Create the space for dialogue
I was pleased to see the final instalment of my contribution to the SMARTBoard Lesson Podcasts published the Sunday before last. Ben and I discuss the future of the IWB and a couple of lesson ideas I contributed.
SMARTBoard Lesson Podcast #74: A History and Literacy Lesson from the UK
Let me know what you make of the show – well worth a listen.
It seems that it will be an interesting year regarding the release and development of interactive surface technologies. Now it seems there is a mixture of large players in the market all of which could concievably affect the look of our classrooms in the not too distant future.
As you may have read I have been tracking these products for more than a year now – four major stories seem to be most dominant.
And now…
I suppose the question is no longer about whether or not we will see this type of technology in education but, what form will it take and who will be able to back it?
Last Thursday night I presented to Ivanhoe Grammar School about the uses of ICT in my classroom. But this was no ordinary professional development event, Ivanhoe is in Melbourne, Australia.
We conducted the net cast using a free trial on some desktop conferencing software and used Skype for the voice call. It was quite a challenge for me as you don’t have the ability to see the faces of your audience so you don’t know when to go back over things or just shut-up fo a minute! Joseph Papaleo helped organise the event for his school and from his responses it seemed to be a success.
During the presentation I covered a range of topics, giving practical examples of their use in my classroom –
>>Blogs
> Writing for a real audience and purpose
> Visitors and comments
>>Google Earth
> Starting the day with a “Wow!”
> Going beyond geography
> Being an information tourist
>>Using Wikihow for instructional writing
>>Turning Point audience voting system
>>MS Photostory – an alternative presentation tool
I would just like to thank Joseph and the staff at Ivanhoe for inviting me to present and I hope that although the line was a bit poor you all were able to take something that could make an impact in your classroom.
I came across this great little Maths game – thankyou Sandaig Otters. Lots of Japanese text so no instructions.
All you have to do is choose three spheres that add up to 10 before they scroll off the bottom of the screen, if you get a total that is greater than 10 you lose part of the life at the bottom. You can make other numbers by combining smaller integers. It would be a great little starter for a maths lesson to get the kids brains working – works really well on the IWB.
Following a link to my blog from Stephen Hall at Tech Waves I unearthed a rather strong opinion against the idea of 1 to 1 laptop projects in the US. His post “Laptops are a costly Mistake for Schools” gave a me a good dose of reality just as I am on the brink of finalising our first step in this direction. I was curious to read articles here and here, that clearly illustrated the potential ills of such projects on such a wide scale.
Nevertheless I am determined that our approach is different, as I commented, we do not have deep pockets nor are we going to only measure standards after a year and say it was a failure or a success. We know from our own experiences that such projects are much more complex and often have unplanned impacts.
It was good to read a reply by Dennis Harter to these views and I truly value the variety of opinions that are so easy to access via our blogs. It helps so much as a subject leader to hear these comments and debate such real issues borne of real experiences.
Some of the main differences between many of the US models and our own is:
With 3 quotations currently in my possession the next step for me will be to meet with my headteacher and discuss the details and what follows.