A head teacher from a primary school in one of the Northern Grid partner LAs recently asked about teaching Control Technology and what equipment was needed. Susie Arnott, who has worked with Northern Grid regularly over the last few years, has produced this helpful guide.
For more information contact support@northerngrid.org or contact Susie by email susie.arnott@mac.com on Twitter @darktigerlily or via her website http://www.storywebs.co.uk
Teaching Control Technology in the Primary Curricuum
Teaching control technology starts in Early Years.
Many Early Years settings will have lots of role play toys such as microwave ovens etc. that have buttons to start timers, noises etc. Old “real’ items, such as old mobile phones also offer opportunities for important play and talk. Adults should draw attention to the “cause and effect” of pressing buttons etc., and also discuss the control switches, dials etc. on real-life machines and gadgets.
The most frequently seen “formal” equipment is the BeeBot which has a simple set of control buttons to make it move forwards, backwards, turn to right or left and make a sound. There are lots of accessories to add, such as additional shell tops to transform your BeeBot into a variety of different characters/colours, and play mats that encourage the planning of routes.
Play with BeeBots (and other programmable toys) begins in an experiential way. Structured, adult-supported activities are needed to supplement free play in order to develop the important sequencing strategies for making complicated actions in one go. With the addition of some support materials for planning or recording moves, children’s development in understanding of this technology can be extended greatly. This can be as simple as providing a set of teacher-made cards which match the buttons on the toy and setting them out in a sequence to show the buttons to press to complete a specific action.
Many schools also have ROAMER. This is more suitable for use with children in Y2 up – if they are to develop sequencing and programming skills they need to go beyond the one-move-at-a-time stage. In addition, Roamer can have procedures saved to memory to be called up later. Work with Roamer can be greatly extended by integrating it with RoamerWorld software – so Roamer can be programmed on a computer and the instructions downloaded to the toy for it to carry out the commands in the “real world”. Having the software on the network allows all children to work at programming, then turns can be taken to download their instructions to the robot. http://valiant-technology.com/uk/pages/roamer_rworld.php
The latest Roamers, RoamerToo can have additional activity behaviours installed (many are free downloads from Valiant) and the battery technology is vastly improved (this was a management issue with the original Roamers.) Valiant claim the RoamerToo is suitable for Early Years as well as older children because of these additional behaviours.
The Valiant website has an excellent research library section giving explanations of the pedagogy behind control technology – from Seymour Papert, the inventor of the Logo programming language, to topics on SEN etc.
There are other robots available, including Pippin (replaces PIP) and Pixie from Swallow Technologies, but BeeBots and Roamer are most likely to be in schools.
The next step in developing control technology is based on using versions of Logo on the computer.
There is no one de facto Logo standard, but schools can download free versions. Commercial companies produce versions too, usually with a range of scenarios included.
Examples:
- MicroWorlds
- 2Go from 2Simple
- BlackCat Logo etc
Logo could be integrated with Lego at one time, allowing children to control lights, motors and sensors, but since the development of Lego Mindstorms, Lego have opted for a different programming language. The NXT robot linked to Lego Mindstorms software (or the 2Simple 2NXT interface) is a powerful combination, allowing children to program both inputs and outputs, and to learn about the use of sensors to control events remotely. The computer interface uses drag-and-drop units of coding, so children do not have to type instructions, but rather create a sequence of “blocks” which contain the coding instructions. Children create the program on the computer and download it to the robot which then performs the instructions on the floor.
A free piece of software with similar coding blocks is Scratch from MIT. Children can create animations, games, music and art, it has its own education community and an area to showcase projects.
Coding for Kids has become the place to go for teachers wanting to develop this aspect of their teaching. http://codingforkids.org/wiki/Main_Page Also follow @codingforkids on Twitter.
Codecademy also used by some teachers – a free set of interactive coding tutorials.
Others are exploring Kodu, which is a free programming tool for the X Box, from Microsoft.
Having a go at writing simple html code to create web pages, even if these only live on the school network, is another rewarding activity for children, and again, gives some insight into the real world.
Following the adventures of space technology, such as the Mars Rovers, links control technology work into the curriculum very well.
