Visual Literacy

I'm leading a staff meeting soon on ways to improve literacy without producing pages and pages of writing. I'm going to be looking at two - possibly three - ways of achieving this.

(1) Comic Life - once upon a time  available only for the mac - is a simple way to take photos and add graphic comments / speech. For the boys this is something that they'll take to. Here's a short comic about a literacy task on writing instructions...

(2) Moviemaker story telling using photos / audio / transitions and titles. Using the "add title on the selected clip" and selecting a "video inset with news banner title" a short sentence can be added to each image that appears. Increasing the time an image stays on screen means two/three sentences can be shown. Take a look at the example I quickly made below;

(3) There is also stop motion animation - although I'm struggling to find a simple looking program. If worst comes to it, I'll have to use QuickTime Pro to show a sequence of photos made using lego (that favourite for stop motion movies!!)

Hectors Helpful Hints

At the moment in our school, the lower school children are learning about keeping safe when online. We've been using the Sherston Broadband detectives E.A.S.Y. system to help us.

Today I came across the ThinkUKnow websites new section for  5 - 7 year olds. It's got a lot of simple text - all of which can be spoken to you if you cannot yet read it, and also some cartoons that get the message about being safe online across effectively.

Of couse, the ThinkUKnow website also has sections for 8 - 10, 11 - 16, parents and teachers too. All together, a good collection of resources for e-safety.

Powerpoint - not just for text!

I hear people telling me that they cannot stand Powerpoint. They've been on a course and the leader has stood in front of a screen whilst text whizzes in, then read out exactly what's showing on the wall. "Death by Powerpoint" it's often referred to.
Powerpoint can do so much more, and I love using it to create animations for school plays.
At Christmas the lower school were presenting Roald Dahl's "Jack and the Beanstalk". I built the backdrop - using PP - and had growing beanstalks, falling bones, flying birds and all sorts of other delights in it. It was received very well. Parents thought it was wonderful, the kids loved it, and some people even thought we had had it made professionally (very flattering). Upper school asked for something similar for their carol concert and so had "snow" falling.
Now it seems I've given myself a great big ball and chain. Upper school have a summer concert based around Pirates and I've been asked to create the backdrop, so I'm currently working on making the illusion of a pirate ship travelling across the waves. It's a bit rough at the moment - the images need tidying up, but it looks like this so far; Download a_pirates_life_for_me.pps

Persuasive ICT

The school website is going great. Our oldest children have been using ICT in their literacy lessons as part of their persuasive writing focus, and with the aid of MovieMaker they created emotional videos that the RSPCA would have been proud of.
Not happy with making them and leaving them on the school server, their teacher posted them on the school site - and the result has been brilliant. The comment from one child who watched at home was;

That made my mum nearly cry.

Superb! And now the PTA are wanting in on the action, and have asked for their own section of the website that they can use to inform parents of events coming up.

It's good to see

I've been adding fresh articles from children who have submitted work to the Bectan Sands literacy project over the past few days, and some of it is really great stuff. Obviously I don't add the submissions that don't make sense, or have nothing to do with "the village", but one article has made me think that the site might be being used as a teaching resource. There has been a submission called "save our shop" - it's a piece of persuasive writing all about the demise of the local village shop to the ever expanding supermarkets. It's a remarkable piece of writing, and obviously follows on from some work on persuasive work in the classroom. Take a look at it, and leave a comment for the author to read. It might even take the form of an online petition!

This is New Media...

It's been a while since I last paid a visit to this website, but I was explaining it to a friend the other day and thought it was best to show it. It makes more sense!

Oldton was a project set up by Tim Wright when he was working on the Writers for the Future project at the same time I was.

His idea for Oldton was simple; take a village that doesn't exist, in fact has never existed, but claim to have come from there. Ask the public to remind him of the places within Oldton in an effort to work out why his dad died there.

Through a mix of website, blog, public comments, emails, video, audio and photos he built up the entire village, and wove into it the story of his dads disappearance and subsequent death.

Try doing that without the advances in technology! Oh - and now it's available as a pack of cards - genius!

Submissions are on their way

Yeah!! There have been several comments submitted to Bectan Sands, and a piece of writing has been sent in to today. It might only be a few flakes at the moment, but I'm hopeful that it will turn into an avalanche of work soon.

What I like most of all, is that the comments being sent in are really positive towards the original writer. It seems like not only is this an online literacy task (with a bit of geography thrown in) but also PSHE. It's getting more cross curricular all the time...

Digital literacy

Inanimate Alice, tells the story of Alice, growing up in the early years of the 21st century.
From the website;

"Written and directed by writer Kate Pullinger and digital artist Chris Joseph, this series of multimedia, interactive episodes uses a combination of text, sound, images, and games as Alice takes us on a journey through her life from the age of eight through to her twenties. Alice becomes a games animator; not just any animator, but a creator of characters for the most successful games company in the world."

