Nearpod

Whilst doing some research to support the iPad trial today I came across Nearpod - a way of creating and sharing interactive presentations (which you can create yourself). Nearpod enables the synchronised use of iPads, iPhones, ipod touches etc.. within the classroom; students ‘join’ the presentation on their individual device and the teacher can control the pace of the activity as they work through the presentation. You can include interactive content such as polls and quizzes and multimedia content such as videos and slideshows can be included as well as searching online content within the presentation itself. Student responses to polls and quizzes etc.. are all shown on the teachers iPad to assess student knowledge and understanding throughout the activity. Nearpod is a free download which in itself has a great deal of functionality, however this needs to be upgraded to a paid version for some features such as adding slideshows and browsing the web within the presentation. The free version also limits the number of presentations you can have in your library and the size whilst the paid for versions remove this restriction. Nevertheless the free version enables you to produce some great presentations with interactivity for use in the classroom.

The video below gives a brief overview of how it works and more information can be found on the Nearpod website.

I am not in a position to try this with a class as we are not a 1:1 iPad school and we are only in the midst of a small scale iPad trial with a small group of staff to look at the potential; however, I can already envisage how this could be put to use if students had access to devices which could link to the presentation and I look forward to trying this out further and keeping an eye on how it develops. I am intending to try it out with a small group of staff at our next iPad trial meeting. One of the pitfalls is that all students have to work through the presentation at the same pace as the teacher controls the change of slides / activity so it doesn’t enable personalised learning for students who prefer working at different pace or want to return to content for consolidation. Nevertheless this certainly has potential for use with certain groups of students.

Embedding YouTube Clips straight in SMART notebook

I have just been playing around with a very handy little widget for embedding YouTube clips straight into Notebook. It plays from the internet so still requires internet access but it is very handy having the video embedded straight into the page and although I have only tried a couple it seems to work very well. You can download the widget from Smart Exchange here and Danny Nicholson has given a quick and easy to follow tutorial of how to install the widget on his excellent Whiteboard Blog.

Google World Wonders Project – bringing the Geography and History classroom to life!

Getting back into the new term has taken some time with so much going on but I am very much looking forward to continuing to explore the world of new technologies and the ability to use them to enhance classroom practise throughout the academic year. There are various school based projects on the go (more to come) and lots of new digital resources to explore! One such resouce is the Google World Wonders project.

The Google World Wonders project is based on bringing world heritage sites of the modern and ancient world online. The project uses Google’s Street View technology, 3D modelling, photos, videos and in-depth information, to enable exploration of the world’s treasures from the classroom.

There are useful separate primary and secondary teacher guides with ideas for using the Google World Wonders project in the classroom. There are also more in-depth lesson plans which can be downloaded from the education section. These include ideas for both Geography and History lessons, for example the Jurrasic Coastline (Dorset & East Devon) and Pompeii / Herculaneum and I am looking forward to exploring these – particularly the Geography ones for potential use with my Key Stage 4 Geographers studying coasts next year.

O2 Learn – 2012 Competition and Revision Videos

If you haven’t been to the O2 Learn site for a while, you might not know that their awards are back and they are awarding £2,000 every week! Last years campaign was very successful and to date O2 Learn has over 1,000 curriculum focused lessons available and has delivered over 25,000 hours of teaching. They have also awarded over £300,000 to schools and teachers for teaching excellence. The winning video from last year’s campaign They are continuing to help everyone connect to great teaching by creating Britain’s Biggest Classroom via teacher-created content.

This year, they are thanking every UK teacher who uploads a video lesson to O2 Learn with a free mobile broadband pack. They’re also introducing a weekly Best Lesson award, giving you the chance to win £2000 for you and your school department every week .

To date, O2 Learn has over 1,000 lessons available. All of which are curriculum focused and checked by their “Learning Champions”.

They have also recently introduced ‘Related Video’ functionality to make it even easier to find the lessons that are useful to you.

