Something new

An attempt at something new

vlog1 from Ian Stuart on Vimeo.

Would appreciate some constructive critism

Google Sketchup of Islay House Square

We have been using Google Sketchup for quite a while now. Here is an example of some of the work.

 

Video: Islay House Square in Sketchup

The work is all the S1 pupils from one class. The pupils split themselves into groups. They decided on what they needed to do. They got the plans of the square and shared the work out amongst them. They worked out the sizes from the scale on the plans (1:400). They asked if they could go and visit to take photo's of the elevations. Transferred the images over onto the PC's and started to edit them-They wanted to remove the people and the cars they didn't want. They took the images and used them the create the textures.

6 of the year went to the Young Engineers Conference in Glasgow last Friday and while their they took the different models of the various buildings and placed them into a single model and created the animation. They then exported the animation as an AVI file and made the video in MovieMaker.

All this before they get a hold of the UMPC's!

What do you think?

PS I am giving presentation on this at SFL (SETT)

Technorati Tags: sketchup, islay, argyll, education scotland, education, google sketchup

A Mile stone

Today is mile stone in the project.
100 Samsung q1's arrived this morning from Lanway (Samsung's supplier). The next load of 150 will be arriving in 2 weeks. So we have a lot to do.

We are now creating an image to be installed onto these and get the serial numbers recorded.
For JKK -
Samsung Q1b, Via Processor, with the full accessory park and 2 batteries. We are standardising with XP as advised by our Local Authority, Argyll & Bute

Technorati tags: Islay, argyll, eduation, scottish education, tablet PC, umpc, Samsung

New Timetable

Today is the start of the new Timetable.

I got my new Fundimentals in Web Design Class and we have started a wiki to record the developments as they happen

http://islaywebdesign.wikispaces.com/

PS The colours and the mistypes are deliberate to get the class talking about what is good design. Honest!

Technorati tags: islay, education scotland, technology education

Other Changes - Project Afternoon's

We looked at how the whole school community could take the skills and knowledge that they were learning in the classroom and apply them.

We are removing the 'Core' lessons from S3 - S4 and making Wednesday and Friday Afternoon's Project Afternoon's.

Project proposals are being developed at the moment. All staff getting ideas together and looking at how practical they would be. We have split the year into 6 week blocks. A staff member can offer a single block of 6 weeks using either one afternoon, and offer a different project the other afternoon (12 hours) or both (24 hours), a double block etc.

My proposal is setup a media group that will produce a TV News programme for the school intranet and podcasts for the internet. I plan to run this all year but I am hoing that the group producing it will change over the year.

This is how we are approaching a Curriculum for Excellence. What do you think?

Technorati tags: Islay, education, Argyll, ACfE, school of ambition, education scotland

The other changes - Removal of the Age and Stage Restrictions

I have realised that because I am so involved with and focused on the ICT part of the School of Ambition project that I haven't really gone into much detail on the other parts.

Over the next few entries I am going to give some more background on what the other changes are.

As you can see from the Column on the right we have several parts to our school of Ambition changes.

The one which is in the forefront of collective mind of the school at the moment is The removal of the age and Stage restrictions.

In Scotland's Education system we are coming to the final stage of our Exam diet but here this year, in IHS, it has been even more interesting and tense than usual. This is because we have had S3 as well as S4, 5 and 6 sitting their exams.

The S3 have been doing studying 5, 1 year courses 5 periods a week instead of the more usual 8, 2 year courses at 3 periods a week.

The Anecdotal outcomes have been positive. Some of the staffroom comments are:

- the S3 have learned in a deeper way because they spend 'more' time per week in a class and a small number subjects to concentrate on.

- S3 are taking the exam process much more seriously

- S4 seem to have forgotten all they were taught in S3

Of course the analysis of the results will be the true test.

Next year the present S3's will make another course choice at the same level. This means that by the end of S4 they will have sat 10 courses before making their move onto S5 and Highers or more width to their curriculum at a level which is approriate to them.

Technorati tags: islay, school of ambition, eduation, ACfE, education scotland

Careful what you wish for .....

After a very busy week I arrived home (And I mean in the house after getting into school off the 7am ferry) at 8pm last night.
My wife has also been away since Wednesday so a pile of mail was behind the door. Amongst all the junk mail was the letter saying I had been accepted onto the SQH Course.................

Architecture Centre Network -ACN

From Blog Pics

At the end of this month I am off to London. Myself and Tassy Thomson from The Lighthouse. We have been asked to run a workshop for Architecture education staff from around the UK.

This is not the first time myself and Tassy have worked together. In fact we are old friends.

The invite came about from working on a workshop last summer in Finland courtesy of The Alvar Aalto Institute. Where we developed resources to allow young people to explore the built environment. I suggested using ICT (no surprise) to record what the young people experienced.

Therefore we have asked to give examples of cheap ways of using ICT to work with young people.

One thing I am keen to do is to get the pupils on Islay to get involved. I have ask 3 pupils to demonstrate the use of sketchup/Google earth via Video Conference and a bridge to the Internet.

Tassy has suggested getting the participants to come up with an educational project proposal using the skills introduced during the workshop and getting feed back from the pupils on Islay. I think this a great idea. It has several outcomes. The first and most obvious is that the participants will take away some real and practical but to me the idea of pupils on a Scottish island telling people in London how to do something and having their opinion listened too is a huge psychological switch. This will boost the confidence of the pupils and make the big city people think wider in how and who they work with.

The app's we will introduce are:

 

Sketchup 3d modeling app which can place buildings into

Google Earth

Picassa Cataloguing app but has some simple image editing

The Gimp full blown image editor – Shame about the name

Audacity – powerful sound editor

Freemind – mind mapping app

Photostory – simple app to create sound, image based video

Westpoint Bridge Design – engineering bridge solutions

Pre installed Windows

Moviemaker

Pre installed Apple

GarageBand

iMovie

and

Useful websites no particular order

http://www.handheldlearning.co.uk/ General use for using mobile ICT

http://www.createascape.org.uk/ Great to start off on how to

http://www.geolit.org/RockvilleCSI/ Cemetry Scene Investigation Pupils investigating their own community

http://www.enquiringminds.org.uk/ I love this way of working

http://www.spokenword.ac.uk/padova.php Picked this up at BarCampScotland

http://bridgecontest.usma.edu/ Bridge engineering site

http://www.teachers.tv/ Lots of uses to link to the curriculum

http://www.creativecommons.org.uk/ understanding creative commons

http://www.flickr.com/ of course!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki A great example of a wiki

http://www.wikispaces.com/ a space to create a starting wiki Maybe for the participants on the day

 

So what have I missed out on? Anything I should add in?

 

Technorati tags: islay, argyll, education scotland, architecture, education, ACN

IHS Web Site

I have Just uploaded a load of revision materials to the IHS website.

Some are zip filles with loads powerpoints and word files inside them

Some are web pages such as Ray Husthwaite's excellent Biology note's

Some are PDF's

I hope they are useful