Podium Podcasting in Luton

The sun shone on us on Friday in Luton where, in the ICT suite of the Luton Learning Resource Centre a group of primary consultants gathered to podcast using the Podium Software from Softease.

The idea was for these professionals to discover both the functionality of the software and the curriculum implications behind its use. Able users they were, with lots of enthusiasm and interpretive minds to see challenges and advantages. The software proved itself on all counts, being simple to use and safe and secure in its operation. The key thing was the application of the concept of recording sound and syndicating it so that subscription meant continuity.

Ideas flowed thick and fast as the consultants worked with the software.

The use of the podcasting as an audio record of reading was developed and as one professional said: 'Rather like and audio blog with each book read being a blog post.' ... and so it was. In Podcasting terms each episode of the podcast of a reading record was associated with a specific book on a specific date with room for comments and 'book review'. The idea that this meant that there could be a wider audience for reading progression and that this could engender a sense of ownership and audience was not lost on the group.

As they mastered the software the consultants worked with multi-tracking ... recording a story on one track and adding sound effects on another. 'Rosie's Walk' by Pat Hutchins was a favourite text here with some very inventive animal sounds produced.

We looked at, and experimented with, the idea that podcasting was a great revision tool and examined its application in teaching and learning languages.

Finally the group looked at the 'scripting tool' and examined how its use to practice and refine speech before publication with its manual autocue could be a real 'tool' for developing the links between reading, writing and speaking.

By the end of the two and a half hour session the consultants had loaded the software onto their laptops, set the systems up to 'ftp' their podcasts to the server, sampled and experimented with the functionality of the software and discussed the contexts.

A great afternoon in the sun in Luton.

New video release ( of me!)

My friend James Watson has just released new video footage of me at the Northern Launch of Softease's Honeycomb in Manchester.View at your own peril !! Also shown is Pete Sadler in a really smart suit!But much better than both of these is Dr Baldev Singh explaining his take on the future of technology in education in the 21st Century.

New this week are the Honeycomb demonstration videos which take you through some of the functionality of the application in a step-by-step way.

ICT Register Conference

Loughborough was the venue today at the ICT Register Conference - Making Connections

It was blasted off by a keynote sessions from Russell Prue, Award Winning ICT Evangelist, Author, Inventor & Entrepreneur and most ably followed up by Dr Baldev Singh, Imagine Education Director.

Russell's handouts can be found here.

John Sutton's presentation on podcasting can be found here.

Bits of my presentation (the videos etc) can be found here.

The Keynotes and Showcases focused on:
Creative use of new technologies and software tools
Creating new virtual and physical learning environments
National and international partnerships
Strengthening pedagogy through ICT
Web2.0 technologies

The web site for the event will soon be updated with the presentations. People attending were very open to the notion that we needed to move forward ( and quickly) to get the best from technology for the students/children in the system at this moment. Procrastination was NOT the order of the day. Inspired people ready to do inspirational things.

Textease in South Gloucestershire

My friend James Watson, Softease Sales Consultant for the South West, came along to a session I did on Multimodality for a group of teachers in South Gloucestershire. He spent his time videoing me doing 'my thing'.



The notes for the session can be found here

A wider perspective

Friday found me standing near the top of Hilton's newest hotel in Manchester. The views from Floor 23 give a really wide perspective of the City and were a fitting climax to a morning where we had been pushing the boundaries of Web 2.0 with and invited group of guests who had come along to hear about Softease's latest venture, Honeycomb, an integrated set of online creativity and collaboration tools that work through the Internet.

The group assembled in the Podium Lounge for bacon rolls and coffee. An inspired venue choice by Danielle Markland,account manager at Softease. Inspired for the food and welcome but more so as the flagship podcasting software produced by Softease is called ... Podium.

This excellent beginning was followed by an inspiring Keynote by Dr Baldev Singh seen here pondering the meaning of life and times with Peter Sadler, Sales and Marketing Manager of Softease.