The competition works like this in 2012:

1. Secondary teachers upload a short video of their favourite lesson to O2 Learn and receive a free mobile broadband pack
2. Thousands of students across the country watch and rate the lessons that are useful to them
3. O2 Learn award prizes to the best lessons every week.

Entrants have to be O2 learn registered, 18 or over and they must meet eligibility criteria as set out on the O2 learn website.

The video are organised according to different curriculum areas making it easier for teachers and students to find videos relevant to their studies. The videos are also quality assured by educational experts.

So for full details of the awards go to the 02 Learn site.

Using a SMART Document camera

I am very interested at the moment in the use of the SMART Document camera in various curriculum areas. In the first of what hopefully will be a number of posts over the next term related to the use of the SMART Document camera (essentially a visualiser which integrates with ease with SMART Notebook on the SMART IWB range),  I will start by looking at what a SMART Document Camera is and think about just some of the possible uses of one in a classroom situation.

What is a SMART Document Camera?
The SMART document camera is basically a visualiser – it will show anything that is put underneath it. Unlike an old style OHP, the document camera provides a digital image and therefore anything put under it can be seen, including 3D objects, it can also be used for demonstrations.

How does it work and how simple is it to use?

Very simple and integrates easily with SMART notebook, whilst I don’t have experience of other visualisers, I know that one of the benefits of the SMART document camera is its ‘plug and play’ ease! As long as the computer has SMART notebook installed the camera, which connects via a USB port can quickly and easily be set up, making it very user friendly in lessons and for sharing between classrooms / departments.

The camera has a good zoom and an auto-focus function, giving a good quality image for using in teaching and learning opportunities. When used in conjunction with the many SMART notebook tools, such as the magic pen, highlighter, pen tools, camera tools etc.. it has great potential as an interactive teaching and learning tool.

Incorporating the SMART Document Camera in lessons:

There is a useful little video clip here from SMART Training and Professional Development with lots of little examples:

Some other ideas….

Excellent opportunities for AFL, including:

• modelling exam answers / technique; including the ability to de-construct / annotate answers clearly in front of a class
• share student work – student work can be put under the camera and peer assessment undertaken (been successfully used during exam time) – good for promoting collaborative learning.
• share good work / used to show examples of good presentation / re-work draft answer / comment on student answers.
• manipulate and reposition sentences / paragraphs / objects from a variety of manuscripts / documents / students work using the SMART notebook camera tools.

Other uses:

• projecting worksheets
• projecting images that can be captured and re-arranged using the board – e.g. for composition work in art and design
• can be used in conjunction with microscopes in science to project images for the whole class
• used to show demonstrations to the whole class, e.g. scientific experiments (enabling stills to be captured which can then be analysed and annotated (and used in revision!)
• project resources – e.g. textbooks for whole class scrutiny.

Some useful links and documents related to the use of visualisers in the classroom:

Visualisers – Secondary, Further and Higher Education Case Studies (Visualiser Forum)

Whiteboard Blog – Visualiser Presentation

Why would I use a classroom document camera? (many ideas for using a document camera in school settings)

O2 Learn – brand new website launched!

O2 are trying to help connect teachers and students with the launch of their brand new website O2 learn. Aimed at 13-18 year olds the site’s objective is to provide a way of helping students with revision or an opportunity to catch up in subjects that they might have missed or find difficult through access to free educational videos. The site encourages teachers to share inspirational teaching styles and approaches by uploading their best mini-lessons on camera. They are looking for clever ways of remembering things or understanding more complex processes.

O2 have made the site as safe as possible in relation to the moderation process. Only registered teachers can post visitors and every video and comment is read and moderated. Indeed no one is able to comment until they register and agree to the terms.

Prizes!
Twice a month, the video with the highest ratings and most view win a prize – £2,000 for themselves and £2,000 for their school. During the summer of 2011, a panel of education experts will choose 8 finalists who will eligible for winning the big prize of £50,000 for themselves and £100,000 for the school. (a second prize of 20,000 for the teacher and £40,000 for the school and a third prize of £10,000 for the teacher and £20,000 for the school will also be awarded). Winners are to be announced in October 2011, based 50% on the public vote and 50% on a panel of experts.

