlier posts)and in my opinion have successfully got some effective results from the children using a medley of software. My established system, whilst ungainly, worked. stop frame in Digital Blue software, Audio mixing in Audacity and combining the two elements in Moviemaker. I was therefore intrigued, at the Kent ICT Conference and exhibition '09,to see a piece of animation software on show. I have seen a number of products in the past couple of years and they either had an unfriendly interface or did not do quite what I felt they should. So I was expecting more of the same. I stopped and talked to the man from ZU3D




He was helpful and informative as he whizzed through the features of the programme. He quickly and easily created a short stop-frame animation, added titles and sound files. I was nearly impressed - so to the interrogation - The worth of the programme was the receptive nature of the stall holder - he was able to answer my queries regarding Multi-track audio, explain how the other features on the software worked and then listened to and was positive about my development suggestions (what I would like a piecec of animation software to do). I took a trial disc and loaded it onto my laptop immediately (time on my stand spent productively)
The first thing I noticed was how child friendly the interface was:

A series of buttons clearly marked allow: frame capture, preview, live video and deletion of frames.
Titles and a multitude of audio tracks can be added with a simple drag and drop system.
The simplicity of the software is further enhanced by the fact that you can use any digital video camera, therefore a digital blue or a webcam work just fine.

So what made it special - For me there are 2 factors:

Firstly 'Onion Skinning' - The previous frame is cleverly superimposed on the new frame allowing you to see the extent of your move, this also allows for models/figures to be replaced in case they fall.



Secondly the multi-track audio - Whilst not as versatile as Audacity, it offers the abilty to add a variety of sound effects, drag them into position, crop and fade as required.




So I liked it - It has the simple stop-frame animation interface of the digital blue, it has the multi-tracking capability of Audacity and you can drag and drop items, Moviemaker style onto the timeline. I took it home and had a very quick play: Cube Life and I am hoping to get some children onto it in the last week of term.

The final selling point was the website. Showcasing children's work is a fantastic way of maintaining engagement and expanding the assessment opportunities. The ZU3D website provides a gallery onto which completed animations can be uploaded. Content is vetted prior to inclusion on the site and is searchable and comments (also moderated) can be added along with a 5 star rating system. I am looking forward to giving the children a chance to test the parameters of the software and it is on my list of purchases for 2009.

I believe that animation is an engaging way of stimulating children in a number of curricular areas and the ZU3D software offers the opportunities to access this exciting medium in a simple and fun way.

Kent ICT Conference '09

I was going to Blog about Kent ICT Conference '09 but there seemed little point considering Mark Warner , Tim Rylands and the the Kent ICT blogs appear to have covered all the bases with regards the myriad of links and ideas that were shared.
Will just reflect briefly on my short presentation, approached by Andy to showcase the animations I had done with my class, I agreed. The showcasing involved setting up a stand where two of our current year 6's demonstrated stop-frame animation which was the easy part. The harder part was standing on a stage in front of the conference, 'outside my comfort zone' sprang to mind. Nevertheless the quality of the children's work spoke for itself, my prezi:
took me through the process so the actual presentation bit became less of a chore. I hope it was well received, back on the stall a number of teachers came over to discuss how they could introduce animation into the classroom. And to see the students at work. I was happy with Prezi as a presentation tool, the one touch interface after set-up made it ideal for presentation and it was certainly 'whizzy' enough for the conference. Only one other Prezi in the show and that was Mark's 'Adventures with Myst' which can be viewed here, as part of a showcase of different schools' successes with Myst in the classroom.

Want to animate? Animate!

Why?
It all started about 4 years ago with a Digital Blue camera, I loaded the software included with the camera and looked quickly through it. The interface was simple, reasonably versatile and well laid out. I took it home and gave it to my children to play with, the resultant short stop frame animation got me thinking about ways that this medium might fit into my primary class.
I looked at the curriculum and realised that my Art unit - 'People in Action' leant itself to utilising ICT - I introduced the concept of animation using Pivot Stick figure animator A great piece of freeware that highlighted the need for multiple frames and was simple and fun to use. I then gave a very brief demonstration of how to use the Digital Blue to create a stop-frame animation. It was all the children needed and they ran from there. The creativity of backdrops and subject matter were great. Did it meet the Art objectives? Probably not but it opened the door for me on the potential of this to engage and excite children.

The following year I had more time to think about how the animation tool could enhance children's learning. I used literacy as a starting point and got the class to take a well known nursery Rhyme and write a playscript for it. This process in itself was a wonderful exercise in creative literacy as the children made a story from the Rhyme.
How?
The quality of the digital images from the camera were workable and the stop-frame process was simple enough but unfortunately the audio quality appeared to be lacking. The intention therefore was to create a seperate sound track and then marry the two together. To give the animation the depth they needed I had to provide the children with the ability to produce multi-track audio files, this would allow them to include dialogue, music and sound effects - another piece of freeware came to the rescue: Audacity - simple to use and effective it proved to be extremely versatile and allowed multi-layered audio to be created. Once complete the audio and video were put together in Windows Moviemaker.
The whole experience was stimulating and challenging for the children and the end results were pleasing to the children and myself. Problems occured with synchronisation of the two parts when titles and credits were added to the film, a problem that I would address in a later project.

More?
The following year I used our extended narrative, a quest story, as the starting point for our animation. Each pair or group took a chapter from the story and scripted it. Our hero - Alvin (straight out of the £1 shop and one of six that were purchased to ensured continuity of the character throughout our animation) then took his place in the animations and we created a number of scenes. Rather than record audio tracks as seperate entities we then put all the clips together in Moviemaker, added appropriate titles and credits before starting on the sound track. By cascading the Moviemaker window above the Audacity window we were able to synchronise the two with accuracy using their respective timelines. The result is a seven minute Animation, with depth of sound, continuity, a story and humour all created by a class of enthuased and proud 10/11 year old children. Could it be improved? Of course it could, sound levels are erratic, some animation is poor, dialogue lacks expression in places...But nevertheless, an amaazing piece of work that truly animated a class.



Click for a Prezi on the process