Dr Singh took us on an impressive tour of the world in which Web 2.0 fits into educational contexts. Below I pick out just some of the nuggets of his presentation.

These aren't quoted verbatim but are taken from my notes of the event:

We need to get into the 'Q' stuff ... high Q ... Quality

Input less ... process more ... output less - but of greater quality

The best way to predict the future is to build it ( I think that is what Softease are doing with Honeycomb)

In a world of infinite content, the only way to cope with it is to focus on the context.

Did you ask a question today?

Content is important, connectivity is king but context is the emporer.

Kids act as amplifiers for learning.Using powerful technology allows children to make choices.

Access is important ... look to your firewalls!

From elearning to clearning .... connected learning!

I feel sure that there were more but when I read these they start to ask me questions about my thoughts and ideas ... good prompts for the future!

Baldev also flicked through a good number of interesting Web 2.0 site he uses:

Voki - for making and managing your own virtual characters
FlickrStorm - for searching for picture sets
bubbl.us - for online, collaborative mind mapping
walkit - mapper/router extraordinary
voicethread create, comment & share

On his blog John Sutton ably describes the part I played in the proceedings under the 'Honeycomb' heading. I reproduce his comments here ... Thanks John!

Also on the agenda was an introduction to Softease's brand new, soon to be launched, Honeycomb project presented by Doug Dickinson

Honeycomb is Softease's answer to the challenge that Web 2.0 presents to schools. In an article John Naughton wrote for the Observer newspaper in January he bemoaned the over emphasis on skills teaching in ICT and, in particular the heavy concentration on Microsoft Office. This, he argues, is turning children away from ICT in school in order to focus on all the simple and engaging stuff they can do with their mobile phone, Youtube, Facebook and Myspace etc. Honeycomb is an attempt to provide a set of cool tools that will engage children in a way that asking them to produce yet another PowerPoint simply won't. The launch at BETT in January is only the first step along the road for what is clearly a major development project. So far, they have developed a web portal which allows each student to have a website and a blog. These can also act as wikis with group access. The famous Softease "click anywhere and type" philosophy is seen throughout and makes it very simple for anyone to create a multi-media homepage and blog.

They have also included a couple of widgets to start things off (with clearly a long list of potential others to add) and a load of teacher review tools to ensure that staff can keep simple tabs on what children are doing. There are also a host of tiered security features to allow schools to manage access. Getting this right from the start is a major challenge as the two key inhibitors to uptake of Web 2.0 tools in school in my experience are perceived workload issues (not true if you embed it it in your teaching) and perceived security issues (cyberbullying and inappropriate stuff being published). If Softease can build teacher confidence with this aspect of the product straightaway, then they could be on to a winner (as long as the price is right - ever the issue for school!).

It's a fascinating project and I hope to bring you some screen shots when I've been given trial access to the development portal. One to follow for sure.

Rushcliffe Science

Teachers from a whole development group of schools from the Rushcliffe area of South Nottingham gathered on Friday 19 October ( one day before the half term break)at the Jubilee Campus of the University of Nottingham for a Science Learning Centre day organised by the team at Leicester University SLC.

They were fed ( non-literally) on a high diet of exciting science activities from a wonderful Keynote concerning communication in science given by Rosemary Feasey through 'How to make fizzy chocolate' with George Foster to the exciting work of engaging early years pupils in ICT explorations with Tricia Neal ... these and many more.

My own contribution to the day was a workshop called Creative Interactive Whiteboards

The blurb said:' This session will look at how to get the very best use out of an Interactive Whiteboard to support the teaching and learning of science throughout the primary phase in a creative and exciting way focusing on many activities involved in data handling. There will also be an opportunity to try out some of the ideas.' and I did my best to deliver. You can read some of the comment here. This was the first time any of the teacher participants in the workshop had been asked to make their comments about the session in a blog. The blog is quick and simple to set up and continued the electronic 'theme' of the workshop. I have used the idea a number of times now but find it difficult to get people to reflect on the session and to suggest pathways forward from it for themselves and their colleagues.