A word of warning about “coding blocks” I have observed many children learn to program with Logo, and feel that learning to write commands is a powerful skill, giving real insight into what is being “controlled”. I worry slightly that sticking coding blocks together might lose a little of that powerful understanding. Lots of discussion about what is being created would help alleviate this.
Interestingly, it’s not always the brightest children who get to grips with writing commands – sometimes children who rush in thinking they’ve grasped all the concepts make lots of mistakes and get frustrated, while others taking a slower approach can achieve great results and achieve huge satisfaction from their “creations”.
So, with a small investment - some BeeBots, one or two Roamers plus RoamerWorld software, a version of LOGO, a Lego NXT robot (more if you can afford it) and some free software downloads, schools can be right up there in teaching control technology in the primary school.
Finally, the most important investment needs to be in CPD for teachers – without this the whole project will be blighted, because it is teachers who need to drive and support this with passion and enthusiasm as well as sound understanding of constructivist pedagogy and willingness to learn some programming themselves, even this happens alongside, or just ahead of the children.
The Northern Grid for Learning Annual Conference 2010, held on the 25th June 2010 at Newcastle, was a great day for all!
Over 140 great delegates, over 30 exciting exhibitors, over 20 amazing sponsors, 10 enthralling workshops and 2 incredible keynote sessions all packed into 1 day!
Mark Hickson wrote an extremely positive summary of the event over at MerlinJohnOnline which highlighted that the conference helping to lift the current feeling of uncertainty in ICT and education by showcasing the amazing use of technology throughout the curriculum.
For those of you who couldn't make it, or for those who want more information about the other workshops that were on during the day, we've compiled a list of presentations and notes from the workshops.
Workshop Presentations & Notes
Workshop 1a - Creativity & Communication Made Accessible Through ICT
Carol Allen
SEN & ICT Advisor, North Tyneside
All learners have the capacity to express their ideas, thoughts and dreams and gain pleasure and enjoymentfrom doing so, but how are these to be captured when some experience great barriers to traditional learningroutes? This session will focus on easy to replicate, practical ideas for all learners whatever their level ofability and skill. Imagination catching; purposeful activities with outcomes that have value are the focus of the session with examples ranging from an Albanian experience, podcasting,filmmaking and examples of classroom practice to try yourself.
Notes
It is important for teaching and learning to be fun if teachers are bored, pupils will be bored.
There are lots of new schools and new technology available but you might not need to use any technology at all and while sometimes it is useful to use high tech solutions at other times low tech will be more appropriate.
From birth children should be helped to develop:
- Language for communication
- Language thinking
- Linking of sound and letters
- Reading and writing
Some children feel they have to go to an extreme before they are noticed, only getting attention when they throw a tantrum, if this is true what are we teaching these children.
We need to support different types of access:
- Physical e.g. by using switches, touch screen, eye gaze technology
- Cognitive
- Supportive - writing with symbols, clip art
There are lots of gadgets to support learning and they can be found in lots of different places. It doesn’t have to be expensive, as new technology comes along older things come down in price.
Look at things and think about different ways you can use it.
Some examples of resources
Voice activated toys e.g. the louder you talk the more lights light up this encourages pupils to talk louder or quieter
Wordle
Flip cams e.g. take video and post to you tube
Iprompts – iphone, itouch…
Nintendo DS
Video Chat can be secure, through Learning Platform, good for outreach, allow deaf pupils to sign
Activities
Assessment for learning – use video which means teachers are able to access information without having to read text books which teachers don’t have time for e.g. stacking behaviour
Keep evidence through school career helps to show improvement, this is especially important for pupils with special needs where improvements may not be great
Parent partnership – one project involving 10 pupils given video cameras, their parents take video and send to school, school staff said we didn’t know she could do that... this allowed them to change and add to what school is doing
The minute you know a child can do it you can move it forwards
Espresso/Clipbank – lots of useful resources, real beauty is to take it out and make things yourself
Animal School
A video from New Zealand about the many different types of students
www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8limRtHZPs
If what I deliver to other people’s children is not good enough for my son or daughter it’s not good enough.
If you don’t know how to do this there are lots of places you can go to for support, people, software…
It needs to be there for every child
It needs to work
It needs to be fun
Fun can obviously change behaviour for the better
Volkswagen the fun theory www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8limRtHZPs
It’s about making the right choices.
