Thoughts for a New Year

Well what a year.  Due to a combination of being incredibly busy and some laziness on my part, it's a while since I last posted on this blog but felt a quick recap of the previous year and what's coming up so far this year was in order.  2012 was, in some ways, a very difficult year with corporate restructures and concerns about whether we would transfer back to the council in April all going on.  However, working with the fantastic schools here in Walsall kept me going, with a number of really exciting and innovative projects with the promise of more to come.

Google SketchUp at Greenfield Primary (2)

In May this year, I posted about a project I was lucky enough to be involved in with the Year 6 class at Greenfield Primary School, here in Walsall, using Google Sketch Up to recreate Tutankhamen's tomb. For a number of reasons, it has taken a long time to put this follow-up post together, with the results that the children were able to produce.  The video below was shown recently at the Walsall ICT Conference and as a result there has been a number of interested schools who have come forward with projects of their own including Tudor Houses and Cars that they'd like me to get involved with.

Is software in the cloud the future for education?

In education, we have become very aware of the benefits of 'the cloud' through the use of VLEs, Learning Platforms, Google Apps for Education and other such services.  Files and content are often saved online in order to be easily accessible and to allow greater collaboration and sharing.  My colleague Lucy (@lj101) attended a course over the summer organised by NAACE where she was introduced to Point2Educate (at the time called Stream2Schools) which seems an interesting extension of 'the cloud', in that instead of hosting files and content, it hosts software, both free (open source) and commerical (rental) that schools can access both at school and at home.  This got me thinking...is this the future for schools in regard to how they manage their networks and software?

Is it time to jump ship from iOS?

I've been wrestling with this for a couple of weeks so thought I'd throw it out there.  I, like many others I suspect, waited with baited breath for the recent iPhone 5 announcement.  As a current iPhone 4 user whose contract had ended, I am looking to upgrade and although tempted by some of the Android offerings out there, wanted to see what Apple would come up with before I made any decision.  My reaction to the new iPhone 5 and iOS 6 can best be described by the sound 'meh!' (sp?).  Which got me thinking, have I fallen out of love with Apple?  Do I expect too much?  What's the best next step for me personally?

Interactive Whiteboards or Interactive Projectors?

A question was raised this week that has played on my mind and I'd be interested in your opinions. I was supporting an ICT-Team meeting where the school were discussing (amongst other things) their budget and what they might purchase to enhance ICT in their school, when the subject of Interactive Whiteboards came up. It seems the team were not entirely happy with the boards installed throughout the school and favoured a move towards another IWB supplier. A teacher from another school who was attending the same drop-in session then asked this question - had they considered the use of Interactive Projectors as an alternative to Interactive Whiteboards?

Google SketchUp at Greenfield Primary

I have had the pleasure over the last two weeks, of attending a couple of lessons at Greenfield Primary in Walsall, based on Google SketchUp.  It has been a pleasure for a number of reasons.  Firstly, I've been able to take a back seat and play a supporting role to the class teacher Mr Darcy, who has planned and led both the sessions.  Secondly, because my interest in Google SketchUp had been raised at the Google Teacher Academy, where we were given a presentation by Matt Lovegrove (@mattlovegrove) and (although sadly I missed it) a further session by James Abela (@eslweb).  Finally, because the Year 6 class have taken to it so quickly and are genuinely enthused by the project, even preferring it to their previous Scratch project.

Using a Nintendo Wii controller with Lego Mindstorms

A while ago, while organising a Lego Mindstorms control day at a school, the class teacher emailed me and asked "have you seen the YouTube video of someone controlling the Mindstorms robot with a Wii controller?"  Now, I have to be honest and say this was like a red rag to a bull as I'm a bit of a Lego freak anyway, which makes the opportunity to work with schools with the Lego Mindstorms and Lego WeDo kits one of the most enjoyable parts of my role.  I even (confession time) had Lego for Christmas this year (see below pic) which combined with Star Wars pretty much confirms my geek status.