Head in the Cloud

On the morning of Tuesday 17th May I'm hosting, along with my colleagues from C -Learning , a Google Apps for Education event at The Village Hotel, Cardiff. The event is aimed at both primary and secondary school phases and there will be presentations from two secondary schools and two primary schools. I'm going to give a short presentation on how I see Google Apps for Education fitting into the new digital competence framework, especially around 'connecting and collaborating' and 'citizenship'. There'll also be the opportunity to find out more about Chrome devices and approaches to cloud infrastructure in schools. I'd love to see both schools who are currently using Google Apps and schools who are wanting to find out more about this technology come to this. A good opportunity to 'network' with like minded schools. The booking form can be accessed here -  http://goo.gl/forms/bL0SxULhB0 I'm also hosting a Chrome device twilight session at ...

An quick update on my last post 'Gazing Into My Crystal Ball' which was about concerns raised by some ICT coordinators regarding the future of the Hwb+/Hwb platform in Wales and what may or may not happen to these platforms. I've been having a look at the National Digital Learning Council's latest minutes from a meeting in October 2015. A couple of references to Hwb+ and Hwb which may clarify some points: 2.6 - CB (Chris Britten) highlighted concerns regarding the end of the three year Hwb contract in August 2018. CO (Chris Owen) stated that there is a full commitment for the platform to continue until that time. There are a range of options being considered around the ongoing management of the digital tools offered through Hwb after this date. 2.10 - CO highlighted the recent Hwb Stakeholder workshop which took place in Cardiff Bay on 23 September. ST (Sian Thomas) attended, noting that this was a good opportunity to talk about Hwb, rather than focussing solely...

Recently, an interesting question has been raised separately by two ICT co-ordinators. The question they both asked me was, "Will Hwb+ still be here in three years time?" Not being privy to the discussions that could be going on in Welsh Government, I was unable to give them a definitive answer. I certainly have my own opinions of the platform in question, one that is also regularly echoed by almost every ICT co-ordinator or head teacher I talk to. Let's just kindly say that this Microsoft Sharepoint based learning platform is probably not the most intuitive of systems for teachers to use. For example, digital leaders employed by the Welsh Government spent about three days training myself and colleagues on using it, and at the end of the three days I still didn't feel confident that I could insert a Youtube video into a page, or photo, without having to refer to a 140 page book. This was no reflection on the digital leaders who were delivering the training, it was in ...

I've always had quite a soft spot for digital 3D computer modelling. In a previous post I talked about the work I used to do with schools in using the Bamzooki software. This Windows software allowed pupils to create 3D creatures or ‘zooks’ to their own designs and then battle them against other zooks or against a series of strength, speed or agility tests. When I was creating my new ICT scheme, I was particularly looking for a tablet app (iPad and Android) that would do a similar thing. I eventually came across Autodesk Tinkerplay which allows the user to create and pose the characters in a 3D environment, colour them, add texture to the parts and then place them in a scene. You can then take a picture of the scene which can be used as part of another project. The character you create can also be printed off on a 3D printer. I know that not many schools actually have a 3D printer but you could send the files off to be printed for you if you so wished (or ask your local friendly...

There's a first time for everything. Today I bought myself my first ever Windows laptop. Obviously I've been provided with them in my role in previous jobs, but I've never had to actually buy one myself. I basically wanted a relatively cheap laptop that I could use to get to grips with Windows 10, install any Windows software that schools might be using, and possibly install Open Office or LibreOffice for productivity stuff. So I've ended up with an Acer Aspire F15, charcoal black, 8Gb of RAM and 2 TB hard drive. It should do a job. However, while trying to purchase it, I was interrogated by the shop assistant. A barrage of questions with the obvious intention of getting me to buy add ons. "What are you using it for?" "You say you are using the cloud, what are you using?" But it was the question about what antivirus software I was going to use that finally got my back up. At this point I wanted to say, "Just give me the bloody laptop", b...

http:/worldofoddballs.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/BROKE.jpg Yesterday I ran an inset day for staff at a primary school. The aim of the day was to introduce my cloud based ICT scheme of work. This normally involves firstly talking to staff about digital competence, as it's been written in a way that I believe will address the new digital competence areas. I then plan in an opportunity to log into the cloud platforms mentioned in the scheme and look at some of the available tools. In this particular school the focus was on Office 365 and J2E , both of which are available through the  Hwb  platform. First part of the morning ran smoothly until we all tried logging onto Hwb. Internet access ground virtually to a standstill. Pages were taking an age to load, if they loaded at all. So, here am I talking about moving much of the school's ICT curriculum to the cloud and about 28 people in an ICT suite bought the internet to a complete halt in the school. Very frustrating and...

Spent some time today looking at a relatively new feature available in 2Simple's Purple Mash platform . 2Email is basically a safe place to teach young children how to use email. The interface comes in two 'flavours', one for the foundation phase (KS1) and the other for KS2. Each being tailored for those groups (see images below) Foundation Phase Interface KS2 Interface Teachers can set class permissions on where emails can be sent - to others across the school, to teachers, or to their pupils in their class. Teachers can also 'approve' each email that a child may want to send. Therefore lots of control over how you want your class to use it. There is also a 'Report to teacher' option if a pupil receives an email that is inappropriate. This email is then deleted from the child's email and the teacher is alerted and can view it (and the email conversation) from their email account. A very neat feature. If you don't want pupils emailing eac...