2 Weeks and 5 days to go…..

January 21st, 2010

I haven’t had much time at all to even think about my trip to New Zealand (v busy lady!) but what I’d like to do is base myself in Auckland from 10th February then head south to Rotorua on 23rd February for the CoreEd Learning@School Conference.  From Rotorua I’d like to visit Lake Taupo then travel down to Wellington then Christchurch and finally back to Auckland.

As I’m not one to leave work behind for too long, I’d love to visit any schools/teachers (especially headteachers) or local authorities who are interested in finding out how we encourage innovative learning and teaching using the latest technologies and Web 2.0 tools.

Please get in touch :0)

Posted in Education, Eduvation, NZEdu, New Zealand, Rotorua, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

S2 Alcohol Awareness

January 14th, 2010

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After many months of preparation we finally had the opportunity to roll out our Alcohol Awareness pilot project this week.

Held in Inverkeithing High School over Tuesday 12th and Wednesday 13th January 2010 the project saw almost 200 S2 (age 13) pupils carry out a ‘groundbreaking‘* alcohol awareness course lasting 1 hour and 45 mins.

Months in the making and developed and run by Stephen (tw: StephenDoBe), the project was designed in such a way as to encourage pupils to want to talk freely as a group, without fear or bravado about their experiences with alcohol so far. As a subject tackled in PSE classes it was initially judged that this kind of exercise rarely worked in such an open forum and was generally dominated by those who had a certain sense of pride in their experiences.
We designed the course with this in mind and as a result we created a three session approach:

Session 1, carried out before the christmas break was designed to cover subjects like Identity, Motivation and Decision Making. The material covered helped pupils to open up to questions such as ‘Who am I?‘, ‘What are choices?‘, ‘What are my choices‘, ’How and why do I make decisions?‘, ‘What do I want…from school, home, society, life?‘ and much more.

Session 2 followed on from these themes with a specific angle on alcohol awareness. It was made clear that ‘Alcohol Awareness‘ is not about a pupils ability to identify Cider from Spirits but about the importance of having a good, rounded knowledge of all aspects of alcohol. The positive attributes and of course the negative ones.

We started this session with an informal group chat about alcohol, collecting fact, fallacy and opinion along the way (some findings can be found at the end of this blog). A series of short videos were produced by the Creative Services team at Do Be to highlight the particular themes of this subject. Pupils watched the videos and then discussed the nature of each scene and the benefits or consequences of each action shown. It’s important to highlight here that, as with the rest of the material that the videos were not designed to run with the idea that if a pupil drinks alcohol they will face extreme and often life threatening consequences or that there will be no consequences at all. We designed them to give the pupils complete freedom of thought and expression on reflection.

Session 3 has been finished and is expected to run in March 2010 but will be discussed in a fresh blog post then.

Here are some of the findings we collated while in discussion with almost 200 S2 (age 13 pupils):

• 100% have tried alcohol

• Around 40% have been ‘drunk‘

• 1 in 5 have been ‘very drunk‘ with consequences – Sickness, hangover, parental upset, police intervention, violence, accident, embarrassment.

• Almost all have tried alcohol with their parents

• As many as 5 in each group of 30 have been drunk ‘with‘ their parents!

• Those who drink ‘regularly‘ could tell me exactly where to get alcohol easily and for what cost

• Jargon is a good way of disguising the nature of an alcohol related conversation in front of teachers and parents – ‘a 3 bomb‘ is a 3 ltr bottle of Cider

• One girl admitted that a 3 ltr bottle of Cider purchased at 6pm was finished (by her alone) by 8pm, with dire consequences!