And one character stands out: Brad, Alice's only true friend in life. The ten episodes of 'Inanimate Alice' become increasingly interactive and game-like, reflecting Alice's own developing skills as a game designer and animator. 'Inanimate Alice' is a study of human/computer relations in a world where having friends means never having to meet them.

Who dunnit?

Ofdoe is back! It's got a new home here on digital-teacher.co.uk. For those who don't know the history of Ofdoe, here we go quickly;
Following an Ofsted school inspection in 1997, and the 'attitude' of the then Chief Inspector of Schools in general, I set about making a version of Cluedo in which the Chief Inspector was mysteriously murdered in his towers.
The suspects were  the  Prime Minister, the Minister for Education, the Education Secretary,  the Union Offical, the Newspaper Reporter, and the Headteacher. (who else could they have been...)
It was launched on my then school website, but I was never happy with it. You could cheat and press the 'back' button to return and try again.
So I rebuilt it during my secondment after learning the basics of Flash.

Now it's working correctly, and up to version 2.20, but I'm still working on it. Expect to see new images added for the suspects, weapons and rooms. I'm also looking at putting more images of the clues up too.

The question to ask is: Can you work out who did the deed?

It's back on the map

It seems like such a long time ago, but in 2003, before I went virtual and left the classroom, I had set up a project that I called "The Village" on the school website.
Well, once I left the classroom it kind of became abandoned. The houses started to crumble in the village, the roads deteriorated and the verges soon became overgrown. I went back into the village this week, and over the past few days I've cut the verges, mended the roads and patched up the houses and as a result "The Village" has been relaunched as "Bectan Sands".

It's all hosted on a brand new server, with a simple form to submit writing included. Each piece of childrens writing can be commented upon as well.

I'm hoping that it takes off like before. 

One Wish

I came across this great Flash animation recently that would be brilliant to use in a PSHE lesson, or even an English lesson when you are dissussing thoughts and feelings.

What do you do if...

Well after Dragonsville took off (by the way - it's celebrating it's first birthday on Saturday 23rd April - St Georges Day obviously) the submissions came a flooding in. That wasn't a problem at first, until the rubbish started to come in as well. Absolute drivel from a country that is not the UK!
So how can you stop the hundreds of submissions of nonsense coming in and wasting my time as I filter through them all? We're trying a password page. Will it work - I hope it does just so that there is only good quality work submitted that needs to be looked at.
Time will tell...

One year on...

Well it's almost one year since Dragonsville was launched to the public on St Georges Day, 23rd April, and in that short space of time, in less than one whole year there have been over 10,000 pieces of writing submitted to the site for inclusion.
Now, that is alot of work no matter how you look at it - and when I think that I have sat and checked through every single piece of work (remember, internet safety for children first), it becomes a hell of a lot of submissions.
There is a short message from The Mayor of Dragonsville, on the 10,000th piece of writing.

Too popular?

There are things that you say and later on you wonder why. I've discovered something I said a while back is now coming back at me big time!
I was happy building Dragonsville. I was happy editing the submissions. In fact, I wanted to keep in touch with the project so much I said that I would continue editing the submissions once my role in the Writers for the Future project ended.

Well, BANG! today it struck me back. I went into the database to check and approve some submissions for the site and found that there are nearly two thousand waiting for me to look at. Two thousand - this site is proving to be very popular indeed.

Thats two thousand pieces of childrens work that I need to look for spellings, grammar, sense and (most importantly) remove surnames for safety.

I'm going to be a busy bunny this Easter...

End of the line

Well, this is the end of the Writers for the Future project. Technically I ended my part in it in August, when my role as the Digital Teacher in Residence ended, but as of March 15th, the whole Writers for the Future project comes to an end.
It's been a great time working to develop ICT projects within the classroom.

I got to design and meet six great dragons in Dragonsville, and then had a blast getting Adventure Island to work (just think of those great old 'Choose your own adventure' books).
I've had the pleasure to work with some great people too;

• Sue Thomas, the artistic Director of trAce during my time there,
• Helen Whitehead, editor of Kids on the Net and always looking for innovation in the classroom,
• Simon Mills, a brilliant web designer who I learnt so much Flash, Cold Fusion and Dreamweaver from,
• Catherine Gillam, the WftF research adminstrator who kept me on track with deadlines and reports,
• Kate Wilkinson, who organised every train ticket I ever needed on my many journeys around the country
• Tim Wright,  Digital writer in residence who created some great virtual projects at the same time as mine.

Also, thanks to all the schools, pupils, and conferences where I was able to go and spout about digital learning (and for listening to me!!)

A question to think about

I was showing  some of my work to some teachers the other day, as well as talking about New Media Writing in general.
I did the usual thing of explaining how the internet can be used to create work that would be impossible using paper (branching stories / interaction / submitting writing to a site for inclusion / etc) and then showed them Dragonsville, Adventure Island and The Village.
They were all interested in the whole idea of New Media Projects for their schools, and they all asked the same question that I have been asking the last few months;

Why is no one else doing this?

Answers anyone, please, by email.

