eLearning4schools.net

This activity could really cut across the curriculum and provide a focus and content to base work around in a number of subject areas.

The most difficult thing here is getting started and deciding who you may need, there are two main approaches here:

1. There may be someone who is the news that may be has connections or is from the local area who you simply feel could be an inspiration to the students and allow them to ask lots of questions. This may be a local politician, a sports person or celebrity.
2. The second approach is to look through your schemes of work and then figure out where an external person could add value to a particular topic and then do a bit of research and then draw up a short list. Again this could be a local business man, a charity, a soldier etc.

Now this is the interesting part where effectively an interview could fuel so many outcomes. Here are just a few that could be the end product from the interview:

1. A presentation is produced summarizing the interview (all subjects depending on topic and interviewee).
2. The interview could have been recorded and the edited to then be broadcast via the school website (all subjects potentially but a really useful quick task for ICT and Media Studies students).
3. The interview could act as an introduction to topic or project (all subjects)
4. The interview along with further information could be used to produce a life story, poem or news paper article based around the life and experiences of the interviewee (all subjects but possibly particularly useful for English for creative writing, History for describing modern history may be World War 2 or Religious Education and Citizenship for describing an event).
5. The interview could form the basis of a critical thinking task especially if the interviewee is very passionate and opinionated for one particular perspective.
6. The interview could simply form part of the students research for a project or some coursework (all subjects but especially Business, Travel and Tourism and Sociology).

Video conferencing very simply is the ability to communicate with people who may be a few miles down the road, in another town, or the other side of the world and be able to see and hear them while we do so.

Today our students more than likely use video conferencing at home through MSN or Skype by simply using their internet connection and a cheap webcam.

However, in schools we simply do not take advantage of this great tool which has the potential to see our students collaborating with others all over the world or with the schools across town. It allows us as educators to potentially bring the outside world into the classroom with much more ease.

For example if your asking a guest speaker to come in to talk to the students distance may be an issue. Even if they live and work within the same region it could still involve them sacrificing a significant amount of their time to come in and speak. However, a simple video conference could simply just take up the time needed to discuss, take questions or present on the particular topic. This could mean simply 15 minutes to an hour instead of a whole day.

Quite often businesses and organisations have these tools available to them but may need a helping hand to get them up and running and a little of holding hands initially.

One thing I have recently done is invested in two relatively cheap webcams (total cost a whopping £30!). This means that we have one in class and we also have one to lend to a potential guest speaker who may have a computer and web access but no webcam. What I have also done is produced a short tutorial which is hosted on our VLE to show them how to create a Skype account and add our school to their address book. Then all I do is arrange the day before for them to phone in for a practice and all ready to go.

The training video has been invaluable as I can just send an email with the link and then the guest speaker is up and running. Having two webcams is a nice fall back but quite often people have them but never have a reason to use them so are quite happy when we give them that excuse (although a little nervous at the same time!).

So how can you use video conferencing? Below are some basic ideas some of which we will develop in future posts:

- A local/national politician to contribute to a class debate or simply explain policy or just what they do!
- A project with another school where individuals, small groups, classes or even whole years can communicate, collaborate and receive information (we are currently working with two schools in South Africa and make use of Video Conferencing).
- A guest speaker who is nationally or internationally recognised as a leading expert in a particular field.
- As a way of students getting to know their exchange students before a foreign exchange and the keep in touch.

I could keep going but the uses are only limited my are own imagination. If we use video conferencing as one of the ways to communicate during a project then it becomes extremely valuable along with email, forums, chat and web conferencing.

Since 1998 there has been a very significant investment in ICT in schools through the National Grid for Learning Programme.

Virtually every school is now connected to the Internet and the average number of computers in schools for teaching and learning has virtually doubled or trebled in recent years with some schools having enough computers for one each and many one for every two pupils.

But despite all these advances and this investment the vast majority of schools are only now beginning to tap the potential of ICT to enhance teaching and learning and to modernise the way in which schools are run and organised.

This blog is therefore relevant to everyone concerned with primary and secondary education. Over the next week I will highlighting some specific ideas for using ICT in class ranging from one off activities to year long projects.

So please sign up to the RSS feed and make sure you do not miss out on any star tips and ideas.

In my last post I talked about the latest in using Music for learning.

However, I felt it also important to highlight the usefulness of music in creating a safe and calm environment for learners to learn. It is vital that students are emotionally ready for them to start learning and if they are not then there is actually no point in attempting to get started as they will not be receptive to learning. We can get into why another time…..

…But for now it is important to understand that rituals can play an important role to prepare learners to learn and one thing that can get the brain into learning mode as one of these rituals is music.

It does not necessarily need to be any particular type of music although some genres may be inappropriate but will leave that for you to decide. I would stick to a handful of tracks throughout so a half term so the music starts to form part of a ritual.

