Category Archives: wwwd

Mostly stuff to do with the classroom & Teaching and learning. Posts that fit with the site’s description: “Teaching, ict, and suchlike”

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I started a podcast in my previous school in 2005 which produced episode fairly regularly until 2008 when I moved to a development officer post in North Lanarkshire.

I found podcasting to really worthwhile, fun and motivating. It involved children in all sorts of learning and created many opportunities.

I’ve also produced a fair number of podcast over at EduTalk and play with microcasting  here.

I spent a fair bit of time in my development post trying to encourage the practise. Ironically I had more luck with video podcasting and for a while we had a Mac server running podcast producer which could server audio and video podcasts.

When I started work on Glow I was particularity keen to promote podcasting using Glow Blogs but didn’t see a lot of uptake.

Since returning to class in 2016 I’ve had podcasting in the back of my mind, we have, I think, posted the odd bit of audio to our class blog but until now now made a big deal of podcasting.

This session I decided to get it into our plans covering in particular:

By experiencing the setting up and running of a business, I can collaborate in making choices relating to the different roles and responsibilities and have evaluated its success.
SOC 2-22a

We are going to produce a multi-episode podcast and look for sponsorship to make it into a business.

There are an amazing number of opportunities in making a podcast for pupils including: writing, recording and editing, making a website, graphics production, finding sponsorship and publicity. We have already ticked of many of the skills that we audit in our learning.

I’ve also been learning a bit about GarageBand and how it has changed since the last time I used it. Exploring software with pupils is a great way for them to learn. My needs for podcasting for Edutalk were met by a wee bit of audacity and the levelator, not complex, but pupils are a bit more ambitious. I am also stepping out of my mac comfort zone and using the pupils iPads for the whole thing, or at least they are. They  are organising things in Teams (to include an isolating graphic person last week) and using the pupils iPads. GarageBand for recording, notes for writing, Teams for working together, brushes, sketches & keynote for graphics, numbers for organisation. Personally I would be using a different set of apps on a mac for these tasks. Moving to the pupils devices gives them control and puts me in an advisory role.

So far we have organised teams for different roles, made a start on a blog, graphics, scriptwriting. Our first bit of publicity has gone out and I cooped my daughter into a Skype visit to talk about her job as a tv producer (and her experience of working on a podcast).

We have started recording episode zero and I hope that will be published on the new podcast site next week. It is good to be back podcasting in class.

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Meet the new BBC micro:bit | micro:bit

Now with speaker and microphone!
Same great features, easier ways to use sound and touch to get creative in the classroom

More features, including easy ways to take AI and ML into the classroom, will be released throughout 2021. Watch this space.

More details:
Working together on the latest BBC micro:bit

I’ve been using micro:bits for a few years now and these look like great additions, especially the sound in and out.

Given we have a good number in school already I doubt we will get new ones so having a bit of latest kit envy.

The illustrations on the page make the boards look gigantic.

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Reposted https://twitter.com/IaninSheffield/status/1315385032576565248?s=20 by Ian Guest (Twitter)
DOING DATA DIFFERENTLY We're launching the virtual exhibition from this research project between 16:30 & 17:30 on Wed 11th Nov. online. Of interest to colleagues (esp. sr. leaders) interested in literacy in primary schools Registration (free) http://bit.ly/DDDExhibitionLaunch… - join us!

I’ve registered. Really interesting way of gathering information about primary teaching.

 

 

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Microsoft Thinks You’ve Been Missing Your Commute in Lockdown – WSJ

Teams’ morning commute experience hasn’t been finalized, but will involve asking users to write a short list of things they want to accomplish that day, Ms. Janardhan said. It also will ask how users are feeling before they start work. If they say they are feeling overwhelmed, the virtual commute assistant will ask if they want to block time off in their calendars to focus on work or de-stress.

John Naughton though this was a spoof.

