Stuart Ridout

Use your iPod Touch or iPhone for revision

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:02:00 +0000

There are lots of ways to use technology to revise for upcoming exams; most of these focus on using websites such as BBC Bitesize, SAM Learning or your school’s VLE.

What about when you are on the move? How can you make the best use of your time by using your iPod Touch or iPhone when you are on the bus, in the car or those forced visits to grandma?

Here are a selection of apps and techniques to keep the revision going.

Evernote is a free web service that allows you to store content that you have written yourself or found on the Internet. It has a free iPod Touch and iPhone app that allows you to access your content offline.

Ideas

create a scrapbook/album for each subject to keep content together
put definitions (one per page) in each scrapbook to access ‘on the go’
upload diagrams to subject scrapbooks
you can write content and sync it with the web service so you can access it on your computer.

Advantages

can be accessed online and offline
can hold a wide range of content
can create and edit content when online

Evernote Website
Evernote iTunes App

Google Docs is an online word processor, spreadsheet and presentation package. Sign up is free and it allows you to access your documents and presentations from any Internet enabled device. You can even upload documents and presentations that have been created using Microsoft Office (such as ones from teachers) and you’ll be able to access them on the go.

Ideas

create flash cards using GDocs Presentation and flick through them on your iPod Touch or iPhone.
type notes into the word processor to access anywhere anytime.

Advantages

access content from any computer - no excuses for leaving revision notes at home!
can access all files (optimised for iPhone/iPod) from the Google Docs if you have WiFi or Internet access.
can edit or add content when you are online using your device
can access word processing docs and spreadsheets ‘offline’ using a free app “MiGhtyDocs”

Disadvantages

MiGhtyDocs doesn’t work with presentations unfortunately
MiGhtyDocs doesn’t allow you to edit offline

Google Docs Website
MiGhtyDocs iTunes App

ReQall is a task management website that allows you to create lists of ‘to-do’ items. You could split your revision goals into individual ‘to-do’ entries and then cross them off as you go on the ReQall website. There’s nothing more satisfying!

Download the free app and you can have your to-do list available when you are online and offline. When you are able to connect your device to the Internet again, you can launch the ReQall app and sync back up to the website.

e.g.

ICT: Practise mail merge in Microsoft Word
ICT: Create a simple flat file database in Microsoft Access
ICT: Know the difference between batch and interactive processing

Advantages

access on any computer that is connected to the Internet
FREE
allows you to organise your thoughts and think about what needs to be done

Disadvantages

Will take some time to put all of the to-do items in - you could spend more time putting the entries in than actually doing the revision!

ReQall Website
ReQall iTunes App

Google Calendar allows you to make appointments and organise your time. It would be a useful tool to organise your revision plan. You can then access this from any Internet-enabled computer and you can add the account to your iPhone or iPod Touch and access it online and offline to see what you should be revising when. You can even share it with your parents so they know what you are revising when.

Advantages

you can repeat items weekly to create a regular schedule
Google Calendar can email you and pop up on-screen reminders to let you know when you should be revising
sharing the calendar can get your parents off your back!

Disadvantages

can spend more time making the revision plan than actually revising!

Google Calendar Website
iCal for iPhone/iPod Touch already installed

Visualising revision help as a poster

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:52:00 +0000

Each year my school runs a revision evening for Year 11 students.

We have a couple of presentations (one from me about online revision resources and e-learning tools - blog post to come!) and parents and students are given two booklets.

- a general revision tips booklet with advice on good practice and things to avoid

- a subject specific revision booklet that contains information about what to revise, where to get information and syllabus information.

This second booklet is a little bit of a problem as it can become an incredibly bloated publication with lots of text that becomes too much and then nobody reads it.

This year I have suggested that we print an A2 poster that could go on the fridge, brightly coloured and with less information and more signposting to sources for the subject areas. Therefore it became my responsibility to make it!