Buy something flexible that can be used in different ways.
Workshop 1c - The National Education Network
Kathy Olson, E-Learning Consultant, E2BN
Roger Lang, E-Learning Consultant, CLEO
MTN2 is a multimedia online news creation and publication channel. Students can create traditional text and image articles or use the online media editor to construct sound and video pieces. Published material can be peer reviewed. All material is teacher moderated.
ArtisanCam provides an insight into the lives of contemporary artists. Using a mixture of video and interactive activities, it introduces children to the world of contemporary visual art before encouraging them to have a go themselves in fun and exciting ways.
Notes
(Kathy Olsson) Session introduced by Looking at the principles behind the NEN and its constituent RBCs and devolved administrations.
www.nen.gov.uk
www.northerngrid.org
Talked about how some RBCs buy / procure content and some develop their own like NG and E2BN
Concentrated on demonstrating:
Myths and Legends http://myths.e2bn.org/
Cookit http://cookit.e2bn.org/
Artisancam www.artisancam.org.uk
MTN2 http://mtn2.e2bn.org/mtn/
Safety aspects of registration for MTN2 highlighted
General message: the more you contribute the more you get out. NEN Gallery sited as a good example of this.
Registration for email newsletters for updates / new resources from your RBC highlighted
Workshop 1d - Social Networking
Using Twitter to Become an Even Better Teacher: Simon Finch, E-Learning Office, Northern Grid for Learning
This session will demonstrate how online personal learning networks can be an immensely powerful tool to provide support and materials for teachers in all key stages
More than Animation: Fusing digital technologies with new literacies: Martin Waller, Primary Teacher, Holy Trinity Rosehill C.E. Primary School
During this workshop I will talk about how ‘animation projects’ can be expanded to enrich children’s learning through New Literacy Studies and Critical Literacy approaches. I will present a project that is now running for its second year and aims to use the Uncle Remus/Brer Rabbit stories as a means of exploring issues such as narrative, media and racial prejudice in an open and contextually driven manner. This project explores animation as a critical practice as well as allowing children to connect with storytellers in Atlanta (USA) using video conferencing.
Notes
Session was introduced by Simon Finch of Northern Grid
Martin Waller - key stage 1 teacher at Holy Trinity Rosehill (VA) C.E. Primary in Stockton LA
Martin, a teacher and researcher in the area of digital literacies manages two accounts on Twitter; @MultiMartin - Martin Waller and @classroomtweets – Year 2 Orange Class.
Martin described how he uses social media to help further the children’s understanding of narrative conventions and with specific reference to his work with the Brer Rabbit stories which originate in the south in the US.
In addition to using Twitter to allow the children to communicate with the wider world and share their learning experiences, Martin also described how he uses Skype to enable the children to hear the Brer Rabbit stories read live, in their classroom, by the descendant of the author, Joel Chandler Harris.
Martin established contact with The Wren’s Nest in the US, (www.wrensnestonline.com), an education and resources centre dedicated to the work of Joel Chandler Harris and the impact on the children’s learning and engagement was demonstrated clearly in Martin’s presentation.
@simfin Simon Finch - Northern Grid
Simon provided a brief overview of the value of social media for educators based on a theme of ‘How Twitter Can Help You Be a Better Teacher.’ Simon’s key message is that it is by sharing ideas and resources that teachers can take control of their professional development and ensure that they use their time effectively by making good use of the experiences of others. Whilst Twitter.com is a fairly rudimentary service, Simon showed how the use of 3rd party applications can greatly assist teachers in managing the information and resources available.
Simon demonstrated how teachers can archive valuable messages, display comments, as they appear, in the classroom or at larger events and also organize the information for future use by themselves locally and internationally.
Workshop 1f - Museum Learning Resources
John Coburn, Project Leader, Tyne & Wear Museums
This session will look at a range of projects delivered by North East Regional Museums Hub and the availableonline resources for schools. The session will include oral history sites, interactives and digital storytelling.
Notes
John Coburn highlighted the wealth of materials from archives and museums available through the NG and NEN sites and talked about how to get involved in community resource projects as a member of the public and as a teacher.
