I am delighted to get our Nintendo Wii installed and setup in our classroom. To get the audio working I used a small jack for the connections and ran it from the Wii into the PC’s Line In and then out again to speakers. We have one for each of the Year 5 and 6 classrooms. Not only will it obviously be lots of fun, I am hoping to make the most of the games to support learning. We have the Sports game and also Big Brain Academy which looks good. Soon I will take a closer look at BBA and see what more it has to offer in terms of classroom use, so look out for that soon.
Here is one sketchy idea already: Addition and Subtraction using Wii Golf (part of the Sports game) Use as a maths starter, an engaging way to generate whole class sums or even a small group activity – children take a shot, we subtract from the total yardage for that hole. Written addition of the yards for different shots. Total yards of shots around a short course. The yardage will only ever be into three digits for a single shot – unless I get a go and it will be less! Perfect 2 and 3 digit addition and subtraction for the age group of our class.
So much more to explore!
Next week we will be getting the children creating their Mii avatars and I will try to find a way to export those images for use elsewhere. I wish that back when I was ten my classroom was this much fun.
For the first time in 2006 I saw a multi-touch device in action in the labs of Philips in Eindhoven. Just recently the wave of multi-touch devices has grown and this is especially clear in the use of mobile phones (also my iPod looks different). I suffered from iPhone envy when I was in Glasgow for the SLF as so many people had them, pinching and flicking their way through mobile content. A month or so after I returned from Eindhoven I wrote that perhaps the IWB had past it’s sell by date. What I am aware of now, that admittedly I wasn’t at the time of that post, is how much research and development needs to be done for multi-touch to be a strong enough technology for the average classroom.
Multi-touch technology in phones such as the iPhone, G1, Samsung Anycall SPH-M4650 and the new LG KF900 places it in the mainstream and can only accelerate the advancement of similar learning technologies.
The first consumer oriented multi-touch PC (ready for Windows 7) in the shape of the HP Touchsmart tx2 is available now and has a whole raft of gestures for the user to take advantage of:
SINGLE, DOUBLE TAP: Select objects by touching them once (single tap), or double tap to open objects/programs.
FLICK: Scroll or pan within an application either horizontally or vertically. For example, in MediaSmart Photo, flick your finger to the left on the display and the inertia from your flick will move the photos leftward, just as if you pushed a piece of paper to the left on a table.
PRESS & DRAG: Touch an object on the display and hold and drag it to the desired destination.
ARC: Allows you to move tracks to/from playlists without having to make a straight line.
PINCH: Touch an object on the display once to select the item then place 2 fingers on opposite corners of the object, then move them closer together to decrease the object’s size or to zoom out. Move fingers away from one another to enlarge the object or to zoom in.
ROTATE: Rotate photos by touching the object once to select the item then use 2 fingers on opposite corners of the image and rotate the image either clockwise or counter-clockwise.
LAUNCH MEDIASMART: Touch the screen with two fingers together and write the letter m on the display to launch the MediaSmart Smart Menu.
My involvement with Durham University has made me realise that multi-touch is still a fledgling in terms of mainstream classroom technology. They are at the very beginning of four years of research into what multi-touch means for the classroom, so I was surprised to see the SMART Table being released.
On one hand you have an expensive device available for the classroom now and on the other academics still trying to find the answers questions about multiple touch interactivity and how this impacts on collaborative learning and pedagogy. I hope that soon I will be able to see the SMART Table in action and perhaps sound out Steljes, the SMART distributor here in the UK, about the future of multi-touch and what they foresee,
I have had a SMARTBoard in my classroom for five years and I think that multi-touch devices will become a standard for mobile technology, more and more PCs will take advantage of it, to the benefit of future classroom technology. But what is beyond that? Will mainstream multi-touch devices just remain in the hands of our students and be brought into our schools? Will it take so long for all schools to actually be able to afford multi-touch devices that the next development for user/learner information interaction is already becoming a reality?