Thanks to Danny Nicholson (Whiteboard Blog) for the Headsup!

ICT Support on Teachers TV

Teachers TV is an excellent source of inspiration for ideas for using ICT in the classroom and has many excellent programmes which can be watched online. There is useful search function on the website. The videos can be played directly from the website (see screenshot) or downloaded. Below are just a few examples of some of the fantastic videos available:

General Videos linked to use of ICT

• Using ICT to engage parents
• Online Social Networks – Friends or Foe
• E-Assessment – Where next?
• Mobile Phones, Mobile Minds – mobile phones and potential impact on education
• Hi-Tech Transition – easy the tradition between schools for students
• PDAs and Webcams - use of PDA’s on fieldtrips and the use of webcams for animation
• Blogs and Wikis
• Enhancing Visuals (Using Digital Videos) in PE (Use of Digital Video)

TOP 10 ON THE WEB SERIES – For subject specific areas – a series of programmes based on secondary subjects and websites that can be used to support teaching and learning in these subjects:

• Secondary Art
• Secondary Music
• Secondary Citizenship
• Secondary Maths
• Secondary ICT
• Secondary Science
• Secondary Geography
• Secondary English and Media

Hard to Teach:

• Secondary Science - Using ICT
• Secondary English - Using ICT
• Secondary Maths – Using ICT

Teaching Videos

Thanks to Danny Nicholson, for the link to a brand new website called “Teaching Videos” set up by Mark Warner. The webiste is designed to bring together educational videos that have been recommended by other teachers. There is going to be a function soon where you can actually register and recommend videos to be added. Over time this should begin to develop into a really useful archive, and will save some searching on You Tube etc.. particularly in the knowledge that videos highlighted on this site have been recommended by teachers as good for use in the classroom.

There are a number of videos that have already been added, but it is worth bookmarking the site and checking back when you are looking for videos as the site is destined to keep growing. The videos are categorised according to subject / topic area as well as according to key stage making finding videos simple! As well as curriculum subjects, there are also videos classified as useful for professional development and assemblies.

SMART Exchange (Beta) – Finding & Sharing Resources

The new SMART Exchange has been set up to enable teachers to quickly search and find SMART related resources many of which have been produced and shared by other teachers. The new SMART Exchange streamlines the way in which you can search for resources, enabling you to browse via subject and also via subject-correlated standards – i.e. KS2, KS3, KS4. The search engine directly links resources to areas of the National Curriculum (see Science example below) enabling a focused search and providing a valuable and time-saving source of resources.

It is also possible to search across different areas, the link above will take you straight to the ‘England’ area site but this can be easily changed to search other areas and associated curriculum resources e.g. USA, Germany etc.

The whole idea of SMART Exchange is that it is a community for teachers using SMART resources and as well as contributing to the community by sharing your own resources (an easy uploading system is available on the homepage) you can also join the discussion forum in the ‘Connect with Teachers’ section to connect with other teachers from around the country.

The following video from the SMART exchange team provides a guided tour of the new SMART Exchange facility.

IWB – Science Training – July 2009

The following resources will provide support to back up what was presented in the training session, including the presentation notebook from which you can copy, paste and edit examples as you want.

Getting Started with SMART Notebook – The Basics

Download – Unlocking the Potential of your IWB – SCIENCE (presentation notebook – .nbk file).

10 Tips, Tricks and Activities for use on the IWB (Blog Post)

IWB related Posts on ICT Across the Curriculum – IWB Support

This is a great little video clip giving 5 tips and tricks for using the IWB – some of which you were shown in the training – but might have forgotten!

Other Resources to support the use of the IWB in Science:

Interactive Whiteboard Resources for Science (Kent ICT)

ThinkBank Science – Science IWB

Year 7 Science Quizzes

KS3 Science – Interactive Whiteboard Resources

KScience – Flash Animations

6 Interactive Whiteboard Strategies in Science

Secondary Science – Whiteboard Resources (Birmingham City Council)