| Digital - teacher | Education in a technological world

New video hosts

Over the past few weeks I've been slowly transferring the videos on the school website from our old hosts (Google Video) over to Vimeo. The initial reason for this was because Google were ending their video upload service, meaning we had nowhere to host our videos. 

Secondly, due to the fact that some of the material on Google Video was unsuitable in school, our Local Authority had blocked access to Google Video, thereby preventing us from watching our own videos within school!!

This meant that I was having to create mirror copies of videos and place them on the school server so that we could view them in school.

That was until I was directed towards Vimeo. It's another FREE service (always a positive start when a school is looking for something). The great things about Vimeo are;

• We can embed and view the videos in school - it's not filtered!
• If a pupil clicks through to the Vimeo site, it goes to a page for the school only - no other videos can be seen.
• We get a 500mb weekly allowance (plenty) and can also upload 1 HD video a week if we wished.
• We can set up albums for similar videos (like concerts or Tanzania) 
• There is a full screen option that actually works in full screen 

You can see how well it works in the previous post about Augmented Reality - it is hosted in the schools video news channel on Vimeo. 

Awe and Wonder!

I showed my class the General Electric Augmented Reality demo this morning and they were amazed by it; 

They have already thought up several uses of this technology to help in the classroom;

• Being able to see a 3D shape unfold into its net in front of them
• Rotate around a building to see the view from other directions

What other uses could they come up? I await their discussions further... 

Update on suggestions:

• Storytelling with 3D characters that can appear during the oral telling
• Descriptive writing - look at a setting and describe it in detail
• Geography - view a landscape being studied (river / mountain / etc)
• History - see objects from the past 

Laptop a go-go

It's "all change" (as the Mad Hatter would say) with laptops at the moment. Both myself and the DHT have taken the new machines, installed everything we want on each one, removed everything from the older ones and are ready to pass them on.

So, my older machine goes to another teacher in another classroom, and their current machine will be passed to a T.A. to use to create their Smartboard files out of the classroom.

The DHT's machine goes into the office for admin use, and the current "brick" of a laptop that is being used in the office goes into standby as "Supply Laptop2", so that if we have two supply staff in at the same time, both can use machines that will access the school network / internet / smartboard.

There's nothing wasted here you know. Everything gets recycled!

A decision has been made

Last week I went on the initial training day for the Learning Platform that our Local Authority is recommending to all schools. I mentioned in this post what I thought about the product - and spent most of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening bemoaning it on twitter.

2DIY 1.3 coming soon

Since 2Simple launched their 2DIY software I've made several contacts at the company with whom I have been able to ask questions / fix bugs / make suggestions.

One of the outcomes of this has been the 2DIY ActionScript Archive I mentioned in a previous post - a blog that puts examples of ActionScript online for students to copy&paste into their activities.

Another outcome landed in my inbox on Friday. Following conversations with some of the programmers at 2Simple, I was sent details of the upcoming version 1.3 of the programme. This new version fixes a few bugs that they have discovered, but also the following;

1. Improved clipart within the programme - 200 new images added to the previous bank including several new categories (recycling / medical / parks / plants / pets)

2. A new script editor feature that makes it easier to add ActionScript to activities.

This second feature should really help to get children learning, using and understanding ActionScript within their activities. It blows my mind that I can now see the Yr3 and 4 children in school starting to play around with ActionScript settings to control their activities - and this new helper should enhance that further.

The official word is "It’s close to being released as a new master version", but I don't have the date of the update.

2DIY Actionscript Archive

I've been fortunate enough to get my hands on the 2DIY software from 2Simple very early. As a result of speaking to staff from 2Simple (mainly @2SimpleKatie) I have been able to see in advance some of the ActionScript code examples that they have created for use within the software.

After speaking to 2Simple about making an online archive of their scripts for other 2DIY users to access, I have know built and launched it. The 2DIY ActionScript Archive can be viewed here.

Many thanks go to Dan at 2Simple who has developed the ActionScript that is mentioned in the archive.

Competition Time

TESconnect partner with 2Simple to help you create and share your own Flash resources! 2Simple's brand new program, 2Do It Yourself (2DIY), lets you and your primary pupils create your own cross curricular, Flash resources in minutes. Once you create a 2DIY resource, you can save it as a Flash file (SWF). Once it's saved in this way, share your 2DIY resources with other teachers by uploading the link or file to the TES Resource bank.

Full details, rules and ideas can be found here

I was thinking about entering myself, but as I have had access for a while to some of the more advanced scripting options that have not yet gone public I feel it unfair to submit resources to a competition with features that others cannot include.

Oh what a day

Today the Headteacher and I began our Learning Platform training. We went their with apprehension - I had already heard lots of teachers berate the service we are being "provided with", and the Headteacher had to decide whether to justify a £900 cost each year for the service.

There has to be an easier way

I've taken the decision to upgrade to one of the new laptops in school - but it has one major drawback. I've spent the last two evenings looking at the current content of my "old" laptop, installing the programs on it onto the "new" laptop, then removing them from the "old" machine.

It's a long, slow and annoyingly frustrating job, and I'm amazed that no one has developed a program, application or widget that can read the installed programs on one machine, pull up a tick list and let you decide what is going to be copied across to a new machine through a simpe USB to USB lead. It would be a great idea, and if I knew anything about programming I'd be working on it right now. Unfortunately I don't, and so I sit here waiting whilst my entire iTunes library is copied onto the C Drive of the new machine, and my iPod and iPhone have to then be associated with the new machine, re-synced and authorised for use.

Once done I think that is everything copied across. (Bound to have missed something though).

New tech has arrived

So the new laptops we ordered have arrived at school. The Head has allocated one for another teacher who has a laptop that is creaking as it's so old, but has said I should consider swapping my current Ergo laptop for one as it is more powerful - as he said 
"As ICT coordinator you should be up to date" 
Well, I'm not going to argue with that, but I have so many programs that I've downloaded or installed onto it that I am in two minds. Do I take a new machine and reinstall everything I've added, or keep my old machine with everything on it...

Decisions, decisions! Going to think about it in detail after parents evening is over on Monday.

UK Schools Video

If you are creating video with pupils in schools - and let's face it with the ease of creating digital video nowadays who isn't - I've been investigating Vimeo as a host for video files since the demise of Google Video as an option to upload video to the web.

I'm impressed so far - it's free (there is a paid for "plus" version) and they host videos quickly and easily. Videos can be embedded onto your websites (or learning platforms) and, in our LA (Nottinghamshire), are not filtered or blocked unlike youtube or googlevideo.

I've also set up the "UK Schools Video" group within Vimeo - obviously designed as a place to showcase your video work to other schools. To join it, just click here and then follow the instructions.

Hopefully some of you who have created video previously, or are doing so now, will join it. I look forward to seeing your videos soon.

The hidden technology "On Costs"

Technology has a hidden cost attached to it as became evident over the past fortnight when the school prepared to order new laptops to increase our ratio of computers to pupils to almost 1:2.

We budgeted (initially) for up to 50 laptops. but very quickly this number was reduced to 32 as the technology to go with them had to factored into the budget;

• The Current Wireless network would not cope with a 150% increase in connections, so we need to intall additional wireless access points and a controller to maximise the connection. Of course new wireless points will mean more cableing too.
• An additional lapsafe will be required to safely store the new laptops (in addition to the 2 lapsafes we currently have in school).
• All the new machines will need to be imaged to work on the AD domain - at least one day of support from the LA IT department is required.

  And so, from the initial budget we planned to spend on laptops, 50% of it will instead be going on the infrastructure to ensure that the mahines can be used within the school.