Christmas Spirit

Well here I am this year with no school website to update with images of the Christmas Play, or the online advent calendar to set up again. What can I do with myself this year I thought, so I began messing around with Flash, and made this - just a quick activity you can do with your pupils. Get them to think about what each person would be thinking as they approached the stable, and then see all take place!

Far far beyond

Well I've finished judging the entries from the New Zealand school, and they have their own page within the Naming Pool where they are all displayed.

I really liked being a 'dragon' and writing the replies for each child who sent in a description.

The class teacher who organised this activity wrote to Kids on the Net and said;

"I will be using a data projector to demonstrate the exercise to the whole school including parents, showing the web pages involved and how everything happened online. I will then present the prize of a book of dragon poems to the winner, and so Dragonsville will be famous in Pirongia"

How nice it is that there are people being enthused by it.

Is this a post?

Blimey, has it really been over a month since I last wrote something in this blog?
Since then I have been ticking along with all sorts of different activities to keep me busy.
Apart from the business studies course, and the occasional day of supply work - remind me to post something about that later, I'm also working virtually with a school in New Zealand.
They've been busy sending in submissions to their own 'puddle' within the Naming Pool page of Dragonsville, and now I get to decide on the most original submission.
Apparently I am the 'Dragonmaster' to them.
This quote came from their teacher regarding the 'confirmation of work submitted' page;

They were so thrilled to each get a personal reply with their name in it from Emerald.

All that took was a simple piece of code to pull the name from the submission form onto the webpage, and the effect on children is magical!
Cold Fusion and databases. So much more use than just keeping customer accounts!!

Off again

Well, tomorrow I make my way to the North East for the first Inset in my new role as a consultant. Got to make sure it all goes well as this is now the way I earn my money!
All prepared, early night and an early start.

What day is it?

It's my last day!
This is it. All over and done with.
From Monday I'll be a Digital Teacher on the loose!

It's been great fun creating all these projects, going around the country visiting schools, and developing my own skills in the process.

I'm really proud of Dragonsville - from planning, building, publishing through to seeing the contributions arrive daily from children. I think its the best piece of work I've ever done (it's also fun and that helps)

Ofdoe was a pleasant suprise - I didn't think it would work in Flash, yet the proof is there.

So, now I am off to seek work. Anyone want a web project developing.....

Imaging tricks

I had a play with Photoshop the other day. I normally use Paint Shop Pro for any images that I am creating, simply because I have used it for years and know how it works. Anyway, I redesigned the banner at the top of the page in Photoshop (I liked the drop shadow effect) and also a logo to be used on websites that I create.

During my last few days here in the office I am now working on the new look for the teachers portal. Once this is done the site will sit in 'dormant' mode for the forseeable future. If at some point further funding becomes available then there is the possibility that more resources will be added to the ones that are already present.

Back at work

Well I had a week away from work, but not a holiday as such. I spent it looking after my dad while my mum took a well earned holiday for herself.
I'm back at work now, and was faced with over 150 submissions to Dragonsville. (There are quite a few letters being sent in now - seems that the possibility of getting a reply posted to the letter is making children want to write in to the dragons).
There was also an email from a school in Australia that was interested in creating an Island within the Adventure Island project. Once the site goes live, they may well be the first non-pilot school to use it.

Away from work, I've been updating the website that I maintain. I've seen several sales on eBay that have been taking the images off the site without permission and using them in their sales, so I'm templating the site and building into it the inability to right click and copy / save an image, as well as disabling the Internet Explorer image toolbar that pops up over images. Hopefully that might stop some people. The downside is, it means I have around 900 pages to recreate in the new template :-(

Dragons and zombies

More submissions to Dragonsville - and more letters from children sent to the main six dragons. It sounds silly, but I really enjoy pretending to a dragon and writing back to them!
You can see the letters that are sent in here, and the 'dragons' replies here as well.
I really do hope that I am able to continue to edit the submissions that come into Dragonsville after my secondment ends. I find it fascinating reading the work of children from all over the world.

Last week I mentioned that the bathroom plaster had fallen off when we removed some tiles. This evening the plasterer will be calling to see just how bad the bathroom wall looks at the moment, and then he will be quoting a price to plaster and tile. I just hope that my sharp intake of breathe as he announces it isn't too noticeable!

On the plus side, we got the hall, stairs and landing completed late Saturday evening. Once we packed all the paint away, hoovered and put the furniture back it looked good. And it is so nice not to see newspaper, masking tape, tins of paint and brushes everywhere.
So, totally exhausted, it was just what I needed that the weather was so muggy overnight as well as next door deciding to have a party until 4am (spending it trying to sing/shout loudly to the music playing). I'm walking around here like a zombie today. Wonderful !!

...but sometimes rainbows emerge

I've had mail (written mail) from a school in London following a workshop there.
The children wrote letters of thanks for helping them with their island (it was part of the Adventure Island pilot). I especially liked the 'Thank you for helping us, even though I wasn't there' letter as it made me smile.