I’d love to block out some time in my calendar to de-stress but I don’t think this one is aimed at a school day.

The last thing I want to do in a commute (real or virtual) is “write a short list of things I want to accomplish that day”.

I’ve spent the best part of 40 years commuting in one way or another, mostly on trains and latterly by car, so I have experience.

Driving to work I listen to the radio, or podcasts or music. I keep an eye out for the seasons, nature & roadkill. I think, let my mind drift. I might write, in my head, a haiku.

Occasionally I might think about school if I realise the days plan is flawed, or I worry about need to get something done. Wondering how I’ll manage that between 20 to eight and the bell at nine.

I might have a great idea or notion about something I could teach, and work out how to fit it in.

I do not want to systematically want to go through the day taking more time up with routine or timetables, I want this slack time for myself & serendipity. If I am locked down again, or get into a position where I work from home, I’d rather manage my transition from breakfast to work without a piece of software asking me questions.

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You cannot connect with students or understand their learning if you can’t see them. And nobody can be expected to share ideas that are important to them to group of hidden faceless peers. If you want students to talk, you’ll need cameras on.

@Doug_Lemov on Twitter here.

A lot of good pushback on this in the replies. I certainly didn’t find the lack of camera a problem during our spring/summer lockdown. At that point Teams in Glow did not let pupils use cameras. I liked that as it meant I didn’t have to think about it.

Cameras off could help with privacy, bandwidth and possible feeling a bit more comfortable the teacher is not watching your every move and counting the toilet breaks.

 

Yeah, I think people somehow keep forgetting that there is literally a whole pandemic.

I don’t hear from a kid for a week and they pop back in and I tell them I missed them and am thrilled to see them.

“There was some stuff.”

Yup. Love you; glad you’re here.

Trina Parrish (@ArtTeacherMsP) here

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Bookmarked Schools in England told not to use anti-capitalist material in teaching (theguardian.com)
The government has ordered schools in England not to use resources from organisations which have expressed a desire to end capitalism. Department for Education (DfE) guidance issued on Thursday for school leaders and teachers involved in setting the relationship, sex and health curriculum categorised anti-capitalism as an “extreme political stance” and equated it with opposition to freedom of speech, antisemitism and endorsement of illegal activity.

Words fail

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Bookmarked Monday 24 August, 2020 by John NaughtonJohn Naughton (Memex 1.1)
Quote of the Day The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.” B. F. Skinner Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news Claudio Abaddo conducting the Berlin Phil. And I mean conducting. Link “Years of photos” permanently wiped from iPhones, iPads by bad Lightroom app update

I am pretty much addicted to @jjn1’s daily, this one is particularly interesting.

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Given I want a nice gentle start for my class this session I thought we would play with Vedic Squares. I was reminded of these and their possibilities from a tweet I’d bookmarked from Blair Minchin.

We started on Last Thursday making multiplication grids then vedic squares, making patterns by joining the same numbers with lines.

 

The next day we recreated the grids in Numbers. I then explained conditional highlighting so that the class could colour the grid. They were fascinated by both the process and the results. The Gallery below steps through the process.

The next step was to screenshot the grids and place them in keynote to duplicate and create symmetrical patterns. At this point some of the class started animating their patterns to rotate madly in keynote. At that point gifs became obvious;-)

Here is the process in Keynote.

For a gif purist like myself Keynote gifs are a bit off. Very big files indeed. This got a little better after I explained that they didn’t need 999 rotations for a gif, one would do. Getting rid of any easing in the rotation and any delay in the export gives a straightforward rotation.

A quick screencast of rotation settings and gif export:

I particularly enjoyed the excitement as the class saw the conditional highlighting in action and then that the animation step was suggested by the pupils. There is still a lot to explore around both the patterns and processes. I hope that the class will further explore both, opening up links to maths, R.E. and art.

Although we used iPad, Apple Numbers and Keynote I am sure you could do the same with Excel & PowerPoint.