My Stuff

I have spent most of this afternoon trying to show my husband how to use Facebookwhich is similar to My Space, Bebo etc but apparently for the ahem… more mature person, or so I’m told! As I guided him through the process of uploading photos, filling in profiles, etc. it occurred to me that what those of us who are interested in blogging, ICT, podcasts and so on do naturally and intuitively can be challenging even for those who use `’technology`’ everyday. It is a different way of using it and is one which produces tremendous results and enthusiasm for both staff and children alike. This can be a steep learning curve for us as teachers and yet one which children embrace easily. We, as educators, have to remind ourselves that it is to enhance the children’s education when we are struggling at 2 am to figure out just how to make the video link work or the photos to upload. I guess what I am trying to say is that it we should stick at it because it is worth it. When I start my new job in August that is what I’m going to be saying to my staff when I ask them to come out their comfort zone and give new technologies a try.

I have just been watching Carronshore’s excellent videos of their Scottish poetry. I had been wondering why they had moved to edublogs but having seen these videos and the ease with which you can post them I can see why.

So I decided to give it a go myself and post two of my Primary 7 videos - IPS News 1 and IPS News 2 - of all the news and events that had happened in our school between August and December 2006. Notice how the mike appears in the second clip to make the audio better - the kids noticed that straight away and took step to solve it. We are now campaigning for a USB mike!

They are both pretty big files so please be patient will they upload. I am now off to see if I can upload them to my school blog.

Enjoy!

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.