It took four hours on the bus from Auckland to Rotorua through some amazing scenery. My first impression was that it was a pretty cool little town but once I’d had a look around Rotorua I was pretty dumbstruck. It is absolutely stunning here……so what if it’s a little pongy from all the sulpher. It totally rocks!
In the evening I experienced a Polynesian Spa and I’m pretty convinced that my joints, hair, nails and skin have benefited from all the minerals in the water. From my hotel I practically step outside my front door and step into the hot baths unlike a priest named Father Mahoney who trekked 80 Kilometers in 1878 from Tauranga to Rotorua to bathe in a hand-dug, fern and manuka-fringed thermal pool exactly where the beautiful Polynesian Spa is now.
Father Mahoneys’ arthritis was greatly alleviated from bathing regularly in the pool so the hot mineral spring water now have quite a ‘therapeutic’ reputation. All I can say is that the view from the pool took my breath away and I felt wonderful afterwards :0)
I was delighted to run two breakout sessions at the Rotorua Convention Centre for the Learning@School Conference#latsconf. My first session was ‘Google Earth in a Social Science Context‘ and my second was ‘Use of Online Games in Primary‘ (with a bit of Web 2.0 flung in).
The teachers that came to both sessions were lovely and reaffirmed to me that Kiwi’s are the nicest people on this earth. Nothing is ever a problem, they always seem to be laughing and having fun and I can honestly say I’ve witnessed more random acts of kindness in these two short weeks than in my whole life.
There were a couple of moments that stood out for me this trip and get a special mention. The first was drinking an AWESOME smoothie at lunchtime – the sweetest, most yummiest thing ever. The second was taking my shoes off at the end of the day and walking back to my hotel in my bare feet. There was something so comforting about doing that.
I LOVE that the pavements here have no dog poo on them. How amazing is that eh? Clean streets.
Looking forward to my two sessions tomorrow then the real fun starts – I’m going backpacking from Friday.
As you all know Do Be have been selected to take part in ‘Innovation Alley’ at this years Education Show in Birmingham.
There’s only 21 days left until Do Be hit Birmingham. It’s all very exciting at Do Be HQ. We are just about to unveil our new logo and launch into England at the same time.
You can find us at stand Q7OJ. If you are attending please come along to visit us. We would love to see you.
We are also running a competition involving the Nintendo DS games consoles. This is your chance to play with one of these systems and use your gaming skills to win a Teach-It by achieving the fastest times, highest scores and youngest brain age! Each day we will be giving away a Teach-It to one lucky winner for use within the school of your choice. In the words of Dale Winton ‘You have to be in it to win it’ so get over to Q7O7 and take up this years Do Be DS challenge.
I haven’t had much time at all to even think about my trip to New Zealand (v busy lady!) but what I’d like to do is base myself in Auckland from 10th February then head south to Rotorua on 23rd February for the CoreEdLearning@SchoolConference. From Rotorua I’d like to visit Lake Taupo then travel down to Wellington then Christchurch and finally back to Auckland.
As I’m not one to leave work behind for too long, I’d love to visit any schools/teachers (especially headteachers) or local authorities who are interested in finding out how we encourage innovative learning and teaching using the latest technologies and Web 2.0 tools.
It’s confirmed…Louise will be speaking at the Learning@School conference in Rotorua, New Zealand on 24th and 25th February!
We have been invited to speak about 21st Century Learning and how we approach the use of technology in the classrooms of Britain.
There are a great many people who have been involved in professional development programmes throughout New Zealand in the past few years. The Learning@School conference provides a wonderful opportunity for practitioners to share what has been happening for them as well as an opportunity for the international education community to take part too.
The Ministry of Education sponsors this annual Information and Communication Technologies Professional Development (ICTPD) conference at the Energy Events Centre in Rotorua, to be held from 23-26 February 2010. There will be a powhiri and a special reception for all of our conference presenters on 23rd February.
Aptly named ‘Embedding New Technologies across the National Curriculum‘ Louise’s presentation will promote what we call ‘Eduvation‘, combining Education with Innovation, Inspiration and Application.