• S2 pupils claim ‘peer pressure‘ s the number one reason to drink followed by ‘the media and social norms‘ then ‘ease of access and cost‘

• General opinion is that ‘drink‘ and ‘drunk‘ are the same word…’there is no sensible way to drink‘, ‘you drink to get drunk‘

• Almost all pupils claim that ‘alcohol tastes good‘ then follow this with statements such as ‘as long as it’s apple flavour‘ or ‘the orange ones taste best‘

The course so far has been deemed a huge success by both the pupils and the staff at Inverkeithing with talks of a roll out already taking place. PSE and other subject teachers were amazed at the response from pupils and are planning to build a series of alcohol related lessons around the videos we provided.

The videos have been loaded onto our Learn-It MP4 Players and will be used by pupils to revisit the themes of the project whenever they wish.

If you would like to know more or be a part of our Alcohol Awareness workshops please call us to arrange a meeting.

We welcome any school or authority interested in running a project like this.

* Quote from the ‘Fife Alcohol Partnership’ and ‘Diageo’

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Posted in Alcohol Awareness, Education, Fife, Health and Wellbeing, Solutions, Stephen Reid | No Comments »

DoBeLou in Rotorua NZ

January 7th, 2010

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It’s confirmed…Louise will be speaking at the Learning@School conference in Rotorua, New Zealand on 24th and 25th February!

We have been invited to speak about 21st Century Learning and how we approach the use of technology in the classrooms of Britain.

There are a great many people who have been involved in professional development programmes throughout New Zealand in the past few years. The Learning@School conference provides a wonderful opportunity for practitioners to share what has been happening for them as well as an opportunity for the international education community to take part too.

The Ministry of Education sponsors this annual Information and Communication Technologies Professional Development (ICTPD) conference at the Energy Events Centre in Rotorua, to be held from 23-26 February 2010. There will be a powhiri and a special reception for all of our conference presenters on 23rd February.

Aptly named ‘Embedding New Technologies across the National Curriculum‘ Louise’s presentation will promote what we call ‘Eduvation‘, combining Education with Innovation, Inspiration and Application.

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Course Aims Include:

- Explore a variety of ICT technologies and apply them in a classroom context

- To develop lesson ideas using ICT to engage learners

- Experience ‘Eduvation’ through the eyes of the learner

- Practice and apply Games-Based-Learning, Social Media and ICT to the curriculum

Technologies explored:

- Google Earth

- Digital Media

- MP3/MP4

- Games Platforms – Guitar Hero/Nintendo DS/Nintendo Wii

- Web 2.0 technologies

A complete course outline can be viewed here: Eduvation NZ Rotorua

Follow Louise’s adventures in New Zealand at www.do-be.co.uk/nzedu

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Posted in Classroom, Education, Eduvation, Games Based Learning, Lesson Ideas, NZEdu, New Zealand, Rotarua, Teach-It, Technology, Technovation, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Do Be Launch at The Education Show

December 14th, 2009

The Education Show is the UK’s largest educational resources exhibition. It is taking place at the NEC, Birmingham between the 4th and 6th of March 2010.

We are delighted to announce we are going to be launching Teach-It into England at the show. What is even more exciting is that we have been selected as one of ten companies to exhibit in ‘Innovation Alley‘. ‘Innovation Alley‘ is a brand new feature at the show. The companies that have been selected are innovative and have shown a fresh and exciting apprach to teaching and learning.

The organisers of the show were excited to provide us with our invitation. They commented that Teach-It is very unique and something they believe will be a huge hit with english teachers and local authorities.

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West Lothian Launch Teach-It

December 7th, 2009

Meeting with John Low and his inspiring team this week at West Lothian was more like chatting with friends. There was a real and natural connection with what we were doing at Do Be and where West Lothian are aiming in the use of emerging technologies in their schools. The material in the Teach-It classroom resource seemed to tick all the boxes for them.

West Lothian have implemented the online version of the Teach-It across all of their schools to achieve maximum impact and to give their teachers and learners quick and easy access to the material.

John and his team firmly believe that the use of ICT in the classroom is central to the learning of the children in this day and age.

To Launch the Teach-It we organised a twilight session in West Lothian Education and Training Centre with over 80 schools attending. Stephen took the teachers through each section of the Teach-It using an interactive whiteboard to give the teachers an idea of how easily the resource could be used in the classroom with instant results.