Here is my first draft. I would really appreciate any comments or tips for improvement that would make it more accessible to parents. I know there is still a lot of text on the page but we are limited on how brief we can make it.

UPDATE: The poster has been completed. Please feel free to share as an idea with your school. It was created in Adobe Illustrator and will be printed in A2 format.

Download the finished poster

~~Anyway,~~ ~~download the PDF of the visualisation~~ ~~so far and jot ideas in the comment section below.~~

Thanks!
Stuart

PacKodu Tutorial - Part Two

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 09:35:00 +0000

This is the second video (of four) that shows you how to create a PacMan clone using Kodu Game Lab. This part focuses on setting up characters and basic behaviours using “See” and “Wander”. It also shows how to control characters using XBOX 360 controllers and keyboard.

If you have any questions please post in the comments or contact me via Twitter.

PacKodu Tutorial - Part One

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:36:42 +0000

This is the first video (of four) that shows you how to create a PacMan clone using Kodu Game Lab. This one just focuses on creating the environment to play in and adding objects to eat.

If you have any questions please post in the comments or contact me via Twitter.

This is my first tutorial using Kodu demonstrating how to...

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:33:00 +0000

This is my first tutorial using Kodu demonstrating how to make a simple collection game. You can create games either by using a wired XBOX 360 controller or using the keyboard.

If you have any questions please comment below or contact me on Twitter.

Student Voice and the VLE: Questionnaires on Moodle

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:00:00 +0000

Student voice is a big part of modern school life and senior management teams need to take more notice of what students think. Part of the way we achieve this is by using the Questionnaire functionality of our virtual learning environment (Moodle) to poll our students and get their opinions.

Two ways that we have used this recently is “The BIG ICT Survey” and “Have YOUR say on reports”.

The BIG ICT Survey

This is one of our major research methods into

the way students use ICT at home
what devices they have access to
the level of ICT and Internet access at home
how we can improve our online features

We perform this survey annually (in lesson time to avoid skewing the results) and this informs our decision making in the ICT Strategy Group. In last year’s survey we found that 95% of respondents have access to the Internet at home and that 91% have access to some form of mobile audio (e.g. iPod, generic MP3 players or music capabilities on mobiles). When you have information like that it encourages you to develop more publishing in that area e.g. revision podcasts.

We’ve updated the questions for 2010 to get more information about how students use Moodle and access our services from home. You can view this year’s questionnaire here. We’re currently running the survey so will publish findings soon.

Have YOUR say … on reports

We’ve recently been looking at improving our reporting systems for parents and students. As part of the review process we wanted to find out what students and parents thought about the way we report.

We created two questionnaires to be completed online by these groups. These were advertised in our school newsletter, on our website and to students on the Moodle homepage.

The return rate was excellent and the results were quite illuminating and will certainly help us to continue to improve our reports. It also meant that students and parents knew that their voice had been heard and that we were working in partnership with them.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The advantages to doing surveys online are clear

we have no paperwork flying around (and getting lost)
nobody has to copy results into Excel spreadsheets (and potentially make errors)
the results are analysed and graphs are produced automatically

The main disadvantage is how students and parents without access are prevented from answering online but by making paper copies available this can be mitigated. Students can access the survey in lessons or at the library before and after school.

We also learned a few things about carefully constructing our questions. This includes

writing questions in plain English
making sure the options are easy to understand
trialling the questions with focus groups of students to find any potential problems before rolling out to the whole school

Improvements to Storybird [an email]

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:48:21 +0000

Hi,

My name is Stuart and I’m an Assistant Headteacher and Head of ICT at one of the largest schools in the UK (2800 students).

Firstly … we LOVE Storybird!

It’s a great site and I’ve tweeted and blogged about how we used it in the classroom - http://www.stuartridout.com/post/347591517/writing-with-storybird

The only thing that’s a little iffy for me/us is the terms of service, specifically the part about the age restriction. “If you are under the age of 18 you may use this Site and submit personal information to us only in conjunction with and under the supervision of your parent or guardian.”    This is kind of prohibitive for us in the classroom as to use this fantastic resource we would have to get consent from every parent. For us 2800 signatures is a big logistical task and to be honest we wouldn’t move forward with this.

