My Stuff

Today we were unable to see any of the comments that had been left on our school blog because websense had decided to block it. There was my P5 class desperate to see what comments had been posted about their podcast and it was blocked! We couldn’t read the comments on some of the other Blogger sites either. It can be really frustrating but at least our authority is allowing us to access these things – usually! – unlike some authorities. I am hoping this is just a temporary glitch and have been on to Gordon to see what he can do to help.

The other issue for us presently is the older machines with OS9 are really struggling to cope with all the things we are asking them to do and, as usual, we haven’t got enough money. I think we are going to end up with one machine capable of running GLOW in the classroom, one old one (which will connect to the internet) and some laptops. I have a boss who is really into ICT and keen to support it all she can but when it comes down to a choice between computers and Maths Workbooks you can guess which wins hands down – and I’m not sure I think that is necessarily wrong. Especially with money so tight. We are just keeping our fingers crossed that when our refresh rolls around in March we will have been found some more funds.

Last night after much tinkering and pushing myself way out of my comfort/understanding zone I managed to embed my Primary 5 French podcast within my school blog – success!! This might not seem like a huge achievement to some of you bloggers out there, but to me it is another learning leap! Of course I had to do the actually posting at home as I couldn’t upload it within the school network, but I can listen to it in within the school network which is great. The kids are well impressed with how it/they sound and this is just another motivation for them. They love the idea of “real French people listening to them speak French”! Check it out for yourselves!
It really makes me think about the tools for collaboration and sharing that will be available within Glow. Having had access to the GLOW pilot, I was impressed with the GLOW groups and the functionality of them but must confess to getting a bit lost when trying to get anyone to join my group – Pam no pals here! I would really like to have seen the interface the children were viewing to give me a better understanding of how it all works for them so hopefully there will be that opportunity in the next round of the pilot.

So what have I been up to over the last few weeks? Basically, teaching! I have been trying to get on to Glow and look at the pilot but I managed to lock myself out – entirely my fault as I use the wrong password the magic three times in a row before I looked at my old-fashioned piece of paper in my diary where I have written it down!! I have managed to reset this, but I have not been able to explore this as much as I would have liked due to covering staff absence. What I have looked at very briefly seems to me to need more time to inspect, play about with, understand… comments, please!

I am really interested in how other authorities are planning to take this forward at “chalkface” level. How are they going to get staff onboard with all these new tools? Are they going to cascade it at a cluster level, area, etc? I fully expect there to be a number of staff who see the potential and will dive in and experiment right away (thank goodness!) but what about the other who need a bit more hand holding before they get on board. How are you going to support them? It is definitely an exciting time!

It feels like ages since I was blogging – and I suppose it was. What is my excuse? The usual! I am not going to feel guilty though, as this is a personal blog and supposed to be a pleasurable experience.
I have spent a fair bit of time over the last couple of weeks getting Inchinnan Primary School News 1 (hence the catchy blog title!!) off the ground, but I have to confess to allowing myself to get bogged down by covering classes and it has taken a lot longer than anticipated to get up and running. Imagine my frustration tonight when I couldn’t upload it to the website!! (Has anyone else in run into this Quicktime version/OS 10.3.9 issue when viewing videos through the school network?) Anyway, it has finally been finished to the pupils’ satisfaction – although the sound is not the best (can anyone recommend a good mike to connect directly to a Canon video camera?) – but the most important thing is the children are immensly proud of it, as they should be, and the next team are raring to go. Hopefully, this team will complete the task within the alloted time! Check it out on our school website!