Teachers commented on how the lesson ideas were so simple yet powerful in their design and could see uses across both Primary and Secondary schools in every example.

The partnership does not end there! We are returning at the start of the year with a session aimed to re-launch the Teach-It to any teachers that could not make it to the first or would like to revisit the the first launch. This, in turn will be followed by a session to support staff with any questions as their use of the pack becomes more in depth.

Early next year a full ‘Use-It‘ session will be conducted providing the complete hands-on approach as part of a CPD training day.

We’d like to thank John and his team for their dedication and hard work in getting this up and running in West Lothian. We look forward to working with you all again soon.

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Posted in Education, Resources, Teach-It, Training | No Comments »

Bo’ness Academy Do-It and Teach-It

December 3rd, 2009

Kirsten and Steve Dougan

It’s taken a bit of time to get this blog post up. It’s been a very busy time at the Do Be HQ. We attended the annual Scottish Leaders Conference in Cumbernauld.  The theme of the two conference was respecting professionalism. Head teachers from all over Scotland enjoyed the key notes speakers (Fiona Hyslop, Dr Carol Craig and Professor James Conroy) Dinner was particularly enjoyable at the Westerwood Hotel which I would recommend. We also had time to take advantage of the brand new leisure facilities. I feel it is a must to take advantage of these opportunities when they are available!

At the conference we ran a competition and Steve Dougan at Bo’ness Academy won Teach-It. It was an honor to present the Teach-It to Steve. David Mitchell the HT was also there but he voted on being the photographer this time. Bo’ness Academy have supported Do Be since day one so I was delighted when they won our competition. There are many reasons why we are elated to be working with Bo’ness Academy. ‘Eduvation‘ is the perfect word to describe how teaching and learning works in Bo’ness. They use a blend of technology and innovation to engage their learners in their education everyday.

2009 has been an exceptional year for the Bo’ness.  Their S1 pupils worked closely with our local business partner Caledonian Produce to produce healthy salads.  The pupils were split into teams and worked in Art & Design, Home Economics, Business Ed/ICT and PSE to design, make and market a salad which could be sold to young people in Marks and Spencers.  The winning teams salad “Fruity Fiesta Rice” was so good is was sold by Marks & Spencers.  Over 40000 salads have been sold with the profits coming back to Bo’ness Academy.  Now that’s what I call enterprising pupils!

The school has been awarded the accolade of “Smart Showcase School”.  This award has only been presented to 5 schools in the UK.  It is for schools that have demonstrated a high level of innovative use of ICT across the curriculum.  At present along with using interactive whiteboards our teachers  use blogs, twitter, voting tools, video (you tube), digital papers, podcasts and MP4 players (do-be ones obviously!)

Through our involvement in the promotion of effective ICT as a tool to aid learning and teaching, Steve had the privilege of being selected as part of a Scottish contingent to visit Copenhagen to look at what is going on in their education system with regards to innovative ICT work (Steve you get all the good jobs)

We are going to be working closely with Steve’s staff on the implementation of Teach-It into the curriculum. Steve commented ‘We are working closely with Do Be to help some of our staff become more confident in using the internet to stimulate and promote discussions.  Teach-it is a fantastic aid and the training that is provided makes even the most IT illiterate member feel empowered’

It is clear to me that Bo’ness Academy is paving the way in Scottish education and beyond. They are always keen to look at ways they could be even more creative in the classroom and it is a exciting to working with Bo’ness taking learning to the next level…

Posted in Classroom, Education, Eduvation, Teach-It | No Comments »

Wordle Safety Solution

December 2nd, 2009

Wordpress1

As many of the tools used in the Teach-It are hosted and accessed by the general public we at Do Be, and the teachers using these tools have little or no control over what the public decide to do with them. As is the nature of Web 2.0, we gain the most from it when we are invited to interact with these tools in such a way that we provide data (words, pictures, sounds etc) and the tools in turn provide us with rich content that can be used to enhance learning and teaching in our classrooms.