The beginning of the end

Today the fact that my secondment is ending soon hit me.
So far I have been able to concentrate on forthcoming events and launches to keep myself busy. However, following the Nesta presentation I went to a bar on the Thames, along wth Tim Wright and Sue Thomas - director of trAce and the writers for the future project - and we started to talk about what we are planning after the end of this project.

Suddenly it became real, that in 1 month I will be released into the community, and start my new life as an ICT consultant, focusing on educational New media work.

Digital Generations

I travelled to a hot, sticky and (around St Pancras / Kings Cross) dusty London today to present a workshop on creative writing using the internet at the Digital Generations conference at the Institute Of Education.

Popped into the British Library first (air conditioning in there... aaaaaaaaaaaarhhhh) to visit the bookshop and get a few gifts before heading off to the conference.

There was an amusing moment while in the open area when I heard a fellow delegate say to their collegues that they were going to the "Kids on the Net talk because we've been using that".

Aha, I thought. Must listen more!
So I did and was pleased to hear that they found it useful. At which point I introduced myself and began chatting to them. If they had not been so positive, I may well have have quietly snuck out of the room before they could read my name badge ;-)

Have to add that (1) it's nice to hear people say that about a project you have been working on and (2) the workshop delegates seemed to like the stuff as well. Always nice to get feedback.

Tomorrow I travel to Nesta to present the work to them, along with Tim Wright - the Digital Writer in Residence - who has been busy recently with his excellent and original Oldton project.

Another project completed

I had time today to try and finish off a conversion from an old literacy project during my time at Southwold.
I've taken my 'Village' project that was created along with several other schools around the UK, and added forms and a database to it. With help from staff in the office, I've been trying out cold fusion and I've managed to get a submission system up and running.
The project is here
So, now that is templates, style sheets, Flash and Cold Fusion that I have been able to experiment with during the year.

Design changes

This week we are mostly making changes to the Adventure Island tool before we release it live to the world!
It was quite interesting while out at the school on Tuesday. I loaded the site, mentioned that the text would be quite small, and explained how it would be made to look larger soon by the developer. Once I clicked on an island to demonstrate what the tool can do the writing was larger. Talk about instant alteration! When I got back to Nottingham I had a chat to the developer who had started working on the changes, then realised that I was demonstrating the site and so stopped quick before something went wrong.

I've also found a way to include images made by children in the school within the island descriptions. It is such a simple way, and so obvious I don't know why I didn't think of that before.

School's out for summer

So, that's it. I have made my last visit to an Adventure Island pilot school. I travelled to west London yesterday for the last of my workshops.
I still cannot understand how children are able to concentrate on their work when there is the rumble of an aircraft every 90 seconds overhead as it leaves Heathrow. I was distracted constantly, but the children just got on with their work. Top marks to them. Maybe you become conditioned to it over time?

Had the longest tube journey I have ever been on to reach the school. Almost 50 minutes underground and overground from St Pancras out to the school.

And just to leave me a great impression of the rail services, both my journey down to London and back up to Nottingham were delayed; missing train manager (down) and technical fault (up).

Just two more trips to London this month - to talk at the digital generations conference next Thursday, and then to give a presentation at Nesta on Friday.

First step taken

Well, I've taken the first step along the road to being a freelance consultant. I have designed and build a small website to promote my wares. It feels very strange trying to advertise what I can do for schools. It almost feels like showing off, but I have to do it to ensure that work starts to arrive after the end of August.
The site itself can be viewed here. I was hoping to use a different address, without the hypen, but it seems that a singer has already bought up all the com / co.uk / info / org / biz addresses before I got in there!

Incubation - thoughts

Where to begin?

Tim Wright (the other 'in residence' member of the trAce team) discussed his Oldton project and how the town that never existed is almost complete. He commented on his 'reversed geographic information system' and how rather than using a map to plot and record data, he is taking data (submissions) and using it to form a map of a place that never existed!

There was Ted Nelson, inventor of the term Hypertext, telling us what was wrong with the web and his ideas for the future of it - and in particular how quoting other peoples work in your own work might change through his deeplit project. His comments regarding Microsoft and Adobe (it's paper under glass) were interesting.

I gave my talk on the projects that have been carried out in schools this year, just after Alan Sondheim had shown some of his work in the adjacent lecture theatre.

Creating linear and non hypertexts from books was an interesting presentation from ghostcity.com creator Jodi Zellen.

Steve Gibson talked about his projects that use spacial awareness to produce visual music - his Virtual dj work featuring heavily. This allowed the user to control and create a piece of music by simply moving around a room. It was demonstrated on Wednesday evening at a local club.

Randy Adams demonstrated some of his work - his collaboration with Jim Andrews and a Alan Sondheim on a piece based on a phone message was interesting to see (and in particular listen to).

Simon Mills discussed 'Who stole the soul'. A provoking piece above New media and where it is going. He demonstrated his latest Flash work. Random Video Clips being played for random amounts of time. As he said; that's a lot of randomness.

