Redbridge Conference Pictures

For all those of you who are viewing this blog in school, you may have difficuly viewing the flickr embedded pictures in the sidebar.
Therefore I have posted some below:

At the end of a very busy but very stimulating day I asked you:
What will you take away with you from today's conference?
Here are a selection of comments:

sandra said...
Wow, so much to take in.

14 June 2007 16:29
sandra said...
Alan was truly fantastic. So many ideas to take away. I have known for a while that we needed to teach children to critically evaluate the content that they use. But the question for me has always been how? Now I have several ideas which I can apply straight to the classroom. Practical ways to make my children think about where the information that they use comes from. Some of the issues raised today were quite scary, such as the upcoming software able to search face and voice patterns as well as the privacy issues which we open ourselves up for when we upload content. We feel in control of personal pages and can edit and delete them as we see fit. With archive.org that power is no longer ours. Overall a wonderful morning, which left me with many answers and yet so many more questions. Thank you for arranging for Alan to speak at the conference

14 June 2007 16:39
Nic Hughes said...
Hi there - I've said it all on my blog check it out. BLOGWow is all I can say though
14 June 2007 20:39
Gary Jelks said...
I thought Alan was mind blowing.I have however, put in steps to block www.nofiltr.com.
15 June 2007 09:26

Anonymous said...
A fantastic day!! I came away inspired by both speakers. Alan has left my brain spinning in a positive way. I have learnt important things about the Internet that previously I had not been aware of, when reflecting on the day some of the information he shared appear obvious, how old is the site? who published it? although I had no idea of how to find this information out, his comparison with a library and the stone age really helped me realise the implications for our teaching and learning in the future. "The right tools for the job in hand" springs to mind, I have to ensure the children gain a good understanding of the importance of this sentence and can use appropriate critical thinking skills when using the technology. I have already put a "searching the net" display up with many though provoking questions for the children to think about.
21 June 2007 14:48

Alan November - Inspirational

Nic Hughes writes
I could do a very long blog on the whole session... and I will but on my own blog :) http://nicholashughes.blogspot.com/2007/06/redbridge-ict-conference-2007-part-1.html Check it out. Alan truly inspired me. I bought his book and today I set up a Poem Blog for my English set, and today in class they where posting their poems. http://5nh.typepad.co.uk/5nh_poems/
Check it out and leave my kids some comments. Lets use "anonymity for good." Nic Hughes - Nightingale Primary School

May Subject Leaders

This month we consolidated the previous message around both Podcasting and E-Safety, by holding a mini competition. We began by looking at the story of Libby from Eastenders, , and used her story and CBBC's Dongle as our inspiration to complete up to 3 minutes of journalistic heaven!
The idea was to both master Podcasting and learn the Childnet SMART rules for internet safety.

So, What is Podcasting?
Podcasting is the practice of making audio (or video) files available online in a way that allows software to detect new files and download them. Podcasting is used by everyone from the BBC to deliver radio broadcasts, such as 5live and Dr Who, to small niche users on issues such as Photoshop or basket weaving.
Schools are increasingly making the most of this exciting medium, and London schools are uploading their Podcasts free to the LGFL podcasting site.

Click on here to hear a sample Podcast, created by Anthony Evans

How can it be used in Education?
The ability to upload audio broadcasts to the net means podcasts are a great tool for home study. Some schools are using the medium to help students with home revision, as seen on Teachers TV. But, it should not just be used just as Edu-radio, it can also be a means of providing children with a voice or as a means of addressing an audience, a feature of both ICT and Literacy. Children can put their work 'up-there' for others to evaluate. This is a another form of wall display, except this time many more people can view their work.
The Renewed Framework for Literacy has over 14 mentions of Podcatsing, but these are all in Keys Stage 2. Cefn Forest school in South Wales has been successfully podcasting for some time, here the children from Key stage 1 upwards put football reports and book reviews online regularly.

A further good example of Podcasting comes form Oakington Manor school, where the ICT coordinator, Ophelia Vanderpuye, works with children to create inspiring Podcasts for their radio station.

Software
To subscribe to Podcasts (including your own) you will need to download ITunes or a similar aggregator, such as Doppler. To create your Podcast (with Windows), you have two main choices:
Audacity- a free tool that allows you to combine wav or mp3 files with voice recordings. You can download it from soundforge, but you will also need to download the associated Lame encoder to export files as MP3s.
Podium- This software from Softease is quick and easy to pick up, but does not have the complicated features offered by Audacity. This makes it ideal for use in the Primary school. Look out for an upgraded version, coming soon that will allow users to layer tracks on top of each other.

Resources
Music to use within your Podcast is available from the following sites:
audio.lgfl.org (only available on London school machines)

Free sound effects, including everything from twigs snapping to toilets flushing, is available here @ soundsnap.com
Support, Manuals and Tutorials
Podcasting with Audacity video tutorials click here
Podcasting with Podium video tutorials click here
Podcasting Tutorials with Audacity PDF format click here
Tips for a successful Podcast from Wolverhampton

Links
Podium Blog
Podium Wikki
The Poducator

March Subject Leaders

We began with this rather amusing video from German TV that parodies IT support. We then had a presentation from Bill Gent on preparing for Ofsted.

We were also joined by Ophelia Vanderpuye, an AST from Brent and star of Teachers TV. She talked to us about how using 2Type has greatly improved the typing skills of her pupils, at Oakington Manor Primary. She also showcased Podium, podcasting software from Softease.
Gary Jelks from the IT Unit demonstrated Click2 Meet, a video Conferencing application from LGFL. He gave all those attending a Webcam, if you missed out, and then be sure to pick yours up in the next meeting. Later we looked @ how to use Keepvid.com to download videos from YouTube. Remember though you must respect copyright and not promote YouTube to your children.

Web links
http://www.lgfl.net/lgfl/sections/vc/homepage/c2m/
http://iboard.co.uk/magicschool/
http://keepvid.com/

February Subject Leaders

Thank you for all those of you who attended our meeting in February. We networked briefly over coffee, received local updates and covered the National picture of ICT as seen by OFSTED.
We also looked at ESafety and the reliability of the Internet. Katie Chart from 2Simple visited and gave us an in-depth and hands-on presentation of 2Paint a Picture.

During this session we watched this short film,which gives a flavour of ICT in Redbridge!

You can click through today's presentation by following the slide show below:

2Paint a PIcture

Andrew Steer, ICT Coordinator @ Christchurch has tried out this new and exciting art package with Year 1 and Foundation stage pupils. These are his thoughts

Have had lots of fun playing around with the program today. Children thoroughly enjoyed using it. The photos are of reception and year1 children. Including some who would often find art fairly difficult and not much fun - they all loved it and produced some really nice stuff.

It Rocks!!!

Mixmen

Wanstead Church school, have been using the mixmen digital mixers from Digital Blue. They have been using them with their computer club and found that the children found them particularly engaging.

Here's Zak's comments on the Mixmen . Zak is in Y5 and used the Mixmen in Computer Club.

MY REPORT ON THE DIGITAL MUSIC MIXER

I thought the digital music mixer was an excellent machine because it is like a DJ and you can switch faders and also scratch sounds. I also think it is good because you can use a warp effect on the music, you can choose the style of the music whether you want House, Techno, Hip hop and a few more. You can choose sounds and record your own music. I like it because it has different settings and I loved the style of the music.

By Zak