One of the key points of my session was to discuss the difference between the use software tools on an Interactive Whiteboard and using prebuilt content. We began by looking at the subject of the 'Earth in Space' and looked at content from Learning Connections to support the understanding of day and night and the the orbit of the Moon around the Earth. The discussion here extended into using models to explain scientific ideas.

This was followed by me building an 'Earth/Moon' model using Textease Studio CT. The model produced was 'not quite right' see here (if you have a copy of the software loaded ... if not you can download a 30 day copy from here)In discussion the facts about: the earth not spinning, the distances being wrong, the orbit being too elliptical and the moon going the wrong way came out. This was seen as having potential as a validatory exercise in terms of confirming/questioning understanding.

The group were then given the task of developing a model which was more accurate. An example can be found here.

The teachers were interested in the ability to record sounds onto objects created on screen (this is possible both on Smart and using Textease) and the potential this afforded for the verbal recording of experiments and how this tied in with the first three strands of the New Framework for Literacy, those concerned with speaking and listening.

Also of interest, within a science context, was how digital images and videos can be quickly and easily transferred to screen for instant feedback. Course participants were shown the use of USB card readers for quick transfer.

In preparation for the course explained how I had created a blog which has links in it to some really excellent sites for use in primary science and showed how to access and use it. This was to create the idea that electronic preparation in this way could be a good idea with curriculum leaders sifting materials to assist their colleagues to match resources to curriculum delivery. If the course had been longer the building of such blogs would have been the next stage.

The course participants accessed the 'linkscience' blog and explored the sites. I also gave the URLs of the other blogs created for similar purpose ... 'Earth in Space', 'Term One' and 'Physical Processes'. Access to these promoted a discussion on using the idea to create 'home-school' links and extending learning beyond the classroom.

Podium Podcasting in Derby

What a superb morning! A group of Y3 children from a primary school in Derby attended a podcasting session at the local ICT Training Centre. And they were up for it !

ICT techniques to the fore ... they knew what it was about so they podcasted in FRENCH.

Scripting, recording, editing, importing MP3s, publishing and carefully listening to each other all seemed were taken in great leaps rather than strides.

You can hear their podcast by pasting this link into your favourite aggregator...

http://www.podiumpodcasting.com/~182215/the011007105705/rss.xml

You can read more about the session on the Podium Blog

Naace All Members' Autumn Conference

In the exceptional surroundings of the Cisco Centre near the River Thames at Runnymeade 50 odd (!) delegates came to discover if they were Web 2.0 or not. The discussion was enthusiastic and the texted questions and comment provided a link from the presentation to what people were actually thinking.

There was much interest in the use of a blog as a presentation tool and also with the way videos, slide shows and snapshot pop ups were enabled to enhance the presentation . Real modelling of the Web 2 model.

You can get to the blog I used for the presentation from here .

Much interest was expressed in the educational concepts and the operation underpinning Honeycomb and people were excited about the prospect of getting their hands on this powerful, educationally focused ICT tool.

While I was doing my presentation James Watson recorded the session in a Podium podcast. To listen to a completely unedited version of the podcast about ruweb2? copy the hyperlink below and paste it into your favourite podcast player (e.g. iTunes).

http://www.dougdickinson.co.uk/podcast/DD290907170932/rss.xml

You can read James Watson's take on the event on the Softease Blog.

Somerset ICT Conference 2007

A good day at the Conference in the splendid surroundings of Dillington House on Monday 18th June talking with teachers about podcasting. I did two sessions, the first followed a session by two of Somerset's ASTs who were talking most ably about the use of sound in a great variety of ways to enhance teaching and learning across the whole of the primary curriculum. This gave me a great lead in and we spoke of podcasting as being almost a 'genre' which you choose if you want your sound recording to be serialised and syndicated. Of course, there was more to it than that but the two things did follow on really well.

