A Journey into Learning » Tales from the classroom

BSF, Google Earth and Sketchup

Ben Annett — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:23:04 +0000

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.

Change

Ben Annett — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:53:11 +0000

I had a fantastic day at the BBC working 21st Century Classroom and students form Moselle School and the Haringey 6th Form Centre as part of our Transition Project. The project aims to ease the transition of students from school to the 6th Form centre by bringing the students together to do some collaborative work. The podcast is on the theme of change, and includes lots of vox pops with passers by outside the canteen in the Television Centre.

21CC runs brilliant courses for kids and adults. They’re all free and I highly recommend it!

Enjoy!

Google Sketchup

Ben Annett — Mon, 24 May 2010 16:45:55 +0000

Inspired by Anthony Evans’ post I have been inspired to attempt teaching a short unit of work using Google Sketchup to my Key Stage 4 group of mixed ASD and GLD learners. I have adapted Anthony’s unit plan and the first lesson went down very well. The group are fairly difficult to engage, yet were completely absorbed in the work. We were amazed at the ease at which the kids got to grips with it (they seemed to find the concepts easier to understand than the me). I’m looking forward to teaching the rest of unit, not least to learn how to use this powerful tool myself.

We spent the first lesson playing around with some of the tools, and beginning designs for a doghouse. Have a look at some of the results from our first lesson on the Moselle ICT work gallery.

2Simple 2Create a Superstory

Ben Annett — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:44:52 +0000

At risk of sounding like a 2Simple fanboy, I picked up a copy of 2Create a Superstory at BETT in January. It’s great! Egged on by this review, I used it with a group of KS3 ASD learners, who really enjoyed creating their stories. The software is powerful yet beautifully simple to use. Their digital stories can be saved as flash files, and are then easily embedded in a webpage.

Below is an example of one learner’s story. Check out all of SB’s work on the Moselle ICT gallary.

2DIY Healthy Eating Games

Ben Annett — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:54:13 +0000

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

I love this software.

Healthy Eating Games

Ben Annett — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:58:38 +0000

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).

2Simple Do it Yourself

Ben Annett — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:02:32 +0000

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

Ben Annett — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:19:03 +0000

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.

Blogging Project 2

Ben Annett — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:27:34 +0000

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.

Animation workshop

Ben Annett — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:04:14 +0000

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