John concentrated on demonstrating Culture Shock www.cultureshock.org.uk/home.html
Rob McIver referenced to some of the collaborative work NG and MLA had embarked upon and concentrated on demonstrating the new resource site ‘Realm’ to be launched soon.
Workshop 2a - TeachMeet - Successful Uses of Web Based Tools in the Classroom
This fast paced session will be led by teachers from around the region who are enthusiastic advocates of web 2.0 tools in everyday teaching across the keys stages. There will be practical examples and guidance ensuring all attendees have the confidence to use these tools in their own classrooms.
Notes # 1
Taste of TeachMeet by Simon Finch
Session was introduced by Simon Finch of Northern Grid and hosted by Steve Bunce of Vital (www.vital.ac.uk)
TeachMeet (www.teachmeet.org.uk) is an ‘unconference’ where teachers organize an event to share ideas experiences and resources in a relaxed, informal and fun enovironment. Participants can choose to deliver seven or two minute presentations or simply ‘lurk’ and engage in the discussions. Much of teachmeet communications take place on the social web – and the speakers in this workshop had each been identified via Twitter.
The speakers in the workshop’s twitter names are:
@wizenedcrone @MultiMartin @infernaldepart @eylanezekiel
@eylanezekiel – Eylan Ezekiel - Head of BrainPop UK www.brainpop.co.uk
Eylan started the session with an engaging introduction to Teachmeet by showing a BrainPop animation which can be viewed here and demonstrated effectively how teachmeets engage teachers globally by showing images from flickr using http://taggalaxy.de
Eylan blogs about his ideas here: http://www.ezekiels.co.uk
@wizenedcrone - Fiona Joyce – MFL teacher
Fiona showed how she uses StoryBirds (http://storybird.com) to create stories in other languages to engage and support learners. Fiona blogs about her work in the classroom here: http://mfl-storybirds.wikispaces.com/
@MultiMartin - Martin Waller – KS1 teacher and multi literacies researcher.
Martin outlined how he uses Twitter to develop and support formative writing by his learners. @classroomtweets is the account the children use and Martin explained how the 140 character format allows children to experiment and form language to communicate locally and across the world. Martin blogs about his work here: http://www.changinghorizons.net
@infernaldepart – Chris Allan - Lead Teacher KS4 ICT
Chris explained how he uses a range of communication tools and specifically Twitter to engage with Y12 learners. By using social media Chris showed us how students responded positively to deadlines and reviews of progress. In addition to greater communication between learner and teacher Chris also found that students were discussed their learning with their peers via Twitter.
@stevebunce – Steve Bunce Vital ICT Leader for NE England
Steve demonstrated augmented and virtual reality with a range of devices including a webcam, and a Nintendo games console. Steve showed the workshop members how games can be used with young learners.
http://www.eyepet.com
Steve also showed an online storymaking tool with the ability to create virtual 3d models of the story by making use of augmented reality http://alpha.zooburst.com
Notes # 2
TeachMeet Review by Steve Bunce
We opened our well-attended Teachmeet with the Brainpop video 'What is a Teachmeet?' to set the scene. A few of the audience had been to a Teachmeet before, so we talked about previous ones and their format. Teachmeets are informal gatherings of teachers, organised by teachers. They are generally held on a evening at a public venue, where refreshments are served as they arrive to enable people to relax and start to network. The format can then follow a mixture of seven or two minute presentation and learning conversations.
In our session, we then used a random name picker, which is in the style of a fruit machine, to choose the first speaker. Steve's name came out first, so he tried to be cunning and span the name picker again, but his name was chosen again.
So in seven minutes, Steve shared on the theme of augmented reality. The first resource was 'Zooburst' an online 3D pop-up book. The audience could see the pop-up book on screen, which told the Little Red Riding Hood story. Zooburst has potential for creating stories in many subjects. Steve then switched the mode from the onscreen to webcam mode; when a paper marker was held up in front of the webcam, a 3D representation of the pop-up book appeared on the video image - augmenting the 'real life' image.
To continue the augmented reality theme, Steve demonstrated the Sony Eyepet game on the Playstation 3 console. He showed how the little creature appeared on the floor and how, by using a marker card, different activities can be carried out, such as washing, shampooing and hair drying the Eyepet.