I was wondering if there was any scope for looking at this. When you sign up for Storybird you don’t actually give any personal information other than your name and email so I think it wouldn’t be a big problem for students to sign up without parental consent. I know there are teachers in the UK who are using this with kids as young as 8 or 9 years old.

Secondly, after using Storybird with a number of students they were unhappy with the username being used on the front cover of the book. You can’t always get the username you want as it might be taken and they said they would prefer to be able to type the name on the cover (as opposed to using username or the name on the account).   They also said they found the artwork screen on the book writing section a little ‘messy’ and were wondering if you could have a button to arrange the artists work into a tiled layout (rather than the default view) or to click a button and have artwork arranged into ‘piles’ by theme, style or keyword. Some of the ‘busier’ artists have a lot of artwork on there and the writing screen is quite cluttered.

We still love Storybird and I’ll continue to use it in the classroom but I told my students that I’ll pass their feedback on to you.

Many thanks

Stuart Ridout

Will the iPad revolutionise education?

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:36:00 +0000

Many of us have been waiting for the Apple ~~iTablet~~, ~~iSlate~~, iPad for some time. Some thought the announcement would come a year ago but were left disappointed. Fast forward a year to 27th January 2010 and Steve Jobs announces the iPad to the world. This has been overhyped almost as much as the iPhone but without the ingenuity and innovation that came on the iPhone.

In the run up to the event, speculation was rife that one of the main target groups was education and that it was a ‘game changer’ that would revolutionise the classroom. Now having watched the blogs and video on the Apple iPad page, I think that it probably won’t (in it’s current incarnation.)

It’s certainly a sexy product, 0.5 inch thick, 9.7 inch display, 1.5 lb in weight and a great 10 hour battery life (depending on usage) but to me it looked more like a leisure device (lounging on the sofa) and less of a business/education computer.

Web browsing is apparently a dream on the iPad but still no Flash … that missing plugin icon is still there on Flash enabled websites. That means no animated demos or online educational games (such as Content Generator on your VLE).

School budgets are increasingly constrained and with the Apple exchange rate the iPad will probably be too expensive for a school to justify purchasing. Steve announced the entry price was $499 for the 16GB model (with no 3G) but the Apple exchange rate will probably give us a price of £400 (at least) IMHO. International pricing will be announced later.

With a £12000 budget would you buy 30 iPads or spend it in a different way? I think that schools will struggle to see the educational value in a class set. Of course it does run the 140,000 apps on the App Store so it is a truly multifunctional device, but will the multitude of brain training apps and mini-games justify this spend?

For an additional $30 you can run the iWork suite but could the class type an essay on Pages, or will they have the patience to work with graphs on Numbers?

It could change the eBook in the classroom and make reading cool again for students but unless you give the class their own iPad to take home and curl up in bed with the latest eBook will it make a difference?

As I write, I am left with many questions but not many answers! Of course, I think the school should purchase one for me to ‘try out’ as part of our ongoing research and development into ICT in education but I can’t see it making it in the classroom yet.

So, given £12000 … how would you spend it?

Writing with Storybird

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:02:55 +0000

Today we had a collapsed curriculum day; we call it a hall day. This is a day where the timetable is abandoned (!) and students work in a subject all day. Today in ICT we had half of our Year 9 classes working with us (that’s about 210 students) on a project to write stories for younger children.

We were using Storybird for the stories and Moodle for the delivery. The fictional scenario was about a once great book company called Winkleberry books who had falled on hard times since they published “Killer Toddler Zombies”. Their role was to restore this company with the next big thing!