This year has been wonderful for me in terms of meeting people face to face who I have either followed on Twitter or who have even inspired me to begin writing this blog in the first place.TeachMeet at the Scottish Learning Festival allowed me to meet a whole bunch of brilliant Scots amongst others, which was a great pleasure. With Amplified’08 and MirandoMod2 still to look forward to I hope that 2009 will be just as fruitful in terms of matching avatars to real faces.
TweetMeet Nottingham on Saturday 6th December 2008 is another opportunity to meet fellow edubloggers and teachers making the most of technology in their classroom. Perhaps TweetMeet could be classed as the informal younger brother of TeachMeet, but we are meeting in a pub so it has much the same origins. Take a look at the site and sign-up if you can make it. I am pleased that Doug Belshaw, Lisa Stevens and Jose Picardo are already enscribed on the list so I won’t be talking to myself.
I have followed the last 3 Google Teacher Academies from afar and as I currently write this the New York event is in full swing. They always sound like positive experiences for all who have been involved and I am very grateful that the work in our school has been featured at both the Chicago and the New York events.
Although I am pleased to see references to the resources and work I have been doing, I’d much prefer the opportunity to talk to fellow teachers about it myself. I would greatly value the opportunity to spend time with 50 other teachers from across the UK and Europe, talking about the powerful tools that Google offers, the ways they impact on learning and the innovative classroom approaches it can open up. Chewing over ideas for the implementation of Google tools to support learning would be a great way to spend a day.
You may ask: why have I not applied for any of the academy events as they accept international teachers? Put simply it is the cost of travel that is completely prohibitive to me or many other teachers even applying. Most schools would (a) not be able to help with the cost of international travel / accommodation and (b) incur more costs due to the extended absence from a classroom.
That is why I am calling on Google to hold a Teacher Academy event in the UK.
A London based event would allow UK and European based teachers the opportunity to gather together and participate by sharing their ideas and experiences of Google tools in the same way our US colleagues have done. In my opinion there is highly innovative practice in the UK with educational technology in the classroom – you only have to look at the TeachMeet events and some of the topics presented.
50 certified trainers in the UK and Europe taking innovative ideas with them back to their schools, districts and counties would help other teachers to begin to better understand Google tools and the potential they have. Admittedly Google tools are not the only thing available, but in my opinion used in the right way they hold a strong place in any classroom toolkit.
I know it sounds like sour grapes but I genuinely think it is time that the innovative work with Google tools by so many UK educators is celebrated, championed and recognised.
Do you think a GTA should be held in the UK? What can I/we do to help bring the Google Teacher Academy to these shores?
Yesterday I visited Durham’s Technology-Enhanced Learning Research group who had invited me to see their multi-touch interactive desk that hit the headlines recently. It was in fact my Mum who sent me a newspaper clipping about the device and following my TeachMeet presentation Dr Liz Burd invited me to visit.
It is always thrilling to see the birth place of new technologies and I have been priveleged to have seen two such concept labs. It is motivating and inspiring to meet innovative people such as the team working at Durham University and equally exciting to hear their open philosophy towards the interactive desk development.
The interactive desk is one element of a much bigger picture approach to this research and development looking to redefine what a collaborative learning environment can be. Durham have won funding for 4 years for the project. It is very refreshing as it is not just about a single device or product but deals with as they state in their grant proposal “the design of an educational technology that is strongly supportive of social pedagogy.” They call the wider learning environment concept “SynergyNet”.
This learning environment will be technology rich, where ICT is seamlessly integrated into the fabric of a classroom but the technology does not intrude on the main focus of the activity (Smith and Harrison 2001). Our enthusiastic claims for the positive impact of this technology on learning are based on its ability to facilitate classroom dialogue and pupil collaboration. Central to SynergyNet is a new form of desk that contains a large built-in multi-touch surface.
The team go on to explain that:
This research aligns directly to TLRPs (Teaching and Learning Research Programme) evidence-informed pedagogic Principle 7 (James and Pollard, 2007) that effective teaching and learning foster not only individual but also social processes and outcomes. Thus this research aims:
Aim 1: To create a radically new technology-rich learning environment that integrates with traditional classroom layouts and collective activities.
Aim 2: To design and implement a new form of user interface for educational multi-touch systems.