We are aware however that on this basis, there may be elements of these tools/websites that can be unsuitable for a younger audience. Not on the part of the tool creators themselves but from the public providing the data.

An example would be Wordle…fast becoming a widely recognised tool suitable for use for all manner of learning from literacy to self assessment and even CV creation. We all want to be able to use Wordle in the classroom but there are many other people using Wordle for different reasons, many of which are simply recreational. These ‘Wordles’ are then posted on a public gallery from which their content can be viewed by anyone and that includes your pupils. These public ‘Wordles’ may include words that are unsuitable for children (or anyone for that matter) and so the knee jerk reaction tends to be a complete ban of Wordle across a school or even an entire authority.

At Do Be we believe in helping teachers with both ‘Responsible Use‘ guidelines as well as solutions where these guidelines are not enough. In the case of Wordle I would like to bring a solution to your attention which will allow you to continue to use this tool in class without the worry of inappropriate material being accessed:


The Wordle front page will never feature images or links that are inappropriate for classroom use. Therefore, it’s possible to configure “site-blocking” software to keep Wordle safe.
Simply have your networking administrator block the following base URLs:

http://www.wordle.net/gallery
http://www.wordle.net/next
http://www.wordle.net/random

Your users will not be inadvertently shown anything that’s not safe for classrooms.
If your filtering software only blocks per domain, then you’re out of luck.

It should be noted that the chances of stumbling across inappropriate public material in Wordle is not possible when following the Teach-It Wordle Lesson Ideas.

I hope this helps
Stephen

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Posted in Classroom, Education, Ideas, Responsibity, Solutions, Teach-It | No Comments »

Havering Rocks!

November 23rd, 2009

havering

I recently had the pleasure of working with teachers in the Borough of Havering, London. The 7 schools that attended were given Teach-It packs and virtual access by their very kind LEA www.haveringict.edublogs.org.

HUGE thanks and many hugs to Dave Smith @haveringict who is leading the project and Naree Salee who organised practically everything to help the day run smoothly :0)

I was delighted at how enthusiastic and motivated staff were and I’m really excited about working with them to link Teach-It to the National Curriculum. Here is what I covered over the half day that we worked together: Teach IT Havering (PDF)

Dave Smith sent us an email afterwards simply saying ‘Great product, great delivery, great company’.

Some teachers have been in touch since with information on how they are using the Teach-It so far:

Ann Penn has used Wordle in class to create a simple but effective display using the children’s suggestions for connectives which they thought was ‘cool’ while Jenny has used PicNik – linking it to her literacy lessons with work on creative writing – landscapes. ‘It was very effective‘ she said ‘and very simple‘, ‘but most importantly the children loved it’.

Since our training some teachers have asked for advice on helping pupils to use the internet responsibly as some sites in Teach-It require teachers to lead lessons more than others. We have decided to produce this information and put it on the virtual version of the pack. So Havering staff please bear with us and we’ll have this to you asap.We look forward to working with Havering in the future and watching the legacy of the Teach-It unfold.

Here is some video footage of one of the teachers rockin’ with Guitar Hero!:


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Posted in Education, Eduvation, Games Based Learning, Guitar Hero, Ideas, Lesson Ideas, London, Resources, Teach-It, Technology, Technovation, Training, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Do Be visit Redbridge – London

November 18th, 2009

I had a great time down in London on Friday.  My first presentation was at Redbridge Teacher Centre in Ilford.  The teachers I met in Redbridge were doing some amazing stuff using technology to engage and enhance learning.

Anthony Evans (amazing guy) or follow him on Twitter @skinnyboyevans organised the day so BIG thank you Anthony.  You can check out Anthony’s blogpost on my presentation.

