Big Adventures Small Technologies

Islay High School has been developing some ‘interesting’ trips. Amongst the usual and wonderful, skiing, Outward Bound, Sports, etc. trips. We have been going for bigger adventures too. This has been developed by one of our Deputy Head Teachers, Stephen Harrison.

The first adventure (Trip is far too small a word these) was in 2003 to Costa Rica. No Blog though lots of memories for those involved.

Though this was the start of the adventure the start of the project was 2 years before that. That is when the pupils committed to going and to raising the funds to go and commit to the training regime.

The second adventure was in 2005 to Ecuador. They tried to Blog but hadn’t quite got the hang of it. Though the photos are wonderful.

The third adventure was to Malawi and this time the Blogging was better but still a bit stilted due to access issues. Though the response on the BBC Island Blogging site was tremendous.

This adventure takes a slightly different format as it is covering 2 countries, Palau and Borneo.

An earlier Blog post gives some of the detail but loads more to come. The pupils have setup a blog and will be starting to post to it soon.

That's the background. This is what I am looking for.

What technologies should they be taking?

I have spoken to one of our suppliers, Lanway, and asked about a small, robust UMPC or netbook. They are suggesting that they can borrow a solid state UMPC with built in Camera (Both Video and still) and takes a SIM card. Though I will have to check out if they can connect to the local network after reading this.

They will also be taking an Olympus SW790 (Thats the one that can be dropped and used in water upto 3m).

I am a little concerned about charging. I have been looking at solar chargers. Anyone know anything?

and lastly GPS tracking………. I am a complete novice at this and would welcome any help.

And the last catch all What would you take?

Looking forward to the responses.

 

Technorati Tags: Islay,Argyll,Palau,Borneo

Informal curriculum

Over the last year we have been offering various informal courses. These courses have been things like Art and Crafts, Archaeology, film making, film appreciation, conversational Spanish, and many others. Wednesday and Friday afternoons are interesting times to visit the school. These changed several times over the year. This time has been created because of the efficiency of teaching to a particular stage rather than to an age. It also provided time when whole school events could be run without cutting into certificate classes.

The school has been reflecting on these afternoons and considering allowing some to run for 1 afternoon a week for the full year.

I have been thinking through a couple of things I might offer.

 

A computer graphics course:

Whole year

Introduce basic skills in photo editing, 3D graphics/CAD, animation, and a few other things. Then set portfolio piece as an outcome

Microsoft Digital Literacy course

Whole year

Introduce basic computer literacy's http://www.microsoft.com/education/msitacademy/benefits/digitalliteracy.mspx

Possible MS Academy courses as extensions http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/learning/academy/default.mspx

DIY Woodworking skills 

Repeated 3 times throughout the year.

I miss teaching practical skills

E-Safety Course

Repeated 3 times throughout the year

Give CEOP training

All of these are thoughts at the moment and I am looking feedback on what your thoughts

 

Technorati Tags: islay, education, scottish, argyll & bute

New Developments – Take One

Recently there has been a lot of excitement at Islay High School, and an air of anticipation, regarding the acquisition of some amazing video equipment. Over the past few months we have been working hard to secure funding for a long term film project which will involve pupils, staff, and members of the local community.

The main aim of this project is to produce mini documentaries regarding life on Islay, especially as seen through the eyes of the youth on the island, and through the medium of Gaelic. Pupils will be working on researching topics, will be involved in a lot of pre-production work, will be developing the necessary skills to use all the equipment involved (camera skills, audio, lighting, editing, sound, Celtx etc), and will be firmly working within the ideals of a Curriculum for Excellence. In the future podcasts / radio shows will also be produced, and it is envisaged that a multimedia website will be developed showcasing the work of the pupils. We are also looking into creating a permanent space to showcase the productions.

Our first project will be concerning the future of the Gaelic language on the island. The group believes that the language needs to look forward and we are looking to breakdown certain false stereotypes regarding not only the language, but also the image of islanders that is sometimes presented to others. If you have any thoughts about the future of the language (both positive and negative), we would love to hear them!

Updates will appear here as and when, and we will also include clips of work in progress.

Technorati Tags: Islay,film,education,Panasonic HMC151,media,Curriculum for Excellence,celtx

Regrets? I have few……….

In 2006 I missed an opportunity. Its not often I look back and ‘I wish I had done that’ but this was definitely one of them.