Aim 3: To formulate a new pedagogy that eases transition and movement between teacher-centric and pupil centric interaction.
Aim 4: To analyse pupils’ learning strategies to inform fundamental research by capturing data as pupils use the SynergyNet environment
Doctors Liz Burd, Andrew Hatch (seated in the picture above) and Phyo Kyaw played as my hosts for the day and showed me their Techno Cafe which was the inspiration for the SynergyNet project. It was an informal learning space for leactures and seminars, divided up into small booths in the style of a diner. Each booth was rich with technology: SMARTBoard, hard wiring available for tablets and other devices, speakers, cameras to monitor the activity in the booths from a central teacher’s podium.
The multi-touch desk itself has been developed with learning in mind from the beginning and actually using it was very exciting. However the design was unexpected, it was a large podium with the surface itself at about a 40 degree angle. The surface itself was a synthetic fabric like a drum skin and Liz Burd explain that they had tried all sorts of different surfaces to facilitate touch and she thought a tracing paper texture would be ideal.
As I have said the open approach to the project was a refreshing change and they openly encouraged me to take pictures and video and to blog about the project. Here are three videos I took currently available on YouTube – please use them in your own blog posts and to show staff to instigate discussion.
Both of these simple application are very much to prove the code and application architecture that underpins the use of the device. You can see that they are simple and rudimentary but this is the first step. We talked about the possibilities of applications and I was delighted to hear that Liz, Andrew and Phyo would be willing to take ideas and contributions from educators who are working with a range of different age groups.
This is the inner workings of the device and you can see the projector/camera/infra red construction, again their willingness for me to film “behind the scenes” underlines their open source philosophy to many of the project elements.
In fact the project’s research outcomes clearly state these ideas:
A revolutionary learning environment using integrated ICT – We will develop free, open-source software to enable pupils to use the SynergyNet multi-touch tables and teachers to control the immersive classroom environment.
A new integrated pedagogy – Through the use and the design of the SynergyNet environment, we will evolve a new technology-supported social pedagogy.
A data capture system – We will develop free, open-source software to enable researchers automatically to capture video and audio data and simultaneously record user-interactions with PC or multi-touch technology.
A data-rich repository of classroom activity – We will record pupils’ collaborative exchanges (verbal and non-verbal) as they use the system. This will used to inform the evaluation and evolution of the research but the richness of the data means that it has great potential to support other research projects within TLRP and beyond.
Our final conversation of the day centred on the next steps for the SynergyNet project and I raised the huge potential that social networking tools have in terms of gathering ideas and insight from wider education communities. I have agreed to help the team from Durham to facilitate the way our networks can make an impact on this research and how the voices of many teachers and educators could contribute to their project aims.
You have the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing development of this exciting project as at this stage the team need ideas. Contribute your ideas and thoughts for development using the newly created Flickr group “Multi-Touch Interactive Desk: Applications and Gesture Ideas”
You can contribute in two ways.
Possible learning activities from any age range that would benefit from multi-touch capabilities. Upload screenshots or photos of classroom activities that could be transformed with multi-touch. Ensure you explain what you are adding and your ideas for how it could be improved.
It is also a place to suggest gestures that could be developed for the device, think the iPhone “pinch” and “twist” but what else would you like? Upload a diagram or better still a short video of the gesture and what it would do.
The potential for this project is huge and if it continues to listen to the voices of wider communities it should have a strong and exciting future. No doubt we will explore the prospects of other online tools to gather your ideas but for now take a look again at the films and think what could you have done differently in your classroom with that sort of tool? What activities could you imagine with many of these desks working together in a classroom? Why not show your students the films and encourage them to suggest their ideas.
I know that the team would love to hear your comments, reactions and learning activity ideas – whether here, on the YouTube videos or with an image or video contribution to the Flickr group. I think this is a wonderful opportunity for us to help define the future of classroom interactive devices and not just be the consumer, so please get the word out and let’s see if we can make a difference.
You never know maybe in years to come you will have these devices at your school and you could say you played your part.
This year has been wonderful for me in terms of meeting people face to face who I have either followed on Twitter or who have even inspired me to begin writing this blog in the first place. 
