This free lesson idea taken from our fantastic Teach-IT 2 resource. Tour-IT is an example of how you can use Google Earth to create exciting and engaging virtual world tours using the application. You learn to use layers to visit a historically accurate area in Europe and then record the tour so you can play it back or use it as a resource for differentiation in your classroom.
The focus of the tour is visiting Hitler’s ‘Eagles Nest’ and exploring it in 3D. Of course, like all our resources, you are not limited in the scope of where you can apply the methods we suggest – you can use this idea in many subjects across the curriculum.
Please give it a look, download and pass it on to colleagues – as long as you enjoy the resource and find it useful we don’t mind. If you have a minute, why not leave us a comment or join us on our Do-Be social network.
Everyone who knows a member of the Do-Be team will tell you the same thing – we are all so enthusiastic about our products and sincerely believe that they do make a noticeable impact upon our learners and the practice of professionals with whom we engage.
We have also had loads of great (published) feedback from our numerous presentations, training days and CPD sessions delivered to our customers. Pupils have also enthused about the Teach-IT series and how it engages, inspires and enthuses them in their learning.
‘Following a three month research process carried out in Autumn 2011, this report evaluates ‘Teach-IT’, one of a range of teaching products and services produced by Do-Be, a Scottish based company who promote the use of ICT and new media technologies within education settings. The research was funded through the Knowledge Exchange scheme of Perth College which is part of the new University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI).’
This independent evaluation was undertaken by Dr. Lynn Whitaker, a research assistant for the Centre for Rural Childhood, Perth College UHI, under the directorship of Professor Rebecca Wallace.
We at Do-Be are delighted with the evaluation, key findings and executive summary. We would like to take this opportunity to encourage our friends, customers and potential customers to download and read the evaluation for yourselves. We would also like to thank Dr. Whittaker and everyone who gave freely of their time to contribute to the evaluation.
If you have any comments or feedback on this please get in touch or alternatively, tweet us, or drop us a message on our Facebook page.
Oh, there is nothing better than a nice relaxing Easter Holiday! Well, apart from a nice relaxing Easter Holiday playing with your new iPad – but that is another story.
As some of you are getting into the ‘swing of things‘ on your Half-Term Break, up here in Bonny Scotland we are preparing for that time of year when teenagers disappear from the streets and retreat to their study rooms in preparation for the upcoming SQA exam diet. For many teachers this can mean a reduction in actual class contact time in the senior school as pupils embark upon days of long lies and Jeremy Kyle Study Leave.
This is the perfect time to dip back into your Teach-IT pack and look for inspirational ideas for the coming term and new school year. Have you looked at our Teach-IT Outdoors pack as you continue planning for CfE? Why not pop your TI open (or Log-Into on our redesigned landing pages), plan some new lessons and let us know how you get on.
On a slight tangent, it was lovely to hear from Andy McLaughlin over on Twitter the other day (@Mr_McLaughlin). Andy tweeted in response to a pretty serious question posed by Tom Barrett (@tombarett). I will let the tweet speak for itself…
Thanks Andy, its nice to know we are well thought about!
As you know Do-Be are always looking for ways to improve the services and support we provide our schools.
This week you may have noticed we have redesigned our Teach-IT landing page after you sign in.
The new design gives you better functionality so you can access the Teach-IT series more effectively. Your own personal school login gives you access to the various resources available in an interactive web format complete with hyperlinked text and examples.
We have had some exciting news this week. A school has been in touch from China and purchased our Teach-IT 1, 2 and Outdoors online resources. Thats the FULL HOUSE!
Our newest friend here at Do-Be, Emma Deeney got in touch after her probationary Teaching year in Scotland and she is the ICT Coordinator for school and they are trying to improve their ICT resources. Emma knew that Teach-IT would be a great resource to help give the staff ideas on ICT and she will be working with staff in school on how to incorporate ICT into the Units of Inquiry within the classrooms.
Think International Kindergarten and Primary Schoolhas Reception (4-5 year olds) through to Grade 6 (10-11 year olds). They have an international teaching staff consisting of Canadians, English, Scottish, New Zelanders and Chinese teachers from Putonghua. They have an international student body with local Hong Kongese children, Indian children, European and Canadian children. They are currently a PYP candidate school working towards accreditation.
We are delighted to be partnering with Think International Kindergarten and Primary School and look forward to hearing about all the exiting work they get up to.
I was reading through my Instapaper bookmarks today and found a little gem from August last year that I must have forgot to Blog about. It is from the ICT Magic Blog and is titled ‘Try IT this year – Ten Techie Things to try this year‘.
Reading through the list is great inspiration for many of the tools we advocate here at Do-Be and I can personally say I am heading towards 8 of the 10 goals so far.
One of the great things worth shouting about here at Do-Be are our FREETeach-IT lesson resources. We have a number of free lesson ideas taken from our successful Teach-IT and Teach-IT 2 packs. They are great for dipping into and trying out with your class or for personal CPD. I recently attended a CPD event focused on our new curriculum hosted by Education Scotland and was pleasantly surprised to see them promote an ICT tool for developing literacy and engaging through the use of ICT. That tool was Wordle. (From Teach-IT 1).