Kate Pullinger launched her work entitled 'The Breathing Wall' Using your breathe, you control the story and influence how it is told.

In addition there were plenty of other presentations and performances from many of the delegates attending that I was unable to attend.

What was nice was seeing many of the textlabbers from November and hearing that their experiments were either completed now or well on the way.

Finally, it was also a good chance to network with other people who could provide advice on where to go next in September.

Ted Nelson - unexpected pose

How about this - Ted Nelson ,(Mr. Hypertext himself), playing on a playstation eye toy at the Incubation conference!!

Apologies for the poor quality image - it was from a camera phone. 'That was fun' he was heard to comment after finishing his Kung Fu workout

The playstation may be going up for sale on eBay at some point, unless I get a good offer before. How much for a Ted Nelson PS2 me wonders?!

More on Ted, and the conference, in the next entry.

Done it!

I've given my talk. It's been said. I have completed it.
My stress levels are returning to a more normal level, my blood pressure is falling.
I talked about the eteachersportal, Dragonsville and Adventure Island, and I threw in a smattering of Ofdoe for good measure (that went down well!).
Now I can relax and enjoy the rest of the conference.

Phew!

Recent Events

Well, tomorrow is the day of my 'talk' at the incubation conference.
Feeling the butterflies starting to emerge in my stomach.

Yesterday I was looking around on the web for jobs from September onwards. I found a few places that are looking for teaching material writers, and web developers, but not much else. It could well be a move into consultancy from September onwards. Worrying, but neccessary.

On Friday I was in Yeovil at an LEA Inset and showed teachers both projects. They loved the idea of Dragonsville (strange that - most people do!), and then moved onto Adventure Island. They were quite impressed that they would be able to produce a piece of New Media writing that did not involve any webskills, simply by ticking a few boxes and typing in text boxes. Marvellous - might have converted some people.

Hectic

That's a good word. I like that word. It sums up how life in the office is at the moment.
I think I have the talk ready for conference on Monday, I think I have the presentation ready for it as well, and I think I have everything ready for Fridays visit to Yeovil.
However, there is that nagging thought at the back of my mind that I have forgotten to mention something really important in my talk. Something that I will probably remember at 3o'clock in the morning.
Oh well, last minutes changes mean an increased stress level, and apparently now that is good for you according to the latest research.

Last night I went to my daughters school summer production - Oliver. All the songs from the stage version were there (sung brilliantly by the superb choir), all the characters were in it.
But they 'Disneyfied' the story. No longer was Nancy battered by Bill Sykes for helping Oliver escape, no longer was Bill Sykes chased by a mob and shot, no longer did Fagin lose all his precious treasures. Everyone lived happily ever after.
I had been sat wondering how they would deal with the darker side of this Dickens classic, but that was unexpected.

Conferences

I think I have written my talk for the Incubation conference at Nottingham Trent University on Monday. I have a word document with loads (and I mean loads) of pages of notes, and a powerpoint presentation to go up on screen at the same time (the theory is that if there is something on the screen, then everyone will be looking at that, and not at me as I stand there shaking)...

Now I need to finalise what I am going to say while I am down in Yeovil on Friday at their YCLP inset day.

Too reliant

No work from the office today as there is no access to the web, email or even the office network. How reliant we are on technology, that with a single cable failure the office comes to a halt.
Instead I am working from home on a powerpoint presentation for my Incubation talk.

On a seperate matter - have you seen this? Should get people talking.

Umphhhh

That's probably the best word to describe how I feel at the moment!
I've spent the morning trying to get my conference talk down on paper and improve it. I've just picked it up again and I feel 'umphhh'. Know what I mean?
Maybe it's because it's Friday afternoon, maybe it's because I've just had lunch, but I feel 'umphhh'.
Oh well...I've got to get on with it.

Aim achieved

I've just been looking through some of the submissions that come into Dragonsville. Before any of the work from children is published onto the site I take a look through it. If it contains surnames and addresses I edit that out, and if the writing is rude I delete it. We take the safety, security and happiness of the children that visit Kids on the Net very seriously and make sure that the site is always suitable for them.
Anyway, I was checking through some letters that had been sent in, and I even wrote some replies from the dragons to the children (when I get time, I like to reply to some of the questions that they ask). It reminded me that I was talking to a teacher the other day who hadn't visited Dragonsville before, and I explained to her about the letters and replies. Her eyes lit up and she was amazed that there was a website were (1) children could practice writing in the style of a letter (2) have their work published for the world to see (3) be safe in the knowlege that we edit all submissions before publishing them and (4) even get replies back to some of the questions asked.

When I see a teacher getting enthused about using the resources, I feel that we have achieved what we aimed for - using ICT to enhance literacy.

Home again

Well today was my last visit to a school for a while - no more racing around the country visiting schools in different LEAs.
In one way it's a shame, because seeing how each school handles ICT is an eye opener. I think all teachers should be encourage to take a few days 'roaming leave' and visit as many LEAs as possible. It could do so much good for ICT if the best from each school was adopted.
In another way I am looking foward to being based in the office again. For one thing it means I can get up at a sensible hour to go to work, not at 5 in the morning (although to be fair it was 6am that I headed off today).