I was in Glasgow to present at a Conference in Glasgow. Actually myself and Mark Adams from Microsoft were announcing our plans for ICT in Islay High School.

Andrew Brown said I should come through to Edinburgh some people were having a get together after eLive. This is my regret. I declined.

I decided that I should stay in my hotel room in Glasgow and stay focused.

If I had gone I would have been present at the very first TeachMeet and quote Andrew, “About a dozen people, some of whom I had met before, but a great opportunity. I came home on the train the next day very positive and enthusiastic about the future of developing community around the country/world in using technology in education.”

I could have gone and been prepared for the next day. Damn!

I have attended TeachMeet SETT 07, TeachMeet SLF 07 and TeachMeet North directly. Others I have attended virtually. I have even presented virtually.

This week see’s TeachMeet 09 BETT. and things are a little but different from the ‘dozen people’ who were at the first one.

With so far 126 people attending, plus 34 wanting to stand up to talk and 16 people willing to organise or help.

I shall be attending via the Flashmeeting but good luck and wishes to all who will be at the event. And if your going to BETT and not going……… well you may regret it.

Technorati Tags: education, teachmeet

Vision of Education in the year 2020?

Last June we held an open day on the use of ICT in the school. This was successful in terms of what we got across if not in terms of actual numbers who visited the school. It was definitely quality over quantity.

We have been thinking about what we could do for next year. Add into that mix the desire to run an Islay TeachMeet. The TeachMeet idea was met with very loud enthusiasm when I suggested it at TeachMeet SLF08. Though I suspect that was more to do with the drink than it was an actual commitment to coming to Islay.

I have spent some personal reflection and lots of time chatting to Andy Wallis. We decided that if people were going to make the effort to come to Islay then we need to develop the TeachMeet model to something more.

We are both passionate about education. Education being delivered and accessed using the best and most appropriate tools that are available and not about the next , shiny new technology. I feel that sometimes we all get caught up in the ‘ooo look at the new toy, what can we do with it’ syndrome(I have to be particularly careful that I don’t do this.)

So the idea we had was an unconference to look at where we all like to see education going. In particular where we see it when this year intake formal education (Age 5 in Scotland) are able to choose to leave school (Age 16 in Scotland) in the year 2020.

We wanted the dialogue to be as wide spread as possible. So we have a wiki put in place. This wiki is not about the unconference. Its about education. The unconference is part of the discussion on education.

So what do you think education should look like in the year 2020? What do you see as the stepping stones to allow this vision to be realised? What do you think are the threats?

Don’t put these answers/visions/solution/arguments/proposals/anything else here. Put them onto the wiki at education2020.wikispaces.com.

Also, please talk to your colleagues, pupils, parents, cleaners,etc about this. Get their ideas. Start the conversation. Most teachers haven’t considered this

Blog/twitter about it. I want it to be a place where everyone can make a voice heard.

Technorati Tags: Islay, education, scottish education, bowmore, distillery

Higher Education

 

 

 

Last Tuesday I was lucky enough to host a visit to the school by Andrew McCreath. Andrew is the director of IT Services at Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Aberdeen.

RGU are under going a major review of provisions and services for the near future. It was suggested that he have a look at what we are doing and how that might have an influence on where Higher Education needs to look.

We had some very wide ranging and diverse chats about where education may go and technologies that can support this.

It was wonderful to talk to someone of influence in Higher Education and who is looking about at where they may go. Not looking to control and limit as seems to be the case in most IT support at the school level.

I had a fantastic time demonstrating our model of work using OneNote, Tablets, UMPC’s and Wireless Projectors

Technorati Tags: Islay, education scotland, RGU

Pro/Engineer Wildfire 4 Training

On Monday Myself and my colleague, Sandy Smith, will be starting 2 days training on PTC’s Pro/Engineer Wildfire 4 CAD Application. We will be the first school in Scotland to trained to use this.

More example images here

The training is being delivered by the wonderfully enthusiastic John Forth.

This an incredibly powerful, professional level package. Its probably used most famously on the Discovery Channel TV Programme, ‘American Chopper’. This is where custom chopper manufacturer, OCC use it to visualise the custom chopper designs and produce the working drawings.

This is being delivered in an extremely interesting way. The software is free but only if the teacher goes through the training and achieves a good level of use. The effect of this is that the use of professional level applications is supported  in school and a base of good skills is supported.

Technorati Tags: Islay, education, scottish education, PTC, Pro/engineer, CAD, Technology education