We set up a course with tutorial videos, helpsheets, and web pages. All passages of text were available with sound so they could listen along if the text was not accessible to them. This was available via Moodle and you can view it by clicking here and using the password typeface

They had the whole school day on it and the outcomes were fantastic! Here are a few of the books produced. These are from mixed ability classes and groups.

Of course we also got some students to review them on their blogs. Here are some of the comments (and links to the blogs).

“Today at school we had our ICT hall day!!! That meant all day we did ICT. We had to create a childs story book in groups using story bird!!! It’s really cool, other artists upload their images for you to use for free!!!”
Charlie S’s Blog

“Today at school we had hall day. Our hall day was a whole day of ICT:) I enjoyed today because it was a change from the other hall days that we have had”
Dani’s Blog

“everything has to be just right and its really difficult just to make up your own story because you have to make sure you have all the right punctuation amd i find that really difficult, But Hall Day today was the best one yet!”
Becca’s Blog

“I have enjoyed making my story today it has been helpful for the future incase i need to do something that involves making a book.”
Chantelle’s Blog

Netbook Project: Review point 1

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:21:05 +0000

We have been using netbooks with two classes for over three months now. This is part of a pilot to test the effects of 1:1 computing. We investing in three sets of netbooks …

- two class sets that are assigned to students as their personal equipment. They are allowed to take the netbooks home and they are encouraged to treat it as if it were their own

- a class set that is assigned to a teacher. They are his netbooks to use as he pleases with his classes. He is completely responsible for their charging, storage and care. These are stored in a laptop trolley to charge all netbooks overnight

The class sets were issued at the end of October 2009 to a Year 8 class and a Year 9 class. They won the netbooks as part of a whole school competition to decide which classes would form the pilot groups.

The Year 9 students maintain blogs to record their thoughts and experiences as the project goes on. All of this group were specifically asked to write a blog post reviewing everything so far. The Year 8 group will be doing this and we’ll then collate it into a single report.

They certainly seem to have made a difference to their learning in a short space of time and I’m really excited to see what will happen as the skills of the teachers and students increases over the course of the year!

Here are notable quotes from the reviews so far with links to their full blog posts.

“Since I have got the Netbook I have been able to make my work more understandable because I can type up my work and email the teacher rather than write it with my scribbly handwriting.”
Charlie B’s Blog

” It helps me to have more confidence in class and i answer more questions now cuz have learnt alot from the netbooks.”
Chantelle’s Blog

“I think it does improve our learning, its a different way of learing too. Technology’s changing and people can find out stuff that they didnt know.”
Charlie S’s Blog

“I think my Netbook has made the most difference at home. I don’t have my own computer, so usually it’s a fight to the death between me and my sister to see who gets the only other computer available to us. So, in many ways, the Netbook has made a difference to my life, too.”
Emma’s Blog

“At home my mum uses it, with my help she has done online banking on it and my uncle has used it for e-mailing. At home i have gone on Facebook to interact with friends and family in india and germany.”
Iran’s Blog

“I do think it has improved my learning because I been taking it in more and not like the old saying in one ear and out the other.”
Maryellen’s Blog

“I think it has helped us become more independent because we have to remember to take in our netbooks every day and it has made us think for ourselves.”
Sarah’s Blog

Students as bloggers

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:00:00 +0000

If you’ve read my post about the great BIG netbook competition at my school, you’ll know about our project where we are trialling the use of netbooks with two classes to provide one to one computing.

The Year 9 class who are participating in the trial are helping us out by blogging their experiences. Some have really taken to it and some haven’t. This is obvious as many people try to blog but run out of steam quickly.

One of the students who has really taken the blogging on board is Charlie. He blogs … a LOT! Sometimes it is useful stuff where he has reviewed his day and sometimes it is him talking about things he does outside of school. He wrote a great short post last month about what to do if you are bored where he suggested to draw a face on your chin and film it upside down on your netbook.