To finish on I’d like to leave with you a website where you can select the music you want to listen to depending on your mood or that mood you may want to provoke in your students. Anyway dead easy to use take a look the site is Musicovery.com

“What are binaural beats recordings?”

Binaural beat recordings are specially generated sounds, designed to alter your brainwaves - bringing about different states of mind, such as happiness, creativity, or relaxation. They’re perfectly safe, non-addictive, and can be used as often as you like.

Many of us have heard of the Mozart Effect well this takes us one step on and could give our students the edge in focusing for class and revision tasks, for creating the right state of mind when they are problem solving or trying to be innovative or to give them a burst of energy!

“Tell me more about how binaural beats work…”

Let’s take a few minutes now to discuss the history behind binaural beats… and how they work in more detail.

For a long time, the scientific community has been aware that certain frequencies are associated with certain states of mind. For example, the alpha frequency of 8 to 12Hz is present when individuals are in the “zone”, in “superlearning”, positive-thinking modes. This frequency can be verified through an electroencephalograph (EEG) reading, and Read the rest of this entry »

At my school we are introducing Moodle as our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in March.

Now we had already played around with another alternative but it had not really been championed and it was quite hard and not very intuitive to use of and it cost a fair bit every year. Now we are approaching the third month and apart from Moodle being free it has really received some great feedback from teachers who once they push themselves to have a go they can’t believe how easy it is to use!

Now in order to sell this to our staff we had to think what are the benefits and the following list is what me came up with. So if you are in the process of implementing a VLE (Moodle or not) hopefully this list may help:

BENEFITS

No excuses for missed lessons – illness/visits/fixtures.

The VLE allows the teacher to place their lesson on-line. This means that any student who has enrolled on the course can get access to the course either at school or at home *.

What does placing your lesson online mean? Any digital material such as schemes of work and lesson plans can be set out so the student can see the details of what was delivered, worksheets and PowerPoint files onto the server there will no longer be any excuse for the student who misses a lesson, for whatever reason.

Central storage of digital resources.

Every department accumulates huge amount of resources ranging from photocopy sheets to videos to sound bytes to OHP slides. These occupy shelves in an around the classroom and keeping them ordered and accessible takes time and discipline.

As more and more classroom resources become available on the web then the need to collect all the digital resources into one place becomes ever important. It does not help if each teacher has their own notes and web links on their own hard drive. Also the chance to add resources such as a good web site to the data bank whilst at home is now possible with a VLE.

Add continuity within a department.

The head of a year group or department can now produce Read the rest of this entry »

Truetube provides a safe, pre-moderated platform for 12-25 year olds to use the internet and advances in streaming video technology, to encourage them to think, discuss and engage with moral and ethical issues that matter for this generation, inspiring them to become involved in changing the world that we all inhabit for the better.

Truetube kick-starts each new topic for debate by providing a wealth of short films, information and statistics which offer a range of polarised views on the same issue and are deliberately chosen to start a debate, inspire involvement and promote further research. It also enables users to make and upload their own films and comments made in response to what they have viewed.

For more information see About Truetube

Even better for us teachers is that they have ready made resources and how to get the best out of Truetube for a number of subject areas including English, Citizenship, Religious Education and Geography.

This is a great site to provoke discussion and act as a focus for an activity where an end product can be produced.

LibriVox

LibriVox provides free audio books and files of literary classics which are in the public domain.

Rather than famous actors lending their vocal talents to the readings, the audio books here are read out by volunteers.

All of the audio books are literary classics and are out of copyright so they can be downloaded and listened to free of charge.

You will not find any Dan Brown or John Grisham but classics like Jane Austen’s Emma and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are all here.

At present there are nearly 650 audio titles to choose from.

Selecting Listen on the homepage leads to the catalogue. Titles can be searched by author or title or you can simply browse through the whole catalogue.

Once a title has been selected, there is a brief description of the work along with links to further information about the author. Scrolling down the page reveals the file format available for download; right click to save to your hard drive and you are away.

The list of titles is not as long as I would like, but it is growing all the time and the quality of the recordings is generally very good.

We are all excited here at eLearning4schools.net. Today we have launched a new site to allow all those interested in forming a community to discuss and share ideas for the classroom in terms of eLearning. Its FREE so click here and sign up.

The human body is an amazing piece of architecture. Man has been studying anatomy since at least 1600BC, when the ancient Egyptians first began to map the way our bodies work.

Whether you are studying anatomy, cramming for an exam, or just have a curiosity to find out more about what makes you tick, WinkingSkull is an amazing website.

Navigate through each region of the body by clicking the links in the navigation panel on the left. Every part of the body is covered, literally from head to toe, and beautifully illustrated with interactive diagrams that peel away the layers of our anatomy for all to see. You can click the labels on and off so you know exactly what you are looking at.

If you register, which is free, you can even use the site’s extensive self-testing exercises, which ask you to place the labels on the diagrams in an allotted amount of time. Skilled labellers could rank among the website’s most brainy users. Take a look at WinkingSkull.com and have a play around.