| Digital - teacher | Education in a technological world

Next lesson

It's like being back at school !

So far, since September, I have learnt how to create templates for use within dreamweaver (see my earliest posts - there was fun doing that !) and recently completed a 10 week basic course on using flash animation.

Today was my next lesson - applying style sheets to web pages.

At this rate, by next August, I will know lots about designing web pages, web sites, creating flash animation and who knows what else, but (knowing how my brain works with the limited space there is within it) I will have more than likely squeezed out all the classroom knowledge needed to teach !!

Note to self : Update on this to be posted in August !

Time for an activity

My flash course has finished, after 10 weeks of learning how to do the basics.
It has been very useful though, as I can now make things move, add sound, get little pop up windows to appear and change scenes within the movie.
The last challenge I had to face was making a series of objects draggable.
Well, would it work ? not a chance ! I spent about a week trying things, checking things, starting again until as a last resort I asked the web developer at trAce to take a look.

.........1 minute later and the solution was at hand. Just add a single word - root - to some of the commands and everything works fine !!! Grrrrrrrrrrr

So, now I have three flash activities that work.
1. An interactive story about some dragons
2. A persuasive poster activity
3. A lost poster

Not bad for 10 weeks work, me thinks :-)

Some are less equal than others

Well we are in the midst of "The Big Freeze" at the moment. Well, it's called the big freeze on the news, but it's only been 1 day of cool weather and a bit of snow. Try Canada, -50 with windchill most days at the moment and they are still carrying on as normal it seems.
Anyway, the radio was on and the expected list of school closures, because of the cold, came through. It was the same old story though - schools closed, children at home, but the staff have to go in.
Typical, protect the children, but allow the staff to sit in a freezing building. That's fair isn't it.

Nice to see that teachers are still valued highly.

Getting the hang of this

I must be coming to terms with blogging.
After creating the second monthly helpsheet (on useful ICT sites) for the Teachers Portal as part of my Writers for the Future role, I thought I might add some of the website links to the blog.
Scroll down and look on the right - I added a new typelist :-))

Web fix

I have suffered total network inaccessibility for a while today.

- No access to the web.
- No access to the blog.
- No access to my email.

How did I cope back in the dim distant past (we are talking less than 10 years here !) before this technology arrived, and when did it get the point that without my daily dose of it I start to crumble ?
It has crept up and taken me over quite magnificently and now I am hooked on it.
So, off now to get my fix of the web to keep me going.

Helloooo ?

I've just been googling, looking for other weblogs in the UK written by teachers.
Have a guess how many I found (I'll give you a clue: think of the number of wheels on a monocycle)

That's right, just the one !

Surely there are more of you, aren't there ?

One for the staffroom

Teachers of the world - take note. This website is for you !
Nicecupofteaandasitdown.com (or Nice cup of tea and a sit down; with the finger spaces added) is a site devoted to the teachers greatest friend - biscuits !

Biscuit reviews, biscuit news and even a biscuit of the week (?!?!?)
Heaven for the stressed out teacher wanting to get away from it all.

Can you hear teachers staring at the site, utterring the same noise that Homer Simpson makes when he sees food that he likes ...............

"mmmmmmmmmmm biscuits"

LOL

Help at hand

Ever had the feeling that don't know what you are supposed to be doing, and that ICT has been dropped on you as a curriculum responsibility just because you were sat next to the headteacher when it was being discussed in a staff meeting?

Well, there is a place to go for help, advice, chats and support along with other people in a similar position.
Before I tell you where this place is though, what if I said that not only will it help and support but it is FREE. Yes, free !!! In the age when most websites are asking for money before they will part with anything, this site offers help from 'mentors'. Other ICT teachers who have been through the same feeling of isolation, but have come out at the other end and now are able to help. So visit ICTadvice, part of the becta website and see what there is.

Ask an Expert during Febraury will be looking at ways of using technology and applications in the primary classroom.

If you click on new2computers there are some really nice people waiting to help. Take a look at the mentor list to see the wide range of expertise that they are willing to share.

We have ignition

As I mentioned last week, I went to a conference in London. It was hosted by Nesta, who have funded the writers for the future project.
As well as the short 30 minute discussions throughout the morning, (see my previous entry on getting childrens copyright permission) and the meeting in the afternoon, there was the launch of a website created through Nesta funding.
It is called IGNITE, and their website can explain it better than I can;

Ignite! is being piloted in 2003/2004. During the pilot we want to identify the triggers and barriers that affect a young person's creativity.

The project aims to:

1. Provide a distinctive experience for exceptionally creative young people to explore and enhance their creativity and innovation across several disciplines.

2. Improve our understanding of how creativity and innovation is developed in young people. We also want to identify the triggers that activate original thinking.

3. Influence the development of our own and other people's procedures and processes that drive creativity and innovation. These will be based on our learning during this project.

The website can found here, and if you don't plan on using it with your classes, there are some games and activities that will really make you think.

Oh crumbs

Yesterday evening I invited some teachers from local schools to attend a meeting relating to the new project that will be going live in the next few weeks.
At the meeting there were refreshments and some very nice luxury biscuits. Well, I thought there were some luxury biscuits because the next time I looked they were gone !

I seriously think that if you stopped making biscuits, the education system would crumble (apologies there for that) and teachers would become uncontrollable wrecks. Just think the effects upon society of a simple closing of a biscuit factory - absolutely disasterous.

Morecambe and Wise, Fish and Chips.............biscuits and teachers. Great British double acts. :-)

Croatian Tales Flash

Have you seen this site ?
It has superb flash animations of tales from Croatia.
You don't get to see all of the tales, and you can't play some of the games on the website, but if you buy the CRom then you can.
However, that aside, if you have a speedy connection and want to see flash being used really well, then take a look.

Definitely well worth a look.

Children's work

I was at a conference in London yesterday presented by Nesta, who have funded the writers for the future project that I am working on, and there was an interesting discussion about copyright on the internet.
How many teachers were aware that any work by a child that is put onto a school website does belong to the school, but remains the childs copyright ?
And, if that work is to be produced in any other place, then it is not the child that has to give permission for their work to be used - it is in fact the parents who have to allow it.

This is going to make any submissions to the project tricky, if the child sends work via a webform with only their first name, and no email address. How do we contact the parents asking for permission if someone wishes to use it ? I need to do some serious browsing of the copyright laws to see where we stand.