He really enjoys getting comments on his blog; a little while back the vice-principal from the school commented on a post and he sent me an email with the following …

“Hi Stuart Guess what, Liz Boote commented on my Blog!!! WOW!!! Shes like high up head in the school!!! “

He then took it upon himself to email the principal of the school to tell him about his blog and invited him to read it. Brilliant self publicity … he’ll go far!

Please take a look at Charlie’s blog at http://charlieswan.wordpress.com or have a look at one of my highlights from his blog.

BETT2010 and #TMBETT2010 ... a review

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:15:00 +0000

Exciting times are ahead if teachers carrying on their excellent practice in the way I observed over the last couple of days.

Firstly, BETT itself had a couple of highs for me. If I wasn’t out supporting someone by watching their #tmtakeover talk then I was concentrating on the “little stands”, those hidden gems that are a bargain price and can make a big difference. I was really excited by a weather presenting program from Kudlian software that allowed you to create the weather maps, write a weather script and then present it using green screen, if you have it, or split screen if you don’t. A single license for this was in the region of £45 and a site license for a secondary school was only about £450ish. Very exciting as we dabble in this but it’s difficult and time consuming.

I was really interested in the TTS stand and the Easi-Speak Mic Pro. I’ve seen the Easi-Speak Mic in the past but felt it was too ‘primary school’ to use in a secondary context. It is light and bright yellow … all a little Fisher Price for my liking. The Pro version is silver, more weighty and has a more expensive feel. The quality is no different but the credibility for students is important. It’s only a little more expensive so I’ve ordered 10 to see how it goes in the classroom.

TeachMeet Takeover was probably the most exciting aspect of the day. This was due to the excellent organisation by Tom Barrett and outstanding support from sponsors such as Scholastic, BrainPop, Adobe and many more. I think the exciting thing for me is the opportunity to affect a much wider audience than with a full TeachMeet which is a big commitment if you don’t know what it’s all about.

The TeachMeet in the evening was fantastic. The presenters were really interesting. Helen Myers talking about Second Life to learn languages, Oliver Quinlan talking about blogs for Year 4 and Ian Addison talking about Voki. Some of it may not be new to everyone in the room but it will be new to some people. We even managed to get some people signed up to Twitter in the break. A downside was the quality of the video using FlashMeeting for online participation. We had a new sponsor signed up late in the day from ConnectEd Education who provide video streaming solutions but unfortunately there were some problems with the Internet connection, ports and IP ranges and we couldn’t get it off the ground. This was a shame but a last minute idea so with more planning we could get it going next year. Thanks to @eyebeams for running a twitcam stream that was better apparently.

The TeachEat at Pizza Express was great as well and thanks to the sponsors, Promethean, Anderton Tiger and RM who covered all pizzas and drinks.

TeachMeet is a fantastic network but it’s still relatively small. We need to continue building our networks but also build connect our network to other networks to extend this excellent practice.

Don’t forget to report how you’ve used practice from #tmbett2010 and #tmtakeover to get your hands on one of 25 full Camtasia licences from TechSmith or an iPod from Promethean. Just email tmbett2010@gmail.com and tell us whose idea you used, how it went and even examples of work!

Movemeon Downloads

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:18:09 +0000

Just a reminder that you can download Movemeon for FREE!

Download as A4
Download as A5

#movemeon - same great tips ... better value for money!

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:50:00 +0000

When we released #movemeon as a printed book we wanted it to look the best it could, so designed it in full colour … but colour costs £12.24 (still an excellent price)

Now you can buy #movemeon with a full colour glossy cover but black and white printed inners for only £2.64.

£2.64?!? You could buy a few copies for school and share them with your nearest and dearest colleages!

Seriously though, nobody’s making any money from the book as it’s offered to you at cost price and it’s still chock-full with over 250 amazing teaching tips from the community on twitter.

So buy it now (or download free) as they are the same great tips but better value for money!

Learn Something Every Day

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:08:18 +0000

Learn Something Every Day:

Learn Something Every Day is an outstandingly fun site. Each day they have a postcard sized fact which is often quite obscure and interesting.