You can download our FREE Wordle-IT lesson resource from this link and try it out for yourself – the applications are endless and the results produced are fantastic for display on classroom walls and notice boards.
You may have read our post from last week about Google Earth and the latest update. Looking back through our videos, Stephen has produced a great example from our Teach-IT series of how GE can be used to create flythroughs, tours and when incorporated with the 3D ‘street views’ available, interactive walk arounds of the area concerned.
The video is only 1 minute long, why not take a look and be inspired?
The video above is the keynote presentation by Michael Gove (Secretary of State for Education) at the BETT Show 2012 on ICT in the National Curriculum. Many interesting points came across including the vision for ICT in the English Curriculum when we in Scotland are now in the final stages of publishing assessment criteria for our Curriculum for Excellence.
Any teacher or professional involved with educational ICT should take half an hour out of their ‘CPD time’ and listen to his words. Some of the key points include,
1. A recognition of the role that games can play in education.
Games and interactive software can help pupils acquire complicated skills and rigorous knowledge in an engaging and enjoyable way. Adaptive software has the ability to recognise and respond to different abilities, personalising teaching for every pupil. With the expert help of a teacher, students can progress at different rates through lessons calibrated to stretch them just the right amount.Britain has an incredibly strong games industry, with vast potential to engage with education both in this country and all over the world.
At Do-Be, we have regularly championed the potential of games being incredibly engaging and effective tools for learning. This is apparent in our Teach-IT resources. PC, Console or Handheld games can be a powerful way of engaging, inspiring and enthusing learners of all ages. With numerous Games Design course’s available in our universities and the success of companies such as BAFTA Award winning Dynamo Games (Dundee - Championship Manager) and Codeplay (Edinburgh) there is a blossoming marketplace in Scotland and throughout the UK for games designers and coders – but where should the love of games begin? In University? In the bedroom at home? Or embedded as part of our curriculum.
2. The government will not be dictating the detail of the curriculum.
While things are changing so rapidly, while the technology is unpredictable and the future is unknowable, Government must not wade in from the centre to prescribe to schools exactly what they should be doing and how they should be doing it. We must work with these developments as they arise: supporting, facilitating and encouraging change, rather than dictating it. Technology in schools will no longer be micromanaged by Whitehall. By withdrawing the Programme of Study, we’re giving schools and teachers freedom over what and how to teach; revolutionising ICT as we know it. Let me stress - ICT will remain compulsory at all key stages, and will still be taught at every stage of the curriculum. The existing Programme of Study will remain on the web for reference. But no English school will be forced to follow it any more. From this September, all schools will be free to use the amazing resources that already exist on the web.
One of Do-Be’s many strengths is that we identify exciting open-source software that can be used by educators in schools at no cost to themselves. The refreshing comments by Gove identify this in no uncertain terms. For far to long propriety software has weighed down creativity and development in schools but now we see the rapid growth of Google Edu and other ‘platforms’ for supporting learning, teachers must be given the freedom to choose, pilot and share software and content that can be easily accessed by learners and teachers alike. This rings true to our own Michael Russell’s (Cabinet Secretary for Education) comments regarding the use of open-source programs in the development of our own Scottish online Learning Network.
3. A stronger emphasis on Computer Science.
The new Computer Science courses will reflect what you all know: that Computer Science is a rigorous, fascinating and intellectually challenging subject. After all, the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is one of the most innovative and successful proponents of Computer Science today. But his computing skills are just as rigorous as the rest of his talents – which include Maths, Science, French, Hebrew, Latin and Ancient Greek. Computer Science requires a thorough grounding in logic and set theory, and is merging with other scientific fields into new hybrid research subjects like computational biology.
So I am also announcing today that, if new Computer Science GCSEs are developed that meet high standards of intellectual depth and practical value, we will certainly consider including Computer Science as an option in the English Baccalaureate.
Computer Science is now recognised as an important discipline. One interesting thought, and it is just that, is that here in Scotland, the final touches are being put to our new CfE Computing Courses whilst Gove argues that CS ‘ requires a thorough grounding in logic and set theory’. I am personally interested to know just how much of the new computing curriculum is devoted to basic computer logic, coding and programming compared to the Standard Grade/Higher course(s) that exist just now. Perhaps, a draft stage, we still have the time to add/change the direction of the course to reflect developing and emerging technologies and industry.
Needless to say, Do-Be thoroughly enjoyed Mr Gove’s comments and will continue to pioneer the development of and use of ICT as and effective and engaging tool for education – across the whole curriculum.
Everyone who knows a member of the Do-Be team will tell you the same thing – we are all so enthusiastic about our products and sincerely believe that they do make a noticeable impact upon our learners and the practice of professionals with whom we engage.
