I have just begun to be able to develop some new ideas for ICT clubs and am currently working to create a 'school radio show' with my current group.
Previously in ICT club we have used a range of one off sites to explore free activities that are on the internet, this has gone really well and the girls have their eyes opened to the online world and the possibilities.
However, with many students returning term on term to the club, I need to take a fresh approach to how we run the club in order to keep things new and exciting. This term I have decided that we will work on an extended project which does not impact on learning in lessons for the girls but widens their skills.
We will be using Audacity to edit together a podcast radio show. The Audacity skills are something we are currently exploring with Year 6 as part of their music lessons but as yet have not had much success with. I am hoping that by giving some students the skills to use Audacity, we might drive a better use of the software in their other lessons.
The plan is this; learn the tools and functions of Audacity, recording sounds using the microphones on the ICT suite headphones. The sound quality is not brilliant but it is good enough for the purpose for now.
We will then try and migrate the project onto the tablet computers, recording sound bites around the school and saving them to a shared area. These could be on any topic that the girls fancy.
We will then return to the ICT suite and edit our clips, hopefully recorded to a reasonable quality, into a podcast which we can share with the school.
Saturday, 19 October 2013
Sunday, 13 October 2013
A New Year - More ICT
With the arrival of a new academic year came the arrival of some much anticipated tablets to our school. As I wrote about, at some length, we decided upon going for a Windows based tablet in order to simplify their integration into the school and the network.
As such, we have purchased 11 HP tablets for the school. After some initial delays in configuring the Windows 8 tablets to work with the Windows 7 network (we had not considered the issue of pupils logging onto two different operating systems) we are now up and running.
The first stages of getting the tablets in wider use within the school has been a little impacted by strain on the server which has hopefully now been resolved. I have noticed one issue that we are looking for a solution to, it is that the 'tiles' that appear on the desktop of the tablet change regularly. On occasions one can see just the main Windows 8 apps, on other occasions, this includes a desktop shortcut and IE shortcut, the third option that shows itself is for the user to be able to see all of the programs that are available through the school network.
This is currently not a problem and we are trying to work out what causes this to happen, the idea solution would be to add tiles for the software that we use the most at a certain point in the interface. I was put off for a while with the fact that the IE logo often disappears until a student saved my blushes and pointed out to me that Bing is also involved with the internet. The famous phrase involving wood and tress springs to mind.
So our current status is that we have a class set (1 between 2) of tablets in our school as well as the ICT suite. My mission for the year is to develop staff confidence in using the tablets for a range of activities whilst further testing and developing the ICT syllabus that I worked to develop last year. Oh and the assessment sheets that I have uploaded.
Aim for July 2013: School-wide tablet policy and staff training completed, ICT syllabus tested and reviewed for the first year (compared against the new NC ICT as well as the Chris Q skills that it already uses) and assessment developed, pupil self-evaluation and teacher evaluation against 'I Can...' statements.
As such, we have purchased 11 HP tablets for the school. After some initial delays in configuring the Windows 8 tablets to work with the Windows 7 network (we had not considered the issue of pupils logging onto two different operating systems) we are now up and running.
The first stages of getting the tablets in wider use within the school has been a little impacted by strain on the server which has hopefully now been resolved. I have noticed one issue that we are looking for a solution to, it is that the 'tiles' that appear on the desktop of the tablet change regularly. On occasions one can see just the main Windows 8 apps, on other occasions, this includes a desktop shortcut and IE shortcut, the third option that shows itself is for the user to be able to see all of the programs that are available through the school network.
This is currently not a problem and we are trying to work out what causes this to happen, the idea solution would be to add tiles for the software that we use the most at a certain point in the interface. I was put off for a while with the fact that the IE logo often disappears until a student saved my blushes and pointed out to me that Bing is also involved with the internet. The famous phrase involving wood and tress springs to mind.
So our current status is that we have a class set (1 between 2) of tablets in our school as well as the ICT suite. My mission for the year is to develop staff confidence in using the tablets for a range of activities whilst further testing and developing the ICT syllabus that I worked to develop last year. Oh and the assessment sheets that I have uploaded.
Aim for July 2013: School-wide tablet policy and staff training completed, ICT syllabus tested and reviewed for the first year (compared against the new NC ICT as well as the Chris Q skills that it already uses) and assessment developed, pupil self-evaluation and teacher evaluation against 'I Can...' statements.
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