Today’s is

You should definitely check it out as a nice little intro to the day that could be used in registration.

Using Storybird in the classroom

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:35:00 +0000

We’ve got a collapsed curriculum day coming up in January and we’re going to be using Storybird in ICT to create stories for primary school children.

The Storybird website is really easy to use and has a massive collection of images that aspiring writers can use in their books. Currently you can only view them online but they are hoping to create a section where you can have hard copies printed.

The service is only in beta at the moment but it is very stable and the user interface is extremely intuitive and suitable for all ages.

Here’s my effort … Big Brothers

I’m really looking forward to seeing the outcomes from 250 students all creating their own stories and I’ll post the best ones here!

#movemeon ... a reminder!

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:36:00 +0000

As the new term starts here’s a little reminder that the AWESOME #movemeon book is available for download (FREE) or for purchase as hard copy (at cost price).

If you are responsible for mentoring an NQT, managing a department or in charge of whole school professional development this is the book for you!

Download #movemeon FREE
Buy #movemeon

So have you downloaded it yet?

If not … do it today!

TeachMeet BETT 2010

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:07:00 +0000

Are you going to BETT in January?
Do you want to see some examples of real teachers using AMAZING ICT in the classroom ?
Then you need to come to TeachMeet on Friday 15th January!

What is a TeachMeet?

I could explain but this excellent video does a much better job than I could. It’s on YouTube so you might have trouble watching if you’re at school.

Sounds great? Want to sign-up immediately?

You can sign up at http://teachmeet.pbworks.com/TeachMeet-BETT-2010-Friday-Session

There are three types of people at a TeachMeet …

Micro-presenters
Nano-presenters
Enthusiastic Lurkers

Micro-presenters / Nano-presenters

If you’ve got something great to tell everyone about then share it at TeachMeet. Micropresentations are 7 minutes and Nanopresentations are 2 minutes so it keeps it snappy.

These are not people selling products or pushing something that hasn’t actually been done. This MUST be about work in the classroom so you don’t have to listen to a load of sales spiel!

We’ll pick the names at random from the special randomnamepickerthingamabob to keep it interesting!

Enthusiastic Lurkers

If you haven’t got anything to say this time then come along as an enthusiastic lurker and see all the great stuff you can implement in your classroom.

How much does this cost?

Although this quality CPD is priceless … it is FREE OF CHARGE. So have a word with your CPD director and when he/she tells you that they don’t have the budget for any more courses just let them know the only cost to the school will be your travel!

How do I sign-up to present or watch?

Just go to the wiki at http://teachmeet.pbworks.com/TeachMeet-BETT-2010-Friday-Session and add your name to the list. You can either sign-up and use your own account or you can login with the username guest and the password teemhcaet (it’s teachmeet backwards!)

#movemeon book

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:37:00 +0000

I’m always amazed when people do something for nothing! From sharing a useful link on twitter to a whole scheme of work on a blog, it makes everyone’s life a little easier and shares best practice.

When Doug Belshaw mooted the idea of #movemeon the twitter community was engaged immediately and hundreds of great teaching tips came flooding in.

Doug and I have worked hard to collate these into a format that is easier to digest and it is now available to buy for a physical copy or download FREE OF CHARGE!

It’s ideal for anyone who is responsible for professional development in school!

The PDF is available for free download: http://bit.ly/movemeonpdf
The book is available at cost price: http://bit.ly/movemeonbook
Badges to promote the book are at: http://bit.ly/movemeonbadges (no need for CC attribution, etc.)

A – Z Internet Resources for Education - Box of Tricks

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 20:10:52 +0000

A – Z Internet Resources for Education - Box of Tricks :

Jose Picardo has collated an awesome list of tools that can be used in education. Many of these are free (or have free versions).

Make sure you check them out as they are a fantastic way to inject some ICT in your classroom.