It was interesting to see the small number who regularly use sound recording in their classrooms (in any format) but heartening to appreciate that they had come to find out how to do it and what its purpose would be.

Podium Scottish Launch, Stirling, 16th May

Colleagues from many parts of Scotland assembed at the Stirling Management Centre on 16th May to listen to Ewan McIntosh expound his view on the use of Web 2.0 technologies in education. Inspiring stuff it certainly was !

Then I followed it with a demonstration of the Podium software for podcasting.

The session was well received and people went away excited to get started. I met up with one participant the day after who said that she had 'podcasted the night away' !

You can read a full report of the session on the Podium Blog.

Dumfries and Galloway visit 14th & 17th May 2007

Wow !! Fame at last ...

Doug Dickinson Roadshows
May 2007
Softease Studio CT Launch News

ICTSU are pleased to confirm that Doug Dickinson, leading educational ICT consultant, will once again come to the region to speak to primary school staff.

Doug’s roadshows have proved hugely successful and popular in D&G over the past two years, with over 200 staff attending. Teachers and classroom assistants have found his practical sessions filled with real classroom ideas to be positively inspiring.

Doug has agreed to run two roadshows to facilitate staff attendance.

These new roadshows will be coupled with the early intimation of the launch of Softease CT, the latest upgrade to our core primary school software. Staff will be able to view some of the new features available.

ROADSHOW 1 PENNINGHAME PRIMARY
NEWTON STEWART

MONDAY MAY 14th 4.30 – 6.00pm


ROADSHOW 2 ST NINIAN’S PRIMARY
DUMFRIES

THURSDAY MAY 17th 4.30 – 6.00pm


Each day catering arrangements will be in place from 4.00pm onwards and so it would be useful to know an approximate number of attendees at each roadshow. Could each school please email Will Clark willc@dumgal.gov.uk with an approximate number, and which roadshow will be attended.
Replies please by Wednesday, 9th May.

We look forward to seeing you at one of our roadshows.

Textease Studio CT meets West Dunbartonshire

A brilliant time was had on 24/25 April in West Dunbartonshire, just down the road from Glasgow, where the LA launched its adoption of Textease Studio CT. Teachers, many of whom were real 'Mac' users gathered for some inaugural training on PCs and with Textease. It was fun and some of the art work produced in the painting package was wonderful.

Many thanks to all who attended for making the session so stimulating.

Materials for the IBO Convention in Singapore March 2007

Unfortunately I will not be able to be at the Convention but you will find here the link to a short series of podcasts of some of the ideas that I hoped would come out of the sessions. These podcasts were produced by new software from Softease called Podium, a powerful and very straight forward to use application. A presentation on the nature of podcasting and the use of Podium to prepare and publish podcasts is available here.

Also here is an extended presentation of ideas and links which, I hope, will support ideas on multi modality across the IB range with particular reference to the PYP and the MYP. This presentation would be best viewed on a machine onto which Textease Studio CT has been downloaded so that the examples and activities become interactive in a truely multi modal sense.

Linked here are a number of flash files which tell the full story of multimodality with Textease.

(For best effect remember to press the 'F11' key on your computer keyboard and hide the 'IE' toolbar ... this will reveal the full Textease screen.)

Introduction to Multimodality and Textease
Using Texts
Graphics and Hyperlinks

Sound and Music

Video

Turtle Graphic Animation

Basic Animation

Further Animation

Multimodality Complete

All comments will be gratefully received.

Podcasting at the Learning Lab Conference, Telford 1st February 2007

An exciting day in Telford with lots of people to meet and lots of ideas to mull over.

This blog is here for those who attended my session '‘Podcasting-Making yourself heard’' , using the Podium software from Softease, so that they can ...'make themselves heard' .... comments please about the session if you will ... thanks.

Podium stand at BETT 07

Podium looking good at BETT 2007