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.
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
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!:
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!
Felt really inspired this morning by the P6’s and P7’s at St Mary’s PS in North Lanarkshire. Stephen and I were working with them to explore the different ways that they could use mobile learning, specifically MP4 technology, to develop literacy, numeracy and much, much more. All I can say is that I was blown away by their creativity, confidence and enthusiasm. Believe me, they taught us a few things.
Here’s some pics of the training and I’ll update this post shortly with some audio feedback.
While writing the newTeach-Itresource for schools we’ve had a tremendous amount of pleasure in trying all the various applications we promote as learning tools in the classroom. Among them is Pixton, a free comic software that allows you to create astounding comic artwork in just a few simple steps.
Below is our own attempt to create something. This took just over half an hour and serves as an adveret for our services as well as a meet the team. Just think of the links to Literacy,Numeracy andThe Arts that can be found in a small piece of work like this…
We’re almost there………our latest product, the Teach-It is days away from completion…..yeah!
The Teach-It is designed to help teachers and pupils develop the confidence and skills required to take full advantage of new technologies and to encourage innovation and creativity in the 21st Century classroom.
Teach-It is a brand new classroom resource filled with innovative lesson ideas for using a wide range of the latest technologies. These lesson ideas are designed to stimulate creativity and encourage an integrated approach to technology for both learning and teaching.
Simple ideas can be very powerful and Teach-It brings the most up-to-date technologies into the classroom with a minimum of fuss and without the need for extensive technical knowledge.
Most importantly Teach-It supports teachers by engaging young people with technologies/applications that are already a big part of their lives beyond school such as:
• Google Earth
• Digital Imaging
• Audio (MP3, Audacity, Downloading/converting files)
• Games (Wii, Guitar Hero, Nintendo DS)
• Web (Animoto, Comic Brush, Go Animate, Best of GLOW games)
Each lesson idea is designed to be followed step by step either directly by a learner or used as pupil/teacher led classroom resource.
Teach-It has been designed to support interdisciplinary learning and to encourage the application of ICT skills in different learning contexts across the curriculum.
Teach-It is available as a hard copy pack and is supported by a dynamic online website which will inspire both teachers and learners.
Micorsoft Teacher of the Year - Ollie Bray (right)
The last couple of months have been……..how can I describe them……remember that game ‘Heads Down, Thumbs Up’ at school? Well it’s been a bit like that! We’ve been working hard on our latest pack and have failed to say congratulations to the award winning teacher, Mr Ollie Bray.
Ollie recently won a prestigiousMicrosoft European Innovative Teachers Forum Awardsin Vienna because of hisGuitar HeroTransition project which he designed to help improve pupils’ transition from primary to secondary school.
In this project, students work in groups usingGuitar Heroas a context for learning across the curriculum. The project has been such a success that it’s now being implemented across other schools inEast Lothian. It will soon be carried out in schools as far away asHong Kong and Australia.
Ollie is truly inspirational and works with such incredible drive and passion that I often wonder if he ever sleeps and if I can have some of whatever he’s had.
We were completely behind somethingOlliesaid at the Forum when he was presenting this work to other teachers. He said he initially received some resistance when he wanted to purchase so many XBoxes and copies of the game for the schools. People were concerned that he wanted to spend so much money on technology.Ollie’sresponse was great and I plan on stealing it for forthcoming sales meetings for the pack…… that first of all, “Xboxes are far less expensive than computers”. And secondly, “we are investing in children, not in technology“…Nuf said.
Ollie, we wish you every success at the Worldwide Innovative Teachers Awards in Brazil in November 2009. You couldn’t squeeze some of us (me) into your suitcase could you?
More about Ollie’s Guitar Hero:
Schools and students were able to develop their own learning activities around Guitar Hero, which ranged from creative writing and character studies around fictional bands to the design of t-shirts, animations, marketing merchandise, learning and performing music and dance, and much more.
He brought together all of the primary classes (pupils who would be attending the secondary schools in the autumn) for a “Battle of the Bands”. Throughout the day, children had the opportunity to work together in to develop a band (logo, name, and jingle), compete against each other using Guitar Hero, and participate in several dance, music and drama activities.
Continuing to work on Guitar Hero activities in the context of secondary subjects up to and during the pupils’ transition to secondary school children were encouraged to make connections with other pupils so that when they arrived at their new schools in the autumn they could continue projects they had already started on in primary school. Pupils also designed a Guitar Hero postcard about their work, which they sent back to their old teachers in the primary schools.
and let me know what you think?