Next up was Fiona Joyce to share her experience of using 'Storybird' in the Modern Languages classroom. She showed how the high quality artwork can be selected, combined and text added. A new feature of setting up class accounts has helped in her use and organisation of the students' work. Previously, only storybirds created in English were allowed, so Fiona had set up her own site to contain MFL ones, which are available for everyone to use.
Martin Waller then shared about his use of Twitter in his Year 2 class. He showed some of the tweets created by the pupils, which described what they were doing on a daily basis. He clearly explained how he organised the computer and access to Twitter to ensure safety for his pupils. The class has benefitted from feedback from around the world. A great explanation of the practical ways he has use Twitter in the classroom.
We then heard from Eylan Ezekial from Brainpop UK. He recounted his experience of another Teachmeet he had helped to organise in Oxfordshire. It followed a 'Fishbowl' format where three people sit around a table to discuss an issue, such as, a scheme of work. Once the conversation has begun, other observers can join the group and add their opinions. This jumping in and out encourages the audience to listen and comment appropriately. Eylan shared his experience effectively using 'Tag Galaxy' to display Flickr images in an interesting way and also filter the search.
Finally, we were pleased to hear from Chris Allan about his use of Twitter with his 'A' level students. He explained how they had tried different ways of engaging the students on the IT course. Through discussion, he and his students decided upon ways of working with Twitter. They created their own accounts for school and then were expected to send in a message about the new technology they found out about. The first week nearly all the messages were the same, as they copied each other, so they discussed new ways of working. Chris told of the continued success of using Twitter as a really high percentage of his students not only completed their homework, but ahead of the deadline (quite often straight after the Gadget Show on a Monday!)
The Teachmeet was a great success due to the rich content, the varied experiences and different phases of education represented. It was difficult to fit so much into the hour and unlike other Teachmeets, there was not time to break and discuss the presentations. We hope it gave a 'flavour' of what a Teachmeet is like and the feedback from the audience was very positive. The best feedback was the number of people keen to attend another one and even set up their own Teachmeet!
Workshop 2b -The impact of the learning platform on the development of a federation
George Ford & Amanda Gledhill, Head Teacher & Teacher, Federation of Abbey Schools
The use of the learning platform and its impact during the development of a federation, enhancing collaboration and co-operation across the site for all partners
Notes
The session was introduced by George Ford and Elaine McCue Head teachers of two federated schools (infant / junior) and Amanda Gledhill from the teaching and learning team.
www.abbeyfed.darlington.sch.uk/infant/home.html
www.abbeyfed.darlington.sch.uk/junior/home.html
Amanda Gledhill ‘Teaching and Learning Team’ has coordinated the development of the Learning Platform as a communication / collaboration system to encourage effective co-operation between the two schools.
Abbey is termed a ‘hard federation.’ This means one school with one governing body. Staff and children mix and work closely to generate an ethos that promotes a culture of ‘Teaching, learning and growing together in friendship.’
www.abbeyfed.darlington.sch.uk
The 'C’ word!
Talk and interactive discussion sessions centred around the ‘C’s:
Communication
Collaboration
Co-operation
Conversations
The learning platform used as a communications platform for teachers, pupils, parents and governors between the two sites. A common platform used across the sites.
Diaries, notice boards, timetabling and home school links (homework)
‘Buy in’ from teachers and the school community to the learning platform through collaboration and listening to the needs / concerns of all involved.
CPD and targeted training a priority to instil confidence within the workforce and wider community users.
Questions and discussions within this session focused around:
Demographics of parental engagement ‘Hot Potato’ easier within a leafy suburb environment!!
Migration of assets to other LPs Abbey Schools migrating from Netmedia to Frog
Training to individual needs and developing a shift in working practice
School Awards www.abbeyfed.darlington.sch.uk/shared/ofsted.htm
Workshop 2c - Secondary Excellence
This workshop will be shared by two secondary schools from the region. They will each share and showcase developments in their school which have enabled ICT to improve learning, teaching and management of learning.