There are a few more visits, a couple of conferences to prepare for, two articles to write for trAce, contacting people in various places with regards to keeping the publicity for what I have been doing going, and then the small matter of finding a job for September. So, it's not like I'm taking it easy.

Oh - and I have been reminded three times so far this week that school term ends in a few weeks. I GET IT! OK, I'll still be working here through August so let's get the laughs out the way! (No sympathy from the teachers I know when I tell them this). Mind you, with the work that I know teachers have to put in during the summer "break" planning for the new year,  I won't be saying you have it easy.  I still think you do a wonderful job.

PS - I just realised that I have started saying 'you'. I'm still officially a teacher until September 1st, but it feels like I'm not already.

Trains, trains and trains

A busy week so far - Monday I was off down to Bristol on the train to meet with staff at Nesta Futurelab. Nice weather, nice location by the riverfront, excellent meeting - AWFUL train service!
I felt like I was in a cattle truck. People and luggage crammed along the entire length of every corridor, and in the areas between carriages (this is where I spent the entire journey, although I had a reserved seat, that I couldn't get to because I could not walk down the corridor).
Personally I thought it was unacceptable health and safety wise. to have blocked corridors. If there had been any kind of accident there would have been no way for people sat down to have gotten off the train.

Yesterday I travelled to Folkestone. My dairy for the day would have looked something like this:

4.15 Wake up. Oh my god, is there really a 4am?
4.50 Travel to station. No cars on the road.
5.20 Enter station. No staff around. Is the station open??
5.30 Train departs. Amazing site of mist hanging over all the rivers and water.
7.32 Arrive St Pancras. Head for tube. Climb onto Victoria line and get told service supsended. Fire alert!!!
7.40 Travel Northern line with a change at Euston to reach Charing Cross.
8.20 Enter Charing Cross station and board a 'seaside train' (The old sort with all the doors down the side)
8.31 Train departs past the millennium wheel out into the country.
10.10 Arrive at Folkestone.
10.25 Arrive at school. Work with group on Adventure Island.
12.00 Taken to a seafront restaurant for lunch (mmmmm. lovely!)
1.00 Take second group.
2.15 Take third group.
3.30 Talk to staff in staff meeting.
4.30 Walk to station.
4.50 Leave Folkestone.
6.25 Arrive at London Bridge. Head for tube to St Pancras.
6.45 Miss early train. Wait for next.
7.55 Leave St Pancras. Signalling delays make train stop outside station. Catch up with 'slow' train and have to follow it.
10.02 Arrive in Nottingham.
10.30 Walk through front door. Shattered.

I am staying at home today (Wednesday) to recover and find some more energy ready to travel to Chesire tomorrow

So lucky

One of the advantages of being the Digital Teacher in Residence is that I am able to visit such a variety of schools all around the country. In doing so I get to see so many varying types of technology being used within schools. I have been into schools with ICT suites, schools without, schools with desktop machines, schools with laptops, schools with thin client machines.
Yesterday I was introduced to the RM Smartboard (I'd not used this type of interactive whiteboard before) and it was great. I stood in front of a class with Adventure Island displayed on the whiteboard, and used the small 'pen' to move around the screen and write over the map we were looking at. So much easier than having to draw on a seperate board and then turn back to a computer screen.

Another advantage of this job is that I get to travel around, and see so many different areas; from motorways to country lanes, and in the great weather that we have been having recently, you cannot beat a drive down a country lane.

Finally, I also get to sample the varying types of coffee on offer at Motorway service stations!!

(I recall these services from my childhood as being unique; going on a holiday, dad driving, stopping at one in the middle of nowhere and finding there was one building with a transport cafe, shop, amusement arcade, grotty restrooms and a few other things).

Well they have changed a bit since those days - they look much smarter now, the restrooms are cleaner, have more fast food outlets in them, and the restaurants are nicer, and they even have branded coffee houses within them.
So, no more coffee in a cracked mug while sat on a metal framed wooden chair, at an old table with a stained plastic checked tablecoth, full ashtray in the middle and the gentle wafting of ciggarette smoke throughout.
No, now its all no smoking, plush carpet, smart tables, comfy chairs, and even video screens and radio to watch / listen to. Lovely!
Oh, and I seem to be visiting the Tamworth services quite regularly. Not sure why it's that one, but lots of my journeys seem to involve the A42/M42

Sneaky peek

Hey, guess what. We have Adventure Island online now. Unlike Dragonsville, that we had to keep hidden away during the pilot stage, we can let other people look at this project. This is because unless you are in the pilot stage you cannot enter the teacher and pupil login areas. You will only be able to see the complete example islands that have been built. One of them is written like a diary, one is written like an adventure, and the final one is written like a story. The story island is interesting, because the structure of the island tool has allowed me to split the characters off at certain points. You choose who to follow and read their story until everyone meets up again. I hadn't even contemplated this when we were planning it, so this is an extra dimension to the project. So, for those that want to see just what we are creating, take a trip to

Click on the image to visit the Island, and let us know what you think.

