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.
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
Meeting with John Low and his inspiring team this week at West Lothian was more like chatting with friends. There was a real and natural connection with what we were doing at Do Be and where West Lothian are aiming in the use of emerging technologies in their schools. The material in the Teach-It classroom resource seemed to tick all the boxes for them.
West Lothian have implemented the online version of the Teach-Itacross all of their schools to achieve maximum impact and to give their teachers and learners quick and easy access to the material.
John and his team firmly believe that the use of ICT in the classroom is central to the learning of the children in this day and age.
To Launch the Teach-It we organised a twilight session in West Lothian Education and Training Centre with over 80 schools attending. Stephen took the teachers through each section of the Teach-Itusing an interactive whiteboard to give the teachers an idea of how easily the resource could be used in the classroom with instant results.
Teachers commented on how the lesson ideas were so simple yet powerful in their design and could see uses across both Primary and Secondary schools in every example.
The partnership does not end there! We are returning at the start of the year with a session aimed to re-launch the Teach-It to any teachers that could not make it to the first or would like to revisit the the first launch. This, in turn will be followed by a session to support staff with any questions as their use of the pack becomes more in depth.
Early next year a full ‘Use-It‘ session will be conducted providing the complete hands-on approach as part of a CPD training day.
We’d like to thank John and his team for their dedication and hard work in getting this up and running in West Lothian. We look forward to working with you all again soon.
As many of the tools used in the Teach-It are hosted and accessed by the general public we at Do Be, and the teachers using these tools have little or no control over what the public decide to do with them. As is the nature of Web 2.0, we gain the most from it when we are invited to interact with these tools in such a way that we provide data (words, pictures, sounds etc) and the tools in turn provide us with rich content that can be used to enhance learning and teaching in our classrooms.
We are aware however that on this basis, there may be elements of these tools/websites that can be unsuitable for a younger audience. Not on the part of the tool creators themselves but from the public providing the data.
An example would be Wordle…fast becoming a widely recognised tool suitable for use for all manner of learning from literacy to self assessment and even CV creation. We all want to be able to use Wordle in the classroom but there are many other people using Wordle for different reasons, many of which are simply recreational. These ‘Wordles’ are then posted on a public gallery from which their content can be viewed by anyone and that includes your pupils. These public ‘Wordles’ may include words that are unsuitable for children (or anyone for that matter) and so the knee jerk reaction tends to be a complete ban of Wordle across a school or even an entire authority.
At Do Be we believe in helping teachers with both ‘Responsible Use‘ guidelines as well as solutions where these guidelines are not enough. In the case of Wordle I would like to bring a solution to your attention which will allow you to continue to use this tool in class without the worry of inappropriate material being accessed:
The Wordle front page will never feature images or links that are inappropriate for classroom use. Therefore, it’s possible to configure “site-blocking” software to keep Wordle safe.Simply have your networking administrator block the following base URLs: http://www.wordle.net/galleryhttp://www.wordle.net/nexthttp://www.wordle.net/random Your users will not be inadvertently shown anything that’s not safe for classrooms. If your filtering software only blocks per domain, then you’re out of luck. It should be noted that the chances of stumbling across inappropriate public material in Wordle is not possible when following theTeach-ItWordle Lesson Ideas. I hope this helpsStephen
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:
Glasgow saw it’s first glimpse of the newTeach-Itthis week as Stephen launched to classroom resource in John Paul Academy.
JPA are leading the way inTechnovation, 21st Century TeachingandCPDas staff have been given the resource as part of their personal and professional development as well as their active classroom resources this year.
The project, led by Technical teacher and ICT enthusiastFrank Bannon(Twitter – MrBTec) is designed to help staff develop their knowledge and practical application of the technologies pupils are using every day. The Teach-It will help all staff to learn how to use 5 key technologies for use in the classroom as part of the new curriculum throughout the year.
The launch, carried out as a twilight session was a huge success with a full turnout of staff including P.E teacher Charlie (who I met a few days later at a mutual friends wedding!). Staff were shown the Teach-It in both paper and online format and given time to discuss it’s use in each of their subjects.
As always we look forward to next years CPD training day – TheDo Be Use-Itin which the Teach-It will be used to it’s full potential by the staff at JPA, creating rich content for use in the classroom as well as for whole school projects, blogs and even GLOW.
Thanks to Head Teacher Vincent Docherty for his belief in the Teach-It and toFrank Bannon (Twitter – MrBTec) for his tireless efforts in setting this whole project up. The eyes of Glasgows education network are on you!
We are delighted to continue our work with John Paul Academy. They are the first school in Glasgow to use Teach-It and one of the first schools in Scotland to be trained on the resource.
Frank Bannon (teacher and ICT whizz) was excited when the Teach-It arrived this week and commented:
“I’m so impressed with the Teach-Its. They are all glossy and cool looking“…Thanks Frank!
John Paul are going to be using the Teach-Its to engage their ‘digital natives‘ in learning across the curriculum at all levels. Their training session is taking place on Monday so we will keep you updated with their progress.
Special thanks to Vincent Docherty (HT) and Frank Bannon for their continued support and brilliant minds.
Finally, after months of development, hard work and quality control the Do Be Teach-It has gone live.
Introduced to a number of clients shortly before the Scottish Learning Festival we were able to draw feedback allowing us to add the final touches to what promises to be one of the most exciting and useful classroom resources this year.
Teachers have always looked beyond the classroom for ideas and resources to bring learning to life, and in the 21st Century this means turning increasingly to technology, and in particular, to the internet forInspiration, InnovationandIdeas.
TheTeach-It is the first in a series of new classroom resources packed with innovative technology lesson ideas designed to spark creative thinking and support the application of new technologies in different learning contexts to support interdisciplinary learning across the Early Years, Primary and Secondary curriculum. The lesson ideas arejargon free, funandinspirational and cover:
Google Earth
Digital Imaging
MP3/4 Technology, Podcasting and Video
Games Based Learning
The Internet
TheTeach-Itcomes in two forms:
• A bright and colourful A4 landscape ring binder which is visually attractive and easy to use and share
• An online virtual version that can be purchased separately to provide even greater flexibility for your teachers and learners.
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.
