May 2008
ICT Curricular Team Team ICT Curricular Team Leader Team Leader Karen Robertson QIO: Karen Robertson QIO
01620 827137 01620 827137 krobertson@eastlothian.gov.uk krobertson@eastlothian.gov.uk
Curricular Enquiries: Curricular Enquiries ElizabethElizabeth Cowan Cowan
01620 827108 01620 827108 ecowan@eastlothian.gov.uk ecowan@eastlothian.gov.uk
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Chess Scotland
Projector Manuals
ICT Open Meeting
The manual for Sanyo (Model PLC – XE40) and HP (VP6300 Series) projectors which are installed in schools can be found in the Education Exchange folder, ICT, Projector Manuals.
Monday 26 May Prestonpans Education Centre 4:00 – 5:00 pm.
Education SupportSupport Officer Officer Education Tess Watson Tess Watson 01620 827323 twatson@eastlothian.gov.uk
01620 827323
Glow Implementation Officer twatson@eastlothian.gov.uk Dave Rawson Officer Glow Implementation 01620 827935
drawson@eastlothian.gov.uk Dave Rawson 01620 827935 Administration drawson@eastlothian.gov.uk
Suzanne Todd Administration
01620 827130 Suzannestodd@eastlothian.gov.uk Todd 01620 827130 E-mail enquiries stodd@eastlothian.gov.uk
educationict@eastlothian.gov.uk
E-mail enquiries:
Technical Support educationict@eastlothian.gov.uk 01620 827205
Technical Support ithelpdesk@eastlothian.gov.uk 01620 827105 EduBuzz Website - edubuzz.org ithehpdesk@eastlothian.gov.uk
Gilmour EduBuzzDavid Website:
01620 827114 dgilmour@eastlothian.gov.uk edubuzz.org
In this In Issue this Issue •
Projector Manual
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Helpful Hint for Projectors
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Useful Links to being safe online
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ICT Open Meeting
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Internet Safety Training
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Visualisers
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Films for Learning
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EduBuzz – 1000 – blog milestone
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GLOW Rollout – update
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Additional Support Needs
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2008 primary school technology challenge
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Links to resources
Helpful Hint for Projectors If you press menu on your projector remote controls go right to your final option, which look like a spanner, scroll down to 10th option, which looks like a yellow bulb. Here you will find a power saving option to switch on. This might overcome the problem of accidentally leaving on whiteboard bulbs. Lynne
Useful Links to being safe online http://safesocialnetworking.com/ Good practical advice on using bebo on this site…. Can be downloaded and hosted locally if desired. http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/tea chers/ The thinkuknow resources have been produced to help you teach the young people you care about to stay safe online. The resources have been developed largely with the direct help and advice from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centres Youth Advisory Panel. So when we say these products are designed by young people for young people ... it's true.
What is GLOW? An introduction to GLOW. Email Suzanne Todd to book your place. stodd@eastlothian.gov.uk
Internet Safety Training For Parents and Carers. Between now and the summer we will be running workshops in the following locations. If you would like to attend any of these workshops then please feel free to get in touch anyone is welcome, we do ask that you let us know that you are coming in advance.
Tuesday 3rd June - Preston Lodge High School, East Lothian, 19.00h - 21.00h.
Tuesday 10th June 2008 - Ross High School, East Lothian, 19.00h - 21.00h.
Wednesday 11th June 2008 Dunbar Grammar School, East Lothian, 19.00h - 21.00h.
Wednesday 18th June - Knox Academy, East Lothian, 19.00h 21.00h.
Tuesday 24th June 2008 - North Berwick High School, East Lothian, 19.00h - 21.00h.
Email Tess Watson at twatson@eastlothian.gov.uk for further information or to book a place.
VISUALISERS Many schools have been asking for advice regarding the purchase of a Visualiser. What can a Visualiser do? A Visualiser has the ability to connect to virtually any multimedia projector, interactive whiteboard, PC monitor or TV to provide you with a large visual element to lessons and demonstrations. A Visualiser will display a 3D object (moving or still) and also text. By displaying these documents or objects on a large screen pupils will have a better understanding when being able to visualise content. This may also lead to greater interactivity. Humbie Primary School has just bought two visualisers (Samsung SVP-5300 and Samsung SDP850DXP). The teachers and children have been using them for a variety of purposes and the children are learning so quickly they are teaching the teachers! In language, the visualiser has been an excellent resource for shared text. The text is placed directly under the visualiser and projected onto the Promethean board (no need for timely scanning). The children can then use the Promethean tool bar to annotate the text: the pens are good for highlighting the text and the photograph button enables parts to be pasted into flipcharts and manipulated. These flipcharts can be saved and revisited. They also form a good record of work and allow for peer and selfassessment. In maths, children demonstrate their understanding by manipulating materials under the visualiser. This enables children to share how they are using concrete materials and discuss strategies. Children can also place their whiteboards under the visualiser and share their 'working outs'. The teacher can quickly photograph these boards and place them side by side on a flipchart so that children can discuss the different approaches to solving the problem. Again these photographs can be highlighted and annotated. AifL is supported by visualisers because children can show their work to a large group, discuss and invite feedback. Redrafting, conferencing, looking for success criteria can all be modelled quickly and effectively. In science, the children had a fantastic time studying the behaviour of minibeasts by putting them under the visualiser and observing on the big screen. The topic really came to life when 20cm ladybirds started crawling across the promethean board!