(Added 9th June - Forgot to add that as this is in the pilot stage, the design needs improvements, but its the actual tool that we are testing at the moment)

Final call

Well I've written the resources for the next project - Adventure Island - and they are now being checked and edited.
The site is going through the last stages of design, and a few links and logos added.
We are almost set for launch.

The ferry is now boarding for All aboard!

Here, there, everywhere

Well if I ever wanted to see all of the UK this is my chance!
My calendar for June has (so far) visits and workshops in;

Milton Keynes, London, Berkshire, Dudley, Nottingham, Bristol, Chesire and Cambridgeshire.

I expect more to be added over the next few days, with many more schools involved in Adventure Island requesting a visit. Only problem is, I only have 8 more days free !!

Who would have thought back in September that I would have toured around so much. It's a complete transformation from being based in the classroom.

On a seperate note, my local radio station (and in fact the rest of the stations within the musicradio 'company' around the UK are asking a question on their websites today;

A report says teachers face increasing workloads and growing problems with pupil behaviour. Do you feel sorry for the teachers of today?

Guess what - everyone thinks that teachers have it easy. So once again, I suggest it's time for a national 'swap jobs with a teacher' week - let's see how non teachers view teaching after spending a week in the classroom. I somehow think there would be a lot more sympathy.

Seeing Patterns

The more I check through and edit the submissions to Dragonsville, the more I notice a distinct pattern emerging.
Each morning when I log on there are entries from the US and Canada, sometimes Australia, Hong Kong and elsewhere but mainly Canada and the US. Each entry tends to be from a different state or area, and there are never too many from the same school coming in at the same time.
While I am working through these, checking to see whether they are suitable for the site, fresh work starts to come in. This tends to happen between 9.15 - 10.30 and again from 11 - 12, and unlike the overnight submissions there are clusters from schools arriving one after the other.
Why is this? Well maybe because in the UK most schools have their daily literacy hour and some point in the morning.

So what is this telling me? Well, two distinct things:

(1) that around the world individual children are coming into the site (maybe through the link of the main Kids on the Net page, maybe through a link from Kids' Castle), looking around and submitting a piece of work or two.
(2) in the UK teachers are using the site as a digital resource for their classes. The whole class might be working on their letter writing skills and as a result 30 letters are sent over the course of the morning.

Which is great - because the whole point of these projects is to get teachers to use digital resources and let children produce online writing. So, take a look at the letters, the biographies, the instructions or the character portraits and see when a UK class contributed. There are quite a few on there.

I just wish I could tell whether or not a teacher was using the teaching notes and worksheets that were written for the site as well. If you are one of those teachers who is using the site, and you did use the resources - please let me know using the comment option below.

Website development

Unlike the previous project where I designed and built (several times!!) the webpages myself, Adventure Island is being built by a web developer. What does that mean?  Well, for a start it will look good, and it will work as it is meant to, so all aboard for the island!
Oh - and as before we have asked an artist to draw the images for us. We now have maps, signs and icons ready. Look at the ones below;

All the images above were drawn by Mark Burgess. Thanks Mark

They are going to look great on the site. I want to get on with this project now and start the workshops with children around the country.

Farewell, group one

Yesterday I went through the mailing list and removed all the users who took part in the pilot stage of Dragonsville, because we need to use the list for the people involved in the adventure island project.
It made it final that no longer would we be developing Dragonsville, now it is open and people can add to it, but there will be no new sections added as required.

Oh well, onwards to the islands now!
Today is resource writing and worksheet preparations, with the building of the new mailing list later on. Full speed ahead to

Image (c) Kids on the Net 2004

Booking Up

Well the calendar for July is getting a little on the full side - this is what I have so far;

Friday July 9th I have either a conference in Manchester, or a talk in Yeovil. But not both!!
Monday 12th - 14th I am at the incubation conference, in Nottingham,
Monday 26th - 29th I am in London at the Digital Generations conference,
Friday 30th I am at Nesta to show them the projects we have developed.

In addition there will be the evaluation to look at from the Adventure Island project before making the site live and resources to add to the eTeachersPortal.

Then it's August, and a rest. Phew!

A little alteration

Within Dragonsville we have a section called the portal of tidings where children are able to write letters that can then be published on the site onscreen within a scroll. It looks quite effective (even if I do say so myself!). There were two types of letter that they could write - letters to the dragons within Dragonsville, or letters written to friends from Dragonsville.
The first option has been popular since we opened the site, whereas the second option wasn't. So we changed it!
As there were so many letters asking the dragons questions, we've set up a page where the dragons can write back to some of the children to answer their questions (OK, so it's me pretending to be a dragon writing the letters!). I altered the site and put that up today so I am hoping that a school in Cambridgeshire will see soon that their questions have been answered. It adds just that little extra touch to the site, and of course makes the dragons seem even more real to children!

