Sharing the Addiction

Yesterday, I had great sessions with Petone Central staff. In the morning, myself and two staff members worked with their media team. I gave the children and the two teachers a snippet of video to play with and some still images. What was really interesting about this I told the kids to just try and figure out how to use the software without me ‘teaching’ it first. I busied myself with trying to sort out the video camera problem (unsuccessfully!) and so I didn’t have a chance to intefer and take over. They picked it up so quickly and were ‘fearless’ when trying things out. I couldn’t help but notice that this is quite different to working with adults who generally prefer to rely on being taken through things step by step (at least until their confidence grows). I am determined to try and get staff more comfortable with ‘having a play’.

I have started a new wiki (yes - yet another one with tips for different software packages and downloadable notes I have made for each piece of software. The site can be accessed from here.
I was meant to run a workshop on Kidpix in the afternoon but ended up looking at some of my favourite new discoveries instead when the networked version of Kidpix on the computers at the school failed to open correctly - ahh the joys of technology. One of the things I talked about is an online application where you can easily make online diagrams. The site is Gliffy and you register for free to use it. It is such an easy to use format - again I think it could be really useful. This is a rather lighthearted practice diagram I made when I was testing it out:

Today I have been working at Muritai School. I have been working with all the teachers from one syndicate at a time which has meant that all of the teachers in the syndicate get a chance to have the time and space to discuss how to best use ICT and they all come away with the same message which I think is a really good way to do things. This obviously requires a lot of relievers so has its drawbacks but is a really useful way to work.

We focused on using ICT to support both the Yr 3/4 syndicate and the Yr5/6 syndicate. The year 3/4 group are planning to focus on dinosaurs looking at how the changing environment effected them. I suggested one great website could be ‘The Earth Floor‘ which has a great section on how why we no longer have dinosaurs.
There are also other dinosaur links on my website. The syndicate are planning to use Kidpix to illustrate dinosaur poems. As the focus is on oral not written English, the children will illustrate poems by other people and record their voices onto the slides.

The Yr 5/6 syndicate looked at how ICT can be used to support their upcoming ‘Take Action for Air’ topic. The syndicate decided that they wanted to use mindmapping tools for the children to collect and organise their information onto during the course of the unit and then use video to film the ‘Take action’ part to make into a movie. We explored using an online mindmapping application that is extremely easy to use and can be accessed from anywhere called ‘Mindomo‘.I think this application has a LOT of potential and is something I have just discovered recently.

The teachers felt that they really needed to teach the kids how to search the web so have decided to teach structured lessons in the suite on this. Stu Devenport had some excellent posters for working with kids on search tips and evaluating websites (which he has offered to let me have a copy of and I’m sure he’d let others have them as well).

Other good places to get tips on searching are: the Google help centre, Berkeley University (not very kid friendly but very detailed) and Fact Monster (designed for kids)

Want a list of great search engines to try? Check out this exhaustive list. Other interesting search engines other than Google to try are Clusty which organises your search results into topic areas, Librarian’s Internet Index with reliable and safe links, or Ask for Kids for searches guaranteed to be safe for kids. Dogpile says it takes the best search results from a number of search engines.

Sites that give advice on evaluating websites include the Berkeley university site.