In the future the children are looking forward to using the video in the visualiser to connect to GLOW and have a video conference with children in Colonsay.
Films for Learning is an initiative that encourages students and educators to make films about subjects which teachers may find difficult, tricky or dangerous to explain.
It aims to inspire students to create and share videos of their favourite curriculum subjects and offers an innovative and engaging way for teachers and students to work together with dynamic and practical approach to learning. FilmsforLearning's "Capture It!" competition is aimed at students and teachers, who can enter by making a short film that explores big ideas in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. It is running until 13th June 2008 and you can read more about it via the following link – http://filmsforlearning.org/Default.aspx Prizes including web cams, digital video recorders and copies of Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate are on offer to both schools and students
eduBuzz.org passes the 1000-blog milestone Blog number 1000 was created for a P7 student at the Innerwick Primary School This was part of a set of 7 for the P7 members of Lindy Lynn’s composite P4/5/6/7 class, reflecting the increasing use of blogs to provide web publishing tools to individual students. The blogs will be used by the P7s for a project to reflect on their time at Innerwick, and the group are full of ideas! If you have not visited already, take a look at <http://edubuzz.org> to find information and views about Learning and Tyeaching in East Lothian JANET Collaborate JANET Collaborate offers a service allowing schools to arrange videoconferences with content providers such as museums and galleries. However, collaboration opportunities being offered are not restricted to videoconferencing, and there are schools and content providers offering simple
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collaboration. Schools themselves can offer opportunities to other schools, and there is also an area allowing teachers of different year groups to seek contacts teaching similar year groups. The service has been running since last autumn and is proving to be a useful means for schools to get together for common projects. Teachers are allowed to register directly with the service, which is available at http://www.janetcollaborate.ac.uk/. Registration is free and mailings are sent when new and interesting opportunities are added to the database.
Glow Rollout - Update In a previous “ICT Newsletter” I mentioned the forthcoming Glow Mentor training. This two-day session took place at the end of February, at Prestonpans Education Centre. The training was lead by Andrew Brown and Martin Brown from “Learning and Teaching Scotland” and Paul Smyth and Ian Hoffman from “RM”. Our twenty Mentors got their first look at the Glow Portal, since the pilot trials held at Knox Academy in 2006/7. During training they were able to spend considerably more time using the portal than previously. Training included excellent presentations and hands-on practice in the use of the Glow tools: “Glow Chat”, “Glow Meet” – a video conferencing tool, “Glow Messenger” and “Glow Mail”. There was also a brief introduction to “Glow Learn” the virtual learning environment within the Glow Portal. Some schools have already shown an interest in taking up Glow Learn, ahead of the planned roll out, following the adoption of the basic portal services in normal daily usage. The trainers stressed the importance of regarding Glow not simply as a collection of ICT tools but as a means of transforming Learning and Teaching both in and out of the classroom. Glow embodies the philosophies of the “Curriculum for Excellence” and “Assessment is for Learning”, where greater responsibilities are placed on the learner and where the distinction between learner and teacher is less clearly defined, both taking ownership of the learning process. A follow up series of twilight meetings is well underway in which Mentors are developing Glow based classroom projects. Whilst honing their skills in the use of the Glow Portal, this will also allow them to produce exemplar materials to be used with their teaching colleagues in the rollout process. Next Steps We’ve got our Glow school sites! We had the training! What next? At the moment there are a couple of issues to be resolved. Glow depends upon the authority’s MIS
system (Phoenix) to supply basic details for user provisioning. Our MIS has undergone a recent upgrade, required by other projects. This has resulted in delays to the provisioning of users into Glow. I hope by the time you are reading this article that issue will have been resolved. There was also an issue related to the email service used by pupils and staff in schools for Learning and Teaching (e-lothian.sch.uk), different to the corporate email (elcschool.org.uk). Staff will continue to use the corporate email service via Web Outlook as at present. However we are planning to use Glow Mail for staff and pupils in place of Edukit. Schools have been informed that the Edukit service will be phased out in March 2009. Access to the Glow Portal and the Glow Mail service will be available from early on in the new session. Recent statistics, showing the current usage of the Edukit service, indicate that less that 50% of the accounts have been accessed since their initial introduction and that the service is not well utilised. Glow Mail should see better up take since it has valuable role to play in the day-to-day use of the Glow Portal. Reaching out through Glow Even though Glow is in the very early stages of rolling out to schools in East Lothian, some schools are anxious to get going without further delay. A number of exciting projects are being set up at present. Humbie Primary School, for example, are interested in utilising the Glow Meet video conferencing facilities in order to link up with Kilchattan Primary School on the Isle of Colonsay, where some ex-Humbie residents now live. Furthermore, a teacher in Sanderson’s Wynd Primary School is wanting her “engineering club” members to be able to communicate with an industry based engineer, whose expertise is helping the club members develop their engineering skills. Once again the communications tools built into Glow are coming into use, Glow Meet and Glow Chat allowing collaboration even when face to face meetings are not possible. Stretching even further across the Atlantic, a Glow Group is being created to allow collaboration amongst those involved in organising the Yosemite National Park visits. Here too the Glow communication tools, as well as website hosting facilities, will offer them an exciting new way to conduct their business.
