A Journey into Learning

Checkout the healthy eating games my key stage 4 students created using 2simple’s 2DIY here.

I love this software.

I’ve been using 2Simple DIY to platform games with a Healthy Eating theme. We had great fun! The children downloaded pictures of “bad foods” from the internet, designed the level’s, created their characters, recorded the sounds and playtested each others games. Best of all – the games can be saved as a SWF file and can be easily uploaded to the internet which has got the kids more motivated than I have seen them in a long time. The project has reminded me of the power of ICT to enhance creativity and empower children. It rather reminds me of something I read recently:

For learning to take place with any kind of efficiency students must be motivated. To be motivated, they must become interested. And they become interested when they are actively working on projects which they can relate to their values and goals in life.

Gus Tuberville, President, William Penn College

Take a look here  (KS3 GLD classes)! Also here (KS2 mixed GLD and ASD).

I picked up a trial copy of 2Simple Do it Yourself at BETT – and must say that I have been very impressed. Like all 2Simple software the interface is simple and intuitive. It allows children to create their own games and activities and has lots of scope to be intergrated into our curriculum.

We’ve been playing with it this week. The work can be saved in both a 2simple format or as flash objects. It was all very creative and motivating – and was a big hit with the learners.

The work can be saved in a 2Simple format – or as a .swf – meaning that it can all be easily embedded in MLE’s or blog posts!

KS3 ASD learner (independent)

KS3 ASD non-verbal learner (indpendent)

KS2 GLD (supported)

Vocaroo is a great little web app. It has a beautifully simple interface. After recording a sound file it give the option to listen to it, post it on the internet (via an embed code) or send it via email. You can even download it.

I can see an application here with the work we have been doing using blogging with our pupils as well as building on our shared blog to build upon our international links with our partner schools in Ghana. I look forward to trying it out in the classroom.

Spotted on Doug’s blog.

I’ve posted previously about the blogging project that I am undertaking as part of the TTP at the Haringey CLC. I am piloting the project with a single child – known as ‘D’. His blog is now up and running - although I have encountered several challenges.

D’s literacy is low. Although he is verbally able, he rarely has the patience to construct written sentences. He can read – but again rarely sustains it for any length of time. However, he is literate enough to glean information from web-pages. He can copy text from the page onto the computer. He is able to understand the text within windows menus and pop-ups and can read the contents of most of the buttons on web pages (single word). The multi-media aspects of the Internet appeal to D. His obsessive nature is also well suited to the Internet – whatever his latest obsession is he will find web pages devoted to the subject.

As with any young person -  there are issues with blogging and child-protection. However, D is a particularly vulnerable child. D struggles with understanding the boundaries between appropriate and inappropriate behaviour and craves adult attention. I feel that it is absolutely essential to protect D by ensuring that I vet all posts and comments before they are posted live on the Internet. Although I am eager for D to make the blog his own, I am also determined not to allow anything on there that would allow anyone to identify D or his family. In order to do that I set myself up as the administrator of his blog, and D himself as a contributor. However, after some investigation I discovered that meant that D was unable to upload media to the blog!

As a way of overcoming this problem I have set Moselle School up with a Flickr account. I am planning to spend Friday morning with D capturing all of his haunts round the school – his seat in class, where he eats his dinner, where he spends his playtimes etc. We will upload the images to flickr together and then embed them into his blog. D is a master of copy and paste – and with a little support was able to easily imbed an image into his blog.

This afternoon I happened to be working with D in an ICT lesson – where we were using a piece of software called 2animate to make simple drawings move with a computer animation technique called tweening (aka inbetweening). With no adult support D managed to upload the gif to Flickr – and then enbed into a post.

I created the the attached animations with a GLD KS3 class. The class are mixed ability – and contain both verbal and non-verbal children. They all created animations. We used 2animate and the simple drawing tools to create the animations. We then used Windows Movie Maker to add the sounds. It was fun and the children learnt a great deal.

S in SDM  L in SDM  E in SDM

All the following animations were created by a KS3 ASD class with a 40 minute lesson using Pivot. It is fantastic free software for introducing animation – very simple to use and with very pleasing results. The kids loved it!

“Friends” by L in SB

“American Wrestling” by H in SB

Thanks to Dan Warner at the Haringey PDC for this compilation of free Art software. Some of it looks really interesting – and it is all relevant to SEN and primary learners.

In particular – Pivot is a lovely introduction to animation where children can animate a small stick figure. It will fit very nicely into this terms KS3 media project! The following was created by a 12 year old learner on the spectrum within a single lesson. What fun!

Inspired by the Wii on show at the TTP dinner - I purchased a Wii Fit bundle for the school.

Connected to an interactive whiteboard with proper 2.1 stereo speakers it really is quite awsome. Some of my non-verbal learners really enjoyed the games – and it shows a lot of promise in developing the kids balance and motor coordination skills. It’s also a lot of fun – and we all need a bit of motivation at the end of term!

I was involved (along with Mandy the International Coordinator and Una the Art Coodinator) in producing a couple of films for the Four Ells Film Festival. We had a great time going to a special screening at the CineWorld in Wood Green.
The films have now been uploaded to the Four Ells website – so go an take a look for yourself!

http://www.fourellsfilmfestival.com/videos.php?school_id=23