Feedback from teachers on Teach-It was really positive even though most of them were into ICT in a big way. Wordle, Picnik and of-course Google Earth were some of the favourite applications.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Del Singh from Woodlands Primary in Redbridge.  Del has introduced Teach-It to all staff in his school to enrich the teaching of their ICT scheme.  Del described how he gave the pupils a photocopy of the skills they were learning which included steps on how to meet the learning objective.  He said that pupils worked at their own pace to complete the activity in the Digital Image Section (Idea 2).  Pupils then applied their new skills of saving images from sites such as Google, Flickr and DeviantArt into a PowerPoint presentations on their topic this term – Ancient Egypt.

Here is just one of a huge number of positive quotes from Del’s students:

‘The only place I knew I could search for images was Google Images….now I know about flikr and deviantart’ – Yr 5 pupil

Here is an example of the staff feedback:

‘A good resource that also get pupils reading and following instructions’ – Caroline Jones

‘All in all I think this is an innovative resource that supports pupils learning of current technologies’ – Del Singh

Here is an example of the feedback sent so far on how the pilot is going:

Teacher led learning at Woodlands - Redbridge

Teacher led learning at Woodlands - Redbridge

Check out more of these images here.

Thanks everyone :0)

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Posted in Classroom, Education, Eduvation, ICT Subject Leader Conference, Lesson Ideas, London, Redbridge, Resources, Teach-It, Technology, Technovation | No Comments »

Aberdeenshire Learning Festival 2009

November 18th, 2009

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It’s been a busy start for Stephen and I this week. We were invited by David Innes (Enterprise Officer Aberdeenshire Council) to exhibit at the Aberdeenshire Learning Festival #alf09. We had a great time and the food was gorgeous. I particularly liked the Aberdeen Angus beef stew.

Jamie Andrew was one of the main speakers at the conference. He survived for five days perched precariously on an icy ledge at the summit of an alpine mountain while winds raged to 130 km per hour, and temperatures plummeted to minus 30 degrees Celsius. Jamie survived the ordeal, but at great personal cost. Ten days later his hands and his feet, damaged by frostbite, were amputated. Amazingly, only three months later, Jamie emerged from hospital, walking on prosthetic legs.

Since then Jamie has defied all expectations by running the London Marathon, returning to climbing using his own design of prosthetic ice axe, climbing Ben Nevis, revisiting the Alps, reaching the roof of Africa, and learning to ski, snowboard, sail and paraglide, raising tens of thousands of pounds for charity in the process. His humble and unassuming manner, coupled with a positive attitude towards life and its challenges make Jamie an extraordinary example of bravery and determination. He now does lots of work in schools telling his inspirational story to others. Jamie has also written an award winning first book, “Life and Limb”, it tells the tale of his remarkable story. He is a truly amazing human being and it was fantastic to hear his story.

We work with many Aberdeenshire schools using our Do Be Learn-It MP4’s. It was great to meet teachers running their own unique projects and enhancing learning and teaching using our technology.

Not only did we meet fantastic teachers we also met some fantastic companies. Juliet from Creative Star caught my attention. She specialises in the delivery of creative workshops and resources to motivate people to get children learning outside. Check her website out www.creativestarlearning.co.uk

The teachers were blown away by Teach-It and the lesson ideas it offers. I found Aberdeenshire teachers to be very forward thinking. Some teachers explained they weren’t very confident using ICT in the classroom but what I loved was there was still a willingness to learn to engage their pupils in this way. Teachers are aware that education and the way pupils want to learn is changing and they need to be getting creative and innovative in their classrooms.

I am sure Teach-It will be landing in Aberdeenshire very soon.

Heading out to annual Scottish Leaders Conference tomorrow and Friday. Looking forward to sitting in on Dr Carol Craigs key note on confidence and wellbeing. I’ll keep you posted!

Posted in Classroom, Education, Eduvation, Ideas, Lesson Ideas, MP4, Resources, Scottish Learning Festival, Teach-It, Technology, Technovation, Web 2.0, learn-it | No Comments »

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