We have also had loads of great (published) feedback from our numerous presentations, training days and CPD sessions delivered to our customers. Pupils have also enthused about the Teach-IT series and how it engages, inspires and enthuses them in their learning.
‘Following a three month research process carried out in Autumn 2011, this report evaluates ‘Teach-IT’, one of a range of teaching products and services produced by Do-Be, a Scottish based company who promote the use of ICT and new media technologies within education settings. The research was funded through the Knowledge Exchange scheme of Perth College which is part of the new University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI).’
This independent evaluation was undertaken by Dr. Lynn Whitaker, a research assistant for the Centre for Rural Childhood, Perth College UHI, under the directorship of Professor Rebecca Wallace.
We at Do-Be are delighted with the evaluation, key findings and executive summary. We would like to take this opportunity to encourage our friends, customers and potential customers to download and read the evaluation for yourselves. We would also like to thank Dr. Whittaker and everyone who gave freely of their time to contribute to the evaluation.
If you have any comments or feedback on this please get in touch or alternatively, tweet us, or drop us a message on our Facebook page.
A big Happy New Year from everyone in the Do-Be team. We would like to wish our friends ‘all the best’ for 2012.
So how was your Christmas? Did you get some shiny new technology off of Santa? A new Tablet, Kindle or iPad, a new PC, Mac or iPhone? It seems that technology played a large part in many people I know’s Christmas list this year. A sign of the times perhaps. I got clothes!
A lot has happened over the last couple of weeks and most interesting to me are the developments at Apple. Rumours suggest that Apple will be making announcements regarding Digital Textbooks and Education. This should be very interesting.
Having changed the technology landscape and revolutionised how we consume and source music, it seems one of Steve Jobs legacies is to impact on the Education sector in a big way. Rumours circulating hint at a more accessible iTunes U, and simpler publishing tools for budding eBook authors in Education.
No more photocopying course notes and study guides in 2012 – that would be awesome. I already use Creative Book Builder and Book Creator to do just this so it would be nice if the process of publishing online to iTunes was simpler, perhaps even with a native app?
Closer to home, we are putting the finishing touches to our fabulous Teach-IT Outdoors, continuing to provide support and advice for our Teach-IT 1&2 customers and looking forward to seeing the results of our In:tuition training scheme in conjunction with Drinkaware UK.
Here’s hoping for an exciting and prosperous 2012 for everyone!
This video (produced by Stephen) is a great showcase for the power of Google Earth. The ability to ‘virtually’ visit any location the planet, zoom/fly in and navigate around in 3D is such a powerful tool for educators to have in the classroom.
If you like the idea shown in the video, why not take a look at some of our free lesson ideas from our Teach-IT 1 & 2 series or get in touch and find out about how Teach-IT can support you in class.
You should be receiving our latest Do-Be newsletter – the Christmas edition. If you have not received it yet you can download your own copy below by clicking the image.
Featuring a FREE Goole Earth lesson plan, an inspiring Tedxtalk video and a money off voucher for our soon to be released Teach-IT Outdoors pack you would be crazy not to have a look!
I was sent a great link last week to the Futurelab Education Eye site and this article regarding the (unintentional) impact Steve Jobs has had upon learners making them digital creators. (The link is nestled over on the left side of the page.)
(Irony: Don’t bother clicking on an iOS device – it’s a Flash site)
Being an avid Apple fan I am not sure about this article although it does make a decent case for the defence.
However, I am only 1300 pages into the official biography (the bit after Pixar and his marriage) I refrain from making my decision at this point until i see how the rest of the story maps out in detail. Yes, Jobs did market products specifically to the Education sector in his early days while at NeXT, but have the current technological advances came about in spite of which direction the products were intended to move us in? Was Jobs vision not holistic when it came to the development of his products?
Jobs may be credited with producing a generation of media creators but no more than Gates can be credited with producing a generation of PC Technicians who can troubleshoot desktop machine errors. I am not sure that Jobs didn’t believe technology was changing the world much – to this point in the book, Jobs seems to be driven, almost obsessive in his journey to produce technology that does exactly this.
I also feel that the majority of our learners are mostly media consumers, choosing to assimilate and curate content rather than the generation of producers the article hints at. This is changing with every day though, we see it in the application of our Teach-IT products and how they support teachers to engage and develop learners ICT skills, the development of our new curriculum with ICT at the heart and the increasing ownership of mobile technology that can produce the content to be consumed.
Would this not have happened anyway on our trusty old PC’s, Droids and Tablets?
Hi my name is 'Doobs' and this is my Blog. As you get to know me I would like to get you thinking.
How do you Engage, Enthuse and Inspire the 21st Century Learner?
Do you Innovate as you Educate?
Do you see ’social’ schools as the norm?
Can you offer your experiences to this new network that will allow us to truly ’share good practice’ for the benefit of our Learners?
Are you, like me a teacher or educational specialist who wants to make use of Web 2.0 technologies?
Can you answer these questions or are you that person? Then you are in the right place!