Workshop 2d -E-Safety Reporting to Parents / Forensic Software
Dawn Vaughan, Gillbrook College, Redcar & Cleveland
This session will cover:
- Trends in children’s behaviour on the internet
- A demonstration of forensic software.
- Parental Involvement
- Discussion/sharing best practices
- Q&A
Workshop 2e - The FIELD Trip (Forest, Interactive Early Learning and Development)
Pauline Jackson, Redcar & Cleveland Local Authority
Children in Reception took digital cameras, digital voice recorders and flip videos into the forest. The children used the ICT to record their learning and development in the forest environment and to bring the learning back to the setting. The children then used a touch screen Eepc to record and document their work. The project will be shared with parents and other schools using the learning platform.
The main aims of the project are:
- Going outside
- Inspiring boys
- Engaging parents
Notes
Teachers involved worked near a forest but never got to use it, they had 10 cameras decided to use them in the forest. Project combined early years and ICT. Pupils were 4-5 year olds.
Aim was to use ICT for personalised learning agenda, and get pupils outside.
Did planning but within 5 minutes of being in the forest this went out of the window as they adapted to the needs and interests of the pupils
Research questions
- Is it important to go outdoors?
- Does ICT make a difference, does it matter?
- Can children document their own learning in the foundation stage?
In the forest they had been harvesting the trees and left some sculptures. The teachers thought “wouldn’t it be good if the trees could talk?” They had the Crazy Talk application so made it happen.
Though trees didn’t talk when pupils went with parents the pupils just accepted it. All the animal sculptures asked “what has happened to the kingfisher… can you help?”
Children had to look for evidence of the kingfisher, they talked about how to collect the evidence and had lots of ideas then someone suggested using the cameras. They went to forest and gave cameras to the children, they started taking pictures straight away. The worked out how to view pictures, there was no zoom so the pupils worked out if you want it bigger need to go closer.
They were looking for clues but also experimenting with the cameras, they built a den for the kingfisher and recorded it with the cameras – answer to question 3 is yes.
Because they were looking for things to take photos of they focussed closely and saw things they had never seen before.
Fine motor control was obvious, hand eye coordination – all 6 areas of EYFS curriculum were being covered, they had to share and discuss.
When they got back to school they looked at how to share what they did. Lot of discussion, recall of what they did, telling stories… narratives began to emerge, they shared with school in assembly, shared with one another, on computer, on smartboard, when parents came in in the morning.
The project shows how the children see the world – lot of pictures looking up.
Children chose all the photos in the presentation and used Photo Story. They opened photographs, put in film view, they chose a photo and talked about it. The teachers had questions for pupils to think about when watching the stories
Pupils continue to be motivated and excited to learn.
On the 2nd visit they used voice recorders to make a radio programme. They needed to find the kingfisher. Pupils described where they are and asked have you seen the kingfisher?
The teachers wanted to make ICT invisible, just a tool. Back at school they wanted a structure to the narrative and used 2createastory, 2animate. Pupils used photos from the first visit as backgrounds, they could draw what they wanted and used their imagination.
As a result of the project pupils had work in different places, they wanted it all in one place to show parents, they created Smart notebooks. The also used one was as a display to build up a learning story. This was not limited to ICT work.
After studying work by Antony Gormley they took cameras back and created pictures for the kingfisher. They created sculptures these were impermanent so they took photos. One child was inspired and had lots of creative ideas, they took others along with them. This was not a child who would have done this when working inside.
Another school joined in with the project which gave comparative evidence for research questions.
Pupils were given choices and chose the most appropriate materials for the activity they were doing, sometimes pen and paper is more appropriate than ICT.
Work was shared in different ways, display wall, blogs, Learning Platforms, video, digital picture frames…
Conclusion
For children:
- ICT is an enabler – an ‘equaliser’
- Motivational
- Invisible
- Just another tool
- Independent learning
For adults:
- Made observation really interesting –seeing things they hadn’t seen before, tools they used didn’t need ICT skills
- Fits with EYFS curriculum
- Recording and documenting
- Learning Stories
- Displays transformed – multimedia, process of learning, thinking, creativity
- Motivational
Where next?
A dragon has been flying over the school and the forest recently…
Future work will involve a portable green screen, pupils will talk to the kingfisher will sit on their shoulder.
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