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Perhaps you have a project in mind that could benefit in a similar way. Glow can not simply add new dimensions to the methods which we currently employ but it can actually change the goals we are trying to achieve and the means by which we try to realise them. If you have an idea that you would like to discuss, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hesitate to get in touch with a member of the team. D Rawson
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Additional Support Needs Communication Matters is a UK national charitable organisation of members concerned with the augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) needs of people with complex communication needs. Their website can be found at http://communicationmatters.org.uk/ Communication Matters - Road Shows Learn all about the latest communication aids and AAC Products Book a FREE place on a Communication Matters Road Show and find out the latest developments in communication aids, software and specialised equipment. Throughout 2008, the UK's leading AAC suppliers will be at Communication Matters Road Shows demonstrating an exciting range of equipment and software for people with complex communication needs. The Road Shows are aimed at professionals (e.g. speech and language therapists and teachers), people who use AAC, and their family members/enablers. There will be opportunities for questions and hands-on trial of systems, and lots of valuable handouts and literature to pick up. The following companies will be represented on 28 May in Edinburgh at The CALL Centre, University of Edinburgh, Paterson’s Land, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh EH8 8AQ · DynaVox Systems · Inclusive Technology · Possum AAC · Liberator · QED · SmartBox / Sensory Software · Signalong · Techcess · Toby Churchill · Widgit Software
The competition prizes are being supported by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). Cash prizes will be available for the winning school from each of the English Regions and Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. In addition, £4500, £2500 and £1500 will be awarded to three overall winners. The closing date for entries is 13 July 2008. Winning schools will be notified and invited to come to the Houses of Parliament for an awards ceremony in October. Visit Make it Happen 2008 website for more information.
Links to resources http://cms.lgfl.net/web/lgfl/naturecam/webcams
Culloden website resource launched To complement the opening of the Culloden Centre, also launched on 16 April was a new National Trust for Scotland Culloden website with a dedicated Learning zone to support teaching and learning. Here teachers and pupils can access a host of resources and materials for classroom use; investigate and research the entire Jacobite story online. Everything is provided that you need to know to prepare for a visit to Culloden. www.nts.org.uk/Culloden/Home/
Book online at http://communicationmatters.org.uk/forms/html/cm_ro ad_show_2008.htm
Chess Scotland
2008 primary school technology challenge
Dinosaur Chess
Entries are now open for the 2008 Make IT Happen competition which is for primary school pupils aged 9-11, across the UK. The competition is organised by the Parliamentary Information Technology Committee (PITCOM) in partnership with e-skills UK (the sector skills council for IT and telecoms) and the Institution for Engineering and Technology (IET). Make IT Happen 2008 calls on schools to use technology, such as audio-visual materials, web pages or interactive posters, to describe how they would change an aspect of their local community for the better.
Dinosaur Chess, is a BAFTA nominated piece of chess teaching / learning software, which has been generously offered free to all Scottish schools by its Dundee developer, Paul Shafi. Donna Officer, a teacher at Hillside primary school (Dundee), who is also a Chess Scotland junior director, has developed a series of promethean flipcharts / WORD worksheets to accompany the program.
Dinosaur Chess is an excellent program aimed at teaching complete beginners how to play chess in a
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clear, unfussy and fun way. Pupils can log in under their own user names and learn how to play chess at their own pace. If your school would like Dinosaur Chess installed on some machines then contact the IT Helpdesk.
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