Course Aims Include:
- Explore a variety of ICT technologies and apply them in a classroom context
- To develop lesson ideas using ICT to engage learners
- Experience ‘Eduvation’ through the eyes of the learner
- Practice and apply Games-Based-Learning, Social Media and ICT to the curriculum
Technologies explored:
- Google Earth
- Digital Media
- MP3/MP4
- Games Platforms – Guitar Hero/Nintendo DS/Nintendo Wii
It’s taken a bit of time to get this blog post up. It’s been a very busy time at the Do Be HQ. We attended the annual Scottish Leaders Conference in Cumbernauld. The theme of the two conference was respecting professionalism. Head teachers from all over Scotland enjoyed the key notes speakers (Fiona Hyslop, Dr Carol Craig and Professor James Conroy) Dinner was particularly enjoyable at the Westerwood Hotel which I would recommend. We also had time to take advantage of the brand new leisure facilities. I feel it is a must to take advantage of these opportunities when they are available!
At the conference we ran a competition and Steve Dougan at Bo’ness Academy won Teach-It. It was an honor to present the Teach-It to Steve. David Mitchell the HT was also there but he voted on being the photographer this time. Bo’ness Academy have supported Do Be since day one so I was delighted when they won our competition. There are many reasons why we are elated to be working with Bo’ness Academy. ‘Eduvation‘ is the perfect word to describe how teaching and learning works in Bo’ness. They use a blend of technology and innovation to engage their learners in their education everyday.
2009 has been an exceptional year for the Bo’ness. Their S1 pupils worked closely with our local business partner Caledonian Produce to produce healthy salads. The pupils were split into teams and worked in Art & Design, Home Economics, Business Ed/ICT and PSE to design, make and market a salad which could be sold to young people in Marks and Spencers. The winning teams salad “Fruity Fiesta Rice” was so good is was sold by Marks & Spencers. Over 40000 salads have been sold with the profits coming back to Bo’ness Academy. Now that’s what I call enterprising pupils!
The school has been awarded the accolade of “Smart Showcase School”. This award has only been presented to 5 schools in the UK. It is for schools that have demonstrated a high level of innovative use of ICT across the curriculum. At present along with using interactive whiteboards our teachers use blogs, twitter, voting tools, video (you tube), digital papers, podcasts and MP4 players (do-be ones obviously!)
Through our involvement in the promotion of effective ICT as a tool to aid learning and teaching, Steve had the privilege of being selected as part of a Scottish contingent to visit Copenhagen to look at what is going on in their education system with regards to innovative ICT work (Steve you get all the good jobs)
We are going to be working closely with Steve’s staff on the implementation of Teach-It into the curriculum. Steve commented ‘We are working closely with Do Be to help some of our staff become more confident in using the internet to stimulate and promote discussions. Teach-it is a fantastic aid and the training that is provided makes even the most IT illiterate member feel empowered’
It is clear to me that Bo’ness Academy is paving the way in Scottish education and beyond. They are always keen to look at ways they could be even more creative in the classroom and it is a exciting to working with Bo’ness taking learning to the next level…
I recently had the pleasure of working with teachers in the Borough of Havering, London. The 7 schools that attended were given Teach-It packs and virtual access by their very kind LEA www.haveringict.edublogs.org.
HUGE thanks and many hugs to Dave Smith@haveringict who is leading the project and Naree Salee who organised practically everything to help the day run smoothly :0)
I was delighted at how enthusiastic and motivated staff were and I’m really excited about working with them to link Teach-It to the National Curriculum. Here is what I covered over the half day that we worked together: Teach IT Havering (PDF)
Dave Smith sent us an email afterwards simply saying ‘Great product, great delivery, great company’.
Some teachers have been in touch since with information on how they are using the Teach-It so far:
Ann Penn has used Wordle in class to create a simple but effective display using the children’s suggestions for connectives which they thought was ‘cool’ while Jenny has used PicNik – linking it to her literacy lessons with work on creative writing – landscapes. ‘It was very effective‘ she said ‘and very simple‘, ‘but most importantly the children loved it’.
Since our training some teachers have asked for advice on helping pupils to use the internet responsibly as some sites in Teach-It require teachers to lead lessons more than others. We have decided to produce this information and put it on the virtual version of the pack. So Havering staff please bear with us and we’ll have this to you asap.We look forward to working with Havering in the future and watching the legacy of the Teach-It unfold.
Here is some video footage of one of the teachers rockin’ with Guitar Hero!:
I had a great time down in London on Friday. My first presentation was at Redbridge Teacher Centre in Ilford. The teachers I met in Redbridge were doing some amazing stuff using technology to engage and enhance learning.
Anthony Evans(amazing guy) or follow him on Twitter@skinnyboyevansorganised the day so BIG thank you Anthony. You can check out Anthony’s blogpost on my presentation.