The only worry is come September, who is going to continue to check the submissions and reply to the children. I'd love to carry on, but my secondment will have come to an end (begging bowl coming out again). However, think positive! there must be a way to continue this. [sits and starts to scratch head]

Adventure Island

Well we are gearing up for the start of this project.
We have lots of teachers who have shown an interest in the project - at the moment there are about 20, as well as some ICT consultants from around the country.
Here at trAce we have the webdeveloper working on the coding side of the project getting the database that will drive everything up and running. And we have just commissioned an artist to create some images for use on the site.
We're looking at getting the logo in a driftwood type of design - perfect for an Island you might have been washed up on!

Anyway, after all the talk things are starting to take shape and as soon as those wonderful SAT tests are over, we'll kick the pilot stage into life and let schools experiment with using new media as a way to make literacy lessons more entertaining.

I can't wait!

A new project

With the first project now completed and open to the public, it is time to get to work on the second one - Adventure Island.
I have visions of an online tool that allows teachers and educators to build up descriptions of an Island with their classes, and then once it has been completed, allow other schools to explore the island.
I made a version of this years ago with my class at school - and we called it Pirates Booty - however I had to write the code for the entire site, and this is what we are trying to avoid.

We want teachers to be able to concentrate on getting their pupils to write fantastic descriptions, while all the code is worked out in the background for them.

You can read more about the project, and sign up for it, here

More submissions

There were more Dragonsville submissions from children all around the world when I got in this morning.
I've started to notice that children are sending in submissions from several areas of the site, so that means that they must be looking around the site and visiting all the different areas.

We're also getting multiple submissions from particular schools, so it looks like classes are being taken into ICT suites and having whole class, or large group, lessons.

More images

More photos have been added to the launch photo gallery.
See the bottom of the column to the right.

Submissions

I'm spending a bit of time each morning now going through the submissions that have been sent into Dragonsville, and are held on the database until I check through, amend and publish them.
There is the occasional submission that you think "I'm glad that didn't appear on the site" as it is really inappropriate, but most of the work is great and with a few capitals, and punctuation changes, it can then be added.
What is really nice to see is that in the discussion area of the site (The Cavern) children are responsing to each others discussions, and engaging in a debate. This is what we were after, so that is a positive.
Also, when I read through some of the work I come across comments that could only have been thought about if the child had looked across the whole site, and read some information elsewhere.
For example, this is a submission that was entered into The Naming Pool (where children can submit character portraits of the dragons);

Wild Fire is a very kind hearted dragon that loves all creatures large and small. She loves to help-out if she can. She could fly faster than a fighter jet and is well loved and respected for her bravery. She is around 16 years old and is very wise. Even the Elders sometimes come to her for advice.

The last sentence is the interesting one because she mentions 'the Elders' who appear within a seperate section of the site, in the history of Dragonsville.
I can only assume that this child has read the history, taken in the information and used it within this area. Again, just what we were looking for.

And then this morning, while I was looking through the main Kids on the Net inbox, I saw a submission to the Kids on the Net site for a piece of writing about a dragon, from a child who had already submitted work to Dragonsville.
This was so nice to see as it is just what we are aiming for - to get children to move across from Dragonsville and into the main Kids on the Net site.

Dragons Alive!

We launched the site!

is now open to all.

Take a trip to Dragonsville and discover the truth about dragons.

Images from the launch will be added to the blog as soon as possible.

Tell me a story

Dracospeare - the name says it all really.
What else could this dragon be, but a story dragon.

Images are (c) Kids on the Net 2004 Launching April 23rd, 2004

In this area of the website, children can read one of Dracospeares stories and choose their own path through it. They may reach the end of the story, or they may be asked to write how the story should finish.
There are also instant stories to star in. Imagine reading a story online and seeing your own name as well as a friends name within it.

Remember that all work sent  to the site is checked and edited by a human before being published. We think it is very important to keep the site safe for children to use.

Knowlege is the key

Most people assume that dragons are nasty, smelly and thick. Not so!
They are a curious creature interested in everything they see.
Libro is a very intelligent dragon because he spends all his time reading books of knowledge.
He likes to read work sent to him by children as well.

Images are (c) Kids on the Net 2004 Launching April 23rd 2004

This part of the site allows children to submit information  and instructional writing to the site. There are teachers notes and worksheets that can be downloaded.

All work sent to the site is checked and edited by a human before being published.

Begging bowl

I'm over half way through my secondment with Writers for the Future at the moment, and there is so much still to do.
Not only is the second project being designed ready to begin later this term, but there will be the anaylsis of both the projects to undertake, and this will run into a second year.
Trouble is, my secondment ends in August and unless someone somewhere would like to shower me with money, I am going to have to return to the classroom and not continue creating all this online material for children to use, and research the effect it has on learning.
If anyone knows a rich uncle, or is friends with Mr. Gates, please tell them about the project, and what we've been doing.

Thanks!