There’s some lovely ideas here. All very inspirational!
I’ve been inspired by my experience of using Google Sketchup in my KS3 ASD classes this week. I’m very impressed with the ability of autistic children to grasp the concepts of 3D design and produce incredibly high quality work. There is a huge potential for this across the curriculum.
See the comparisons of work produced by ASD children using Sketchup and pen and paper (found here).
I’ve been looking at Google Sketchup with my KS3 ASD class, loosely based on this. I’ve been amazed at the speed at which the kids have picked it up. It’s been a fantastic way of learning about geometry.
Today we made dog kennels. At the end of the session one of my students made a flythrough. Impressive stuff! Especially considering that he has never used Sketchup before this term.
I recently delivered some training introducing a variety of SEN ICT resources to staff. The handout is reproduced below and includes a cross-section of resources, much of it free.
Have a look at this. It was purchased for schools by LGfL working in partnership with the people behind Artisan Cam.
The figures look strangely similar to those in Kar2ouche Social Communication, so it might work well with ASD learners?
Children can create an animation on screen using the props, characters and backgrounds and it all runs in the browser so no installation needed. They are running a competition for the best animation with the prize of a flip camera…
This was a nice starter activity for the term. It worked well with a group of KS2 ASD learners, who are generally reluctant talkers. We used Indigo Learning’s Dazzle to create the pizza images, imported them into Windows Movie Maker and a microphone to add the sound. We completed them in the space of a single class.
I saw this very interesting article on Ben Goldacre‘s Bad Science blog. What a refreshing idea – randomised trials to assess teaching methods. It has to be better than the education-as-a-political-football model that we seem to be currently following.
Now – back to my summer holidays 
In September 2011 we are (hopefully) moving to a new site collocated with Woodside High School.
As part of preparing and engaging the students in what will be a major change we have been finding the site of the new school using Google Earth, importing the map into Google Sketchup and designing our dream schools on the site.
We had great fun with the tools, and the activities really engaged the kids in thinking about the upcoming changes. Google Sketchup works with Google Earth really well.
Have a look at some of their designs below, which are also posted on the Moselle ICT Gallery.
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