Feedback from teachers onTeach-Itwas really positive even though most of them were into ICT in a big way. Wordle, Picnikand of-course Google Earthwere some of the favourite applications.
I also had the pleasure of meeting Del Singhfrom Woodlands Primary in Redbridge. Del has introducedTeach-Itto all staff in his school to enrich the teaching of their ICT scheme. Del described how he gave the pupils a photocopy of the skills they were learning which included steps on how to meet the learning objective. He said that pupils worked at their own pace to complete the activity in the Digital Image Section (Idea 2). Pupils then applied their new skills of saving images from sites such asGoogle,Flickrand DeviantArtinto a PowerPoint presentations on their topic this term – Ancient Egypt.
Here is just one of a huge number of positive quotes from Del’s students:
‘The only place I knew I could search for images was Google Images….now I know about flikr and deviantart’ – Yr 5 pupil
Here is an example of the staff feedback:
‘A good resource that also get pupils reading and following instructions’ – Caroline Jones
‘All in all I think this is an innovative resource that supports pupils learning of current technologies’ – Del Singh
Here is an example of the feedback sent so far on how the pilot is going:
It’s been a busy start for Stephen and I this week. We were invited by David Innes (Enterprise Officer Aberdeenshire Council) to exhibit at the Aberdeenshire Learning Festival #alf09. We had a great time and the food was gorgeous. I particularly liked the Aberdeen Angus beef stew.
Jamie Andrew was one of the main speakers at the conference. He survived for five days perched precariously on an icy ledge at the summit of an alpine mountain while winds raged to 130 km per hour, and temperatures plummeted to minus 30 degrees Celsius. Jamie survived the ordeal, but at great personal cost. Ten days later his hands and his feet, damaged by frostbite, were amputated. Amazingly, only three months later, Jamie emerged from hospital, walking on prosthetic legs.
Since then Jamie has defied all expectations by running the London Marathon, returning to climbing using his own design of prosthetic ice axe, climbing Ben Nevis, revisiting the Alps, reaching the roof of Africa, and learning to ski, snowboard, sail and paraglide, raising tens of thousands of pounds for charity in the process. His humble and unassuming manner, coupled with a positive attitude towards life and its challenges make Jamie an extraordinary example of bravery and determination. He now does lots of work in schools telling his inspirational story to others. Jamie has also written an award winning first book, “Life and Limb”, it tells the tale of his remarkable story. He is a truly amazing human being and it was fantastic to hear his story.
We work with many Aberdeenshire schools using our Do Be Learn-It MP4’s. It was great to meet teachers running their own unique projects and enhancing learning and teaching using our technology.
Not only did we meet fantastic teachers we also met some fantastic companies. Juliet from Creative Star caught my attention. She specialises in the delivery of creative workshops and resources to motivate people to get children learning outside. Check her website out www.creativestarlearning.co.uk
The teachers were blown away by Teach-It and the lesson ideas it offers. I found Aberdeenshire teachers to be very forward thinking. Some teachers explained they weren’t very confident using ICT in the classroom but what I loved was there was still a willingness to learn to engage their pupils in this way. Teachers are aware that education and the way pupils want to learn is changing and they need to be getting creative and innovative in their classrooms.
I am sure Teach-It will be landing in Aberdeenshire very soon.
Heading out to annual Scottish Leaders Conference tomorrow and Friday. Looking forward to sitting in on Dr Carol Craigs key note on confidence and wellbeing. I’ll keep you posted!
Since the launch of our Teach-It and due to it’s huge success throughout a vast number of UK schools so far, we’ve been busy working on the Teach-It 2.
Filling the pages of my, already packed ‘Technovation Journal’ with fresh experiences, experiments, tutorials, hints, tips and tricks from an unending stream of the latest web 2 applications, I stumbled upon Prezi.
This incredible little tool, used for the purposes of making presentations, easily outstrips both Powerpoint and Keynote as an impressive and easy-to-use presentation app.
Being web based there is no need to install anything on computers or servers giving you permanent access to your presentations for both editing and showcasing and (in it’s basic form) it’s also free meaning you can enjoy this highly adaptable tool in the classroom without impacting on your budget.
I’m now developing a series of Prezi Lesson Ideas focussing on literacy, numeracy, science and expressive arts so watch this space!
In the meantime, here is a ‘Prezi‘ I made for you to watch. Enjoy and let me know what you think?
You will require the latest version of Flash to play this…get it here!
and let me know what you think?
